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US SPAIN CHINA NORWAY UK CANADA SINGAPORE BRAZIL AUSTRALIA Mumbai | Volume XI | Issue 1 Rs. 100/- Subscriber’s Copy August 2013 International MBA Where are you headed? www.advancedge.com

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Page 1: Advancedge mba august2013

USSPAIN

CHINA

NORWAY

UK

CANADA

SINGAPORE

BRAZIL

AUSTRALIA

Mumbai | Volume XI | Issue 1

Rs. 100/-Subscriber’s Copy

August 2013

International MBAWhere are you headed?

www.advancedge.com

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Advanc’edge MBA October 2012 3

Editor-in-ChiEf Kamlesh Sajnani

Editor

Aditya Prakash Iengar

Correspondent: Puja Shah

dEsign

Uma Shirke, Satish Yadav

AdvErtising Shahid Malek / Rajashree MurthyTel: 022-6668 0005 / 3301 7777

All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole and in part without written permission is prohibited. Printed and published by Kamlesh Sajnani, on behalf of, IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd., 1/45 Tardeo A.C. Market, Tardeo, Mumbai - 34. Printed at Uchitha Graphic Printers Pvt. Ltd., 65, Ideal Ind. Est., Mathuradas Mill Compound, Lower Parel, Mumbai - 13 and published at Mumbai.

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Why exactly are you planning to get an MBA?

The most important reasons – and usually the ones that are foremost on the mind – are to improve our career prospects, to be able to tackle difficult roles in challenging situations faced by organisations, to understand how the world of business and markets works, and to have a significant hand in the running of a successful business organisation.

Today, one of the things that companies like to have is an employee with “international exposure”. Broadly speaking, this means having an experience of how people and businesses and markets in other countries and cultures function. Now, most business schools in India have an exchange programme, or even internship offers, where a student can go to another country. Another way to look at it is to study in an international B-school in another country.

We’ve all heard of the Harvards, Whartons, Booths, INSEADs and others, and this is where one gets that international exposure. Studying with students from various nationalities, under faculty that comes from across the world, does lend a far larger perspective of business than otherwise. And then, an MBA graduate gets to work with a company that can be based anywhere in the world, which gives an in-depth idea of the work culture in a country other than your own. All this, and more, is what makes the Global MBA a much sought after degree.

The application process, although similar to India’s top B-schools, can seem a daunting prospect, with several aspects to it – from the essays about yourself, your recommendation letters, to your interview. In this issue, you will find out exactly what that process is all about, and how you can go about perfecting your essays and getting that perfect recommendation letter.

Another important thing to keep in mind is the cost of such global MBA programmes. It’s well known that studying in the top ranked schools in the world can entail a cost of as much as half a crore rupees (and sometimes even more!). So in this issue, we have also provided you with details of some “budget” MBA courses, where you will find an excellent programme for nearly half that cost. Finally, even if a student cannot manage to get into one of the top ranked B-schools, there is also a list of exceptional state universities in the US that mustn’t be ruled out.

So go ahead, brush up on those applications, get that passport ready, and go to your dream university!

hEAd - PubliCAtions

Anand Sutaria

CirCulAtion / subsCriPtion

Ramesh More

AddrEss for CorrEsPondEnCE

Advanc’edge MBA, IMS Publications, A Division of IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd., E Block, 6th Floor,NCL Bandra Premises,Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai - 400 051.

Contributors

Erik H. Schlie,Dr. Suresh Srinivasan

WritE to thE Editor At:[email protected]: www.advancedge.com, www.imsindia.com

edito

rfrom the

Aditya Prakash IengarEditor

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Disclaimer : The views expressed in the articles by contributors and others are not necessarily those of the Publishers, unless specifically stated therein. While no effort is spared in ensuring the accuracy of the information published herein, readers are advised to reconfirm the current facts before acting upon any such information. The Publishers regret their inability to accept responsibility for any inadvertent errors of commission or omission in this issue. Readers are recommended to make appropriate inquiries before incurring expenses or entering into commitments in relation to any advertisement appearing in this publication. The publishers do not vouch for any claims made by the advertisers of any products or services. The Publisher, Printers or Editor shall not be held liable for any consequences in the event of such claims not being honoured by the advertisers. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in any form or means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without prior permission from the publisher.

Payment to be made by crossed Demand Draft/Cheque drawn in favor of “IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd.” For subscriptions and related enquiries write to: Advanc’edge MBA, IMS Publications, A division of IMS Learning Resources Pvt. Ltd., E Block, 6th Floor, NCL Bandra Premises, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (E), Mumbai - 400 051.For more queries e-mail: [email protected]

New Subscription RatesPeriod Issues New Rate1 Year 12 Rs. 480/-2 Years 24 Rs. 840/-3 Years 36 Rs. 1080/-

contents August 2013Cover Story

06 MiM programme: What’s it all about?

MBA BUZZ

12 International MBA: The application process

14 Essay writing: It’s all about you

19 The all-important recommendation

22 Benefitsofstudyingan MBA abroad

26 Rankings: US business schools

31 FAQ

Countdown

34 The best, affordable international B-schools

Success Street

38 SimCAT achievers

Must Reads

42 Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More

Than IQ The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl

Corporate World

43 India’s policy dilemma: Where’s the problem?

46 Is the world’s largest economy picking up yet?

49 Innovate or perish: The tech space mantra

53 Economic indicators

News in brief56 Interesting news

snippets

Study Hour

59 Word Dose Tolkien on his writings

on Middle Earth

60 Globescan

62 SuDoKu

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5Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

JANUARY 5, 20144

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Advanc’edge Team

Are you a recent graduate with less than a year of work experience? In today’s increasingly crowded job market, the Masters in Management (MiM) degree is an option you could look at. The MiM degree will provide you with the

skills necessary to compete in today’s highly competitive job market. With this type of degree, you can work not only in a traditional business setting,

but also in a specialised niche, such as sports, healthcare, education, finance or even luxury branding!

he ever-increasing complexity of the business environment has placed a premium

on those who understand business in a cohesive, cross-functional way, and can communicate their ideas effectively. In such a scenario, the Masters in Management (MiM) programme is specifically designed to provide high-calibre recent graduates with a solid foundation in understanding what business is about while developing the skills and awareness needed to be a successful manager.

The programme is mainly targeted at candidates with non-business related undergraduate

degrees such as in Humanities, Science, Arts or Engineering, and at those with a background T

MiM programme: What’s it all about?

Based on our own experiences, and the need to equip our young men and women with the skill sets necessary to reap the benefits of our democratic dividend, we have worked with the University of Strathclyde to create a unique curriculum for our Masters in Management (MiM) course – one that ensures that the original Strathclyde curriculum is delivered in the context of the role that Indian managers will be expected to play on the world stage.

— JP Rai,Group CEO,

Strathclyde SKIL Business School

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in business studies. Besides, the MiM enables you to expand your career options by combining the specialist knowledge of your undergraduate degree with a broad and general business management post graduate education.

Global reachThe Master in Management (abbreviated as MiM, and often called Master of Science in Management or Master of Management) is aimed at helping university graduates without work experience find a management job fast and easily. The 11 to 36-month long programmes prepare students for leading positions in companies. The MiM is offered in Europe as well as in Asia, Australia, and Canada.

In the US, the MSc in Management is rather unusual, because in that country, it is common to first find a job and get some work experience immediately after the Bachelor’s degree and then add an MBA. Nevertheless, single US universities do offer MiM programmes, even though they are in somewhat lesser known institutions.

How is the MiM different from the MBA?The three key differences include:

} Age of students } Professional experience } Programme tuition fees

MiM programmes are designed for people in the early stages of their career – right after their undergraduate degree or after about a year on the job. Actually, most business schools do not require or ask mandatorily for professional experience for their MiM programmes. As for the tuition fees, the MiM programmes are cheaper than MBA programmes. While tuition fees at the most expensive full-time MBA programmes can reach as high as €70,000, the most expensive MiM programmes cost only around half of that.

The length of MiM programmes is also an enormous advantage – usually a year. It helps students enter the job market faster without compromising on the quality and quantity of education.

Moreover, the MiM programme duration also includes a compulsory internship programme. And the duration of this internship differs from school to school. While the average programme duration of MiM programmes is 11-18 months, the Yale Silver Scholars

The MiM programmes are aimed at helping university graduates

without prior work experience find a management job

fast and easily.

HEC’s Master in International Business (HEC MIB) is a 12-month full-time master’s programme taught entirely in English. It is designed to give participants the pertinent academic and practical knowledge in management for an international career. This programme also benefits from close ties with the business community: corporate partners help us shape the curriculum and are also very active in providing practical knowledge; they take part in courses, training seminars, consultancy projects and conferences organised on campus.

— Jean-Paul Larçon, Senior Associate Dean for International Development,

HEC Paris

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Program (USA), with programme duration of 3 years, is an exception to this rule. Students spend a year in class, followed by a 12-month internship, before finally completing another year in class after their internship. The London Business School’s MiM programme has a two-month internship before the start of the programme, followed by 11 months of in-class training. Most UK programmes are 12 months

long, and include a research project to be completed by the student in the third term, usually with a sponsoring organisation.

What is taught in MiM programmes?MiM programmes are postgraduate programmes in general management. They are not the same as Masters in Marketing, Masters in Project Management, Masters in Human Resources Management, Masters in IT Management, or Masters in Innovation Management programmes. Instead, an MiM course portfolio covers a broad range of business topics including the following.} MSc in Sustainable

Development } MSc in Managerial and

Financial Economics } MSc In Marketing } Master in Strategy and

International Management } MSc in Luxury Management

and Marketing } MSc in Management

Consulting } MSc in Innovation, Strategy

and Entreprenuership } MSc Management of

Biotechnology Companies } Masters in International

Hospitality and Tourism Management

} MSc Organisational Behaviour

} MSc Organisational Psychology & Business

} MSc Social Responsibility & Sustainability

How to get in: Admission criteria for an MiM programmeIt is quite interesting to note that unlike in the best Indian MBA institutions, where the percentage of engineers is exceedingly high (hovering between 75 to 90 per cent), international

ALl MiM programmes have a compulsory

internship as part of the course, and its

duration varies from a few months

to even a year.

Table 1: Length of study period for the MiM programmesInstitute Programme lengthUniversity of St Gallen – Switzerland 18 monthsESCP Europe – France 24 monthsCEMS – France 12 monthsHEC Paris – France -Nyenrode Business Universitiet - Netherlands

16 months

Yale Silver Scholars – USA (MBA) 36 (Inclusive 12 months’ internship)

Grenoble – France 24 (Inclusive 12 months’ internship)

IUM – Monaco 12 monthsLBS – UK 11 monthsUCD – Dublin 12 monthsCASS Business School 12 monthsAston Business School 12 monthsSt Gallens University 18 monthsLondon School of Economics – UK 12 monthsEsade Business School – Spain 12 monthsStockholm School of Economics – Sweden

22 months

NHH – Norway 24 months

Internationalisation remains a major ambition for us. The world is on the move, and EDHEC is moving with it. Our status as an independent school and our growth in recent years enable us to look ahead with enthusiasm. We are eager to take part in the growth of companies, in young people’s futures, in international educational issues and to develop new projects in the educational, academic and professional fields.

— Olivier Oger, Dean,

EDHEC Business School

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MiM programmes tend to have a majority cohort comprising Commerce, BBA, Economics, Maths, Statistics, Law, Political Science, Psychology and other graduates.

For the MiM programmes, the primary entry requirements include a bachelor degree, proof of language skills, GMAT or comparable tests, and the academic achievements during the undergraduate degree. About two thirds of the MiM programmes worldwide accept graduates from all types of undergraduate programmes, whereas the rest require a degree in business or economics.

Work experience not requiredMost Masters in Management (MiM) do not require professional experience. This is an important difference between this degree and the Master of Business Administration (MBA), which usually requires a minimum of three years of professional experience. However, there are a few MiM programmes that require work experience, such as the MIT Sloan Masters of Science in Management Studies.

TestsSome universities require a GMAT score of their applicants for the admission to an MiM degree course. There is no specific or single information about the score that has to be reached, with different institutions having different cut-offs. Some schools are content with a score of 550 to 600, while others require anything between 700 and 800.

Furthermore, besides the TOEFL or IELTS, some business schools also accept other verifications about foreign language skills such as the Cambridge Proficiency

Examination (CPE) and the Cambridge Advanced Examination (CAE). Some business schools even have in-house tests. This can be an advantage for the applicant, because he saves spending money on the TOEFL. The disadvantage, obviously, is

that the test is only valid for the university in question. Those who want to apply for several universities will generally not be able to get around without the TOEFL.

Intakes, application deadline and batch sizeAlmost all the MiM programmes begin in the fall of each year (August to September). However, some MiM programmes offer an additional spring intake ( J a n u a r y - F e b r u a r y ) . Furthermore, international institutions have three to four cycles of application. Most MiM programmes normally open their first round of application in the month of October.

As far as the student batches are concerned, MiM

Table 2: Some MNCs that hire from MiM programmesSector Name of organizationsFinance Airbus, Deloitte, Goldman Sacs, Cadbury, Schneider

Electric, Thyssen Krupp, ABB Oil & Gas, Rothschild, London Stock Exchange, Bloomberg, Risk Capital Partners, Phillip Morris

Marketing P&G, Unilever, Coca Cola, Ac Neilson, Pfizer, Eurosport, Adidas, Sony, Disney, Colgate Palmolive, Danone, Facebook

Banking HSBC, BNP Paribas, Royal Bank of Scotland, Duetsche Bank, ING, Nomura, Credit Suisse, Barclays Capital, Bain & Company, Black-Rock, Blackstone, CITI

Sports AEG Rocky Mountain Region, Ascent Sports, Ball Corporation, COGA, Coloco Inc, Comcast, Denver Broncos Football Club, Great West Life, Vail Resorts, Manchester United, Nimbus World Sports

Real Estate ABN Amro, CBRE, Colliers CRE, Jones Lang Lasalle, Cushman & Wakefield, DTZ, Knight Frank, Citigroup, KPMG, Savills, Credit Suisse

Hospitality Mariott, Jumeirah Hotels Group, Ritz, Sodexo, Cushman & Wakefield, Rafells, Intercontinental Hotels, Accor Hotels, Hyatt, Four Seasons, Disney Resort, Hilton

Luxury Brands

Cartier, Cayman, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, L’Oreal, Swarovski, Gucci, Tissot, Porche, Chanel

Apart from a select few, MiM programmes

do not require work experience, which

distinguishes them from the MBA, which

usually require a minimum of 3 years.

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programmes have a group size ranging between 50 and 200. The top 100 MiM

programmes cumulatively have approximately 10,000 seats. The average application to

selection ratio at most MiM programmes in institutes across the world is approximately 4:1.

Table 3: Some B-schools offering MiM programmes (no order of ranking)School name Country School name ESCP Europe France, U.K., Italy,

Germany, SpainHEC Montreal

CEMS Across locations Bem Bordeaux Management SchoolHEC Paris France HEC LausanneUniversität St.Gallen Switzerland Vlerick Leuven Gent Management SchoolEM Lyon Business School France HHL-Leipzig GSMGrenoble Graduate School of Business

France Aston Business School

London School of Economics and Political Science

U.K. NHH

Essec Business School France University of Bath School of ManagementEsade Business School Spain University of Cologne, Faculty of ManagementRotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University

Netherlands ICN Business School

WHU - Otto Beisheim School of Management

Germany Nottingham University Business School

Mannheim Business School Germany IAE Aix-en-Provence Graduate School of Management

Edhec Business School France Shanghai Jiao Tong University, AntaiStockholm School of Economics Sweden ESC ClermontESC Toulouse France National Chengchi UniversityCity University: Cass U.K. Warsaw School of EconomicsAudencia Nantes France EadaIAG-Louvain School of Management

Belgium Aarhus School of Business

Solvay Business School Belgium ESC Tours-Poitiers (ESCEM)Reims Management School France Nyenrode Business UniversiteitCopenhagen Business School Denmark Bradford University School of ManagementRouen Business School France TiasNimbas Business School, Tilburg UniversityWU (Vienna University of Economics and Business)

Austria Durham Business School

Maastricht University Netherlands Faculdade de Economia of the Universidade Nova de Lisboa

University of Strathclyde Business School

U.K. University of Economics, Prague

Imperial College Business School

U.K. Brunel University

Universiteit Antwerpen Management School

Belgium Lancaster University Management School

Skema France University College Dublin: SmurfitAalto University School of Economics

Finland Corvinus University of Budapest

Euromed Management France National Sun Yat-Sen UniversityKozminski University Poland BI Norwegian School of ManagementUniversità Bocconi Italy Politecnico di Milano School of Management

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Financing your MiMMiM programmes may easily cost you between €20,000 and €35,000, depending where you do it and what kind of lifestyle costs you have in addition to the tuition fees. The tuition fee includes overall programme instruction, manuals provided to the students and other course materials, accommodation and transport for the international trip and other residential seminars.

