Monthly Archives: April 2015

How to win the commitment of your staff towards excellent customer service?

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Management SkillsGaining the position of a customer service manager in a well settled company is not an easy task at all. It involves years of your sincere devotion and commitment towards your job as well as your company. Consider the scenario when you are promoted to a new position of customer service manager and you find your staff showing poor customer service and the staff being demotivated and more interested in the pay packet than providing an excellent customer service. Adding fuel to fire you find an opposing pay structure which inhibits you from availing performance based incentives and awards! A number of trainings and sessions would have been taken for the demotivated employees with job of every customer service employee defined but nothing showed any positive result in the past. What to do for now?

This is really a challenging position for you but with some really positive approaches you can turn the face of the coin and bring excellence in the customer service from your staff. Check out these positive steps and approaches you need to follow in order to win the commitment of your staff towards excellent customer service.

Create a culture and a core value in your staff:

If the culture inside your staff is right than things like excellent customer service or creating an engaging brand, all these will happen on its own. Create a culture in which every employee works to be better than expected. The customer experience has to be better every day by guiding your team to be the best at what they do.

Customer service should be a part of everyone’s job in your staff and there is no other way to connect with the customer more effectively and efficiently. The philosophy of being better than expected provides the best possible customer experience.

Motivate not only through money but with other factors too:

  • Improving customer service can be done by developing motivation among the employees. Motivation is achieved not only through monetary policies but also include a variety of non monetary factors like-
  • Giving recognition from the senior or respected people from the company
  • Giving a sense that you made a difference
  • Developing a feeling that the job is of worth and instilling a sense of achievement in employees
  • Developing a new approach and a full understanding of everything

The motivating factors are not limited to those mentioned above and the different types of employees need different types of motivational factors. There are simply two ways to develop motivation among the employees-

  • Developing an approach which is standard
  • Adopting the approach developed by the staff people

The first approach has problems sometimes that there is an assumption that employees need a particular type of motivation factor only. If your approach meets their motivational needs then all is fine. But if you follow a standard approach and your employees need other, then it is really hard to win their commitment towards the customer service excellence. You may achieve a quality but it may be at the expense of your staff’s commitment which is not good at all and the level of customer satisfaction will be poor.

mba graduates.

The second type of motivational approach developed by the staff people is really helpful and it enables staff to build the commitment of their own towards customer excellence. The staff can adopt all the things which they need to motivate them and development of those standards will truly help them in getting more committed towards customer service excellence.

Explaining the importance of customer care throughout the organization and spreading the word!

As a customer service manager you need to support the importance of customer care in words as well as your deeds. Take the use of all the opportunities you get to share this message through electronic communications, print and through meetings, special events and other media. Take the opportunities of publishing the success stories of staff and employees who went “beyond and above” to achieve customer service excellence. This approach is very important and will spread the awareness as well as sense of achievement in your staff for customer service.

There have been a number of successful strategies taken up by customer service oriented companies. One big financial company had words “Think like the customer” printed all over the doorways to spread the words for customer empathy. Some companies have messages inlaid in the floor “Customer focus: exceeding the expectations of every customer”.  While there are some companies which have customer service messages on the back of ID badges of every employee!

Reinforcing Customer Importance through special events:

Customer appreciation type events are also very helpful for winning the commitment of your staff towards customer excellence. These activities are not just limited to profits. The U.S census bureau organizes customer service week every October and many creative ways to honor the special events are explored.  Field offices take part and create customer focused displays which is judged by peers. The customer service week happenings are published in books and distributed to all the staff including customer service success stories submitted by staff and customers.

Take a workshop-based approach:

Staff commitment towards better customer service can be increased by following a workshop-based approach. Take your team offsite for some days and conduct a workshop taking them through a syndicate-based process in which they can do the following things:

  • Analyze their good or bad experiences of customer service
  • Understand and define what a good customer service is
  • Applying all the analysis and definitions to the own organization environment
  • Asking a customer to present a presentation on “What type of service I expect from you” and followed by Q & A
  • Get the staff members to produce an action plan which can be followed up on the workshop
  • In order to make sure that all output from the workshops is conveyed to management and supported by them, appoint a follow up manager. The progress on all actions is also communicated to everyone by the follow up manager

Your staff’s commitment towards better customer service is the foundation of your organizational growth.  A happy and motivated staff member will not only give a better customer service but also will spread the sense of satisfaction and motivation to the other peers and management. By adopting all the approaches mentioned above you can definitely find yourself good in the role of a customer service manager and bring a sense of commitment and quality in the working of your staff.

Contributed by Ashish Singh Parihar ( Class of 2008, IBS PUNE )

Art and Architecture of listening

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An MBA ProgramHow many times people have lectured you on how well do you listen? Did you know the difference between hearing and listening? How many of us practice active listening? Have you ever imagine, a setup of a call center, they can’t not see the clients who call them, they had to rely on their listening skills to hear and understand what the caller wanted us to do for them. Sometimes due to network problem many of them are not able to understand us, but because of their active listening skill they help us around and crack revenue for the company.

All of us need to be good listeners and more importantly to be an active listener in all aspects of our lives; I believe MBA institute is the platform to imbibe this skill as people from diverse culture background, different intensity, and passion comes together to make it big. We often forget to learn from each other and when we grow older in life we don’t understand what others (spouse, kids, parents, friends, coworkers and leaders) are asking of us.

When we look at our professional lives and career paths, we seldom consider listening as part of the equation. Our performance reviews may touch on presentation skills, but rarely do our leaders rate listening effective-ness. These days business leaders carefully evaluate: What kind of ROI will this project deliver? What are the tradeoffs? But, I rarely hear decision-makers ask: How well are you listening, and to whom?

If we consider some basic facts around listening, the picture gets dimmer. To quote- Last year, a Wall Street Journal article reported that researchers suspect listening skills are in decline due to the multi-tasking distractions of our world. Amazingly, the article’s point of reference is a 1987 study that showed people could recall “only around 10% of what was said in a face-to-face conversation after a brief distraction.” This same article pointed to a more recent study from 2011 that found the “more powerful the listener, the more likely he is to judge or dismiss advice from others.”

