When you come out a good B-school, you get a headstart of a few years over those who have either not done an MBA or have studied at a lesser institute.
That's because you get trained in tactical capabilities -- you learn how to correctly approach problems. You become an 'individual contributor' to the success of the organisation; you perform well because all that you learnt during the programme is still fresh in your mind.
Within a few years, you become a team member. There are different dynamics at play -- you seek and give information, dependent on your individual skills.
If you succeed at that, you move to the managerial level, where you direct people. And if in your climb up the ladder, you haven't honed your people skills, you're not going to be able to do your job well.
You need clarity of vision and the ability to energise people to perform better. B-schools prepare you for the first step, but not the next three or four stages of corporate growth.
What you need to examine is why only some management graduates become leaders, and why some non-MBAs make great leaders. The trouble is that B-schools don't impart enough leadership skills.
Of course, these are not skills you can learn in the year or two that you spend on your management programme, but B-schools need to set the direction for people to learn and inculcate.
How to motivate people, how to influence them and how to get the best out of them are indispensable skills in today's -- indeed, any -- corporate environment.
How do management institutes prepare leaders for the future?
There's more to leadership. In the global economy, leadership is about running global teams. In such a scenario, 'secondary' issues like ethics and values then assume overwhelming importance.
When you are working in a team -- especially a globally diverse team -- it is necessary to demonstrate the right kind of values and behaviour. I'm not sure that MBA programmes equip their students adequately in these areas.
Are B-schools turning out students who are globally sensitive? Do they possess the critical capability of linking globally? Do they have global mindsets? Will they respect the values of the organisation, rather than attempt to maximise their short-term gains?
One way of achieving all this is by not restricting the curriculum to just Indian case studies. Teach management students more about what's happening -- currently -- across the world.
That will also help address the issue of technology. Technology today is very fluid and fast changing. How are B-schools preparing individuals for the need to constantly reskill themselves? I said at the beginning that you get a few years' headstart if you complete your MBA from a good school.
But keep in mind that the constant churn in technology means that you will soon lose the headstart and find yourself at par with, or even below, your juniors.
That's difficult for many upcoming executives to accept. But equally, it's important that the MBA programmes teach their students to accept change as inevitable and move forward.
That said, it is also critical that B-schools teach their students that not everybody makes it to the CEO slot. Don't allow students to graduate with the mindset that anything less than the top job is unacceptable.
How should B-schools go about making these improvements? Most management institutes adopt the case study route, and there's nothing really wrong with that.
But it is necessary to include programmes that focus on the issues discusses -- leadership, change management, and values and ethics development.
A leader's acid test lies not in the profits he earns or corporate successes he engineers, but in the number of leaders he coaches and nurtures in the organisation. The barometer of leadership is the depth of leadership potential.
B-schools need to emphasise that it's not enough to use the skills you're taught. Can you help others use theirs to the best of their abilities? Can you develop leaders across levels in the organisation, regardless of whether it is a non-government organisation or a for-profit outfit?
Venkatesh Valluri is managing director, Agilent Technologies. He graduated from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, in 1984.
As told to Meenakshi Radhakrishnan-Swami
