MBA India

MBA is one of the most popular career choices made by students today. Getting an admission into a reputed B-school for pursuing your MBA is not at all easy. It requires immense amount of dedication and hard work to clear the entrance tests as well and the group discussions and the interviews.

There is indeed cut throat competition for students to get into the premium B-schools of India. Numerous all India entrance examinations are held for institutes to select the best of the students across the nation. Entrance examinations are one of the major factors that determine the score of the student based on which he or she is selected for the next round of evaluation that is group discussions and personal interviews.

To get admissions into MBA, one requires some kind of competency to be able to perform on these entrance tests and interviews; there are many coaching classes that offer specialized coaching for MBA. These institutes not just train you in subjects like Math, English and Data interpretation which are important for the entrance test, but they also train you for the group discussions and the interviews that require one to be able to effectively communicate and contribute in the conversation.

There are lakhs and lakhs of students that appear for CAT every year. However, only two to three percent students get admission into the six IIMs in the country. Due to this fierce competition, many B-schools are coming up in India that strive to provide quality management education to students. MBA careers may be rewarding but to get admissions in a reputed B-school demands as much smart work and dedication.

Liberal education is a type of education that allows students to select courses that he or she wishes to learn. Such education helps the students to learn what they are interested in. The introduction of liberal education in MBA is relevant in today’s business scenario because people can then specialize and select subjects that are relevant for them in their careers. FLAME is one such institute in India that offers liberal education. The institute is located in Pune. Through electives a student can choose the subjects he or she wants to study in.

Liberal education has been very effective and popular in abroad. Liberal education not just aims at creating doctors and engineers but poets, noble laureates and creative artists. It encourages inculcation of sports, performing arts and visual arts along with academic studies. Most of the famous people abroad have been educated through this. It encourages freedom of creative expression and respects individual talents and skill sets.

The advent of liberal education and MBA will help Indian students to specialize in subjects they want to. For example a student may want to specialize in MBA in oil and petroleum; another may want to specialize in MBA in fashion marketing etc. Niche niche specializations are also available through liberal education.

FLAME is the first institute in India to offer liberal education. The institute also has an under graduate course where liberal education plays a more important role. There are many students who want to study math at the same time learn guitar! Liberal education allows you to learn both! It considers learning guitar as much important as studying math! India is soon to witness more and more institutes that employ liberal education under their systems.

All the B-schools give you requisite knowledge about business and its related administration. As an entry level MBA student, one learns so much about business strategies, various types of industries, their functioning techniques and operations that one can actually feel the difference within oneself!

An MBA involves many hands on project experiences, assignments, internships etc. Due to this a student is fully equipped with all the necessary skills that a manager should possess. These skills helps one to become an expert in one own field and can help him or her to become a leader.

The Indian Institute of Management is known for their case study methodology to impart analytical, decisional and logical abilities in the minds of the young managers. Not just that, most B-schools also arrange for industrial visits that help the students to know about how a manufacturing unit works and what are the inputs that go in it.
Most B-schools have internship which is an eight week experience in an organization where an individual is assigned a live industry project. This is a great learning opportunity for most MBA students.

MBA believes that bookish knowledge is not enough for a student to become a world class manager but current affairs and knowledge about the latest in the industry also plays an important role. Hence most B-schools organize business quizzes and GK centric study approach. Research itself shows that MBA students are able to deliver and perform than students without the MBA degree. This is purely because of these innovative and effective learning methodologies that are employed in these B-schools. Also, the significance of MBA in today’s world has grown simply because of the intense competition that each company faces. With increasing salary packages, the expectations from an employee have also increased across all industries.

MBA is now a vocabulary for a common man as well. With the advent of technology and communication there are many types of MBA programs that are available in India: Residential MBAs, Executive MBAs, Distance learning MBAs, online MBAs etc. Executive MBAs are for those who already have more than three years of work experience. This type of MBA helps management executives to take a year’s break and pursue their education. Since these students already have so much of industry experience and possession of requisite skill sets, they do not need intensive two year training. Hence most of the executive MBAs in India are for one year.

Indian Business School (ISB) Hyderabad, Indian Institute of Management (IIMs), S.P.Jain Dubai, Welingkar (Mumbai) and many more are institutes that offer executive MBA in India. There are also a lot of foreign universities that offer executive MBAs. One can pursue them through distance learning as well. However, the entrance examinations for this MBA are tougher than entrance exams for two year conventional MBA. There are many companies that sponsor executive MBA programs for their employees. This is because they feel it is necessary for the employee to the trained in management skills and that the employee can thus become an asset for the organization.

