I have been a member of Mouthshut for quite sometime and I am sure that my comments out here would be understood in the right context. I don?t want to start a debate about anything but I do wish to use this forum to bring out the need for a discussion on a very important point, and that is the amount of course contents that should be taught to b-school students in any business management course.
I am an ex-student of IIPM (Class of 96, Thareja?s batch) and was picked up by and still am currently working in HSBC human resources (Addy joined Citi from campus then, if you guys remember).
IIPM has been focusing since the past so many years on teaching its students much more than the normal b-school curriculum recommendations. By one calculation that we had done at that time, we were studying almost 33% more than any other top b-school student was studying.
The discussion I wish to initiate is, does the focus on teaching more to students really helpful to students or is it in reality forcing the students to be a jack of all and master of none (I know, I know, clichés don?t work). To be frank, each day that I was at IIPM, my work group and I hated the amount of studying that we had to do. Each day was seen with trepidation by us because every new day had a new quiz, surprise internal test, project submission, presentations et al. And when the marks used to come out, phew, we wanted to run away.
But giving now the other picture, when I was interviewed by HSBC and recruited, the first initial comments of my recruitment head was that we guys knew much more than normal b-school grads. But my thought process was, would knowing investment banking really help me if I were joining credit or reconciliation or treasury or retail banking?
Sure enough, I was put into retail for one year where I almost but gave up on whatever I learnt at IIPM. But surprisingly, next year when I was shifted to priority banking, I could immediately understand market dynamics because of the projects that we had undertaken at IIPM. And pleasantly, in the past ten years, I?ve been shifted through various divisions and have really been able to not only manage but excel because of the knowledge base that was created while at IIPM.
The reality is, a student cannot grasp everything that is taught in a course that intends to teach a lot. We concluded our recruitments at IIPM just this week and I realized that IIPM has reduced the amount of course content but only minimally.
My clear recommendation would be that instead of offering subject streams and specializations to students, offer credits that students can choose. A person who wishes to specialize in HR and banking should not be forced to take up industrial disputes (related to factories) and say portfolio management (related to stock investments).
But like I said, this is not to start a debate about the course structure of IIPM, but to at least enforce a discussion wherein I believe that instead of having a high course structure for everybody, have a high credit structure (subjects have credit hours allotted to them).
My best wishes for the current passing out batches at IIPM?