How Useful Is Doing Ph.D. for a B-school Teacher? Is It Worth It?

I would like to thank one of my friends for asking this very relevant question. I would be answering the question and at the same time look into the problems business schools are facing as a result of which we hardly have any good faculties left.

The hallmark of the MBA course is that after completion the students are ready to serve the industry. They do not just carry a certficate unlike many other academic UG and PG courses. Once they start work their certificates have no value. But their performance does.

In such a scenario all the people who want to teach in business schools should come from the industry with a minimum of five years experience. But that is not the case in India for two reasons. The more important one is the compensation offered. Unlike developed countries like USA and many in Europe. Other than a handful of good institutions it is peanuts here. But instead of bringing down the huge difference in what the industry pays and what an experienced and deserving b-school faculty earns the regulator has made entry into this profession even more difficult. This is where the Ph.D. comes in.

Now we have two queues of people applying in b-schools. The Ph.D. and the non-Ph.D. The first one is much smaller. You do not need any corporate experience to stand in that queue. Just a Ph.D. in something which may have nothing to do with what you will teach for the rest of your life. On the other hand you will find people with loads of experience in the industry standing in the longer queue and fighting with most of the ordinary faculties for a job or a promotion.

I never want to offend the meritorious who have done their Ph.D., who are contributing with their experience in the industry and excellent teaching. But I am sorry to say that they are a minority in India's b-schools.

How useful is doing Ph.D.? May be people in the smaller queue will be able to answer this question much better. But students value what you have brought into the classroom from the industry. Not the pages you have read and remembered from any good textbook.