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“This is a momentous occasion for us,” said Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB “I am proud that ISB and IIT Madras, two leading academic institutions of the country, are joining forces to encourage research activities. With the best minds working together on issues that industries face today, I am sure we will be able to produce cutting edge research that will make India proud.”

Professor M S Ananth, Director of IIT Madras said, "IIT Madras has a strong tradition of research and we have been involved in management research and education for many years now. I am very glad that we have developed this synergy with ISB's outstanding faculty. I hope that scholars from both our institutions will contribute to advancing the frontiers of management education across the world.”

Dean Rao and Professor Ananth signed the MoU today at a ceremony at the IIT Madras premises. Academicians and senior staff members from both institutions attended the ceremony.

The MoU allows Academic Associates from the ISB to enroll for a PhD programme in IIT Madras. They will be able to attend full courses or lectures in both the institutions The ISB and IIT Madras will provide adequate academic exposure and facilitate interactions with expert faculty for the Associates. The MoU also allows for research scholars from IIT-Madras to attend ISB courses, academic conferences, seminars etc.

The joint programmes offered by both institutions include the following:
a) Jointly guiding/supervising academic research at the masters and doctoral levels
b) Course modules or special lectures for faculty, research scholars, students and research staff;
c) Sharing of academic materials and information/knowledge/technology resources necessary for research
d) Doing collaborative research and publishing articles in reputed journals
e) Jointly organising conferences, seminars, lecture series, round tables, or other academic meetings and events.

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Mr J Robert Carr, Chief Professional Development Officer and Mr Brain J Glade, Vice President, represented SHRM and Dr Aneeta Madhok, Dean SP Jain Center for Human Resources and also a Master Trainer for GPHR Certification along with Prof Christopher Abraham, Sr Vice President, S P Jain Center for Management, Dubai and Singapore, were present on this occasion to make the announcement.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Brian Glade, Vice President, SHRM stated that “As Dubai and the GCC region develop into a global market and commercial center, the need for talented, skilled and knowledgeable HR professionals is increasing significantly. SHRM and S P Jain are positioned at the forefront of this growth and we are prepared to meet the region's needs with our global HR Management Program and Certification”. He also added that 'We have created a learning product that brings together the best in US and Western theory, practices and application to local market realities. With 60 years experience, and as the world's largest HR association with more than 250,000 members, we are positioning ourselves to prepare the HR community in the GCC Region to meet the challenges of globalization and world competitiveness”.

Mr. Robert Carr, Chief Professional Development Officer, SHRM remarked that “Dubai and the region are fast becoming a leading centers for global commerce in this part of the world. To fully realize its potential as a Mecca for international trade and commerce, the GCC region must be able to leverage the talents of its people both native and expatriate. To do this employers will need to embrace the best practices in global human resource management. As the world's largest organization devoted exclusively to advancing the needs and interests of human resource practitioners, SHRM sees the need for partnering with a reputed institute of higher learning like S P Jain Center of Management”.

While launching the S P Jain Center for Human Resources, Dr Aneeta Madhok, Dean stated that “Today the UAE and the region rely heavily on multi-ethnic, multi-cultural workforce to meet the economic growth objectives of the region. The need for knowledge based HR professionals to manage the challenges associated with this change is increasing. Alliance with the renowned SHRM will help immensely in realizing this objective”. She also said that in the immediate future, the Center for Human Resources is launching a range of short term weekend and part-time courses in this area.

Prof Christopher Abraham, Sr Vice President, S P Jain Center of Management, Dubai and Singapore, stated that the association with SHRM USA was a strategic initiative and would auger well with the long term growth plans that SP Jain Center of Management has for the region.

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With the increasing number of Mergers and Acquisitions that have taken the global corporate scenario by storm, the role of HR in cultural integration was an issue addressed by almost all the speakers throughout the course of the symposium. Change in organizational structures and having an international outlook were some of the suggested areas that the HR professional should develop and implement so that their respective organizations meet the various challenges they are faced with.

The symposium addressed several pressing and relevant themes such as HR Outsourcing, Cross Cultural Competencies, Leadership and Change Management. In the transformational era, migration of products and services, talent, capital and business processes are the four pillars of changing time, pointed out Mr K Pandia Rajan, Managing Director and CEO of Ma Foi Management Consultants. The sessions also saw interesting aspects such as whether HR should cater to the commercial aspects of the organization alone or can it actually look after the spiritual well-being of the workforce.

Mr Madan Padaki CEO of MeritTrac Services Pvt. Ltd questioned whether it is the bandwidth or the intelligence. He emphasized that HR professionals should seek to create more bandwidth for people within the organization, to do things that they are supposed to do much better and to derive intelligence out of the work that is happening around them.

During the sessions that spanned across the two day event the podium was graced by the likes of Mr V Ramachandran Director, Human Resources, Motorola, Asia-Pacific, Mr Nishant Kolgaonkar, Head International HR, CA (India) Technologies Pvt Ltd, Mr Jays Chandy, Head People Function, Mindtree Consulting, Mr N.S Iyer, Head HR, Asian Paints, Dr S S Badrinath, Chairman Emeritus, Sankara Nethralaya, who all stressed on the fact that HR professionals need to develop global business acumen – understand socio-political developments, acquire geographical, functional, corporate competencies so that they benefit the organization in the long run.

The final session was indeed the most engaging one as it was a panel discussion on the topic 'Emerging Roles of HR: Paradigm Shift to Strategic Business Partnering but at What Cost?' The session bore witness to a lively and engaging debate on a variety of key issues on the future of HR such as whether HR professionals could be CEOs or whether strategy and HR were congruent with many contradicting views being deliberated actively by both the panel and the participants over the direction the function would take in coming years.

