The future of PGPX

The one year MBA format in India has been a revelation of sorts. The success of PGPX, ISB, PGPEX vindicate this. In my opinion, in the coming 4-5 years this MBA market will considerably grow, catalysed by reverse brain drain of the diaspora.

The larger picture is India has huge reserves of talent and for decades people did not have convenient choices to pursue their dreams. The back to back Engineering & MBA by the time one turns 23, few years of job & fun and finally getting married was the oft beaten path to a good life. Many who have not taken this path rued, as the option of studying later in life was only at foreign schools.

For some one who is married, settled with a good job / career, school going kids, the MBA proposition could be nerve wrecking change. I know of people in my class who have given up green cards, sold houses in US, relocated to India with complete bag & baggage. It is too much of disturbance for a family, but the good news is that the environment and systems are getting congenial to support such people. The Married Student Housing (MSH) at IIMA is a perfect example of some of the support systems that are in place. Completely furnished homes with 24x7 services at beck & call help, enable many comfort conditioned students to ease into the student mode yet again. Admission at decent schools for kids at any level is quite peaceful. Cultural environment in the campus for kids and spouses is awesome. There are lots and lots of things /events that are planned by the Spouses group and make living comfortable and enjoyable. In fact, they are completely independent (the spouses group eats out, shops, watches movies together) - suits us well !

We have been interacting with many Industry leaders and I am quite happy to see their responses meeting us. Recruiting people at lateral level with 9 years of work ex from B schools is not usual in India and Industry is adapting to this phenomenon. Placements seem to hog more than their fair share of mind space. But fundamentally, I would look at IIMA for-

1. Opportunities to get into different fields, if you want to take a job that is.
   
2. Access to funding if you are keen to start up.
3. Acquiring great perspectives and an environment to develop thinking and decision making abilities (getting a great job / starting up is only the first step... becoming successful there depends very much on these abilities)
   
4. One year of reflection, away from maddening / hectic work life for many... to think on what we want to do in life and at work.
   

Many months back I was speaking to an LBS-Sloan Alum and he mentioned that the real benefit of the one year he spent at LBS was visible only after 3-4 years of passing out from school. Strange it is. Isn't it? Perhaps no. As the Sloans get back to real world, they deploy many things they have acquired/developed - it takes a while to take things to fruition. This alum told me if I go there, I would only aspire to replace the chairman of the company I was working on return. Such is the impact of the programme. Well, not surprising considering they exchange notes with Bill Clinton, Tony Blair, Jack Welsh etc during their one year. PGPX is on similar lines. I have found great insights in all the interactions we have been having with the Industry leaders be it R.Gopalakrishnan / Avnish Bajaj / Basab Pradan / Ramalinga Raju. While we recognise the palpable internal transformation, the synthesis of many inputs and more importantly the visible external manifestation will take some time. So, in summary the real benefits of the learning here would be truely visible after a lag, in my opinion.

The design of the programme and choice of some of the cases is worth mentioning here. For instance, sample courses like -

• Role of General Manager
• Merger & Acquisitions

These are core courses and are designed specifically for the experienced participants. Cases like Time - Warner acquisition bring recent real world situations to class room. All this is orchestrated by some of the best experts... the professors of course. Many cases like Walmart, Cisco, Saint Gobain, Citibank, Nortel got more interesting as some of the participants brought in their experiences of working for these companies, to the class room. Need we say more about experienced MBA programmes?

So, while the risks seem high for onlookers for dropping everything and heading towards IIMA for a One year MBA, people who have decided to take the plunge know the risk-reward equations very well. In fact it's a skewed one here.. for minimal risks one is certain to get high returns and continuously over a period of next 25 years+. Irresistible proposition, Isn't it? I am not surprised therefore, with the surge in applicant pool by 59% over last year despite a 40% fee hike.

The decision on increasing the in-take (to two sections) will be crucial and it will be known in a couple of days. IMO, the number of interviewees would be an outcome of this decision. While all the 1347 applicants eagerly await their turn on the 10th September (when the PGPX III shortlist would be announced), here 's wishing all of them the very best.