The benefits of a B-school qualification are well understood. It is seen as a passport to better career prospects as far as the individual is concerned. A contradictory blend of competition and shortage of skilled manpower goes to extreme lengths to prove just this.
There are mixed responses from corporations on the correlation between business school qualification and effectiveness on the job. Many argue that learning on the job is more important for effectiveness than a qualification.
Some argue that without a proper business qualification, a person is not able to appreciate different aspects of business, which becomes more important as one goes up the hierarchy.
The truth is that most of the learning takes place on the job, and the ability to learn is vital for success. It is also true that a good B-school qualification gives the conceptual understanding of all aspects of business input.
The problem is that the corporate world is evolving so rapidly that most of the B-schools are not able to keep pace with changes. This leads to a gap between what is taught and what is practised. A number of B-schools have made efforts to bridge this gap. However, it still remains.
Therefore, no matter what the B-school curriculum is, it does provide a good foundation, but the growth and effectiveness on the job is determined by the ability to learn. B-schools need to equip students with skills on how to manage change at the workplace, how to learn continuously and, more important, how to apply that learning to grow their organisations and their own careers.
The statement "learning is a lifelong process" is about as true as it is cliched, and deserves more thought and acceptance than has been assigned to it in the past. People have been blessed with the ability to effectively incorporate within themselves a lifelong learning curve, warranting us to "learn and grow".
Muralidhar Rao graduated from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in 1983.