Ticket In A Bottle

Bhandarkar has just completed a voluminous study, one she started working on in June 2000 and for which she and her team spoke to over 1,200 students, alumni and recruiters, to assess the value added by a B-school. And ‘not much’ is the conclusion she has come up with. To elaborate a little, B-schools, in their curriculum and overall training, focus too much and too sharply on skills pertaining to numbers, such as analytical ability and presentation skills, to the exclusion of soft skills like ability to work in a team or taking initiatives.

The conclusions aren’t a first. Professor Henry Mintzberg of McGill University, Montreal, in his book Managers Not MBAs, hasn’t minced words either in bemoaning the side-stepping of soft skills by B-schools—like equipping students with emotional intelligence and personality attributes. Still, Bhandarkar’s conclusions pack in a surprise. After all, isn’t she an insider?

Not entirely! An MA in psychology, she has a PhD in business management under the guidance of Dr Preetam Singh, the somewhat maverick head of MDI. She worked with the Institute of Public Enterprises and did consultancy on her own before joining MDI in 1999. "I’m not a regular B-school professor. Therefore the curiosity," says Bhandarkar with a chuckle. It may have also helped that MDI boasts of a personal growth lab that helps students understand their strengths, an exercise in developing soft skills, in addition to a course in leadership and another in self-development.

As part of the study, psychometric tests were conducted on nearly 800 B-school students upon joining and before graduating to assess the difference the time spent in the school had made. The assessment had two sets of parameters: attributes like emotional intelligence, ability to work in a team and interpersonal rapport, and personality factors like the ability to deal with ambiguity, tolerance and flexibility.

The syllabi of several business schools—including the IIMs of Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta, MDI, XLRI, Jamnalal Bajaj and S.P. Jain—were analysed and found wanting. A large part of the study was conducted by talking to recruiters—108 from 80 firms, Indian and mnc. Besides, 334 alumni of the top B-schools, all of whom graduated 2-5 years ago, were included in the survey.

What emerges is that there is a considerable chasm between what recruiters look for and what B-schools provide. Many recruiters complained that graduates were "individualists and often prefer working alone", did not know "how to work with people", were highly competitive but wanted "all credit for themselves". Going by alumni inputs, the critical challenges faced after joining industry are managing superiors, delivering timely results, leading a team, motivating people, managing conflicts etc. Then there are company-specific requirements. For instance, a firm going in for an m&a wants strong cross-cultural as well as change management competencies. These too were found lacking. .

The result, at times, can be chaotic. Bhandarkar recalls the story of this idealistic chap who joined MDI after passing out of Delhi College of Engineering.Keen to serve the rural poor, he applied for a job in Anand, Gujarat, only to be elbowed out of contention by someone with ‘connections’. He couldn’t take it. Ideals shattered, it took awhile for him to get back on track, Bhandarkar says without revealing any more.

It doesn’t help that most students are not quite familiar with harsh practical situations. Typically, they have led a sheltered life, coming from a nuclear family with an urban middle or upper middle-class background. Their first fling with a real crisis takes place at work—and it comes as a culture shock.

The study’s findings are endorsed by outsiders. "Curriculum-wise, B-schools have a bias towards domain issues (for instance, cash flows for a finance student). It does not invest in building all-round professionals," says Ajit Isaac, MD of Bangalore-based PeopleOne Consulting, which has just hired 300 young professionals for an engineering giant. The general impression is that a student from Tata Institute of Social Sciences may be a better manager than one from the better-known schools. "They can reach out more than an analytical or data-based professional. Somewhere along the line, decision-making is not merely fact-... or data-based," says the CEO of another placement firm.

Isaac believes the trend of managers changing jobs within the first five years of their career indicates a lack of all-round skills. "Of course, career-building means moving on to higher salaries and designations. But it also shows that the ability to fight a battle and not walk away is much less," he says. That said, it is uncertain whether Bhandarkar’s study will make any difference. "The report will go to the AICTE (All India Council of Technical Education, sponsors of the study). The onus is on us to disseminate its findings," she says.

Bhandarkar’s lack of confidence is not misplaced. A constant refrain among recruiters was that the top B-schools are complacent, content to rest on their laurels. They can afford to, recruiters have little other choice. As an IIM-C alumnus Bhandarkar met put it: "They (the recruiters) have to come to us."