AN MBA WITH A TWIST

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AN MBA WITH A TWIST

Today, the MBA degree offers a variety of unconventional yet lucrative avenues. Aashima Sekhri lists some popular offbeat MBA programmes for students to consider

‘Being an MBA’ seems to be on the wish-list of all, with many believing it to be a sure-shot way route to success. However, the days when all that MBA graduated wanted to do was land a banking or consulting job, are long gone. Offbeat career options following an MBA are now being considered with equal zeal, if not more, by those who see life beyond the obvious. Some of these offbeat MBA options are explored below.


Rural Management:
Management degrees in rural management are run with the aim of creative managers and strategists who would contribute towards the ever-growing rural economy. With ample opportunities for industry- interaction, such programmes offer hands-on experience, research and the right kind of placements. Most schools which run these programmes have ties with corporates belonging to the respective fields, for example, between IRMA and Amul and the National Diary Development Board; or KJ Somaiya and Pantaloon. Says Sanju Devis, Dean, Mitcon Institute of Management, “After doing an MBA such as the PG Diploma in Agri-business Management, students become techno- commercial individiauls, in that they already have technical knowledge and the MBA provides them with commercial expertise. Such students are then picked by leading organisations such as banks at a starting salary of Rs five- ten lakhs per annum.”

Disaster Management:
Project management is usually associated with the IT or BPO sector. However, there are several other projects that require management. A very wide and upcoming example of the same is the field of disaster management. Calamities, whether natural or manmade, need to be managed in terms of controlling the rescue efforts to the postphase wherein things have to be brought back to normal. The government has a cell for disaster management where experts from several fields work fulltime to avert and manage inevitable disasters. One of the prominent institutes offering courses in disaster management is the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai. With regard to the type of companies or institutes that would be interested in hiring MBAs completing this course, Nivedita, currently a student at TISS explains,“Anyone and everyone who is looking to get involved in disaster management would be looking out for expertise like this. It could be NGOs involved in the cause, it could be funding agencies that fund NGOs who are involved in managing disasters or it could be corporates who might like to pursue disaster management as a function of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) cell. Government or semi-government agencies might also see merit in hiring people with this skill.”

Forest Management:
A full-time two-year course in management has been started by the Indian Institute of Forest Management (IIFM), with the objective of bridging the demand and supply gap for managerial human resources in forest and allied sectors. The institute, founded in 1982, is an autonomous institution located in Bhopal and receives course assistance from IIM, Ahmedabad for the running of this management course. The placements at the end of this course are usually with the environment and development sector with NGOs. Recently, however, banks and financial institutions, that have a presence in the micro finance field, have participated in campus placements, with average salaries ranging from six to seven lakhs per annum.

Hospital/ Healthcare Management:
Hospital/ Healthcare management is offered by institutes with the objective of developing a cadre of professional managers in the healthcare sector. Such programmes prepare students to take on managerial positions in national health programmes, the NGO sector and community-based health programmes by building capacities in planning, implementing, monitoring and evaluating these programmes. They also orient students to macro issues relevant to health policy and programming in the country.