MBA or the short term skill based Professional Courses

With the recession and the dropping economy, most of the students and the parents developed apprehensions about joining a management program. Also, with the boom in the education sector, we saw emergence of several institutes, coaching, and universities developing everyday with new range of courses.

Thanks to the Reality TV, even the professional courses got a jump and the Indian population suddenly started looking at the professional courses which were about hobbies and passion. People could relate to them as careers as they too started offering good money and constant workflow.

We see a lot of students and the parents – who have this dilemma of why an MBA holds better prospects than the professional courses when they are offering quicker placements, are charging lesser fee and are comparatively short-term. The comparisons are fine but they are not futuristic. Most of the times – the packaging of these courses is so fine & perfect that they the students give-in to the outwardly glamour of the offering.

We do not say that the professional courses are not good. They are good, they add value to one’s career, they help in earning a living and they shall be pursued. But this comparison is not fair as MBA is something which empowers one to excel further in their careers. It is not just about education and knowledge; it is about attitude and practice. It is about experiential learning through real time examples, trainings and assignments.

MBA is a level up to these courses. It broadens the horizon of a human brain and helps them think different and teaches us how to chase the different dream and go ahead to follow it.

So what is it that makes an MBA a better deal? Or why it is important to have a business education in any career? To list a few reasons –

Holistic Outlook towards Business

MBA education covers a holistic perspective of business & economy. The course is designed in such a way that it provides you with an overall view of things, businesses and people. The limitations of knowing just thing vanishes in an MBA program as it makes the person learn with a wider perspective, it enables a group dynamics and hence helps the students get a broader insight about people and practices.

Provides Better Networking Ability & Opportunities

In management education, like we mentioned lot of learning happens through practice, through working together and thorough exposure of the outside world is a need for successfully completing the management education.

For me, B-School is where you meet people — your classmates, faculty, speakers, recruiters. MBA fosters the need to be well networked in the students who pursue this course. It enables a person to learn in team and enhances the group productivity. Unlike short term courses it enables – better sharing of knowledge and tactics among the student groups.

If I give a thought to the networking opportunities an average student at IBS gets in an MBA Program. Initiating right from the day one of joining, a student not only meets the batch mates and the teachers but also gets to connect to various other B-school students & corporate in the management festivals, the corporate exposure during the Summer Internship and the Management Research Project further facilitate the students in networking. Then there is the largest Alumni base – which is an existing network for all those who join the bandwagon.

Allows you to work in more than One Sector

The Corporate sector now demands people who believe in becoming the ‘Jack of all trades and master of few’, gone are the times when just one qualification/ specialization was enough to work, excel and grow. Times have changed and so are the recruiters and employers.

An MBA Program allows you to work in more than one sector. Some B-schools including IBS offers dual specialization to help the students excel in two different profiles. Even the job roles these days demand a variety on skills & knowledge. A multi-talented person is always preferred in a group, among friends and even for a job.

Offers Practical Guidance & Mentoring

Mentoring is a unique concept of b-schools. No other courses, degrees offer you a faculty guide and project mentors and that restricts the personal growth and change in attitude which is required at the onset of corporate lives or jobs.

An MBA programs offers you faculty guides, corporate mentors who provide the required hand-holding at various junctures of learning & training and we believe these are one of the most significant shaping stones for any student or trainee. Whereas, most of the professional courses, students are left on their own – with the lecture-listener-examiner relationship.

New Skills, Better Growth and Packages

A management program helps students attain & develop many new skills during the program. Let us take an example of a management festival or an art conclave; the students who participate learn new skills while managing the show. The team who works on sponsorship – learns to manage finance & relationships, some learn hospitality, others learn team management and some learn leadership.

These skill-sets help the students in growing early as they are exposed to certain situations, they have worked before in teams and hence they know about it.

A good b-school ensures they work on this overall learning pedagogy and hence the students get better packages as they truly deserve it.

Helps in Entrepreneurship

In the above points, we have talked about – how an MBA changes the perspective, the personality and the skill-set of a person. It broadens the horizon and hence makes then think about the business perspective. It develops a thought process which is led by logic and the students are empowered enough to get into the technical know-how of things to understand them.

IBS has got an exciting base of alumni who are now entrepreneurs and to continue the trend, there is an Exclusive Entrepreneurship Cell which allows the students to dream big and help them in turning their dreams into reality.

The reasons slated above are few of many but are all time-tested. Any knowledge or skill attained helps the growth of an individual but when you have to choose something better; MBA certainly offers the brownie points.

IBS Organizes ‘Training & Placement officers Meet’ at Nagpur

The event was organized by IBS Marketing Team- Nagpur Branch on 21st May 2013 at Hotel Heritage, Nagpur.

TPOs from renowned Engineering & Graduation colleges of Nagpur & nearby locations have attended the event. The FDP event witnessed a total participation of 30 TPOs members from 25 Colleges.

The guest of honor for the event was Dr. Vivek ranga (Dean& Campus Head, Ahmedabad). It was hosted by Jyoti Roy, Asst. Branch Manager – Nagpur.

