An Interview with Dr. Ajantha Dharmasiri

With over two decades of experience in the Industry and as a Management Consultant, what is the significance of the MBA in the broader spectrum?
With changing demands in the business world today enterprises need more professionals to drive businesses ahead. MBA essentially caters for developing professionals who are with a holistic view approach a situation with a systematic manner, by using the body of knowledge and specific skills to produce results in a sustainable manner.

Lot of professionals undertake MBAs. What is so special about the MBA that stands out among MSc's or MAs?

The important difference between MBA and other Masters programmes is that the MBA is about "applying." The Application orientation trains a person to appropriately apply a particular concept to a specific situation. The twin aspect of understanding the concept and application defines the MBA as opposed to technical specialisms such as MSc or MA and develop professionalism.

With your expertise in Human Resources and decades of exposure in public and private sector work environments, how does the MBA give a person the comparative advantage over peers?
Having gone through that transformational experience myself as I started off as an Engineer and then an MBA, I could say that an MBA trains a person with a holistic view. This enables to enhance functional knowledge from a cylindrical view to a chronicle view. This "interconnectedness" transforms the employee to be multi-functional with a broader prospective of the business and of business realities, challenges, new ways of looking at issues and produce out of the box solutions. Our faculty past experience at PIM in talking to the Alumni of MBA holders, the biggest factor that makes them stand out is the "self confidence" they have gained in experimenting, innovating new pathways and questioning the traditional way of doing things, the ability to think on feet for the MBA inculcates a mindset to tackle issues in an integrated manner. Simultaneously, an MBA enhances the market value of a person. As for entrepreneurs, they will have professionals producing value for their organisations in a sustainable manner at the end of the day. The ultimate outcome is the birth of a powerful social network sharing calibre and leading to dynamic forces within organisations pursuing higher benchmarks in professionalism.

Being a Senior Faculty member attached to the Post graduate Institute of Management (PIM) of university of Sri Jayewardenepura, How would you define a good MBA programme in line with the current business demands?
The curriculum of an MBA is critical. Success of an MBA programme depends on the aspects: "knowledge factor", "skills factor", "attitude transformation" and "time dimension". The knowledge factor is to maintain the up to date cutting edge knowledge and essential body of knowledge. The skills factor must inculcate or enhance skills in analysis, application, documentation, presentation, problem solving, relations building, negotiation and leading which are some essential skills in bringing professionalism to work. The most critical aspect as for me is the "attitudal dimension". Speaking from my own experience becoming an MBA is a "transformational" experience, for changing a person's own attitude to fundamentally challenge and stretch one's capacity to cope with many fronts and priorities and maintain work-life balance.

The time dimension must cater for strategic and operational aspects of the business for sustainability in the long term. Accreditation system and Quality assurance are of paramount importance in defining a standard MBA. In my opinion the success of an MBA programme reflects essentially on its Alumni network. I am proud that PIM being the pioneering MBA offering institution in Sri Lanka has produced over forty CEOs so far. This is owing to the fact that our MBA programme is based on "quality and relevance: the local relevance and global quality"

Finally MBA and the employability, how does this relate to academic knowledge and practicality?
The author Adolf Huxley once said that "at the end of the day what matters is not how much you know but how much you have done". The purpose of the MBA is to produce professionals not theoreticians. This is exactly why "being an MBA" as opposed to "having an MBA" will bring out professionals with a holistic view, applying knowledge more systematically, bringing new ideas to the table, will deliver results for long-term sustainability of an organisation. Thus, MBA is essentially employability and what is best, professionalism.

With the invaluable knowledge and time shared, our heart felt gratitude to Dr. Ajantha
Dharmasiri, for featuring for the MBA supplement.