Family Business MBA Programs Are On the Rise

12:15 | Labels: , ,



Indian businessmen and entrepreneurs, be it, small and medium enterprises or large scale multi-crore business houses, have now understood the need to move out of their comfort zones and explore the world beyond their family business boundaries. This is a move emerged from the need to remain competitive by offering good products and services capable of marking a market territory wider than the one previous held by them.

Demand for family business MBAs         

The demands for family business MBAs have witnessed an increasing trend as India’s integration as world player has been more defined since the past few years. The presence of some India businesses making it big abroad has served as in inspiration for the rest in the same sector. The younger generation in whose hands the reigns of the old businesses lie realize the need of the hour, the need of newer management techniques and knowledge , which if applied to their current household business may work wonders for it. The thought process evolution has caused the newer generation to realize that this is the best option for the business to remain of flourishing grounds.

How Does It Benefit?

The benefits can be realized only after doing a family MBA program. First of all, it brings in professionalism. Family businesses tend to a little informal in nature and this is what the study course makes one realize, the need of being professional in nature. The concept of professionalism unfortunately differs based on the size of enterprises. Being in a classroom has its own advantages; you build contacts, in your sector or ancillary Industries. You learn business tricks and other people’s business secrets. This creates and opens up an entire new gamut of business opportunities as contact and affiliates increase with the correct kind of exposure and learning. Knowledge of business diversity and business cultures works on your mind unconsciously and beneficially opening you to newer thought processes and business ideas. Basically, exposure and knowledge add more value. MBAupdates thinks newer tools of management add more sustainability to the existing laurels of family business.

Best Institutes for Family MBAs

The advantage of the family business MBA model is that it offers both full time and part time MBA allowing flexibility to student who is managing education and his family business. The first institute to start such a family business MBA program was the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS). Keeping in view the rise in demand of these courses many colleges like SPJIMR in Mumbai, ISB in Mohali and Hyderabad offer such programs. FMB is about to launch a similar course sometime around 2013.

The courses offer a great melange of practical application and theory knowledge. They also allow students to model their own family business with a new paradigm. A family MBA is a must-do for all those desiring to take their age-old family businesses to a new level of managerial success.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson

Digital Marketing is on the Rise

11:31 | Labels: , ,


The significant element that revolutionized marketing is the digital medium. This medium encompasses social media, mobile display, mobile phones, tablets, and computers etc. as the prime vehicles of marketing. Marketing, the old method of going door-to-door if low cost and television commercials if higher costs; are replaced by straits never thought of earlier. Digital marketing is on an upsurge and is anticipated to rise even more. The rationalization being that digital marketing is a product of the technology and technology is here to stay; it is always going to see an increasing trend. Thus logically, digital marketing too will continue to the witness the rising trend in its utility as and popularity in tandem with the spurt in technology.

This is a fact that is discernible, but the question is why? What makes digital marketing a favourite? There are many reasons why it has gotten so popular. Let me name a few that the MBAupdates team landed up discussing the other day mba. Corporate, organization or product visibility was one of the top reasons as researched. Digital marketing if nothing surely gets the names of the products registered in the minds of the consumers. It increases awareness about the product offering space for strategic branding of the same. If it increases visibility, no doubt, it increases the sales of the products as well as the revenues. However, the most important factor was cost effectiveness. In times like these, when companies and organizations are contemplating cost cuts, digital marketing is a safe and cheap tool of marketing. Top bosses are leading a difficult life where they are loaded with double sales and revenue targets with limits and restrictions. This makes it a great marketing tool irrespective of the troughs and cliffs of the economic market. Another quantitative feature of measurability makes it an answerable tool, making it traceable for corporates. These digital gears are flexible in use and can be used anytime and anywhere. The company and product are easily accessible where the social media tools offer open ended platforms of debate, review, suggestion and criticism for the products. Thus, this leaves us with no doubt about the complete effectiveness of the digital media apparatuses. However, read on to find another country-specific view below mba.

Digital IQ Index Survey, in Australia accompanied by the Sydney-based digital learning company Digital Chameleon, showed that marketers are not equipped with sufficient skills to avail the marketing tools available for free in the market. Taking this research finding into consideration one must know that the Indian target audience is informal in nature, most of the population is rural who does not even have access to the tools of marketing like mobile phones, internet and computers. This lands up with a very essential question on whether digital marketing can enter the informal Indian market and will the efficacy of marketing tools continue to deliver the same results? Is digital marketing really on the rise, pan-India?

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson

How to spoil your MBA internship search?

13:08 | Labels: , ,

There is a very good chance that a first year MBA would be putting in efforts looking for an internship at this time. An internship not just enables a candidate to get valuable experience but also to build contacts, have a sense of understanding the business and many more. However, not many realize that there are certain pitfalls that need to be avoided.
Try Too Hard
MBA students usually have high aspirations and often tend to put themselves under pressure as far as achieving their goals is concerned. At times it makes more sense to wait for the right internship rather than blindly opting for a one that has a big brand name and/or promises good and valuable experience.
This does not mean that one should do nothing during the winter. During this time they can actually work on their networking with people and researching companies that they wish to work for. Following the herd is not a wise decision to make in terms of looking for internships.
 
