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INTO THE FUTURE

Monday, March 11th, 2013

It was an evening to remember. Two well-known names in the corporate sector sharing their life learning with students who are looking at starting a new life. A new life that has made them quit their cushy jobs in the business world to go back to college to study management. Organised by ReachIvy, ‘London Business School (LBS) – Grooming Visionaries’ had Manish Chokhani, MD & CEO of Axis Capital Ltd (ACL) and Pratik Agarwal, Head, Infrastructure of Vedanta Group, both LBS alums, talking to students on various aspects of management education and practices. The talk was moderated by Vibha Kagzi, Founder & CEO, Reach Education Private Limited.

Agarwal started by saying that the early years in school mattered a lot, especially figuring out how the social value system in India really works. Chokhani in fact, honestly confessed, “before I went for my MBA, I had no clue there was something known as the stock market. I was too busy playing cricket in school. I was head boy and was too involved with studies to worry about after life,” clearly leading to the understanding that you can get into the groove even later, the decision does not have to be made as early as school.

Talking about school, when Kagzi mentioned something about the influx of IB (International Baccalaureate) schools in Mumbai, Agarwal stated that the system of learning is far superior than what we have known for all these years. “I think the one thing that differentiates it, is the idea of application,” he said. To elaborate on that point, Chokhani illustrated with an apt example: “When we talk about a management cycle, what we do is set our targets, plan how to achieve it, then execute it and then review it. This is what these students are doing in school. So imagine the edge when you are learning this method right from class 8 onwards,” he mentioned, adding that all those who learnt this at a much later stage are already ten years behind these students.

Moving on, an interesting point that Agarwal brought out to those who had family businesses to fall back on, was: “One way in which I thought I could leap frog the curve, especially to the areas of leadership, management, really dealing with people which would otherwise take 10 years in the normal course of way, I thought I could leap frog that by an MBA. Which is what I did,” clearly bringing out the essence of a management education. One thing, Agarwal mentions, that he still carries from his MBA days is that “you should never mix bad decisions with bad outcomes. Sometimes a good decision could give a bad outcome.”

Another aspect that Agarwal figured from B-school enabled him to do things differently for himself. “B-school taught me the most glamourous businesses are not good businesses to be in. So I wanted to go boring. Old economy, low risk, simple, medium return business. The idea was to avoid a disaster,” he says. To back it up, Chokhani pretty much states the take away for everyone “If you do the conventional thing you will get conventional results. If you do the unconventional thing, you will get results which make you happy.”

Being at the position that each of them are, there was no doubt that their reading would have ample to contribute to their success, and to the people they are today. Both Agarwal and Chokhani stressed the importance of reading, with the latter mentioning, “Unless you find new doors to push, your brains will stagnate. It’s not just about books! I Have a stack of magazines that I keep continuously scanning. It helps to prove or disprove the working hypotheses that I have in my head.” Agarwal readily agreed, of course out of experience. “At this point, what I have been consistently ready for 12 months is actually Harvard Business Review. It’s not a book but very cutting edge,” he said.

Which brough the evening to their secrets of success. Chokhani said, “You buy so cheap that you can’t go wrong! And buy assets which you can own forever. You usually will not go wrong. And of course you need luck.” For Agarwal, it was two things: “One is focus. If you believe in an idea, let it live its life out. The second is if something appears too good to be true, it most definitely in India is too good to be true. A quick buck is the easiest way to failure.”

For the students out there who are thinking of management education, Chokani advises to start thinking about it two to three years earlier to build a great application package. According to Agarwal, “If you delay your MBA by three years, you could double the take away from it just because the softer issues, you can only grasp at that stage of your career.” As a parting shot Chokhani asked students to think about the money they would spend per day while doing an MBA, especially on days that they do not want to go to class! Right said!

ABOUT THE COMPANY

ReachIvy is a premium education and career advisory that helps aspiring students get accepted into top tier educational institutions globally. We have successful admits at MIT, Columbia, Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, London School of Economics, University of Michigan, Oxford, University of Chicago amongst others.

Vibha Kagzi, Founder and CEO, ReachIvy, holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, and a Bachelor of Science from Carnegie Mellon University. She has also pursued courses at the University of California, Berkeley, the London School of Economics and the Indian School of Business.

Our global team of counsellors have also acquired their degrees from premier institutes and are passionate about sharing their experiences with students worldwide.