Faculty Speak
Q What are the Growth drivers for operations as career option in India?
Initially operations were more about managing a plant and environment was not very competitive in India. One or two dominating players existed. Over the past one and a half decade, competition has flourished across sectors and new business paradigms have evolved. Emphasis on cost reduction and product quality, competition, emergence of services as a dominant sector and a growing business environment with global perspectives are the growth drivers for operations in India.
Q What are the emerging applications of Operations Research in India?
A very few companies like TATA STEEL, JK TYRES, ACC had an Operations Research departments initially, but now things have changed as companies are focused on developing in-house capability for developing OR solutions and also, there are companies developing OR based solutions to be sold to other companies as well (KPO's data centers, data analytics), this side of business is evolving very fast in India. OR was initially linked to manufacturing sector but now other sectors like healthcare have an immense scope for OR applications in terms of maximizing value to the customer etc.
Q Do you think a formal MBA degree is required in operations management in today’s business scenario?
Operations applications require a certain skill set, hence people have to be trained. Professionals with or without prior experience need to learn good OR tools to manage with reduced margin of error. Decisions are to be taken considering all the aspects like finance , marketing , operations in business, a degree in MBA gives you an exposure to apply right tools to maximise overall value. This is where the MBA in operations comes in handy .
Q How much is prior work experience important in Operations helpful while pursuing MBA with majors in Operations?
According to me, I believe that a prior experience in the operations field can help an individual take more from a MBA degree than a fresher. But freshers who are wiling to learn, have the right attitude and a sharpened skill set have a very good chance of doing exceedingly well in operations.
Q There is a lot of talk about Big Data revolutionizing our lives. What are the practical implementations that are possible in the near future with Big Data with respect to Operations?
It will only help if you have the capability of asking the right questions, as in the OR tools, and data analysis will only help if you know what you want from the data, what your end objectives are. In fact OR has become more relevant now with availability of data mining tools which can provide critical insights if we ask the right questions.
Q Your advice to students who are pursuing operations at FMS -
If students have a prior experience, they like to go in for a role of a consultant in operations. Also for fresher I suggest the no. of live projects they do, the better it is. It will help them understand the field clearly and develop interest and in depth knowledge. Also the no. of students taking up this field for MBA majors has increased over the last 4-5 years.
Dr Amit Bardhan
FMS, Delhi