Reasons to pursue MBA

Reasons to pursue MBA

Currently, MBA is one the most popular degree and is in high demand as well. MBA opens ups a lot of future opportunities for an individual.Many students start their MBA just after the completion of their graduation. MBA not only expands your scope for landing a better job but the individuals who want to start their own business and also have entrepreneurial instincts can be equally benefited from management studies. Many individuals pursue their MBA degree from abroad. Admission process in abroad can be complex but it will give you great exposure and also enhances your personality as well. Some of the major reasons why you should opt for MBA are given below

1.      You’ll  be a respectable member of your business community.

MBA degree just increases  your respect amongst the business group of your peer.  Also, business credibility will increase.

2.      New Experiences

Experience and good communication skills are the most important requirements needed to run a business successfully. Study abroad is going to help you a lot in this.

3.      Build your own business  from scratch

Many individuals want to start their own business but due to lack of confidence and risk factor, they are not able to do so. An MBA degree teaches you a lot about management and business and also builds every factor in you which you require to run a business successfully

4.      Earning potential increases

An MBA degree enhances your skills, ideas and plans on how you can target a bigger aim for your business.

5.      Improves professional skills

MBA helps you to build up new skills and also polishes the skills that can be extremely helpful in growing the business in future.

6.      Growth of perspective

New place, new culture and how things functions there helps you to understand the global market and global economics.

7.      Expands the professional network

Networking is the most important element in business and MBA can be a great opportunity for you to create your own social network.

So always look MBA education beyond first campus placement job. It is a long term investment in your own and surely would pay back in multiple ways. But remember, not every MBA from every college is same.

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Downfall of AAP- A classic business case study

 Downfall of AAP- A classic business case study  

Six years ago on November 26th 2012, India witnessed the inception of the AAP or the common man's Party. Adorning white caps bearing the words 'self-rule', this ragtag bunch of professionals, academics, and politicians took the capital by storm by forming a govt at the center and then going on to a decent debut in the Lok Sabha polls. The party had a meteoric rise but soon was engulfed in Internal politics which eventually lead to its downfall.

What went wrong and why?

1.  Early Success can be misleading

AAP was formed in November'2012 and within one year in Dec'2013, they fought their first elections and formed government. This early success increased the ambitions of party to go national without having adequate resources, organisational structure , funding and all other things

Lesson for business: There is something called beginners luck. Don't ride on that luck to become too large too soon. May be , you are now ready to repeat your success at large scale. 

2. Leaving the positioning of the party

 Simple living, zero corruption, against all current and national parties

One of the principle reasons behind the failure of the party was because of the contradictory nature of their ideology and actions. Before coming into power, Kejriwal kept pointing out how politics had become a ' dirty business'. He also built his party as a clear alternative to BJP and Congress, Kejriwal and his leaders framed their party ideology along the lines of tyaag, or politics of sacrifice; it would mean complete devotion to the party for nation-building and public service. 

This positioning is what caught the attention of public across social stratas, religion , caste. It was coming out to be true national alternative with appeal across all voting segments. But then series of incorrect decisions

1. In quest to be part of united opposition, standing with convicted parties like RJD, SP, BSP and even Congress

2. Taking all government luxuries like Car, Bungalows and Foreign trips

3. Selection of one Rajya Sabha member in particular that even led to lot of internal opposition. 

4. No Internal democracy

5. Holding to two positions ( party and Delhi CM) by Mr Arvind 

All these decisions have led the main positioning of the party to be diluted or rather gone. Not, it is just another political party.

Lesson for Business: Your customers knows you for some value, high quality, lowest prices, value for money, great service. Never lost that core value else your customers would be confused

3.  Questioning the unquestionable

Be it demonetization or Air strikes, AAP stand was always to question . In India , we don't question Army actions in particular

Lessons: Don't try to change people perception too fast

4.  Top leader dictatorial style

I don't have any personal experience or personal anecdote but when you lose all the founding team members in 5 years ( Yogender Yadav, Prashant Bhushan, Ashish Khetan, Ashutosh, Dr Kumar Vishwas) and many others, there is time to introspect

Lesson for Business: The top leadership and topmost leader has to be democratic for sustainability of business at large scale

5.   Blaming Union Government Everyday

On one side , AAP government claims day in and day out that they are not allowed to work on the other side , there full page advertisements everyday on achievements. This contrary stands are difficult to be understood by common man. If you have done so well, how come you blame center everyday on stopping you to work

Lesson for Business: Never have confusing communication

6. No Patience 

Patience is the key in anything in life. AAP was lucky to form a state government within first year if its formation. That prompted them to take huge national leap in 2014 elections. Not getting same results in 2014 general elections and then Punjab assembly elections, they lost patience and did all the above mistakes.

