April is the cruelest month

‘April is the cruelest month’, said 20th C poet par excellence, TS Elliot in his acclaimed poem ‘ The Waste Land’. I am sure some of you in the corporate world would agree with Elliot. What with appraisals ending there without apt raises! This in at least some cases would be unjustified, you could not meet the targets since the team was weak, funds and resources were limited, the target was unrealistic, the list can be made endless, if we wish to.
Don’t you, at least some of you find the ‘un-raise’( can we coin a new word?) unjustified? Or that you got a raise in pay and perks, but the moving up the ladder seem elusive?
Why don’t you think, one of the ways is to upgrade your education?

A business course for instance- MBA, PGPX, PGPMAX, MDP – eMBA, they come in all shapes and sizes.
Consider April as the new year( any ways it is, in biz jargon).. plan to apply for an MBA or executive program from prestigious colleges- IIMs, ISB Hyderabad, US, UK, Singapore.. start preparing for the GMAT, take the GMAT 3-4 months from now..be in a program this year itself

Is this unrealistic target? Nay… then let’s GMAT…

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College Junior Resume,SOP, Statement of purpose,essays

College students aspiring for the innovative MBA routes such as the Harvard 2+2 and the ISB Young Leaders Program often ask, what should I write in my resume and how. There is a tendency to follow standard formats available in the web and use high octane diction that the writer herself doesn’t understand. Why do they do it?

For one, a false notion that the more abstract scholarly words you use, the more impressed will be the admission board.
Yet another, the B Schools often challenge the aspirants by wording the requirement as ‘ if one seat is left for program X, why should you be offered it?’. So the applicant tries hard to put the best ingredients together.

Here are some pointers
Tailor-make your resume to evoke a B school’s interest
The personal qualities and competencies pertinent to say, a tech job, may not be hot on a Bschool’s wish list. Present clearly those few competencies and achievements that define you, rather than use all words psychologists use to describe people! Be honest about yourself. For a professional selector it isn’t difficult to locate overstatements such as ‘ I can motivate and guide people, solve other’s problems, strategise’… hold on. Aren’t you supposed to be still in college? Write the language of a student, an eager learner.
Don’t mistake signs of leadership as proven leadership
The latter is more relevant to and expected from guys with 5+ yrs of work ex. Being a class leader, college cricket captain, cultural secretary ‘ can best be termed ‘signs of leadership’.
Present these in modest ways. Acknowledge wherever necessary. A reader shouldn’t get the impression that you have done and achieved everything independently. That is hard to believe.

Use as Strong points
Internship, voluntary work, training camps, special talents( arts, photography, writing, debating), awards, prizes etc. And yes, do not forget to include any setbacks, failures, risks..
Write in functional English
Use your active vocabulary to write your statement of purpose. The SOP should have a modest, yet vibrant feel with no repetition, no exaggerations. Make it impressive and above all present yourself.


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MBA options galore

MBA options galore.
There are loads of management specializations to choose from. Here I have listed 29 popular management specializations.
1. Human resource
2. Marketing
3. Finance
4. Information technology
5. International business
6. Production
7. Operation
8. Mass communication and journalism
9. Construction
10. Insurance and banking
11. Foreign trade
12. Leather goods and accessories design
13. Foot wear design and development
14. Travel and tourism
15. Retail
16. Agri business and rural
17. Pharma
18. Emergency care
19. Logistics and supply chain management
20. Banking
21. Public governance
22. Infrastructure & investment
23. Clinical
24. Hospitality and tourism
25. Hospital administration
26. Corporate investment
27. Financial planning
28. Securities analysis and trading
29. Media management
Not all the Bschools in India/aborad offer these courses. Choose wisely.


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Choose your B.school

MBA from where

In the league of extraordinary young men.