From my perspective, these are risky findings. Listening is a critical business skill which from a very early stage of a professional life a MBA student should imbibe. Unfortunately, it’s often perceived as something passive or easily done. However, listening needs to be encouraged practiced and honed; it needs to be built into the architecture of our MBA program as well and I’m glad that professor at IBS works on it. Here are three reasons why everyone should emphasize on their listening skills:

  1. In today’s troublesome business environment, organization weights that we listen in order to understand its intricacies and energetic forces to succeed.

The pace of change is hurrying exponentially. New and emerging technologies are constantly revolutionizing the way we consume things from home energy to personal shopping; from healthcare to security; from savings to security, from privacy to socializing. It is critical for business leaders to understand the implications of our interconnected, digital society. What are our customers’ pain points of today and tomorrow? What is the next big thing? What are its associated benefits; and risks? These answers come from listening carefully across our entire organization and to external sources; which can help individual and organization to grow.

MBA Graduates

  1. Through effective listening we could connect the dots, spot the trends and understand the signals.

In today’s job setup managers continually seek ways to more efficiently and effectively listen to our surrounding landscape. To expand their operation, e-commerce companies meets daily with venture capitalists to share their ideas and understand the challenges they’re passionate about solving. They speak with customers and colleagues, with other companies, large and small, with investors, incubators and academics. By, engaging across a broad set of relevant audiences, focus group and market research, businesses gets empowered and make decision to notice patterns and understand tomorrow’s trends, potential challenges and new possibilities. This exercise isn’t easy; it re-quires rigor, openness to what you’re hearing and, most importantly, practicing good listening.

  1. Good listening opens organization to new potentials, and transfers them beyond traditional management restraints.

In traditional organizational structures, leaders seldom work across silos. Consequently it’s often the same people delivering updates and recommendations. Now days many companies are taking steps to move away from this approach to a structured pyramid approach. I advise young MBA graduates to join companies, by evaluating how information and in-sights; flows across the organization. Are there better ways you can be listening? Are there different teams you should be working with? Opening yourself up to new ideas can help you discover a new and valuable perspective for your future.

So often we want to feel like we have all the answers. As our world changes more and more dramatically, one reaction is to hold on tighter and tighter to our beliefs. However, if we find the courage to pause and listen, if we open ourselves up to understanding our landscape more deeply, we can make better decisions. Here are the “5 Traits of Good Listening” that I’m focused on cultivating:

  • Be Present – It’s impossible to be a good listener if you’re thinking about your “to do” list or your next meeting. Focus on hearing what the other person has shared. Try summarizing what you’ve heard to ensure you‘ve absorbed it.
  • Practice – Practice leaving your inclinations behind. Practice not immediately offering a solution or a suggestion to what you’ve heard. Practice listening, and be comfortable with silence if someone pauses give time. Good listening requires continual practice.
  • Ask Questions – Cultivate your inner curiosity-ty and seek to learn more. Ask questions – not in a way that shows off your knowledge – but more to really understand what someone is sharing and to demonstrate that you’re interested in what they’re sharing.
  • Be Open – Embrace a willingness to hear from different and unexpected sources; don’t ignore someone you aren’t familiar with. Determine if you’re discounting something that’s difficult to hear, or selectively editing details – we’re all guilty of this sometimes.
  • Pause – Take a moment and try listening to your intuition, to your gut. Is there some-thing you’ve picked up on, a signal that you need to pay more attention to, evaluate and understand? Is there something missing? Try listening for what hasn’t been said

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

All the best

Contributed by Vaibhav Chandra (Class of 2009, IBS HYDERABAD)

Branding Too Much And Too Many

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Branding Too Much

Branding Too Much And Too Many                                                                                             An Ankita Verma Article by the Author Ankita Verma

Ankita Verma, Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad

Now doesn’t that sound a little absurd? This is an example of branding gone overboard.

Standing out from a competitive crowd requires bravery, brains and the art of branding. Without one or the other there is very little chance of creating a memorable impression which is also favorable.

There is an old joke popular in marketing circles, which goes like this:-

Cruising through Texas, a tourist asks a cattleman the name of his ranch.

“It’s the Bar Seven, Double-O, Rocking J, Flying M,” said the rancher.

The tourist responded, “Do you have a lot of cattle?”

“Nope’’, he said, “Not too many survive the branding.”

Branding, a noble concept by origin, is habitually (and often unintentionally) abused by companies which mishmash too many brand elements or create excessively complex brand systems. Additionally, we observe brand extensions budding relentlessly in such markets due to technological advances and R&D breakthroughs.

These constantly altering systems of brands can confuse and isolate the customers, ensuing in the decline of brand value.

Overbranding: Branding Too Muchover branding

If the product name is mentioned more than once in a sound bite and in the narration, you’ve more than likely overbranded it. Don’t overburden your expert. – Neil Henry

It is all too very easy for a company to pour money into absurd advertising in their pursuit to build higher brand awareness and revenue. The company’s unique value is likely to get diluted in the process, causing loss of brand supporters. Such issues arise because Branding though an essential practice is unfortunately not an exact science.

What is more, overbranding also stems from fear; fear of not getting acknowledged, fear of being ignored, or worse yet, the fear of not being seen at all.

The media reports many incidences of television/movie actors falling into this trap, keenly attending every event and taking up any work just to stay in the limelight.

Bombarding your customer with your brand will, very possibly, result in resentment and negative word-of-mouth. The displeasure that the overexposure of a brand creates, undoes any good-will amassed by it till-date.

The TV audience has been subjected to Interruption Advertising to the extent that it is openly mocked as Irritation Advertising. Is there really a need to obscure the content being voluntarily received with frustrating reminders of the privilege on offer?

Any publicity is good publicity, you say? Perhaps.

But is it really worth it, given the practically guaranteed damage to the image?

Let us avoid that channel with the maddening pop-ups, such brands will soon hear their patrons say.

