Small towns, big dreams

For 30-year-old Faisal Khan, the beginning lies in the end. That is, he began when the road seemed to end for him after a BSc degree from Meerut University. Sometimes things change at a breakneck pace and before one realises that one has strayed from the path, it's often too late. After he graduated from a little known college located beside the railway tracks in Simbhaoli, UP, career options suddenly seemed to dwindle for Khan and what looked promising three years back was meaningless now. The world around him was changing too fast for him to stop and take stock of.
 

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Amid this uncertainty looming large, the lad from Mohammed Pur — a small village nestled amidst the fertile agricultural fields near Garhmukteshwar — came to Delhi and started working as a sales merchandiser at Shopper's Stop at Ansal Plaza. It was in 2007. Six months into the job and Khan realised that the road to success passed right from there. So he enrolled in the part time Master of Business Administration (MBA) programme. In 2011, working as an assistant manager, mall operations, at the Shipra Mall in Ghaziabad, Khan can be assured that he made the right decision at the right time. “Today I am really satisfied with the way things are unfolding on the career front. I have recently got a promotion and a decent salary hike. I think I am headed in the right direction,” says a confident Faisal.

However, one is tempted to ask the obvious: how important has the MBA degree been in the trajectory of his career? “See, the important thing is how well you perform and how you conduct yourself. An MBA degree not only makes you theoretically stronger but also gives your career a certain direction. If you pursue a degree in management it shows that you are actually serious about what you are doing and this perception among your seniors certainly helps tip the scales in your favour at the time of appraisal. They feel that you are committed,” explains Faisal.
 

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Ashim Kumar Das, a young customer relationship officer with State Bank of India at Guwahati, cannot agree more. “Nowadays, the work in a company or an organisation is not area specific. One employee has to do all the work right from office management to personnel management and customer care. Therefore, well-trained candidates with MBA degrees get preference in the market,” says Das, who did his MBA from Institute of Marketing and Management, New Delhi.  Ashim's story is equally inspiring. Coming from a not very well-off family in Fulguri — a remote village in Kamrup district of lower Assam — Ashim did not have any time to waste as far as his standing on his own feet was concerned. His father was a school teacher and, understandably, supporting a family of six after a certain point was beyond his means. And Ashim realised that the BSc degree he procured from Pragyotish College in Guwahati wasn't taking him anywhere. Ashim went for an MBA degree and now he is ensconced in a comfortable stratum of
social life.

Ashim has inspired many of his friends and peers. Rituraj Konwar, a BCom student of Maloibari of Sonapur area of Kamrup district is one. “Seeing the success of my friend Ashim, I have been inspired to take up MBA after my graduation so that I too get a well-paid job,” says Rituraj.

In Faisal's case, though, a management degree has not only changed the direction of his career, it has been a harbinger of change in the lifestyle and mindset of the whole family. “I think my whole life has changed, and thankfully the change has been for the good,” asserts a beaming newly married Khan. He has now settled down in the NCR along with his family. His sister Iram, informs Khan, is also planning to pursue a diploma in management or fashion designing — certainly a far cry from the days when higher education for girls was a taboo back in the village.

Success stories such as these are not confined to a few states. The opened-up economy has been throwing opportunities at all and sundry and the growing market has thrown open its arms to embrace the newcomers, those seeking to make a career in the service sector as well as those who want to go the entrepreneurship way. The phenomenon is pan Indian. Consider for instance, the case of Santosh Panda, who hails from Berhampur in Orissa. After completing his BCA from Berhampur University, Santosh went on to do his MBA from Institute of Business Administration and Training (IBAT), Bhubaneswar, and completed it in 2005. Having remained in the service sector for five years and having worked with big names like Godrej Sara Lee and Axis Bank Ltd in responsible positions, Santosh is now trying his hand at his own business. “With a rich experience in sales and marketing, now I want to introduce innovations in retail sector all across the country and I am working hard for it,” says 30-year-old Santosh.

Sumit Kumar (28) spent his early years in Pakri Barawan, a small town in Bihar’s Nalanda district. He is at present working as an assistant manager with JK Cement in Patna. Those who know that Kumar's first school was an enclosure of mud walls with no roof where the boys  had to carry their own mats to sit on, today's reality may look fantastically distant from his past. The journey seems to have transcended ages, though in fact it's been just a matter of a few years.
 

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 Despairing the lack of opportunities the place would provide him, Sumit first played with the idea of a career in medical but soon realised his heart was not into it. So off he went to Delhi where he joined a top MBA entrance coaching institute, working especially hard on his communication and presentation skills. “Till class 10th I did not know enough English to hold a conversation and none of the coaching institutes in Patna had the expertise to teach the language,” he says of his choice.
In 2006, when he cracked the CAT with a 92 percentile, he found himself eligible for admission in a Hyderabad based B school. But the high fee was a deterrent, so Kumar opted for the less fancied Dr Gaur Hari Singhania Institute of Management in Kanpur and specialised in marketing and international business. At the campus recruitments, he earned a place in the cement giant.

“Those from bigger cities believed more in show off. But I knew that in the end, talent was all that it would take”, he asserts. There were times when getting into a good B-school was not easy. “I found that while I could plan well, due to my less than perfect communication skills, someone else would end up taking the credit for my work,” he rues. But those knocks also pushed Kumar to work doubly hard on his language skills. Also, what helped were his friendly nature, his willingness to mingle with people and a never-say-die spirit.

In Kumar’s hometown of less than 5,000, his elder brother Sachin was the first to draw inspiration from the area’s first MBA and subsequently he also enrolled in the Government College, Patna, for an MBA degree. “Today you have 25 MBAs from there,” says a proud Kumar who is often sought out by aspiring MBAs for help and guidance.

“Small towners like us just have to be shown the path and given a little motivation. There are no limits to what we can achieve.”

The observation holds true for Anishkumar K. from Kochi, Kerala. Anishkumar is working as a corporate executive in the corporate management committee of the Casino Group of Hotels. For a person whose father was a daily wage worker on coffee plantations and whose mother worked as a housemaid in Kuwait, getting a white collar job was a distant dream. But Anishkumar realised his dream after completing his MBA in human resources management from Rajagiri School of Management, Kochi, in 2009. “There are a lot of opportunities now, one only needs to make the right moves about one's career,” he opines.

While many continue to write success stories, some people are already becoming worried about the saturation in the market. “Due to a large number of MBA holders in India now, some companies are recruiting MBA degree holders in positions where even a general degree holder can be recruited. This downgrades the value of MBA candidates,” Ashim Das puts forth. However, with the economy growth rate pegged at above eight per cent, India Inc. is only looking up. And besides, that does not seem to be the question on the minds of the youngsters. As the above mentioned success stories spell, it does not matter where you start from. What matters is where you end up. 

With inputs from Hemanta Phukan, Dhrutikam Mohanty, Puja Awasthi and T Satisan

In picturs: 1. Faisal Khan's success story has inspired many in his peer group to rethink about their career.

2. Ashim Kumar Daswent where his heart was and is happy man today.

3. For Anishkumar K., the journey was full of hurdles which he ultimately overcame.

4. Sumit Kumar has become a role model for many among his friends and juniors.