Being M.B.A. !!

"At the graduation ceremony, when you get your M.B.A. Degree in hand and realize that this degree has not changed you as a person you were before joining this course; indicates that the University has failed in its mission of educating you"- Prof. Mogan Swamy, Lecturer for 'Managing Entrepreneurial Enterprises' at James Cook University, Australia at its Singapore Campus.

Attended one of the most inspirational lectures in the University today. In M.B.A. we generally study about big terms like Market Segmentation, Consumer behavior, 4P's and 7P's. However, this is not at all sufficient to be a successful M.B.A. graduate. Prof. Mogan shared one of his experiences with us. During his youth when he was working as a waiter at French Restaurant, his owner used to check the plates which Mogan used to pick up from the table and drop it for washing. Whenever he used to find any leftover food, he used to ask the reason for it to Mogan. Questions like, "Did it taste bad?", "Did the customer complain?","Has the customer given any suggestions for improvement?". He would go to a extent of tasting the left over food to check the reason why the customer didn't eat it. This is what it takes to be a successful Entrepreneur or a successful manager in general. It takes a lot of pain to understand the customer.

We usually look at rich Businessmen owning big houses and expensive cars and feel that it is so good to be successful. However, we do not consider the amount of hard work and sacrifices they must have made to reach that position.

Getting a 'High Distinction' grade in exam indicates that an individual is a good student but that doesn't prove that he has understood all the lectures and is bound to be successful in life.

Few days back, as a part of Volunteers Club in JCU; I had been to a Junior College in order to talk to the A- level students about pursuing Psychology, IT and Business courses at our University. There were 4 Universities present on that day over there- Nanyang Technological University(NTU). National University of Singapore(NUS), Singapore Institute of Management(SIM). At first I stood there as an M.B.A. student of JCU to market the University and convince the students and I didn't succeed in convincing the students to at least come and visit the University promotion stall, However, I removed my ID card and kept it aside. Now, I was just a marketer standing there leaving the pride of being a M.B.A. student and guess what IT WORKED!!! To understand what M.B.A. is, go and stand there in the market and try selling your product instead of making 100 page analysis reports!!!!

I do not have formal work experience as such and was skeptical whether the decision of career shift from being an Engineer to a MBA graduate is good. Nevertheless, I have discovered that I DID THE RIGHT CHOICE. Engineering taught me how things work and M.B.A. is teaching me how things will work for me.