Roberto’s Numero Uno Blog

[ Note: This blog is in response to the question: Are management graduates meant to be corporate servants or corporate masters? ]

Top MBA programs in India and around the world produce leaders not corporate masters. 

After graduation, most business school graduates find themselves working in an organization where their team will include people who work with them and people who work for them.  Undoubtedly, early on, they will face an uncomfortable scenario where they’ll need to balance between the roles of corporate “master” or “servant.”  Striking the perfect balance is difficult, awkward and unnatural.  Most importantly, it is unnecessary. 

Here’s a short story to explain my point.  A few weeks ago, one of my exchange student friends at IIMB (I’ll call her Emma) was struggling to balance weekend travel experiences.  “They are not easy decisions to make,” she sighed, “there are so many places and things I want to see.”  At that particular moment, Emma was confronted with a two-way decision: should she head to Puducherry to see the French architecture or jump on a bus to Hampi and see the temples.  

Emma faced similar dilemnas every other weekend, when she had to make decisions about what to go and see.  I asked Emma to tell me what she wanted to experience during her time in India.  I knew she wanted to see lots of places, but what I wanted to know was what she wanted to experience.  She gave me a puzzled look and scratched her head.

“Emma, the problem may lie in that you have a list of places to see instead of a list of things to experience,” I clarified.  “If you focus on experiences that you want to have, your list will change.  You’ll begin going to places for auditory, olfatory, tactile and visual experiences.”

The morale of the story is that many people, when challenged with a dilemma, get myopic and only see the options directly in front of them.  Are they going to go see the beach or the temples?  Are they a corporate master or servant?  They fail to think forward.

If a business school graduate begins to think of himself/herself as either a corporate servant or a corporate master, then s/he has clearly forgotten that his/her time at school wasn’t intended to create players for a ”corporate slavery” game.  Top MBA programs create leaders, not masters.  The twist is that leadership is about service.

After graduation and throughout our lives, MBA graduates will be thrust into leadership roles.  Whether its leading a country, multinational company or family, true leadership is  – and always will be - about being selfless and taking the interests of others ahead of personal interests.  Leadership is doing what is right and best for the wider interest.  One can argue that the current meltdown on Wall Street was caused by poor leadership, stemming from greed.

Emma’s frustrations evaporated when she realized what she really wanted to experience in India meant travelling to a handful of places and actually spending more time in Bengaluru.  Likewise, when an MBA graduate remembers that they are not just a master or servant, but indeed a leader, then the path forward becomes clear.  They realize that the frustration of balancing the roles of corporate servant or master is unnecessary and irrelevant.

It’s appropriate to conclude with the words of Mother Theresa - a small, fragile person who led the masses (and global leaders) through service.  Her calling card used to read:

The fruit of SILENCE is prayer
The fruit of PRAYER is faith
The fruit of FAITH is love
The fruit of LOVE is service
The fruit of SERVICE is peace.