A natural disaster, a devastating war, crashing stocks, even shifting mass-interest (courtesy a fresh generation), can cause the breakdown of any market.

Brands lose their natural appeal in a period of chaos. The customers cautiously guard their pockets. And look upon a familiar brand with fear and suspicion.

Failing financial systems affects many businesses. Most companies react to a global crisis like Recession by cutting down prices. Unfortunately, this fathers a price based competition and leads to unproductive markets. In the long run, this harms the economy more than it helps. Money stops coming in. Quality suffers. And eventually a decision has to be taken. Instead, a little change injected into an existing brand can restore its health and subsequently the economy.

After an intense cost-benefit evaluation, marketers either take a stumbling brand to the slaughter-house or to a spa for rejuvenation. The proudest time is when a brand needs to be – and, thankfully, can be – revived. Those who don’t want to join the mounting recession casualties must be ready to take risks.

Re-branding calls for a more persuasive vision to be attached with the brand to ensure that the brand is stronger than before.

Re-brand is not just about buzzing brand words; it’s about re-purposing your lives, finding your true voice and building an authentic brand that impact lives. It’s a call to reexamine our lives, our goals and dreams; to think about why we do what we do, to align lives back to source (God) and connect with the hearts of people. It’s a movement, to help, to add value, to create meaning, to impact lives.

― Bernard Kelvin Clive, RE-BRAND: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding

Re-branding is achieved through savvy marketing campaigns and heavy quality control. A brand make-over is impressive and usually rooted in a strategy that imparts increased value.

RE-BRANDING STEPS

Hanging a sign on a cow that says ‘I am a horse’ does not make it a horse. – Unknown

1. OBSERVE CONSUMER TRENDS

During an economic upheaval, holding on to your customers’ trust may seem like an impossible task. However, studies disagree. Relationships built with customers during a time of turbulence have been found as strong and long-lasting. When the money is tight, the customers look to the brands to take a proactive step in order to provide them some relief. Find out what they need and then provide it. If your customers know you care about what they want and that you truly understand them, they’ll be more likely to stick by you.

So the first re-branding step is to pay attention to your existing and potential customers as well as their changing needs. Staying up-to-date with the trends is essential.

Luxury fashion brand Dior wasn’t doing too well during the Recession of 2009. A decision was taken to reinvent.

The designs and cuts in the new lines offered accessibility, a quality previously not specific to the brand which was well known to be over-the-top. Changing product aesthetics helped the brand to better match customer expectations. Still a piece of art, the clothing could now be adorned by women in the real world too.

As a result, the company’s sales figures steadily increased by 36% over next four years.

2. STRATEGIZE

While re-branding, the core of the business must be maintained. And the points of difference, leveraged. Consumer trends research is an asset which no brand can afford to overlook. Employed in times of economic turmoil, it can answer important questions; Shine light on the issues and show a way to redemption

Next, tackle your shortcomings. That will take care of half your problems.

Can you justify your weaknesses? Or present an aspect to a weakness which can be considered favorable?

Strengths are always handy but it can take them time to adjust against economic fluctuations of global scale.  Use your strengths to ensure that your modifications can make a difference.

The difference that the change makes ought to signify value to your customers. Keep the message clear. This is very important while re branding so as to not confuse the customers, especially during a recession.

Aim at staying relevant and creating demand. Keep the brand vision and goal but find more apt means to get there.  If the perception of product can be changed without changing the product, go for it.

Starbucks was suffering from a recession slump, dipping sales and anti-globalization campaigners. In 2011, the company ‘meaningfully updated’ their logo and marketing strategies, which bumped up the sales substantially.

The brand got a face-lift and came out more consumer-responsive. The internal creative department freed the Siren from the ring, and the company from recession.

Old Spice too changed more than its packaging to stay pertinent. The original Old Spice Ad targeted women. In 1938, the next year, the target audience was men.

Recently the brand has risen to fame again through creative video content. It made sure it was all-pervading in social-media. It marketed everywhere. And once more it became a relevant brand.

3. SPEND

Spending may seem counter-intuitive during a poor economy and lowered sales. Do it anyway.

To retain the core audience, attract new ones and expand market share at such a tough time will entail fulfilling marketing strategies. And a decent amount of money is needed for that.

Invest to facilitate returns on investment. Sow to reap. Keep your wits about you while spending but do spend.

