Sachin Tendulkar, also known as God of cricket, wrote an article “the little steps matter” for Hindustan Times that summarised his journey till then in very simple words. Much to the surprise of many, there weren’t any success mantras, only few perspectives on keeping life simple and working with a single minded focus.

Single minded focus, what does that imply? With the kind of speed the world is operating at, is it really possible to think of single minded focus, let alone live your life with the concept! Is multi tasking not the order of the day?

So what works really? You may be facing this question if you are in job already or searching fr employment. The answer is that there is no fixed answer for anything! You can create success for yourself using both or any of the two concepts. You can choose to work with a single minded focus on a single task, assignment, project, number, vision, goal etc or you can choose to juggle between multiple things and switch from one to another without losing sight of the end result. What really makes a difference is you!

Multi tasking or single minded focus

Multi tasking means the ability to handle varied or interrelated tasks simultaneously. But if we dwell deeper we find that people who are good at achieving results with multi tasking actually work with a single minded focus. Does that mean there is some problem with our definition of multitasking? May be there is! Consider this then ‘multitasking is the ability to perform various tasks in a quick succession.’

Did you get some answers? All of us multitask, we talk while driving, we listen to music while cooking and we never complain about it. It doesn’t drain our energy, it doesn’t distract because perhaps they require an attention of lower order. Where is the problem then; when we have tasks that require a higher degree of attention?

Take the example of a sport like cricket. How effective would a player be who scores a run and gets ready to bowl the next ball or rushes to field at some place in the ground and then comes back to face the next ball. In fact we have many examples of people from cricket who decided at one point of time in their life that they would like to focus to more on one aspect than be a ‘jack of all trades’.

The choice is yours really. You are your best judge; you need to find out what works for you the most. This will take some time to test a concept and decide that works or doesn’t work for you. All the best for your quest!

Most of the people who are applying for admissions to MBA feel that getting into a good b-school is the most difficult and those who are in feel that getting out is more difficult! Strange as it may sound, but getting out of a b-school is no easy. Reason, during you MBA you have to make some tough decisions and deciding on the specialization is one of them.

One of the first things to understand is that specialization is not something that one should worry about at or from the time of joining. Most of the students remain perturbed about their specialization from day one! If you have carefully chosen an MBA for your post graduate studies then understanding the course and industry expectations in semester one is more important than worrying about anything else. Remember, there are many in the campus who (mis)guide you on this.

Most of the institutions require you to choose a specialization in semester three, which means you have a year at your disposal to understand the specialization well before you zero into something. In fact most of the course curriculum in semester one and two touches upon some aspects of all the specializations. So you know well what each specialization entails and depending upon your interest you can make the right decision for yourself.

Traditionally, the specializations were limited to marketing, human resources, finance, IT/systems and operations management. Now there are more options available like entrepreneurship, rural development, hospitality, tourism, brand management etc. I understand more options might translate into more worries for some, but if you have understood the discipline and researched well, it shouldn’t mean much.

Before you decide: Now before you decide, you may like to consider the following for better decision making

• Understand the Subject well: Understanding does not mean whether you like the subject book or not. It means getting to know what kind of job opportunities are available for the particular discipline and whether or not want to you see yourself holding any of these positions. You may well be interested in numbers, but what roles are available in the field of finance is what is more important to know.

• Know your priorities well: Industries / organizations vary in how they reward people / employees. Some believe in fast internal promotions and lesser remuneration comparatively while others are good pay masters with lesser internal promotions. You choose one depending on what suits you more. Similarly the work hours / schedule may also be a consideration for you. Research is the key word. I would advise dedicating a good one hour towards the end of semester two.

• Use the elimination technique: An elimination method is often a good way to arrive at what fits you best. You begin by dropping out what you don’t like the most and whatever is left is the best option for you.

The focus of business education should be to develop practical skills in people which they can then use at work. In fact the b-school campus should simulate the corporate working environment; this way the students get to experience the reality rather than just the curriculum which doesn’t help much!

One of the practical skills is team work. In organizations you work with people from diverse backgrounds. They may be your colleagues, subordinates, bosses, vendors or clients. You may find working with some easier and some might be a challenge. Despite all this you have to ensure that whatever you are assigned with happens smoothly and within a given time frame.

