Advanc'edge MBA July 2011

Advanc’edge MBA March 2011 1

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B-schools all over the world aim to immerse students in the

values and mind-sets that are peculiar to

the field.

Sarita Kutty

Seizing the opportunity

Business learning is important, not just to understand core business concepts, but to comprehend the theory of globalisation and its far-reaching effects. So, while Study Abroad is a hot topic these days, research on higher education in recent

decades has made it clear that effective learning depends signifi cantly on the learners’ intentions and motivation. With business students’ focus on career preparation as the most important outcome of college, the goals of liberal education are more achievable if they are explicitly related to students’ existing horizon of interest.

Whether one decides to complete studies in India, United Kingdom, Malaysia or Sweden – business schools all over the world aim to immerse students in the values and mind-sets that are peculiar to the fi eld. Moreover, studies reveal that Indians comprise the largest percentage of international students at most universities worldwide. Seeing this great potential of students, many foreign universities have already set up shop in India. Some of these universities offer students the option of getting their foreign degree in India without ever leaving, while others insist on students doing at least part of the course on the main university’s campus abroad. A case in point is B-schools offering programmes taught all the way in India or partially abroad through twinning programmes. This means that some of the studies are conducted in India, but not all, so students get an Indian and an international study experience and international degrees. “First Step” in this issue explores the benefi ts of this international programme and delves deeper into the emerging business scenario that makes global and inter cultural working an imminent reality. Also read “Careers Watch” to know more about the hot careers and recruitment trends, today.

Next, turn the pages to “MBA Buzz” section for an insight into the world of agribusiness management. Today, agribusiness courses are being designed with a vision of empowering knowledge of systematic observation and analytical skills needed to take effective charge of the new socio-economic, agro-ecological conditions and to rise above the functional barriers in the execution of their responsibilities in this challenging era. The section also highlights the placement trends and focuses on the basic skill sets required to gain entry into a top B-school.

And while we all know that education is necessary to mould our character and train us in decision-making and leadership, it is imperative that one realises the importance of return on the investment of time and money. “Financial Dynamics” delves deeper into this aspect.

This issue also focusses on the latest happenings in the world of business and the tools deployed by corporate houses to combat the cut-throat competition.

Happy Reading!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Kamlesh Sajnani

EDITORIAL

Editor:Sarita Kutty

Senior Correspondent:Gauri Puranik

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FIRST STEPCOVER STORY

04 Benefits of Twinning MBA

ADMISSION Q&A

12 Dr Phillip D Harsha, Interim Dean, Associate Professor - School of Accountancy,

COBA, Missouri State University

CAREERS WATCHIN FOCUS

14 Marketing as a career

RECRUITER Q&A

16 Dan Black, Director of Campus Recruiting,

Ernst & Young’s Americas

MBA BUZZSPECIAL REPORT

18 Back to the roots: The scope of agribusiness management

EXECUTIVE SUITE

21 Sudhir Bhargava, Director at Agroman Systems Pvt Ltd

SPECIAL REPORT

23 Are you an average student?: Reach out to top B-schools

SPECIAL REPORT

26 B-school Rankings: Reality and Reliability

STUDENT SILHOUETTE

29 Abhishek Dalvi, University of Rochester - William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration

IMSuccessful

31 Ayush Mansingka, IMI Delhi Abhishek Barua, IIM Lucknow

Sourojit Ghose, IIM Shillong

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. 1/45 Tardeo A.C. Market, Tardeo, Mumbai - 400 034. 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/-

PLACEMENT REPORT

34 Placement Report

FINANCIAL GUIDE

36 Analysing the Return on your MBA investment

REGION FOCUS

38 Australia: The International Student Carnival – Down Under

STUDENT SILHOUETTE

42 Nicholas De Lima, Edith Cowan University

SUCCESS STREET

43 Corporate India going the CSR way

45 Your passport to power

SKILLZ

47 Ambiguity of identity

CORPORATE WORLDBRAND WAGON

50 The Body Shop: Success, naturally

BUSINESS ANALYSIS

53 Stakes at International Monetary Fund

55 Indian managerial productivity

57 March 2011: Quarterly results

59 Economic Indicators

STUDY HOURWORD DOSE

63 Autobiography of a watch

65 Globescan Sudoku

66 Event Calendar

Contents July 2011

Cover photo courtesy: gettyimages.com

Advanc’edge MBA July 2011www.advancedge.com 3

FIRST STEP

4 Advanc’edge MBA July 2011 www.advancedge.com

FIRST STEP

Benefits ofTwinning MBA

Education, perhaps more than any other discipline or area of professional activity, is global in its nature, scope and impact. With the advent of instant communication, conventional boundaries of the past have been erased. Likewise, the twinning programme brings unique advantages that give a substantial edge in many respects. First, the students get to understand the concepts through the regular course at their own institute in India. Second, it exposes them to an additional specialised course in another institute, usually located overseas. The short time spent at a university abroad offers new experiences, and an insight into global trends in the field, finds Sarita Kutty.

S ince the early 1990s, international colleges and universities have

been collaborating with Indian educational institutions. To think of it, this was a period when government regulations did not allow foreign institutes to set up campuses in India or, recognise foreign degrees awarded in India.

However, today, as the nation continues its economic rise and the number of students wishing to pursue MBA studies grows, we are witnessing an increasing interest from foreign universities wishing to establish partnerships with Indian schools. The recent legislation allowing

foreign universities to enter the Indian market will no doubt accelerate these trends. B-schools in India too are making a strong effort to partner with foreign institutions for joint ventures. And as far as students are concerned, they will have access to more specialised, flexible course options,

”

“

Dezsö J Horváth, Dean & Tanna H. Schulich Chair in Strategic Management, Schulich School of Business

With the Schulich MBA in India, a student should gain a broad global perspective on business issues. At the same time, he will develop expertise in two of the world’s major trading regions. In short, he should take advantage of the best of both worlds – Year 1 in Mumbai, India and Year 2 in Toronto, Canada – as he completes a leading international MBA programme.

Cover Story

Courtesy: gettyimages.com


FIRST STEP

better research facilities and international perspective.

The Twinning MBA A major innovation in the higher education pertaining to international studies in India is the concept of ‘Twinning MBA programmes’. The Twinning programme allows students to partially complete the first or second year of the degree programme at a local institution and the remaining years at the foreign partner university. One of the outstanding features for twinning programme is that the student registers with both the Indian institution and the foreign university, and upon successful completion of the first two years, the student is guaranteed admission to the next level in the campus of the twinning-

partner university. Currently, many colleges are offering twinning programmes with collaboration with partner universities from the UK, USA, Australia and various other countries.

For instance, Frostburg State University (FSU) opened doors to more opportunities to build global community and expand its international education efforts recently when it finalised a plan for a collaborative MBA programme between FSU and two institutions in India.

It thus paved the way for students from Santhigiri College in the state of Kerala and the Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR) in the city of Mumbai to be able to enroll in FSU’s MBA programme beginning in fall 2010. Participants can

register for online MBA courses for the first two semesters while staying in their home country, and then go to Frostburg to complete their graduate degrees.

Cites Dr Ahmad Tootoonchi, Dean of FSU’s College of Business, “If things move forward as planned, the College of Business will have approximately 50 graduate students from India enrolled in the MBA program by spring 2011. The goal is to continue this collaborative programme in the years to come, with a possibility of expanding it to other countries around the world. This is a great opportunity for us to continue our progress towards internationalisation of our educational programs at Frostburg State University.”

Likewise, MDI Gurgaon

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”

Dr Ahmad Tootoonchi, Dean, FSU’s College of Business

If things move forward as planned, the College of Business will have approximately 50 graduate students from India enrolled in the MBA program by spring 2011. The goal is to continue this collaborative programme in the years to come, with a possibility of expanding it to other countries around the world. This is a great opportunity for us to continue our progress towards internationalisation of our educational programs at Frostburg State University.



FIRST STEP

in 2006 launched a unique, first of its kind programme in India - the Post Graduate Programme in International Management (PGP-IM). This is one of the efforts made by MDI to develop managers with appropriate mindset and ability to work in global markets. The programme was launched in collaboration with European School of Management (ESCP-EAP), France. The unique dual degree programme is delivered partly in India (MDI) and partly in Europe (ESCP-EAP campuses). The first phase of the programme is delivered on MDI Campus, at Gurgaon. The second phase of the programme is delivered in Europe at the London, Paris & Turin campuses (English Track).

Eligibility criteria and benefits The eligibility to pursue for a twinning programme is

almost similar to any other MBA programme. However, this programme not only increases the chance of employability abroad but also assists in Visa and document processing. A twinning MBA programme is also relevant for people going to join family businesses or aiming to be entrepreneurs in Indian as well as international business. Other benefits of this programme include:} Affordability: A twinning

programme is affordable when compared to a fully international MBA.

} International exposure: Spending one semester abroad will give you an unforgettable, international exposure.

} Global education standards: The curriculum is latest and in line with the cutting-edge developments in the rest of the world.

} Best of both worlds: Get

a chance to learn from best faculty in both India as well as in the partner country.

} Better job opportunities: You can work with both domestic and foreign companies after pursuing a twinning MBA.

} Degrees awarded by foreign university: In most twinning programmes, students get an internationally recognised degree from a foreign country.

The global reachPerhaps the best benefit of a twinning programme is the potential of foreign placement. Indian colleges with twinning programmes have mostly tied up with universities in US and UK and (in many cases) the placement process is dealt with in these countries.

This exposes students to a wide range of foreign

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”

“Dr Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad

Just like a student specialising in Finance has a different proposition compared to a student specialising in HR, so does the DCP student who has a different proposition. IMT shares DCP profiles with all the companies for whom the profiles may be attractive while hiring from the campus. We expect that the profiles that will be offered to students of DCP are likely to be different from the profiles that are being offered to students who are specialising in other programmes. We have clearly seen this trend during the summer placements being offered to the DCP students. Students have got placed with marquee brands and in very exciting profiles. Our future goal is to strengthen the international immersion of this program end-to-end; that is from curriculum, to internships, to placements.



FIRST STEP

”

“

Siddartha Pandey, (MBA ’06), Supply Chain Network Analyst, Frito-Lay Canada – PepsiCo Inc

My Schulich degree opened doors for me. Having come from one of the most underdeveloped states of India, attending Schulich was a dream come true. My MBA prepared me well for the competitive, fast-paced corporate environment in a global multinational like PepsiCo.

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Prof V K Gupta, Officiating Director, MDI

In Europe, students will not only get classroom learning opportunity, they will also get an opportunity to work there or in India on a paid internship basis. In addition, there will be scope to get placement in Europe. Living and working in Europe will enable students to understand and appreciate other cultures, hone their capabilities to work across cultures and develop global mindsets.

multinationals as prospective employers.

Most twinning programmes offer these students a two year work permit in the foreign country. This provides the students an opportunity to further extend their work permit and eventually gain permanent foreign citizenship.

Commenting on the placement opportunities of IMT Ghaziabad’s PGDM (Dual Country) programme, Dr Bibek Banerjee, Director, IMT Ghaziabad, says, “Final placements for DCP students will happen in Ghaziabad. We have got and are getting enthusiastic response from corporates on the unique proposition of DCP students. Being the only program of its kind in India that is approved by the AICTE, the DCP has a unique and distinguished value proposition for corporates, in that the DCP students are equipped with a more hands-on

understanding of how to do business ‘in’ or ‘with’ a more globalised economy.”

Some institutes offering Twinning MBA programmesIf you want to pursue an MBA which confers on you an Indian degree in collaboration with a foreign university then opt for a Twinning MBA programme (Refer Table).

Some of the institutes offering Twinning MBA programme include Schulich School of Business, IMT Ghaziabad and Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR), which offers MBA programme with equal duration in Indian and Frostburg State University of USA. Further, International School of Management Studies (ISMS) offers a twinning MBA programme with first year in India and second year in various premium universities of UK. All MBA placements are conducted in the UK.

The road aheadIndian management education has indeed come a long way and has attained international stature which has led to a change in people’s mindset of going abroad for higher education. And while the most important and critical factor for a successful education-industry interface is the structural system which needs to be worked upon, there is an immense diversity in the backgrounds of the candidates who enroll in B-schools. Moreover, the emerging business scenario makes global and inter cultural working an imminent reality. Hence, there is a dire need for managers and future leaders with a global mindset - managers who can appreciate different cultures, who can build networks across geographies, and live and work across cultures. Hence, opting for a twinning MBA programme could be your road to the future.



FIRST STEP

Name of Institute Website Program Name and Academic Partner Duration Eligbility Selection Fees Placement Details Asia Graduate School of Business, Hyderabad

http://www.asiagsb.ac.in/programs/pgmp.php

Post Graduate Management Program (PGMP) - An intensive 11 Month full time program, the PGMP is divided into 6 Modules, each consisting of 4 or more courses. The highlights of the program are Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University Faculty's presence at AsiaGSB campus, 4 - 6 weeks of International Immersion Program in the United States, Industry Competency Development, Self-Assessment, Field Study, and Invited Speaker sessions

11 mnths

1) Bachelor's Degree in any discipline from a recog-nized university with min 50% aggregate marks. 2) GMAT/AMAT/CAT/CAT/XAT Scores, GMAT scores not earlier than five years and CAT scores of previous and current year. All candidates who are writing GMAT and or CAT are also eligible to apply. 3) At least 2 years of work experience is recommended before applying for this course 4) Freshers with outstanding academic re-cord will also be considered. 5) TOEFL/IELTS for Inter-national Students who have not had English as medium of education in graduation/post graduation

GMAT/AMAT/CAT/CAT/XAT Scores, GMAT scores not earlier than five years and CAT scores of previous and current year, 2 years of work experience, TOEFL/IELTS scores, essay, two letters of recommendation and personal interview

Total fee - Rs 8,60,000 Key Recruiters - Ci-tibank, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, P&G, Bosch, Cadburys, Reli-ance Industries

Bangalore Management Academy (BMA)

http://www.bmaindia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97&Itemid=92

Australian MBA - The Edith Cowan University's Off-Shore campus at BMA offers MBA Courses (full-time)

16 months (Inclusive of 4 months of industry internship)

Completion of a recognized Graduate degree with mini-mum of 50% marks

BMA Aptitude Test and Personal Interview

Rs 5,75,000 Internships are offered at Glopore IMS, Frost & Sullivan, Religare Finvest Ltd, Religare Finvest Ltd

Gitam Institute of Management

http://www.gitam.edu/GIM/Academic_ Syllabus.aspx?dept= MBACMU&id=111

MBA Programme offered by Central Michigan University, USA - Student would complete one year at GIM and another year at Central Michigan University, USA.

2 years Candidates need to have 60% marks in qualifying examination. Final year candidates are also eligble to apply.

Admission is based on scores secured in the CAT / MAT / XAT / GMAT / GOT (GIM online test), Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Weightage of 60%, 25% and 15 % are given respectively for the three components namely Online Test, Group Discussion & Personal Interview.

Total Fees for 1st year - Rs 2,52,000

N.A.

Indian Institute of Finance and Management, Mumbai

http://iifmglobal.com/ PGPM in partnership with American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM), USA – 2 Years full time (Option 1 of year 2 at Seneca College, Canada), (Option 2 of 6 month at Seneca, College Canada), Students undergo professional certification programs from AAFM, USA along with the course content from IIFM.

2 years 1. A recognized Bachelor’s degree in any discipline with a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate. 2. Students who opt the Financial Services Compliance Adminis-tration program from Seneca, have to have an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score with overall band of 6.5

Evaluation of Score cards from CAT, MAT, GMAT, ATMA, CET and any state conducted/university conducted tests), Group discussion (GD), Panel interview (PI)

Total fees 1st year - Rs 2.50 lakh and Total fees 2nd year - Rs 2.450 lakh, Hostel fees (1st and 2nd year) - As it is PG accomodation it varies on the place of stay between 1,500 per month to 3,000 per month. These are indicative ranges.

Some of the recruiters at Seneca are - Dell computers, Ameri-can Express, KPMG, Oracle Corporation, Deloitte & Touche

Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR)

http://www.ibsar.ac.in/MBAinUSA01.aspx

MBA programme with equal duration in Indian and Frostburg State University of USA - 1st year in Mumbai & 2nd year in Maryland, USA.

2 years Graduation and having score or appearing in GMAT /GRE / TOEFL

Selection will be on the basis of GMAT /GRE / TOEFL scores

Fees for 2010-12 for Manage-ment graduates: (BCom/BMS/BSc (H)/ BBA) - Rs.15,79,000/-, Non – Management gradu-ates: (BSc/BCA/Btech/BE/BPharm) - Rs 17,70,000/-. Hostel & Mess for 1st year in India – Rs.50,000/-

Key Recruiters - Abbott Laboratories, Antietam Health Services Inc, AstraZeneca, Bank Of America, Barclays Bank, CitiCorp, De-loitte, Morgan Stanley

IMT Ghazaibad http://www.imt.edu/Programmes/FTTwoCam-pusProgramme.aspx

Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Dual Country Program) - The students would be required to complete the first half of their course (1st year) in the state-of-the-art Dubai facility of IMT-Ghaziabad and the final half (2nd year) in IMT Ghaziabad, India.

2 years Minimum 3 years Bachelor's degree or equivalent with minimum 50% aggregate marks in any discipline. Can-didates who are appearing for the final year degree examination can also apply.

Final selection will be based on CAT scores and subsequent Personal Interview to be held at Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Indore.

Total First year fees - AED 7,81,00 Total Second year fees - Rs 5,52,000

The programme pro-vides an opportunity to students to choose Internship and Place-ment offers at Dubai as well as in India. The net-works they develop dur-ing internship and short term projects combined with IMT Ghaziabad’s vast repute among the corporates provides an excellent platform for their final placements.

Institute for International Management and Technology,

http://www.iimtobu.ac.in/pgdm_some.htm

Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) - Degree awarded by Oxford Brookes University, UK

2 years Candidate must have 50% in graduation in any stream or appearing in final examination from Indian or foreign universities.

Test in English or IELTS score of 6.5 and Personal Interview

Total fees - Rs 5,50,000 White Box Internation-al, Dubai, HDFC Bank Ltd, Aditya Birla Money

ITM - ESSCA Joint programme Masters in Management Degree

http://www.itm.edu/navi-mumbai/itm-essca/#PO

Masters in Management Degree - A Joint programme offered by ITM Business School, India and ESSCA (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d'Angers), France

2 years The programme has been designed for students from all over the world who :have obtained a first degree (bachelor/licence) and, ideally, a first professional ex-perience in a job or a longer internship, can provide a GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) score

test scores, professional work experience First year fees - 6600 euros (Rs 4,22,635) Second year fees - 3300 euros (Rs 2,11,332), Living expenses for the first year in

N.A.

Twinning MBA Programmes

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FIRST STEP

Name of Institute Website Program Name and Academic Partner Duration Eligbility Selection Fees Placement Details Asia Graduate School of Business, Hyderabad

http://www.asiagsb.ac.in/programs/pgmp.php

Post Graduate Management Program (PGMP) - An intensive 11 Month full time program, the PGMP is divided into 6 Modules, each consisting of 4 or more courses. The highlights of the program are Fisher College of Business, Ohio State University Faculty's presence at AsiaGSB campus, 4 - 6 weeks of International Immersion Program in the United States, Industry Competency Development, Self-Assessment, Field Study, and Invited Speaker sessions

11 mnths

1) Bachelor's Degree in any discipline from a recog-nized university with min 50% aggregate marks. 2) GMAT/AMAT/CAT/CAT/XAT Scores, GMAT scores not earlier than five years and CAT scores of previous and current year. All candidates who are writing GMAT and or CAT are also eligible to apply. 3) At least 2 years of work experience is recommended before applying for this course 4) Freshers with outstanding academic re-cord will also be considered. 5) TOEFL/IELTS for Inter-national Students who have not had English as medium of education in graduation/post graduation

GMAT/AMAT/CAT/CAT/XAT Scores, GMAT scores not earlier than five years and CAT scores of previous and current year, 2 years of work experience, TOEFL/IELTS scores, essay, two letters of recommendation and personal interview

Total fee - Rs 8,60,000 Key Recruiters - Ci-tibank, HDFC Bank, Asian Paints, P&G, Bosch, Cadburys, Reli-ance Industries

Bangalore Management Academy (BMA)

http://www.bmaindia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=97&Itemid=92

Australian MBA - The Edith Cowan University's Off-Shore campus at BMA offers MBA Courses (full-time)

16 months (Inclusive of 4 months of industry internship)

Completion of a recognized Graduate degree with mini-mum of 50% marks

BMA Aptitude Test and Personal Interview

Rs 5,75,000 Internships are offered at Glopore IMS, Frost & Sullivan, Religare Finvest Ltd, Religare Finvest Ltd

Gitam Institute of Management

http://www.gitam.edu/GIM/Academic_ Syllabus.aspx?dept= MBACMU&id=111

MBA Programme offered by Central Michigan University, USA - Student would complete one year at GIM and another year at Central Michigan University, USA.

2 years Candidates need to have 60% marks in qualifying examination. Final year candidates are also eligble to apply.

Admission is based on scores secured in the CAT / MAT / XAT / GMAT / GOT (GIM online test), Group Discussion and Personal Interview. Weightage of 60%, 25% and 15 % are given respectively for the three components namely Online Test, Group Discussion & Personal Interview.

Total Fees for 1st year - Rs 2,52,000

N.A.

Indian Institute of Finance and Management, Mumbai

http://iifmglobal.com/ PGPM in partnership with American Academy of Financial Management (AAFM), USA – 2 Years full time (Option 1 of year 2 at Seneca College, Canada), (Option 2 of 6 month at Seneca, College Canada), Students undergo professional certification programs from AAFM, USA along with the course content from IIFM.

2 years 1. A recognized Bachelor’s degree in any discipline with a minimum of 50% marks in aggregate. 2. Students who opt the Financial Services Compliance Adminis-tration program from Seneca, have to have an IELTS (International English Language Testing System) score with overall band of 6.5

Evaluation of Score cards from CAT, MAT, GMAT, ATMA, CET and any state conducted/university conducted tests), Group discussion (GD), Panel interview (PI)

Total fees 1st year - Rs 2.50 lakh and Total fees 2nd year - Rs 2.450 lakh, Hostel fees (1st and 2nd year) - As it is PG accomodation it varies on the place of stay between 1,500 per month to 3,000 per month. These are indicative ranges.