Lego started manufacturing its iconic plastic building-blocks in 1947. It faced competition over the years from electronic toys but still managed to stay relevant. How did it do it? The brand did this by churning out new product categories at habitual intervals and associating itself with popular culture through other brands such as movies and television shows.

TAKEAWAY

For any brand, a recession after-math would feel equivalent to roasting in hell-fire.

When the consumer feels the pinch on the pocket, he becomes less generous, less forgiving. He turns more selective and seeks purely value for his money.

However, a recession need not mean a death sentence for faltering brands. Trying times tend to either expose or amplify brand weaknesses and present an opportunity for revision. Brands must take advantage of this time to bond with consumers. While maintaining the original pillars, they must plan, invest and redefine. They must do this to stay relevant and survive an unpredictable economy with the least amount of injuries.

So when you feel the heat turning up, feel free to refine the recipe. But do preserve that unique taste. Think about tweaking the recipe a little… or a lot. Maybe use a different mold. Add in new spices. And bake yourself a deliciously redefined brand.

The power of the brand is not in the name but what has been invested in that name over the years.

― Bernard Kelvin Clive, RE-BRAND: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Branding

Contributed By : Ankita Verma (Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad).

 

Many times, we are not sure if we would like to be part of a team or become an individual contributor. We are not able to make this choice due to a mix of our behavioural characteristics and past experiences. Several studies have indicated the importance of teamwork over indidivual contribution and vice versa. According to a research by Professor Barry Straw from the University of California at Berkeley, firms that promote an individualistic behavior are better at generating innovative and creative ideas than firms that a team-based culture. Another research shows teams are more productive than individuals.

But according to my experiences, any of these traits does not have an upperhand over each other. It all depends on the situation you are facing. In most cases, the choice between teamwork and individual contribution largely depends with an individual.

So we must ask ourselves following questions before making a choice between the two:

 What is your main objective?

Whatever you wish to do – be a team member or play an individual contributor role, consider the broader picture. Have an overall view of what you want at the end of an assignment. Ask yourself, if you would require people’s support to accomplish a task? Ask yourself if the activity could be better performed in a team or is it just one person’s work? Answering some basic questions like these will help you take an effective decision quickly.

 How much time you have?

Timing your requirements is a very critical step of every assignment. If you are leading a project and there is scope to involve more brains, you must try to do that. Diverse perspectives always bring greater insights to the project. However, you should have the time to incorporate everyone’s viewpoints. When you are facing a time crunch already, it won’t be a good idea to collaborate with a lot of people. In today’s world, a team does not always mean people sitting with you. It could mean people in different geographies as well. So, it becomes a challenge sometimes to coordinate with various parties and deliver the output within a stipulated time.

 What do want to learn out of it?

Always consider what do you want to learn from an assignment? Ask yourself if you want to understand group dynamics and learn to handle different behaviours or do you wish to learn working independently? The project will come to an end, but your learning will stay with you forever. So make an optimal choice of what you would like to learn.

 Which skill is more important for you in the long term?

Both teamwork and individual contribution can equip you with various skills. If you think you want to handle complex projects in the long term which are large in scale and size, it is always better to start working in a team from the beginning. Effective teamwork allows people to achieve project goals which are too complex for an individual to do alone. On the contrary, if you want to focus on small but very niche and specialized assignments, go as an individual.

While you answer the above questions in order to decide which role suits you better, there are ceveats of working in a team and contributing individually.

 For teamwork:

 Are you ready to share success?

Project success is not your success alone. It needs to be shared with everyone. There could be times you would have contributed more than any other individual in an assignment, but you should be prepared to share the success. Once you decide to work in a team, you cannot boast later of your greater role in the project. Teamwork brings great pleasure when people who you work with grow along with you. However, if a project fails, you are equally accountable. There is no backing up by letting others know that you contributed very little.

 Are you ready for controversies?

Teamwork is not a cakewalk. There will be different people trying to prove (sometimes impose) their points. You should be ready to handle the disagreements that come along with teamwork. If you decide to be part of a team, learn the art of ‘strategic handling’. Handle situations in a manner that the overall objective of the assignment is not hampered. Listen to everyone and try to resolve the issues as soon as possible.

 Are you emphatic?

