Sometimes articles like these make me wonder if at all an IIM A alumnus is worth the piece they have written. The most intriguing part is that IIM alumnus getting into entrepreneurship is a big news.

I have a different opinion here. The whole lot of those who come out of IIMs or the B-Schools should be worhty of being an entrepreneur. If not I think we have something wrong about that in the DNA of these institutions. I am sometimes appalled into believing only through the news items that one alumni of IIM A is getting into online sabsi mundy. The point is that it is already being done by some non IIM people and they are doing the best with the realtime knowledge. But for some reason this is being made into a news item.

Quite often than not, we are bullied into believing that placements are the end off all the MBA programmes. In some of the discussions we had with academic circles as well as the industrial circles they dont want people just be another persona dn keep slogging. They need individual to contribute and have an outlook which keeps the company moving in the right direction.

Imagine for a second if all those out of those respected B-Schools were to be entrepreenuers the whole situation would have changed for us Indians. I come from Coimbatore where entrepreneurship is an inbuilt factor for those people in and around the city. The government has done very little compared to the other cities in the state.  It has been a phenomenal effort on the part of  the citizens here to be that proactive and make it happen be it textiles, foundry, pumps or castings…whatever be the product.

I was just thinking more than 80% are not MBA actually and am wondering if they had done MBAs they would they be more risk averse? Definitely it would be the other way around.

As MBAs we tend to think too much into what we call as risk management and mitigation. Doing this almost shelves the idea of entrepreneurship. The agriculturist in this country of monsoon vagaries is the best form of entrepreneurship and most importantly the ways of sainthood doing their duty and waiting for the raint o shower. They are risk averse to the core and they are willing to risk it. Will our MBA programmes teach risk averseness to be a part of the intrinsic value they carry around.

As an entrepreneur I believe you make an impact on the society around you in small terms but definitely in real terms.

It is another story that entrepreneurship is not regarded as a profession by the minds and intellects who think its a disregarded idea for one to be an entrepreneur. He is not celebrated as much as a professional drawing a salary which are quite settled as far as his family is concerned and also his wife’s /bride’s family is concerned.

I remember in one of those documentaries on Coimbatore and its entrepreneurship there was something called as jealousy factor among brother in laws. How interesting  that such a thing heralded the industrial nature for this hometown of mine.

In conclusion I think the B-Schools need to reorient the whole idea of making placement the be-all and end all of a MBA…

R Senthilkumar