When I
thoght about what should be the “one learning” from my nearly two decades of
work experience in industry as well as academics, which I can share with future
managers, I was reminded of my marketing professor, who once said “Kotler is
Bible of Marketing”. In my first semester, that statement had a profound impact
on my barren mind – barren because being a science graduate, I was as clueless
about marketing as a rabbit is about the road in the beaming headlight of a
fast approaching car. But fortunately the reading of the Kotler book had such
an impact on me that I found out that marketing is no fun, partially because of
my love with numbers and the lack of numbers in marketing subject. To my utter
dismay, marketing in real world was only about numbers. So I thought why not
share my experiences with the business management books and how I had to learn,
unlearn and relearn to survive in corporate world.
It is not
that I am blaming Kotler book or my marketing professor’s love with the book
for my entry into the world of finance, but what I have found over the years is
that in Indian business education there is an over-emphasis on the usage of
books, primarily text books. What has happened is that the business education
in India has been primarily influenced by the Indian education systems – both
secondary as well as higher and laid a culture of book reading to score good
grades in various courses. Let me stand corrected, I am not advocating that
there is no need of books for business education, but what I have realized that
books cannot be the focal point for business education.
To prove my
point of view, I will focus on certain basic requirements of and/or from
management students and explain how books fail to deliver on those fronts:
1. Writing
Skills: There are
numerous books on business writing, yet none of these focus on how to write
professional emails or reports; unfortunately there is no book to explain how
to write a sales proposal or a monthly department report. In corporate world,
good writing skills are considered equally important as oral communication,
believe you me, I have found that writing are far important that oral because
oral may be forgotten after some time, but writing is always available in
records.
As a finance
professional, I was once asked to prepare an appraisal report and present the
same to the approval committee (dreaded PowerPoint presentation). After
devoting more than a week, what I was able to produce was a 30-page document
and 50-slide presentation deck. When I went to my manager for review, he simply
looked at the thickness of the documents and politely said (in the managerial
tone) that anything more than 5-page appraisal report and 10-slide presentation
would be a waste to time. What I found disturbing that when I prepared a
project report of 10 pages in my MBA days, my faculty said how you will survive
in corporate world if you can’t prepare detailed self-explanatory report and
was given a “repeat” remark on the report.
2. Cross-relationship
among various disciplines: I opted for finance specialization. During my stint with a consulting
firm, I was working on an engagement to prepare a business plan. I was very
enthusiastic about the same as I would be working and playing with numbers. But
for the first fortnight we were just working to understand the market
dynamics…just wait, which finance book covers market dynamics and its impact on
financial projections. If a student opts for finance and marketing dual
specialization, he/she ends up studying subjects like Marketing of Services, Advertising & Sales Promotion, Financial Engineering, Security and
Portfolio Management and so on. Which one of these subjects focuses on
cross-relationship between marketing and finance? To add one needs to have
operational and human resources knowledge also to be successful.
Another
school of thought would say Strategic Management subject covers these
cross-relationships, but what most strategic management books focus on is an
extension of marketing and economics and fails to properly address financial
and operational domains.
3. Start
a Business: There
has been a change in the way management students look at future in the current
economic environment. When I ask my students “What are you future goals?”;
majority would always answer “to start my own business.” However, the MBA books
are focused on how to manage an existing multi-million dollar company. For an
entrepreneur, it’s more important than ever to separate their product from the
rest of the pack, to create a niche. Such an approach is not properly
documented or focused on in the management books. Their differentiation is
focused on how to manage existing business and innovate for the same.
It is very
commonly said about management students that they should have entrepreneurial
skills and focus on creating jobs rather than doing one. To manage such a
trend, it is very necessary that the management books which are written 15-20
years ago also change the direction and provide what is really required in the
corporate world to survive – for example, a marketing manager’s tool kit is not
only complete by having knowledge about various Ps, but key ingredient of
success is to know how to use these Ps for developing marketing strategies by
understanding relative and critical importance of various Ps.
Mr. Ashish Kumar
Deputy Director,
Amity Business School,
Amity University Jaipur
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