While working on an assignment, a team member could fall ill or there could be another emergency at his/her end. You must be ready to let your team member go at that particular moment. You must be ready to put that extra bit in the project. You become a great team member when you consider everyone as equal.

 For individual contribution:

 Are you really sure?

First and the foremost thing for an individual’s contribution is to be 200% sure. It is not an easy game. You are responsible and accountable from start to end. You are the only person who will take care of the smallest as well as the most crucial of things. And the catch is, once you are in, there is no looking back. You have to stick till the end, come what may. So, be sure if you are really a person who can swim the waves without hesitation.

 Will you be able to handle crisis situations?

A crisis can occur to teams or individual contributors. But in contrast to a team, an individual contributor has to deal with such situations alone. Although these situations are very valuable for the lessons learnt from them, the question is, do you have the commitment, attitude, will and the zeal to outperform a crisis situation? If yes, you have a long way to go.

 Can you sustain it?

Individual contribution looks fancy in the early stages of your career. This is mainly due to high energy levels, less number of assignments and the sheer joy of success and appreciation. But in the long term, be an individual contributor only when you can sustain it. When you grow in your role, you want people around you to help you. Even a king has his people with him to run the kingdom.

 You are not always a individual contributor and not always a team player. You can play both roles. The choice is yours!

Contributed By : Virag Jain ( Class of 2010, IBS Mumbai).

The word curator comes from, curare meaning ‘take care’.

Museums and galleries employ curators to select and manage the items to display. A curator is an overseer who takes on the task of managing collections related to a particular material of cultural, social or personal importance.

The specialist known as the content curator takes care of content, online. Content curation requires sifting through large amounts of information; sorting, arranging, annotating and finally showcasing it to the masses or the select audience as the case may be.

The data online is abundant, however, and it would be impossible for anyone to go through all of it in their lifetime. Thankfully, we humans love to compartmentalize (and we don’t suck at technology). We itch to arrange the knowledge that we come across. We love to make connections. It feels rewarding to build up a collage of tidbits which let us comment through a body of collected work. And even more fulfilling as we sit back and enjoy a sparkling insightful discussion ensue.

Social web encourages the sharing of content and media online. Many newspapers and magazines (like Scoop.it, Curata.com) have emerged online having adopted the science of content curation. Good content is like a needle in the World Wide Web haystack.

If you are on Pinterest or Twitter, you are already part-curator. You are an opinion leader.

Full blown content curation, on the other hand, is hard work. It is a much lengthier procedure than just sharing an article with a comment-note saying how great it is. There is a good chance of the curator becoming ‘content fried’. There may be time restrictions, too much valuable data or simply a profusion of useless, outdated data.

The content needs to be presented in an organized and meaningful way. This saves the reader time and effort which would have otherwise been spent online searching through huge amounts of data, most of it irrelevant. A content curator site can be a blessing – As SlideShare is to students all over the world.

Curated content promises quality and must deliver it. A lot of research therefore goes into content curation. Curated content is hardly original but the process of curation is unique in execution.

The content curator, using interpretation skills and relevancy, continually seeks, examines and handpicks the content that best reflects a theme or context. Quality is what distinguishes the better content from the rest. It brings in the readers as well as appreciation.

Amanda Di Silvestro, in her article for the Search Engine Journal, lists a number of benefits for the content curator:

• Improving relationship with the sites whose content you share
• Growing authority on a subject (provided the curation is proper)
• Adding quality content to your site or timeline
• Creating a good resource for others
• Saving time from creating content from scratch

Content curation can be done manually but it just takes longer. There are other, more popular, automated methods used for online content curation:-

Collaborative Filtering:

This method uses the evaluations, prior activities, votes and views of a particular social community to automatically identify relevant content. Reddit and Youtube are good examples.

Semantic Analysis:

Principles of factor analysis are used in this method to examine the relationship between various bits of information on the page. LifeHack uses Semantic Analysis to break up content according to category and topic.

Social Rating:

This method employs user-ratings and recommendations in order to select content. It suggests content based on similar interests and activities. For a live example, just visit Facebook.

74% of marketers say curation is an important element of their content strategy, as per a Trapit survey.

Content curation has emerged as a favorite amongst the content marketers as it provides the opportunity to engage with potential customers and augments on the original content, inexpensively.

