Why MBA? What does an MBA/B-School has to offer

[krsh.vik]

After failing to crack CAT thrice, the feeling that haunts me is Why am I doing all this? Why am I trying to do an MBA? Do I really need to do an MBA?

After lots and lots of introspection, I came to know that I don't have exact answers to any of the questions posed above

I interacted with many of the MBA aspirants. I feel sad that most of them are not sure why they are doing an MBA and what a B-School has to offer? Salary, Ladder jump, Resume building are the obvious reasons most of them say. Do we need to do an MBA for the above reasons? Not at all. period. So Why MBA? What will I learn in a B-School? What will I do after an MBA? I want to know concrete answers/reasoning for the above .

I hope this thread will help many of the future aspirants who are in a dilemma about whether to do an MBA or not.

Senior & Experienced puys, need your inputs

[sumitrocks]

Originally Posted by krsh.vik

After failing to crack CAT thrice, the feeling that haunts me is Why am I doing all this? Why am I trying to do an MBA? Do I really need to do an MBA?

Vik, I think you have posed some really important questions, which many of us don't have clear answers to. I am sharing my reasons here...

After having worked for a fairly long time (nearly 6 years) and having interacted with quite a few members of the top brass, I feel I am currently not completely equipped to take on higher responsibilities. Right now, I am handling a team of people, planning projects, managing them, and executing them, but my learning and understanding of the same is only based on experience. I perform a task, make mistakes, go back to the drawing board, and improve. This is a long procedure. Even without an MBA, in 2-3 years, I will be a manager.

However, I still won't be equipped for the role. So, by spending two years learning the ropes, I can accelerate that phase of doing, learning, and then redoing. Of course, I don't really need to do an MBA. But, with an MBA, it will be easier and faster to move up and reach my goals. The ultimate objective I have is to be a part of the decision making and strategic leadership. Without an MBA, I'll probably get there not before another 15-18 years. With an MBA, hopefully, in half the time.

P.S. Salary is not the sole motivating factor, but yes, it surely is one. The brand value that a good b-school provides comes in handy there too.

Please visit the mentioned link to give further direction to yourself. http://www.advancedge.com/hot_links/why_mba/pdf/01_Why%20Shld%20u%20do%20MBA.pdf

[getintoiimb]

@krsh.vik
Those were vital questions framed by you..
y mba?
well most ppl consider mba an escape route..to be frank it is not..
i would like to make one point clearly over here..MBA is the only way you can change your line of work completely..
eg : if one wants to move out of the IT industry to marketing(FMCG) yes MBA is the only option..i want to make it to marketing not out of frustration in IT but out of pure interest towards marketing..if u want to stay in IT sales i dont think you require an MBA mandatorily..depends on the skill of an individual.few friends of mine are business analysts in TCS without an MBA..of course it takes some time of ur career..
what value an mba adds?
an mba transforms u into a different individual..again here the b school doesnt teach u how to solve problems.its an individual who interacts with his/her peers with case studies etc to come up with solutions..curriculum and the pedagogy in a b school is completely different from engineering..an mba give u the oppurtuinity to decide what u want to do some time down the line..u get to interact with the best brains in the country..actually i really dont have a precise answer for this question..i would say i would be satisfied with my job after my mba because i will be doing something what i like which i am not doing now..so a mba from a b school gives u a 100% chance to shift ur line of work of your interest..


P.S : views are entirely personal

[mandar_mdd]

Originally Posted by getintoiimb

@krsh.vik
eg : if one wants to move out of the IT industry to marketing(FMCG) yes MBA is the only option..i want to make it to marketing not out of frustration in IT but out of pure interest towards marketing..

its great..
but frankly, either interest in mkt or lack of interest in IT, the fact is that an MBA opens up wide oppurtunities for a person that other graduation fields dont offer.
u can c an MBA fitting into marketing of service industry, FMCG procucts, IT services / products & various other domains.
a fin MBA goin to various financial instt, banks, consultancies & working at various profiles.
same for other MBA specializations. the fact here is that an MBA opens up unparalleled oppurtunities for an individual to explore new careers.
no doubt, few ppl can reach tremendous heights even with simple graduation or a one off ambani with no formal education. but the fact remains, that for a majority of average junta, MBA seems to be the only option to switch career & explore options with ease.

well at least this seems to be the scenario in india where there are very few oppurtunities & lot of ppl competing for it. so as far as India goes, MONEY & SWITHING CAREER (mostly for IT ppl) seems to be the most common factor for an MBA.

so far as the question WHY MBA goes, MBA as rightly pointed out should be used as a means to learn new things, aquire new skills & sharpening ur business management acumen.
in foriegn B-school, the average work ex of a batch is as it is high, as ppl who feel they really need the exposure to management education go for it. i feel, its not the only means used by ppl to switch careers as in India.

[willsurelywin]

hmm
why mba..
well mba for me is never for field change coz the field i am going work was decided itself in class 10th and i opted for commerce so me gonna remain in finance forever , wheter money in other sectors are 5 times more also..

aftr my b.com from DU , i know i will need a mba to grow in any organisation .
now my target is to do a mba but not get just a degree or that 1st placements after b schools.iut

for me its all about "Studying in one of the finest educational instituion in india "
jab yaha se pad lenge to baki life to maza mi kating

[A-zach]

What does a B School Offer?
Well one thing that i feel one gets in a b school is peer learning.
here is a place where people with 10 years of work experience and a fresher straight from college sit in benches next to each other and learn the ropes of management, no doubt both will have different views on many subjects and everyone will only benifit from such diversity rather than be affected by it.
Apart from this i believe that even if u learn the tricks of management on the job, it might be limited to the sector one is working in rather than general management concepts.
for eg: an IT project manager will be learning the management principles with respect to his line of work and very less in general management.
So the general management we learn in a b school and the peer group we mingle with are 2 reasons why i would prefer a bschool over learning management on the job.

