Human Resources
Understanding the Need for an MBA
Written by Rahul Kumar for Gaebler Ventures
In today's highly competitive business environment, let's try and understand if acquiring a degree in management or business administration is an imperative qualification in one's professional armor.
"Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death" -- Albert Einstein.
Almost all of us have at some point in our lives contemplated the needfulness of education and its extent.
When should we finally hang the training boots and dive into the ocean of what is perceived as a grueling and relentless environment - the corporate world?
Is it right after basic schooling...high school...undergraduate degree...graduate or post graduate? Or is there never a right time?
Well, whatever it is...one thing is certain. Corporate world or not, life today is not as plain and simple as a couple of centuries ago. Today, in order to manage ourselves well and respond satisfactorily to the dynamism of our modern day world, we are expected to have sufficient intellectual growth and confidence in our righteous convictions. But how to assimilate them is what we need to answer.
There is no denying that basic education is an absolute imperative and the steepest rise in intellect and general awareness happens at a fairly young age. When to discontinue education thereafter is a matter of personal choice or in some cases, imposed under certain constraints. Nonetheless, we have had examples of successful entrepreneurs and businessmen who never even made it past high school. Some walked out of colleges. Some were forced to do so. No matter from which walk of life they came, they managed to attain comparable growths.
But such cases are rare. In terms of statistics only, these are only a handful of people out of the many whose names never made to the front pages who shared a few common treasures - idea, intellectual skill, vision and confidence.
Over time the pre-requisites to successful professional ventures may not have changed...but their degree definitely has. Today the world is much more challenging and competitive than it has been ever before and with an unparalleled magnitude of potential learning, much of which has been gathered over the past few of decades. We need to tap that ocean of knowledge.
How far one goes depends upon how much he knows and how much of it he can usefully apply. Knowledge management in this regard is an extremely valuable process for any aspiring professional.
In business oriented environments it is an added advantage to be preconditioned through related knowledge possession which only gets further refined as one learns on the job. By having the domain knowledge one is better prepared to handle varied situations and it makes the application part more enjoyable and efficient. A Master's in Business Administration aims to achieve just that. Irrespective of the sector in which one works, the structure of the course is rather general and over-prepares one for an almost less rigorous labor market.
One attains a thorough understanding of varied correlated business issues that may encompass significantly diverse fields from human resource management to corporate law to strategic formulation, control and evaluation. It undeniably offers valuable business knowledge and gives the learner insight into its many dimensions and contingencies that may creep up in the course of operations. For an entrepreneur or businessman, an MBA not only equips him with better management tools and analytical powers but also provides a certain cushion in the event of venture failure.
Besides, there is an unprecedented demand of MBA graduates in the market and by the nature of course itself this demand shall remain as long as the corporate world is alive and kicking.
To sum it up, getting an MBA degree is a self-investment with near zero risks and tremendous potential returns. It virtually guarantees the holder threshold recognition in the market whilst offering a plethora of opportunities. Master's in Business Administration therefore, is infinitesimally close to being the need of the hour if not already a need.
Rahul Kumar writes about entrepreneurial topics while he completes his Masters in Management degree at the ESCP-EAP European School of Management. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Delhi, India.
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