Not All Great Ideas Come from IIM-A!!

So Harsha Bhogle carved a niche for him in the Sporting Commentary arena, despite being a successful alumnus of IIM-A. Or a Chetan Bhagat becoming a successful Author in recent times of the masses( Of course, whether he belong to the classes, is doubtful). Thats uber cool by design and of course a stroke of destiny. Albeit such facts though, they deserve an applaud(or you may consider giving an apple applause) for taking the unconventional route where people less travel by!!

But how many great creations or ideas comes out IIM-A or an IIT Delhi(Without challenging the sanctity and credibility of the Glorious Institutions of Indian Academia); despite paying high homage and giving creme-De-la-creme stature to these institutions that creates High profile bright minds in the country, we however do not see great ideas created by the beneficiaries of such excellent education. And thats, in my view is abysmally sad!!

When we see, innovation in recent times by an Indian entrepreneur, we generally talk about Tata Nano or how Future Group changing the retail space in India!! I am sorry but we have examples, few and far between (though Bollywood may consider prying for Including Aamir Khan, who emerges as an intellect, atleast trying to make some experiments on the way the films are made and promoted).

Now consider the education of these people; Ratan Tata who had a degree in Architecture from Cornell University and finally, and I believe for the heck of it he got a Management Degree from Harvard Business School. His entire life revolved around changing the Indian Automobile arena and in fact under his leadership, Tatas rejuvenated Jaguar and Land Rover.

Look at Kishore Biyani, the brain behind the super brand "Big Bazar" and the one that revolutionized Indian retail space has just got a Bachelor degree from HR College of Commerce, Bombay. No IIT no IIM.

Even the illustrious MR NarayanMurthy, who pioneered Infosys did his engineering from National Institute of Eng, University of Mysore(though later on he did his masters from IIT Kanpur).

Or, the man who reengineered BPO in India, Mr Pramod Bhasin, had a Bachelor Degree in Commerce from Delhi University and a CA qualification.

There will be many examples (yes Bombay Dubbawallas; where did they get education from? IIM..Na!! IIT...NAH..:p) of people coming up with great Ideas, and not having a high-flying education from the creams.

Reasons can be many; I believe an IIM or an IIT can teach technicals/or systems and procedures..but very less emphasis is being laid upon thinking beyond those systems or thinking out of box as one popularly says. Or in other words, the capacity to think can never be trained; it remains in the minds of the person. I wonder when IIM/IIT will stimulate an alumnus to dream!!

Globally(well I dont want to speak here more, we have enough examples), if we take the case of just retired CEO Steve Jobs; we will be surprised how much he had created and how little formal education he had. He dropped out of Reed College and for a living he used to return coke bottles for money and got weekly free meals from Local Hare Krishna Temple!!

Surely, creation of an IPAD does not require magnificent education, but requires boundless thinking and dreams channelized into workable solutions.

I remember one of my friend commenting about the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 as" Arrey, saare employees IIM or Harvard se Uthaoge toh company dubegaahi! If everyone makes strategy, kaam kaun kadega?"

Jokes apart..we will eagerly wait a great idea that comes out of the brain of an IITian/IIMian!!