IIMs retain their lustre

Updated on: Monday, February 20, 2012

For students who choose not to apply to any of these lesser-known colleges, the decision is a no-brainer: the curriculum is farfrom business reality, faculty is minimal and, most importantly, few respectable companies participate in the course-end recruitment drives.

At one time, the archetypal Indian MBA did join anonymous business colleges. But now, with no job offer at the end, the decision is no longer complicated: a young graduate would rather take up a job or prepare harder for another shot at an entrance exam which is the gate to a better B-school, says Stephen D'silva, director, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies.

However, while the lower-rung management schools are being bypassed, there are still tens of thousands who make a B-line to join an IIM. Pankaj Chandra, director of IIM-Bangalore, boasts of the lakhs of students who sign up to take the Common Admission Test (CAT) for close to 3,000 seats that the IIMs have on offer. "It is a great time to do an MBA. The brightest ones still want to do an MBA," he adds.

Having said that, the manner in which India's business education sector has developed poses a vital question: Is the MBA for everyone? Across the country, academics, irrespective of the institute they are affiliated to, are relating to Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, Montreal, who devoted a book to his contention that "conventional MBA programs train the wrong people in the wrong ways with the wrong consequences".

Mintzberg's line 'Warning: Not Prepared to Manage' has become a popular catch phrase in internal meetings that B-school boards and faculty members hold.

Times of India

IIMs retain their lustre

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