AIM MBA - A Management Portal

Harvard Business Analytics Program (HBAP)

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 10:53:00 +0000

Now get a Harvard stamp in your resume.

The Harvard Business Analytics Program is an online certificate program offered through a collaboration between Harvard Business School (HBS), the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS).

The program is for experienced professionals who are realizing the impact of data and analytics on business strategy and operations. You will explore new ways to analyze, interpret, and take advantage of data to drive competitive business advantages.

The Harvard Business Analytics Program consists of six core courses, two seminars, and two in-person immersions. The program can be completed in as little as nine months.

Designed to help experienced leaders develop essential new skills without sacrificing critical commitments, Harvard Business Analytics is delivered through a blend of online and in-person learning experiences.

Strategic Thinking

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 07:36:00 +0000

Make Time for Strategy Checklist One of the biggest challenges professionals face is carving out time for strategic thinking amidst the hurlyburly of daily work obligations. Here’s a checklist of questions to help you do it.

Common Inputs

You’ll notice for many of the processes that the following items will be common inputs. It’s important to be familiar with them, as you’ll see them over and over again in the material we’re covering.

1. How frequently do you listen to music, podcasts, or audiobooks?

2. Under what circumstances do you listen (such as driving to work, at the gym, or while washing dishes)?

3. Is there at least one 15-minute period where you can regularly turn it off in order to think about big picture strategy, instead? What time during your workweek is least busy (for instance, Friday afternoons)?

4. Can you try a two-week experiment where you block out one hour per week in your calendar during this time, for strategic thinking? Try it, and if you like the results, make it a habit. Do you have friends who are also interested in improving their strategic thinking?

5. If so, can you reach out and ask if they’d like to trade ideas, or become accountability partners? Raise the prospect, and see how they respond

Post Graduate Programmes (EPGP) in IIMK

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Mon, 18 Nov 2019 14:22:00 +0000

The Executive Post Graduate Programmes are the perfect option for working professionals and executives to enrich their skills and strategies to take their organizations to the next level around work.

In the year 2001, IIMK conceived a new model of management education for working executives. Executive Management Education Programme (EMEP) marked the beginning of IIMK's Executive Education activities and IIMK pioneered management education through a synchronous interactive learning mode (IL) in the Asia Pacific region. Participants have the flexibility to choose the class room centers based on their city of residence /work.

A world of opportunities is available for working professionals and executives to meet their career objective through variety of programmes .Executive Education Programme offers a Two years MBA ("Master of Business Administration") programme for working executives (earlier known as Executive Post Graduate Programme (EPGP) in Management) and one year post graduate certification programmes in Operations Management, Marketing Management, Finance Management, Strategy Management, Information Technology Management and Human Resources Management which supports the working professionals and executives to enrich their knowledge in area of expertise.

Executive Post Graduate Programmes are delivered though an Interactive Learning platform where participants can attend the classes from the designated classroom centers available at their locations.

AIM Manila in terms of reputation and placements?

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 15:29:00 +0000

This answer is considering you had 5 years IT experience in India prior to joining MBA, It is divided in four parts

a) What were my expectations from a B School before joining it.
b) What happened at the B-School and how it changed me and my expectations.
c) After 5 years what do I think happened and should it have happened?
d) My recommendations to you while you are planning to join AIM.

Part A: My expectations from a B-School before joining it.
I was a Software Engineer after a BE degree from a top institute in India and everyone recognized my college the moment they heard the name. In a way this made my life easier when I used to interact with people and apply for jobs. And one thing I realized that the name of your college helps you cross the first hurdle and offers you an (unfair) advantage in interviews, discussions, etc. Value this advantage if you have one.