Team work in college

This is testing for many fresh MBA’s when they start working but it has a solution while you are still doing your MBA. The college campus is also an organization of people and has challenges in equal measure as with some mid or large sized organization, the challenge is from people. In fact the concept of team work in campus has picked up abroad, where cohort structures are put in place to get home the nuances of team work among the students.

A cohort structure is deliberate attempt to bring together students from different backgrounds. This remains so for the first few months or for the entire first year. The team members in a cohort are expected to learn work as members of a team, solve problems, resolve conflicts, become responsible and ensure high level of commitment over whatever task you are assigned. The aim is to transform you from independent to interdependent, as is in a corporate setting.

One of the methods employed in the team building process is to allow students question the curriculum in a manner that they start looking beyond what is instructed. They cannot raise their voice but looking beyond is an instruction they comply with. This is one way to plant the seeds of cooperation among teammates.

At many other campuses, like the MIT’s Sloan school of management, students are put into ‘core teams’ from day one. The campus infrastructure and facilities are designed such that it requires team work to make an activity / assignment happen. The classrooms have been reconfigured there such that students face each other rather than the front of class.

Such models of team building can be (should be) replicated in our country in b-schools and the whole of education system. In fact we need it more considering the amount of diversity in our country.

In the globalised business system almost 90 percent of the organizations still generate their financial statements manually, such as balance sheet, income statement, annual reports, quarterly and annual submission reports, bank reports, corporate proceedings and statutory reports.

There are complex challenges faced by businesses to complete their end financial reports such as:

• Factual errors due to manual procedure
• Time Protraction
• Inaccurate data
• Unintegrated systems to manage processes and information
• Unavailability of Audit Trails

Risks faced by Top Management:

The labor intensive structure of financial reporting symbolizes that external reporting system becomes more complex and more endeavor is involved in creating these reports and handle end processes as an outcome there is more involvement of employees who work on for additional hours else additional number of people has to be deployed to complete these tasks which includes handling of complex multiple excel spreadsheets, discover and rectify errors, administer compliance, and synchronize the high level authentication process which cumulatively magnifies cost which ultimately makes the job role of CFO more complicated. There are various other related risks involved which can be classified as:

• Management has to deploy more people for creation of this top level reports
• Complex processes involved at multiple level
• Process extensively linked with use of complex spreadsheets
• Risk of error which can be fatal and lead to reinterpretation
• Vital information might be leaked
• Non compliance with reporting format
• Cost pertaining to external auditor

Possible Solutions:

The best possible solution is to use automated reporting software which can perform functions smoothly and with lower risk factor, this can be performed by the reporting system in following manner:

1. The external reporting software can link source data with report data so that every data point in the final report is available without conflict and if source data points are modified then the same is implemented in final report data.
2. The external reporting software is user friendly and can easily be integrated with existing system   which is more compatible and easier to use since current user is already familiar with the legacy applications which will be integrated with new advance external reporting software.
3. Existing reports can easily be used as template for reference purposes
4. The new reports generated normally restrain the same segments as previous reports; it salvages the same data sources for e.g. net profit, expenses, etc. and restores the appearance and feel of past reports.

The Advantage:

Since the new reporting software has multi tasking ability hence it can gather data from numerous sources at single instance it increases overall efficiency of the entire system and the organization on a whole as compared to the old manual system. The benefits can easily be summarized as follows:

1. Lowering the total time duration required to prepare final reports
2. Workforce reduction with more efficient system in place
3. Employees can focus on other major functional areas
4. Expediting the entire cycle, hence increasing evaluation time
5. Focus on other key areas of the business
6. Lower internal and external cost drivers with automated controls
7. Provides a detailed audit trail which can track even minute changes in the document and makes comparability an easy task between two reports or documents
8. Lowered risk which can encompass errors like factual error, information leaks and non-compliance circumstances.
9. Reduced turnaround time, hence focus can be more towards internal system evaluation
10. Finally no manual inputs and re-application of same protocol repeatedly which boosts overall confidence and hence less review time is required.

