Thursday, May 6, 2010

Pillars of professionalism

Power, position, pay package, profitability and of course profile………….

“You are what you do” is a famous statement in most widely (wrongly) quoted book, “the art of war”. I have heard this statement mostly from professors teaching competition and marketing strategies. Certainly B-Schools have their environment which compels you to believe and think only on the lines of position, profile, authority, business sense, profitability, pay package, brand name and of course power.

The question we often forget to ask all the while we are in school is that all there is to one’s existence?

Is there no other dimension to our identity? Why we always tend to classify everyone on only these lines, which we are taught to be the pillars of professionalism.

Even these pillars are very tenuous; they exclude some of the very basic and essential characteristics.

This process of commoditizing individuals, in certain set of characteristics, categories and classes is very dangerous. It prevents us from looking at those things which are beyond MBA. Things like basic goodness, honesty, ability to sacrifice, courage to blow a whistle etc.

There are so many day to day instances where we need not be super humans, but only simple individuals, but alas, simplicity is being fast rubbed off from our minds and hearts…..!!!

5 comments:

shashank said...

i couldn't agree more with u.....they try to destroy our human part.......they teach us about surviving n only way to survive is to be fittest.....they dnt teach us abt living life...

Miken Jain said...

So much for CSR courses in MBA...

Points well made Dhruv, but do try to keep in mind that you are in a vocational course and not in an educational institution.

By nature a vocational course is expected to teach you the tricks of the trade and make sure that you survive the ebb and tide of a professional life.

While the traits you point out are quintessential for human survival - the deliberation and discussion about them is more suited in courses (for lack of better words) which are non vocational in nature and the ones which are directed towards making you a better human being and not a better human resource.

While I do not defend B-Schools, I do urge to get our priorities and expectations right.

Hope, this helps answer a few of your questions.

Swati Jain said...

I ALso agree with Milken..

It depends upon individual that how they perceive the education n what they want to becum in life.

Wht u said is ryt to certain extent but many people think beoynd that also..

N I m surprised that u r saying dz bcz u r d 1 person who think beyond jus professionism den hw cn u say tht v wl destroy our other selves

Dream Girl said...

hey I think in this world every next person is having different opinion on this but at the end the most important is WHAT U R TAKING FROM PROVIDED STUFF....as simple as that....What u sayy...

dhruv said...

thanks all, shashank for agreeing and miken, swati and Priyanka for disputing with their own logic, argument and perspectives..... it only enriches our exchange... keep reading and writing,