Be a Bad Networker
Networking is not something that has to be forcefully done. Attending random networking events without even getting to know and understand people does not help at all. No amount of research, mock interviews can actually replace the networking abilities as it is the human that is going to hire you for a job. Thus, there is a need to be able to connect with them.
So how can you do that?
Staying inside the four walls is definitely not a solution. Get out and talk to people, ask questions and most importantly, let them know about yourself.
 
Know nothing about Yourself
As mentioned above, you need to understand yourself very well to let others know about you. Failing to know yourself, your interests, and strengths can put you behind in the internship search. After this you move towards doing the final preparation, networking with the right people and pursue your interests. 
Apply to every opportunity available
Today’s MBA students are used to pushing through applications and résumés from the comfort of their home computers. Sometimes, they are tempted to click on “send” for every job they see because it’s so simple, says Nguyen. Applying to everything usually results in getting no job at all. Instead, customize your résumé and network and look for openings that appeal to you and for which you are a strong candidate. “What they need to be doing,” Nguyen says of MBA job seekers, “is getting out and knocking on doors.”
Unnecessarily stress yourself
Many MBAs are not used to relaxing and tend to stress themselves out at the smallest of instances. This often leads to silly mistakes that can cost a candidate a good offer. One should not be reluctant to approach people from companies that you would like to associate with.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson

XAT 2013 - Last Minute Tips

11:24 | Labels: ,



With XAT 2013 round the corner, the preparations for the same are in full swing. However, it would be beneficial if the student is familiar with the pattern and has a rough idea about what to expect from the test for mba.
For Reading Comprehension in XAT, one should focus on reading the paragraphs carefully, understand the meaning of the words. The questions are mostly analytical and thus practice for the same is essential. It would be advisable to skip the questions, if there is a slightest amount of uncertainty.
The essay writing section is important and cannot be taken lightly. The topics are mainly from current affairs- domestic or international. Thus being aware about the current happenings becomes imperative. As it is an essay, the basic idea has to be the focus and the construction of the sentences with a smooth flow that ultimately would create a good impact on the reader.
Apart from this, the general knowledge section will comprise of twenty to thirty questions , the questions will be from different genre’s such as business, economics and politics related to the business environment like mba.
In order to score splendidly in the examination, it is advisable for the candidates to focus on the areas such as present heads of major global/Indian companies, information on brands and companies, taglines of major global/Indian companies etc.
For the GK section, it is always safe to cover a wide array of topics from business, economics and politics. It would be advisable to be well-versed with the present heads of companies- local and global and information about them.
Lastly, solving XAT sample papers would do a lot of good just to get into exam mode before the actual test.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson

3 Tips to Crack ‘Decision Making’ Questions In XAT

15:50 | Labels: , , ,


The decision-making questions in the Xavier’s Aptitude Test (XAT) are considered to be the toughest ones to solve. Choosing the questions that comes closest to your sensibilities is just the beginning; the tougher aspect is to choose the right answer from the multiple choices offered. It takes an overall ability to solve these questions, a good knowledge base and at times some professional experience.

MBAupdates would like to give you few tips deciphered on the basis of the analysis and research of the sample XAT papers of the previous years.

The XAT 2012 paper showed nearly 25 questions in this section, lesser than the year 2011. MBAupdatesexpects 25 or more this year of XAT 2013 for mba, based on past years XAT papers. The expected cut of is anticipated to be 7-7.5 if the number of questions this year are increased for this section. Read on to how to prepare yourself with these amazing tips that will help you fight the dear of decision making questions in XAT 2013 for mba.

Familiarity with Similar Problems

The familiarities with problems like the ones that are going to be asked in the exam are very essential. This familiarity can be increased by nothing but intensely reading the questions and answers or solutions. Dig out all the possible decision making questions and solutions from old sample XAT papers and past year XAT papers. Even more important than merely reading the problems, the adequate deconstruction of the same with questions like why and results of a particular chosen answer by you will be the best way to figure out the correct answer. You need to get into the habit of structuring and deconstructing the decision making question from solve the available answers.

Reading blogs and articles related to solving

There are various detailed articles and blogs related to problem solving. Read decision making materials from business websites and other management school theory material available for free. The knowledge given there is exactly what will answer your question. This should be done because the material available in detail will open up keys to problem solving at a higher levels than desired by you to solve the question in the XAT papers. You will be prepared and familiarity with solving the toughest of the decision making questions posed in the XAT. After this exercise you should re-solve and the sample XAT papers and past year XAT papers.