Thus looking at so many benefits available from the automated financial reporting tool, it should be implemented ASAP within organizations so as to gain a competitive edge in the market and for long successful run.

(Written by Ashwani Chandra, Class of 2008, IBS Hyderabad) Ashwani also shares his expertise on Finacology.com)

Knowing is not enough, we must apply it. Willing is not enough, we must do it.

This maxim sums up the much required change in the MBA of the present.

We may praise institutions for churning out managers at the speed of thought every six months; we need to get present to the ground realities by taking an empathetic view of the situation.

Most of the (so called) managers that come out in huge numbers every year are not the ones the industry demands. ‘They might be reservoirs of knowledge, but then they are of no use if they do not know what to do with that or how and where to use that knowledge,’ says Surya Narain Bahadur, executive director with a Delhi based training company. He goes on to say, ’in fact when people are tagged MBA; it makes the journey harder for them because of the expectations it sets in the mind of employer – industry wants business ready people, who are self driven and do not wait for instructions’.

This book driven MBA, therefore it appears does not work well. There is a need in shifting the paradigm. We need not do a lot of analysis, the answers are there. The MBA of the future needs to be more market oriented, so much so that that the two years of education should be considered as two years of work experience. There lies the future of the MBA.

The book ‘Rethinking the MBA: Business education at crossroads’ by HBS professors Srikant M. Datar and David A. Garvin, on the future of MBA education makes references to some of the problems of the current MBA education. One of the problems they highlight is the limitation of models and markets as the rubber meets the road.

MBA education of future needs to focus on high level of self awareness and a corresponding ability to relate with others in the team and the organization. Are we talking about psychometric or spirituality here? Well that is for the industry to decide, but psychometric testing on self awareness is certainly picking up specially for filling many leadership positions.

Right education helps people grow.

Aim of professional education is to impart knowledge and skills, using which an individual contributes to work and society and earns his/her livelihood.

A good MBA program/management education should enrich you with following skills.

1. Academic Skills: A basic understanding of business and business environment, high market awareness and tools and techniques used in business. Ability to put these skills to use for results.
2. Communication: Yes, the industry expects an MBA pass out to have a strong hold over communication. He should be able to listen, speak clearly and write in fluent language (English is always an advantage) internally as well as with the external customers (clients, vendors, government).
3. Decision making: Ability to take decisions after carefully weighing all the options. Their efficiency in decision making will result from their ability to gather information and then have clarity of purpose and courage in taking decisions.
4. Analytical Skills: The ability to find information and troubleshoot continually, being able to separate the relevant information from what is not required.
5. Result orientation: Ability to design and undertake activities / processes that are result oriented. Setting goals for self and team and achieving them in time.
6. Commitment: Sincerity towards work and identifying the purpose of it. Doing and getting things done as promised or as they ought to be.
7. Perseverance: Being able to understand that success demands a lot of work. Putting efforts continually and not giving up. Looking at ‘what’s possible?’ all the time, working on opportunities, creating opportunities, being self driven – not waiting for instructions.
8. Team Work: Crucial for organisational and individual success. Ability to work with other people in the organisation. Appreciate cultural, ethnic differences and synergise team activities. Having the capacity to identify talent in other people and placing them at the right place.
9. Technology Skills: Thorough understanding of various IT tools and technologies and ability to use them for gaining a competitive advantage. Being able to use various statistical packages (like SPSS), PowerPoint, spreadsheets and databases.
10. Leadership: Ability to inspire others and keeping others motivated. Identifying talents and using them appropriately for their individual and organisational growth and development.

Good luck!

You need good communication skills to excel at work.

Those with mediocre communication may work and move ahead. But people with solid communication skills will have an edge. Professionals need to understand that they will always be selling something or the other even if they are not in a sales role.

If you are a finance executive you may need to sell a financial plan to your boss or colleagues. At times, you may need to sell an idea or your viewpoint. In doing so you may need to present you idea or logic to other party.

This presentation may be informal or formal, but if it is good – people will be more likely to buy what you are trying to sell.

Steve Jobs’ name comes to mind when we think of excellent presenters.

