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Mastering the art of business

Business schools need to change their current format and methodology of teaching.

The sustainable demand for a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) will go up only if business schools change their current format and methodology of teaching, according to president of SP Jain School of Global Management, Nitish Jain.

In an interview with Khaleej Times, Jain said: “MBA develops a person to join a company, it is essentially a stepping stone for a corporate career. The requirements of companies have changed and the MBA programme must change as well. I think business management schools have not kept pace with the changing demands. There must be a lot of emphasis on skills as opposed to academic needs,” said Jain.

Jain was speaking at a ceremony that was celebrating SP Jain School of Global Management’s recent induction into the prestigious Forbes TOP 20 Best Business School Rankings. SP Jain was ranked 19th on the Forbes list of the best business schools outside of the United States. S P Jain has been ranked number 11 in the world in the ‘Best International one year MBA programmes’ category and number 19 in the world in the ‘Best International MBA programmes’ category that ranks both one year and two-year MBA programmes.

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, Chairman of Board of Directors and Director-General of Knowledge and Human Development Authority (KHDA), Dr Ayoub Kazim, managing director, Education Cluster, Dubai International Academic City (DIAC), Rajeev Kakar, executive director and CEO Dunia Finance, attended the function among other guests. The ranking is based on feedback from ex-alumni and return on investment on MBA programmes.

The S P Jain campus in Dubai – the school also has sites in Singapore and Sydney – is a decade old, with 2,500 students participating in one and two-year programmes. The school is best known for its tri-city programme, which allows students to spend four months in each campus, Sydney, Singapore and Dubai. Experts from the business school suggested that it could be that one of the reasons for the ranking would be the tri-city feature, which makes the students global players in the market.

Jain said: “As clichéd as it may sound, business schools actually live for business. Business houses and companies have gone global, and they are constantly looking for talent that can think globally. It is impossible to be globally oriented if you haven’t travelled the world,” he said. “The tri-city education programme takes students to Sydney, Singapore and Dubai. When you go to all three places, you really get globally exposed because they are three very diverse regions across the world,” he added. Jain said that the main purpose of the programme is to encourage students to develop a broad mindset.

John A Davis, dean – Global MBA and Master of Global Business as well as professor of marketing at S P Jain said: “There is a need for students who possess a certain type of intellectual curiosity. Companies need managers who possess multi-lingual skills and the ability to have information on their fingertips.”

The faculties teaching at SP Jain are from all over the world. “Luckily for us, these three cities are good from a recruitment point-of-view. We give people the option to work wherever you want,” said Jain.

However, when asked about expansion plans, Jain said that for the time being they would like to stick to their campus in Academic City. “See, DIAC has two models. Either you can take a building or construct one of your own. The building we are in right now gives us a lot of flexibility. We like it, we are not isolated and students can remain connected with other students. If the number of students go up, we might consider branching out,” he added.

Though essentially SP Jain is a management school, the school authorities are planning to start other verticals within business studies. “We have a course on business communication, and we are looking to start courses on business economics and law,” said Jain.

dhanusha@khaleejtimes.com