Do Math, Talk English.

Thursday, the 11th of November 2010.

Three-quarters of my coursework as part of the doctoral program in management is now done. Some observations that interests me. Popular perception (at least among the Quant Aficionados) in campus is that there is a lot of 'globe' floating around.

'Globe': [in iim-L parlance] -

- noun

1. Things that people already know, preached pompously

2. Gyaan, Fundas coupled with polysyllabic words that doesn't necessarily mean anything

3. Made-up stuff such as this definition (#3), quoting weird analogies just for the sake of making a point

Some say, "That is what MBAs have to do. Talk.Use big words. Use bigger words. Impress the crowd." Others dismiss this as just another fad. They are comfortable if they are surrounded by numbers to substantiate. This is especially true in b-schools where there are 20 engineers or more for every non-engineer in the class. (See even I am using numbers! What an irony). Some still fancy explaining things in Alpha, Beta and Omegas? Oh wait a minute! Wasn't this part of lifetime membership package offered by the hallowed GeeK society in undergrad engineering schools?

Take a break!

Welcome to Real World.

Scenarios don't necessarily come with numbers. Fitting the scenario to a model where there is scope for excitement (read number crunching) may be tempting. But is it the right thing to do? Obviously not (Is 'obviously not' that obvious? 'May be not' may have been a better word). So we moved onto what is now the much clichéd 'Mixed Approach' - a mixture of quantitative and descriptive techniques to problem solving. Use 'math' wherever it is appropriate, use 'globe' to bring some structure, logic and for explaining things.

I've been trying to do justice to what I've been saying all this while. Majoring in Operations, I often come across problems that are quantitative in nature. But the solutions for these real-life problems cannot be always represented by One Number. The best solution, be it in business or non-profit, combines math with some assumptions taken by human judgement that closely resembles reality - or in other words - doing math within a realistic framework. Such solutions are much effective when communicated as simple action plans that practitioners can easily understand and implement. 

I will conclude this post with a story which I read in a book. 

Quote.

A college student is in the store doing his weekly groceries. He's obviously from one of either MIT or Harvard because he is wearing a distinctively colored jacket, but the cashier can't tell which because crimson and cardinal are similar in appearance. When the student is done, he goes to the isle where a sign marked "QuickLane: Up to Nine Items Only!" is clearly visible.

As he unloads the cart, placing down more than a dozen items, the cashier stares in disbelief. "I'm sorry, you can't use this line."

"Why not?"

The cashier points to the sign. "What, are you a MIT student who can't read? Or are you a Harvard student who can't count?"

Unquote.