Some of the recruiters at Seneca are - Dell computers, Ameri-can Express, KPMG, Oracle Corporation, Deloitte & Touche

Institute of Business Studies & Research (IBSAR)

http://www.ibsar.ac.in/MBAinUSA01.aspx

MBA programme with equal duration in Indian and Frostburg State University of USA - 1st year in Mumbai & 2nd year in Maryland, USA.

2 years Graduation and having score or appearing in GMAT /GRE / TOEFL

Selection will be on the basis of GMAT /GRE / TOEFL scores

Fees for 2010-12 for Manage-ment graduates: (BCom/BMS/BSc (H)/ BBA) - Rs.15,79,000/-, Non – Management gradu-ates: (BSc/BCA/Btech/BE/BPharm) - Rs 17,70,000/-. Hostel & Mess for 1st year in India – Rs.50,000/-

Key Recruiters - Abbott Laboratories, Antietam Health Services Inc, AstraZeneca, Bank Of America, Barclays Bank, CitiCorp, De-loitte, Morgan Stanley

IMT Ghazaibad http://www.imt.edu/Programmes/FTTwoCam-pusProgramme.aspx

Post Graduate Diploma in Management (Dual Country Program) - The students would be required to complete the first half of their course (1st year) in the state-of-the-art Dubai facility of IMT-Ghaziabad and the final half (2nd year) in IMT Ghaziabad, India.

2 years Minimum 3 years Bachelor's degree or equivalent with minimum 50% aggregate marks in any discipline. Can-didates who are appearing for the final year degree examination can also apply.

Final selection will be based on CAT scores and subsequent Personal Interview to be held at Ghaziabad, Nagpur, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Indore.

Total First year fees - AED 7,81,00 Total Second year fees - Rs 5,52,000

The programme pro-vides an opportunity to students to choose Internship and Place-ment offers at Dubai as well as in India. The net-works they develop dur-ing internship and short term projects combined with IMT Ghaziabad’s vast repute among the corporates provides an excellent platform for their final placements.

Institute for International Management and Technology,

http://www.iimtobu.ac.in/pgdm_some.htm

Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) - Degree awarded by Oxford Brookes University, UK

2 years Candidate must have 50% in graduation in any stream or appearing in final examination from Indian or foreign universities.

Test in English or IELTS score of 6.5 and Personal Interview

Total fees - Rs 5,50,000 White Box Internation-al, Dubai, HDFC Bank Ltd, Aditya Birla Money

ITM - ESSCA Joint programme Masters in Management Degree

http://www.itm.edu/navi-mumbai/itm-essca/#PO

Masters in Management Degree - A Joint programme offered by ITM Business School, India and ESSCA (Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d'Angers), France

2 years The programme has been designed for students from all over the world who :have obtained a first degree (bachelor/licence) and, ideally, a first professional ex-perience in a job or a longer internship, can provide a GMAT (Graduate Management Admission Test) score

test scores, professional work experience First year fees - 6600 euros (Rs 4,22,635) Second year fees - 3300 euros (Rs 2,11,332), Living expenses for the first year in

N.A.

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FIRST STEP

with their application have a real international spirit, a coherent professional project, and open-mindedness towards people from different cultural backgrounds. All common entrance test scores (CAT, XAT, MAT etc.) ac-cepted by AICTE, India.

Europe likely to be 5000 - 7000 (Rs 3,20,196 - Rs 4,48,173) Euros & for the second year in India - 2000 Eu-ros (1,28,044); if Semester D is done in other country it may be proportionately higher than the cost shown for Europe and India.

MDI Gurgaon http://www.mdi.ac.in/acad_prog/Post_Gradu-ate_programme_interna-tional.asp?id=9

Post Graduate programme in International Management - The programme was launched in collaboration with European School of Management (ESCP-EAP), France. The unique dual degree programme is delivered partly in India (MDI) and partly in Europe (ESCP-EAP campuses). The first phase of the programme is delivered on MDI Campus, at Gurgaon. The second phase of the programme is delivered in Europe at the London, Paris & Turin campuses (English Track).

The programme is spread over six modules. The first three modules spread over 8 months would be de-livered at MDI. The fourth module of 6 months duration would be held at ESCP-EAP Campus. Fifth module will constitute 4 to 6 months of internship in India/ Europe while the sixth module of 1 V2 months would consist of disserta-tion work.

Minimum 3 years Bachelor's degree or equivalent in any discipline recognized by the Association of Indian Universities/AICTE.

Final selection on the basis of GMAT/CAT scores, Group Discussion and Personal Interview.

Total fees - Rs 14,56,000 Average Salary - Rs 12.94 lakh p.a. and Highest Domestic Sal-ary - Rs 15.60 lakh p.a. Recruiters - Aspiring Minds, Avalon Consult-ing, Biocon, Deloitte and RPG. Profiles up for grabs for them were Finance, Consulting, IT, Sales and Marketing, General Management and Operations.

National School of Business, Bangalore

http://www.nsbindia.org/ MBA+PGPM (Dual Degree program) with ESC-Pau, France and Bharathiar University, Deusto Business School, Spain

2 years A Degree from a recognized university. (Applicants waiting for their final year results may also apply. How-ever, such students will be given provisional admission subject to the submission of their final marks sheet).

Any of the management test scores or National School of Business Test, academic performance, work experience, level of maturity and motivation, interview, Extra curricular achievements, honors and awards

Program fee of Rs. 1,80,000 per year, Food & Accommoda-tion charges of Rs.60, 000/- per year.

Highest salary is Rs 6.8 lakh p.a. and the aver-age is Rs 3.8 lakh p.a.

International School for Management Studies (ISMS), Chennai

http://www.mssw.org.in/Courses_Offered.php?subcat_id=220

MBA (USA) - Twinning Programme - Those who have completed the first year program at International School for Management Studies (ISMS), Chennai are eligible to get admission in the second year program which will be conducted by Missouri State University, Springfield, USA. International School for Management Studies is a unit of Madras School of Social Work.

2 years Bachelor’s degree with a minimum 50% of marks in the aggregate in any discipline or a professional qualifica-tion recognized as equivalent to a bachelor’s degree by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. If the applicant is yet to write his final qualifying examina-tion, he/she can apply on the basis of marks already secured subject to a minimum of (50%) in previous examinations.

On a preliminary evaluation of the applications, selected applicants shall be called for an entrance test conducted in Chennai. The written test will be for a total duration of two hours. This test is based on multiple choice objective type questions such as Verbal Reasoning, Management Concepts, Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving, Quantitative Aptitude and current affairs. Based on the performance in the test, applicants will be short listed for an interview, an interview will be held in the premises in Chennai for final selection.

First year at ISMS Chen-nai: Total fees Rs.1,50,000, Second Year fees at MSU, USA - Estimated at US $21,899 (Rs 983,719) in-clusive of tuition, room and board, books, insurance, clothing, transportation and personal expenses. This does not include application fee $50 (Rs 2,246) and airfare to USA and back. Fees are subject to revision every academic year by MSU.

Placements in India and Abroad

Schulich School of Business and S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai

http://www.schulich.yorku.ca/client/schulich/Schulich_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/page/India+MBA!Open Document#tabs-1

Schulich MBA in India - Year 1 of your MBA at the Schulich India Campus located at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai., Year 2 of the MBA will take place at the Schulich campus in Toronto, Canada. It begins in August with an International Orientation geared to set you up for success at Schulich and help you transition to life in Canada.

2 years First Class Standing in either of the following: A three year Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, A four year Bachelor’s degree (e.g. BEng, BPharm, BArch, MBBS), Two years of relevant full-time work experience (post-undergraduate degree).

Selection is on basis of acceptable scores on all measures of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), Two years of relevant full-time work experience (post-undergraduate degree), two recomendatiom, Proof of English language proficiency (if English was not language of degree study), formal interview process

Key Recruiters - Asain Development Bank, BMO Capital Mar-kets, Capgemini, Citi Canada, Ernst & Young LLP, Hewlett Packard, IBM Canada Ltd., J.P. Morgan Asset Manage-ment, Oxford Proper-ties Group, Pepsico

Training and Advanced Studies in Management and Communication Ltd. (TASMAC)

http://www.tasmac.ac.in/tasmac-education/academics/gpbl-mba-full-time-programme/

Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Leadership leading to an MBA from the University of Wales, UK - The Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Leadership is awarded from a recognised Central Indian University - IGNOU leading to an MBA from an internationally recognised British University (University of Wales, UK).

1 year Candidates having a graduate degree or a post gradu-ate qualification from a recognised University. IELTS score of 6.5 or TOEFL score of 550 (CBT- 213) or over 55% marks in English language examination in 10th or 12th std examination. Alternatively, TASMAC will con-duct a diagnostic test based on IELTS pattern and the students will be required to achieve a score of 6.5 or above in this test.

Once completed application forms are received, all applicants need to undergo a personal (& in some cases telephonic) interview & English test based on IELTS pattern. If student's first language is not English have an IELTS Score of 6.5 or TOEFL Score of PBT-580 /CBT - 230 /iBT- 89

The entire course fee is Rs 3,15,000, The fee to transfer to University of Wales for en-try into the MBA programme is £155 /- (Rs 11,274)

Key Recruiters are Ac-centure, Citibank, Ernst and Young, ICICI, J P Morgan Services India Ltd. Reuters, TCS, Tata Power, IBM and Gold-man Sachs

Disclaimer - While no effort has been spared in ensuring the accuracy of the information published herein, readers are advised to reconfirm and make appropriate enquiries from the concerned institutes.

Cover Story


FIRST STEP

with their application have a real international spirit, a coherent professional project, and open-mindedness towards people from different cultural backgrounds. All common entrance test scores (CAT, XAT, MAT etc.) ac-cepted by AICTE, India.

Europe likely to be 5000 - 7000 (Rs 3,20,196 - Rs 4,48,173) Euros & for the second year in India - 2000 Eu-ros (1,28,044); if Semester D is done in other country it may be proportionately higher than the cost shown for Europe and India.

MDI Gurgaon http://www.mdi.ac.in/acad_prog/Post_Gradu-ate_programme_interna-tional.asp?id=9

Post Graduate programme in International Management - The programme was launched in collaboration with European School of Management (ESCP-EAP), France. The unique dual degree programme is delivered partly in India (MDI) and partly in Europe (ESCP-EAP campuses). The first phase of the programme is delivered on MDI Campus, at Gurgaon. The second phase of the programme is delivered in Europe at the London, Paris & Turin campuses (English Track).

The programme is spread over six modules. The first three modules spread over 8 months would be de-livered at MDI. The fourth module of 6 months duration would be held at ESCP-EAP Campus. Fifth module will constitute 4 to 6 months of internship in India/ Europe while the sixth module of 1 V2 months would consist of disserta-tion work.

Minimum 3 years Bachelor's degree or equivalent in any discipline recognized by the Association of Indian Universities/AICTE.

Final selection on the basis of GMAT/CAT scores, Group Discussion and Personal Interview.

Total fees - Rs 14,56,000 Average Salary - Rs 12.94 lakh p.a. and Highest Domestic Sal-ary - Rs 15.60 lakh p.a. Recruiters - Aspiring Minds, Avalon Consult-ing, Biocon, Deloitte and RPG. Profiles up for grabs for them were Finance, Consulting, IT, Sales and Marketing, General Management and Operations.

National School of Business, Bangalore

http://www.nsbindia.org/ MBA+PGPM (Dual Degree program) with ESC-Pau, France and Bharathiar University, Deusto Business School, Spain

2 years A Degree from a recognized university. (Applicants waiting for their final year results may also apply. How-ever, such students will be given provisional admission subject to the submission of their final marks sheet).

Any of the management test scores or National School of Business Test, academic performance, work experience, level of maturity and motivation, interview, Extra curricular achievements, honors and awards

Program fee of Rs. 1,80,000 per year, Food & Accommoda-tion charges of Rs.60, 000/- per year.

Highest salary is Rs 6.8 lakh p.a. and the aver-age is Rs 3.8 lakh p.a.

International School for Management Studies (ISMS), Chennai

http://www.mssw.org.in/Courses_Offered.php?subcat_id=220

MBA (USA) - Twinning Programme - Those who have completed the first year program at International School for Management Studies (ISMS), Chennai are eligible to get admission in the second year program which will be conducted by Missouri State University, Springfield, USA. International School for Management Studies is a unit of Madras School of Social Work.

2 years Bachelor’s degree with a minimum 50% of marks in the aggregate in any discipline or a professional qualifica-tion recognized as equivalent to a bachelor’s degree by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. If the applicant is yet to write his final qualifying examina-tion, he/she can apply on the basis of marks already secured subject to a minimum of (50%) in previous examinations.

On a preliminary evaluation of the applications, selected applicants shall be called for an entrance test conducted in Chennai. The written test will be for a total duration of two hours. This test is based on multiple choice objective type questions such as Verbal Reasoning, Management Concepts, Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving, Quantitative Aptitude and current affairs. Based on the performance in the test, applicants will be short listed for an interview, an interview will be held in the premises in Chennai for final selection.

First year at ISMS Chen-nai: Total fees Rs.1,50,000, Second Year fees at MSU, USA - Estimated at US $21,899 (Rs 983,719) in-clusive of tuition, room and board, books, insurance, clothing, transportation and personal expenses. This does not include application fee $50 (Rs 2,246) and airfare to USA and back. Fees are subject to revision every academic year by MSU.

Placements in India and Abroad

Schulich School of Business and S P Jain Institute of Management & Research, Mumbai

http://www.schulich.yorku.ca/client/schulich/Schulich_LP4W_LND_WebStation.nsf/page/India+MBA!Open Document#tabs-1

Schulich MBA in India - Year 1 of your MBA at the Schulich India Campus located at SP Jain Institute of Management and Research in Mumbai., Year 2 of the MBA will take place at the Schulich campus in Toronto, Canada. It begins in August with an International Orientation geared to set you up for success at Schulich and help you transition to life in Canada.

2 years First Class Standing in either of the following: A three year Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree, A four year Bachelor’s degree (e.g. BEng, BPharm, BArch, MBBS), Two years of relevant full-time work experience (post-undergraduate degree).

Selection is on basis of acceptable scores on all measures of the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), Two years of relevant full-time work experience (post-undergraduate degree), two recomendatiom, Proof of English language proficiency (if English was not language of degree study), formal interview process

Key Recruiters - Asain Development Bank, BMO Capital Mar-kets, Capgemini, Citi Canada, Ernst & Young LLP, Hewlett Packard, IBM Canada Ltd., J.P. Morgan Asset Manage-ment, Oxford Proper-ties Group, Pepsico

Training and Advanced Studies in Management and Communication Ltd. (TASMAC)

http://www.tasmac.ac.in/tasmac-education/academics/gpbl-mba-full-time-programme/

Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Leadership leading to an MBA from the University of Wales, UK - The Post Graduate Diploma in Global Business Leadership is awarded from a recognised Central Indian University - IGNOU leading to an MBA from an internationally recognised British University (University of Wales, UK).

1 year Candidates having a graduate degree or a post gradu-ate qualification from a recognised University. IELTS score of 6.5 or TOEFL score of 550 (CBT- 213) or over 55% marks in English language examination in 10th or 12th std examination. Alternatively, TASMAC will con-duct a diagnostic test based on IELTS pattern and the students will be required to achieve a score of 6.5 or above in this test.

Once completed application forms are received, all applicants need to undergo a personal (& in some cases telephonic) interview & English test based on IELTS pattern. If student's first language is not English have an IELTS Score of 6.5 or TOEFL Score of PBT-580 /CBT - 230 /iBT- 89

The entire course fee is Rs 3,15,000, The fee to transfer to University of Wales for en-try into the MBA programme is £155 /- (Rs 11,274)

Key Recruiters are Ac-centure, Citibank, Ernst and Young, ICICI, J P Morgan Services India Ltd. Reuters, TCS, Tata Power, IBM and Gold-man Sachs

Disclaimer - While no effort has been spared in ensuring the accuracy of the information published herein, readers are advised to reconfirm and make appropriate enquiries from the concerned institutes.

Cover Story


FIRST STEP

… says Dr Phillip D Harsha, Interim Dean, Associate Professor - School of Accountancy, College of Business Administration, Missouri State University. With the objective of widening the scope of educational opportunities particularly after the economic reforms in India and the emergence of globalisation, Madras School of Social Work, (MSSW) had entered into an MoU with the Missouri State University, USA for a two-year MBA in the year 1999. Those who have completed the first year program at International School for Management Studies (ISMS), Chennai are eligible to get admission in the second year programme which will be conducted by Missouri State University, Springfield, USA. International School for Management Studies is a unit of Madras School of Social Work. In this e-interview with Sarita Kutty, he outlines the benefits of twinning MBA.

“The twinning MBA will help sharpen the competitive

managerial abilities of students”

Could you tell us about Missouri State University? Missouri State University, USA, a 104 year old institution is the largest and only multipurpose University in Southwest Missouri State, providing graduate programmes in a variety of disciplines. The University provides educational leadership in the region and actively participates in several cooperative programmes with other institutions in the area. Missouri State University has an extensive campus of 225 acres in Central Springfield.

MSU is a Metropolitan University, which is committed to creating a teaching and learning environment, which maximises the student’s education. Its programme in business in the College of Business Administration (COBA) at MSU has been awarded accreditation by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), an honour that can be claimed only by the top 10 percent of all business schools in USA, MSU is the

only AACSB accredited University of Missouri. On the twinning concept… Twinning is an innovative concept, which widens the scope of educational opportunities. It is put into practice in two phases; the first year in India and the second year at MSU Springfield, USA. Through the twinning MBA, we aim to provide a high quality professional education in business management, besides a broad based spectrum of the functional area of business. Besides, the programme will help develop and sharpen the competitive managerial abilities of students to enable them excel in the global marketplace. It will also facilitate the development of a class network that is both long-lasting and far-reaching in its effects. Please tell us about the eligibility criteria.The students have to complete the first year of the Twinning MBA programme at ISMS, Chennai and be

Admission Q&A


FIRST STEP

eligible to join the second year MBA at MSU, USA after getting valid GMAT/GRE,TOEFL/IELTS score and VISA.

Academic year at ISMS consists of two semesters. The first semester begins in July and ends in November. The Second semester runs from January to April. The students who complete the 1 year course successfully will be issued a course completion certificate by ISMS.

Could you throw light on the admission procedure? On a preliminary evaluation of the applications, selected applicants shall be called for an entrance test conducted in Chennai. The written test will be for a total duration of two hours. This test is based on multiple choice objective type questions such as Verbal Reasoning, Management Concepts, Data Sufficiency, Problem Solving, Quantitative Aptitude and current affairs.

Based on the performance in the test, applicants will be short listed for an interview. Candidates finally selected for admission will be notified through post and their registration numbers published on the notice board. The selection will be automatically cancelled if they fail to register on or before the date mentioned in the information card. What about the eligibility for admission? The applicant must hold a bachelor’s degree with a minimum 50 percent of marks in the aggregate in any discipline or a professional qualification recognised as

equivalent to a bachelor’s degree by the Ministry of Education, Government of India.

If the applicant is yet to write his final qualifying examination, he/she can apply on the basis of marks already secured subject to a minimum of (50%) in previous examinations. But at the time of course commencement, the applicant has to fulfill the required conditions as stipulated with regard to the eligibility. Could you tell us a little about the specialisations offered at COBA?The College of Business Administration (COBA), MSU USA offers specialization in various areas like Accounting, Finance, Computer Information System, Marketing, Logistics, International Business and the likes. The students shall be assisted to choose the best elective based on their interest, qualification and career objective. Further, ISMS has qualified and experienced faculty with excellent track record from a pool of academicians and professionals. Besides these, the Institute also has the support of eminent guest lecturers and senior professors from MSU who periodically visit the campus.

What’s more is that ISMS adopts a flexible approach to modes of instruction. Though the case method is used extensively, lectures are also given especially for theoretical subjects. Other modes of instruction include group discussions, seminars, guest lectures, business games, audio-visual instructions and research assignments.

Admission Q&A

CAREERS WATCH


Marketing as a career

The general perception is that marketing is a “creative profession”. If truth be told, like

all other professions, marketing is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration.

Marketing is the profession which tries to develop products and services to suit consumer needs –

and do it better than the competition. All careers in marketing flow from this activity.

Careers in marketingTo develop products and services to suit consumer needs, you first need to know what these needs are. This

is the job of the Market Researcher, who constantly collects feedback from consumers in order to track trends. This information is collected from surveys and social media and needs both quantitative analysis, thus necessitating comfort levels with numbers and qualitative analysis,

A career in Marketing is an exciting one. It constantly throws up new situations and you meet people across all strata of society. And, at the end of the day, it boils down to how well you understand and empathise with people.

In Focus

Srinivas Govindrajan

CAREERS WATCH


necessitating a good understanding of sociology and psychology. The information obtained needs to be designed into a product or service. This is the job of the Brand Manager or Product Manager. There are two tasks to be performed here. The first is designing a product or service; the second is a clear communication of this to the consumers. For this task, the Brand Manager works closely with the team handling Integrated Marketing Communications (erstwhile Advertising using print, television and radio). Over the last decade, the Net has emerged as a powerful medium offering various points of touch with the customer. The Advertising Agency continues to handle communication, but has a higher degree of specialisation. The Client Servicing or Account Management team interfaces with the Brand Manager to design the communication. The Media

Planners decide the best media to be used for communicating this message. The Media Buyers negotiate rates with the media. The Event Management Team designs and executes events, which could range from the organisation of the Miss India contest to a cultural festival in an IIT. The Social Media team harnesses the potential of the Net and that includes Social Networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Ideal qualitiesUnderstanding the consumers’ need and translating it into a product or service is just half the job done. This now needs to reach the consumer – and that is equally, if not more, challenging. This is the job of the Sales team. The technical qualification needed will depend on the nature of the product. For technical products such as IT

Hardware or Financial Services, a high level of relevant technical competence is required. Most successful Marketing professionals have started their career in Sales – that’s where one gets the feel of the real marketplace. In consumer goods, the consumer comes to buy from an outlet – which is known as the Retail outlet. Till about 7 years ago, retail outlets were usually small family-run enterprises, known as “Mom and Pop Stores”. Today, the emergence of larger players offering “standardised” stores in multiple formats has ensured an emerging career in Retail. Careers in Retail are also getting specialised. The Merchandiser in the Retail Industry has a role similar to that of the Brand or Product Manager described above. The Category Manager in the Retail Industry has a role similar to that of the Sales team described earlier while the Visual Merchandiser handles the in store communication.

