Better use of ‘Operations’ and ‘Relationship Management’…

The one thing that distinguishes a true MBA grad from the rest of the live stock is the ability to use whatever you have learnt in everyday life, no matter what part of life it is. And it seems a lot of my budding managers believe a lot in rural development and have put the teachings of many great lecturers to good use. This is evident from the amount of time spent playing Farmville and Mafia Wars on facebook. Two of my batch mates were engrossed in a very serious discussion the other afternoon. From the way the conversation was going, there was a lot of ‘buying’ and ‘selling’ going on. Naïve old me presumed they were talking about something from their recent Investment banking class.

I have been very wise to leave investment banking alone this term. After last terms fiasco of losing my mind once too often, I decided it was better I leave my investments in the able hands of friends who are going to excel in the subject. My fellow students who have taken up the course, for heaven’s sake, do your pre-reads and do well in all your exams. Or else, kiss your ‘investment consultant’ job in my company goodbye.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand – soon enough the conversation seemed all too odd to be about investment banking and stock market analysis. I slowly take a look at the computer screen and lo….there they are…playing ‘Farmville’. Looks like after all the great games that were made in the world, we only seem interested in farming. The discussion was apparently on how my friend sold a kilo of rice for a lower rate than what he would have got….also; he apparently chopped down some apple trees…or something like that! Great way to make use of the not-so-inexpensive education.

Another major craze running around campus is Mafia Wars. I caught two guys talking about getting invites, only then they could go. Naïve old me (again) automatically assumed it was for some b-school fest. Apparently not…they wanted to join some gang and take care of business. ‘Go to the mattresses’ as one might put it. All that we have learnt is to make use of all our ‘relationship management’, ‘operations’,’evaluations’, etc to play games where you’re a farmer. I mean, what happened to good old Warcraft and Counter Strike? All that mindless gore, shooting and hacking? Those made so much more sense. These MBA hot-shot types no…I tell you….good grief!!!! Oh wait….Yikes…I am one of those!