Lesson for Business: Patience is key in any business

Classic example of success is Imran Khan party in Pakistan. Starting in 1996, it took them 17 years to form first state government and 22 years to form national government in 2018.  During these 22 years, party was on brinks of closure for most years. Still keeping core values, positioning, team and communication intact, Imran Khan became PM in 22 years.

AAP and Arvind kejriwal could have done same if he was willing to wait till 2039 

Ideal time to start CAT preparation

Ideal time to start CAT preparation

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” ……….. Abraham Lincoln

There are two types of students

a) Who start the preparation long before the CAT, usually the first timers !!!

b) Who start the preparation six months before the CAT, usually the repeaters !!!

I have been training students for CAT for the last fifteen years and have enough examples of both types of students selected to the top b-schools over the years. I always find that one question appears time and again: Do I have sufficient time to crack CAT?

Can I do it in 6 - 7 months by studying 3 - 4 hours every day?
My answer to this question has always been “YES and NO both”.

It won’t be enough if you study as per your convenience. In short, random solving of few math’s questions, LRDI sets, RC passages and appearing for few free mocks here and there is not sufficient to crack CAT, even if you keep on doing it for couple of years.

6 – 7 months is enough, if you have a good plan to follow, and enough motivation to keep on following it for every single day for the next 6-7 months.

1) Chose the study time when you are at your best:-
most productive time in your study
is it late night?
Early morning?
Pre-lunch?
Post-lunch?
Identify those 2 - 3 hours that may matter the most for your career !!!

2) Get your basics right:- CAT has never been an exam to search for Math's genius. It doesn’t ask rocket science. The basics of CAT come from your high school syllabus of math’s and English. So, no excuses for getting the basics wrong !!!

3) Draft your daily targets:- 15 - 20 questions of QA , 2-3 sets of DI/LR and 2 passages of RC is the least you need to do every day. Anything more than this will be a bonus. On any single day, if this minimum target has not been achieved, you should not be able to sleep properly !!!

4) Resolve your doubts in no time:- one of the most important factors, which influence your overall preparations and motivation for the same !!!

5) Get in touch with your mentor:- extremely important at the time of your preparation, a good strategy can bring out the best from you !!!

6) Newspaper reading:- If you don’t find an hour to read and think about the newspaper editorials daily, you are doing severe damage to your intellectual discourse in the long run. MBA is a professional course and it needs you to be well aware of the issues of social, political and economic interest around the world. It is absolutely must when you prepare for CAT !!!

7) Set up a testing mechanism:- About 25 - 30 mock tests are enough, if you use them properly. Take one mock every week for at least 4 months without any break. Besides, it is equally important to analyse the mock within 3 - 4 days of taking it. Identify your mistakes, weak and strong areas, and formulate new strategies for the next mock. Every mock should be a stepping stone for the final CAT exam !!!

8) Avoid over-thinking:- Think less and act more, 3 - 4 hours a day is not a bad idea. It is the only thing that is in your control !!!

Remember, hours don't count. Your daily targets do !!!

He who makes most mistakes, wins

He who makes most mistakes, wins

by Debi Prasad

                                              

Failure, to most people, is a scary word. We have been conditioned to avoid failure at a very young age. There always is a "right" and a "wrong" way of doing things, and the reward only goes to those who do the "right" things.  In school, we are taught that there is no excuse for failure and the consequences of failure would be disastrous for your life. So, even as kids, we develop an aversion to it. We perceive the "experience of failing" as a negative aspect in our life.

Two world-renowned psychologists, Daniel Kahneman, and Amos Tversky, who won the Nobel Prize for their work, found that the effect of loss is twice as great as the gain from a win. The negative impact of a loss is greater than the positive impact of a win. In this subtle way, the idea that failure is not good for us becomes embedded in our minds and we try to avoid it.

The bitter truth, however, is that failure is inevitable. There is no map to success which isn't marked by a string of failures.

Some of the biggest tech giants of our century have a very different perception of failure: they are tolerant of it and embrace it. Both Jack Ma and Jeff Bezos believe that failure is a part of the process. Ma recounting his failures in an interview in the World Economic Forum reminisced how he couldn't get a job in KFC or not getting accepted into Harvard after applying many times.

What this teaches us is that failure isn't the end of the road. In many ways, it's a beginning. It's like making all the wrong turns in life only to find the right one. So, if there's one thing I'd like to say to others, it's that failure isn't as catastrophic as people believe it to be, giving up is.

It is simply a process of trial and error. Just like our physical body which calibrates itself to do a specific task with a gradual increase in performance over time, our mind also uses this method leaving us with clues to success.

