What they teach you and what you learn at BSchool

I noticed this guest column by Ms. Aparna Piramal, harvard graduate 2002 and executive director, BP Ergo of the piramal group india in rediff.com. What intrigued me was that it was titled "B-Schools dont teach Courage". Well to be blunt, i thought it was a funny and in way imperceptive. I mean why would you need to go to B-Schools to learn Courage!! So i decided to check out what is inside the article. Some statements stood out

1. B-schools have limitations. The first is innovation and entrepreneurial ability.
2. they cannot make an entrepreneur out of a manager
3.The second trait that B-school does not teach you is courage. I think as a professional or an owner/manager, more than risk-taking ability, you need the sheer courage to defend your decisions.

I mean. honestly, if u ask me, I can refute each of these statements. Me.. a manager, a person who used to think twice, nay thrice before doing anything risky. INSEAD changed my outlook on life. I decided to not take a full time job and even with huge loans and i dont come from a family like ms. piramal's, i decided to go the entrepreneurial route. So they did make an entrepreneur out of a manager. B-schools dont teach you to be innovative. definitely. innovation is a trait that is inbuilt in you as a person. Innovation can be nurtured not created and taught. A good b-school nurtures innovation. They have the ecosystem that helps an innovative person launch a company. If Harvard doesnt have that, tough luck to the harvard grads. Second of all, about making entreprenuers from managers. This my dear friends depends on your fellow mba students. Their attitudes and experience will make you think. You learn!!! They provide you with the impetus to make a change. So its the ecosystem that makes the difference, not the classes or the professors or the case studies or the lectures. You meet real businessmen, you meet real entrepreneurs and you live 1 or 2 years with your fellow students and their lifestyle, that makes the change.. not anything else

About the aspect of Courage. Man, i dont need to tell this. I dont think any school can teach you courage to face up to your decisions. If you make a wrong decision, if you dont have the guts to face up to it, you are not worthy of being a leader or a capitalist. If you dont have the courage to ask for help, you are not a good leader, well you dont know your limitations. a good leader knows his/her limitations and knows how to build a team around him/her to support and complement. The courage is not taught, its cultivated. its ridiculous to expect any school , forget b-schools to teach you to be courageous.
Lastly she speaks about how B-schools should teach about HR processes and sales processes. I mean, what do b-schools, the top ones stand for. They stand for creating LEADERS. They are not schools that strive to teach a manager or an executive how to do accounting and how to set up a HR process. Why do they expect one to have 5-6 years of experience. they expect this so that this person knows what it is to be in an organisation and what the hr process is and sales process is. If all you care about is best practices, you have tons of books out there, you dont need a harvard or insead mba. All in all, You dont get TAUGHT in a b-school. you LEARN. I am surprised that a harvard mba wants to be taught!!!
Well, if this is what they TEACH you at HARVARD, i definitely made a good decision to LEARN at INSEAD.

The world is full of hypocrites.. Expecially the governments.. I was looking at the past few weeks when the chinese have been targetting japan for their past war atrocities. I also had some talks with some of my chinese friends. Almost all of them seem to hate Japan and Japanese one way or the other. I mean this is ridiculous. Half these guys dont even know that Japan had apologised 17 times in the past and once even when the emperor visited beijing. They all conveniently try to forget the 30bn$ of aid japan has given to china and the help it provided in constructing the airports in china. This is called selective memory or rather the government's hypocracy. And the chinese govt, it never talks about the atrocities it commited in vietnam, nor about the "great" Mao's atrocities in the cultural revolution, or about Tibet..

well it doesnt end there.. what about the usa's never forthcoming apology on the nuclear bombs. or for that matter, how many indians know about how india annexed sikkim.. Well its all there to see and everyone tries to change history to fit their needs. Hypocrites..

A lot of times, people my generation ask me if i made a huge mistake quitting my old job at Infosys and in deciding to take a huge loan denominated in Euros and doing an mba. Some look at me so strange when i tell them i am getting a lower pay with my current job. And there are some who appreciate the fact that i am taking a risk that they would not be able to take. Why, even my parents last week were not sure what i am doing with my life. My mom is like, "u were a project manager earning 60K usd a year in 2002 and last year you went to do research at your college and this year, you are in some small company earning less than 40K usd a year". Well the answer is simple.. Happiness!!!!

Honestly, i understand when my parents ask me these questions cos she is from a different generation. My dad used to be behind me until 1997 to get into the Indian administrative service. i mean, he is a deputy superintendent of police in the indian government and man, the respect and power he has at this position is quite amazing. I never can get that position of power in the private sector for sure. But he is a honest individual and i know how many times he has been walked over. I understand when he wanted me to get a "Secure" job with the government sector in the mid-early 90's cos the indian economy was different. he stopped nagging me when he saw me do well in Infosys. he understood that the private sector is here to stay and then there were stories of the millionaires in infosys. so he was quite happy to watch me become one. well not really.. he anticipated that i wud become one.. there is a huge difference u see.

