 |
WHEN I became the Director of IIM, Ahmedabad over 2.5 lakh individuals took the CAT examination, but top schools only admit about 5-6 thousand candidates. So at least 15-20,000 very high quality students each year were denied the opportunity to study in a top school and they went to work initially and we realized most would want to come back for an MBA after a few years. This drove me towards designing a full-time one year General Management programme at IIM, Ahmedabad.
These students with over a 5-6 years in the industry do not need the kind of basic grounding that a regular MBA needs. The curriculum is more reflective to enable them to internalize the learnings. From 2004, the concept went through extensive debates and we finally launched the programme in 2006. The PGPX, was designed group up, the entry was restricted to those above 27 years of age and GMAT was the preferred entrance examination so as to benchmark the PGPX globally. And the market responded so very well.
Relevance of specialized MBAs
Today’s CEOs are an impatient lot. Their companies are growing at much faster rate, and the opportunities are widening by the day. The firm is hard pressed for time and CEOs expect employees to hit the ground running. When, say an infrastructure company recruits a general MBA, it has to put him through an orientation and induction programme which last at times over six months. Most companies can ill afford such a luxury. While there is some truth in the fact that a sectoral specialisation would restrict the student’s options, one has to keep in mind the sectoral band as well.
Take for example the infrastructural sector, where we offer a PGP programme, the diversity and depth of industries where you could find a job is immense from transport to power. There must be at least 10 different industries and 100-odd firms that one could look for. In any case, functional skills like marketing or finance which one learns in an MBA, gets honed through experiences in the sector that you operate in, and over time it is your proven experience in a particular sector that helps you grow in your career.
Centrality of investments in curriculum
Most B-Schools in India more or less take up the curriculum from a reputed institution, apply their mind to content, teaching materials, pedagogy and faculty. We didn’t want that route. The Adani group gave us a readymade pool of experienced managers who could contribute. The faculty at IIMA Centre for Infrastructure constituted the academic nuclei. And the process went through multiple-iterations, before we finalized the curriculum. For a sectoral programme to succeed, availability of context-specific learning material and professional experience are crucial.
Need for accreditation
The quality of management education is abysmally low in this country. Primarily because there are no benchmarks available. Accreditation provides such a benchmark. Between an AACSB and an EQUIS certification, I would prefer EQIUS, since it is based on a positive feedback cycle and accredits institutions than programmes (AACSB accredits programmes). At IIM, A when I initiated the process, there were dissenting voices. But the fact is peer review is essential for the growth of the institutions. To be present in the global map, one must have global accreditations.