The Looking Glass
pmonteiro@theguidon.com
“At the end of the day, it all boils down to a marketing exercise,” says my professor one afternoon. When one thinks about it, she may be right. Nowadays, to become somebody, it might all just depend on packaging. At least that’s what I learned in the School of Management (SOM).
Ironic, but as I type these words, I’m sitting beside a shelf of ethics books at the library, waiting for a business class, where it is always about charming the customer—the customer being either the teacher or an actual buying patron.
Honestly speaking, I found it extremely difficult to enjoy that class, and am honestly hoping for a change of heart in the last 20 or so days of senior year.
I’m in no position to speak for my fellow schoolmates, but in my opinion, such is the milieu of the SOM student: a life of two realities. One day we yearn and strive for the high-paying, posh companies in Makati; the next day, we see ourselves as students of Aristotle, or modern-day members of the Katipunan, with idealism and activism fuelling our every action.
The SOM student and, by extension, his whole curriculum is a contradiction. Where else could one philosophize on Kant’s notion to never treat man as purely a means to an end in the morning, only to learn later in Strategy class that cost minimization usually entails hiring contractual workers, paid with less than a living wage?
Disillusionment is thus, inevitable in Atenean business education. A mentor once told my class to always consider overseas opportunities the moment we see them. Another mentor, meanwhile, once told my group that charm always works in difficult situations. Though I once entertained thoughts of emigration, and have had my fair share of smiling-even-though-I-don’t-want-to instances, Political Science, History, and Philosophy would always come into the picture, with reminders of what’s truly important and worth pursuing.
Thus, a balance of idealism and practicality seems lacking in the mainstream SOM curriculum. With the exception of Labor Law, in-depth discussions on business ethics were hard to find in my classes. That probably must be why some SOM majors choose to minor—or even double-major—in a humanities course. It might also explain why some SOM majors would rather go to law school than continue with business. True, electives can teach servant leadership and social entrepreneurship, but as electives, they’re optional, and can easily be ignored for something else.
Management guru Peter Drucker once said that a product’s quality is based not on how expensive the production cost was, or how elaborate the sales pitch is, but rather on the value that the customer can derive from the product.
Value for me, and probably a number of SOM students, come in the form of finding meaning while making money, helping the country, while helping the company, and enriching oneself, while uplifting others—those are products worth marketing.
For all its accolades in business, the promotion of the truly important things seems bland from where I came from. So, to the other Loyola Schools, I envy you.
