MBA For A Structured Thought Process

Blurb:  “Today, successful businesses are all about how well you are going to do that one particular thing. Doing a general MBA, you are only delaying your journey to becoming a specialist”

Arjun Mohan joined IIM-Kozhikode after a work experience of a few years, “with a clear idea about why I needed an MBA”. He was also certain about why he wanted to do a general management course, with a view to becoming an entrepreneur or intrapreneur. Following his MBA, he joined the Tatas, working largely in sales and marketing with companies like Tata Motors and Titan. “This gave me a good starting point because of the canvas of companies Tatas offers,” he says.

Passionate about education, Mohan Joined BYJU’S, and was associated as Chief Business Officer for the company for a few years, before joining UpGrad as CEO for India business. UpGrad offers education programmes for professionals in several domains and has a number of national and international tie-ups. 

B-school’s Biggest Takeaway

For him, it would be the structured thought process that it brings about. “A lot of us who come out of the Indian education system learn a lot of things that are not practically applicable. Thanks to the MBA experience, we become someone who can be given a task, and we will complete it without much dependence on anyone,” he tells.

While he himself went for a general MBA, for a flavour of every part of business with clear sights on his career goal, he feels the specialised MBA has greater value. “Today, successful businesses are all about how well you are going to do that one particular thing. Doing a general MBA, you are only delaying your journey to become a specialist.” 

He points out that the campus was fabulous, “more of a resort”, but adds that he still would have considered the online option, parallelly to the offline. The entry-level salaries of engineering graduates and their professional growth have accelerated a lot in the last few years. But at the same time, the average B-school pass-outs salaries have not increased a lot.  The ROI for a person to take off two years for MBA is not that great, he explains. “Hence, an opportunity to do an MBA along with your job is becoming a very lucrative proposition.” He is quick to add that you do not lose out on the experience of making friends in online and hybrid mode too, with excellent tools for networking.  

He also emphasises working for a few years before joining a management programme. Because then you will be clear about what you need to take out of MBA. Those who don’t have that experience, they tend to feel they have achieved everything in life once they enter a big institute. They are very choosy about what work they will do, but it doesn’t work that way. Business is all about getting your hands dirty. You have to be on the field, work as a salesperson, see how a dealer sells, and observe how a buyer makes a decision. 

Pros, and No-more Cons

Talking about the location of the institute, he says the biggest advantage was that there was no distraction. It was like a two-year break to only learn. He adds, “The IIMs are popular today because of the placements. Being in a place far in terms of travel from a metro was always an issue for the placement process. As part of the placement committee, I would send the profile of the batch to corporates in Mumbai or Bengaluru, and their leadership would have to spend three days in the whole process, including commute. But post-Covid, it’s acceptable to do the complete selection process online. Covid has shown that it doesn’t make any difference.”   

Also, talking about the second-generation IIMs, some of them located in remote locations, he says that in a country of more than 1.4 billion people, 3,000 seats is nothing. “We have scope for a lot more bright MBA grads. For a very long time we had six IIMs, and then the number went up to 21. Some of these IIMs, in a short span of time, have been able to attract good students and companies.” He acknowledges that the process of creating great institutions is not easy, especially getting good faculty. But he points out how IIMs are leveraging corporate connections to involve “professors of practice” i.e. industry professionals who teach a few sessions, modules or a course. That is the practice that’s followed internationally too.

According to Mohan, with the number of IIMs increasing and a lot of combinations coming up, there is a lot of focus on placements, with the directors themselves involved in reach-outs and speaking to corporates. The other change that he describes is the change in pedagogy. “The case study approach that the IIMs introduced, is moving to the next level, that of case study simulation. While in the case study you read about others’ experiences, in the simulation you can feel part of that exercise. This can happen only if the institute has the right technology in place.”

Beyond Global Rankings

Mohan feels the Indian B-schools are doing great work which might not show in global rankings. “These rankings are about a certain framework, which has been developed seeing western B-schools. I rate Indian B-schools very high. That is manifested in the capabilities, resourcefulness, and skillsets of passouts of these B-schools. Look at a lot of investment banks and consultancy companies, and you will see a lot of Indian alumni there.”