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A REPORT ON:-

DEBATE MBA - Desire or Fad?

TEAM AFFIRMATIVE/POSITIVE:-

1) POONAM AHIRE (01) 2) AKIB BAGWAN (03) 3) POOJA BANKAR (04) 4) POOJA BHARADE (06) 5) VISHAL GHODKE (09) 6) KIRAN KANDALKAR(11) 7) PRASAD KAUTKAR (12) 8) SAGAR KHAINAR (13) 9) DADASAHEB KHARAT (14) 10) AKASH RAUT (21) 11) PUSHKAR PATIL(19)

FROM S.E.COMP DIV (A)

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Introduction:Lot of students is told that 'In today's world, one cannot really survive without a post graduate degree'. Even on CE, we see lot of engineering students asking whether they should do MBA or MS or M.Tech or whatever. An MBA after engineering is a much sought-after option for pursuing post-graduation. But what relevance does an MBA have to the highly technical skills of a professional engineer, and is there a need for engineers to pursue MBA? If you have an engineering degree, an MBA gives you more exposure to business-related topics you didn't come across in engineering studies. A select few do opt for specialization in engineering but others want wider roles with higher packages and a broader spectrum which an engineering plus MBA offers. Learning how to solve different business problems and understanding marketing issues and management related issues are some key skills an MBA degree can teach you and help you to land senior management positions. Having already obtained a technical degree, an MBA completes your education in the wider areas of management that usually include subjects such as finance, marketing, human resource management, organizational behavior, and management strategy. This is also important because the role of the engineer is changing; within an industry, an engineer is likely to be a manager who has to implement new practices and new technology. Thus the engineer often becomes the primary manager of change within the modern organization, which again requires specific skills and learning. If an engineer wants to stay strictly within the realms of engineering, it might not be as important to get an MBA but if you want to advance and climb up the ladder, an MBA would serve to be handy and useful. All MBA programs require the student to undertake a major project that is written up as a dissertation. This usually incorporates many of the modules taught in the course. Engineers can relate engineering aspects of a company with some or all of these taught modules. One example may be looking at the supply chain for particular products in the company, or a marketing strategy for the development and launch of a new product. The engineering MBA graduate is hence well-versed in management knowledge, skills and techniques, as well as their technical engineering abilities. Having an MBA gives them confidence to apply these skills to develop 'strategies for growth' of their employing companies, making them indispensable and sought after. In the future, they will be among those who set the rules and have conversations about what should and shouldn't be done in the way an organization is structured and managed.

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Do you think MBA is a desire? Or its just a fad? POS:-Engineering Degrees provides us the knowledge of Machines. But the same thing is known by a simple worker, but an officer must know how to control all other workers and others situations. We must know the administration skills which are taught under this degree in which MBA provides the skill to control the fellow workers which provide the specialization under human resources management. Besides all that it opens the way for an engineering student to enter the field of commerce and generally it is seen that engineering students are more successful than commerce students. OPP: - Engineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of people. POS:-An MBA hones your managerial skills in your enterprise making you to work towards the goal of the application with greater productivity and lesser cost. OPP:-But you need an engineer to lay down the foundations for the work processes. POS:- Well after engineering u will be hired as simple engineer in any good company lets say infosys,there u will be treated as low level employee at operational level who actually implements the work but if u do MBA, you would have managerial skills of middle management, well m talking in terms of three levels, at top level (strategic level) we have CEO,Higher people dealing with strategies,policies,at middle level(tactical level) people are managers who coordinate, assign the work to people at low level(operational level)means engineers, now u can decide u want to be at low level or want to raise you are level in terms of position and pay scale... OPP: - Money is all what MBA will get you in into the management circles, even though it is a useless piece of paper compared to your engineering degree. Skip the MBA and go for a M.E. or M.Tech in engineering. POS: - MBA opens doors as far as company administration goes. If you want to further your engineering career and get more involved in business side, you could also consider masters in Project Management or Construction Management. OPP: - Because that will allow you to become a project manager. Nevertheless, many companies will pay as much to their engineers based on their skills. Imagine having a large team of engineers working in a very important project. Would you just put some guy as a manager with no engineering background, or would you rather hire a manager that besides having an MBA also has experience in engineering?

