Today, irrespective of the work profile, it is vital to know how a business runs because it opens up many career paths as one moves up professionally, says Tapan Rayaguru
Irrespective of the role at workplace, it is vital to know about how businesses work and how one’s role plays into that functioning, so that one can perform the job to create the best effect for the customers.
Business education thus becomes essential in any field of work. If one is a a doctor the first goal is the best care for the patients so that they are healthy again but it is important to understand the economics of the healthcare system so that the patient can get medical advice that is sustainable from their own economic standpoint; if one is a sports person while playing the game in the right spirit while trying to win for the team is important. While one may be a doctor today, focusing only on patient care, the career may need one to manage a hospital, a chain of hospitals, one’s own clinic, a charitable organisation one day where the need to be businesses savvy will become even more important.
The need is more obvious for people that work in corporates that are in the business of running a business. One’s success to grow as a professional in a corporate environment mandates awareness of business fundamentals across the different functions within an organisation and the ability to relate to one's own job function and the role to other functions and roles within the organisation.
For example if one is a software engineer, does one understand how finances work for the companyIJ How the company wins its business against its competitionIJ How are operations managed for a firm of this massive sizeIJ What about the principles behind some of the HR policiesIJ How is a sale madeIJ Who takes care of brand building and howIJ What role do shareholders play in deciding company strategyIJ
While a lot of this is learnt on the job by accident a formal business education always helps a professional appreciate business in a more fundamental way through the basic building blocks of each function. A formal education also helps throw the spotlight on the not so obvious aspects of the business that stay invisible to the casual professional.
At the beginning of one’s career most professionals end up working as individual contributors doing their own tasks using the skills they have acquired through formal school/college education. As their careers grow they are made responsible for a work product that may involve several team members each contributing to a piece of the final work product. For a professional to be successful at this stage, it is often important to be aware of the ‘why’ behind a task so that the ‘what’ and ‘how’ of the task can be designed right and communication to the team and other stakeholders can be handled right.
This professional journey then moves on to roles that create business opportunities on behalf of the employer while making decisions as if one owns the company. Any such opportunity creation and decision-making can simply not be done without very solid grounding on fundamentals of business and deep expertise in the business of the employer. At this stage lack of business education is a career killer .
Keen business acumen in required to be successful at this level and without a solid grounding in business these roles can stay a dream for most of us.
In summary, irrespective of the stage of one’s career as a professional, business education is critical for performing your role and ensuring growth as a professional to your full potential.
(The writer is executive director at Sunstone Business School)