Business school – a long cherished dream for many. When I received my acceptance letter from IILM, nearly a year ago, it was with a bit of trepidation and a lot of anticipation that I packed my bags. The learning would be deeply insightful and the experience very different from undergraduate college, I was told.

To be accepted into one of the top B schools in India is an honor and boy, was I ready to take it on!

Now that I have completed a year here, I think it is time to go back and reflect, to understand and assimilate the insights I have gathered over the past few months.

Defining my role:

The first thing that you expect to learn in a business school is how an organization, a business enterprise functions and your role in it. The numerous case studies we tackled, the interactions with pioneering entrepreneurs from across the country, however, taught me to define my role. Not merely in an organization but as a contributor to my immediate environment, to my society, and to the global community at large. “Am I making a difference?” This is the parameter that I shall now evaluate my actions by.

From management to collaboration: 

As we stepped into IILM, teeming with our understanding of “management”, notions we had picked up at our undergraduate colleges, unlearning became as important as learning. Understanding the significant role of the collaborative approach in entrepreneurship and business development was an eye-opener. ‘Collaboration’ holds many connotations. It could mean something as simple as team building or something as diverse as bringing together people from across the globe on a common mission.

Address the people:

It is quite easy to get caught up in the mechanics of it all, to lose perspective and above all to ignore the human element. Every solution we design, every demand we meet; every enterprise is ultimately the answer to a human need. This is one key learning that has been emphasized at every step through this year at IILM. And when we speak of the human element, the focus certainly has to be on empathy. Be it a vendor, a stakeholder, a team member, or a client – empathy holds the answer.

Passion for Purpose:

They say how we feel is a true indicator of what is to come into our experience. Even without devolving into the metaphysical, I can state with certainty that my first year in IILM has taught me that we find our purpose only through our passion. It is this very passion for excellence that distinguishes an exemplary leader from a mediocre one.

Problem-solving through focus:

Common sense is uncommon, they say. Persistence, attention to detail, focus, and common sense are the real tools that I have learned to work with, in this yearlong endeavor to design efficient solutions for businesses and communities across the globe.

Armed with these wonderful insights I step into another semester at IILM, eager and hungry to learn more and be better each day.