Living expenses, on the other hand, will include rent, electricity, water, laundry, food, travel, leisure, cell phones, etc. In Europe, for instance, personal expenses on an average will be Euro 1,000. However, of late, there are upcoming business schools such as the Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), a premier school in Norway that has no tuition fee at all, to encourage people from different parts of the world to go there and study.

Career and placement opportunities With plenty of global companies setting up base in India, job opportunities for MiM graduates are plentiful in India, as well as abroad. A good plan for you will be to work in international economies for at least two to four years and gain sufficient global exposure. This would facilitate your return to middle-management positions in India, if you should so choose.

Some of the Indian origin companies that hire from these programmes include:l Tata Motors l TCS l Tata Motors l Wipro Technologies l Jones Lang Lasalle

The average salaries tend to be in the range of `35 to 50 lakh annually from these programmes. The general thumb rule for salaries in finance and consulting to FMCG is 10:7. Some companies also give students joining bonuses and end of year incentives apart from the salary.

It is also important to note that companies which hire from MiM programmes are MNCs,

and they value students from MiM programmes, as they can be placed anywhere across the globe.

In summaryMiM programmes are an investment, not only financially but also in terms of your effort and time. Moreover, the trend towards globalised markets is ever increasing. It is therefore of vital importance for companies operating internationally to meet the challenges these trends bring about. The development of sustainable and success-oriented strategies thus call for managers with an extensive knowledge of modern management concepts and innovative means of implementation at the global level.

In such a scenario, the MIM programme prepares young managers to tackle international level issues. Furthermore, the learning environment, curriculum, ambience, etc are conducive for the all-round growth of students as required by the corporate world. Thus, defining your career path early on in life will help you enjoy your studies and profit from them sooner than later. A

Table 4: Broad classification of industries / departments where you could work

Finance Marketing Big dataCorporate finance Risk Management EnergyCentral banks, ministries and regulation

Advertising Internet

Public finance Market Research Minerals & MiningAsset Management Data Analytics

– Consumer Behaviour

Real Estate

Retail & Commercial Banking

Retailing Logistics & sales

Technology

and Telecom U.K. NHHPrivate Equity and Venture Capital

Product management

FMCG

Commodity Trading Customer Relations

Leisure and Tourism

Rating Agencies PR and Media Departments

Manufacturing

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MBA BUZZ

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The first – and most critical – thing when you’re planning to apply to international business schools is to know when to apply, and what goes on behind the closed doors as the schools evaluate the applications. Here are

some things you need to know.

International MBA: The application process

C reating a winning application: When should you apply?Admissions to

business schools are conducted in one of two ways: through discrete rounds or on a rolling admissions basis. All schools require you to submit your application materials online.

The round systemThe application year in schools following this system is divided into 4 deadlines (rounds). Typically international students (students not having citizenship of the country the school is based in) are required to apply by the second round. Applications are evaluated in batches and

acceptance letters are sent out in batches. Each round has a deadline for submission, and if the application is received after that deadline, it will be reviewed in the subsequent round. As applications come in within an application round, batches of applications are then distributed amongst the admissions staff to review. Once an admissions staff has completed a batch, he or she is given another batch of applications to review. This process continues until all applications for that round have been evaluated. Note that even if the admissions committee has decided to either accept, decline or waitlist applicants, the notifications are not sent out until six to 12 weeks after the round deadline.

Usually the first round of application deadlines for most schools falls in the period from October to November, while the second round is from December to January. In the round system of admissions, applications are evaluated in batches and

Advanc’edge Team

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acceptance letters are sent out in batches. Each round has a deadline for submission, and if the application is received after that deadline, it will be reviewed in the subsequent round (with the exception of the last round, which is a hard deadline for the year). For example, if the deadline for Round 1 at Harvard Business School is September 16, 2013 and your application was received on September 17, 2013, your application will be reviewed in Round 2. While scholarships are usually more plentiful in Round 1, you should look at applying in Round 1 only if you are ready with all the components of your application by the deadlines.

The rolling systemSome schools still use a rolling admissions system, which means that there is only one hard deadline to submit applications for the season. In such schools, applications are processed on a first come, first served basis. Admissions are “rolling” because notifications are not sent out in batches at the same time, but are sent out when the applications have been reviewed.

How is your application evaluated?Each application takes around 30 to 60 minutes to review. Even with experience, admissions readers take time to go through each application thoroughly. Upon reviewing, the application will then be graded as a “definite yes”, a “definite no”, or a “maybe”. If there is any trace of doubt or concerns about any aspect of an applicant’s candidacy, admissions readers are still discouraged from grading the applicant as a “maybe”. For experienced admissions readers, the “maybe” pile is relatively small. The “maybe” applications are then put back into the general queue for a second reading. At some schools,

the admissions chair reads the “maybe” applications instead of other admissions readers. Sometimes, the “yes”, “no” and “maybe” applications are sampled and read by the admissions chair for a second opinion. If there is any conflict of opinion, it is usually discussed in a committee format amongst admissions staff, and then determined to be an “admit” or “decline”. The true “maybe” applicants are then the waitlisted applicants.

The business school application usually consists of the application form that asks for your vital information, your transcripts from any degrees you have, your GMAT scores, recommendation letters, application essays, resumé and interviews.

These application materials are designed to help admissions officials evaluate your candidacy along seven components:1. Profile / background2. Academic aptitude3. Career progression (applicable

to MBA and Accelerated Leadership Programs)

4. Career goals5. Leadership potential6. Ability to work collaboratively7. Diversity you bring to a

programmeGiven that Indian nationals

comprise anywhere from 20 to 25 per cent of students from Asia (or between 3 and 7 per cent of the entire class) for most management programmes, it is important for you to showcase excellence for each of these components. As such, these seven components are not viewed in isolation but taken as a whole. From an admissions standpoint, one is not more important than the other – acceptances are granted on the basis of the entire application, not on specific aspects or components. A

The application form asks for your vital

info, transcripts from degrees, GMAT scores,

recommendation, application essays,

resumé & interviews.

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t its essence, every business school application is asking three basic questions

and its associated sub-themes – who are you, what have you done, and what do you want? The first deals with your values, priorities, interests, background, and curiosity. The second deals with your behaviour in past situations – through triumph, change and disappointment. The third deals with your dreams and aspirations. As with any human life, the answers to these three questions are interrelated, and in no way should you treat them as mutually exclusive elements for the essay.

However, each individual essay question will be asking for more insight into your values, behaviour, or goals. Your responses to these three basic questions should collectively paint a clear picture of your career progression, career goals, and your leadership potential.

While the mix of essay questions for a given school may

change from year to year, any essay question nevertheless falls into one of the following themes:Who are you? (Your values)}Personal values and character}Self-assessment}Role models}Leadership style}Outside of work}Cross-cultural experience / diversity

What have you done? (Your behaviour)}Leadership roles and experience}Organisational impact and transformation}Group dynamics and team work}Initiative}Significant accomplishments}Failure and disappointment}Meeting resistance}Ethical dilemma

What do you want? (Your goals)}Career progress}Short-term career goals}Long-term career goals}Why MBA, why now?

}Contribution to the business school community

Other Questions}Hypothetical scenario (What would you do?)}Open-ended}Optional questions

One of the most important aspects for evaluating your leadership potential and your effectiveness in a collaborative or collegial environment is finding out more about who you are. You are more than a collection of degrees, employers, actions and accomplishments. These types of “introspective” questions are asked to gain more insight into your motivations, your values or priorities in life, and your upbringing. In essence, business schools want to know that you have some depth and substance underneath the polished exterior. Moreover, how well you answer these questions shows not only maturity, but also more importantly a strong sense of self, both of which drive your visions and goals.

One of the toughest things to do correctly in an MBA application is to write the essay. It requires complete honesty, coherent thought and the ability to put those thoughts in words. But what is it that a business school wants from these essays?

Here, we offer you an insight in this matter, as well as a sample essay you can refer to when you’re writing your own.

Essay writing:It’s all about you

AAdvanc’edge Team

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Sample Application EssaysPlease give a detailed description of your job, including nature of work, major responsibilities; and, where relevant, employees under your supervision, size of budget, number of clients/products and results achieved.I work as a full time employee of Microsoft India R&D Limited. Though my current designation reads “Software Design Engineer 2”, my role at Microsoft goes beyond the realms of software design and includes collaborating with customers and partners, gathering requirements, evangelising products via blogs and product showcase events like TechXchange and TechEd, mentoring new hires, recruiting senior and junior employees and even working with legal and contract affairs for patent filing. My present product “Duet for Microsoft Office and SAP” aims to bring enterprise applications within the realms of Microsoft Office. Duet has 250 enterprise customers and with 400k+ licences sold has earned more than 80 million dollars in revenue. I am also working closely with Microsoft and SAP’s management in defining the vision and focus areas for the next version of Duet. For my team comprising 10 Microsoft engineers and 5 programme managers, I am the unofficial “Chief Happiness Officer”, the one who organises various team outings, outstation trips, fun games, etc to help uplift team morale.

I am also the cofounder of OrderMonger.com, an online marketplace specialising in providing web presence to partners and essential daily services to customers. At OrderMonger, I lead the technical team, identify new business opportunities, negotiate and sign up with partners and even do delivery on a particularly busy day. We’ve experienced steady growth at OrderMonger; our annual turnover is to the tune of INR 6 million. Presently, I’m working towards on boarding online grocery services, by which we expect to broaden our customer base and hit a target of 100% revenue growth for FY13.

Please give us a full description of your career since graduating from university. If you were to remain with your present employer, what would be your next step in terms of position? (250 words)In 2002, immediately after graduation, I started as a research consultant with the Industrial Consulting Cell of IIT Kharagpur. As a consultant, I worked closely with semiconductor companies like National in the domain of embedded software.

Working in the start-up like culture of IIT-KGP’s consulting cell, I gained the necessary impetus to start my own company, and founded “FlairAlley Technologies” in January 2004. The company was largely successful in providing consulting services, but due to premature diversification and absence of venture funding, the company lost its steam and I had to fold up operations.

It was then that I realised I needed to understand how corporations worked and what made them successful. With this aim in mind, I joined Microsoft in November 2004. In three years at Microsoft, I have shipped three strategic products, filed four patents and have been promoted multiple times. From an entry level software developer, I have grown up in the corporate ladder at an accelerated speed and now manage and mentor new hires and interns.

In case I continue to work for Microsoft, I see myself assuming the role of development manager for emerging markets and incubation group. As a development manager for the group, I would be able to drive innovative products for a fairly untapped market and thus add greater value to the company while satisfying my zeal for innovation.

I have also founded OrderMonger.com, an online marketplace. Currently OrderMonger employs 20 people and has over 100 service providers. Future plans for OrderMonger include turning it into a national level company and expanding its operations to include corporate services.

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Give a candid description of yourself, stressing the personal characteristics you feel to be your strengths and weaknesses and the main factors, which have influenced your personal development, giving examples when necessary. (400 words approx.)Verve, ambition, adaptability, objectivity, an ability to take risks and lots of good old-fashioned determination. My strengths have enabled me to set extremely challenging goals and work towards achieving them. I have created coalitions, joined hands and collaborated with team members beyond geographical, and sometimes beyond organisational, boundaries. In 2005, I led the engineering teams at Microsoft’s Hyderabad and Redmond offices for the “mySAP Data Adapter” for which I was awarded the Office Business Applications Award for exemplary teamwork by Microsoft Vice President Lewis Levin.

I have striven to excel in whatever I do – be it academics, extracurricular activities or my job. While at high school I dreamt of pursuing undergraduate studies at IIT, while at IIT I dreamt of running my own company, and I have an ambitious plan of setting up my own consulting firm on an international scale catering to start-ups.

Apart from these strengths I also pride myself on my resilience and adaptability. These strengths have enabled me to bounce back from crises like selling FlairAlley, the first company I founded.

My entrepreneurial flair also extends to the community as a whole. Since 2006, I have been involved with “Goonj” – a not-for-profit organisation involved in improving lifestyle conditions for India’s underprivileged. In fact, as the co-founder of Goonj’s Hyderabad chapter, I have organised several clothing and food drives and sought individuals and groups to join us. My recent partnership with five known hotels in Hyderabad has resulted in an annual donation of more than 20,000 pieces of clothing for our cause.

While my strengths have enabled me to overcome personal and professional crises, my weaknesses have caused me to falter, to air my opinions where a diplomatic silence would have enabled me to accomplish the task at hand. My weaknesses include impatience, overt competitiveness and aggression.

My emotional engagement at work causes me to at times push my teams beyond limits. I am also working on toning down my aggression. I have always been overtly outspoken, often bordering on tactless when it comes to dealing with co-workers who don’t share my enthusiasm and commitment. At times, my aggression has caused me to disregard protocol. Although I have improved as a result of constant feedback from seniors and partners, I am conscious that I still have a long way to go.

Describe a situation taken from school, business, civil or military life, where you did not meet your personal objectives, and discuss briefly the effect. (250 words approx.)100,000 New Year party tickets, $4,000,000 in revenue and 80 per cent of the customers being tech savvy were statistics that convinced me to expand OrderMonger into the e-ticketing domain.

In October 2006, I spearheaded a partnership with “One Alliance”, organisers of the biggest New Year party in Hyderabad. Under this partnership, OrderMonger would get a 10 per cent cut for each ticket sold online and also appear on One Alliance’s marketing campaigns. However, we also had to underwrite 5,000 tickets with no buy back option. My partners at OrderMonger were very uncomfortable about the last clause. I used the 80,000+ potential customer base and the marketing mileage that we would get out of the exercise as ammunition to counter their discomfort.

On December 1, 2006, I formally launched OrderMonger’s ticketing page and started a web-based marketing campaign to attract potential customers. However, by December 15, with 20 per cent of the inventory sold, I discovered that the biggest channel partners of One Alliance had started frantic selling at prices much below the market price, a scenario I was totally unprepared for. I later learnt that they indulge in this kind of frantic selling every year, leaving the small distributors of One Alliance in the red. By the end of December, OrderMonger had managed to sell only 70% of the tickets.

This instance taught me to be duly diligent in evaluating a new business, identifying all the market forces and what-if scenarios. Additionally, I pay extra attention in cases where my partners are even slightly sceptical. I am confident that a right mix of entrepreneurial insights and pragmatism is the recipe for my success in the years to come.

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Describe what you believe to be your two most substantial accomplishments to date, explaining why you view them as such. (400 words approx.)A few weeks after receiving OrderMonger’s first customer review, The Hindu, an Indian daily, carried a half-page review on OrderMonger, calling it a commendable venture.

It has been 11 months since those early reviews and yet whenever there are reviews on OrderMonger, I still experience the same, heady excitement of those first few months. After all OrderMonger is my baby and it has just learned to walk!

