Be MBA Ready To Be An Efficient & Effective MBA

MBA is an accelerator program. This has been clearly understood right from the very beginning; therefore, the concept of an admission test came into being. Now, let us look at CET and CAT – some of the MBA entrance exams. Generally, these exams test the applicant for their Logical Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Aptitude, Verbal Ability, Reading Comprehension, and even General Knowledge.?Surely some who score very well would be good and would go on to make good managers. But I find that there is a gap in these entrance tests – which held good for a long time, but now need to be upgraded.?Times have changed and along with the times, the desired knowledge skills to be a good manager have also undergone a sea change.

Take for instance IT skills. There is no test on basic IT skills that an MBA aspirant should have. And not many B. Schools are doing much about imparting these desired IT skills – they just conduct their MBA program, and students pass out and get their MBA degrees.

The world is changing as I stated before and the business world is changing at a much faster pace. Clients are more demanding; competition is more intense and you need very skilled managers to stay ahead and lead the way. Mere knowledge of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel will not suffice. ?In Excel, the student should know beyond the basics like creating a workbook, entering data, using formulas for some functions, and so on. An MBA aspirant must be conversant with functions like VLOOKUP – a basic function to extract specific data from the excel sheet, PivotTable – a tool to present the data to calculate, summarize, and analyze the data for easy comparisons, and Modeling – a function for displaying data visually with models which can help to forecast future events and help better decision making by the Management.??

If you simply observe the skill upgrade desired in the knowledge of Excel, it will indicate the following which is generally taken as given:

1.?????That the student knows PowerPoint presentations

2.?????That the student knows to make Excel spreadsheets

3.??????That the student has some experience in extracting data – the purpose of excel is to analyze data and take appropriate decisions

It is also a given that the aspiring MBA student is good in communication, to be precise communication in English – both written and verbal.

It is also a given that the student is well conversant with email systems – Gmail, Outlook, and so on.?If the student has some previous experience in business email communication, then it is very good, otherwise, it is starting from ground zero.

Beyond all that, in the current times, an aspiring Manager is expected to know more IT functions in emerging technologies like AI - how it can affect business, Metaverse etc. and the basics of cyber security, basics of digital marketing, social media platforms - how they impact the market and business in itself and how to effectively use these platforms without spending too much time on them, some knowledge of Metaverse – it is presumed and probably correctly presumed that Metaverse is going to drastically improve communication between people and businesses across the globe. Once the basics are in place, the MBA aspirant needs to keep updating to stay relevant with the changing times and even to move ahead of the times, if need be, with a futuristic vision – after all business needs the vision to stay ahead.

An aspirant MBA must have a working knowledge of the e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Snapdeal, Flipkart, Nykaa, etc., and other platforms like Spotify and YouTube, including the working of all social media platforms and the community, generally associated with each of those platforms.

While still on the topic of IT, I must mention that the student must have basic knowledge of Websites – what makes a good website, to ensure that their organization’s websites are very good.

Soft Skills, Team building, working in teams, and leadership skills are all taken as given for an MBA aspirant. It is also expected that an MBA aspirant will understand that their life is going to be different – they need to be organized and get many things done every day irrespective of holidays ( unfortunately markets and market happenings do not have holidays) and at the same time enjoy their life too – they need to balance things out. In short, they need to manage themselves first to manage others effectively.

How many of these parameters are tested before an admission for MBA is given? This is a moot question.

Whereas the aspirations of MBA pass-outs remain high, they need to balance their aspiration with their deliverability levels which becomes evident on a mere test of their basic skill sets.

My advice to MBA students is, please upgrade yourselves during the course of MBA. Once you pass out your time will get totally consumed in so many other immediate tasks, priorities of your organization, and even your own personal life which is also expected to keep changing as you move ahead. This is the time to learn – so make the best use of it.?