Your MBA degree cannot help you grab leadership skills

A new study of the 100 best-performing CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review stated that out of the 100 CEOs on the list, only 24 have MBAs

What makes a good manager? One would say good people and project management skills, leadership skills, someone whom the team can look up to for solutions. A good manager also brings in maturity and provides vision to the team. However, an MBA programme, typically for two years, does not necessarily equip managers with these skills. “Leadership cannot be taught in a B-school,” says Thammaiah BN, managing director, Kelly Services India.

An MBA programme gives students an edge in getting lucrative roles with corporates. But this does not guarantee long-term success. (Imagesbazaar)

A new study of the 100 best-performing CEOs in the world by Harvard Business Review stated that out of the 100 CEOs on the list, only 24 have MBAs.

An MBA programme gives students an edge in getting lucrative roles with corporates. But this does not guarantee long-term success. “Success does not necessarily depend on the education one has had. Education is important but not the only criteria to make a good leader. Education from various academic disciplines of management makes students aware of the various nuances of business that can be around management, sales and marketing, finance, supply chain management, HR, IT to name a few. This awareness helps students understand these fields better and bring the learning to practice when they are on a job,” adds Thammaiah.

An educational qualification can help at various stages of one’s career. An MBA degree can lead to a great job and in the initial stages of one’s career, academic performance, the rigour of getting selected to the right B-School and completing the curriculum are the only achievements a young executive has to offer as a new hire. Shailja Dutt, founder and chairperson, Stellar Search, an executive search firm, feels that someone in the middle of his or her career can find that it opens doors to the right companies as one contemplates a switch, but it does not teach leadership. Leadership is taught when managers navigate the rough waters and deal with uncertainty, reviving failing businesses, handling business crisis. “It is taught by fighting in the trenches and not studying in classrooms. Leadership is all about adaptability, innovation, agility, skills clearly not taught or assessed in the MBA curriculum,” she says.

Sharing examples of leaders and top management across industries who have excelled despite being from other academic backgrounds, Dutt says, “AM Naik who heads Larsen & Toubro, Sunil Mittal, founder of Bharti Enterprises, YC Deveshwar, chairman of ITC and Deepinder Goyal, founder and CEO of Zomato, and Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, CMD, Biocon, are success stories which highlight that an MBA is not must to excel as a leader in the corporate world.”