Road to MBA - DAY 3

Not much GMAT preparation for today. I am looking at the bigger picture ;), today brainstormed on "Why do I need an MBA". Collected a lot of points, hoping to prepare a CV soon and send it for analysis to few B Schools and ClearAdmit. This session also gave me the much needed motivation to stretch myself further!!!!
Now i have to do a MBA whatever it takes, and i will ensure i will clear the first hurdle the "GMAT" with flying colours.
starting with the Manhattan SC today, i have to hit 650 this weekend in the GMAT powerprep

Road to MBA - DAY 2

Not much progress today, still undecided as to how to deal with Verbal. Planning to start with Manhattan Verbal from tomorrow onwards. Have to compensate for today's loss of 1 hr tomorrow.
cant afford to be distracted by twitter.

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.”

Road to MBA - DAY 1

Here is the summary of Day1:

Took the Powerprep test and scored 610. Its a pathetic score to say the least. However i can now do a better analysis of my strengths and weakness.

Detailed Score :

Quant Score - 48
Verbal Score - 26 (???)
Total Score - 610

My takeaways from Day1

- Need to improve my verbal to a great extent.
- Improve my reading skills. ( For certain big passages i was not even able to read them completely, need to really work on my concentration skills)
- Dont assume things and solve ( for DA)
- Avoid silly mistakes in quant
- Brush up quant fundas

I know after practising on quant for some more time, i can improve upon my quant score, but i really have an uphill task for tackling verbal

The Road to an MBA

The road to an MBA begins with a GMAT. Now that i have scheduled my GMAT test, here is how i plan to go about it.

1. Gather info regarding the GMAT - DONE
2. Purchase the GMAT Bibles - OG Series - DONE
3. Brush up the fundas - DONE
4. Start with Quant from OG - IN PROGRESS
5. Start the SC from Manhattan SC guide - YET TO START
6. Start CR using powerscore - YET TO START

Apart from all these i am planning to take a weekly test and track my progress and ofcourse spend atleast half an hour reading The Economist and NY Times

What is the big deal about the Dabbawala of Mumbai?

The big deal is that The Economist decided to cover a topic like ‘Dabbawala’ in it’s business section on July 12, 2008 issue. These guys go to the IIMs and ISB to give guest lectures on their style of "Management". It is a big deal that BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) produced a documentary on Dabbawalas and Prince Charles visited them in 2003, during his visit to India. The New York Times reported the growth rate of Dabbawalas in 2007 and Harvard Business School has produced a case study on the ‘Dabbawalas’. It is certainly a very big deal.

The system of Dabbawalas (delivery of lunch boxes) originated in Bombay around 1890s. Who actually started the service is debatable, but it was formally organized by Mahadeo Havaji Bacche, a migrant from rural areas of Maharashtra. The lunch delivery service was attractive because the distance between the residential areas and the business district in Bombay, made it difficult for the workers to go back home for lunch. Initially, some 100 unemployed Ghattis (men from the hills of Maharashtra) were contracted to deliver home food to a small group of office going people. Bacche tried to unionize this force in 1930 but failed. ‘Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Trust’ was registered in 1956 as a charitable trust. By 1968, the trust was converted to a commercial entity called “Mumbai Tiffin Box Carriers Association”.

The Dabbawala phenomena has prevailed over the last 100 years and more. Today, some 200,00 meals are delivered in Mumbai (Bombay) everyday, by approximately 5,000 strong work-force at a service charge of eight dollars or Rupees 325 per month. The Dabbas (Tiffin Boxes) are picked-up form the residences at 9:00 am sharp and delivered at the offices between noon and 1:00 pm. Once the lunch is finished, the empty Dabbas are collected and returned to respective homes by 5:00 pm every single day, six days a week. Indians work 6 days a week. The Dabbawalas are paid Rs. 5,000 ($125) per month on equitable basis.

GM Bailout - Go or no go?

This really makes for an interesting case study. The largest US automaker GM has only enough money to last until Dec 2008. Banks don't want to lend money and the commercial paper market has dried up making it impossible for GM to raise money from the market.

Here are some of the facts:

1. GM employs 266,000 people. Together with its subcontractors employ close to 500,000.
2. For each car GM sells it loses about US$600 (vs Toyota which makes $700).
3. Because of unions, the hourly pay for GM workers is US$78 per hour. The US autoworker is paid in 2 days the monthly salary of a Thai worker on the Toyota assembly line in Thailand.
4. If GM goes bust, the estimated cost to govt in terms of lost taxes, unemployment benefit payouts etc is $200B. GM needs a bailout of $20B to remain a going concern.