In coming up with the business plan, setting up the infrastructure, hiring everyone right from customer service representatives to delivery boys, negotiating with partners, creating the website, I have built OrderMonger literally from scratch. I have seen it grow from three employees, one service and two partners to a 20-people organisation, with more than 100 partners, covering over five essential consumer and corporate services, serving thousands of customers every month. With OrderMonger, I have discovered my own ability to manage and execute at the helm of an organisation, and that makes creating OrderMonger one of my most substantial achievements till date.

An accomplishment of a different kind is being accepted into the Computer Science department at the very prestigious Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT- KGP). All six of India’s IITs attract the brightest minds, so for many, admission to an IIT represents a recognition of their academic brilliance. For me in 1997, getting into one of the IITs was much more than that. An IIT education was a way to change my life, to change the life of my family through the only route I knew — education. I lost my father in Grade 9, and ever since had struggled to keep my family afloat, to ensure that our meagre finances did not deplete. This required me to spend most of my time working for the family business, a cloth store. As a result, I would study till the wee hours of morning to compensate for the time spent at work.

My hard work paid off, I excelled at the Joint Entrance Examination with an All India Rank of 235, and was admitted to the Computer Science department of IIT-KGP with a full scholarship.

Once there, I performed exceptionally well and was adjudged as amongst the top 3 student of the graduating class of 2002 at IIT-KGP. This experience taught me critical time management skills, since I had to balance my regular school work with studying for the IITs and working in the family business. I learnt how to persevere and not lose sight of a greater goal and laid the foundation for the person I am today.

Have you ever experienced culture shock? What did it mean to you? (250 words approx.)Location: Hyderabad, Microsoft India Development Center (IDC)Time: 11 pm.

Heading through a bustling corridor, I reach our cafeteria to discuss the latest product designs with my colleagues. Our 24x7 cafeteria often serves as an ad-hoc meeting room and very often all of us have expressed the sentiment, “Thank god they made the cafeteria 24x7!”Contrast this to location: Bldg 31, Microsoft Headquarters, RedmondTime: 6 pm.

Walking through a completely deserted hallway, I reach cafeteria only to meet with the sign “Open from 11 am to 5 pm!” .

Cafeteria timings aside, the Microsoft offices in Redmond and Hyderabad could not be more different. There are stark variations in everything, right from office etiquette to social bonding to processes and protocol.

My first visit to the Redmond office was in 2005. To say that I experienced a culture shock would be a bit of an understatement. I could not walk into a colleague’s office without an appointment; my interactions with colleagues were limited to the strictly professional realm and even working hours stretching from 8 am to 5 pm made the office environment seem stifling and oddly formal. In those initial days, I felt totally lost and overwhelmed.

I have come a long way since then. Frequent business trips have made me appreciate that different work cultures arise due to different socio-economic forces and come with advantages of their own.

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Discuss your career goals.Ten years down the line, I see myself as a technology leader, heading an innovative technology firm, providing solutions to concerns world over, especially start-ups. Businesses around the globe are witnessing major developments due to the coming together of technology and liberalisation, thereby creating an inextricably interlinked large-scale financial system and the coming together of a globalised and interconnected world.

As a result of an increase in competition in the technology consulting market, companies are now looking at end-to-end technology solutions providers providing more than just competitive prices. This calls for a paradigm shift in the outsourcing scenarios, which are existent today. With its immense technology resources and potential, India is well poised to be a centre of world-class end-to-end technology solutions in the next 10 to 15 years. I wish to be part of this transition by leading a consulting venture while offering innovative ideas fulfilling the “exciting requirements” of the client.

By heading my very own technological solutions firm, I will also be able to play a critical role in the development of future businesses and leave an indelible mark on them through my own distinctive set of skills. I believe that in the short run, it would be beneficial if I worked closely with a renowned consultancy, heading a team of consultants for process-improvement projects. This will enable me to combine my exposure to the latest in software and computation technologies with a study of complex strategic, managerial and organisational issues and give me the necessary confidence to tackle real life issues that involve a combination of business and technology.

In the course of my career, I have collaborated with start-ups, created companies and also worked with huge corporations like Microsoft. My experiences have made me aware that I am very well versed with technology and I am good at working with people. I have hands-on management experience, and yet, there are gaps in my business training and business skills that can only be overcome by a comprehensive business education.

And this is where the INSEAD MBA comes in. Electives offered by the “Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise” department at INSEAD would go a long way in honing my business skills. Particularly interesting is the elective “Enterprise in Action”, which with its intensive business simulation covers the different aspects of entrepreneurship right from establishing, managing and growing an international concern. I would also gain immensely from the INSEAD Entrepreneurship Club, which provides a forum for students to share ideas and experiences, networking opportunities with present and future entrepreneurs and access to entrepreneurial resources.

More than anything, the INSEAD MBA will serve as a transformational experience and will help me forge the skills necessary to achieve my goals. A

While the letters of reference are stories about you told by others ... essays enable you to tell your own story, what matters most to you and why, as well as how you have decided you can best

contribute to society.... Tell us your story in a natural, genuine way. Our goal is to understand what motivates you and how you have become the person you are today. In addition, we’re interested in what kind of person you need the MBA Program to help you become.Reflective, insightful essays help us envision the individual behind all of the experiences and accomplishments that we read about elsewhere in your application.The most important piece of advice on these essays is extremely simple: answer the questions-each component of each question.

An additional suggestion for writing essays is equally straightforward: think a lot before you write. We want a holistic view of you as a person: your values, passions, ideas, experiences, and aspirations.

Derrick BoltonDirector, MBA Admissions,

Stanford Graduate School of Business

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When you’re applying to business schools abroad, recommendation letters form a critical part of your application. Who is recommending you? What are they writing? Do they know you enough? All these, and more, are points that must be noted when you ask someone for a letter of recommendation. Here are a few things you need to know.

The all-important recommendation

M

Advanc’edge Team

ost schools require r e c o m m e n d a t i o n letters from two or three people. Who

you choose to be your referees has a large bearing on the credibility of what is being written in the recommendation letters. The nature of your relationship can be measured along three dimensions:} Length of time: How long

has the referee known you well?

} In what capacity: Is the referee a peer, supervisor or client?

} In what context: Did you interact with your referee primarily through work, college, or an extracurricular ctivity?

Choosing recommendersGet a diverse mix of referees who convey consistent themes about you. Choose a mix of referees who you know in different capacities and contexts that can provide a consistent picture of your traits, abilities and goals. Consistency gives your letters credibility. For example, if your current supervisor, a board member at the non-profit you volunteered at, and a colleague you work with all mention your strengths as a decision maker while providing specific (but different) examples, you are likely to be seen as a good decision maker. Furthermore, your essays mentioning your decision-making abilities have real credibility.

Getting referees you know in different capacities and contexts avoids redundancy. Using the same example as above, the supervisor, board member and colleague all know you in different capacities and contexts, which means that the examples they would use to illustrate your decision-making skills will differ, while perhaps revealing additional traits or skills you may have in the process. If you only chose three supervisors in the same company (your direct supervisor your former supervisor, and a Vice President, for example), you will likely get a lot of duplication in what they write about.

Choose those who know you well, not those who look good.

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Admissions committee readers want letters of substance, not title. For example, if your essays, resumé and nature of your job infer that you have little interaction with your company’s CEO, then a signed letter from the CEO is going to be of little substance and is therefore not a credible reference of your candidacy. The general rule of thumb is to choose someone who you have interacted with daily for more than one year within the last three years. Avoid using any college professors you have had, unless you are a recent college graduate who had a vital role in a research project working closely with a professor.

Choose only those who know you in a professional or collegial capacity. Avoid family members or friends, because the nature of the relationship will hinder the credibility of the letter. While admissions committees recognise that recommendation letters are subjective, a professional or collegial relationship lacks the

appearance of emotional intimacy, which lends more objectivity to what is being written in the letters. If you work in a family business, you may have a hard time selecting referees, but you are going to have to find other people to write the letters nevertheless.

Tips for effective recommendation lettersThe questions on the recommendation forms cover a lot of ground while expecting candid and detailed answers. If you are applying to multiple schools, the specificity of the questions may also differ to some degree.

Although all recommendation letters ask slightly different questions in a slightly different order of sequence, there are some elements that are common to all recommendation letters:}The nature of your

relationship and peer group: How long have you known the applicant, and in what capacity and context; who is the applicant’s peer group,

}The basic questions: Your

traits, abilities or goals that explain your strengths and weaknesses, your impact on a group, your leadership, or your team work, and/or

}The specific questions: Specific questions about a trait, ability or goal of yours.In order to make the most of

your referees’ effort and time, the quality and accessibility of the information you provide to assist your referees is crucial. Having your referees write letters for various schools based on a common and easily accessible set of information will therefore save your referees’ time while allowing them to put together a vivid and cohesive recommendation letter.

The information package that you provide to your referees is essentially one document that addresses the three common elements as described above, such as your traits, abilities, goals and any supporting material or examples. The material is drawn from a combination of your essays, your resumé and anything else you would like to highlight.

How long have you known the applicant and in what context? Please comment upon the frequency and nature of your interactions with the applicant.

I have known the applicant since October 2010, when he joined the organisation in Singapore as a management trainee. Over the course of his employment, till date, I have been associated with him, initially as his direct reporting head during his job function in the sales division of the company, and thereafter as the country manager of Thailand.

During his tenure as a business development executive in Singapore, the applicant used to report to me on a daily basis. We also used to schedule a lead status review meeting, once a week, depending on our geographical locations.

Post transfer to Thailand as the head of operations, I interact with him on a daily basis as well. As his direct superior in the region, the applicant keeps me updated regularly on the rollout status of existing process, and the expected dates of collection of milestone based revenues. We also have exigency meetings in the case of escalations from client sites on a need basis.

Outside work, we have maintained our relationship at a personal level as well. My overall association with him spans a period of over three years and I have seen him grow both professionally and personally during this period of time.

Sample recommendations

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What are the applicant’s three principal strengths? Please provide an example of each.A first and foremost mention of the applicant’s determination is a must. Risking repetition, I must say that his never-say-die attitude is an excellent asset for any aspiring successful business professional. He views setbacks and difficulties as stepping stones for success. During the course of his tenure as a business development executive in Singapore, there were often scenarios in which certain business deals which were almost certain for closure fell through at the very last minute. It is only natural to lose heart for an individual in such a scenario. But not the applicant. The initial disappointment put aside, it made him strive harder to succeed; and succeed he did. In his short six-month tenure, he was able to secure the account of CWT Logistics, a leading international logistic organisation.

His grasping power of fundamentals and then applying it to real life scenarios make him an invaluable asset to the organisation. Not often is an employee with an organisational age of five months, at the time, able to execute the application of a complete business solution as he did in Tang Ying Wattana, Thailand. What made this feat even more remarkable was the absence of prior knowledge of 3i Infotech in dealing with region-specific intricacies. His contributions in laying the foundation for the success of future implementations in the region are undeniable.

His strong interpersonal skills remain a key ingredient of his success in this region. He is quick to establish a rapport with clients and team members alike. Just as he goes out of the way for people, the reverse is also true on a lot of occasions. The flair he has shown for maintaining customer relations through astute negotiations has been the primary reason behind the client appreciation certificates from De-Sta-Co Asia and Tang Ying Wattana. These certifications have gone a long way in cementing 3i Infotech’s reputation in the software industry in Thailand.

The applicant, in many respects, is a natural leader. The fact that stands out about him is the initiative he takes to lead by example. He makes an earnest effort to strike a rapport with all his team members. He inspires his team mates to go beyond their call of duty, through his actions. Never shying away from responsibility, one can rest assured that a task under his supervision will reach its conclusion, without unnecessary complications. Even in cases, where unforeseen roadblocks are encountered, he is quick and alert to raise escalations, ensuring minimum possible delays. His inclination towards sharing the success and failure alike between his team members ensures him high regard among his peer group.

Team dynamics is an essential ingredient in a successful organisation. The applicant understands the importance of this and his ability to bond with people from various cultures and backgrounds has been commendable. Having studied in a multi-cultural cauldron as Singapore, he has developed an even-tempered tolerance of a myriad of contrasting viewpoints.

In which three areas can the applicant improve? How has the applicant worked to address these areas? There are areas where the applicant can definitely improve.

At times, he is slightly adamant on decisions, viewed by him as just, at the point in time. While that might be true, he overlooks the fine line of diplomacy and enforcing views on others. He needs to adopt a softer approach in these situations, not to cross the bounds and push over. In his capacity as the delivery head in Thailand, he has come a long way from the management trainee who used to let his heart rule his head. His responsibilities have called for a more diplomatic approach when dealing with perceived roadblocks, and he has grown significantly into it, through self-introspection and inputs from his seniors.

Delegation of work is another aspect that he needs to master. Often, I have found his cup of work full to the brim, when he could have effectively brought his team members into play. To address this, and foster a greater sense of accountability among his team members, he has taken the initiative of scheduling weekly review meetings with his team. The discussion on individual objectives and team goals has slowly starting yielding the desired results.

We have often had discussions initiated by him with regard to his perceived shortcomings. He is receptive to objective criticism of his methods. I have noticed a conscious effort from his end in making such adjustments. What he needs probably is a good management course that will further enhance his skills and put him on the road to becoming a better business professional. A

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Erik H. Schlie

Why exactly do people go to other countries to study at an international university, in a global MBA programme? There are so many top notch institutes

in one’s own country, ranking among the world’s best. However, there are certain advantages that a truly global MBA programme has to offer.

Benefits of studying an MBA abroad

he world is no longer the same place it once was years ago. The size of

the globe has shrunk by many folds, and as a consequence, this means increased mobility and a demand for workers with global skill sets. But what exactly makes a person global? Often, it comes down to the right education.

There was a time when the United States attracted top engineers; Australia wanted

doctors; Europe needed social and nursing staff. But in all these

phases, there was a common skill which was in demand throughout, and it is the highly critical skill we call Management. An MBA in itself is a promising career booster, and pursuing one in a global environment is even more attractive.

Why should you consider a global MBA?When choosing a global MBA, one should consider the many benefits of such a truly global programme, for example, a

T MBA grads who’ve studied abroad find their international

exposure to be one of the most cherished

experiences of their lives.

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global networking platform, the opportunity to experience diverse cultures and to gain insight from an international environment, to have the chance to challenge traditional beliefs, different perspectives and values. Learning new business practices is, in my opinion, among the most amazing things about getting an MBA overseas. Many MBA graduates who have studied abroad find their truly international exposure to be one of the most cherished experiences of their lives.

Choosing an MBA programme is not an easy task, particularly because you will be investing both time and money in your choice. There are different issues

which

require high attention, including determining whether you will be comfortable in the new environment of a new country. Discomfort in a new environment can arise from anything – whether it might be the food, a foreign language, different customs, or the weather. New things often cause a certain level of discomfort, but this is not always a negative thing. Such change is often where we find growth in ourselves.

An MBA overseas may also expose you to different styles of teaching that you have not yet encountered. Do a t h o r o u g h s u r v e y f r o m former o r current

students and compare it with your expectations. If there is a big difference, then you should reconsider your decision.

The people you interact with – they matterOne of the major benefits that can be derived from a top-ranked and renowned global MBA programme is the opportunity to interact with the world’s most sought after faculties. A top global MBA programme will offer you the chance to learn from the world’s best professors, who not only offer deep domain knowledge but could also become a mentor through

their industry knowledge and networks.

Although the world is indeed getting smaller, and many top international schools can offer a well-established network of high profile alumni across the globe, it is beneficial to target a school which is in your preferred location to work. The United States offers a wide range to choose from, Europe is equally diverse, and now, Asia too is offering quality education in a global environment. These schools attract students from all over the world and operate in a global environment, one that is highly competitive from the first day of your MBA programme.

