Abstraction...

This piece is about how important it is to get beyond the details to arrive at the concepts. It is one of the keys to long term success. The ability to extract the concept from the detail is what distinguishes the "men from the boys" so to speak ( or the "women from the girls" for those who might think that I am a chauvinist pig after reading the first phrase :-)). IIM-A does actually place a lot of emphasis on this aspect. Maybe it is why this institute creates such outstanding managers.

We were sitting in finance class today and I was feeling lost in a jumble of maths and graphs . Then the prof reiterated the fact that the weird caconography that he did on the board was only a tool to arrive at the basic concept underlying it all... It then dawned on me how easy it really is to get lost in details and miss the forest for the trees. At the same time, it is important to read, understand and interpret the data carefully and arrive at logical conclusions based on it. Tough going huh?? Yeah, I bet it is.

When I was at the Taj I was talking to this really high up official who probably revealed the key to being a successful analyst and an effective decision maker at the same time. He said that the most valued ability for an analyst is to be able to get immersed in the detail that he/she creates. That is what helps him/her create outstanding reports. Once the report has been created (in draft), it is necessary to get into a totally different frame of mind and approach the entire thing from a totally different point of view. The ability to "move out" of the data and take a bird's eye view was, is and will always be highly prized.

As entry level graduates, many of us will be involved in writing reports rather than interpreting them, at least initially. Later on, roles will change. But the truly outstanding performers will be able to abstract away, even at the entry stage, from the data they created and view their efforts in a conceptual and managerial framework that will make the final outcome much more lucid and relevant. This will also help them avoid the oft-criticised failing of the MBA, viz. being good at giving theoretically sound but practically useless suggestions.

Rest in next...
Sitan