Management students have to be resilient, look beyond their dream job and create their dream space to beat the present economic crisis, said P. Mannar Jawahar, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University on Monday.
Delivering the presidential address at a two-day management summit ‘Rethinking the role of an MBA’ organised by the department of management studies, Anna University, Chennai, he said that the modern world was scouting for a generalist in most avenues of business, instead of a specialist in only one subject, so that they could turn around and change the course of the world.
“The world is still recovering from the dregs of recession. Now is the time for implementing the idea of job creation or getting into fields not thought of earlier. Earlier, a management degree was done to enrich only function management skills. But today, it calls for soft-skill development so that managers can get into any field. Students should be resilient. They should consider jobs in sectors that were previously untouched and bring in the cutting-edge knowledge into sectors unexplored before,” he said.
To mark the occasion, Mr. Jawahar released the placement brochure for the 2008-2010 batch consisting of 62 MBA students. The first copy was received by K. Ganesan, Higher Education Secretary. In his presidential address, Mr. Ganesan urged the management students to adapt themselves to changes, come out with quick solutions and find opportunity even in adverse situations.
“Students should seize the opportunity at the right time and come out with quick solutions. Only those who are able to innovate or invent would emerge successful,” he said.
S. Selvam, director, Centre for University Industry Collaboration, said that the summit was meant to rethink the role of MBAs in the current scenario with regard to marketing principles, leadership and engineering biology, among other things.