History First :The Tuck School of Business (http://www.tuck.edu/) , part of Dartmouth College, was the first graduate school of management in the United States. Founded in 1900, it was the first institution conferring advanced degrees (masters) in the commercial sciences, the fore bearer of the modern MBA even though Wharton @ University of Pennsylvania (http://www.wharton.upenn.edu/) was the first business school in the world. I guess the purpose of a scientific approach to "managing business" is best symbolized by the words written in the web site of Wharton "At Wharton, there are countless opportunities to lead, grow, and challenge yourself". A simple straight but yet such an unmet demand of a modern day MBA. Just India alone produces more than a lac odd MBA's annually as said in "commodityonline.com" a strange but interesting paradox of the commodification of a wonderful degree.
We are in the second spell of commoditization of professional education. First spell was the engineering and medical education and the second spell is that of MBA's. The second spell is more lucrative and attractive. Reason is simple, to open an engineering college is tougher (least needs to be invested in labs, technical faculty etc ) and much harder in the case of medical education. But a B-School is much much easier all you need is space -5 rooms , 3 rooms or 1 big dining hall (which i have practically seen) and you have a 5 + lac customer walking into the realms of "unknown" hoping to be a so called "manager,administrator or even a leader" with aspirations of glassy corporate office with a 6 packed (not abs) but figured remuneration. Dr Dan le Clair, VP & Chief Knowledge Officer of AACSB International (The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business is an association of educational institutions, businesses, and other organizations devoted to the advancement of higher education in management education also the premier accrediting agency of collegiate business schools and accounting programs worldwide) recently said " that quality of education offered by a majority of institutes need a lot to desire".This is from the supplier side, but about the "customer" here. i mean the students of course...
The "MBA" gold rush is definitely one that was waiting to happen. Thanks to our colonial sub servant mindset prevalent in our homes we tend to push our "future" sorry our children to a the "prevailing" high paying boom. whether the kid is suited let alone is able to manage a business is definitely out of question here. Thanks to our "headline obsessed" media highlighting the 8 figured salaries @ IIM's without researching who and how factors we tend to deal with our education as one more "economic" activity where the ROI (return on investments) has to be multi fold. The blame is also on students not on parents alone. The liberalized kid who is so assertive in his personal, emotional and spiritual choices is ill-equipped majority of times to assess his personal and professional goals. Obviously he or she is made to have a "cut out " rather than if he or she is really cut out for an MBA thanks to the "Peer Pressure". I am pained at the end result of all this. An obvious consequence is the "employability factor" and also what i call as "early life crisis" which has preempted the "midlife crisis". I have interacted with so many late 20's and early 30 peers who are "lost" in the managing world. Many of them end up in what i call as "nether world".
The solution : I don't know except that i know which is to follow your heart , if you want to lead , grow and challenge, may be an MBA will shape your destiny.. sounding pessimistic.. not yet.. wait for my next post on "What Makes a MBA" , i will have some happy news to tell..
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