Value Adds...

... Being a B-school student, I find it hard to run away from this one phrase which eats into the lives and brains of almost everyone who passes through this strange phase in life called Management Education. Five terms are over for me here at IIMB. And I suppose it is time to introspect and retrospect. A lot did happen, and I did learn a hell lot, sometimes learnt even those things for which I will never be able to forgive myself... But what were the real "value-adds"? Let's start with Academics (It is a school after all, let's give it some respect for that). I will not sing either sonnets or jeremiahs or eulogies here. Just the basic facts (enough to show where it hurts)...

The only subjects worth studying in this place have been the ones in Finance. I could hardly derive any gains from any other stream. I still don't believe that marketing is something that someone needs to teach (and hence, whether someone needs to be taught marketing is also questionable here). I maybe quite wrong here (and I actually hope I am), for by wording my generalization, I am perhaps questioning the existence of an entire department, but I do strongly hold the opinion that it is much more of an intuitive subject, and hence there's only so much that one can teach, and what one can learn. Courses in IT are again, of a similar nature. Though perhaps, there is something worth teaching there (not much, that's for sure). Strategy depends a lot on who is teaching. But one thing which a lot of us generally forget in the course of our education, is the fact that life (and other things that we generally don't give much importance to) cannot be summed up in a 2X2 matrix. There are no frameworks there, only realities and truths, which, very frequently, cannot be covered in a blue or orange binder. So much for my thoughts on academics (proves that I am not much of an academecian anyways...)

What I have really learnt from this place (and this should be true for a lot of people), is in terms of intangible benefits. The ability to screw your system so much so that you actually feel hungry enough at 3 o clock in the night, is something that most of us would not normally learn anywhere else. The strength to go on with a 3-hour-sleep routine for days on end is what I will certainly thank this place for (and will simultaneously pray that the need to use this skill doesn't present itself very often...)

Working as a senior coordinator for the Forum for Industrial Interaction, and organizing VISTA was by far the best learning experience from IIMB that I can think of. This was one task which exposed me to an amazing variety of people in our entire batch (some so good you wish they were in every team you worked with, and then some so strange that they just leave you wondering in disbelief...), pushed me to the edge in terms of taking last minute decisions, taught me what a fire-fighter actually goes through as he tries to save a baby on the top-floor of a burning mansion, and finally gave me the satisfaction that the baby was adjudged as being in perfect shape and health at the end of it all...:).

And similar were the summer placements for our first-years. The "art" of tracking, is an art indeed. Yes, the notepad and the walkie are certainly cool and sexy, but what really was important was that "growing beyond yourself" feeling. When candidates look up to you to "schedule" them at a proper time, or ask you intermittently for results, or what their chances are, you do realize that you are not just carrying out a process, but that you are dealing with the expectations and emotions of a lot of people. You have to be mechanical, because each company has it's own timelimits and process constraints, but you also have to become much more than an ordinary human, to understand and appreciate the pain of others when you yourself have probably not slept for 3 days, have eaten only in fits and starts, with your mind still focussed on finding the next set of people, and you certainly did not have a chance to sit down for a significant number of hours. What it entails? To work around the process, so that you can give some time to those who have been sitting through one GD after the other (or at least give them time to dry those tears that not everyone can see...), to let them know that they are in no way, the "left-out" lot (yes, this system sucks as far as this aspect of it is concerned), and most importantly, to be there as a guide and a friend when half of their "friends" can't find time off from their partying.

Will continue with more of my learnings in a later post...