The new-age BBA: Preparing future leaders with real-world skills

The word business has become a global term encapsulated by many aspiring young business leaders of tomorrow, who when asked, “What are you wanting to study?” Their reply is business. In times gone by their answer would have been accountancy, law, marketing, management, but not today, it is business which when you look at it actually encompasses all these beforementioned disciplines and more. The true focus of the Bachelor of Business Administration degree as opposed to traditional undergraduate degree courses lies in the overall exposure to all key facets of business in the one-degree course.

This model exposes students to the learnings of how business works and operates incorporatingbut not limited to,finance, marketing, human resources, leadership, strategic management, project management, design and creative thinking to effectively solve problems. It is a broad offer, but one which also enables students to figure out their strengths and areas to work on. To further expose students to the operations of a business students are offered a program with orchestrated, specific industry visits to physically experience the real roots of the business at an operational level and the ability to engage with industry professionals face to face in real time.

So, let’s now talk about other exposures the BBA degree offers students to not only practice their academic learnings but the chance to do so in a real business environment. That is to select internships where they actually ‘go to work’ for two or so days a week while still studying, immersing themselves in the corporate world, working alongside seasoned operatives and potential mentors.This sort of real-world exposure can also lead to solid job offers for students’post-graduation and why not? Companies get the chance to host smart students destined for a successful career in business through an internship where they can assess the student’s potential, even nuture them and seehow they may well be a great fitfor the company and offer them a job.

This outcome can save the company significant dollars in relation to the traditional employment approach. The real point here is the importance of the institution creating and maintaining relationships, partnerships with companies involved in diverse industries that have synergies with the institution and the courses on offer. There is no better teacher than the real world!

A good BBA program has the ‘real world’ difference over some of the more academic based undergraduate degrees. One of these real-world opportunities comes by offering business students the chance to study and work in multiple geographic locations, often leading global business hubs where the institution actually has a campus, giving students the opportunity to immerse themselves in different business cultures and practices while studying abroad.

Which leads to a final benefit and point of difference between the modern-day BBA and traditional undergraduate degrees and that being the importance and relevance of soft skills leadership. The BBA today puts a great emphasis on the development of soft skills to the point where some institutions have soft skill related content as credit-basedsubjects in all their courses.

By soft skills I am talking about communication skills, specifically public forum speaking, creating an influential presentation style, understanding human behaviour through emotional intelligence, negotiation skills, networking and creative and design thinking to improve problem solving.

Please do not feel the author has a negative attitude toward traditional undergraduate degree courses as opposed to today’s BBA offer, not at all,just that the BBA has taken tradition and moved business education to a new, broader more encompassing level with a clear objective of creating better rounded leaders of the future.

(The author is Assistant Professor- General Management/ Lecturer at SP Jain School of Global Management)