Here are a few tips to effectively curate content:-

1. Include infographics, images, podcasts from other sources. Anything which will complement your content is worth adding. It will make it more interesting to go through the content and keep the attention of the readers.
2. Use a variety of sources and place timely information. Ideally, you should have more than one source if you wish to curate content. More sources imply more knowledge on the subject.
3. Supplement the curated content with your own views and comments. Explain how what you are sharing is relevant.

“A good curator is thinking not just about acquisition and selection,

 but also contextualizing.” – Joanne McNeil

4. Use tools like Feedly to organize and pull content. The job of curation can be made much easier and swifter by the use of right marketing tools.
5. Leverage your distribution channels. Curate content for social media, e-newsletters and owned media. The value of what you share will reflect on your offering.
6. Take permission. Most authors would be happy to have their content being shared on different distribution channels as your own. It is still a good idea to keep them informed to avoid any legal hassles later.
7. Use the ‘embed content’ option wherever possible during content curation display.

Soundcloud, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and others let you share the content on your own media sites with just a click of a button.

8. Track clicks and measure your content curation.

According to marketer Heidi Cohen, 40 % of content curators don’t measure the effectiveness of their curation. Don’t be one of them. You can use Google URL builder to create customized URLs and Google Analytics to learn the number of clicks per piece of content. This will let you conclude which type of content is well received and plan for future content accordingly.

We hope this article proves of help to those interested in content curation. The one thing to remember is-

Knowledge is power.

And well packaged knowledge is comfort.

Remember this, and become a good content care-taker.

People really are looking for water. But ultimately they don’t want to drink out of a fire-hose

— really they want a glass of water.

 If you can be there providing that glass of water on a consistent basis,

you’ll begin to garner their trust. – Scott Scanlon

Contributed By : Ankita Verma (Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad).

Professionals from all streams undertake MBA qualification in order to enhance their career. The syllabus i.e., course content of MBA is in most cases totally unrelated to their earlier field of specialization. The main subjects included in MBA are Marketing, Financial Management, Human Resource Management etc. Though these subjects are useful and relevant to most organizations, learning these subjects alone does not justify huge time and cost invested in the MBA qualification.

The crux of the learning is in the personality transformation that one undergoes during the course. The personality does not simply mean your physical appearance, etiquette and manners, the way of speech etc, but includes developing self-confidence, an attitude of positive growth and transformation in the way one perceives and responds to evolving situations. The inclusion of group projects, seminar presentations, case studies etc in the course helps to some extent. However, the responsibility for major development and growth rests on the individuals themselves. An MBA student must develop the habit of quiet introspection, voracious reading (other than the text books) and reflection, picking up and exploring new ideas and approaches to living. One such idea which all MBA students would find extremely useful is given by the phrase, “going the extra mile” or simply “walk the extra mile”. Literally it means to make more effort than is expected of you; to try harder to please someone or get the task done correctly; to do more than one is required to do to reach a goal. If someone decides to go the extra mile, he will do everything he can to make something succeed, going beyond his normal call of duty.

The origin of expression “the extra mile” can be traced back to Bible, when Jesus declares in his ‘Sermon on the Mount’, “whoever forces you to go one mile go with him two”. In those days Roman law allowed soldiers to compel Jewish natives to carry their equipment for one roman mile (1000 paces or 1473 meters). The soldiers backpack equipment usually weighed 50 kg and it was not easy task to carry it. This was unpopular law. Jesus wanted his followers to show unexpected helpfulness that went beyond what was required. This had transformation effect on the average soldier. Thus the phrase “going the extra mile” is based on teachings of Jesus and it means to go beyond what is expected to achieve positive result. In the current business scenario the connotation of the phrase ‘the extra mile’ has undergone change. In reference to the workplace it means your position isn’t just a job but you are part of a team and willing to help outside your duties and assigned tasks. Employers are always on the lookout for people who are willing to go the extra mile.

