B-schools are businesses in their own right. They have customers, stakeholders and product. In contrast to corporate business model, here profitability is not the major criterion.
People are generally aware of happenings around them. MBA sharpens the way they process it so that they are able to interpret relevant information in context of the macro-environment at large and relate it to businesses.
All B-schools have screening processes to select students. Accepting a candidate is testimony that the school believes in the ability of the person to be a manager. One of the first lessons taught in B-schools is SWOT for business; capitalize on strengths and opportunities, manage weaknesses and threats. If a B-school can’t help its students to apply this to his/her unique situation – the whole exercise of administering the course is futile.
‘Creativity and innovation’ need to be developed in students. To move away from the rote learning structure, all B-schools have a variety of components in their curriculum. But, has this reduced the prescriptive nature of education in India? Unfortunately, “NO” – all components have associated GPAs. Consider a case study discussion – it is observed that more points are awarded to an ideal solution (something in lines with what stalwarts like Drucker pronounced in one of their seminal works). Reading these are necessary to gain understanding; but like any medicine when overly used, it limits creativity/thinking of the students. The following could help in negating this.
Enforce experiential learning in class: Currently, the basics and concepts are taught in detail before asking students to solve a case. Alternatively, teach the basics, let the students solve the case. More often than not they come up with as good a solution (minus the jargon) as in the prevalent model. It is teachers’ responsibility to build further and drive in