Ironically, MBA/MMS course which once reined the educational streams seems to have lost its zest; almost 50% seats remaining vacant. The case is worse in Nagpur University where 59% management seats remained vacant in 60 colleges. Though the number of MBA seats is increasing every year, the colleges are facing crunch of students, especially the newer ones. Karnataka has 236 colleges having an intake of 14,148 for MBA degree. Out of these, 8,007 seats were allotted through the Post-Graduate Common Entrance Test conducted by the Karnataka Examination Authority. And of them only 7,600 students have reported to colleges.

Students used to look up to the MBA course because of the employability it offered. But today corporate world prefers Economics graduates; they prefer BMS (Bachelor’s of Business Management) to the MBAs. “These students (BBAs, BMS, BFAs, and BMMs) carry less head weight and are down to earth. They are humble and supple therefore they are easy to shape, also, they study all subjects taught in the MBA degree at the degree level itself” say some of the HR Heads from prominent companies. In most Universities the syllabus the MBA degree overlaps with the degree course such as BBA, BMS, BAF, BMM etc.

Successful entrepreneurs are rare among MBAs  

In an article published few years back in ‘The Economist’ by a Harvard MBA, Philip Delves Broughton, the author was very forthright while suggesting that MBAs have lost value, he says successful entrepreneurs are rare among MBAs. They come from general public. Entrepreneurs know that business is fundamentally about two things innovation and selling. Most MBA programs don’t teach both of these. If MBA is about networking, it happens when you are successful and you don’t need to get into an over cramped networking of MBAs struggling to clinch on to their jobs.

In today’s business world “innovation” is the hottest thing. Google searches for the term have grown by more than 500% in the past few years. The Wall Street Journal has published that innovation is no longer obsession of entrepreneurs only; it matters even to the general public. Innovation is the key word in everybody’s life because it is the key to living life brilliantly.

Lesser interest for MBAs could be due to increased demand for market oriented postgraduate diploma courses. Some experts blame the lukewarm industry response during campus placements. Students are reluctant to invest up to Rs 5 lakh for an MBA degree after graduation. If they do, they seek instant gratification in way of lucrative placements on campus. Many are taking up jobs and opting for part-time MBA courses instead of taking up full-time MBA programme.

With so many students doing an MBA it has almost become like a generic graduation degree, the other fact is too many institutions are offering the course. Startups are reluctant to hire MBA graduates because they don’t learn the basic techniques used in a business and big employers say they lack the skills required to effectively manage today’s diverse, globally-dispersed, super-connected and resource-constrained organizations. They lack things like strategic thinking, scientific analysis, formal reasoning, quantitative reasoning, ethical reasoning and most importantly leadership and interpersonal communications.

MBA courses concentrated only on theory

An old criticism of MBA degree courses was that they only concentrated on theory, thus leaving graduates wholly unprepared for the big bad business world. The focus of MBA degree courses has changed to some extent with focus on case studies. Only a senior faculty with good industry experience can solve a case study with points like what is the issue, the goal of the analysis, what is the context of the problem, what key facts should be considered, what alternatives are available to the decision-maker and last but not the least recommendation from the learner to the case.  Experienced and seasoned faculties are in dearth. Are such faculty available in the best business schools or in top MBA programs.

A study by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad (IIM-A) has publicized that business school research in India is lacking. The research conducted by Professor Arindam Banerjee of IIM- Ahmedabad, aimed to look at “some historic reasons” for poor productivity in research in India, including unproductive competition among institutions due to a false sense of self sufficiency, lack of adequate research infrastructure at the institution level and, the long standing government policy in India that has considered teaching to be the core activity in the Indian university system.

In fact, research adds on competency to the faculty’s teaching skill. We need macro level policies regarding fund allocation and revising mandates to do some meaningful research says the report. The MBA course requires learning and adapting changes as a core of its syllabi; owning to knowledge, honing skills and capacity of the learner.

Contemplating and integrating with student’s experience in the course work is very important. Does that happen? Does an eMBA program take this in account.

The world has changed a lot over the last 15 years – it is very much an ‘unknowable world’. For instance, the numbers of Fortune 100 companies from 10 years ago are no longer in existence today. It is a swiftly, rapidly shifting world and it is hard to keep up with all the new features of change. The technology, the ethnicity, the business trends, climate changes, geographical tapering, world politics, everything is changing so swiftly. Technology is changing so fast that we see gadgets and updates that seem to come out on a monthly basis. Technological advances have hastened business practices – bringing in changes in business strategies.

Flexibility in MBA program

We have to ready ourselves to apply flexibility to our MBA programs. Take feedback from industry, make them a party while changing syllabus for MBA degree programs. Take feedback from the senior academicians; involve them in making effective curriculum. Take feedback from alumni and the current students by increasing choices of courses and flexibility. Allow students to choose their elective in the first year itself. Take leads from the market. I think we need to customize the curriculum as per demands from the employers. We need to bring concepts to the student’s life. Use effective pedagogies such as live projects, simulations, prototyping, role-playing scenarios, global captivation, and case studies.

In conclusion, let’s bring back the lost sheen of the MBA course and prepare the business leaders of tomorrow through best MBA programs.

