To focus on experiential learning. Outside classroom learning.
What do you think are the essential skillsets that would make you a management expert? Any ideas?
Well, if you think you are not sure about how to make the most from your MBA curriculum to end up with a C-suite job at a big corporation or step into being a budding entrepreneur, then here’s is the answer to your query.
Getting into a top-ranking B-school or scoring high percentile isn’t everything when you aspire for excellence in the field of business management. It requires a lot of inputs from your end to develop yourself for the actual business challenges that you would face in your job or when you are setting up your own business.
CEO of the Forté Foundation, a nonprofit organization, Elissa Sangster’s words ring a bell at this point, “There’s nothing about getting an MBA that doesn’t require initiative from that point all the way through your career.”
Textbooks, classroom lectures, and group discussions in today’s’ highly competitive world are not enough to train you well in handling the complexities of real-world business. Thus, nowadays, the focus lies in experiential learning to acquire the right acumen as an MBA professional.
Experiential learning opportunities help B-school students leverage the most from their college curriculum and make them more field-ready with the topmost business and management skillsets.
Experiential learning: What is it?
Business and management require out-of-the-box thinking ability, which can be acquired only when you are accurately trained in real-life situations.
Top-notch MBA schools in the US encourage students to get out of the classrooms and learn from clients-based consulting projects. This helps in developing the right perspective by facing real-world business scenarios.
However, today’s world has gone virtual in many ways, including business. This trend has become more prevalent after the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, forcing millions into isolation for months.
So, hands-on experience can also be achieved by participating in virtual leadership development programs aided by today’s immersive technology.
Study trips worldwide are also the latest B-schools initiative, which provides another excellent opportunity to learn about business challenges on a global platform. The amount of exposure students can gain from such learning trips is quite commendable.
Participation in extracurricular activities presents yet another fantastic learning opportunity for MBA students in a cost-effective manner. Being a part of student’s clubs, talent shows, and various events automatically beat the inner manager into the right shape.
Thus, it can be said that like most technical professions, MBA nowadays is more about how much adept you are at handling business crisis and corporate hiccups instead of scoring high grades.
The more you can gain experience from real-life business challenges, the better you can perform once you are out of your B-school. Therefore, focus on experiential learning more than classroom lectures and bookish knowledge.
