“HR is all gas”
“Lets study FM.MM and BL are gas anyway”
“Even Prof S doesnt bring anything into MIS, its still all Gas”
- Students Definition of gas: Topics with no subtstance, no learning, and whose exams can be passed by “gassing” (verb) - Writing any crap that comes to mind.
- Students definition of Solid: Topics of substance, and high learning, that require thorough understanding and preparation, in order to pass them.
- Dictionary definition of gas : A state of matter, consisting of a collection of particles without a definite shape or volume that are in more or less random motion.
- Dictionary definition of Solid: A state of matter characterized by resistance to deformation and changes of volume.The constituent elements are closely packed together and have fixed positions in space relative to each other,accounting for the solid's rigidity.
What if I say solids are easy to comprehend and swallow due to their rigidity? However, gases are extremely tough to comprehend and ingest, due to their randomness. It is a struggle to arrest the far flung gas molecules and make sense of them.
Solids spell out clear cut methods and formulae to arrive at the right “answer”.The pertinent point here is, search for an "answer" rather than a “solution”. It is a function of the trained engineering minds (which have unfortunately come to dominate all of our business schools). But gases demand much more effort to discover a method to the madness. In the absence of which, their importance is not appreciated. Furthermore, when you don’t believe in the utility and power of something, you automatically don’t pay attention to it. Hence all the Strategy Cases, the HR cases, the Marketing cases invariably go unread, and even in Finance related subjects, there is a huge emphasis on the “numerical” aspects of it and the so called “blah blah blah” gets glossed over. What results is a big loss of opportunity. Opportunity to develop higher thinking abilies. Despite all its vices, the beauty of MBA education lies in its ability to develop habits. It has the potential to develop a habit of a taking a “birds eye” view and indulging in rich perspective thinking, but only if the participants give it a chance and practice it.
The so called “gas” provides frameworks to put individual pieces of “concrete” knowledge in place, and bind them into a stunning cohesive whole - each piece making sense and beautifully feeding onto one another.In its absence, what results is a disjoint structure which serves limited purpose in the real world. I daresay it results in a myopic view-imagine staring at the leaves and branches of a tree, rather than getting a birds eye view of the forest and its various intricacies and interactions. Another facet of it is ,some very important and intuitive concepts which unfortunately have no numbers and formulae to glorify them. They nevertheless are extremely tough to comprehend and very powerful to use. An example would be the works of great Philosophers, and Psychologists, which would be conveniently dismissed as “Gas” by our paradigm.You would agree that is a hilarious mistake.
Maybe that is why they say MBA’s make good managers but not necessarily visionaries and leaders. The paradigm shifts in approaches and innovative ways of doing business come from visionaries who haven’t been meticulously trained to work through the details and by extension trained to deride the “gas”. The “gas” comes to them intuitively and makes all the difference. The other “trained minds” end up doing mechanical “managerial” work, albeit very complex no doubt.
This is not the only way to develop a rich and varied perspective – It comes naturally to some individuals, and most others can develop it by experience. But the academic “gas” courses provide a good opportunity to do so quick and early. Hence it's is advisable to have an open mind and make the best use of it. The purpose of an MBA programme is much more than to pass exams and earn grades.
Gyaan : Make a distinction between what really is “gas” and what you classify as Gas because you cannot understand the concept or appreciate its utility. But yes, “Gas” will remain useless if it isn’t given a chance.
4 comments:
Why didn't you just tell me this before? :P
Nicely put.. But I would require more 'proof' (and don't just say proof is solid and hence irrelevant here). By proof I mean examples where the gas actually made sense and provided insights. I'm not saying it never makes sense, but those occasions are few and far between. Most times its like trying to describe something no one has seen. Anything goes and there's no way to know who is right and who is wrong.
An excellent example of 'Gas' - This post!
This post is a perfect example of "Gas"...
People say Marketing and strategy is gas cos they can get away with dumb recommendations. But it is another thing to execute it.
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