The event was brought to a close with an endearing and interactive valedictory address by Mr N Murali, Managing Director of The Hindu Group of Publications, who said that students who aspire to be a successful HR professional must acquire multiple skills. While he stressed that HR has a long way to go to earn a place in the board room of a company in the country he also admitted that in India, albeit slowly, HR is dawning now. He stated that though business paradigms are changing very fast, for all these changes to bear fruit, the education system needs to be appropriately changed so that it would suit the needs of the industries and organizations in general. Apt indeed were his remarks as were the invaluable insights of the host of industry stalwarts that made for another successful edition of the Insight series of Management Symposia.

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Summer Placements 2008 saw participation from 66 top recruiters from India and abroad. IIMK's continuous emphasis on forging new relationships meant that 22 new recruiting partners participated in placements at IIMK for the first time. Some of the new names added to IIMK's increasingly impressive roster included: Google, Freudenberg, Accenture Business Consulting, Citibank, Bank of America, KPMG, Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Hewitt Associates, amongst others.

Freudenberg, the diversified German conglomerate that offers its customers technically challenging products and services in a wide variety of businesses ranging from chemicals to IT services, across the world, initiated a relationship with IIMK this year. Freudenberg was one of the most coveted recruiters on campus, and recruited students for positions in Germany and Hong Kong. Freudenberg, as an exclusive recruiter, recruits only from very select business school campuses in India, and its participation at Summer Placements 2008 speaks volumes about IIMK's perception as the preferred destination for top-drawer managerial talent.

IIMK strengthened its relationship with existing recruiters, even as they demonstrated consistently increasing faith in the quality of talent available at IIMK. Prominent names that participated at Summer Placements 2008 included: YES BANK, Johnson & Johnson, HUL, Yahoo!, Edelweiss, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Ocwen, American Express, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boston Analytics, Marico, CHAINalytics, Standard Chartered Bank, Deloitte Consulting Colgate-Palmolive, ITC, Asian Paints, and Tata Motors, amongst others.

The average stipend on campus zoomed 25pc as compared to last year, to be pegged at Rs 25,000 per month. Accenture Business Consulting and Boston Analytics offered the highest domestic stipend at Summer Placements 2008 – Rs 50,000 per month. The offers saw an even distribution across verticals, with 28pc of the batch choosing internships in the finance domain, 22pc of the batch selecting marketing profiles and 20pc of the batch showing their preference for Systems. Consulting internships were chosen by 16pc of the batch, while the other 15pc was evenly split across Operations, HR and Others.

Accenture Business Consulting extended its relationship with IIMK to summer placements this year, after making the highest number of offers across top campuses at IIMK during Final Placements 2007. Technology giants Google and Yahoo! were amongst the most coveted recruiters on campus; both offered roles in Internet Sales & Marketing that were extremely sought after at Summer Placements 2008.

PepsiCo, AIG, RPG Enterprises, IBM Business Consulting, YES BANK and Reliance Industries Ltd were amongst the many recruiters who made the highest number of offers across business schools at IIMK this year, during Summer Placements 2008. Impressed by the quality of talent, PricewaterhouseCoopers offered roles with the Performance Improvement division for the first time at IIMK. Deloitte Strategy & Operations and Deloitte Financial Advisory Services continued to strengthen their relationship with IIMK; IIMK being the only campus where both Deloitte S&O; and Deloitte FAS participate in placements processes.

A distinct trend at Summer Placements 2008 was the wide variety of exclusive roles on offer, even from traditional recruiters. American Express offered risk management profiles in their prestigious WWRIM division. AIG, impressed with the students' knowledge in the financial domain offered roles in asset management, with the AMC division.

In a statement reflective of IIMK's rapidly growing stature amongst premier recruiters, Senior Vice President & Regional Head (South) – Corporate and Institutional Banking, YES BANK, Mr. Nakul Beri said, “The response and enthusiasm to YES BANK on campus was terrific, with a professionally organized process. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with IIM Kozhikode that spans beyond just placements.”

Students chose to intern with organizations offering some of the most exotic and unique profiles across top business school campuses, thus underlining the diversity that sets IIMK apart. Students were offered roles in Carbon Credit Trading and Environmental Consulting, while TCS offered unique roles in Entrepreneurship Marketing. SET made five offers in the Media Management and Media Marketing roles.

As an institute, IIMK has been growing at a rapid pace. The last two years have seen the student intake increase by no less than 25pc. That said, the growth of key placement parameters more than kept pace with the pace of growth of the institute.

Chairperson-Placements, Prof Kulbhushan Balooni remarked “IIMK's placements have consistently bettered the records the institute has set for itself. In spite of IIMK setting an aggressive pace of growth, placements performance has consistently exceeded all expectations. This augurs well for the next decade of excellence for IIMK.”



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Mr Anand Singh visited campus to take the session. Mr Singh is the Director-Knowledge and Insights at Coca Cola India. An MBA himself, he passed out in 1994 and has worked with markets research firms which have given him expertise in the domain. Post that he has also worked with Reckitt Benkiser and currently is with Coca Cola India. With a person of this stature sharing his knowledge with the students, the session turned out to be even more insightful and exciting than was expected.

The session was conducted in a unique way with the audience not only being interactive but also having open discussion with Mr Singh about questions that were raised by them. It started off with the speaker letting students express their ideas about their expectations from the session thus instantly kick starting an interaction and also giving the whole session a flow.

Before moving on to the agenda and points of discussion suggested by the audience, Mr Singh started of with a presentation titled 'The Value of Insights'. It spoke volumes about how market knowledge ad consumer insights go a long way in aiding key decision made by the business. He introduced the students to the DNA model that Coca Cola follows. After this he pointed out the factors and their context to the business to demonstrate to audience how 'Insights lie at the point of convergence' such as values, lifestyles, awareness etc. Further on he elaborated how 'Macro factors' affect 'Trends' and 'Fads' and how studying these trends is important for any company.

Carrying forward with the discussion on trends he introduced the students to trends such as agelessness and convergence, gender blurring, health and wellness and a high level of optimism amongst the Indian consumer. More importantly he shared his own views and insights about these factors and other issues. This gave students totally different perspectives and a new line of thought about how Knowledge and Insights are vital to a company.

