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• Havovi Joshi
  IIMA, PGP, 1991. Director, Centre for Practice, Singapore Management University

I really don’t think there are any futile courses in the MBA program. In fact, the way it is structured at many business schools, one completes a core curriculum which provides a wide but shallow learning on a host of subjects. That is really useful for you to then decide what you would like to specialize in, and you now have an opportunity to pick a specific stream like marketing or operations management to focus on. Again there, the range of choices available are very broad. So you really don’t “waste time” on any invaluable topic as such. One thing I would like to add though is that there is a tendency for students to focus on the “hard” subjects, like Information Systems… but looking back, I think a number of us wish we had paid more attention to the “soft” ones like say the OB-HR ones. They are incredibly useful as you progress in your career.

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• Prakash Sheshadri Nathan
  IIMB, PGP, 1993. Leadership coach and Mentor, Multiple leadership positions in privately funded infrastructure business, Climate Investment

Hello Ananya, there is nothing like a futile course in an MBA. It is all a matter of perspective. Many of the courses are foundational such that those in Finance, Marketing, HR, Strategy, Data Analytics etc. Different students come with different backgrounds. And in business each function has a role. Thus all the foundational courses are relevant. However, since you may not start off as a CEO (unless of course you start your own venture after MBA), some of these may be in the background till you become one. Then comes the courses which are specialised or deepen functional areas. Let us say you want to start your career in Marketing. A number of courses are taught around the theme of Marketing including Behavior, Statistics, Forecasting, AI, Design Thinking etc. Here it comes down to personal choice on where you want to focus on. Finally, everything about business or human behaviour or leadership cannot be taught in the classroom. Be prepared to unlearn and relearn continuously during your career. Best wishes!

• Kakul Paul
  IIMA, PGP, 2005. Partner, Tiger Analytics

Every school has their own nuanced curriculum - no wrong or right, rather what meets your goals and aspirations. Having said that, I do feel B schools should include these 2 more actively (some are already doing it) - 1) Active participation with Corporates to continuously tailor their content in sync with the current industry trends and problems - some of the case studies are archaic and need to be re-looked at given so much as changed in the industry (Covid was a major catalyst and the wave of digitisation has been phenomenal). Also increase Corporate partnership through guest lectures, Capstone equivalent projects, seminars etc. 2) Industry application of Analytics / Gen AI - while not all of us would have a flair for statistics / would want to pick Analytics as a major / subsequently a career in this field - this stream will influence businesses all over and change the way things are executed. Hence, a course that provides an overview with reasonable depth through industry use cases is a must.