The best thing to do according to George Bush is let it go bust - GM is has an uncompetitive business and it should be allowed to fail. Rescuing GM using tax payer's money will be a moral hazard - other uncompetitive businesses will want govt bailouts. It is not fair for the govt to use tax payers money to help some people (like overpaid autoworkers) and not others. The Democrats argue that it does not make sense to let GM fail because it will cost the economy 500,000 jobs and tax payers more money. Many analysts suggest the best and most practical way forward is to bailout GM and squeeze its unions and management for pay cuts and concessions...force a restructuring of the company to make it competitive again. Letting it go bust is just too horrendous to consider for the US economy which ia already falling off the cliff. However, if GM remains uncompetitive, it will need more infusions in the future. IMHO, whether to bailout a business depends on whether it will eventually become competitive.

Is I-Banking dead?

The depressing news on Lehman and Merrill Lynch has got me thinking (read: worrying) about I-banking's future. There's no sugarcoating the fact that last year, the five of the biggest banks on Wall Street were Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stears, Lehman Brothers, and Merrill Lynch. Now 3 out of those 5 are gone.

What exactly is in the cards for finance guys coming out of business school who want to go into I-banking? I can imagine tons of offers being rescinded in the upcoming weeks/months. I guess this will put a lot of pressure on the other major career choice for top B-school candidates: consulting. Now it will be that much tougher to get into consulting as well. Plus with a weak economy, I can imagine consulting hiring will be down as well. This really sucks!!!
This from a Chicago GSB student posting on GMATClub:
*****************************
Today during a part of our orientation, we had a Finance professor explaining some courses of the curriculum, he started saying:"As you may notice, we have 2 major sub-concentration, one is for those who want to go to Investment, Portfolio and Risk management - also called sometimes as Capital Markets. The second I might as well not spend your time talking about as there are no jobs available, people call this sub-concentration Corporate Finance, and those who studied it used to be called Investment-Bankers."

Then, he said out loud: "For those who want to change careers to IB it's going to be tough, and my advise is not to do so, but as everybody says here: You know You best."

I didn't know if I was supposed to laugh or cry. But it's true, it's going to be HARD, extremely HARD for those seeking banking.
*****************************
So when will the finance sector start to recover? When will banks start hiring again? 2011, 2015, 2020, never again...? We'll just have to wait and see, but waiting of course is the hardest part. The future of I-banking looks bleek.

I found a really clever presentation through BW forums for anyone looking for a simple explanation of the mortgage mess that got Wall Street into so much trouble:

http://docs.google.com/TeamPresent?docid=ddp4zq7n_0cdjsr4fn&skipauth=true&pli=1

It sure cleared up any confusion that I had regarding the current situation. Doesn't make things any better, but it may bring a smile.

Diversity and B Schools

B-schools have constantly been focusing on “diversity” to build their batch of students. In almost every B-school, one of the essays do require details on how a candidate can add to the diversity or probably what is the one thing which would be unique to the candidate’s profile. All they are asking for diversity.

Admission committees focus on building a class of interested people from varied backgrounds. Their purpose is only to build a group where learning is not only a classroom focussed learning but also to learn from the varied experiences the students might have had.

According to Chicago GSB:

“The conviction that diversity enhances learning is a fundamental tenet of the Chicago MBA. We are strongly committed to fostering an environment where different perspectives are encouraged and embraced.”

MBA is only about how you handle business situations and how to apply one’s business learning into practice. One reason because of which most of the schools focus on case-based learning.

As Harvard puts it:

“Diversity among the student body is a foundation for the HBS experience—both inside and outside of the classroom. Indeed, these differences are critical to the HBS learning model, which thrives on the many perspectives and life experiences our students bring to the classroom from around the world.”

Keeping this in mind, we can think of how to add value to a class in a field in which, in the best case, you are the best, or unique. Just think of something which can be unique. It can be:

• A hobby
• Family background
• Academic background
• Ethnicity
• Nationality
• Extra-curricular activities, viz, a state/national football player, community service

How can you build diversity?

I am not going to talk about creating stuff for your application. Though that is possible, but the admission committees have been reviewing application for years and it would be too difficult to fake. So the point lies in introspection.

Build on your hobby

Here comes a problem for candidates who think they have a common profile and they are no different than the others. That’s not true. Everyone’s different. You just need to identify that one thing in which you are, or you were good at. Build on that.

Maybe you used to paint when you were in school. Work on that. Take it to the next level. Participate in some exhibitions. Or publish your art on the net.

Pick up a new language

You can go for a foreign language course. And don’t just stop at the basics. Learn it to a level where you can converse in the language comfortably. Okay, this might take time; probably 6-7 months, at least. But just an idea.

Some general guidelines

1. Say something extra. For the uniqueness factors mentioned above, ethnicity, background, etc., do not mention them just for the sake of it. Discuss how that factor has helped you shape your personality, your career. What have you learnt from a particular life experience you might have. You can also discuss on the effect it has had on your decision to go for an MBA.
2. When discussing your hobbies, talk about at what level you used to participate. It could be sports, art, photography, writing, anything. Discuss what your contributions were, what motivates you. Discuss if you are going to continue it after your MBA program begins. If the school provides a platform for that, mention it as your advantage.
3. Soft skills cannot make you unique. For a B-school, leadership, communication skills, etc are required. So this is expected of all candidates. You might be good at it, but you are not unique. Emphasise on these points in another essay which talk about your qualities, but do not mention it as your uniqueness factor.
4. Join some clubs. It could be a non profit organisation or a theme club. As an example, you can join Mensa, if you feel you have above par IQ. You can join Toastmasters club, if you are good at public speaking.

