One of the most important tasks that any person has to do is decision making. It is crucial and also requires a steady mind-set. A company or an organization requires strategic decision making at the management level for essential decisions to be taken. For example strategic decision-making is taken for new product lines, increasing sales incentives, long term forecasts like opening new chains, research data on customers etc. Strategic decision-making is also known as strategic planning. It is a process in which a company creates its objectives and mission in order to achieve their goals.

MBA is not a course limited to theories or presentations on paper. It highlights real life experiences beyond one’s thought and imagination. It is designed in a manner in which one could understand the basics and apply it in real life situations. Decision-making is one of the toughest yet essential tasks one could be bestowed with. During the course of MBA each one is put through skills and tasks to take effective decisions. Some of them are:

• Introduction: The first day of college when we are asked about ourselves, we talk about our school life, graduation, personal life, family, aspirations etc. We also state the reason for choosing MBA in our course of study. This is the first step where we made a decision of studying MBA and how it could help us in our career.
• Case Study Discussion: Case studies are provided to understand how a management works and people associated with it take strategic decisions for the benefit of the organization. We are provided with questions that compel us to step into the shoes of the corporate team and think like them. At this stage we apply our theoretical concepts to blend with the situation and take a decision, which is most appropriate.
• Presentations: Making presentations on individual topics or case studies motivates us to include points which are crucial to highlight problems/causes of a case. We make a decision to understand the matter of the case in relation to the concepts we had studied earlier.
• Electives: Based on our study from the first two semesters we understand how a management works in an organization and various decisions made. Similarly associating our knowledge with the future of which division we would work, will lead to us making a decision on which elective we need to choose to build our future.

We create strategies as a path to reach the goals and vision. The foundation/base of anything is made strong only when the top-level management makes strategies that are best suited for all levels of management. MBA teaches its students to link their goals and motives to the vision they seek in their life. Hereon, they are motivated to enhance their learning, skills, traits and knowledge necessary to support and build their vision. With such alignment they are trained to take strategic decisions that will help them in enhancing the quality of their career growth and organization as a whole.

MBA creates a framework through which one would learn to take strategic decisions with discipline and in a progressive manner. With various approaches of study undertaken during the course, students are taught how to diagnose strategic positions, evaluate various actions, and arrive at the best strategic decision. MBA helps students gain knowledge to take strategic decision to:

• Understand customer needs and create value for them
• Diagnosing problem at an early stage and providing best decisions for long-term sustainment.
• Understand and create the best positioning in the market and also creating product differentiation to earn maximum profit
• Continuous innovation and redefining business modules through networks and ecosystems.
• Develop negotiation skills in order to improve the business and economic environment on a day-to-day basis.

Every organization creates data on a daily basis. Larger companies churn higher data than smaller companies. The management of a company is responsible as to how it uses this data for the benefit of their company. MBA acknowledges students to use data generated by a company in an effective manner through extensive classroom discussions, analysis of case study and providing hands-on exercises. With such knowledge and talent, MBA graduates get equipped to take on strategic decisions of a company with focused approach and strategic thinking.

Understanding every hierarchy in an organization is crucial to take effective decisions at the management level. MBA teaches a person to enhance their knowledge and experience through each level in an organization. This information and analysis helps in understanding the needs and work styles of employees and their expectations. Strategic decisions taken will be successful only when they are in sync with all employees in an organization. A project or a decision will be turned into reality when employees give in their maximum efforts towards it.

Effective strategic decisions are those, which match internal capabilities to the external opportunities. Striking a balance between the financial options, economical operations, people management helps in achieving the right strategic decisions. MBA works towards instilling professionalism and strong persona into every student.

Scaling the progress of a company is achieved when all levels of an organization work towards attaining the same goal. Building a strong foundation or base makes the top-level stay with confidence. Like every pyramid has a large and strong base to hold the top in a stable manner, great values at the bottom of every organization holds a strong management at the top. MBA teaches basic values that are essential for building a strong foundation. A series of presentations, group discussions, and personal interviews are conducted frequently to understand the thoughts of a person and the direction in which he/she wants to grow.

“Mastering an art is the spectacular vision of a smart person”.

Contributed By : Anju Bafna (Class of 2010, IBS Banglore).

Just Over Broke? Or Just Obey Boss. Whatever J.O.B. means, it is all about obeying someone’s else’s rules; achieving someone’s else’s targets; fulfilling someone else’s dreams; working for someone else. You, the guy who greets you everyday at the door, the receptionist to whom you nod a careless ‘good morning’, the guy running around with tea for everyone, your boss who eyes you grimly as you just about manage to get through the door with a minute to spare and finally the Big Person at the corner office, the person whom you rarely see and can only feel by his/her presence – all of you are just employees of the person who owns and runs the organisation.

Is that the height of your ambitions? Earning maybe a crore or two, having two cars, a fancy house or two, and then ……what? What assets have you created for yourself and the world? All the hard work that you have put in through the years has actually helped to enrich someone else. While you were probably thinking that all your dreams have been achieved with that huge bank balance, the person who is employing you is probably earning in several hundreds of crores and his assets are in multiples of what you own.

Oh no, I’m not knocking Jobs. After all, it is the jobs that feed us, clothe us, and give us a certain position in society blah blah. But just think, what would happen if the company you were working for suddenly went bankrupt. Its happening all over the world, companies suddenly crumbling overnight. What will happen to your future, your security, your family?