After giving a brief about further steps such as idea generation, market knowledge tools and methodologies and product design and launches taking examples such as the latest 'Minute Maid' brand. Mr Singh then moved back to some of the questions initially asked by the students that covered points such Insights Vs Instincts, use of insights in positioning, celebrity endorsements and the role of research in it and a variety of topics. These and other viewpoint kept the audience enthralled and wanting more.

As the presentation concluded the students were all ready and enthusiastic to carry forward the interaction and discussions which is how the remainder of the session went on. Mr Singh gave solid and convincing answers to a plethora of questions put forth and at the same time was open to discussions on different points raised by students. This amount of interaction made the session extremely fruitful for the students.

The session ended on a high note with the students feeling excited and 'refreshed'. Mr Singh concluded by thanking the students for an overwhelming response and hoped to carry forward this mutual association with JBIMS through more such insightful sessions and interactions.

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'Crescita', the annual conference of the BIM Trichy saw speakers from various sectors sharing their perspective on issues such as currency appreciation, inclusive growth, energy requirements, supply chain establishment, financial inclusion, effective communication with target audience and talent retention.

Mr BL Ghasolia, executive director-chief corporate finance, ONGC, who inaugurated the two-day seminar, outlined the energy requirements to fuel India's burgeoning growth. He also advocated the need to tap alternative sources of energy.

The 200+ management students who attended the seminar also tuned in to issues pertaining to specific sectors such as the retail and communication.

B Venkataramana, VP-human resources, Reliance Retail spoke about how HR had moved beyond payroll management and data entry to drawing the image and culture of an organization. “Since the traditional HR can be automated or outsourced, the focus is increasingly moving to designing retention strategies”, said Mr. Venkataramana. This was especially important in the retail sector where there are too many jobs chasing few people, he said.

Mr Alvin Saldanha, national creative director, Shobiz Integrated Marketing Communications acquainted the aspiring media planners in the audience with innovative means to capture consumer mind-share. “Increasingly, press and TV advertising are playing a support function in driving consumer traffic to the net. Consumers today are not available in the same media and spot as before”, said Mr Saldanha. Companies were leveraging blogs, social networking sites and pod casts to attract consumers.

The diverse perspectives and chunks of advice from the speakers went down well with the students who kept the speakers on their toes by shooting them with a flurry of questions after each session.

During the day, the quizzing club of BIM organized BIM Quest, a corporate quiz event. The event was sponsored by Club Mahindra and was orchestrated by Mr. Lloyd Saldanha of Grey Caps. More than 100 teams from various corporate entities around the country participated in the opening round of BIMQuest. Top six teams comprising of Bhilai Steel, TCS, GE Money, Irevna, Cambridge Solutions and Sun Microsystems made it to the finals of BIMQuest. The finals had four rounds where the business acumen of the participants was judged to the core by the quiz master. The audience was kept wired to the quiz throughout by Mr Saldanha with loads of audience questions and witty comments. The team from Sun Microsystems emerged as the winners and won a cash prize of Rs 25000. The team from Cambridge Solutions came second and got a cash prize of Rs 15000. TCS team came third and got a cash prize of Rs 10000. All the winning teams got holiday packages from Club Mahindra worth Rs 15000.

Day 2 of Crescita 2007 had started with Mr T R Ramachandran, Country Head, Cards Division of Citibank Group, an alumnus of BIM, talking about various economic and financial trends related to the banking industry and its impact on India Rising.

Mr Moorthi Chockkanathan, Senior VP, Head Delivery, Hexaware Technologies sharing his views about the role of the IT industry in India Rising and what more needs to be done in that direction to sustain the growth rate.

Ms Punitha Arumugam, Head of Madison Communications, took over the stage next and shared her views on how the Media industry, in particular the impact of media agencies in India Rising. She also spoke about the dearth of talent in this sector due to pay scale being incomparable with the BPO industry.

The afternoon session saw Mr Hariharan, Associate Director, P & G India, share his views about the economic growth in general and how to sustain it but the emphasis was on the FMCG industry. He spoke about the growth of FMCG industry in India and how the changing demographics are affecting it now and how they will affect the growth rate of the industry in the future. He also shared few points on CSR initiatives of various companies that have a huge role to play in India Rising.

During both days of Crescita 2007, Government representatives, Mr R Christodas Gandhi, I A S (Secretary to the Govt of Tamil Nadu, Social Reforms) and Mr Ashok Vardhan Shetty I A S (Secretary to the Govt of Tamil Nadu, Rural development and Panchayati Raj) applauded the efforts of India Inc for the rising growth rate but spoke about the huge gap in the increasing divide between the rich and poor. They had a common view on the industry going in for inclusive growth that benefits all sections of the society and also would help in sustaining the economic growth over a longer period of time.

All the sessions were highly interactive as the students kept shooting questions at the speakers regarding their queries. The event came to an end with the valedictory function being presided over by Mrs Pamela Ramalingam, Director, ISoft Technologies
More details on www.crescita.in

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Courses that the IIM-A students will study in one week include 'Introduction to Business Negotiations' with Prof Elke Weber, a 'Marketing Module' with Prof Gita Johar and 'Credit Risk & Fixed Income Markets' with Prof Suresh Sundaresan. Over the course of the week, the students will also have the opportunity to interface with other faculty members, staff from Columbia's Chazen Institute of International Business, Chazen Society Fellows, the student-led South Asian Business Association and EMBA students.

The coursework will be complemented by industry visits to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Booz Allen Hamilton, a global strategy and technology consulting firm.

The students are currently participating in the 'international immersion' segment of their program. Following their week in New York City, they will work on consulting assignments around the country before returning to India in December.

Columbia Business School and IIM-had A announced their partnership in January 2007. The program was designed to allow for the exchange of students, faculty and ideas between the two institutions.

