Demystifying MBA

I have been asked many times by MBA aspirants about job profile of a Operations MBA and its job prospects. This blog is an attempt to clarify these questions for the larger community.

MBA in Finance

Career: With global trends impacting the financial sector, there is a demand for finance professionals
• With a new set of skills, resulting in careers such as Financial Analysts, Financial Planners, Financial Advisors and Financial Managers
• People who have an eye for detail & are research oriented can go for a finance MBA.

Skills Required: Finance calls for a unique set of skills.
• It is ideally suited for you if you are outgoing and inquisitive by nature.
• You will use your mathematical aptitude and ability to take your organization's or individual client’s goals, resources and options into consideration while making suggestions for their continued financial growth.
• This is one area where employment opportunities are influenced by your academic performance and previous professional environment success.
• Finance people-the bean counters, as they are called-are viewed as pessimists.
• If you are good at number crunching, have a flair for juggling numbers & think you can manage the party well, then finance is the job for you.

Salary Package: Starts from INR Rs 10.35 lakhs Per annum for a fresh MBA and according to foreign standards can earn around US$75,000 salary in the US $ depending, of course on skills & experience.

Famous Colleges: All the IIM’s. i.e. IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kolkatta, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, IIM Kozhikhode, FMS, ISB

MBA in Marketing

Career: Those who have excellent communication skills & have an outgoing personality should opt for marketing.

Sales Management - responsible for achieving of sales target of an area
• In sales & Mktg., there are 2-3 areas where an MBA is recruited for
Brand Management - responsible for successful management of brands through various strategies and achieve market share.

Skills Required: Ability to plan and execute marketing ideas
• Ability to develop ideas which lead to growth in sales
• Ability to mobilize resources to achieve the set objectives
• Communication skills - written & Oral
• Interpersonal skills
• High energy levels and enthusiasm to work
• Analytical skills
• Marketing people- the optimists.
• In short, if you are creative & have zeal to sell, then there’s no doubts you should be in marketing.

Salary: Starts from Rs. 4lakhs per annum approx and in foreign standards of US $67,000 approx

Famous Colleges: Beyond IIM’s, Mica is a very good college for Advertising and Marketing.

MBA in Human Resource Management

Career: One very important trend in the recent times has been the growth of human resource outsourcing.
• HR outsourcing is the outsourcing of peripheral but necessary administrative tasks such as payroll, benefits, education/training, recruiting personnel, administration, to realize economies of scale and achieve standardization of services .
• With an increased focus on people issues, HR guys have everything going for them.
• Ever increasing demand for experienced HR professionals.

Skill required: Ability to understand and deal with people of all levels
• Ability to cope with unstructured situations
• And the person should have the 4 Cs –Creativity ,Calmness, Conceptually sound ,Convincing ability .
• Need patience & perseverance.
• Someone who is passionate about resolving people issues will be the right candidate for pursuing a career in HR

Salary Package: Average Salary start from is 3.5 Lakhs per annum and as per the foreign standards it goes up to US $67,000 & above approx per annum.

Famous Colleges: Sadly, none of the IIM’s are famous for this specialization. So if you very keen on MBA in HR, look for XLRI and Symbiosis as your first choice.

MBA --Operations

Career: 'Operations' in the management world encompasses almost all the areas that reflect the efficiency of the organizations in the area of background work and execution.
• It includes inventory management, vendor development, purchasing management, and also a few other areas.
• It demand multi-disciplinary skills viz. supply chain management, enterprise resource planning and also all cost optimization initiatives.
• A typical career would see one handling a few plants/ vendors initially, followed by the responsibility for an entire factory and eventually undertake a more strategic view like global sourcing / alternate materials / imports etc. but, at each stage there is a lot of responsibility and risk.
• Demand for operation management in the areas like BPR (Business Process Re-engineering), ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), supply chain management, which integrates all functions offer a great scope for a cross functional specialist .

Skills required: Integrity, ability to negotiate, ability to remain calm in the toughest of situations (there is a fire almost everyday, somewhere) and lastly good coordination skills coupled with technical knowledge

Salary Package: Starts from 7.14lac approx onwards. In abroad maximum salary is between$25000 to $60000 per annum. Approximately.

Famous Colleges: NITTI, Mumbai leads the show for MBA in operations

MBA in IT

Career: With a sound understanding of business concepts is seen as ideal for the job of a project manager in software development activities, such as developing an on-line network with company distributors across the country.
• A fresh MBA(IT) starts at the level or a software development engineer (almost at par with an engineer or an MCA) and is actively involved in coding.
• Students interested in careers in management consultancy, software or database development, enterprise management systems, telecommunication and business analysis.
• They are prepared to help shape twenty-first century organizations in a rapidly changing, globally competitive, technologically sophisticated environment.
• Students usually acquire positions in the top management consulting firms or as strategic analysts in the transportation, telecommunications, and financial sector.

Skills required: Graduates are expected to possess the appropriate knowledge, experience and skills to adapt to change in this dynamic field through a lifelong learning process.

Famous Colleges: Pick any IIM

• IT graduates play essential roles on the business team, typically designing and implementing hardware and software solutions to business problems.
• The program is designed to develop a diverse and integrated group of experts armed with the necessary skills for buildiwwwng new entrepreneurial ventures.

Salary Package: Starts ranges from 10-lacs onwards approx per annum and by foreign standards around $63210 per annum

MBA in Retail

Career: Indian retailers underwent an experimentation phase wherein new formats (department stores like Shoppers' Stop and Pantaloon) and product categories (consumer durables retailing, music retailing etc) were introduced.
• World wide, the retail segment has performed exceptionally well since its inception in the 20th century.
• Retail is currently the biggest industry in the world and 25 of the top 50 “Fortune 500 companies” are in the retail.
• Introducing new marketing strategy as the country marched into the new millennium, the organized retailing scenario began to stabilize, specially over the last 3-4 years when players like Big Bazaar, Barista, Pizza Hut, etc became successful in establishing a national footprint.
• This was also the stage when international retailers like McDonald's, Subway etc adopted a mix of global and India-specific strategies in order to entice the local population.
• The students for starting a career can work as a Trainee Manager in Stock Control, Shop Floor, Sales, Merchandising, Administration, or Purchasing and Brand Management

Skills Required: Excellent Oral and Written Communication Skills
• Good Interpersonal & Negotiation Skills
• Profit Development against Target
• Should be involved in the Marketing survey

Salary Package: Ranges between 4.5lacs to 12 lacs

Famous Colleges: NMIM in Mumbai, Symbiosis Pune.

I hope this would be useful for students.