Or if you think that the government company to whom you have given your life’s blood, so to say, is going to take care of you after you retire, what if the government suddenly announces that it plans to stop paying out pension? What if you are suddenly slapped with a vigilance case for no fault of yours – your retirement benefits could be frozen for years until you manage to clear your name.

There are enough horror stories out there to know that these things can happen. The unexpected is sometimes, not so unusual.

What I mean to say is that sometimes a job is not really as secure as we think it is. With a job (as in an employed person with a company) there is a limit to the salary you can earn; with a job there is a limit to what you can do; with a job there is a limit to what position you can reach. Everything is limited by the vision of the company whom you work for or the people who own that company.

For those salaried people who think that they can achieve their dreams by working for a company, let me ask them a question – what are your dreams? Do you have a dream?

Is it to earn a lot of money?

Is it to own a lot of houses?

Is it to buy all kinds of luxuries?

Is it to go on fancy holidays?

OK, suppose you have achieved all of these, would you say that you are fully satisfied?

Your income is directly proportion to your ability to perform in a company. Now suppose, you lost the ability to perform, then your income will be zero. What happens if the company you were working for, closes down? Then again, your income becomes zero. Of course, you can always look for work in another company. In this event, you are merely transferring your place of employment from one place to another. Your basic status does not change.

Now visualize this. Suppose you were the only earning member of the family and you lost the ability to work. Then what would happen to you or your family?

Jobs are very transient things. It can come and go on the whims of the people who run it.

You hear a lot of people complaining about the ‘Monday blues’ and their reluctance to go to office at the start of the week. If you are so unhappy in your work, why are you there? Where is your passion for your job? What about the dreams that you thought you would achieve by getting this job? If this job is not giving you the satisfaction that you thought it could, then why are you sticking on?

Let me tell you a simple fact of life – the only way that you can get job satisfaction is if you are doing a job that you like and the perfect job can be created only by you. You have to employ yourself – in other words, become an entrepreneur!

Yes, being an entrepreneur is risky, but then so is crossing the road. In fact, every moment of our lives is fraught with risk – you might have a heart attack; you might get a brain stroke; you might be assaulted; a car could hit you, or you might just slip, fall, and break your neck – anything can happen at any time.

Risk or fear of risk is not reason for not doing something. When you took your first baby steps, wasn’t that a risk? But you did it. When you first experimented with running, wasn’t that risky? But still you did it. We never thought of those things as risks, because they were essential for our survival.

It is funny, but it is the educated people – people with skills, who are the most scared of taking risks. Have you thought about the local kirana store owner? Or you milk supplier? Or your newspaper distributor? They are all entrepreneurs. They do not have the education, as we know it. They are not equipped with management skills. But they have the courage to set up their business and be their own bosses.

The time to take risks is now, when you are young. You have the time; you have the flexibility; you have the strength. What is stopping you? Why do you have the fear of failure? So what if you fail at first? When you started walking, didn’t you fall a few times? When your first learnt to ride on a bicycle didn’t you fall off and scrape your knees? Did that scare you?

Take your life in your hands. Shape your destiny. Steer your future the way you want it.

Take the risk. Become an entrepreneur.

Contributed By : Sidhartha Mohanty (Class of 2005, IBS Ahmedabad). 

There are a lot of students out there who are more scared of the Group Discussion part of the selection process to a management program than they are of the entrance test or interview and I would say, they are right to be scared. Many promising candidates have been weeded out at the GD stage just because they made some silly goof-ups.  Here are some of those mistakes that you can easily commit and that you should train yourself to avoid.

1. Losing your temper or becoming emotional

Long back a friend of mine, Sonia, was going through the process of getting admission to a prestigious B-School. She lost out at the GD stage. I asked her why and she had this to relate. During the GD, every time it was her turn to speak or make a point, a male candidate sitting next to her would mutter something derogatory under his breath. The first time it happened, she ignored it. The second time it happened Sonia got slightly nervous. The third time, she lost her temper and lashed out at him. In fact, she also burst into tears after her show of temper.

The boy was hauled up for his behaviour but Sonia also did not make it past that stage. Quite simply, the selectors thought that she had overreacted to the whole situation. Nobody should take anything lying down and you have to speak out if you are being harassed or heckled in any way. But there is a way to deal with such situations. She could have calmly told the selectors about the interruptions or she could have found a way to expose his behaviour. Instead, she lost her temper and then became emotional about it. While there is nothing wrong in it technically, remember at the GD stage, the moderators are also watching how you deal with conflict, different opinions and view points and whether you can manage difficult situations.

Remember, you should never lose your cool. It does not reflect credit on your personality, however you might try to justify it.

2. Showing off your knowledge  

This is a great temptation indeed. When the GD is on a topic that you know very well and for which you have prepared hard, then you are ready to show everyone how much you know and what’s more disregard other people’ knowledge about the subject.

Remember that others too would have prepared on the same topic and they might be holding differing views and opinions. Never try to show that your knowledge is supreme and that you have all the facts at your disposal. It will tend to alienate the other group participants and will only get you negative marks in the eyes of the selectors.

