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[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

We usually react in either of the two ways to a physically or mentally challenged person sympathize or ignore. Prem Kumar Ravi, presently a second year student at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM C) reacted differently. He helped. Even while struggling to get into an IIM himself, Prem decided that helping 'others' would probably be as gratifying. And that too not just any 'others' but God's special children the physically and mentally challenged.

It all started with a call from a friend on November 15, 2008 who asked him to talk to a special candidate, Sumanth Iyengar, who was to appear for his CAT paper. Sumanth had *cerebral palsy and had attempted CAT thrice without any success. Prem called him, but could not understand a word of what he said on the phone. His speech was slurred and difficult to understand. I could not comprehend anything. But yes, between the words, his emotions were obvious. So, in a way, I could understand even the unsaid, remembers Prem.

Prem Ravi Kumar

Sumanth told Prem that he and a few of his friends had been getting together to prepare for their MBA entrance exams. Prem sensed that while the preparations were on, the motivation seemed to be failing. I pictured them studying and felt sad and tears came to my eyes. I spoke to Sumanth for a while and tried to motivate him but frankly, at the end of the conversation, I was the one motivated by seeing the boy's determination.

This phone conversation got Prem thinking for hours. Was talking the only way to help him, I thought. May be I could be of some practical help. As I was preparing for CAT too, why not offer some practical help, I thought."

Prem, who had been involved in training CAT aspirants was the ideal person to whom Sumanth could look up to. Also, the fact that Prem was a four-time CAT taker himself, Sumanth could relate to him.

Thus started a long and hard journey for Prem, who was then in Bangalore, his home town. From hunting a place to conduct classes to making media contacts to advertise the cause Prem traveled the length and breadth of Bangalore. He also approached various student community groups for help with CAT preparatory material. An energetic discussion was thrown open on the PaGaLGuY forums as well.

All of this was happening in November and it was too late to catch that year's CAT exams for Sumanth or any other student who wanted to join, so I decided that we should focus on the following year, said Prem.

Within a few weeks, Prem's dreams started unfolding. A coaching institute gave Prem a class room to function from. Also, a radio station helped them advertise it. In some time Sumanth was joined by two visually-challenged students Vishal Jain and Swati in the classroom. The common thread among these students and the teachers was that all dreamed of getting into an IIM someday. Some of the students had converted calls from other b-schools such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) but getting into an IIM was the ultimate dream.

Prem extended the concept and helped the economically-weak students too and thus Spurthi was born. At that time, Prem also got his close friend Abhishek Bhatia and some others to help him run Spurthi.

By early 2009, a proper classroom was in place and also some serious teaching. The visually-challenged students used a software, which Prem had to learn himself and that helped in smoother functioning. Prem and his friends basically began reading out and explaining the concepts to the three students. Sometimes when Maths had to be taught to the visually challenged students, Prem and his team had to explain with colors and different objects. The classes were held mainly on weekends (few hours each on Saturdays and Sundays).

Mid-2010, Prem himself converted his IIM C call and had to leave Bangalore. That was when others in Prem's network took over. The classes continued and whenever possible Prem helped over the phone or the webcam.

Recalls Prem: It was difficult at first as it took time for them to pick up the concepts but soon we took to different ways of teaching and it helped them grasp things in a quicker manner. Within the next few months, we were all comfortable with each other and that helped considerably.

Classes were strenuous but also fun as both the instructors and the students knew that the goal ahead, though not easy was certainly attainable. Prem adds that in no time, ample study material had come in and there was a buzz around b-school campuses about the work done.

A year went by. Vishal had appeared for CAT in 2009 and had converted an IIM Lucknow call. A year later, Sumanth and Swati appeared for CAT 2010 and converted their IIM calls. Sumanth got into IIM Indore, and Swati chose IIM Bangalore after converting Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Indore, Kozhikode and Lucknow.

For Prem, it was a 100% conversion for Spurthi's first batch. Not only for the students but for Prem too, it was a huge high it should be for a person who has a signature line that reads 2007: IIMA reject || 2008: XLRI (GMP) reject|| 2009: IIML reject, XLRI (GMP) convert|| 2010: IIMA reject, IIMC, IIML Converts.

This year, Prem and his team plan to upgrade the mode of instruction to video and PowerPoint presentations and through webcams. For those who want to be part of Spurthi either as a volunteer or student, you can mail on [email protected]

Sumanth's Story

Sumanth Iyengar

Sumanth presently works as a market analyst at Thomson Reuters but he is all packed and ready to go to IIM Indore to follow his dream. Speaking to PaGaLGuY, he says,

Getting into an IIM was always my goal and today I have attained it it seems unbelievable. Having cerebral palsy since birth, studying has always been a challenge for me and to think that I always aspired to get into an IIM was as challenging a thought to live with. I attempted CAT four times and even got into the Tata Institute of Social Sciences but my aim remained getting into an IIM. Prem helped me realize my dream and I got what it took to crack CAT from Prem. The constant teaching and guidance from people who also shared a dream of getting into an IIM made my journey even more fruitful. Last year, after Prem got into IIM C, I got help and support from the director of a coaching institute who asked his faculty to pay special attention to me. Prem helped in motivating me throughout my effort. It was not easy for me to study and work like others but now that I had got the opportunity, I was going to make full use of it and shine. Finally, I want to start my own company, not sure what kind but one that has data entry jobs so that others who are physically challenged can benefit.

*According to Kidshealth.Org, Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder that affects muscle tone, movement, and motor skills (the ability to move in a coordinated and purposeful way). Cerebral palsy can also lead to other health issues, including vision, hearing, and speech problems, and learning disabilities. CP is usually caused by brain damage that occurs before or during a child's birth, or during the first 3 to 5 years of a child's life. There is no cure for CP, but treatment, therapy, special equipment, and, in some cases, surgery can help a child who is living with the condition.

[bhuenyunpa (Tendar Tsering)]

The Maharashtra government has finally given the domicile certificate requirement a thumbs down for securing admission to a professional course (including MBA and PGDM) in the state. In a communique, the state government has declared that even a birth certificate or a standard class X passing certificate belonging to the state will serve as proof of domicile for those applying to professional courses through the state quota.

Ironically, the information which has turned the tide for hundreds of students has not yet been updated on the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) website and the site still runs the extended deadline to submit domicile certificates (when PaGaLGuY asked the DTE Director why the website had not been updated, his personal assistant replied that since the news has come in the media, people should consider it notified!).

The news has however not been taken too kindly by quite a few students. CET candidates posting on PaGaLGuY seem quite irked with recent developments in the domicile certificate issue. Most applicants are tired of having to run helter-skelter to collect the necessary certificates, only to be told now that they are not needed.

A candidate posts,"paying extra for domicile.. queuing up for 4 hours for domicile and then for ARC ..running here and there after the DTE officials if the receipt will be accepted.. and all this in vain if they call us irresponsible fr not reading the brochure what would you call these people who are still not able to make it (no offenses to anyone, but yea we slogged to reach till here) and what would you call DTE for delaying the process every other day .. and then they are managing an entrance exam for management ."

Yet another says, "Were we crazy to slog & run behind all the documents to be submitted on time. This is disgusting. The body which conducts admission process for Management is not capable enough to manage the admission process & take unbiased decisions. Just because some 1000 students havent submitted their certificates more than 65,000 students have to suffer. This is really sick."

Another candidate hold the opinion that those who will now gain easy access to the Maharashtra CET bouquet of colleges do not deserve it. His post reads, "Do these fools really deserve to be an MBA? I started the process (of getting a domicile certificate) way back in January to get it done."

[anjali_mangal]

The Maharashtra Common Entrance Test (CET) 2011 results have been declared. PaGalGuY met up with some of the toppers to know their plans for the future. The boys, who obviously studied hard to reach the top, have a series of 'want-to-do-things' now --- some of these include buying new mobile phones and laptops to taking tennis lessons and just chilling out with friends.

Bhavin Jain

University Rank: 1

State Rank: 2

Written Score: 153/200

Final Score: 184/240

Written Percentile: 99.99

"Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) was always my dream, and I have achieved it," says Bhavin Jain, this years topper. For Bhavin, written test preparation began a month prior to the test date. His worked on specific questions for the first 15 days and then attempted a mock test every day. It used to take 2.5 hours to attempt a mock test and one hour to analyse it. I never studied more than 4 hours a day for the test.

Bhavin prepared for GD-PI without joining any coaching institute. He vouches for technology as a life enhancer, because the mobile phone was one his most important resources for GD-PI preparation. My mobile phone helped me a lot during my preparation. I have a very good network of friends who are either pursuing MBA or preparing for it. We used to have a lot of discussions about current events and that kept me abreast with lots of immediate information," says Bhavin.

The topper adds that he also reads newspapers inside out, especially the opinion section to know the latest views and thought-trends. When asked about who motivated him, he instantly replied, My dad was my greatest motivation. Whenever I used to worry that there were just 40 seats in the JBIMS open category, my dad pumped up my courage.

Bhavin also credits Parag Chitale from CPLC classes and Vivek from Catalyser institute for helping him throughout. Bhavins GD-PI centre was JBIMS. He wasn't as tense during GD-PI prep as he was bored. The CET results were released on April 11. I had scored good marks in the written test which boosted my confidence. I had my GD-PI on May 24. There was a long gap between the written test results and the GD-PI and I wanted this to get over as soon as possible.

The only thing that bothered him was not being tuned in with general knowledge. I had heard that a lot of GK questions were asked at the GD-PI. But I was lucky to have been asked simple questions.

