Theories To Live By

So, what exactly draws these MBAs into the uncertain world of politics with its maddeningly complex caste and regional equations, not to mention the inherent vagaries of the calling? The reasons vary from being scions of political families to plain ambition, interest in public policy-making or even a desire to understand how the system works. But it’s not an easy shift. “It is one thing to train a politician in the art of management and another to train an MBA in policy formulation. Policy formulation is not numbercrunching, which is what you are taught in MBA,” says Congress spokesperson (and an MBA) Manish Tiwari.

In the present Lok Sabha, of the over 140 MPs with post-graduate degrees, at least a score have done specialisation in management—eight of them hold ministerial posts. But some experts and politicians remain mildly sceptical on the usefulness of an MBA in Indian politics. “There are several policy areas which could do with some management skills but democracy and votebank politics demand a different set of managerial skills that are not necessarily in line with what the B-schools teach,” says G.K. Karanth, professor and head of the Centre for Study of Social Change and Development at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

Conversely, pointing to the development projects aided by some techniques of management being ushered in by P.D. Rai, Sikkim member of Parliament, Anil K. Gupta of IIM-A stresses, “There is a need for management in every field. Politics is no exception.” Despite the disjuncture between votebank politics and B-school principles, experts feel the willingness to adhere to the latter should not suffer particularly when it comes to governance. In fact, they argue, management practices should gain an upper hand.

Debashis Chatterjee, director of IIM-K, recalls having designed and conducted a special three-day course for politicians from all parties in UP in 2002-03 (during his tenure at IIM-A), with most participants “only wanting to know how to win an election”. Today, many politicians seek MBAs as interns to help them with research and strategy planning.

We seem to have come a long way from the 1960s and ’70s when B-school principles often came in for ridicule (the first thing new MBAs were told was to unlearn everything). Remember the scepticism that met Rajiv Gandhi’s zeal to usher in new ideas in management and technology into governance? It’s been a sea change, considering that now we have the likes of Nandan Nilekani, with his tech focus and his MBA-like management ideas, as part of the government. “What you are seeing is a gradual welding of Chanakya and Bill Gates,” says Karanth.

During the 2009 Lok Sabha polls, the “packaging” or marketing of parties in the fray was evidence enough of corporate culture merging with politics. Apart from that, the same rules—vision and execution of projects, strategy formulation, administrative acumen and innovative solutions to achieve targets—can apply in both business and politics, feels Prof Rajeev Gowda, chairperson of the Centre for Public Policy at IIM-B.

Also consider Balkrishna Khanderao Shukla, BJP MP, mayor of Vadodara, and a consultant. Apart from helping him deal with the many MNCs in the city, Shukla says his MBA has helped him serve up “innovations” in various development projects. Shukla has introduced the double-entry accounting system in the city corporation (any transaction above Rs 5 lakh now requires third party inspection by the state-run Engineers India Ltd). Also, new PPP projects are being rolled out for improving infrastructure, including roads in colonies. “Have you heard of housing societies contributing 50 per cent to the cost of building roads, with me contributing 50 per cent from my MPLAD funds?” asks Shukla. Whatever may be the shortcomings in Vadodara, in the last three years the city has won three national awards—for energy conservation, improving urban mobility and water management.

Abraham Koshy of IIM-A admits that lately there seems to be a trend towards a few management graduates taking up internship with politicians, “but this is more due to default rather than design in most cases”. Most leading parties, including the Congress and BJP, have wings manned by professionals who help to strategise policies, whether economic, monetary or industrial. The outcome is more positive “where professionals are allowed to work with political support and direction,” emphasises Koshy.

Many cite the example of how Indian Railways benefited under former minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, with management experts being provided the right political support to introduce innovation, whether in rolling out Garib Rath or lower-cost AC trains, handling of freight or redesigning stations for greater passenger amenities.

There is, of course, a counter-view. Nirmala Sitharaman, BJP spokesperson, feels that business management taught here is based on western principles. How much relevance it has in India, particularly in politics or policy-making, depends on the local content in the course, which some of the IIMs are trying to introduce. But even here it’s a mixed bag.

Though many B-schools in India, like their US counterparts, offer courses in public policy formulation and politics, “whether these courses enable the graduates to deal with the ground realities of Indian economic and social challenges is moot—many lack the creativity, imagination and, above all, the willingness and ability to grapple with challenging social and economic issues,” admits Raghav Gaiha of the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University. A case in point is IIM-A having to shut down its public policy course as the “quality” of government managers was not up to the mark.

The differentiator then is the commitment towards public policy work and politics rather a management degree. As Rajya Sabha member and industrialist Rajeev Chandrasekhar puts it well, “There are some MBAs who go out of their way to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to be more relevant in the public space”. The adage that an MBA does not make one a successful businessman applies in politics too.