Making MBA Relevant to Market Needs, Tips From ISB Dean Rajendra Srivastava

Prof. Rajendra Srivastava, the Dean and Novartis Professor of Marketing Strategy and Innovation, Indian School of Business (ISB), says that while there is no shortage of MBA programs in India and abroad, quality faculty, courses that are relevant to current market needs and robust placement services are lacking.

Most of the schools meet faculty shortages with adjunct faculty that may have the relevant experience but not the learning that needs a blend of theory and practice. Strong theoretical foundations are needed for ensuring durability in experiential tacit learning, Srivastava says in an article in Forbes India.

He attributes the absence of quality faculty and programs to a management education that falls short of industry requirements.

Srivastava points out that while MBA graduates are expected to hit the ground running or be ready to assume senior management roles, a vast majority of those enrolling for the program do it immediately after undergraduate studies and possess no work experience.

Prof. Srivastava says this blend of theory and practice and insights integrated from the West and the East are missing in the course content of most of the B-schools.

This lack of experience limits their ability to ask the right questions. The net result is that on completion of the program, they have only theoretical knowledge and are unable to convert ideas into action. They also lack insights and skills required in the market.    

Another problem is that most of the course content in Indian B-schools have been borrowed from the West. Thus, most of the insights regarding greater diversity, higher growth rates, more regulation in emerging markets may not go well with capabilities that are required to succeed in India.

While the students have case studies on Intel, there is nothing on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. They get to know the reasons for Apple’s growth in the US but not about Xiaomi and Samsung thriving in India.

Prof. Srivastava says this blend of theory and practice and insights integrated from the West and the East are missing in the course content of most of the B-schools.

He feels that ISB may have an edge here as it admits only students with prior work experience to ensure that learning is based on the ability to ask the right questions and not just note-taking and rote learning.

Insights from the school’s research centres and institutes (RCIs) that focus on sectors like health care, information technology and digital transformation, applied finance, innovation and entrepreneurship, among others, are integrated to create specialisations that are contextualised via insights into Indian and emerging markets, he adds.

Prof Srivastava points out that the course content has not changed much. For instance, in marketing, aspects such as return on advertisement, sales expenditure, response, etc. are taken up. However, in a number of sectors, like financial services, airlines, new media and communications are changing at a faster pace than academics.

As several of the jobs and companies that exist today were not even there 10 years ago, it is essential to ensure that the curriculum is revised based on real-world issues. In this context, the academia would benefit from collaborations with the industry and the government. While there is much emphasis on theory-driven practice, there is incredible value in practice-driven theory, he says.

He also points to the difference in skills needed. While the more experienced students in executive MBA programs need general management and global leadership skills, the younger, less experienced students are recruited for specialist positions in accounting, sales, financial analysis, data analytics, etc. The latter group needs more electives for specialisations in subjects like e-marketing and business analytics.

While fine-tuning management to increase focus on specific subjects, the instructors should take care to ensure that students are not only capable enough to use something like business analytics but also be able to understand the need for using analytics to improve performance rather than just learning “tools” and methods. One has to know the context within which data has to be used to make better decisions.

They need to be more agile in decision-making, take more calculated risks and be able to use multiple media and channels. At the same time, they also need to understand marketing, business process controls, accounting, and balancing risk and returns.

The need of the hour is a blend of old- and new-age learning. An online/digital interface could be used to cover basic concepts and principles such as segmentation and differentiation in marketing, accounting concepts such as assets and liabilities, financial issues related to risk and return, behavioural economics, etc. This will free up time for face-to-face discussions in classrooms and case studies to cover more complex issues that require dialogue, debate and domain-based insights.