It’s a question, we’ve asked in the past. And we thought we should ask again, as things keep changing. Here’s Dr Bhaskar Das in the June 14 edition of Das ka Dum. Read on…
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Q. We are told you spent some students in marketing and communications in Ahmedabad earlier this week. With so much changing in the world, will B-school lessons learnt today be relevant two years from now?
A. It is always refreshing to connect with students as one gets the thinking pattern of the new generation, so there is an opportunity to learn for me too.
Secondly, management education or for that matter most disciplines need recontextualisation due to changing frontiers of knowledge, accelerated pace of technological development altering the learning landscape due to intersectionality of knowledge. An MBA is no exception to that. In fact most of the management schools are in touch with industry to continuously adjust the industry expectations without abjuring academic rigour. Students are also aware of it and they incorporate new subjects for their interest like blockchain, AR/VR, analytics and so on.
I am a firm believer that MBA education or for that matter any education would never be redundant. In fact when the work environment gets volatile, it is all the more important that one not only upskills in one’s core capability areas but also goes beyond the comfort zone and learn new skills which keeps one future-ready or rather future-proof. I know it’s a cliché that learning is life-long but it’s actually so these days, as every 18-24 months, the existing knowledge in any discipline gets dysfunctional. Hence to remain perpetually free from obsolescence, there is no choice to unlearn and relearn in areas that that ensure continuity of meaningful employment.