What they don't teach you at B-school

The universal Karmic law "" "what you put into the universe will someday return to you" "" applies to all aspects of life. Surprisingly, it's true even in the professional world. That's probably the biggest thing I've learnt outside B-school.

B-schools teach how to break down large issues into smaller, manageable ones, and to seek solutions in a structured, tested, step-by-step process. All powerful left-brain tools that deliver well in a world hungry for short-term maximisation, be it the value of each transaction, or the next quarter's profits.

Things change dramatically when the perspective shifts to the long-term. The quality of human relationships begins to influence professional outcomes. And in strange ways that cannot be planned, predicted or foreseen, life comes full circle, often with a twist!

So a long-forgotten junior reappears as a client, an old client needs your help to land a job, you get interviewed by someone you fired 10 years ago, you get a call for a reference check on your ex-boss who covered up for you... Bizarre as these situations sound, I know all of them to have occurred. And what life throws back at you, doesn't necessarily come from the same source!

When we deal with people and take decisions, we normally keep only short-term outcomes in mind. It is futile to predict what may or may not happen years later. So how do we apply the Law of Karma to professional relationships?

At the end of each working day, if you ask yourself, "Did I do the right thing? Did I do it the right way?", you won't find the answer in any B-school curriculum. You may get the answer unexpectedly in a sudden twist of your career, years later. Or if you search hard enough, you'll find the answer right now, deep within your own heart.

(Chandradeep Mitra is president, Optimum Media Solutions. He graduated from IIM Kolkata in 1988.)