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What I learnt and Failed to Learn at B-School !!!

I joined the Management Institute with a very confused mind. Confusion of the degree itself and later the confusion of specialization. But things got clear as I entered the journey of MBA.
So, what were the things I learnt during my MBA?

1. I learnt a few fundamentals (or at least the jargon) in areas such as Human Resources, Marketing, Finance, strategy etc.

2.I learnt that I was in a large crowd of huge peers. My best efforts saw me on top.

3.To my relief, I did learn that I do have a skill or two that were valuable in my world view and that I had it in fair measure...Thankfully, I believed in my own insight.

To cut the long story short my B- School experience provided me with knowledge that was relevant to appreciate management and business.

Above all, it did give me the "thappa" (stamp) of being an “MBA”.

The management knowledge and skills that a B-school provides are necessary, for sure. However, it does not meet the criteria of sufficiency. There are a million or zillion things that are required to sail happily through one's life.

A few of them that I could list here are:

1.Self-belief
Quite sadly, the education system globally is built on a rather dubious scaffolding called 'Relative Grading'. This works against adding to the self-belief. And, not many in a competitive B-school have the innate ability to work around this institutional conspiracy. I guess this is considered too difficult or unimportant by the gurus in the B-school.

2.Dreaming
It is considered an unthinkable part of the syllabus. I have not found courses that allow youngsters to dream, to build fantasies of any kind, to imagine a world that they can build by not worrying about resources or limitations. Expediency, skills, 'realistic assessments' are put on a higher pedestal than dreaming.

3.Cooperation vs. Competition
Successes in life is built around the word called ‘cooperation’. Unfortunately, this is a non-existing and much-loathed term in a B-school system that is built on competition deep inside her DNA. Beating others to a game is a much-celebrated attribute. The gifted horses get trained to do that and end up being champs in 'gaming' the whole field of performance. Looking for a win-win way of dealing with life remains mere jargon learnt at B-school, with neither imagination nor belief to practice it in real life.

4.Choosing your own path
Every happy or success story is an illustration of this truth. B-schools do not look at themselves as ones who will facilitate this inside-out journey. Their allegiance to the courses and demands of the corporate sector are far higher than towards helping a youngster move towards realizing his or her potential. In sum, each individual needs to look at his own way of discovering the million things that he or she needs beyond the courses delivered by a B-school.

"A new era of delivering education with allegiance towards the learner is waiting to happen"

Comments

  1. sheeshanyApril 14, 2010 at 9:20 AM

    Thax 4 this.
    I agree on points 3 & 4 ,

    H.

    ReplyDelete
  2. TusharApril 14, 2010 at 6:13 PM

    very true...point is waiting is not a solution...tapping into character with immeditae actions is the approach expected....
    Tushar

    ReplyDelete

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