Provided by Mr. Parimal Merchant, Head of Admission, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research (SPJIMR).
Management education aspirants must be focused. Management seems to be made synonymous with business and so obviously one should worry about only those things that make business sense.
What make good business sense? Getting the best marks and the best placement. Quick promotion with the highest salary in the shortest possible time. Being fiercely competitive. A life of consumption and self-adoration. To achieve all of this, one needs to learn to maximize profit for one’s corporation at all costs.
That means one has to be pragmatic and can’t afford to be idealistic. In such a scenario, words such as “sustainability” and “social responsibility” are bound to sound like utopian and meant to be only for lip service. While this can be a general understanding there can be a much more meaningful perspective for the aspirants.
If one learns that management applies to all aspects of life and not only to business, then as a management student one may not be as much worried about making a business sense out of everything. If one learns that good placement guarantees only the first job and it is how you perform that matters thereafter, then one may not think about the placement as the sole target for having management education. If one learns that it is what we have internalized is what matters then one may not get crazy only about competing for grades. If one learns that short term optimization at the cost of long term well being will not be sustainable then one may not get blinded in only short term perspectives.
If one realizes that one has a larger role to perform – to make a difference to the society - then one may not get concerned with only a self-centred approach. If one learns that one’s life is more meaningful when it also has a balanced aspect of contribution to society then one may not be bothered solely for one’s own consumption.
If one learns that while one can be a business leader, one can also be thought leader and social leader then one may not be restricting oneself only to the ‘personal’ comforts. If all these happen, it will lead the aspirants to think about management education in a different light.
Managing business and getting a job is a very small subset of the scope of management education. Management is not only about business. It applies to all fields of life and the field one should be most concerned about is how would one manage one’s own life.
Management education will help the person to reflect on the meaning of his life and not just waste whole life in running from one provisional goal to another. Management education is about building knowledge skill and attitude. As one grows it is the attitudes that will matter the most.
Jack Welch describes management as about ‘Head, Heart and Guts’. Management education is about building one’s character. It’s about those who have self-confidence and do not get carried away by fads. It’s about those who are reflective and have conviction. It’s about those who have the courage to chart a new path irrespective of the established wisdom. It’s about those who have compassion for other human beings in society.
Such people like to be players rather than spectators. They would rather be on the stage rather than in the audience. They make social contributions rather than just talk about them. It is because of such people that humanity advances.
Management education can only sharpen these aspects of life provided a spark exists. Only if concern about sustainability and social responsibility exists in the aspirant can it be polished and strengthened by education to create a true leader.
Filed under: B-School, Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Work-Life Balance Tagged: | Business, Business education, Jack Welch, Learning, Management, Social responsibility, SP Jain Institute of Management & Research, Sustainability
MBA or specialized business masters? Which degree is right for you?
Thanks for sharing a brief and vivid picture of what truly management education means . I sincerely empathize with your sentiments on sustainability and social responsibility but what we see in today global world is that people are lured by management education as a short step for success by landing into high paying jobs after completing education from Ivy leagues or IIM’s per say. Actually professors,alumni and industry stalwarts should come forward in advertising the true aspect of management education to enlighten the young minds to give a holistic understanding of education in our lives whether it be management,science,social science,humanities etc.
Placement offers should not be seen as the only benchmark to decide the credibility of any institute ,others factors also should be highlighted while reviewing any institute for higher studies.
Beautiful message from Parimal Merchant. Thank you Sir for the wonderful message!
I agree to the point of being sustainable. But the “social responsibility” is just not the right thing. If Darwin’s theory and simple statistics are applied to the capability metric of the society, then a society which aspires to grow by eliminating the components which are weighing down the average can only sustain. An unpurposeful and lethargic society, if made a burden to be borne by intellectuals and doers will fail in the end. It is like killing the hen, which lays golden eggs. Blind Sociophilia will doom the human race. Money spent on society has to be earned by someone.
Why should a person toiling the whole day to earn bread for his family give a single dime to a beggar?
As always Sir, it is delightful to know your thoughts. A thought provoking article.
Not in a bad way but isn’t this whole article sort of idealistic? A sort of hidden idealism in all those talks of pragmatism!
A nice write-up on our personal ambitions vis-a-vis our social responsibilities and how they could be merged into one.
hi i completed B.A In lart year want admision in MBA…dnt hv idea about cat,mat please reply me with sugetion what will be good for me thank u
Highly motivating article. Article speaks about true leaders, Management education converts people who only blame the system into those who actully contibute to the system . Getting good grade and good placement is only a platform for us. After getting that platform it is challange to justify the opportunity given to us.
Very true I do agree. But Mr.Merchant why can’t the schools take more such candidates at the entry stage itself. Obsession on CAT and GMAT is not wholly desirable. I feel that as an institution you can take a lead by taking in at least 2 candidates of that mind set. I have been an evaluator myself and I am of the opinion that we could track them on a perusal of the application itself more of your B school which brief and quite searching.
How I wish if every evaluators in every b-schools were to think the way you do!
Really good article. It motivates new aspirants. But whatever you said is abosolutely right. People are doing MBA to get only high package, good position.
I have seen many MBA’s from my company, who even dont know the basic things but getting good packages.