Section Change

After a grueling five-week schedule and having staved off relentless attacks from optimization rules, decision trees, macroeconomic policies, quantitative marketing and Porter’s forces, the Class of 2012 was trudging towards the examination halls to write the last exam of Term 2. The Gods seemed to have taken mercy on us, for it started drizzling and the smell of the wet earth and the light sunshine gave us a hint that there is some goodness still left in this world!

In the evening, the atrium was abuzz with activity with 570 of us having descended into its heart for the usual rounds of tea, coffee and banter before people departed for a well-deserved break. However, this time there was another event that awaited us – the section change. After spending three months together in one section, we were shuffled again in order to ensure that we made new friends and expanded very own ‘social network’. Like always, a change has its proponents and opponents and there were furious debates on the shuffle. As a keen observer of human behavior, it amazes me that even though we had spent only three months together we felt a tinge of sadness after the shuffling of study groups and sections! We were not leaving ISB, were we? While there are emotions involved, I think that at a fundamental level these feelings of sadness arise because as human beings we dread change. We get used to a place, its people and the norms and changes in them mean that we have to start all over again and move out of our comfort zone. (I know that a lot of my friends are going to kill me and tell me that I am a heartless individual, but all that I am saying is that while emotions do play a role, at the same time, the role of the fear of change as a key influencer cannot be discounted.)

I was discussing this issue with a good friend of my mine and she remarked that the rapid pace of the course and the continuous churning that we undergo is a microcosm of the real world that we would inhabit — workplaces would change rapidly, our teams would change frequently and each day would seem like a new one. The design of the course and the associated processes will prepare us for this!

In this one year, I feel that the biggest challenge that all of us will face is to maintain a constancy of purpose and a constancy of principles. When the world around us evolves at a frenetic pace, more often than not we lose our sense of identity and who we are… it is easy to get carried away by the herd and forget why we have actually come to this school… Is it to get that dream Day 1 job or to graduate as individuals who will each operate at a different intellectual and emotional plane? That is THE one choice that all of us need to make!

Shreerang Godbole , Class of 2012