Every business needs talented individuals to market their product or service. Become one of these creative professional with a degree from one of the reputed institutions in Andhra Pradesh. Some economists contend that modern management as a discipline began as an offshoot of economic in the 19th century. Whatever it may be, the modern business management courses offer manifold opportunities for the you. This story on business management courses in Andhra Pradesh dwells into various aspects of functioning of the institutions and the high value demands the students are carrying. The Career Guide probes whether the MBA has lost its shine in regular colleges in the State.
The MBA, in elaboration ‘Master of Business Administration,’ still attracts youth because it promises jobs in corporate establishments. It is, however, to be noted that with the rise in Business Schools, the demand for excellence in candidates opting for corporate institutes is growing by the day. The Indian School of Business in Hyderabad has created a history by being adjudged as the “first Indian B-School to be ranked 20 among leading business schools of the world.” The Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) University is attracting more students by the virtue of it lead in “integrating knowledge acquisition and skills development” that so necessary to lead and manage corporations in today’s global economy.
The MBA admissions process is arduous and demands high degree of commitment and industry where one cannot afford to make any mistakes. One spends dozens of precious hours and hard earned money on each application, and therefore it makes sense to make sure that time and monetary efforts must conclude with an admission invite from one of the top B-Schools.
Foundation:Some economists contend that modern management as a discipline began as an offshoot of economics in the 19th century. Classical economists such as Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) and John Stuart Mill (1806 -1873) provided a theoretical background to allocation of resources and pricing issues.
About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney (1765 -1825), James Watt (1736 - 1819), and Matthew Boulton (1728 - 1809) developed elements of technical production such as standardization, quality-control procedures, cost-accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work-planning. Many of these aspects of management existed in the pre-1861 slave-based sector of the US economy. That environment saw four million people, as the contemporary usages had it, “managed” in profitable quasi-mass production.
By about 1900 one finds managers trying to place their theories on what they regarded as a thoroughly scientific basis.
An MBA in Recession time: Does it make sense?
An International MBA is an important decision for most students not only because it involves a substantial investment of money and time, but also because it is important for making a career change for some people. For others, it is a route to making an international career while for others it is simply to seek a good alumni network, according to academicians..
Some academicians argue that in some countries like in the United States “in good times, it did not matter much, which B-school you went to, but in bad times like these, every decision can become important. Shorter programs have suddenly gained relevance. In some cases, students have begun to opt for lower cost programs at lesser known B-schools or even seek out specialized programs.”
“Should one undertake an MBA in such an environment then? While these are good times for a sabbatical, admission in B-Schools are also becoming difficult thanks to the deluge of aspirants in the current environment,” experts asked. Aspirants with I-T related backgrounds face this problem more than others thanks to the increasing number of former software/hardware engineers who are on the bench these days, they added.
One solution that is often used by students is to increase their number of applications so as to make sure that they are able to get into some school or another. This is not a right move and often works to an applicants disadvantage because he/she is unable to justify to each school why they would want to enroll for their respective program.
It is, however, to be noted that in India the MBA still has high demand. Students compete with each other to get admission into top B-School, apart from University Colleges offering Business Management Courses. As far as Andhra Pradesh is concerned, Indian Schools of Business are main attraction for aspirants. Students flock to University Colleges like Osmania and Andhra to secure admission into MBA courses.
According to T P Baru, management consultant, an MBA candidate requires nine skills like Economics at macro level, Marketing, Commercial Management, Finance, Operational functions, Leadership, Organisation, Problem Sorting and self marketing. “You (an MBA candidate) should not wait for someone to come and develop you,” Baru tells the MBA job-seekers when they come for counseling.
He quotes Upanishads to tell the aspirants “as your deed is, so your destiny” to bring home the truth that if they elevate their skills, they elevate themselves to higher position in corporate set-up.
That is what exactly Dr Thomas Schmidheiny, former chairman of Holcim, said in an interview that “for entrepreneurial and philanthropic reasons, business should proactively tackle social and environmental issues within their influence-sphere.” He lectured the outgoing students of the ISB to ensure that they practice ethics in business.
Bhuvana Ramalingam, editor of journal ‘ISB INSIGHT’, says the “Family Business Conference opens up an opportunity to discuss the challenges that face family business today.” Academicians agree with him and even feel that the subject may be as important for MBA students as others during days in either reputed college or B-School.
Family Business:“Large business Houses spanning three or more generations face the challenge of growth and sustenance because of different issues in family business,” is the theme set for a debate at a conference in B-School recently. Eminent businesspersons from across the country dwelt on the subject. “We now have to decide as to how issues related to succession to the next generation would be handled. To my mind, the best way in the long run, is to have some help from outside experts. Advisors, who know the business and the individuals well, are best sited for this. Ultimately, the family can decide what they want, but an outsider’s advice might be useful as the family get larger in size,” says Adi Godrej, Group chairman of Godrej Industries.
Picking up cue from this, academicians argue that the University Colleges and the colleges affiliated to various universities should reform their syllabus in tune with changing times. The MBA candidates in this globalised world should be taught the intricacies of the business, including the family business. The family business, unlike in the past, needs to be modernized. This aspect demands highly talented business managers.