Bhavin believes that group studying is the best way to score good marks and preparing for tests alone is boring. I never isolated myself from family get-togethers or my friends during CET preparation. I feel that when you have to attempt any test, just stay cool. The post-success story? Bhavin is planning to buy a new mobile phone and a laptop. He is throwing a party on Sunday for friends and family. He is also planning to visit Goa with friends this month. I will be working really hard once I join JBIMS. So, I really want to party hard this month. says CET topper.

Parth Dedhia

University Rank: 2

Written score - 152/200

Written percentile - 99.99

(Currently we have no additional information about Parth except that he has bagged rank 2. Below, we have reproduced excerpts from an interview PaGalGuY had published in April when the written scores were declared.)

This Dadar boy was so shy of publicity that he had refused to send us his photograph in April. Parth had then attributed some of his success to luck as well. My intent and efforts, correct coaching and a bit of luck are the reasons for my score. This was my first attempt at MH CET and to get such a score is for me a pleasant shock.

The unconventional CET paper, with a strong focus on reading comprehension helped me a lot as comprehension has been my area of strength, Parth had explained to us. He did not have a specific strategy for the paper, and just solved questions set by set. I solved all the questions of a particular passage in one go and I marked them on the answer sheet. This ensured I did not miss out on areas of my strength and ultimately contributed to the good score.

Prathmesh Dembla

University rank: 3

State rank: 4

Written Test Score: 152/200

Final Score: 183/24

Written Percentile: 99.99

He was celebrating his success at the hill station of Lonavala when PaGalGuY reached him. Prathmesh has decided to join JBIMS this year.

Prathmesh followed a very strict timetable while preparing for CET. He had started preparing for the CAT in May 2010. The CAT preparation helped him to understand basic concepts of standard aptitude test sections. Talking about test strategy, he explains, I used to attempt 2-3 mocks daily. Sometimes I isolated myself from others. Neither did I watch movies nor attend any family functions or parties for three months. But all that was worth it since I am now joining JBIMS.

His GD-PI centre was KJ Somaiya College, Mumbai. He prepared by tuning into business news but was taken aback when the GD topic given to him was based on politics. My group was not aggressive so we ended up having a good discussion. This was not one of my best GDs. For the interview, he chose microfinance and rural India as a topic. He was prepared to face standard MBA admissions interview questions.

His father was his greatest motivation during CET preparation. He also gives credit to the faculty at his coaching institute for his success. Ever since the results have been declared, Prathmesh has also been checking every congratulatory message received on Facebook. As of now Prathmesh has decided, I am going to buy a Blackberry mobile phone and a laptop. I am going to party this week and will search for a place to stay in south Mumbai.

Gautam Iyer

University Rank: 5

State Rank: 6

Percentile: 99.98

When PaGalGuY called him up, he was about to leave for a dinner outing, yet he spoke for a few minutes. I started preparing for the CET starting December 2011 and did not join any coaching institute. But I used course material of T.I.M.E. coaching classes and attempted at least one mock test every week.

Preparing for CAT helped him a lot during CET. His GD-PI centre was JBIMS and he joined Quoin Academy for GD-PI preparation. Mock GD-PIs helped him to convert MH-CET. "I used to read newspapers daily and that added to my overall general knowledge," he says

His parents work at senior positions in insurance companies and they are the ones who inspired him throughout the CET preparation. Gautam loves sports but stayed away from any during CET preparation. I am also working. Working, Studying and playing sports was impossible.

Regarding his post success plans he says, My mother wants me to visit Badrinath (a religious shrine in Uttaranchal). I may go there and I am also learning swimming. In some time, I will take up tennis classes too."

[anjali_mangal]

DAVV Takshila campus, Indore

If you are planning to pursue an MBA from any university in Madhya Pradesh, make sure you have three years to spare. The MBA semesters of about 200 colleges affiliated to Madhya Pradesh universities are running a good 3-6 months behind schedule for the last two years. And this means that an MBA course that normally takes two years to complete takes more than two and a half years in Madhya Pradesh! And all because the entrance exams in 2009 were conducted late followed by hectic Lok Sabha elections.

This crazy phenomenon has not only affected the summer internships but also the job opportunities (placements) of more than 22,000 students in the state. For the last two years, when the students have been completing their MBA course (sometime in September), recruiting companies have been generally full-up, having hired from other b-schools across the country much earlier in the year. Same with the summer internships by the time MP students are ready for summer internships, companies are done with their student-projects.

Complicated structure

While a tale of delays in state-run examination and elections are believed to be the main reasons for this huge mess, a complicated administrative structure put in place for MBA courses is equally responsible for the state of affairs. Besides the existence of Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) which conducts exams for professionally-run courses (like in other states), there is also a third body called Vyavasaik Pariksha Mandal (VYAPAM) which plays a crucial role in the admission process in Madhya Pradesh.

To explain the structure - VYAPAM conducts the Madhya Pradesh management entrance tests (MPMET) as per directives laid down by the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE). The role of VYAPAM ends there and the DTE then takes over the admission process which involves overseeing exam results, counselling of students and directing them to various universities (colleges), according to the scores. Counselling (which is compulsory in Madhya Pradesh) involves discussing college options with students after taking into account past academic scores and other parameters liked extra curricular activities etc.

These three bodies have to obviously match their processes to make sure the admission process is smooth and on time. In 2009, (when the present mess started), the three players were not in sync.

Blame Game

After speaking to various authorities and officials in Madhya Pradesh, PaGalGuY realised that DTE, VYAPAM and the universities/colleges have, for the last two years, only been passing the buck and done precious little to rectify the problem.

The registrars of Devi Ahilya VishwaVidyalaya (DAVV) and Barkatullah University told PaGalGuY that in 2009 the semesters got delayed for two primary reasons - MPMET exams were delayed and the state elections were also held that year around the same time as the exams. Says R.D Musalgaonkar, registrar of DAVV: The delay by VYAPAM in conducting MPMET in 2009 definitely affected the academic year of colleges that year. But what also added to the delay was the Lok Sabha elections. Both these, led to a delay in the admissions process and also the start of the academic year. Nothing was done in that year to make up the time and the delay affected the next academic year too.

Incidentally, the fourth semester of DAVV, Indore for the Batch of 2009-11 is to end in September 2011.

DAVV, Indore

Dr. V.S Bais, Public Relations Officer of Barkatullah University, Bhopal had the same reasons to cite for the delay. But we are trying to improve. We have decided to conduct the fourth semester examinations for the batch 2009-11 in the month of June this year and not September, this will help the students a little bit at least.

But VYAPAM refuses to take the blame. Its Assistant Controller, Sunil Shrivastava says that the delay in MPMET in 2009 was because there was a delay on part of the Directorate of Technical Education in laying out instructions. Since we conduct all examinations according to rules and regulations of Directorate of Technical Education, we get delayed if there is a delay from the DTE side and that is what happened that year. But we are planning to conduct examinations on time this year.

DTE however has another explanation. DTEs Deputy Director Laxminarayan Reddy says that MPMET exams are followed by counselling on the basis of merit list in MPMET and qualifying examinations. We ask for results of under graduation exams during counselling in the month of June. Last year results for undergraduate course were not declared till July. We gave an extension of 2 months but they still did not declare the under graduate results due to which our admission process for higher education got delayed. Adds Reddy: How do we conduct examinations or start admission procedures for post graduate courses if we do not have undergraduate examination results?

Ray of hope

While most b-schools are reeling under this delay, some are taking pains to recover the lost time. Jiwaji University, Gwalior, for one. DR. I.K Mansoori, Registrar of Jiwaji University, says that its colleges are committed to finishing the 4th semester examination of the 2009-2011 batch by June and start the new session for 2011-2013 batch by July. We have been finishing our semesters on time for the last one year now. One way of doing it was we curtailed our holidays and semester breaks and made up the classes.

Student Speak

Students who are the worst affected of the lot have begun to reconcile to their fate. Ankit Agrawal, 2nd year student of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) says: Ideally my MBA school should have finished by May but my fourth semester exam will end only in September. DAVV students are forced, either to join companies before completing their MBA semesters or let go of job offers. Adds Ankit: I will join my company in July, though my semester will end in September. I will ask for 15-days off from work to appear for my exams in September, though I am sure with that kind of preparation, I will not score good marks.

Anchal Goyal

Anchal Goyal, another 2nd-year DAVV student says that he will anyway not wait for the placements in his school and opt for his family business. The placements are not so great here. Besides, we stand to lose in the quality of offers when compared to students from autonomous institutes who finish their academic year in May and are ready to take up job offers that come to them on time.

Mohammad Shamim, a 1st year student of Barkatullah University (batch of 2010-11) has a similar sorry story to tell. "Our second semester will end in September this year. We started in April, we studied for just one month and then were asked to go on our summer internship. Which means in my first semester, I hardly got any classroom training and this affected my summer internship."

Alumni of both DAVV and Barkatullah universities who passed out before the series of delays, are a relieved lot. Says Hitesh Singh, an alumni of DAVV (batch of 2005-07): We were lucky. When I completed my MBA in 2007, my exams were delayed by just a month. Exams were supposed to get over in June and I was supposed to join my company in July. I asked for joining date in August as my exams got over only in July. The company had to delay the induction program and joining dates of an entire batch of new joinees only because of me. My batch mates still remember that delay. But delay of a month was still better than the situation today.

