When you meet people and say that u r doing a PGP programme from ISB, you typically evoke some response from them. I am in Chennai on my term break and met many of friends and past colleagues. And I have tried to frame their responses under three categories - The Wealth Maxi"MISERS", The woodcutters and the wise men
The wealth maxi"misers"
This group's first question is how much does it cost to an MBA from ISB? When i tell them that its about Rs. 14 lakhs (Food and acco extra). They are then dumbfounded and ask me the same question again just to recheck if they heard me right. They then respond back saying that, It is so costly, it does'nt make to sense to spend that much money to study.
What is costly? Is a reliance stock priced at around Rs. 1900 about 400 times more costlier than Pentamedia Graphics stock which is priced at about Rs. 5? The mathematical answer to this question is a simple YES. But that's not an answer you expect from good investment analyst. Comparing two things purely based on their absolute prices is not just useless but quite dangerous. If ISB does make sense in your career and if you take ISB as an investment and undertake an effort to calculate the NPV by a discounted cash flow method and compare it with the NPV of your career without it, am sure your investment will more than be justified.
But i know that these people cannot be convinced as they generally don't hear what they don't like to hear. So, when i meet up with these people i just smile :-)
The woodcutters:
This group's reaction is "Why did u leave the job to go and study?" Leaving a job at this stage is foolish. When i meet up with them i am reminded of the woodcutter's story. Some woodcutters never waste anytime and keep cutting trees without checking if their axe is sharp enough. Sharpening the axe tantamount to wasting time and these woodcutters hence doesn't indulge in this activity.
My reaction when i meet up with these people is "I am sharpening my axe". I don't claim that ISB is the only place where you can sharpen your axe. To me i believe that ISB will help me sharpen my axe. Every person needs to decide what will sharpen their axes..
The Wise men:
It is this small percentage of the population that typically understands the value of a quality education and the greatness of ISB. When i meet up with this group, i am at home and reason out bigger things.
