Another dolt from IIM

I was in BITS, Pilani recently for a convention on entrepreneurship. My friends and I had a bio - medical monitoring device. We were quite proud of it, naturally. A lot of successfuly entrepreneurs and professors of business from other universities came and saw the device and liked it. All but one.

This a$$hole was from IIM, Ahmedabad. Really considered himself a hoot. Kept cracking jokes and stuff. The thing I like most about him, was the way he totally ignored us. He listened to what we had to say for all of fifteen seconds, pooh-poohed the whole idea and said that he would never need a medical staff to be notified if he had a heart attack (!). He made a big joke about how morticians should be notified instead. Really, he was quite humourous.

I didn't get it. This guy openly stated that he knew nothing about entrepreneurship and how he was a lowly professor in IIM. Yet, he was put in charge of the advisory panel and was part of the judging panel. One of the "unique", "different" and yet "feasible" devices that he liked - a hand held translator, that can translate words as and when you type them in. Brilliant I say, absolutely original, nothing wrong with it. Except that all it had was a microcontroller inside and their "prototype" had 3 whole words programmed into it. Thats right, you gotta sit down and program the over 40,000 words in the English language into it, and then enter all their translations. Quite inventive.

Why do people think everyone from IIM is good? Good staff? I don't think so. Is it because the students are really really good having cleared CAT? I know lots of students who cannot participate in a one - to - one discussion leave alone a group discussion. They clear CAT, the people with good communication skills can't - because they don't know how to interpret a screwed up pie chart. Why is it, that I have to know how to interpret a data chart, when the very reason I am joining up for an MBA is to learn statistical methods of data interpretation? Why should I join up when I already know how to interpret it? Instead of basing an exam on what you can teach the students (data interpretation), base it on something you can't (communication skills).

At one point, I was going to apply for an MBA. I changed my mind. It's too hard to clear CAT. Some would say that I lack determination and perseverance, some would say that I lack the competence, but I don't really care. I can't pass CAT. Does that mean I cannot manage a group of un-gifted workers paid to perform jobs they don't care about, with salaries they always complain about? Hell no!