Where do I do my MBA from?

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Today there are more than a thousand institutions in our country offering PGDM’s and MBA degrees.

Management Education in India made a formal beginning in the 1950’s, with the Indian Institute of Social Welfare becoming the earliest institution to have a formal education programme in management education. In the 1960s the Government initiatives in management education became a reality with the establishment of two IIM’s, one in Kolkata and another at Ahmedabad. It was observed that there was a good demand for these management graduates and their need was felt in all sectors. Naturally the demand for management education programmes grew and having a Post Graduate Qualification in Management became the in thing. The private sector too entered this field and several educational ventures were launched.

Today there are more than a thousand institutions in our country offering PGDM’s and MBA degrees. The aspiring student no doubt has a vast choice but the claims made by the institutions with their attractive endorsements actually put him/her into a mire of confusion.This brings us to the million-dollar question that every student is faced with: How should I choose the institution that would make or break my future?First things first – Ask yourself, why do I want to get a Post Graduate qualification in Management? Is it because I want to get a lucrative job? Or become an entrepreneur? Or am I just doing it because my friends are. Clarify your objectives first.

Next, gather information about the institutions from various sources like journals, the Internet, your friends and relatives. One very crucial source of information would be the alumni of the institute as well as the students currently pursuing the course. For some students location may limit the choice of the institution.Your search parameters must essentially include:

Infrastructure: A good institution must provide an interesting learning environment in terms of well equipped labs and libraries, classrooms, discussion rooms, conference rooms, auditorium, canteen and facilities for some extra curricular activities.

Faculty: Even world-class infrastructure is no replacement for good faculty. Check for the profile of the faculty; look for their experience in the industry, the courses they cover and the academic achievements beyond teaching. Ideally an institute must have a faculty profile, which is made up of a healthy blend of academicians, policy makers, administrators and managers to deliver the knowledge, skills and give a comprehensive perspective of the corporate world.

Pedagogy: Find out what teaching methods are used. Ideally it should include lectures, case studies, seminars, group discussions, business games, role-plays, simulation exercises, structured and unstructured group work and field visits. At this level the emphasis should rest on involving the students in learning and helping them to relate concepts and theories to business requirements. Consistent with advances in teaching technology, the programme must familiarise students in the use of computers and utilising them in different functional areas of management.

Course Curriculum: Examine the course curriculum, see how often it is updated, how relevant it is to industry demands. (You can ask your parents or teachers or maybe any of your relatives from the industry)

Placement Record: Placement here refers to two kinds - placement during summer internships and final placements. Generally a good summer placement would also result in a final placement. However ask for details as to where the students were placed for internship in the previous years, how professionally the internship was managed by the institute and the outcome of the same.
Final placement is of course what most people look for, except for those who want to start off on their own or manage their family business.

Industry-Institute interface: Much has been said about this by several institutions, claiming to have a good industry-institute interface. However it is not enough if the institute has arranged visits or invited experts from a particular industry to visit the institute. It is vital to know the quality of interaction between the industry and the institution in terms of live projects, conferences and workshops held of this purpose.

Finally before taking the plunge, remember, a good institution is no replacement for hard work and a great attitude. Go ahead and jump right into the fascinating world of management education. All the best!!!!

Are classrooms ready for laptops?

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There was a time, when notebooks in a classroom meant a sheaf of paper in a hardbound cover. Now, imagine a classroom in which the teacher is wirelessly connected to students through their notebooks – the computer variety. No messy tangled wires here, thanks to wireless connectivity. The student is served interactive content controlled by the teacher. This content includes primary curriculum as well as other resources such as encyclopedias and dictionaries.
Students practise their learning through tests, ensuring that they not only learn but also improve their scores and performance. The students are wired in a controlled environment with limited access to sites they can visit. The teacher controls the entire user experience.

Imagine again. The same computer network also performs mundane tasks such as attendance monitoring, preparation for lessons, and executing class tests, and providing feedback on students to administrators and parents. The network also empowers parents by enabling them to keep a close tab on their children by accessing feedback from teachers, helping them to coach their children in better ways.

Now, stop imagining. The good news is that such projects have already been launched in India. It has already been working in countries like Nigeria and Brazil.

Some of the biggest names in technology are behind the main project. Microchip makers AMD and Intel, software giant Microsoft, and HCL are among the backers of the idea of taking notebook computers, long considered the symbol of the yuppie executive, to schools.