Yes, you know a lot about the topic under discussion – but admit that others may have equal expertise.  Don’t be tempted to throw out data and figures at random. Keep them to a minimum.

Displaying your knowledge is fine; flaunting it is not. Statistics do not always bolster an argument.

3. Stop Talking so Much

Candidates at GDs often believe that if they talk a lot at the discussions, they are likely to catch the attention of the selectors. Nothing is further from the truth. Make your point in as few words as possible. Do not try to hog the conversation. Wait for others to stop speaking before you begin. Never interrupt someone midway. Do not jump in with your arguments. Above all, do not keep talking after you have finished making your point. Sometimes silence can emphasise your arguments much better than words. Quality is what is important, not quantity.

You are being assessed not only in what you are saying but in your communication skills as well. This includes listening too. Assert yourself, but do not try to dominate.

4. Do not play up your insecurities

Most candidates are nervous going into the GD and many people do feel that the others are better than they are. Everyone is in the same boat. Some people may know more or they may know less. But you have your own strengths. Do not let your insecurities overwhelm you. Contribute to the discussion energetically and with enthusiasm. Don’t hold back your opinions thinking that others will ridicule it or make fun. You are only hurting your own prospects.

The selectors will also be looking at your body language to gauge how you are dealing with the GD. Your uncertainty, your sense of inferiority, your insecurities can easily be read by them. Even if you are not feeling confident, talk yourself up. Boost your morale by telling yourself that you are good at what you do. Focus on your strengths.

5. Language and communication

Many candidates lose out at the GD stage simply because they have not taken enough trouble to work on their language skills. Grammar, accent, pronunciation are very important, especially since you will be talking to people from diverse backgrounds. If you have a very pronounced accent, talk slowly and clearly so that everyone can understand you. You need to practise this at home, with your friends and family.

Practise how you are going to talk. Grammar and sentence structures are very important. All your hard work and domain knowledge will go to waste if you score poorly in the language department. Fluency is essential if you are to impress your co-participants as well as the selectors.

6. Do not be scared to speak up

There are people who have never spoken in public in their lives. They have gone through their life shying away from the limelight. They may be introverts and it is quite possible that speaking in front of people makes them nervous and they may even stammer.

There is only one way to deal with this problem – overcome it. Start to talk on various topics in front of your family members. Get your close friends to co-operate with you. Sometimes just talking in front of so many people is frightening. Become accustomed to speaking in front of an audience. If you don’t get rid of that fear, it is quite possible that at the GD, your vocal will seize up and you will be unable to utter a word.

7. Stop that flow of words

I had a friend during my college days. She was a very nice girl but she was an inveterate talker. She was one of those who could and did talk continuously. She had a lot to say on every subject. The only way one could stop her was asking her to shut up! Since no one wanted to do that, we would all run away from her.

Don’t be that person.

I have spoken before about quality over quantity. Learn to restrain yourself if you have the tendency to talk and talk and talk. Some people also have the habit of gesticulating too much and throwing their hands around. Our bodies are very expressive but you have to control yourself as well.

When you talk too much the following things will happen: you will start to digress from the topic, you will talk about irrelevant things; other people will become irritated and annoyed and the panellists will be giving you negative marks. Stop, think and then speak.

8. Dress for the occasion

We all like to dress well, but remember you should dress to impress. You can dress elegantly and fashionably without being flamboyant. Sober clothes should be the order of the day.

Make sure your clothes are ironed well and are clean and neat. Keep makeup and accessories to the minimum.

9. The time to prepare is now.

You should start preparing for the GD almost as soon as you start to prepare for the entrance exam. What are you waiting for? Do not wait until the entrance exam results are announced.

Read through newspapers. Keep yourself up to date on current affairs. Start thinking about likely topics that may figure at the GD.

10. Don’t Bluff  

Keep your bluffing tactics for your card sessions with your friends. The GD is not the place to try it out. If you are not sure about some points being made at the GD by the others, do not try to bluff it out and take them up on it. If you do not know, keep your mouth shut. Do not offer your opinion on a point of which you are uncertain. The selectors who are observing you will immediately catch you out. You are not expected to know everything.

Contributed By : Sidhartha Mohanty (Class of 2005, IBS Ahmedabad). 

MBA is a multitude of discipline. Not only one has to do ordinary things in an ordinary way but also ordinary things in an extraordinary ways. Some usual things happen in a fraction of a second, but sometimes the same things may take unusual time and effort. In short, an approach to a decision is extremely important to get things rolling quickly. In an ever-changing environment, individual sustainability depends on how smart he is. It is a measure of efficiency. Biting the bullet is not the solution, but using the bait as an opportunity is what gets the stone rolling.

The very first lesson introduced to MBA participants is that ‘Management is both an art and as well as science’. This has a very broad and deep meaning attached to it. It signifies that boundaries for an MBA are limitless just like a painter whose imagination and creativity are unparalleled. Like art, management throws a lot of insights and perspective on the same thing. Multiplicity of ideas, suggestions, opinions, acts as cue for shaping the future.

Have you ever noticed why a photographer takes multiple photos for the same object?

Why a writer writes several rough drafts before the final draft?