Based on the above experience, and fed up with the unstructured life of a Software Engineer, I wanted to do MBA. MBA to be was a short-cut to a bigger & easier life. I wanted a high paying career, a slightly more structured life, and a decent life-style. As a Software Engineer I used to share my flat with friends, used to ride a motorcycle, and mostly had just enough money to last for next 30 days. I hated it. The least I wanted from a job was that I could stay in a separate flat, own a car, and have enough money to at least last for a few months. (This is the most fundamental requirement for my MBA). One thing I understood was that a job-change is not an answer to this desire. A job change gives at best 20-30% hike, which sounds good in theory, but terrible in reality because how much does a Software Engineer actually earn in his beginning years? Most people in my time used to start their Software career at around 20k per month (or less). I am not sure about the starting salaries of software engineers these days.

Having seen the advantage of a good institute, my choice for MBA was IIMs, or XLRI. And if these two don't click then I would use my savings from onsite and try at a foreign institute. (However, I knew it really well that most foreign institutes are well beyond my reach because I didn't want to take any loans and get tied to that loan for next 5-7 years).

Of course I couldn't get selected for IIMs and XLRI. And by some stroke of luck I was selected at AIM. I cleared the interview and had the funds to join the institute. So I decided to take the final call and join it.

Before joining the institute this is what I had my on mind...
1. After MBA, I will have a campus placement in some foreign company. Most probably I won't have to return to India for next few years.
2. My classmates will be good enough to help me grow.
3. My Professors will be world-class
4. Everyone recognizes and values my degree (just like everyone recognizes and values my engineering degree)
etc.

Part B: What happened in the B-School (AIM)

A. First thing which (slightly) disappointed me while I reached AIM - The class-diversity was poor. In a batch of 100+ students of an institute which claims to be one of the best institute in the Asian region, you don't expect to see 60 students from India. And have another 30 from Philippines, and rest 10 students from Vietnam, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Thailand, etc. This is nothing but a diversity on paper. Its practically a school for Indians & Filipinos. This fact really made me feel a little disappointed. I don't know how things have changed in past 5 years, but this is something which is hampering the institute.
[My only suggestion to the institute would be to place a check on the upper limit on the number of students from a particular nationality. Or else declare it as an institute for Indians & Filipinos.]

B. Professors in the Institute were a pleasant surprise - All of them were practitioners of the fields/subjects which they were teaching. And co-incidentally they were all millioners. Contrast this to what we have seen in India. And hence this was a welcome change for me. What was even more interesting was the a good percentage of professors were directly or indirectly working with government(s) and institutions which frame policies and regulations for societies. This was indeed a certain pleasure, In India I could have almost never met such an elite set of professors under a single roof. And I still believe its the professors at AIM which will impress an Indian student.

C. One of the first learnings I had at AIM, and probably the most important one was that - There are no right or wrong answers (or actions), everything is dependent on the situation and the environment. This might sound like a simple thing to read, but try writing/speaking/acting your heart when it come to your work-place or previous academia experience - I am sure not everyone in India is ready to accept it. Because it needs some sort of wisdom to accept people's difference of opinion, actions, and judgements. AIM teaches you to accept this difference and still keep moving. (This is one thing which most Indian B-Schools will fail to teach you).

D. You learn on your own. None of the lectures will have any teachings to be done. Instead, there will be discussions (over a business case), there will be debates, there will be verbal fights, and the professors will mostly watch you do what you think is right. AIM's Case Study method is what always appealed to me for two reasons - i) In real world, we will have cases to handle and we are going to meet similar people who will argue, disagree, fight, and in all this we still need to arrive at a best possible solution in the given circumstances; ii) However hard you attempt, you will be always unprepared for life (and case discussions), which will keep you humble and your feet grounded forever in your life.

E. AIM has some emphasis on certain unique things (which most other B-Schools in India miss, even today) - i) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), ii) Ethics in Business and Management, iii) Equality in Society, iv) Entrepreneurship, v) Social Service, vi) Leadership, etc. On a weekly basis you will hear on these topics from very reputed people across the world. And because AIM is very closely attached to Asian Development Bank (ADB), and Ramon Magsaysay Award panel, you will have regular invitations to hear some of the global leaders live. Trust me all this makes a long-term impact on your thinking and your behavior.

