JOIN USWant to be a finance person or a marketing professional
An aspirant wishing to pursue an MBA from a reputed Business School in the country will be overwhelmed by looking at the specialisations being offered by the B Schools. Many reputed B Schools offer several specialisations including marketing, finance, operations, human resources management, information systems, business analytics, innovation and entrepreneurship, infrastructure management, operations and supply chain management, sports management, insurance management etc.
Two specialisation options which are very popular among students are — marketing and finance. Aspirants generally look for the earning potential, skill set and the scope of the job profile offered while they make the choice of their elective. As marketing and finance are very popular, let’s draw a comparison between MBA in Finance and MBA in Marketing and compare them to understand the opportunities that they offer to aspirants and the skill set that one must have to excel by pursuing the specialisation of their choice.
Marketing as a functional area involves planning, organising, directing and controlling the promotion of various products and services with clients and customers. The prime objective of a marketing and sales professional would be to increase the sales of a product or service through advertising, public relations, corporate branding, and market research.
Finance as a functional area involves computation, handling investments, budgeting money and allocating funds and money management. A finance professional would be expected to deal with a lot of number crunching activities to ensure optimal utilisation of the funds of the company. Be it analysis of financial trends, investment option decisions, equity analysis or portfolio management — all of these activities involve mathematical calculations.
Skill sets
To ensure a higher probability of success in a specialised career in finance or marketing, a candidate must have certain skills. Some skill sets are generic and some are very specific. Generic skill sets like the ability to communicate and having basic analytical ability are expected from all who pursue an MBA. Specific skill sets required to be a successful MBA Finance graduate are the ability to do number crunching, having high analytical skills and a passion to solve problems using numeric data. But if an aspirant has the ability to generate creative ideas, has outstanding communication skills, the ability and power to persuade people and also has high perseverance along with the ability to handle pressure and targets, then an MBA in Marketing would be a better option.
Both MBA in Marketing and an MBA in Finance differ in their curriculum and courses. A specialisation in finance will have subjects like advanced financial management, hedge funds, risk management, international finance, security and portfolio management, financial institutes and markets and others which focus on finance and financial management. A specialisation in marketing will have subjects like brand management, digital marketing, customer relationship management, marketing research, rural marketing, integrated marketing communication and others which focus on marketing management.
Job opportunities
The job profiles that an aspirant would get after completing their MBA in Marketing are different from the job profiles that are offered to an MBA in Finance graduate. MBA in Marketing students would get opportunities where their creative ability is tested, and their ability to innovate and tenacity to work under pressure will be valued. A candidate is expected to have a positive attitude, be enthusiastic, and have a zeal to interact with customers to sell or promote their product or service.
MBA in Finance students will be working and juggling with numbers and be involved in forecasting, analysing market trends and focusing on optimum utilisation of resources. They would also be involved in the analysis of financial statement and prepare financial trend analysis. Both marketing and finance graduates will get phenomenal exposure to the core of the business as these are the prime functional areas for any organisation which focus either on product and service.
Both finance and marketing are lucrative options and have the potential to give exponential growth and potential opportunities for generating wealth. The salary that a graduate would get would depend on several factors, which includes — the B school from which he or she is graduating, the nature and type of the company offering the job, the job profile offered, the geographical location of work, the status of economy etc.
With the advancement in technology and with the influence of information technology in almost all fields, aspirants who specialise in both marketing and finance must focus and learn relevant IT tools. There are several visualisation and presentation tools which can be of great value and use to students.
(The writer is director, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune)