An MBA does not mean that one does not need grassroot level experience..what should Smita's job profile been...a cushy 9 to 6 job in an air-conditioned room devising strategies??? Is it so easy to do that without having experience about customer handling??? No such strategy works unless one has experience...an MBA helps one to understand customers and market better but it does not replace learning by being involved in grassroot levels for some years...many FMCG CEOs today and also in other companies, started at the shop floor or in the market...ask any Unilever CEO or top managers...ask any CEO even Ratan Tata...they all started at the lowest level...I think the problem lies with Smita and her father who think just becuase she has MBA, she can be GOD on day one in the company!!! They are immature to say the list...surely Smita does not understand business and how to build career in industry...the writer of this article also seems to be totally detached from realities and he has no understanding of corporate careers...he should have done enough research before writing such a piece...
RE:Everybody has to start at scratch to learn
by Farooq Khan on May 01, 2008 05:52 PM Permalink
Mr. Dudhead Dipankar Sarkar! You might not be aware about the educational background of so called esteemed people which you named in your post but hey were not even graduate when they started their career take the case of bill gate he was a high school failure hadn't he and if he would be a MBA degree holder he hadn't started MicroSoft same as with TATA et al... The name of the degree itself can tell you about the nature of duties while work... e.g. MBA stands for Master of Business Administration in which way smita was administrating business???? By mannin phone numbers door to door???? She was basically working as Field Sales Officer which normally gets Rs 9000/pm in HDFC bank... It seems that you are still living in fantasy world otherwise if you came across any such person who is doing a work of field-sales-officer you can tell about the horrific conditions of him/her in your present posts... In no way any MBA person should do this work if he/she should do then he/she needn't to be an MBA!!! To understand the market there are several field officer hired by bank who can directly give reports about customer nature to any team leader and this leader can tell MBA person and then the work of MBA starts to make things better for his company by analysing the market situatioon. One don't need to get into market to know about market! Do you become a doodhwala for getting milk simply you want to analyse present corruption in milk selling??? Think out of the AC room Mr.
RE:Everybody has to start at scratch to learn
by Dipankar Sarkar on May 01, 2008 07:21 PM Permalink
Well...Mr. Farooq...do you know about people like M.S.Banga (ex-Hindustan Lever CEO, now Unilever category head in London), Ajay Gupta (ex-Coke CEO), Subrata Bagchi (Mindtree)...and a loads of other top managers in Indian companies? I think it's not I but thousands of people in India think they will start inside an AC cabin on day one...find these people and ask them how and where they started after having degrees from IIM, IIT and the likes!! Then you won't have to call me a 'Dudhead'!!!
RE:Everybody has to start at scratch to learn
by Kaushik Ganguli on May 02, 2008 07:52 PM Permalink
Farooq - you are taking on Dipankar my Bengali brother in arms in a abusive manner, it seems you are from Marathwada region of Maharashtra where the rudest people in India come from. I do not wish to stoop to your level but it is evident that far from being an MBA, you would not be able to even spell MBA properly.
What Dipankar is saying is absolutely correct. People like MS Banga have actually sold soap in the remote corners of India to know the market and the mindset of consumers. It is this grinding and rigour which has made HLL (now HUL) the most fantastic training ground for CEOs. You have to also see people like Mr Murali Sivaraman, MD Philips who started his career as an IT consultant for ICI, or see Ms Lalita Gupte - a law officer for ICICI. Someone like Subroto Bagchi came from a humble family in Orissa and rose to the pinnacle of success in Wipro.
There is no substitute for hard work and rigour and you must know the process to learn and earn. You must get your hands dirty and work in a focussed manner and in this respect, your boss plays a critical role in evolving the job for you.
Bill Gates, Steve Jobs are exceptions rather than the rule. I would rather go by people who worked in one company all their lives and grew with the company and enriched and contributed to the welfare of the organisation.
And lastly, never make the mistake of taking on a Bengali - we are the springing tigers of the land - read Hugh Troys biography of Netaji.