Hitesh Singh

Get autonomy

Autonomous managements institutes in Madhya Pradesh are least affected by the present mess. Those that were under DAVV before and now autonomous believe they made the right move to get autonomy. Professor Yogeshwari Phatak, Director of Prestige Institute of Management and Research, an autonomous institute in Madhya Pradesh says, We were affiliated to DAVV till 2005. We have seen our share of delays earlier. Lack of staff to check copies and delay in conducting examinations led to various kinds of delays and this finally affected the students more than anyone else.

[rozelle (Rozelle Laha)]

Rashmi Bansal, a graduate from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM A), batch of 1993, is out with her new book 'I Have A Dream' which brings forth stories of 20 idealists who think and act like entrepreneurs. Being a product of the Indian b-school system, PaGaLGuY interviewed Rashmi Bansal about her new book, management education in India and a few other questions. Some excerpts follow:

Why did you choose to focus on social entrepreneurship as a subject for the book?

In Stay Hungry Stay Foolish, I featured two social entrepreneurs - Venkat Krishnan of Give India and Vijay Mahajan of Basix. These stories got a fantastic response, even though they were not in the traditional mould of building a large organization motivated by revenue, bottomline and shareholder return. Those two stories made me realise that entrepreneurship is not only about commerce that it can be a tool to create social impact. The problem for any initiative, whether commercial or social is to sustain itself and scale up. Take education - while providing education to 10 people is fine and relatively easy, to scale it to help a million, some creative solution is required. Those are the kind of solutions I have talked about in 'I Have a Dream'

What, according to you, is social entrepreneurship?

Social entrepreneurship is something which is not easy to define. One model I have looked at in the 'Rainmakers' section of the book is a socially-inclined but self-sustaining organization ie one which generates profits like a company but where profit maximization is not the main objective. One example which comes to mind is Fabindia - all products are sourced from rural artisans who receive fair wages. The story of Rangsutra, a supplier to Fabindia, is featured in the book. However all social enterprises cannot generate profit. For example, education. Poor children cannot pay fees, it has to be funded by the government or donors. But can these funds be utilized in the most efficient manner possible? An organization like Pratham is now touching the lives of more than a million children. But the real impact of such work is visible only after 15-20 years!

Is getting into a b-school really required if one wants to become an entrepreneur?

No, I don't think so. People do feel that without a b-school, their lives are incomplete. People have lost the ability to think for themselves. They need a stamp of approval from some outside authority to tell them that they are capable of doing something. It might be a better model if people start something on their own and then get into a b-school. Right now people do work for a couple of years before entering a b-school, but mostly because they couldnt crack CAT in their first attempt.

What would you suggest to people who want to be social entrepreneurs but have not got into a b-school?

As I said, getting into a b-school is not an important criterion to become a social entrepreneur. The place to start would be to join an existing organizations and learn about this space. You need not start an organization right at the outset. Starting on your own requires a lot of your time, effort and, creativity. When you want to start something badly, you will definitely find a way. Once you do it, you will need to motivate a group of people who share your dream and can do it. The main challenge is to build a team of people, motivate them, make them feel for the same cause or mission. Obviously it is not just money which motivates all the people. Also, the success of your organisation depends largely on how good the founder is.

At your time, there were fewer IIMs. Now, with newer IIMs coming up in bunches, what do you feel about the brand IIM?

Yes there are plenty of IIMs that have come up and are in the process of being started, but the thinking behind it is strange. Just putting a board in front of a building doesnt make it an IIM. There has to be a vision and a mission and an academic culture which one can associate with the institute. I believe that there should not be five IIMs starting in a single academic year. There can however be one IIM started every five years, to ensure that the brand IIM retains its sanctity. Even though IIM A started in 1961, the first three years were for groundwork and classes started after that. The founders were selfless and their goal was to build an institute which has the brightest minds, both in terms of faculty and students. There is no concrete reason today of starting an IIM in every state today. I think it is more of a political gimmick. Every new IIM should know the impact it will be making, and what it would be known for. I think they do not have either of these goals in mind, nowadays. Some of the new IIMS have no full time faculty and just a director.

What do you feel about short term dreamers and long term achievers?

Life is not a destination, its a journey; you have to enjoy every moment of it. You need to feel that you have learnt something today. If you feel that way, you will achieve many things and will, subsequently fulfill your dreams. You cannot check everyday if you have achieved the desired result as it doesnt work that way. In my case, I loved to write I used to write for magazines, work as a freelancer, became an editor, used to write for online media and was a consulting editor. I didnt do it for money who pays you to write a blog?

I would like to quote neurologist Daniel Levitin from Malcolm Gladwells book Outliers when he says that, scientific studies show that 10,000 hours are required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything followed by the examples of the Beatles and Bill Gates. These people worked for what they loved and developed something different and unique which became a big success. If you dont do what you love, you will need to love what you do. After getting into a dream organization, you shouldnt get disillusioned after a couple of months. You will need to go through the grind. You should always focus on the positives and learn new things. Positive thinking delivers positive result

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Dear readers,

"Feedback is a business term which refers to the joy of criticizing other people's work. This is one of the few genuine pleasures of the job, and you should milk it for all it's worth."

That's not my line, but it sure does describe well how I would like you to react to a readers' survey we would like you all to complete. We have designed this survey to know what it is like to step into readers' shoes and experience the work of the PaGaLGuY Editorial Team which reports and writes the articles you read on our home page.

It's short survey and comprises of a mostly objective questions. But it is the subjective questions at the end where we would appreciate you going all blazing guns and telling us how we could do better, what we could do new that we don't do yet and how we could do something differently.

We will go through each one of the answers in the survey to learn all the different ways in which we would improve. So don't hold back!

Click here to answer our feedback survey

Regards,

Apurv Pandit

The PaGaLGuY Editorial Team

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credits: Eric Lim and Ashutosh Garg)

Last year's B-school Photography Contest proved beyond doubt that many b-schoolers were wasting their time studying the Ansoff Matrix* and Concentric diversification strategies... they had alternative employment as professional shutterbugs assured, just in case!

But we've been told that there is hidden writing talent at b-schools too, stashed away in zillions of blogs and campus magazine articles. We at PaGaLGuY would like to bring that that talent out, reward it and help the lakhs of MBA hopefuls and students on the way. So here goes,

What is the Summer Internships Writing Contest?

We invite second year students from business schools in India and abroad to write and send us an article on,

"Summer internships: The Ugly, the Good and the Bad."

Focus on personal experiences working as a summer intern in the corporate world, what did you learn and unlearn about the management profession? Let it out.

Or write about the top myths about summer internships that you uncovered and would like current MBA hopefuls and first-year students to know.

Remember, it has to be YOUR story! Make it funny, serious, educative, insightful, palatable and very very interesting.

PS: Avoid writing about the technical details of your project.

What is the word limit?

AT LEAST 750 words. Feel free to write more.

And... the PRIZES?

All winners will get Rs 1,500 cash, besides getting the article published on PaGaLGuY.com. There will be as many winners as there are good articles.

Any other instructions?

--- B-school alumni can write too.

--- No puff-pieces please. This is NOT about marketing your b-school OR the corporate you interned with.

--- You need not reveal details about the company. Use your discretion to maintain privacy of the people and the company involved. All we are interested in what YOU LEARNED AND UNLEARNED ABOUT THE MANAGEMENT PROFESSION. Avoid writing about the technical details of your project.

--- Do not type too loudly, it could disturb your dorm-mates.

Who will judge?

The PaGaLGuY Team. All of us! We will ask ourselves only one question while judging --- does the article educate readers about summer internships? Any article that makes the cut will get a prize.

What's the contest submission DEADLINE?

Friday, July 15, 2011, 11:42 pm.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE?

Email us the following to [email protected].

1. The article.

2. Your Name, B-school name and a 30-word bio (to be included with your article in case it's published).

3. A latest photo of yourself to go with the article.

... before Friday, July 15, 2011, 11:42 pm.

PS: Couldn't you have simply asked students to write articles and get paid?

Whaaaat? Are you going to be a party-pooper now and rid us of whatever drama we manage to extract out of our dull days? You wet blanket, emperor of killjoys, fuddy-duddy, agent of gloom...

Feel free to ask any further questions.

All the best to all!

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: KC Toh)

The Telengana row has hit the Hyderabad campus plans of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad and Xavier's Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur yet again. In a Business Standard story, both institutes divulged that they had not been allotted the land promised by the state government for their campuses yet.

But the political squabble in Andhra Pradesh does not seem to have affected the Institute of Management Technology (IMT) much, which inaugurated its Hyderabad campus this week at Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal's hands and will start delivering post-graduate and executive programs immediately.

IIM Bangalore on the other hand announced a new campus at Anekal, a town beyond the outskirts of Bangalore where it will offer executive education and incubate startups. Neighbouring IIM Bangalore at Anekal would be, hold your breaths, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon's Karnataka campus. Reports The Times of India,

"Choked for space at its 100-acre campus on Bannerghatta Road, IIM-B was eyeing land in Devanahalli for its second campus as it offered better air connectivity. The state has now leased 110 acres of land for a 30-year period in Anekal, which is on its way to becoming the hub of management education. Management Development Institute-Gurgaon, another top B-School, will open a new campus on a 50-acre land next to the IIM-B."

(Complete story)

The Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi will finally have a residential campus in South Delhi with a capacity for 1,200 students in two years, reports Business Standard. No more 'K-nags' or D-school canteen paranthas for FMS students, but I'm sure a unified hostel will more than make up for being ousted out of the North Campus.