The relationship with the customer needs to extend beyond the purchase. Hence, retaining a customer is an integral part of Marketing. Rapid strides in Information Technology have made communication with consumers easier. Retaining customers and trying to ensure loyalty is handled by Customer Relationship Managers (CRM).

Srinivas Govindrajan, B.Com (Utkal), PGDM (IIM Ahmedabad), has been a celebrated professor of marketing at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar from 1989 to 2005 and was Director, IBAT School of Management from 2005 to 2006 before joining Praxis Business School as Dean. His team’s work on innovative methods of revenue collection mechanisms in rural areas has been incorporated in the Electricity Act, 2003 and has been appreciated by leading development banks, including the World Bank. He has worked in the industry for six years and this includes stints at PricewaterhouseCoopers and MAA Bozell. He has been a visiting faculty at XLRI, Jamshedpur since 1995 and is currently an Adjunct Faculty at XIMB in addition to being Dean at Praxis. He is also a visiting professor at IIM Lucknow. His teaching interests include brand management and sales & distribution management. His classes create an atmosphere that encourages energetic discussion and debate.

In Focus

CAREERS WATCH


“Ernst & Young has increased campus hiring

by 25 percent from last year”… says Ernst & Young’s Americas Director of Campus Recruiting Dan Black. According to him, Ernst & Young firms plans to hire approximately 6,000 students for internships or entry level positions in the Americas this year, an increase over last year’s hiring numbers. This large shift in generational demographics has required Ernst & Young to adapt quickly to the changing needs and desires of its people and recruits. The organisation is going into this year’s peak recruitment season with

new and creative strategies to connect with potential recruits. In this e-interview with Sarita Kutty, Dan shares the changing trend in organisations while hiring new talent.

What do you look for while recruiting?We want people with a clear sense of personal and professional accountability, who exercise sound judgment and common sense and build relationships based on doing the right thing. Further, they should be high performers, who consistently deliver quality work while continually looking for ways to improve.

We also look for people who recognise the value of different backgrounds, perspectives and experiences. By respecting these differences, we enrich our perspectives and enhance the services we provide to our clients. Besides, we look for evidence that individuals are good at listening, learning, sharing, developing and working together to achieve more for our people and our clients.To say the least, we want people who demonstrate drive, vision and determination and are passionate and excited about the opportunities at Ernst & Young, their futures and achieving their potential. They should also understand and thrive on the challenges of working in a professional services environment and are focused on achieving and delivering the best for our clients.

Moreover, when it comes to job prospects for top students, it is still a buyer’s market for the best buyers. We

are constantly raising our game and thinking about new and innovative ways to connect with these top students.

Could you tell us about some of Ernst & Young’s new campus recruitment strategies?There is no shortage of opportunities for those students who are entering the job market and in order to reach the top candidates, the approach to attract and hire the best, must be proactive and strategic. There is a critical importance in understanding the trends and gaps in crucial talent pools within and without the organisation. This can propel the talent acquisition team from a back office transactional service to a proactive and strategic partner.

Ernst & Young LLP will hire approximately 5,000 students from campuses across the US in the 2010-2011 academic year. The firm increased campus hiring 25 percent from last year and has introduced several new initiatives to recruit top talent.

Hiring the best and the brightest is always a priority for Ernst & Young, including in a down economy, but this past year, the competition for top talent heated up as the economy improved. We are increasing our hires from campus, as well as interns, as we are seeing

Recruiter Q&A

CAREERS WATCH


increased demand from our clients, particularly in the areas of Advisory and Transactions.

We also launched a number of new programmes to strengthen our ability to attract top talent in the past year including:Global Student Exchange Program: The new internship programme offers overseas assignments for select summer interns. Internships start at US office locations, then participants spend four weeks abroad at another Ernst & Young office within the organisation’s global network that spans more than 140 countries. Students then return and complete their internship at their US home office. This year 35 Ernst & Young interns will participate in the Global Student Exchange Program, including US students going abroad and non-US students on assignment from other countries.

Today’s students desire international career opportunities and with good reason. The world is more globalised and interconnected than ever before and our clients increasingly want to work with people who have international experience. This programme extends our efforts to provide meaningful internship opportunities that help students develop a global mindset.EY Quiz: A pioneer in connecting with college students via social media, Ernst & Young LLP continued to find innovative ways to connect with the college crowd this year by launching EY Quiz, a branded game and contest for students via mobile devices. The application quizzes participants on their knowledge of accounting and Ernst & Young over several weeks. Users of the application can access the quiz through QR codes found in on-campus advertising, through Ernst & Young’s Careers page on Facebook, or through Ernst & Young’s mobile careers site, (ey.mobi). As grand prizes at the conclusion of the content, the top three highest scoring players were each awarded an Apple iPad.

How do you harness the potential of social networking sites?Ernst & Young LLP in the US was the first professional services firm to launch a careers page on Facebook in 2006 and, since that time, the firm has continued to find innovative ways to reach campus audiences.

For instance, text polling, was used at the firm’s four-day International Intern Leadership Conference in Orlando this year. Text polling allowed more than 1,600 Ernst & Young LLP employees and interns to participate actively in presentations throughout the event, and it will be an important part of Ernst & Young LLP’s presentations on campus this year.

Ernst & Young LLP is also increasing its focus on mobile initiatives and advertising on lifestyle websites such as Pandora, Facebook and Yahoo!. Pandora, the internet radio site, features three Ernst & Young radio playlists that were chosen by the 2010 summer interns as part of an intern competition. Based on market research and analysis, Ernst & Young has determined that more than 50 percent of its target recruitment audience said that

they would be interested in receiving more information about potential employers on their mobile devices. Ernst & Young still maintains a strong focus on Facebook with more than 50,000 fans on its careers page.

In addition to social and new media initiatives, Ernst & Young will continue a programme called Your World, Your Vision, which awards $10,000 to three winning teams who submit proposals on how to positively impact their community. Ernst & Young has also added a program to its recruitment strategy this year called the Global Student Exchange Program. Recognising the desire among today’s students for international career opportunities and mobility, Ernst & Young is now offering overseas assignments for select interns during their summer internship programme.

The new internship programme

offers overseas assignments for select summer

interns. Internships start at US office

locations, and then at other Ernst &

Young office within the organisation’s

global network.

Recruiter Q&A

MBA BUZZ


Back to the rootsThe scope of

Agribusiness Management

The term agribusiness was coined by renowned Harvard academician, Prof Ray Goldberg in the mid-1950s. It entered management academic circles in the late 1950s. India is no novice to agribusiness management as a systematic methodology and study, yet it continues to find avenues to expand in this sector. Owing to its large rural population, India has always been an agrarian nation despite the sudden growth in the technology and services sectors. According to industry research the total rural market in India is larger than its urban counterpart. Serena Kallian explores the vast opportunities that agribusiness has opened up for value addition, packaging, retailing and export of agricultural products with high application of technology and management.

The major part of the Indian population is dependent on agriculture and this sector also

supplies raw material for various other industries. If one looks at the recent trends in the Gross Domestic Product of India then one can note the recent rise in the Indian economy by

7.8 percent in year ending March 31 2011. Compared to the previous five quarters in the year the growth pace may seem slow. But the sectors which registered significant growth rates are agriculture, forestry and fishing at 7.5 percent. Trends also indicate a rise in farm output by 7.5 percent. All this

implies a favourable environment for the agro and allied sectors.

Agribusiness is considered to be a complex system. It includes an input sector, production sector, processing, manufacturing sector and transport and marketing sector. Therefore, it is directly related to industry, commerce and trade. Industry is concerned with the production of commodities and materials while commerce and trade are concerned with their distribution. There are several industries that have been identified within the field of agribusiness. These have been broadly classified into three categories, namely, extractive, genetic and manufacturing. Extractive industries would include fishing, fruit gathering, agro-based industries and forestation. Genetic, on the other hand, deals with the breeding of plants, seeds, cattle, poultry, fish, etc. Processing is part of the manufacturing industries.

At whom is the programme targeted?Agribusiness management as a specialisation is today an essential option of several renowned business schools in India and abroad. It is offered as one of the electives in the

Special Report

Courtesy: google images

MBA BUZZ


second year of a two-year fulltime general MBA programme by a few international colleges or as a specialised management programme by management institutes here in India. The agribusiness management programme aims to prepare students for managerial and entrepreneurial careers in agriculture and allied sectors. Some of the areas of opportunity include production and marketing of inputs such as seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, farm machinery and equipment, livestock feed, irrigation and credit; procurement, production, processing and marketing of the output of the agro-sectors such as fisheries, forestry, livestock, crops, food processing and diary marketing.

These courses admit participants from various backgrounds and work experience. What counts is the motivation to make a career in this field.

Kedar Kumar, who is currently in the rural banking sector and an alumnus of IIM-A’s agribusiness programme, speaks of the transition that has taken place in the target group for this course, “In the early 90s at the time I had joined IIM A there were not many institutes that offered programmes on agribusiness/rural

management. IRMA and IIMA were the only two well-known institutes offering such an option for students from the agriculture background. The programme was aimed largely at aspirants who were already working in the sector. Having some sort of know how of the field was necessary. Today, the programme admits candidates from any discipline with adequate experience or interest in the field of agribusiness.”

Many institutes do not insist on a background in agriculture or its allied fields. When it comes to the

selection criteria however having a sound understanding and a working knowledge of this field can be an added advantage.

Rising enrollmentIn the Indian context, formerly, the rural and development sector, which also included the agriculture sector had graduates coming from the social sciences or agricultural and diary sciences. They usually focused on developmental issues and were ignorant of market needs. One must also note that the focus of a rural management programme is different from that of agribusiness.

Management graduates who came from some of the leading institutes in those days were not equipped enough to handle the problems of the rural markets and were inefficacious as managers in this sector. In India, formal education for this space was first thought of by IRMA in 1979 when it was established. According to Prof M S Sriram a faculty member at IIM-A notes in his article on ‘Rural management education in India - a retrospect’ that when IRMA was established in the late 70s, there were very few management schools offering MBAs like IIM A,

The agribusiness management

programme aims to prepare students

for managerial and entrepreneurial

careers in agriculture and allied sectors.

Special Report


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B , C, XLRI, FMS, MDI or JBIMS. Among them, IIM-A used to offer a specialisation package in agriculture (SPA) to interested students coming from the agricultural or allied sciences background and today, it has a fulltime PGP programme in agribusiness. IRMA was, however, a pioneer institute to bridge the knowledge/talent gap in the rural and development sector. In the recent years, several newly established institutes are offering specialised MBA for agribusiness or the rural and development sector. Prominent among them are IIM Lucknow, Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar’s (XIMB) Rural Management Programme, MANAGE in Hyderabad, XIDAS Jabalpur, Indian Institute of Rural Management at Jaipur, VAMNICOM at Pune, NIAM at Jaipur, Indian Institute of Plantation Management (IIPM) in Bangalore and the IIFM [designed by IIMA, but largely on the lines of IRMA] in Bhopal.

With commercialisation and the importance of consumerism today, agribusiness has departed from a sole focus in developmental issues to include the market and trade needs. This change has been incorporated within the academic realms of business education. The course curriculum of a fulltime agribusiness management programme usually includes the following areas of study: general management subjects like finance, marketing, IT, systems and human resources and specialised areas such as agribusiness project management, agricultural input marketing, rural research methods, supply chain management in agribusiness contract farming, rural microfinance, management of food processing, dairy and poultry industry, agro-chemical industry, farm equipment, horticulture, rural advertising, rural marketing, rural financial services and carbon markets.

An important aspect of an agribusiness management course apart from its thrust on the sectoral topics, is the practical module. This particular addition in the curriculum prepares its participants to understand the workings of the industry at the

grassroots in a limited time. They learn to handle projects in the field, interact with farmers, understand the rural setup and activities, etc. This is however, only at a cursory level in some cases. IIM A has developed what is known as the Rural Immersion Module (RIM) in which students of this course visit a village for a cumulative period of 20 days. The principal objective of the module is to provide students an opportunity to interact with rural people, thereby exposing them to rural lifestyle, values, society, institutions and economy.

Career opportunities and placement trendsThe agribusiness management programme aims to prepare students for managerial and entrepreneurial careers in enterprises serving or dependent on agriculture and allied sectors. Excellent opportunities are available for careers in upcoming agribusiness sectors like retail management, micro finance, agricultural input companies, food processing industries, rural marketing, international agricultural trade, commodity exchanges, rural financial institutions, market research in agribusiness and NGOs engaged in rural development.

Kedar Kumar feels that most organisations or agribusiness companies absorb graduates from such programmes as management trainees. “The compensation and the role will differ from one organization to

the other but the designation that one begins with is that of a management trainee. As it is with most companies one would be under probation for a period of, say 6 months to a year before one is expected to perform well in that discipline.” With more international firms displaying an interest in the Indian markets and the economy opening up agribusiness professionals are at a much better position in terms of job opportunities.

Some of the popular recruiters in this sector include companies or organisations like Amul, Bayer Crop Science, Mahindra & Mahindra (farm implements), Britannia India Ltd, Marico, Mapro, Cadburys, Cargill Foods, DSCL, Harrison Malayalam (RPG group), NCDEX, Friends of Women’s World Banking, Synthite Industries, Global AgriSystem, Tata Rallis, ICICI Bank, Union Bank, ITC etc These companies usually recruit management graduates through their campus placement programmes. Graduates get on an average of 7-8 Lakhs per annum as CTC through campus recruitments.

Dr. Kamal Mathur, Director at NIAM, Jaipur explains the different options available after an agribusiness management and the sector’s stability factor “This sector has been partially immune to the effects of the financial crisis of 2008-09, remunerations were down a little, but on the whole, roles were not affected. This sector promises great stability to individuals who seek to build a long-lasting career in agribusiness.

Among the various areas in this field, the inputs sector has come up as a major recruiter. Earlier the trend belonged to that of the commodities and retail who recruited in huge numbers. Private Banks that have been strengthening their agribusiness departments in the past have also made major contributions to this sector in terms of job opportunities. If more banks follow suit in developing their agribusiness plans then there would be a host of opportunities for interested professionals especially in micro finance, lending, insurance in the rural areas.” Industry experts expect processing to be an important segment within the agro-sector in the future.

With more international

firms displaying an interest in the Indian markets,

agribusiness professionals are at a much better

position in terms of job opportunities.

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“Remunerations are no longer a constraint in the

agriculture sector”

Sudhir Bhargava, Director at Agroman Systems Pvt Ltd has had 15 years of experience in various segments and especially in agriculture consulting. A passionate entrepreneur, Bhargava shares his views and valuable insights in an interview with Serena Kallian.

What have been the industry trends with the agribusiness sector so far? In your opinion what are some of the challenges that India faces in this context?In recent times, there has been tremendous growth in the agribusiness sector especially in the agriculture input segment. By agriculture inputs, we mean seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, credit etc. Inputs would also include advising farmers effectively in all the areas mentioned earlier. This has become an important aspect of the agribusiness industry as needs have become crucial at the grassroots. As markets experience rapid growth, a lot of importance is placed on marketing, sale of products and management of the chain and cycles involved. At the same time, while we are speaking of growing trends we must understand that competition in the market is also increasing.

In addition to that India has witnessed an abundance of inputs in this field. In order to cope with this situation, the industry needs effective leadership and management. The industry also needs individuals who have expertise or a thorough understanding of the core areas along with good managerial and marketing skills. However, India’s biggest challenge has been a shortage of quality and highly skilled and trained talent in this sector.

What are the areas within the agro/agribusiness sector where management graduates are usually absorbed and the roles that they take up in the agribusiness sector? In other words what are the opportunities they have in this field?If you look at the present market trends, large numbers of agribusiness management graduates join banking, followed by fertilizer companies, poultry industry which has seen rapid growth in the past few years owing to the private sector and the pesticide industry. Apart from these, farm implements are another area where individuals with an agricultural or agribusiness background are preferred for jobs. This is also a segment which has seen a lot of entrepreneurial activity. Agricultural research or research management, agri-insurance, Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies also absorb many management graduates with a background in agribusiness.

Graduates in this field who come without any work experience are taken in as trainees by most companies. Individuals with considerable work experience are usually

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considered for executive or senior level roles in agro-based companies. Larger corporate companies usually prefer recruiting graduates through campus placements. Being in the right institute is therefore important at the initial level. The background or the institute does not matter after a certain point within the company as employees undergo a lot of job rotations and promotions are based on individual performance.

As an expert in this field, who, according to you would be an ideal person to take up a career in agribusiness or the allied sector;what kind of attributes or skills should he/she possess to ensure success in this field?Usually there is no such thing as an ideal profile for a career in agribusiness but having a background or core knowledge of the subject area is a preferred factor. Areas such as agriculture inputs and research generally prefer people with an academic or work experience background in agriculture or the allied sectors.

Most jobs in this field are not the typical desk job but involve a lot of field work and interactions with customers, companies, etc. The customers in this case may include farmers and merchants So, having good managerial and interpersonal skills would be an added advantage. The person should have the skill to convert scientific knowledge to commercial knowledge for application purposes.

There are a few programmes which specialise in Agribusiness management started by management institutes in the country; do you think they help effectively bridge the knowledge or talent gap that may exist in this sector? Isn’t a general MBA a safer bet?It would not be right to compare the two programmes since their focus is entirely different. Choice of a programme is also individual -dependent. If you are certain about a longlasting career in the agribusiness field then doing a specialised programme may be a good choice. An agribusiness management programme equips individuals with a deeper understanding of the

sector and its stakeholders. It is also a good opportunity to enter this field if one comes from disciplines other than agriculture sciences.

Many MBAs hold back from a career in agribusiness or the allied fields because they feel that the remuneration is not on par with other sectors like. What are your thoughts on that?I can confidently say that today remunerations are no more a constraint or a concern in the agriculture sector. Compensations have improved a lot and there are a lot of perks involved in the business. However, it wouldn’t be right if you had to compare it with other sectors like IT because the nature of growth has been different. There are companies that offer attractive compensations-in

some cases, may be, even more than what general MBAs probably get in the other fields.

What are your expectations for the future of this industry? Your words of advice to all aspirants who wish to follow in your steps...Today the agribusiness sector is exposed to a lot of technology and marketing methods. This needs to be further tapped and utilised effectively. In the future, I see agribusiness managers utilising a variety of effective marketing tools, technology and obtaining greater penetration into the rural markets. My advice to all interested individuals would be to have a focused approach and obtain as much industry /field exposure as possible.

Areas such as agriculture inputs

and research generally prefer people with an

academic or work experience background in

agriculture or the allied sectors.


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Not everyone is a straight A-grader throughout school and college. And not everyone is a ‘star’ performer at work. The fact of the matter is that

though as humans we try to quantify a lot of aspects in our life, we still remain a subjective lot shaped by our achievements and failures.

Your Intelligence Quotient v/s Emotional QuotientGetting a 99 percentile in your CAT or a 720+ in your GMAT is not always a confirmed entry ticket to a good B-school. Student discussions on the websites of top schools at the time of admissions clearly reveal cases, where students have a 99 percentile score in their tests, clear all section cut-offs, have great academic credentials, and yet are rejected. The reason for this lies in the selection process of top B-schools that want students with IQ as well as EQ. Sure enough, numbers are important but they don’t form the whole of the selection process. B-schools want individuals who will ‘fit-in’ yet ‘stand-out’ amongst their cohort. They want individuals who have the ability to motivate their subordinates, individuals who don’t buckle under pressure, who are open to criticism and can celebrate their wins. In all, top schools are looking out for individuals who are confident and dynamic. Kara Keenan, Associate Director of Admissions, Marketing & Financial Aid MBA Programme, INSEAD says that the application review process at INSEAD is holistic where four factors are equally weighed: academic capacity, leadership potential and professional experience, international outlook, and ability to contribute to the INSEAD experience. “Managing the balance between a tough work and social life, along with a thirst for fun, learning and a willingness to share individual experiences with other students, is essential for our candidates.”

Are you an Average student? Reach out to Top B-schools

Everyone wants to make it to a top B-school. A perusal of the Class Profiles of top B-schools clearly shows off a breed of students who are great in their academics, extra curricular activities, work profiles etc. A ‘common student’ (much like the ‘common man’) feels alienated in this breed of overachievers. Most students thus end up feeling that the top schools are meant for the ‘A+’ graders, the 99 percentile scorers or top class executives employed in top class corporations. So, before you slot yourself as an ‘average student’ and believe that you are beyond the realms of the top B-school brass, you need to reassess yourself, finds Gauri Puranik.

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Having said the above, students should have something on their résumé that proves that they are good number-crunchers and good at absorbing large amount of data. This is especially important as the curriculum is rigorous and needs students to have a certain level of Math and Calculus skills. Every day at B-schools involves analysis of case studies that run into pages. So if you don’t have great academic credentials, at least strive for a good GMAT/CAT score, if you don’t have that too, at least ensure that you have proven your worth through your job.

Being efficient v/s being effectiveThere is a difference between being ‘efficient’ and being ‘effective’. Being efficient is doing your task well, while effectiveness is doing a task well and moving ahead in the right direction. Top B-schools look

for individuals who are on a growth curve and moving fast along it. The sum of your achievements should thus show a progression. If you have

work experience, your career path should show an upward trend and not be stagnant. Where your academics are concerned, it will definitely help if you have remained consistent or improved in your academic performance and also taken part in extra and co-curricular activities each year. You may or may not win in all competitions but the initiative to participate is important as it displays your urge to ‘learn’.