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Table 1 depicts the employment sectors in which MBA candidate respondents are currently employed.

Table 1: Current Employment Sectors of MBA respondents – Worldwide (expressed as a percentage)

Accounting

3.9

Banking

6.0

Consulting

9.3

Consumer Products

5.0

Education

5.5

Engineering

8.8

Financial Services

7.4

Industry

5.5

Information Technology

14.1

Media

2.6

Non-Profit

2.7

Pharmaceuticals

2.1

Public Sector

3.8

Retail

2.0

Telecommunications

4.0

Other

18.2

Source: 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey

As reviewed in the above table, 18 pc of respondents to this survey listed 'other' as their current field of employment. What's interesting is that many professionals not conventionally grouped under the commerce field are taking up MBA studies. Some doctors and lawyers, for example, are now turning to business education to improve career prospects and propel them in a new direction.

As a result of increasing interest in MBAs among non-businesspeople, progressive schools have begun combining postgraduate degrees with the MBA. Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem has developed a five-year program in which students can earn a joint MD/MBA degree. McGill University, in Canada, offers a joint MBA/Law degree program designed 'for those students who are interested in both the legal and administrative aspects of business. It gives them the opportunity to prepare themselves for careers in both private and public enterprises, government service, large corporations, and as management consultants.'

An MBA is seen as the perfect way forward by many looking to change career, and 34% of MBA applicants surveyed reported 'career change' as their leading motivation to undertake an MBA, according to the 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey expressed in Table 2. In some regions like North America, almost 60% of MBA candidates are turning to MBA education in their quest for a new career.

Table 2: Reasons for MBA – Worldwide (expressed as percentage)

Education

Boost salary

Build professional network

Enable career change

Improve career prospects

Learn new skills

Start own business

Other

22.0

26.9

41.1

33.8

69.4

53.3

23.9

2.6

Source: 2007 QS TopMBA.com Applicant Survey

So can business school really give you all the necessary skills to succeed in a completely new realm of work?
Unlike other Masters courses that may provide the graduate with a theoretical understanding of a particular topic, like history, for example, the MBA prepares the graduate for the 'real' business world through practical applications like case studies that teach the student all aspects of running a business. Skills learned in MBA courses are therefore far more transferable to the business world than those one may learn in other Masters courses.

“A vast majority of our hires have MBAs,” explains Georgia Foley, Recruitment Manager at AT Kearney. “We certainly have a preference for candidates with MBAs, as they offer a passion for learning, academic and communication abilities and a strong entrepreneurial spirit. They also have energy, rigour and a breadth of understanding of general management principles.”

If you're a new MBA without much applicable experience in the sector in which you intend to work, graduate programs may be your answer. Sony Europe, for instance, runs the European Graduate Program which takes on new MBAs. Tom Verbeke, HR Manager of Sony Europe, says, “we are looking for internationally minded, highly-skilled and intelligent people that want to take on a development course in order to complement their business education (MBA) with the experience of working in different cultures, different organizations and in different functions, supported by on-the-job and off-the-job development initiatives, aimed at fully developing highly-talented students to later take on a key role within the Sony organization.”

When it just might not work

Your choice of field, however, may work against you if you choose an area typically requiring extensive experience that you just don't have. Consultancy, for example, is one field known for demanding its undertakers gain prior work experience. Damir Latte, Recruitment Consultant at Global Workplace (a specialist in Management Consultancy) says, “candidates for consultancy roles ideally need 3 to 5 years relevant work experience. For those with none or very little relevant experience, consultancy positions are out of the question; however, if they are good they could be considered for analyst roles.”

Of course, this all depends on your career intentions. If you're a chef trying to become an account and lack exceptional numerical proficiency, it may take more than an MBA to put you in the right direction. All in all, it takes time to evaluate your options and research the enormous range of careers out there. If you're a lawyer taking an MBA to become a management consultant, business education would probably provide you with the practical skills to accompany the 'softer' skills learned in the law realm.

Source: www.TopMBA.com

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"India has seen an explosion of its middle classes over the last few years with an emerging generation of highly educated young workers earning higher incomes than ever before,” says Arun Mehra, Head of Investment Strategy at Fidelity India. “This has driven massive growth in domestic consumption and if you combine this with the boom in the pharmaceutical industry and government spending on infrastructure, India reveals itself as one of the most attractive growth stories in the investment world right now."

Dominic Wilson, Senior Global Economist and Vice President of Goldman Sachs says, on India's economic future: “India has the potential to deliver the fastest growth over the next 50 years with an average rate of more than 5 pc a year for the entire period."

But are China and India equipped with the skills to keep up with the demand and growth? Probably not. While India's focus on improving education, and highly educated young workers are contributing to stronger management both in India-based business and multinationals, business is growing faster than skilled labor can accommodate. Corporate universities are even multiplying in order to teach new workers new skills and older middle managers the leadership skills they need to grow a business. China's Motorola University, probably the most famous of the corporate universities, has been going strong since 1993, helping the telecommunications company gain a competitive edge.

We are at a point where the Executive MBA (EMBA) may soon become an essential part of the experienced Chinese or Indian manager's career progression. India boasts a good selection of EMBA outlets, according to the QS personalized search tool www.TopMBA.com/Scorecard . The Faculty of Management Studies at Delhi University, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad all rank within the top five in India for executive education.

For many executives, being away from work for a fair amount of time on a traditional MBA course is not an option – the part-time, distance and weekend structure of Executive MBAs is far more attractive. NIIT Imperia, with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Ahmedabad, Calcutta and Indore as academic partners, has set up 'virtual' classrooms throughout India and middle managers can attend management courses without even being in the traditional classroom of lecturer and students. Technology is at a point where managers from across the country can even interact with lecturers and other students remotely.