There are many quotations regarding going the extra mile. A few of these are reproduced below:

1. “There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach
2. “One of the most important principles of success is developing the habit to go the extra mile” – Napoleon Hill
3. “Strive not to be a success, rather to be of value” – Albert Einstein

Even though there are many examples of persons employing the principle of going the extra mile to reach great heights, the contribution of Napoleon Hill in spreading this approach cannot be ignored. The professional life of Napoleon Hill himself is classical example in going the extra mile. Andrew Carnegie, a great industrialist, wanted to explore principles of success which are generally applicable in all fields of activity. Napoleon Hill who was a law student then, agreed to carry out this mission with no remuneration. He worked for 20 years and interviewed many people in top positions, which included founders of great companies, presidents, inventors, famous philanthropists etc. He took lot of time to observe such people to determine what principles they employed in their approach to life and work. Napoleon Hill carried out the mission often with strain on his personal life besides criticism and ridicule from relatives. In his own words we quote “between the needling of my relatives and the hardships I endured, it was not easy to maintain positive mental attitude and persevere.” Today we can see that going the extra mile for twenty years and enduring all the hardships has paid him well. He has completed the research and became a world renowned celebrity. He has written many books based on his research and two of his best books are titled “Think and Grow Rich” and “Success through positive mental attitude”.

His research and writings have influenced millions of people to take ideas, inspiration and grow to great heights. One such example is of Og Mandino who built his life based on Napoleon Hill’s books. He himself is a celebrity and has published many best seller books, the best book being “Best Salesman in the World”.

Going the extra mile is not just an action plan or strategy. It is a state of mind such that it is part of everything that one does in life. It is a mental attitude that is important.

Today, the world is fiercely competitive in all areas of activity, primarily because of tremendous development in the field of communication, computerization and faster means of travel. The world is like a global village where everyone knows everything almost instantly. There are two ways to beat the competition. One is to lower the price and second is to increase the quality and quantity of your products and services.

In today’s highly competitive circumstances, good or even great is not enough. To shine out one has to be outstanding and outperforming. Consumers have numerous choices and ability to change over to another supplier of goods and services one may require. Price and quality alone cannot win the war at the market place. What is required is great attitude to customer service. Customer service is not an extra burden, but an opportunity to please and delight the customer. A satisfied customer is the most important marketing strategy for a firm. This cannot come without everyone in the organization embracing the concept of going the extra mile. We can say that going the extra mile is the ultimate competitive edge.

Great leaders well understand that whatever you give, you will get. You go extra mile for others and they will go twice the distance. Going the extra mile is highly infectious. The most powerful aspect of going the extra mile is the cascading effect it has on others. Leaders who go extra mile themselves inspire others in the organization. Setting an example of going the extra mile is far more effective than any amount of training sessions or task setting etc.

Future will consist of only two types of firms. One are those who employ people with habit of going the extra mile and other are those who are bankrupt. What you like to make of your career is in your hands and the best time to develop such great attitudes and mindsets is during your MBA program.

Going the extra mile brings in numerous benefits. Some key benefits are listed below for you to understand so that you don’t render extra service resentfully and unwillingly.

1. The law of compensation and law of increasing return
2. Gaining favourable attention and creating opportunity
3. Self improvement and becoming indispensible
4. Personal initiative and favourable contrast
5. Developing self confidence and pleasing attitude
6. Creating win-win situation

The biggest issue in organizational life is that of compensation for the service rendered. Your primary compensation is the paycheque. However, compensation includes money, joy, warm and loving relationships, developing patience and tolerance, an open mind and everything else worthwhile that you want.

Ultimate formula is that you render superior and greater service than you are paid for and rest assured that it will lead to your receiving far greater benefits which are beyond your wildest dreams.

Contributed By :  Sumit Gulati (Class of 2009, IBS Hyderabad).

SAM WALTON

Undoubtedly, one of the most inspiring stories of a brilliant businessman. Samuel Moore Walton was born just before the advent of The Great Depression in a small-town of Oklahoma, USA. He grew up in hard times as his family was struggling to make ends meet. During this period, he used to milk the family cow, bottle the surplus and deliver it to the customers. Subsequently, he delivered newspapers on a paper route and sold magazine subscriptions. After graduating from economics, he joined the US Army Intelligence Corps during World War-II.

After leaving the Army in 1945, he and his wife moved to Arkansas where he had a brush with retail store management in a first-ever variety store. Later on, using a loan of $20000

from his father-in-law, he started a Ben-Franklin franchise store. It was much later in 1962 when Walton opened his first Walmart Store. It was the result of years of hard-work spent in devising incredibly simple but path-breaking business strategies to create a one-of-its-kind low-cost business model. And from there, there was no looking back. Eventually, he turned a single dime store in a hardscrabble cotton town into a $485 billion Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world.