Under the World Ahead Program, companies like Intel are looking at the huge rural Indian market of 6,50,000 villages. The chip maker’s Classmate PC, launched last month, fits into this big picture. Classmate PC has already run the pilots in India with sixth standard students at the Delhi Public School at Vasundhara in Ghaziabad. Intel also recently ran a pilot with the Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) and initiated another pilot in which it has seeded Classmate PCs for fourth standard students at the Padma Sheshadri Bal Bhavan, Bangalore to research and gather engineering feedback.

“The primary charter of Craig Barrett’s visit to India is to drive the Intel World Ahead Program with communities, government, academia and industry. This program is an initiative through which Intel plans to invest $1 billion globally over the next 5 years to accelerate access to uncompromised technology across four major focus areas: accessibility, connectivity, education and content,” Intel said. There is also a project called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) . OLPC was founded by digital guru Nicholas Negroponte with a core of the prestigious Media Lab veterans, but quickly expanded to include a wide range of people from academia, industry, the arts, business, and the open-source software community.

OLPC has a plan to offer laptop computers at $100 –that is just about Rs. 4,000. The scheme was rejected by the government last year. The reason for rejection wasn’t spelled out clearly. Nigeria is said to have ordered 10 million pieces under the scheme. Intel joined the project last month. There are also unconfirmed reports that IBM is working on a Rs. 8,000 machine for students, to be launched this year.The good news is that the student’s notebook is not fragile, unlike many corporate laptops that are delicate. It is as tough and rugged as computers could get. A water-proof keyboard, a seven-inch protected LCD screen, a shock-proof shell with an attachable cover all make it a strong proposition.

What if careless students lose their data? The notebook doesn’t have a hard disk. It has a flash memory of 1 to 2 gigabytes (GB) which means that even under strenuous conditions the data will be safe. For those worried about schoolbag weights, the news is that the device weighs only 1.45 kg and works on battery backup of 3-4 hours.

Though Intel has joined the OLPC project, its separate experiment earned the description of “Battle of Goodwill” for the project in which it rivaled OLPC in vying to equip children with aggressively priced laptops. Both were until recently seen as fierce competitors. While the success of OLPC largely depends on support and big orders from governments, Intel for the time being seems to be taking a different route by getting private financiers such as IL&FS into the project.

Both Intel and OLPC need orders to get the pricing right. OLPC’s $100 price tag in India can only be a reality if it gets large orders. Intel has priced its Classmate PC at Rs 18,000. However, the idea of laptops replacing paper notebooks receives mixed reactions from citizens.
Madhur, a teacher at a prestigious Gurgaon school termed it as “progressive and a step in the right direction.”But not everybody is optimistic.

“In India everybody is out to extract money. The school, tutors and now private firms. Why can’t they simply work on the quality of education instead of gizmos?” said Supriya Rathore, wife of an army official.

CAT marks not enough, board scores key at IIM-B

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New Delhi: Cracking the CAT or the Combined Admission Test is just not enough to get into the IIMs. Your Class X and XII marks matter more.

IIM-Bangalore has revealed the details of just what it takes to get into one of the country’s top B- schools.

Contrary to popular perception, CAT scores make up only one-fifth of an aspirant’s final score. Other criteria include the applicant’s X and XII results, which together account for almost 25 per cent of the final score.

The results in the graduate degree exams account for 15 per cent of the final score.
The maximum weightage is given to group discussions and personal interviews, which account for 35 per cent of the total score. The remaining 5 per cent depends on whether the aspirant has taken a Chartered Accountancy course.

Placement Highlights from Top B-schools

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FMS, Delhi University

Paris-based Calyon Bank made the highest domestic offer of INR 16.0 Lakhs per annum.
The highest number of offers was made by Cognizant Technologies with 15 offers. With 10 offers each, IBM, Standard Chartered Bank & ICICI Bank were a close second.

Nearly 48% of the batch opted for a career in Finance. On an average, the highest numbers of offers were made by Banks, with an astounding 62 offers being made IN ALL.

MBA (Management of Services), the 2-year full-time programme of FMS, saw its second batch getting placed, recording an average salary of INR 10.55 Lakhs per annum as opposed to last year’s INR 7.5 Lakhs p.a. The first international offers for the MBA (MS) Batch were made by Jumbo Electronics, Dubai, for an annual salary of AED 220,000 per annum.

A strong 78% of the batch of 2007 converted the option of “Dream Company” - thereby getting an offer from the company they aspired and dreamt of. Compared to other B-schools, this highlights the kind of choice that FMS offers to every student.

