What they do not teach at an MBA school
The MBA must be a very good degree – there is so much demand and so many colleges are creating them! I am sure all of you MBAs who are reading this will agree I have never spoken about the degree…well, there is always a first time!
There are some brilliant solutions that I have seen that were not taught to me in college (must have to admit the only degree that I have is a Bcom degree) but have passed a few exams that entitled me to a few memberships. I took only the membership from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. Even here there were a few years that I did not pay the membership fees, but then paid up…so I am a CA.
Story 1: A friend was a assistant director for a bollywood film. Apart from this I have no clue what else he was doing in life, and I have lost touch with him about 10 years back. However the story is interesting. As an asst. director you end up doing a lot (really a lot) of low end work. Right from ensuring that everything is going on well at the sets to ensuring that all the junior artists come on time. One ‘extra’ as they are called came up to my friend and said ‘I have domestic problems – my brother and sister-in-law are trying to throw me out of our parental house. This was a nice house in a very important location of Mumbai.
My friend told this story to a member of the underworld (who was financing the film) with clear instructions that nothing should be done to the brother or his wife. Let us just call him the DON (name does not matter does it?).
The Don was of course a very, very smart cookie. He took a good look at the girl spoke to her nicely (she did not know that he had a mandate to solve her problem, or she would have panicked).
One day when the Don was sure that the girl would be busy in the shoot and that her brother and sister in law would be at home, the Don dropped in. He said ‘I came to see Miss….’ is she not at home? They mumbled something, said sorry, offered him a cup of tea..and he left.
Needless to say, she was not troubled ever after.
No, the Don did not have an MBA (Problem Solving) degree….
Anand
This may be an off-topic. But what do you think about equitymaster.com and their claim that they can help you multiply your money 4 to 6 times in just 5 years?
subra
Anand, no comments on other’s claims. I know people who have done better than this for themselves. So it is possible, but there are no guarantees in the market.
Personally, I would do it for myself..not as a business, because very, very, very few customers understand risk.
T K Vani
Once I had financed a bank employee in a business deal.He promised to pay in a week.But the next week I found that he was transferred out and when I enquired at the bank they said that you should not have lent him as he is in the habit of this vanishing act after taking loan before evry transfer.The guy would just not pick up the phone.Fortunately I mentioned this to a friend of mine who lived in that town (no he was not a Don) but neverthless looks like one.He said he will try.He went to their house address early one morning and called me from there.He said yes, they have got a nice TV computer etc don’t worry we can collect your money.The next fifteen minutes the guy called me and said dont send people I will send your money immediately through X.
Krish
Is this post telling that MBA does not teach how to become goons & dons. Is it also advocating that legal methods does not always work and hence persuing MBA has serious limitation.
N
Thank God they don’t teach “How to become a Don” in B-schools! Small mercies, indeed.
N
Mahesh
Subra
I think it is incorrect to title it “what they….MBA” this pice could well have been “what they dont teach you in B Com or your intitute of CA or Engineering or LLB” . I dont think don giri can be taught
Mahesh
Asoke
I think Subra meant going to a Don for a solution rather than becoming the don! We recruited a bunch of MBAs, CAs, and Engineers in our office recently. We did not tell them that they were being observed but gave a lot of work to all of them – all measurable. Those who thought that the work was not measurable loafed, those who thought they were being supervised worked hard at the given task. We were saddened at the level of supervision required.
Some of them instead of loafing were at least reading. Unfortunately the time sheets were logged in automatically on the basis of their sites visited, time spent in the canteen,..etc.
We handled the separations clinically, but allowed them to leave.