MBA reimagined

Once the surest route to corporate stability, the professional degree is facing its toughest identity test in decades. Is the golden ticket to success changing its colour to stay relevant?

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Its chairman, Professor Anindya Chakrabarti, connects it to a broader moment in scientific history: “When AlphaFold cracked the protein-folding problem, it showed how data and machine learning can unlock entirely new worlds.

These advances are a call to action, to develop leaders who can apply data-driven thinking to solve critical problems.”

MBA faculty across institutions insist, however, that technology alone does not define what a manager is. For many, the real frontier lies in teaching judgment, not code. At IIM Bangalore, Professor Suresh Bhagavatula argues that the real intellectual work of management education happens elsewhere, not in tools but in thinking. Students rarely remember the granular details of a class years later, but they retain the frameworks and reflexes that help them navigate complexity.

In other words, the “finished product” coming out of IIMs or ISB is no longer the stereotypical spreadsheet-wielding analyst. It is someone who can think with AI, challenge its outputs, navigate people and politics, make decisions in grey areas and learn continuously. These skills are not on YouTube. And that is precisely why the conversation is so conflicted.

Into this churn come the loudest critics of traditional education, India’s startup founders. No one has drawn more attention than Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, whose comments triggered debates in the past couple of months.

“Colleges are dead,’ he said.‘If you’re 25 and going to an MBA college today, you must be some kind of idiot. Everything you're taught is free on YouTube.’

Kamath believes the internet has eroded the scarcity that once justified the MBA's cost and duration. “Everything you are taught in an MBA college,’ he said, “is available for free on YouTube.” With AI tools like ChatGPT, learners no longer need structured courses to analyse case studies or understand business models.