The goal of all education is to prepare individuals for success in life. While B-schools cannot equip you for every aspect of life for the next few decades, it should, like school and family education, make some meaningful contribution. And given the inevitable position of power and influence that many B-school graduates will hold over other people's lives, there is an even greater responsibility to impart appropriate education in B-schools.
Life is not just about a job, career and material advancement. These are in fact just aspects of life. It's about growing up, friendship, love, happiness, sorrow, loss and maturing.
It's about how you relate to others and yourself, and how you redefine these relationships. And "success" is about "how good you feel about yourself during your life."
Do B-schools teach you this? Professional education is largely focused on the theory and practice of hard subject matter while the "soft" subject matter of life is given short shrift.
Are we taught about ethics and morality? Are we taught about the skill of building, retaining and nurturing relationships? Or, how making a company financially successful can be a meaningful contribution to society?
The problem with management education today is that we give B-school students the latest in business knowledge and skills, but under-emphasise the responsibility that comes with their position of privilege. Result? The scandals of Enron and Parmalat.
B-schools laud the "success" of famous businessmen, and the prime métier to select such people is the wealth they have created. Yes, their focus, energy and leadership are exemplary, but each of these vectors has both "magnitude" and "direction". We emphasise magnitude, but ignore the choice of direction taken.
All bad news? Absolutely not! The power of ethical foundations built at home and school education, can keep an individual headed in the right direction, even with these inputs lacking at B-schools. There is a belated recognition of need for these inputs in some B-schools. Finally, we can teach ourselves too!
Rahul Patwardhan is CEO-India and CEO-Global Application Management at LogicaCMG. He graduated from IIM, Kolkata in 1984.