[cimbaish_Nitin]

hmmmmmm.....

My reason

In 1 word -- Learning
Elaboration -- Acceleration of learning curve

Everything else is just a corrollary to ur knowledge.
Be it career shift, increase in sal, better profile, better opportunities..
This is what one gains fromk an MBA.. but they are just side-effects of the most important thing that one gains .. Learning and a passion to learn furthur..

Of course, we need to be passionate about what we are learning and really want to learn that..

Say a hardcore techie is passionate about technology and wants to move ahead in that line..
Nothing like it..

When I asked myself, it was the requirement analysis + designing end to end solutions for business problems that gave me the maximum kick..
Of course selling the solution as well..

I could have learnt this otherwise as well.. But MBA was 1 platform where I could learn this
and much more and at a faster rate and from the best brains in the industry..
At my work, it wud have taken me 7-8 years at least to learn all this and again it wudn't
have been the best..

MBA was in..

Other realization -- Learning is a lifelong thing and if someone feels that MBA is the end,
I'd advise to rethink..

~Nitin

[Absolute]

Again a thought provoking thread by Vikram

As a guy in the IT industry for 2 years these are things that I observed in many IT guys who turn to MBA....

MBA for most of us is an escape from IT coupled with the salaries it will offer and the responsibilities that will come after being termed as a management graduate from the elite management institutes in the country.

When we come to IT we arent exposed to the ground realities of this field and most of the work in India is of maintenance and support nature with exception of few companies.Initially we will have loads of interest but soon it fades away into frustration of not doing something substantial.So we see many of us writing CAT and GMAT.

Why MBA?
More responsibilities and being more accountable to what you do.

As I have seen in my company MBA grads are given responsibilities more quickly than non MBA grads .Also the work(management work) you do after you have an exp of 8-9 years in the industry will come to you in 2-3 years with an MBA.(MBA+2-3 yrs) and ppl have that perception that MBA grads can manage better than non MBA folks because they had a formal training in management.(This may not be true because managing is an art and it can vary from individual to an individual).

More money and more recognition.

MBA is more of generalisation so you will not be stuck in a profession if you dont like it.
(Here I am talking abt a general MBA as that given by IIMA)

What does a B-school offers?
As we know MBA is an active learning not a passive one.We are rated more by our interactions with our professors/peers than our marks in the written tests.Definitely we can unleash some of our hidden potential which we never knew existed.

Peer group
If we interact with ppl of different kinds we will become more of a multi-dimensional person rather than a uni-dimensional one that we will be if we dont interact with such ppl.
One may argue that we can do the same by interacting with such ppl even by not going to a B-School but the chances of better interaction are more if we go to a B-School.

PS:These are the thoughts that came to my mind abt why an MBA..and what a B-schools offer..

Regards,
Absolute.

[akhil]

MBA is a good experience in life. If someone can manage to get in a decent A class institute and work hard, brain is rewired with all the wonderful theory stuffs.

The ultimate thing in GRAND CAREER is the quality and quantity of work experience. It is very much possible without MBA to rise in corporate career but i always suggest non MBA aspirants to start reading the stuff which MBA guys read to rewire your brain.

Every non MBA aspirant should read this link:

People to Watch in International Business - TIME

The link explains how sangita singh grabbed 'Chief Marketing Officer' at Wipro without an MBA at the age of 32.

[nishant_rungta]

Originally Posted by krsh.vik

After failing to crack CAT thrice, the feeling that haunts me is Why am I doing all this? Why am I trying to do an MBA? Do I really need to do an MBA?

After lots and lots of introspection, I came to know that I don't have exact answers to any of the questions posed above

I hope this thread will help many of the future aspirants who are in a dilemma about whether to do an MBA or not.

Vikram.... Im in the same boat as u are... I too dont have any exact reason y i wanna do an MBA...

I wanna know how can a person in our age group decide upon the fact that he wants to be an MBA and study MBA even without knowing what its gonna teach us. I mean fine on the surface level. But do we really know when we are in the 2nd yr of our college and we gear up for the preps for CAT and make up our minds that ya this is it.. This is wat i wanna be... An MBA...

It was in my 11 th std that i drew inspiration frm a senior of mine who topped his 12th std. I thot i wud do it n I was the happiest soul on earth to have topped my 12th. But then this guy was so close to me that one day I happened to call on him and he told me about IIMs and MBA and CAT and etc.. There was I... Completely brain washed... Ab karna hai toh sirf MBA aur IIMs se...

1st year college me baapu ki wajah se was forced to join CA against my interest. Bhaag ke aa gaya ek mahine me... Couldnt stand it anymore not cuz it was tough or dry, but cuz I lacked the interest, the motivation and the aptitude. Started preparing for CAt since June 2005 and wrote it twice. N nothing went right. Failed miserably all the time.

But still I tend to carry the same motivation, same enthu, same spirit to give it again. Had I got the same level of motivation I wud have nearly been a CA and could have also given CAT...

My resume could have been grt, in fact amazing.. But I lost those years and the time. N I dont feel like taking up any other course as a back up option with the fear of not doing justice to it. Wish I had done my CA... Kya profile hota yaar

But its still MBA that reigns high in my blood.. MBA karna hai bas... kaise bhi... Reason: Bas ek junoon hai sawaar sir pe.. On a more materialistic angle, Bcom rehkar mujhe peon ki bhi naukri nahin milegi.

its gonna be a third time CAT now... Lets see what fate has in store for us... Par is baar luck ko bhi hamaara saath dena padega...

Vikram bhai... Dont worry.... Let us redefine Murphy's Law...

PS: Make this damn thread STICKY...