Blended and online training solutions are becoming staples in India's and China's economic development. Although very technically skilled, many managers lack soft skills such as initiative, leadership, communication, and the ability to thrive within a team. These are all necessary attributes to make it to the top, and reverse the set patterns of the well-ingrained hierarchical employment system in Asia. Innovative training courses allow people to upgrade their skills at any time, therefore becoming the 'right type of people.'

Rajeev Gaur, Vice President of Times Business Solutions, discusses the need for executive courses in India. “There aren't necessarily great skill gaps but rather a very high demand and companies need more and more people. They are not able to get the right type of people. Investing in training and management programs to improve skills amongst middle managers is vital in India.” Mr. Gaur explains the value of 'compact' courses. “Leadership skills can even be improved after participating in a four-day program with a three-month follow-up.”

A great number of western businesses setting up in India and China are demanding more experienced executives, but fresh MBAs are also needed. Xin Ivy Bian, a current student of ESSEC's International Hospitality Management MBA program talks about the younger generation's ambitions. “Nowadays, more and more Chinese students are heading to Europe to continue with higher education, partially because Europe is now more open to China than previously,” says Xin. “More and more big European companies are coming to China for investment purposes. As a result, these companies will have an idea of how much an MBA obtained from certain European institutes are worth. Furthermore, they may want to hire someone who has a local Chinese background, as well as cultural and business knowledge of the European climate.”

Whether you are eager to get into an Executive MBA program at a top business school or simply improve your leadership skills, India and China are the two countries that need your newly developed skills. These two nations are developing faster than the current workforce can take on, and if experts are correct, China and India will be centre stage of the world economy for many years to come.

Source: www.TopMBA.com

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IWSB's Academic Council, which is shaping the curricula for the Post Graduate Programme in Management, has quite a few big names in the field of management education, including Phil Anderson, Dean INSEAD Singapore, Ishwar Dayal, the founding Director of IIM Lucknow, Mirza Saiyadain, former faculty at IIM Ahmedabad, and many more. Benchmarked with some of the best MBA programmes in the world, the PGP at IWSB will espouse hands-on, experiential learning.

Although a new entrant in this field, IWSB has identified placements as a priority. “We are not only targeting to place our students with the largest companies, but also with the fastest – growing companies,” stated R Sreenivasan, Director Career Advisory Services. IWSB's Centre for Career Services has already formally signed up with more than 20 companies who would participate in IWSB's placement. These include Google, AstraZeneca, CNBC-Network 18, naukri.com, Jobstreet.com, and many more. Sreenivasan is confident of having more than 50 companies in this list even before the PGP starts in July 2008.

Besides strong industry interface, the other areas of focus at IWSB are global exposure and entrepreneurial leadership. The school boasts of a US $ 1 million business incubation centre. A first amongst the b-schools in India, the incubator will help young entrepreneurs of the B- school actualise their business plans. The campus, coming up at Greater Noida, will have state-of-the-art infrastructure and facilities.

All takers of CAT and XAT are eligible for admissions to the PGP. On being asked what kind of students was IWSB looking for, Somonnoy Ghosh, Director Academics, said, “We will take good quality students who are open to diverse ideas and are willing to explore new approaches to learning.” Interview calls will take into consideration not only the students' percentile score in CAT/XAT, but also their educational background, work experience, if any, as well as accomplishments in non-academic areas such as evidence of leadership, music, sports, theatre, arts and more.

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Gejo will answer all your questions about CAT 2007 musings, analysis, next steps and more. Shred the hell out of the paper by asking your question at the following link - Ask Gejo @ IMS.

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Structure of the Paper

The structure of the paper was similar to last year's. Considering that the CAT committee has decided, once again, to limit the number of questions, students had less choice in the selection of questions. There is no way a blind scurry would have helped you in a paper which had only 75 questions.

1. Time: 150 minutes
2. Total: 75 questions. 25 questions per section, Sections: Quantitative Ability (QA), Logic and Data Interpretation (DI) and Verbal Ability (VA).
3. Marks per question: 4, Negative Marks: 1 mark deducted for every wrong answer.
4. 5 answer options for each question.

The marking scheme implies that scores will have integral values & not decimals.

Highlights

1. Very few sitters in QA. Overall, a tougher section than the CAT 2006.
2. The DI section was solvable and in comparison to the earlier two years, had lesser emphasis on reasoning. It contained more classic Data Interpretation.
3. The VA section was easy on the eye. This was a welcome change after the grueling VA sections in CAT 2005 and CAT 2006.
4. Data Sufficiency (DS) questions re-appeared in CAT 2007, and that too in abundance in both QA and DI sections, after a break of two years. They were last seen in CAT 2004.

Time Allocation Strategy

Considering the fact that one has to balance scores of all sections, the wisest strategy would have been allocation of 50 minutes for each section.

Quantitative Ability Section

The QA section saw an increased focus on Arithmetic and Algebra, with a sprinkling of Geometry Questions. Number Theory took a back seat. Data Sufficiency questions, too, covered all areas of Mathematics except number theory. Considering approximately 3-4 minutes per question, if solved completely, this section would have taken 85-90 minutes, which is impractical.

Right Approach

A smart student could have attempted 13-14 questions. This accounts for an attempt of 52-56 marks in the total time of 50 mins to be spent on the section.

With a reasonable accuracy of 70%, it is possible to clear the cut-off for the IIMs, which, we estimate would be around 31 marks.

Logic and Data Interpretation Sectio

There were 5 classic Data Interpretation caselets, accounting for 21 questions, which were of average difficulty level. These could have been solved in approximately 15 minutes each.

The four data sufficiency questions were solvable at the rate of 3 mins each.If solved completely, the Logic & DI section would take 85-90 min to solve, which is impractical.

Right Approach

A smart student would have selected any three caselets worth 12 questions and 3 questions of Data Sufficiency. This accounts for an attempt of 60 marks in the total time of 50 mins to be spent on the section. With a reasonable accuracy of approximately 65%, it is possible to clear the cut-off for an IIM call, which, we estimate would be around 35 marks.

