MBAs’ guide to lasting fulfilment

It is a rare business school programme that invokes in its participants a similar fervour to that experienced in a revivalist religious meeting. But this would appear to be the case with Srikumar Rao’s elective course, Creative and Personal Mastery.

Now in its third year at London Business School, the course has also run at Columbia, New York, and may soon become part of the MBA programme at the Haas school at Berkeley. Prof Rao, a businessman more than an academic and armed with practical experience rather than research, is one of a new breed of business school teachers.

They eschew number-crunching and regression models in favour of personal issues. “It is designed to get [students] to think about things rarely acknowledged in business schools. What makes me happy? What makes me happy at work?” Most people, he says, “don’t have a clue” about such things. Many, however, would accept Prof Rao’s hypothesis. “When putting in long hours, if you don’t get a deep sense of fulfilment at work, you’re wasting your life.” His solution? “Your ideal job isn’t something that exists; it’s something you can craft.” Just how to do that is at the core of his programme, which receives gushing praise from many students. “The technical skills that I learn at school will only get me so far and will one day be obsolete,” says Nick Wai, a recent LBS graduate. “What I learn in CPM, however, will help me build a foundation not only as a business person, leader even, but more importantly as a human being.”