Business Ethics Oath-A Marketing Gimmick?

Well, I thought I am not going to write anything today anymore after submitting my first application, even though it was for the fellowship. But I bumped into this article at New York Times. The article talks about corporate ethics and how B-schools like Harvard, Columbia and Wharton are stressing on the needs of the ethics and social responsibility in the corporate world. Now, I am bit confused about the whole fuss. Ethics, Integrity, Values are the individual heritage of an individual that defines its characters. I understand that a lot of current financial mesh is a result of irresponsible executives but do taking oath is the guarantee of no more irresponsible behavior. How many times have we sang our national anthem and national pledges in our life till date ad how many times at least we have tried to be honest with it? The answer lies within an individual and his/her character. No matter how many courses each school teach, no matter how many oaths do graduates take, finally it comes to the work that would decide the outcome. I have an example here to give. B-Schools look at various parameters while deciding admits from the pool of applicants. If one has ever browsed through various consulting websites and applicant/current/past blogs, everyone talks about community service as a strong criterion. Now, honestly, if one has to answer himself, how many of them do community service for the sake of their interest and how many of them do it just to get an admit into a elite school after getting a big GMAT score on their application. I am not going to comment on it but each one of us knows the truth. This is the first sign of the integrity, values and responsibility.

I am not here to criticize the application process but what I want to say is probably B-schools should concentrate on some time with spending with the incoming admits so that they can know them more as a human being. Such events should not get buried in the form of marketing gimmicks. Every individual graduate should feel the essence of his MBA degree an how far one can stretch this valuable degree to serve the people and the country better.

PS: This is a complete personal opinion and has nothing to do with any other individual’s opinion. I respect the integrity of every human being as an individual and respect his/her opinion.

Reliance Fellowship Application Submitted

Well, this is almost a follow-up post to the yesterday’s post. Today, I submitted my application to the Reliance Fellowship at Stanford. I am feeling good with the overall application and I am quite optimistic. The only issue in the application could be “Financial Need” section. I accept that in terms of IT professionals in India, my earnings are bit on the higher side being working in the niece high end technological front in a leading MNC. So, I am having my fingers crossed and I hope everything will fall in line this year. The results will be declared on 1st July and if selected in 50 finalists, I could redeem the GMAT voucher given by the Fellowship program. Hence, I am going to wait till 1st July before finalizing my GMAT date. I guess it is going to be early August only. As for the application and the essay, on the personal front, I feel both shaped pretty well and I am optimistic about the outcome. So, let us wait till 1st July and I will update you about the status. I completely understand with the fact that there were about 2k applicants for the fellowship last year and Stanford is going to finalize just 50 out of them. The competition is stiff but I am prepared for it. So, you guys also pray for me and wish me luck. Also, I wish all the best to other applicants too.

- Deepak