Hiring Challenges From 1 Year MBA: Shikhar Mohan’s Keynote Address At IMT’s ‘Expanding Horizons’ Raises Key Issues

Businesses seek competent persons to fill up key posts in middle and senior levels through lateral hiring either directly from the market or from business schools during the annual placements.

The 1-year MBA students are at an advantage for lateral hires since they have work experience of at least 5 to 7 years unlike those in the 2-year Post Graduate Programs (PGP) most of whom would be freshers.

‘Expanding Horizons’, an industry connect event organised by the management school IMT Ghaziabad Executive Education (ExEd) team saw an airing of views on the challenges faced by the Industry in lateral hiring as well as the retention and engagement of lateral hires.

The event provided an opportunity for the school’s 15-month full-time PGDM Executive Program students to interact with industry captains.

Shikhar said the use of the word ‘executive’ in the branding of the one-year MBA in India is endemic and most B-Schools use some combination of ‘MBA’ and ‘Executive’ for the branding of their post-experience MBA. However, this is not an executive course or Executive MBA which is a part-time course for people who continue to work as ‘executives’ while they pursue an MBA.

They also attended a panel discussion on the quality and capabilities recruiters look for and how participants in management programs could draw the maximum benefits by way of acquiring knowledge and career advancement.

Outlining the challenges of lateral hiring, Kirti Raj Manocha; General Manager (HR), Samsung, talked about the high expectations of the lateral hires by way of salaries and position while the companies search for the right fit.

Chairman and Founder of OneYearMBA.co.in‎, Shikhar Mohan, in his keynote address, pointed out that an Executive program is a term used loosely in India to describe any course meant for aspirants with work experience. This includes part-time MBA, usually for those with 3 plus years work experience and 2-3 day MDP’s and other short-term skill based courses. Then there is the 1-year Full-Time residential MBA program for students with 3 plus or 5 plus years work experience.

The first two courses are suitable for aspirants looking to raise their profiles in their existing jobs so typically hiring challenges don’t arise. “However, the 1-year Full Time MBA in India is a wholly different animal and where the challenges exist and need to be addressed,” he said.

He listed these challenges as perception issues in the industry. There is a belief that it is an executive program, a watered down management course for those who missed the boat for the 2-year PGP program that is mistakenly believed to be the proper MBA.

There is a perception that graduates of this course are lower quality candidates since admissions for the course is usually through GMAT – and not CAT, an exam lakhs of students take.

Shikhar illustrated the point with an illustration of several people waiting at a bus stop and one person getting into a Bentley. By the same token, you can’t judge a management course purely by the number of people jostling to gain admission into it.

While hiring from B-Schools is mainly at entry level through Management Training programs in many industries, preference for hiring laterals are from the market. Apart from the industry perception that the 1-Year MBA is an executive course, the flawed positioning of the program by the b-schools are equally to be blamed for the students getting a raw deal.

In this context, one HR Manager at the event stated that he found all the 2-year program graduates cast in the same mould. It was also felt by the participants that the 1-year program participants with their professional experience are more adept in fitting into roles in which they had no previous experience.

Shikhar said the use of the word ‘executive’ in the branding of the one-year MBA in India is endemic and most B-Schools use some combination of ‘MBA’ and ‘Executive’ for the branding of their post-experience MBA. However, this is not an executive course or Executive MBA which is a part-time course for people who continue to work as ‘executives’ while they pursue an MBA.

Full-time students with prior work experience are not executives, but simply students. Extensive work-ex is a pre-requisite for any MBA, outside India, be it a 1-year MBA or 2-year MBA.

How to sort this – B-Schools need to come up with a better, and single nomenclature across B-Schools that clarifies the true status of this programme as a regular MBA to the industry

The World’s No. 1 MBA as per the Financial Times ranking in 2016 was INSEAD’s 1 year MBA. A 1 Year MBA is the predominant format in Europe.

The 1-year MBA in India, with its intake of experienced professionals, is India’s only globally accredited Full Time MBA as per accreditation awarded by Association of MBAs, UK (AMBA) – one of the world’s top 3 accreditation bodies and the only one to accredit individual courses, not B-Schools, he pointed out.

Since the two-year PGP/ PGDM courses in India largely recruit freshers (most admits have less than a year of work experience and many have zero work experience), these courses are accredited by AMBA as MIMs.

1 Year MBA courses are the only ones from Indian to be ranked in the Financial Times Full-Time MBA Ranking. IIM A’s One year MBA (PGPX) debuted on the ranking as the No.11 MBA in the world in 2012 and was ranked at No.1 in the world, above Harvard and Stanford for career progression in 2016

But B-Schools which have won these accreditations and rankings have done nothing to clarify the different standards achieved by these programs in their press releases and convocation speeches. They have instead sought to obscure the win and appropriate the victory for the B-Schools or their longer running 2-year course, he added.

“How we can sort this – B-Schools should clearly market the capability of their 1-year graduates without worrying about the 2-year course. The 2-year course is long-established and globally MIM and MBA programmes co-exist,” Shikhar said.

The event included panel discussions. Members of the panel were Mars-Wrigley Confectionery Company National Sales Training Manager Anand K Chaturvedi; Federal Express Head HR (North and East), Kirti Raj Manocha; Samsung General Manager (HR) Arindam Lahiri; Leadership Matters Managing Director Anand Pillai; Global Logic India Vice President (HR) Neeru Mehta; National HRD Network National Secretariat Director General Dhananjay Singh; Associate Programme Chairperson, PGDM Executive, IMT Ghaziabad, Dr Sapna Popli; and Head External Relations, IMT Ghaziabad, Sonali Mehra.

Outlining the challenges of lateral hiring, Manocha talked about the high expectations of the lateral hires and hence, right fit becoming a challenge.

To overcome the challenge, Arindam Lahiri suggested that the institutes should have a common placement committee (for two-year and one-year MBAs).

Anand Chaturvedi highlighted the need for the industry in India to start looking at a Middle Management Hiring Program from one-year MBAs, besides the Management Trainee programme that most of them usually have.

Anand Pillai charted as to how the companies while doing the lateral hiring, consider the strong line between ‘work experience’ and ‘relevant work experience’.

He also said that the major challenge in lateral hiring is the cultural fitment of the personnel. Neeru Mehta pointed out that the one-year MBA students have the edge over their 2-year counterparts, with years of work experience. Hence, emphasis on right fitment should be taken up more seriously in the case of lateral hires.

Associate Programme Chair, PGDM Executive, Dr Sapna Popli, while setting the tone of the series, candidly put forth the need of focusing on Executive Education in the present era and IMTG’s intent to take the same to the next level across all its executive programs, while offering distinctive courses and pedagogy for the experienced participants.