Because, a photographer knows that there can be another best possible snap of the same object. He discards 100 photos he took to get one single photo right. A writer scraps several write-ups to come with the one best single piece. That’s how creativity comes and develops. That’s how one has to ‘destruct’ or ‘discard’ to get the most ‘creative’ or ‘constructive’ output. That’s the unparalleled theory of Constructive Destruction, which is widely seen during the MBA course.

MBA aspirants sometimes struggle during their 2-year period with the assignments, projects, internships, semesters, subjects and even sometimes their own personal life. Sometimes doing the same thing in the same ways as that of friends not only pushes you back but there is nothing separating you with any of them. In the new era of cut throat competition, only the extraordinary mind with innovative ideas can lead organisations. To reach this point, aspirants have to test their own limits and unleash their own ideas into a transformational force.

This can only be possible if the aspirants nurture their thoughts and are determined to put their creative ideas to work. One of the ways aspirants can test themselves is practically embracing constructive destruction. One has to sometimes discard their work-output to get the best work out. It’s like whipping the mind for one more idea. There are various instances where aspirants can apply this and make an indelible mark. Some instances include:

1. Solving Assignments: MBA course comprises of multiple assignments where each one requires a lot of effort and time. Each assignment has its own level of difficulty and brainstorming challenges. MBA aspirants may try to solve these assignments in the innovative ways. They could discard the ideas that strike first or seem very obvious and start thinking afresh from a new perspective. This not only provides much-needed firework but also gives enough ammo for a break through.
2. Solving Case Studies: Some case studies are simple yet their solutions are equally challenging. What may sound like a simple solution may be disguised in one of the complex problems ever and this is when a company can either pave a path to immense success or another speed bump. Such strategies change the face of the company. Some case studies show how a successful company falls for a wrong strategy by not identifying a hidden/palpable problem leading to the brink of collapse. Such strategy of bringing turnaround has greater importance for the aspirants. Creative thinking is not taught in the classrooms, but honed throughout different semesters. One has to really come out of the caves and start discarding usual solutions, strategies, thinking ideas etc. and start bringing forwards new hidden talents.
3. Product Design in Marketing: Marketing aspirant has to have a creative bent of mind. He has to deal with existing products and improvise the same into a futuristic product. He has to identify the product cycle where the product will become redundant unless new value is added to it. Innovation is the key to this. How does one reach that level of creativity? Reading books? Solving cases? Surely many aspirants would be doing that and still they get stuck. Learning theory is really great, so is the imitation theory. Where is Nokia currently or Blackberry? Both, at the far end of the road, isolated. If one has to drive excellence, one has to continuously discard the current mundane ideas and construct new ideas, thoughts and action plans. One has to mentally accept constructive destruction’s value proposition without which every endeavour will be futile.
4. Solving HR Related Issues in Human Resource Management: One finds endless challenges in an organisation, especially while dealing with people. Dealing with them requires a smart approach, a calculated perspective. Aspirants, even though being aware of the theoretical knowledge, require a strong inferential knowledge. Several case studies showed that most of the time organisations are in a dilemma while dealing with their greatest asset – Human Resource. Aspirants would have to continuously bring new approaches to deal with them. If one has to reach the top, one would certainly need to churn his ideas into something that leads to definite positive result through suitable actions.
5. Setting Processes in Operations Management: Processes drive an organization. Aspirants pursuing Operations Management sure have witnessed how the efficiency depends on the efficacy of the process. One slight change can turn the table round; increase the output to a new level. So how should one bring such justice to the organisation? Should he be continuously doing what he has been normally doing? Certainly not. He would have to shoot up new ideas and get rid of usual ones, get inspired and bring out creativity.

Aspirants have to religiously inculcate the ideology of Constructive Destruction to give way to the hidden spark within. Such approaches can not only bring the best out of one, but also drive towards excellence. MBA is an excellent program where this can be fully utilized and shape the individual to a new level.

Contributed By : Mitesh Agarwal  ( Class of 2011, IBS Hyderabad).

Have you ever wondered why people commonly say “you can fool anyone but yourself”? That is because we are the best judge of our own character. It is also said, that there is no mirror in this world in which we can see our own faults and wrongdoings.

Leaving apart the moral tone that I have set, my intent of writing this piece is to help my friends and readers understand the importance of your own weaker pulse. None of us are or can be good at everything. The competition today is tougher than ever. Be it any field or profession, knowing and leveraging your strengths is not enough, because there is always someone somewhere better than you.

There is reason we do SWOT analysis. We need to analyze the strengths and weakness of any situation equally well. These two things are complementary. All of us have them. Some, we are born with; some are conditioned with our upbringing. Therefore, before any interview it is crucial to do your personal SWOT analysis.

And yet, when asked during an interview, about our biggest weaknesses, we often fell quite – an answer that all of us have, but we are too scared to admit; a question very frequently asked, but we don’t like to ponder over.

During my placements, I always used to think why the recruiters ask these questions. Do they expect us to really be honest to ourselves and to them? What could they judge about us from the answer to this common question? Well! Here is what –

• They want to see how self assured we are, how well we know ourselves
• Do we have the courage to face and admit our own weaknesses
• Are we able to find a way to overcome our weakness

From a psychological perspective, modern HR seeks people who can reflect answers to above questions which indicate that they believe in themselves; and organizations hire assertive people who do not mind admitting their own negative traits. They understand that strengths are not purely a matter of pride and weaknesses are nothing to be ashamed of.

