The MBA effect

When one has completed 1/3 of MBA, some of the concepts learned are bound to have an effect in decision-making and analysis.

My term 2 ended on 12th Dec and term 3 was scheduled to begin on the 15th itself. I was supposed to go to Delhi for 13-14th weekend for a competition in MDI, Gurgaon and next weekend (19-21) again in FMS, Delhi, again for a competition. I planned to leave on the 12th evening, come back on the 15th morning and then leave again on the 18th evening; thus minimising my number of classes being missed.

When I told this to one of my classmates, he advised me to stay in Delhi for a week, which was not such a bad idea given 4 days in Delhi would be a fun-filled stay. Well, I told him that I would miss one-week classes and its a matter of 5,000 bucks for a trip. Now, this is where cost management concept creep in :D

I told him that our term fees is 60k for a 10 week course and hence 1 week classes cost me approx 6k, so missing them does not really make sense. But he said, our fees is a sunk cost, so it should not really be considered for decision making. Then we discussed at length about how can we find if spending extra 5k is worth or not. We concluded that if somehow are able to 'quantify' the value added and it turns out be more than 5k, then missing classes wont matter!

We laughed in the end that this is what MBA does - complexifying (if that word exists) such a simple thing :) Well, in the end I did went to Delhi twice in a gap of 5 days and not because of 'value added' but because of attendance issues!

My Delhi trip, experiences in competitions in MDI and FMS will be posted soon.