An MBA gives you tremendous width to learn various subjects. It also drives conceptual thinking, decision and choice-making within a disciplined framework and provides foundation for the great leap.
Therefore, it essentially provides the intellectual edge to manage business, grooming you to be a functional expert with a view of general management. The competitive environment also drives a sense of hunger for personal development and achievement.
But what it doesn’t teach
What an MBA does not teach you is to manage relationships and self. The Indian MBA, as it was in the late ’80s and ’90s, did not teach you entrepreneurship. On-the-job experience provides a far better insight into managing uncertainty or ambiguity, managing and influencing people and building networks. There is no substitute for personally experiencing a start-up and turnaround in a business unit yourself.
In a world driven by achievement, ambition and materialism, catalysed by spiralling pay packets, I do hope MBA schools focus more on creating responsible corporate leaders who can also drive purpose, sustainability and conscious capitalism. It always pays to be humble and not ride high on success. In the business school environment, you don’t get to learn and experience this. Your value systems and beliefs which drive your behaviour are usually built by your early influencers, family and friends. Unfortunately, the current external environment sometimes fosters reckless risk taking with shareholder monies because of greed, short-term thinking and materialism, and only a strong value system can help you out.
How I benefited
I learnt a lot both in IIT and IIM. Firstly, you get to spend six years with a cross-section of brilliant minds in a very stimulating environment, which builds strong capability. Staying in a hostel teaches you to be independent and responsible and still have fun….. You build many relationships which blossom into long-term friendships. An IIT-IIM education is a great launching pad, but your own hunger for growth, self motivation and the ability to seize opportunities in your career will determine your success. I was also extremely lucky to work with great leaders who have shaped my career in the formative years.
The highs and lows
I believe that one has to create a lasting legacy in any leadership role in terms of building an effective and sustainable organisation. Growth, innovation and building talent gives me the greatest satisfaction. There have been setbacks but I have learnt a lot from them and developed resilience. There is no bigger joy than bouncing back from a failure, especially in the area of innovation. Nobody is perfect and you can’t control and influence everything. Once you accept this, you can always leverage your strengths and learn from your mistakes.
How I keep myself updated
A lot from reading and learning from others. You need to be constantly hungry for knowledge and reinventing yourself. The day you decide you have arrived, your doomsday is close. I have also learnt to develop networks, and friends serve as good sounding boards. One needs to be open to learning, and challenging paradigms and holy cows if you want to keep yourself updated. I am learning to be digitally savvy from a lot of youngsters and my daughter. My smart phone and my executive coach are my greatest assets in this journey.
My management style
As a leader you have to be honest, fair and consistent. You have to carry people with you and give them a roadmap and visibility for challenging careers and then deliver it. The challenge is to create more leaders and not followers. I am learning to be both tough and nice, but I have a journey to complete. I am also attempting to ensure a fine balance between the long-term and the short-term and help people out of tough situations. The other challenge is to develop a judicious blend of an entrepreneurial style of management and process orientation in a scale up journey. I have also learnt that you can't let your team down in the journey. In order to get sustainable results, one has to focus on both capability development and build teams with a high sense of belonging and engagement. The current environment has given me the perfect opportunity to be more resilient and manage stress.
What I am reading now
I just finished reading Subroto Bagchi's Elephant Catchers , a very practical book for leaders and organisations who want to scale up. One of my team members has given me a book to read. It’s titled Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor. E. Frankl. Promises to be a good read.
What young managers should be reading
You should read biographies and autobiographies of leaders and learn from their successes and failures. I like Prof Ram Charan's books... very insightful and pragmatic. But it is also okay to read fiction and chill.