Asking essential questions to the question itself

There are a set of questions that should significantly answer the questions on business strategy, ethics, morals, customer’s needs, the benefits, the cons, the timeframe to achieve results, the value added by the chosen answer, and the complexity and the consequences of the answer  chosen. Make sure to keep the legal, regulatory, social, economic and political set up of the chosen country concerned.

These 3 essential tips by MBAupdates will surely up your chances of getting more correct answers in the decision making questions with the help if the sample XAT papers and past year XAT papers.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson

Higher (Management) Education- A catalyst to BRIC’s growth

11:19 | Labels: , ,


BRICs is a term coined by Jim O’Neill coined in 2001 that stands for developing countries like Brazil, Russia, China and India expected to be superpowers in the near future. This assortment of countries is expected to account for nearly 20% of the World Gross Domestic Product by the end of 2012. Taking a close look at the economic and political bent of the countries that make up the BRIC nations it can be observed that all of them are developing stage and being the developing countries they are each of them is striving hard to make their populace more productive by endeavouring to give them the best education like MBA. After due analysis of each country it can be affirmed that the Higher Education is instrumental in the collective growth of BRICs and each individual as well.

So, why does BRICs growth relies on its Higher Education?
Most of the developing countries are at a stage where their population is increasing but the respective governments are not spending enough on the higher education. Thus a need has arised for universities to put in efforts in setting up a system for higher education. This will not only lead to more research institutions and development organisations spurting the country’s growth but will also lead to innovation, research and development. This is the model of the development and growth adopted ages back by North America and Europe that has lost lustre there as these developed countries have already reached the echelons of development.

Brazil for instance is laying a great emphasis on its higher education environment. A major chunk of its universities for enrolments are public. These are the same universities MBA that are today the research powerhouses fuelling hopes, businesses and growth of the entire Latin America. Brazil is carving a niche for its self in the education space, especially higher education by employing sets of world class faculty coupled with superbly attractive salaries although private participation is still the need of the hour. Russia is amongst the lowest performing when it comes to higher management education. In contrast to this they are performing well with respect to medical education. Russia’s constraints are of a different order as its eco-political atmosphere is vastly different from that of Brazil, India and China. This is because Russia so far has failed to create an academic culture, freedom, faculty and salaries which are not really working in its favour. China and India on the other hand are making the correct choices and indulging in privatising higher education which although is asking higher management education more expensive but is still making a difference to the bright minds stepping out form the universities.

Thus, looking at the constraints faced by each BRIC country, building a tough foundation for higher management education could well be the answer to many development woes in each of them but the constraints hindering the capacity are not small in nature and hence a routed path specifically concentrating on making education as the medicine to growth worries could help the macro BRIC growth cause.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson
17:01 | Labels: , ,


The financial fall of 2008 has changed the entire job scene. Firstly, there is a dearth of jobs in the market and the jobs that are available are paying peanuts. This is especially the case with jobs in the financial service sector and investment banking jobs. The world output has declined, countries suffer from heavy fiscal debts, liquidity is running on margins, banks and other financial services are cutting jobs, the base salaries are remaining constant. Costs of MBA graduates are not being covered even in a span of three to five years. There are many valid and real life reasons as to why an MBA graduate would decide to reject a job in the field of financial services and investment banking. Read on to find out more about the increasing sector-specific jobs.

Payments

The payments are made to banking sector and the Investment banking sector has been slashed to a great extent. Payments at entry levels are small and growth is extremely slow; heavily dependent upon your revenue achieving ability as well as your overall performances. Keenly analyzing the CTCs one would notice that the basic salaries on which bonuses and salary hikes are given are base notes while the other uncertain variables in the salary slips are hiked. This is especially the case with banking sector jobs as incentives make a heavy part of the salary. Increments after a year of work have been reported to be averaging out at low levels of 5%-8%, sometimes even lesser than the inflation rate in the country.

Stress

As banking and investment banking sectors are prone to a variety of job cuts, employees working with them suffer from immense pressure especially in the sales departments at any level and position. The markets don’t favour sales, of any product especially loan, insurance and new business investment proposals when the overall market is weak. Employees undergo tremendous stressful situation jeopardizing the longevity of their jobs. Working hours are prolonged in the face of sales and revenue crunches and the failure of the employee to meet his set of targets set for the month or quarter.

Responsibilities

A market survey by MBAupdates of fresher’s and even professionals with 4-5 years of respective experience shows that they have been bestowed with more responsibilities  in their work profile that is allotted as per their designation and position. This makes the small salary come to employee at a bigger cost. This trend has been witnessed in almost each nationalized banks in India. In fact the scene is better in government and state banks but the salaries offered here are not at par with private sector banks.
Thus, assessing the above analyzed factor one can say that a job in the financial sector or the banking sector in India is a clear case of lop sided cost-benefit ratio for an MBA graduate who probably still has to cover the cost of his education loan or maybe pay his parents back.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments(0)
Posted by samjohnson
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)