History is the study of change and development in society over time. The study of history allows us to understand how past human actions affected the present and how it will influence our future. It allows us to evaluate these effects. So, history is about learning how to think about the past, which affects the present, in a disciplined way. History is a process of enquiry: it is about asking questions of the past. What happened? When did it happen? Why did it happen then? What were the short-term and long-term results? Who was responsible? It allows us to think critically.

Rise of Business History in India: In early 1960s, business education laid its foundation in India at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1961. IIMA had initial collaboration with Harvard Business School. This collaboration greatly influenced the institute’s approach to education and the institute followed Harvard tradition of the case study approach that required management students to probe into past business dealings to understand the evolution of business operations and strategies. This initiated a new course called Business History. This course was introduced in the post-graduate curriculum under the able guidance of Dr. Dwijendra Tripathi. The inclusion of business history in the postgraduate course at IIM-A in a way provided the necessary impetus to study the character of Indian business historically. There are very few scholars who can legitimately say that they founded the discipline and Dr. Dwijendra Tripathi is certainly one of them. He played a pioneering role in establishing Business history as a distinct area of research in India.

History is a reality of past, which is not always pretty or as simple. Many people are proud of their heritage and have a sense that their nation has a lot to be proud of. Without studying history one would not be aware of situations how the national characteristic of a country is evolved, Britain, for example, was the home of the Industrial Revolution, which completely changed the way the world made things. It has been home to great explorers, scientist and writers, and it has nurtured and protected democracy. But on many occasions it has played a role in events, such as the Slave Trade, and the burning of witches, which are shameful and led to huge amounts of suffering. All countries in world have a mixed bag of events in their history which gives people a reason to be both proud and ashamed. Only through studying history we can have a view of a nation building. And, business plays a pivotal role in nation building and its character.

In India, I am sure we would like to know how the business families such as Birla, Tata, Ambani, Premji, Munjal, Agarwal, Godrej, Murugappa or Dabur establish their business and how they grew. Did the first generation’s vision still continue, what ethical values do these business houses follow, the corporate governance style of the firms, their successes and failures in making strategies, all of this contributes to understanding business management. Archives of the businesses firms must be accessible to public. The tangible and intangible benefit of goodwill and legacy is important for the new generation of managers, thinkers and entrepreneurs.

Business history as a stream of education will flourish when corporates and business families set up archives accessible for research. We need genuine scientific research on this topic for understanding India’s transformation in business.  Today, we face paucity of documentary sources, particularly those pertaining to the colonial period and to the operations of small and medium level traders who flourished during that period. We also face paucity in gathering information because companies are reluctant to share records of their history. And, the information available in the public domain, from sources such as the company law board or the registrar of companies, is both inadequate and incomplete. Institutional support lacks completely for the study of business history in India. But, the biggest problem in this area is that Indian Universities have ignored the importance of the subject completely.

In other countries research on business history covers decades or centuries rather than years. At IIM Ahmedabad, through the work of Dwijendra Tripathi, it has mixed formal teaching methods with unconventional ones that include adapted card games, hands-on exercises with world maps, social media interactions and Skype sessions with leading historians around the world. We need more and more business schools to take keen interest in the subject.

Some leading business houses and corporations such as the Tatas, Aditya Birla Group, Godrej, State Bank of India and Bank of India, to name a few,  have set up archives of preserve materials of historical significance and make them available to all those interested. Some of these archives are even being digitized and made available in electronic form. Also, books have been published recently that seek to document the evolution of institutions that are linked to Indian business such as the Indian Institutes of Management at Ahmedabad and Kolkata

Business houses need to systematically document their history for constructing historical narratives by documenting memories of generations of workers, managers and owners. There are thousands of firms in India that have a history of over 50 years and yet, the number of professional corporate archives is in single-digits. Among these are Godrej Archives (Mumbai), TATA (Pune and Jamshedpur), and State Bank of India, Dr. Reddy’s, and Cipla, to name some. History is virtually absent in teaching and research programs in Indian business schools, and students are unaware about the origins of firms, industries and economies before 1991, 1947 is far beyond reach.

We get glimpse into business house through few series of biographies or autobiographies that only state and celebrate the achievements of a few individuals. While these books do not engage with the wider political and societal context in which changes took place. The Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental analysis of how businesses grew or perished is so important for the growth of business environment in our country. Does business history matter? For whom does it matter? And if it does, how should it be promoted?

What appears to be common knowledge about the past of our businesses, in sense, many aspects of Indian business history remain unknown due to lack of research. Business history of firms can be a source of pride and learning for employees and the public. Godrej Archives in Mumbai has a wonderful collection of documents and artefacts that go back to 1897. It showcases this collection to the Godrej workforce and the outside world through exhibits, social media and newsletters, and the collection is accessible to researchers. Oral histories of employees are captured as an ongoing project since every person’s memory holds valuable information on the organization. In addition to preserving history, such efforts can make employees feel valued and instill cohesion within the firm.

In fact multinationals can do a great job on this topic. Their experience in multiple nations can help in enhancing the development of future managers and entrepreneurs. Students can challenge routine assumptions with perspectives that are enriched by historical evidence. For instance, the involvement of several Indian merchants with the East India Company in the 18th century or their Bombay Plan of 1944 was a document written by leading industrialists arguing for State intervention in the economy. One historical narrative is that India was already a highly “developed” and advanced civilization for 4000+ years when the British stepped on its shores.  In the early 1860s all of the company’s Indian possessions were appropriated by the Crown. It is entirely because of the British that India lost its rich business culture.