Indian MBA:A Paradigm Shift

Business Schools in the country target their teaching, training, research and consulting, primarily for the companies, who constitute very less percentage of organisations in the country. What should be the role model for an Indian higher education institution in management? Although the perceptions of the graduates, industry, civil society and government differ, management education in India is far away from the realities of the country's needs, in scope, quantity and quality. The courses need to be revamped and an Indian MBA programme could replace the existing MBA programmes. Sustainability concepts need to be infused so that an Indian MBA would be more sustainable, far reaching and impact making in lives of all section of the society.

The paper has two key objectives, one is to establish the lacuna in the current management education in India and how a new revamped Indian MBA is the way forward. A comparison between the MBA in India and Indian MBA is carried out. The second objective is to analyze the status of sustainability in current management education and how sustainability could be embedded in the proposed Indian MBA.

The MBA students must understand sustainability from various view points and form their opinion on the sustainability. They should know issues and risks related to sustainability of business, so that they could identify potential areas of concern in their respective organizations after starting professional career. The programme should have scope to understand local innovation and brainstorm to find out more sustainable business solutions. The students must possess the skill set to measure and report sustainability related issues. The impression that many B-school graduates carry that social and natural resources are in limitless supply and the fluctuation of price or market distortions need to be tackled with, which may not hold true and its imperative for an Indian MBA to see management from a broader window of sustainability.

It is told that if you want to walk fast, walk alone, but if you want to walk far then walk together. Institutes offering higher education in management in India should now focus on sustainability with co-operation, collaboration and co-creation of values for all stakeholders in large.