Women in management

The world is going beyond tweaking admission variables to get more women into the management profession. Apart from Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women initiative, UK this week flagged off an project called the '30% club' which aspires to make the country's corporate boardrooms have 30% women by 2015. Spearheaded by a bunch of women achievers in business, headhunters and lobbyists, the organization plans to work for its cause without pushing for quotas or affirmative action. The Guardian reports ,

Cranfield School of Management's latest research shows that about 30% of new appointments so far this year have been women.

By September, every FTSE 100 company is being urged to publish its own target for improving female representation in the boardroom but with 14 among those 100 firms still having all-male boards, there is a long way to go.

Among the wider FTSE 250, the proportion of directors who are women stands at less than 9% and equality campaigners complain that women may be appointed as non-executives to improve diversity, but the hands-on executives running companies remain overwhelmingly male.

Why b-schools struggle to teach entrepreneurs

A Forbes article this week argues that despite the growing number of entrepreneurship courses, b-schools are still struggling to be effective at teaching the subject. According to the article,

... entrepreneurial firms and entrepreneurial problems are about something very different than management. Entrepreneurship is about tackling unknown problems or solutions, whereas management is about tackling known problems. As a result, rather than managing for execution, startups manage for radical exploration and that means the process to do this, even the people to do it, are radically different than for managing known problems. It is only in recent years that the entrepreneurial community woke up and began to argue that the paradigm is broken. When you are tackling something fundamentally unknown, you cant plan your way to successdoing so leads you to be overconfident in your guesses. Similarly, building out a team with VPs and CXOs of different flavors just wastes money and creates politics. And what can traditional marketing tell you about a market that may not exist? Yet millions of startups have fallen into the traps of acting like they were executing on known problems and they have failed as a result.

[anjali_mangal]

Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communications, Pune (SIMC) - the media and communications institute has actually applied brakes on communications in the campus. No Internet access between 2.00-5.00 am and 8.00am-5.00 pm in the hostel and no checking social networking sites before 8.00pm. Shocked with this move, students are livid but claim that all their efforts to stop this blockade have proved fruitless so far.

According to officials at SIMC, the reasoning behind is to make sure that students focus more on academic work and for the school to save on bandwidth from frivolous entertainment downloads. Apparently, because of heavy traffic at night, the management used to receive complaints from staff and students about difficulty in downloading course work.Officials also add that SIMC has decreased its intake from 240 to 120 but not increased its fees - this has decreased the institute's revenues and saving of bandwidth is a way to keep the balance.

SIMC director Chandan Chatterjee admitted that Internet has been blocked for some hours in his schools and it is done keeping the students in mind. "We have had cases where students have come into the classroom tired and exhausted after keeping up all night. This is one way that we ensure they get a good night's sleep." When asked how students were expected to work on assignment and presentations, Chatterjee said that the IP team of the college would come in handy there.

"We are getting better in our rankings. We are trying to make lot of improvements this year. This is one of them to improve our academics and research. We want to balance practical training as well as academics this year", the director added. Chatterjee also says that parents of wards studying in IIM A and XLRI have also told him that their students are addicted to the Internet. "We want our students to take proper rest and use the Internet in proportion. Even IIT, Delhi has this kind of restrictions to focus more on academics," Chatterjee added.

However when PaGaLGuY cross-checked with IIT Delhi, a student there said there there was no restriction of internet usage at night. '"We have limited downloading to 500 MB/week and 2GB/month. I guess 500 MB is enough for most of us. Management was going to limit Internet access during night hours but it has not been done yet. I cannot imagine my day without Internet for even half an hour.We use Internet especially for academics and I personally believe limiting Internet access during night hours will not improve academic performance."

And when asked,how he would stop students from downloading via their phones, the director said he could not do anything about it. "I cannot stop them from using the net on their phones. I am only trying to make the students perform well in academics and make the most of the hard earned money their parents have invested in their b-school education."

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

The cries of some 200 students for a separate Telangana statehood, outside the gates of Osmania University, Hyderabad, can be heard faintly at the College of Commerce and Business Management, located at the heart of the university. Oblivious to the shouts, students sitting on bikes at the parking lot of the college, have their heads immersed in books. When asked whether the protests was affecting their study, Sai Kiran, one of the students replied. Protests have been on for months now but we try to stay unaffected. Our exams are on and that is more important." Having said that, he once again buried his head into his book.

The Department of Business Management at the Osmania University has been doing its bit to ensure that the Telangana crisis least affects the schedule of its management colleges. About 200 MBA colleges are affiliated to Osmania University.

Dr B. Krishna Reddy, head of the Department of Business Management at Osmania University told PaGaLGuY that while it is routine to have lectures cancelled and strikes called, extra lectures make up for it. Lectures are held on holidays and weekends and other free time and we try our best not to compromise on the portion. We have kept to the calendar schedule.

Students-faculty unite

Last few months have seen many strike and no-education calls by the Telangana protestors but MBA colleges have learnt to deal with it. Both students and faculty take it upon themselves to make good the loss. In fact, students readily sacrifice their holidays for classes. Abhiram C.H., a student said that when lectures are called off, they are asked to come on the following weekend for classes and we agree since it means that lecture time is not wasted. Another student, .Vidya S, agreed and said that Telangana has little affected management colleges, except when strikes are called and students cannot enter the campus. But then extra classes make up for it, she added.

According to Prof. Vidyadhar Reddy, former dean of the Department of Business Management and now faculty, there is a delay of a few days at the end of the term but it is not because of the protests. We have some 20,000 MBA students in all our affiliated colleges and their exam papers often go through three sets of independent appraisals by different faculty. So in effect, there are more than a lakh papers checked and this usually causes a delay.

Unlike private b-schools, MBA colleges in Hyderabad begin lectures by September-October and finish by May-June, two years later. The entrance exam followed is the I-CET and is held in the month of May. Between May and September, a series of counselling sessions are held wherein colleges are allocated to students, depending on their entrance exam scores and past academics.

Placements

Going on to placements, even they seem only a little affected by the Telangana issue, so say the students and management officials. The only difference being that some corporates call students to their company headquarters instead of coming over to the campus, to avoid courting any trouble. Our management students by and large do not take part in the Telangana protests and companies are aware of it. Companies have no issues picking up our students, said Dr S Parthasarthy, Director, Head of Placement Services, Osmania University.

Companies like Wipro, TCS, LIC Housing Finance, Axis Bank, ICICI, SBI, Andhra Bank and Oracle are some of the companies that recruit from Osmania University. Last year, the average salary hovered in the region of Rs 4 lakhs.

ROI

Prof. Vidyadhar Reddy, says that considering that the fees are just about Rs 9,000 for two years (excluding hostel charges), they have the best ROI among all MBA colleges in the country. Anand Marathe, one of the student states that the ROI for MBA in Osmania University is a big reason why students take up management education here. Osmania University also has the highest number of international (not NRI) students amongst all universities in the country. Dr B. Krishna Reddy adds that some of its unique management programmes held for police and defense staff also draws in the numbers.

Hunky-dory?

Just while this correspondent was about to leave the university campus with the view that all was hunky dory despite Telangana demonstrations, an official from one of the technical colleges affiliated to Osmania caught up. He said:. Lectures have been really taking a beating due to the Telangana problem. Even if extra classes are taken, the quality of lectures has taken a dip. It is not that all is okay. One strike and the effect is felt for days. It is not easy to conduct classes with so much of problems in the campus. The official added since the Telangana crisis has got the student community up and about, it is bound to affect the education system sooner or later.

And it probably already has the students on a hunger strike outside the Osmania University gates, in other circumstances, would have been inside the campus attending lectures. It does not make a difference which side of the Telangana issue the students are on, the fact is that it is affecting their academic lives, and may be their future.. .

[pooja_sarkar (Pooja Das Sarkar)]

A club for inclusion of 30% of women in company boards has recently made an entry at Cass Business School, London. The club's big move is to open doors to get women higher, up the corporate ladder. The club, as such was initially started in November last year by Helena Morrissey, CEO of Newton and some other corporate biggies in UK. Called the 30% Club, its intention is to make a bid for inclusion of women in corporate boards in UK.

Will this influence Indias boardrooms to be more gender-balanced? Indian b-schools say that this club can be content on being a UK feature. With so much of 'reservation' already in the system, we don't need more.

Gay Collins, Chairman of MHP Communications and 30% club steering committee member, made the goals of the club clear. The objective is to get 30% female representation on FTSE 100 boards by 2015, he said. FTSE 100 stands for Financial Times Stock Exchange which is a share index of 100 of the most highly capitalised UK companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. But will the club have a global effect spilling over to India? We are focusing on the UK at the moment but weve had a lot of interest in the club, and what its aiming to do, globally, said Collins.

Going by the numbers, India seems to be far from implementing anything close to 30% in its corporate boards. A study by Catalyst, a non-profit that aims at increasing opportunities at work for women, tries to understand the relationship between Indian leadership and women. The Catalyst report, released in November 2010, cites older data to say that the number of women opting for MBA has increased over the years and was between 14-16% during 2004-2006. But it says that most of these women who are employed in the corporate sector get stuck in junior or middle management and scarcely reach the top.

Aarti Shreedhar, a second year MBA student at IIM (A), thinks that there is no need for a quota of 30% for women. There is already a reservation for caste in India, if women in top positions were to also to come through quota, then their merit will not be appreciated," she said. Padma Chari, who completed her executive MBA from XLRI and has been working since 1995, also believes that unlike the parliament, reservation might not work in the corporate system. Chari, who works in a boutique consulting firm that recruits for senior positions in management, has observed that American companies who have offices in India are already quite aware of being gender sensitive while hiring.