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The time factorMoreover, the MBA degree you get prepares you to become a global citizen. It is important to decide how much time you want to spend on that enrichment. There are several options to evaluate, from programmes of 11 months to those that stretch up to 24 months. The shorter programmes are more concentrated and demand that you provide your continuous attention. Such a programme will prepare you to master challenging career paths. You also have the opportunity to work in international groups in a stretched environment (both mentally and physically) with constant tight meeting deadlines, which will ensure that you are prepared to handle work stress in your future life.

The longer programmes may bring more consistency and regularity in your life style. The option of a global MBA is like a platter laid before you. You need to decide what it is that you want to take away with you.

The unmatched networkThe recognition that you receive after completing a top Global MBA programme is tremendous. The alumni status

itself is a brand seal. Post your MBA, you will have friends moving to various fields and geographies, and these will be your first line network across the globe. People often think that communication and means of transport has made the world a smaller place, but it is actually your MBA network that will place the globe truly in your hand.

What you should look for in a global B-schoolIt is imperative that you learn as much about the business school that you want to get admitted to. For instance, IE Business School is one of the best ranked schools globally. If you are looking for a world class education in the heart of a vibrant city, then you should learn more about B-schools like IE. Institutions like IE promise a uniquely diverse student body, and shake your beliefs about the culture and country, and at the same time, offer the world in the space of a classroom. At global MBA programmes, since there are individuals of so many different nationalities in one class, students end up learning not only from their professors but also from their classmates. Schools like IE will

ensure your encounter with new practical business problems every day. Whether you want to go into marketing, finance, or any other field of your choice, the initial three core terms will provide you with so much information that you will learn to look at business in a totally new way. Your approach towards problems will no longer be one-dimensional – you will bring a multi-dimensional approach to each business problem yourself.

Deciding up on a global MBA is not an easy task. I recommend all aspiring students to do a thorough self-introspection and prepare a wishlist of what they want and look accordingly at MBA programmes and institutes that match that list. An MBA is a life-time investment, and I hope that you make the right decision for you. A

Erik H. Schlie is the Associate Dean, MBA programmes, IE Business School. He is also

the Academic Director, Corporate Learning Group, IE, and the Executive Education Professor of Marketing and General Management at IE Business School.

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The US is one of the biggest destinations for Indian students planning to pursue an MBA abroad. Where many aspirants go wrong is in assuming that not getting into one of the Ivy League schools is the end of the world. It most certainly isn’t,

as the various state universities too offer quality programmes. Here, you will find where those universities are ranked and how they have fared in the rankings.

Rankings:US business schools

T he highlight of this year’s ranking is that Yale University’s School

of Management fell behind NYU, Duke and the University of Virginia to land in 13th place. Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, meanwhile, moved out of last

year’s tie with the University of Chicago’s Booth School, which fell two places to sixth. Harvard and Stanford maintained their grip of a first place tie, while Wharton held on to its third place ranking. MIT’s Sloan School and Kellogg remained in a fourth place tie.

In numerous cases, three

schools are tied for a single rank, such as Georgia Tech, Ohio State and Notre Dame, with all of them placed 27th. In one instance, four schools have the same rank: Arizona State, Brigham Young, Rice and Vanderbilt are all tied for 30th. And then, at a rank of 79, there are actually five tied schools: State University of New York at Binghamton, Fordham University, Syracuse, Texas Christian, and the University of Colorado.

Advanc’edge Team

Harvard and Stanford kept their grip of a

first place tie, while Wharton stayed at

third place. MIT Sloan and Kellogg remained

in a fourth place tie.

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The biggest gains among the top 25 schools were by the University of Washington’s Foster School and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School. Foster jumped 12 places to rise to a 23rd place with Carlson.

Foster was 35th last year. Carlson rose seven places from 30th last year. The biggest gain in the entire ranking was experienced by the University of Utah’s Eccles School, which jumped 23 places to finish 61st,

up from 84th a year earlier.City University of New York’s

Zicklin School at Baruch College rose 22 spots to rank 75th, an improvement from its rank of 97 last year. And the University of Alabama’s business school found itself ranked at 58th, up 20 places, from 78th last year.

This year’s new entrants include the University of California at San Diego (ranked 73rd), the State University of New York at Binghamton (79), San Diego State (86), SUNY at Albany (86), Oklahoma State (Spears) (88), the University of Tulsa (Collins) (93), the University of Cincinnati (99), the University of San Diego (99), the University of Mississippi (101), and West Virginia University (104).

The biggest plunge of all was felt by Rennselaer’s Polytechnic Institute’s Lally School in Troy, N.Y. Lally, with just 78 full-time students enrolled in its MBA programme, plummeted by 26 places to finish 96th from 70th a mere 12 months ago. Not far behind in the loss department was Claremont College’s Drucker School, which fell 25 places this year, to a rank of 101. A year ago, Drucker was 76th on the U.S. News’ list of the best business schools.

Schools that fell out of U.S. News’ ranking this year include: Miami University (which ranked 78th last year), Howard University (91), Rochester Institute of Technology (94), Chapman (97), the University of California at Riverside (97), Rollins College (101), and the University of Santa Clara (101).

Please note that in the case of international students, the average GMAT score is usually around 10 to 20 points above the listed school average. A

Table 1: The biggest winnersSchool 2013 Rank 2012 Rank ChangeUniversity of Utah (Eccles)

61 84 +23

CUNY-Baruch (Zicklin) 75 97 +22University of Alabama 58 78 +20Louisiana State (Ourso) 61 81 +20University of Oklahoma (Price)

67 84 +17

SUNY-Buffalo 75 89 +14University of Arizona (Eller)

44 57 +13

Auburn University 75 88 +13University of Washington (Foster)

23 35 +12

Fordham University 79 89 +10

Table 2: The biggest lossesSchool 2013 Rank 2012 Rank ChangeRennselaer Polytechnic (Lally)

96 70 -26

Claremont (Drucker) 101 76 -25Tulane University (Freeman)

67 43 -24

DePaul (Kellstadt) 93 70 -23University of Miami 91 70 -21University of Arkansas (Walton)

66 51 -15

Pepperdine University (Graziadio)

96 81 -15

Thunderbird 88 76 -12Syracuse University (Whitman)

79 68 -11

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

47 37 -10

North Carolina State (Jenkins)

88 78 -10

American University (Kogod)

104 94 -10

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US business schools in state universities — RankingsRank School name Tuition fees Avg

GMAT score

Avgundergrad

GPA

Acceptance rate (%)

Avg starting

salary and bonus (in

USD)1 Harvard

University (Boston, MA)

$53,500 per year (full-time)

724 3.67 11.50% 142501

1 Stanford University (Stanford, CA)

$57,300 per year (full-time)

729 3.69 7.10% 140459

3 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) (Philadelphia, PA)

$57,026 per year (full-time)

718 3.6 20.00% 138302

4 MIT (Sloan) (Cambridge, MA)

$57,920 per year (full-time)

710 3.53 15.60% 139035

4 Northwestern University (Kellogg) (Evanston, IL)

$56,550 per year (full-time)

708 3.69 22.90% 134001

6 University of Chicago (Booth) (Chicago, IL)

$56,000 per year (full-time)

720 3.52 23.00% 135653

7 University of California--Berkeley (Haas) (Berkeley, CA)

$53,969 per year (full-time)

715 3.61 13.80% 133786

8 Columbia University (New York, NY)

$58,384 per year (full-time)

715 3.5 20.80% 134868

9 Dartmouth College (Tuck) (Hanover, NH)

$56,160 per year (full-time)

717 3.49 20.40% 138713

10 New York University (Stern) (New York, NY)

$52,828 per year (full-time)

720 3.51 15.70% 133919

11 Duke University (Fuqua) (Durham, NC)

$52,900 per year (full-time)

690 3.42 27.50% 136461

12 University of Virginia (Darden) (Charlottesville, VA)

$50,778 per year (full-time)

703 3.45 26.60% 131906

contd.

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MBA BUZZ

29Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

Rank School name Tuition fees Avg GMAT score

Avgundergrad

GPA

Acceptance rate (%)

Avg starting

salary and bonus (in

USD)13 Yale University

(New Haven, CT)

$55,050 per year (full-time)

717 3.55 21.30% 121631

14 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson) (Los Angeles, CA)

$54,530 per year (full-time)

704 3.56 22.60% 121864

15 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross) (Ann Arbor, MI)

$55,000 per year (full-time)

703 3.4 40.60% 134360

16 Cornell University (Johnson) (Ithaca, NY)

$53,796 per year (full-time)

694 3.29 27.60% 127368

17 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs) (Austin, TX)

$48,832 per year (full-time)

692 3.4 28.60% 123177

18 Emory University (Goizueta) (Atlanta, GA)

$44,600 per year (full-time)

677 3.38 34.20% 124066

19 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) (Pittsburgh, PA)

$55,800 per year (full-time)

693 3.26 26.70% 128101

20 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler) (Chapel Hill, NC)

$48,681 per year (full-time)

692 3.34 42.60% 118195

21 Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) (St. Louis, MO)

$47,800 per year (full-time)

698 3.43 34.10% 106009

22 Indiana University--Bloomington (Kelley) (Bloomington, IN)

$43,460 per year (full-time)

664 3.33 38.50% 108807

contd.

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MBA BUZZ

www.advancedge.com30 Advanc’edge MBA August 2013

Rank School name Tuition fees Avg GMAT score

Avgundergrad

GPA

Acceptance rate (%)

Avg starting

salary and bonus (in

USD)23 University of

Minnesota--Twin Cities (Carlson) (Minneapolis, MN)

$45,000 per year (full-time)

692 3.4 43.40% 118986

23 University of Washington (Foster) (Seattle, WA)

$39,081 per year (full-time)

670 3.37 43.40% 110768

25 Georgetown University (McDonough) (Washington, DC)

$49,440 per year (full-time)

683 3.32 49.40% 114744

26 University of Southern California (Marshall) (Los Angeles, CA)

$48,515 per year (full-time)

690 3.34 29.50% 109841

27 Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA)

$36,246per year (full-time)

678 3.38 38.10% 101612

27 Ohio State University (Fisher) (Columbus, OH)

$44,280per year (full-time)

668 3.38 31.80% 102162

27 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) (Notre Dame, IN)

$43,460 per year (full-time)

687 3.26 35.20% 111255

30 Arizona State University (Carey) (Tempe, AZ)

$37,550per year (full-time)

676 3.4 36.00% 100984

30 Brigham Young University (Marriott) (Provo, UT)

$21,900 per year (full-time)

672 3.5 54.20% 108227

30 Rice University (Jones) (Houston, TX)

$46,000 per year (full-time)

673 3.4 27.00% 108587

30 Vanderbilt University (Owen) (Nashville, TN)

$45,000 per year (full-time)

682 3.37 37.10% 108889

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31Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

What is the difference between the MiM and an MBA degree?While the MiM is a pre-work experience degree, the MBA necessarily requires candidates to have at least a couple of years of work experience. Consequently while MiM programmes are primarily designed for talents in their early career stages right after their undergraduate degree or after about one year in job.

How good are the placements compared to MBAs?MiM programmes typically place candidates in analyst associate positions in fields like marketing, market research, product and brand management, financial analysis, consulting, investment analysis, research, sales and trading, and account management. Since MiM programmes create entry pathways for students, salaries offered are usually in the USD 50 to 60,000 range. MBA programmes, on the other hand, feature lateral placements and salaries in the USD 80,000 and above range.

Do all MIM universities require TOEFL/IELTS ?Yes, all MiM programmes will require the candidate to take the TOEFL/IELTS. In fact, a lot of European universities show a marked preference for the IELTS. I already have an MBA, can I still apply?If you already have an MBA, then the MiM programme might not be the correct option for you. You should instead look at specialist Masters programmes in the elective fields of your choice and not the general MiM degree. This is because as an MBA graduate, you will have work experience prior to your MBA, whereas the MiM prefers students without work experience.

Why are most of the top programmes from Europe? Why can’t I find MIT Sloan, Stanford, UC Berkley, i.e., the US universities?The concept of the MiM was pioneered by French schools like HEC Paris and ESCP Europe. These schools have been offering them for over a decade and their programmes are relatively mature and evolved compared to others. Recently, with the huge demand (both from the students as well as recruiters) in this space, other top schools like Yale, HBS, ISB, Duke and LBS have begun their versions of the MiM programme. When do I apply? Application timelines for MiM programmes usually extend up to April of the intake year. However, applying by January of the intake year ensures that you have a decent chance at scholarships as well. Is financial aid available for this programme?Yes, financial aid and scholarships are available for most MiM programmes on a purely meritorious basis. Meritocracy is determined by standardised test scores (GMAT and/or IELTS), academic and extracurricular profiles. Does it matter what my Bachelors’ degree is in?Some MiM programmes require candidates to have taken courses in economic theory and business. However, most MiM programmes are open to candidates from all undergraduate streams. Who should write my recommendation letters?Your college professors, internship supervisors, etc are often the best people to write your recommendation letters.

Here are some frequently asked questions regarding international MBA programmes that might help you.

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30 www.advancedge.comAdvanc’edge MBA June 2013

Success Street

30 www.advancedge.comAdvanc’edge MBA April 2013

B-school VibeCAREER WATCH

30 Advanc’edge MBA July 2012 www.advancedge.com

CAREER WATCH

Advanc’edge MBA July 2012www.advancedge.com 31 31Advanc’edge MBA April 2013www.advancedge.com

B-school VibeCAREER WATCH

30 Advanc’edge MBA July 2012 www.advancedge.com

CAREER WATCH

Advanc’edge MBA July 2012www.advancedge.com 31

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31Advanc’edge MBA June 2013www.advancedge.com30 www.advancedge.comAdvanc’edge MBA April 2013

B-school VibeCAREER WATCH

30 Advanc’edge MBA July 2012 www.advancedge.com

CAREER WATCH

Advanc’edge MBA July 2012www.advancedge.com 31 31Advanc’edge MBA April 2013www.advancedge.com

B-school VibeCAREER WATCH

30 Advanc’edge MBA July 2012 www.advancedge.com

CAREER WATCH

Advanc’edge MBA July 2012www.advancedge.com 31

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Do you want to go abroad to study for your MBA, but been dismayed by the exorbitant amounts charged by most of the business schools? Here you will find a

few important international B-schools that offer quality management programmes, but at a very low cost.

The best, affordable international B-schools

IPuja Shah

n the mind of the Indian student who plans to pursue a management course abroad, the first and foremost concern

is invariably the cost of the programme. And rightly so, since whatever else the programmes might be, they do charge very high amounts, especially if you’re looking at the top business schools in the world, according to the Financial Times Global MBA Rankings.

There are many ways in which this cost can be taken care of. The first is, of course, getting a scholarship. When one’s tuition fees is funded – fully or partly – it resolves a lot of the problem.

But the truth is that there are many, many good business schools out there that do charge far lesser for their management programmes. For instance, in the FT Rankings, you will find a separate ranking called the Value for Money Rank. Here, you’ll find that almost all the US universities (or at least those at the top) are at the bottom of that ranking, since their tuition fees sum up to more than half a crore rupees. Stanford is at 94, Wharton at 95,

Columbia at 96, Chicago Booth at 98, New York Stern is at 99 and Northwestern’s Kellogg is at 100. In fact, Harvard and UCLA’s Anderson are the only ones from the top US Universities in the 70s.

Topping the Value for Money rank are several business schools that feature in the FT Top 100 MBA programmes, and offer top quality MBA programmes that are extremely affordable.

The list that has been compiled primarily based on the fees and their FT ranking. They have been segregated according to country and/or region, and only schools where your expense will be approximately equal to or less than US$78,000 (including living costs and study material) have been considered. Moreover, all these business schools offer excellent placement packages and salaries. Every single school that find a mention here are great schools (since they are part of the top 100 in the world). However, you may find some that you may not have thought of when you

began your search for a suitable international MBA programme for you.

This list you will find from the next page is by no means exhaustive, containing only the top 11 schools that are the most affordable and offer great opportunities and salaries. For these institutes, you will find parameters like the average GMAT score accepted by these institutes, the fees they charge and the salaries the graduating batch get, the demography of the students and percentage of international students in every

batch.