JAN KOUM

Usually, the tech-billionaires that we know of usually came from affluent backgrounds. For instance, Mark Zuckerberg’s father was a well-off dentist. Bill Gates was technically a millionaire before creating Microsoft. Larry Page’s and Sergey Brin’s fathers were both professors and the latter’s mother a NASA engineer. Jan Koum’s (Founder of WhatsApp) story compared to others is like chalk and cheese. And by far the most dramatic. Jan Koum was born to an impoverished family in Soviet-era Ukraine.

He was so poor that he queued with his Mom for food stamps, swept the floors of grocery store. During the excruciatingly gut-wrenching Ukrainian winters, he used to bath with cold water in -20 degrees temperature. At 16, he immigrated to California with his mother for hope of a better life. He had a knack for computers. So, he secured a job at Yahoo! as an infrastructure engineer where he met Brian Acton- his future business-partner and also future best friend. In 2008, he applied for a job at Facebook but was rejected outright. Two years later, on 24^th February 2009- on his birthday, he incorporated WhatsApp, which went on to become on of the world’s biggest messaging application. Finally, in February 2012, Jan Koum sold Whats App for a mammoth $19 billion to Facebook.

Chris Gardener

He is the man whose ups and downs of life was the inspiration behind the film ‘The Pursuit of Happyness’ starring Will Smith. He had a tough childhood marred by physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence and poverty. As truly depicted in the movie, while attending an unpaid internship program, Chris spent a year on the streets with his son and even took refuge in a Church shelter or a bathroom at a subway station in California.

One day, he spotted a red convertible Ferrari and offered the man behind the wheel a parking spot. Then, Chris asked the hot-shot man “What do you do and how do you do it?” The man answered, “I am a stock-broker”. Later, over lunch, that man named Bob Bridges discussed the basics of Wall Street and Chris’s chances of becoming a stock-broker. Consequently, after working with Bear Sterns & Co. he founded his brokerage firm Gardener Rich in Chicago. He is now a multi-millionaire international businessman, philanthropist and a renowned motivational speaker. In his own words: its not bad for a guy who, six years before founding his own brokerage firm, was fighting, scratching, and crawling his way out of the gutter with a baby on his back!

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI

Arguably, Mr.Ambani’s story is the grandfather of all success stories and the most retold legend of corporate India. Dhirubhai Ambani was born as second son to a lower-middle class teacher. He was raised in frugal conditions. He started off his entrepreneurial career by selling ‘pakoras’ to pilgrims in Mount Girnar (Junagarh disctrict- incidentally his place of birth). At 16, he moved to Yemen and worked for A.Besse & Co. for a paltry sum. In 1962, he came back to India and started a company Reliance Commercial Corporation with a capital of 15000/-.

His intrinsic business philosophy of ‘Profit we share ; Losses are mine’ attracted many money-lenders and business associates. And he was known to always keep his promises. He used to say “Between my past, the present and the future, there is one common factor: Relationship and Trust. This is the foundation of our growth”. A few years later in 1969-70, he started his first textile mill and launched the brand ‘Vimal’. Later, he diversified into Petrochemicals, Telecommunications, IT, Energy, Power, Retail and what not. The Times of India rightly quoted that0 ‘Ambani was the greatest creator of wealth in the century’. The department of Post also released a Rs.5 stamp in his name. Flabbergasting, isn’t it?

DO WON CHANG & JIN SOOK CHANG

Most of us are aware with the extremely popular brand ‘Forever 21’ but what we don’t know is the story of how it became what it is today. So this is how the the story of the most enterprising businessmen couple which you may never have heard of goes. A native of South Korea, Do Wong was a cleaner, dishwasher and served a gas station attendant before becoming one of the richest man in the world. He literally grew up working in Coffee shops. Do Wong immigrated to USA with his wife Jin Sook the dream of becoming a retail businessman.

After years of struggle, in the year 1984, with whatever savings they had, opened a small reasonably-priced retail clothing store in Los Angeles. Considering the prevailing circumstances, it was touted as a risky, do-or-die business move. They called the store  ‘Fashion 21’. Later, the name of changed to ‘Forever 21’ (A clever Branding Strategy). Through constant hard-work and loads of luck, the business grew steadily with around 500 stores now present in more than 50 countries world-wide and earning millions of dollars annually. This husband-wife team have become an inspiration to thousands of immigrants from Asia and other developing and under-developed countries who come everyday to USA with big dreams to live up to.