Just be to the point and make sure to cite examples. You can always talk about your experiences in diverse situations, but be sure to be to the point and mention your contribution to the class.

4 Things IT guys should do to be a strong MBA Candidate

I'm not sure how many of us have gone through the LBS Blog Post where the current student Manish explains his experience of recruitment at LBS explaining in detail the recruiters' perspective of an Indian IT guy. Although we might be familiar with some of the tips he has provided but when put into words, these become hard rules. We are all aware of the fact that since there are too many of us (Indian IT males I mean), the things we do daily are somewhat achievements for us. For example, designing a web page for the team where individual status is tracked is quite an accomplishment. But think of a person who does not understand the "impact". For him, it was just another techie thing and the resume is tagged as "programmer profile".

We have be different from the herd and thus take each step carefully so as not to be tagged as "just another programmer". There is nothing wrong in being a programmer. The difficulty arises when we do not show the impact of our actions through our profiles.

Manish quite beautifully explains the steps that should be taken to avoid being termed as a geek. He says, "the moment the recruiters see 2 high tech companies on your CV, it is thrown into a pile with other geek CVs".

Although I did mention some points to differentiate in my article for diversity, here are his tips to help cross the line, in his own words:

1) A solid CV with almost no technical buzz words (I would say any thing more technical than hardware, software, database would be red flagged). Your future employers do not care that you used multithreading and ajax for developing something cool. They want to know how much money your company saved/made from your work. They want to know the business impact, not the technical impact. Secondly you will see all your peers have achievements in each bullet while you as a technologist do certain things everyday because that's what you do at your job. I had this problem but you need to make every bullet in your CV speak of an achievement.

2) A solid internship in your area of interest: This is the biggest hurdle but one you mustn't compromise on. If you do an internship in your area of interest, you can build a convincing story about your aspirations.

3) Serious Involvement in clubs: To show your commitment to the area you are gunning for.

4) Something extra: Language skills, passion for things outside school etc. When 300 of your peers are all overachievers, often recruitment decisions boil down to marginal things and this is where your "other" skills come very handy.

Why is ISB ranked at 20 in FT Global MBA

The recent news that ISB is ranked 20th worldwide in the FT Global MBA rankings has invited a lot of opinions, objections and praises. Although I personally feel that getting this ranking is definitely good for ISB as the first thing ISB needs to be acknowledged in the global arena is exposure, and rankings is a definite way to achieve it. I do have some points to talk in favour of and discussions on some of the doubts that people might have.

Understanding the criteria
Every ranking institution follow a different criteria to compile the rankings, a fact every individual must understand before deciding whether a B-school deserved the particular ranking or not. I am not concluding anything here, but merely going over the facts. By going through the FT methodology, we see that “Weighted salary (US$)” and “Salary percentage increase” contribute 40 per cent of the rank for each school. This data is collected for the last three years beginning with the batch of 2004.

ISB has beaten the league US-Schools
Well, it comes as a big surprise that ISB is ranked above league schools, he likes of Kellogg, Duke, Anderson, Darden. Again, if you consider the salary percentage increase, it is understandable since the salaries of the above schools are more or less constant over the years and since ISB is gaining more corporate exposure with each coming year, the salaries have been rising at a fast pace. To add to that, the dollar has fallen considerable last year and if you adjust the salaries to PPP, the increase would be a lot.

I am not undermining the potential that ISB has, but I am just stating my personal analysis to acknowledge the position ISB has achieved.

ISB still needs to catch up on student diversity in nationality. Then why?
I agree to the fact that as compared to all other schools, ISB scores the lowest in terms of diversity. International students form only 5% of the batch as per the data, which is too low. But come to think of it, how will international students get to know that a school called ISB exist if it is not in the rankings. You ask yourself, will you apply to a US school which is not even there in the rankings? I won't, even if I have heard a lot of good things through word of mouth. I would like to know where it stands as compared to other schools. So exposure is the first thing required by ISB to attract foreign students, and the first way to get exposure is the rankings.

Why not IIMs?
Again, I do not want to undermine the fact that on some parameters, the IIMs score much above ISB, like Alumni base to talk about. But here we are comparing apples and oranges. IIMs cater to a different set of candidates. It is a totally different debate and I plan to write a new article on this argument. Promise.

Consequences
There certainly will be increase in the number of applications in the coming years, as if the current competition was not enough. :) No seriously, the rankings will attract more students and definitely more from foreign shores. Apart from that, I think this ranking is a major global reputation booster for ISB and would impact its placements in a positive manner