Some wise (!!) man once said, the only difference between a B school grad and a non B-school grad is about jargons. While the former talks about "strategic fund raising through debt", the latter talks of taking a loan. While the former talks of "building positive disposition towards the brand" the latter talks of making customers like his offer. Do they mean different things?? NO. Can they have different impact?? Maybe!!
One such common phrase used more often than the pulse rate of a B-schooler is “It depends”. Any B-Schooler would agree. Is the capital structure of that manufacturing firm right for this market situation? Is the price movement in stock market good or bad? Has the distribution channel of that FMCG Company reached an optimal level? Is Sachin is a better player than Dravid? Can I go to the movie tomorrow? If you ask a B schooler these questions, 11 times out of 10 he/she will start answering with “the” phrase, “It depends”.
Common perception about this effect is that B-Schoolers want to prove that they know more than they actually do. And when they are not very sure of the answer they start using “glob(e)”al gyaan by claiming that the question cannot be answered in a straightforward way, that the answer would depend upon some information that is not being given and hence the question cant be answered in a straightforward manner. I feel this might be true at times but certainly not always.
Being a part of the fraternity this would sound biased coming from me. But yes, I think we say “it depends” because we see it from more than one perspective. Picture this, I was asked about the appreciating rupee by someone before I joined B school. I said obviously if Rupee is becoming stronger it is good. Later I realized that it might mean negative for exports. So it depends.
We as humans tend to live life in a very simplistic manner. Our basic nature is to segregate. All the objects we observe in our environment we classify them as white or black, good or bad, not realizing that there are a vast majority of us lying in the mean. To remove dissonance, we tend to avoid the grey areas. This is where all the “it depends” articles lie. A project can both be good or bad depending upon what we want. I believe nothing in life is black or white. It always is some shade of grey. Is that shade desirable??
Well.. it depends !!!