MDI Gurgaon

Highlight of placements at MDI Gurgaon was that offers poured in from students’ “dream companies” and that too in their preferred profiles.

160 students received 215 offers in all, making it 1.34 offers per student.
Top-notch international recruiters like Macquarie Bank and Emerio visited MDI campus for the first time.

XLRI Jamshedpur
The Campus Recruitment Process at XLRI ended with an epoch-making 50% rise in average salary, higher than any B-school in India.
Consulting and Finance firms were the cynosure of this paradigm-shifting placement scene at XLRI, making 24% & 30% of the offers respectively.

Hewitt was the top recruiter in consulting with 18 offers, followed by Accenture Business Consulting with 8 offers. Goldman Sachs was the largest recruiter in finance with 9 offers.

NITIE, Mumbai
More than 10% of the PGDIM batch at NITIE joined the millionaire club.
ICICI Bank (20), Cognizant Technology Solutions (20), ICICI Prudential (17), Kotak Mahindra (16), IBM (11) were among the top recruiters.
The Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector ranked among students’ top preferences with 35% accepted offers across companies in this sector.

IMT, Ghaziabad
Kotak Mahindra became largest recruiter at IMT Ghaziabad, handed out 31 offers, followed by Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions, ICICI Prudential, Bharti and Trident.

The placement process saw first-time recruiters including, eClerx, Jumbo International, Covansys, Dell and Accenture visiting the campus.
Along with the flagship PGDBM program, the newer programs in Human Resource Management (MHRM) and International Business (MIB) also saw substantial hike, both in the average compensation package and in terms of number of offers.

SPJIMR, Mumbai
Placements 2007 Creates 85 Millionaires at SPJIMR, Mumbai.
Companies resorted to the phone-a-friend option, calling up their head-offices and carving out special profiles other than those usually on offer.

Participants had 4 offers to consider on an average, with the choice set hitting 10 in some cases.
This year’s placement process saw more than 160 lateral offers generated for 65 candidates.

The highest international offer at SPJIMR was of 43,000 pounds by ICICI Bank for a treasury position in UK.

TISS, Mumbai
Companies like Deutsche Bank, Ernst & Young, Asian Paints & Wipro made Pre-Placement Offers to TISS students.

The institute maintained its enduring relationship with corporate bigwigs like ITC, IBM, HLL, etc., and began new innings with top profile and global companies like HSBC, Dell, Nokia, PwC, etc.

JBIMS, Mumbai
One in every two students, from the batch of 2007 at JBIMS gets offers to become a millionaire.
The institute had its highest number of international and lateral offers. Lateral offers were made to 20% of the batch, while 15% of the batch bagged international offers. Major recruiters for overseas placements were Olam International, First Gulf Bank, Sharaf Group, Man Financial and Jumbo Electronics.

IIFT, Delhi
20% of the batch receives Pre-Placement Offers at IIFT, Delhi.
Olam International and Backes & Strauss made international offers, apart from offers from Australian Wheat Board for their Trading operations.

The average package offered this year was INR 9.3 Lakhs with highest international package of USD 100,000 (offered by Olam International) and highest domestic package of INR 19.2 Lakhs (offered by Lehman Brothers).
The other higher paying offers were from Citigroup, Backes & Strauss, Standard Chartered, DTZ, etc.

XLRI to hold XAT 2008 on January 6

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Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur has announced dates for its entrance exam Xavier Admission Test, popularly called XAT.

Fr N Casimirraj S J, Director, XLRI informed MBAUniverse.com, “XAT will be held on Sunday, January 06, 2008. The online registration for XAT and XLRI will start from September 1, 2007.” Apart from XLRI, XAT score are also used by many other B-Schools like Xavier Institute of Management Bhuneshwar, (XIMB), Xavier Institute of Social Service (XISS), Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Goa.

The last date of registration to XAT is November 30.
According to XLRI, XAT covers three objective-type test areas: verbal ability, quantitative ability and decision-making ability. There are also questions on Values. Students also have to write essays on a topic based on current value systems.

XLRI has been conducting its all-India admission tests for more than 50 years. Using this experience and expertise it has extended this test to other Management Institutes. Last year there are 35 other Management Institutes that select students using XAT 2007.

Founded in 1949, one of India’s premier management institutes, XLRI is running two-year full time Management Programmes in Personal Management and Industrial Relation Programme; General Management Programme; Executive PG Programme; Fellow Programme in Management.