What I learned from MBA @ Exeter

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An Exeter MBA programme exposes to a very wide area of experience in terms of subjects and people. Varied subjects includes macroeconomics, consumer behavior, marketing, Innovation, operations research, quantitative techniques, finance, HR, etc. Apart from exposure to subjects, I met fellow students from various backgrounds and places.

When I arrived at Exeter, it came as no surprise that I instantly felt a culture infused with social and global responsibility. The culture is driven not only by my classmates, but also by the Exeter faculty and administration especially Maureen.

It was truly a new experience to be in a place where teamwork and cooperation were stressed, and where my grades were for my own consumption only, not for comparison with everyone else's.

Everything at the Exeter was centered on enhancing and learning from the community of students and the larger community of students’ families, faculty, and staff.I has learned so much here that really enhance my skills. The learning process of EXETER MBA enhances my following skills:

·         People management: I worked in multiple teams with and without the people I was comfortable with. There were instances where I came across a team comprising of people who had zero overlap with my perception, point of view etc. But the challenge of living and working with them and still getting a quality job done in time was a lesson I can never forget.

·         Integrating Skills: One of the most important skills that I developed during my MBA was integrating skills. I learned how to work on different areas and how to manage the correlations between different functions and verticals. I learned to appreciate how a change in one leads to many changes in other units, components, entities, and developed the technique of managing this dynamic equation.

·         Macro and Micro Issues of Business: Strong business acumen is another skill set that I developed. The various real life cases handled during my MBA made me realize and analyze all the exceptions to theory that practical life is embedded in and how processes and people learn to live with them and how these can be managed. For this, one needs to be aware of events happening in the business world around us. I studied various business models and came to appreciate how simple thought processes and innovation can be a firm foundation of some of the biggest organizations of the world.

·         Confidence: Having had an exposure to a competitive, holistic and dynamic environment developed a deep-rooted confidence in my abilities. The feeling that come what may, I am ready to face the challenge that too boldly comes uniquely with my career option. It might sound biased, but the fact is that most of MBA’s I have interacted with have that “something different” in them as far as confidence is concerned.

·            Helps in improving communication, co-operation and co-ordination skills: In MBA when we work in a different project and with different team every time I learned so much from others.  When a person works in a team he has to communicate with others in the team. He has to communicate his ideas and opinions; he has to listen patiently to his members without losing tempers. This helps him in learning the art of an effective communication. When working in a team co-ordination and co-operation becomes the integral part of a team work.

·            Develop other skills such as project management, time management, problem solving, conflict resolution and negotiation skills.

·             Co-operation: Thus in a nut shell I can say that for making a successful MBA each student of the team is responsible. Their degree of co-operation, understanding, effective communication, mutual respect and mutual accountability will determine the success rate of any team.

Leadership

Leadership is not a written rule of thumb, neither it comes by inheritance nor it can be studied anywhere. However, a person who has all the potential of being a great leader can be educated. Leader is a person who has a desire to see things which are usually ignored by others. An ordinary man manager normally deals with deception and questions others for their mismanagement. However, a true leader deals with deception as well as self deception. He questions himself time and again till the time he is comfortable with the result. Even then the process of questioning facts and figures goes on.

Sir Albert Einstein once said that most of the people see things and ask why, I see them and say why not. He never attended any leadership training program and never worked in any corporate culture. Still, he is regarded as the pioneer of science.

Former American president Abraham Lincoln life can’t be termed as a jolly good affair. After growing up in not so handsome environment, he went through so much in life. His girl friend died, he had a nervous breakdown, lost two consecutive state elections. Theoretically, these are the facts of a great failure but they belong to one of the most admired and recognized leaders of the world.




Walt Disney was expelled from his job at a newspaper citing he was not good and he lacked creativity. The same Walt Disney took the world by a storm and everybody who has ever watched a cartoon show can tell who Disney is.

Another classic example is of the former CEO and the current mentor of India’s leading IT services giants Infosys. The person is Narayan Murthy. He is considered as the pioneer of Indian IT industry. He doesn’t follow any particular leadership model. He gives all the employees of his company an independent space for thinking. All the employees are literally the stake holders of the company as everybody has got the shares of the company. Murthy doesn’t drive a plush wheeler, travels economy class, proactively takes a pay cut when it seems that the company may get into a financial turmoil. This way he is developing himself as well as setting examples for the others so that they too can develop themselves. He was working very effectively at the helm but when he felt that he has achieved and contributed a lot, he stepped aside and took the role of a mentor.

These were a few of the many examples of great leadership which signifies that leadership cannot be owned by following one particular approach. These also say that leaders are not build by reading tons of theories. Reading may give an idea about leadership but the path has to be taken by the leader itself. Certain mishappenings may prove handy to someone and sometimes potential leaders take a cue or two from the scenarios and convert them into a formidable success story.