The B-Schools are geared up to this aspect but what about other colleges affiliated to the university in the State. Most of the corporate sector and mostly the family business units are in need of professional managers. A topper in a B-School has been offered Rs 78 lakh a year salary by a multinational company. The multinationals in India are more and more turning to native professionals to handle their business on this land.
Institutes offering PGDM :
Two years Post Graduate Diploma in Management ( PGDM ) aims in preparing a thorough breed of executives with in - depth knowledge and Industry Exposure and Strategic Management Orientation. The candidates will be ready to take up responsibilities in any business, domestic or global to ensure growth and success in the business. The course curriculum is so designed that the participants are groomed to take up the challenges of new millennium.
The basic objective of PGDM course is :
a. To provide the country a steady stream of competent young men & women with necessary knowledge, skills, values & attitudes to occupy positions of Management and Administration in Business, Industry, Public systems & the Government.
b. To impart to students latest & relevant knowledge in the field of management theory & practices.
c. To provide opportunities to the participants within & outside institutions, for developing necessary Managerial skills
d. To Impart / Develop the right kind of values and attributes to function effectively in Managerial administrative Position
In Andhra Pradesh there are around 14 PGDM course offering institutions, such as Xavier Vignana Jyothi Institute of Management, Siva Sivani Institute of Management, Dhruva College of Management, Badruka college of professional studies, GITAM Institute of Foreign Trade, Magnus School of Business are few among them.
Eligibility : Bachelor degree in any faculty from any statutory University.
ICFAI University: “The ICFAI University, too, believes in creating and disseminating knowledge and skills in core and frontier areas through innovative educational programs, research, consulting and publishing, and developing a new cadre of professionals with a high level of competence and deep sense of ethics and commitment to the code of professional conduct.
A number of educational programs are offered in management, finance, banking, insurance, accounting, law, information technology, arts, commerce, education and science and technology at Bachelor’s and Master’s levels on full-time campus and flexible learning formats. Examinations are conducted at over 168 test centers all over India, four times a year. The University has no study centers outside the authorized jurisdictions.
The University also allows private candidates to enroll in various programs if they satisfy the eligibility criteria. The University does not provide any courseware, nor conduct any contact classes, nor offer any other support services to private candidates. Such candidates have to prepare for the programs on their own as per the curriculum and are required to attend the examinations, as per the rules and regulations of the University. The University has no study centers/branches outside the jurisdiction,” says its Hyderabad centre head P Trinath.
Case Studies in business education:
Encouraging students to do case studies will help them to think of various possible ways of handling the issues that confront the managers in day to day functions. The big B-Schools have this programme for their students. Except in a few colleges and the University Colleges, this programme is not encouraged, according to academicians. These colleges, too, should gear themselves up to face the challenges and mould the students to face new challenges in the era of gloabalisation.
Apart from them, some corporate houses have started business management courses in specialized areas like hospital management. One of them is by the Appolo Institute of Hospital Management.
Applo Institute of Hospital Management:
(AIHA), affiliated to Osmania University is committed to producing high quality hospital administrators by focusing on teaching and research, forging a synergetic partnership with healthcare institutions emerging as an outstanding school of learning.
Hotel Management Courses: “Hotel management courses offer viable career opportunities to the youth of today. Hence, hotel management is very popular as a career course in Andhra Pradesh,” says India Educational Society..
Some polytechnic institutes, too, are offering diploma courses in hotel management. Apart from there are at least dozen private colleges in Hyderabad city alone to cater to the students interested in the subject.
The boom in the software industry and positive projections for the next decade had students preferring the Computer Application course over Management at the ongoing ICET counselling for admissions into MCA and MBA
courses across the State.
MBA or MCA!
“Nearly 80 per cent of candidates in the top 5,000 ranks have preferred to study MCA than MBA. This is in direct contrast to the craze seen for MBA in the last couple of years. It is not that the bubble of management courses and jobs has burst but candidates are aware that the IT industry has more jobs to offer in the future given its massive expansion in the city particularly and in the country in general. And of course, higher salaries,” is the story that was much talked about a year ago, recalled a professor in a B-School. The situation has now changed.
There is now competition for admission into B-Schools, Thrinath of ICFAI says and adds that his institute has produced 111 MBA students last year and as many as 102 students are prosecuting MBA now. Harish Santwal, last year MBA student, was taken by pharmaceutical company with a fat salary. Almost all students coming out of the ICFAI institutes were absorbed in either corporate houses or industries.
Lastly, the academicians at B-Schools are stressing the need to “give a research edge” to the business management courses. One of the aspects is research in accounting. In one of the lectures organized by the ISB, Prof James L Frank of Yale University in the United States, has stated that “no economy can thrive without efficient service infrastructure. Accounting in India needs to away from the old tradition of book-keeping and must be expanded to include cost accounting, performance evaluation, compensation, transfer pricing, etc.”
The academicians argue that more and more new subjects should be included in the MBA syllabus to make a modern tool to transform the industry.