Time-n-Money - Tejaswini Patwardhan
Puja Salgaonkar works long hours and spends more than half of her time travelling. Yet, competitive pressures and ever-expanding job responsibilities mean the Mumbai-based former marketing manager and now a VP of a major pharmaceutical company must constantly upgrade her business acumen. In spite of a gruelling work schedule Puja had to consider the option of studying further. So, last year, realising she could no longer delay the inevitable, Puja enrolled in a part-time MBA programme. Puja is the archetype of a growing number of working professionals who consider a management degree mid- way in their career. But before she took the plunge, Puja needed to figure out how she would manage her time and educational expenses in the process of getting a management education.
To B or not to B an MBA
For the new generation of working professionals, whether in the business line or the technical sector, an MBA underlines an interest in, and an aptitude for business. Since you are already working in your chosen field, you should be clear as to why you need to pursue a MBA and how much is it really going to help you in your career growth. Do you intend to change the course of your career or move from a technical area to the management pitch?
In particular, if your bachelor education was technically oriented, complementing that background and bolstering your business knowledge with an MBA so that your skill set includes an essential understanding of management, economics, finance, marketing, manufacturing and distribution will give you greater credibility, increase your marketability and enhance your earning potential by opening the doors to more and bigger opportunities.
MBA was the right choice for someone like Sanket Dantara. Sanket, after completing his B.E., worked with TCS for two and a half years. He is now waiting for his life at IIM-A to begin. “I was looking for a switchover in my career and therefore the MBA was the logical step.”
How should I get my MBA?
There are several choices of how you wish to procure your MBA degree. Once you have decided to take the plunge, the options include:
- an executive MBA programme that usually runs on bi-weekly Friday/weekend combinations plus a residential on-campus week or two during the summer,
- taking a break from your career to go back to B-school full-time,
- the newer distance learning programmes in which you take courses at designated locations or in the comfort of your home via the Internet and
- taking up a part-time course at the nearest B-school.
The most common choices are the part-time courses and the full-time courses. Distance learning is at a very nascent stage in India and has not yet really picked up. Part-time courses are highly time and cost effective and employer sponsorship is usually available. There are a host of B-schools in India that offer this option.
Unlike Sanket, Santosh Choughule who works in the marketing department at Cadbury’s decided to go in for the part-time MBA programme. His company has sponsored his study, which is an added benefit.
In part or full?
Deciding to go back to studies, mid-career, can be very challenging in terms of different life situations you are in. There would be many considerations to be made. Part-time courses require you to be very good at time management whereas, with full-time courses, you need to take into account the financial implications. At a mid-management level the approximate annual package is around three lakhs to five lakhs. Can you afford to let go this pay packet for the duration of the full-time course? Apart from the finance , age is also an important factor to be considered. It is probably easy to return to the full- time student mode when you are in our early twenties. As you move towards you thirties, the part time option seems to be a more plausible one.
Puja decided to take up a part time management course as giving up a full-time high paying job was a difficult decision for her. “When you have a family to look after and your company does not sponsor your MBA, full-time becomes a difficult option”, says Puja. She does find it difficult sometimes, juggling between her work and her classes at the college. Completing projects eats into the family time, as professional life cannot be compromised with.
“These are just a few things one must be prepared for, before deciding to take up MBA mid career”, says Santosh. His case is though a little different from that of Puja’s. He took up the decision to take up part-time MBA as the company he is working for – Cadbury’s - was sponsoring his education.
Another important aspect of part-time courses, apart from the aforesaid financial proposition, is as Puja puts it, “A combination of theory and practice”. Working alongside your education gives you an opportunity to apply the theory to ground reality. Santosh says that it helps in a great way, as you do not lose touch with the current market scenario, which you would, if you were doing a full-time course.
The full-time option works best for people who either have relatively lesser financial liabilities or have the advantage of age on their side. Sanket after his graduation was very sure he wanted to pursue an MBA. After having worked for two and a half years, he had enough savings to fund his management degree. “If I had not made it to IIM-A, I would have worked for another year or two and attempted to get into an international B-school”, says Sanket.
But Suresh Srinivasan, a Ph.D. in management from IIT-M defies the above-mentioned stereotyped conventions. Suresh quit his high-flying job with Emirates airlines, Dubai to pursue a Ph.D. Earlier, when working on his MBA at the Bradford Business School, UK he was sponsored by his company. Suresh is of the opinion that if finance is not a concern then one should go in for a full-time MBA. This is because, “The B-school one selects is also of immense importance”, says Suresh.
Challenges
In the course of planning your MBA you need to be prepared to handle major challenges ahead. One Herculean task would be to convince the management of your company — and possibly yourself — that you can juggle your workload and studies. If your company plans to sponsor your education you will need to gain their confidence it will gets its money’s worth for the time and money invested by it on your behalf. Since time is an important factor in the part-time course, your proximity to the B-school is crucial. When considering a full-time course, you need to be very sure of what you are going to specialise in and how getting an MBA would help your career. As Suresh puts it “What matters more than getting an MBA degree is how you put it to use”.
Good Company
In the recent years, there has been a growing trend in organisations to sponsor MBA degrees of their selected employees. Some of the companies that sponsor employee’s MBA are Cognizant, TCS, Cadbury’s and Infosys. Sometimes, a company collaborates with a university to create a customised programme for its employees. The company’s interest is to train executives for a specific strategic move such as entering a new market, opening a new distribution channel or tackling a merger or acquisition.
Company sponsored or not, in the contemporary scenario you need to learn more about three drivers of modern business—efficiencies made possible by technology, new markets and channels opened by the knowledge economy and the globalisation of business. The MBA is one tool to learn all this.
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