It’s been exactly a month since I gave the final exam of my MBA (unofficial completion of MBA.) As the admission season picks pace, the topics discussion like ‘Is MBA overrated?’, ‘What is the ROI of an MBA?’ etc., spread like wildfire on social media pages. Sitting at home made me also think about how I’ll best describe my MBA. So here is my take (hopefully something novel) on this somewhat Cliché topic. I would like to term it as ‘Value added/derived’ rather than calling it an ROI because not everything you gain might be measurable in absolute numbers.
Well, MBA was about some fancy model or matrix. So, I decided to come up with a set of my own. The Iceberg Model of MBA! As an outsider or an aspiring student, you mostly look at MBA with a result being a heavy Tag (A premier B-school and a premier organization), a heavy mark sheet (gold or silver medals maybe), & a heavy pay-cheque (needs no explanation.) This is the visible tip of the iceberg, something I call the ‘Mental Block’ in my model. These are the tangibles aspects, the certificates of whom you can flaunt.
Then, a nervous you steps foot inside the institute, & the journey begins. Starting from the awesome induction challenges, the rigorous academic schedule, group projects, individual assignments, corporate competitions, stringent deadlines, student body selections, representing and upholding the institute in front of the world , organizing fests, events, business conclaves, guest lectures, exams, the pre-placement stress to post placement celebrations, the internships, inducting the next batch, the repeating the cycle now from the other side, the farewell, grad trip and ending with your ‘body’ leaving the premises with a choked throat, mellow eyes and a heavy chest as you leave behind a small piece of your heart that’ll still linger there for some more time. A roller coaster of emotions, anxiety, stress, relief, fun, anger where sometimes you act as support, while sometimes you seek support, the physical, mental and emotional dependencies yet operating individually all act as catalyst for making you a 'Better You!.' These build you as a person; this is the character you earn—the intangible aspects of an MBA.
‘Log kya sochenge?’ is the second aspect of it, which brings me to my ‘Accomplishment/ key-takeaway matrix’ which adds ‘Self’ and ‘Society’ as dimensions along with ‘tangible’ and ‘Intangible.’ The matrix is pretty self-explanatory. What is essential is what quadrants are you willing to accomplish or accomplish at the end of it.
So,
For all those who are done with it: Let’s revisit our journey and assign weights to the tangibles and intangibles or what all quadrants you feel you’ve conquered post MBA that’ll give you the ‘Value Derived’ out of your MBA. Hopefully, all of us will land up with a huge positive value.
For the aspiring students: Since you might now have a clear picture of what all might be instore for you, it’s on you to build your cart for the best experience and deriving maximum value. Well, nothing better if you manage to conquer all 4 quadrants at the end of it!
The final cut: The only thing that shall remain constant is that a ‘Raw You’ shall enter the B-school, & a ‘Transformed You’ (barring ego, attitude, & self-centeredness) shall exit. That is the ‘True Value Derived’ of MBA (you can extrapolate the same thought to any course if you feel you've derived value as per the proposition). MBA as a ‘course’ might be all about numbers, but believe me, MBA as an ‘experience’ is much more than just numbers!
P.S: Yes, even Parties add value. They add to the experience and add a lot of value to your ‘Splitwise Accounts’ :P