How the old-school MBA and business school experience are undergoing disruption due to technology

 If there’s one term we hear a lot these days, it is “disrupt.” The advent of Uber has disrupted the taxi business, just the way Tesla has disrupted the auto industry, and Netflix, the old-style TV.

Ironically, one segment that hasn’t drastically witnessed much disruption is business education. The traditional model, comprising of class discussion, written case studies, and the study of basic management skills like accounting and marketing remains strongly entrenched. In fact, this old-fashioned MBA model actually dates back to 1908, in times when Harvard Business School was instituted. Surely, the aspirants who pursue MBA or for that matter, post graduate diploma coursesin India, from some of the top-ranking institutes, may need a different set of skills, which are not the same as the earlier days. Quite clearly, an education model that has remained unchanged for more than a century must certainly be “ripe for disruption”!

In the last two decades, the internet and digital technology have revolutionized potentially every sector, and the pace of transformation is only getting faster. This changed business environment demands a new type of leader; and naturally, these new leaders require an updated education that prepares them with the relevant skills for the 21^st century.

Okay, so the question that arises is, what does an MBA or any other post graduate diploma course personalized for the age of digital disruption look like?

We all know, the growing digitization is driving a change in management methodologies across the board. Institutes offering an MBA, post graduate diploma courses, and post PG diplomain business management are slowly factoring in logical and rules-based decision making, thereby enabling minimal or zero scope for discretion. Moreover, All India Management Association (AIMA) has initiated the task of bringing Indian organizations in alignment with the up-to-date management know-how needed to sustain technological disruption. What’s even more interesting is that AIMA has updated the education curriculum suiting the present economy and it allies world-renowned organizations like Moody’s Analytics, Purdue University, Wiley, and the World Bank.

When we strike a comparison, what we can realize is, the traditional MBA aimed to produce well-groomed executives with a reputable grasp of key disciplines like strategy, marketing, finance, HR, and so on. Today, in a world that thrives on and around the internet, not having a similar grasp of modern-day subjects is downright dangerous. Having realized the importance of this, B-schools offering both an MBA and post graduate diploma courses in India have begun equipping leaders to direct and manage specialist areas based on theoretical understanding and practical experience. 

There are several other areas that are also being extensively covered: these range from the augmented/virtual reality to the Internet of Things (IoT). And the new MBA pedagogy does not only have a new curriculum; it has a new delivery mechanism too – no written cases when there’s a facility to interview an actual company CEO, no textbooks because there’s so much information available online, no classrooms since learning is taking place online!