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December 21, 2005
The MBAs and the IIMs I met in my life – part 2!
“Education is the manifestation of perfection already present in a man”, said Swami Vivekanand. What does this tongue twisting sentence actually mean? Take for example a rock, and think what could an artist do to it? He will just knock off the unessential parts, and would bring out a beautiful statue that was hidden so far in that nonsensical rock. That is exactly what education has to do to any human being. But the present education system tries only to dump on you all that crappy information, which most of the time proves useless. And how could a mere 2 years of theory classes, and mugging up of past case studies help a MBA to be good manager. To prove your worth you need to get on to the field and compete with the ‘Gujjus’ and the ‘Annachis’, who are born with business knack, and who quit their studies early to handle ‘successful’ businesses. BTW what makes you call yourself a ‘MASTER’ in Business Administration if you could not even open a small ‘potti’ kadai (pan beedi stall), and succeed in running it efficiently!
Two MBAs from the north were recruited in my company, and they were specially taken in to handle a site, which was handled by me for some 6 months. I literally fainted when I heard their take home salaries. It was some 4 times more than what I was making. I had to convince myself that may be they were really talented, hence why would a multi crore company recruit them on the first place. I will name them Mr A and Mr B for convenience sake.
The first day Mr B reached office a bit late, and left early. On asking he said, he was new to the city, and he was staying in a 5 Star Hotel (obviously sponsored by the company), hence he needs time to find a place to reside first. And to be honest that bugger stayed in the same hotel for 3 months, unable to find a home! What kind of manager was he? Just because the company was sponsoring he continued to stay in a 5 Start Hotel, and didn’t bother much to find a place for himself. Also if he cannot find a place for himself in a metro like Chennai, what kind of business can he bring to the company living in Chennai? He was sacked after a year…I think he moved to a better company, with the tag he carried - MBA!
My superior (a lady) asked me to handover all the work to these MBAs, as they were specially downloaded for the operation ‘restructure.’ I readily did that, and walked away. Mr A and Mr B caught hold of me and took me to a meeting room. I asked, “what happened?” And they surrendered. They said, they don’t know anything about the dot com industry, and would want my 3-years experience to be shared with them. (In mind I was just saying to myself - lucky bastards you are recruited for 4 times more salary than me, and you say this shit shamelessly!). I had to do what my dad had asked me in life – a man who doesn’t share his knowledge is like an unused candle - they are not worth their existence. I transferred all that I had gained with my experience, and they were happy about the same. (They of course were good managers– they managed to get all the key information from me free of cost).
My superior (an MBA, who used to sell soaps before God made a wrong move of placing her in a dot com) called me to her cabin to do some grilling. She was not happy with my simple and lucid language, which I used for predictions. She cited an example - she said you should write like Astro Queen Linda Goodman!! I continued to keep the smile on my face, and within me I was murmering, “if I could write like Linda Goodman, then why on earth would I be reporting to a bitch like you!” I really wish that all the employees should have a digital screen on their forehead getting ‘on’ whenever the boss yells or makes nasty comments. The boss will really be happy to see the whole of his family getting raped in the employees’ minds!
Life has its mysterious ways. When the grilling was mid-way, Mr A happened to walk past our cabin. And my superior looked at him and remarked, “I somehow like Mr A’s working style.” “Kennedi, you should learn a lot from him. If you continue with your present attitude, you will never succeed in a Corporate world!” I was speechless, and it was like some 100 tons of coal burning in my stomach!
Well one good thing about my superior was at least her prediction about me came true. She was right. With my attitude and arrogance, I could never succeed in a corporate world. What I had with me was just experience, honesty, knowledge, intelligence, common sense, and normal brain and what I lacked was a MBA!
Hail MBAs!!
Posted by Kenni at December 21, 2005 08:10 AM