Self assessment is the key to achieve your personal best. And yet it is often challenging to spot your Achilles heel. So in order to identify your weaknesses, it is advisable to seek a third person opinion. People who are close to you, like family members, friends and teachers are ideal for giving an unbiased opinion about you. Remember, not all of us are good at taking criticism constructively. Therefore, it is important to keep an open mind about what people think of you. You might not agree to everything that others have to say about you, but it will give you a good starting point to introspect, have you thinking about your shortcomings.

A weakness does not necessarily have to be a part of your personality trait, like slow learner, laid back etc. It could also come from lack of some educational skill or training, a negative work habit, a weak network of connections hampering your chances of finding work. It could also be related to your health or lifestyle. I know a friend of mine who is diabetic and felt that he would not be able to fit himself in a demanding work environment. There is absolutely no problem in admitting to things that you are not capable of or fit for. Because when you work in a professional world, you do not expect the world to align itself as per your potential. On the contrary, you understand your true abilities and find a way to do justice to them.

Please note that though I have suggested the importance of identifying and acknowledging your weakness, you have to figure out a way to express it in an interview. Do not make the recruiter think that your weakness might affect your work or come in the way of the skill set that they are specifically looking for. For example, you can’t say you are not a good team player when you are indeed going to work on a team based project.  It is advisable to be subtle. You can rather be safer in saying that you feel your best potential comes out working independently, although you try your best in aligning as a team player as well. Yes! There is no harm in being a little diplomatic. But avoid using the old trick of turning your weakness into strengths. It is too clichéd and will not help you get in the interviewer’s good books.

If knowing your weaknesses is good, then trying to overcome them is even better. So before any interview, list down your weaknesses and mention the one you are working on. By doing so, you put yourself in a more assertive position and demonstrate that you take your problems seriously and are flexible to change.

Having written at lengths about knowing your weaknesses and now understanding the importance of it, I would like to mention what I would answer if someone asked me the question about my weaknesses today. To begin with, I am a procrastinator and laid back; sometimes a little slow in situations that demand promptness; I am not too comfortable in socially interacting with strangers; At times, I care way too much about having people form a specific opinion about me; I am not a very good contingency planner. These are some and there would still be many. But I like the fact that now I don’t shun away from them. I know them. I can therefore always challenge myself and not let my weaknesses pull me back in life.

Knowing your weaknesses can help you imagine the potential of what you can become if you overcome them. A real sense of personal knowledge is the most valuable asset.  Reach out for help if you need it in possessing skills that you don’t have or getting over problems you alone can’t. But do not run away from yourself. BE YOUR OWN MIRROR!

Contributed By : Isha Jajodia ( Class of 2010, IBS Gurgaon).

One of the first things that struck me when I joined IBS (at Ahmedabad) was the sheer diversity – of food, clothes, looks, cultures, thoughts, and of course, the people – who were from as diverse backgrounds as I could imagine.

At the kitchen – one of the first places my stomach insisted that I try out – there was a variety of food such as Gujarati kadhi and dhoklas, north Indian food paranthas and tadkas, south Indian sambars and dosas.. I could go on.

I am from Orissa, a state that is outside everyone’s radar. In the year when I joined, about ten years back, I could as well have been from the Moon. I wanted to tell them so much about the richness of Orissa’s culture – its dances, its literature, its art forms, the temples, architecture, and the minerals from the state. But I was too tongue-tied in the initial days to assert myself like that.

Then I met another man from the Moon – a senior student who was also from Orissa and I felt comforted. Its always to meet other people from the same place that you are, especially if you are in a minority.

Diversity – A fact of Life at IBS

Diversity is a reality in IBS and if you are lucky to join any of its institutes, it is as if you are in a mini-Indian setup.  In common with many other institutes of repute, IBS is a melting pot of cultures, and different academic domains. What makes it unique is the relatively lower concentration of students, which makes us more intimate with one another and come into closer contact with the diverse people we see here. There is more mingling of the cultures and there is a lesser tendency for people of one state to stick together.

A study by Crisil last year showed that in IBS Hyderabad, about 30 percent of the students were from West Bengal, followed by 17 percent from Delhi and 12 percent from Uttar Pradesh. Other states such as Maharashtra, MP, Andhra Pradesh were also represented.

The students were from various academic streams. Predictably, nearly half were from the engineering stream but then there were students who had graduated in arts, science, commerce, business administration and other disciplines.

I have not seen too many international students, but I understand that there are some studying in some of the institutes.

In my initial days at IBS, I was bemused by the cacophony of languages resounding in my ears in the dormitories, common room, dining hall – Hindi (in various dialects), Bengali, Maithili, Bhojpuri, Telugu, and Marathi. They would be talking to one another in Hindi or English – then suddenly someone’s phone would ring and that person would switch to his or her own language – indicating that it was a family member they were talking to or someone from home.

Diversity Creates an Integrated Community

This may seem like a contradiction but it is true. When you are from different backgrounds and cultures, you take more time to get to know the other person and this creates greater bonding. Since there were very few people from my home state, I had to make friends with students from the other states.

I felt closer to them than I had ever felt with people from my own state or who had similar backgrounds. Yes, a lot of us were from engineering and many of us were in the same boat struggling to understand financial management and accounting, but we would take help from the commerce students who were only too willing to help us.

