The best way to cure a person is to diagnose what the patient is suffering from. An ENT Specialist through his specialised knowledge and test results will not only identify the sickness, but also suggest specific medicines to cure. So the key to cure is to properly diagnose what has actually inflicted on to the patient. A small laxity will not only lead to aggravation of the sickness, but may sometimes make the sickness acute.
The same approach is followed in a Business too, which moves from one transition to another. Business too suffers ‘ailments’ in terms of sluggish growth, lower sales, higher cost of operation, regulatory issues, interrupted production, higher attrition, brand dilution, and many more. Such ‘sickness’ could create havoc in the business and can destabilize it and sometimes force it to completely shut down or suspend its operation.
Sometimes we don’t see these things coming and we get to know when the problems have already created a widespread damage. Such contingencies are better tackled if the business had previously hired specialised people. The question is which specialised people?
The most closest person would be a person with a post graduate degree and preferably an MBA. A person who is aware of different aspects of business, its elements and its practical knowledge.
- Holistic Approach: MBA’s provide a holistic approach to the ailments to the business. They have the knack to understand the problems in an uncertain environment. In a business, occurrence of problems is mostly uncertain yet some of them are predictable and a possible cause can be beforehand identified.
- Diagnostic Approach: They diagnose the problem in a more sophisticated way, understanding the main causes and providing an analytical aspect to it. This first starts with understanding the problem. This is one of the important step because if the specialised person does not understand the problem, then there is no use to provide a solution. This is where an MBA comes into the picture. An MBA is already tested against time and business related knowledge. They have already been pushed into this subject with impeccable knowledge on multiple domains related to business.
Let us see what does diagnose actually mean for a business. Diagnose is simply understanding the root-cause of problems faced by the business which are directly detrimental to its growth prospect. It is like finding needle from a haystack. It is not a simple exercise which can be done over-night, but it takes a plausible amount of experience, knowledge and understanding.
It requires the following steps:
Understanding of the Business & Problem: The first step to diagnose is understanding the business. An MBA who has already been put through multiple knowledge across industries and business is the one most best in understanding the business and its problems. This is one of the primary reasons an MBA is mostly preferred. In simple terms, a plumber would never know what made the car break down, which the car mechanic would definitely know about it. In short, a right knowledge would help make right understanding of the problem. Subjects like Business Organization, Business Management is what comes extremely helpful for an MBA.
Identifying the Problem: There could be multiple problems faced by the business, but the one which is causing the most is perhaps the one which needs to be identified. This is where the practical knowledge of MBA comes handy. Instead of suggesting several problems an MBA would outline few of which that has been detrimental for the business. For example, if one speeding car crashes on a highway, then several other cars too crashes. An MBA identifies that one speeding car which, if stopped would stop crashing of other cars. Subjects like Business Strategy, Macroeconomics and Business Environment provides a ready reckoner.
Interpretation of the Problem: Just identifying a problem is not where the diagnostic approach is left. It is substantiated with valid tests and approaches. This is where the MBA comes into the picture compared to an inexperienced person. He would run a series of models and test and figure out a causality relationship. Just as a doctor in order to convince himself about the reason and type of sickness runs a few tests similarly an MBA too undertakes empirical studies and analysis which points to the problem. There is a whole new level of experience which is required to formulate the problem into a simple interpretation. This is where the Case-study is profoundly comes as a help for the MBA.
Suggesting Remedies: So now I know the problem what’s next? I run my business and i know the problem and I try my own ways of dealing with it without being aware of the consequences. This is where many of the small organizations go wrong. It is like self-prescribing a medicine which goes totally wrong. Instead of doing good it makes the problem more acute. MBA provides a specific solution to the identified problem. He provides a practical and actionable solution from his experiences. This is where an MBA through his personal intuition and years of study comes as a help.
In short, an MBA provides an interface to the business which identifies, interprets and rectifies a problem. Instead of going round and round and running from pillar to post, they provide an empirical solution to the problem. Many a times these problems remain unaddressed and by the time it is identified, it’s pretty too late. This has made many organizations to hire MBA who identifies the problem and suggests remedies. This has not only helped organizations save lots of money but also made it competitive.
This diagnostic approach is popular both for the small organization as well as the larger ones.
Large Organization: They have multiple departments, a large human workforce and higher deliverables. It therefore becomes imperative to have a specilaised individual like an MBA to monitor the challenges faced by the organization at multiple levels for multiple departments. As it grows the complexities of the problem too manifolds and a single individual cannot be a one-man show. Therefore, larger organization needs a trained team for this diagnostic approach. MBA’s therefore are most suitable because of their multiple domain knowledge and their cohesiveness towards the team.
Small Organization: They too have multiple departments but mostly small in size. The requirement for an MBA in small organization has become a pre-requisite for several factors like the need for specialised knowledge, professional approach, to fight competition and etc. Small organization have started headhunting MBA as they (MBA) provide good insight but also the diagnostic approach to their business.
In this 21st century, the economy is becoming more open up and globalisation is hitting nooks and corners of the country. New companies are joining the mainstream and startups have become the fashion. One cannot deny how hard one may try, MBA has become an integral part of this change and MBA’s continue to be seen as a specialised knowledge who continue to provide a diagnostic approach to business.
Contributed by Mitesh Agarwal ( Class of 2011, IBS HYDERABAD )