is the question I get post often when I visit colleges or I meet up with students who are either in their final years of graduation or are on with some job. Having taught at many colleges over the years, I think I have arrived at some sense around it. And here it is- 3 years. Why 3 years? Why not 2 or 4 or even more?

3 years = year 1 to learn –> year 2 to deliver –> year 3 to teach!

In the past 10 years that I have been visiting schools and colleges across the country, I have just been excited by two things about students- sincerity and curiosity. Regardless of their brilliance or background or communication skills or any other usual suspect, what I look for in students is – how sincere they are to what they are upto and how much of curiosity do they possess. That’s it. To me that’s the difference between a successful students and the less successful one.

Now let’s talk about the relationship between the two factors to the years of experience that someone might have. Let’s take two cases. Students who have less than 3 years of working experience before entering into a B School and those who have more than 3.

Students with less than 3 years of working experience: Most of the students across Indian B Schools (barring a few IIMs or ISB) have no work experience at all, or have less than a year under the belt. Which essentially means they were ‘preparing’ for the CAT or GMAT in the exile. Many of them aren’t sure if MBA is the right course of action for them, or since their friends and family have insisted- they opted for it. And then begins the race that gets even more ugly as the placement season approaches. I have seen more than my share of students who take up jobs which have nothing to do with their MBA education, repaying their heavy educational loans. What is essentially missing is “Sincerity”. A sense of conscience on whether the education is appropriate, whether the college could have been better or whether the subjects taken are useful.

Students with more than 3 years of working experience: These are people with 5 or even more years of work behind them and are stuck somewhere in their organizational food-chain and need to now get some additional ‘degrees’ to hop on. The pure intent it to further the career. Rarely to learn something new. How good are five years of experience, when one has just repeated the same task 5 times over? What sets with these years of experience is- complacency. Most come with a perspective that I know it all and let me now ‘filter through’ what comes to me. This is what I call as – lack of curiosity. It kills the intent of teaching (and learning).

So here is my take- If you are a graduating student, don’t rush into an MBA course. Wait and take up some job to learn if you really need a management education. If you are a working soul, learn, deliver and teach quickly and then hop onto a good MBA course (if you see the worth). If you have spent a considerable time in the industry, keep walking!

That social networking is now inherent to marketing and PR cannot be denied. Everyone from kids in school to big organizations and celebrities now have their footprint in any available social forum, the popular ones being Facebook and Twitter. Social media has changed everyday routines, getting people hooked to whatever forum it is that they are using. This year and the decade that follows will see how social media will claim its space in the marketing arena, and the time and talent of millions of individuals.

What will the impact of social media marketing be on traditional marketing? Will we never be alone again? How much of profit can anyone reap with this new tool? What next? With more than two billion (and the number grows as I type) people connected to the Internet, and reshaping the very structure of connectivity (usage: mobile phones also, availability: all the time, access to: many things that weren’t accessible before), the Internet is all set to revolutionize, thanks to social networking.

The exponential growth of the IT industry brought with it new inventions and need for infrastructure, which resulted in improper use of resources and manufacture of environment unfriendly products. It was as if the entire IT/ITES communities ignored the impact on the environment while they were busy ideating and creating newer versions of the same gadgets, and using resources like paper, water, plastic and electricity, without so much as giving a second thought to the environment.

Once Al Gore started awakening the superpowers to the damage that was taking place to the environment on a global scale, many stood up and took notice. Not only did individuals start being environmentally conscious, businesses began ‘caring’ for the environment too. Soon, with other celebrities hopping on to the bandwagon and showing the error of our ways, big companies joined the initiative to ‘go green’, thus leading the way for other businesses. Finally the IT industry realized that it too could do its bit and began to become environmentally conscious. The result? Green Computing — or Green IT to some — is touted to be one of the foremost trends this year.

When someone asked me “What did you learn in your first job?” I recall telling him:

First of all, I learnt that I am alone and that there are no readymade scripts handed over to me as important questions that will lead to success in my career. If I want to be the captain of my soul and become what I want to, I first have to unlearn what I have learnt in the classroom and start learning from scratch. And the three most essential things that help in building a successful career viz. communication, relationship, & confidence that are often not taught effectively in the classrooms.

Communicate with teammates, project leaders, and everybody irrespective of designation. Learn their names, remember their faces and greet them with a smile every day. Often we spend our entire lives never bothering to ask the name of the security guard, the attender/office boy, or the quiet networks guy who never utters a word except when asked for something. Know people not merely by their designation.

The Academy Awards 2010 made history in presenting the Oscar for Best Director to a woman film-maker, Kathryn Bigelow, for her critically acclaimed movie The Hurt Locker. She beat her ex-husband James Cameron (Avatar), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire) and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air). Bigelow also became the first woman ever to win a best director award at the BAFTA held recently.

A woman directing a movie is no big deal. But Bigelow is a HUGE deal because she had the gumption to direct not just a male-centric movie, but also a movie that was raw, gory and intense, while going deep into the psyche of men and warfare, and delivering to the world, a war movie that demands to be watched. Her sheer energy at 58, her passion for cinema, her dedication to her calling and her ability to bring out gritty performances from actors have made her one of the most sought-after directors now. Getting nominated for an Oscar was also a big feat. Only three other female directors have been nominated thus far: Lina Wertmüller in 1975 for Seven Beauties, Jane Campion in 1993 for The Piano and Sofia Coppola in 2003 for Lost in Translation.