P.S: Other notable rags to riches success stories worthy of mention: Steve Jobs (Apple, Pixar, Atari), Oprah Winfrey (The Oprah Winfrey Show), John D Rockefeller (Standard Oil), Richard Branson (Virgin Airlines), Howard Schultz (Starbucks) and Ralph Lauren (Ralph Lauren Corporation). Perhaps, I will cover them in the next part of the series.

Contributed By : Pranshu Awasthi (Class of 2007, IBS Gurgaon).

Welcome to MBA! If you think your life will become extremely busy now, with no time to sleep, no time to talk to your family and friends, and sometimes no time to eat – you are right. But the good news is that you can control this. You can have an MBA-life balance, although you need to decide ‘how much.’

Here are some tips I used during my MBA and still use in my daily job.

Divide your activities in four quadrants

Follow the Eisenhower Decision Principle and divide your activities in four quadrants.  This will help you plan their execution effectively. Remember, all activities at a particular point cannot be both urgent and important. If that is the case, there is something wrong with your planning.

The ‘urgent and important’ quadrant should receive the maximum attention. For the rest, you need to make a sound judgement call, barring the ‘not urgent, not important’ quadrant, of course.

Stick to schedules

Create a matrix of your schedule, dividing the list of activities and the time you want to spend against them. Trust me, you are bound to break the rules in the first few months. In most cases, you will not be able to follow your schedule. But it will soon become a habit and you will start loving it. When you stick to your schedule, you will feel accomplished and will respect yourself more. Never assume that work-life balance is a 50:50 balance. The same is true for MBA and life.

Believe it or not: you can’t manage everything

Do you like to take everything on yourself? If yes, change this habit as soon as possible, else you will be in big trouble. It is good to feel that some things can be best done only by you, but at the same time, give others a chance. Train them and share the load. By training others, you do not forget what you know. In fact,you earn respect as a great mentor. So if there is an MBA assignment for a group of five people, do contribute, but let others also do their bit. You know how much effort you put in the assignment;but scores will be shared equally after all. By this, I do not mean not putting your 100% efforts, but motivating others as well to do their 100%.

Prioritize your priorities

At times, everything looks attractive. You could be in a position when your exams, a best photograph competition, and theater act timings are clashing with each other. There will be times when you will not be able to prioritize. What to do then? In such cases, assign time to activities that are most important for your long-term career goals, or are helping you to build a strong resume. At the end of two years, you should have a convincing story to tell – even if that means sacrificing few things for a better future.

Say no and do not feel bad about it

Our Indian culture sometimes makes us feel bad when we say no to others. Believe me, working in a global environment has taught me that saying no is not bad. People appreciate it when you are honest with them. When you do not have the bandwidth to take up something, please say no. And most importantly, do not feel guilty about it. It is worse to take up an assignment and not give your 100% rather than saying no upfront. Set the right expectations so that panic situations do not arise.

Manage your relationship well

By the time we go for our MBA, either we have a relationship or we enter into one soon. Let me be very blunt in saying that it is an added responsibility. Even when you have set the expectations with your partner, the bar of expectations will keep rising. Be prepared for that and let your relationship act as a motivation for your career rather than a hindrance. If your partner is in the same college or doing MBA elsewhere, provide inputs for their assignments and ask their views/inputs for your projects. It is fun and at the same time, your work is not hampered. People who have a working partner need not worry too much about managing relationships. The working partner will do it well.

Manage stress daily

With several activities running in parallel, stress is bound to happen. Make sure you do something that keeps you going. Join a sport, an art class, dance group, or whatever interests you, so that you have time for yourself. Take a break sometimes and watch a movie. Go out with friends for  dinner. These small things create a big impact in our lives. Develop these habits before you join a corporate career, otherwise there could be a big trap waiting for you.

Let us be honest with ourselves and list down the things that matter to us the most. After penning them down, draw a pie of what percentage of your time from your life is required for each of those. The sooner we do this, the better it is. Sometimes, a simple effort of self-mirroring changes our life. Remember – no one knows you better than you do.

Contributed By : Virag Jain ( Class of 2010, IBS Mumbai).