A fewAffordable International B-schools

ani a,d n UI SAKrannert School of Management,Purdue University· Average GMAT score: 635

· Programme duration: 21 months

· Average fees for 2 years (only tuition and housing): $57,000

· Average salary today: $1,04,362

· Average age: 27 years

· Average years of work experience: 5 years

· Female students: 30%

· International students: 10%

· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 99%

Global Rank 68

63Value for Money Rank

asx , e UT SAMays Business School,Texas A&M University· Average GMAT score: 649· Programme duration: 16 months· Average total fees for 16 months: $73,000· Average salary today: $1,10,765· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 24%· International students: 35%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 100%

Global Rank 69

21Value for Money Rank

coun va eV r, Canada

Sauder School of Business,University of British Columbia· Average GMAT score: 658· Programme duration: 16 months· Average fees for 16 months (excluding books): $76,000· Average salary today: $90,897· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 36%· International students: 50%

Global Rank 57

45Value for Money Rank

can sa tL er, UK

Lancaster University ManagementSchool, University of Lancaster· Average GMAT score: 635· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $53,500· Average salary today: $96,080· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 7 years· Female students: 29%· International students: 89%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 95%

Global Rank 71

4Value for Money Rank

env to ryC , UKWarwick Business School,University of Warwick· Average GMAT Score: 650· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $63,500· Average salary today: $1,20,111· Average age: 30 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 27%· International students: 91%

Global Rank 28

3Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNational University of SingaporeBusiness School· Average GMAT Score: 665· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $69,200· Average years of work experience: 5 years· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 22%· International students: 92%

Global Rank 36

19Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNanyang Business School,Nanyang Technological University· Average GMAT Score: 670· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $70,800· Average salary today: $1,02,683· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 28%· International students: 86%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 87%

Global Rank 32

7Value for Money Rank

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35Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

A fewAffordable International B-schools

ani a,d n UI SAKrannert School of Management,Purdue University· Average GMAT score: 635

· Programme duration: 21 months

· Average fees for 2 years (only tuition and housing): $57,000

· Average salary today: $1,04,362

· Average age: 27 years

· Average years of work experience: 5 years

· Female students: 30%

· International students: 10%

· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 99%

Global Rank 68

63Value for Money Rank

asx , e UT SAMays Business School,Texas A&M University· Average GMAT score: 649· Programme duration: 16 months· Average total fees for 16 months: $73,000· Average salary today: $1,10,765· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 24%· International students: 35%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 100%

Global Rank 69

21Value for Money Rank

coun va eV r, Canada

Sauder School of Business,University of British Columbia· Average GMAT score: 658· Programme duration: 16 months· Average fees for 16 months (excluding books): $76,000· Average salary today: $90,897· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 36%· International students: 50%

Global Rank 57

45Value for Money Rank

can sa tL er, UK

Lancaster University ManagementSchool, University of Lancaster· Average GMAT score: 635· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $53,500· Average salary today: $96,080· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 7 years· Female students: 29%· International students: 89%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 95%

Global Rank 71

4Value for Money Rank

env to ryC , UKWarwick Business School,University of Warwick· Average GMAT Score: 650· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $63,500· Average salary today: $1,20,111· Average age: 30 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 27%· International students: 91%

Global Rank 28

3Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNational University of SingaporeBusiness School· Average GMAT Score: 665· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $69,200· Average years of work experience: 5 years· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 22%· International students: 92%

Global Rank 36

19Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNanyang Business School,Nanyang Technological University· Average GMAT Score: 670· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $70,800· Average salary today: $1,02,683· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 28%· International students: 86%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 87%

Global Rank 32

7Value for Money Rank

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A fewAffordable International B-schools

ani a,d n UI SAKrannert School of Management,Purdue University· Average GMAT score: 635

· Programme duration: 21 months

· Average fees for 2 years (only tuition and housing): $57,000

· Average salary today: $1,04,362

· Average age: 27 years

· Average years of work experience: 5 years

· Female students: 30%

· International students: 10%

· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 99%

Global Rank 68

63Value for Money Rank

asx , e UT SAMays Business School,Texas A&M University· Average GMAT score: 649· Programme duration: 16 months· Average total fees for 16 months: $73,000· Average salary today: $1,10,765· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 24%· International students: 35%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 100%

Global Rank 69

21Value for Money Rank

coun va eV r, Canada

Sauder School of Business,University of British Columbia· Average GMAT score: 658· Programme duration: 16 months· Average fees for 16 months (excluding books): $76,000· Average salary today: $90,897· Average age: 28 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 36%· International students: 50%

Global Rank 57

45Value for Money Rank

can sa tL er, UKLancaster University ManagementSchool, University of Lancaster· Average GMAT score: 635· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $53,500· Average salary today: $96,080· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 7 years· Female students: 29%· International students: 89%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 95%

Global Rank 71

4Value for Money Rank

env to ryC , UKWarwick Business School,University of Warwick· Average GMAT Score: 650· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $63,500· Average salary today: $1,20,111· Average age: 30 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 27%· International students: 91%

Global Rank 28

3Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNational University of SingaporeBusiness School· Average GMAT Score: 665· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $69,200· Average years of work experience: 5 years· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 22%· International students: 92%

Global Rank 36

19Value for Money Rank

ag pn oi rS eNanyang Business School,Nanyang Technological University· Average GMAT Score: 670· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $70,800· Average salary today: $1,02,683· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 28%· International students: 86%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 87%

Global Rank 32

7Value for Money Rank

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37Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

anl de ,r DI ublin, Europ

eMichael Smurfit Graduate BusinessSchool, University College Dublin· Average GMAT Score: 620· Programme duration: 12 months· Average fees for 12 months (only tuition and housing): $43,700· Average salary today: $1,10,099· Average age: 30 years · Average years of work experience: 8 years· Female students: 30%· International students: 65%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 97%

Global Rank 64

16Value for Money Rank

mr ae nyG , Mannheim

Mannheim Business School,University of Mannheim· Average GMAT Score: 673· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $51,415· Average salary today: $98,262· Average age: 29 years · Average years of work experience: 5 years· Female students: 36%· International students: 66%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 91%

Global Rank 69

9Value for Money Rank

tugr ao lP , Lisbon

The Lisbon MBA · Average GMAT Score: 645· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $68,000· Average salary today: $1,32,606· Average age: 31 years · Average years of work experience: 8 years· Female students: 21%· International students: 20%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 97%

Global Rank 64

6Value for Money Rank

het re laN ndsTiasNimbas Business School,Tilburg University· Average GMAT Score: 610· Programme duration: 12 months· Average total fees for 12 months: $71,445· Average salary today: $93,859· Average age: 30 years · Average years of work experience: 6 years· Female students: 49%· International students: 83%· Students employed within 3 months of graduation: 84%

Global Rank 64

6Value for Money Rank

Note: Salary taken after 3 years of graduation

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www.advancedge.com38 Advanc’edge MBA August 2013

What are SimCATs? How many of them are there? How can they help you? And who have won rewards for topping IMS’s SimCATs 1 to 3? Here you will find these

details, and the schedule of the upcoming SimCATs.

SimCAT achievers

S imCATs are simulated mock tests conducted by IMS Learning Resources,

wherein each test is specifically designed to give the aspirant an experience that is the closest to the actual CAT. There are different types of SimCATs, i.e., Proctored, Unproctored and Online tests.

Proctored SimCATs (1-10) are tests that the student takes at the respective centres under invigilation in a specified period (test window). The student gets a national percentile score and all India rank for his performance. The student is also eligible for the Achievers Rewards Program (as elaborated below). The schedule of the proctored SimCATs is given in Table 1.

Unproctored SimCATs (11-25) are tests wherein the student takes the test from his home/IMS centre as per convenience and gets a national percentile Score. Whereas the online SimCATs (101-118) are tests meant for additional practice.

All these tests can be accessed through the myIMS portal. In case you have not received your myIMS login ID and password, please write to [email protected] with your PIN (Permanent IMS Number). For a Proctored

SimCAT, the student can book his slot to take the test at the IMS centre through myIMS. After successfully completing the test, every student receives feedback through the means of a Performance Evaluation Report (PER). The PER will

provide a detailed analysis of the student’s performance at the test and suggest areas of improvement.

SimCAT Achievers Rewards Program

IMS offers an exclusive performance linked program to motivate all enrolled IMS students to achieve excellence not only in CAT 2013 but also in pursuit of the same. Accordingly, IMS gives cash rewards to students achieving excellence in CAT 2013 as well as Proctored SimCATs.

In line with the selection procedures of the top business schools in the country, IMS will also extend special rewards for top performers amongst girls, non-engineers and students from reserved categories.

Table 1: Schedule of IMS SimCAT 2013

SimCAT 1 14 – 17 JuneSimCAT 2 28 June – 1 JulySimCAT 3 12 – 15 JulySimCAT 4 26 – 29 JulySimCAT 5 9 – 12 AugSimCAT 6 23 – 26 AugSimCAT 7 30 Aug – 2 SeptSimCAT 8 13 – 16 SeptSimCAT 9 27 – 30 SeptSimCAT 10 4 – 7 Oct

Table 2: SimCAT Achievers Rewards ProgramSr. No. Test Category # Rewards

Per TestAmount

(Rs)1

SimCAT 1-10

All-India Rank 1-3

3 5,000

2 All-India Rank 4-10

7 2,000

3 Non-engineering background Topper

2 2,000

4 Girl Topper 2 2,0005 SC Topper 2 2,0006 ST Topper 2 2,0007 OBC Topper 2 2,000

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39Advanc’edge MBA August 2013www.advancedge.com

1 WINNERS

Name Rank Centre Qualification Percentile RewardShubham Gupta All India Rank 4 Delhi NCR -

GurgaonBE/BTech - Engineering/

Technology99.97 2,000

Nitesh Goyal All India Rank 5 Delhi NCR - Dwarka

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.96 2,000

Aniruddha Ghosh

All India Rank 6 Kolkata - Hungerford

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Santanu Majilya All India Rank 7 Bangalore - Koramanagala

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Anirudh KA All India Rank 8 Bangalore - Malleshwaram

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Ramesh Singh All India Rank 9 Mumbai - Borivali BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Sharini Sen All India Rank 10

Kolkata - Hungerford

BSc - Science 99.92 2,000

Ankita Agarwal Girl Topper 1 Kolkata - Gariahat

BSc - Science 99.72 2,000

Rana Naskar SC Topper 1 Kolkata - Gariahat

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

93.58 2,000

S a r v e s h w a r a Ravi Shankar

SC Topper 2 Chennai - Annanagar

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

91.22 2,000

Rishabh Tomar ST Topper 1 Hyderabad - Madhapur

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

87.37 2,000

Gulsar Ahamed OBC Topper 1 Chennai - Annanagar

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.12 2,000

Sahid Hussain OBC Topper 2 Kolkata - Hungerford

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

98.56 2,000

All-India RankSoumya PatelCentre: Delhi NCR - GurgaonQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/TechnologyPercentile: 99.99Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

1All-India RankNarottam GargCentre: Delhi NCR - PitampuraQualification: BBA/BBE/BBM/BBS - Management Percentile: 99.98Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

2 All-India RankAshay ShahCentre: Pune - DeccanQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology Percentile: 99.98Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

3

39

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2 WINNERS

Name Rank Centre Qualification Percentile RewardAmritanshu Singh All India Rank 4 Patna BE/BTech - Engineering/

Technology99.97 2,000

Nishant Dey Purkayastha

All India Rank 5 Kolkata - Gariahat BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.96 2,000

Vibhor Agarwal All India Rank 6 Lucknow BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.96 2,000

Nitesh Goyal All India Rank 7 Delhi NCR - Dwarka

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.94 2,000

Ashay Shah All India Rank 8 Pune - Deccan BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.94 2,000

Viren Tulsian All India Rank 9 Pune - Pimpri BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.94 2,000

Ashwini Gupta All India Rank 10 Cochin BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Anant Nawalgaria Non-Engg Topper 1

Mumbai - Thane BCA/BCS/BScIT/BScCompSc - Computers/IT

99.75 2,000

Samriddhi Gupta Girl Topper 1 Delhi NCR - Connaught Place

BSc - Agriculture/Fisheries/Dairy

Technology

99.35 2,000

Sagar Sarkar SC Topper 1 Kolkata - Hungerford

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

96.51 2,000

Rana Naskar SC Topper 2 Kolkata - Gariahat BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

92.18 2,000

Prithiviraj Kerketta

ST Topper 1 Kolkata - Hungerford

BHM/BHTM/DHM - Hotel/ Hospitality/Travel/Tourism

74.16 2,000

Gulsar Ahamed OBC Topper 1 Chennai - Annanagar

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.92 2,000

Palash Linge OBC Topper 2 Pune-Deccan BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

98.54 2,000

All-India RankAnkita AgarwalCentre: Kolkata - GariahatQualification: BSc - SciencePercentile: 99.99Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

1All-India RankAbhiram Ramgopal IyerCentre: Chennai - AnnanagarQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology Percentile: 99.99Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

2 All-India RankSantanu MajilyaCentre: Bangalore - KoramangalaQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology Percentile: 99.98Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

3

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3 WINNERS

Name Rank Centre Qualification Percentile RewardAnkita Agarwal All India Rank 4 Kolkata -

GariahatBSc - Science 99.96 2,000

Gulsar Ahamed All India Rank 5 Chennai - Annanagar

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.94 2,000

Santanu Majilya All India Rank 6 Bangalore - Koramangala

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.94 2,000

Nishant Dey Purkayastha

All India Rank 7 Kolkata - Gariahat

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.93 2,000

Anand Madhav All India Rank 8 Patna BDS/BOptom - Dental Surgery/ Other Medical

Courses

99.92 2,000

Manoj Warrier All India Rank 9 Bangalore - Malleshwaram

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.92 2,000

Vibhor Agarwal All India Rank 10 Lucknow BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.90 2,000

Taruna Manchanda

Girl Topper 1 Delhi NCR - Gurgaon

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

99.67 2,000

Priyotosh Das SC Topper 1 Bangalore - Koramangala

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

94.99 2,000

Sagar Sarkar SC Topper 2 Kolkata - Hungerford

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

94.66 2,000

Ramesh Naik ST Topper 1 Hyderabad - Narayanguda

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

90.67 2,000

Nikhilesh Madan Gourkar

ST Topper 2 Hyderabad - Madhapur

BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology

76.85 2,000

Pushkar Deep OBC Topper 1 Hyderabad - Madhapur

BA/BAA/BFA - Arts/Applied Arts/Fine Arts

99.50 2,000

All-India RankAbhiram Ramgopal IyerCentre: Chennai - AnnanagarQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/TechnologyPercentile: 99.99Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

1All-India RankNitesh GoyalCentre: Delhi NCR - DwarkaQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology Percentile: 99.98Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

2 All-India RankAmritanshu SinghCentre: PatnaQualification: BE/BTech - Engineering/Technology Percentile: 99.96Reward: Rs. 5,000/-

3

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Must Reads

www.advancedge.com42 Advanc’edge MBA August 2013

Dr Stephen Covey was and remains a hugely influential management guru, whose most famous book, The Seven Habits of Highly

Effective People, became a blueprint for personal development when it was published in 1990. The principles may be used for life in general - they are not limited to workplaces, management, leadership, etc. The author’s concepts actually can help people to grow, change, and become more effective in really any other aspect of human responsibility that you might imagine.

The book is easy to understand, and the “habits” seem very simple, and in many ways they are, yet to varying degrees they may entail quite serious changes to thinking and acting.

The book is really about developing that core set of values to the point where it’s easy to draw solutions to problems from them, making you a much more effective person in all aspects of life. The seven habits, thus, are ways to draw out the fundamental truths in your life and make them accessible to you at all times, so that when you’re faced with problems, you can easily solve them in a consistent and sensible fashion.