The key is to have faith in your product and create awareness with focused planning and contained enthusiasm. Communicate too loud and you become an annoyance. We witness this at most hotels, restaurants and malls. With an establishment’s over-zealous attempts at branding, the bathroom alone is duly capable of inducing a case of logo-claustrophobia.

The companies, who do not understand their customers, end up overlooking their needs.

Some luxury brands intentionally underbrand in order to keep the associated mystique intact. This technique, however, cannot always be successfully duplicated by a brand which is still learning to walk and hoping to outrun the more athletic brands. Using the law of scarcity as a branding strategy can backfire if your lack of presence is perceived as snobbery. So precarious is the branding balance!

Over-Branding: Branding Too ManyOVER BRANDING

Psychologists are saying that too much choice doesn’t free us, it numbs us. We cope by opting out, making disinterested decisions. – Graham Button

Today, the customer is over-served and over-whelmed. ‘Consumers are stuffed to the gills with logos’. The market-place is saturated with the abundance of choices available.

An average grocery store carries so many varieties of the same product, that it boggles the mind to select just one. Precious time goes on making yet another trivial choice. Take Sunsilk for example. You get more than a dozen hair-shampoo variants alone. Too many options, where one would suffice, not only produce anxiety but also drag down the quality of life.

We see brands and sub-brands being regularly punched out by companies like Dell and MTV, on the weak support of slight incremental tweaks in the main product.

Retailers may feel more versions of their product will ensure greater sales. That ‘more brands’ equals ‘more profit’.

Yet, it is the opposite that has proved true. Many successful companies have realized that less is indeed more.

When P&G cut their Head and Shoulders portfolio from 25 to 16 products their profits rose by an astounding 10%.

The creativity that a company channels into its processes is far superior to its product portfolio in terms of benefits accrued. Innovation just for the sake of revenue can end up degrading the core brand value instead of strengthening it. Any interest previously acquired wanes quickly when the “New and Improved’’ continue to churn out.

Such overshooting alienates the target audience. What the customers are getting is quantity, when what they really need is quality.

There is frequently a greater focus on the transactional profits which are achieved from purely promotional behavior. Author Frederick Reichheld calls these ‘bad profits’. There should be a consideration on generating ‘good profits’ as well, which create customer loyalty. In good service, lies the answer.

Keeping Branding On Track

Strategists have suggested a few things which can help prevent the branding process from going haywire and corrupting the brand value. They tell the companies to:-

Concentrate on customer’s needs and feedback

Instead of assailing the customers with constant in-your-face communication techniques, give them some credit. Do not treat them as fools. Listen to them. Have a good understanding of their needs. Give them the opportunity to provide feedback. It will almost always prove invaluable.

Keep a small Product Portfolio

In order to make the decision-process and brand perception as uncomplicated as you can for your customers, consider trimming the amount of products and the related overhead costs.

Focus on Quality

Statistically, people are willing to pay a premium for good quality and service. Focusing only on quantity can drive down the quality protocols in a company. Quality in a brand talks and can inspire your customers to spread the word and fashion a loyal following.

Be creative

Your brand must have some unique selling proposition in order for it to appeal to customers. Pushing a product without a compelling characteristic won’t make it truly stand out in the market. An innovative aspect to your product, which is relevant to the customer, is more likely to occupy a larger mind-space.

Offer a Consistent Message

To maximize brand recollection, make an effort to offer the same message (and similar language and imagery) with clarity every time you promote.

Branding is an art but not all marketers are good artists. A well-designed and well-executed plan is vital to shape a well-defined brand. Proper attention has to be paid to strategic planning before embarking down the path of brand promotion. Focusing on the core business process and service and allowing the work to talk for itself is more likely to ensure a sustainable growth in a company’s brand equity.

With the right set of tools and inclination, branding is sure to paint a masterpiece.

Contributed by Ankita Verma (Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad)

Why i could not make it and less deserving did?

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MBA Graduates“You eventually become what you think what you are in your head”

I heard someone saying that at an event and I just flipped and said “Damn in few years I am gonna be a high profile bollywood celebrity”..  Oh Yes! I know its funny. But that’s what, we have an image of ourselves in our heads and that how we try to behave. I do not know if the statement made by that over dressed lady is true or not, But yes it definitely clicked my head that we always tend to make our image more better (rather much higher) than what we actually are. Some people start living that fictitious image 24*7 in a manner that people like me when we actually see them and we are like “hai kaun ye, samjhta kya hai apne ap ko”. That’s the moral, whatever that person samjhofies himself is completely not in sync with what he/she actually is. Trust me about it, this behavior is so damn irritating!

I do not mean to say it’s bad to make an image in our head and start living that way. I think it is good but it depends on what image are we carrying. I see people in small towns living in a polished manner and talking in an effluent English which is very unlike the surroundings they are raised in, it is just the image of themselves in their heads that has worked for them and probably that defines the way they are today. On the contrary, I see some guys in their porchest of cars on the Saturday nights in the Haus Khas Village Parking and they behave like as if they haven’t been to the school ever and have been raised in a zoo tough they happen to have residence at the porch location. It is nothing but a difference in the matter of what image they have made in their heads and they work to live that way.

In life, it is very easy to look down upon someone basis how they look, what they speak, where they come from but its very hard to appreciate what they have become and how they have changed. We all have our respective stories and struggles that we are fighting without talking about it. It is very important to be competitive in the good spirit to win your way but equally it is not healthy to look down on the one who succeeds. There are times we see our ex with someone new and we talk all crap about the new face beyond the fact we do not even know him/her as a person or there equation but judge that new person basis what we know about the ex we have dated in the past, which is not fair actually. In the same context, when you sit for group discussions, interviews and you think basis your CGPA and class reviews that you are above all but you end up not going further in the Managing Skillsinterview and blame the interviewer on his/her hiring skills is actually sad because we tend to judge people basis on the stereotype in our head, we do not think logically that maybe the HR was looking for more of subtle people or he/she matched the job profile better that what I did. We won’t appreciate the points that they made during the G.D but will bring down on what we have seen them in the class as or in/around the campus. The HR person comes to the college without any preconceived image of the people who will be at the interview and makes the choices basis the content they come across. So before judging who is deserving and who is not we should just go by who is the better fit as per the job description and hence we will get our answers right. This takes me back to the instance when I got through Star TV and a geeky girl happened to congratulate me while crossing each other at the college stairs. As always I thanked her with a pleasant smile but she being sarcastic enough left me with a remark saying that “tu toh intelligent hai, hum kahan” knowing the fact that I have a CGPA which just allowed me to sit for the interview and blessed with the Grade sheet like D D E B D C which I had to fight clearing. But above all, the time you start celebrating someone’s happiness, the moment you grow as person and soon you have a story to share.

