My thoughts on MBAs in Indian IT - Is the Indian IT industry ready to accept MBA's?What type of roles do MBA's get in the IT industry? Why is it that even though India is so well known globally for IT, students at business schools in India opt for Marketing and Finance specializations in large numbers and not for IT? (Questions from Dr. Nilay Yajnik, my professor from NMIMS)
----
The term manager is misused and devalued in Indian IT industry. Any 2-4 years experienced engineer asked to coordinate activities in small team are deemed managers. Not only that, majority of experienced people in IT who have been through this route believe that IT management doesn't require MBAs.
I believe the factors responsible for this attitude are -
1. Many IT companies have well documented processes for 70-80% of the work these managers are expected to do. So they believe it's just matter of following documented processes/templates, attending internal training and applying common sense.
2. Senior/executive management have failed to appreciate value of MBAs, task them with intellectually challenging work and motivate them by giving proper roles and rewards
3. Still large portion of Indian IT revenue comes from ADM and support services that require more of people management and demands very little strategic and tactical management skills. This leaves very few opportunities for qualified MBAs to demonstrate differentiating performance in profit centers and attract management visibility
The real problems with these attitude are -
1. The typical IT managers (engineer-turned-people-managers) lack the management thinking and knowledge of strategic frameworks. So they try to solve most of the problems in same old ways as other managers have tried in past
2. The culture becomes experience (number of years in IT industry) driven and they fail to appreciate the value of young, intelligent employee (irrespective of MBA or others)
3. These managers find it tough to engage with western client executives in discussion strategic IT roadmaps
The biggest problem these managers face is that client invariably gives feedback to our managers - "You guys are followers and we expect you to provide technology leadership and bring in proactive, innovative ideas". This expectation is very difficult to fulfill without focusing on management education in IT.
When the Indian IT industry doesn't give due respect, encouragement and rewards to MBAs, it is not surprising that the MBA students avoid specialization in IT.
Rajesh