Our work on various projects brought in different kinds of ideas because everyone thought according to their individual backgrounds. This inevitably led to arguments and fights but I think we got closer in a sense. There was fun; there were challenges; sometimes it was hilarious and we learned a lot.

Diversity – The Best Teacher

I can’t think of anything, which prepares you, better for the outside corporate world than the diverse character of the IBS institutes.

Your communication skills definitely improves and language is only part of it. Accents differ, so do pronunciations and you realise that you have to adjust our speech and manner of speaking so that others can understand it too. You can take it as an opportunity to learn a new language, if you are so inclined.

Communication would also mean appreciating certain nuances of in the way that others interact and in their usage of certain words.

You become more tolerant of others – their habits, their mannerisms, the way they react to situations and events and sometimes this might even rub off on you. You start to appreciate the perspectives of others who are from a different culture or mindset.

You also become diplomatic. Diplomacy has become a dirty word and it is often confused with hypocrisy and trying to downplay things. This is not the truth. Diplomacy is all about being subtle. When you get into the corporate world you will realise that diplomacy forms a large part of your communication and management skills.

If you working as part of a diverse team, diplomacy is often called for in dealing with your peers and bosses.

Diversity enriches your personality. I am not surehow this works but I have found that students who have come from a diversified background in terms of their experiences and interactions make better colleagues and work mates. It is easier to establish a rapport with them.

When living among diverse groups you get experiences – at second hand certainly – that you would otherwise not have been exposed to. It gives you more learning and understanding than you could ever get from any management book.

For myself I can say that the global exposure that I had in IBS as a result of its diversity has been an enormous advantage to me in my career. I have always felt confident that I can fit in anywhere and have never felt the need to surround myself with people from my own culture and background. The more different, the better.

Contributed By : Sidhartha Mohanty(Class of 2005, IBS Ahmedabad).

You know, everyone says that life is unpredictable. That could be true. I say, that life is what you make of it.

Your life is a reflection of what you want; how you want it to be; the way you think and what you think. At school and college I was generally considered a very steady and sober person – the kind of guy who will stick to one job his whole life and lead a very stable kind of an existence.

I can tell you that my life has been an absolute roller coaster of an existence and I’ve worked at some many companies and so many job roles that it has been an education in itself. I always think that we have this one life and we should do all the things that we want to do in it.

There are lots of people out there who enter a company, stick it out there for years, work their way up and retire from that company. Many of them have made a success of it too. Somehow that kind of existence does not really appeal to me. My life as I will relate to you shortly has been something of a gamble and I am still doing it.

Post-Campus Recruitment

In 2005, I was recruited from my campus at IBS Ahmedabad by ICICI Bank for their wealth management division as private banking relationship manager. That sounds like a fancy designation as if I was handling a lot of the money for wealthy clients. My job profile was simple: Get hold of stinking rich individuals (we call them ultra-HNI or high net-worth clients) and try to sell them all kinds of financial products and make sure that they invested in it.

My hunting field was Baroda. The title ‘Manager’ might sound like I was some big shot. I had no team and I was operating solo. Once in a while, I had an intern to accompany me – but that was only to show him or her the ropes.

In a year, my profile changed. I don’t know what my bosses thought about my selling abilities and drawing in moneyed clients for them but in 2006 I was put on small and medium scale enterprises  profile changed to SME Relationship Manager handling SME clients and owners of small and mid-size companies. I had to bring them to the private wealth platform. That was an awesome experience from which I learned a lot. Truly nothing can give you the kind of experience that a sales role can. I cannot claim to have been a wizard at the job but I managed to mobilize₹1.5 cr in 3 months! For me, that was a huge achievement.

Let me say it here and now that ICICI Bank is one of the hardest taskmasters in the business. They set stiff targets and they expect you to achieve it. No excuses. It is a gruelling schedule but I do think that is one of the best ways to learn. If you’ve managed to stick it out here you can do it anywhere.

Looking back now, I can say, without any false modesty that I was no mean achiever.In 2006 I got the private banking awardfrom the Head of PBG, ICICI Bank, under Asia pacific private banking awards to ICICI employees.

The Roller Coaster Begins..

Well, every journey must come to an end and at the end of 2006 I resigned from the bank due to work pressure and organizational &cultural differences and difficult bosses who changed very often.

I didn’t sit around idle you may be sure. It didn’t take me long to join another financial services company, though a lot smaller than what I had started out with. I joined Bajaj Capital but it was a very brief stay. Just six months and I’m sorry to say that I had to quit due to non-achievement of sales targets and work pressures. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. Maybe that stint with ICICI Bank had burned me up. I was also not happy with the salary at Bajaj and had personal issues with some of the people there.

Back to the ICICI group, this time with ICICI Lombard as Manager in Ahmedabad.Another six months and I found that I was not enjoying my job profile and the politics in the company. I did what had started to become a regular feature with me – I resigned.

After that I decided that I would wait for a while before jumping into another job. So I was unemployed for about five months while I was waiting for the right job profile.

Towards the end of 2008 I joined IIFL in Pune as equity Manager and was selling Portfolio Management Services andbig ticket size products to HNI’s in Pune. I stuck it out for six months before – again, office politics, work pressure and non-achievement of targets forced me out. This was becoming a pattern. Worrying, huh?

