Three problems are being battled by Indian youth such as lack of soft skills, entrepreneurial skills, and leadership skills. The research paper focuses on the importance and significance of an MBA. It focuses on the differences between the leaders and the managers. It calls upon the youth to face the challenges squarely and soar like an eagle.
Introduction
“Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” —Peter Drucker
When one of the richest persons in the world, Mr.Laxmi Niwas Mittal was asked what regret he had in life, he replied by saying that he did not do MBA. He is the only Indian who leads in a particular sector globally i.e. steel sector. He achieved success in life and made a lot of wealth and yet he had one regret of not doing an MBA.
MBA is one of the most sought-after qualifications in India. After the completion of the graduation, the students prefer to go for this qualification because it offers wide opportunities. Engineering graduates are also opting for this management qualification as it widens their mental faculties as well as provides faster career growth. As a result, we find mushrooming Business schools in India. In this context, it is essential to go into detail to find out the significance and importance of this qualification. Let us also look at various prospects and problems involved with Indian youth in this regard.
Importance of MBA
Engineers are technically competent in their trade and can excel as very good engineers. But it takes them in one direction. When they are armed with MBA qualifications they cannot only work as engineers but also can work as managers. In brief, they turn out to be technocrats and full-fledged professionals. Acquiring management qualifications will be a valuable addition to their career. They can work as engineers as well as managers and it paves the way for fast career growth. Besides it inculcates entrepreneurial skills and enhances the ability to stretch their imagination levels. It is not only the case of engineers but also doctors and other professionally qualified people opting for this course. The advantage of management education is that any graduate can opt for this course, as it is management-oriented with the least technical orientation. This provides ample ammunition for any graduate to pursue this course.
With the growing population and economy, there would be more industries and there would be a need for more managers and leaders across the country. Therefore, there is growing importance and significance attached to this qualification.
Problems for Youth
Indian youth are battled with three skills soft skills, entrepreneurial skills, and leadership skills. It is a cause for concern. We do not have an unemployment problem rather we have an unemployability problem as the freshers after passing out of their educational institutions do not have the requisite skills and abilities to match up with the industry demands, standards, and expectations. In this context, let us briefly know what soft skills mean.
Soft skills are non-domain skills that include various skills like communication skills, presentation skills, team building skills, business grace, etiquette, and related people skills. The people should know how to deal with their clients, customers, and suppliers and should know how to behave with their subordinates, peers, and superiors. People are good at their domain knowledge i.e. the area in which they are qualified and that becomes the technical knowledge, which is also known as hard skills. It is rightly said people rise because of their hard skills but fall due to a lack of soft skills. The present educational system encourages more technical and domain knowledge and less non-domain knowledge thus resulting in unemployability.
The second problem for the youth is a lack of encouragement towards entrepreneurial skills. Entrepreneurship is the process of setting up your business venture, which involves a lot of risks and returns. It is not a cakewalk. It requires a lot of energy and effort. It takes active involvement around the clock because it involves having a business idea, mobilizing resources, proper execution skills, and managing both internal and external forces and factors to pursue the passion of entrepreneurship.
Although Indian youth are interested in taking risks their parents do not encourage them, as there are more risks involved. The parents want their children to get secured jobs and start earning steady and decent regular income. They also want their old age to be properly secured. In Western countries, there are social security measures where the government takes care of their citizens in old age. There are old age homes, unemployment insurance, and so many protections as they have already developed. Since India is still a developing nation we cannot afford to provide social security measures to the citizens. Therefore, it discourages parents from discouraging their children from entrepreneurship. In the past, the Indian economy was mixed and it did not encourage entrepreneurship skills. Ever since the opening up of the Indian economy, the climate has been conducive to encouraging entrepreneurial skills among the youth.
The third problem for the Indian youth is the lack of leadership qualities. Small countries with tiny populations produced leaders in various disciplines and, unfortunately, India with a billion-plus population could not produce global leaders in proportion to the population. What ails with Indian youth?
The present educational and economic environment is not encouraging leadership qualities. In some cases, there is a dearth of talent. And in some cases, there is talent, which is not tapped to develop as leaders. We do not have sufficient training institutes that encourage leadership traits.