I know for the fact that no matter what, we humans can’t stop judging. It comes natural to us. From someone’s clothes at a wedding to the way they dance, their spouse we have to judge it all. Wish it could stop there, we carry the same traits to the college and work as well. Someone got placed in a better company, he/she doesn’t deserve because she flunked in that subject, she has bad oratory skills, we have to judge it all. Rather than finding out the areas that we need to work on and why we did not make it we would insist and talk more on “How could she?”. Most of us carry this at work when we find some one getting appraisals at a faster pace, we judge them too on their subservient attitude with seniors rather than having a look at the work they deliver. I don’t mean you to clap and dance at people success like a saint, but respect someone’s achievement in life post when you have been a part of the race where they succeeded rather than judging their success as a matter of fate. I do agree that no matter how much someone tells us not to judge but it comes natural to us. Maybe we have a better opportunity knocking our door by the virtue of time. So we should rather celebrate other’s success so as we have people by our side when we have our moment.

Contributed by Rahul Wadhwa (Class of 2013, IBS GURGAON)

Sweating It Out For A Dream Job

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MBA ProfessionalsIndia is a land of teeming millions and each one of us dreams of making it BIG in this land of vast opportunities and an even larger competition for survival. In this horde of striving to achieve more from whatever is available, it’s the young and free spirits who are able to grab their share of success. So the catch here is to block out the noise and set yourself on the ‘right’ path.

We all want a dream job. Just like finding that one great love, it’s a goal that virtually everyone has. After all, over the course of our lifetimes, we’ll work for close to 70,000 hours–and that’s a lot of time to waste on something you’re not passionate about. While identifying the ideal career is not a walk in the park, I’m here to tell you it’s also not a fantasy. As with anything in life that is meaningful, it requires making a number of clear commitments. Let us first of all define what a dream job is. This may differ from person to person but for some it is the job in which he can achieve all the goals set by him & suits his career objectives. For some it is only money, for someone else, it could be the job satisfaction which makes a particular job a dream job.

MBAs in today’s world have plenty of opportunities, but they generally stick on to lucrative options like a career in Finance or Marketing. A dream job seldom means a new venture or a startup. We cannot say that “Dream Job of an MBA is Just that”, it can comprise a lot of perspectives depending on person to person. In the end what matters is his expectation from life.

Having a professional degree, specifically a management degree puts you into an entirely different category from other candidates for a few reasons. One of these reasons is that management can see that you’ve been trained in common business practices, and that you have the professional training necessary to think critically and creatively in a number of given situations. It also means that you’re committed to the idea of your field of focus, and that you’re willing to work hard and make sacrifices in order to make it in your industry.

If we consider today’s situation it has totally changed because better economy and more and more opportunity coming in for young graduates to prove themselves which is seen in the manner most of the B­ School graduates are leaving good jobs and taking the route of entrepreneur. In my view “Just that” is subjective to the individual. If the individual chooses to become an entrepreneur, for him that is his dream job and similarly someone wants to pursue as a consultant that is one’s dream job. Putting them together, MBA gives you the ability to choose what is good for you; It is a better filter in terms of choices and makes oneself a better filter and go for the one.

Before we take any further stances, let’s try to understand why we see a shift in the attitude of people towards “Money at cost of satisfaction”. I think it’s the word “Risk”, not many people want to take a risk by starting a company. Starting a company has become a risk these days, unlike countries abroad; there are not many incentives for the person who starts the company. There are people who might not get a good job, though they graduate from a grand B-School but that would be just because they might not be able to find out there right job which suits their personality but their aspirations cannot be stopped and the search for growth and a perfect job begins. MBA makes a man knowledgeable about business organization and ethics and it’s important for a manager of a good organization to have such an understanding.

Management Skills

In the current scenario, it’s quite legitimate to go for a job rather than go for a start up of your own. The spirit of being an Entrepreneur is more important than worrying about corporate taxes. Entrepreneurs are the people who take risks & are ready to face a crisis, persevere to achieve the goals & reap profits of their hard work. It is debatable as to how many MBAs are really trying to be entrepreneurs over the long run being well equipped to be an entrepreneur.

I’ve identified some tried-and-true tactics that help put people on that path, no matter your industry. Consider it your dream job checklist.

  • Know your greatest talent and purpose, and learn to speak with clarity and confidence about it.

This one is the hardest because it requires support from others. You know what you are good at when you hear it, but we all struggle to be completely objective about ourselves. For those who’re not confident about their soft skills, joining a finishing school to develop your personality, body language, inter-personal and social interaction skills will be beneficial. However, once you have an indication of what your talent and purpose is, you can then connect it well to your job. How?

First, find your talent: Ask 10 people who know you, what your unique approach is to the specific work that you do. It is very important that you can work in a team, coordinate with your colleagues, communicate with them effectively and make proper adjustments. Therefore, the first step toward getting a dream job is knowing what interests you and what makes you happy. Then find a job (or create your own job description) that includes and combines as many of those things as possible.

Then, find your purpose: Take an hour and think through your entire life, focusing specifically on the core challenges that you’ve faced. You should be updated with latest trends in your field. Once you identify the number-one challenge, this becomes the cornerstone of your purpose, because helping others overcome that same challenge -whether it’s a team member or your organization, is what leads to career fulfillment. The key to this exercise is understanding yourself and being able to connect your talent and purpose to your career objectives. If you can’t find a way to link them, then it may be time to consider switching gears.