Being social v/s creating social impactNetworking and being social is an important aspect of B-school education. But a top B-school is especially impressed with individuals who along with being social are also ‘socially conscious individuals’. Social impact is part of the core values of top B-schools – this may be in the form of betterment of the underprivileged, physically challenged, the elderly or in the form of green initiatives, corruption free practices, etc. Such activities prove to the School that you are made of a tough ethical fiber and have a conscience that goes beyond material benefits. As Princess Cox, Interim Director of MBA Marketing and Admissions of Rotterdam School

of Management, Erasmus University, puts it, “RSM is the business school that thinks and lives in the future and

Did you know that a UPS package handler has made it to Harvard Business School in the past?

According to the account written by Ismael D. Tabije, the student in question was academically average when he attended Idaho State University and started off his career as a $8/hour UPS package handler. The applicant first changed his focus from why he didn’t belong at Harvard Business School to why he did. So in spite of starting his career as a UPS package handler, he talked about how within months he ended up leading a team of 50 package handlers.

He explained the conflict issues within his team and how they constantly fought and bickered with each other. He discussed how he figured out the cause of the real problem, what he thought to himself at the time, and what he did about it.

Finally, he talked about the results he achieved - how within 90 days it was one of the best running teams in the sorting facility. He did all this when he was only 22 years old.

The applicant had no major extra curricular credentials or hobbies either. But he did tell them how later in his life he lived in the inner city of Chicago while working for a well-known company. He shared how as a tall “white” guy he mentored dozens of African-American teenagers that lived on his block. He talked about how he was a role model, a leader really, that helped the kids on his block steer their lives away from drugs and violence. He discussed what happened to the neighborhood kids when he moved out of Chicago. These teenagers had become leaders themselves and took over from where he left off by getting their friends to stay away from drugs and violence.

This applicant demonstrated his success in one of the toughest leadership challenges -- creating leaders. Only 10% of the applicants are accepted at Harvard Business School and 20% out of these are accepted without a personal interview. This applicant was one of them.

What helped him was the fact that he ‘Believed’. He believed and therefore he acted and put forth his unique story.

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the future of business is sustainability. We expect our student body to not only have top-notch academic ability and business potential but also to reflect our core values of critical thinking, innovation and sustainability. In our experience, candidates that immerse themselves in social responsibility initiatives actively demonstrate these values.”

Fit with your Goals v/s Fit with the SchoolIt is pointless applying to a school only because it is a ‘top school’. A student needs to carefully look whether she has carefully chalked out her career goals and mapped these well with what the school has to offer. For example, a student’s career goal may involve starting a venture that deals in the healthcare sector, but the school that she applies to may not have the electives, or the faculty or recruiters in the sector in spite of being a top school. It will thus be wiser on the student’s part to apply to a school that offers all these though it may be a mediocre ranked school. Many a time, students get rejected by top schools because they are not able to justify their reasons for choosing the school.

You need to dedicate some time on the net and chat with the alumni and student ambassadors of the school to find if you will fit well with the school. When you go about doing this, there will be some schools that you will feel at home with while some may make you feel completely out of place. Go with your instincts and couple it with the information gathered to make an informed decision.

Knowing you are good v/s Communicating you are GoodMany students know that they are good but they fail to communicate their qualities to the Admissions Committee through their admission essays or letters of recommendation. Jodi Schafer Director, MBA Admissions & Financial Aid at University of Iowa, Henry B. Tippie School of Management says that essays and recommendations are

an important part of the application process because they give the admissions committee a glimpse into the candidate’s personality, allowing the committee to better understand whether the candidate will be a good fit for the programme. “We frequently see essays where the person never actually answers the question. It is not in the candidate’s best interest to leave things open to interpretation since the admissions committee may not interpret their answer the way the writer intended,” adds Jodi.

Applicants need to mull over their achievements, failures, their

future career goals, their understanding of success, ethics and values before they start working on their applications.

Last but not the least, consider if you are only complaining or fighting it out When you purchase anything, you ensure that you get the best. Why then blame the B-schools if they look out for the best students? Stop complaining. Instead, start working on raising the bar and filling the loopholes in your profile, be it in the entrance test scores, your work profile, your career path, the organisation that you work for or your social initiatives. Remember, you have to earn the medals if you want to be among the best.

Being Average in Academics ≠ Being an Average Student

Career Goals + Your Profile = B School Fit

Personal Success + Professional Success = Achievement

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Advanc’edge MBA July 2011

MBA BUZZ


Each of the top five rankings, have their own strengths as well as their weaknesses.

While US News and Business Week rankings are more skewed towards US schools, the Economist and the Financial Times rakings prefer to reserve the top places for European schools. While some look at easily quantifiable factors like GMAT scores, average salaries, number of

professors and teaching facilities, there are still others that give a deeper insight by calculating the returns on investment, 5 year gains, alumni perceptions etc. At times seemingly deserving schools are completely left out much to the disappointment of the school authorities and their alumni. While on other occasions, a school may suddenly rise or dip more than 20 places in the rankings as compared

to the previous year. No matter what their flaws, the top five rankings give MBA aspirants a good enough lead in their B-school research. Read on to understanding what to carry home and what to leave out in case of each of the rankings.

The sample sizeEach of the top five ranking bodies base their B-school rankings on a

B-school rankings Reality and Reliability

One can plan one’s journey only if one knows the destination. Short listing schools is a crucial aspect of any MBA aspirant’s application process. Many applicants access popular MBA sites, discussion forums, blogs and even do a thorough research on the schools and programmes. But the starting point of this process is always the school rankings. MBA aspirants refer to the ‘Big 5’ ranking sites viz. Business Week, US News, Financial Times, Economist and the Forbes MBA ranking to get an inkling of the school’s standing and credibility. Gauri Puranik explores the reliability of these rankings.


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Sample Details Financial Times

Business Week

Forbes Economist USNews

Schools Contacted 156 139 111 132 437Schools Rejected (low response)

48 25 -- 17 39

Alumni/ Graduates Contacted

21238 86000 -- 18712 --

Alumni/ Graduates Responses

8000 28377 25000 -- --

Corporate Recruiters -- 775 -- -- --Recruiters Response -- 246 -- -- --

sizeable sample. The effort in gaining the responses from the schools, alumni and the recruiters itself gives ample credibility to the rankings. Also, all ranking bodies ensure that they are statistically correct at the outset by rejecting responses that do not meet standard benchmarks: for example, many schools are eliminated from ranking due to the low response by the alumni/ graduates of the schools. Response rates are calculated as a percentage of responses received to the total sent for a particular school. Overall response rate is based on the response rates of all schools. Mostly it has been observed that ranking bodies ensure that they have at least a 20% response rate before they consider the school for ranking. The table below gives an indication of the sample size for the latest rankings compiled by different ranking bodies.

The evaluationAfter a set sample, what gains relevance is the parameters on which the schools are ranked. For example, Business Week, one of the first

comprehensive MBA rankings, base the school rankings on three crucial considerations: the school feedback, the student and alumni feedback and

the recruiter feedback. Also while taking feedback from these three resources, Business Week asks them to respond to questions that ‘really matter’. Questions in the survey focus around the faculty enthusiasm in teaching, the quality of the student cohort and whether students believe that their B-school education has really added value to their thinking.

While Business Week concentrates on the entire MBA experience, the Financial Times Rankings put a lot of emphasis on the five-year MBA gain. Alumni graduates are surveyed three years after they complete their studies to assess the impact of their MBA on their career progression. Criteria like ‘weighted salary (US$)’, ‘placement success rank’, ‘alumni recommend rank’ and ‘international mobility rank’ compiled from the responses of the alumni render an element of objectivity to the FT survey. Also the FT survey is truly global in nature as it does not slot the schools as ‘US’ and Non-US’ while ranking them.

The Forbes Ranking keeps it simple. The ranking considers the pre-MBA and post-MBA salaries, the cost of study and the opportunity cost to arrive at a ranking based on returns on investment and the payback period i.e. the number of years required to gain back the costs that you incur to study MBA. Though factual and based on an important criterion of financial returns, the Forbes ranking takes a very myopic view in ranking MBA programmes. For the fact of the matter is that, the benefits of an MBA go much beyond the monetary returns. The actual returns are embedded in the experience of the programme and your learning from interaction with a vibrant, knowledge-based community that includes students, faculty, and industry experts.

The US News gathers data from an array of ranking parameters like interviews with programme directors and deans, average undergraduate GPAs, average GMAT scores, starting salaries bonuses, employment rates and recruiter inputs. There is just one major lacuna in the US rankings, ie, it is completely US centric. There are many non-US programmes that are

Questions in the survey focus

around the faculty enthusiasm in teaching, the quality of the

student cohort and whether

students believe that their B-school

education has really added value to their thinking.

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Percentage weightage given to various parametersEvaluation Parameters Financial

TimesBusiness

WeekForbes Econo-

mistUS

NewsStudent Feedback/ Selection parameters (average test scores, student diversity, peer assessment, work experience, teaching quality)

50 45 -- 35 25

Placement Success (Return on investment, payback, Recruiter feedback, average salaries and bonuses, career services)

40 45 100 55 50

Intellectual Capacity/Quality Parameters (student facilities, number of faculty publications, research areas)

10 10 -- 10 25

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much better than the US programmes ranked in US News. The US News ranking is thus your best bet only if you plan to apply to US schools.

The Economist rankings show great variations with schools moving up and down the ranks. For example,Melbourne Business School which was ranked 17th in the 2009 ranking dropped to 44th rank in 2010 or Cambridge Judge which was 11th in 2009 was on the 30th rank in the 2010 ranking. The Economist ranking gives high weightage to career opportunities and aspects like average GMAT score and average years of work experience of the student body. Though based on a proper statistical survey, the Economist ranking does raise eyebrows when it places University of California Haas above Wharton and Stanford.

The shortcomingsEach of the rankings discussed above have their own shortcomings. All in all, the Business Week and the Financial Times rankings are indicative of a typical MBA aspirant’s expectations

from a ranking body. MBA applicants are however advised to draw their own shortlist based on factors that are important and unique to them. Most of the top five ranking bodies do provide a facility for students to do just this. However, there are some caveats that students must bear in mind while drawing such a shortlist: } If a ranking survey relies heavily

on factors like student feedback, faculty, dean and programme director feedback, then there is a chance that some of the information may be presented in a favourable light to push the school higher in the rankings. The objectivity is thus diluted in such cases.

} Watch out for huge variations in the rankings. If you have a particular school in mind, look out if the school is ranked consistently in the same range across the various ranking bodies.

} Don’t judge a school only on the basis of quantifiable factors like salaries, cost of study, average test scores etc. Aspects like the

student and faculty network, from which students can reap benefits way into the future, should also be factored in, while shortlisting schools.

} Read in between the lines for parameters like return on investment. For example, the cost of study will always be less for one-year programmes as compared to two-year programmes thus displaying a better return on investment for such programmes. Certain rankings like Forbes apply an undisclosed formula to adjust the cost of living and exchange rates while calculating the return on investment. Also, average salaries will be higher in case of schools that place a greater proportion of students in the finance sector. Such schools will have little to offer in case your career goals lie in the NGO sector.

Lastly, use the rankings as a good guide to draw an initial shortlist of schools and accept them with a pinch of salt.


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What led you to do an MBA and why did you choose to pursue your MBA from abroad? A mistake of not studying hard enough in my 12th standard (HSC) exams yielded me marks that could not get me admission in Mumbai for a professional degree course. Neither did I want to pursue my bachelors away from Mumbai nor did I want to get admission through the ‘payment’ seat quota. So I chose to do BSc in the same college, VG Vaze College (Mulund). As it turned out the seeds of career aggression were sowed in me here. I saw my seniors constantly on their toes, participating in intercollegiate festivals, making connections, joining professional organisations and grooming their personalities so when they hit the job market overfilled with professionals, they would be able to take on the challenge. Since those college days, I realised that there is a much wider scope for me to grow up the corporate ladder as long as I gather rich work experience and good education.

With that attitude I joined GTL Limited (1999), worked hard for almost 5 years and kept getting promoted. Alongside I enrolled for NMIMS’ EMBA to add the management education dimension to my résumé. As I switched to larger roles in other companies, at Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) I had the fortune of working very closely with the top management and the CEOs office. Many of my colleagues at D&B and my CEO had pursued MBAs from abroad and I was increasingly getting convinced

that it has to be worth the investment. I must say that the three years (2006-09) at D&B pushed me the hardest to never rest and I decided that I want further grounding in Finance and Management Strategy. That was it. I started my research about MBA schools and shortlisted a few schools that would complement my work experience and my future ambitions. One other reason for pursuing the MBA in the US was the international diversity I was looking for. Not many Indian B-Schools offer that, hence USA topped my list.

How did you balance your job responsibilities and GMAT and application preparation? Elaborate on the obstacles faced.Simple. I had a good boss. Well, I must say that having an understanding and ambitious boss helps a lot. My job required me to travel across the country about twice a month for corporate events/conferences and was quite demanding when I was in Mumbai. I was absolutely in love with my job profile (which was operations management) and at no point I compromised my professional obligations. As much as I loved waking up early to catch the company bus, I enjoyed staying late, when required, in the office for work. What could I have done, I had a great supervisor and a superb team of professionals.

Simultaneously I had to work on brushing up my quantitative and verbal skills for the monster called GMAT. I used every slot of time my daily routine would allow

“An international MBA is a great experience just as

international work experience is”

…says Abhishek Dalvi, an MBA Student at University of Rochester - William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration. He has over 8 years of leadership experience in Operations, Project Management, Business Migration and Business Technology Consulting. And has also done the executive management programme from NMIMS. In conversation with Reshma Majithia, he talks of his decision to do a second MBA from abroad.

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me to revise the practice questions and exercises. I’d practice speed-reading and math problems while I was travelling in the bus or auto rickshaw, simply because this was precious 1-hour travel each way. That added 2 hours of daily study time. And since I am a ‘late-nighter’ as opposed to an early morning person, I would stay up till about 2 AM every night and study a good 3 hours every night. That was my discipline for my dream. (On Saturdays and Sundays I would clock about 20 hours collectively. I think that is good enough time allotment. Every weekend I would take two practice GMATs.) While at work, I would work, work and work. In my opinion, it’s best to not mix the two i.e. don’t study while at work and try not to work while you are studying for GMAT at home. I took a 2-week leave before the GMAT which turned out pretty ok considering the fact that I scored a 700. After the test, it was application time and I followed the same routine of researching in the night and writing essays in the night. Sometimes when I had to be out of town for work, my daily calendar would get a little roughed up but I would definitely catch up on the weekend. When you study diligently everyday, you can afford to miss a day or two and catch up easily. But I must say that one needs to have daily discipline and what I call self-honesty.

You were working with Rochester Simon as a Technology Consultant before you enrolled for their MBA programme? Did this give you an edge in the application process? Well, I worked at Simon School after the first year of my MBA. It was my internship so it had nothing to do with my application process. My operations management experience along with the programming courses I did back in 2000 helped me get the internship at Simon.

It is also interesting to note that you had done a management course from NMIMS Mumbai. What are your reasons for pursuing a management programme

for the second time from a US B-school?From NMIMS, I did the Executive Management Programne (2006) which was a general management program. If it were to have a specialisation in Finance or Operations, I would have probably not thought of further education. But as I worked at D&B, I realised that I needed more knowledge in the functional areas of business. As I mentioned earlier, my CEO at D&B had done his MBA from the US and he would share some of his experiences which gave me more reasons to believe in this investment. Later, as I started reading US

B-School brochures, I was literally amazed at their course contents be it financial modeling, macroeconomics or strategic simulations. I made up my mind eventually that there can be no better place full of bright minds from around the world to learn.

What are your long-term aspirations and how do you see the MBA degree helping you achieve the same?In the long-run, I plan to take on larger roles that will have a direct impact (hopefully only positive) on a company’s stock price. Simon MBA degree has given me a well-rounded perspective of the functional areas of business and I am certain I will need all these skills no matter what sector I work in, Management Consulting, Information Technology or Financial Services and no matter which country I move to.

What advice would you like to give students who plan to do a second MBA from a university abroad? Have a clear vision and plan before you take on this road. One must have a clear understanding of the additional things he/she needs in order to pursue an MBA abroad. It is pointless to do a second MBA just for the sake of it. I knew what I wanted and I knew Simon School of Business could give me that learning, hence I made this decision.

Personally for me, this was a big risk since I was giving up a hot career in India for two years of education in a country that was hit the worst by the Great Recession. Now that we are out of the worst recession ever, it is probably less risky to do an MBA abroad given the costs involved. Slowly companies are re-hiring international students here so things are getting better. An international MBA is a great experience just as international work experience is. Since the Indian economy is growing, it would be simply awesome if Indian students can take the learning from here and apply it to their careers back in India. The next 20-25 years in the Indian economy will indeed be very ‘colourful’ and somewhere down the line I plan to bring my academic and professional learning from USA to India.

Simon MBA degree has given

me a well-rounded perspective of the functional areas of business and I am certain I will need these skills.


Student Silhouette

MBA BUZZ


Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your decision to go for an MBA.I completed BCom (HONS.) from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata in 2009. Back home my family runs a business enetrprise, and I see tremendous scope in it. But before joining the business, I wanted to equip myself with practice-oriented learning and knowledge in order to expand my family business. Hence I came up with this decision of taking the CAT and pursuing an MBA. I took the CAT for three consecutive years but somehow the online CAT did wonders (pun intended). Finally, I joined IMI Delhi this year.

How did you balance your job responsibilities and CAT preparation?Managing work and studying was difficult. People percieve that working in a family business gives you flexibility but what they miss out is that it also gives you immense responsibility. I used to get up early and study for a couple of hours before leaving for office and in the evening after office.

What were your weakest areas when you started for CAT? How did you work on them?My weakest area was English. So I started working on my vocabulary and grammar. I also read a lot. This helped me increase my reading speed. Solving RC passages also helps. Word power by Norman Lewis is a good book to start with.

How was your experience with the GD and interview?I believe one needs a lot of luck with the GD and interview. I appeared for the MDI interview last year. My group got disqualified for excessive crosstalk and therefore I could not make it to MDI. Also, the interview panel sometimes asks a lot of random questions - which may not be comforting and relevant. But

my IMI interview panel was indeed good, and for the first time in my three years of interviews at business schools, I realised that there are business schools like IMI which have a transparent and relevant admission process. Is there anything that aspirants need to keep in mind while they are gearing up for the selection procedure?A lot of things need to be kept in mind. Every business school has its own criteria, which may change every year. It is more of a surprise change every year. Another thing that needs attention is that CAT has lost its sanctity after its online avatar got activated. So, expect less from CAT results and also apply to the top 20 B schools. Ranking of B schools is perception-based. We don’t get to hear about the lowest pay packages in top business schools in India. For example, a student at a business school ranked 10th might get a better paying job than a student at IIM-A or IIM-B. So, have an open mind and don’t waste a year if you don’t get into your dream institute.

Finally, what is your advice to those aspiring to get into the IIMs?For those who want to get into the IIMs, Please have an open mind and don’t be rigid about studying in the IIMs. I am saying this because I can empathise with students as I have been through this myself. The fact is post 2008, CAT scores have become uncertain irrespective of how good your exam was or how hard you studied for it. Please also concentrate on other exams such as XAT, SNAP, NMAT and IIFT. These are quality B-schools. These exams have different structures different from those of the CAT. You are highly mistaken if you think preparing for CAT is equivalent to preparing for other exams. All the best for your future.

I wanted to equip myself with practice-oriented learning

…says Ayush Mansingka, a B.Com graduate from St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata. He is currently doing his MBA from IMI Delhi. In conversation with Reshma Majithia, he talks of his decision to do an MBA.

MBA BUZZ


Tell our readers a bit about yourself?I am a Hotel Management Graduate from IHM Kolkata. I have worked in the Hotel Industry with The Grand, New Delhi, and later with IMS Kolkata as a Counsellor.

When and why did you choose to do an MBA? It was about 6 months into my first job that I decided to go for an MBA, as I was not getting the kind of growth and exposure I wanted. Though it is advisable to work for a few years before joining a B school, I preferred to make the switch, as Hotel as an Industry demands long and irregular working hours, which was leaving me with no time and opportunity to prepare myself, hence the switch to IMS as a Counsellor.

What were your weakest areas when you started preparing for CAT? How did you work on and around those? Math was my weak area, being away from math for 4 years had eroded most of my mathematical skills though I still retained some analytical skills, which helped me in the Logical Reasoning part. Hence began a long journey to regain and hone the lost mathematical and other skills

which are also important for CAT. Apart from regular classes I made sure that I made the best possible use of the helpline facilities available at IMS to clear my doubts and provide multiple approach to problems enabling me to choose the one most appropriate for me. How did you balance your job responsibilities and CAT prep?I was at the best possible job environment and working at IMS was a lucky break. The faculties and other staff made sure that I don’t lose my focus from studies. Apart from that 4-5 hours a day was good enough to build my concepts. The weekly offs were the best time for concentrated study A bit of planning, a bit of luck and lots of people to help around has helped me to manage my work and studies simultaneously with relative ease.

Do you believe that there is any one strategy that is bound to work for all aspirants?Every candidate needs to build his or her own strategy suiting his or her needs. Hence it is very important to know one’s strengths and weaknesses while preparing, as well as inside the examination hall.

What was your general experience in the GD-PI rounds? Did the focus of the interview differ from one institute to another?It is tough to comment about interviews of IIMs, there criteria for selection and what are they looking for in a candidate. It is best to be yourself, and for that one needs to know oneself. I felt it is the individuality that matters, so just be yourself. It is obvious that you are under enormous pressure to perform during the GD and PI, but it is essential to remain calm and focused. As I was from a non math, non engineering stream, I faced a lot of questions from math in almost all the interviews along with other questions pertaining to the hospitality sector and general knowledge. I found it was better to say that I didn’t know an answer instead of making wild guesses which could have led to a poor impression and even worse questions after that.