According to Kanan Dhru, a lawyer who has consulted with McKinsey & Company and is the founder of Research Foundation for Governance in India, the reason that so many professionally trained women don't reach the top is that the corporate rules and attitudes are tilted in favour of men in the workplace. Most women have to take 3-4 years off post pregnancy and find it hard to return and reach the positions in top management, said Dhru. "Those who do reach the top, work for their father's or husband's company. I think the 30% club initiative is somewhat like the reservation question that Indian women have been fighting for and I hope that it is applied in India as well, but it will have to be implemented with care so that meritorious men don't lose out either.

In February this year, Dhru also started a forum for women entrepreneurs and she mentors them in collaboration with IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship. The forum holds lectures and meetings to encourage women who are already entrepreneurs or wanting to be entrepreneurs. On being asked why a governance research organisation should start such a forum, she replied saying that her own example of setting up an organisation had many women come up to her for advice and encouragement. The forum helps women start home based businesses like bakery or jewellery making or even gives advice on trading and starting manufacturing companies. After I started my organisation, many women wanted to know what lessons can be learnt, she said. I hope that organizations started by women entrepreneurs will have more equal opportunities for women.

But the reality in Indian corporations remains that women still form a minority when it comes to board membership. The Catalyst study cites data saying that only 4.9% of board directors in India are women. Whereas a report by Standard Chartered Bank and Cranfield School of Management and Community Business shows that just 5.3% of 1,112 directorships of the top 100 companies listed in the Bombay Stock Exchange are women.

So what are Indian companies doing to change this? Annice Joseph, senior manager at Wipro, is a part of the gender and diversity inclusion team that works from Bangalore to ensure gender-balance at the workplace. A couple of years ago, Wipro had hired external surveyors to understand the needs of women at the workplace and found that women have different needs at different life stages. We ensure that those who are coming back from maternity leave get reskilled to be at par with their male colleagues who did not take a break, she said. In the higher positions, we mentor them and groom women leaders to make them ready to apply for the top positions. She also added that inspite ensuring a gender-balance at the sourcing stage of recruiting for top positions, the number of resumes from women candidates is low and representative of the resource pool available in the market.

Considering the fact that the bill for 33% reservation for women in Parliament is still under legislation after 14 years of struggle, it seems like a long wait before India's board rooms will be gender balanced. In the mean time, maybe women will choose to go the entrepreneurial way instead of breaking their heads against the glass ceiling?

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: Preetam Rai)

Ambitions of venturing into undergraduate education ran into rough weather at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indore this week which was reprimanded by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry about the three-year exit option in its five-year Integrated PGP. Reports The Hindustan Times,

A fortnight ago, the institute had proposed to allow students to leave after three years of undergraduation with either a diploma or a degree. Now, students will need to complete five years after school to receive a diploma in management, the IIM has decided.

With no provision in the Indian system to allow IIM Indore to legitimise its undergraduate degree, the school is exploring associating with Canadian universities for the purpose, reports the story.

IIM Ahmedabad is tightening its grip over its financial aid policy and does not want students from wealthy families with low incomes to get away with fee waivers. The Times of India reports,

Head of IIM-A's financial aid committee, Ajay Pande, said, "Fee waivers, from this year, will be given to students on the basis of a combination of factors like family income and actual need. This is to ensure fairness and also that the provision of fee waiver is availed by the deserving candidates only. We will be cross checking details of the students' wealth to know better about their real financial standing."

The police have arrested two touts in Pune who fleeced an NRI of Rs 11 lakhs with the promise of admission into the MBA (Finance) course of a 'reputed' Pune b-school. According to the Indian Express,

Police said the two had taken money from Siddhiqui a few weeks ago for admission of her friends daughter. She had paid the money to them, a part in US dollars. The complainant approached the police after the duo stopped responding and did not do anything about the admission.

Backdoor admissions to reputed Pune b-schools has been a decade-old folklore. For each guy who gets caught once in a while, there are dozens of illegal admissions that reportedly go through successfully. Can such rackets successfully exist without the b-schools' connivance? Perhaps not. Yet it is pratically impossible to trace the scent back to the b-schools because there are enough checks and balances put in the fraud which insulate the school from the agents.

US b-schools have started developing mobile apps to engage prospective students and alumni. At the basic, those such as the ones developed by Berkeley-Haas or Rochester-Simon are spinoffs of their websites, detailing course listings and facilities at the school. But the most hi-tech one is by Thunderbird School of Global Management, which tracks alumni locations via GPS subject to privacy permissions. Reports Businessweek,

The GPS feature is secure, she says, because users can opt to have their location displayed or not displayed, and can even choose whom their location is displayed to, including students, alumni, and faculty.

"You cant look up an individuals name and then map them," Sunnucks says. But that doesnt mean you cant have some fun with the world map. "I zoomed in on one that was in the middle of the ocean and it wasnt an island and I was like, That persons on a cruise, " she says.

Among other updates, we'll soon start publishing the best articles among the several dozen responses to our Summer Internships Writing Contest. What other aspects of b-school life would you like b-schools students to write about? Let us know and we'll hold contests around that topic.

Earlier this week, yours truly, Deepak Gopalakrishnan (yeah, the PaGaLGuY comics guy) and another trekking-mate met with a car accident near Mumbai and survived with a kingsize helping of sheer luck. All of us are out of danger and doing great. But methinks that you should wish Chuck the best of luck by tweeting to him (twitter.com/chuck_gopal/) so that he leaves the hospital soon and bangs back with a new series of comics enriched with new experiences gained from contemplating about life and its truths from a hospital bed.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: Tom Taylor)

Five technology and design firms pipped finance and consulting companies to appear among the top 10 most coveted companies to work for in US business schools according to a survey reported in the Wall Street journal.

When asked to pick up to five ideal employers out of a list of 170, about 29% of students named McKinsey & Co. and some 28% named Google Inc. Of the top 10, four were technology companies.

Such companies' popularity has risen over the past few years. For example, No. 9-ranked Amazon.com Inc., which was chosen by 10.6% of students (this year), was selected by 6% of students in 2008.

Facebook, Apple and design firm IDEO were the other three non-finance and non-business-consulting firms. However, actual recruitment patterns tend to differ from stated preferences. At Chicago-Booth last year,

Though 38 out of 155 respondents from Booth named Google as one of their top-five employers, according to Universum, fewer than four students from the class of 2010 went to work there, she said. Sixty of Booth's students chose McKinsey, and in 2010, 24 students accepted jobs there.

(Link to complete article)

The Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) at Bangalore, Indore and Kozhikode joined IIM Ahmedabad this week in receiving full autonomy. The modified memorandum of association will pave the way for a smaller board of directors, down to 12-14 from the existing 28+ in some cases. The Indian Express reports,

As per the new amendments in the MoA in case of the four IIMs Ahmedabad, Indore, Bangalore and Kozhikode these can set up overseas campuses as they are now allowed to buy and sell property. But in doing so, they cant use public funds or the money they raise by selling membership of the societies, according to HRD Ministry sources.

The IIM autonomy issue has met stringent opposition from the faculty, in particular at IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore. The best way to understand the faculty's point of view is to read this article in the Economic & Political Weekly by two IIM Bangalore professors.

While Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication in Pune restricted Internet access for its students, IIM Ahmedabad has stopped its canteen from delivering food to hostel rooms. The Times of India reports that this hasn't gone down well with the school's student committee which thinks that the 30-minute walk from the dorms to the canteen wastes time amidst a hectic schedule. But the institute authorities have a justification,

An administrative official at IIM-A said, "The students are getting used to a life in which they are being served. However, we believe that this is not what they should be learning. We planned to discontinue the room service as we wanted the students to face the reality and responsibilities of life by letting them handle the hygiene of their own rooms." At least 750 PGP students stay in the 25-odd dorms at IIM-A.

IIM Indore's 5-year PGP after class XII which has run into rough weather with the Human Resources Development Ministry has finally received minister Kapil Sibal's nod. However, the school has had to remove the 3-year exit option altogether. Students will now have to stay put through the course for 5 years. According to The Economic Times,

In an open letter to prospective candidates to be put on IIM Indore's website on Saturday, IIM Indore's director is expected to make it clear that students will only get a diploma at the end of five years and there will be no exit option after three years. The institute will also issue an advertisement in leading newspapers on Monday to ensure that the message reaches candidates.

Those interested in the subject of women in management ought to http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/07/11/110711fa_fact_auletta#ixzz1SzgOJrSl" target="_blank">read this July 11 piece in The New Yorker which traces the lives of a few Silicon Valley senior women executives, in particular Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, to understand what makes them successful. At one point the article says,

Deborah Gruenfeld, a professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior, and a co-director of the Executive Program for Women Leaders at Stanford, is acutely aware of the challenges confronting female executives. Women who take leadership roles, research has shown, are violating the feminine stereotype of being nurturing and supportive and helping other people succeed. This leads to a tradeoff. Women who are perceived as highly competent are evaluated as less warm and less nice. Data, in other words, back up what Sandberg first began thinking about at her Harvard graduation ceremony.

That goes against the traditionally-peddled argument about women bringing a compassionate and human perspective to the workplace. The article suggests that the most successful women managers find fitting into the female stereotype and fighting sexist behaviour at the workplace diversionary to their goal of self-improvement and being competitive.

Read the entire article, it might be the best you've ever read on women managers.

