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Although experts are divided on the issue, general consensus says that the time to take on a one-year MBA is after spending about two to ten years in your career. "It also depends on variables such as how effective your exposure in business is before you reach a plateau in terms of learning, or when you need to expand your knowledge base and revamp your career profile to fit into the larger scheme of things," says Rangnekar.
And remember, it's going to prove tough to get back to the rigour and discipline of the classroom after many work years.

Other Options

Today, the average MBA aspirant is faced with the several confusing options in choice of specializations and modes of study. Did you know? In India, niche MBAs are available, for example, Chemicals Sales and Marketing Management from Jiwaji University in Gwalior (MP), MBAs in Rural Management, Forest Management, Retail Management, Insurance, Telecom, Family-managed Business, Healthcare and Biotech.

ICFAI, Hyderabad has started an MS (Finance) to supply managerial staff to the financial industry; IIM Bangalore has started a Retail Management MBA. Most B-schools remain in close touch with the industry and based on requirements, start relevant courses. Full v/s part-time programme: The two-year programme focuses on the core curriculum during the first year and the specialization courses during the second year. The one year programme usually cuts down on the internships.

On the other hand, an MBA through correspondence can be a boon for those who are already employed. "While doing courses like marketing, business studies, any work experience would be an added advantage, that too for employees who want to enhance their job skills and get promoted, doing an MBA course along with the current job would help to relate the concepts well," opines Ganeshan, Officer of MBA Programme in a Regional Engineering College. To keep up with this emerging trend of employees seeking additional MBA qualification through correspondence, institutions like MATS have tied up with industries themselves to offer courses.

"As part of the process, contact classes are conducted in both college and industry atmosphere. Our tie-up with a company called Cambridge Solutions is one such example," says Suganth, Coordinator for such courses in MATS. "With increased demand for specializations under MBA, many institutes do update themselves to get customized to the needs of the industry," he adds. According to management experts, Human Resource Development (HRD), Finance, Entrepreneurship, Marketing are some of the courses in demand from the industry.

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* Contributed by -
Oumkar Umesh,
Senior Correspondent - The Observer of Management,
Article Published in Vol. 1 Issue 12 December 2006.