Finally, what would be your advice to those aspiring to get into the IIMs Work hard for CAT and work smart for the GD/PI .

“I was in the best possible job environment and working at

IMS has helped me a lot”…says Abhishek Barua, a Hotel Management graduate from IHM Kolkata.He is currently pursuing his MBA from IIM Lucknow. He has also worked with IMS Kolkata as a counsellor. In conversation with Reshma Majithia, he talks about his decision to do an MBA.

MBA BUZZ


Tell our readers a bit about yourself.I did my schooling from Don Bosco Park Circus and then passed out from Symbiosis Law School Pune this year, obtaining a BBA LLB degree. I appeared for the CAT last year scoring a 98.15 percentile and obtained calls from IIM Indore, Shillong, Rohtak, Raipur and Trichy, finally converting Shillong, Rohtak and Raipur calls.

I love reading books, watching movies, playing and watching football, cricket and trying out different cuisines.

When and why did you choose to do an MBA?Well, the degree I actually received is a dual bachelor’s degree in management and law. I started thinking about doing an MBA when I was in Class 12. As very few people take up MBA from a legal profession, I realised early on in my college days that if I did give CAT, I would get a benefit. I liked managing events and got interested in my BBA subjects immensely, which aided my decision. I joined IMS Deccan, Pune at the beginning of my 4th year and starting to prepare for the CAT.

What were your weakest areas when you started preparing for CAT? How did you work on and around those?When I started preparing for the CAT, quite frankly I felt like a fish out of water. I could do English and DI a bit, but the Math section scared me. I hadn’t touched math for 4 years. The first class, I couldn’t even do the basic things. I realised I had to practise and improve my basic skills. What I realized very early on was that CAT is more a test of your basic skills, unlike XAT. I concentrated on studying the basic formulae from the books given by IMS. Since I also had to do my bachelors study, I could only devote 1-1.5 hours only

everyday. But slowly, I started gaining confidence as I was able to solve problems at a speed which satisfied me.

Do you believe that there is any one strategy that is sure to work for all aspirants?The answer is a big NO. Everyone has their own ways and techniques of dealing with things. So, it is extremely tough to formulate one strategy which can work for everyone. One must also keep in mind that everyone has his/her own strengths and weaknesses, so one has to work according to one’s own requirements. However, the one thing everyone should do is take SIMCATs and all the other mock tests extremely seriously and methodically.

What was your general experience in the GD-PI rounds? Did the focus of the interview differ from one institute to another?The GD-PI rounds are a completely different ball game altogether. Honestly, nobody can teach you or prepare you for it because you never know what you will face. But the one essential ingredient to do well in GDPI is to be well read in a wide spectrum of topics. For example, in my IIM Shillong interview, my GD topic was one on bio-genetics and genetic engineering. Even though it was in no way related to my area of study, I could speak well and much better than the rest because I had read a bit about it. One more thing is to expect the unexpected in a PI. I was asked almost everything possible in my interviews.

As far as the difference in interviews from one institute to another is concerned, I felt the only difference was in questions asked in the TISS interview. At TISS, the focus was more on social awareness and how you felt you could contribute to society. I made this mortal mistake of calling TISS a B-school just once, for which I feel I didn’t get through, even after having a great GD-PI.

Finally, what would be your advice to those aspiring to get into the IIMs?Well, first of all, people who get into IIMs are all ordinary people with nothing special about them. So, please get out of this mortal fear which most people have about IIMs. Secondly, if an ordinary guy like me can do it, any of you can do it. I used to land up sometimes with negative scores in my SIMCATs. Yet I kept on trying and working on my deficiencies. Just have this fighting spirit and keep persevering. Take your SIMCAT seriously and sincerely and fight it out till the end. Best of luck to everyone.

“Prepare well even for your mock tests”

...says Sourojit Ghose, who did his BBA LLB from Symbiosis Law School Pune. He is currently pursuing his MBA from IIM Shillong. In conversation with Reshma Majithia, he talks of his decision to do an MBA. He loves reading books, watching movies, playing and watching football, cricket and trying out different cuisines.

MBA BUZZ


Placement Report

Placement Trends 2011Continued...Name of the Institute

No. of Students

Par-ticipating compa-nies

No of of-fers

Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs)

Salary Offered (Domestic) International Companies

Internation-al Place-ments

Top Recruiters Sectoral Breakup CommentsAverage/ Median Salary

Highest Salary

Department of Industrial and Management-Engineering, IIT Kanpur

41 Recruiters visited: 28, Recruiters recruited: 23

41 N.S. Average Salary - Rs 9.25 lakh p.a.

Rs 13.50 lakh p.a.

N.S. N.S. Energy Consulting & Project Finance - Infosys, Reliance-Power, Supply Chain & Operations - P&G, Accenture Technologies and Inspirage, Consulting - Accenture Business Consulting and Deloitte-AERS, Marketing - Attomic-labs, Telcon and Water Jet Germany, General Management & HR - Shipping Corporation of India, BHEL

Profile Split - Energy Consulting and Project Finance - 35%, Supply Chain & Operations - 33%, General Management & HR - 12%, Consult-ing - 11%, Marketing - 9%

Regular recruiters were Deloitte, SBI Caps, Welspun, Infosys, HSBC Analytics, BHEL and new recruiters were Accenture Business Consult-ing, Deloitte-AERS, Reliance Power and Procter & Gamble.

Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee

72 20 73 N.S. Average Domestic Salary - Rs 9.83 lakh p.a., Median Salary - Rs 8.81 lakh p.a.

Rs 13.50 lakh p.a.

N.S. N.S. Consulting - Deloitte Consulting,Infosys, TCS and HCL Infosystems, Finance - Cognizant, Irevna - a division of Crisil, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Marketing - Procter & Gamble, TNS Global, AbsolutData, Marketing Insights,Universal System Technologies (UST), Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC), and Samtel Group, General Manage-ment and HR - BHEL, Accenture and Dainik Bhaskar Group, Operations - DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd. (DSCL) and Jubilant Life Sci-ences Ltd

Consulting - 40%, General Manage-ment & HR - 24%, Marketing & Sales - 17%, Finance - 14%, Operations - 5%

P&G, IBM, HCL, Irevna (CRISIL), Jubilant, Marketing Insights, Sam-tel, DSCL, TCS, UST, TNS Global, Dainik Bhaskar Group and AbsolutData etc., were from the private sector category. The public sector was represented by compa-nies like BHEL, Bank of India, and Central Bank of India.

ISB Hyderabad The Class of 2011 comprised 569 students, out of which 552 students participated in the placements pro-cess.

310 661 N.S. Average Domestic CTC - Rs 17,92,715

N.S. 83 offers being made by 73 compa-nies, from 19 cities across the globe in-cluding Middle-East, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and North America.

Average International CTC - USD 1,21,008 (Rs 54,20,553)

Accenture, Analysys Mason India Pvt. Ltd, Arthur D. Little Limited, AstraZeneca, Bank of Singapore Limited, Booz & Company, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd., DBS Bank, Deloitte Consult-ing, Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, HDFC Bank Ltd., HT Media Limited, ICICI Bank, ITC Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited, McKinsey & Company Inc., Nomura, STAR India Pvt Ltd, The Boston Consulting Group, Wipro Consulting, Yes Bank Ltd.

Consulting - 33%, IT/ITES - 21%, Banks 8 Financial Institution - 12%, Infra/Construction/Real Estate - 5%, Oil/Energy/Petroleum/Miner-als - 5%, FMCG/Retail/Consumer Durables - 4%, Manufacturing - 4%, Pharma/Biotech/Healthcare/Hospi-tal - 4%, Advt/Media/PR/Entertain-ment -3%, Telecom - 3%, Govt/PSU/NGOs - 1%, Others - 5%

5 students opted out of the place-ments process and enrolled into the Entrepreneurship Development Ini-tiative (EDI) at the ISB. They have chosen to start their own ventures in the areas of tourism, customised mobile manufacturing, learning and development using Indian Mythol-ogy, Retail, and Mobile application technology.

Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

411 106 406 18 Rs 8.14 lakh p.a. Rs 15 lakh p.a. 1 2 Jumbo International (International ) & Trident Group (Domestic)

Automobile -3, BFSI - 109, Con-sumer Durables - 13, Consulting - 25, Education - 3, FMCG - 18, IT/ITES - 149, Manufacturing - 28, Market Research - 6, Oil, Gas & Energy - 8, Pharma - 5, Services - 17, Telecom - 9

-

Sydenham Institute of Man-agement Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Education

107 107 160 This place-ment season also saw a substantial increase in the pre-placement offers

Average Salary - Rs 9.58 lakh p.a., Median Salary - Rs 9.41 lakh p.a.

Rs 14 lakh p.a. N.S. N.S. Finance - Tata Motors, J P Morgan Chase, Citibank, Marketing - Godrej & Boyce, Kansai Nerolac, Welspun, HR - Tata Housing, Infosys, Global Talent Track, Operations - D'Décor, TCS eServe, Quinnox, Systems - Accenture, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv

Banking - 38%, Other Financial Services - 18%, Manufacturing - 8%, Consumer Products - 2%, Realty - 3%, Research - 6%, Infra-structure - 2%, IT/Consulting - 13%, Others - 10%

The exemplary relationship the institute enjoys with the corporate world has gone from strength to strength enabling it to enjoy a 100% placement record over the years.

Roles: For all the above schools, roles offered in different sectors were as follows

Finance - Project Finance, Finance, Equity Research, Corporate Finance, Finance Management Profiles, Banking

Marketing - Sales & marketing, Client Management, FMCG, Product Marketing

Consulting - Consulting, Technology Risk Management, Technology

MBA BUZZ


Name of the Institute

No. of Students

Par-ticipating compa-nies

No of of-fers

Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs)

Salary Offered (Domestic) International Companies

Internation-al Place-ments

Top Recruiters Sectoral Breakup CommentsAverage/ Median Salary

Highest Salary

Department of Industrial and Management-Engineering, IIT Kanpur

41 Recruiters visited: 28, Recruiters recruited: 23

41 N.S. Average Salary - Rs 9.25 lakh p.a.

Rs 13.50 lakh p.a.

N.S. N.S. Energy Consulting & Project Finance - Infosys, Reliance-Power, Supply Chain & Operations - P&G, Accenture Technologies and Inspirage, Consulting - Accenture Business Consulting and Deloitte-AERS, Marketing - Attomic-labs, Telcon and Water Jet Germany, General Management & HR - Shipping Corporation of India, BHEL

Profile Split - Energy Consulting and Project Finance - 35%, Supply Chain & Operations - 33%, General Management & HR - 12%, Consult-ing - 11%, Marketing - 9%

Regular recruiters were Deloitte, SBI Caps, Welspun, Infosys, HSBC Analytics, BHEL and new recruiters were Accenture Business Consult-ing, Deloitte-AERS, Reliance Power and Procter & Gamble.

Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee

72 20 73 N.S. Average Domestic Salary - Rs 9.83 lakh p.a., Median Salary - Rs 8.81 lakh p.a.

Rs 13.50 lakh p.a.

N.S. N.S. Consulting - Deloitte Consulting,Infosys, TCS and HCL Infosystems, Finance - Cognizant, Irevna - a division of Crisil, Bank of India, Central Bank of India, Marketing - Procter & Gamble, TNS Global, AbsolutData, Marketing Insights,Universal System Technologies (UST), Minerals & Metals Trading Corporation of India (MMTC), and Samtel Group, General Manage-ment and HR - BHEL, Accenture and Dainik Bhaskar Group, Operations - DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd. (DSCL) and Jubilant Life Sci-ences Ltd

Consulting - 40%, General Manage-ment & HR - 24%, Marketing & Sales - 17%, Finance - 14%, Operations - 5%

P&G, IBM, HCL, Irevna (CRISIL), Jubilant, Marketing Insights, Sam-tel, DSCL, TCS, UST, TNS Global, Dainik Bhaskar Group and AbsolutData etc., were from the private sector category. The public sector was represented by compa-nies like BHEL, Bank of India, and Central Bank of India.

ISB Hyderabad The Class of 2011 comprised 569 students, out of which 552 students participated in the placements pro-cess.

310 661 N.S. Average Domestic CTC - Rs 17,92,715

N.S. 83 offers being made by 73 compa-nies, from 19 cities across the globe in-cluding Middle-East, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and North America.

Average International CTC - USD 1,21,008 (Rs 54,20,553)

Accenture, Analysys Mason India Pvt. Ltd, Arthur D. Little Limited, AstraZeneca, Bank of Singapore Limited, Booz & Company, Credit Suisse Securities (India) Pvt. Ltd., DBS Bank, Deloitte Consult-ing, Ernst & Young Pvt. Ltd., GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, HDFC Bank Ltd., HT Media Limited, ICICI Bank, ITC Limited, Larsen & Toubro Limited, McKinsey & Company Inc., Nomura, STAR India Pvt Ltd, The Boston Consulting Group, Wipro Consulting, Yes Bank Ltd.

Consulting - 33%, IT/ITES - 21%, Banks 8 Financial Institution - 12%, Infra/Construction/Real Estate - 5%, Oil/Energy/Petroleum/Miner-als - 5%, FMCG/Retail/Consumer Durables - 4%, Manufacturing - 4%, Pharma/Biotech/Healthcare/Hospi-tal - 4%, Advt/Media/PR/Entertain-ment -3%, Telecom - 3%, Govt/PSU/NGOs - 1%, Others - 5%

5 students opted out of the place-ments process and enrolled into the Entrepreneurship Development Ini-tiative (EDI) at the ISB. They have chosen to start their own ventures in the areas of tourism, customised mobile manufacturing, learning and development using Indian Mythol-ogy, Retail, and Mobile application technology.

Institute of Management Technology, Ghaziabad

411 106 406 18 Rs 8.14 lakh p.a. Rs 15 lakh p.a. 1 2 Jumbo International (International ) & Trident Group (Domestic)

Automobile -3, BFSI - 109, Con-sumer Durables - 13, Consulting - 25, Education - 3, FMCG - 18, IT/ITES - 149, Manufacturing - 28, Market Research - 6, Oil, Gas & Energy - 8, Pharma - 5, Services - 17, Telecom - 9

-

Sydenham Institute of Man-agement Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Education

107 107 160 This place-ment season also saw a substantial increase in the pre-placement offers

Average Salary - Rs 9.58 lakh p.a., Median Salary - Rs 9.41 lakh p.a.

Rs 14 lakh p.a. N.S. N.S. Finance - Tata Motors, J P Morgan Chase, Citibank, Marketing - Godrej & Boyce, Kansai Nerolac, Welspun, HR - Tata Housing, Infosys, Global Talent Track, Operations - D'Décor, TCS eServe, Quinnox, Systems - Accenture, Infosys, Bajaj Finserv

Banking - 38%, Other Financial Services - 18%, Manufacturing - 8%, Consumer Products - 2%, Realty - 3%, Research - 6%, Infra-structure - 2%, IT/Consulting - 13%, Others - 10%

The exemplary relationship the institute enjoys with the corporate world has gone from strength to strength enabling it to enjoy a 100% placement record over the years.

Placement Report

Placement season at Indian B-schools have taken off with a big bang. We had brought you placement snapshots from some of the top campuses in the last issue of this magazine. Here, we continue with the coverage...

Other - General Management, Human Resource and Management, Operations, Product Supply profile, Supply Chain Consulting profiles, Market Research, Corporate Leadership,Planning & Development and Business Consulting Profiles, Pharma, Biotech, Govt, PSUs , NGOs,Project Management, Strategic Planning, Product Development

Disclaimer: Data is collated from the B School website, readers are advised to reconfirm and make appropriate enquiries from concerned institutes.Compiled by : Priya Gokani

FINANCIAL DYNAMICS

36 Advanc’edge MBA June 2011 www.advancedge.com

Investment The investment part comprises not just the tuition, fees, cost of living, class materials, transportation and any other costs student might incur but also the interest to be paid and repayment of loans since there is a growing dependence on bank loans these last few years.

Opportunity costs can also figure largely in the cost of obtaining a degree. For instance, if a student plans to attend a graduate business programme full-time, whether for one year or two, the student may be out of the workforce and forgoing earnings. Students who attend full-time two-year MBA programmes and choose not to work would loose salary for two years which leads to inclusion of opportunity cost in the investment.

Plus, the time and energy students put into the course may limit their availability for other activities and pursuits. The loss of free time, although not allocated a monetary value in ROI, is generally considered a part of the investment. The sum of all of these monetary and opportunity costs of attending the MBA program represents the investment side of ROI to be compared with the return.

Estimating the return on your investmentThe salary the students expect from MBA is an unknown figure but students today have a wide range of placement statistics of several B schools for their reference. The salary details of the past three years or five years from several placement reports can help student to make an estimate of the gains from an MBA degree.

Apart from the expected salary which is a quantitative factor, students may find an improvement in quality of their employment after their MBA degree since they will work with better organisations and at higher levels. An MBA degree may help them gain greater knowledge and acquire skills which makes them a good business leader. All these are very difficult to quantify but can be some of the factors involved in estimating the return.

But it is not about individually analysing the cost or returns of the MBA programme; it is about comparing

Analysing the Return on your MBA Investment

An MBA aspirant has a wide range of B Schools in Indian and abroad to choose from, which requires him to do a comparative analysis of the programmes offered by these institutes and choose the most suitable. Analysing the investment v/s the benefits of the MBA degree is all the more important now, since in the past few years, most of the management institutes have hiked their fees and students are relying on bank loans to finance a large portion of their MBA degree. So, before they get into the institute of their choice, they need to find out the amount of money to be invested for next the two years as also the benefits during and after the completion of the course.

Priya Gokani

Institute ADuration of course

2 years

CostCost of the Program for two years

8,00,000

Pre-MBA Salary for two years

5,00,000

Total Cost 1,300,000

ReturnPost-MBA Salary for two years

10,00,000

Total Returns 10,00,000

ROI (0.23)Payback Period 1.30

Institute BDuration of course

2 years

CostCost of the Program for two years

12,00,000

Pre-MBA Salary for two years

5,00,000

Total Cost 1,700,000

ReturnPost-MBA Salary for two years

10,00,000

Total Returns 10,00,000

ROI (0.41)Payback Period 1.70Courtesy: google images

FINANCIAL DYNAMICS

Advanc’edge MBA June 2011www.advancedge.com 37

the two and finding out the ultimate answer. For this, aspirants can employ financial evaluation methods. They can look at Return on investment (ROI) of the MBA programme which will be the percentage return one will make over a specified period as a result of investing in the programme. Another way of looking at ROI would be in terms of payback period i.e. how many years it will take to earn back the cost of the programme and the lost salary. Let us understand these parameters with a simple example. A student has two institutes A and B to choose from for its two year MBA course.

Cost of programme from institute A is Rs 8,00,000 and from institute B is Rs 12,00,000, Assuming the pre-MBA salary is Rs 5,00,000, the total cost of the programme from Institute A is Rs 13,00,000 and from Institute B is Rs 17,00,000. Assuming the Post MBA salary is Rs 10,00,000. After analyses of return and cost, the ROI for Institute A is (0.23) and for Institute B is (0.41), the Payback period for Institute A is around 1.3 years and for Institute B is 1.7 years.

It might be seen that Institute A is better than Institute B from the viewpoint of both the ROI and payback period. But it must be noted that the above analysis is roughly based on certain assumptions about pre and post MBA salary. It only includes the cost of the program it does not take into consideration the interest and loan repayment costs and other costs. It assumes only the post-MBA salary

and does not consider any further increase in the salary or other benefit after the MBA programme. The payback period ignores the time value of money. Even though investment will be more in institute B, it will be a better brand in the market and in the long-term it will payoff after graduating from that institute.

For more accurate estimate of ROI, aspirants can look into full-time MBA programme ranking 2010 provided by Bloomberg Business week. (ht tp: //www.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/mba_roi_2011.html). It ranks 71 US and International schools and provides details such as the ROI ranking and how long it will take, on average, to recoup that investment. These numbers will change based on personal circumstances, specifically pre-MBA pay and the post-MBA salary of a career.

This survey included tuition & required fees, living expenses and median forgone salary for the entire programme. Where applicable, non-resident tuition figures were used. Forgone salary data was supplied by the schools. If schools did not supply the data, forgone salary was based on Bloomberg Businessweek survey of recent MBA graduates and may not be representative of the entire class. Individual costs may vary widely depending on financial aid, actual pre-MBA salary, and other factors. The years to recoup B-school cost (payback period) is calculated

by dividing total B-school costs by post-MBA pay increase. It did not take into account annual salary increases, bonuses, or stock-based compensation. Also there are many schools where the payback period will be longer which does not necessarily signify that those schools should not be considered. It is possible that these schools have much better brand value and in the long-term, the student will get benefited.

The Bloomberg Business week ranking can be used as one of the references for selecting a B School. ROI alone can give a very incomplete picture. It must be supplemented with analyses of many other factors that an MBA aspirant needs to take into consideration such as the school reputation, profile of students and alumni, accreditation status, placement record, teaching methodology, convenience of location, amount of financial aid and scholarship provided, specialisation offered and faculty.

Students can also refer to Global MBA Ranking 2011 by Financial Times, which provides the average three year rank, the salary today (US$), weighted salary (US$), Value for money rank, alumni recommend rank, percentage of international faculty and students and male v/s female ratio of faculty and students.One more tool students can use is the ROI calculator available on MBA 360.com, Businessweek and Forbes website. (http://www.mba360.com/mba-salary.html). Such tools will be very helpful to students since for calculating the payback period themselves, they need to make complex calculations on spreadsheet, project the annual cash flow. All of these might be time consuming and may be flawed because of inaccurate assumptions and limited data.

