What do MBAs do well besides managing businesses as entrepreneurs or as intrapreneurs of firms that hire them? If visible trends are to be believed, MBAs have another occupation – as authors of best- selling works of fiction!
While an authentic pan-Indian anthology of management fiction is still awaited, one may not be sure on who in the wonderland of Indian managers pioneered in transforming their managerial wisdom into popular creative work that entertains and educates. But “Biz-fiction” if it may be called so has come to stay. Writings of mass appeal on the corporate world are all there at leading bookstores as a separate genre, wooing the attention of upwardly mobile young urban professionals (yuppies).
In the words of career management specialists, these manager-turned-writers fit into what is known as portfolio careers. Their pining to sublimate their professional anxieties and inner urges has given rise to books with really catchy titles. There are too many of them to make an exhaustive list, but it is interesting to have a top-of-the-mind recall of some.
If, on a global level, Eliahu Goldratt brought out his series written in fiction style to educate through entertainment, and Robert Kiyosaki presented investment-tips through his “Rich Dad, Poor Dad“, India has had more than its share of highly acclaimed management fiction writers.
Ravi Subbramanian brought “the-good-beats-the-evil” themes with ethics against white collar crimes as the storyline, with titles such as “Devils in pinstripes, “If God was a Banker” and the like.
In Corporate Atyachar, author abhay nagarajan presented a birds’ eye view into the lives of High net- worth Individuals from the views of a fresher and so-called, ‘corporate doormat’ as financial advisor, while Ruchita Misra an MBA graduate herself, weaves her fiction around an MBA fresher and her matrimonial options with Techie MBAs in her book ‘Ineligible bachelors‘.
Abhijit Badhuri, aptly titled his page-turners based on management education and life post-MBA, with the abbreviation “MBA” – one meaning “Mediocre-But-Arrogant” and the other “Married-But- Available“. Classroom doodles matching the storyline embellished the pages of these books.
Dipen Ambalia, deployed imagination and humor to expose the career struggles of engineering graduates in his work titled, “To B.E or not to B.E“.
The woes of an MBA aspirant was chronicled in “How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life” by Kaavya Viswanathan. While “BPO sutra” brought out stories from those who do outsourced work. One such a creation has emerged from a current student of MBA from VIT Business School, Karthik Vengatesan and it is titled, “Night, Day & Night Again“
The good news is the average age of these writers is reducing with many current MBAs and fresh pass-outs beginning to enter the galaxy of creative-writers. With blogs serving as test-rides before publishing, one can only expect many more “Aam MBAs” to foray into paperbacks. Good luck to all of them!
There are many more on stands and in the pipeline.
This article is written by Dr (Prof). G. Shankar . He is an Associate Professor at VIT Business School Chennai Campus