B-schools don't teach deal-making

After working for two years in India and five years in the US, I decided to do my MBA.

After the rigorous curriculum and project work at Stern, I can say that there are a few key learnings that surely impacted the way I operate in business life.

I developed a comprehensive understanding of the history of various industries in the US, the process of converting an idea into a potential business as an entrepreneur, the dynamics of a multi-discipline team involved in solving a problem or completing a project, and so on. But, of course, there are a few things that B-schools don't teach.

Understanding "deal-making" is one of them. Deal-making is one of the most important aspects of business. Most of the time, making a deal is associated with the selling or buying process. But in my experience, it goes beyond that and affects all functions in an organisation. It's something one encounters across various functions in an organisation, irrespective of his role or position.

For instance, an HR executive negotiates employment terms with a prospective employee or a customer support representative convinces a customer of a solution resulting in raised customer satisfaction.

Learning how to negotiate is the key characteristic of deal-making. The goal of negotiation is not necessarily that you win every time; a compromise should be considered a success at times.

One should proactively try to understand the various parameters of a deal, such as pre-assessment of the impact of the result, both to you and the other party, the background of the people involved in discussions, potential give and takes in a deal and how one would define a "deal" as a success.

In my experience, successful deal-makers climb the corporate ladder much faster than others. I have observed and learnt some of these traits while directly working for two CEOs who I consider to be astute and successful deal-makers.