  • Commit to finding or creating your ideal job, no matter what.

An employer is not only looking for a MBA degree but also the application orientation of the student. Students in B-school study the concepts of management in their classes but hardly understand how this knowledge can be applied in real business scenario. Thus there is a gap between theory and knowledge. To be able to bag the coveted job you must understand what business is all about and how you can contribute to the growth of any organisation.

  • Be realistic about your basic financial needs; but know that when you follow your passion, money often comes too.

To be a successful professional, you must be well connected and have a strong networking with people in your field. As Baba Ranchod Das rightly said, “Pursue excellence and success will follow”.  In the real world, it’s important to figure out how much money you need to live and what type of job will accomplish that. Passion is important, but you can’t build your dream job if you can’t pay the bills.

  • Be patient and give yourself regular reality checks.

You must select a good/ reputed company in your field for internship as it is the only opportunity where you can exhibit your skills by translating them in performance. At the same time, you learn about a particular industry, how it functions and its operations in detail. It could take two years, five years, or even longer to find the right mix after lots of trial and error. Along the way, look for quick wins and positive trajectory. For some, it comes faster than for others. You can’t compare yourself to others and you can’t have a set timeline.  If you aren’t energized by your day-to-day professional life, then you won’t stay committed, which will block the path to your dream job.

Thus, I would conclude by saying, most people blunder their way through their careers. They see an opportunity open up, figure the job is good enough, and then let momentum carry them forward. That might have made sense back in the days when a regular job meant a steady income and a retirement package. But today, if you’re not doing a job that’s uniquely yours- “your dream job”; you will eventually lose it to somebody whose dream job is your job. Your goal therefore must be to find the perfect job for you, the one that only you can perform the best, because it a manifestation of your personal dream and your life’s goals.

Contributed by Deeba, (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon)

Five Management Lessons from Mahabharata for MBA Grads

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MahabharathaUndoubtedly, Mahabharata is one of the greatest epics mankind has ever heard or read. With so many possible interpretations of its characters’ behavior and the plot, it becomes much more engrossing for the audience. Similar to Bhagvad Gita, which contains meanings to life, and the various facets and nuances to way of life, even Mahabharata should not be just considered as a religious scripture.

According to me, the saga of Mahabharata is a great testament to the management lessons one can derive out of it. Not only for the proficient managers in an organization, but also for the aspiring managers and wannabe MBA grads, this mythology holds lot of relevance and value in terms of parallels that can be drawn from it. Be it in the area of marketing or leadership skills or people management or any other management related aspect, Mahabharata holds key to several work life management problems.

In this article, I have discussed few of the lessons which every MBA grad can derive from Mahabharata by analyzing its events and characters.

  1. Importance of Networking and Relationship Management

Much before the war was fought, Pandavas were hugely outnumbered by Kauravas in terms of the military might. But they built their network with the like-minded kings.  They maintained good relationship with their existing friends and developed new alliances. In professional life too, an MBA grad must build his network and manage relationship with them. After the MBA, most of you will be focused on building your career path in the organization. But you must never lose sight of the role played by your peers of b-school and alumni network. In workplace, you should reach out to as many people as possible. You never know when your network might come to your rescue when need arises. In the function of sales and marketing, bigger your network is and better your relationships are, you stand a better chance to strike good deals. In today’s world, social media platforms like LinkedIn must be leveraged to build your network.

  1. Nurture a pool of Leaders in your Team

Either today or tomorrow, you will be entrusted with greater responsibilities in an organization. This means that as a good manager and leader, you must assume the role of a mentor. It is always good to have a pool of leaders in your team who can take up diverse responsibilities when time comes. A good leader or manager always provides direction to his team members, and is a source of constant motivation to others. Only then the team functions effectively. Being a manager, you must build this culture in your team, irrespective of leading a smaller big team.

In the Mahabharata, army of Kauravas was led by just one general – Bhisma. This followed one-man leadership hierarchy pattern. On the other hand, Pandavas were led by multiple leaders, owning up different battalions of the army and its operations at different periods of the war. This multi-leader strategy proved more effective in winning the war. Similarly, in an organization context, every function or department must develop second line of leaders, which is often termed as succession planning.

  1. It’s about Team Play with Common Objectives

An aspiring MBA grad must understand that he alone cannot shoulder the complete responsibilities of the team, forget achieving the goal. It is the team spirit which wins the war or competition. Kauravas lacked team spirit completely. Every important member in their team had his own personal motives and aspirations with no common objective as a team. Only Duryodhana was in favor of war. Most of the warriors were against the war. But Pandavas were knitted together with one common goal – to win the war and earn back their kingdom – rather than just showcasing their individual prowess.

When a team is confronted with a bigger objective or target, everyone in the team must share the responsibility, and be accountable. Rather than having a centralized decision-making process, the manager must consult peers and other leaders in his team and allocate responsibilities to them. This allows others also to showcase their skills, which is good for the organization in long-term. This leads to maximum contribution from every team member.

MBA Graduates

  1. Seek Mentors in your Career

Even the best managers need mentors who can guide them in time of crisis. Why only crisis, these mentors from their own experience can provide words of wisdom to MBA grads while taking everyday decisions in the workplace. An MBA grad must always look for a mentor in the workplace. It could be a senior manager from within the same organization or another organization. In the b-school, his or her teacher and professor can play this role.

In the great war of Mahabharata, even though Krishna never fought the war, he was the key strategist for the Pandavas, who guided them at each important step of the war. In the workplace, a mentor shows the path, which itself is sufficient for a good manager to understand and make a decision. Having a good mentor is important to grow up professionally. No matter how talented you are, one must seek mentorship. Arjuna, the best warrior in the epic with all kinds of weaponry in his arsenal, also required a mentor in the form of Krishna.

