“This blog post is part of an 11-part series by Sidhartha Mohanty (IBS Ahmedabad 2005). Through this series Sidhartha aims to take you on a ride along with him as he went from being a young student to an MBA graduate to a corporate employee and ultimately an entrepreneur now.” So, this first series will give you an inside story of IBS campus placements.

Placements! The word is enough to stir up various emotions in management students. Apprehension, anticipation, terror (yes, that too) and of course nervous excitement through it all. Placement is the final hurdle before newly minted graduates place their first step on to the corporate world. The world of salaries, deadlines, cubicles, taxes and bosses who can be benign or bossy, colleagues who can be nice or nasty, clients who can be dandy or difficult.

Believe me, I went through all of that and more, when my placement season came around. It was the year 2005, the final year of my MBA. This is usually the time when everybody is out networking with their alumni. Some are busy doing their management research projects for the final year while some others are busy talking to placement managers about the schedule of those companies who are expected to come to the campus. Sleepless nights, dark circles, loss of appetite are very common during this time, so don’t worry if you exhibit all these symptoms. It is almost like what you felt before your first date.

Students are worried if they are going to get their choice of roles, their choice of company and most of all, their choice of salary. Some just want to get a job; but there are some who want to make a statement with the kind of job they bag and the kind of compensation they are able to bag. They feel they owe it to their parents/guardians, their classmates and their professors.

There are some however, who are worried about their English language communication skills and how to improve and do well in the placement interviews.

Worries and worries – passing out from a good B-school doesn’t always guarantee a job. Surprised? Yes it’s true. In fact, sometimes the companies see the rankings of the B-schools and if your school is not in the top 10 that year for some year, it is likely that they will give it a miss. Companies also have some criteria when choosing the management institutes they visit in a year.

I remember that year, my friends’ circle and I were not concerned with what our ranking was but we were worried about the type of companies that would be visiting us and whether we would get good placements.

Frankly, each campus had their fixed set of companies coming and recruiting students like us in Ahmedabad. But what happens if you don’t like the role and salary? What if you don’t like the company at all? What are you going to do? Are you going to search jobs outside off-campus? On your own? Through your own contacts? Via the alumni network? Would you be able to do that? Are you making a mistake by not taking up the offer/offers coming your way? What if you passed up this chance and you don’t get a job later?

These questions are likely to plague you during placements. Remember though that it is your efforts and networking that matters the most. A lot of it is in your hands – at least that is what it seems like at the time.

Those who have specialized in finance need a core finance role like corporate finance, investment banking etc., but not a sales role. In the same way if you have a marketing specialization, you need a marketing, communication and strategy role. Most favorite companies for such roles are in HLL, ITC, and Procter & Gamble etc.

If you are from the information technology field, you need an Infosys, TCS, Tech Mahindra etc. These companies will recruit you for an IT analyst role.

What if you don’t have choices and you are forced to take any role that is offered to you? Obviously you will not like it. That’s the real problem everywhere. So, if you have not networked or met industry people on your own then there it is likely that you might find yourself in this situation. But don’t panic, it’s really not a crisis, though you might think so at this time. I don’t think here the institute can help you, though you can certainly approach some of the career counselors and your professors for some advice and mentoring. Their perspective will help you. However, the final decision rests with you and remember its time to make your choices and live with them. This is your first test as an adult and as a future manager. Its time to start using the skills that you think you have acquired in the last two years.

By the way, our IBS-Ahmedabad campus had a good placement team (and it still has, last time I checked) which attracted lots of good companies on the campus.

I got into ICICI Bank straightaway on my very first attempt. I negotiated a decent salary package with a 2- day training session in Mumbai, which was a big thing in those days.

By the way, how can I forget those sleepless nights in the hostel where we were doing mock interviews among our batch mates and trying to find out our weaknesses and how to improve that?

Yes, placement is the time to put your hard-learned theories to the test. You have to impress the interviewers and prospective employers with your communication skills. You have to convince them that you are the person they are looking for. You have to project the right image. Above all, you have to get it across that you have what it takes to get the job, hold it and make a success of it. You have to make it clear to them that you will be an asset to the company.

Can you do it?

You might be the company’s biggest maker of rain. You may be a brilliant strategy maker. You might be exceeding the performance goals for your unit or your whole company. But after you leave the company one day then what will be the things you leave behind? The only thing which you will leave behind will be your leadership legacy and that is related to your style of leadership and your natural role as supposed to your titles and responsibilities.