There are many tangible and intangible rewards that comes with being part of a top B school class batch. Almost all aspirants to these classrooms yearn both for the recognition that comes with the prestigious course as well as for the status attached to being able to network with an intellectually stimulating batch, which in turn will form potential business partners, future clients, contacts points across sectors, mentors( you see they come with specialized knowledge in chosen domains), friends for life; you can turn them for consultation during a crisis, you can observe their career paths and decisions and learn a lesson or two; they can be a frame of reference to your career growth… benefits are numerous

Recruiters often attach and attribute a certain set of competencies and personality traits to those who pass out of reputed business schools. effective communication, decision making and critical thinking skills, initiative, confidence and willingness to take risks.
Vertical and lateral mobility
No doubt it is easier for MBAs to move up the corporate ladder or to change sectors for they are powered by a set of transferable general competencies that constitute a genre of functions across business fields.
Choose a reputed college for your MBA; not to settles for less.

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a case for entry into the prestigious Harvard MBA program

Global recession has given out one signal. Unpragmatic, one-sided wealth creation will not work.The attention to sustainable development is back in the reckoning – both in the developed and in the developing economies.

Given this scenario, educational institutions have a transformational role to play, especially business schools. For a long time, business schools were
churning out business leaders for corporate roles( barring a few). This is all the more evident among top Indian B schools. American colleges, fairly
successfully, moulded young minds for a variety of social, developmental and political roles.

If fortune lies at the bottom of the pyramid( coined by the late CK prahlad), aspirants to top B schools, Harvard, Stanford, Kellog, aspirants to these
prestigious institutes should better build their profile around one of the developmental aspects of interest by participating in

• sustainable livelihood projects
• inclusive education
• improving access for the common man
• healthcare
• localized solutions to community problems
• participative and collaborative programs of govt and NGOs.

In all if you are applying to top colleges, gain advantage by initiating yourself, while in college itself, to such projects. You can do your bit, in a small way;for starter s that is .


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GMAT for MBA programs in INDIA

Do the GMAT for a slew of MBA programs in India

You may take the CAT route to apply for programs other than the PG programs in management, such as FPM ( equivalent to PhD), PGPX ( MBA for work ex candidates) or take the GMAT route. The CAT may be cheaper, but the scores are valid only for the season.

GMAT, on the other hand, can be taken any month according to your readiness and convenience and the scores are valid for up to 5 yrs. Hence even if you miss a season to apply for executive programs you can still use your score for the subsequent seasons.

In addition you have the provision of retaking the GMAT after a calendar month, if you wish to improve your scores and be eligible to apply for the current season before the deadlines.

With GMAT scores you can apply to ISB Hyderabad, IIMs ( PGPX), executive programs from IMT Ghaziabad, IMI Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, NMIMS Mumbai, GLIM Chennai and a host of other B. schools.

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Who does well in the GMAT

So the cat is out of the bag. Indians are second only to the Chinese in math. atleast that is what we understand from a release of the GMAC,administrators of GMAT,the admission test for graduate management courses.(The Far East and Middle East fair better in Math than the East).Is this time also for the tests such as GRE,SAT,LSAT? We need yet to find out.

But we believed, thus far, otherwise. Havent we? The report also says that 60% of GMAT aspirants in India are engineers.We aren’t surprised.
Bt now things should change with the opportunities foe non-engineers- Harvard 2+2,international masters of Hult,SDA,Bocconi,….
Freshers from other disciplines also stand a fair chance.



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Do the GMAT for a slew of MBA programs in India

Do the GMAT for a slew of MBA programs in India

You may take the CAT route to apply for programs other than the PG programs in management, such as FPM ( equivalent to PhD), PGPX ( MBA for work ex candidates) or take the GMAT route. The CAT may be cheaper, but the scores are valid only for the season.

GMAT, on the other hand, can be taken any month according to your readiness and convenience and the scores are valid for upto 5 yrs. Hence even if you miss a season to apply for executive programs you can still use your score for the next seasons.