Verbal Ability Section

The VA section seemed to beckon students to go back to basics. Grammar returned and so did vocabulary based Usage. Paragraph building, both jumbled sentences snd paragraph completion were seen. Reading Comprehension passages were shorter with classic question types. No critical reasoning this year!

10 minutes per set of Reading Comprehension and Para building account for 60-65 minutes, if solved completely. Add to this 10-12 minutes to solve the two Usage based sets, so, the VA section, if solved completely, would take 70-75 min to solve, which is impractical.

Right Approach

A smart student would have selected any two Reading Comprehension passages worth 6 questions, the two sets of paragraph building worth 6-7 questions and the two sets of Usage worth 5-6 questions.

This accounts for an attempt of approximately 18 questions worth 72 marks in the total time of 50 mins to be spent on the section.

With a reasonable accuracy of 70%, it is possible to clear the cut-off for the IIMs which we estimate would be around 42 marks.


The author Sujata Khanna is Chairperson, Career Forum. Career Forum (http://www.careerforum.in ), the acknowledged leader in entrance examination classroom coaching since 18 years, is a ISO 9001:2000 certified company.
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Endeavor represented its analysis of CAT 2007 in the table below.

Parameter

Quant

Verbal Ability

D.I.

Level of Difficulty

Tough

Tough

Moderate

Good Score

34

46

52

Cut-offs

6 – IIMs

27+

30+

41+

1 – IIM

18+

21+

33+

For calls from various b-schools taking the CAT score, it predicted the score required as given in the following table.

B-school

Score cutoff

Percentile

6 – IIMs

110+

99.6 Percentile

3 – IIMs

97+

99.2 Percentile

1 – IIM

85+

98.3 Percentile

MDI / NITIE *

81+

97.5 Percentile

IMT *

76+

96.5 Percentile

IMI **

71+

95.0 Percentile

NIRMA / UBS **

65+

92.0 Percentile

TAPMI / MICA / FORE #

58+

90.0 Percentile

Kirloskar / ITM / IMDR #

43+

80.0 Percentile

* Sectional Cut-off : 15 % in each section
** Sectional Cut-off : 10 % in each section
# Sectional Cut-off : 5 % in each section

For discussions on CAT 2007 with thousands of aspirants across India, head here.

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Discuss this article in the Forum!

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"There are always two aspects to a problem or an opportunity. The first being its identification and the second relating to its magnitude. If even one of the above mentioned aspects is not understood clearly, it might lead to a loss. In this 'blink and you miss' world, no human has enough time or information to understand the root cause of a problem or the opportunities in an opportunity. Thus, we all take risks. We all know that the dice can fall in any of the six ways, but when we avowal a number which is going to land on our turn; we take a risk!" said the release.

"Every day, every individual takes risks but the stakes are not the same with everyone. A business has to be visionary thus, its bets are always higher and bigger and consequently risk mitigation becomes an inherent function of any entity. Here, comes Risk Management which refers to that human activity which integrates recognition of risk, risk assessment, developing strategies to manage it, and mitigation of risk using managerial resources," it added.

List of eminent speakers at the Seminar

Mr. P.K Choudhury
Vice Chairman & Group CEO, ICRA Ltd

Mr. Rajnikant Patel
Managing Director & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange Ltd

Mr. Mukund S. Annigeri
CEO, Spot Exchange, NCDEX

Mr Dinyaar M. Jivaasha
Group Head & Sr VP, Essar Group Corporate Risk & Insurance Management

Mr Anuj Agarwal
CFO, SBI Life

Mr. Syed Shahabuddin
Managing Director, SBI Funds

Thus we look forward to a stimulating evening which brings forth the different aspects of risks. Let's open the floodgates of uncertainty and walk through the roads less travelled, hand in hand with the stalwarts in the field.

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"At 134 offers, more than half of the batch was placed on the first day of placements. A total of 157 students had got the job of their choice and had opted out of the placement process by the end of the much-coveted Slot 0. Last year, the same figure stood at 120," said an IIM Ahmedabad press statement.

"Although the top investment banks and consulting firms continue to have the highest number of acceptances, the student community got a much more diverse pool of firms and roles to choose from. Along with big players in the Private Equity domain, there were firms like Google who offered a role in business development and Amazon, the star recruiters in the IT/ITES domain; Chicago-based Starcom MediaVest group, a leading global marketing communications networks which came exclusively to IIM Ahmedabad and gave international roles involving business development and communication strategy," it added.

"Many of the big private equity players world-wide – Blackstone PE, General Atlantic, Audax, Greater Pacific Capital visited campus for the first time," said the IIM-A spokesperson.

"Other new firms on campus included investment banks and financial service majors like Macquaire, Rothschild, AIG and ING. Consulting majors Arthur D. Little and Value Partners recruited for summers for the first time. General Atlantic and ING recruited exclusively from IIM Ahmedabad," he further said.

"Another clear trend seen was the increased willingness of firms to offer international postings to management graduates for marketing roles. Top firms traditionally hiring for their Indian offices - Hindustan Unilver Limited, Coca-Cola, Cadbury, Dabur, Aditya Birla Group offered positions abroad to summer interns this year in addition to Procter & Gamble (P&G;), which used to be the only firm in this league till last year," he said.

The idea of building businesses from scratch and higher levels of responsibility seemed to have gained popularity amongst students of IIMA. This year, based on student interest, a 'Startup Fair' was organized for students on October 20th-21st, in which over 90 first year students interacted with 9 startups. The firms spanned across sectors ranging from education to finance.

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The speakers were media personalities like T S Sudhir from NDTV, Vijay Marur, a noted communications consultant in Hyderabad, Sampat Suri from Maytas Properties, Santha John from MindsetEYW Advertising and Dr.Jayprakash Narayan of Lok Satta Party. The speakers opined on Hyderabad's growth and the factors they perceived responsible for the changes the city has witnessed.

