India Abroad - June 2009

Ido not think the value of a good MBA experience has changed because of the current economic downturn. If pursued for the right objectives, I think the MBA is a valuable graduate stream which holds relevance in many aspects of business and various types of careers.

What I valued in my MBA from the
Stanford Graduate School of Business
was an opportunity to make a career
change, in my case from operational —
Given these objectives, I would pursue
an MBA in 2009 from a
good business school
because these would
hold relevance even
today.
Other than the career
change — the MBA
added credibility in my
making this change to
private equity — I have
found my MBA has
enhanced my risk-tak-
ing ability and confi-
dence in my own capa-
bilities. While I had a
great job in New York in
my field of choice, just a
year after graduating I
decided to move back to
India with very little vis-
ibility of what I would
do next, as my move back to India was
driven largely by a family situation. This
decision has worked to my advantage
because I am professionally and person-
ally satisfied with what I have achieved
in the years after moving back. The rela-
tionships I carried from my business
school have helped me on several other
occasions in meaningful professional
events in the last five years — like help-
MANISHKHETARPAL
ing strike a joint venture
in a family business with
a former classmate, making an impor-
tant job transition, and using tools and
skills learned at Stanford — especially
soft skills of negotiation and leadership
— in a messy family business situation.
These skills also come in handy in my
day to day job of principal investing as
well as working with management teams
as an active shareholder/investor.
It’s important for
students, say inter-
national students
from India who
take $50,000 to
$60,000 annual
bank loans to study
in North America,
to look upon doing
an MBA as a seri-
ous, long-term
investment.
Therefore, one
should not com-
promise on the
quality of the expe-
rience, if one has
the choice and
opportunity.
It is a personal
choice for a student
to travel from India to North America to
study in a prestigious business school in
the United States or Canada. The trip
and the money you invest are worth it
because you may be going to a better
school.
There are some very good business
schools in India now. One has to weigh
the pros and cons of the business school
offering versus the cost involved. It is
DOING AN MBA
AND CHOOSING
THE SCHOOL IS
AN IMPORTANT
QUESTION OF
COST-BENEFIT
ANALYSIS AND
LONG-TERM
OBJECTIVES
widely known that a good US business
school can open many more career/job
opportunities in the US. So, depending
upon ones preference of post-MBA
locale and target job, the choice of busi-
ness school could be different.