The history of public education begins with single classroom schools in the US wherein a selective group of poeple learnt subjects that were thought to be "important" by the society at that time. From those first classrooms through the next century and till date, public education and schools have gone through a plethora of changes and updating - mostly through the needs and trends of different times or industrial revolutions.
If replacing Latin and Greek by maths, or science along with social studies were some of the major changes then, we have witnessed more interdisciplinary subjects that have been introduced across the years. Also, with the advent of software and the progressive technologies, various discplines and domains have been pushed into the limelight and have made their own niches.
Take Engineering for example. Post the industrial revolution, there was need for engineers (and hoards of them) who acutally had the knowledge to make machines work and then a set of highly qualified engineering-scientists who could create the next level of machines or revolutions. The school curriculums and higher studies subjects from that time have been a reflection of the same, and we witness most of those programs are still present in the same degree and with similar delivery process till date at schools across the world. The same can also be seen for the professional programs like MBA, which being an advent of the Industrial era, is still taught for the same job functions that were relevant "then", and probably aren't "now".The credit goes to the current rate of innovations and technological advances, one finds the usual white-collar jobs or the roles that were populated by MBAs, are being replaced by automated systems or technologies that are creating irreversible job losses. The kind of subjects and the objectives of those subjects that were allowing MBAs to perform a set of activities, are now being achieved through automated or pattern-recognition softwares which will very soon affect developing economies like India (more so, given the current state of macro-economic affairs).
For example, most of data-centric decision making and services that were once jobs for passing-out MBAs are now a part of some software or technology. The trouble is that MBA as a program has neither recognised this, or even if they have, nor are they taking speedy actions towards redesigning the way MBA is delivered.
If I draw a parallel to the early school education system and MBA as a program, similarities are abundant. One can see a common starting structure for both - through a single classroom and defined curriculum being delivered through a standardized pattern of teaching/coaching.
As schools today are looking at modularity in teaching deliverables and peruse the way students learn (differently and in multiple intelligences), there is a sure-shot scale of revolution awaiting in the public education system's DNA across the world. The same has to be done for MBA, else we will try to improve a broked system that's probably too backdated to be of any value.
What if, MBA was redesigned the way schools were in their 100 years journey, but only this time its all expedited to ensure that value-creation for a generation of workers, is possible. Why can't we throw away the paradigm that its only the 4 main sectors - marketing, HR, finance, and operations - that ought to define how we look at the MBA curriculum? What if we introduce new subjects at an amazing pace so that the very same technology thats making jobs redundant and obsolete, can now be used and tamed to create the next set of job-definitions? What if we redesign the way standardized testing is done for selecting MBA students/admits? What if we do away with interdependancy in the curruculum of MBA and bring in modularity and independance of learning?
I have been thinking a lot on how the best delivery system can be developed for MBA institutions or bschools, wherein the best that they have ever been able to come up with is nothing but - case studiy method. Standardizing the entire delivery mechanism is easy for faculty maybe, but thats not the purpose - solving the problem for faculty. We need to accept, acknowledge and then design systems for multiple-intelligences and the way people learn differently.
The premise has always been wrong. Almost all school going students know that the most attractive student for a science or maths faculty is a guy who has excellent logical-mathematical intelligence. Thats definitely because the faculty himself/herself will have similar intelligence base. But are people who opreate with different intelligence bases not fit to study maths or science? There is abundant research going on in this field (of human anthropology and neurology) that suggests that the non-logical-mathematical guys do get maths and science but when its delivered differently and through the same intelligence bases. Which means that schools have formed the system of standardization keeping easier processes and faculty numbers in mind, and have therefore alienated millions throughout these years from actual "learning".
We have probably been doing the same for MBA - alienating thousands of so-called managers who are the products of this dinosaur - wherein all the extrinsic motivational factors that drove them towards completing MBA vanished due to economic downturn or technological advances. People seem to have lost the capability of having anything intrinsically connected to the MBA program due to the way standardization has happened across these years.
So is this the death of MBA or is there an answer for this?
I have reason to believe that if we bring in new modules - like sociology, design, product development, new age tech (programming and platforms), politics, sales, and a diverse set of domains into the MBA to make learning possible for the non-applicants of MBA today, and together with a modular & customized delivery system - we can create the kind of talent that will be relevant, intrinsically motivated, strong for separate & diverse set of industries, and can set the platform for progressive revolutions across various domains.
Classes wil look different and so will be the delivery. People will be assessed on their intelligence types and then specific delivery mechanisms can be tested+implemented for these people. The pace of job creation and job-obsolation can be matched with the relevance in learning and exploiting inherent skill-sets and motivations of students. Placements will then no longer be an issue of national interest - rather it will be job creation and a robust ecomony that will be the major objectives for these business schools.
Will the Indian Middle class spare this one (Unlike previous strong-posts like Engineering, medical, MBA, etc)? Probably Yes. That's because, for the first time, the definition of objectives of learning in MBA and the results will be defined intrinsically - by the students who would be a part of this program.
I believe this is the best shot MBA has got in this country, and across the globe.
Change definitions - remove standardizations - and let the magic happen.