People used to look forward to his presentations. His presentation of products, features and benefits made the audience crave for it almost immediately.

Famously, he worked for months on his presentations before presenting it to the audience. His presentations were simple and classy, and at the core of Apple marketing efforts.

Here are some ideas on how you can rock your presentations like Steve Jobs.

1. Decide the content. Think about what you are going to communicate. Do it before you open PowerPoint or Keynote.

2. Keep it simple. One word or one small sentence per slide. Large font size (32 is ok to start with).

3. Idea is most important. Focus on selling on your ideas and not your presentation slides.

4. Rehearse. Fix a timeline and stick to it.

5. Take up opportunities to present. “Practice makes a man perfect”, goes the old saying. If you are in a job take initiative and make presentations. If you are a business school student, you will have ample opportunities to design and make presentations. Grab them.

6. Use the power of software. Do not let it overpower you. Draw a line about how much graphics or multimedia content you are going to use. Have a backup plan ready in case software does not work.

7. Give away notes. Do not handout the print out of your slides to audience. Good slides have minimal content so that will not help your audience. Instead give notes. It can be an essay focusing on ideas you presented.

“Less is more”, works well in case of a presentation. Do not overburden your slides with animation effects in slide transitions. Do not use sound effects. They are outdated and annoying.

Just share your ideas, with an evangelistic zeal if you will, and who knows you will become the next presentation rock star.

Good luck with your next presentation.

Networking is one of the key skills for managers these days. Organizations expect people to connect and establish contact with people they work with. This may include business partners, clients, vendors, government officials. Many business opportunities are passed out to people in someone’s network. So networking becomes an important skill for someone in a business building scenario.

It is a win-win relationship for both the parties and hence a must have skill for all.

2 years of MBA offer ample amount of opportunity to network. In fact most of us start our journey using some network sub-consciously. We ask for references for an institution from people we know.

As future managers, MBA students can start networking while still in campus. Sharing some steps on – how to start?

• You need to start by breaking the myth that networking is hollow or manipulative. People worldwide use it ethically to promote mutual business interests.
• The next step as mentioned earlier to approaching people to develop a business network. You may or may not like it, but the truth is that you have to reach out. Make a start by strengthening your connections with people you know. Just a casual mail now and then, a thoughtful message or phone call will ensure that you stay in touch.
• The next step is finding out who is doing what. You need to be genuinely interested in the lives and stories of people. Again, this may not come naturally but you have to make a start and once you do, you will like it. Just know where to draw the line.
• Reach further; once you have completed the first step of just reaching out you now need to join some club, some activity group. People with similar interests, who meet on a regular basis.
• Listening is what you learn to do next. This means you be generous by way of giving people those patient ears they need. This will strengthen the bonding. You will find it work wonders for you. Generous gestures and returned by people without you even asking for it.
• Test you groundwork by starting to ask people for help whenever required. Remember doing this is an art. Do not be cunning but just be straight in communicating what you want from other person. Keep at it, you will improve with practice.
• Follow up and be in touch. If you really listened to the other person you will know what appeals to him. Don’t send a mass mail, message to everyone. That will not work. Make everyone feel special.

Happy networking.

We operate in an era of cut throat competition, where split second decisions push organisations out of the competitive landscape and bring others in. Tom Peters sums it up beautifully in two words by saying that either you are ‘quick’ or you are ‘dead’. Evidently the industry expects MBAs to be business ready people!

Although we can have an endless debate about what the industry expects from MBA hires, right from talking about technical skills, to people and business skills to basic human values of responsibility, commitment and integrity etc. The discussion can go on and on and yet all of them as mentioned above are useful, we need a set of qualities that have a universal appeal.

Listed below are 10 skills, that the industry expects from MBA hires and which you can develop in yourself.

