Here's what is inspiring India's youth to take up MBA courses like never before

India is definitely witnessing a new wave and people are getting creative with business ideas, and are more risk seeking as compared with previous generations. A stable job in a multinational company is not the biggest thing in the country anymore. The line between thinking about an idea and jumping to executing that is not that wide anymore. Although I have seen this primarily in people who are in 20’s as they have statistically more risk appetite compared with people in the later stages of life.

What we are witnessing is a great example of expedited capitalism. A lot of Money is pumped into the economy by these private equity firms. A lot of these fund managers are sitting on excess capital with not so great returns across the world. And that is how are witnessing splurge of valuations and we say newer models such as in E-commerce, Tech Products, Food and beverages, and many more. While not a lot of these companies are making money or have a strong cash flow from operations, these have created a huge appetite in the working professionals. The early adopters started to replicate these models, and terms such as Funding, Valuation, became the buzzwords. Society is now more open to entrepreneurs than it was 10 years ago.

What is happening in the business world is creating a strong impact on the academic world too. In order to keep pace with the changing dynamics of the world, B-schools have become creative too, and have started offering innovative ways to engage the student community and encourage them to become entrepreneurs. A lot of Venture capitalists have now started actively participating in the incubation centers of the B-Schools as that enables these investors to spot a great business early. These business schools have become a market place for the student and investor community, and an MBA is not a theoretical model anymore. When you think of an MBA now, you will see an enterprising DNA as a critical part of the experience. Execution of an idea ( in your own venture or in a large enterprise such as Google) requires many tangents.. It is the ability to join the dots and assessing the arbitrage in the market, and getting the right minded people to come together into fulfilling the need of the market. An MBA can assess a profitable model in the United States, get funding from investors in South Africa, source a product from China and launch a business in India, and take it to the IPO route. In addition to the network, an exposure to the diversity in a business school will make one aware of the sensitivities of different cultures. If you need to expand your venture into Latin America, it is important to learn about areas such as business culture, business etiquette, meeting protocol, and negotiation techniques in order to maximize the potential of the investments. Business gifts maybe well accepted in China but may be misconstrued in India. Different cultures speak different business languages, and GLOBAL MBA programs train the managers into these sensitivities.

It is surprising how a lot of big companies such a GOOGLE or MICROSOFT or APPLE do not claim to be corporate and strongly support an enterprising culture. Opportunities to execute new ideas, manage budgets and experiencing the growth curve of a start up is encouraged in these organizations. And this is what is being practiced in many schools. Schools now have incubators that largely help the applicants with seed funding rounds. Getting the first level of funding not only brings a great sense of REALITY in entrepreneurs; it also brings credibility in the market. i.e; Others would want to invest in you if they know someone has already invested in you- it is the first sale that is usually most difficult and the schools have actively started participating in these.

Other than funding, these schools also organize many competitions that enable students to pitch to serious investors.

In the previous decade, when the schools used to focus on training people on running an existing machinery, lead a large P&L, and make it more appealing to the shareholders, now, the schools have immersed more courses that encourage students to be designers. They are encouraged to design companies, design models, takes those ideas from inception to reality.

Most of these entrepreneurs are experienced professionals who have worked and understood the problems in the industry. They have developed IT systems, supply chains, have sold tech products, and are keen on solving a problem that exists in the industry. Entrepreneurship as a revolution is not just about being your own boss. It is about creating an ecosystem in which people can identify a problem, build a team, raise capital, and execute ideas. Many applicants are turning towards the B-schools to work on the missing pieces of skill sets before actively venturing into their start up. The goal is to gather an understanding of “How to get things done?”, or “where are you in the economic cycle?”, or “What will work and what will not work?”. MBA majors in entrepreneurship make the students very conversational in various functions such as operations, finance and valuation, and marketing. This helps entrepreneurs when they go out for raising capital, or when they lead large teams, and launch products or services in a competitive market landscape.

The risk appetite of the country has gone up significantly, and people have become more enterprising in the last 10 years. While an MBA program may not be able to conceive the spirit of entrepreneurship, it can certainly facilitate the process, and make the executor more aware of the path and the decisions.

The article has been authored by Jatin Bhandari, the founder and CEO of Pythagurus Education (an admissions consultancy firm) which is a premium education consultancy to study abroad and Interview Ninjas( EdTech E-commerce Start up for MBA Admissions)