During all this, something was changing in me.....
a) I did my MBA right after Sub-Prime crisis, and this means a lot of good lessons came to us by default. And a lot of our myths were broken in those classroom discussions. I was finally losing my desire to join corporate because of its clear failure to bring satisfaction to the lives of its employees, and also the kind of corrupt practices they were involved into. One thing was getting clearer to me all the while during my MBA journey - I am not joining a regular job at corporate.

b) Money is a certain by-product of all the good work done, don't run after it, let it run after you. My professors were live examples to me. All of them were doing fabulously good in life by virtue of their passion for good work done throughout their life.

c) Role of a Manager is not to keep himself constrained into some specific role, instead he is the one who has to think 360 degrees and take actions after estimating its impacts on all possible domains. (In most B-Schools I have seen that people define themselves as finance guy or a marketing guy, and hence they behave in a way allergic to other divisions/practices.)

d) Live life to make an impact, instead of joining the herd. It takes courage to think and execute alike. AIM did that to me.

Part C: After 5 years of my MBA...

5 years is not a massive time-span, but its like the first Tea - Break of the Test Match. You get a sense of the strength of your fundamentals, you get a sense of what all you can score during the day, you get a sense how you will entertain the audience in the crowd, and you know where do you stand in the game.

So, here is what I experienced after 5 years...

A. In India, most of the people in Corporates do not know anything about AIM. Only those aged people 50+ years in age might have a chance to know about this institute. In essence, CXOs know about AIM, rest all think AIM as some Tom Dick & Harry college of some Tier-II city.
(Lesson for AIM pass-outs....you need to reach out to the right audience while you want your resumes to work for you. A typical HR is never going to understand what is AIM).

B. AIM pass-outs need to aim for right opportunities. They are neither meant for all the roles, nor most companies can ever utilize AIM students in their typical job roles. AIM pass-outs need a bigger canvas to work and always need to operate above a certain level.

C. AIM converts you into a different breed of junta who won't be too obsessed with money. AIMers would always be looking for bigger challenges, bigger roles and responsibilities. Money for an AIMer would be just a by-product.

D. AIMer, at some point in their life start on their own. Because at some point the canvas offered to an AIMer will get small for his vision. And he will need a canvas big enough to fit his sight. He will start on his own.

Part D: My DOs & DONTs while you are planning to join AIM...

DOs...
1. Go there to transform yourself into a Leader
2. Go there to meet exceptional professors & teaching standards
3. Go there to experience some unheard & theoretical concepts being executed
4. Go there to see how people Walk the Talk
5. Go there to get a feel of what a Cosmopolitan Life looks like

DONTs...
1. Don't go there for a Campus Placement

CAT 2017 registration closed

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sat, 14 Oct 2017 13:38:00 +0000

CAT 2017 registration which was opened on August 9, 2017 has been closed on September 25 at 5PM after the CAT 2017 registration last date was extended from September 20. CAT 2017 notification was released on July 30 by IIM Lucknow who is conducting CAT 2017 exam. The CAT notification and CAT 2017 advertisement scheduled the CAT 2017 registration last date as September 20 but it was then extended for 5 more days and ended at 5PM on Monday September 25.

CAT EXAM PATTERN 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 16:49:00 +0000

The CAT 2016 Exam Pattern consists of two sections. CAT is a computer based objective type test which include a suitable negative marking for each wrong answer.

Section	Total Question	Time Duration	Total Duration
Quantitative Ability & Data Interpretation	50 Questions in each section. Total: 100	85 minutes	170 Minutes
Verbal Ability & Logical Reasoning	50 Questions in each section. Total: 100	85 minutes	170 Minutes

Important Dates for CAT 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Wed, 27 Jul 2016 06:48:00 +0000

Publication of official notification:	June 2016
Starting date for online registration:	August 2016
Closing date to apply online:	September 2016
Issue of Admit Card:	October 2016
Entrance exam date:	November 2016
Publication of result:	December 2016

Fast Track MBA

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 05:24:00 +0000

Working in a corporate for 2-3 years and feel stuck in your corporate job, bored of monotonous
growth and wondering how to get ahead in your career. Then you are not alone, you are one of
the many young workforce in the country.

