(Belated) confessions from a B-School grad

“While B-schools do a great job of imparting hard technical skills, the emphasis on areas such as people management and everyday execution doesn’t seem to be adequate. However, the one key area where B-schools need to get their act together is around nurturing and developing a mindset oriented towards risk, entrepreneurship and creativity” says Sriniket Chakravarty who graduated from a top tier Indian B-School in 1996 (coming 11 years too late ?).

Here’s more, straight from his gut.

“Why does this happen? One reason is that the competitive and unidirectional environment in B-schools offers little room for serious thought on making individual choices along various vectors such as the level of responsibility, goals and aspirations, social and family needs and so on.

Nor is there any emphasis on developing value systems around personal success, social role and integrity. Further, the enormity of focus in B-schools on the conventional rules of the game is entirely devoid of specific incentives for risk-taking and creativity.

Contrast that with the reality of the business environment, where big success is far more correlated to the ability to take entrepreneurial risks, even within the context of large organisations.

For instance, the recent successes of both entrepreneurs and managers in emerging businesses such as retail, telecom, BPO and media can be attributed to their ability to take early risks. Successful organisations want entrepreneurial leaders who are able to lead from the front and create value amidst uncertainty. In the context of risk-taking, learning to manage failure is also very important”.

Can you agree more ? The Jury has never been out on this.

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