I sat in a paint store in Vashi in Mumbai on the 3rd and 4th day of my 2 month long internship. Forget learning or unlearning my management concepts, it taught me such wonderful lessons which I feel B-Schools either don't teach or which are lost in the overdose of theories, theorems and concepts of the academic world. The first thing it bought down in me were the thick walls of ego I had built in me; prior to walking into the shop, I felt I could never sit in that shop which was next to a pavement overlooking a busy road with a madman walking once in a while throwing stones at passerbys. How could I, a student, one of the 300 selected from 200000 to study in the country's premier management school work behind a counter and ask people how they liked this Paint and why they were not considering high end textures? Somehow sitting in the shop, I realized that building this exclusivity defeats the very purpose for which we become managers.
There was a controversy across the country when Medical college graduates were asked to do compulsory rural service. I think this is something which should be introduced across B-Schools, to-be-MBA graduates should be asked to work in remote/rural parts of the country including North-East, J&K, Vidharba, Telangana, Interior Orissa for atleast 6 months before joining any firm of their choice. Why? Because as we race to complete our graduation, we become disconnected from people, we lose sight of the very people for whom we are supposed to work and for whom we are to make a difference. I think politicians and businessmen/managers should have the same vision - Work for the Common Man. As managers we are lucky, we are not constrained by geographical boundaries, not constrained by elections & fears of getting kicked out for non-performance. Not sure if any school lets student do this to drill down our head - instead we are told that profit is the motive, shareholder gain is the motive. Is it possible that the "toxic wastes" floating in the financial markets could have been curtailed, if the people who designed the exotics thought for a moment about the people whose monies they were playing with for their personal gains? McKinsey has been admitted as a defendant in a case filed by victims of Katrina which ravaged New Orleans. McK's crime apparently was it consulted top insurance firms to change the clause in the insurance policy which ensured that the people did not reap the benefits of their "investment". Wonder how much of that investment went into making of the assets so easily lost by Lehman and Merril? Maybe if we cant improve lives, we should atleast stop doing things which will make things worse.
On an unrelated note, something is bothering me. I travel everyday from my home to Office in Mumbai through slums adjoining the airport; these slum-dwellers being encroachers and having no other place to stay in this metro. A single room hosts close to 10 people, no approach road to the home, all houses in the locality packed like matches in a matchbox(couldnt think of a better comparison), rag-pickers sharing a dustbin with street dogs infested with sores. Somehow, as a manager, I dont seem to think how my work is going to help them come up in life? Wonder how much MBA's and Managers have passed by that road? If they have, maybe this education is a waste of money for me.
P.S : This is an expression of my thoughts and feelings, let me know what you feel - ever open to criticisms and brickbats. Apologise for not having a structured flow, somehow it felt like a MBAish term so decided to give the flow a skip.
