The aim of primary education is to create awareness, secondary education is to impart domain knowledge and tertiary education is to obtain gainful employment. MBA education, which is at the tertiary level, is to create gainfully functioning individuals for the corporate sector who will be required to deliver results on an ongoing basis as otherwise they cannot survive.

Industries today are not fully owned by individual industrialists, but by shareholders - that's you and me. And hence the MBAs who are employed and deployed have to strive hard to earn the 'compensation' which is actually a sort of 'commission' given for the wealth generated by them. Perform or perish are the key words in the industry.

How to perform effectively, efficiently and intelligently will be taught in the best B-schools. Yet, a lot more will depend on the right attitude, competitive skills and personality of the individual. Everyone inherits these attributes depending upon one's background, yet to a larger extent a lot of learning and unlearning will have to be gone through by the students which will be a lifelong process, as otherwise CEOs & MD's will not be going to Harvard & IIMs for upgradation / updating programmes. MBAs will also have to be innovators, and innovation never ends.

Joining the best B-schools cannot guarantee a placement if the students don't work hard dedicatedly, or if they exhibit negative attributes and attitudes, although the brand of the institute may attract great companies to the campus. Similarly, a student from little known institute may get great jobs, if not immediately but ultimately within a short period of time if he has good attitude and earning capacity. The key words here are discipline, dedication and determination. The MBA institute provides a forum for specifically inculcating these attributes.

The realities are no different with IIMs either. Yet, students of other institutes should not compare themselves with them as they select very few students out of more than two lakh applications. The students finally selected are the cream: Engineers from prestigious colleges such as IITs and most of them have previous work experience with the industry for a very significant period.

Above all, the excellent faculties and the environment engage the students round the clock. IIM students being mature work really hard for a dream career. It is observed that this is not the case with most of the other institutes. The students do dream to be at par with the IIMs & XLRI but are not willing to work as hard as their counterparts in IIMs & XLRI. The issue is: While every one wants placement like the IIMs & XLRI, when it comes to working hard they compare themselves with institutes which are offering the course in a leisurely manner for lesser hours.

Most students entering MBA institutes have scant knowledge of corporate sector intricacies or about the functional areas or about the requirement of the industry. Most of these students are in their early 20s and only know that they want a good corporate career. They are obviously depending upon their parents, and whenever confronted with an imponderable, they go back to their parents to show them the way. But once they complete post-graduation in management, the roles get reversed. Not only they have to depend on their own skills, even parents will eventually become dependant on them. That is Indian tradition, and B-schools have to equip them to grow in the difficult terrain of the industry.

B-schools have to inculcate the mindset in the students that from now on, they are the movers and shakers, they are the breadwinners, and they are responsible for the upkeep of their parents, not the other way round as it was in the past. Above all, the individual must realise that here is a level playing field where lies the great opportunity to excel, to be the winner, and to achieve corporate heights that most people only dream about but never achieve. Simply stated, industry provides careers, not just jobs.

Because the milieu in which parents worked, or still work, is far far removed from that in which these students will have to work, the situation just may not be relevant anymore. The tools of the game have changed drastically and will keep changing at an even faster rate as time passes. MBA education, thus, has to teach these students to keep re-inventing themselves. It has to give them the latest tools and weapons to deal with, resolve, and overcome every new situation. More than this, it has to inculcate in them the capacity to anticipate situations, so that they can be dealt with and overcome before they actually occur. The dictum "fore-warned is fore-armed" was never more true than in today's fast changing world.

The ancient Chinese strategist Sun Tzu, who wrote "The Art of War" in 650 BC said, "Rules of war never change - only weapons change". Thus, be it Alexander defeating Porus in 326 BC, Babur defeating Ibrahim Lodhi in 1526 AD or Robert Clive defeating Nawab Sirajuddaula at Plassey in 1757 AD, the rules were the same, only weapons and technology differed. While the above warriors fought to rule the roost for territory and booty, today's corporate warriors fight for market share and market domination.

The MBA institutes must have efficient faculty who have played this game before (and won), but where to find them? Thus industry-academia collaboration is the need of the hour. Good B-schools try to achieve this by inviting industry veterans for interface with the students on a regular basis. They must be aware of the law of the land (legislation), tools and weapons (place, promotion, price, packaging), be able to change belief of the target market (product-market stance) and so on. The corporate stalwarts, being the fish of the water, have the capability to effectively transmit this knowledge to the students and the capacity to inspire them to learn, adopt and adapt in order to achieve desired goals not withstanding the boom and gloom.

Here is where the real challenge erupts. No management institute can install all the capacities in all the students. If an institute provides 50% of the competencies through various forms of grooming, the rest of the 50% will depend on the individuals themselves. To make a miracle in two years is a utopian dream. The MBA aspirants should question themselves as to why a student from the same class, with the same degree, taught by the same faculties in the same specialisation and groomed in the same environment gets into a top class company with excellent compensation, whereas others get lesser packages in the campus placement. Therefore, a lot will depend on the individual. And if they work hard systematically and are determined, they can surely be the winners. More than the degree, what plays the crucial role is: discipline, dedication, and determination.

