Why MBA ? Why ISB ?

Of late I am receiving a lot of queries on whether people with 8+ years of experience (or 7+) do MBA? Whether ISB is the best place for it? Is not IIM A better?

Doing MBA or not is a very personal decision and the reasons why one would take up business education in his / her career will differ. Hence I (or for that matter anyone) cannot give a concrete answer on whether MBA will help in any career or not.

I would rather pen down the reasons and the logic why I chose to do MBA at this stage and why ISB:

My take on this was very simple.

In IT (from where I came) nowadays position (leadership) is more a function of time than anything else. However that is the same reason why we see so many not so deserving candidates getting positions of power and authority more because there is no alternative (I call it the TINA factor).

Business Management requires to have a holistic picture and the decision making has to be in line with that holistic view. For example, I as an Engagement Manager may feel that continuing work in my current account is the best option, without realizing that I may not be adding value to the organization. I may also as a manager hold on to resources and under utilize them rather than release them for more productive and profitable use. I have worked under some of the best managers and have also seen some not so good apples in the industry.

I have seen so many PLs, PM, and Relationship managers who have no clue if their project is doing good or not (in financial terms, customer satisfaction etc). Many times I had to explain to people in leadership position that we are here to make money PERIOD. Many managers do not understand the importance of margins, up sell, cross sell etc. I being a CA always viewed everything from a financial angle (which is a myopic view as well). I realized that I am missing the holistic picture.

There were two ways to mitigate that gap. Read up or Go back to School. For me Go Back to School was a better option because I wanted to learn in the right fashion and understand the concepts and perspectives. The next question was - Full time or Part time - and the answer for me was Full Time - If this (managing) is what I intend to do going forward I cannot take half measures. The next question was One Year or Two Years - I decided for one year because I think the 8 years of exp has given me the basics on which I can build up. The final decision to choose ISB was simple. It is the best school in its category across the world. The visiting faculty profiles are great !!

Hence I thought that I do not want to become an incomplete manager. If I want to lead or manage I need to have all the right tools.

ISB was my first choice and here I am.

You all too need to do some more thinking on why you want to MBA and then make the choice. I was also helped immensely by others in this decision making. The decision took 2 years to materialize. So it was not something that suddenly popped up in my head and I jumped into it.

MBA can make sense at any level as long as it makes sense to you.