The first speaker, Mr Sudhir, elaborated on the media's crucial role in projecting the city to its citizens and to the rest of the country. While Mr. Vijay Marur entertained the audience by sharing his thoughts on the contributions of the last five Chief Ministers to the building of the brand, the GM of quality for Maytas, Mr. Suri spoke about the real estate boom in the city. He also threw light on environmentally friendly buildings and their importance.

After a tea break that included snacks and Red Bull energy drinks, the second half of the seminar began on an enthusiastic note. Santha John, a name to reckon with in the advertising industry in Hyderabad, spoke about the various brands that have evolved from the city quoting examples of Vijaya Butter, Vizag Steel, and Charminar among others. Dr. Jayprakash Narayan commanded attention as he spoke passionately about the state and nation's readiness for change in quality of governance. The role of youth, he said, was the strongest in bringing about a positive change in the system. Mr. Narayan further urged the youth to play an active role in branding the country by fulfilling its inherent potential for growth.

The seminar saw students mostly from the mass communication stream of colleges like Loyola, St. Mary's, Francis and Villa Marie. The speakers were all plied with questions in a very interactive session where participants eagerly debated the many facets and failings of media. A lively and involved participation from the audience, speakers and the local media created an evening of intelligent conversation for those present.

For more on SIMC Footprints visit www.simcfootprints.com

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The new degree, which has endorsements from several leading financial institutions and seed funding from gifts exceeding £2.5million, will complement the School's highly successful pre-experience, research-oriented Finance MPhil, and sit alongside its flourishing post-experience MBA.

During the spring and summer of 2007, Dr Simon Taylor, Director of the Master of Finance programme and Professor Arnoud De Meyer, Director, Judge Business School, met with senior staff in investment banks, hedge funds and private equity firms to involve them in the syllabus, structure and goals of the course.

Dr Simon Taylor said: “One consistent message emerging from this consultation process was that there is a shortage of people who can combine a thorough technical foundation in finance and financial products with a good understanding of the business context of finance. Many people employed in the City have either excellent technical skills or a good set of communication and business skills but too few have both. It is becoming evident that you need both to reach the highest levels in a financial career.”

The programme aims to attract exceptionally bright, analytical and motivated people with the ability to communicate, lead and inspire people. The course will provide a rigorous and intensive academic experience, combined with a high level of practical content from City practitioners. Students will put their learning into practice in a series of projects and internships.

Additionally, following recommendations from several banks, short but highly focused reviews of related subject areas will be included in the programme to provide context for the use of finance in business organisations – for example corporate strategy, marketing, organisational behaviour and business ethics.

Professor Arnoud De Meyer commented: “This new degree in finance is a major development for the School and is part of our strategic plan to establish the School as a global centre of excellence in the field of business finance. It is a logical step since we already act as an interdisciplinary interface with the rest of the University of Cambridge, a renowned world leader in maths, law, economics, engineering and finance. We are also less than an hour from London, which is outpacing Wall Street as the world's financial centre, and we are situated in Cambridge's Silicon Fen, the most dynamic and successful cluster in Europe which attracts a significant proportion of all European venture capital.”
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The event began with the Chief Guest, Shri Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and the Guest of Honor, Mr. Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group, lighting the traditional lamp. Drawing on his vast and distinguished experience, Mr. Ahluwalia in his speech said that inclusive growth could be achieved when the system is flexible enough to allow people to do what they want to, what they are best at and take risks. Highlighting some of the major risks that the Indian growth story could run into, he said that the risk of failing to build up on the continued growth momentum and the risk of managing mobile capital in today's global economy were the ones that students and budding leaders must focus upon.

Continuing the discussion, Mr. Arun Maira said that things are beginning to change with not only corporations but also individuals seeing themselves as being personally responsible for environmental effects of their actions. Identifying the fact that this is a time when corporate philanthropy is no longer a suitable solution to our business problems, Mr. Maira said that there were two dimensions to business models - sustainability and inclusion with equity. He emphasized that inclusion could only be achieved if every individual took on the responsibility to ensure that every Indian was empowered to live a life of dignity.

Session I:

The theme for discussion in this session was "The Changing Indian Marketplace". The speakers for the session included Ms Hiroo Mirchandani, Director, Consumer Health Products, Pfizer Ltd., Ms Nita Kapoor, Executive Vice President, Marketing and Corporate affair, Godfrey Philips, Mr Harit Nagpal, Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone India, Mr Kamal Oberoi, CEO and MD, M&C; Saatchi and Mr Harish Bijoor, Brand expert and CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. The session was moderated by Mr Sreekant Khandekar, Director, Agencyfaqs!

The speakers touched upon various intriguing aspects related to the rapidly changing consumerist trends and lifestyle aspirations of the Indian consumer. Ms Mirchandani, for example, spoke about the emergence of modern retail formats in the OTC segment and the marriage between the FMCG and the Pharmaceuticals sector towards this end. She believes that the Indian healthcare market has changed from being a reactive (illness-oriented) industry to a proactive (wellness-oriented) one and that this was a lucrative area in the healthcare sector. Mr Harish Bijoor presented some interesting dimensions of marketing through his love-hate pendulum and the idea of brand caste i.e., the emergence of simultaneously convergent and divergent patterns in the consumer behaviour across the globe depending on the kind of products and services he/she consumes.

Ms Nita Kapoor talked about the creation of the massive new Indian middle class and the extremely dynamic Indian market behaviours. However, she identified that certain ingrained cultural and social paradigms in the country have remained unchanged over time upon which marketing campaigns could be based to adapt them to the present day scenario and make them relevant and appealing to the customer/consumer. Some of the parameters she mentioned were relationships, religion, art, marriage et al.

