Almost everything that you do in the corporate world is not taught at B-schools. Management education helps as long as you don't use it as merely a degree to add to your resume.
But that is not easy "" how many people do you see applying that learning and knowledge in everyday life? In fact, management education can be compared to the holy texts.
They show you a map you can take, but you have to walk the path on your own. Just like you read what Kabir said, what Nanak's teachings were, or what Ram did, you learn what Jack Welch stood for and what Bill Gates is all about.
Management schools offer a generic version. But those who traverse the path create a brand and live to tell the tale.
I agree that management education helps you with your pattern of thinking and opens up your mind, but only to an extent "" it doesn't teach you to think beyond the impossible.
B-schools take you out of the frog-in-the-well mentality, but they can't stop you from going back there. You have to work on that yourself. In fact, the education often tends to confuse fame with success and overlooks the crucial aspect that will power isn't always as important as "won't" power.
B-schools impart knowledge through a collection of facts. Wisdom lies in knowing how best to apply the acquired knowledge.
That said, it was really during my management course that I realised the power of brainstorming, which helps you arrive at solutions. Come to think of it, did Newton really discover gravity?
Apples have always fallen to the ground "" how did he arrive at the concept of gravity? I believe that it was nothing but a lesson in brainstorming, focusing on an issue really hard.
Before my present job, I was in the Indian Navy. Besides being a missile gunnery officer, I played polo for the Navy, which helped me interact with the civil world.
At such times, I heard tales about how business houses can make it big or go down like a pack of cards just because of their leadership. I wanted to know more about and joined the navy's long logistics management course.
Although a part of the course is on confidential subjects such as inventory control on war requirements and so on, it was otherwise a regular management course that involved your usual projects, summer training and so on.
We were taught by professors from all over the world. Although most management students have to sit through classes only five or six days a week, we were stationed in the campus for a year and it was a 365-day process.
Apart from the usual courses and classes, we had the morning parades, exercise regimes and so on. All in all, it was a hectic one year.
When you are out of a management school, you realise that there is more to life and business than what meets the eye and what is written and taught.
There are so many things at which non-MBAs are better than we are. The Marwaris, for instance, are taught the binary language from childhood.
While a calculator makes two plus two into four, continuous mind interaction with added imagination helps the Marwaris to think beyond a standard formula with mind-boggling results.
Then, B-schools don't teach you to forego profits for other priorities. Nor can they add spunk to your spine. These qualities can be acquired, not through successes, but by standing after repeat stumbles.
I went to Kargil when the war was on in 1999, as a freelance journalist and to supply the jawans with first-aid kits provided by the company; I had taken premature retirement from the forces and was feeling extremely guilty about my decision.
When there, I saw that jawans were being given spurious and sub-standard drugs. I was shocked. But more than that, I was enraged and decided to do something about it.
So I helped form the National Forum for Elimination of Fake Drugs and even made a presentation to the Mashelkar Committee, which studied the growing threat from spurious drugs.
When Sushma Swaraj was health minister, she took our cause a step further and proposed a Bill legislating capital punishment for manufacturers of spurious drugs.
Although it was a victory, it was not as sweet as it sounds. Threats from the drugs mafia and small manufacturers kept me on my toes.
B-schools don't show you how to keep your cool under such circumstances. Nor do they advise you to not mince words when you feel strongly on an issue.
For this you have to be in touch with yourself and what you stand for. You can't let your business requirements change that.
Management gurus often stress the need of ingratiating and manoeuvring rather than crossing swords and taking on powerful people head-on.
In 2002, the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha increased the duty on life-saving drugs by over 21 per cent. Rather than treading the path of diplomacy, I did the opposite and campaigned against the move.
When some months later Jaswant Singh became the finance minister, one of his first acts was to roll back the duty.
There are times when almost everyone might doubt you, but you need to stick to your guns. I remember fighting for intellectual property rights.
Out of the 20,000 pharma companies, about 19,950 were against the implementation of the patents law. I was one of few who were not. There came a time when even my company doubted my stand. Now, however, most pharma companies are demanding stricter TRIPS compliance!
Everybody enjoys a safe journey to success. It is crossing the hurdles that separate genius from the ordinary. It is essential for B-schools to create a focused training on the "Art of the impossible" and grill students through simulated problems.
Handling multi-crore businesses is like navigating a mighty ship through uncharted waters. It is here that the crashes on the simulator and a fearless and never-say-die attitude will help a select few to reach the shore safely.
(Harinder S Sikka is senior president, corporate affairs, Nicholas Piramal India. He graduated from the Navy Institute in Hamla in 1987)