Thomas Edison once said: " Show me a thoroughly satisfied man and I will show you a failure."

It may seem negative at first, the act of failing and as we have learned, humans have an acute aversion to failure. Yet, if you move past the fears, failure is the ultimate roadmap to success. There are some of us that are quick to recover from our failures while some of us are not so fortunate. However, one must always remember that it's not failure that hinders the path of success, giving up does.

If you resign yourself to your fate or shy away from your fears, you will always be the victim of your fear, like author Paul Coelho aptly said:

"There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure."

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MBA FROM TIER 2 MBA Institutes in India V/S MBA FROM FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES

MBA FROM TIER 2 MBA Institutes in India  V/S MBA FROM FOREIGN UNIVERSITIES

Every MBA aspirant has a dream of securing a seat at IIMs and other top B-Schools but in this rigorous selection process, many students fail and thus decide to do MBA from other private colleges. Though every private college presents a beautiful scenario of placements but the reality is not as pleasing as shown. Students from such colleges are finding very hard to get placed while very few companies come for placement. Even if top-notch companies visit such campus, the inability of students to crack the interviews is another major hurdle which occurs due to lack of facilities and professors. So, what to do in this situation? – Better to change your mind towards Foreign Universities!

Industry based curriculum is the main reason why foreign universities are in the hit-list of MBA aspirants. They teach what the industry/companies need! Preparing the students for global leadership and high-profile jobs is their mission and vision. Canada, UK, Australia, New-Zealand and Singapore are globally known for their world-class MBA programmes. If you search the top 50 colleges, most of them are from these countries and Indians find it very easy to adjust with the culture and tradition too, especially in Canada. Gone are those days when getting a VISA was a herculean task! Also, the amount of scholarship, paid-internships and study-with-work offers are huge in these countries which reduce the pressure of college fee.

The second major reason is that MBA colleges in above countries revise their syllabus and curriculum whenever the need arises whereas MBA colleges in India, the syllabus haven’t been revised over the past 10 years.

Entrance exams required for foreign MBA: The most common exam is GMAT that is used by  of the ivy league institutes of USA , Canada, UK , Singapore and other countries. Thankfully, even the ranked one university of Australia, New Zealand don't need GMAT or such exam. They look at profile of the candidate in terms of past academic record, extra curricular activities, Statement of Purpose, quality of work experience if any and of course basic level of English competency . 

Placements: Tier 2 institutes in India  struggle to provide campus placements so students need to search on their job. In developed nations like Australia, Canada, new Zealand, Ireland , USA , Singapore , the availability of jobs are much higher. 

On  apple to apple comparison basis and if we go purely by learning, the foreign universities with their methodology provides far better learning experience than Indian tier 2 institutes.

So my take is go for top 50-60 MBA institutes in India. Beyond them, it is wise to consider abroad options 

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CAT 2018 DETAILED ANALYSIS

“Bigger the dream, harder the challenges”

November 25, 2018-Sunday was the D-Day for MBA aspirants which opened the gate of IIMs for many students. CAT 2018 was a beauty! DILR and Quantitative Aptitude was a nightmare for majority as it was the toughest section which mentally depressed many students. With a lot of calculations, even reading comprehensions seemed to disturb the students as they were quite lengthy! Thus, CAT 2018 exam was a unique paper that will break all the myths in the minds of coaching centres and future aspirants who prepare for the exam with a predetermined notion about the questions, pattern and difficulty level. Let’s peep into the minds of the paper setter by analysing every section of the exam:

Quant was relentless

There no freebies and almost every question were multi-layered. Gone were the “If Ram and Shyam take cookies in the ratio 2 : 3, and Shyam and Krishna take cookies in the ratio 2 : 3, which of the following could be the total number of cookies?” of yore. The questions streamed down and were similar to

An alloy of copper and aluminum has 40% copper. An alloy of Copper and Zinc has Copper and Zinc in the ratio 2: 7. These two alloys are mixed in such a way that in the overall alloy, there is more aluminum than Zinc, and copper constitutes x% of this alloy. What is the range of values x can take?

Wherever possible, there was a minimum this or maximum that. And every now and then, as if the exam felt the need to rile you up more, it would throw the odd one from Logarithms or Functions. It was a classic paper.

VARC was a smidgeon tougher than last year, DILR perhaps a smidgeon easier

VARC was not tough per se, but compared to CAT 2017 the passages were a touch longer and a touch trickier. Since the choices were also dicey, one had to be very careful. Students would have racked up a lot of attempts here; the accuracy variable will be uber-critical.

