Emerging MBA Specialisations You Must Know About

Henesh Rawat October 5, 2020 50 0

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In the past few years, various new MBA specializations have emerged in India. Read all about some of the emerging MBA specialisations you choose from.

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Gone are the days when an MBA degree was restricted to areas like Marketing, Finance, Operations, General Management and Human Resources. With Indian markets opening up to the world and the world opening up to Indian talent; the scope of MBA degree and degree holders has taken a giant leap.

Today, a management degree is not desirable but necessary. At the same time, the entire talent pool cannot be expected to compete in the few basic areas of Business Management. Also, not every individual aims to pursue a career in them.

MBA programmes have been offering training and skills in the traditional areas of business function for a very long time. However, in the past few years, various new branches of specializations have emerged in Indian B-School market. MBA in Family Business, Clinical Research Management, Criminal Justice, Agriculture, Knowledge Management, etc. are offered by several top B-Schools in India.

Students abroad have opportunities to pursue Management courses in Art School, Wine & Spirit, Football Industry, Music Business, Horse Racing Industries and many more such niche fields. While it may take some time for MBA programmes in such industries to come to India, we already have a few new specialisations gradually emerging on the domestic front. Here’s taking a look at a few niche specializations in management recently introduced by B-Schools in India.

MBA in Strategic Media and Entertainment

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR) launched a brand new management programme in media and entertainment industry, in 2017. Programme in Strategic Media & Entertainment Management (PSMEM) is an 11-month programme to produce thoroughbred media professionals, with the help of extensive and insightful experiences of top industry professionals and SPJIMR faculty. Its structure and curriculum is designed in accordance with the media & entertainment (M&E) industry’s current and future skill set requirements. PSMEM includes every general management subject — Marketing, HR, Finance, Economics – to be studied through an M&E perspective.

MBA in Artificial Intelligence

SPJIMR also launched — Reinventing Business with IoT, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and IoT in Supply Chain. These courses teach participants how to build their own IoT devices, deploy them in the real world and monitor their working by using cloud services to access data and download them.The aim is to equip participants with knowledge of technology which they can use to improve business in the world moving fast towards automation.

AI and Robotics is offered by IIM Bangalore and IIM Kozhikode, while at IIM Calcutta and others AI is a part of business and data analytics course.

MBA in Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts is a niche field which has emerged as an area of business opportunity in the past few years. Several top-notch B-Schools have launched degree/diploma courses in Liberal Arts. Foraying into a yet another discipline, SPJIMR launched a new course in Management and Liberal Arts in 2017. The PGDM equivalent course, MaLA, is designed to widen students range and perspective and to encourage an understanding of the social, political and cultural contexts that shape business and life. It offers an unconventional method to examine the opportunities and challenges in the business world. At the launch of this programme, Prof Bindu Kulkarni, Associate Programme Head, PGDM said, ”We wanted our students to develop and appreciate a whole brained approach – right-brained (creative, intuitive) and left brain (structured, rational) to the increasingly complex situations that they are likely to encounter in the real world.”

MBA in Design Management

The Fashion and Design industry has always been one of the most attractive fields for career building but has been largely dependent on the organisational skills of designers and other creative artists. The need for business management of large fashion houses and brands have led to the rise of MBA in Design Management. One of the few Indian B-Schools offering this course is the MIT Institute of Design (Pune). MIT’s two-year programme has been designed to train and equip students viz management skills in the field of Designing. The aim of this course is to build future design leaders who have practical knowledge of design and implementation. The two years course will include intensive study of design methods and approaches, design and innovation, industry domain exposure/Internship, supply chain management, brand experience, etc.

MBA in Fisheries

The programme, MBA-Fisheries Enterprises Management, is designed to cater to the sector vis-a-vis job opportunities in aqua farming, hatchery, aqua clinics, aqua shops, fish feed manufacturing, seafood processing and export, seafood restaurant and eateries, organised seafood retailing, ornamental fish culture, fishing gear and craft manufacturing units, deep sea fishing sector, commercial fisheries undertaking of government and laboratory services towards fisheries. Candidates will also get to learn entrepreneurial skills in case they wish to start their own business in the sector.

MBA in Sports Managment

MBA in Sports Management is a yet another niche specialisation which has emerged in a big way in India. With the launch of a number of premiere leagues in Cricket, Hockey, Kabaddi, Badminton and other sports in the last decade, sports management companies have mushroomed rapidly. According to a report, the Indian Sports Industry currently contributes to 0.01-0.05% of its GDP and may soon compete with European markets in terms of investments and money flow.

The MBA in Sports Management programme is designed to equip students with leadership ability and administrative expertise including planning and decision-making skills. The students are imparted training to manage the various domains related to sports management such as operations, finance, human resource, research, analytics, sports laws, sports technology, and related areas.

In India, the MBA in Sports Management programme is offered by a very few of B-Schools which includes Symbiosis School of Sports Science, IIM Rohtak, National Sports University, Global Institute of Sports Business-Mumbai, MBA ESG-Bengaluru and International Institute of Sports Management, Mumbai.