MBA, is an option you can look for. For Indian General Category students there are two good
options –CAT and GMAT. With CAT, you can get into top Indian B-School and you need 95% +
percentile. You can give CAT only once and the format remains unpredictable. Many freshers
give CAT and target the IIM’s.

GMAT is good option for experienced people, you can prepare well and give it multiple times till
you get a good score. There are many Indian B-School that are taking GMAT as well – ISB,
Great Lakes, and S P Jain among the better ones. The average experience in these colleges
are also more than 2 years. They look for candidates with diverse background.
If you want an international exposure S P Jain is a good option, you can study in Dubai,
Singapore and Sydney. They have customised programs for IT, Financial Executives,
Marketing and Supply Chain Management. They have packed 2 years MBA course in 1 year- 3
semester. So it is going to hectic, but you will make most of the year spent there. You will
become part of prestigious S P Jain Alumni. S P Jain Global MBA program has got a Global
Top Ten ranking by Forbes in its Best International MBAs: One-Year Program rankings (2015 -
16).

Companies are becoming global, S P Jain gives global experience to tackle and interact with
global counterparts. The economies are getting interconnected, Selling in china or oil prices
falling- effects every world economies. Hence, Global exposure becomes more and more
important. Three semester in 3 different campuses in Dubai, Sydney and Singapore. These
countries represents a dynamic regional economy and an ideal background to learn global
business, apply your learning and experience in a global context and build important
international networks.

You can finish your MBA in on year, and get back to work soon. Many fortune 500 companies
are part of the school’s recruitment cycle.

CAT NUMBERS

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Mon, 12 Oct 2015 06:38:00 +0000

Cat aspirants are getting diverse.

See attached image.

IIM Autonomy under threat?

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Wed, 08 Jul 2015 11:17:00 +0000

Though the Bill does have several enabling provisions in making them more accountable, it leaves the question of autonomy in doubt.

The draft Bill seeks to do away with the special emphasis on the IIMs by seeking to declare certain institutes of management to be institutions of national importance to empower them to attain standards of global excellence in management, management research and allied areas of knowledge and to provide for certain other matters connected with such institutions or incidental thereto — the IIMs want the Bill to confine itself to them.

Also, the proposed Bill takes away the powers of the institutes to determine fees by making it subject to prior approval of the government. Lastly, the Bill states that in discharge of its functions, the IIM Board will be accountable to the government, whereas the IIMs envisaged accountability only with respect to legal compliance, financial stability and growth of the institutes.

Please let me know your thoughts about the autonomy.

Source: Hindu

8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8 A.M

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sun, 28 Jun 2015 00:42:00 +0000

Life is busy. It can feel impossible to move toward your dreams. If you have a full-time job and kids, it’s even harder.

How do you move forward?

If you don’t purposefully carve time out every day to progress and improve — without question, your time will get lost in the vacuum of our increasingly crowded lives. Before you know it, you’ll be old and withered — wondering where all that time went.

As Professor Harold Hill has said — “You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.”

Rethinking Your Life and Getting Out of Survival Mode

This article is intended to challenge you to rethink your entire approach to life. The purpose is to help you simplify and get back to the fundamentals.

Sadly, most people’s lives are filled to the brim with the nonessential and trivial. They don’t have time to build toward anything meaningful.

They are in survival mode. Are you in survival mode?

Like Bilbo, most of us are like butter scraped over too much bread. Unfortunately, the bread is not even our own, but someone else’s. Very few have taken the time to take their lives into their own hands.

It was social and cultural to live our lives on other people’s terms just one generation ago. And many millennials are perpetuating this process simply because it’s the only worldview we’ve been taught.

However, there is a growing collective-consciousness that with a lot of work and intention — you can live every moment of your life on your own terms.