Leading a team or a business unit is not an easy task and to become a great leader you will have to look within yourself. You have to examine which style of leadership you have and how effective it is. The most important thing about knowing your leadership style is that you understand the following things well which is very useful for becoming a successful leader-

• Your strengths and weaknesses
• Why you lead?
• The way you lead.
• Whether you can change your style of leadership easily?
• What kind of people you need to recruit for compensation of the areas of weakness

This evaluation is very necessary and you have to take some time out to understand where you stand in the style of leadership. Your style defines your values and perspective and knowing it will help you to communicate better with those you work with. Let us do this by understanding the different styles of leadership in detail and exercise this knowledge to evaluate yourself and improve the way you lead.

Authoritarian Leaders

This style of leadership are generally seen in small organizations and untrained employees. Authoritarian leaders know exactly what has to be done, who has to do it and when it has to be completed. Although these kinds of leaders do not offer much room for wiggling but they often get the job done in time. But the drawbacks of authoritarian style of leadership are the absence of feedback and being dictatorial with the subordinates.

Democratic leaders

Democratic style of leadership encourages both employees and the management to take part in the decision making process. This style is present with the experienced workforce and is positive and motivational for all the stakeholders and employees. Since everyone is included in the process of decision making, they have to be knowledgeable about the business, the process, the product and the vision statement. The drawback is that they may require more time to get things done.

Delegative Leaders

This leadership is sometimes called laissez faire leadership because of its minimal interference in the efforts of the employees. The hallmarks of the delegative style are trust and confidence. The employees have freedom to make decisions and get their works done. The delegative style of leadership is popular in the organizations which have employees which are experienced and educated and like to become good leaders by themselves. This type of leadership style is good but leaders have to be careful in using the style with the employees who are insecure, afraid of making mistakes or have difficulty in communicating with the others.

Here are the signs if you follow a particular type of leadership-

Authoritarian Leaders

• You like to have power and a complete control.
• Your employees are allowed to do only what they’re told
• You only decide how to fix problems
• You don’t want to spend time for employee input.
• You tell your employees what to do, when to do it, and how to do it.
• Mistakes are not acceptable in your leadership.
• You don’t care what others think. You do what is best for yourself.
• You micromanage things.
• You do not trust your employees at all.

Democratic Leaders

• You listen to others, but you like to have the final word in the end.
• You like to have others also in the process of decision making.
• You recognize achievement and give it appreciation.
• You like to encourage collaborative work.
• You like your business to run through teams.
• You help employees grow and learn.
• You want to hear the employee opinions and work on it.
• You encourage employee inputs.
• You help employees to fulfill their potential.
• You want to have inputs from the employees when things go wrong.

Delegative Leaders

• Your are not an expert in every areas of your business.
• You want followers to have control over the things.
• You encourage group members to create their goals.
• You give freedom to group members to solve their own problems.
• You are not good at following up with employees.
• You give little input as you know employees know their job better.
• You give your employees the right to create their own objectives
• You encourage your employees to form their own decisions.
• You don’t want complete authority and do not want more authority than others in your organization.
• You distribute your power to the entire organization.

These leadership styles have advantages as well as drawbacks. If you really know which type of leadership style you have, then you can utilize it to achieve maximum results and you can also mix different styles to achieve maximum results from your leadership. Leadership does not come in a one- size- fitting-all package and leadership styles vary with different people and each one is good as the other. The only important thing is that you know your leadership style well and draw on its strengths to motivate, enthuse and lead your team in a positive path and manner. The ultimate aim should be to understand both your own leadership learning and to draw on the other leadership styles too. Don’t believe for the adage that “Leaders are the born leaders”. While some people are naturally able to excel as a leader some can really learn to lead provided it all is interesting for you. So know your style of leadership and learn from your weak points and adapt the strong points of every style. In doing that there is no doubt that one day you are going to be the excellent leader of your organization and can leave your leadership legacy as a benchmark for others to come!

Two years back I completed my MBA in IBS but during my journey I made some good moves and some really bad moves that affected my first semester’s performance. But I remember the blunders I committed and hence, I learn one must remember the lessons from them.

Among the wonders the first was adapting to the environment i.e. molding myself to the pedagogy of case study that the institute followed and dedicating myself with heart and soul into it. It is extremely discomforting in the beginning but you need to be stubborn to follow the guidelines and dedicate everything into academics so that you form a habit.

The second wonder was completing projects and assignments before time; which is rarely a case with engineers. It is a pleasant experience to write all your reports, assignments, projects word by word and then later have a chance to revisit and edit before submission. Even in group projects, I suggest you to ensure that on the first day of group meeting, each member’s contribution is clearly decided mutually and hence this will provide you essential time for research, content management, editing, designing and presentation.