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I would recommend you to get some work experience in engineering before going for the MBA though. POS: - Engineering grads are very highly sought after by big banks and consulting companies. However, in the upper realms of the management structure in these companies they often expect their employees to have had some formal management/business training. So, the engineers seek to do Masters or MBAs. It tends to be a good combination for employment prospects! India is a great fan of the engineer/MBA combo; perhaps it's a bit of a trend there? OPP: - I think you no need doing MBA after done your engineering because you will be get good job done after the engineering so I think you no need for the MBA. POS: - Well engineers after 4-5 years or less than this time period also promoted to managers, but if u does MBA, you will be directly hired as manager. OPP: - Because you already made the mistake of getting that engineering degree at all, instead of going into finance right from day one. POS: - I don't think engineering goes in vain after MBA. It depends on what branch do you opt; if you opt for IT in MBA then you are definitely not wasting your engineering degree. Managers and CEO of IT related companies (software, IT security) must have the thorough knowledge of the technical functioning in his company, they should be engineers & they must also have managerial skills that come from MBA. OPP: - But MBA makes your engineering meaningless. Engineers move to become Managers, so Engineers are still not there. If every engineer moves to MBA where will we get the engineers? Or maybe Managers will have to do double shift: day = engineer and night = manager. POS: - I say its a desire for getting job with good salary and having a degree.MBA also teach us the business ways but for good entrepreneur its up to him how he thinks business. For better understanding the todays trend of competition and ways of business person is must to get an MBA degree, and also many of MNC's ask for MBA degree so as to have Business IQ in the Employee. OPP: - Team members (techie and non techie) hate when their boss has no clue of what they are talking about. It is very much needed that the boss needs to understand and suggest and analyze the process. For e.g.: In a Telco, it is very much needed for the CEO to understand the intricacies involved in laying the network, maintaining it and building up new infrastructure. It involves him to manage resources (funding/people) in an optimal way to reap high profits. He needs to understand the competitors technology to improve his own company's infrastructure. Sitting in CEO chair and having no clue what an Ethernet does is useless.

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POS: - The amazing thing about an engineer is he/she can do many things because of the way they were trained. An engineer's "life" varies among different engineers because of this. Continue with academics, or go to R&D, or start a business, or invent something and patent it, etc. If business knowledge augments an engineer, its an opportunity. OPP: - I've read an article recently regarding managers from engineering backgrounds. They are the most preferred as they are able to both focus at the micro details of the business, as well as zoom out and look at the overall macro picture. This, as well as the obvious problem solving skills. I would say its waste of your talent. Experience is what you need. At least it thought me a lot. MBA is for white collar jobs and fat cash. That isnt an engineer's life. OPP: - I am not talking about people who do MBA for experience; I am talking about engineers who do MBA. If you want to count all those who study MBA, ask them why they are doing it. 8/10 or 9/10 will say for money. Just go to any Management college and ask this question. It's from my personal experience. In what way business knowledge augments an engineer? To earn more cash or to become a businessman? POS: - I respect your opinion and the fact you had experience in the workforce. I'm merely a fresh graduate so I cannot say that my opinions have full convictions. So I will be basing on what I already know from theory and observation from other engineers. I hope this well be a more constructive debate. Business studies and economics are quite vast topics. I'm not sure what you've learn from these subjects, but I see quite a few skills and knowledge that could assist an engineer. Every employee of a business, engineer or no, should be aware of the financial impact of their work. One can't go just blindly and assume. What makes up my salary? Is the budget forecast sufficient for me to work on the project, taking account any unexpected or unfavorable events? Is my manager really being transparent about the finances, or do I actually know that there is still enough allocation to go into my engineering work? OPP: - It's very tough to be an engineer and you must take your own decision. You should influence others and not get influenced by what others say.

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CONCLUSION:Dont apply for an MBA degree just because everybody is doing it or because someone told you it would help you get a better job. You won't find it rewarding and you will definitely not gain much value from the expense of the money, the time and the effort that the program requires from you. Go for an MBA only if you really, truly think management is your forte and if you want to spend 30 or 40 years of your life solving organizational problems and administrating the various resources of a business enterprise. If that is what you want and if that is where you think your talents and interests lie, the MBA degree is most definitely worth it for you and will prove to be invaluable for your future in the workplace