The Bottom of the Pyramid

A strong foundation is at the crux of every durable construction. Strong fundamentals, similarly, are essential to education and learning. Learning can truly be achieved by understanding what components is the topic being taught or studied made up of. Without the base, the bottom, of the pyramid, the apex cannot be reached.

The importance of fundamentals is reinforced time and again by professors. What exactly will one do with knowing the formulae that define microeconomic theory without knowing what an economy is? How will one be successful at understanding accounts of a company without knowing what assets mean in the financial context? What use is knowing 5 different models of human behavioural analysis when one doesn’t know how to define his own behaviour? How can we hold positions of responsibility and lead organizations without knowing what a manager exactly does?

The core, the definitions, the simplest meaning of every term is of utmost importance. To understand marketing, we must know what a market is, what affects the consumer’s choice, and how we can cater better to the consumer’s needs. To know what a manager does, we must define his roles, responsibilities, and activities. To understand economics, we must understand how our entire life is nothing but a set of problems of choice.

A simple way of putting it – whatever technical knowledge we gain can only be assimilated if we have understood each and every aspect to a degree that we can explain everything we know to an absolute layman without any jargon. The same concept, the same knowledge, when we explain it, should be understood as well by the paanwala as by the Vice-President of a multinational corporation. And that knowledge can truly be imbibed in the way we think, act, and function, by relating it to practical examples that are relevant to the implementation of the knowledge – which is where the analysis of case studies plays a significant role.

As students, our responsibility, our duty is to imbibe fully whatever is taught. As thought leaders, we must think as to what implications the knowledge has and introduce new ways of interpreting the knowledge. As change masters, we are responsible for challenging it, and introducing new knowledge and avenues of thought.