The Hindu Business Line : What's in a name?

In today's globalised world, opportunities are available to all provided one has the requisite skills, talent and ability. If one makes an effort to study the biographies of eminent personalities in various fields, you would notice that in a majority of the cases, their skills and abilities attracted opportunities, rather than the other way round.

Four years after I graduated from engineering college, I bumped into a batch-mate from my engineering programme. As soon as I saw him, I recollected that he was one of those brainy guys who always wanted to "excel in life". I remember, when we were preparing for our MBA entrance exams, he used to say, "I shall do my MBA only from XYZ institute — the premier institute in the country." Curious, I asked him whether he made it to XYZ. To my utter surprise, he replied in the negative. What was more surprising was that he had not opted for an MBA programme after his engineering! He justified his decision by saying that he didn't see any point in attending any other B-school but XYZ.

While one half of my brain thought, "Wow, what a resolute decision maker," the other half wondered, "Isn't there more to the management institute than its name?" But, readers will agree that my friend is not alone in doing what he did. Examples abound of people who fall in love with the management institute rather than what the institute has to offer, that is, management education. And there are enough reasons to argue for either side. Nonetheless, I wish to subscribe to the school of thought that balances both aspects of the debate.

While the name of the institute does matter, there is much much more to management education than that.

The primary reason why one aspires to attend a premier management institute is to take advantage of the kind of opportunities the institute offers and, more important, to interact with people who challenge you to do better. No doubt, both the above advantages are attractive enough to encourage the MBA aspirant to burn the midnight oil in order to attend the best B-school.

But that doesn't mean that these advantages are exclusively offered by premier management institutes. Notwithstanding the importance of attending a B-school, excelling in management is not a function of the quality of the management institute one goes to, but that of the quality of thoughts and skills.

In today's globalised world, opportunities are available to all provided one has the requisite skills, talent and ability.

If one makes an effort to study the biographies of eminent personalities in various fields, you would notice that in a majority of the cases, their skills and abilities attracted opportunities, rather than the other way round. It was very rare that the personality's success could be solely attributed to attending a particular institute.

Of late, such is the hype surrounding B-schools and their alumni that the success (not the failure, mind you) of an alumnus is attributed only to the B-school, blatantly ignoring the fact that most important skillsets are acquired by the alumnus much before he/she even enters B-school.

Most of the aspirants who are hell-bent on attending only a particular premier institute want to do so in order to "cash in" on the name of their alma mater. They want to be known for their alma maters. While there's nothing wrong in that, isn't it a bigger achievement to become somebody for whom the alma mater is known? May be, if my friend is reading this, he would rethink his decision.

(The writer is an alumnus of NMIMS, Mumbai. The views expressed are personal.)

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