The Real MBA degree... Please stand up!

Its heartening to read http://careers360.in/lead-story/iipm---best-only-in-claims.html

Finally, someone stood up and tried to expose the wildly innacurate and falsified claims and the media's complicity with Arin-DUM Chaudhary and his Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM). The name itself reeks of 'farzi'-ness. 'Planning'?? What was he thinking???

Nevertheless, no point in going on-and-on about how fake are his placement figures, how prepsterous are the average salaries, how innacurate are his claims of internation faculty participation and how his internation tie-ups and partner colleges are nothing but unaccredited 3rd rate colleges in their own countries. Its all there in that report.

The real question that begs to be answered is what is this mad rush for an MBA degree? And at what cost, and I i'm not even thinking monetary.

Being inside a premier B-school for about a year now, I can vouch for how hyped and overpublicised an MBA degree is. And no offences to people who don't make it to the top rung of colleges - its just not worth it going to an IIPM just because one sees green manna at the end of 2 years...

And I'll give you my reasons why... Firstly, I have learnt more outside the classroom at IIM Indore than I have ever learned inside a classroom. Classroom education can be replicated.. even duplicated. But what about the outside experience?

The sheer pressure of having to compete with the top 1% of the country's youth itself makes you raise your game several levels up. Organizing events with a budget of more than 2 lack, restructuring a committee by introducing best practices and processes, trying to gather common funds from 240 unwilling and sharply cunning people, keeping people motivated to do non-academic tasks in the face of adverse academic conditions, two months at a premier international bank, interacting on a first name basis with alumni who are CFOs and Country Heads running large organization... these are the things what a manager needs to learn to do!

A Kotler or a Damodaran can teach you only so much; but what about all the above aspects. Zig Ziglar never can tell you how to sell a concept where people have to pay INR 1000 as contribution for a party they can't attend. Porter can never envisage the forces at play when one has to design events that outsmart competitor colleges with better resources. Damodaran can only give you the best D-E ratio for a large project, but can he teach you how to raise 35 lack in funding for an internal event, with traditionally low sponsorship and rather low turnout, with absolutely no equity and debt?

Havin worked for about 24 months totally, at 2 widely different corporates, I have realized one thing. Give me 4 months at absolutely ANY job, and I can learn it! It is the 'other' experience that a top-rung B-School provides that outscores anything that an IIPM or other tier - 4/5 college can provide.

And secondly, an MBA isn't the ultimate quest everyone must aspire for. Over the past year, I have seen people do well at things they like to do, with or without an MBA. Trust me, you are better off doing something you like and are good at, rather than joining a B-School (be it any) simply because you've heard that MBA are paid monstrous salaries for incredibly simple work. Both can't be true together. And what about satisfaction? Whats the point of doing drudgery for 50 lack a year, when your heart is somewhere else, and the mind alltogether elsewhere?