Since there are so many institutes that offer executive MBA, selection becomes difficult. However, what needs to be kept in mind is that the institute should be credible enough. Most of the reputed institutes offering an MBA also offer placement assistance along with other services.

MBA careers are highly rewarding. There is indeed cut throat competition for students to get into the premium B-schools of India. Numerous all India entrance examinations are held for institutes to select the best of the students across the nation.

Entrance examinations are one of the major factors that determine the score of the student based on which he or she is selected for the next round of evaluation that is group discussions and personal interviews.

The Indian Institute of Management conducts an all India entrance exam called Common Admission Test (CAT) that is conducted in different centers across India. CAT scores are also used by many other institutes in India. CAT usually consists of multiple choice questions in areas of Math, English and Data interpretation. Other entrance tests include XAT which is conducted by XLRI, Jamshedpur. Maharashtra also conducts an entrance exam called CET which is used by most colleges in Maharashtra.

There are many colleges that wish to conduct their own private entrance exam that is exclusive of that particular institute only. For example institutes like Narsee Monjee; Mumbai conducts its own entrance exam called NMAT. Symbiosis, Pune selects students on the basis of their exam called SNAP. Another institute in Pune called FLAME( Foundation for Liberal and Management Education) offering MBA with ‘liberal education’ conducts a case study type of entrance exam called FEAT. Most of these entrance tests range from two to three hours. Questions with multiple choices are given from which a student is expected to select one and enter the answer in the answer sheet. Absolute concentration and presence of mind with decisional abilities is what is needed for these exams. It is these 2 to 3 hours that decides the fate of your career!

Selection of students for MBA is indeed a rigorous task. After the entrance examinations are over and the scores are distributed, students with the highest scores get a call for the GD (Group Discussion) and PI (Personal Interview) which is the second round for the evaluation. Students from these are finally selected for the course.
Some of the tips for cracking the GDs and the PIs are as follows:
Tips for PIs:

• Provide examples to elaborate on the information on the resume and application.
• Be open and honest about everything that you say to the interviewer.
• Follow proper business decorum.
• The body language is as much visible to the interviewer as ones spoken language. Keep a watch on your hand movements, body posture, eye contact etc.
• Be confident about yourself. Do not be nervous.
• Be courteous and polite
• Given a chance, talk about your passion and hobbies.

Tips for GDs:

• Express your opinion in a brief and a concise manner
• Do not keep blabbering. Give others a chance to speak.
• If summarizing, it should not dwell on one side of the GD
• State relevant facts and figures wherever necessary.
• Use quotes
• Site examples to illustrate your point
• Listening is as important as speaking
• Maintain eye contact and body language.

It is a common belief that students who initiate the GD always tend to get more points than others. However starting a GD is a risk taking proposition. If the student knows well enough about the topic and can correctly take the group into the flow of discussion with stating the facts and figures accurately and not mumbling or rattling, then the strategic move of starting a GD pays off but if a student is not confident about the topic then it is better to keep mum and contribute later in the GD.

Now-a-days, B- school festivals have become a trend. From dance competitions to business quizzes to fashion shows and case study analysis, these festivals offer the best of opportunities for students to bring out the best of talents in students.
Some of the popular B-school festivals are:

• Chaos organized by IIM – A
• Unmaad which is the cultural B school festival for IIM-B
• Neev which is the flagship B-school festival of SCMHRD
• Poseidon is the annual B-school festival of ISB Hyderabad
• Atharva is organized by T. A. Pai management institute
• Paragana is the B school festival of NMIMS

There are a lot of corporate sponsorships for B-school festivals. In fact they are set to double and almost touch the Rs 1 crores in 2008. Since students from all across the country come to participate in these festivals, corporates do not leave a stone unturned to identify best of potentials and thus sponsor these events. Infact festivals like Kshitij (the annual festival of IIT-KGP) which is held in January every year is already on track to receive sponsorships worth Rs 85 lakh. Some of the sponsors for Kshitij were SBI, Airtel, ONGC, Cisco and others. Similarly, IIM-C’s annual festival, Intaglio, also receives sponsorships worth 60 lakhs. Its key sponsors were Airtel, the Tata Group, Reliance Communications, SBI, JP Morgan, Bloomberg, Coca Cola, ICICI and Cognizant.

IIM-C’s annual cultural festival, Carpe Diem, which is held in January every year, is known for hosting amateur rock band contests. The festival gets a sponsorship of around thirty lakhs. The sponsors for Carpe Diem 2007 were Levis, Vodafone, Esprit, Hero Honda, etc.
These B-school festivals witness participation from some more than forty management institutes and some ten international B-schools. Because of this they provide a platform to the corporates to build their brands.