CA or MBA? The Dilemma of a B.Com Graduate - Neelkantan B
An analysis of the recent batch profiles in the top B-schools in the country shows that after engineers, commerce graduates form the second largest chunk of students in MBA programmes. Gone are the days when a student of commerce would automatically opt for a course in Chartered or Cost Accountancy if he wanted a professional postgraduate degree. Students from the stream today are increasingly moving towards a degree in business administration, after completion of their Bachelors degree. But even today, there are many who are torn between the two options. They face a difficult choice: to do a CA or an MBA or to do a CA first and then follow it up with an MBA? There are several issues involved here, and one needs to carefully weigh the alternatives and implications before arriving at a final decision.
Why join CA or MBA?
The overriding awareness among the youth today is that a plain vanilla graduation is no longer sufficient to ensure a lucrative career that promises fast growth. Irrespective of which stream one has been pursuing, a postgraduate degree - and preferably a business degree - seems to have become a prerequisite for a fast-track career. For those completing a Bachelor’s in Commerce, the choice typically boils down to one between Chartered Accountancy and MBA. So, what are the essential differences?
Chartered Accountants work in industry, government, education and private practice. The last option is not easy for MBAs ,but they can always join a management consulting firm that would always prefer MBAs.
CAs can either work in a professional CA firm doing mainly audits or tax consultancy. Alternatively, they can work in a corporate environment as an Accounts / Finance Manager, and eventually become the CFO or Director – Finance. The unprecedented pace of change in business mores demands that Chartered Accountancy as a profession step up to the challenges presented by a global business, finance and economic marketplace. Hence, unlike MBAs, CAs in practice have to undergo continuing professional education of 15 hours every year, in order to renew their Certificate of Practise. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is also supplementing the standard syllabus with courses in personality, communication, public speaking and leadership skills.
Core competencies of Chartered Accountants and MBAs
After telephonic interviews with a number of CAs, MBAs, business decision makers and professionals in other fields, the following broad range of common perceptions consistently emerged for both groups.
It was felt that CAs
- find it easier to deal with the short-term issues rather than contemplate on the long- term future.
- have a significant future and role to play in the organisation, in spite of increasing competition from nontraditional sources.
- don’t seem to have grasped the expansive potential of technology, how it might impact the auditing profession, and future challenges.
- feel pressure to expand their skills and services beyond traditional roles.
- continue to highly value their reputation for trust and credibility.
However, the traditional education and training leading to the certification lack the breadth of knowledge and skills needed in the workplace, necessitating supplementation by pre- and postqualification coaching.
Moreover, CAs are perceived to be intelligent yet involved in minor, tedious and methodical tasks and consequently, not often involved in the broader decision making aspects of business.
They have sufficient understanding of accounting as a profession, but lack communication skills and a thorough understanding of what tomorrow might herald beyond the traditional realm of the CA.
On the other hand, MBAs are generally perceived to be
- multi-skilled in a wide variety of financial and non-financial areas.
- capable of providing a broad- base of services to support decision making in business.
- better communicators with more effective interpersonal skills. The specific areas where MBAs score over CAs are as follows:
Communication and Leadership Skills:MBAs are able to give and exchange information within the context more meaningfully and with appropriate delivery and interpersonal skills. They are also able to influence, motivate and inspire others to achieve results.
Strategic and Critical Thinking:MBAs can link data, knowledge and insight together to provide quality advice for strategic decision making.
Focus on the consumer, client and markets:MBAs are able to anticipate and meet the changing needs of clients, employers, customers and markets better.
Interpretation of converging information:MBAs can provide a broader context by interpreting financial and non-financial information.
Technological adeptness:MBAs utilise and leverage technology in ways that add value to clients, customers and employers.
The future success of any profession depends on the public perception regarding the roles and abilities of those in it. The writing on the wall therefore, seems to signify that chartered accountants must become more market-driven and adapt to the changing demands of business. The market demands less of auditing and accounting services and more of value-adding consulting services, which MBAs today are better placed to provide.
Educational requirements
Both courses are difficult to say, the least, and demand a rigorous schedule. Therefore, whether you are aspiring to be a CA or an MBA, you should be able and willing to commit the time, money and efforts to complete the course. However, completion of the chartered accountancy programme is generally more time-consuming.
If you have a commerce background, enjoy numbers and are academically inclined, you may go for CA. This gives you an entry into fields of auditing, direct / indirect tax practise, banking, insurance, financial and investment management. This is usually good for traditional, conservative, desk bound introverted personalities.
If you have more general interests, for example in marketing, manufacturing, operations or consulting, you may find it more profitable to go for an MBA. This gives you a foray into entry-level line management positions in your area of specialisation.
Career progression, especially in the later stages, is linearly progressive for CAs; it is not so predictable for MBAs whose fortunes are more directly related to the actual results that they produce for their organisations.
Both qualifications require hard and smart work, not only prior to acquisition of the degree/ certification, but also for success thereafter. Both careers have their own strengths and weaknesses. An individual should not only deliberate on these, but also on his own inclinations and personal ambition before he opts for any one. As Mr. Pawan Agarwal of WIRC of ICAI put it, “If you would like to write/audit/research the accounts of other people’s business transactions and advise them on it, be a CA. If you want other people to write the accounts of your business transactions, be an MBA.”
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