I then shifted to Baroda. Here I joined L&T Finance Ltd as Regional Head for Gujarat. I  started the financial products distribution business which expanded to various cities in the state. I had a team of 30 people reporting to me and here I had a really long stint for about two years before quitting again due to office politics.

The year 2010 saw me rejoining IIFL as Branch Head at Baroda taking care of  the Branch’s equity, commodity and currency business. I traded on behalf of clients and was responsible for the branch’s profitability. I stayed for a year but again left the job due to work pressure., Attrition was high among the staff and it had an impact on my targets and the profitability of the branch.

In 2011 I was drifting around for a bit. For the first six months, Idid some freelance assignments including content writing work etc. In 2012, Ishifted to Mumbai and joined a PR/IR firm as IR (Investor Relations) consultant, a complete shift from what I did earlier. I was new to the domain but learnt fast.

The Entrepreneur

I handled IR for clients, made company analysis and handled investors’ meets. I was here

for a year and half and then the entrepreneurial bug bit me and I left the company.

I’m still in the initial stages of my entrepreneurial journey and there’s no saying how it is going to go. After a few false starts, I’ve now realised what I want to do.

Yes, there have been a lot of ups and downs for me – maybe more of the downs than the ups.It has taken me a long time to learn that I am not an ‘employable’ person and I should have been an entrepreneur right from the first.

But if you ask me, I wouldn’t exchange all my experiences for anything in the world.

Contributed By : Sidhartha Mohanty(Class of 2005, IBS Ahmedabad).

(The knowledge of cost-benefit ratio)

 A few days back, at the onset of the ICC cricket world cup 2015, we decided to purchase a new television. Little did we know that I and my husband are going to get engulfed in the famous brand debate? While I am a brand conscious person to some extent, my husband on the other hand believes in value -for-money.

With so many choices available in the market today, we stood in the home appliances showroom like a common Indian married couple trying to make up our minds. It was difficult to convince a person like me that a not-so-well-known brand can offer better video and audio quality than the big known brands like Sony and Samsung.

Let’s first point out the basic flow of thoughts when we as consumers decide to purchase something expensive. By expensive I mean anything valued above INR 10,000/-

• Identifying a need and making a purchase decision
• With internet as source of information to everything, access to product information is much easier and has greatly influenced our buying behavior in the past few years. So mostly, the second step is researching on the internet about your desired product and the choices available in the market.
• It is followed by assessing your requirement and choosing a product whose features are best suited to those requirements.
• And the final decision is evaluating the budget and your willingness to spend on your chosen product. With ample product choices, you might be able to find the product that ticks all your check boxes – pricing, features, quality, after sales service and so on.

But there is one thing – and a very important thing at that – that only a brand name could offer; and that is reliability, your ability to trust the brand that you are buying.

There is a reason why big companies spend an incredible amount of time, money and effort to build a brand name and occupy space in the minds of the consumers. It is purely to gain their trust and in turn influence their buying decision. In 2012, Forbes therefore ranked Apple as the top global brand name valued at $87.1 billion.

So how much a brand name holds the potential of blinding the consumer judgment? The answer is – quite a lot! The whole objective of creating the brand identity in consumer mind is to bias our judgment.

Don’t you agree? Let’s imagine a scenario:

You go to a mall. There are many different shops of clothing, apparels, accessories, shoes cosmetics and others. Yet you roam around looking for your signature brand, to which you associate yourself the most. It defines your style, marks your attitude and shapes your personality. You only wear Levis’, use a bag from Baggit and sport a watch of citizen. Admit it or not, in the era driven by western consumerism, we all have turned into brand conscious animals.

Since companies spend fortunes on creating brand names, they don’t mind charging for it as well. A solid and well established brand does not need to sell itself as it has its own base of loyal customers. But, how worthy it is to cloud our decision making by the influence of a brand name. You might argue that for some brands, it is totally worth it. Or is it?

A rational consumer like my hubby refrains from being influenced by the brand USP and prefers making more informed decision –given the low cost and competitive range of products, why to spend extra on the products that are not worthy of the tag they hold.

However in some cases, brand is not just a name. And the reason we know the brand is because it is worth knowing. It could be for multiple reasons, like after sales service, extended warranty on product, long lastingness of the item purchased, better quality material etc. It is not just a portrayal of the product or the image of the buyer. Maruti Suzuki, for example, is one such brand in the automobile segment. Despite many internationally established car manufacturers entering the Indian market in the last many years, Maruti has managed to sustain its loyal customer base purely on the basis of its after sales convenience. You can go anywhere in the country with any model of Maruti car. Whether or not the car is still in production, you will always manage to find the same spare part of the car you might have bought years ago.

Surely, in the highly competitive era, companies don’t mind exploiting the vast segment of brand conscious consumers. But there are some corporations that understand the more price sensitive consumer lot and rely more on innovativeness than on creating brand appeal. Also, with the increase in purchasing power of middle and lower middle income group, many companies, especially in the consumer durables segments are creating their own niche by offering same features at lower prices. Consider the smart phone market for instance. Companies like Micromax, Gionee, Intex, Lava, have crawled in through the competition and have established their footprints successfully in this highly brand sensitive segment driven by big names like Samsung, Nokia/Microsoft and Motorola.