Mr Kamal Oberoi talked about the changing canvas with respect to the advertising function of marketing and the new mantra of materialism, which suggests that success matters more than anything else for today's youth. He also stressed that brutal simplicity is extremely important in order to appeal to the consumer given the information explosion that has taken place. Mr Nagpal suggested that the success of a brand and the likes and dislikes of an individual depend on the appeal to the senses and the experience in case of services. He also believes that the focus on one particular feature of the brand should be emphasised for a successful marketing campaign. Through his four-phase model of Presence, Relevance, Performance and Bonding, he presented a lucid understanding of marketing as a function.

Session II:

The theme for the second session of the day was 'Building financial resilience in changing times' with the discussions centring on analyzing and structuring robust financial decisions for India Inc. to grow and prosper in the current business scenario. Mr. Gunit Chadha, CEO & MD, Deutsche Bank India, spoke on issues concerning the present day global markets including the sub prime crisis, use of financial instruments and securitization. Responding to a question on whether one should look into usage of financial engineering models given the consequences such as the sub prime crisis, he reiterated that such instruments have done more good only than bad and have resulted in getting better asset-liability matches and better risk management.

Mr. P.K. Choudhury, Vice Chairman, ICRA Ltd. & CEO, ICRA group called for getting global capital inflow at a competitive price and not at an inflated price and wanted a reduced dependence on mathematical and statistical models for judgmental decisions. Dr. V.K. Garg, CMD, PFC Ltd., reiterated the need to build sound infrastructure capability that would be the backbone of building financial resilience in the country.

Dr. K.C. Chakrabarty, CMD, Punjab National Bank, gave a banking perspective of the need for building financial resilience and said that the Indian public is more insulated from financial shocks and instability due to less exposure to the banking environment. Replying to a question on the current financial resilience of the Indian economy, he said that on a scale of 1 to 10, today's situation would command a very high rating of 9 but things could be different when markets are opened up.

Session III:

The theme for the third session was "Inclusive Growth- The New Mantra". Many luminaries of Indian business including Mr Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, Mr Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd., and Mr Shivakumar, VP and MD, Mobile phones, Nokia India participated in this session. The session was moderated by Mr Sunil Jain, Senior Associate Editor, Business Standard. Mr Vikram Kaushik, CEO and MD, TATA Sky kicked off the session with his thoughts on the subject by drawing relevant examples from his own company and TATA group toward providing equitable opportunities to all. He vehemently urged the industry and academia to play an active role in transforming India to Bharat.

Mr Shivakumar from Nokia India brought out the perspective that the optimistic numbers showing India's growth had their flip side as well. Economic as well as social inequalities still plague India and have led to restlessness, tendencies towards crime, strife, strikes and hartals still persist making it difficult for free and fair business. He suggested that the important components of inclusive growth should be education, health, infrastructure, worthy benchmarks and Public-Private partnership.

Mr Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM suggested that the yardsticks for merit should be established and that merit alone should be rewarded for us to remain competitive. However, he warned that we must not be bound by narrow, urbanized definitions of merit and must be flexible enough to include the native intelligences of 700 million rural Indians. He believes that the market is a great equaliser and might address the economic inequalities but the same cannot be said about the social inequality. He also suggested that inclusive growth is important not just because of its altruistic implications but also because it helps create new and huge markets for corporates

Mr Vijay Thadani, CEO, NIIT Ltd. succinctly suggested that if the government allowed the corporate sector to grow unhindered, inclusion and strategies to identify, and nurture talent from among the disenfranchised section would follow. Talent development in his opinion, presents a great entrepreneurial opportunity as well while also helping millions of people to cope with the demands of the new employment opportunities. He pointed out that industry should be given the opportunity to specify their needs to the educationists. Growth and its sustainability needs relevant and current skills – and for this, it is necessary to remove the disconnect between industry and academia.

In all, the Convention was a great success with the most influential opinion-makers of our country exhorting the budding leaders of tomorrow to apply their minds and education to take growth and justice forward in the country.

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The day long seminar divided into two sessions where panellists discussed the evolution of Brand Tamil Nadu, the image of Tamil Nadu across the media spectrum and the relevance of Brand Tamil Nadu. The speakers at the seminar were eminent personalities like, Mr Vasanth (Director) Mr. Raja Krishnamurthy (Actor), Mr. Vijay Thiruvengadam (Former AIR Director, Chennai), Mr. Dharan (PR Executive), Mr. Kevin d'Souza (Senior-Vice President, Lowe Lintas), Mr. Satyan Bhat (Prism PR) and Mr. Bhagwan Singh(Chief of News Bureau, Deccan Chronicle).

The morning session was kick started by Mr. Raja Krishnamurthy who introduced Brand Tamil Nadu to the audience using panoply of adjectives that best suit Tamil Nadu. The words he used ranged from subservient, loud, cacophony, kaavi (ochre), conservative, obedient, auto-wallahs, dhoti and 'tamizh'. The key-note address was followed by a talk on Tamil Radio by Mr. Vijay Thiruvengadam who stressed that though Chennai Radio has its own accent, it still conveys a national message. His address was complimented by Director Vasanth who spoke about tamil cinema's character and how it has evolved to be a surviving art which gives space for both commercial and parallel cinema. To give a feel of the real tamizh he also recited poetry from the Thirukural and Kannadasan's verses.

The second session was Brand Maker's take on Brand Tamil Nadu. Both Mr. Kevin d'Souza and Mr. Satyan Bhat spoke about the present status of Brand Tamil Nadu and how it is growing and where it would reach at its present growth rate. The common idea was that Brand Tamil Nadu has been only flourishing since the days of Mehmood in Padosan and now is represented by people like Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam.

The valedictory address was given by Mr. Bhagwan Singh who spoke about the burning issue that most journalists these days are forced to talk about, ethics and values of the press. Though these are issues that are topics of discussion everywhere, his quips and pragmatic approach to the topic were educative.

The charged up audience pelted every speaker with a barrage of questions, one of which also got the typical 'Can you repeat the question please?' from Director Vasanth. The audience was mainly from M O P Vaishnav College for Women and Madras Christian College. What emerged from the day long seminar could be wrapped in one statement 'Local Accent, Global Achievement'.