How to recover from failure

Top Indian business schools have it easy in admitting a bright, ambitious batch of students by virtue of a competitive admission process.

This, along with peer-stimulated learning, where everyone is eager to prove himself (or herself), sets the tone for a very healthy and competitive learning environment.

However, this focus on being the best at all times is not helpful in the real world where teams take precedence over individuals, however bright they may be. This is a big adjustment for MBA graduates to make during their transition into the real world.

Business graduates also require meaningful lessons in recognising failure, accepting failure, and learning and recovering from failure.  Highly motivated type-A personalities, which most business students are, have a difficult time dealing with failure. Peer pressure and visibility builds a "be correct at all costs" mentality that is difficult to change.

In reality, top managerial leaders are often wrong and have the battle scars to prove it. What makes the difference is what they do about their failures going forward. This ability to bounce back is not taught at business schools.

There is a strong focus in business schools on management concepts/techniques, case studies, and quantitative analysis. However, not all business and people problems can be resolved by simply applying these frameworks. Business school graduates need another set of "tools" outside the confines of the business school "laboratory".

With experience, managers and leaders develop a strong sense of intuition or judgement, which is invaluable in making decisions. Perhaps a management technique will not tell you that a $2,500 car is possible but a leader's vision will, as we have seen in the case of Tata Nano.

Leadership skills, particularly as it relates to soft skills and the handling of people, get short treatment in business schools. Most MBA programmes do not have a much-needed focus on a very important characteristic of a successful leader - an understanding and analysis of human behaviour, how people interact in an organisation. This becomes more and more important as people go up the management ladder.

Another area in which business schools can do more to school their graduates lies in probing the limits of their own knowledge. A lot of time is spent teaching the students how to get the right answer. Not enough time is spent teaching them how to arrive at asking the right questions.

There is no arguing the fact that Indian business schools are among the best in the world. But what will make their programmes truly well-rounded is teaching students skills they will need in order to make their way in the business world: leadership, probing the limits of their knowledge, detail-orientedness and execution; managing across nationalities; maintaining corporate ethics; and bouncing back from failure.

These are the skills that separate the high achievers from those who merely display high potential.