What does an MBA do to me?

"What does b-school do to ordinary mortals that organized businesses pay multiples of what they would do to the same mortal a b-year (ISB time) younger?"

At the time, I remember the b-grad i'd addressed this question to, mumbling something about "a valuable business orientation" .... "attitude" .."mindset", reinforcing my suspicion that this thing was a massive con job.

Right through ISB, I kept asking myself this question - mainly to disabuse myself of the notion that companies would pay top dollar just because I was an MBA. I wanted to get a feel of what i would "do", and gauge for myself how much it could be worth.

I managed to accumulate a few answers on the way, and here's my attempt to record them.

1. B-school, first and foremost, is a signalling mechanism - which basically tells the recruiter that here is a brightish young lad/lass who's managed to get through a very rigorous admission process, and has emerged -if not better- at least better suited to working in a business environment. In other words, even if a one-stop shop for ready-made above-average talent.

2. In spite of the widely propagated notion that good businesses are scientifically run, with loads of extremely important mathematical formulae applied with great rigor and detail, the wise recruiter knows it is not so (except in some industries). It isn't so, but it can't really hurt to have someone who knows the lingo. And I don't have to spend on training my engineers or accountants which i can't do even if I did.

(I think the possible exception to all this is a MBA-finance, which to my untrained mind, really does resemble something approaching a science, and those blokes get paid astronomical sums, which are actually a tiny proportion of the profits they could make in astonishingly short timespans for companies with minimal manpower and cash at their disposal.)

3. B-education, while not the most rigorous education system, does include a set of tools like data analysis, MR, optimization models, all of which are tools borrowed from other academic streams, but in combination with an understanding of business motivation help in establishing some credibility to business decision-making.

4. Probably the best thing B-school does to normal people is stuff them with a whole load of stories - of business going from bad to good, or vice versa - and lots of conversation about why whatever happened, happened. So it seems like there's always a precedent that mirrors your business issues, and some parallel you can use to understand your problems better.

5. Team Player: B-school has a weird way of teachin' you teamwork - a. it starts off by surrounding you with the brightest people you'll ever see together within a confined area. b. Of the few remaining dregs of ego that you might have left sticking to your insides, it swiftly proceeds to dispose by dumping on you a workload that makes you crumple up your pride and beg even the most knuckleheaded teammate to tender a helping hand. In essence, with b-school, you have a set of people who can work with a 700 lb, slightly blind gorilla with a migraine, if they have to. Fairly useful talent, come to think of it.

6. Finally, i think it has sort of infiltrated corporate habits, resulting in a situation where no one's really thinking about different kind of people who might do better in management positions. Its a mite unfair, but it kind of improves with schools like ISB, where students are a something-MBA - (a jewellery designer + MBA, a fighter pilot + MBA, an engineer-MBA). On the assumption that we do really manage to get bright people through current admission practices, I think it is a better way to go than to hire total nincompoops with just degrees to their names.

What are you reading?

So is this blog going to turn out to be an MBA FAQ?

If it is, why am I doing it?

Who cares anyway?

Good questions, all.

Let's try and take them one by one - (my posts keep havin' these existential crises! and these questions need to be revisited every once in a while to remind myself even. )

Well, no. It isn't - it is actually s'pposed to chart my journey into "suit-life". But life at ISB was such a steep learning curve - that i am compelled to record even miniscule lessons cos' they were so hard-learned. And knowing these things would have made my life so much easier (if less fun !). I had a "strategy' when i went into ISB, and this base strategy kept getting revised, modified and mutated with a sort of dynamic implementation schedule (whatever that means!)

Hence these "gyaan posts". Not to worry though - i am scheduled to cover the rest of ISB in about a couple of posts (or less), and we'll move to talking about life after MBA. (as you can see my blog life lags my real life by a few months).

Second - well - honestly - i am nobody to preach - was never a role model but i have to honest here and admit that i love going over those days again - revisit every think-point and every decision and re-evaluate how it turned out. And record it! I would love it if someone would disagree with me or bung in a new p.o.view. The idea is to put something on the table. It can be left there or dissected or whatever - i don't care. Further morphs of this blog will depend on what people want out of it - but until that arrives, i am free to hold forth :-)

Well - this blog here isn't my claim to coolness - Its just plain vanilla - and I don't expect it to do wonders for the old' ratings and in that sense, i am fine if no one cares - and fine if a million people do. This just comes out of remembering all the burning questions i had when i was in the ISB and trying to answer them - i have no idea for whom.

Cathartic.

