Written by Subhashish Acharya
There is a sea of new change in the industry. Look at how the Ubers, the Facebooks and AirBnBs are changing the game today. The world is going digital. We are in the digital age. The rules to succeed are completely different from before. Innovation, disruption and change in consumers are the norm now. Change is the only constant thing today, and we can see it everywhere.
Innovation, disruption and change in consumers are the norm now. Change is the only constant thing today, and we can see it everywhere.
My name is Subhashish Acharya (or Subs, pronounced Subes), PLD 25 (2017–18) student, based out of Boston. I live two professional lives; the first as a Director at Oracle, managing alliance strategy with Accenture for North America. The other life is equally exciting as the Founder of Project Starfish, an MIT Startup Exchange company that serves as the world’s only skill based career re-launcher for the blind, people with disabilities, ex-felons, veterans, cancer survivors and millennial students who unfortunately, because of their situation, need a second chance to get back to professional work. Till date, Project Starfish has helped over 300+ blind/disabled men and women in 8 countries get back to work. I invested my own money when needed and never asked for donations for the last 5 years and am passionate about it despite the fact I have never made money.
When one looks at their life when they step into their 40s, they start asking questions like “Who am I really?”, “What do I want?”, “Where do I want to go?”, “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?”, knowing fully well one has lived half of their life already. You start looking back and reflecting at things you learned, and know what your strengths and weaknesses are.
That’s exactly what I did. I realized I am a person who is not willing to settle. I want to travel and experience cultures, build a stellar career as an entrepreneur, create opportunities for others, lead and follow by seeding relationships and grow by nurturing them. This means, I need to be with a group of people who are equally stellar, forthcoming, open, like minded and ambitious. I realized I had to go back to business school through Executive Education.
I realized I am a person who is not willing to settle. I want to travel and experience cultures, build a stellar career as an entrepreneur, create opportunities for others, lead and follow by seeding relationships and grow by nurturing them. This means, I need to be with a group of people who are equally stellar, forthcoming, open, like minded and ambitious.
Decisions like these are never easy. Especially for me, who failed his MBA at a prestigious University in Singapore. I am dyslexic. Studying text books makes me sweat simply out of fear. Naturally, I was the black sheep of a family of doctors and lawyers. That was also the reason I failed some subjects like accounting and finance during my MBA days. I realized I could never go through the journey of conventional, 2 year executive or part-time MBAs. Honestly, I needed a much more, hands-on, rapid fire, low on text books, situation based, visual, networking-oriented and collaborative method of study. Funny that I had looked at so many Ivy Leagues and business school websites and their course content, yet never opened the HBS Exec Education website ever. HBS, by the way, was only 20 miles away from my home. Sometimes the things that one searches for are found much closer to home than you realize.
I realized I could never go through the journey of conventional, 2 year executive or part-time MBA. Honestly, I needed a much more, hands-on, rapid fire, low on text books, situation based, visual, networking-oriented and collaborative method of study.
By accident or one may say serendipity, I met a friend of mine who was in PLD23. Speaking with him, I realized, PLD with its case study approach, was the most well designed, “rapid-fire”, no nonsense, collaborative, team work based and really immersive leadership study. I do not think there is any Exec Education for Mid-level managers like PLD and I believe it caters to the fast-paced business environments of today. I am not just talking about the Harvard or HBS brand or the Alumni status that is appealing to many at PLD, yes they all appeal to me, but, honestly the course content, the way we are taught and the total experience is priceless.
I personally believe PLD will scale to a batch of 1,000 professionals a year soon. Wait up! It’s bound to.
The course content, the way we are taught and the total experience is priceless.
This essay was originally published on pldx.org.
