Every year, more than 10 lakh candidates appear for the JEE Main examination. Quite unsurprisingly, several such aspirants fail to find their calling in engineering, sooner or later. And thus begins the search for a more interesting line of study, something which the student is passionate and comfortable about. Fortunately, the higher education authorities of India have realised this and as a result, we can find engineering courses bulging at the seams with subjects from other baskets, such as Management, Humanities and Social Sciences. This article is specific to the subjects intended to give the reader the taste of the study one does in an MBA, so that it becomes easier for one to judge his passion or interest towards management studies in advance.
1. Introduction to Economics
Economics form the foundations of all managerial activities and decisions. The students will be able to find applications of all the concepts learnt in Economics, in almost every aspect of life and business, such as strategic management, HR management and entrepreneurship. A basic introductory course should emphasise on the concepts of demand and supply, conditions of their equilibrium, price elasticity, economic forecasting and all the prominent market structures. A small part of macroeconomics is also expected to be covered, which may include topics like theories of national income, business cycles and monetary and fiscal policies.
2. Financial Accounting and Financial Management
Although most colleges treat these two as separate subjects, Financial Accounting and Management are quite closely knit. All businesses, whether minuscule or colossal, call for efficient management of funds and resources in order to achieve organisational excellence. Both of these subjects aim at equipping you with the knowledge and skills to do so.
The fundamentals of accountancy, preparation of financial statements, journal transactions, ledger posting and trial balance and rectification of errors fall under the ambit of Financial Accounting.
Financial Management will entail the basics of the time value of money, analysis of financial statements, estimation of cash flows and capital budgeting, operating and financial leverages and working capital management.
3. Indian and International Financial Systems
The aim of this subject is to educate you about the practices and structure of the financial institutions of India and the world. Outline of money market, capital market, insurance policies, investment fundamentals and tax structures are given. These are followed by the basics of foreign exchange markets, the balance of payments, foreign currency derivatives and foreign exchange exposures.
4. Marketing Management
Every market entity, as small as a salon and as big as a Fortune 500 company, needs to get its marketing practices in place in order to survive in this highly competitive environment. Strong marketing fundamentals not only help a person in sales, but other aspects such as employer branding and brand management as well. Thus, it can easily be derived that no department of a firm can function efficiently without appropriate marketing tactics. The subject of Marketing Management aims at providing an overview of market research, consumer behaviour, STP (segmenting, targeting and positioning), pricing strategies and the evolution of digital marketing.
5. Service Marketing and Management
Marketing a brand and marketing service are two entirely different things. Mostly because a service is an intangible thing, and hence, is much more complicated to market and advertise than a product. This course is focussed at this intricacy. A student will be familiarised with models of service marketing, the Gaps model, the services marketing mix, managing customer behaviour, customer experience management, measures and dimensions of service quality, service promotion and service positioning. All these concepts are extremely relevant for the new-age and budding entrepreneurs.
6. Human Resource Management
The human resources are the biggest assets any firm can possess, especially in the contemporary knowledge economy. And managing these assets can also prove to be tremendously problematical. To make the head or tail of such day-to-day issues involving human resources, this subject plays a vital role. The syllabus covers the fundamentals of human resource planning, recruitment, selection and onboarding, training and development of employees, mentor and mentee relations, strategic performance management, compensation and rewards management and work-life integration.
7. Organizational Behaviour
In today's era, where competitive stress is more than ever, the study of organizational behaviour becomes absolutely imperative. This subject will give a student the basic understanding of organizational politics, workplace diversity, practices of employee engagement, coaching and mentoring and how to cope up with organizational change and development. The importance of flexibility in the workplace is also stressed upon.
8. Project Management
Project management is something a person indulges in his/her everyday life, be it personal or professional. This course aims at elucidating the basics concepts which gives a new perspective to the students, most of whom will work on various projects for most of their careers. The concepts covered are project life cycle, Monte Carlo simulation, SWOT analysis, Porter's Five Force model, risk analysis, scheduling, resource allocation, budgeting and project termination.
9. Customer Relationship Management
There is a myriad of examples of firms who have gained a considerable market share based on their customer-centricity. No doubt, all activities and practices of the present-day firms revolve around their customer expectations, behaviour and satisfaction. The syllabus covers all the imperatives required in B2B and B2C markets, customer lifetime value, customer expectation management, technical tools for CRM and analytical analysis of customer behaviour.
10. Business Analytics
The world is moving towards an MBA in STEM specializations, of which Business Analytics acts as a focal point. The PGP(BA) program offered by IIM Banglore and PGDBA by IIM Calcutta are prime examples. And so, this subject will deal with forecasting, time series analysis, statistical analysis, predictive modelling, data mining and data visualization. It is highly recommendable to get familiar with at least one programming language such as Python or R, in order to succeed in this course.
The necessity of such subjects in not only the course of engineering, but every other field of undergraduation as well, cannot be stressed enough. Even if one does not have any ardour for management, these subjects must be perused, for many of them find application in all interactions of our daily routine.