Wednesday 31 July 2013

B School Applications Have a new Component - Video

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This year Kellogg School of Management & Yale School of Management plan to introduce a Video component as a part of their application process.

In India ISB includes a Video Resume as a part of its application process.

Business Week reports: that "questions will be of a personal nature" and "no preparation is needed."

Monday 29 July 2013

Job location and Country - Two additional factors

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There was a time when US B schools attracted a major chunk of students. Their reputation was enough to attract the best of talents.

Times are changing. Now students consider some more parameters before they zero in on a B School. Reputation of a school is no doubt an important aspect, but two more factors have increasingly started to influence the decision of students.

First is the country and its financial stability. Second is the job availability.

Germany and China have become new favourite destinations of international students.

Similarly schools that offer better placement services get better intake. Placement statistics have become a key component in deciding the ranking of a B School.

An article from Business week touches similar idea: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-07-29/mba-applicants-target-b-schools-in-the-strongest-economies

Sunday 28 July 2013

The Soldier Moves into the Corporate World via B Schools

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Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/2/14d22a12-f44f-11e2-a62e-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2aMrGGikp

For many soldiers who plan to move into a civilian life, a B school is the right entry channel.

Financial Times reports that: "Business schools are also designing programmes that help veterans translate military leadership skills to the corporate environment and earn credit for their prior training, which can cut costs and time at school."

Saturday 27 July 2013

More Doctors seeking MBA degrees....

Increasingly more Doctors are preparing for new or bigger management roles and seeking to improve their practices. These doctors see the executive MBA as a path toward improving the patient experience.
Business training for doctors has been growing steadily since the late 1990s when UC Irvine became one of the first medical schools to offer a joint MD/MBA program as well as a healthcare-specific executive MBA. 
Dr. Richard Baum, chief of interventional radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital, said he was eager to study "the science of business" and not get a healthcare-specific executive MBA He wanted to learn bread-and-butter stuff, like how to pay for a hospital with bonds and government subsidies. But he also wanted to learn new ways of thinking from outside healthcare.
When studying for the degree, he said, "You're not just sitting in a room full of doctors, but with manufacturers and shipbuilders."
That is true of an increasing number of physicians, said Jonathan Lehrich, director of MIT Sloan's executive program. "Many physicians working in medical centers," Lehrich said, "feel like prisoners of the hospital administration. They're tired of being told, 'Well, you're the physician. You just go off and practice and we'll make all the decisions.' "
Dr. Suma Thomas is a cardiologist who attended MIT while practicing at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington. When working with associations dedicated to improving patient care, she said she realized that "doctors don't have the tools to improve our healthcare system."
She took finance courses that taught her to read a balance sheet as well as classes in leadership and communications. In her new position as vice chairman of strategy and operations for the Heart and Vascular Institute at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Suma wants to use her new training "to help make the quality of healthcare best everywhere in the nation."
The doctors who have earned their executive MBA through MIT are putting their new skills to work in a variety of ways.
Dr. Koka, focused on "soft science" courses such as strategic management and innovation and entrepreneurship to gain insights that he used while leading the staff in a new clinic for complex cases at Mayo.
For Dr. Ivan Salgo, senior director of Global Cardiology at Philips Ultrasound in Andover, the draw was learning how to analyze "big data," the effort to extract meaning from massive sets of data.
Dr. Salgo, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist in the medical device industry for the past 10 years, saw a changed healthcare system. It's no longer enough to create a useful device, he said. Medical device companies, insurers, and patients now demand results. "So now it's not about getting paid for the antibiotic for your cold," he said, "but for curing your cold."

Thursday 25 July 2013

Executive MBA Rankings

Why doing MBA from Indian B Schools makes sense?

Source: http://bit.ly/1dY9Vdr

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Until recently, the two-year PGP course, the flagship program at all IIMs, has been the gold standard of MBA programs in India.  But calling them MBAs is actually a misnomer.  



One problem is that IIMs award diplomas rather than degrees.  But the real impediment is the fact that international accreditation organizations such as the Association of MBAs (AMBA) require a program’s students to have an average of at least five years work experience and a minimum of three years.

PGP courses do not meet this criterion.  They often admit students with no fulltime work experience and the average is around two years.

Officially, accreditation organizations consider PGPs to be an MBM – Masters in Business and Management.  Unofficially, the PGPs usually characterize themselves as “MBA-equivalent”.

From the founding of the first IIMs in Calcutta and Ahmedabad in 1961 followed by IIM Bangalore in 1973 (there are now a total of 13), this was the model that the brightest students in India aspired to.

 But this comfortable status quo was challenged with the creation of ISB, the Indian School of Business, in Hyderabad in 2001.  Its flagship program is of one year duration and it requires more work experience for admission – the minimum is normally two years and the class average is about five years.

It turned out that there was a strong demand for ISB’s approach and their class size has grown to more than 700 per year.   As you might expect, it wasn’t long before several of the IIMs followed suit and established their own one year programs – first the PGPX at IIMA in 2007 and soon after the EPGP at IIMB and similar programs at IIMs in Calcutta, Indore and Lucknow.

Internationally, most of the MBAs outside North America are one year programs.
Top-tier European schools like INSEAD in France, IMD in Switzerland and IE in Spain are well-established and highly-selective.

