MBA and The 7 Deadly Sins…

“So what constitutes an MBA ” ? Instead of a boring lecture…”Learn these 7 and you are an MBA”, I slightly twisted it to indulge myself and make some interesting reading….Don’t get too deep and start analyzing. There… I cautioned you. And you purist MBAs, take it easy…this is just for fun. Don’t send me hate mail 🙂

Let’s cut to the chase… Ironic or Coindidence –  The deadly sins share the same number as the components of an MBA….SEVEN !

The Seven Sins – Vanity, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Sloth, Lust, Envy

The Seven MBA Towers – Strategy, Accounting, Finance, HR, Information Technology, Marketing, Operations.

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• Vanity & Strategy – Vanity/Pride is excessive belief in one’s own abilities, that interferes with the individual’s recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. So who makes the MBA cousin that matches Pride ? Strategy, hands down! The root of all planning, execution and operations, Strategy makes an excellent cousin to the deadly sin – Pride, since a strategist will invariably carry pride as his hat.

• Gluttony and Accounting – Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires. Accounting is precisely that. To be a qualified MBA, you got to devour numbers in huge volumes. Desire or not, you have no choice, if you can’t handle numbers, don’t even fool yourself you will make a good Mr.MBA

• Finance and Greed – Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. Finance and Greed, undoubtedly,  make the perfect pair. I rest my case on this one. Way too obvious !

• Marketing & Lust – lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body. Marketing is exactly similar, an inordinate desire/craving for image/branding/positioning/market share. What a pair, yet again !

• Operations & Envy– Envy is the desire for others’ traits, status, abilities, or situation. Operations is not a near perfect match, but close enough. Any operation within a corporation wants to match and beat it’s rivals in efficiency, and in some cases, one’s lack of efficiency triggers envy. Agreed, not a perfect match, but I got to fit this one somewhere ;). Cut me some slack.

• Human Resources & Anger – Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath. If you have ever incurred the wrath of an HR person in your company, you can see why they make a good pair. On the flip side of it, what you learn in a MBA in HR side is the people side, basically a whole bunch of ticked off people working at a company waiting for clock to tick 5 PM so that they can get on with their real life for the rest of the day!

• Information Technology & Sloth – Now that’s what I call a perfect pair -10/10 score !
Sloth essentially is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work. And I did not even have to match IT to sloth, they are made for each other !
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