The next wonder was learning to work under stressful deadlines that can make you have sleepless nights full of work and efforts. This skill really helps you prepare for real corporate life where the extent and amount of work cannot be entirely controlled by you. The more you are equipped, the better it is!

Moreover, I had to cultivate the habit of rising early and sleeping for restricted hours which makes anyone value time more and use it judiciously like money. This not only made me have greater working hours but also the luxury to do my daily tasks leisurely. This was somewhat of a self-discipline imposed only when I went ill once.

Back to back classes prepare you to deal with several challenges consecutively and accustom your brain with a tendency to be employed for long hours without any break. This is what happens in real life scenarios also because when one project ends, another comes up which is strenuous than the previous one.

The next was learning to work cohesively in groups with strangers and sometimes friends. You imbibe the value of honoring everyone; learning through experiences; adapting to professional behavior; respecting everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and turning the same to everyone’s collective strength. It really teaches you how to mold the situation so that everyone’s combined efficiency is used and substituted for each others weaknesses.

The unexpected wonder that I explored was learning from others and teaching them when required even when you didn’t know them. Helping friends is different but cultivating contacts for each others benefits is networking because each effort in the network you build grows your credibility. If self sufficiency existed, the society would cease to exist and people would remain loners!

Cultivating a habit to read is another wonder as you hardly read books accept during examinations. The hunger to read by the end of the course exceeds 100 pages a day and you seem to feel discomfort in its absence. This not only increases your vocabulary but also your knowledge and willingness to learn and read. This habit not only firms your command over language but also helps you understand corporate phrases and subject related jargon.

Among the blunders, that one must avoid, the first is letting your emotions overpower you. First of all stop taking things personally or attacking people emotionally because that builds bitter foes not friends or strengths. Never let emotions enter your professional life. Be neutral in every sense and avoid taking any emotional decisions regarding projects, assignments, groups etc.

The second blunder that I did was dedicating blind trust in friends. Remember till the time you complete your internship, you have to be careful about trusting anyone because friends are those who will sustain till the last day of the course. If someone sustains throughout, your friendship with them will stand every hurdle in life. Treat people as companions and not best friends forever till you compete with them.

Average grades in my pursuit to be excellent in everything, I didn’t focus on specializing in few subjects whereas maintaining decent grades in some. You must also not try to control everything, else you will end up controlling nothing! My projects scored full but in theory, I remained lagging. I forgot to make some subjects my strengths so that I could capitalize later.

Another blunder one cannot afford at a distance from home is study-life imbalance; which was a massive cause for my failures and dismal first semester. If you lose touch with friends, cousins, relatives and family, you are certainly about to harm your long term personal life. Result: a few close friends would change to friends with formality!

Dismal health was something that hit me when I was giving too much into socializing, studying throughout nights, sleeping less, cultivating dark circles, hair-fall and muscle stiffness. You or anyone for that matter needs ample rest to perform well. After all, it is you who has to come above study, work, preparation etc.

Resorting to hard work than smart work when corporate requires people to be smart and not hard working. Here you will actually realize that you have to get work done in the future and hence you must first be able to do it in the shortest and best manner with precision. Who cares for a person who does a comprehensive task in a whole day as compared to a person who takes a cut, copy, paste approach with smartness?

Being incompetent was one huge mistake I committed while not realizing that people around me were busy preserving their notes, assignments, sources of knowledge etc. You must remember that you must help others study or understand only when your own cup is full. Don’t push to the limits of indulging in people’s assignments when they ask for help at your cost!

Giving thought to what people think about you is another crime. How you conduct yourself is nobody’s business but yours! You are your own judge till the time you follow the institutions guidelines and nobody has power over you to judge or evaluate you otherwise. What you think about yourself is crucial than two things. One, what others think about and second, what you think about others!

I hope that my good actions would be seen as inspiration and implicated in moderation for your own betterment and my mistakes would prove to be a guiding light to those who are about to begin this journey or just begun this journey.

Emerging Markets are slowing and their divergence is increasing. Yet, they offer immense potential which is worth considering. Each emerging market today is different from each other. While China is going for a managed slowdown, India’s story is extremely positive on the back of reforms and pro-active business reforms from the Government of India.

Did you know?

