Who says business school is cut throat and competitive? Who says it is a dog eat dog world where the only person you are concerned about is yourself?

If you are around in ISB and witnessing what the Class of 2012 has been doing you would be shocked.

In the last four terms our batch has seen countless individuals come forward and lead peer to peer teaching sessions, make detailed course summaries and to simply put it – indulge in the act of selfless giving. Reports talk about how peer learning and peer interaction is what separates B-school learning from all others but from a distance it usually seems to be plain theory. However, it is when such precepts are put into practice you realize how you learn the best when your colleagues teach you, because they understand your capabilities and limitations since they are exactly like you!

This phenomenon does not seem to be restricted to only a few. In fact like the phenomenon of viral marketing, concept check notes that assist with preparation seem to reach out to the entire batch within a matter of a few minutes. You sometimes wonder why? Why don’t people just hoard knowledge and keep it to themselves? Why do you do it knowing that you may actually be losing your competitive edge? This phenomenon has really flummoxed me.

Peer-to-Peer facilitators have started attaining rock star status. In an act of complete selflessness the facilitators prepare detailed PPT’s and patiently clear doubts of batchmates. In fact, there is a rush to get a seat in these sessions and people turn up 15 minutes prior to the commencement of these sessions to grab a seat and listen to them.

In my opinion this is similar to the Wikipedia phenomenon where 1% of the users contribute to generating and editing content and 99% consume it but the 1% get a kick out of the intangible rewards that they get. Small notes of appreciation and gratitude are great incentives – but more importantly it is an intrinsic desire to make change happen and contribute something meaningful that drives them. For all the lip service that people make to community service I do not think that there can be anything bigger and better than this.

I am sure that this phenomenon has taken shape on its own and is emergent in nature. But such softer aspects of behavior are tacit and are difficult to pass on. I believe that we as a batch now need to start thinking long term and see how do we make this culture a self perpetuating one which is passed on from one class to another and becomes a distinguishing feature of our school.

And for all of you who thought that we were like crabs wanting to pull each other down – you might want to erase that opinion.


Shreerang Godbole, Class of 2012