What they don’t teach in B School?

Anybody who wants to be successful in her/his career would definitely consider an MBA as an option to reach her/his goals. But what’s surprising is that there are certain skills that are not taught in B Schools that turn out to be simple but make a big difference. These aspects may sound simple, but yes these are the aspects that I have more often than not seen being taught.

1. Ambiguity: Today’s business world is full of uncertainties, so a manager has to make a living among these varying levels of ambiguities that exist in every aspect of our work & environment. Most managers lack the ability to handle ambiguity, this results in lack of focus & poor performance leading to stress. The corner stone of success for a Manager is to handle ambiguity & take their decisions based on partial information plus intuition - they need to know that they may go wrong – but should be willing to take a calculated risk & make course corrections based on results or additional information as & when its available.

2. Office Politics: Here when I say office, it includes close vendors & agencies as well. What I have seen is that most Managers although are very good at their work – don’t always succeed in an organization. This is due to an inability to manage office politics in an effective way and therefore remove the impediments on their way to success.

3. Team Player Vs Selfish: Another aspect which is largely missing is that Managers don’t know when they have to play their selfish card & when they need to be a team player in an organization. Both are at different ends of the spectrum - it’s a hard choice to make at times, yet it’s a choice that needs to be made more often than not – as there are many issues where a manager has to take different positions of being selfish or being a team player in today’s organization to further her/his own goals and also that of the organization.

4. Emotions: This is another hurdle that Managers don’t learn to scale in a B School. In today’s work place there are many instances that can throw you off balance emotionally and if a manager is carried away by emotions - she/he is putting at risk the organization as well as herself/himself.

5. Cross Cultural: In today’s organization it is very important that the managers are aware of different cultural sensitivities – this is necessitated due to the global nature of companies i.e., foreign operations, foreign talent working in domestic markets, etc have led the organization to take up a global stature. Because of this it is utterly important for a Manager to be sensitive about certain cross cultural issues as well as put it to use in the right direction.

6. Creativity: As cluttered the world is today, with innumerable products & services being offered with little or no differentiation – this may probably a reflection of lack of innovation & creativity in today’s organizations. Creativity forms a very critical aspect of an organization’s & individuals’ sustainability and yes this is not taught in B Schools too.

These are some aspects that I felt were missing in B Schooling which is essential for taking people to their rightful place in the sun. Like Warren Buffett once said, “You only have to do a very few things right in your life so long as you don't do too many things wrong.”, My best wishes for getting your right things, right.

By Subash J Bidare, Head of Marketing, Kaati Zone - East West Ethnic Foods