The MBA is not dead. The old version of it is.

When Nikhil Kamath, co-founder of Zerodha, questioned the relevance of the MBA, the reaction was expectedly sharp. Many found themselves asking an old question with new urgency: Does a formal business degree still matter when knowledge is available everywhere?

In 2026, a student can learn pricing strategy on YouTube, financial modelling through an online course, consumer behaviour through podcasts, and AI tools through short tutorials. The Internet has made learning more open than ever before.

But access to information is not the same as education. A marketing framework can be learned in an afternoon. Understanding when not to use it takes far longer. A financial model can be downloaded. Knowing which assumption will collapse under pressure requires experience, questioning and feedback. A leadership lesson can be watched online. Leading people through discomfort, conflict, and deadlines is a different skill altogether.

This is why the MBA debate cannot be reduced to “online learning versus classroom learning.” The issue is whether the MBA is still developing judgment, adaptability and professional maturity. If it is not, criticism is justified. If it is, the degree still has a serious role to play.

Recent employability reports in India show that, while the country’s overall employability is improving, there is a gap between being qualified and being workplace-ready. A credible MBA cannot be treated as a placement machine. It has to become a preparation ground for decision-making.

In hiring rooms, the degree still works as a signal. Not because an MBA graduate is automatically better but because the degree offers some evidence that the student has been tested through deadlines, presentations, team projects, faculty feedback, internships, cases, and peer competition. For many Indian students, especially those from middle-class and first-generation professional families, the MBA is a bridge to networks, career mobility and a different economic future.

One part of the debate that rarely gets enough attention is how much serious business schools have changed internally. The old model — fixed syllabus, lectures, exams and placements — produced too many students who could repeat concepts but struggled to apply them. The stronger institutions are moving away from that. Curriculum reviews are becoming more industry-linked. The uncomfortable questions are now central to the process: What are graduates missing? Where do they struggle in the first six months? What skills are becoming non-negotiable? Which classroom habits no longer match workplace realities?

The answers are rarely about one more textbook chapter. They are about problem structuring, communication, data interpretation, ethical decision-making, AI fluency, collaboration and resilience. This is where the new MBA is being built. Not by abandoning academic depth, but by connecting it more honestly with practice.

A common criticism of business education is that it is too theoretical. There is some truth in this when theory is taught without context. But rejecting the theory altogether is equally risky. Concepts help professionals make sense of messy situations. A consumer behaviour theory helps a marketer understand why people buy, resist, trust, ignore, or switch. A strategy framework gives structure to uncertainty. Practice without concepts can become a habit. Concepts without practice can become jargon. The real value lies in the combination.

A good MBA classroom should not ask students to memorise what a leader did in a famous case. It should ask why the decision worked, what assumptions supported it, what could have gone wrong, and what they would do differently in another market. That is the difference between learning business language and learning business thinking.

The MBA is not dead. But the old version of it is certainly under pressure. Any programme that still depends only on lectures, attendance, generic projects, and placement brochures will find it harder to defend its relevance.

The MBA that survives will be more applied, more reflective, and more honest about outcomes. It will teach AI as part of managerial work; make students comfortable with data, but not blind to human behaviour; build communication, but not as surface-level confidence; expose students to industry problems before they enter the workplace. Most importantly, it will teach students how to think when there is no perfect answer.

India does not need a shallow debate on whether the MBA is good or bad. It needs a more useful question: which business schools are genuinely preparing students for the economy India is becoming? The degree is not dead. The comfortable, outdated, passive version of it is. Perhaps that is exactly the disruption business education needed.

The writer is an Associate Professor of Marketing, JAGSoM Business School, Bengaluru.