? MBA ?

Is there anything new to learn in the MBA Marketing course? Well before joining MBA my friends and myself did ‘discuss’ (euphemism for argue) and did come to a conclusion many times that if one had common sense he need not do MBA Marketing (let me not tell about the other specializations now, as I am not eligible to do that and thereby offend my friends from the first year; well I don’t care about the ones I am studying with presently, that is the all Marketing class, as they would find out or have already found out about what I am going to tell).

Let’s see what I have to say after having been in MBA School for a whole year and also having been with most of the activities of the college. To substantiate my point well, I would like to express my views through my experience in the SAP program. One might think that this activity is not an academic one, so how and what does it have to do with MBA?

I do not come from a business family. I am one of those fools (rather used to be) whom the organizations can study well (using ‘Consumer Behavior’, which is there in our course, right?) and implement all their efforts with high success, because I would not understand the actual manipulative efforts of these organizations to lure me to purchase their product.

The whole of first year was an explorative course structure for me. Delving into those mysterious zones of management was thrilling and enthralling experience for me. It gave me a structured process to get into the nook and cranny of the brains of the genius businessmen of various eras.

Having explored that, there was no time to waste but to implement those thoughts during the MBA studies itself and learn from mistakes rather than burn my fingers in the battle field (now don’t imagine swords and armors, I am talking about the even more gruesome one – the “Market Place”).

Trembling and with my palms sweating I joined the SAP program to commit mistakes (well never expected to succeed). Literally one whole year passed by and I did not do anything noticeable in SAP.

With quotes like, “I'd rather reach 100 people six times over with a message than 600 people just once" -- Geoffrey Ramsey (Statsmaster at eMarketer), I kept going and never gave up. "If you keep bringing only bad news, little by little you become the bad news yourself." -- Jacques Horovitz, Ten Rules For Managing Your Boss, The Smart Manager; well this did not take place with me as Mr. Lawrence, Territory Manger, SAP, had trust in me and knew I would succeed one day.

One year was long enough to learn about ones weakness and improve on them. "Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust," -- Business leader and motivational trainer Zig Ziglar; after having understood few common-sensical issues like these I was able to actually make a difference in SAP. From nowhere now I have become a Team Leader (imagine that; not being from a business background!!).

Well after having said all that, isn’t MBA Marketing just common sense? Yes, it is. But the question is, DO YOU HAVE IT IN THE RIGHT PROPORTION?