B-schools and the art of successful execution

When asked to pen my thoughts on the topic, I did a quick recap of how I was at B-school and how I have evolved and matured as a person.

Quite obviously, one learns a lot at B-school, but what one does not learn is the difference between being an entrepreneur and a business manager.

To me, these are not two distinct personality types, but two distinct behavioural patterns. It's about how one perceives risks differently -- on one side is the entrepreneur who is driven by a perception of opportunity-creation, and on the other, is the manager who is driven by resources currently controlled by him.

The curriculum can only teach so much. However, it helps you create a strong foundation that can inculcate either of these two behaviours.

In a B-school one interacts with people who are young, ambitious and compete aggressively to do well in academic performance and bag the best offers. In real life, the heterogeneity of people one has to deal with within one's own organisation, the customers' organisation and other stakeholders is way too high.

People have vastly varying levels of professionalism, energy, preferences, tastes and styles of working. I think the most difficult task one faces as a leader or manager is to be able to derive consistently high results from this heterogeneous mix of people.

Business success is not just about great strategies, but it largely comes from excellence in execution. How to set up processes, systems, frameworks and methodologies that create an institutionalised foundation to deliver great results consistently. Nuances of managing successful execution are learnt only through experience.

Leadership is about creating new leaders. At B-school, you tend to learn a lot of theory but not the practical aspects of hiring the right candidates, grooming them to exceed their potential.

As a leader, one needs to have great people skills -- the ability to spot talent and provide them opportunities to learn, experiment and challenge the status quo.

Anurag Jain graduated from the University of Michigan in 1995.