Goleman, psychologist and science writer for The New York Times, explains how the

rational and emotional work together to shape intelligence, using intriguing new information from neuroscience and psychology of the brain. It details why IQ is not the sole predictor of success, and it reviews powerful academic studies that

show how emotional intelligence impacts important life outcomes.He uses scientific data from studies based on brain imaging technologies

that yield understanding of how emotions work and, argues the author, suggest ways to regulate the more negative emotions responsible for the horrendous acts of violence that are the stuff of daily headlines. The book calls for universal

adoption of educational curricula that teach youngsters how to regulate their emotional responses and to resolve conflict peacefully. Along the way Goleman summarizes much of the best psychological work of the last few decades on such topics as the importance of learned optimism, the theory of multiple intelligences, the role of innate temperamental differences, and the importance of emotional intelligence in marriage, management, and medicine.

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQAuthor: Daniel GolemanPublisher: Bloomsbury PublishingPrice: `233Genre: Management, Self-help

In the 1940s, Germany invaded Holland and the Nazis started creating a load of anti-Jew rules. Otto Frank knew he had to do something

to protect his family. They went into hiding. In the building of Anne Frank’s Dad’s office, behind a bookcase, is a marvellous secret annexe, two floors and an attic full of strangeness. Find out about life in the annexe of 263 Prinsengracht, Amsterdam, from

the perspective of a teenage girl and the strange arguments and discussions that take place in the Jews’ struggle to survive and Anne’s struggle to stay a part of her family.

This book at first seems rather light-hearted with the oddness of living without daylight but soon Anne’s diary gets flooded with hardship as she gets bullied by almost everyone. A great book about the will to survive.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective PeopleAuthor: Stephen CoveyPublisher: Pocket BooksPrice: `421Genre: Business, Self-help

Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young GirlAuthor: Anne FrankPublisher: General PressPrice: `193Genre: Autobiography

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India’s policy dilemma:Where’s the problem?

All kinds of reforms and policies are being taken up by the government, almost on a war footing, and all in one go. However, what is becoming increasingly evident

is that the policies had not been fully thought through before being announced, resulting in a lot of confusion across sectors.

Dr Suresh Srinivasan

he current UPA government is under pressure to lift the sagging economy;

this has driven the government to position reforms back on path, which it has ignored for the last three years. Furthermore, with the general elections around the corner, the government is showing quite serious intentions to implement a number of reforms, all in one go, which gives

an impression that some of the policy decisions may not have been well thought

out, or

adequately debated within the relevant ministries.

Such efforts by the government, contrary to its intention to uplift the economy, easing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow, reducing current account deficit and fiscal deficit, is in fact slowing down inflows, creating confusion in the minds of investors and retarding economic growth!

The FDI factorRecently, the government opened up FDI in eleven industries, which include telecom, where 100 per cent FDI has been allowed. The sensitive defense sector has also been cleared for 26 per cent FDI

with a higher level allowable on an individual case

basis. Up to 49 per cent FDI has been allowed in

other sectors, which include oil and gas,

commodity and stock exchanges, depositories, single brand retail trading,

courier services, asset

management companies and credit information players.

With so many sectors being opened up at one go, and that too during the fag end of the term and in close proximity to the elections, it is potentially possible that resistance could come from a number of quarters. There are even chances that some of these may be rolled back if Congress faces resistance or if a coalition party emerges in the coming elections.

Looking at the history of opening up FDI in sectors, many unexpected issues come up when the detailed regulations are published, and this increases uncertainty. Subsequent to the opening up of 49 per cent FDI in multi-brand retail (which can be enhanced to 100 per cent with government approval) last year, a number of grey areas came up when the detailed regulations were published, which ultimately deterred most of the companies from investing in this sector. Still, global majors like Wal-Mart and eBay are cautiously and patiently watching, and have also been

T

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s p e n d i n g a lot of time in meeting

the Indian regulators to gain clarity with respect to the FDI regulations.

Etihad, AirAsia deals – spanner in the works?When the government announced an FDI of 49 per cent in the aviation sector, Etihad Airlines and AirAsia promptly moved forward to secure approvals. With the months passing by, both these deals are still currently lying paralysed, with many objections being raised by various ministries of the government.

The AirAsia deal threw up a few more questions. The issue now being raised is whether a 49 per cent investment by a foreign airline is possible in an existing Indian airline, and yet not possible if the foreign airline’s investment is aimed towards starting a new domestic airline in India. AirAsia, for example, is not investing in an existing Indian airline, but is jointly investing with the Tatas to set up a new airline. This is quite a fundamental issue, and as such, something like this should have been clarified in the policy document when the FDI proposal was initially published in the first place!

In case of the Jet Airways-Etihad deal, after it was approved and its finer points were being cleared, certain major national security issues have been raised. Claims of corruption were levelled at Jet Airways for

having allegedly sold landing slots to Etihad in London, as well as allegedly giving away seats to Etihad in the prime Abu Dhabi-India route (which will adversely impact the revenue of Air India). Opposition parties have called for the deal to be investigated, the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has sought a “factual report” from the Ministry of Civil Aviation and the CVC has also asked the CBI to look into the allegations. Etihad is reported to be frustrated with such delays and has mandated the government to clear the acquisition by the end of July or has threatened that the deal would have to be renegotiated with Jet Airways.

Is the government not really prepared?The policy of FDI approval has been vague and when it comes to implementation, there are a number of nasty surprises faced by the foreign investors. There could be genuine issues that need to be addressed from the national security point of view, which is totally understandable, but these issues must have been considered and thought through well before the policy was announced. The fact of the matter remains that when such FDI, if materialised, goes on to reduce the high level of deficits

the country is facing, there is all the more reason for a well coordinated approach

at a

p o l i c y level to ensure

minimum uncertainties, so that more FDI funds will flow in. Unfortunately this seems to have been lacking.

Champions of the Indian industry are also frustrated by the lack of preparedness by the government. Kumaramangalam Birla, for example, recently said that emerging economies like Brazil have their acts well structured, and as per Aditya Birla Group’s experience regarding securing clearances for investments into Brazil, that country’s system was found to have been seamless; Brazil apparently allowed the group to commission major projects in record time, basically due to policy clarity. Birla has complained that the Indian government should create an enabling environment if it is indeed serious about attracting more long term investments into the country.

No single mind of the government: The price of gas Policy rebuttal was observed in the recent gas pricing announcements as well. The Indian government recently announced that the price of natural gas would be doubled from the existing $4.2 mmbtu (million British thermal units) to $8.5 mmbtu with effect from April 2014, based on the recommendations from the Rangarajan committee.

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There are both positive as well as negative sides to this announcement! Currently the biggest problem is the lack of availability of natural gas in the country, as investors do not find it attractive to make such investments especially with the gas sale price being capped at $4.2 mmbtu. This is one of the main reasons for power shortages in the country, as power plants working on natural gas have not been able to generate power due to lack of gas. By doubling the gas price, the Government of India expects to see the investments in gas doubling in the near term future. Higher domestic production will also result in reduced imports, saving the scarce foreign currency and helping to reduce India’s current account deficit. However, the downside to the gas price hike is that power and fertilizer costs will go up, resulting in higher subsidy burdens to the fertilizer

i n d u s t r y .

Therefore, since any policy issue has both upsides and downsides, the government will need to enact such policies after carefully considering all implications. But here’s the catch. Within days of announcing the doubling of gas price, petroleum minister Veerappa Moily announced that no such rate had been fixed or approved by the Cabinet committee, raising a number of grey areas in the gas pricing policy. Can we afford these uncertainties in such a key policy?

No single mind of the government: The telecom systemSimilar cases of contradicting views have been seen in the

telecom policy as well. Telecom minister Kapil Sibal and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) were keen to

totally abolish pan-India roaming charges. However, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has been against abolishing such charges and has argued

that the move would incur huge losses to the operators. Furthermore, Vodafone has urged the government to follow

a more flexible and investment friendly approach and make the national telecom policy a more transparent document. It has also alleged that the DoT needs to adopt to a “fairer” system in levying penalties, a system that would distinguish between minor and major violations, since the current system of levying penalties is being widely regarded by the telecom operators as totally unfair.

Arcelor Mittal pulls out – is lethargy to blame?The case of Arcelor Mittal pulling out of the Odisha investments has come as a serious blow to India’s FDI regime. If it had been properly managed, it would have been an investment to the tune of $12 billion (equivalent of `72,000 crore). Unfortunately, Arcelor Mittal – the world’s largest steel maker – had to scrap its steel plant investment in Odisha due to substantial delays in approvals and problems in acquiring land, which has lasted for over seven years. Recently, the South Korean steel major Posco also pulled out of its `30,000 crore investments into India. Bizarrely though, not realising the gravity of the situation, the Odisha state government commented on Arcelor Mittal’s decision to pull out, stating that it will have no impact on the state and its finances.

In summary, the government needs to act with caution and focus, ensuring a fully coordinated action between all the concerned ministries in addressing key areas like FDI, telecom and gas pricing policies, by fully understanding the impact these have in the larger issues like current account deficit and fiscal deficit. A

The FDI approval policy has been

vague; when it comes to implementation, there are a number

of nasty surprises for foreign investors.

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o a large extent, the recent calamities seen in emerging

economies, including the drastic weakening of the Indian rupee, can be looked at as an outcome of the way in which the US economy has been unfolding. Signs of growth picking up in the US economy is likely to drive the US Federal Reserve (Fed), which is an equivalent of the American Central Bank, to suck liquidity out of not only the US but also from emerging economies. Such a trend is exerting strong pressure on emerging market local currencies.

Of late, the Fed has been signalling that it is likely to drastically reduce its “bond buying” programme, or Quantitative Easing (QE) as it is also called, by the end of 2013 and altogether stop the same by mid 2014. This is sending shockwaves

a m o n g t h e

investor community.

What is QE? The main cause for slow economic growth is the uncertainty that generally prevails in the economy, which pulls back investors from free investment into development activities. Whenever there is an

Is the world’slargest economy picking up yet?

To speed up the recovery of the US economy, the US Federal Reserve is using measures like reducing its bond buying programme, lowering interest rates

and injecting funds. However, these measures are not going to affect emerging economies like India.

Dr Suresh Srinivasan

T

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economic slowdown, the first few actions by the Fed is always to enhance liquidity by pumping more funds into the economy primarily through bond purchases, reducing interest rates in order to restore investor confidence and boost investments that will enhance jobs in the economy.

The 2008 recession came in as a serious blow to the US economy (with unemployment rate reaching double digits), and the Fed dropped interest rates, which continue to remain close to zero per cent. The Fed also pumped into the economy an equivalent of close to `210 lakh crore, in three phases, over the last five years. Such has been the severity of the 2008 recession that but for such large scale funds infusion, the industry and economy would have just collapsed entirely. This would have sent the global economy into a disastrous downward spiral, since the US still accounts for close to 25 per cent of the global economy. Even now, an equivalent of `5 lakh crore is being injected every month. To that extent, the US and global investors have been basking on such fund infusions which has kept the investor confidence high.

How long can the fund injection last?Now the question is this: How long can the US government keep infusing funds into its economy, more specifically, since its fiscal deficit is also running at very high levels?

The fund infusion, QE programmes and low interest rates will only be to the extent the US economy is slow and sluggish. Once it starts showing signs of improvement and growth, it is prudent economic policy to curtail such fund infusions and leave the

economy to recover on its own and find avenues for growth. But has the US economy reached such a stage, and is it the right time to pull the plug on such fund infusions?

This is a very delicate matter, and the solution is hardly a straightforward one. At the end of the day, it is a question of perception, because a plethora of economic data needs to be analysed and interpreted, and it will eventually become a “judgment call” to establish whether the economy is in fact picking up and whether the QE programme should be scaled

back. This is where the Fed is signalling that it is the right stage to cautiously and progressively end the QE programme, while the investors interpret the situation contrarily and would like the infusions to continue. The main concern of the investors is that the economy cannot stand on its own just yet, and so, if the QE should be pulled back, the country might easily slip back into another slowdown.

Key economic decisions and judgment calls on the economy is taken by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), which consists of 19 members who vote on issues such as increasing interest rates and

retarding the QE programme, etc. In the present case, the FOMC seems to be divided on whether the QE should be closed down.

But is the US economy picking up?An important point to try and understand is if the US economy has indeed shown signs of picking up. How are the economic indicators stacking up?

As of now, the economic indicators offer a mixed bag of analyses. The economy is certainly showing signs of picking up, something that had not been seen six months ago, but there are still a number of uncertainties. Inflation is steadily picking up, with June inflation, based on consumer price index, at close to 1.8 per cent; when economic growth is picking up, the first signs are shown with increasing inflation which would eventually warrant an increase in the interest rates to control such inflation. However, the Fed had earlier said that it would increase interest rates once inflation exceeded 2 per cent, and it believes that this is likely to happen before the close of 2013.

One of the biggest manifestations of the economic slowdown is the collapse of the US home markets, which have remained subdued over the last five years. Now, the home markets have started showing significant revival trends, and the confidence among the home builders seems to be at a seven-year high, showing clear signs of economic recovery.

However, there are still a number of grey areas that fail to give a conclusive sign of economic recovery. Retail sales continued to be weak in June and the GDP for the three months ended June 2013 has still not crossed the

When there is a clear signal that

the US economy is improving, FIIs pull

out large funds from emerging markets,

including India.

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annual growth rate of 1 per cent. Unemployment rate is still close to 8 per cent, and the rate which the Fed would be comfortable for declaring the economy as growing is much lower at 6.5 per cent. All of these mean that there are still uncertainties in economic growth, and the Fed also agrees that such uncertainties exist. But it is still taking the call that, given the trend, and more specifically their macroeconomic forecasts, that the economy should be on track, clocking a recovery by the close of 2013. Economists expect the US economy to grow at 2.7 per cent during the full year March 2013-14.

Global economy and IndiaExternal factors also make US economic recovery challenging. The state of the European economy is especially closely linked, and is expected to drive the momentum in the US economy, including to the extent of job creation. Europe is still struggling to implement austerity measures and cut government spending; Greece’s action of putting on notice a large number of government staff is creating a public outcry and is proving to be a huge resistance in

implementing the austerity measures. The steep slowdown in China’s economic activity will also impact US recovery; reciprocally, China would like to have a vibrant US economy that returns back to its full capacity of consumption so that Chinese economy can grow, as a large proportion of the Chinese exports are directed towards the US.

Japan, another major player in the global economic arena, is showing positive signs of steady economic recovery as a result of a stronger currency, enhanced exports and satisfactory domestic consumption. For years, the Japanese Central Bank has been keeping interest rates low and infusing liquidity into its economy to spur growth, all of which seems to be yielding results now. However, the slowdown in Chinese growth is likely to impact the pace of recovery in the Japanese economy as well. China is now growing at a rate slightly above 7 per cent, which is one of its lowest growths since the global financial crisis in 2008. Japan, therefore, is now forecasted to grow at 2.7 per cent during 2013-14.

So, what has the drying up of liquidity in the US got to do

with the Indian economy? At any point in time,

the US

investors, through foreign institutional investors (FII), stay heavily invested in the Indian stock and bond markets. The Indian financial institutions who are major players in the Indian equity and bond markets are dwarfed by the sheer size and scale of the FIIs, which has roughly four times the investment as the domestic financial institutions. When there is a clear signal that interest rates are likely to increase in the US and QE is going to be phased out, the US economy is improving and the US dollar is strengthening, the FIIs pull out large funds from emerging markets, including India. This has a major impact on the Indian currency, evident from the fact that the rupee has spiralled to over 60 to a US dollar. The weakening of the Indian currency again is also a driver to pull out more funds and invest back into the US markets, especially with the US corporates likely to do better with superior economic recovery. All of these factors ultimately increase the liquidity drain from the Indian markets, exerting further pressure on the rupee and weakening it further.

