| I seem to agree with a lot of points in the discussion. As a recent MBA graduate from India, I noticed that most people who join B School, just want a comfortable life with a high pay. They just want to boost their salary from say 6 Lakhs to 15 Lakhs and believe slogging in industry isn't worth it... Why do I point this out? Because this fundamental assumption will explain the following. 1) If someone has a startup idea, they always wants others to work on it. Often times, put 5-10x more effort than themselves. I am yet to see someone who learned coding so that he can get his idea out of ground. Everyone is busy coaxing engineers from nearby colleges. 2) On the knowledge part, most people don't care and its not necessarily bad. B School curriculum is evolving, albeit a bit slow. Subjects like Digital marketing, Data analytics are being offered more now than ever (obviously). However, when people work for a grade rather than the knowledge, they are seriously limiting themselves. People who got A's in analytics are afraid of a simple regression. I don't want to hire them for their knowledge, I would be hiring them for their potential. But then undergrads from top engineering colleges are cheaper (.3-.5x) with even greater potential from my experience. Knowing some technical things, can actually help them bridge the fear of starting up. 3) Education Loan of 20 Lakhs. This makes sure that you work at least for a few years, before you get married and get a house loan and work to pay that off. The fees for most B Schools MBA program increased more than 10x in last 10 years. I am pretty sure the value add remained almost stagnant in all these years. This is a huge hindrance for people to even pursue their idea. 4) CV point mongers blocking some important positions. The Entrepreneurship cell in my college has not registered the incubator from 3 years despite having a check ready which can be en cashed. Why? They are not interested in start ups or anything, they just want a line in their CV (for extra curriculars/club activities) which companies, especially FMCG & consulting ones value. This noise, if separated can help a lot. How should B Schools prepare? The first thing is try to change the selection process. I dont know in what way, but a few experiments here can help. Second is to change the loan payback policies, offer deferred placement for people who want to try their startup and failed. Third is to actually have a working incubator, recruit people full time, maybe a couple of developers who help students create their MVP (Viability validation required). Last but not the least, the placement process is one of the culprit in this ecosystem. Maybe a course or workshop on the "business side" of things such as "How to start a startup?" which actually gives them information on India specific resources or others which can help students think "Why India needs startups now?" (Seriously, current market can only employ ~30% of graduates). Honestly, I think an MBA grad has quite a significant advantage in identifying the opportunity gaps purely because of the mindset, its just that not a lot of them (including me) do it actively. PS:- Sorry for the round about rant. |