Industry Expectations
Industry looks for plug-and-play recruits. They want the recruited employees to be on their toes right from day one. They want the freshers to be industry-ready so that they can be productive and useful. However, this is not the scenario. A lot of jobs are available and the industry is not getting the competent manpower to execute the tasks. There are a few traits that the industry expects from the freshers. They are learnable—the ability and capability to learn new tools and techniques, absorbability—the ability to grasp and understand new kinds of tasks, and suitability—looking for the right peg in the right hole. Nobody would like to have a round peg in a square hole or a square peg in a round hole. Capability—the ability to execute challenging tasks at ease is another trait expected from the industry. And skills like adaptability, flexibility, assertiveness, team spirit, communication, leadership skills and last but not least is the passion to learn and grow. Succinctly, they look for the right mindset, tool set, and skill set.
Challenges
Students work hard and climb the ladder to reach the heights of success only then do they realize that the ladder is on the wrong side of the wall. It indicates that youth lack the right direction, guidance, and counseling. This is so in various ways such as the selection of a career or setting of their goals. They set the goals because of parental or peer influence. Or sometimes because of herd instinct. In the long run, it does not give any satisfaction resulting in frustration and fatigue. While planning for their career the youth should look for 4 As – Aptitude, Attitude, Abilities, and Awareness. When their career is planned in this way, they can easily accomplish their goals and career aspirations.
Because of growing technology, the business environment has become highly challenging and as a result, the employees have to deliver their best to meet the rising demands of the customers and consumers. During this process, if any employee falls short of expectations he would be served with pink slips. There is more element of risk involved even in employment. The youth should learn to perform well or else would be perished. It is a case of a ‘do or die’ situation where non-performing and inefficient employees are shown the door. There is more need for smart work rather than hard work.
Leaders and Managers
There is a vast difference between the leaders and the managers. Let us look at what differentiates between the leaders and the managers. Managers are efficient while leaders are effective. Managers climb the ladder where as the leaders place the ladder on the right side of the wall. Managers are missionaries while the leaders are visionaries. Leaders know what to do where as managers know how to do it. Managers put in hard work whereas leaders put in smart work. To put it succinctly, if managers are the actors the leaders are the directors. However, in the recent past there has been a growing emphasis on managerial leaders which is a combination of managerial and leadership qualities and, of course, the combination of hard work and smart work.
Overseas Indians
Indians are doing extraordinarily well across the seas because of various reasons. Laxmi Niwas Mittal has done excellently by becoming a leader in the steel sector across the globe and also one of the top five richest persons in the world. Indra Nooyi, Pepsi chief is one of the most powerful women in the world who is a symbol of success and a guiding and motivating model for Indian women managers. All these people could do it because of several reasons such as more opportunities overseas and also probably they travel from their comfort zone to effective zone. Renowned Motivational Guru Zig Zigler Zig said, “97 percent of the people live in a comfort zone and only 3 percent of the people live in an effective zone”. And success comes to the people who live in an effective zone. Successful people keep shifting their orbits and reinventing themselves as per the changing conditions and scenarios.
Conclusion
Education and character are the two sides of the same coin. When you have these two, you can survive and succeed in any part of the world. Success would touch your toes. Soar like an eagle as an eagle. To sum up, Indian youth have an exciting future and promising careers with an MBA degree. By improving and developing soft skills, entrepreneurial skills, and leadership qualities they can leave a mark behind.
About the Author
Professor M.S. Rao, Ph.D. is the Father of “Soft Leadership” and the Founder of MSR Leadership Consultants, India. He is an International Leadership Guru with forty-three years of experience and the author of fifty-two books including the award-winning ‘See the Light in You’ URL: https://www.amazon.com/See-Light-You-Spiritual-Mindfulness/dp/1949003132. He has published over 300 papers and articles in prestigious international publications including Leader to Leader, Thunderbird International Business Review, Strategic HR Review, Development and Learning in Organizations, Industrial and Commercial Training, On the Horizon, and Entrepreneur magazine. He is a soldier, entrepreneur, editor, educator, author, enlightener, and philosopher. He is a C-Suite advisor and global keynote speaker. He brings a strategic eye and long-range vision given his multifaceted professional experience including military, teaching, training, research, consultancy, and philosophy. He is passionate about serving and making a difference in the lives of others. He trains a new generation of leaders through leadership education and publications. His vision is to build one million students as global leaders by 2030 URL: http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com/2014/12/professor-m-s-raos-vision-2030-one_31.html. He advocates gender equality globally (#HeForShe). He invests his time in authoring books and blogging on executive education, learning, and leadership. Most of his work is available free of charge on his four blogs including http://professormsraovision2030.blogspot.com. He is a prolific author and a dynamic, energetic, and inspirational leadership speaker. He can be reached at msrlctrg@gmail.com.
