The data obsession

THEY DON'T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

Having studied in a B-school some 20 years ago, it is difficult to figure out what exactly one learnt there, and even more, to separate out what was missing. Anyway, the grades we got showed little of what they were trying to teach was going in our heads.

On a serious note, a lot of what is taught at B-school is black and white "" theories, frameworks, templates and so on. What's clearly missing are the shades of grey. I see many B-school graduates obsessed with data. Often, while they wait for perfect data, the decision moment has passed.

A lot in life is about deciding in real time with imperfect data "" something that B-schools never teach. B-schools also have a huge assumption that competition is rational and logical, and will react to the same economic motives, the way you do "" again something that real life teaches you is not always the case.

The biggest piece in B-school is about the emphasis on numbers and hard analysis; the importance of soft skills is often downplayed. The piece about teams and dealing with people is relatively less focused than what should be.

More important, most of what they teach in B-school is about marginal efficiencies "" about making the widget better by squeezing all that can be made better. It is not about making a radically new widget itself. So creating or opening up a new market is hardly what you will hope to do based on B-school lessons.

To be fair, while I have pointed out what's lacking in B-schools, let me also focus on what they help students with.

First, they provide a good opportunity for students to compete under pressure and to be exposed to different subjects "" from human resource to organisational behaviour, economics to quantitative analysis, accounts to finance, and so on. It would be hard to find anyone exposed to such a range before B-school education.

Second, B-school creates a rational framework for analysis, whether of a plan or a post-mortem of performance. A lot of intuition and gut feel when it comes to real data, is stripped off to enable a non-emotional view "" even if it can't teach you to paint, it can teach you to figure how to get the best value for your painting!

R Subramanian graduated from IIM, Ahmedabad in 1989