New Delhi: Sridhar Vembu wants India to shut down its business schools and focus on startups instead. In an X post, Vembu quoted a NewYork Times article by Cambridge professor Chris Marquis calling for the closure of business schools.
“I agree entirely and have been saying this for 2 decades. India would do well to close down business schools and focus on startup incubators. We need large-scale startup formation and a lot of experimentation,” said the Zoho Corporation cofounder.
The article titled “I Teach at a Business School. It’s Time to Shut Them Down” by Marquis delves into the fundamental question of what an MBA is for. Marquis argues that the course is futile, eroding an altruistic way of life and turning people into transactional individuals.
“The modern business school is designed to promote dealmaking, simplification and optimisation. This mind-set has escaped containment and has spread to the wider world,” the professor wrote, arguing, “Business-educated elites increasingly populate political leadership, bringing with them a transactional view of public life.”
For Marquis, Trump is one example of what this course has done. He quoted a study that found that of 45 current heads of state who had studied in the United States, ten were business majors.
“President Trump, a Wharton undergraduate, has treated foreign policy and government itself as extensions of deal-making and personal gain,” Marquis said, while again citing research by Nobel laureate economist Daron Acemoglu showing what happens “when you put an MBA in charge.”
Vembu latched on to this article to once again express his scepticism about the business degree.
The rat race
Time and again, the Indian businessman has expressed his view on higher education. In one X post, he called higher education a “rat race.”
“He makes very important points about the higher education rat race and the chase for credentials where young people go far from home, pay ever more to stay ever longer in higher education, all too often without even gaining useful real-world skills,” he posted, responding to venture capitalist Nate Fischer.
However, his post on closing down business schools has since drawn sharp criticism.
“Most MBAs in India do not teach about business. They teach selling, recruitment, accounting and so on and so forth. So you end up specialising in just one element of management like an engineering course. This model will never build entrepreneurship,” posted one X user.
Another comment read, “Absolutely! We are in dire need of thinkers, problem solvers, investors and strategic implementers in every field.”
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)