Did i love my job at Infosys. well honeslty i did.. else i wudnt have stuck on for five years. But then, what do you do after 5 years.. you are basically a project manager and then become a account manager. Its not a life i can be content with.. See that is the huge difference!!!! My parents wouldnt understand this.. They want me to be secure. So they are not sure what i am doing in a startup. My friends on the other hand, who ask me this question as to why i left a job that was well paying and had passport to riches thru the options that i lost when i quit, the guys who are in the same generation as me, should well understand the difference between money vs happiness. What frightens me is that lots of people out there are just behind the huge $$$.. Well i am not saying everyone who sticks on to what they do is behind it. Some are just content with what they do. thats their prerogative. and i dont question that at all! I see a bunch of people who hate what they are doing but stick on because they like the $$s that they get. I am denying money is a passport to do a lot of things. for instance i love to travel and i just cant do that if i dont have the $$. but i am not willing to stake my everyday existence to getting that huge $$ to have fun for a few days. I honestly am much happier with what i get and more importantly with what i am doing and i am sure that what i am doing is going to hit the jackpot sooner than later for that long awaited trip around the world..

Things to do.

1. Update this blog regularly and that too with stuff thats interesting. have been having a few complaints that my blogs have become boring. Well what can i do. after i started working full time, my life has kinda become stale. I love my work and am having a helluva time doing what i am supposed to be doing, which when i come to think of it is quite fuzzy.. well thats work..
2. Close all my credits. Well this seems to be a long shot. I just screwed up my credit rating in the usa. I forgot to pay the bill for the past 3 months and they have suspended my Platinum Visa Card with a credit limit of 10K USD.. before i could withdraw that money and run away to seychelles.. Shucks!! how much worse can it get. So i called these guys up and asked them to review the suspension and that i have paid my dues. Well they asked me tons of questions on my last job, current job etc. and then it stuck me.. shucks, i have taken a huge pay cut by quitting my old job and doing this mba and moving to singapore. Well for a second i was like dude why did u do it. And then the next second, i kicked myself in the butt.. Well it was worth it!!! and am sure i am leading a better quality life now. Anycase, i need to get this card unsuspended..And yeah, i have to pay all my credit dues.
3. Play more Golf. Well last evening went and registered for the second set of lessons to improve my game. I would definitely want to reduce the hours i spend looking for lost balls and ensure that no more balls go into the water hazard. I swear, these golf courses do know how to make money of these balls. They make us lose these balls and then collect them and sell them as second hand balls.. well wise guy!! as if no one knew.. see this is what i meant.. my blogs are becoming boring!!! i am just giving useless facts which everyone already knows. Well how about this.. did u know that it might be a good idea to attach a RFID to the golf balls and it makes finding golf balls easier. I would definitely buy one such set provided the balls that go into the water hazard have a way of getting back to the surface and on to the greens when i call for them.
4. I am supposed to do this painting for my office which i havent yet started on. Man!! i swear i am becoming lazy
5. Get a new maid for the house. This is becoming a real pain. I just want someone to iron my clothes. there are tons.. And i desperately need a new collection. All my shirts are too big for me now.. hehe!! i lost weight and the shirts are huge.
6. Finish my books. I havent read a new book in a month and a half.. and i dont even watch tv. god knows where i am spending the time.
7. Think of more To dos.. I am sure there are tons i am missing.. let me see what else..

Yaaay!!! I finaly got a par!!! This morning hit the golf course with a few friends and after starting off badly, on my sixth hole, took the 3 wood and after taking a deep breath, took a swing and ball was a little wide off the green. A chip, not bad one though got the ball within 10 meters of the hole and then the putt of the year!! a curve to the hole.. There was my par!!!

tiger woods gonna be watching me soon on the masters i guess.. lol..

Its 1:00 AM. Can't sleep yet. How can i? After i spent the last two days on accounts. First, I set up Microsoft Money. I used to maintain all my accounts on MS excel. But, spreadsheets have their limitations and you just cant go over a limit. One of my colleagues was mentioning that he uses Money and so i decided to check it out from this month and so spent the good part of yesterday setting it up. It looks good but in the end, i dont feel good at all. How can i? I have like a mountain of debt staring at me in my face. Thanks to the mba loan and the 7-8 months of entpreneurial outlook which meant i was living on credit cards :p Well it aint that bad actually, but a lot of my plans such as learn flying, go travelling around the world, learn sailing etc might have to be put on hold. Or.. i might as well default on my loans and run away to some south american country or better still, go back to India and fall at a politicians feet and become the adopted son.. I have a feeling the third option might work out to be the best. I mean, what else can i do. Even my parents, who seem to be on my back all the time, pestering me to get married are not helping. No,i aint asking them for money. i will never!. Since they have been pestering me to get married and to fo meet those match made girls that they might find for me, i asked them to focus on finding a girl who is the only daughter of a really rich dad. But they dont seem to like that idea.. Well in that case, i think i ought to become the adopted son of a politician and go for it!!! :p well it seems to be the trend nowadays anyway..

The other issue is this accounts and filing tax for this alumni association of which i am the treasurer. Man, i have been sitting on this for ages and when i finally open it , i figure that there is tons missing and i sat the whole afternoon and evening today breaking my heads of accrual accounting and cash flows and still i am not balancing my books. Shucks!! i am screwed and i am just a week away from filing these papers. god knows what i am gonna do. maybe just write these off as extraordinary losses? lol.. unfortunately the balancing amount seems to be atleast 25% of the surplus.. so i cant just write it off.. the worst thing is on cash based accounting it all makes sense, the moment i try to do the accrual based method, its all breaking lose.. No wonder i didnt make a good grade in my accounting classes..

well anyways, a long week ahead!! Too much work to be done, not just at work! that sucks doesnt it :p