In the 1950s, the business schools came into vogue. The students who enrolled were engineers who acquired management vocabulary , but not necessarily the skill set.

Between 1974-78, there was a massive decline in jobs for students of humanities. Those who majored in music, history, literature and liberal arts joined MBA. The batch had both engineers and non-engineers.

In 1980s and early 1990s, private universities such as Harvard, Wharton, MIT, Northwestern, Stanford asked for work experience after undergrad degrees. As a result, people with 5-6 years experience joined business scools. These students, 75 per cent of them, go into either investment banking or consulting.

The proposed model expects business schools to run a one-year course instead of two years course.The specialisation could be in terms of discipline , say Finance or industry, say Telecom. The courses are to be designed around employability.

This write up is based on interview of Jagdish Sheth, Professor of Marketing, Emory University.