You are the designer of your destiny.

You are responsible.

You get to decide. You must decide — because if you don’t, someone else will. Indecision is a bad decision.

With this short morning routine, your life will quickly change.

It may seem like a long list. But in short, it’s really quite simple:

Wake up
Get in the zone
Get moving
Put the right food in your body
Get ready
Get inspired
Get perspective
Do something to move you forward

Read on: https://medium.com/@benjaminhardy/8-things-every-person-should-do-before-8-a-m-cc0233e15c8d

Permutation & Combination Puzzle -11th June

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 15:07:00 +0000

1. From a group of 7 men and 6 women, five persons are to be selected to form a committee so that at least 3 men are there on the committee. In how many ways can it be done?

564

645

735

756

E. None of these

In how many different ways can the letters of the word 'LEADING' be arranged in such a way that the vowels always come together?

A.	360	B.	480
C.	720	D.	5040
E.	None of these

3. In how many different ways can the letters of the word 'CORPORATION' be arranged so that the vowels always come together?

A.	810	B.	1440
C.	2880	D.	50400
E.	5760

Please answer in comments with your explanation. Will Share answer.

Top Asian MBA programs for getting into IB

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 06:35:00 +0000

Ten years’ ago, if you wanted to get into investment banking after completing an MBA, US and European schools were the only options. Not any more – Asia schools are getting a look in.

Now that Asian schools are getting on to the top rankings globally, students from around the world are starting to take note – and so are investment banks’ recruiters. Analysis of the eFinancialCareers CV database, encompassing over 1.2m finance professionals globally, suggests that graduates of Asian business schools are gaining traction in front office investment banking roles.

We then analysed resumes in our database from individuals who went to top Asian universities, trying to work out the percentage of MBA graduates from these schools who went on to work in front office roles in investment banks.

The top two universities are both from Mainland China: Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, each with a 42% of their MBA graduates

The second group consists a mixture of schools from Hong Kong, Mainland China and India, led by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology with 40% of its MBA graduates in front office jobs. China Europe International Business School (better known as CEIBS), a rapidly growing school in reputation and ranking, has 37% – on par with a few other Hong Kong-based business schools.

On contrast, the two Singaporean universities don’t have as many MBA graduates as other schools who go into front office roles. National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University only achieved 34% and 30% respectively, even lower than Indian Institute of Management, which has an impressive figure of 38%. This is possibly down to the fact that Singapore has traditionally been a hub for back office and technology work rather than front office positions.

Of course, front office has many sub-categories. In hot areas like M&A, it’s still the Mainland China universities that take the lead. This time CEIBS tops the list with a ratio of 32%, followed by Fudan and Shanghai Jiaotong with 27% and 24% respectively. Universities in Hong Kong, the most important financial centres in Asia, don’t seem to churn out a lot of MBA graduates who go into M&A.

Incorrectly Used Words-Communication errors

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 10:37:00 +0000

Communication is the key to any business transactions. It is the most important part of our daily work. Below are list of common misused word one must be careful about

Advise and advice
Ultimate and penultimate
Well and good
If and whether
Award and reward
Sympathy and empathy
Criterion and criteria
Mute and moot
Peak and peek
Aggressive and enthusiastic
Then and than
Evoke and invoke
Continuously and continually
Systemic and systematic
Impact and affect (and effect)

5 Most Common MBA Interview Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 17:47:00 +0000

These are 5 most common interview questions. One should prepare these very well.

1. Tell us something about yourself.
2. Have you done your SWOT? What are your strengths & weaknesses?
3. Do you know where you’re headed? Where do you see yourself 5/10 years from now?
4. Do you know the purpose for your being there? Why MBA?
5. Do you have a strong hold on your learning curve? Questions about the Course you are pursuing or pursued.

Please share your answers in comments.

Save money now, Government for self-validation

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 18:10:00 +0000

Citing that Indians spend about Rs 8,000 crore on affidavits annually, the Centre has asked all its ministries and state governments to promote self-certification of documents in various official works.

