Have A look at the crème de la crème who grace the top seats of IT companies and you would be fascinated to know that there is a predominance of those who sport foreign MBA degrees. Kelloggs School of Management, the Chicago Graduate School of Business (CGSB), Santa Clara Business School — these are some of the popular schools which have thrown up some top talents in the IT industry . Their success stories throw up some interesting facts.
Says Jeby Cherian, head, global business solutions centre, IBM: “Chicago varsity has over 81 Nobel Prize winners on its campus. Surely, when you put 81 Nobel laureates together with students, the effect is astounding. We even had Olympic Games winners as part of our class”.
Both Prabhakar Tadepalli, managing director, Asia Pac, tyfone, and Jeby, say: “CGSB teaches you how to think. They don’t teach you marketing strategies there. They just answer your question with a question” . Jeby was among the 25 of the 30,000 employees chosen by PricewaterhouseCoopers (his previous employer) to pursue an MBA programme with CGBS.
Jeby, who started as a chartered accountant, now heads a team of software engineers “which was not once part of my functional discipline” . “With a relentless focus on meritocracy and with very highly accomplished people as your co-students , business skills get honed,” he says.
However, country director, Synopsys (India) EDA, Subhash Bal, an alumni of Santa Clara Business School, California, feels: “Interaction with chiefs of business houses helped a lot. These are people who know what is going on.
Academicians are theorists, while it is on-the-job guys who can teach you what the market really needs.” “The entire system in US business schools is based on innovation. They teach you how to sell a product which the market has never seen and not just how to manage a company,” he adds.
Siva Ramamoorthy , group director (marketing), Tejas Networks , however, feels that Indian B-schools are equally good. “What you finally bring to the table is important. The synergy between the business goals of a company and the acumen of the business leaders is crucial for a company,” says Siva, an alumni from the Kellogg School of Management, North Western University.
“The MBA course offers you a set of tools which you have to cultivate. Indian Bschools are fairly young when compared to foreign ones, which have over 100 years of history,” he says. Linda Darragh, director of Entrepreneurship Programs at CGSB, who is now leading a team of alumni on an international tour, says: “Almost 30-35 % of our students are from abroad and they join as part of the full-time or executive programme.
To be a business leader, you have to know many cultures . Africa, Russia and Asia are truly emerging destinations for business leaders. There is a huge alumni base in India” .
Talking of how Americans view Indian talent, Siva says: “Indians are considered analytical people, which is very important in investment banking. They are hardworking and sincere” . The advanced eco-system which the US provides also makes a marked difference.
“Proximity to the customer is a crucial factor which helps B-school students,” says Subhash. “Companies are yet to customise needs to the Indian market, the way they do abroad. But change is happening, especially on the advertising scene. Advertisers have been able to catch the true pulse of the Indian market.”
“Risk-taking ability is honed to perfection at B-schools abroad,” says Prabhakar. There is immense flexibility in curriculum and independence to do things on your own. The bar for taking risk is quite high. They teach you to pack your bags and start shop in another country in no time,” he says.
“Entrepreneurs in India rarely fail as they have a lot of social support,” says Jeby. Well, if these are some of the reasons, what really did tick in the words of Subhash is: ”We were at the right place at the right time”.
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