An overall analysis of all the above mentioned monetary and non-monetary factors will help a B school aspirant to choose from a large pool of management schools. But, it must be noted that at the end, an investment in the MBA degree will give them skills, knowledge and an entry into a good organisation, which will pay off handsomely in the long term. Courtesy: google images

REGION FOCUS


The island continent, Australia, witnessed a spurt in Indian student numbers after the US

and UK restricted their student visas in the aftermath of the 9/11. It was during this period that Australia and New Zealand aggressively endorsed their schools and universities to international students, especially the Chinese and the Indians. And, just like the UK, Australia offered English Language Intensive Courses for International Students. Australia further expanded its scope by offering vocational and technical courses, which made students industry-ready. With flexible study options, ease in admissions and the availability of various courses with options to choose specialisations, Australia had everything possible on a student’s wish list. Undoubtedly, the education sector became the fourth highest GDP contributor in Australia.

Australia: The advantagesHigh quality of education: There is a high level of government involvement in quality assurance in the Australian education sector. The Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) is an independent, not-for-profit national organisation that promotes, audits and reports on quality assurance in Australian higher education. AUQA also undertakes quality audits of accreditation agencies. Due to such measures,

there is worldwide acceptance and credibility of Australian education, making its qualifications universal in nature. High quality of teaching: Teachers and professors in Australia are also encouraged to have interactive and stimulating study sessions with students. Majority of the teachers hold two tertiary level qualifications and many more are PhDs involved in active research. Australian teachers regularly participate in ongoing professional development to further enhance their skills. All such measures ensure that an international student gets the best quality of

education in Australia.Affordable: Australia changed the dynamics in the education sector, when it introduced quality courses at costs that were within reachable limits for international students. Students and parents alike are happy with the equation of getting a universally recognised qualification at a cost that doesn’t tear their budget apart.Availability of study options: Just like the UK, Australia also introduced a host of English Language training courses. The English language courses are the most sought after courses by international students in Australia. Flexibility is the key and

Australia The International Student Carnival –

Down UnderAround 599,795 international students are currently studying in Australia on full time student visa (Source: Australia Education International). And about 1,00,000 of these are from India itself. Such high numbers puts Australia amongst the top five nations that Indians choose to study abroad, besides USA, UK, Canada and Europe. Gauri Puranik

explores the reasons that make Australia a ‘hot study destination’ for Indian students.


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Australia has further expanded its scope by offering courses of various durations and in various fields right from common courses like business and engineering to the niche popular programmes like landscaping and luxury management.

Vocational education and Learning is most popular with Indian students studying in Australia. Almost 75%of the total Indian students in 2010 were enrolled in VET courses. This is closely followed by the higher education sector, which contributed to 22% of Indian student enrollments in 2010.

In the higher education sector, Indian students pursue courses in subjects such as information technology, business management,

the sciences, engineering and hospitality management. There is also demand for specialised niche programmes like fine arts, media, journalism, actuarial science, microbiology and nanotechnology.

As far as PhD and Doctorate degrees are concerned, there were 569 Indians pursuing their PhD in Australia in 2009-10 and these were the highest number of PhDs from a single nationality in Australia.

Application cyclesUnlike US universities that encourage international students to apply in the Fall term, Australian universities are flexible and allow international students to apply in any of the four terms: Fall (Sep-Oct), Spring (Feb-

Mar), Summer (May) or Winter (Dec-Jan) terms. The only caveat to this is that students have to apply early (at least 6 months in advance) to allow sufficient time for Australian student visa processing.

All international students applying to Australian universities have to take an English proficiency test. This is for the purpose of proving their ability to effectively communicate in English (written and oral) as well as for student visa processing. The IELTS® (International English Language Testing System) was the traditional English Proficiency Test taken by international students going to Australia. However since May 2011, TOEFL® (Test of English as Foreign Language) has also been approved by the Australian Government for student visa processing. Further the PTE® (Pearson’s Test of English) and Cambridge English: Advanced (CAE) have also been added to the portfolio of English Proficiency tests approved by the Australian Government.

Cost of studyAustralia is considered as one of the most cost-effective study destinations by international students. Australia also enjoys a high standard of living

Popular ProgrammesIndian Student Enrollments

Sector 2007 2008 2009 2010Higher Education 27,077 28,422 28,125 22,191VET 25,965 51,130 78,308 75,573Schools 89 110 176 148ELICOS 9,175 16,161 12,965 2,032Other (Non-Award Courses, Enabling Courses)

555 766 922 366

Grand Total 62,861 96,589 120,496 100,310Source: Australia Education International


Advanc’edge MBA July 2011www.advancedge.com

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(the same as UK or US) but at an affordable cost. The table to the right gives an approximate cost estimate for a student studying in Australia.International students in Australia can reduce their study costs by utilising the option of working while studying in Australia. Students in Australia can work for up to 20 hours per week. Dependents of students too can work for up to 20 hours per week. Dependents of students pursuing their Masters or Doctorate in Australia can work for unlimited hours per week. Students earn anywhere between AUD 6 and 15 per hour. This covers the cost of living for many international students in Australia.

Financial aidAs mentioned earlier most international students fi nd it easy to fi nance their studies in Australia because of the fl exible work study arrangements approved by the Australian government. Nevertheless, most international students in Australia are full fee paying students. Individual scholarships and tuition waivers are available at the university level depending on the programme that the student applies for. Scholarships and fi nancial aid from the universities is merit based in majority of the cases.

Besides the university scholarships and work arrangements, the Australian Government provides the ‘Australia Awards’. These are given based on either an achievement stream that targets the best and brightest students, researchers and professionals to come to Australia or on the development stream that gives awards to students from developing countries. A meritorious student can signifi cantly reduce the cost of study through such award programmes.

Job opportunitiesAustralia has a robust economy. More than 2,65,000 new jobs were created in 2010. The Australian Minister for Employment Participation and Child Care, Kate Ellis, recently released The Australian Jobs 2011 report in May 2011. “The Australian economy needs more skilled workers if we are

going to successfully take advantage of the minerals boom and manage the challenges of our ageing population,” said Ellis in a press release in Canberra.

According to the report, the Health Service and the Professional, Scientifi c and Technical Service sector has the highest growth potential in the future, whereas sectors like Manufacturing, Information Media and Telecommunications have seen a downfall in the last fi ve years.

More than half the growth in the job market for the next fi ve years is

expected to be in the professional services sector which employs from the higher education sector in Australia. The Australian Government is also keen on retaining good talent in their country. The ‘Skilled Migration Programme’ is a testimony to this fact. Under this programme, students who

have an Australian qualifi cation and have outstanding skills, education and abilities are able to continue staying in Australia and seek employment.

Student safetyAbout two years ago, Australia faced a lot of fl ak when an Indian student was murdered while on his way to work. What followed was a string of media reports, some dug out from the past and some predicting an unsafe future for Indian students in Australia. The fear psychosis resulted in a 50% drop in student visa applications to Australia in 2009-

10. Reacting to this drop, Australia reassessed its education policy and immigration rules and made it stricter, leaner and compliance driven. These were some of the changes: Under the ESOS (Education

Services for Overseas Students) Amendment Act, the Australian authorities have asked all education providers to re-register themselves with the Commonwealth Register of Institutions and Courses for Overseas Students (CRICOS) by December 31, 2010.

Cost Head Approximate Cost in AUD p.a

Tuition (for Masters level programmes)

11000 to 31000

Living Costs (for a single student)

18000

Health Insurance 500

List of average costs for everyday grocery products in Australia:• loaf of bread – A$2.50 to A$3.00;• two litres of milk – A$2.20 to A$2.90;• newspaper – A$1.50 to A$3.00;• box of breakfast cereal – A$3.00 to A$4.00;• jar of instant coffee – A$3.00 to A$4.00;• bottle of soft drink – A$1.50 to A$3.00;• bottle of shampoo – A$2.50 to A$4.50;• bar of soap – A$1.50 to A$2.50;• one apple – 50 cents to 80 cents;• one banana – 60 cents to 90 cents;• chicken (600 grams) – A$7.00 to A$8.00

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All education providers were asked to put a list of their approved education agents on the school website. Hundreds of schools in Australia, which were dubious and set up for shoddy immigration reasons, were closed immediately without notice and their licenses were cancelled. In terms of immigration laws, a new Skilled Occupations List (SOL) has come into effect from July 1, 2010. According to this list, the number of occupations (required to get permanent residency status in Australia) has been reduced from 450 to 150. The new list does not include programmes like hairdressing and cookery. This move will ensure that genuine students come to Australia for higher studies.

The above measures ensured that Australia was back in the saddle as a reliable and quality study destination for international students. Australian authorities

have now ensured complete safety to Indian students. Special counseling desks have been installed at major Australian airports to provide guidance to Indian students along with special brochures and literature to acclimatise students to Australia. All local police and security have been asked to be more sensitive and expedite cases involving attacks on Indian students.

VisaStudents can submit their applications to any of the VFS application centres. The following documents and procedures are involved in Australian student visa processing: Students need to fi ll the 157A

Application form for a Temporary Visa (Subclass 574)

The electronic Confi rmation of Enrolment (eCoE) certifi cate(s) and/or letter of offer issued by the education provider for the course(s) that the student is undertaking

Visa application charge – payable to the Department of Immigration and Citizenship (DIAC) by credit card, debit card, bank cheque or money order. (Current charge is AUD 550)

Certifi ed copies of passport or travel documents of all people included in the application. Passports should not have expired. Offi cial score reports of the IELTS/ TOEFL/ PTE and any other test like the GMAT which you have taken to gain admission to an Australian university.

Four recent passport size photographs (45mmx35mm) of you and any other person included in the application. Name of the applicant should be printed on the back of each photograph.

Academic records of your qualifi cations.

Financial documents showing that you have suffi cient funds to fi nance your studies as well as your stay in Australia during the duration of your course.

Details of immunizations, health records and a valid health insurance.

For more information, visit http://www.vfs-au-in.com/

Programmes available under the Australia Awards:Endeavour Awards: Internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship programme providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia-Pacifi c, Middle East, Europe and the Americas to undertake study, research or professional development in Australia.www.deewr.gov.au/EndeavourAwards

Australian Leadership Awards (ALA) focus on developing leaders who can infl uence social and economic policy reform and development outcomes in both their own countries and in the Asia-Pacifi c region. Scholarship support is for postgraduate studies and specialised research.www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar

Australian Development Scholarships (ADS) aim to contribute to the long-term development needs of Australia’s partner countries to promote good governance, economic growth and human development. www.ausaid.gov.au/scholar

According to International Student Survey 2010, conducted by Australia Education International, student safety recorded high satisfaction levels in respect of the both the Higher Education (HE) and VET cohorts in Australia with 86% of the students in HE and 88% in VET saying that they were satisfi ed with the student safety in Australia.

In the same survey, 86% of international respondents were satisfi ed or very satisfi ed with living in Australia.

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Student Silhouette

What led you to do an MBA? Why did you choose to pursue your MBA from Edith Cowan University?The Global Financial Crisis. I was at a point in my career where there was no vertical growth, and at the same time, no lateral opportunity due to the ‘right-sizing’ of departments at the workplace. I decided to step out, enhance my skill sets and then get back.

I wanted a two-year MBA course. Some universities had courses which could be completed in a year to a year and a half. I thought these were too cramped up, which means too many exams in a short time and less time to refl ect on your learning. A couple of other factors were fees and living costs.

How did you balance your job responsibilities, GMAT/IELTS and application preparation?You can’t let your job get in the way of your preparations. I set aside time to prepare and stuck to the plan. I made sure I stayed focused and resisted temptations from my ‘very social’ friends.

Did you have a specifi c country in mind while shorlisting schools? Why did you choose Australia?I chose Australia considering the job opportunities that would be available after I completed my studies. Other countries that I considered were USA and England, but they seemed to be a long way from recovering from the recession.

What difference in terms of skill sets have you observed in yourself while pursuing an MBA from Edith Cowan University? Do you observe signifi cant differences in the way you manage work now as compared to in the past?I guess it is too soon to answer this question. My current role at the workplace is not the same as before I started with the MBA. So, making a direct comparison is tough. I still have one semester to go, but yes, I do notice that I see an issue at work from a number of points of view.

What are your long-term aspirations and how do you see the MBA degree helping you achieve the same?Due to the ever rapidly changing environment, I do not have long term aspirations. I prefer to take one step at a time. I don’t believe that an MBA can take you places. You need to have the right amount of experience too! An MBA exposes you to a lot of theory, and experience in the fi eld lets you apply that theory.

What measures are being taken to ensure the safety of International students by the Australian government and Australian Universities?Universities place great importance on student safety, and have safety programmes and inductions for international students. The government has agreed that every university will now be required to develop and implement a student safety plan. It would need to have detailed arrangements for safety on and around campuses and facilities, and also explain how to improve personal safety. This should make campuses safer places for all students.

However, outside the campus, international students may be at risk from criminal behaviour, as are all people living in Australia or India or anywhere in the world. Students may, however, be at greater risk than most Australians if they are unfamiliar with local danger spots and ways to minimize the risk of being assaulted; if they have to travel alone late at night because of work and study commitments; and if they need to travel through high-risk areas.

What is your advice to MBA aspirants?I have a few classmates who are pursuing an MBA just after graduating because they feel that they have to “complete studies” prior to getting into the world of work. These students struggle in the course for the simple fact that they are not exposed to the world of work. So, I advice at least a year of work in a professional organization, and while working, understand how the tasks that one completes impact the internal and external environment. Only then will you be more at ease in understanding the concepts taught.

“I chose Australia considering the job opportunities that would be available after Icomplete my studies”…says Nicholas De Lima who has around 7 years experience in diverse areas like Business Process Documentation, Business Process and Project Management and People and Team Management. In conversation with Reshma Majithia, he talks of his decision to do an MBA from Australia.

REGION FOCUS


SUCCESS STREET

There seems to be an infinite number of definitions of Corporate Social

Responsibility (CSR), ranging from the simplistic to the complex, and a range of associated terms and ideas (some used interchangeably), including corporate sustainability, corporate citizenship, corporate social investment, the triple bottom line, socially responsible investment, business sustainability and corporate governance. Various associations have developed their own definitions of CSR.

The World Business Council for Sustainable Development stresses, “CSR is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families, as well as of the local community and society at large.The European Union defines CSR as “… the concept that an enterprise is accountable for its impact on all relevant stakeholders. It is the continuing commitment by business to behave fairly and responsibly and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the work force and their families as well as of the local community and society at large.

CSR in the era of globalisationMany multinational companies are now giving great importance to CSR to

quote an example Royal Dutch Shell one of the world’s largest company was one of the first oil companies to weave CSR into its business philosophy. It undertook various projects that aimed at sustainable development of the regions where the company operated.

The Shell Foundation was established with an initial endowment of $250 million from the Shell group and was actively involved in various sustainable development projects across the globe. Shell’s global initiatives were rewarded with the World Environment Council Gold Medal for International Corporate Environmental Achievement.

Indian corporate initiativesCSR is not new to India; companies like TATA and BIRLA have been imbibing the case for social good in their operations for decades-long before CSR become a popular cause.

It is not difficult to find the social missions that have become part of the culture of Indian businesses. The social mission for Bharti Airtel, for example, was to get cell phones into the hands of the hundreds of millions of people in India who otherwise had no way to communicate with each other.

Tata Motors had a similar goal with respect to providing low-cost transportation in the form of the Nano. The social mission of the pharmaceutical and healthcare company, Dr. Reddy’s, is to address the unmet medical needs of the poor in India as well as around the world. Hindustan Unilever’s ‘Project Shakti’ uses microfinance principles to create a sales force in the poorest regions of the country.

The Tata group has been on the forefront of CSR activities in India. Tata group has been first signatory to UN – Global Compact, Founder member of the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Member of the Global Reporting Initiative Board, First Indian Company to publish Corporate Sustainability Report.

According to the Corporate Social Responsibility policy of the company “Tata Steel believes that the primary purpose of a business

is to improve the quality of life of people. Tata Steel will volunteer its

resources, to the extent that it can reasonably afford, to sustain and improve a healthy and prosperous environment and to improve the quality of life of the people of the areas in which it operates.”

Corporate India going the CSR way

Growing pressure on international corporations (MNCs) to take responsibility for their operations has resulted in an increasing number of large corporations starting to address, the concept of corporate social responsibility. So, what is CSR in this era of globalisation?

Gitanjali Kapoor


SUCCESS STREET

According to a survey conducted by Great Place to Work Institute, Standard Chartered Bank, Intel Technology India Pvt Ltd and Infosys Technologies Ltd are leading the way with their CSR initiatives. The Great Place to Work Institute has been assessing the world’s best companies in over 40 countries since 1980 and honours recipients according to its employees scores against the Institute’s values of ‘credibility’, ‘respect’, ‘fairness’, ‘pride’, and ‘camaraderie’. The 2010 edition is the seventh study in India, which received overwhelming response from more than 400 companies, making it the largest such study in India.

Infosys Technologies LtdInfosys Foundation has worked to support the underprivileged in society and enrich their lives. Promoted by Infosys Technologies Limited, the Foundation began its work in Karnataka, India, gradually extending its activities to the states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Punjab. Making high-quality healthcare the norm is an ongoing challenge. Since its inception, the Foundation has initiated several activities that benefit the rural and urban poor. Apart from constructing hospital wards, donating hi-tech equipment and organizing health camps, the Foundation also distributes medicines to economically weaker sections in remote areas.

Whether it is organising an annual mela that empowers destitute women or building orphanages that give children a better life, the Foundation’s activities address the needs of society’s most neglected. The Foundation has organised unique annual melas in different parts of the country, including Bangalore and Sedam in Karnataka, and Chennai in Tamil Nadu, to distribute sewing machines to destitute women and help them earn a livelihood. The Foundation also offers an edge to deprived and rural students, through its activities. Through this programme, the Foundation has set up more than 10,150 libraries in rural government schools.

The Foundation has helped revive the art of the weavers of Pochampalli village in Andhra Pradesh. It helps organise cultural programs to promote artists in rural areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It traces and honours artistes from different parts of India. It organises programmes like puppet shows and other cultural events to encourage artistes and performers in rural areas of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, and offers them financial assistance to carry forward their art.

Standard Chartered BankStandard Chartered Bank believes in contributing to the society and has tried to achieve this through some key initiatives that they support in India - The environmental social networking project ‘Go Green’, The Standard Chartered Marathon, and ‘Seeing is Believing’, to name a few.

Its ‘Seeing is Believing’ programme has helped restore sight to two million people globally and by 2013 it is their aim that the programme will have reached its target of $20 million to provide sustainable eye-care services for 20 million people in deprived communities in 20 cities. In India, since 2004, ‘Seeing is Believing’ has benefited over half

a million people across the country through cataract surgeries. By the end of 2010, they expect another 1.4 million people in the country to benefit through primary eye care services and cataract surgeries. Goal: In many parts of the developing world, women lack the opportunities and role-models to take control of their lives and contribute to society. Empowering women is part of their strategy for improving social and economic development in the country. ‘Goal’ is one of Standard Chartered Bank’s community investment initiatives that aim to empower young women for personal and economic development in underprivileged areas of India, where the government has identified improving gender equality as a priority.

‘Goal’ uses life skills education to increase confidence, self esteem and develop skills such as communication, decision making, and leadership. The programme educates girls on important topics such as health and well-being and financial literacy. Goal is run in partnership with the International Federation of Netball Associations, the Naz India Trust Foundation and various local non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

ConclusionEmerging markets like India have drawn the attention of large MNCs for the potential of market growth. These markets are untapped and give entirely new domain for operations. However, many MNCs also take the markets for granted and exploit the laxity in the norms of operations to their advantage. The lack of concern for the local community, the consumers and the environment by these corporations has created large scale public debate and action. In this context, it is important to understand that sustainable business growth is associated with care for the community and markets the corporations operate in. Hence, today CSR has become a necessity.

Gitanjali Kapoor (M.A and M.Phil in Economics and MBA in Marketing) is an Assistant Professor with DR VN Bedekar Institute of Management Studies. She is a faculty of Economics and has around 4 years of teaching experience.

Let industry established in the countryside ‘adopt’ the villages in its neighbourhood; ...it is also clear ly in the interests of industry that surrounding areas should be healthy, prosperous and peaceful.” J R D Tata, Chairman, Tata Group 1938- 1993

“


SUCCESS STREET

Managing how people perceive you is crucial to your success at work.

This isn’t limited to making good first impressions. Today, the world belongs to those individuals who can handle opportunity, and who can act as if they deserve it! Here, we are referring to leadership and power in a person to communicate and persuade others with one’s own personality and ability. It is about the science of ‘making impressions’ and ‘controlling’ other’s perceptions about you in gaining ‘instant acceptance’ of you as a person and your ideas and thoughts.

In other words, you must look

the part and act the part in which you cast yourself. You must take on the persona of a leader. You must be able to control the perception among these with whom you are interacting or dealing. The respect and acceptance accorded to you can be either enhanced, or destroyed, by the way you present yourself. People, like diamonds, have value, but it is only after they have been cut and polished that the world will pay for that value!

Presenting yourself wellWhen presenting yourself, either at a job interview or while speaking in public, it is easy to doubt yourself,

lack confidence, stumble over words and lose track of what you are communicating. Among the most important determinants of how successful you will be are not just your qualifications, or your ideas, or your experience. It is also the way you interact with others: in mind, personality and behaviour. It is often those who have the right ‘soft-skills’ or ‘people’s skills’ that become successful.

Further, a lot depends on how you put yourself in sync with the people around you and how you project an aura of confidence and the power to be accepted by others. For instance, you are one of the three executives being considered for a senior management position in your organisation. The other two candidates are your peers, equal in age, and background with the company, and as eager as you to get ahead. As you see it, you have the best track record and the best chance at the promotion. Unfortunately you don’t get it! You try to figure out why, and what went wrong. Your spouse says it is just ‘bad luck’. May be so. But don’t bet on this fact; both your competitors may simply have done a better job of selling – themselves!

Reasons for your being acceptedStudies reveal that there are three reasons why anyone buys your ideas, and what you say, or accepts

In the theatre of life it is an open casting call for all! Many hear the call, but a few are chosen for it. Those who are chosen understand that the right perception is the passport to your success and power!

Your passport to POWER!