The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) has asked the Central Government ministries to review the existing requirements of affidavits and attested copy by Gazetted officers in various forms in a phased-manner and wherever possible, make provision of self-certification of documents and abolition of affidavits.

iting that Indians spend about Rs 8,000 crore on affidavits annually, the Centre has asked all its ministries and state governments to promote self-certification of documents in various official works.

CAT-2014 notification out with major changes in examination pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Sun, 26 Oct 2014 18:31:00 +0000

The countdown for MBA aspirants has begun as the Common Admission Test (CAT) conducting body - Indian Institute of Management, Indore (IIM-I) - on Saturday announced the dates for the test with some major changes in the examination pattern this year. IIM-Indore will be conducting the test for the second consecutive time.

Apparently, making the CAT 2014 much more aspirant friendly this year, the IIM-Indore has increased the examination duration from existing 140 minutes to 170 minutes, discontinued purchase of offline vouchers, the questions in quantitative ability and data interpretation, verbal ability and logical reasoning has been increased to 50 in each section from existing 30 questions.

The tutorial which was made available before start of examination will not be available this time. The CAT conducting body has advised candidates to do the tutorials from the website well in advance. Candidates will have to make the payment for registration fee through online modes only including credit card, debit card or through net banking.

Another significant change that CAT aspirants will see this year will be flexibility for devoting more or less time to each section according to their ability. Candidates will be able to switch from one section to another during the examination timing.

Unlike previous years, the IIM-Indore has cut short the window period for holding examination. The CAT 2014 will be conducted only for two days this year i.e. on November 16 and November 22 only in forenoon and afternoon sessions. The examination will be conducted in 99 cities comprising 354 test sites. Last year, there were 45 test sites only. The CAT 2014 will give an option to prefer three test cities in the order of preference. "The candidates need not rush in the initial registration days for blocking their slots and sites. Candidates will be given their first preferred city across the four sessions on random basis as far as possible. Candidates will have no option to prefer the dates as it will be allotted by the CAT Centre randomly," states the CAT notification.

The registration for the CAT 2014 will remain open for 56 days beginning from August 6 and closing on September 30. Students will be able to download admit card from October 16 to till examination date. The results will be declared in the third week of December 2014.

Due to ongoing results related discrepancies and controversies that landed IIMs in the court. The contract of Prometric to conduct CAT has been abolished and has been to the Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS), which has conducted examination like GATE, JEE, AIPMT, JIPMER etc.

IIMC launches Advanced Program in Strategic Management – Batch 08

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Thu, 23 Oct 2014 11:23:00 +0000

Developing a strategic thinking mode - understanding how power is wielded and negotiated in multiple contexts, especially amidst great 'complexity'
Understanding strategic landscapes of industries, including the interface with law and regulation, and institutional variation across nations
Understanding the strategic significance of few contemporary developments such as out sourced models of business, use of informatics, delayering of organizations, modularization of product systems and so on

Duration: 6 months
Class Schedule:Thursday, 6:30 PM and 9:30 PM
Delivery: Through classes at NIIT Imperia Centre for Advanced Learning in your city*, using Synchronous Learning Technology platform
Graduates/Post Graduates in any discipline with minimum 50% marks
Working Professional with 7 years of experience post completion of graduation

Education app - OnlineTyari

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:46:00 +0000

OnlineTyari GK app helps you in preparing for SSC, IBPS, UPSC exams in Hindi and English medium. It also provides daily current affairs for 2014 along with question banks and mock test series which you can use in offline mode as well.

Features:
- Helps in preparing and practicing for all government competitive job exams including Civil Services (CSAT), Bank PO and clerk, SSC CGL and 10+2, CTET and many more.
- Daily update of current affair 2014 questions.
- Competitive exam focussed objective questions in Hindi and English Language.
- Practice objective question banks for various topics including aptitude, reasoning, language comprehension etc.
- Free and paid mock test paper and online test series .
- Option to save favourite questions.
- Covers various state general knowledge for state level exams
- Works in offline mode.