Average work experience varies from about five to seven years.   In the US, most MBA programs still use the two-year model but this has started to change – three of the top twenty American B-schools now also offer one year full-time programs alongside their existing two-year programs.

MBA in India and abroad

Each program has its own particularities, so direct comparisons between programs in India and those abroad are difficult but it is possible to make a few generalizations.

Students in Indian one-year programs, generally, have more work experience, up to 9.5 years in IIMB’s EPGP and 10+ years at IIMA’s PGPX.

Average GMAT scores for students in Indian one-year programs are competitive with that of programs abroad.

The percentage of students with engineering background is more than twice high in Indian programs (For example, 28% at INSEAD and 37% at Stanford versus 74% at ISB and 68% at PGPX).

While the fees for Indian one-year programs represent a hefty investment, up to Rs 24 Lakhs, the cost of foreign one-year programs is more than double and can be close to three times as much.

Most European and American MBA programs have a large percentage of international students, with 40+ nationalities often being represented in a class.  Indian programs, on the other hand, have a negligible representation of international students.

For example, ISB had only 13 out of a class of 700+, PGPX had just six with foreign passports, and most other programs had none.

Indian programs do attract a significant number of NRIs, especially in the one-year programs. These include people who intend to re-settle in India after graduating as well as those intending to continue working abroad but wanting to take advantage of the lower cost of Indian programs.

The IIMs are insistent that they are not placement agencies.  Their priority is providing an academic experience of the highest international standard.

While all Indian B-schools offer a range of placement support to students in their one year programs, they all make it clear that placement cannot be guaranteed.
 The fact remains, however, that for virtually all applicants to these programs, placement post-graduation is a top priority.

All the schools continue to provide placement support for the students after graduation.

The results vary from year to year depending on market conditions, the quality of the students themselves and also the fact that it has taken time for recruiters to become aware of how to position the more experienced graduates of one-year programs in their companies.

For instance, for the batch that graduated earlier in 2013, IIMB’s EPGP program seems to have had the most success.  71 students out of a class of 74 have been placed (96%), with most achieving significant career enhancement with a substantial jump in position, remuneration and level of responsibility.

Many moved into jobs in new functions and sectors, the average salary was Rs 26 Lakhs, and two graduates received compensation packages of one crore or more, one being placed in India and the other in the US.

The top Indian B-schools have top-flight programs and faculty, easily competitive with the best on offer in the rest of the world and at half the cost.
 But candidates need to be clear about what they hope to accomplish before clicking the send button on the application form.

If it is primarily a turbo-boost in their career progression then they may be disappointed.  If on the other hand they find themselves dissatisfied despite a good job with a high salary and seek to challenge themselves intellectually and open themselves to a potentially transformative experience, then pressing the send button can be the first step on a life-changing journey.

Monday 15 July 2013

Why should one take help in applications?

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This is strictly your call. While it is true that not all students take help, it is also a fact that far too many students have suffered because they didn't take help, when they should have.

Remember few things:

a. Everybody needs support.

b. Know YOURSELF. Are you good at writing essays? Are you confident of your applications? Introspect. Intelligent people realize early that they are not good at something and have to take professional help.

c. Do not think of short term monetary benefit. There is a maxim "Penny wise Pound Foolish". The stakes are too high for you. This is once in a life opportunity. You are investing two years (may be one year) of your prime earning life. You cannot afford to waste a year just because your application was not upto the mark.

d. A committed, hard working student should not be deprived of admission in a B school just because (s)he is not able to highlight his/her achievements.

Saturday 13 July 2013

Why MBA is a good option??


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MBA education is a great value addition and a life changing opportunity.

For a working professional it provides key inputs in areas of HR, Finance, Marketing and Strategy. It is a comprehensive course that provides insight of various industries and sectors.

Most of the top B schools follow Case Study approach, in which best practices or major turning points of top companies are discussed. Some of the cases also deal with a strategy that was not effective. Either way, the cases bring forth an important issue that is deliberated in the class. As the case progresses, students realize that the Professors are building up background for discussion of a key theoretical business concept. Since the concept evolves through the discussion of a live problem, it is appreciated by the class to a much greater extent.

Apart from the insights given by the Professors, the real value addition is obtained from the peer group. Usually the MBA class consists of experienced professionals; and every participants brings his/her own insights about a specific industry sector. this insight is extremely invaluable and often complements the course curriculum.

Countless individuals have used MBA as a stepping stone for switching careers. Professional with an MBA degree are hired at a senior position and are given a faster promotion than their counterparts without such a degree. Basically an MBA education from a B school provides a definite advantage; an advantage that both industry as well as employees recognize. An MBA course is equivalent to learning obtained after 6-7 years of professional experience.

Market recognizes the value addition obtained by an MBA course and the high remuneration commanded by MBAs bears testimony to this fact.

Introduction


B School Mentor (BSM) is an all IIM alumni venture that supports aspiring students to get admission into B school of their preference. We provide qualitative inputs in all the areas of Application Preparation viz. School Selection, Essay Editing, Resume Critique, and Interview preparation.

Our team is well versed with the rigors of an admission process to Ivey league School. We have gone through this entire process ourselves and have got admit in top B schools.

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