Prof Sushil Bahl



SUCCESS STREET

you as a person:1. You are perceived as being

honest (trusted and trustworthy)2. You are perceived as

knowledgeable (know your onions)

3. You are perceived as being genuine (have my interest at heart)

These reasons become the basis for judgment made by others about you. Moreover, these judgments are made in the first few minutes of the meeting with you, in any situation, and seldom changed. The ability to break through this and enter and capture the mind and heart of others represents the greatest power – your passport to power – that you can possess.

Your communication and personal imageThe factors for success in enhancing acceptance and right perception by others are twofold in successful interpersonal relationships. First, how you communicate information; and second, projecting the right

image of yourself.As the knowledge class of today

has discovered, if you do not develop your communication skills, and fail to break through the barriers of ‘silent judgment’ you are destined to live as a second-class citizen, while others take your information, ideas and dreams and communicate them to their advantage. You must recognise the implications and opportunities you face, and become a member

of the knowledge class. You must search for a deeper meaning of pride, dignity and control of your life to successfully engineer consent and acceptance of you by others.

People who get respect and are instantly accepted are also those who ‘look’ respectable. Their clothes fit well and are contemporary, they are poised and confident, and project a generally good image of themselves. This image is vital in the corporate world. How you dress, how you walk, how you talk, what you do with your eyes and hands, how you ask questions and get the right response is not to be ignored. This gives you the power you need. You are treated according to the part you play, and the way people perceive you playing the part. When people see you they make instant decisions about you, and these decisions control their behaviour towards you. To bemoan such impressions as superficial is to spit in the wind! Perceptive men and women accept the reality that people do make such judgments and use that knowledge to their own advantage wherever possible. When you learn to package yourself well, it gives you the advantage – a skill easy and a must to learn.

You must never allow anything you do, say or wear to interfere or conflict with others’ perception of you as a person of ability, value and strength. This makes for the difference between being accepted and respected, or being rejected and ignored.

if you do not develop your communication

skills, and fail to break through the barriers of ‘silent judgment’ you are destined to

live as a second-class citizen, while others

take your information, ideas and dreams and communicate them to

their advantage.

Sushil Bahl is a renowned mentor and author. He has a vast working experience in corporates and academics in the fields of

advertising, public relations and business communication. Bahl has also contributed several concepts and ideas to some of the blue-chip companies in India, taught at leading B-Schools, and read papers at a number of Indian and International conferences over the years. He is the author of four books and has published a large number of articles and case-studies in reputed journals, magazines and newspapers.



SKILLZ

During your MBA course you will go through case studies that will test your financial,

marketing, human resources and operational acumen. Some of them will be straightforward, some of them a bit twisted, some of them will not be what they seem at first glimpse while some of them will be ambiguous. The last type of case studies will be the ones that frustrate you the most. Because of the ambiguity. There will be no black and white, but shades of grey. And sifting grey into black and white

solutions is never easy. And you will realise as you navigate your work life that ambiguity is the only thing there is. Most things will present only one facet to you at first. It is only after painstaking investigation that you will discover the many other facets and very often you will never know if you are solving a 3-facet problem or a 20-facet one.

It is not necessary to know always whether the problem you are trying to solve is a 3-facet or a 20-facet one as long as you know that it is a multifaceted problem. You

will not know when you have solved it either. What you will know is that exactly a few weeks after seemingly putting the problem to rest, another of its ugly facets will rear its head. If you have been doing this time and again, it is an indicator that you have not covered all aspects of the problem. Like a Phoenix, it will rise each time you put it to rest.

The solutionIs there any way to resolve this issue? Is there any way to overcome ambiguity? There is no answer

Ambiguity of identity

Change is challenging. And with the unknowns come ambiguities. This article offers an insight into how to deal with change.

B Neelakantan



SKILLZ

to this. Ambiguity is a given in your work life. It is only after a few years that you will see a way to navigate through it. And then it is experience that makes you a good navigator of ambiguity. Once you design solutions that provide for accommodation of a higher degree of ambiguity, you get better at it. Some part of this is taking intelligent risks. As you move higher up the corporate ladder, this is a prized quality - an ability to navigate ambiguity, see patterns and take intelligent risks. And if you as an MBA armed with your multiple experiences and exposure can do it, you have a real shot at the top.

When you begin your career, life is predictable. You deliver whatever your team leader or manager asks and that is all there is to it. When there is ambiguity you rush to them for clarity - they clarify - and you go chugging away to complete your work. At this level, there is little or no ambiguity.

Walk the talkAs you go higher, you are expected to resolve more and more of it by yourself. And a lot of people falter at this level. When they rush to their manager with questions that they are supposed to resolve by themselves or when they rush to their managers with problems instead of solutions.

The first way to respond to ambiguity and train the mind to work through it is to ask questions. The more questions you ask, the better you can navigate ambiguity. The second is to see patterns and read data. For example, a team that is unable to deliver on commitments can mean either a capability issue of the team or an issue of promising more than they can deliver. It could also mean a highly capable team that does not have access to resources. And these are just three possibilities.

As you sift through data, you will see some patterns emerge and then

as you connect the dots, you will see a big picture emerge - not very soon, not very clearly. And once you see the big picture, you can go about solving the puzzle.

Navigating throughSo, how does one learn to navigate the rivers of ambiguity? Each time you work with those who are experienced, ideally, you will learn a little more about navigating ambiguity. You will find that the good senior leaders always ask the best questions when you go to them with a problem. Each time you go to them, see if you have answers or have built in the questions they might ask.

Try and see if you can out-think them or give them something that they have not thought about. After all, even eagles have a blind spot. This is not easy. The first few times I met a senior leader early in my career - the all-knowing MBA - it was truly humbling. Even today, whenever I meet someone who is a few levels above me and good, I see that they are there because of their prized ability to navigate ambiguity, provide for it and yet make a success out of their strategy. And take my word for it, it is not easy. The numbers guy needs to provide for the ambiguity of creativity. The creative guy needs to provide for

the ambiguity of execution. The executor guy needs to provide for the ambiguity of flexibility - I could go on and on.

Now a few years into your career, measure yourself when a junior member comes to you with a query or proposal. Watch your questions and your responses - if your only response is to change the font and grammar of the proposal, watch it! Perhaps your junior is able to out-think you or your own thought process needs more training.

The author, in his own words, is not your typical engineer MBA. He works in Bangalore for a company that does not like its name to be revealed. He also blogs at ecophilo.blogspot.com.

Ambiguity is a given in your work life. It is only after a few years that you will see a way

to navigate through it. The fi rst way to

respond to ambiguity and train the mind to work through it is to ask questions. The more questions you

ask, the better you can navigate ambiguity.



SKILLZSKILLZ

CORPORATE WORLD


The Body Shop® is a brand with a difference. Marketers consider this brand as an Icon.

The Body Shop has created a brand image without the aid of conventional advertising. 2006 saw this iconic brand draw up serious business plans for India. All The Body Shop® products are 100 percent vegetarian, with 75 percent containing fairly traded natural ingredients or accessories from Community Fair Trade suppliers.

“India is one of the fastest growing markets for The Body Shop. To reach out to new customers we are adapting ourselves in every way ethically possible. We are thrilled to appoint Dia as the face of The Body Shop India as she embodies everything that the brand stands for – natural beauty with a deep respect for the people and the environment. We anticipate a successful working relationship together and we are confident that Dia will portray excellently the fantastic skincare, haircare and make-up ranges that The Body Shop is renowned for,” says David Smith, Asia Pacific Managing Director, The Body Shop®.

A peep into history…The Body Shop brand was created in 1976 in Brighton United Kingdom. Anita Roddick, the legendary founder of the Brand created this brand from a small shop in UK that she started to support her family.

Body Shop is differentiated from other

conventional cosmetics by the values that the brand adheres to and the brand image created through the unique association with those values.

The brand is famous for its association with ethical practices and the environment-friendly world view. The products reflect these values through the use of only natural ingredients and they are never tested on animals. The packaging and the merchandising are carefully prepared to highlight the brand values. For example, The Body Shop uses refillable packs and recycled/recyclable papers. Although the use of refillable packs was to keep the price low, it evolved into an element that reinforced the brand positioning. Also, the brand was careful in the messages displayed in the shop and other POP merchandises. These were simple, enthusiastic and informative. All these elements made The Body Shop a different cosmetic brand.

A date with India…Although The Body Shop is starting

serious business with Indian consumers only now, the association with India dates back to the initial years itself. India was a sourcing partner for The Body Shop during the creation of the brand.

Its success was because of the unique business model of The Body Shop. The brand relies on PR and word-of-mouth to make sales just like its low-profile Indian launch. The brand has gone against most of the conventional marketing practices. Its products are simple and the new product ideas are derived from the wisdom of the ordinary people. For example, when the founder was traveling in Srilanka she found women rubbing their faces with freshly cut pineapple flakes that gave them a special look. This translated to a product The Body Shop Pineapple face wash. Likewise, many products resulted from the experiences of the founder from the numerous trips she made around the world.

Reflects Dia Mirza, “It is a pleasure to be announced as the

celebrity ambassador of The Body Shop® India. I am very excited to be associated with this wonderful and inspiring brand. The Body Shop® Community Fair Trade programme which benefits a number of women and supports them in their livelihood. This really touched me and I love the way The Body Shop tries to benefit human communities in every possible way.”

The Body ShopSuccess, naturally

Global original, natural and ethical beauty brand The Body Shop® recently appointed Dia Mirza as the celebrity ambassador for India to represent The Body Shop® range of naturally inspired and ethically produced beauty and cosmetics products, which are not tested on animals. For The Body Shop®, India is a very important market with 65 stores across 25 cities in the country. By 2014, The Body Shop® targets to open 150 stores. Read on to know more about this success story…

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Stakes at International Monetary Fund

The existing IMF Managing Director (MD) Dominique Strauss-Kahn was recently forced to resign due to allegation of public misconduct, for which he is undergoing trial in a New York Court. The IMF is now in the process of selecting its next Chief, which is likely to be fi nalised by June 30, 2011.

Nominations to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn have been received from

the French Finance Minister Ms. Christine Lagarde, the Mexican Central Bank Chief, Agustin Carstens and Stan Fischer, the Chief of the Israeli Central Bank. The nominations closed on June 10, 2011. So, what is the primary role of IMF? Why is so much of attention given to this position? What is at stake for emerging economies like India? Does it really matter to India as to who becomes the next IMF chief?

IMF’s objective and scope‘Day in and day out’ the global arena is fi lled with trade of goods and services which are exchanged for monetary compensation. Such trade between countries, would be fair only when the ‘exchange rates’ ideally refl ect the inherent value of the respective currencies; if not,

the trade becomes one-sided, benefi cial to one and detrimental to the other. China, for example, has been deliberately undervaluing its currency so that its exports become competitive internationally. With each country manipulating its currency for its own benefi t, there needs to be a neutral body that would oversee the exchange rate policies for the overall benefi t of the global economy; this is where IMF comes into the picture. Further, it is not uncommon to see countries unable to meet their fi nancial commitments due to mismanagement; in such situations IMF acts as the ‘lender of last resort’ saving the countries from a bankruptcy situation, but on conditions that such countries will steadily move towards fi nancial discipline.

That said, IMF has certain clear objectives. With a membership of 187 countries, IMF coordinates the global monetary policies, facilitates

seamless international trade and thereby helps member countries to achieve sustainable economic growth. IMF provides fi nancial assistance to member countries in the form of loans, debt relief and aid packaged with conditionality that will go to establish the country’s fi nancial discipline in the long run. It also supports its members by providing a ‘fore-warning’ service, alerting them to economic problems, way ahead. IMF also strives to improve the regulation and supervision in line with the evolving complexities in the global fi nancial transactions.

IMF stakeholdersFunds mainly come to IMF from the capital subscription of the member countries, collected based on the size of each member’s economy, its output and trade; larger the size, higher the contribution and higher the voting rights of countries within the IMF. This

Dr Suresh Srinivasan

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is also referred to as ‘quota’, meaning the maximum assistance from IMF that the member countries would be eligible for. IMF’s total quotas stood at around $ 325 billion. The power each of the member country wields in IMF depends on their representation, in turn decided by their share of ‘voting rights’. Figure 1 illustrates the voting rights of countries; US (with 17% voting rights), European Union (EU) and Allies (47%) are major players while BRICS Block (Brazil, Russia, India, China & South Africa) at 14% are smaller players. Figure 2 lists BRICS voting right, in detail.

Hunt for the head of IMF positionTaking up the position of MD at this critical juncture brings along significant challenges. Countries like Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain are at the verge of defaulting, mainly due to excess borrowings, living beyond their means and adapting to inappropriate economic policies. IMF, together with EU countries like Germany have been generously bailing out these countries, without insisting on a ‘robust’ restructuring plan, thereby allowing these countries to repeat the mistakes which were cause for the catastrophe. For example, IMF recently approved a bail-out plan for Greece which was much higher than its eligible ‘quota’ primarily due to the higher representation which the EU has in the IMF. An IMF that

colludes with politicians in burying their mistakes will not foster reforms; it has to be respected, feared and should maintain its independence in taking harsh decisions! Various other challenges need to be addressed: global imbalances in terms of US - China currency war and trade gap, improving banking regulation across the globe and managing excessive capital inflows into emerging markets are all burning issues that need the new IMF MD’s immediate attention.

Given the immense technical intricacies demanded by the job, it is considered important that a person with strong academic and research background in ‘economics’ fill in the position, rather than a politician. IMF has had ten MD’s since 1946, all of them only European! The unwritten rule is that the MD’s job at the IMF is reserved for a European candidate, with the presidency of the World Bank going to an American. Emerging economies in Asia and Africa want to change this rule! A feeling that they need to be duly recognised for what they are today, has emerged! Emerging economies now account for close to 80% of the world’s population and record close to 50% of the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP). They also hold close to 70% of the global currency reserves.

Agustin Carstens, and people from other emerging economy member countries, however argue

that the position should not be selected based on nationality, but purely on merit. Although Lagarde is a lawyer by profession, critics question as to whether she will be able to deal sternly with countries like Greece and other EU members and impose conditions for economic discipline. Contrarily, Agustin Carstens, has favourable credentials and his research interests primarily revolve around key issues emerging markets are currently facing; which include globalisation and capital outflows and their impact on emerging economies. In spite of all of this, Lagarde has gained strong support from EU and the US; China also seems to have discreetly agreed to back Lagarde with the understanding that it would get to nominate its candidate for the Deputy Managing Director’s position, falling vacant very soon.

India ImplicationsIndia’s major problem areas and risk exposures rest on the following issues and India would be keen to see an IMF head that would be able to favourably influence these issues. (i) Bringing financial discipline to

the European countries such that they do not go bankrupt creating global uncertainty. This will indirectly impact Indian economy.

(ii) Help managing global commodity and crude prices which has a bearing on Indian, and other emerging market inflation.

(iii) Checking the Chinese currency exchange rate and ensuring China values its currency in a realistic manner; this will improve the global financial systems.

(iv) Helping emerging economies cope with the capital inflows from the western and developed world.

Given the above specific issues, where India would be interested, Carstens is considered to play a more useful and critical role.

Since Lagarde has secured the backing of EU and US, it seems inevitable that she is likely to take on the role. But, as long as she is able to address the above issues, India will be happy!

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Indian managerialproductivity

Research on the issue of ‘managerial productivity’ confirms that acquisition of appropriate ‘skill sets’ by managers is a prerequisite to achieve a higher ROCE and thereby be more managerially productive! Managers from Western and other developed countries deploy an array of scientific and modern management practices that help them better use the resources ‘on hand’. To know more, read on…

Ratan Tata’s recent sharp remark on the work ethics, commitment and productivity

of the managers from United Kingdom (UK) came as a surprise! He further compared the same to Indian managers in the light of his experience with the Corus, Jaguar and Land Rover (JLR) companies which the Tata group had acquired over the last three years. In his remark, Ratan Tata mentioned that the local managers at JLR and Corus are not willing to ‘go the extra mile’, as compared to their Indian counterparts. He mentioned that he found staff unwilling to participate in meetings after 5:00 pm and it was impossible to access managers during the weekends. In contrast, he praised the Indian managers by saying that when in crisis, they did not mind working until midnight. He also made specific remarks that the UK managers left office quite early on Fridays while in India, managers considered crisis as a ‘war-like situation’ and were deeply committed and physically available at all times!

The issue which Tata has touched upon is extremely sensitive in the UK as the country is working hard to revive its economic growth, and more importantly, improve its manufacturing competitiveness, in order to survive the onslaught of emerging market competition! Tata’s remark has come as a ‘wake up ’ for the UK industry. This gains further

prominence as Tata is a close advisor to the Prime Minister, David Cameron; he also sits on the business advisory group to the Prime Minister.

The productivity quotientTaking the above discussion further, it is important to differentiate a manager’s ‘commitment to his employers’ from his ‘productivity’. Are these the same? If there is a high level of commitment, will it automatically translate into higher productivity? Contrarily, if productivity is high, does it really matter as to whether the manager is committed to the management, or not? From what Tata has remarked, it seems that he is talking about commitment of the British managers; they may be unproductive as well, but that does not mean that Indian managers are more productive only because

they are more committed to their employers!

There are a number of issues, including cultural aspects, that need to be considered when such cross comparisons are made. The Indian manager’s attitude towards work is more driven by the Indian value system, which goes beyond the normal ‘call of duty’ to please his employer; all the rest, including his family and personal life, comes in only as secondary objectives. No doubt, those Indian managers are extremely flexible and would be more than happy to work on ‘week ends’ and declared holidays, which most of the Western managers would not be willing to, unless there is an emergency. Such extended hours would many a time cut into the time devoted by the Western managers towards their family and personal


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life and world hence not entertain them. While the Indian managers would be ready to participate in conference calls at any time, his Western counterparts would not do so except in an extreme emergency. That said, can we say that the Indian managers are more productive? Committed yes, but it would definitely be difficult to pass the productivity judgment, on this basis. What is important for firms is ‘productivity’, more than ‘commitment’, as productivity is that which eventually translates into ‘returns’ to shareholders!

So, what is managerial productivity?It is defined as ability of the managers to produce the maximum output, given a particular level of resources, in terms of men, material, machinery and money, at their disposal. This is also referred to as the Return on Capital Employed (ROCE) in management parlance, where all inputs and outputs are converted into monetary terms and the efficiency is measured as an index of output by input.

Given that managerial productivity is driven by a number of ‘soft skills’ possessed by managers, it becomes extremely difficult to measure and link to managerial competence and firm profitability. However, a number of ‘broad brush’ measures like the Per Capita Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is considered to reflect the ability of the country’s managers to garner resources and turn them around into output. On such counts, productivity of Indian managers is at least ten times lower than the United States (US). Managerial Productivity research confirms that Indian managers have a reputation of significantly lower productivity as compared to their international counterparts!

Research on the issue of ‘managerial productivity’ confirms that acquisition of appropriate ‘skill sets’ by managers is a prerequisite to

achieve a higher ROCE and thereby be more managerially productive! Managers from Western and other developed countries deploy an array of scientific and modern management practices that help them better use the resources ‘on hand’. Developed economy managers have gone through the theory and practice of various concepts of production management, standardisation, superior work methods, lean manufacturing, leadership communication and teamwork. These principles have come out of the shopping floor to management schools through extensive research and analysis and have been channeled back into young managers to be applied at the workplace. Indian managers are less exposed to such management concepts.

A strategic viewpointMore importantly, securing a ‘broader’ perspective becomes extremely important for a manager’s success. A strategic viewpoint necessarily entails securing a ‘helicopter view’ an ability to take a ‘high-level view’, but when required, come down to the minutest detail. A large portion of the Indian manager’s lack this attribute as they are unable to focus on the ‘big picture’. This is primarily due to lack of ‘systems’ and standardisation in its ‘day-to-day’ activities, thereby lower level staff bothering senior managers to solve routine and mundane issues, depriving the managers to think and plan at a ‘strategic level’, which is their primary responsibility!

Further, 70 percent of the Indian companies are firms affiliated to large Business Groups and family

businesses. This means, when a professional manager is functioning within a family business environment, his independence is vastly curtailed with the family members making the most critical decisions themselves. This is a major impediment to his productive functioning. The family style of functioning many a time does not allow managers to recruit

the required number of people; but hiring less people, average working hours of 55 to 60 hours a week is common for managers in India, while international benchmark will only be 42 to 45 hours. However, it needs to be recognised that whether they are in office or away, managers are always connected to customers, employees and employers, and hence being away does not really matter!

Best practicesCompetition is generally believed to force companies to adapt the best practices, both in terms of technology and scientific management practices. Due to restrictions on FDI and other laws, competition has been generally low in India; but the situation is changing fast! This process has already started to make managers and companies think differently and adapt themselves to better management practices. This will for sure improve managerial productivity in the long term. Lack of business schools, training and development are important causes for lower managerial skill-set acquisitions. With India moving up the growth path, these issues are already being addressed, which would go to improve the managerial productivity.

Dr Suresh Srinivasan is a Chartered Accountant, Cost Accountant, MBA (Bradford Business School, UK) and PhD (in Corporate Strategy from IIT Madras). He has held senior positions in leading multinational corporations both in India and abroad for over 20 years. As a management consultant, he currently works closely with a number of domestic and multinational corporations in the areas of Strategy and Finance.

Business Analysis

Courtesy: corbis.com

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March 2011Quarterly Results

The year 2011 has seen the Indian stock markets underperforming; overall, the markets dipped by more than 10 percent during the current year, making it one of the worst performing markets as compared to other Asian stock markets. An insight into the March 2011 quarterly results…

The quarterly results of companies for the three months period Jan 2011 to

Mar 2011 has started flowing in. This also happens to be the last quarter of the financial year 2010-11 for many companies. This earnings season has largely been disappointing with a large number of companies reporting inferior performance. Almost 90 percent of the Sensex companies (a selection of thirty large companies) have reported a profit growth of less than 5 percent, while they had previously reported more than 10 percent growth in each of the eight earlier quarters; this fact is a cause for concern! Not surprisingly, the stock markets have dropped by more than 3 percent reacting to such result announcements.

