A lot of modern management programmes put much emphasis on theory-driven practice, writing off the incredible value in practice-driven theory
If we look at the overall scenario, there has been an inadequate return on educational investment. The content has been somewhat traditional; for instance, in marketing, we still look at aspects such as return on advertisement, sales expenditure, response, etc. But a number of sectors, like financial services, airlines, new media and communications are changing at a faster pace than academics. Many jobs and companies that exist today were not even there 10 years ago. It is a must to ensure that the curriculum is revised based on real-world issues. To this end, academia would benefit from collaborations with the industry and the government. While there is much emphasis on theory-driven practice, there is incredible value in practice-driven theory.
Finally, all MBA programmes shouldn’t be the same. More experienced students of executive MBA programmes need general management and global leadership skills, while younger, less experienced students are being hired for specialist positions in accounting, sales, financial analysis, data analytics, etc. The latter group needs more electives for specialisations in subjects like e-marketing and business analytics.
So do management courses need to fine-tune their focus further on specific subjects? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, as newer things are happening today; no, because you still need an understanding of the basic framework. Let’s take the example of business and data analytics. While data and information can furnish insights and market intelligence, domain and process insights are necessary to create options and to implement market-informed decisions. We need to ensure that students are capable enough to use analytics but our job as instructors does not end here. The students should also be able to understand the need for using analytics to improve performance rather than just learning “tools” and methods. One has to know the context within which data has to be used to take better decisions.
Experiential, tacit learning is more durable on strong theoretical foundations
(This story appears in the 19 January, 2018 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)