It is a clear indication that in the times to come, we can expect a more aware and informed customer and not just the one driven by big brand names. The top names in any segment should resort to more productive and unique ways to market than just relying on their brand equity.

Our generation has grown up watching celebrities endorsing famous brands and strong advertising campaigns by companies, which has led our subconscious to believe in the mantra of “the costlier the better”. We would hesitate buying anything which might be better but belongs to an unknown brand. I remember our parents not oriented to this thought and rather believed in “simple living and high thinking”.

To buyers:  Don’t be fooled by what you see or what you are told!

To sellers: Sell the value more and the name less!

P.S.: We ended up buying an Intex LED 24’’, and I am quite convinced that it offers better image quality than Sony and Samsung; my opinion being strictly personal.

Contributed by :Isha Jajodia (Class of 2010,IBS Gurgaon).

At many job interviews, the panel is not merely assessing the job skills of the candidates. Most candidates who appear for jobs have similar skills and it becomes very difficult to choose from among them. Job interviewers have however become smart and they look beyond the skills and the attempts of the candidates to try to impress them with their knowledge and expertise. There is another precious commodity that interviewers look for and, which is often ignored by most candidates – trustworthiness.

In fact, you can say that employers may be unconsciously looking for trustworthiness from prospective employees. Most of the questions they ask point towards it. Lets face it – of what use is all the skills in the world and being excellent at the job if finally the employee betrays their trust in some way? But I think that most employers are satisfied with reasonable competence in the people whom they employ.

How do you assess the trustworthiness of a person? There are two qualities that seem to indicate this – warmth and competence. Yes, skills are important, the job demands it and in certain kinds of industries and job situations, skills may certainly mean all the difference between life and death. So certainly, competence is part of the trust thing.

When we say warmth, we mean a certain empathy of manner that the person sends out. This also means good intentions and your readiness to make good on those intentions. Think of a doctor or a surgeon. Obviously if the surgeon is skilled, we would have a lot of trust in him. If he also showed warmth with a certain indication that he would do everything in his power to heal you our trust in him is complete and total.

So you need both if you want to appear as a person to be trusted. Competence without warmth can actually appear dangerous like an automaton or a robot. Equally, warmth without the desired competence is of no use.

Highlight your competence because that is what attracted them in the first place when they looked at your resume. In person, you have the chance to show your warmth of character, your empathetic side and your good intentions.

No interviewer is actually going to ask you if you are to be trusted. But there are ways of answering certain question so that they get the idea.

“Tell me something about yourself.”

This is a very common question asked at most interviews and this is usually among the very first questions to be asked. There are underlying subtexts to this question. It is not so much as what they want to know about you as how you perceive yourself.

It is when answering this question that people give away little things about themselves. How do they describe themselves? How do they view their accomplishments? Are they proud of what they have done so far? Or do they tend to downplay their achievements?

This is the perfect question where you can subtly introduce not only your competence but also your warmth. Try to show that you’re grateful for the opportunities that you got in your life and career. Be humble about what you’ve accomplished. Appear modest about the times when you’ve gone beyond the call of duty. Emphasise that you are only too happy to do things, which go beyond your brief, that this is a normal and routine occurrence for you.

Research has shown that if you underplay your abilities, interviewers are likely to give them more weightage. Play on that psychology. Of course, you should be careful not to be too humble. That might attract suspicion.

Instead of saying, “my clients absolutely love me,” you can say, “I try my best to understand what why clients want and deliver it to them.’

SHOW YOUR GRATITUDE

Have you seen how a good boss always praises his team and says that he could have done the job without them? Take a cue from that.

If this is your first job, thank your professors and teachers and attribute all your knowledge that you have gained to them.

Instead of saying, “I was a brilliant student,” say, “my professors worked hard so that we could easily understand what we were being taught. Whatever I have learned is due to them.”

It gives prospective employers the impression that here is a person who is not afraid to give credit where it is due and does not want to take all the credit on oneself. You’ll get extra marks for this.

“Why did you leave your last job?”

This is another very common question that prospective employees will be asked. Those with job experience can expect to be asked this question. Whatever happens do not bad mouth your previous company or your employer. It is one of the worst tactics that you can employ and it is a sure deal breaker.

You can say that you are looking for new challenges but you also have to make it clear that you left the previous job only with a lot of regrets. Display a sense of loyalty and affection for the company you are proposing to leave.

Make it clear that if you had got the opportunities that you are looking for then you would have never left the job. This will make them think that you are a very loyal person and only in extreme circumstances would you leave your job.

Do not seem too eager to leave your current position if they ask, “how soon can you join us?” Tell them that it will take some time to wind up your work and shed your responsibilities and that you cannot just walk out of the place at a moment’s notice.

This indicates a sense of responsibility and a certain integrity with regard to your work commitments. This will assure them that in a similar situation, you will not leave them in the lurch and you can be counted on, in other words, trusted.

You can also show your warmth by asking the interviewers questions in your turn, if time and the occasion permits. You may ask, “So how long have you been working here?” “I understand that you are heading xx department. It must be challenging.”

Next time you are in front of an interview panel, remember these tips.

Contributed By : Sidhartha Mohanty(Class of 2005, IBS Ahmedabad).