B-school Placements

If you thought I'm  using this post title to get more hits on my blog - damn right I am! But hey - isn't this what they call a win-win situation? !
Anyways, its circa 2006, a fulll three months after graudating from ISB and I am sitting in a nice office in B'lore employed by the world's fourth largest company and I'm thinking  - heck! What'd I do right?
Well-first-the qualifiers - (and you should be used to these by now) - a. I got what I wanted. And that could be very different from what you want. So be careful about drawing wide-ranging interpretations from these.
My goals were
A. I wanted to get into consumer goods marketing
B. I wanted to understand what the fuss on rural marketing was all about.
C. Considering the global energy crisis and its implications for the future, something to do with energy would be nice too,
D. Get paid enough to   i.pay my EMI  ii. Buy my kid sister some nice clothes  iii.buy myself a few beers
Well, I got all four, and let's face it, I'd only the remotest clue that it was all going to pan out like this. I focused on the first two, and the rest sorta fell in place. Lucky me! But let's get hard on the facts and see……… what'd I get right? And what'd I get wrong?
What I got right.
Focused on specific role
Focused on few industries/sectors
Chose the right people to prep with - passionate as opposed to strategic, Fun as opposed to pure "value-add" and completely willing to humiliate you.
Didn't focus on grades and drank lots thinking it wouldn't matter anyway.
Did lots of fringe things (Competitions / sport) hoping it'd add on to my application (It did but not in the way it would)
Did not give up on watching F1. (And you have no idea how much this helped me in my interview)
Overestimated the prep required for cracking a marketing interview
Clarity on my market value - (heck! How much could a glorified salesman make?)
Scored a direct hit and managed to con an awesome girl into figuring prominently in my life (if you think that's not related to career, boy..are you in the wrong place?!)
What I got wrong
Underestimated the weight of 'pedigree' (reputation of your undergrad school and so on)
Overestimated the weight of work-experience
Got completely blindsided by the shortlist factor
Did not analyse other possible roles / sectors and possibly missed out (?)
Underestimated the value of what those divine profs were teaching us
Scoffed at B-jargon.
Focused on one strong concentration
Skipped the strat courses

And it worked out fine. I'm sure some of the above is anathema to you, some cryptic and some sensible. But I think the broad take-away is that you've got to be thinking about how you are going to get your dream job and do stuff to make it. Some of it will work out and some of it won't - but hey - I bet in a few months time, you'll be sitting on your lazy rear in a plush office and posting a blog like this one!
Cheers.

Tagged!

It’s been ANOTHER rush of few months since i scribbled here last, and after having decided that the general public has ahd enough of a break, i begin again.

But first, we've got business to take care of - I've been tagged - a fairly neurotic process in which energetic bloggers bung in cute little punctuations from their life, and end by inflicting a link on some other unsuspecting blogger, who in turn has got some punctuating of his own to do.

I am...............I wish i was.. really...the day I can say I am...that's the day i'll stop being.

I read……….. the writing on the wall way too often for my liking. Life seems to be a series of bloody ultimatums and unpleasant displays of cause-and-effect

I could … drink seven pints of beer at one go if I thought anyone cared.

I talk… wayyyy too much for anyone’s good.

I think… that all my perceptions of my self are exaggerated by the order of a zegallion
times.

I peak ….. when I am beaten.

I swear… I’ll be suave some day.

I wonder… constantly about what I’ll be decades from now.

I will …… be someone I like someday.

I hate… an act that’s predictable.

I have … friends.

I haven’t …… done right by all of them.

I hope ……… I’ll set that right someday.

I laugh……… incessantly

I wear…… faces…facades…some which I like some which I don’t … all of which I can
avoid but don’t.

I play… not enough sport and too many games.


okay...that's enough. Look below for the tag which caused this.

Pratik's!

I am… just another guy from small town India, trying to make it big and break the shackles of a small-town middle-class mindset.

I believe… that each day should be lived to its fullest and there’s no point in looking back on a day where you could not do that… Carpe Diem, baby!

I read… anything that catches my fancy, though I seem to be outgrowing fiction with every passing book. Peter Bernstein’s Against the Gods refuses to be put down.

I dance… only when I am forced to. And obviously I suck at it.

I sing… when I am happy or alone.

I cry… not that often, but usually for reasons not to be disclosed here.

I love… my bike. There’s nothing quite as refreshing as the breeze in my hair, whatever little is left of it ;). Also love to sleep… can do that anywhere, anytime!

I would give my arm… for hmmmm… nothing! Nothing can be worth more than what I can achieve by working for it. If I can’t motivate myself to work for something, it ain’t worth having.

I wish… I had wings and my legs never get tired. Then I would be able to walk or fly over every imaginable piece of land and water on this planet. There’s so much to discover… still!

I want… to die a contented being, full of joy brought by a life fulfilled.

I should… post to my blog more regularly. And definitely take a shot at one professional sport, at least.

I cannot… stand the sight of an open wound.

I would love to… go back to Nagpur and do something for the people, maybe do something TO the people and make them more enterprising.

I will… get rich, or die trying :)

I hope… that someday I will understand myself.

I think… therefore I AM!!!

I tag…
Pawmee