It's been so long...since I last posted something here. Well!! I could have, but I could never get into a perfect mood where I feel completely stirred to write something. November 20 was long back....man!!
Today is the Labour Day - 1st May (Navigators have a different definition of MayDay - so let's avoid using it for 1st May).
On 28th April, I was awarded my MBA (PGPM) in convocation ceremony at Chennai Trade centre. The Chief Guests were Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Mr. Jamshyd Godrej and Mr. Adi Godrej along with our own Dr. Bala (Uncle Bala!!).
Every camera man in the auditorium was waiting for that coveted glimpse of all graduation caps in air. I had a similar experience when we all T.S.Chanakya 2002 cadets flipped our peak-caps in air after the announcement of our course completion. No one else apart from students can understand the sacrifices and efforts that go behind this day.
I had my own share of good and bad times in Great Lakes. Certainly good ones are more clear in memories. This one year MBA is one of the most extreme courses offered in Management education field. Additionaly we are going through one of the worst times in world economic history. It is a bad time to pass out of MBA but as the saying goes, with every calamity comes an opportunity. Well, it seems to be true for many people in our academy. Our batch is getting handsome placement all around in various industries. Few of the large companies, which could have taken in good people at lower prices this year, backed out completely from coming to placement. They were rapidly replaced by numerous medium size and small size companies who queued up for getting the country's best outgoing MBA grads. Great Lakes is certainly one of the top 10 performers in Campus Placements 2009 all across India. The main reason why companies like to come to us is that we all Great Lakers have prior experience before joining MBA. We all know what goes in to bring value for our employers i.e.the corporates and thus our payback period for employment is considerably less compared to the MBAs who join the B-School without having any prior experience. Slowly the demand of the experienced MBAs is picking up. I am sure that soon all MBA schools in India will put a mandatory cap of experience in admissions. Well, if they don't, they will fall behind schools like Great Lakes and ISB.
I am happy that things are happening the way I wanted them to. And certainly this is a happy phase of my life. I have undergone a sea change in my view about my career after MBA.
MBA is not an elixir which will turn a non-performer into a super-employee. MBA is a course which gives you a smart and mature perspective of all those things which every business in this world entails. It doesn't necessarily mean that you become an MS Excel god or an SAS-SPSS geek. It's lot more than that. In short - you start looking towards business with some different eyes.
Think over this !!!
