All of us have a list of reasons why we want to pursue business education. I’m sure this one doesn’t figure there, at least it wasn’t on mine. Now I wonder why.
Q1 is drawing to a close and so far, among other things, the MBA experience (and in that the PGSEM experience with its primary focus on knowledge) has been one big delightful storybook. On the very first day itself, we were told the story of Marie Antoinette and how she was thought to be crazy just because she seemed to be proposing what was a primitive version of the Bottom Of the Pyramid concept! I sat in class wide-eyed like a child, having come into class expecting graphs showing demand-supply curves but listening to French history instead!
In the 2 months that followed, we’ve heard many stories – the story of how Japan’s history has brought it to the state that it’s in, the story of oil, the story of Classic Coke and the stories of many corporations in the form of case studies – some talking of businesses that broke new ground, some of failed ideas and some of phenomena that changed our lives. There were stories of simple kind hearted people who built great institutions like Aravind Eye Care and there were intriguing stories like those of the Cuban Missile Crisis (delivered in a two hour movie session with the film The Missles Of October : ) ). But they were all fascinating. For someone who loves listening to and telling stories, it’s been a pleasant surprise to find a treasure chest in the classroom.
The next time I recommend PGSEM or MBA in general to anyone, I am going to put this as the topmost reason why someone should go for business education. Before anything else, it becomes enjoyable just because it takes us back to the time when storytelling was a major part of our lives. And hopefully all these stories will influence us enough to be able to create big stories ourselves in the future!
