ICFAI Business School (IBS) Student Community

[abhishek1711 (shah)]

It concerns me deeply as to how capable we actually are Vs a non MBA. This applies even more to those from the top institutes - getting fat paychecks and profiles which would otherwise would take years of hardwork to reach to.

So we see an MBA in finance getting profiles which even a CFA would not get easily.

Agreed we MBA's have a lot more cross functional exposure , people management skills and team skils apart from refined personality and atitude.

But things have come to such a point today that if you are not an MBA , it seems you are nobody ! Be it doctors or army men evry1 wants to be an MBA.

All of us have friends/relatives who have done MBA and whom we have observed from childhood to post MBA phaze. So lets discuss (debate ) here if we can be branded as Mediocre but arrogant ?

[harish_govardhan (harry)]

Hi abhi,
Ha ha, way to go dude! Nice topic. You are never short of topics I guess.

Coming to this issue, it is a cyclic process which happens to any degree. Now even B.E. has become just another degree(atleast in the south) as the number of engineering colleges down south has increased by leaps and bounds.

Now there is so much demand for the MBA degree but might be after 5 years or so, it will also become just another degree.

I guess you can apply DLC(Degree Life Cycle) concept here

Regards

[krishnan (-=hidden=-)]

Nice thoughts Abhi & Harry!

In my opinion MBA's should be jack of all trades. The purpose is to administer business and not to take care of a part of business. I agree to the point that current situation demands specialization, but that should be one of the track and not the only track.

My definition for MBA's would include words like "groomable, strategic, good communication, attitude, learner".

[abhishek1711 (shah)]

[krishnan (-=hidden=-)]

Leaving the brand value of institutes I feel these are the other factors.
1. Knowledge level- You know how much we are loaded with. I know friends from other smaller universities, they are not really loaded with subjects.

2. Inner confidence - Linked with knowledge, is always high if you are from a top institute. Smaller institute guys don't lack confidence, but if you have to compare then they rank second.

3.Exposure - This creates the above two. A smaller institute with greater corporate support will definitely be at par with a top notch institute. Unfotunately this is where institutes from tier 2 cities face difficulties.

Taking ICICI example, they take students from few IBS campuses as Asst.Manager, a desgination which is one step lower to what IIM students get. At the same time it is 2 to 3 steps above the designation that smaller institute students get.

There are exceptions for all cases, but the dicsussion above considers a normal scenario. Also pleae note that in my ranking IBS is a top B school

[abhishek1711 (shah)]

[ver 2.0 (-=hidden=-)]

There are a lot of programs which cover the technical content of MBA and are valued accordingly by the industry. An example is the MSc in Statistics course offered by the University of Bombay whose median salaries are above IBS and the kind of profiles are significantly better than what is offered at IBS.

Those who graduate from top programs and top of class make it big because they (i) worked hard (ii) have the requisite abilities. If even one of the two aren't met then its good bye to the fancy dreams which most people who start an MBA seems to have. I feel bad in saying this but attitude of a lot of people who go through the two years is sick and they consider themselves to have some good given right to boss over everything. It comes out it when talking, when traveling, when working, etc.

I guess everyone knows this by now that most top global b-schools insist on work experience as a part of requirement to be admitted to an MBA. Lots of European ones I researched mailed actually said they generally don't look at applicants whose work ex is below 6-7 years. The current issue in India is almost nil work ex of entering batch. From my experience I think work normally is a good leveler. Once you go through the grind, get shouted for a mistake, get shouted for things you expect to have accomplished, watch the other guy whom you thought is no good enough, and so many other instances make you a lot wiser and allow you to mix in and understand its not hunky dory out there in the wild wild world. The problem is no experience leads many to think they'll find themselves at a top investment bank earning unimaginable sums does set in arrogance and though they do come back to reality in a while some amounts of what is acquired still remains.

Just a quick note on the confidence factor: I personally feel knowing your stuff and presenting it out in the correct is a correct way to measure confidence. Its not about fanciful ppt's or the sing song talk but its about factual and objective analysis when stated allows an individual to come across as being confident. Sadly many I have seen at IBS seems to think otherwise and normally its a acceptable assumption by most that the loudest is the most confident which is far from reality!

[bhallasum (Sumit)]

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