  1. Choose your Resources Wisely

This is so true for HR students and in the case of recruiting managers in an organization. As a manager, irrespective of whether you are in the recruiting team or not, at some point of work life, you will have the opportunity to recruit new team members. At the top level in an organization, board members choose CEOs and CXOs. One must plan properly for the kind of skilled workforce required in the organization. Then engage the right people at the right places. A good manager is one who has an eye for talent. It is up to the acumen of the manager to spot the hidden talent in his team members and provide them opportunities to grow.

In Mahabharata, both Pandavas and Kauravas had the option to choose Krishna for their team. But displaying complete lack of vision and acumen, Kauravas selected Krishna’s army, and hence lost the war. Whereas Yudhishthira made a wise decision and opted for Krishna, who ultimately played a strategic role in their win. This also shows that even one resource can make a difference in an organization. Hence, a manager must never underestimate the power of one.

In conclusion, I must say that Mahabharata is a great source of knowledge and management lessons, which must be well understood and assimilated by every MBA grad.

Contributed by Suyash Chopra ( Class of 2010, IBS HYDERABAD ) can be contacted at www.suyashchopra.wordpress.com and twitter: @suyashchopra1

Top 5 Reasons why All MBAs are Not Successful Managers

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an mba programMBA is considered to be equivalent of Manager in many cases. Most of the people believe that if you are an MBA you are sure to be a successful manager. Well, fact alert, one may not be a successful manager just by doing MBA.

The biggest tragedy with Indian students is the time that they decide what career they want to pursue. In most of the cases while completing graduation or after completing graduation students take random decision on pursuing post graduation in particular field, MBA being one of them. The main reason being it guarantees job (well in most of the cases if we be optimistic). But the question here is has the right decision being taken? Was MBA the wise choice?

The best way to choose a wise career is to think from all perspectives and weigh all options. Simply doing a post graduation course in business is surely not going to make one a successful and happy manager. Let’s check out top 5 reasons why all MBAs are not successful managers.

  1. Area of Interest – In many of the cases what field one has selected can be the deciding boat. Have you always wanted to be a marketer and ended up taking a finance job? Well then in that case how you will be able to give your 100%.

First of all the question should be do I really want to do MBA? Because in many cases a person starts his/her career with designations such as executive, associate, trainee etc. If one dreams to be a manager from start of his/her career or he/she is just doing MBA to be a manager then this can be a spoiler. A manager is the one who looks after getting in line all the resources and processes and generate results. This is a skill which mostly comes with experience. Being a manager is not easy. So if one goes for MBA just by thinking to be a manager from start this may not work out. Just by receiving a post graduation in MBA will not help you acquire the soft skills which are required to be a successful manager.

First find out a strong reason to do MBA and then explore the functional area where your interest lies and then work hard!

  1. Let me just avoid it for few more days – If one lacks the sense of responsibility, he/she cannot be a successful manager for sure. To be a manager one needs to be pro active and always alert to what’s going around. If one is disciplined and organized then that’s definitely add on.

Tendency of avoiding completion of work on time can be a really big spoiler for further success. A manager is practically managing the functions of the particular department. If his/her work doesn’t complete on time then this may affect the results and revenues.

Key to being a successful manager is to be proactive and being responsible towards the job assigned.

  1. Demotivation – This is a scientific fact. A person cannot give his/her best effort if he/she has been demotivated for so long. Of course there are people who are self driven but in most of the cases, if a person is demotivated he/she feels negativity because of it. Whenever you will start with your job life you are going to serve under a boss.  If you are lucky you will find a good boss but if you are luckier you will find a strict boss who will help you learn many corporate lessons.

The key to fight demotivation is constant belief in your skills. There may be few moments where you would simply want to give up and that is the time when you will have to fight against all odds. Demotivation can make you want to give up on your dreams. Fight hard and come out shining.

mba programme

  1. Lack of People skills – This is also one main reason why one cannot become a good manager. If you do not enjoy company of people, you don’t know how to get the work done, you don’t know how to motivate your team, you cannot become a successful manager at-least not in the eyes of your team. In short you may be doing a wrong job as well. Management has always been about management of resources and one must know how to optimize the efficiency of a human being. One should learn how to treat people well and motivate them continuously to give their best efforts. People skills are one of the best qualities a manager can have.  Leveraging this quality will help you become a more successful manager.
  1. Team Benefits first – Goal setting is very important aspect of management. A successful manager always knows what are the goals of his/her team as a whole. Everyone comes in a particular company for some reason, but to be successful one will have to keep personal goals aside and lead his/her team from the front to meet team goals.

Sometimes people fail to understand that when his/her team will meet success, personal goals will automatically be met. Instead of focusing on self targets, the team should be motivated to meet success factors.

Key Takeaway – Management is objective. It is highly subjective in nature. You can never be perfect but you can always try hard to become more and more successful. Each day, every day.

You may never come across a set or defined reason why you could not become a successful manager. Sometimes reason can be subjective. One employee may give one reason; another will give a totally different reason you for finding you an unsuccessful manager. Not to forget success is a state of mind. It is also subjective for different people. For one being unsuccessful manager can mean less promotions/incentives, for one it can be lack of recognition, for one it can be something else. If you want to become highly successful manager one thing is for sure, you will have to chart out the map of all your activities in such a way that each one leads you towards your goals. To become a successful manager you will have to continuously learn from your mistakes and never repeat them again.

Contributed by Leena Sonparate ( Class of 2013, IBS MUMBAI )

Linkedin Profile of Leena Sonparate : http://in.linkedin.com/pub/leena-sonparate/4b/715/aa7

The Illusion

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MBA GraduateLong long ago, in an MBA college campus, there lived a young boy by the name Kabir. Kabir was an excellent student with a pretty good CGPA of 8.

So Kabir, braved through the courses in college and kept up his average, and then took on the challenging task in the final semester of MBA to work hard at facing interviews from various types of companies. Now Kabir had a dream of joining an Investment bank, and working with the finance division of it. He tried his level best, but somehow he was out ranked by a fellow classmate. Not losing any hope, he kept trying till the scope of job began to narrow down to I.T Companies or National banks.

He took a tough decision and decided to try his luck with these sectors, and suddenly landed with a job in a big I.T firm.

