How surfing and management education have more in common than you think

Surfing’s one of the few sports that you look ahead to see what’s behind.
Laird Hamilton

Every great wave surfed begins with the paddle. Even as Rodrigo Koxa approached the 80-feet gargantuan beast of foam headed towards him, he was desperate to keep his arms and legs running like a ‘car engine’. Consistent, purposeful and dedicated groundwork eventually led to Rodrigo bagging the Guinness World Record for the largest wave ever surfed.

As it turns out, surfing is a lot similar to management education, or at least, the experience here at Masters’ Union. But before the experience, we must look at the results.

After tireless hours of work, disgruntled faces and sleeplessness for both the students and team, Master’s Union managed to achieve record-breaking placements for its founding cohort. With the world creating noise about the statistics, we also looked inward towards the stories that we were the most proud of. From freshers becoming consultants with front-end offices in the Big 3, lawyers moving toward marketing roles to a surge in hiring for product management roles, we feel that Master’s Union has served its purpose with multiple roles. From being an incubator, career launchpad, platform to transition, etc. we’ve seen that our attempts to foster an ecosystem of high-growth, impact and friendship is being responded to with greater enthusiasm.

However, as we ride the wave of our first cohort graduating, record-breaking placements, and overall goodwill, we think back to our interventions and what we had to do differently. We had to look ahead to see what was behind. We saw a mismatch in the expectations of a contemporary, tech-driven business leader and what the current b-school ecosystem was preparing students for. We identified an opportunity to rethink and create a technology focused business school, from the ground up. Armed with a talented and laser-focused cohort, we were excited at what we could achieve and proud of what we have.

If you’re interested to be a part of our cohort and immerse yourself in our ever optimizing ecosystem, we invite your applications for our 3rd cohort. We’re currently in our first round of admissions and have a deadline for 23rd January, 2022.

Let’s see what form MU takes the shape of, for you.