[rozelle (Rozelle Laha)]

At about 7.30 pm this Friday, Nihit Sinha and some of his friends, all first year students from ICFAI Business School (IBS), Hyderabad were enjoying themselves at a dhaba, some half a kilometre from their college. Little did Nihit realise that it would be his last outing with his friends.

While walking back from the dhaba, a speeding bike hit Nihit on his head. His companions rushed to his help and took him to the private clinic at IBS only to discover that the clinic did not have a single doctor or nurse at that time. The nearest hospital to the campus (Olive Hospital) was some 25 kilometers away.

The college had three ambulances but there were no drivers in the campus on Friday. The students say they asked college authorities to help with some transport facility to take Nihit (who seemed to have a severe head injury) to the hospital. But since no help came soon, one of his batchmates got on to the wheels himself and drove Nihit to Olive Hospital.

However, by the time Nihit reached the hospital, he was declared dead. That was sometime after 8 pm.

"When Nihit was brought, his pupils were dilated and fixed, there was no respiration, not heart rate. We had taken an ECG which showed flat waves," said Dr Afraa, one of the four doctors who attended to Nihit that Friday evening.

According to Prof C Srinivas, Dean (Corporate Relations) at IBS Hyderabad, We are not a hospital. We have two doctors on campus. One doctor leaves at 6 pm and the other one comes sometime between 6:30 pm to 7 pm. Unfortunately, the doctor was late on Friday. He further added, However, it would not have helped as his head injury was very severe.

The students say there is no proper medical facility on campus. On condition of complete anonymity, one student at the campus said, The school does have a clinic but it does not have proper doctors. They have only one nurse." When asked if the college had some alternative transport facilities in case of emergencies such as this, Srinivas said that there were plenty of vehicles on the campus. "One of the ambulances had taken another girl to the hospital when this incident happened but the rest of the drivers were not in the campus."

Blaming the students for not taking Nihit straightway to the hospital and for bringing him back to the hostel, Srinivas added, By the time the warden and the security came to know about the incident, it was almost 15 minutes. They wasted quite some time in chasing the motorcyclist who had hit the victim.

Srinivas said that the college has spoken to the police for construction of speed breakers outside the campus area. "However, the police tell us they are not sure whether the speed breakers will be built and marked properly and that might lead to more accidents. We have warned the students several times not to go outside the campus late as it is a very lonely place. But, the students insist on going to that place. "

Srinivas added, "The incident has happened outside the campus. We cannot change things outside our campus. We have sufficient canteen facilities on campus and never encourage students to go out of the campus at night. But, we will make more stringent rules in the campus now and will insist for speed breakers outside the campus as well.

The students alleged that the college authorities initially did not lodge any complaint with the local police. They say that the hostel warden who was asked to get the police to the hospital (where the victim was taken) was drunk and not allowed to enter the police station. Srinivas totally denied this and said that a senior police officer took charge of the situation and according to the police only the parents could file a complaint at the police station.

One of Nihit's batchmates said, Nihit was a very down to earth person. He was very good at Economics.

While students allege that college authorities did not seem too perturbed by the incident, Srinivas totally denied this and said that in fact professors reacted with a sense of urgency and "I too reached the hospital by 8:30 pm."

According to Shankarpally Police Station, a case has been registered against the motorcyclist. "The driver who was riding the bike that time might not be the owner of the bike. We are still investigating. The driver is injured. We will produce him before the court once he recovers, that is Monday or Tuesday," said Shiv Shankar, sub-inspector of Shankarpally Police Station.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: Hillie Kootstra)

As many as 15 bills related to education are slated to be introduced in the monsoon session underway at the parliament. The two most critical among them is the act which will allow foreign universities to function in India and a set of laws that will make way for special courts to resolve education-related disputes. The Mint lists the bills,

" Universities for innovation Bill: To set up special universities with a focus on innovation and research

National Academic Depository Bill: To create an electronic repository of education certificates to curb forgery

National Council for Higher Education and Research Bill: To create an overarching body replacing regulators like the University Grants Commission and the All India Council for Technical Education

Foreign Educational Institutions Bill: To be reintroduced after the standing committee report

Prohibition of unfair practices Bill: To be reintroduced after the standing committee report

Education Tribunal Bill: Passed by Lok Sabha, to be taken up by Rajya Sabha"

Those of you interested in tracking the Foreign Educational Institutions Bill should look out for the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha debates about the act on television or the live webcast. Track the newspapers regularly so that you do not miss out on the date on which it would be tabled.

For all the push towards frugal innovation, Indian b-schools waste multi-acre campuses by churning out MBA graduates below their capacity, argues Nirmalya Kumar, a professor from London Business School in s thought-provoking column in The Economic Times. He contends,

"Yes, India does have a reputation for frugal engineering; but do the IIMs, or for that matter, the IITs or JNU, display this? Here we were on the London Business School campus that is about five acres, with another shared classroom in Dubai, yet we graduated over 1,000 degree students this year and, combined with executive education , generated about $118 million 47 million and 27 million from degree and executive education programmes respectively in revenues last year.

...

Compare this with the oldest IIMs at Ahmedabad (100 acres), Calcutta (135 acres) and Bangalore (100 acres ), or the more-recently-established Lucknow (185 acres), Kozhikode (97 acres), Indore (193 acres) and Shillong (120 acres), which, if Wikipedia numbers are to be believed, graduate a combined total of 2,750 MBAs."

Case studies adopt tablets

B-schools in the US have begun to harness tablet devices to transform the way case studies are taught and delivered. The tablet-converted case studies aren't mere digitized PDFs; they contain menus to enable jumping back and forth between text and embedded exhibits in their simplest form to active apps in which the values of variables can change on the fly during a classroom for a professor to implement simulation exercises in their more advanced forms. Businessweek reports that Harvard Business School plans to convert 17,000 case study documents to tablet-enhanced format by 2013. However, tablet case studies pose problems too,

"Students and professors who have used it for case studies say the device isnt great for exercises that require hard data analysis or spreadsheets. And if business schools introduce apps, as Stern did, they must provide tech support, which may intimidate schools that lack sufficient resources.

Harvard Business Publishings Betses also notes that her team wont be creating note-taking tools for students to use within their tablet-enhanced documents. For that, she says users may have to use a third-party app."

B-school Deans aren't all stern-faced puritans. They love Hollywood too! Businessweek last month asked the Deans of top US b-schools the names of movies they would recommend b-school applicants and students. Here is list of Top 30 movies B-school Deans recommend. While some movies in the list contain a moral undercurrent, recommendations such as The Inside Job are interesting because the documentary indicts top academics of the b-schools at Harvard and Columbia universities for their role in the 2008 recession.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: Alexandre Normand)

Guess who's the latest to jump onto the b-school bandwagon? None else but St Stephen's, that super-exclusive college in Delhi University known for its arts and science degrees and the canteen. The St Stephens Institute for Management Excellence (SSIME) is not starting an MBA degree yet, but what sounds like an executive program for mid-career professionals. Reports the Hindustan Times,

"SSIMEs first offering the Accelerated Development Programme (ADP) for mid-career professionalsis likely to start in October this year with Sanjay Saigal, an alumnus and business education entrepreneur, as its director. The institute will also offer training and research in business management."

This week, the Forbes magazine revealed that which has for long been withheld from all of us: The ten biggest lies of B-school. No seriously, I did find the following two lies quite, uh, true.

"4. If youve made it this far (to B-School), youre destined to succeed. In my B-School, there were always amazingly talented executives coming in to give talks on business and life. Theyd always compliment us on what a great school we attended and why we had our future by the tail. It made us all feel invincible destined to succeed once we set out on our various career paths. It doesnt work that way. I know B-School classmates whove failed miserably, under-achieved, gotten divorced, gotten severely depressed, etc. B-School is a great educational opportunity in life, but you still have to go out there and succeed. Nothing is given to you as a birthright.

8. You are going to be more creative and entrepreneurial after Business School than before. In my experience, B-School makes you less creative, the longer youre in it. They teach courses on entrepreneurship but its kind of an oxymoron the idea of the analysis paralysis B-School Students being entrepreneurial. You will learn a lot of tools and frameworks in B-School, but you wont learn how to start a company. You just need to start a company."

Since it was a slow news week at b-schools and we have inadvertently stumbled upon everybody's favorite subject (entrepreneurship), I find that it would amount to grave obstruction of knowledge on my part if I didn't nudge you lovely folks towards a very highly voted-up answer on Quora.com to the question, "I am a creative guy with a startup idea. Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?". The answer goes,

"This question gets asked a lot on Quora, but this one strikes me due to the phrasing. As someone who asked this question myself at one point, and someone who started one of the many websites specifically to address this issue, please pardon me and allow me to be blunt by translating this into engineer-speak.

"I am a creative guy with a startup idea."



=> I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. However, I do spend a lot of time daydreaming.



"Where is the best place to find a rockstar developer to bring it to life?"

=> Where can I find someone to do my work for me for free for a year of their life? Someone who is egotistical enough to call themselves a rockstar, yet humble enough not to want 99% of the equity?

This person does not exist.

You need to prove not only that your idea has merit, but that you can execute on the idea beyond just thinking of it.

Until you have proven both of those things to some degree, there is no place to find this person. This is not to say you should give up. It is to say, "get to work.""

We'll get you reactions from b-schools about the effect of the latest US economic crisis on the post-MBA job market soon. But those of you who are still struggling to understand what all this debt ceiling business is about, this badly produced but highly blunt comic series might help.

