Live out your dreams, not your degree

WHAT THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

Vikas Tandon

Let me first get one major grouse out of the way "" why is work experience still not an eligibility criterion for admission to a management programme? The one thing that B-school does teach you is that what you learn, understand and assimilate, increases infinitesimally if you have had at least two years of work experience.

Unfortunately, most of us realise this much too late. Perhaps it is something to do with the traditional Indian mindset about education, but that's a topic for another discussion.

Ever since I finished B-school, more than a decade ago, I have always worked in small enterprises or start-ups (even the jobs I held with large multinationals were in set-up/start-up roles). And hence, my views about B-school education can only be in the context of entrepreneurship.

It has often been suggested that B-schools are largely geared towards preparing students for "corporate" roles and not enough attention is given to entrepreneurial training. My experience corroborates that view. Don't get me wrong: an MBA does help, but my guess is that it is far more relevant in a corporate environment than in a new business setup.

It's not about the degree
To start with, I think all MBA programmes should end with a modified Men in Black-style "memory eraser" course, which helps students retain only the learning but forget the MBA badge! All too often, I have seen young MBAs (especially from the premier B-schools), living out their degree rather than their dream. You have to be able to extricate yourself from the shadow of your degree/qualification.

An MBA should create new career opportunities for you, and help you get closer to what you really care about "" not lock you into the expectations of society. In today's environment, it becomes difficult to even consider options outside of a traditional consulting/ investment banking/ FMCG marketing track. And more than curriculum or pedagogy, it is the expectation of peers, family, media and, indeed, the students themselves, which is the bigger culprit.

Master of business creation?
The curriculum itself is also biased towards fitting in large corporate roles (perhaps driven by market forces) "" understanding and running existing operations. Some B-schools do have the odd course in entrepreneurship, but they fall woefully short in preparing you for what it takes.

It's all very well to learn about corporate finance and organisational behaviour, but how do you begin? How do you set up scaleable and cost-effective accounting systems? How do you evolve your vision and mission as the organisation grows? More often than not, setting up a business requires thinking on your feet rather than thinking on a plan.

Smarts or hearts
At B-school we are also spoilt for working, with a relatively intellectually-homogenous group. In real life, and especially when running a small enterprise, you have to deal with people with far more diverse backgrounds and abilities. More importantly, you also realise that integrity and dedication is of almost equal, if not greater, value than smarts. And I doubt that can be taught in a B-school!

Get a life!
Recognising that networking is an important aspect of corporate life, some institutes have actually started primers in golf. Why can't we also recognise stress as an integral part of modern professional life and help students start early in recognising and managing stress? Keeping things in perspective, managing stress, and balancing your life are as important for success, as working hard and meeting targets.

Reverse competition
Competition in B-school starts even before you enter one, right from the admission process. And much like most other education systems, you go through the two years trying to outdo each other "" in grades, in class participation, in placements, sometimes even in getting to the student mess first! It is only later that you realise that success almost always depends on how well your team performs.

B-schools teach you how to perform better yourself, but rarely to get the best performance from others. What if we could reverse the grading system? What if you are judged by how much you have been able to boost the performance of your colleagues? After all, isn't that what leadership is all about?

Vikas Tandon is founder-director, Indigo Consulting. He graduated from IIM, Ahmedabad in 1993