B-schools prefer students with industry experience: Dr. Bibek Banerjee, IMT Ghaziabad Director
There are certain myths about MBA which an aspirant finds hard to demystify. Whether it would be worth the ROI or what are the factors to keep in mind while making some important decision such as choosing the B-School and specialization include a small section of queries. In this exclusive interview with Careers360, Dr. Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad shares his views on these areas of concern for an MBA aspirant. He also speaks on what are the skill-sets which make an MBA job ready.
Dr. Bibek Banerjee is the Director of IMT Ghaziabad and Academic Mentor for IMT Group (India). He is currently in lien from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, where he is Professor of Marketing & Economics. He has obtained his PhD and MS degree in Economics and Marketing Science from Purdue University’s Krannert Graduate School of Management. He pursued B.Sc. (Hons.) from University of Calcutta.
Excerpts of the interview.
Careers360: Is MBA degree worth the return on investment?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: Of course, it always was and will always be. Rather it will be more pronounced than ever in the times to come. Every MBA programme has to create a unique preposition and be globally competitive in terms of curriculum updates, pedagogical tools and experiential learning. In a good MBA program participants learn to assimilate, integrate, and most importantly, innovate in a complex, multi-disciplinary environment drawing from the theories in pure sciences, social sciences, commerce and humanities. This prepares the students to effectively manage and lead in unstructured and ambiguous contexts.
Careers360: In your opinion, should one pursue general MBA or a specialised one?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: Well, both have their pros and cons. Both are envisaged to create a sound learning platform built on the strong edifice of theoretical constructs and practitioner wisdom from real industry experience. It’s only that in specialised MBAs a more focussed approach on a particular domain may be emphasised as compared to general MBA. However, the most important criteria of career choice must be the student’s internal assessment of areas that interest and excites them.
Careers360: How to choose a specialisation?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: Number of factors can be the basis of choosing a specialisation. Mostly these are industry driven. However, as best B-schools nowadays prefer students with a requisite industry experience, students are well informed on the area of expertise they wish to pursue.
Careers360: How to decide the geographical location of a B-School? Are there certain areas more suitable for placements & exposure than others?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: Geographical location is certainly important especially for a private B-School, which are funded by private sources. Industry is an important external stakeholder. So if the geographical proximity to industrial activity can be created, it may provide more opportunities for better industry interaction in terms of live research projects, internships, industry speakers, and co-creation of curriculum.
Careers360: What according to you are the skill-sets desired by recruiters who come to your institute for placements?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: The recruiters look for not just skills and competencies, but also attitudes. The common traits desired by recruiters who come to our institute for placements are effective communication skills and demonstration of inter-personal skills that help them manage teams in diverse business environment; conceptual clarity on core business theories and models; analytical skills; understanding of social responsibilities in the business contexts; ethical and regulatory compliances in business. Familiarity and proficiency of tools and techniques in analytics that help suggest innovative revenue growth opportunities and/or cost optimization for the future, based upon objective data is also important.
Careers360: B-schools in India are less inclined to address business problems confronting the real world and rather focus on transmitting acquired knowledge. Your comments?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: I disagree with the statement. First, let me remind you that the ‘acquired knowledge’ did not come from thin air – management theories are built on extensive observation, analysis and abstraction of empirical ‘facts’. These empirics come from your ‘real world’! In order to effectively deal with a specific ‘real business context’, one needs to start ‘somewhere’ (as opposed to just ‘anywhere’) – that ‘somewhere’, which is often called a framework, is what academic theory builds.
Second, most good Business programs, either by themselves or in collaboration with industry, do focus on real and/or live problems drawn from the business world.
Careers360: In the present times when the economy is still struggling to overcome uncertainties, which business areas do you think MBA graduates should enter?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: Uncertainties are bound to be there when the world economy is in transition in one way or the other. Strong regional blocks as trading partners are the new avatar of globalisation, and hence decision making in uncertainty is another core managerial skill set that we imbibe in our students. In fact our entire course curriculum architecture for all PDGM program(s) has been aligned to cope with this new constant i.e. “Uncertainty”. So programs that help them deal with this ‘uncertainly’ better will help students with certainty.
Careers360: How does MBA contribute to self-growth?
Dr. Bibek Banerjee: MBA is a multifaceted program which stipulates a learning process to make you competitive in terms of personality enhancement; develops your academic orientation to core managerial disciplines; challenges your thinking in terms of new futuristic business propositions; and creates leaders. No other professional course can claim as much integrative self-development as an MBA program.
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Questions related to IMT Ghaziabad
Is PGDM from IMT gaziabad (Via distance mode) certificate eligible for appearing in UGC NET?
As you had done a distance certificate course of PGDM from IMT so you are not eligible for net exam on its basis.
Onlyits full time 2 years PGDM has MBA equivalence. To clear NET you need to have MBA or any masters degree or equivalent (in case of management education, AIU decides equivalence). IMT CDL is just a diploma and useful for gaining knowledge only. It does not have any academic or corporate value. IMT's full time PGDM has lot of corporate and academic value in contrary.
So it will be better if you do a degree course in masters like full time or part time mba from either IMT or any recognized university.
Hope this will help you out.
Good luck .
is imt ghaziabad better than iim bodhgaya overall?
which is better to join imt hyd or ipe hyd?
Discussing about the comparison of Institute of Management Technology ( IMT ), Hyderabad and Institute of Public Enterprise ( IPE ), Hyderabad, IMT is private Autonomous college and is ranked 38th in best management colleges in India, whereas the IPE is a private affiliated college and is ranked 15th in best management colleges of India.
Talking about the reviews by students and experts then the IMT Hyderabad has good reviews and ratings than that of the IPE Hyderabd.
Discussing about the placements of IMT Hyderabad then, various well renowned companies like Deloitte, Essar, Zomato, Amazon, Arcesium, CBRE, Ultratech, HDFC Bank, Capital First, Blue Star and many more visit its campus for recruitment. The institute has bonding with many international associations like Charles Darwin University, Australia, Macquarie University, Australia, Waterford Institute of Technology, Ireland and many more. The placement percentage of this institute is 45%. The average salary offered is INR 7 Lakhs per annum.
Discussing about the placements of IPE Hyderabad, then, various well renowned companies like ICICI Security, Idea, Ignis Careers, Med Plus, Godrej, Kotak, Axis Bank, Indusland Bank, Mobis, Oracle and many more visit its campus for recruitment. The placement percentage of this institute is 50%.
So, overall discussing, IMT Hyderabad is better than IPE Hyderabad.
should i join IMT ghaziabad with a job in hand.
IMT GHaziabad is a good institute for management however, if you have job in hand and that job is a role which is in a core sector of your graduation, then I suggest you should go and do job at least for a year. An MBA without work-ex is not a good decision as the second year of MBA is all about those students who have some work ex before.
But if the job you have is not a good job but a BPO/Call center/non-core job then you can consider joining IMT.
Hope this helps. Thank you.
I have got 96.807percentile in my XAT2020 and I hadattended IMT Ghaziabad interview on 10/2/20 my academics are 10th-60%12th-57.6and i have done my UG in commerce with 55.6%. I haveworkex about 10-11 months and I am currently working, my GE at interview went good but my PI was avg Wt r my chances?
You really have good percentile in entrance exams which is a positive point but the boards marks are not so impressive. Many candidates will be applying IMT Ghaziabad and they will definitely select the ones who have good academic records as well as experienced. It seems that you have average chance at IMT Ghaziabad. You further don't have the advantage of a optimal work experience. Do keep a track of the wait-list movements also. All the best!