Many of you have hyperventilated about SMS and Email spam from private b-schools against your consent. To avoid getting your regularly used email accounts and mobile numbers from reaching the evil hands of these schools, make it a point to register for entrance exams using a special email ID created for the purpose. If your means allow it, get a separate lifetime prepaid mobile number for exam purposes and enter that number in various forms. After the admission season is over, you can simply ignore these accounts and move on without infesting your regularly used methods of communicating with unwanted private b-school spam. There is hope on this planet.

The CAT 2011 vouchers start selling this week, starting August 17. Faking News has released a guide to cracking the CAT 2011, do read.

Happy Independence Day to everyone!

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

Three developments in the past few weeks are bringing back fears of the job market tanking again in the style of 2008-2009, making Indian b-schools consider the possibility of a rough placement season for the batch graduating in 2012.

The first is the fear of another recession in the US and the possibility that it might affect the businesses of India's IT and consulting firms. Then there was the announcement by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the country's growth might miss the government's target for 2011-12. The third is a general air of negativity emanating out of the political turmoil in New Delhi.

Although there are no concrete signs from companies about freezes or even cutbacks in hiring, b-schools are starting to talk about what they might do in case the job market dips, and identify learnings from 2008-09 that may come in handy again.

"There are apprehensions that the IT and consulting companies which pick up students in large number here will cut back on hiring and that will have an impact. Usually most of our students get multiple offers during the placements. This time the multiple offers may not be there," says Prof Prithwis Mukerjee, placements chairperson at the Vinod Gupta School of Management, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

But he expects non-IT companies to fill up the deficit. "If the IT and consulting hiring reduces, we should be able to cut the slack using FMCG or operations companies which also come to hire here," he adds.

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Rohtak's Director Prof P Rameshan feels that although the media has blown the fear of a double-dip recession out of proportion, it might have repercussions on the morale of the markets and lead companies to be overcautious, affecting hiring but not to a very large extent.

According to Director Prof MJ Xavier, students of the IIM Ranchi are not aiming to join the IT industry. But finance students might have to moderate their expectations.

"Many want to join banking and financial services. Those eyeing multinational banks could face some problems," he says. The new IIMs have the pressure of demonstrating a solid placements record for their first graduates. Having small batches of upto 60 makes it easier.

"We will face no problems with getting students jobs in the FMCG sector. In any case, public sector undertakings from the local region would anyday be very happy to come and hire my graduates," he adds.

Small batch sizes is the defence many older b-schools claim against a possible employment downturn.

"Although it's too early to say whether jobs will really be affected, but in any case our batch sizes are too small for it to be too big a concern," says XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur's placement chairperson Dr Rajiv Misra.

Prof Abbas Ali Gabula of Mumbai's SP Jain Institute of Management and Research tells PaGaLGuY, "We have 180 students divided across four specializations. Even those who have taken the Information Management specialization are 45 in number which are not too hard to place even if the IT industry reduces hiring."

"It is the b-schools with more than 400 students that would need to worry," he adds.

Having lived a recession in the very recent past, b-schools worldwide have a fresh-in-memory visualisation of how a recession might play out.

Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad's Director of Career Advancement Services VK Menon says, "If you notice, the number of companies coming to campus never reduced when there was a recession. What instead happened was that instead of single companies recruiting 15 to 20 students at once, a larger pool of companies recruited two, three or four students each."

Speaking about the impact of IT recruiting on ISB he tells PaGaLGuY, "IT companies only hire for consulting or business development roles at ISB regardless of a recession because during a downturn they are looking even harder to generate new business. It is the program management or delivery related roles which take a hit and are usually offered to b-schools lower in the spectrum."

He along with IIM Ahmedabad's placement chairperson Prof Saral Mukherjee feel that students too have self-moderated their expectations after the 2008 recession and enter placements with a clearer idea of what they want.

Prof Mukherjee, who feels there is no reason to panic yet, says that MBA students are a lot maturer about their knowledge of the market than they were earlier.

XLRI's Prof Misra says, "Everybody on campus reads newspapers and follows financial news regularly so they know what to expect."

A clearer picture will only emerge in October, when most b-schools' placement committees complete a round of visits to top companies and have the math in front of them.

"We would wait and watch until then," says Prof Gabula.

[apurv (Apoorv Pandit)]

(Photo credit: ideowl)

Accepted applicants to top US b-schools have started behaving the same way in light of the current economic anxiousness as they did in the beginning of the 2008 economic crisis --- they are deferring their admissions with all-too-familiar justification: "I'd rather be taking home a paycheck right now than shoulder a fat education loan."

Reports Businessweek,

"At Southern Methodist Universitys Cox School of Business, a growing number of students seeking deferrals are citing financial hardship, opting to stay employed rather than attend B-school. At Harvard Business School, the first class of a program that admits new college graduates after two years in the workforce has been hit with dozens of deferral requests from students who have decided that the opportunities theyre in now are too good to pass up. At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, admitted students are voting with their feet. Theyre not asking for deferrals, but turning the school down cold, in effect snubbing a top-ranked MBA program in favor of a steady paycheck."

The risk of joining b-school in these times is compounded by skyrocketing tuitions at American b-schools. An article in Fortune proposes that MBA students in these b-schools are shouldering record levels of debt without the kind of caution one expects with big ticket loans.

But with fees and living expenses, the total ticket creeps dangerously close to $200,000: The Wharton School's incoming MBAs will pay close to $178,000 to study and live in Philadelphia. If they continue to borrow at rates similar to their predecessors, the average 2013 graduate will rack up debt of nearly $124,000.

Schools have gotten away with steep tuition rises, but critics say these hikes are unsustainable, partially because students are borrowing too much to study. "We're starting to get to a point of diminishing returns," says Mark Kantrowitz, founder and publisher of FinAid, as well as FastWeb, a free scholarship matching service. "The pricing power of the colleges is going to hit a ceiling."

There is some evidence that prospective MBA students are voting with their feet, taking their talents elsewhere or sticking with their current jobs. A recent Poets&Quants; report showed that applications to many B-schools will drop between 3% and 10% in 2011-12. The reason? Full-time MBA programs don't offer the value they used to.

Ajit Balakrishnan, Rediff CEO and IIM Calcutta's Chairman Board of Governors in a column in the Business Standard paints a grim future of higher education in India. Education is failing in teaching students how to connect the dots between different domains to arrive at innovative solutions to traditional and emerging problems, he argues.

Students seem to trip up when it comes to applying what they have learnt in one context to solve a similar problem in another context. Robert Haskell, professor of psychology at the University of New England, terms such a problem-solving skill transfer of learning. His book Transfer of Learning: Cognition, Instruction and Reasoning defines transfer of learning as the skill to detect that a problem is like or is equivalent to or is the same as or resembles or is comparable to some other problem that the student has encountered before. This kind of reasoning is evidence of the skills of mental abstraction, generalisation, induction and logical inference. These skills make up true education.

... ... ...

Unfortunately, attempts to teach such transfer-of-learning skills by using the classic structured drills in the basics dont seem to do the job, nor do the efforts to do it by giving students unstructured free rein for self-discovery.

Ivy Cap Ventures, a venture capital fund created with the stated purpose of funding entrepreneurs from India's top colleges --- namely the IITs and IIMs --- was in the news this week because it recruited the just-retired Home Secretary GK Pillai. The fund has been in the news before. "Unlike other venture funds, 5% of the fund's profits will be ploughed back into the educational institutions chosen by the investors," adds a news report.

The fund's basis beats me. Will this fund pass up funding a great idea from a good team just because they don't belong to a premier school? Past record of India's entrepreneurial theater shows that premier Indian schools have no monopoly over either great ideas or companies. Okay, maybe IIT alumni have done great things but IIM graduates are known to be risk averse employees-in-making of banks and FMCG companies. And a fund's job is not that of a motivational speaker's --- to wake students out of their safety slumber and get them to start game-changing (I too can, dear Rahul Gandhi) companies. VCs invest in and mentor promising ideas/companies in anticipation of a integer-multiple returns in the future, regardless of where the people come from. And entrepreneurs from IITs or IIMs ought to work as hard as a regular educated joe to get their first cheque-against-equity. Not because I have something against elite colleges, but because an affirmative-action fund skips important ground for an idea or a team to truly prove its caliber as worthwhile. These are some of the things I would like to understand about the Ivy Cap fund as it raises capital and starts funding.

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

Nathan and his family at dinner

What can you do with Rs 45 in your pocket? Not much, you would say, given the rising costs of just about everything - but not for Nathan Adair (32), who is pursuing his MBA from UK's Westminister University. As part of his b-school project, Nathan is living on less than a dollar a day, (for a total of 30 days) to identify with more than 1 billion people globally who live on $1 a day or less. He expects, that his feat will help him raise money (what he saves by consuming less) and awareness (publicity and funds) to get across electric power to an orphanage in Andhra Pradesh where 'electricity' is a foreign word.

How does all this connect to his MBA project? Nathan plans to present the process of financing, designing and implementing this micro-enterprise business to get solar energy to the village, as his project.

Why something like this?

When deciding on what to base his MBA dissertation/project, Nathan decided to choose a topic that would make a difference. I did not want to simply piece together an academic report that would benefit no one, he says. Nathan and his family have been supporters of Peace Gospel (an NGO) for a number of years, so he met its Director, Kirby Trapolino who discussed various initiatives that Peace Gospel does as part of its existence. Primary among them, was getting in solar energy at a few of its missions. So, after brainstorming, we decided to create a solar micro-enterprise scheme for this particular orphanage in India where Peace Gospel works, says Nathan.

