JOURNEY OF LEARNING
► IN 1992, WHEN he was sitting for his final exams at IIM Ahmedabad, Deep Kalra never thought he would turn entrepreneur. “I was going to chase a professional career and if the internet hadn’t happened, I don’t think I would have started a company,” recalls the Founder and Chairman of online travel firm MakeMyTrip. In hindsight, one of the things he wishes his B-school had given him was more entrepreneurship courses and industry interactions.
Being away from metro cities in Ahmedabad didn’t help. But what did help is the fact that a B-school, he says, provides one with a well-rounded education essential for any kind of career. The second thing is that it “gives you the requisite skills to tackle new situations that help you go down uncharted territories”, he adds.
He calls himself a big beneficiary as well as a benefactor of the IIM alumni network. Whether it was a situation about hiring the right person for an executive role or a dilemma about where to list his company, his network always came in handy.
Like most things in life, MBA education, too, is in a state of flux after the pandemic. Kalra says that even before the pandemic, people started questioning the value of an MBA. “What changed this perception was that more online education portals and professional courses are now widely available, and people have started weighing the benefits of doing such a course while working. And I think, technology has brought about that change,” he says.
For MBA aspirants, Kalra has a word of advice: always ask yourself why you want to go for an MBA, is it just for the degree or will it actually help you achieve your goals, or learn more about courses on new technologies like cryptocurrency. “It’s unfair to expect your business school to prepare you for future technologies. I did my MBA in 1992; there was no way I could learn about the internet then,” he says.
Even while hiring for his company, Kalra is cognizant of the fact that MBAs would only serve certain roles. He’s had hires from humanities, engineering and other undergraduate backgrounds depending on the role. He says his hiring decisions are based on an MBA degree if a role requires managing large teams or stakeholders, and/or growing a business. “When we’re hiring, we want MBAs in certain functions but not everywhere. For revenue management, for example, an MBA is helpful. But if it’s just product management, which is a large part of what we hire for, it is not critical,” he says.