Data MBA is the new deal: MBA students with data management skills can command high salaries

In a recent study, AIM Research, a consultancy, reported that there are 1,37,870 open jobs related to data analytics (in June 2021). This is the highest number of jobs ever recorded in this field, and an increase of 47.1% over the number of jobs reported in June 2020.

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October 11, 2021 01:30 IST

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By VV Ravi Kumar

Industry has begun looking for managerial talent that is comfortable working with data. In response, some business schools have introduced MBA courses with ‘business analytics’ as a specialisation. The pandemic has disrupted conventional supply chains, and there is higher adoption of digital. The shift in consumer buying behaviour has resulted in a rich store of data, which calls for managers capable of handling huge data sets. The post-pandemic world is expected to be highly data-driven; problem-solving and decision-making will become analytical, using business data sets.

In the days to come, data management is expected to increase both the number and variety of roles from industry. Students with data-related skill sets are expected to land jobs such as customer success analysts, analytics managers, pricing analysts, marketing analysts, operations analysts, sales analysts, etc.

MBA students are traditionally oriented towards functional areas like marketing, finance, HR and operations, and generally try and avoid technical data-oriented courses especially those with a non-mathematics background. But the unfolding scenario requires MBA students to develop some sort of data-related skills. They need to combine the basic knowledge of traditional business domains as well as the rich data repository being generated all around businesses for a successful career. The ability to analyse data sets can enable managers identify patterns, gain insights, develop business strategies and make sound management decisions.

In this VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), decisions are increasingly going to be data-driven. MBA students with data management skills can have a head start and even possibly command higher pay packages compared to those who don’t have such skills.

The author is deputy director, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune. Views are personal

This article was first uploaded on October eleven, twenty twenty-one, at thirty minutes past one in the night.