There are complaints from many quarters that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is not doing enough to save the rupee from depreciating further. However, in reality, the fundamental value of the rupee is significantly weak due to inherent problems with the Indian economy such as low exports, high current account deficit and fiscal deficit, among others. Therefore, any intervention by the RBI to support the falling rupee will purely be unrealistic, unless the Indian economy sees a fundamental improvement, which would, for sure, be a long drawn process. A

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n the technology space, we are witnessing a number of instances where once successful

companies fall by the wayside over a period of time. Take the case of Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturers of the iconic Blackberry handheld devices, which once challenged Apple, and which is now on the verge of closure. HTC, the Taiwanese mobile company, which was the first phone to use Google’s Android technology, is now struggling for survival. Nokia, once considered to be the “emerging market king” with regard to quality affordable mobile handsets, is now being beaten hands down by Samsung Electronics.

The mantra haunting global companies today is to “innovate or perish”. A number of companies have closed down, primarily due to their inability to keep the engine of innovation running. Companies that have

been the biggest innovators have, over a period of time, been unable to keep the flow going. Why? The very successes these companies had created by way of innovation and establishing a business model that churns out money, sows the seeds of the company’s very destruction! Sounds paradoxical, doesn’t it?

What is innovation? Innovation is the ability of companies to create new products and service categories (which competitors cannot think

of) that end up becoming “game changers”, thereby securing a high value to both consumers and the company. Apple, for example, created the iPhone, which delighted customers who were willing to pay close to `50,000 at launch. This means that the customers saw huge value and were ready to pay much more for such a product, that ultimately became an icon for technology and design excellence. At the same time Apple made huge profits by selling the handsets at such a premium price; at one point in time, although it had less than 5 per cent of the market share, it accounted for close to 50 per cent of the profits in the handset industry! This is a classic case of innovation that goes to create value for the customer, as well as the company.

Moving from one innovation to the nextCommercialising an innovative

Innovate or perish: The tech space mantraKodak, HTC, Blackberry — these are household names today, primarily because they brought out innovative products when few others did. But these names are

dwindling, while others like Apple, Google and Amazon, who started out at around the same time, are going strong. It’s all about keeping the flame of

creation alive, and to keep innovating every step of the way.

Dr Suresh Srinivasan

I

Innovation is the ability of companies

to create new products and service

categories that end up becoming “game changers”.

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idea and establishing a viable business model demands that the company manages to sell those products uninterruptedly in the market and earning profit, thereby securing a return on investment on such an innovative idea. It takes a few years for the innovative idea to translate into profits and provide the firm the return on investments made on this innovation.

During such periods, the company is usually in no mood to move to the next level of innovation, and create a second innovation which, if it catches on, might disrupt and affect the firm’s ability to secure a return on the investment with respect to the first idea.

Many of the largely successful innovators are constrained by this requirement to secure a return on their current innovation before they can move on to the next level of innovation. However, when innovating for the first time, a new firm does not have this

constraint and it creates an innovative product that disrupts the larger successful firms. That is why, barring a handful of companies, innovative and disruptive products rarely come out of large, successful and established players, but from smaller start-up firms.

Once innovation stops, things can start to go wrongFor instance, Eastman Kodak established a superior business model and ruled the market share in terms of film photography. At the same

time, it invested in digital photography, but did not pursue this to the next level of scale, as it was concerned that digital photography would cut into its core business of “analogue” photography. In the meantime, smaller entrants to the market like Fuji commercialised digital photography to high scales, which made the analogue version of photography largely redundant. While companies like Konica were able to survive the digital disruption onslaught, cautiously moving from film to digital, companies like Eastman Kodak, a pioneer once upon a time, were wiped out from the market.

HTC is today facing a similar problem. Its inability to keep pace with consistent innovation from its competitors is seriously showing up on its results; its recent Facebook Phone and a 12-inch Windows tablet did not take off. Its new range of products for 2013 has been dwarfed by the competitors’ offerings, which include Apple, Samsung and LG.

Microsoft again is a classic example of an innovative company, the pioneer of the Windows operating system (and Microsoft Office Suite, widely regarded as the undisputable leader in application software) which more or less became the global standard for over three decades. However, Microsoft’s focus has arguably always been to make money out of this innovation, by hook or crook (a number of antitrust litigations have been filed against Microsoft for taking undue advantage of its monopoly position).

In this way, the company has largely been ignoring further innovations. As a result of this,

It takes a few years for the innovative

idea to translate into profits and provide

the firm the return on investments made on

this innovation.

Microsoft’s hugely successful Office Suite, Apple’s iPods, iPhones and iPads, Google’s search engines and Android OS and Amazon’s many offerings make them some of the world’s most innovative companies.

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it has failed to innovate in the search engine space with its own search engine Bing, against the mightier global leader in seach engines that is Google. Things aren’t much different in the gaming arena, where although Microsoft’s Xbox was a highly sought after product, Sony’s newest offering in the form of the PlayStation 4 is seriously catching up with the Xbox One. In the mobile telephone operating system space too, Microsoft has lost a lot of ground, with its Windows phones quite unable to create any dent to Google’s Android based devices.

For at least a decade, BlackBerry was ranked as the handset of choice in the corporate environment. However, although BlackBerry drove the first smartphone revolution, it has failed to innovate and lost out to Apple and Google products, which have been churning out a product pipeline constantly for the last four years. As a result, the market value of RIM dropped from $70 billion to $12 billion, in next to no time.

Even the legendary Apple, which once used to be the greatest innovator of all time in the technology space with products such as the iPod, iTunes, iPhone and the iPad, is now facing the heat from its lack of innovation after the demise of the late Steve Jobs. The end result is plain to see — its market capitalisation is down from close to $700 billion to less than $400 billion, just in the last three years. Unless Apple comes up with the next

level of innovation, one might say that its future is looking bleak!

It’s not just about how creative your staff is!So why do companies that were

innovators during a period fall off or dwindle over a period of time? The most obvious answer is that most of the

companies cannot manage two contrasting business models, simultaneously. This is where innovators like Google and Amazon, who continue to churn out innovative new products one after the other, have excelled.

They have the ability to create and maintain their momentum of innovation on the one hand, with extremely creative and technologically savvy people specialising in product level

innovation; these people marry customer insights with technological breakthroughs to deliver innovative products. In parallel runs the other side

of the organisation, which has people specialising in process level innovation,

but who are less creative, build breakthrough process technologies and improvements, and deliver

cost effective products. These people are specialists in routine and standardised processes that work efficiently in

monetisng the innovative idea and securing return on investment. This is a unique characteristic of successful innovative companies that are able to balance both these contrasting functions, in parallel.

Without proper resources, no innovation can take off, or even be sustainedMore importantly, such companies do not hesitate to spend resources to move to the next level of innovation, in spite

of the fact that such new invention might, and very probably would, disrupt the currently innovative product that it has commercialised.

The Xbox One (top) is being fast caught up by the PlayStation 4, while companies like BlackBerry and Kodak couldn’t keep up with the pace of innovation

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IBM is a classic example of such a company, one that has serially and successfully moved from innovation to innovation, while companies like Dell had once been known as innovators, but have failed to maintain the pipeline of innovation after a point in time.

For decades, IBM has been effortlessly transforming itself — from vacuum tubes and transistors to integrated circuits and microprocessors, punch cards and accounting machines to supercomputers, IBM has seen it all. It has reinvented itself under most difficult circumstances, establishing itself in a number of growing computing and technology businesses, over and over.

Take the case of Samsung Electronics too. The company was originally not an innovator a decade ago, they were merely clones of Japanese hard drive makers and were producing large number of drives at the lowest cost, primarily focusing on operational efficiency and process excellence. They were not innovative in terms of designing and integrating technology to create new products. However, with serious

and deliberate efforts from the leadership, the company transformed itself into a model for innovation, with their Galaxy range of handheld smartphones currently giving Apple a serious run for its money.

So what are the key characteristics of innovating companies? Innovation doesn’t just happen by accident. It is an outcome of a disciplined process established within corporations where the senior leadership takes very close interest. Moreover, the CEO himself is an innovator of the first order (Steve Jobs of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Larry Page and Sergey Brin of Google). For innovation to thrive within companies, the leadership facilitates resource allocation to projects that are not only capable of providing short term wins, but also on “pure and applied” research projects that may not show results for years.

A culture of innovation needs to be created, where the employees realise that the organisation places the utmost importance on innovation and that they would be rewarded, or perhaps even penalised on their achievements in the innovation dimension.

Understanding the consumer’s needs and his pain points, and using the company’s core strength to create a product that satisfies the customer’s requirements by providing a value proposition, lies at the heart of successful innovation. Finally, a highly disciplined approach and continued support of strong leadership is required to achieve innovation on a sustainable basis. This is where companies like Google and Amazon come out as winners! A

Jeff Bezos of Amazon

Steve Jobs of Apple

Larry Page (left) and Sergey Brin (right) of Google

For innovation to thrive, the leadership

gives resources to both projects for

short term wins, and also on “pure and

applied” research.

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Corporate World

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Global economic update The US economy is showing signs of recovery. Overall, consumer price based inflation was recorded at 1.8 per cent. High unemployment rate and slow GDP growth are still clouding the certainty in economic recovery. Retail sales increased painting a rosy picture for a potential increase in GDP to around 2.7 per cent for the fiscal year 2013-14.

In June, prices for all energy products rose 3.4 per cent, mostly because of the surge in gas costs. With the US economy showing signs of recovery, the crude prices have also shown a tendency to increase on the back of potential demand surging. The global oil price also increased due to the geopolitical issues in the Middle Eastern region, especially in Egypt.

In a recent meeting of Assocham, Prime Minister said that the government was fully committed to bringing the current account deficit under control by addressing both the demand side and the supply side of the problem, more specifically in containing demand for gold and petroleum products.

The Prime Minister reiterated that with the number of steps taken over the last three months, gold imports declined sharply in June, and he expected that gold imports would stay at normal levels from now on. On petroleum sector, the Prime Minister said that although there would be an additional burden on oil imports due to weakening of the rupee, a large part of the same had already been passed on to the market as a result of the market-driven pricing mechanism of petroleum products. He further confirmed that the weakening Indian rupee could push exports and the government is doing everything possible to remove bottlenecks that impact exports, including iron ore exports that has been banned over the last 12 months due to illegal mining in the country.

In view of continued economic slowdown, it is expected that the Planning Commission may revise the average growth rate target to 7 per cent for the 12th Plan (2012-17) as against the earlier forecast of 8 per cent.

Indian economic updateRecently the global rating agency Moody’s cautioned India on the higher risk emanating from the weak rupee and high inflationary pressures. Subsequently, Indian rating agency ICRA has revised India’s growth forecast for the year 2014 to 5.4 per cent -5.6 per cent. The volatility in the exchange rate of the Indian Rupee has now emerged as a major factor that will influence the RBI’s actions; especially in holding interest rates at current levels.

Earlier forecasts had predicted that the Indian economy could grow at close to 6 per cent, which now does not seem to be possible. However, it is expected that once the US economy gathers steam later during the year, Indian exports could get back to stronger levels fuelling a more optimistic growth. It is also expected that the European economy could move out of recession later this year, although some of the European countries are still struggling to successfully implement the much needed austerity measures. It is also expected that once US and Europe are back on their heels, growth in China will pick up. That is when India could probably expect to record a higher level of exports that could go some way to reduce the fiscal and current account deficits.

However, it is currently projected that India is unlikely to grow in double digits even three to five years down the line, which is not positive news. India, once considered to grow at double digits for the next 20 years has lost its edge due to poor global economic conditions, slow pace of reforms, high inflation and a widening current account and fiscal deficit.

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) shrunk by close to 2 per cent in May, the lowest factory output in 11 months. The retail inflation increased by close to 10 per cent in June mainly due to rise in vegetable and fruit prices.

The RBI is not expected to cut interest rates further to hold the rupee back from further depreciation against the US$. It is important to mention that RBI had cut the repo rate three times during the current year.

Economic indicators

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Key knowledge for aspiring managersGlobal Markets, American, European and Japanese marketsDeveloped markets recorded smart recoveries on the back of positive sentiments emanating from the US markets. NYSE Composite increased by close to 3 per cent during the review period. FTSE showed a very sharp recovery and increased by close to 4 per cent during the review period. In spite of the sharp decline in the value of Japanese Yen during the review period, Nikkei increased by close to 15 per cent, one of the biggest recovery in recent times. The Japanese economy has recovered, and is expected to record a close to 3 per cent growth during the current fiscal year. Its currency, which had until recently remained strong against the US dollar, sharply depreciated during the review period.

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Key knowledge for aspiring managersAsian markets: Asian markets have been volatile. The slowdown in the Chinese economy has manifested in poor performance of the China Shanghai index as well as in Hang Seng which has been volatile. Sensex also remained volatile but increased by close to 5 per cent during the review period. Sensex again breached the 20,000 mark in spite of corporate results being poor. Straits Singapore also remained volatile and on a net basis increased by 2 per cent during the review period.

Global currencies: The US dollar has been on a strengthening spree against all the major global currencies. With the outlook for US economy positive, the results are manifesting in the a strong US$. The Euro weakened by close to 2 per cent against the US$. The Japanese Yen weakened close to 4 per cent against the US$ breaching the 100 Yen a US$ mark during the review period. Indian rupee continued to weaken against the US$ and is settling down close to `60 a US$ reflecting the weak Indian economy. Indian foreign currency reserves decreased by close to $10 billion during the review period demonstrating FII’s pulling out funds from India.

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Snippets

www.advancedge.com56 Advanc’edge MBA August 2013

Newsin brief

Here are some

interesting

titbits from

over the last

month

Two-billion-year-old fossils point to early terrestrial lifeA new study, published in the journal

Precambrian Research, describes evidence that primitive forms of life existed on land 2.2 billion years ago. The new evidence involves very small fossils connected into bunches by threads in the surface of an ancient soil from Hekpoort Formation near Waterval Onder, South Africa.

“They have been named Diskagma buttonii, meaning ‘disc-shaped fragments of Andy Button,’ but it is unsure what the fossils were,” explained lead author Prof Gregory Retallack of the University of Oregon. “They certainly were not plants or animals, but something rather more simple.”

Diskagma buttonii are very small – about 0.3 – 1.8 mm long. They most resemble a modern fungus filled with symbiotic cyanobacteria.

“This gains added significance because fossil soils hosting the fossils have long been taken as evidence for a marked rise in the amount of oxygen in the atmosphere at about 2.4 billion to 2.2 billion years ago, widely called the Great Oxidation Event.”

NASA releases photos of Earth from SaturnUS space agency NASA has released colour and black-and-white images of Earth and the Moon, as bright beacons, taken from two interplanetary spacecraft millions of miles away in space.

NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured the colour images of Earth and the Moon from its perch in the Saturn system nearly 1.5 billion kilometres away, NASA said. MESSENGER, the first probe to orbit Mercury, took a black-and-white image from a distance of 98 million kilometres as part of a campaign to search for natural

satellites of the planet.In the Cassini images Earth and the Moon appear as mere dots — Earth a pale blue and the Moon a stark

white, visible between Saturn’s rings.

India’s Poverty ratio declined 15.3% in 7 years According to a Planning Commission

of India report released on poverty estimates for 2011-12, the Poverty Ratio in India declined to 21.9 percent in 2011-12 from 37.2 percent measured in 2004-05 on the basis of the increase in per capita consumption. The report was based on the large sample surveys on household consumer expenditure conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO).

The national poverty line estimated for rural areas during 2011-12 was `816 per capita per month, while for urban areas, the figure was recorded at `1,000 per capita per month. Thus, for a family of five, the all India poverty line in terms of consumption expenditure would amount to about `4,080 rupees per month in rural areas and `5,000 rupees per month in urban areas. These poverty lines vary from state to state because of inter-state price differentials.