Kabir did join the company and underwent 3 month training with various processes of the company, overviews of the various divisions under finance and finally soft skills. Soon enough he was absorbed by one of the team which supported an application used by large investment banks as a platform to trade. With great hope of getting his first taste of working as a Business Analyst, Kabir joined the team. The first few days passed by with getting various processes in place. After which he and his fellow MT’s (Management Trainee) were asked to prepare test cases, and test the application.

Kabir was quite confused with the work that was assigned to him, as it wasn’t mentioned anywhere in the job description.  Nor was any of his learning in the 2 years of MBA required to complete the tasks at hand. Still Kabir pushed through, and went on to work on all the tasks diligently.

 After a few months, he began to question his ability and doubt his capability. It seemed like there were many around him getting assigned to different roles and he seemed to be stagnant with the work he was doing. A frustrated Kabir reach out to his mentors and was being told the same thing over and over again.

‘There is no requirement as of now for a Business Analyst, therefore we will keep you in mind when the time comes, and there are many projects in the pipeline. Don’t worry!’

mba graduates..

When his team met for coffee that evening they looked at Kabir who seemed rather dull, and asked him what the matter was?

To which Kabir responded, “Guys, What THE HECK is happening!!!! I am an MBA graduate from one of the best colleges in India. I landed job in an IT company, in which I am working on tasks which can be handled by anyone who is an undergraduate. I just want to quit but I have a loan which needs to be paid off!”

There was a wise, slightly more experienced person in the crowd, who spoke next, “Kabir my boy, let me just point out firstly on how wrong you are about the whole matter. I apologize on behalf of the company for causing you such pain. But let me tell you a few things about the corporate world from my years of experience.

As a fresher, your expectations of the world of corporate are pretty high and you are focused on maintaining the same momentum, as in college. Which is commendable but things change so fast in the world around us that one must be able to adapt to any situation presented to them. For example in your MBA you are taught subjects from various streams before you specialize, think of the corporate world in the same manner. You have been given the opportunity to work in various streams before you get your break. I promise you, the way that you are working, it will come soon. You are very inexperienced to handle a team, or a project on your own, for which you are currently being groomed in ways beyond your understanding. Just have some faith.”

So Kabir, let go of his illusion of the perfect job and began to perform well with the tasks that he was handed.

In 15 months’ time Kabir’s team won a project, in which he finally got to work in the job which he was promised. In the meanwhile 4 fresh MBA graduates had joined the team. So Kabir took them out for coffee and decided to pass on the wisdom and set their expectations. So at the coffee table he got a quick introduction and said,

“Dear Graduates, firstly let me take the opportunity to thank you for joining the company. I understand you guys are very eager to begin working full-fledged in the project. But as you’re senior I would like to tell you that in our team things are a little different. We hire all-rounders and expect you guys to be comfortable in any work that is given. This is to test you and understand your strengths and weaknesses. This will also help you gauge your level of competency and you will be able to figure out what you really are comfortable with.

I suggest you stop looking at the job description that was given when you were being recruited for this role, as that is simply a guideline as to what we ultimately want to groom you guys into. There will be various ups and downs. You will have periods of work where the pressure will be high, and there will be periods where you will be free. Don’t worry about either, both are pretty temporary.

Open you minds to receiving any sort of work that is given to you and go about and take on additional responsibilities from your seniors and peers. This will give you a lot of insight to the project.

If you are frustrated reach out to your mentors, and take decisions based on rational thinking. The world is your oyster. Aim and achieve high.”

His speech was received with claps and cheers.

Contributed by Sujir Pavithra Nayak (Class of 2011, IBS Hyderabad)

Why MBA?

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MBA Degree.To answer the above question, an analogy between a painters’ painting and a professional’s career has to be understood. A professional can lead his/her career in the same way as an artist can paint his masterpiece but an artist cannot undo what he has done till that time on the same canvas  if he gets some new thoughts during the painting. A professional can do it with the help of a ‘magical stick’ if he wants to change to the business/senior leadership side or if wishes to change the industry. That magical stick is an MBA degree. With this, I have stated one of the most prominent reasons which candidates have with them before applying to b-schools every year. Now, there are various other reasons which the candidate must be able to think through and be absolutely clear before he even thinks of writing competitive exams as to why doing an MBA is such a big deal?

So, what is that itching behind the desire of the candidate to use the magical stick- an MBA degree? Talking about candidates with some work experience, they start to get a feel that they will face a ‘glass-ceiling’ during their growth as a professional may be after 1-2 years or even after 6-7 years depending on the individual. Only an MBA degree will be able to bail them out towards a role which will require more business acumen or senior leadership i.e. a strategic role. Or in other words, to convert them into a more functional and business oriented role from a transactional role in the organization.

In today’s internet age, it would sound utterly illogical if one would say that I want to do an MBA to gain knowledge about managerial concepts when he/she can easily access all the literature for free on web. But having said that, it is the interactions with the faculty, industry champions and people with quintals of work experience and learning from their experience that makes an MBA worth it because one can never have access to that ‘experience’ of having mature business oriented interactions without actually doing them.

For people, who want to have something of their own, an MBA is just what the doctor ordered. Because, when they will be conceiving the idea of their start-up they will be well-versed with the parameters to adjudge the business feasibility of that idea. As a matter of fact, I can comfortably say that the experiences of people who had an MBA degree were much better than those who hadn’t when they tried to get funding for their business. An MBA gives you that ability to see things from different perspectives neutrally before arriving to a workable conclusion.

regular mba degree

‘Connect the dots.’ is ‘the skill’ which one must master before even dreaming of having a more strategic role in an organization. So to master this ‘cutting edge’ skill, candidates look up towards an MBA degree from a premier institute. An MBA trains a candidate to be more of a ‘generalist’ than a ‘specialist’. So, once a candidate is out of the b-school, he remains a ‘generalist’ throughout his life which comes handy when he gets the position of as big as a CEO. For shouldering responsibilities at that level, having an eagle eye view of the business will be the most critical quality that the person must have.