Available on Play Store, Google

ComedK on May 11th

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Tue, 13 May 2014 10:45:00 +0000

ComedK on May 11th went peacfull with over 40000 students appearing for exam at various center accross Karnataka

Thinking beyond MBA and Engineering

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 18:08:00 +0000

According to ancient literatures, vidya means clarity. Interestingly otherwise, education, as a Western concept means a process of receiving systematic instruction or gathering knowledge! This is exactly the paradox that our post-colonial education system is dwelling in! Are we emphasising on one’s capacity to gather knowledge or the ‘clarity’ of wisdom? The education system implemented by the colonial rulers in India was meant to churn out robots to serve the massive system without asking any questions. Unfortunately, the post-colonial rulers preserved the same system rather than exploring the already available education system in ancient India.
“My son has to be an engineer and nothing else!” This is a very common statement that parents in contemporary India keep repeating, across regional and economic segments. In engineering, IT-related fields are in demand. When I confront the parents to get an explanation for such a firm career option that they want their children to choose, most common reasons cited are the steady career growth, focused future, relative affluence and prestige. For them, here’s some shocking survey data that I would like to furnish. The national employability report (2012) compiled by Aspiring Minds, an employability solutions company revealed that only 17.45 per cent of technical graduates in the country are fit to be employed. What this also means is that the rest, that is, 82.55 per cent, engineering graduates are unemployable. The survey that was conducted among technical graduates who graduated in 2011 from various parts of the country revealed that among the five lakh engineers who graduated in 2010, only 17.45 per cent were employable. The bitter truth is that Class VII students are better than 50 per cent of India’s engineers when it comes to quantitative skills. The report further added that only 10 per cent of engineering graduates in Tamil Nadu recruited by IT firms are actually employable.
The conclusions are based on a survey conducted across 16 States. Another survey in 2013 by IIM Udaipur reveals that 75 per cent of engineering graduates in Rajasthan are unemployable. It is not just the technical knowledge, but in a lot of other areas, the students fail to impress the interviewers. The study was conducted in collaboration with the Working Group on Education and State Planning Board, Rajasthan. I am sure the survey would have yielded similar results in many other states in India. The MBA, as a career option is also not shining; only 10 per cent of graduates are being actually employable despite the robust demand for MBAs, says a survey by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM, 2013). Business Standard states that barring graduates from IIMs, B-schools are losing out on attracting India Inc.
The robotic and conventional education system does yield a large number of professionally qualified graduates from various courses, but most of them, beyond receiving instruction (and delivering accordingly), are unable to bring in directional benefits to the companies. Since the
subjects are largely skill-oriented, most of the graduates lack proper cognitive and spontaneous thinking capacity and hence lack in deliverance, unless being instructed. Innovation and out-of-the-box ideas are rare qualities.
In contrast to the stagnation of scope and employability of regular run-of-the-mill professional courses, the creative courses
(product design, graphic design, textile design, fashion design, etc) not only teach the idea generation process and out-of-the-box thinking, but also prepare students in presentation and communication skills. A report published in Economic Times (Feb 28, 2014) mentioned that IT companies offer up to 50 per cent higher salaries to design students than engineering graduates. The report states, Indian IT firms have been trying to scamper up the ‘value chain’ in the past few years, and the resultant increase in focus on verticals such as product design and emerging technologies like mobile and cloud are sending tech giants on a talent hunt to the country’s arts and design schools. With salary offers at a premium of well over 40-50 per cent given to engineering students, IT firms are making a beeline to recruit students from the like of the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) and Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Bangalore. Compared to entry-level salaries of tech graduates, which are around Rs. 2.5-3.5 lakh pa, design students are being picked up by companies such as Microsoft, SAP Labs, Cognizant, Mindtree, Infosys, Wipro and InMobi, as well as e-commerce players such as Amazon, Myntra and Flipkart, for anywhere between Rs. 4-18 lakh, depending on the institute. At NID-Ahmedabad’s December 2013 placements, Samsung R&D recruited students at a salary of Rs.18 lakh, while Cognizant was the top recruiter with 20 students. Remember, these placements are apart from the companies that regularly recruit creative professionals (brands, product design labs, R&D centres, retail giants, e-commerce giants, buying houses and graphic design labs) across campuses every year.
Opportunities in creative fields are increasing faster with new streams being added every year. Some of the recent streams are User Interface design, Mobile app design, Trend forecasting, Styling, Fashion journalism, Fashion photography, Game design and Event management. The ever-increasing interest in entrepreneurship among graduates from design schools are phenomenal due to the global market requirement and innovative ideation process among the graduates. Also, investors are looking for unique ideas and business plans to invest. Hence, alternative careers in creative fields have better prospects than the conventional ones. Keeping our unique socio-cultural mix, the future wealth of India depends on ideation, research, innovation and storytelling capacity. The youth population, which is portrayed as a boon, can be a bane if we keep producing mindless robots. We will be then the biggest resource to provide physical labour to the developed nations, and nothing else.

