The acceleration of the changes happening in the economy and the general business conditions has created a need for the business professionals with proper qualifications. A professional education from a business school is to assist an individual adept to face the challenges put forward by the changes in a successful manner. But the role played by the business schools in the creation of professionals has always been area of debate. This article tries to identify the role played by the business schools in the creation of leaders who can face the future.

The prestigious business schools aim to create a group who are passionate to their work and have great innovative skills and ability to meet the challenges of the economy. They try to draft a curriculum which imbibes all aspects of running the business successfully. The responsibility of the small business schools is immense in the Indian scenario. The small industrial undertakings contribute significantly to the overall production of the country besides adding to its exports. The small scale entities also provide huge employment opportunities. But as the pay-scale in this industry is low, it is forced to avail the services of those from smaller business schools. A proper curriculum is therefore vital for the surge of this sector from being obsolete. Schools like ISB provide the senior executives who have more than 20 years of experience with a course to help them succeed in the highly volatile and competitive environment, thus creating dynamic leaders.

Today many business schools are trying to overcome their weaknesses pointed out by their critics. Prof. Henry Mintzberg is of the opinion that the biggest flaw of the business schools is that they cater to the inexperienced and young crowd who are unaware of the obstacles in an actual business scenario. To overcome this mistake, many leading business schools insist on previous work experience from the candidates who want to pursue education from their esteemed institution.

A report in the Business Week in 2007 stated that a survey conducted on more then 8600 managers, 373 business schools and 118 deans and program directors revealed that the MBA curriculum did not emphasise on the soft skills of the people. The soft skills like knowledge on the human capital or the decision making process which was given greater priority by the managers were given the 5th place out of six in the management schools. The analysis of the cause revealed that this was on account of the fact the students did not prefer soft skill training. Steps were taken by many institutions to overcome this by incorporating the soft skills into the curriculum.

The demands of the actual world vary with the industry. To quote Ray Tsai, “Management is just too complex a human behaviour to be effectively taught in classroom environment”. It is to conquer this negative factor that many institutions seek the support of the companies to work on the major obstacles in business. For instance, the University of Oxford, in collaboration with the Lavasa Corporation, which is a part of the Hindustan Construction Company, plans to set up an Oxford University India Business Centre which is to deal with the major issues through a collaborative attempt by the academicians in India, Oxford and other countries. The Tata Business Leadership Awards (TBLA) is given to the outstanding candidates who give solutions to a strategic problem or a situation relevant to any business of the Tatas, who are invited from the leading business schools in India. The topic put forth were like “M & A opportunities for the Tata Group”, which was followed by the “New business opportunities for Tata Group” during the last year.

Another criticism faced by the business schools is that the rate of return on the amount invested in the course is quite low. Many join the schools with the intention of gaining a salary boost and not on account of the interest in the subject of study. It was found though the initial salary earned by those graduating from the business schools are more than the rest, the rate of further pay hike is low when compared to that of the others.

The criticisms faced by the business schools are very high. But if they aim at creating future leaders they must change the curriculum in accordance to the changes in the environment.