1. Strong Work Ethic: Strong work ethic means that you take charge of your work, are self motivated and assume responsibility of getting the work done by yourself, no matter what; your learning ability, ability to take feedback positively and readiness to put your best foot forward in every circumstance.
2. Positive Attitude: Positive attitude connotes your enthusiasm about the work you are doing. You must be able to create good opinion about yourself and the organisation in the minds of your consumers and your own people.
3. Communication Skills: Good communication skills begin with a good listening ability and ability to articulate your thoughts clearly. An ability to speak in a language such that you are able to build relationships with your colleagues, customers and vendors.
4. Time Management: Knowledge of how to assign priorities to tasks and juggle a number of projects / tasks at the same time.
5. Team Working Skills: Industry expects people to work in teams, promoting harmony, cooperation and ability to assume leadership role as and when required.
6. Self Confidence: Faith in one’s own capabilities to handle the assigned task well. Ability to empower others and having the courage to question established wisdom.
7. Take Feedback: Fresh MBA hires are supposed to emotionally strong to handle criticism from people they work with (clients, colleagues, seniors and even juniors).
8. Flexibility: Flexibility refers to the ability to accept new challenges, change with situations and openness to new thoughts and ideas.
9. Handling pressure: People who can work with deadlines and get done in time. Handle crises and manage resources well against a set timeline.
10. Financial Literacy: All businesses look at the outcome in terms of numbers. Industry expects MBA hires to be financially literate so that work with numbers well and study growth / de-growth patterns.

These are the elementary skills the industry looks for in fresh MBAs.

Good luck as you move ahead.

Recently I read a book titled Timeless Ventures. It is an English translation of an original book in Japanese written by Professor Haruo Funabashi and published by Tata McGraw Hill.

The author is a professor at Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy. The title of the original book in Japanese is “Mohameda EL-ERIAN – When Markets Collide” which translated in English means principles of corporate strategy. The title Timeless Ventures selected for the English translation gives insights into the philosopher’s thinking for selecting   success stories of selected 32 Japanese companies which have a history ranging between 200-1400 years. Prof. Funabashi has made a detailed research and has studied the factors beyond the motives and success of these companies. He has gone through available records of the companies , he has interviewed and had detailed discussions with the top management personnel and has produced a very interesting book. The book presents  the principles of which these companies have operated and thrived, throws lights on their thinking and the work culture of the people who operated the companies successfully. One common factor he has observed after such extensive study is that these companies have not kept “profit” as a sole motive of all along. They have functioned with a deep sense  of responsibility towards the community in which they operate. The factors which make these companies successful over the centuries are the vision, principles, honesty and professional excellence. Along all these, the companies have strongly displayed their willingness to support the community in which they operate and thrive. Their actions show that the companies considered it as  their duty to support the community.

The book has identified eight principles over which these companies have been time tested. The same factors  of success are evident in the Japanese religion, culture and ideology. Owing to such a philosophy one can note that there are over 20,000 companies inJapanwhich are over 100 years old. The number of companies which are in existence over 200 years are approximately 1,200. There are 600 companies which have been successfully performing  over 300 years. There are 30 companies which have thrived for over 500 years. What is more interesting to know is that there are five companies which have a successful legacy and history of over a 1000 years.

Social responsibility of the commercial organization is a much talked about subject these days. All the companies which have been talked about in the book  “Timeless Ventures” present an altogether new, fresh and different view point on this. The Japanese way of doing business and thinking about it is quite unique. Individual ownership of the company and profit is not the thinking. Guiding principle is to preserve the company, to ensure its growth and offering it to the future generation is considered as the primarily responsibility.

After extensive study of the 32 companies in different sectors of business and located in different geographical regions inJapanit is observed that the companies  engaged in provision of food; shelter and clothing have survived the days of longevity. Secondly , it is seen that the companies that have family ownership and the once with the influence of Japanese culture and religion have been successful over centuries.

These companies may not be very big or rich but they have been successful over a period of decades and centuries. The companies mentioned in this book are the manufacturers of products like soya-sos, starch, cake, medicines, salt, chopsticks etc.

The factors contributing to the success of the companies who proved the stiff tests of longevity are  as follows

• Leadership driven by clear values , vision & mission
• Long term viewpoint & strategic approach
• Customer oriented & building the economy
• Socially minded & building the nation
• Continuous Innovation & Improvement
• Frugality & efficient use of natural resources
• Efforts to embody and generate culture/legacy

(by Dr. Dhananjay Keskar, Director, IBS Pune)