Ref:indianexpress

IIMB 2014 List out

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 12:05:00 +0000

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, has released the final 'Offer/ Wait List' for their flagship two-year Post Graduate Programme (PGP), 2014-16 batch.
The institute has also taken out a different list for overseas applicants. CAT 2013 topper Anirudhh Batra has made it to IIM Bangalore.
Two-year full-time PGP is the flagship programme of IIM Bangalore.

Click here to check the PGP 2014-16 Offer/Wait List
Click here to check the PGP 2014-16 (Overseas Applicants)

Tips for Acing MBA interview

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Tue, 08 Apr 2014 10:35:00 +0000

Here are the tips for Acing MBA interview

#1 Preparation is essential.
#2 Practice makes perfect.
#3 Tune in and listen
#4 Strike the right tone
#5 Expect the unexpected
#6 Keep to the point.
#7 Open windows of conversation
#8 Ask intelligent questions
#9 Plan your time
#10 Don’t forget the basics.

For more info please refer.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/mattsymonds/2013/01/08/10-tips-for-acing-the-mba-interview/

Enjoy the Journey

noreply@blogger.com (Mohammad Arshad) — Mon, 10 Mar 2014 18:11:00 +0000

Here are three things I’ve been doing to Enjoy the Journey:

1. Keep a journal. Three of four times a week I’ll sit down for just 15 minutes or so and record what’s been happening in my life; and, more importantly, I’ll note what I’ve learned from it. I put tickets to sporting events and plays in the journey, notes from friends, and currency from countries I visit. I’ll include photos to remember a holiday or a dinner with a friend. And every now and then I page through the journal as a reminder of where I’ve been and how I became who I am now.

2. Ruminate with trusted advisors. Despite being 2,000 miles apart, I call my business partners at least daily to discuss what we are working on, but we also make sure at least weekly to look back at the recent progress of our business and what we’ve learned, sometimes we even returning to the beginning. And when I have ideas for our business—and I have a lot!—they help me decide if they are viable and on target with our core goals. All of this helps me keep things in perspective. If they are true friends, your best and most trusted advisors will always be honest with you. They are on the journey with you and want you to be successful and happy.

3. Include your family. My wife Heidi is my north star, my rock of Gibraltar. Without her and my four kids there would be no reason to be on this journey. Too often we separate our home and work lives, but I’ve found we are happiest when we take our families along on our journeys. Taking time to reminisce and dream out loud with your loved ones can be the sweetest part of life.
I understand that “Enjoy the Journey” may sound pretty simple, and it probably is. But those three words had a profound impact on me. Again and again they remind me to keep things in perspective, to be fully present, and to make sure I am headed in the right direction for happiness. As I write in my journal, council with friends, and include my family, I know my odds of enjoying the journey and enjoying my life increase exponentially.
Now, I’d be interested in the best advice you’ve ever received, and especially how you keep yourself on the right path in life.