“What have I learnt…? Is it really new to me…?”
Pondering over these thoughts I boarded my flight to India for summer internship after completing first year of my MBA at esteemed IESE Business School, located in Barcelona, heart and soul of Spain. These thoughts were in complete contrast with the emotions I had at the time of joining the program. A year back, high on hopes and optimism, I was looking forward to learn new tricks of the trade and join back business community with a glorified reception and why not…? After going through plethora of successful stories of MBAs at realm of corporate world, I had every reason to celebrate the joyous moments of being part of such a great community.
Like most of my peers even I was certain that for the next two years I will be a part of the process that will change my views and inherit me with skills required to overcome the situations in corporate world, which is filled with uncertain choices. How this was going to happen, was still a mystery and I was ready to gaze through the eyes of future to see my destiny unfolding in my own hands. The exciting list of upcoming events always made me wonder, what mystic portion will be provided to bring this magical improvement.
Now as I look back categorically, while finance has been my forte so nothing new was expected; Porter’s 5 forces was something which was taught to me in 11th standard. Marketing always meant differentiating products and services and business strategy classes never came up with a final solution. While global economics and other quantitative classes enhanced knowledge and technical skill by some margin but never to the extent which could satisfy the quench of knowledge I came here for. This kept me wondering was it worth to leave a successful career in growing trajectory for this highly indebted MBA. Did I really learnt a new magic trick or all what I did was to dive deep in my memory lanes..??
Still filled with doubts and few weeks in my internship I met various professionals, from operation managers to business strategists and from number crunching analysts to business leaders. And one thing was common in every meeting, how easily I was able to relate to each one of them, which all of a sudden made those un-concluded strategy classes seems so apt and true to reality. Big picture was no longer that big anymore and realization seeped in that those discussions not only presented different point of views but also provided with one-off opportunity to peep into mind of select others representing industry varying from airline designing to financial forensic.
After this short period of two months I now realize that answer to my question is not at all relevant. It’s not about learning new stuff but about inculcating habit of using what you know, no matter how basic they seem to common mind. After all… application of common sense is what differentiates leaders from masses.
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