Problems are opportunities. Anyone can be a winner notwithstanding where he or she studied. The world is overcoming the recession and India too is ahead in the economic growth. Obviously, the job market is expected to be very good... very soon. Where will they go for finding the managerial manpower? The biggest democracy of the world with the greatest industrial growth will definitely need more and more MBAs. Therefore, obviously post-graduation in management is the right choice.

All said and done, we are going through exciting times. The fact remains that geniuses are made not born. Nothing is impossible, and it is the duty of the B-schools to develop and nurture these competencies. To do that a lot of learning and un-learning exercises need to be gone through which may be painful at times. The dictum: "no-pain-no-gain" not only applies, it is paramount.

Foreign universities are expected to usher in a new work culture and discipline in the field of academics in the country, from which possibly domestic universities could also take a cue. Experts, who have been associated with several international academic collaborations, are hopeful that the proposed entry of foreign educational institutions would infuse much-needed dynamism in framing and revising curriculum and administration.

"I have seen the work culture and work discipline prevalent in foreign universities. Even in their teaching programmes, there is enormous flexibility where students be it advanced learners or slow learners can study the curriculum at their own pace," said S P Thyagarajan, former vice chancellor, University of Madras.

Institutions abroad are known for updating their curriculum at quick intervals. "A syllabus that is obsolete is even dispensed with at the end of one semester unlike here where traditionally you wait for three or four years to change it. The Choice Based Credit System that is being adopted in some universities here is only a distorted version. Universities in India rarely adopt a conceptual grading system and instead go in for a mark converted system," he explained.

Even the examination evaluation system in foreign universities is highly transparent and participatory with students.

According to IIT Madras former director P V Indiresan, state universities in the country need not worry about competition from their foreign counterparts as they get students from a socially different background. "The real competition with the entry of foreign universities will be for the IITs, IIMs, IISc and a few top universities," he argued.

Thyagarajan felt that Indian institutions would be able to upgrade their standards since a healthy competition would set in and transform the higher education system for good.

However, from the students' point of view, he said the success of foreign universities in enriching the human resources could be gauged only based on the affordability of the education offered by them. "We need to create a mode to help meritorious students from lower strata of society to get educated in these institutions," he said.

All India Federation of University and College Teachers' Organisations general secretary professor Asok Barman, nonetheless, was sceptical. "It is a myth that the foreign universities will bring in experts in various fields to handle classes here. Very high quality professors will not come here as they are busy handling different assignments in their own country. Only the second grade foreign teachers would arrive here," he contended.

Also, he felt that these universities will not collaborate or engage in academic interaction with Indian institutions. "They will see the Indian universities as competitors and try to prove a point by luring the best talent pool of teachers and students from here," Barman said.

The Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC), which owns and administers the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), plans to set up its third office in India after the US and UK. The decision comes close on the heels of the Union Cabinet approving the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill, which is expected to tick-off futher demand for GMAT. On a visit to India, David A Wilson, President and CEO, GMAC talks to Chitra Unnithan on why India is a growing market for GMAT. Edited excerpts:

What’s your thinking behind opening an office in India? India is a vibrant and exciting market for graduate management education. It brings together a culture that embraces education, a knowledge-based economy, entrepreneurial spirit and a youthful population with 50 per cent of its population under the age of 25. These are ideal conditions for the GMAT and for management education. The establishment of our office will permit us to provide far greater personal service and attention to GMAT aspirants and business schools alike. We have 17 test centres currently in India, representing an investment of about $3 million. However, we have not decided where to open the office at this point. It may be in Mumbai, Delhi or Bangalore. We are still waiting for permission from the regulatory authorities.

How do you rate the quality of management education in India?
India is home to some of the best graduate business schools in the world and I can only see a positive and exciting future. The world is recognising the high quality of Indian institutions. For example, the Indian School of Business (ISB) is ranked in the current FT top 100 business school rankings. The quality of schools and business education is one reason GMAC is establishing a presence in India. We see India as a strategic growth market for GMAT.

There has been a rise in the number of Indian MBA programmes using GMAT...
The GMAT has long been the global standard for admission to graduate schools of business. It is a standardised exam used by more than 4,700 MBA and other graduate management education programmes in almost 2,000 business schools around the world as part of the admissions process. Tests taken by citizens of India were up 7 per cent in testing year 2009, to 30,633, capping a 128 per cent increase during the past five years. As demand for MBA and other graduate management degrees has increased, so has the demand for GMAT. Many aspirants to the best programmes around the world including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and other fine Indian programmes will take the GMAT as they also contemplate applying to programs elsewhere in the world.

What are GMAC’s expectations from the Foreign Education Bill?
This is a decision to be made by the appropriate legislative bodies in India after their deliberative processes. If enacted as we understand the Bill, there will be a number of B-schools coming to India that already mandate the GMAT.