Why Management education is

fundamentally different from most

undergrad or post grad courses
While taking classes with blue-eyed management wannabes in the classroom, I
constantly get a feeling that many students dont really understand how the course they
have chosen is so different from what they have been studying so far.
When you study law, medical science, or engineering, or for that matter even literature,
history or geography, you are essentially reading about things that are proven to be right
or true or simply, things that dont change much with time. There is certain finality to
these courses and your assimilation isnt much dependent on how others in the class are
reacting to the course. Discussion in the class might help you understand a certain
concept (e.g. the flow of current in a circuit) better, but the reality doesnt change.
The other thing about most non-management courses is that they deal with inanimate
things or things that behave almost in the same manner all the time. A human heart will
always pump blood in the same manner, time and again. If it doesnt, then its a disease
which will also manifest itself in a manner most likely observed previously.
Therefore its easy to apply rules, theorems, laws to situations studied in these courses
and figure out the course of action with a relatively high degree of certainty.
Not so, in case of a management problem.
A management problem arises almost always out of the actions of people. How will I
market this product so that customers buy it? How should I hire this time so that
employees stick with my firm longer? How will I roll out this new Technology
implementation so as to cause minimum disruption to work? What features should I
build into my product so that its more user-friendly?
As you can see, all the above questions have the involvement of people in a major way.
And people are difficult to predict or apply laws/rules to. And thats where the biggest
difference of Management Education stems from. Secondly, management education is

not a fundamental stream of knowledge. It incorporates the elements of a large number

of faculties including Technology, Psychology, Cultural Studies, Sociology and
Economics. What this means that Management Study is in a constant state of flux.
Therefore, what worked yesterday may not work today. What works in USA may not
work in India. What worked with company A may not work with Company B. What
worked for CEO X may not work for CEO Z.
However, in all fairness, some aspects of Management Studies have certain degree of
finality. For example, in Finance, given all required information, the value of a firm
might be calculated with a high degree of accuracy. But thats not the point. Because
even if you practice Finance, a lot of your decisions are going to be based on people.
When you make that financial product, you need to know how and whom to sell the
product, and what kind of people with what risk appetite will buy it.
In such as case, how do you get finality to your studies? How do you take a call on what
is right or what is wrong? How do you take a decision objectively? How will you decide if
Marketing Plan A is better than Marketing Plan B?
I will try to answer these questions partly after putting down the myths perpetuated by
students year after year. And these myths are based on the previous school/college
experience that they have (and has worked for them mostly!).
1. I understand what the teacher says. So I dont need to interact or ask
questions in the class.
Management education is about perspectives. Most management problems have
multiple angles and unless there is a healthy discussion in the class, students minds
dont get trained to think in various angles while solving a problem. For example, a
problem which might look entirely financial might have a human angle to it; a problem
which looks predominantly a marketing issue might have a financial angle.
When students interact with each other and with the teacher in the class, perspectives
evolve. For the same question, answers might vary based on the students experience,
behavioural traits, attitude, world-view and many other factors. Discussions enrich the
learning and produce mature managers.

2. Its all there in the book. So I dont really have to listen to the lecture.
Books teach concepts. However, unlike machines in engineering, people dont
necessarily follow all concepts. Or putting it in another way, most concepts taught are
either over-simplified or are developed in a context. When you face a real-life situation,
the context might change or its too complicated to fit a single concept.
Therefore, experience matters. A teacher most often brings into the class an experience
which makes you understand the nuances of a concept so that you know how to use that
information better.
3. Let me focus purely on academics. Extra-curricular activities are for
those who are not focused on studies.
Unfortunately, there is no Lab in Management where you carry out practical studies and
see things happening; like you apply voltage, see a motor running and measure its speed
to understand what is taught.
In Management studies, the Lab is your everyday interaction with your peers. You will
notice that assignments are predominantly Group Work and not individual submissions.
Group discussions are a part of admission process. When you work in teams, you
understand people better, you learn about team dynamics, and difference in opinion.
When you participate in extra-curricular activities, join clubs and organise events, you
start to learn task prioritisation, leadership, time management, conflict management
and much more. You put to use your marketing skills to sell an idea to students, your
human resource skills to motivate others to join you, your finance skills to manage in a
tight budget and technology skills to seamlessly coordinate between various organising
groups.
Participating in competitions, making business plans, doing field research and visiting
industries are also vital to assimilating management studies better.

4. Studying the night before the exam is good enough. It has always worked
for me.
While this never really works because of the limited retention capacity of the brain, it's
worse in case of management studies.
A good manager isn't someone who only knows all the financial formula or remembers
all the P's of marketing. The study demands that you constantly juxtapose your book
and classroom learning with what is happening around you. Does the failure of the
recent product from a large company adhere to what you have been taught? In
hindsight, why did the product fail if so many heads had been put together to launch it?
A continuous learning process enhances your perception about things. It makes you ask
relevant questions and helps form opinions. Studying just the night before the exam
doesn't make you learn much.

5. I want to specialise in Marketing. I don't need to spend much time and

effort on other non-marketing courses.
Management problems don't come segregated in specialisation buckets. A single
problem always has multiple facets, as I had discussed earlier. Therefore, at least in the
first year, a student must pay equal attention to all the subjects.
To take the example of a recent event, that is the Maggi issue, the problem that now
stares Nestle in the face is not just financial. It's a human resource problem, keeping
employees motivated to stick to the company and keeping senior management morale
high. It's a marketing problem, winning back customers or ensuring that customers
don't desert other Nestle products. It's an operations problem, ensuring that the Maggi
production line doesn't go waste.
Even as a manager, on a much smaller scale, you will be solving problems that have
elements of various areas of management. MBA is meant to make you a master of
business administration, not just human resource administration or financial
administration.

6. As long as I focus on what is taught in class, I don't need to be updated on

current affairs.
The myth is partly dealt with in the Maggi example above. Only when you read about the
world of business can you have questions popping up in your mind, seeking an
explanation. Learning only concepts without a business context is like learning to swim
without water.
The more you read about current affairs of the state, the economy and business, the
more you understand the environment businesses operate in and the more you
appreciate what you learn in class.
It's pertinent here to also mention that Management Education is truly boundary-less.
It's not just meant for the conventional corporate managers who run businesses. It's
equally relevant for a doctor running her clinic, a lawyer running her law firm, an
entrepreneur putting all resources together to get the start up off the ground, a fashion
designer wishing to launch her own boutique or someone wanting to run her NGO more
professionally.
Keeping an open mind is important as is the desire to ask contextual questions based on
the interplay between classroom learning and environmental experience.