Management implies the qualities of leadership and capacity to motivate people to work in order to achieve clearly defined objectives. It requires taking decisions based on numerous economic and other factors. Planning, scheduling, decision-making, controlling, etc., requires information where as evaluation of technical economic and other factors make management techniques important. A manager is involved in managing workers, materials, processes and their interactions.

Management is an interdisciplinary science that takes concepts from all the social sciences. It uses economics to determine costs and allocate prices, sociology to understand values and organizational behavior of employee, statistics and mathematics to help in predicting, forecasting and planning, logic to draw rational conclusions, law to understand the rules and political theory and understand hierarchy and power.

Management has become one of the most sought after careers today. With the advent of globalization and entry of multinationals business ethics have undergone drastic changes in our country. Gone are the days when the owner of a company was the master and the employee a servant irrespective of the post that the later held in the company. The business community in India has today recognized the need to strengthen its operational base with systematic and efficient management practices. Companies are becoming more streamlined and professionalised, and in the process, creating a huge demand for competent personnel at all levels. The need for professional management is being felt even in the non-commercial areas such as health, welfare and development and education. For aspirants in the employment market this has opened limitless opportunity in diverse spheres with the promise of rewards in the form of good remuneration, status, and scope for professional and personal growth.

Educational Qualification:
By obtaining right qualifications and training one can gain entry into this career quite easily. Entry into this career is also possible by becoming a specialist in one of the cross functional areas viz hospital management, hotel management, rural management etc., or by starting as a trainee in an organization that offers a career in management. Companies however prefer to recruit business graduates, as they tend to learn jobs faster and are more capable of handling responsibility.

However one has to be careful in choosing the institute before seeking admission to pursue management studies since it matters a great deal for a career in management Taking advantage of the great demand, many dubious institutes, offering management courses, have also come up. Even otherwise, sometimes the syllabus may be outdated and not up to the mark. On the other hand management qualification obtained from a prestigious institution, like any of the IIMs, is highly rated in the market and guarantees a well-paid job.

It is important to remember that MBA degree in India can only be awarded by an University or a deemed university. All the other institutes including the Indian Institutes of Management offer Postgraduate Diploma. These programs are usually of 2-year duration, which includes 6-8 weeks summer training in between the first and second year. A Bachelor’s degree is essential for seeking admission in these programs.

The undergraduate courses or BBS/BBA/BBM or Diploma in Management programs are three-year courses offered by a few universities/ institutes and is open to students who have completed 10+2. Birla Institute of Technology (BITS) at Pilani, Rajasthan conducts a five year integrated management course (MMS), which is open to students who have passed 10+2 with Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics.

The most sought after are the two year MBA courses offered after graduation by the prestigious business schools like the IIMs at Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow, Bangalore, Indore and Calicut, Xavier’s Labor Relations Institute, Jamshedpur and so on. Candidates in their final year of graduation may also apply for admission. A written examination known as CAT (Common Admission Test) is held in December each year by the IIMs. Details on CAT are available under ‘Exams’. Other institutes hold separate exams for admission. Some of the other renowned B-Schools in India are given below:

• Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi
• Jamanlal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
• Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneshwar
• Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune
• Management Development Institute, Gurgaon
• S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research Mumbai
• Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
• T.A. Pai Management Institute Manipal

Foreign MBA degrees, especially from UK and US, are also quite a rage among Indian students. Getting into a good B-School in US is not only tough but may also be expensive without financial aid/scholarship. Moreover management programs in US universities require work experience of at least 2-3 years. More details on this may be seen in ‘Study Abroad’.