Starting from the 1970s, leading management thinkers have questioned the value of business schools and have levelled a number of criticisms against them. I respond to these criticisms to argue that B-schools have shown a remarkable ability to adapt, change and improve the curricula and delivery of their programmes.

The fact that most of the criticisms have been made by business school insiders – Henry Mintzberg (McGill), Warren Bennis (Southern California), James O’Toole (Denver), Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana (Harvard) and Joel Podolny (Apple University) are some examples — is a testimony to the capacity of business schools to introspect and change.

Criticism 1

What is taught in B-schools does not reflect what managers actually do (Mintzberg). This criticism may have been valid in the 1970s and 1980s, but is less valid today because B-schools offer four distinct modalities of MBA education tailored to the learning needs of four different participant profiles:

1. For participants with no (or minimal) work experience, a full-time MBA (called a Masters in Management in many countries), such as the two-year full-time programmes at the IIMs
2. For participants with median work experience of 4-5 years, a full-time MBA, such as the one to two year programmes offered at most international schools, and also at ISB and IIM Ahmedabad (the PGPX)
3. For participants with median work experience of 5-10 years who cannot afford to be away from work for full-time study, a part-time MBA; and
4. For participants with 10-20 years of work experience who have risen to senior positions in their functional areas and are now seeking to transition into general management roles, an executive MBA

According to the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), the MBA programmes for working professionals (iii and iv above) represent 62.2 per cent of the MBA degrees conferred in the US, whereas they are not yet very popular in India. Since the cost of a full-time programme (tuition fee plus opportunity cost) is becoming more and more difficult to justify, we expect an increase in the market share in India of the part-time MBA and executive MBA.

As the age and work experience of the participants’ increases, the content and delivery of the programmes shift from more technical to more managerial. Studying while working also has the benefit of allowing participants to continuously relate their classroom learning to their workplaces, which addresses, at least partially, Mintzberg’s criticism. Therefore, the MBA is no longer one single degree with one curriculum and method of delivery; it has evolved over time into multiple modalities for participants with different experience profiles.

Criticism 2

In their quest for scientific legitimacy, B-schools have lost relevance for practising managers (Bennis and O’Toole). This is related to criticism 1 and in part, is attributed to business schools erroneously viewing management as an academic discipline like physics, economics or sociology rather than as a profession like medicine or law. According to the critics, this error has led B-schools to dedicate significant resources to “scientific” research that has moved them away from the challenges and concerns faced by practising managers.

Historically, this problem has existed mainly in North American schools, but worryingly, B-schools in other parts of the world have also been adopting the same research model. Indian B-schools need to support rigorous research, but only the kind that addresses questions that are of relevance to organisations, their stakeholders and to their contexts.

Many schools now have two faculty tracks — research and practice — in order to have practice faculty whose main role is to engage with practitioners. The themes of the annual Academy of Management conference reflect this change: Creating Actionable Knowledge (2004), Knowledge, Action and the Public Concern (2006), and Bringing the Manager Back in Management (2021). To summarise, B-schools have partially addressed this problem, but more needs to be done.

Criticism 3

B-schools have placed too much emphasis on shareholder value but not enough on ethics or ESG (environmental, social and governance) issues. This criticism intensified after the 2008 global financial crisis, which originated in the financial sector and quickly spread to others, leading to huge financial losses and unemployment. Today, most B-schools have a required course on business ethics, and electives on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. Leading B-schools today have centres that promote research, teaching and industry outreach on sustainability.

It is also encouraging to note that the MBA students are themselves exerting pressure on their institutions for more content on these topics. I have observed that the sensitivity of my students towards ethics and environmental issues is much greater than my generation’s when we were MBA students. Students nowadays are deeply interested in topics such as impact investing, social entrepreneurship and the 3P approach (people, planet and profits) to management. Many of my students have given up lucrative corporate jobs to work in the social sector.

Criticism 4

B-school education prepares participants to be good paid employees in large organisations, not job creators (entrepreneurs). In fact, influential entrepreneurs and investors such as Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Marc Andreessen have been critical of MBA education. However, the data do not support these critics; a recent study by a Stanford professor showed that 34 per cent of the 521 Unicorns he studied had at least one MBA co-founder. An earlier study by a Harvard professor found that more than 80 per cent of the unicorns he studied had either an MBA co-founder or an MBA graduate as a member of the leadership team.

Many of the Indian unicorns also have MBA entrepreneurs as founders. It is a myth that entrepreneurs need an education that is fundamentally different from that of corporate executives. Entrepreneurs need, as much as corporate managers, an understanding of accounting, finance, economics, marketing, operations, HR management and strategy. The B-school entrepreneurship courses are designed to help entrepreneurs navigate the start-up phase whereas the other courses provide them with frameworks to think systematically about achieving and sustaining growth.

To conclude, I have seen a remarkable ability on the part of B-schools to adapt and change in accordance with the changing needs of their stakeholders. They have shown an openness to criticism and have, through multiple mechanisms, sought to address their shortcomings. It is not a coincidence that the MBA degree is the most widely offered post-graduate qualification in the world (representing more than a quarter of all Masters degrees in the US) and that millions of MBA graduates have enjoyed successful careers as corporate executives and entrepreneurs.

(The writer is Professor and Dean of Mahindra University’s School of Management.)