However, there are certain areas that at times get left out. These do not relate to academic inputs, including latest case studies, but to certain other points which do not get considered.
Negotiation and the zero-sum game: Lessons learnt from our elders in the art of negotiation dictate that we must win in the negotiation game, and win at any cost.
This game is frequently played out with hapless street vendors who are vanquished and exploited. It is dangerous to bring this attitude to the corporate sector, where you need partners to support you in the long run, and not the equivalent of the street vendor, who has been pushed into the red through robust and relentless negotiation.
The nuts and bolts of business: This may be a broad generalisation, but I find young B-school grads reluctant to spend their first few years learning the ropes of how a business runs.
Any opportunity to rough it out and spend some time on learning the basics of selling, financial accounting, programming, handling in-coming calls must be welcomed with certain humility.
There are hundreds of valuable lessons that one learns in the first five years of work. Even if you have had work experience, you will find it valuable to start at a grass-roots level. This helps you to have a fresh look at various aspects of a business.
Soldiering on when the chips are down: Businesses have many ups and downs and the lessons learnt in a downturn or startup are very valuable.
While turnaround stories are the stuff of many case studies, there is often not much romance when one starts working on a turnaround. These are usually stories of sweat and toil and of getting little things done with a lot of discipline, logic and self-belief.
The lessons from karma yoga: One needs to maintain and enhance self-esteem at all times, and explain the rationale behind one's action.
Work without attachment to the fruits does not mean that one is not goal-oriented, but that one does not get so obsessed with the results that everything else becomes secondary. Building the right culture is one of the greatest challenges faced by a leader today.
An MBA gets into a position of leadership very quickly. What must be the attitude of a leader, how would he approach work, success or failure, which includes his own failure, and his team's failure, are all moot points.
At a collective level and at an individual one, there is a need for a value system, a philosophy of life and attitude to work.
D Rajiv Krishnan graduated from XLRI, Jamshedpur in 1984
