Hi Adil,

I would need to know more about your family business to recommend a specific school. If it is manufacturing-based, you will want a school with a strong operations department. If it is high-tech you should look for a curriculum with a strong technology component. If you are looking to expand internationally, a strong international business school in the US or abroad would make sense.

If you plan to run the family business, you will want to be sure that you have a broad skill base. Take plenty of general management courses as well as fundamental courses in all the basic disciplines. This will help you hire and manage talented individuals in all areas.

If you are currently in your last year of undergraduate work, you would need to work for several years before being an attractive candidate for a top business school. A few years working at a lower level in your family company would give you excellent insights into the problems and opportunities you will eventually have to handle. That would help you choose a school and curriculum that is best for you. The practical knowledge gained while working would also add immeasurably to what you would get out of your MBA studies.

Tani

Hi Tani,
Thanks a lot for your guidance.
My dad has a firm that produces as well as is a dealer of automobile batteries,its in a small scale for now.Its not tech based,moreover its workers based which requires a proper management.
Can you please let me know what are the "general management courses as well as fundamental courses in all the basic disciplines "you are relating to??
And does it matter if i work for a year in a local firm(relating to my family business) on doing an mba or its necessary to do it with a well recognized firm that counts as an " experience " for MBA college admissions.


Thanks,
Adil Shaikh.

Working with an established firm would give you a much better perspective on management and the skills that you will need to acquire to run a successful business. If the local firm is very much like your family business it would not teach you much that your family business does not already know.

For general management skills, take a look at the required courses for top-tier schools such as Harvard. They will cover all the basic business functions. You can then look at the elective courses available to see what other courses might be relevant. MIT has a program called "open courseware" that posts online the outlines and lectures from many of their courses. They are free. You might find it useful to download a few of their MBA courses to get a feel for the material likely to be covered.

You are right to note that your labor-based business will need skills relating to management of people. Today's MBA programs increasingly cover topics such as leadership that should be very helpful in that area.