Peace Gospel empowers missions through micro-enterprise initiatives like animal stock breeding, dairy production and farming. This ''business model'' fit nicely into trying to create a project for my MBA. Since there is a huge need for reliable electricity in this community, I know my effort would work perfectly, Nathan added.

Nathan Adair

The experiment

The first four days of Nathan's 30-day experiment (of eating less than a dollar's worth a day) were the most difficult. "A combination of eating approximately 30 percent of the calories normally consumed and giving up caffeine made for a miserable beginning," he confesses. However, the overwhelming support and prayers from my wife, family and friends gave me the resolve I needed to press on and not give up, he adds. Most of Nathan's meals today, consist of rice and beans or potatoes, carrots, chickpeas with lots of water. Check http://indiasolarproject.blogspot.com/2011/08/what-30-gets-you.html.

Before the experiment, Nathan's meals always had salmon and/or chicken, milk, coffee and he also went out to dinner occasionally.

Ironically, one of the biggest hurdles Adair has been encountering with his experiment is planning his daily menu and the substantial lack of energy. But it's still worth the effort, because I am gaining a new understanding of how much of the world lives. People who live on $1/day or less see food as an essential fuel to stay alive, and they don't take that for granted," he told PaGaLGuY. Nathan has been requesting his blog's readers to participate with him on a one-week schedule. It's very humbling to think that at this very moment, kids are digging through trash looking for food," Nathan is reported to have said in a magazine adding that he wanted people to realize our Western lifestyle is luxurious compared to most. I have been very blessed in this life, and I want to give back as much as possible.

Though Nathan feels generally healthy, his energy levels are low, especially in the afternoons. Without proper protein and vitamins, it is difficult to stay fit. It definitely effects brain function as well, Nathan says. Ten days to go for the experiment to draw to a close and Nathan has lost some 17 pounds so far.

How did family, friends and his school respond?

Nathan's Dissertation Supervisor at the University of Westminster, was very supportive about the project and encouraged him to do it. As for family, his mother was, naturally, concerned for his health and energy. Nathan's wife who is an MBA graduate herself is also living on $1/day for this week, complying with Nathan's blog request. Many followers of the blog have joined me this week by sacrificing different things. Some are living on $1/day, or not eating at restaurants this week, or giving up coffee. Most of them will donate their savings to the solar project, the Westminister University student says. As for friends, all of them first offered to bring his food, or take him to dinner but when Nathan explained that he had already bought whatever he needed for the month, they understood.

What Nathan's dinner bowl usually looks like these days

The goal

Nathan's interest in the solar initiative began in 2010 when he learnt of the solar efforts being made in orphanages in India and in the Republic of Chad by Peace Gospel Both orphanages are located in sunshine-abundant regions, making for the perfect conditions to go solar. After a successful test-run of the basic system at the India orphanage, Nathan decided to help in the expansion of the project so that the entire orphanage campus get sufficient power. The expansion will cost approximately $25,000 and the estimate from the installer is good through October 31 says Nathan.

In addition to providing the opportunity to go "off the grid," the system will also allow Nathan and his fellow thinkers to rent out additional power cells (charged car batteries). Villagers will be able to rent these batteries in order to power lights, fans and small appliances in their homes, thus drastically improving quality of life. Local businesses will also be able to rent the batteries to run appliances and mobile PA systems. Thus the new system will not only provide all of the orphanage's power needs, but will also create a steady revenue stream from the power cell rentals, says Nathan. The MBA students expects that once in place, the system will provide a savings of $3,600/year. We're conservatively projecting revenue of $1,200/year from the solar-charged power cells rental business and that figure should grow in the following years. Thus we foresee the system paying for itself in about 5 years. What's more, with the savings, we should be able to bring in more orphans almost immediately, adds Nathan.

Way to go

Nathan has ten more days to finish his project (eating less). So far, he has saved $334. All this money will go towards the solar project. Nathan is now also seeking corporate sponsors as raising the full 25K in one month will require some large donations. Through the blog and various online media outlets, the word is quickly spreading and Nathan has been fielding questions from across the world US, UK, Brazil, Bhutan, India, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia. Nathan hopes to come down to Ongle village once the entire work is done. In the meanwhile, he is also preparing notes for his project to present to his class. Nathan is keen to complete his MBA and he thinks the MBA will broaden his global network and gain valuable business skills and knowledge. Undergraduate degrees are becoming common now. An MBA will help me stand out more.

Well, one can say that Nathan Adair has already stood out, globally that too.

[laj (Lajwanti D'Souza)]

Not the most eventful of weeks but a few interesting stories did crop up in different publications across the globe. The Entrepreneur had an interesting story on threadUp. The article talks about the trio --- James Reinhart, Chris Homer and Oliver Lubinhad who had a unique problem on hand --- they all had too many clothes and they actually wore only 25% of all their clothes. The rest just lay somehwere in their individual cupboards. The three (Reinhart and Lubin were roommates at Boston College; Reinhart and Homer were friends at Harvard Business School) while trying to solve the problem came up with the creation of the San Francisco-based thredUp company, The idea was simple - the three created an online community where people could inexpensively buy and sell gently used clothing. Read more on it in

">http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220256

Another news bit as interesting was about "Angry Birds" - the world's largest mobile app success story and, unofficially, the most seductive game in the history of the universe. David Maisel, a veteran Hollywood studio executive and agent, recently joined the Finnish game developer as a Special Advisor, where he will spearhead the company's move into feature films, which he also plans to executive produce. The article stated that the The Angry Birds franchise, perhaps as much as Zynga's Facebook games, has helped indoctrinate millions of new people to video gaming. Finnish developer Rovio has taken these cute characters beyond the addictive game franchise with merchandising and Hollywood aspirations. David Maisel will be leading the way as Angry Birds flies from mobile gaming screens to movie theatres and beyond." The whole story in http://www.marketwatch.com/story/angry-birds-david-maisel-announced-as-opening-keynote-speaker-at-2nd-annual-3d-gaming-summit-3d-gaming-and-beyondr-2011-09-16

And some news for the music buffs. A huge relief for some of the 'old is gold' music makers. The European Union has extended the COPYRIGHT on musical recordings from 50 to 70 years. Many of the earlier songs recorded by bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were due to go out of copyright over the next few years, which some said was unfair as performers should have their rights preserved for life. Musical artists are protected for 95 years in some countries aborad. Thousands of music performers, from little-known session musicians to Sir Cliff Richard, will receive royalties from songs released in the 60s for an extra 20 years, under new copyright laws ratified by the EU on Monday. The legislation known as "Cliff's law" after its most high-profile campaigner extends copyright on music recordings from 50 years to 70 years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/12/musicians-copyright-extension

And now for some MBA news. Nothing new in Johns Hopkins Universitys Carey Business School graduating its first class of full-time MBAs at the end of this school year. But for placements, the b-school sprung a surprise. The choice for employer was the health industry. (Little wonder though since Careys corporate advisory board is filled with people from companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, Quest Diagnostics, and GE Healthcare). The blog in Businessweek states that Careys full-time program, which launched in August 2010, has attracted students bent more towards science than finance. Twenty-five percent of the inaugural class completed summer internships in the health care industry and 16 percent in tech. Finance internships tied with non-profit work for third place, each taking 13 percent of the class. To help put that in context, at Stanfords Graduate School of Business, for example, 31 percent of its graduating class took full-time jobs in the financial services industry, 29 percent went to consulting and 18 percent went to tech, according to the most recent statistics, the school provided to Bloomberg Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/blogs/mba_admissions/archives/2011/09/whos_looking_to_hire_the_first_grads_of_johns_hopkins_mba_program.html

And still on the MBA scene, The Nigerian Daily had an article quite disturbing to an MBA greenhorn. The article states that 'when key figures in some of Kenyas most infamous cases of corporate fraud and corruption are professionals and local business schools alumni, it is not surprising that people question their training. Corporate misconduct and unethical practices leave doubt about the kind of principles and management practices the countrys business schools are teaching. The article goes on to question why in the business gurus and commentators publicly condemn business schools in general, and MBA programmes in particular for their lack of attention to ethics in the curriculum. http://www.thenigeriandaily.com/2011/09/13/kenya-are-business-graduates-failing-ethics-test

The Financial Times had one of those gender-based articles which drive men up the wall and women all gleaming. The article said that using research on gender-based leadership differences, schools such as Harvard Business School, IMD in Switzerland and Ceibs in Shanghai have created courses to help women become aware of these differences and improve their leadership style. In these courses, women are taught to build far-reaching networks, because research has shown that women tend to have smaller, although more loyal, networks than men. Workplace confidence is also cultivated, since this is something that comes more naturally to male leaders, according to researchers. If you agree or even don't agree with the concept, you can always read up http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e2ba5f0a-d947-11e0-884e-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1YC3WPQn4 for more.

And there is bookish news as well. When Bob Sutton, a renowned management professor at Stanford University, declares that a book just might be the most important business book Ive ever read, it gets anyone and everyone closely connected to business or business education scurrying for the book. This one's titled The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School and the countrys leading researcher on creativity in the workplace, and Steven Kramer, a psychologist and independent researcher. The book talks about how seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees' inner work lives. But it's forward momentum in meaningful work-progress-that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships.

">http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/09/three-ways-to-turn-setbacks-in.html?referral=00563&cm;_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm;_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm;_medium=email&utm;_campaign=alert_date