In addition you have the provision of retaking the GMAT after a calendar month, if you need to improve your scores and be eligible to apply for the current season, before the deadlines.
With GMAT scores you can apply to ISB Hyderabad, IIMs ( PGPX), executive programs from IMT Ghaziabad, IMI Delhi, MDI Gurgaon, NMIMS Mumbai and more…



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MBA counselling

Vivek, a commerce graduate, is in the third year of his career as marketing executive with a reputed private bank. He fears that despite his reasonably good success at the job, he may not get the push to higher positions without a MBA ( most of his seniors were MBAs from reputed B schools).

Vivek is in no strange situation. His fears are shared by many professional in various sectors.

Vivek has not spent much time on reading up trends in continuous education; he was busy with serving customers and meeting targets.
On a Sunday afternoon Vivek walks in for a meeting with me. We spent an hour and a half weighing down the options in front of him.

Why not take a break?
He can take a break. And probably go back to the banking/financial services itself.

CAT or XAT and PGDM?
Vivek reveals that he had a tryst with CAT when he was in final year college and found the CAT math difficult to digest. But then I tell him it takes a lot of concerted efforts to crack the CAT and get into the IIMs or other top colleges. He should be willing to take on the completion; there is no short cut to success.

Why not? Prepare well while still working. manage your tie well. After all the rewards would be greater.

GMAT and a PGPX
As a back up plan I suggested Vivek that he take up the GMAT and try entry into a PGPX – 1 yr MBA for executives form the IIMs, MDI, IMT gaziabad etc. this again depends on the minimum work ex the institute is looking at.
PG certificate program in Management

I asked Vivek to work around the certificate program in management from the IIMs- he can continue working and doing a business course ( with 1 week orientation program on the Campus and the remaining course attended from your city through broadband based classes handled by IIMs from the respective classes.

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Get ready for a PGPX

The first few years of our career doesn’t leave you with much time for other pursuits. It is amidst this madness that you are thinking of taking a break for education. Here comes then the need for certain preparations before embarking on a business course.

Firstly, if you are going for a residential program, you must not take a headful of family issues to the campus. Do the necessary arrangements well in advance to ensure that your family can do without you for the one year duration ( some B schools allow family to accompany the candidate to campus during the course)

Secondly, catch up with academics. It may be a good 4 years that you left regular study. Now that you have chosen to pursue executive MBA from a top ranked college, you have to catch up on your quantitative and verbal skills. This is because entry to top PGPX programs requires GMAT/CAT scores. Besides excellent business English, critical thinking and quantitative aptitude are integral to B school rigor too.
Find a trainer who can prepare you both for the GMAT and CAT as well as for the business school rigor. Handholding by an experienced trainer can help ease the experience of getting back to learning

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GMAT workshop

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Business education

Want a business education or you need one?

The ‘ want’ for a Business education usually takes root during under-graduation – either because it is the natural next step for masters( if you are BBA/BBM student) or wanting to move out of technical and domain careers( if you are from other streams) due arguably to the prestige associated with MBA.

On the other hand a good number of working professionals feel the need for business education at some point of time( on an average between 3 to 10 years of their career life). Those with 3- 5 years of experience take the luxury of quitting the current job ( other than those sponsored )and go for a full time 2 yr MBA in India or abroad. This again depends on family and financial compulsions.

One yr MBA, the new format
For those who cannot afford a two yr break for a B school experience can go for what has now become the order of the day, the PGPX( post grad program for working executives)

The overriding ideology of the program is that the candidates have rich business exposure at a select domain of work, has ‘business thinking’ managerial skills in some rudimentary form and that polishing these skills through a structured business course will help perform his current or next level of work much more efficiently than he did before the program or than he can take more informed and technical decisions in his role as a decision maker.

The value that one can gain from a PGPX program can vary from person to person, from institute to institute, from format to format.

Many a time the prestige associated with a 2 yr program can put employers at a spot. There must be many recruiters out there, especially those of small and medium enterprises, who found that the managerial skills of many MBAs without prior experience are below expectations. On the contrary those of the one year MBAs are far superior.

It all depends upon how one leverages one’s experience and education, period.

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GMAT sentence correction- the analytical way.

