10 things a Business School wont teach you

There are a host of reasons for People like you (a BSchool aspirant) to do an MBA/PGDM. More so in a country like India where its assumed that for a manager like position, an MBA is a must. This makes a lot of B School aspirants think like an MBA will be a total game changer to their lives.

Well undoubtedly you learn a lot at business schools, but often there are a few very practical and important lessons that no B School will be able to teach you. All said and done but no School wants to send its students back without any of these skills, but these are people skills which are learnt through experiences in life.

1. Improvisation: How to play the game differently from what it was planned. Customers often do unexpected and irrational things and you need to be skilful and prompt enough to understand the scenario immediately and play things in a way in which you are sure to achieve the objective.
2. Business isn’t personal: They teach you a lot about ethics in a business school but they never tell you that the real world doesn’t always work in such an ethical manner. People out there don’t really care for your interests. Be prepared to be disappointed and to accept that they’re just interested in doing whatever is necessary in taking the money home.
3. Patience: New ideas and business deals take time to work. You must keep pushing again and again to make your idea get accepted and give time for it to work and obtain positive results.
4. Theories are not a substitute for thinking: All the bookish theories learnt will be of no use if you don’t keep questioning yourself and try to work things out. Different problems will always keep arising and there is nothing like practical experience to help out in such cases.
5. Sales and the customer: MBA programs have very less coursework regarding sales as it is a very hands on kind of an experience. Sales is mainly about giving the customer all the information they need to make a fair choice. Don’t be pushy and stop yourself from using too many marketing jargons and flowery language. And don’t always rely on sales forecasts, go and test the market yourself.
6. Be truthful: Never promise something that you will not be able to deliver. Not only yourself but your entire company will lose respect.
7. Price is not always determined by supply and demand: This is the most basic thing taught in any business school. However, it is not always so. Whether you have been able to make the deal successfully or not has a big impact on the prices too.
8. Grow a thick skin and fast: You will have to hear plenty of stuffs that you won’t like, but then, that is all part of doing business.
9. Passion and creativity: That is something that should come from within you.
10. Drive and tenacity: Finally you should have the ambition and desire to excel which is again another thing that cannot be learnt.

Every Aspirant Should know what to expect out of an MBA degree. Its supposed to groom you into a professional, its supposed to give you a network of teachers who will teach you Business through case- studies and it will give you a network which you can access and take advantage of throughout your life.