MBA a better option than IAS? More civil servants with MBA joining Corporate World

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MBAUniverse.com News Desk |
May 4, 2016
An MBA loves to join the corporate world but an MBA turned IAS or an IAS turning to MBA, if joins the corporate world the question why at all they joined IAS or allied services springs up spontaneously
Pay packages in the private sector are high and students find it hard to sit and prepare for the civil services exam, especially after they have done an MBA Prof G Ramesh, former IES and faculty at IIM Bangalore

An MBA loves to join the corporate world but an MBA turned IAS or an IAS turning to MBA, if eventually joins the industry and corporate world after putting in many precious years of youth serving the political system, the question ‘why at all they joined IAS or allied services’ springs up spontaneously.

You may find more civil servants quitting their jobs and joining IIMs or other top B-schools to pursue their dream MBA or joining the Corporate sector after many year of service in Government sector. Many MBAs also join IAS and then give up their job to become a part of Corporate world.

However, once they join Corporate sector after 1 year or 15 years of working as civil servant, you may have not heard of any of them coming back to civil services or the like. This typically upholds the view that joining Corporate sector after doing MBA can be rated better than joining IAS.

The name and fame that an MBA from a top rated institute earns, is probably higher than an IAS who crumbles under the political pressure and loses his creativity and enthusiasm to make the society a better world. Higher returns, freedom of doing things attract the civil servants to go for MBA than remain stuck in the system run by inexperienced and stubborn politicians.

Top Bureaucrats joining Corporate world
Many bureaucrats with an MBA degree have already quit their lucrative IAS job to join Corporate world. Shailesh Pathak spent 16 years in the government as an IAS before shifting to the private sector in 2006. Pathak has an MBA from IIM Calcutta and has also studied at Oxford University's Said Business School. After quitting Civil Services he joined as Executive Director at Bhartiya Group.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, Vice President - Locomotives & Head Urban Infrastructure Strategy, Siemens spent nearly 15 years as an IAS officer and then decided to further his skills and proceeded to graduate from Wharton in 2010.   He started as Collector of Cuttack, then became Deputy Secretary in the PMO and subsequently Deputy Chairman of Mormugoa Port Trust in Goa. But nothing could hold him back from pursuing his dream MBA.

Another example is of Arijit Ghosh, President, Honeywell Aerospace, who quit the Indian Foreign Service (IFS) after putting in 8 years in 2003 and moved to pursue his MBA at Harvard Business School. According to Ghosh "When you join the services straight after graduation, there is a significant gain as there is an immediate jump in stature but this wanes after sometime."

There are number of MBAs and PGDMs serving in civil services but when they plan to quit is not known to any one. Dinesh Chand is another civil servant who is a 2011 pass out from XLRI Jamshedpur. Gaurav Agarwal who topped the civil services examination in 2013 is an alumnus of IIM Lucknow.  It is difficult to predict how long he will remain in service and when he suddenly plans to join corporate sector

Higher MBA employability attracting civil servants
Former member of Indian Economic Services and present professor on Public Policy at IIM Bangalore G. Ramesh is a fellow in Management from IIM Ahmedabad. In his view an MBA gets better employability with Corporate sector. His hypothesis is that the opportunity cost is high. Today, pay packages in the private sector are high and students find it hard to sit and prepare for the civil services exam, especially after they have done an MBA.

Top 10 MBA institutes in India
2 key MBA entrance tests lead to admission in top 10 B-schools in India. They are CAT and XAT. While Common Admission Test (CAT) will make you eligible for admission in IIMs, the Xavier Aptitude Test (XAT) will take you to top rated private B-school XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Apart from IIMs and XLRI there are other top rated B-schools  whose MBA/PGDM programmes are not less valuable. The credible HBL-MBAUniverse.com B-school Ranking 2016 has ranked the B-schools in following order-

NDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, AHMEDABAD

1

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, CALCUTTA

2

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, BANGALORE

3

XLRI, JAMSHEDPUR

4

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, LUCKNOW

5

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE (MDI), GURGAON

6

S P JAIN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT & RESEARCH (SPJIMR) , 
MUMBAI

7

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES (FMS), UNIVERSITY OF DELHI, 
DELHI

8

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT, KOZHIKODE

9

SVKM’s NARSEE MONJEE INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT 
STUDIES (NMIMS), MUMBAI

10

The legacy, learning and career prospects after doing MBA at all the above B-schools are matchless. Above all what you gain after preparing and putting in many years of service as a civil servant, may still keep you lagging behind your peers who preferred to join the corporate sector to make their skilled career in probably you may call it corruption free environment.

MBA degree gives depth to your resume and helps you to choose career options as per your own perspective and better marketability. You are not the same person after emerging from the Management institute for it shapes your personality and widens your knowledge in different aspects and field.

IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Santosh Desai, CEO, Future Brands, says, “The wonderful thing about the MBA is that one will not just be the manager, but also a creator. I think the most important future challenge would be how you are going to transcend the act of managers. In management institute, you are given the freedom to think and to face the challenges. It will be new because all the things are in you but nothing compels you to think independently as does the good MBA course.”

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