So I’ve finished a year of MBA, or in quantitative words “I am half a manager”. In hindsight, it wasn’t that bad after all. In-fact, I could go out on limb and confess that the last term was actually very good. The past year was one with a lot of learning, most of it involuntary. It just came about as a consequence of trying to survive in the new world order that exists inside these institutes.
I’ve read about so many articles about ‘list of things they do not teach you at IIMs’. That is of course a more interesting topic to write upon, because the things they do teach are mostly academics that tends to be inherently boring. However at a good b-school, what they teach and what you learn is not really the same. A b-school is designed like a system, and not just a student-teacher interaction. The lectures, projects, quizzes, assignments, committees, clubs, internship, events and everything else are part of the system. And the system manages to teach you much more than what you’d gain in a classroom. So how does the system work? I really have no idea. You just have to be a part of the system to reap its rewards.
Regardless of how they managed to put it across, there are a few learning that changed the way I think about things. I would like to share ten of them here. Are these ten the only takeaways from the first year? Nope. This is just my list. So will reading this list equate to a year at the institute? Not really. I can share these observations, but I can’t share the conviction I have in my mind about them being true. Their strengths, weaknesses, limitations and assumptions are all context driven. Does it justify investing a year in b-school to gain that conviction? I think so!
- Diminishing marginal utility: The more of something you have, the less its demand and vice-versa. Explains why sleep during exams, time during projects and girls already committed are so much in demand.
- Price: It is the cause and it is the effect. It is the truth. Getting the price right is priceless. In the words of one Mr. Druker, if you can measure it, you can manage it
- Objective comes first: Aim and then shoot.
- Sunk Cost: Same as the age old “don’t cry over spilled milk”. Every second is a fresh start.
- Find the right word: Because there is one out there and only IIM grads know them
- Know the audience: Understand the people who’ll evaluate your work
- MECE: In all alternatives and options try to be Mutually Exclusive-Collectively Exhaustive. It just makes you look smarter and more manager like
- Cite: Tell your sources. Only they show that you are a graduate from a well known management institute of Northern India.
- Market yourself: Soap sells, coke sells and even work sells. Includes opinions, view points and criticisms. Customers include professors, committees and companies.
- You’re the best: You are the culmination of millions of random events, circumstances and choices. You are unique. And as fate would have it, those events are just the perfect combination for being a future Fortune 500 CEO