Although till now, I have not talked about the most baseless and the most popular rationale behind candidate’s intent to pursue an MBA which is the carrot of higher salary packages after MBA. So, let’s be very brutally honest about addressing this rational because it is about money….the hardly earned money!!! So, the real picture is that when a firm employs you after your MBA, it pays you on the basis of what value you are bringing to the table. If you have not imbibed those soft or tangible skills in your personality during your MBA, then obviously it will not come out naturally in the job interview and the recruiters, now a days have that acumen to judge your value for the organization near to perfection. So, candidates who just do an MBA for the heck of it only to get hefty packages are doomed to be left disappointed. As a matter of fact, going out of the scope of this piece of text, this must be one of the reasons for candidates to ponder for as in ‘why not to go for an MBA?’.

And last but not the least, apart from giving a candidate an MBA tag, greater career opportunities, exposure and knowledge, an MBA gives you the chance to do a very strong business oriented networking. Simply, because of the nature in which its contents are unfolded and delivered to the candidates in a classroom environment, you get to interact with people from various industries who will bring to the table something different. A strong alumni network, industry contacts through esteemed faculties of the b-school, a chance to avail an internship opportunity with a premier firm to have a feel of the playground before the actual play begins are some of the other aces that an MBA candidate has up his sleeves.

Thus, apart from the above mentioned reasons there can be other reasons too as every single individual in this world is solving a different question paper which is unfolded by life in front of them. An MBA is an experience which might not end up as a pleasant experience for every tom, dick and harry if the individual has not thought through as to why he/she wants to have this experience. Thus, for this experience to turn out as a joy ride which would turn a candidate into a more business oriented professional, the justification must come from within and not cooked up by getting affected from surroundings as to ‘Why MBA?’.

Contributed by Sthita Sahu

The Three Mistakes During And After An MBA

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MBA Career“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing you will make one”.

 We as human beings are prone to make mistakes. More so, during the most important critical period of our student lives, and essentially while preparing for higher education.

An MBA is radically different from any of the undergraduate courses we in India would have pursued. And more importantly, it would also be vastly different from any of the post graduate courses.

A regular MBA course is exhaustive, requiring long hours, substantial amounts of self study and most importantly considerable up-gradation of knowledge and skill sets.

It is over this last point that most students trip up.

The first few months into an MBA course will make you feel jittery over time lines, projects and most importantly presentations.

An MBA course prepares you for the rough journey in the big bad corporate professional world which is a stickler for time lines and accuracy.

The MBA is a full dress rehearsal for all things to come, both good and bad.

Use every moment of it, in constantly learning and updating your knowledge bank.

The most common mistake which we as students make is to treat the MBA as just another regular Post graduate course- a course which one has to pursue for the sake of pursuing to add another degree to our resume’.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Using this degree in a resume’ to further one’s career will come later. The MBA offers you a whole two years to hone up on your time management skills, soft skills, communication.

Very few view this as an opportunity to learn and fill up the holes in ones personality. Most of us view he first six months see the course as dreary, full of presentations and impossible deadlines.

Our undergraduate courses hardly prepare us for the long haul and the bad patches which life will present us with.

The second fatal mistake we must not commit in an MBA program-is people. Yes people-till the time we enter an MBA program, our graduate courses are focused only on self study, requiring no interaction with other students-denying us of other viewpoints and experience.

MBA Program

The MBA is not an individual, solitary program-every project, every assignment, every marketing study requires to align ourselves in groups, sometimes possibly choosing our own team. Some of us make the mistake of not contributing anything in a team -the work will still be done nevertheless, but it robs the team of your inputs and robs you of honing your skills.

In your professional life, choosing to go it alone will rob you of growth amongst your peers- a habit you picked during your MBA can have disastrous consequences in your job.

We enter in to an MBA program with just one sole objective-to get a job. Failing to realize that getting a  job-is the end result of what all we do during these two years. The electives we choose, the assignments we complete, the presentations we give, even the spell checks we run on our reports are all preparing us for the interview and the job beyond the interview.

A job is simply an outcome, most of us make the mistake of undertaking every action with a view to gaining a job, or seeking a place at the interview table at the most.

To get to a job, and a company we must be prepared adequately-Sun Tzu says “Those sweat more during peace time will bleed less during war time”.

Every decision you take during the course of your working life, it will resonate with activities during your MBA years, the endless hours spent on presentations, the tips given by peers on how to scrape particularly brutal reviewers will come in handy in handling sticky situations.

Simply skimming through the two years of an MBA, trying to avoid work (though honestly that’s quite difficult to do!) and the n landing straight into an interview is recipe for disaster. The interviewer looks at your complete personality, what you have managed to learn post your graduation and what are the particular skill set you bring to the fore.

The worst mistake which we commit is thinking post landing a job at an interview, the struggle ends. I hate to be the one to break it you, but the real struggle only begins from here.

Starting from which particular company’s interview you decide to choose to appear for, your first job, its location and its job description will make or break our life.

Imagine being stuck in a role or job profile for the next possible three decades of your life.

Carefully choosing the particular industry/job profile is key to your career progressions. A wrong choice here will make you rue your decision for the rest of your life.

Choose a company and a job which will make complete use of your skill sets, your abilities and your strong points.

The other thing to realize very early on in your job is to realize quickly when things are not going according to plan.

If you are not able to get adequate growth and consistently and constantly upgrade yourself in your job, then its best to take an exit option instead of sticking around and trying to turn things around.  This is not quitting, but course correction and this is absolutely essential to survive and to learn.

Ultimately, life in all its stages is full of experiences and its mistakes and more importantly-learning.

We must make sure that we are constantly moving and learning, and acquiring new skills both during and post the MBA in our jobs as well.

The day we stop learning, is the day we truly die.

Frequently, during and post the MBA you will come across difficult situations and more importantly difficult people to deal and live with.

Learning to make peace with people who have a different opinion, yet asserting what you believe is right (both factually and otherwise) is a tact which will stand you in good stead throughout your life.

Contributed by sunil iyer ( Class of 2008, IBS GURGAON )