Book review: MBA at 16 - A Teenager's Guide to the World of Business

MBA at 16 - A Teenager's Guide to the World of Business
Subroto Bagchi
Penguin Books India
Pages: 184
Price: Rs 199
What happens when people do not reach the goalpost they train for? How do businesses gain excellence? What is the role of quality in an enterprise? Why do things need marketing? Is marketing a con job? Above all, how do businesses emerge and who are these businessmen and businesswomen? Whoa, so many questions! If anyone has even remotely dealt with students and kids, then these would not be amiss.

Unfortunately, not many schools encourage, and even provide, the vital link between enterprise and education. This is something that many HR heads, who recruit from the best business schools, complain about all the time. The missing link between what companies need and what institutes actually teach is a common gripe.

All too often, schools get caught up in theory, and the joy of getting to know a real story behind the concept is lost. How I wish someone had given life to subjects such as demand theory or marginalist theory and actually connected the dots with what was happening out there.

I have, in fact, always wondered why there is not enough of legacy around our enterprises, barring a few names. It has to do with the view that most middle-class Indians grew up with, at least in the pre-liberalised era - that business is for crooks, and that if you are studying, it had better be aimed at a profession. In other words, one should work for a salary.

Fortunately, a lot of this is changing, thanks to e-commerce and the credibility that people such as N.R. Narayana Murthy of Infosys have brought to enterprise. You now have a situation where students are looking at alternative career options. This means they are willing to work with start-ups and NGOs, and even launch their own outfit as soon as they graduate from B-school.

Given this context, I was really happy to come across a book by none other than Subroto Bagchi, Co-founder and Chairman of IT Services giant MindTree. Also known as the 'gardener' for his passion for and interest in nurturing talent, Bagchi realised the gap in literature when it came to addressing school kids on the verge of taking their first steps towards a profession in terms of further education.

While candidly admitting to not knowing what to write, Bagchi got 31 school children from Bangalore's National Public School involved by sharing their stories, experiences and world with him.

To those who are in the thick of things already, the book serves as a valuable reminder of how innovation and the spirit of enquiry are nurtured and eventually how virtuous cycles are unleashed. And for those who are passionate about teaching and imparting skills, the book would be invaluable in just re-examining your interface.

But the book may end up disappointing those who are looking for a serious 'how to' guide. Many may point to the socio-economic profile of the young adults featured here, and say that the book is bound by a certain narrow view and represents a small slice of life. One, however, needs to understand that the idea here is to really trigger a conversation that takes off at a point in time and is over before it manages to answer all the questions. So certainly better editing and more research would have helped. But someone has to begin somewhere, and who better than Bagchi to give that cut of familiar stories in the context of some urban kids dealing with their growing pains before their lives and careers take concrete shape.