The cost of return on investment -By Tanmay from NMIMS

I am an outlier when it comes to B-school candidates in India. Many B-School aspirants are fresh out of engineering colleges, while others work for a year or two before leaving their jobs and joining an MBA program. Every Indian B-School aspirant prepares for the CAT if they are serious about their aspirations. And an overwhelming majority of the population has one single metric for judging the viability of a B-school – The Return on Investment. 

Being an outlier in the MBA world

The reason I mentioned earlier that I am an outlier is because none of the statements mentioned earlier apply to me. I am not an engineer but a pharmacist by profession. I had no intention of joining a B-school when I graduated. I worked for over four years in pharmaceutical sales, trying to understand my place in the corporate jungle. I did not prepare or attempt to crack the CAT. Given my pharmaceutical background, I looked at the colleges offering an MBA in Pharmaceutical Management and prepared solely for the admission test for the B-school I am currently in. As luck would have it, I cleared the cut off for the core MBA program and here I am surrounded by people who are perpetually in the quest to optimize one single ratio – The Return on Investment. 

The reason I started with my background is because it is important to understand where I come from. During my years as a pharmaceutical sales representative, I have seen my fair share of ethical dilemmas. Unfortunately, the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry is not known for its ethical business practices. Systematic bribing and an endless battle of finding loopholes in the law are some of the common traits found in many Indian pharmaceutical companies. Any company that does not subscribe to these practices finds it extremely difficult, though not impossible, to generate long term profits. Thousands of sleep deprived pill-popping sales managers in the pharmaceutical industry roam in the streets of metro cities looking to maximize the only thing that matters to the suits above them – The Return on Investment. 

So, on my first day in a B-school, it took only a few hours among my new batch mates to realize that the competition is going to be cutthroat. Every student I met in the first few days was looking to bag an annual salary of twenty-five lakhs or above because that would cover their tuition fees along with the living expenses that they would incur during the two years. This myopic vision had plagued most of the people I encountered daily. I realized that most of these people have never failed in their life and this disability is a significant roadblock to their learning experience. The society has conditioned them into believing that there is just one metric to measure their success and self-worth – The Return on Investment. 

Is MBA all about ROI?

I realize that I am coming very close to fitting the Indian stereotype of writers with jholas on their backs who live in their fantasy worlds and have no “practical” knowledge. But that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I would like to believe that people often misuse the word “practical” to justify actions that are in a morally gray area. I see talented and intelligent people around me waste their gifts in their quest of practicality. They believe that being practical means not coming to classes prepared. They believe that their MBA ends with their summer placements and any learning whatsoever is a waste of their precious time. They justify cheating in exams as a necessity because if everyone is doing it, what difference does it make. This is especially harmful for freshers who have no real-world experience and see this culture as acceptable where the only measure of someone’s success is that seven figured number that each one of us will be soon tagged with. By hook or by crook, the best minds of our country will not stop till they get this, you guessed it right – The Return on Investment. 

The ugly truth

Then why are we surprised when we see the business practices prevalent in our country. After all the business personnel of the Indian corporate world are successful people who have surpassed every competition behind them and have been a part of top B-schools in the country. They had joined these schools with the hope that they will learn how to run a business successfully and they leave with a skewed worldview where ends justify the means. The famed Indian concept of Jugaad is rampant in every sphere of business, the roots of which can be clearly traced back to the B-schools. It starts small with freeloading on assignments (or even worse, plagiarizing), bunking classes and cutting corners. Soon such people come together and give rise to the crab mentality that is the cancer of Indian B-schools. I strongly believe that India can never have a Harvard or a Stanford till there is a conscious effort to eradicate the culture of pulling down people who have an academic bent of mind. And eventually, any educational institute that bows down to such practices loses on the only thing that gave rise to such practices – The Return on Investment.

Road ahead

So, where do we go from here? Do we turn a blind eye to the fact that many parents spend their entire lives savings on paying the tuition fees of their children? Or that most students in B-schools have education loans with scary interest rates waiting to pounce upon them the moment their MBA ends. If only we understood that being successful in today’s world is not about the figure deposited in someone’s bank account on a monthly basis. That is at best, a byproduct of the capabilities that we develop on a regular basis. And these capabilities must be developed on a strong bedrock of ethical principles that can take an individual farther than any placement season can. 

Most of the big companies have stated to take notice of this fact. Many studies have shown significant correlation between Economic Value Added and Corporate Social Responsibility. Any indication of unethical behavior during selection processes is equivalent to committing hara-kiri. In such tumultuous times, Indian B-schools should realize that they risk obsolescence if they fail to uphold a culture that heavily emphasizes on ethical practices and discipline. Meanwhile, I must return to my hectic B-school schedule and start preparing for my end term exams. As I open my notes, I glance over a familiar term that I encounter multiple times every day – How can Mr. X maximize his Return on Investment? 

This article was submitted as an entry to Become an Author 2.0 with Dare2Compete.