DILR had 2 do-able sets and a few tricky ones. There were a lot of “MUST be FALSE”; “MUST be TRUE” type questions which are always a pain in the neck.

The pattern remained the same as that of the first slot. There were 34 questions with seven non-MCQ questions. There were no instructions provided for the number of questions in each passage. However, there remained five passages. One passage had four questions (the passage on ‘grover snails’) while the rest had five questions each. The topics of the remaining RC passages were also from familiar areas. They were easy to read. There were quite a few inference-based questions, but these were easy to attempt, thanks to the option choices. The options were not really very close. Only 4-5 questions from RC were tricky. However, a student should have followed the POE (process of elimination) to be able to achieve a decent accuracy rate as the options were not straight forward. The VA section had one major change. There were four subjective para jumble questions, and all of these had four sentences each. There were three odd sentence para-jumble questions. These questions were easier than expected. A student could have easily managed to get four questions correct out of the seven PJs (PJ and OSPJ).

These were TITA questions. The three para-summary questions were of moderate level of difficulty. The paragraphs continued to be short in the range of 450 to 500 words each. However, as compared to the first slot, the summary questions were slightly easier. Only one summary question appeared to be tough. So, VARC continued to be the ‘easiest’ of the lot.

VARC

·        The first section on VARC had 34 questions.

·        Non MCQs were 7 without negative marking

·        The passages were of around 500 words in CAT 2018 as compared to 800 words in 2017.

·        Total RC Based questions were 24

·        The topics on which RC passages were formed are: Genetics with four questions. Other passages on Second World War; Plastic Pollution; Elephant society; Consumer Behaviour were followed by 5 questions each

·        Passages had inference based questions also.

·        Two passages on 2nd World War; plastic pollution were easier.

DILR
Most of the candidates found the Data Interpretation and Logical Reasoning (DILR) questions more difficult and could not attempt beyond 10-12 questions out of 32.

Quantitative Ability
Quantitative Ability section despite having highest number of 12 Non-MCQs out of 34 questions was found on slightly higher difficulty side. Geometry part was however, found to be a bit more difficult in CAT 2018.

It is expected that CAT 2018 raw score between 155-165 could fetch a percentile of 98-99 in CAT 2018.

  

An overall attempt of 18-20 with 85 per cent accuracy would be very good.

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WHY POLITICS IS IMPORTANT FOR STUDENTS?

Shouting anti-nation slogans “Kashmir Ki Azadi Tak Jang rahegi” “Bharat tere tukde honge, inshah-allah, inshah-allah” triggered violence in the JNU campus and put a big question mark on the participation of students in Politics? We must not forget that student politics played a crucial role in the independence of our nation but its existence came into danger just after freedom. From then onwards, we see the old brains ruling our country with their obsolete and orthodox thinking. Young politicians can be counted on fingers today. Through this article, we will discuss why politics is important for students as well as nation. Though the Kerala High Court ordered that educational institutes have the right to prohibit political activities and it is surely not a violation of freedom of speech and expression.

How Students develop Political thinking in India:

I would like to share a story of boy who has just turned 18 and will vote for the first time:

Boy (Very excited): Dad, I will vote for BJP.

Dad: No, not at all. Our whole family votes for Congress every time. Also, BJP is a party of thieves. They don’t know how to run a government. They will lose this time.

Boy: But Dad, BJP has been winning all the elections! I will vote for BJP!

Dad: Then I am not going with you! You fool!

This is the scenario of an Indian family. Parents force their children to vote for a particular party thinking that he is not so intellectual and politics is not a cup of tea for them. So, rather students develop their own notion about the leaders and political parties, they are forced. The need of the hour is that students must be aware of political issues happening and must have a solid reason behind supporting a particular party. Due to this negligence, politicians easily target the youth and offer them money. If the youngsters vote by judging the development done by a government, I think then every vote will have a reason. Being politically aware is very important nowadays!

OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN:

Students of today are citizens of tomorrow. The priority and necessity of the time requires that they would be well educated and fully equipped to face the challenges of the competitive world. Active participation of students in politics may spoil their career and defeat the very purpose and aim of acquiring the highest possible education and knowledge before they join the battle of politics. “Politics is the game of government, is too big a game for a half developed mind of young men and women”, said an eminent thinker. Students generally proved a failure in the political game being played by the veteran politicians, because they don’t understand the check and balance tricks of the game. In many cases, they become exasperated and lose their patience and resort to violence and other crimes to prove their mettle. Student life is an excellent period for preparing themselves fully for the responsibility that they have to shoulder in future.

It does not mean that students should keep themselves totally aloof from the political situation of their surroundings. They must discuss and express their views freely without involving themselves in any controversy or activity as such involvement may cost their valuable time and energy.