• According to United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), developing and emerging economies’ global foreign direct investment (FDI) share increased to 52% in 2013 from 29% in 2007. They overtook developed markets for the first time in 2012.
• In 2007, all the top 20 companies in Forbes 2000 list were from developed markets (US: 9; European countries: 10; Japan: 1). In 2013, 7 of the top 20 companies were from emerging markets (China: 5; Brazil: 1; Russia: 1; US: 9; Europe: 4).
• Developing economies share of world’s merchandise exports increased to 45% in 2013 — up from 34% in 2004. At the same time, the share of developed economies dropped to 51% from 63%.
• Between 1980 and 2000, just 5% of the world’s 500 largest companies were from emerging markets. This ratio is now about 25% and is expected to climb to more than 45% by 2025.
• The real average wage growth in emerging economies has outpaced the wage growth in the developed economies. In the years from 2000 to 2011, the real wages almost tripled in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, doubled in Asia, increased by around 20% in Africa and 15% in Latin America, while the developed economies had a meager 5% growth.

Five things that an emerging market will offer you:

1. Stability of employment:

Many emerging markets are boosting their efforts to grow employment in their respective countries. For instance, in India, the Government recently launched a program called ‘Skill India’ to create skill set ready workforce. The initiative will provide training to over 500 million youth by 2020, to make them employable directly. The skilled population can be assured of stability in their jobs as there is a dearth of employable people in many emerging markets. Additionally, stability comes from the fact that the jobs market in emerging economies are not yet exhausted (compared to some large developing economies) and there is a great potential to leverage job opportunities further.

2. Growth in money:

One of the most important factors that you consider today is growth for yourself. Emerging markets will definitely provide you more growth opportunities than any developed economy. In its April 2015 World Economic Outlook, the International Monetary Fund stated that growth in developing and emerging economies will be 4.3% as compared to 2.4% in advanced economies in 2015. Although the pace of growth has slowed in many emerging markets, they will continue to account 70% of global growth share in 2015. The chances of creating wealth of self are bright in emerging markets.

3. Power to control:

In any situation, you will feel more powerful in an emerging economy as compared to a developed one. There are a variety of reasons for that. First being the size (Nominal GDP) of emerging economies which is smaller than the developed ones. Therefore the span of control is always higher. Secondly, the laws and regulations in emerging economies are not as stringent as in the developed ones. This gives enough room to people with money and influence to have a control over various things. However, this could be a short-lived phenomenon. As emerging economies tighten their regulatory and judicial systems, the ‘power to control’ will be more uniform across developed and emerging economies.

4. An opportunity to be among the global middle class:

Emerging economies will not be only rapidly growing but will also have young populations that will produce a surge of middle income consumers. The World Bank projects that 50% of the total global stock of capital will reside in the developing world by 2030 (up from 33% in 2010), illustrating the shift in the global distribution of wealth. These fast-growing countries will become the prime markets for global and home-grown companies. There is a great opportunity for professionals to start their own ventures in these economies and enjoy the long-term benefits.

5. Opportunity to innovate:

Emerging economies offer a lot of potential for indigenous and cheap innovation. Students who are smart and business minded will find their ways by creating new business models. These students will also be the creators of demand for new products and services. Many incubators have found success in emerging markets as the cost of innovating and failure is less as compared to matured markets.

Threats you need to plan for:

Political issues: Your plans in emerging economies can go for a toss if a particular country (you are interested in) has political issues. In the recent past several emerging markets such as Russia, Ukraine and some economies in the Middle East have witnessed political issues which have adversely impacted the societies, businesses and future prospects.

Ease of doing business: It is not always easy to start and run business in an emerging market. For instance, India ranks 158 out of 184 countries for starting a business in World Banks’s Doing Business 2015 indicators. Individuals who are planning to do business in an emerging market must have cordial relationships with the government and the local authorities for faster implementation of their programs.

Currency fluctuations: In the recent past, currencies of many EMs have fluctuated including that of Turkey, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico, South Africa, etc. The emerging market currencies are highly dependent on the movement of US dollar and US fed rates. People who plan to do business in the emerging markets must have long term currency hedging contracts to avoid unnecessary loses.

The overall outlook for emerging markets remains strong and promising. Emerging markets such as Latin America and China, which have high trade exposure to the US are expected to benefit, while those reliant on demand from the Euro area will feel the pressure (Eastern Europe, Northern and Sub-Saharan Africa). Additionally the implementation of structural reforms (India, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria) will raise business confidence, and encourage stronger investment and consumption. The immediate outlook for emerging markets is positive. IMF expects these economies to contribute 70% to global growth in 2015. EM is also likely to play a greater role in global trade as intra-EM trade is expected to rise to 33% of world trade by 2020. Individuals and students will continue to find solid opportunities for work and do businesses in emerging markets. We only need to find the right target and hit it at the right time.!