Is Management education a farce?

There have been umpteen articles appearing in prominent newspapers and magazines highlighting the excellent placement offers received by management graduates of some of the elite institutions of India. While a sizeable chunk  of the Indian population are below the poverty line, living on income of less than a dollar, salary levels of a crore per annum to some management graduates would make even the satiated ones ponder about what is special about these intellectual souls? Why are these lucrative salaries offered for people who are just into their early twenties and have in many cases not even had the slightest exposure to the corporate world?

Students in these elite institutions have no doubt cleared some of the toughest competitive exams like CAT and XAT. A brief look at the criteria for selection to these institutes would make it clearer. CAT and other exams test a student on areas of Quantitative ability, Data Interpretation and Verbal Ability. Students who get into IIM’s generally have a score greater than 98.5 percentile. FMS has its own exam and XLRI too conducts its own exam. ISB takes GMAT scores mostly over 730 harping on the candidates having sufficient working experience (3+). Thus, students who gain an entry into these institutes usually have excellent quantitative ability, reasoning and data interpretation skills which are some of the key facets that top Investment Banks look at. Consultancy firms look to a detailed understanding of things, reasoning them and taking fast decisions. Thus, students who get into these institutes have some of the skills expected by these Investment Banks and consultancy firms even before their Management education, making them excellent fit for these jobs.

What value addition then does the Management education at these B-schools  offer? Many of the top Consultancy and Investment firms visit only these premier institutions as they are guaranteed even before interviewing or visiting the campus that they have students who can easily fit in the roles they offer. Many of these top firms do not even bother to visit other institutions as unlike Industries like IT, the requirements in Financial services and Consultancy roles are few and those few can be easily picked from only a few institutions thus reducing their search costs.

Students who get into some of the other top Institutes have scores which are just a few percentile below these students who get into these elite institutions and it goes without saying that they too have the necessary skills for these high paying roles. The argument is based on the fact that in a high stress exam environment, there is a high chance that students miss out on just a couple of questions and hence miss out on selection to these institutes. A two or three hour exam cannot be termed as one which has selected the best. Yes, agreed they were ‘the best on that day”, they cannot be termed as “best on any day” Students from the other B-schools miss out the chance to work with some of these firms as the recruitment policy of these firms is rigid and it might take a couple or more years for students from these other institutes to gain entry into these top notch companies and some huge sacrifices has to be made to get there in terms of time and money. Does it all show that the entry into a B-school is important but not the education gathered there? If we take a look at the syllabus and the quality of education provided at B-schools there seems to be not much to choose between them. In many cases, faculty members from these elite B-schools are visiting faculties for other B-schools and some B-schools have a mix of international and Indian faculties, thus presenting a global view.

What value then does the Management education provide? Are the base skills of the students alone sufficient? Is the brand value acquired by premier B-schools over the years as a result of imparting quality education  alone sufficient? Does the management education not equip students with the skills needed in a job environment? A management education helps the students in understanding a global view of things. It gives the students the confidence to present their view of things before an audience. It also gives them a knowledge of various methods of analysis, theories and views of people who succeeded. But when it comes to job screening, not many companies ask about what was learnt in the Management education. They have the confidence that students of these B-schools would have had the necessary education imparted and the recruiters do not usually take a  lot of time in testing whether the students had a good grasp of various subjects. The students are tested on areas of Communication skills, their desired career profile etc to identify if they are a fit to the Organization.

To sum it all, Management education exposes us to understand the events that happen in the real world and how specific problems were dealt with by companies through illustrative case studies. But it cannot match the practical experience that we gain at work. Recruiters in general are keen on candidates having the basic skills which many would be having  even prior to joining  B-Schools. Management education should be more oriented towards practical approaches towards tacking the real world issues and more importance should be given to intern projects than mere theoritical illustrations. Also, the recruitment policies of companies need to be more broad based and keen to identify the right candidates and not just keen on doing it the easier way going by only the Brand value of the colleges. There is no doubt that the top notch B-schools have some of the best candidates. But the point here is that there are others too who have candidates who fit the role very well Overall, it can be said that it is upto the Management of B-schools, the recruiters and the other authorities concerned t0 make Management education interlinked to the requirements of the job market to prevent Management education from becoming a farce