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Snippets

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India emerges as the 2nd largest investor in the city of LondonIndia has emerged as the second largest investor in the city of London with Indian companies led by software major Infosys wooed by the investment fervour generated by the 2012 Olympic Games in the British capital.

Software services firm Infosys leads the charge of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) made by a total of 28 Indian companies, which generated 429

additional jobs for the British economy in the last year alone, according to latest government figures released here today to mark a year since London hosted one of the world’s biggest sporting events.

Spin legend Shane Warne retires from cricketShane Warne has retired from all forms of cricket after announcing that he would not play at this year’s Big

Bash tournament with the Melbourne Stars. The 43-year-old Australian is the second-highest Test wicket-taker of all time with 708 in 145 Tests, as well as 293 more in 194 one-day internationals.

Warne, who retired from Test cricket in 2007, featured in each of the last two seasons of the Twenty20 Big Bash event. He bowed out of Test cricket after helping Australia to a 5-0 Ashes whitewash of England in 2007, and then retired from first class cricket in 2008 after a spell captaining English county side Hampshire.

PIO develops smartphone app to detect breast cancer earlyAn Indian-origin student in Australia has developed a smartphone app for early detection of breast cancer.

Sanjay Sreekumar, software engineering undergraduate from Australian National University, designed the app for breast cancer awareness organisation The Young Adults Programme (YAP). The YAP app is designed to allow individuals to self-monitor for early signs of breast cancer. By providing monthly inputs of breast irregularities, the application can help identify if further medical screening is required.

Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton gives birth to boyThe Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy on July 22, 2013

at a London hospital. This is the first child of the royal couple Prince William and Kate.

The royal baby will be the third in line to the throne, after Prince Charles and Prince William. Earlier in 2013, the Queen had issued a royal decree stating that all the children of the eldest son of the Prince of Wales should have and enjoy the style, title and attribute of royal highness with the titular dignity of Prince or Princess prefixed to their Christian names or with such other titles of honour.

India Nigeria sign pact for off-grid solar power systemThe Federal Government of Nigeria has signed an agreement with India’s Bharat Heavy Electricals to locate sites for solar power plants in Niger state, which would provide additional megawatts to the nation’s energy sector. This is the first of a series of power plant deals.

With this agreement in place, BHEL will begin preliminary studies for setting up independent solar-powered plants in selected locations in Niger.

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Tech Mahindra completes Satyam merger, becomes 5th biggest IT firmThe Satyam brand has been consigned to history by acquirer Tech Mahindra, which said its main focus now will be to take

steps to mitigate the impact from impending changes to work visa rules in the United States.

The Mumbai-based company, which is a part of the diversified Mahindra group, said on Tuesday that it has completed all formalities relating to its merger with Satyam Computer Services which it acquired in 2009 after its founder Ramalinga Raju admitted to financial fraud at the Hyderabad company.

FDI in telecom hiked to 100%The Union government has allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the telecom sector, meeting a key demand of the fund-starved industry. Earlier, FDI limit in the sector was 74

percent where 49 percent was done through automatic route and rest required nod from Foreign Investment Promotion Board.

The idea behind the decision to increase FDI limit in telecom sector is to help the industry get fresh funds to lower financial burden. The moves also brings relief for foreign partners in telecom companies as they can have complete ownership of the business.

Chinese soldiers enter Chumar on horseback and stake claim to itAround a month after their last reported land incursion on June 17, around 50 soldiers of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), on horses and ponies, intruded into the Indian territory of Chumar near Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh and staked claim to it.

Sources claim that the Chinese troops began their incursion into the Chumar area on the evening of July 16 and stayed within the Indian side till the next morning. Army sources confirm the incursion, saying Indian troops intercepted the PLA patrol in Chumar and after the usual banner drill between the two sides, the Chinese went back into their territory.

But, sources say, tensions ran high. The PLA troops reportedly told the Indian soldiers to vacate the area, claiming that they were on Chinese territory. The incursion comes soon after two of China’s helicopters violated the Indian air space on July 11 in Chumar sector. A

Can’t contest elections if in jail or police custody: SCIn a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India has barred persons

in jail or police custody from contesting elections for legislative bodies. The Supreme Court’s decision will help bring an end to the era of the under trial politicians, who contest elections from behind bars.

The Supreme Court ruled that only an elector can contest the polls and the elector ceases the right to cast vote due to confinement in prison or being in custody of the police. The court, however, made it clear that disqualification will not be applicable to person subjected to preventive detention, under any law.

Sugar import duty hiked to 15%The Union government hiked the import duty on sugar to 15 per cent from the

present 10 per cent to restrain cheaper inflow of the sweetener into the country.

The hike in import duty is meant to stabilise sugar prices, which in turn will help the millers to make cane payments, which at present is estimated at `9,000 crore.

The decision was taken followed with the representations by sugar co-operatives and farmers to hike the import duty as a pessimistic trend in realisations has not only hurt the millers but also the cane payments to farmers. The sugar cooperatives on the other hand had demanded to make the hike to 30 percent and had urged government to Check imports under open general licence.

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Study Hour

Tolkien on his writings on Middle Earth

M AT C H T H E W O R D S W I T H T H E I R M E A N I N G Sa. involving many carefully

arranged parts or details; detailed and complicated in design and planning

b. - not staying the same throughout

c - averse to change or innovation and holding traditional values

d. – came gradually or partially into view

e. - preserved (a right, tradition, or idea) in a form that ensures it will be protected and respected

f. – (in context to the above passage) the prevailing or typical quality, mood, or attitude of a person, group, or period of time

g. – (in context to the above passage) contemptibly dull and ordinary

h. - having or showing no pity,

compassion or compromise, complete, absolute

i. - cruel, unreasonable, or arbitrary use of power or control

j. - surrounded or closed off on all sides; placed and withheld inside

k. - the action or state of forcing or being forced to do something; constraint

l. - declared one’s abandon-ment of (a claim, right, or possession), given up

m. - (of a work of art or literature) following traditional forms and genres

n. – (in context to the above passage) related to or embodying the powers of nature; powerful and primitive

o. - agree with a sentiment, opinion, or ideology

I think it is plain that quite apart from it, a sequel or successor to The Hobbit is called for... But I am sure you will sympathize when I say that the construction of elaborate and

consistent mythology (and two languages) rather occupies the mind, and the Silmarils are in my heart... Mr Baggins began as a comic tale among conventional and inconsistent Grimm’s

fairy-tale dwarves, and got drawn into the edge of it – so that even Sauron the terrible peeped over the edge. And what more can hobbits do? They can be comic, but their comedy is suburban unless it is set against things more elemental... Perhaps a new (if similar) line? Do you think Tom Bombadil, the spirit of the (vanishing) Oxford and Berkshire countryside, could be made into the

hero of a story? Or is he, as I suspect, fully enshrined in the enclosed verses? Still I could enlarge the portrait.

... The story is cast in terms of a good side, and a bad side, beauty against ruthless ugliness, tyranny against kingship, moderated freedom against compulsion that has long lost any

object save mere power, and so on; but both sides in some degree, conservative or destructive, want a measure of control. But if you have, as it were taken ‘a vow of poverty’, renounced control,

and take delight in things for themselves without reference to yourself, watching, observing, and to some extent knowing, then the question of the rights and wrongs of power and control

might become utterly meaningless to you, and the means of power quite valueless.

Excerpts from The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien

1. Sympathize – (sim-puh-thahyz) (v)

2. Elaborate – (ih-lab-er-it) (adj)

3. Conventional – (kuhn-ven-shuh-nl) (adj)

4. Inconsistent – (in-kuhn-sis-tuhnt) (adj)

5. Peeped – (peep-d) (v)

6. Suburban – (suh-bur-buhn) (adj)

7. Elemental – (el-ih-men-tl) (adj)

8. Spirit – (spir-it) (n)

9. Enshrined – (en-shrahyn-d) (v)

10. Enclosed – (en-klohz-d) (adj)

11. Ruthless – (rooth-lis) (adj)

12. Tyranny – (tir-uh-nee) (n)

13. Compulsion – (kuhm-puhl-shuhn) (n)

14. Conservative – (kuhn-sur-vuh-tiv) (adj)

15. Renounced – (ri-nouns-d) (v)

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Study Hour

1. Japan recently unveiled a new bullet train which will connect Tokyo to Nagoya. Apart from being able to travel at speeds up to 500 kmph, what is its most striking feature?

a) The train levitates b) It is the longest train in

the world c) It doesn’t require a driver d) None of these

2. Infinity Tower, the tallesttwisted tower in the world that turns 90 degrees, was launched in ______

a) Las Vegas b) Dubai c) Hawaii d) California

3. The term “newb” or “newbie” refers to somebody inexperienced in any profession or activity. Recently, it has become more specific in nature, referringto someone inexperienced or new to _______

a) Computers b) Shipping c) Banking d) None of these

4. Which online travel portal announced in June 2013 that it had acquired GateGuru, the mobile resource for information on airports and flightsacrosstheworld?

a) MakeMyTrip b) ClearTrip c) Trip Advisor d) Yatra

5. In June, the Government of India announced a disaster relief fund to Uttarakhand of ______________

a) `1,000 crore b) `1,500 crore c) `2,000 crore d) `800 crore

6. Which state has made it mandatory for teaching and non-teaching staff to hold an Aadhaar cards in order to withdraw salary from August?

a) Tamil Nadu b) Maharashtra c) Gujarat d) Uttar Pradesh

7. Name the Chinese astronaut who recently conducted the first classroom lecture inBeijing through a live video feed from space module Tiangong-1.

a) Liu Yang b) Nie Haisheng c) Zhang Xiaoguang d) Wang Yaping

8. Name the multiple Filmfare and BFJA-award winning actor who passed away on July 12, 2013.

a) Pran b) Shringar Nagaraj c) Haradhan Bandopadhyay d) Rajesh Khanna

9. The Union Cabinet recently approved the setting up a national university for women by the name of “The Indira

Gandhi National University for Women”. This will be the first university of the country to be established exclusively for women. In which state is it slated to be established?

a) Tamli Nadu b) Bihar c) Maharashtra d) Uttar Pradesh

10. Which broadcasting agency had to issue an apology after its commentator John Inverdale said that the 2013 Wimbledon women’s singles champion Marion Bartoli was “never going to be a looker”?

a) Network18 b) ABC c) BBC d) ESPN

11. With which sport is Indian athlete and current World Number 3 Deepika Kumari associated with?

a) Rowing b) Archery c) Badminton d) Cycling

12. The Cuckoo’s Calling is a crime novel written by Robert Galbraith. This name is a pseudonym, and the author’s real name is ________

a) Chetan Bhagat b) Agatha Christie c) Eoin Colfer d) J.K. Rowling

A quiz to boost your General Knowledge

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Study Hour

13. Which country recently overtook the US as the top buyer of Nigerian crude oil?

a) India b) South Korea c) China d) Japan

14. According to findings byNASA’s Curiosity rover, Mars’s atmosphere has the highest concentration of which of the following gases?

a) Methane b) Carbon dioxide c) Carbon monoxide d) None of these

15. Which material has recently been claimed in a study to be the strongest material in the world?

a) Diamond b) Graphene c) Titanium d) Tungsten

16. In a recent linguistic survey conducted by the People’s Linguistic Survey of India, the number of spoken languages in the country has been stated to be _________

a) 650 b) 800 c) 780 d) 1,120

17. A balloon-and-thread system has recently been taken up to denote available parking space in open parking lots in which country?

a) South Korea b) China c) Japan d) Germany

18. The US has recently started issuing P-1 visas, intended

for “individual athletes” travelling to the US to which of the following?

a) Professional snooker players

b) Professional gamers c) Chess grandmasters d) None of the above

19. Which of the following states was recently declared as thefirstsmoke-freestateinthe country?

a) Arunachal Pradesh b) Odisha c) Maharashtra d) Himachal Pradesh

20. Where will the 2014 winter Olympics be held?

a) Russia b) Japan c) Switzerland d) Australia

21. Which cricketer was recently banned on charges of spot-fixing by the PakistanCricket Board?

a) Danish Kaneria b) Shoaib Akhtar c) Salman Butt d) Misbah-ul-Haq

22. Which of the following airlines has the largest market share in the domestic aviation space in India?

a) Air India b) Indigo c) Jet Airways d) SpiceJet

23. Where was India’s firstYoga University inaugurated recently?

a) Maharashtra b) Gujarat c) West Bengal d) Karnataka

24. Name the author who

wrote the sixth book in the immensely popular Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series of books.

a) Jonathan Stroud b) Carl Sagan c) Eoin Colfer d) Stephen Hawking

25. Who has been named the 2013 Indian Business Leader of the Year?

a) Sanjiv Goenka b) Azim Premji c) Ratan Tata d) Mukesh Ambani

26. Who among the following has topped the Forbes list of Most Powerful Celebrities in 2013?

a) Roger Federer b) Steven Spielberg c) Bon Jovi d) Oprah Winfrey

27. KEO is a space time capsule proposed to be launched in 2014 carrying messages from the citizens of present earth. It will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere after how many years?

a) 10,000 years b) 15,000 years c) 50,000 years d) 25,000 years

28. Who was the first winnerof the now prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award?

a) Devika Rani Chaudhuri Roerich

b) Satyajit Ray c) Pankaj Mullick d) Kanan Devi

29. Which Indian state doesn’t have a railway station?

a) Arunachal Pradesh b) Meghalaya c) Odisha d) Tripura

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Study Hour

How to PlayFill in the grid so that every horizontal row, every vertical column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1-9, without repeating the numbers in the same row, column or box. You can’t change the digits already given in the grid. Every puzzle has one solution.Hint: Don’t fill in numbers at random. While filling a particular square, write numbers 1-9 on a pad and start eliminating those numbers that already appear in the same row, column or 3x3 box.

SuDoKu

Solution, tips and computer programme at www.sudoku.com

ANSWERSGLOBESCAN

01.(a) 02.(b) 03.(a) 04.(c) 05.(a)

06.(b) 07.(d) 08.(a) 09.(d) 10.(c)

11.(b) 12.(d) 13.(a) 14.(b) 15.(b)

16.(c) 17.(a) 18.(b) 19.(d) 20.(a)

21.(a) 22.(b) 23.(b) 24.(c) 25.(a)

26.(d) 27.(c) 28.(a) 29.(b) 30.(d)

31.(a) 32.(c) 33.(b) 34.(a) 35.(d)

30. Which of the following countries has introduced the controversial “bedroom tax”, which refers to a reduction in the benefit paid to claimantsif they are deemed to have too much living space in the property they are renting?

a) Sweden b) France c) Italy d) England

31. Swedish car manufacturer Volvo has signed on which sports personality as its brand ambassador?

a) Jeev Milkha Singh b) Sachin Tendulkar c) M.S. Dhoni d) Saina Nehwal

32. The “digital will”, which allows people to choose what they want to do with their emails, photographs and other documents after they are dead, was launched by _______

a) Amazon b) Yahoo c) Google d) Microsoft

33. As of June 2013, India ranks at which position in terms of the number of Internet users?

a) Fourth b) Third c) Ninth d) Eleventh

34. Which of the following Indian companies ranks among the world’s most ethical firms,as per a report by business ethics think-tank Episphere Institute?

a) Wipro b) Tata Consultancy

Services c) Infosys d) Reliance Industries

35. NASA’s Cassini spacecraft captured images of the Earth from 1.5 billion km away from which planet’s system?

a) Mars b) Jupiter c) Nepture d) Saturn

WORD DOSE1. o 2. a 3.m 4. b 5. d 6. g 7. n 8. f 9. e 10. j 11. h 12. i 13. k 14. c 15. l

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Registered with Registrar of Newspapers under RNI No. MAHENG / 03 / 11493Postal Registration No.: MH / MR / WEST / 14 / 2012-2014, Published on 28th of every previous monthPosted at Patrika Channel Sorting office, Mumbai-400 001. Posting date : 1st and 2nd of every month. Total pages 64