|
The month of March is fast approaching when most of
the first year students would be joining various organizations for their
summer training. Summer training is an integral part of any MBA
curriculum in the country. It serves as the only direct exposure to an
organization and its ways of functioning during the entire curriculum.
The importance of summer training in any management course cannot be
over-emphasized. Irrespective of the general acceptance of summer
training among the students as well as the corporate, there still exists
some skepticism and confusion in the minds of MBA students about the
efficacy and usefulness of a summer training programme.
This raises a fundamental question - Does a summer
training programme really help an MBA student? According to the summer
placement brochure of IIM Calcutta, " the programme is the most
effective aid in enabling the students to relate management theory to
practice, and in making an informed career choice." Courses in the first
year are intended to provide a cross-functional orientation in basic
management concepts, quantitative methods and analytical skills. Since
immediacy of application is not stressed at this stage, the person can
take his own time to reflect on the subjects and internalize the
concepts. Once this conceptual framework is in place, it needs to be
tested under real life conditions. The management institutes cannot
simulate the real life conditions of a business manager. Although
innovative tools like case studies and role-plays do attempt to address
these limitations, they fail to capture the reality. Certain areas like
Organizational Behavior and Marketing Management require much more then
a mere conceptual understanding of facts. Therefore, we need some
mechanism by which transfer of skills takes place from the classroom to
the workplace. Summer training beautifully fills this gap. It gives him
a chance to experiment because mistakes are not penalized while hard
work is definitely rewarded. Not only does a student gets an opportunity
to implement the concepts, but skill learning is faster because of the
constant and immediate feedback from his peers and managers.
Students, especially those with little or no work
experience, are slightly confused about the discipline in which they
want to specialize and pursue their career. Summer training gives them
an opportunity to closely interact with the organization and help
identify the pros and cons of various career choices. Armed with this
knowledge and understanding, they can take an informed decision about
the portfolio of second year elective courses in which they want to
specialize. Now the question arises -- Is summer training also necessary
for a person who has worked for a considerable period of time in
industry and then joined an MBA programme? It can be argued that he also
stands to gain a lot. Even though a person may have worked, say as a
production engineer, he may like to change his career, say to marketing,
which entails learning different skills for which a summer training
experience will be invaluable. Studying for a year in a B-School changes
his perceptions and makes them broad based and integrated. Summer
training at this stage will provide him the intellectual maturity that
is necessary to enhance his effectiveness as a manager.
Is summer training only about applying the concepts
and knowledge acquired in the classroom? This may not be so. Says Prof.
K. Unnikrishnan Nair, professor of Behavioral Science at IIM, Calcutta,
"The student should not rigidly confine himself to the narrow boundaries
of the project which he is currently undertaking. He should also observe
the processes, interactions and the human relations in the organization.
Just observing people at their work could be a tremendous learning
experience." During his summer training, which is for a period of two
months, the trainee gets to see the culture of the organization, how the
organization copes with crises and how the managers handle stress under
varied situations. When he goes back to the institute, he can share his
experiences with his fellow classmates and learn from their individual
experiences. This will help him in not only mentally preparing himself
about the lifestyle and pressures of a manager but also evolving a
distinct way of dealing with diverse business situations.
Summer training also serves as an important
opportunity to understand what companies look for in an individual
during final placements. Says Pei-Yuan Chia, Group Executive Citicorp,
"Essentially what we are looking for is depth, a continuing intellectual
curiosity on part of the individual.. the difference between being
successful and having an exceptional career is drive, dedication and
single minded delivery of results." A student can make full use of his
training period in trying to understand how the present system works to
fulfill the interests of the strategic constituencies of the
organization. In this respect, summer training can be used as an
opportunity to inculcate the qualities that are demanded by the
profession.
Inspite of all the benefits which a student can
derive during the course of summer training, there is a feeling among
students that the type of work given to them does not utilize their
specialized knowledge and it can easily be done say by a salesman, a
programmer etc. So apparently, they do not learn anything and there is
little value addition during the course of two months of summer
training. However, this should not be a cause of concern because in
order to become, say, a good marketing manager, the person has to pass
through the stage of actually going to the market and selling a soap or
doing a market survey. If the manager has done the work of a subordinate
before and has hands on experience, he can better understand the
limitations and opportunities of the work that their subordinates are
subjected to. This also helps the manager in reducing the communication
gap between him and his subordinates and he can command the respect of
his juniors. Even though, the summer trainee is not being utilized fully
of every knowledge and skill acquired during the MBA programme, the
experience itself will make him a lot wiser and will help him to become
an able manager who can empathize with his subordinates.
Training in any form is considered to be beneficial
to the both the trainee and the trainer. According to summer placement
brochure of IIM Calcutta, "A summer trainee can add a lot of value to
the company in terms of pragmatic analysis, solutions and
implementation." The process of unshackling the kind of protection that
the Indian industry was subjected to until the early nineties has
suddenly made these organizations vulnerable to the changing market
conditions. Entry of MNCs on a large scale has had a profound effect on
the practice of management in Indian industries. Assumptions, which were
true yesterday, are no longer valid tomorrow. It is here that the summer
trainee can play a strategic role in the organization. Since he does not
carry with him the set of assumptions or the bias which most of the
regular employees are subjected to over a period of time, he can
question them and help in fundamentally altering the business practices.
But, this is only one side of the story. The organization also needs to
be receptive in identifying and implementing the innovative schemes as
proposed by the summer trainees during the course of their assignment.
For this, the organization needs to plan in advance about the type of
project they will be offering to the students. This will not only help
the organization to select the right students, but also help the
students to do some advance preparation before they actually join the
organization. Some organizations like GE Caps actually ask the students
to come up with a project proposal and give presentation to the company
officials about what they plan to do during the training period. Advance
preparation and planning from both students and organizations will
greatly enhance the effectiveness of the summer training.
A very high turnover of fresh MBA recruits is a cause
of major concern for most of the companies because it not only entails
huge costs in hiring MBAs but also disturbs the equilibrium inside the
organization. In most of the top business schools in India, the
organizations as well as the students work under tremendous pressure
during the placement week. This sometimes results in a mismatch between
the individual and the organization that sows seeds for disillusionment
later. To circumvent this problem, the companies are increasingly
emphasizing on a more elaborate recruitment process for summer training.
This gives them an opportunity to examine the students more closely
before giving them an offer of training. If a company finds that the
summer trainee is a perfect fit for its future requirements, he can be
given an offer of job even before the final placements start. Companies
like P&G, HLL, Price Waterhouse Associates etc. are effectively using
this process to give Pre Placement Offers (PPO) to the summer trainees.
The organization and the individual can understand each other better
during the training period and if the student accepts a PPO, chances of
mismatch are minimized. This also imparts a lot of flexibility to the
student in choosing the company he wishes to join and reduces the
pressure of getting a job during final placements.
The students must take their summer assignments very
seriously. A little groundwork is required on their part before going
for their summers. Besides a practical exposure to management, a summer
project offers other benefits like PPO, and a good relationship with the
company. Companies are offering summers in newer areas like project
financing, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Human Resource
Information Systems, green field venture planning and Business Strategy.
A student is unlikely to get a thorough exposure in these areas in his
regular curriculum. Practical exposure to these newer areas will help
him during his placements and will give him an upper edge against other
candidates. The organization, in turn, will benefit by having access to
innovative ideas of trainees. A summer assignment, in this respect, must
be looked at, both by the student and by the company, as an opportunity
to learn from each other. |
