How well prepared are Indian MBA students to take on the future job challenges and job-descriptions? If the current trends in the global IPOs and the next generation of large companies are to be considered, then the curriculum and the training (and conditioning) imparted to Indian MBA students are way off the real picture.
Indian MBA students are still being fed out-dated theories and ways of working. This includes even the top Institutes like the IIMs. Most of these pass-outs are preparing themselves for industry jobs that have been considered as the best by the batches of 1990s. Some of the prevalent names are consulting, finance, and marketing.
Even though we have seen a huge amount of differential growth in these sectors, the institutes have still been very happy training and then assisting in placing students in such sectors.
Given the current trends in NASDAQ Top100, and the number of IPOs that have been filed in 2010 for 2011, the world will look very different in the next 5-10 years. Are our people ready for that? I don't think so. Lets consider some data on NASDAQ Top100 and the IPOs:
NASDAQ 100 Sectors Weighting (The percentage of sectors that make up the Top100)
Technology 55.19%
Consumer Services 19.70%
Health Care 13.58%
Industrials 5.99%
Consumer Goods 2.56%
Telecommunications 2.40%
Basic Materials 0.34%
Oil and Gas 0.24%
(Data from http://financemainpage.com/Nasdaq.html)
The IPOs that have been filed in 2010 for 2011 (Data calculated from ipomonitor.com)
We now have Facebook's expected 100Billion IPO around 2012, and a lot more action to happen in the same domain.
The future holds challenges in job descriptions that will look very different from what they have been or what they are today. Success will be defined very differently, and we need to be able to take advantage of that properly.
Indian MBA students are still being fed out-dated theories and ways of working. This includes even the top Institutes like the IIMs. Most of these pass-outs are preparing themselves for industry jobs that have been considered as the best by the batches of 1990s. Some of the prevalent names are consulting, finance, and marketing.
Even though we have seen a huge amount of differential growth in these sectors, the institutes have still been very happy training and then assisting in placing students in such sectors.
Given the current trends in NASDAQ Top100, and the number of IPOs that have been filed in 2010 for 2011, the world will look very different in the next 5-10 years. Are our people ready for that? I don't think so. Lets consider some data on NASDAQ Top100 and the IPOs:
NASDAQ 100 Sectors Weighting (The percentage of sectors that make up the Top100)
Technology 55.19%
Consumer Services 19.70%
Health Care 13.58%
Industrials 5.99%
Consumer Goods 2.56%
Telecommunications 2.40%
Basic Materials 0.34%
Oil and Gas 0.24%
(Data from http://financemainpage.com/Nasdaq.html)
The IPOs that have been filed in 2010 for 2011 (Data calculated from ipomonitor.com)
| Consulting | 2.34% |
| Finance | 21.88% |
| Pharma | 12.89% |
| Manu/Retail | 28.91% |
| Internet | 25.78% |
| Media | 1.56% |
| Oil | 6.64% |
We now have Facebook's expected 100Billion IPO around 2012, and a lot more action to happen in the same domain.
The future holds challenges in job descriptions that will look very different from what they have been or what they are today. Success will be defined very differently, and we need to be able to take advantage of that properly.
Not only should we look at being prepared for this near future events but also need to be aware that all future entrepreneurial ventures in India that might become the next BSE Sensex top grossers would need the kind of talent that a Facebook or Google or Apple or other Chinese companies (that are now filing for NASDAQ IPOs) would be able to get from their own backyard.
Our Universities are not world-class yet (they don't feature in any global ranking), and neither are our B-schools and institutes that are supposed to be training students on industry oriented curriculum. Question is - which are these industries that these people talk about? I would want students to really figure this out.
Getting sales talent (for example when I look to hire for my team), is so very difficult because most of these good men and women with the popular degrees/education and the right intention don't have the training, drive, and the conditioning from their colleges to arm them for the future organizations that will definitely multi-nationals and be so diverse that one will need a continuous developmental capacity - which is sadly lacking right now.
Our problem has been the over dependence in some of the point of references like IIT, IIM, etc that we feel are supposed to be world class. Recent study and analysis have indicated that these institutes may not be anywhere near the institutions or Universities across other continents or countries that churn out graduates who are armed with knowledge, skills, and the drive to be working the roles-of-future.
It is time that we take an objective view on these things, get our research right, and go ahead with brave steps to revolutionize the higher education objectives and conditioning to be able to ride the next storm and still be one of the most vibrant economies in the world.
