Why current MBA programmes need a dose of Anthropology

A few years ago, when a global coffee chain first entered India, it expected to win over a market of young urban consumers. Instead, it found that traditional filter coffee and cutting chai, steeped in decades of ritual and regional pride, held a far stronger hold over consumers than anticipated. This offered a key lesson: a business’ success depends not only on its economics but also on understanding the people’s ecosystem. Anthropology, the study of human cultures and behaviours, equips future business leaders with exactly this kind of insight.

Rethinking syllabi

Business cannot be done in isolation from the Humanities. To understand growth, it is necessary to understand its primary driver: people. The National Education Policy 2020 urges every higher education institution to ensure that professional training involves the Humanities for graduates to develop “social, ethical and emotional capacities” alongside cognitive skills. This has already nudged business schools to rethink their syllabi and include electives on design thinking, behavioural finance modules, and ethics labs. A Future Civilisation Leadership Programme (FCLP), which will teach students and future leaders to think not only about how to scale, but also what should be scaled, is also required.

Today’s MBA graduates are entering a world in which data is a commodity. What distinguishes an astute leader from a competent manager is the contextual intelligence to decipher cultural cues, understand human motivations, and create inclusive strategies. Anthropology provides a way to accomplish this, as it is rooted in field observation. A fundamental tool is ethnographic research, which enables students to observe, analyse, and react to the lived realities of communities, workers, and consumers. In a nation like India, where diversity is profoundly cultural rather than merely linguistic or geographic, this is especially important.

An MBA graduate with an anthropological mindset learns to not only ask “what is happening?” but also “why is it happening?” This is an extremely valuable question in fields ranging from supply chain and digital transformation to marketing and human resources.

It is not necessary to disrupt current curricula to integrate anthropology into the B-school ecosystem. The idea is to bring in thoughtful integration. For example, introduce a foundational course in year one that teaches ethnography, cultural mapping, and case studies from the real world. Second, use guided fieldwork to replace abstract live projects, such as living in low-income neighbourhoods, figuring out how people spend their money, or comprehending informal economies. Third, use cross-disciplinary workshops to integrate anthropology with marketing, product design, and human resources. Fourth, narrative labs can teach students how to use storytelling, rituals, and symbols as means of fostering belonging and trust rather than merely as marketing gimmicks.

Students should receive training in self-awareness, emotional control, ethical decision-making, and systems thinking, in addition to entrepreneurship. In addition to learning how to create businesses, they should also learn how to manage people, organisations, and reimagine the future of work.

FCLP design

Immersion learning is the foundation of FCLP. The first year can be devoted to self-discovery via design, philosophy, systems thinking, and silence. Students can be challenged as they progress to the second year to create a business that reflects their values. In the third year, they could be thrust into the real world, working in start-ups, hitchhiking in both rural and urban areas, and keeping journals of their experiences. With strategic leadership roles, year four can lead to enhanced execution. Throughout, students can participate in “service immersions” where they gain empathy and humility by working as customer service executives, blue-collar technicians, or community volunteers. Building what matters can be the focus of the fifth year. All of the learning can then be integrated into the sixth year through instruction, public reflection, and pilgrimage.

Unlike MBA programmes that focus on “how to win”, the core should be teaching you why it matters, what needs to be safeguarded, and how to become a good leader. To produce leaders who understand human dignity as well as how to scale businesses, we must do more than simply modify current programmes. We must pose more significant queries: What sort of leaders are we hoping to develop? What sort of world would we like them to create?

Our business schools need to start teaching more than just profit and performance. This can be achieved by incorporating anthropology into the MBA syllabus or by adopting a paradigm shift ideology like FCLP. The emphasis lies on imparting wisdom, culture, ethics, and empathy, as the most humane leaders will be the most valuable in a world where machines dominate.

The writer is the founder and CEO of Agilisium

Published – February 21, 2026 08:00 pm IST