Why do share price of companiesfall, when poor financial results are announced? The investors have purchased the shares of a company, at ‘a’ price, given certain expectations in earnings; if the actual results are below their envisaged expectations, they sell the shares. When many investors are selling the shares, more than the number of investors buying the same, the share price of the company starts falling!Economic backdrop of the current quarterThe year 2011 has seen the Indian stock markets underperforming; overall, the markets dipped by more than 10 percent making it one of the worst performing markets

as compared to other Asian stock markets. Foreign investors have also been selling out and repatriating funds out of India with more than Rs 2,000 crore worth shares sold during the first five months of the year. Inflation is still at more than 8 percent, in spite of various corrective measures being put in place by the RBI. The industrial growth rate was unimpressive at around 6 percent for Apr’11 and the Index of industrial production (IIP) steeply declined. Especially with the government steadily increasing interest rates over the last fifteen months, drop in industrial output would signal to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) that it has

hit the peak and should now consider monetary easing. With all of these adversities, India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is expected to significantly slow down during the current fiscal year. The GDP for the March quarter slowed down to less than 8 percent, as against higher expectations.

Summary of sectoral performanceAutomobile manufacturingThe automobile sector, which includes utility vehicles and commercial vehicles, recorded sales of 1,00,000 units in this quarter. It grew more than 18 percent over the corresponding period in the

earlier year showing that the automobile manufacturing sector has done well on account of robust demand, thereby boosting revenue. In spite of revenue showing a steep growth, Mahindra and Mahindra’s (M&M) net profit was below market expectations due to steep rises in raw material costs. Net Profit increased by only 6 percent to Rs 600 crore as compared with a year earlier in spite of a 27 percent increase in revenues. Profits at most auto firms reduced due to higher costs for raw materials; steel prices increased by more than 5 percent and aluminum by 7 percent as compared with the last quarter, Honda Motors reported a 52 percent fall in quarterly operating profit. Maruti Suzuki, posted a ‘flat’ profit; net profit rose only 0.6 percent to Rs


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Courtesy: corbis.com

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660 crore. Overall, the automobile sector witnessed high demand in commercial vehicles which was offset by raising input costs. The outlook is also not very robust due to increasing fuel prices, increasing interest rates and skyrocketing commodity process.

Banking and fi nancial servicesState Bank of India (SBI) reported an unexpected plunge in Net Profi ts: it reported a profi t of Rs 20 crore for the Mar’11 quarter vs. Rs 1,866 crore reported for the Mar’10 quarter. This was primarily due to one-time write-offs and reduced credit off take. Punjab National Bank posted a 4 percent increase in net profi ts when compared to the corresponding period in spite of a 37 percent increase in total income. Union Bank (no increase in profi ts) and Central Bank (profi t dropped by 22 percent) of India showed visible stress in their fourth-quarter profi ts. With the slowing down in the Indian economic growth, credit growth (lending by banks) is expected to slow down during 2011-12 due to a high interest rate regime. The outlook of the sector could be strong in the medium to long term.

InfrastructureL&T, India’s largest engineering company, recorded a 17 percent increase in net profi ts. Although input costs seriously dented profi tability, one time profi ts due to sale of investments boosted the net profi ts. Input cost increases came from steel, cement, bitumen and other commodities. The Chairman of the company said that infl ation was the biggest concern followed by increasing interest costs and lack of speedy approval of projects by the government departments. Reliance Infra announced a 60 percent increase in revenue and a 43 percent increase in profi tability.

Jaypee Infratech, a road and real estate company announced a net profi t growth of 180 percent higher, due to a one time transaction, in spite of increased input costs. The sector, overall, has performed reasonably well in spite of a steep increase in the input costs.

Telecom sectorBharti Airtel recorded a 14 percent drop in net profi ts when compared to the corresponding period last year although the revenue showed a 10 percent increase. This was primarily due to a 12 percent drop in “Average Revenue per User (ARPU)”. Further the African operations of the company (recently acquired Zain telecom) recorded losses close to Rs 500 crore. Losses of Tata Teleservices increased fi ve fold from Rs 66 crore in the Mar’10 quarter to around Rs 330 crore in Mar’11 quarter. In spite of a 5 percent increase in Revenue, Reliance Communications’ net profi t dropped by more than a 70 percent drop for

the year 2010-11. Jan-Mar’11 quarter net profi t were 65 percent lower than the Sep-Dec’10 quarter The major cause for such underperformance is the increased debt (loan funds), lack of expected growth in subscriber base materializing, increased interest costs and a possible negative impact due to ‘mobile number portability’.

Other sectors did not report enthusiastic profi ts; Information Technology (IT) sector disappointed (Wipro reported just 4 percent increase in profi ts) and a poor forecast for the next few quarters due to reduced IT spend by the corporate is a concern.

Key performance drivers Input cost increases have been the largest contributor for the reduced profi ts. This is clearly refl ected in the analysis of ‘raw material cost as a percentage of total sales’ for the 30 fi rms that constitute the Sensex index; this amounted to 25 percent for the Mar’11 quarter being the second

highest level in the last 20 quarters. Figure 1 shows the spot-price MCXCOMDEX index which depicts the movement of commodity prices. As seen, the commodity prices have shot up steeply during the last quarter of the year. The infl ation (Figure 2) has remained signifi cantly high during the entire 2010-11 as compared to the previous years. The RBI had raised interest rates nine times since March 2010 in order to gain control on infl ation. The international crude prices have also steeply increased during the year 2010-11 (Figure 3).

As per the RBI Governor, the infl ation rate may remain high until September and he indicated that he would be going in for increasing interest rates further in order to control infl ation,even if it means that economic growth would suffer. This will further impact the net profi ts for the year 2011-12.

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Economic IndicatorsBusiness Analysis

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Economic IndicatorsBusiness Analysis

STUDY HOUR

The new mall had just opened and was decorated with bells and whistles.

It was a colossal mall and throngs of people swarmed the mall.

My friends and I were displayed artistically in our watch Shop. It felt exhilarating to be

admired by so many people. Oh what a day!

A group of young girls walked into our watch shop. There was this strikingly gorgeous man

with an alluring smile and I couldn’t stop gawking at him. He kept peering at me and I

was hoping he would purchase me. To my dismay, just as he reached out to pick me up, a

dishevelled looking woman snatched me instead. Needless to say, I was crestfallen.

My new owner shopped for a long time while I was tossed around. I was completely

jaded and wanted to leave.

That evening, in anticipation of a party she was to attend, my owner started to parade in

front of the mirror, trying on different clothes and babbling to herself. I seriously thought she

had gone off the deep end! It took her an interminable amount of time to get dressed, which

baffl ed me since she was wearing a hideousoutfitandlookedlikeablob.

It was embarrassing to say the least, to be seen with this maladroit woman.

ThiswasonlymyfirstdayandIdonotseethisboding well for my future.

How I wish the drop dead gorgeous man had bought me.

Autobiography of a watch

WORD DOSE Reshma Majithia

STUDY HOUR


STUDY HOURSTUDY HOUR

WORD MEANINGS

Colossal (Adj):(kuh-los-uhl)

gigantic, huge

Throngs (N):

(thrawng)

a multitude of people

crowded or assembled

together, crowd

Swarmed (N):

(swawrm)

a great number of things

or persons, esp. in motion.

Exhilarating (V):

(ig-zil-uh-reyt)

To cause to feel happily

refreshed and energetic

Strikingly (Adv):

(strahy-king-ly)

extremity, noticeably

Alluring (Adj):

(uh-loor-ing)

fascinating; charming

Gawking (V):

(gawk)

to stare stupidly, gape

Peering (V):

(peer)

scan, scrutinize

Dismay (N):

(dis-mey)

sudden or complete loss of

courage; utter dejection

Dishevelled (Adj):

(di-shev-uhld)

untidy; disarranged,

unkempt

Crestfallen (Adj):

(krest-faw-luhn)

dejected; dispirited;

discouraged

Jaded (Adj):

(jey-did) tired,

bored and exhausted

Anticipation (N):

(an-tis-uh-pey-shuhn)

expectation or hope.

Parade (V):

(Puh-reyd)

to walk up and down

Babbling (N):

(bab-ling)

foolish or meaningless

chatter

Off the deep end

(Idiom):

to become emotionally

overwrought or unhinged

Interminable (Adj):

(in-tur-muh-nuh-buhl)

endless

Hideous (Adj):

(hid-ee-uhs)

horrible to the senses

Maladroit (Adj):

(mal-uh-droit)

unskillful, tactless, awkward

Boding (N):

(boh-ding)

feeling, idea, sign of

something to come,

indicating

Word DoseSTUDY HOUR


STUDY HOUR

Reshma Majithia

1. Who topped this year’s Forbes celebrity power list?

a. Elton John b. Justin Bieber c. Oprah Winfrey d. Lady Gaga

2. Whoisthenewfinanceministerof West Bengal?

a. Siddhartha Shankar Ray b. Ajoy Kumar Mukherjee c. Prafulla Chandra Sen d. Amit Mitra

3. Who is the new railway minister? a. Mukul Roy b. Ram Vilas Paswan c. Nitish Kumar d. C K Jaffer Sheriff

4. British specialty biopharmaceutical firm, Shirehad agreed to acquire US-based Advanced BioHealing, a maker of a bio-engineered skin substitute, for ________in cash.

a. $ 550 million b. $ 500 million c. $ 450 million d. $750 million

5. Which two people have been short-listed for the post of managing director of International Monetary Fund (IMF)?

a. Christine Lagarde and Agustin Carstens

b. Dominique Strauss-Kahn and Rodrigo de Rato

c. Nout Wellink and Guido Mantega

d. Horst Köhler and Guy Quaden

6. He was an eminent Indian painter. According to Forbes magazine, he has been regarded as the “Picasso of India.” After a long career, in 1996 a controversy arose over paintings originally created in the 1970s, which were interpreted by some as being anti-Hindu. After legal

cases and death threats in his home country, he was on a self-imposed exile from 2006. He passed away on June 9, 2011. Name him.

a. Vasudeo Gaitonde b. Manjit Bawa c. Tyeb Mehta d. M. F. Husain

7. Whichfilmwonthebestpopularfilm at 58th National FilmAwards?

a. My Name is Khan b. Dabangg c. Taare Zameen Par d. Do Dooni Char

8. Global electrical equipmentmaker Crompton Greaves (CG) has acquired a Sweden-based

company for 57.8 million euro.Name the company.

a. Aneby b. Emotron Group c. Alsterbro d. Angered

9. Which of the following business tycoons has bought 74% stake in Bharti Axa Life and General Insurance?

a. Ratan Tata b. Mukesh Ambani c. Lakshmi Mittal d. Anil Ambani

10. Who has been roped in as brand ambassador of Andhra Pradesh tourism?

a. Salman Khan b. Virender Sehwag

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.

STUDY HOUR

c. Sachin Tendulkar d. Saina Nehwal

11.AnAustralianactoroffilm,stageand television, he appeared inmore than 60 films andwontwo Australian Film Institute Awards. He passed away on May 21, 2011. Name him.

a. Alan David Lee b. John Boxer c. Steve Rackman d. Bill Hunter

12. She is a British author and has won best book at the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize ceremony in Sydney for her novel The Memory of Love. Name her.

a. Aminatta Forna b. Lesley Glaister c. Maggie Gee d. Gillian White

13. Which of the following has acquired the theatrical telecast rights for cricket matches of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2010 and 2019 for Rs 330 crore recently?

a. Ten Sports b. Neo Sports c. Entertainment and Sports

Direct (ESD) d. ESPN Sports

14. Who is the new secretary general of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI)?

a. Dr. P.K. Mishra b. Rajiv Kumar c. Asim Dasgupta d. Amit Mitra

15. Who won the Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction for hisnovel Super Sad True Love Story? The Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize is the UK’s only literary award for comic literature.

a. Manu Joseph b. Geoff Dyer c. Gary Shteyngart d. Ian McEwan

16. Who is the new cabinet secretary of India?

a. Pawan Bansal b. Mukul Wasnik c. Kantilal Bhuria d. Ajit Kumar Seth

17. Who has bagged this year’s Billboard Millennium Award?

a. Britney Spears b. Lady Gaga c. Jennifer Lopez d. Beyonce Knowles

18. India has signed a deal withwhich of the following countries on issues of bilateral interest such as trade, piracy and economic cooperation:

a. Somalia b. South Africa c. Swaziland d. Ethiopia

19. An Indian telecommunications company has entered into a five-year deal with mobilesoftware-maker Comviva for providing value-added services across operations in 16 African countries. Name the company.

a. Bharti Airtel b. Idea c. Vodafone Essar d. Loop 20. Which of the following steel

companies has been adjudged the winner in ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ at the Procurement Leaders Forum?

a. Jindal Steel b. ArcelorMittal c. Essar Steel d. Tata Steel

21. Who won the 2011 Orange Prize for Fiction for her debut novel The Tiger’s Wife?

a. Barbara Kingsolver b. Tea Obreht c. Charlotte Mendelson d. Marilynne Robinson

22. Which of the following Indian states has signed an agreement with Centre and World Bank for securing USD 350 million loan

assistance for implementing roads development under K-SHIP-II project?

a. Karnataka b. Kerala c. Andhra Pradesh d. Uttar Pradesh 23. Who was honoured with the

Col. C.K. Nayudu Lifetime Achievement Award at the 4th Annual Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Awards?

a. Kapil Dev b. Sunil Gavaskar c. Salim Durrani d. Mohammad Azharuddin

24. Serco, the international service company signed an agreement to acquire Mumbai-based Intelenet Global Services Private Ltd. (Intelenet), a leading provider of business process outsourcing (BPO) services to the private sector and in the domestic Indian market for ___________

a. 250 million pound sterling b. 520 million pound sterling c.385millionpoundsterling d. 100 million pound sterling

25. Which of the following countries will become the third largest market in the world after China and the US for light vehicles, including passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (LCVs), by 2020, according to market research firm JD PowerAsiaPacific?

a. Germany b. India c. France d. Indonesia

26. Who was re-elected head of world football’s governing body FIFA?

a. Agum Gumelar b. Bin Hammam c. Sepp Blatter d. Egil Olsen

27. Whoisthenewfinancesecretaryof India?

a. Vijay Kelkar b. Bimal Jalan

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c. Sunil Mitra d. Montek Singh Ahluwalia

28. India’s top mobile operatorhas signed a $400-million contract with China’s Huawei Technologies to modernise and expand its 2G and 3G mobile networks in Africa. Name the mobile operator.

a. Bharti Airtel b. Loop c. Idea d. Vodafone Essar

29. A Gujarat based Indian conglomerate has acquired Australia’s Abbot Point Port Coal Terminal (APPCT) for AUD 1.829bn(Rs8,900crore)inanall-cash deal. Name the Indian conglomerate.

a. Arvind Mills b. Torrent Power AEC c. Alembic d. Adani group

30. Which of the following countries could leapfrog the United States to become the world’s largest banking economy by 2023?

a. India b. Brazil c. Japan d. China

31. Who has been re-elected to the Board of Governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for 2011-13?

a. Praful Patel b. Naresh Goyal c. Vikay Mallya d. Ratan Tata

32. Who is the new president of Peru?

a. Valentín Paniagua b. Alejandro Toledo c. Alan García d. Ollanta Humala

33. Which of the following American movies dominated the 2011 MTV Movie Awards, winning five trophies, including thenight’s most coveted prize, Best Movie?

a. Road to Nowhere b. ‘The Twilight Saga: Eclipse’ c. Source Code d. Red Riding Hood

34. India’s second-biggest software services exporter, its Australia and New Zealand unit has acquired the software solutions business of New Zealand’s Gen-i for an undisclosed sum. Name the software services exporter.

a. Infosys b. Wipro c. Accenture d. TCS

35. An American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies has purchased online ad firmAdMeld for $400 Million. Name the internet search company.

a. Microsoft b. Yahoo! c. Google d. Time Warner

36. He was the board member of Infosys Technologies Limited and served as CFO and Director in charge of HR. He resigned from the board and Infosys Technologies Limited on April 15 2011 and is all set to be the chief architect of a multi-discipline university cluster being planned by Dr Ranjan Pai of Manipal Education & Medical Group (MEMG). Name him.

a. Nandan Nilekani b. Narayan Murthy c. N. S. Raghavan d. Mohandas Pai

37. Which of the following airlines has tied up with leading global luxe hotel chain Marriott International to offer members of its frequent flyer programmeluxurious stay options across the world?

a.Kingfisher b. GoAir c. Jet d. IndiGo

38. Which of the following countriessigned a loan agreement of $ 432 million loan with Asian Development Bank (ADB)?

a. China b. India c. Germany d. Brazil

39. Mobile network gear maker Ericsson is to spend _______in cash to buy US group Telcordia to help it manage an explosion in data and services and fend off tough competition.

a. $ 1.5 billion b. $ 4 billion c. $ 2.5 billion d. $1.15 billion

40. Who is the winner of US open 2011?

a. Rory McIlroy b. Graeme McDowell c. John Atkinson. d. Michael Campbell

41. Who has been chosen as secretary-general of the UN for the second time in a row?

a. Boutros Boutros-Ghali b.KofiAnnan c. Ban Ki-moon d. Javier Pérez de Cuéllar

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Advanc’edge MBA July 2011 65

Answer to the Sudoku

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

www.advancedge.com

1.d 2.d 3.a 4.d 5.a 6.d

7.b 8.b 9.b 10.d 11.d 12.a

13.c 14.b 15.c 16.d 17.d 18.d

19.a 20.d 21.b 22.a 23.c 24.c

25.b 26.c 27.c 28.a 29.d 30.d

31.b 32.d 33.b 34.a 35.c 36.d

37.a 38.b 39.d 40.a 41.c

ANSWERS

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ISB India Strategy Research Conference – ISB HyderabadDate: July 9-10, 2011Venue: ISB Hyderabad campusObjective of the ConferenceThe ISB India Strategy Conference will feature research papers inthefieldofStrategythatmeethighstandardsofacademicrigour and also create insights that are of value in practice. ISBresidentandaffiliatefacultywillselectamixofpapersthatcomplement each other for presentation at the conference. Website: http://www.isb.edu/IndiaStrategyConference/index.Shtml

Summer Research Conference 2011 in Finance – Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) at the Indian School of Business (ISB), HyderabadDate:July28-31,2011Venue: ISB Hyderabad campusObjective of the ConferenceThe theme of the conference is ‘Recent Advances in Corporate Finance’.Papersinallareasofcorporatefinancearewelcome,includingcorporatefinancingandcorporategrowth,corporateinvestment decisions, real options, corporate finance andproduct markets, control rights and corporate governance, mergers and acquisitions, institutional and legal framework, behaviouralimplications,andcorporatefinancinginemergingmarkets. The conference will have a special feature on corporatefinancingandgrowth.Website: http://www.isb.edu/fi nanceconference2011/

2011 IACBE Asia Regional Conference – Alliance University, Bangalore and International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE) Asia Region Date: July 16-17, 2011Venue: Central Campus of Alliance University in BangaloreObjective of the ConferenceThe theme of the conference is “Management Education in Emerging Economies”. The conference aims to bring together on a single platform thought leaders, educators and industry leaders united in the common goal of improving management education, to highlight the functioning of global accrediting bodies, IACBE in particular, and the advantages of such accreditations to business programmes in Asia and gain an excellent overview of the process steps, standards, documentation and support services involved in seeking IACBE international accreditation.Website: http://www.alliance.edu.in/iacbe/index.html

Conference on Inclusive & Sustainable Growth: Roles of Industries, Government & Society - Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur Date: July 15-16, 2011Venue: Institute of Management Technology, NagpurObjective of the ConferenceThe aim of the conference is to provide an interdisciplinary forum for professionals, academicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, regulators and administrator to discuss and

promote dissemination of information, results, innovations and improvisation in the broad areas of inclusivity and sustainability. Website: http://www.imtnagpur.ac.in/

37th National Competition for Young Managers NCYM – 2011 - AIMA – Bosch Date and Venue: July 15-16, 2011 - Eastern Regional Round – KolkataJuly 22-23, 2011 - Western Regional Round – MumbaiJuly 22-23, 2011 - Southern Regional Round – Chennai July 29-30, 2011 – Northern Regional Round - DelhiObjective of the ConferenceThe theme of the conference is ‘Building Sustainable Indian Multinationals: Agenda for Action’. The National Competition for Young Managers (NCYM) this year explores how Indian organisations effectively manage and integrate global operations. The young managers this year will deliberate on ‘How can Indian organisations change and prepare themselves to perform in a global context and ecosystem, What are some good practices that Indian organizations can adopt from successful multinationals with vast global presence and Is there are framework that organisations of today create and adhere to, in order to manage directly while expanding their global footprints, Diversity across various dimensions – people, processes, practices’.Website: http://www.aima-ind.org/national_events/NCYM.html

International Conference on Managing Excellence for Emerging Global Paradigm in Business Technology - CH Institute of Management & Commerce (CHIMC) Indore in collaboration with Modern Technology & Management Institute Inc (MTMI), USA, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and DBMA, University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, USADate: July 15-16, 2011Venue: CH Institute of Management & Commerce (CHIMC) IndoreObjective of the ConferenceThe conference will provide a special forum to present and discuss research in emerging global paradigm for managing excellence in corporate operations and performance as well as technology in dynamic global environment and promote collaborative research worldwide.Website: http://www.chimc.in/home.html

Global Summit Corporate Social Responsibility and Transparency – Birla Institute of Management Technology (BIMTECH)Date: July8-9,2011Venue: India Habitat Centre, New DelhiObjective of the ConferenceThe objective of the Global Summit on CSR and Transparency is to discuss the implications of the broadened concept of CSR and transparency, bring forth exemplary and inspiring examples of CSR and transparency practices, stimulate discussion and deliberation of stakeholders’ expectations with respect to responsible business behaviour, present stakeholders’ experience and perspectives of their engagement and evaluation of responsible corporate practices, generate enthusiasm of participants towards fair trade principles and practices and initiate interest and promote awareness and commitment towards sustainability reportingWebsite: http://bimtech.ac.in/

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Advanc'edge MBA July 2011