By Archit Gupta,Education And Careers Desk,News18

Copyright news18

By Prof. Jyotsna Bhatnagar
In the past decade, management education has advanced well beyond the conventional boundaries of finance, marketing, and operations. While these areas will always be fundamental to business leadership, today’s unpredictable economy, fuelled by digital disruption and shaped by technology, requires a new mix of capabilities.
This has given rise to new-age MBA specialisations that focus on pressing challenges facing industries across the globe, including sustainability, people analytics, and globalisation.
Why New Specialisations Are Emerging?
Organisations today are undergoing some of the most significant changes ever seen. Supply chains are being redefined globally, AI is changing how many roles are performed and even which roles exist, climate change is redefining acceptable corporate social responsibility, and consumer behaviour is in flux.
This level of demand has fueled the emergence of MBA elective tracks such as GenAI for Business, Locational AI, Mapping and Geospatial Business, Responsible AI Principles, Tools and Frameworks, HR Analytics, and Sustainability and ESG, all of which address relevant organisational challenges in the real world.
GenAI For Business: This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of how Generative AI is radically impacting the business environment, disrupting traditional ways of conducting business. As corporations explore AI prospects, understanding its foundational concepts, including technical parlance, becomes a prerequisite for steering change and sustaining a competitive advantage in a digital world. Action research orientation and experiential learning through AI tools and models give students an edge.
Locational AI, Mapping And Geospatial Business: New-age technology and geospatial business are poised to become the new normal, with business turnover expected to reach billions of dollars within five years. This course provides experiential learning in locational AI, mapping, and geospatial product and platform development for contemporary business solutions.
It explores why and how geospatial transformation is critical in certain industries and how managerial decision-making is affected by locational AI, the open virtual world, and geospatial dimensions, making digital transformation a necessary skill to master.
Responsible AI Principles, Tools And Frameworks: Understanding Responsible AI, ethical guidelines, and data privacy and compliance is fundamental in the digital landscape. Hands-on experiential training ensures students learn compliance boundaries and avoid irresponsible AI usage. Understanding ethical aspects of AI tools and frameworks is a core focus of this course.
HR Analytics: Turning Data Into Decisions
As organisations generate large volumes of data, the ability to interrogate, model, and interpret that data for decision-making becomes paramount. Electives in HR Analytics train students in technical aspects like predictive modelling, sophisticated research tools, and dashboard analysis. They also develop the critical management skill of asking the right business questions, understanding data quality, and ensuring skilled manpower can read data effectively. Making sense of data is a key competency for future leaders.
Sustainability And ESG: From Compliance To Strategy
What was once a peripheral exercise in CSR is now at the heart of corporate strategy. As climate risk disclosures increase, the move to renewable energy accelerates, and the investment community prioritises sustainable business, expertise in ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) is increasingly important. ESG concepts are now embedded across all courses.
What Skills Do These New-Age MBAs Build?
Key common skills include:
Ethical and responsible leadership: Values-based leadership, not just profit-focused, is crucial to respond to modern challenges.
Critical thinking and problem-solving: Future leaders must navigate complexity and ambiguity.
Digital and data literacy: The Ability to interpret numbers and technology is essential.
Cross-disciplinary knowledge: Interdisciplinary focus on technology, economics, and social sciences.
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Career Pathways And Global Opportunities
Global demand for sustainability managers, data-driven strategists, and creators of adaptive strategies facilitates mobility for Indian graduates to the Middle East, Europe, Southeast Asia, and India. Consulting firms, financial services, FMCG sectors, and conglomerates are actively hiring talent skilled in these emerging competencies.
Looking Ahead
For students, the key message is that depth and agility matters. For institutions, the challenge is to continue innovating to ensure business education remains relevant and prepares leaders for tomorrow’s unpredictable economy.
(The Author is the Dean of Graduate Programmes at MDI Gurgaon. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.)