Half day workshop on “How to attract the best industries to your Campus” was conducted by Dr.Vivek Ranga.
Session Started at 10am with Introduction & Expectation Setting followed by the topics covered below:
• Placement Function & Challenges Faced by TPOs
• Building Industry Interface
• Self Professional Development – Road Ahead for TPOs

Vote of Thanks was given by Mr. Ankit Gupta, Deputy Area Manager (MP, CG, and Ngp) The Program was hugely successful & has been appreciated by all the TPO members present there and was also suggested to conduct Faculty development Program.

 

Epaper link for the press coverage of the event:

http://epaper.esakal.com/Sakal/25May2013/Enlarge/Nagpur/NagpurToday/page7.htm

 

IBS holds seminar at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies

IBS organized a seminar at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies on “Direct Cash Transfer”.
The seminar was organized on 10th April at Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, New Delhi. The event witnessed a participation of large number of students.

Prof S C Sharma (Faculty – IBS Gurgaon) was invited to have an interactive session with the students.
Prof. Sharma, with his years of experience was able to make the session very informative and participative at the same time.

The students got to learn a number of things regarding the topic and the depth of concepts revolving around it.
Prof. S C Sharma answered all the questions and clarified doubts of the students related to the topic.

IBS organizes Faculty Development Program at Indore

IBS organized Faculty Development Program at Indore.The event was organized by IBS Indore Branch on 19th -Feb -2013 at Hotel Amar-Villas, Indore (M.P).

Faculty from renowned Engineering & Graduate colleges of Indore participated in the event and witnessed a total participation of 53 faculty members from 25 Colleges.

The guests of honor for the event were Dr. Vivek ranga (Dean& Campus Head- IBS Ahmedabad), Prof. Pankaj Madhani (Senior Faculty- IBS Ahmedabad) & Mr. Harshal Bhagwat (Regional Manager).

The opening remarks were address by Regional Manager Mr. Harshal Bhagwat on the “New Teaching Techniques in Present Scenario” the further dialogue on the subject was taken up by Dr.Vivek Ranga & Prof. Pankaj Madhani.
Session Started at 10am with Introduction & Expectation Setting followed, which set the tone of the entire event and later on following topics were covered:
• The Need of Development
• The Changing Role of Faculty
• Beyond Classroom & Managing Students Expectation
• Teaching Tools
• Professional Development
The Program was a success & was well received and appreciated by all the faculty members.

Faculty Development Program- Coimbatore Organized by IBS

Dincharya Technologies:

Friends, I think you will all agree that nowadays technology has become part of each and everything we do. Sometimes it becomes mandatory but often it is not, and there comes an opportunity to tap in. We should make an effort to include the required applications in our work to simplify it even if it’s not mandatory and finish it with the extra spark needed. For e.g.: MS Excel is used for calculations of array of data. It can be done by calculators like many retail shops still follow but MS Excel facilitates it. Photos will be photos with unlimited memories attached but if it is served with special effects, it will be like the icing on the cake. To remain ahead of your peers and make a mark for yourself you should start today itself to learn these techniques. I would like to name few of them which can help you in your journey ahead in IBS:

  • Microsoft Office Suit (MS EXCEL, MS-Word, Ms-PowerPoint)
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Google Online Applications (Google docs, Google Survey Maker, Google Spreadsheet etc)

You will come across these on a daily basis so do acquaint yourself with these. These instruments make your work look big and organized. Not only used in professional or study related activities it can help you in your personal life as well. Starting from class participation, becoming famous among your friends as well as peers to impress a boy/girl, it has all the merits attached to it. So why not associate yourself to these merits! I think it is like Vodafone dog that goes with you wherever you go and helps you in every possible way. Let’s start learning from the place we lag and blossom in every endeavor we make because
“Lag is not a lack but to remain complacent is”.

P.S. I request my readers to reply here with other such technologies which are helpful and serve as a friend in need as well as deed.

Contributed by Juhi Sheela ( Class of 2013, IBS Hyderabad)

Networking Online

The word networking has taken on a whole new dimension during the last decade. Previously a person developed a network after prolonged interactions with a set of people. This network consisted of mainly his colleagues, friends and acquaintances. The study of such social networks was a mainstay of ‘Sociology’, ‘Social Psychology’ etc,. Nowadays however social networking has become synonymous with online social activity on social networking platforms like Facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace and many more.

The process of befriending people through many interactions has radically transformed. It has shifted to a stage where two parties after a single meeting befriend each other on a social networking website and then continue their interactions online. Thanks to such platforms, sharing information between like-minded individuals has become easier than ever before. Distance was a huge barrier for maintaining relationships with people. Pen-pals did exist but the level to which interactions could occur was limited by the postal service and time taken to receive and send messages. All this has now changed with the advent of the internet and specifically the social media networks. This points to a scenario in the near future where every individual will be capable of expanding his/her network to a level which can’t be imagined.

This means that every person will have access to more information about his network and it would be easy to get in touch with someone, required for a specific activity. However we must understand that social media platforms are just a tool to facilitate networking. A person’s network is still defined by the relationship he shares with each member in his network. Consider a situation where in a person ‘X’ contacts two people ‘Y’ and ‘Z’ for help regarding a certain task. The relationship X shares with Y & Z will define the level of help he would receive from them. Though Y & Z are connected to X by his network, Y might consider X as an acquaintance and Z might consider X as a really close friend. This would in turn define the nature of help received from each of them.

To conclude it’s more important to nurture and maintain relationships than single-mindedly increasing one’s network.

“The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.”

-Bob Burg