When it comes to MBA everybody seems to have an opinion. It attracts attention in the both of times -good or bad. In good times for unprecedented pay packets it now routinely commands and in bad times also for the same reason plus its ability or inability to stay relevant. However, when recession, global slowdown, layoffs have become business buzzwords, there are questions rising in the minds of many. Will MBA stand the test of the time? Will it be the most preferred choice for the corporate despite all slowdown and downturn and will the corporate be again willing to pay them big moolah to bring them onboard and spoil them yet again with perks unheard of. Is MBA still the three-letter passport to success? KHALID PERWEZ finds out

Let me tell you what a Professor from a top B school asked me recently. "Do you know the best time to pursue MBA from USA?" I had no idea, so, cautiously, I replied, "the present time?" He said, "No, this time is not the best time for this, the US universities are busting at the seams with their own students". He explained further that whenever the US is hit by recession, the enrolment at the universities move up and when their economy is doing well the enrolments at their universities go down. So more students join in universities when the chips are down but they go back to work when markets start recovering. So the recession and meltdown is not the time to sit and rue what mess we are in but an opportunity to reflect on what you can achieve when the times are going to be good again. This is the time to brace up and work harder, learn more so that when the times are good again you can earn more.

Let us examine how our economy is doing and how the employment scenario looks at present. To begin with we must keep in mind that a recession does not last but businesses do. The present recession is part of a business cycle and sooner rather than later we are going to have a boom. There are many experts who predict that the recent trend in the business is going to last till late October and global situation is going to look better from then onwards. The US has already offered stimulus packages worth billions of dollars to bail out its ailing economy. So is the case with other countries. Besides this, world bodies are doing their most to come out of the crisis. Never did we see such a collaboration of world thinkers to find out ways and means to bring back the world economies to its old health. We all know this fact that the present situation is our own doing. Some overenthusiastic CEOs from Lehman Brothers, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Citi Bank, etc, flouted all business principles and threw all caution to the wind, and landed themselves in deep troubles and as a result made everyone pay the heavy price for their oversight or shortsightedness or greed. The economies of almost all countries are more or less linked in this era of globalisation: a bad situation in one part of the world has a ripple effect on other parts. Our business people have grown myopic, says a faculty member of a top B School. In fact we were very well aware of the financial crisis that had shaken the world already, but , as a renowned historian said once, "we learn from history that we do not learn from history".

However, India has weathered inflation crisis, but there is no room for complacency, as has been pointed out by our Finance Minister. In the interim budget presented by him in mid February, India has been seen at growing at 7.1 pct in 2008-09. And the government assumes real GDP growth of 7 percent in 09-10, 8 percent in 2010-11 and 9 percent in 2011-12. The situation for an upturn looks all the more hopeful because of robust internal demand and a sound manufacturing industry. The only thing the government has to control is the fiscal deficit which in 09-10 is going to inflate at close to 10%. The government as per FRBM Act is bound to keep the fiscal deficit down at 3%.

But the government needs to increase its spending to create demand and hence employment. A deficit budget at the time of slowdown is most prudent step. With RBI slashing rate cuts we expect more investments coming from both outside and within. It has recently announced more repro and reverse repro rate cuts by 50 basis points which would make borrowing easier for the firms.

Advantage MBA

Coming to what an MBA degree does, let me put before you what Dean FMS, Prof. JK Mitra , said to me once, "MBAs are academically and chronologically more "matured" for use by the industry. Usual graduates do not have any exposure to the industry or the business while MBAs through their classroom assignments, campus activities such as guest lectures, workshops, conclaves, participation in industry-initiated competitions and above all Summer Internships do get prior exposure to the world of business. Therefore, industry has to spend less time and money to orient the new young employee to the demands of the world of business."

So it is advantage MBA all the way. An MBA is supposed to understand business dynamics better and for this reason it gets picked up by the industry. Besides this, the other qualities that an MBA has, in the words of Prof. JK Mitra, are the capacity to digest a huge amount of relevant/irrelevant data, a holistic understanding of any situation, openness to new information, perseverance to pursue a problem to its conclusion despite difficulties or incomplete information, superior ability to communicate with and convince others, never-say-die and optimistic attitude, and finally the appropriate value-system.