Doubts are best clarified in class

Preparing for GMAT is no child’s play. And definitely not the verbal section of the GMAT. Iam sure many of you there agree with me.

The intricacies of sentence corrections are better understood when you are made to think with the sentence(for godsake its not just math that involves thinking)

Your problems with sentence correction will be over the day you start thinking with grammar. Cos there is no grammar separate form meaning and no meaning separate from accepted knowledge- philosophical or scientific.
When you with a verbal expert, you are made to think with the sentence.

Here’s an example
The set of propositions which was discussed by the panel have been published in the society journal.
A. which was discussed by the panel have been
B. which were discussed by the panel have
C. that was discussed by the panel was
D. which were discussed by the panel has
E. discussed by the panel has been
The set ( of propositions that were/are discussed by the panel) was/ has been published in the society.
Bracket out all word groups- the prepositional phrase- has been bracketed out. The set was/has been—both are right, since no specific time referenece.
The point here is that relative pronoun which/that refers to propositions and not ‘the set’. Hence are/were/ have been must refer to propositions and not ‘the set’
Hence we narrow down to E. drop the ‘ which are’/ that are…wordiness.

The sentence correction tip you gave me is good.
No need, the sentence correction tip that you gave me is good.

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How do we conquer the fear of GMAT math?

Let start with a show of hands

How many of us go blank when we see a math sum?
I can see that most of you are raising your hands, the others must be one of lucky 2%.

Now the big question.

Why some of us go blank and others seem to have the knack of solving math sums?

Well you can blame it on your mathematics teacher @ school or on your genes. But nevertheless while preparing for GMAT or in fact while doing an MBA, you will encounter lot of math.
I can hear lots of groans. :-)

Few years back I read this book ‘How to solve it’ by George Polya. I modified my teaching style from just teaching question answers, question answers, question answers, question answers……to question logic answers, question logic answers, question logic answers…..

I found that I could tutor a person to achieve 45+(raw score in GMAT) within few weeks as instead of few months. Wow!! The best part of it I could see that students are able to solve math problems independently without me intervening.

In the book, Polya gives a detailed step by step process on how to approach math problems in general

I will modify the process and present it to you in context with GMAT math
Keep these steps in mind when you approach a math problem in the future.

Step 1: Understanding the problem
Answer the following questions first

• Do you understand all the words used in stating the problem?
• What are you asked to find or show?
• Can you think of a picture or diagram that might help you understand the problem?
• Is there enough information to find the solution?
• What information, if any, is missing?

The answer to these questions will channelize your thinking towards the answer.

Step 2: Devise a plan
Answer these questions now

• What will be the best approach to address the problem?

Approaches can only be devised. If a tutor explains a sum to you, then you will be able to understand only that problem. But when you encounter a new problem, you will go blank again.
Ideally when you encounter a new problem, you will have to use the existing ideas plus any new ideas you can conjure up. These process are mostly done mentally and involve little computation/calculation.

To get an idea, do any/all of the following.

• Make a systematic list/table
• Write an equation
• Consider special cases
• Use direct reasoning- for example If A>B and B>C then A>C.
• Use indirect reasoning.-Think of an earlier sum where you encountered a similar problem
• Look for a pattern
• Draw a picture
• Solve a simpler problem- break the problem into small parts and solve each part.
• Use a model- Make a general assumption and solve by guessing.
• Work backwards. –work with answer options

Now that you have got an idea. Put pen on paper and solve to get an answer
Stage 3: Carry out the plan

• Solve the problem with great care and patience
• Discard the plan if it does not work and devise a new plan
• Record what you have done to avoid repetitive work – For future use.

While attempting Data sufficiency questions, it is imperative you check your results. So
Stage 4: Looking back or checking

• Have you addressed the problem?
• Is your answer reasonable?
• Can the method applied to other similar problems?
• Is It consistent.

Now go ahead and repeat this thought process on different math problem and the next time when you see a math problem you will not go blank.



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100 points more GMAT score improvement strategy -3

Part 3

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