Written on 14th october
I had been in Arupukottai for the last one week, if the name seems odd, the that is how it is. I recived a mail today, from one of my classmate in XL informing me about Williamson being awarded nobel prize.For a moment i was transported to a totally different space between four walls , where we , a batch of 14 for the class of Firms,Markets and Global Dynamics, and a batch of 20 odd for Industrial Economies, tried to deconstruct and reconstruct Williamson in different context and savoured the outcomes and the debates. At one time, asset specificity was used by me to explain every context in every discipline.
But what hit me the most was the fact that i couldn't remember the last time I really thought about Williamson since i have walked out of college. I have lazied at home for 2 months,and had the pleasure of staying at The Sonar for 10 days and finally toil hard in Tamilnadu heat for the last 4 months. And, i had been part and parcel of a model that Williamson had always tried to explain more accurately - The boundary of the firm, when does a firm outsource a part of its business and what are the trade offs. The Company-distributor relationship, The distributor-Salesman/hawker relation and the reasons and solutions for conflicts that arise between these parties. The basic arguments between these parties written down on a contract, might be the best of the live examples, I should admit that, over the last 4 months of work at ITC, though i had every opportunity probe Williamson, i never did so.
The point that MBAs are overrated might be reiterated here, as i couldnt apply, if not atleast remember the model. But i would like make it a point that the mistake mostly lies with student of MBA than the MBA course as such. I feel happy today to atleast be in a position to appreciate the applause that Williamson is recieving. So, MBA is definitely not overrated, may be the student is, and its alkways his responsibility to counter that opinion.
Apart from all this, i found myself blushing, as my friend reminded me of how interesting and fun were our economics classes. I was reminded of the period, where i flirted for a while with Economics, still the best of the times in whole of Education. Just puts me in a confusion, whether the touring i do now is a detour or was that a small detour when i fell in love with Economics.