So has the present meltdown lead to loss of its relevance? Prof. Kanu Doshi, Dean , Finance, Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai, explains, "Any company has three levels of functioning: the worker level, the operational management and the strategic management. As you reach the higher echelons of company administration, you have to develop the ability to "manage", hence, the importance attached to the tag MBA. An MBA develops a person's skills to handle, organize, regulate and control ongoing in an organization. Therefore, the course has relevance in the corporate world, particularly in the course of economic downfalls."

Prof. Ravi Shankar, Director, Jaypee Busines School, also vehemently disagrees." I don't think that one should link relevance of an MBA or MBA programme to the state of global economy or country's economy," he says. On the contrary, MBA programme has gained more relevance in the backdrop of financial crisis and global meltdown, says Prof. JK Mitra. He explains, "MBA becomes all the more relevant in the context of global meltdown. A sound education from a top-ranked institution is the best insurance for getting, retaining and growing in any job. In reality, the financial crisis has resulted into a rush for professional qualifications such as MBA, and even PhD." The same view is expressed by Dr Raman Kumar, Dean, International Business School, Delhi. He says, "Education is the best hedging instrument available to the people at large. And MBAs are better trained for managing today's recession as well as tomorrow's prosperity".

The institutes which provide MBAs are now trudging more carefully as there is a soul-searching exercise, which finally is going to benefit students. There is now more emphasis by them on the "education element of the degree" and not on "merely routine completion of the requirement of the degree". Prof Kanu Doshi says, "MBA Institutes have learnt that what was relevant even two years ago is now obsolete. Hence, all courses are being revamped to adjust to the dynamics of the industry". Moreover, Prof KJ Mitra says, "Teachers would be more serious in giving students something useful; students would be keener to learn!" And when the industry also has no options but to choose an MBA because of the value he is going to bring with himself, the students really are in a win-win situation.

But students certainly need to prepare themselves better. Because, when this tough time will pass and the boom will come rushing, as it happens with any slowdown, what will matter most is what you have learnt in all these years. There are few things that they must keep in mind at this time. It is time to go to basics, says Prof Mitra. To counter the present tough time, Dr Biswajit Nag of IIFT has this suggestion for the students, "At this moment the competition among the students should go up, because there are less number of jobs as compared to the number of MBAs. So focus should be on the foundation or the key areas, the specialization should be thorough so that they get absorbed in the organization." The same view is expressed by Prof. Ravi shankar, "students need to work harder. Most companies now have made the selection process much more rigorous and only the good ones get picked up. Also companies are considering personal traits apart from the knowledge". Students are now looking at roles rather than pay packages at this time. It is the demand of the hour. As a sayings goes, there is a time for everything. There will be a time to make moolah, it is right now time to learn, learn & learn more and learn better. Prof Kanu Doshi says, "The industry, particularly in present turbulent times, is waiting with open arms for fresh ideas, innovative minds and a new perspective". Another set of advice comes from Dr Raman kumar, "Students pursuing MBA should learn the meltdown as a case study. There will always be good time and bad time in the business and they have to learn this as a management student. Students must be focused on their core competency. Search that competency and capitalise on that".

On the economy front, it looks good and employment prospects looks better in the coming days. The slew of measures by the government and RBI , and a number of new projects cleared by the government will create enough jobs in the market. So gear up and get ready. According to Interim Budget 2009-10, 37 new infrastructure projects worth Rs70.000 crores have been approved by the governments. The government has also given approval to 54 central infrastructure projects worth Rs 67,700 crores under Private Public Partnership (PPP) mode. The government has also increased the corpus of Rural Infrastructure Development Fund to Rs 14,000 crore . The government has also increased allocation on Bharat Nirman, National rural Employment Guarentee scheme(NREG),Jawahalal Nehru National Urban Renewal Measure( JNNRUM) which will all give boost to the demand. Besides this 29 FDI proposal have been approved. During April-November 2008, FDI inflows grew by 45% over the same period in 2007. So, the government has taken many measures to induce demand which will in turn lead to job creation. According to Harsh Pati Singhania, President, FICCI , the interim budget 2009-10 emphasises on restoring the growth momentum. The initiatives, though not in full measures as the budget was only a vote-on-account budget, would spur economic activity throughout the length and breadth of the nation. So considering everything, MBA today is still the best bet. If you don't do it now, you do this on your own risk.