Revolutionizing Management Education - A need of the hour

Has Management Education played substantial role in your life??? If yes, have you ever thought of future prospects of Management Education ? Have you ever thought in this context what fits the bill? What are your concerns for a future Manager? Management Education in India is more than a century old. In this juncture, Indian organizations owe a lot to Management Education. Lots of Management graduates with their skills and abilities have transformed a small firm into a limited company and beyond . But as competition gets tougher one needs to upgrade. This applies to BSchool as well as to a B-School graduate. Can we perceive Management Education as an investment? Sounds weird, right? But its reality. What benefits does a B-School passed out derive? Will he be able to fulfil his dreams? Will he be able to achieve his goals and objectives in life? Ours is a Business School in Central India, underwent a Research regarding some prospective Management contenders about their views on pursuing Management Education. We found multiple reasons for this because each person has his/her own views and perception. Accordingly, various reasons were ranked in order of preference. Management aspirants considered Knowledge Enhancement as the main reason behind opting management education followed by Career Advancement and Managerial Skills Acquisition. But who will make available all above factors? Obviously an Institution! How will you choose the best Institute to reap benefits out of it? Research opines that Qualitative faculty inputs is the primary reason behind choosing an institute followed by Fee Structure and Infrastructure Facilities. What inputs should be put in to make Management Education worth existing and continued systematically? We found that Soft Skills Development and Academic Fundamentals were the key ingredients that the investors think to be put in to make them more synergic. One more input that we came across after Academic Fundamentals was Entrepreneurial Skills. It has been found that students want self development and self improvement. They essentially want an edge over others to stand out in this competitive globe.

This shows students want to establish their own set up in future and reach their pinnacle to make their life independent. What will be the output after choosing Management Education? Our research found that output should be Personality Development and which can be gauged by end result i.e. competitive Placement and Crystallization of Career Goals. Students can achieve this when they are provided with job specific specializations and subjects. The management education should move towards vertical growth by following new and innovative models of growth. The growth is only in quantity and rarely in quality. There should be regular up gradation in the pedagogy because of significant changes happening in the external environment. Resultant effect will be a revolutionary change wherein a compatible manager is being produced. Very few managerial skills are innate, and therefore they need to be sharpened on regular basis considering changes in external environment where this manager will actually practice and implement his knowledge, after undertaking management education. Thus a transformed manager will attain his goals and objectives in real terms. Our research reveals that lot of theories are imparted in two years of management education in the management institutes but, more importantly there is a general dislike among students regarding these theories. They consider most of the theories are just classroom specific and not attuned to place where they will actually work in future. They feel that theories do not work in practice, and therefore they stay disconnected when the faculty teaches them these theories in the classroom. Theories can be taught, but experience cannot be taught. It is always gained. When MBA programme is totally inclined towards practicability approach n then it will solve this addle. It will aim students to do practical work and apply to real life situations. It will surely help a future manager to crack any trifle issue in no time, which would have taken more time and effort otherwise. For this, there should be up gradation in curriculum and allied activities. Summer internship programme which is restricted to two months should be positively changed and should be according to excellent practical exposure. It can be substituted to regular exposure of 4-5 hours daily on field and monitoring and controlling the same. One more aspect came into light when management students were asked more about their career path in the age of 40s. We found that they are more inclined towards launching and establishing their firm and make them global. It has been found that students want to become entrepreneur, while some said they want to be a successful professional. Then why dont we design such specific programme which promotes a managers ladder towards becoming a business magnate.

Further, management students are more inclined towards contributing to the society. In the age of 60s, todays youth want to achieve societal objectives comprising of spreading education and health. I would like to remind some lines by Swami Vivekananda The education which does not help the common mass of people to equip themselves for the struggle for life, which does not bring out strength of character, a spirit of philanthropy, and the courage of a lion is it worth the name? This is true in all aspects. Reason being, we introduced Management Education a century ago as it was the need of the hour. But now the scenario has changed and thus it is in our hands to renovate and revolutionise Management Education.