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

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

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

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

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

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

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 There may be time restrictions, too much valuable data or simply a profusion of useless, outdated data.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Collaborative Filtering:

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

Semantic Analysis:

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

Social Rating:

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

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

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

Here are a few tips to effectively curate content:-

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

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

 but also contextualizing.” – Joanne McNeil

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

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

8. Track clicks and measure your content curation.

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

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

Knowledge is power.

And well packaged knowledge is comfort.

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

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

— really they want a glass of water.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SAM WALTON

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

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

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

JAN KOUM

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

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

Chris Gardener

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

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

DHIRUBHAI AMBANI

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

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

DO WON CHANG & JIN SOOK CHANG

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

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

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

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

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

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

Divide your activities in four quadrants

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

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

Stick to schedules

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

Believe it or not: you can’t manage everything

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

Prioritize your priorities

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

Say no and do not feel bad about it

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

Manage your relationship well

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

Manage stress daily

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

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

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

BOTTLED WATER- A few decades ago, if someone told you that you would have to pay to drink a bottle of water you would have thought he was out of his mind. So, the inventive idea of bottling purified water and selling it was indeed both bold and beautiful. Want to know who did it first? Mineral water from San Pellegrino in Italy has been drawn, produced and sold since 1395 (Believe it!). Five centuries later, a French doctor began the Perrier company in 1898, and the water used in the bottles was pulled from a Roman spa.

At first, these companies sold their water in glass bottles. Although a certain form of plastic was invented by Leonardo DaVinci during the Renaissance, plastic did not become widely used commercially for water until the mid-20th century. This was due to the high cost of manufacturing the material. In India, its advent was initiated by Bisleri (Italian origin) in the year 1965.In 1969, it was bought over by Parle. Bottled water is currently a Billion Dollar industry in India. Don’t be surprised if it becomes the next Oil industry by 2050.

POST-IT NOTE- You must be thinking why such a trivial tool like this is there in the list? The reason will astound you to the core. Post-it Notes was a genius business idea generated out of a failed engineering experiment conducted by Dr.Spencer Silver – a 3M scientist. He said in one of his interviews that like many ground-breaking innovations, this was a product nobody thought they needed until they actually used it. The story goes like this:

Dr.Spencer was researching on developing strong and tough adhesives. During the process, he discovered something peculiar: an adhesive that stuck lightly to surfaces but didn’t bond tightly to them. Initially, he didn’t find a way how to make use of this invention. Then one day his Eureka Moment happened. He decided to distribute yellow-papered notes based on this adhesive to the entire company. And the employees simply loved them. ‘Post-it’ Brand and its 4000 products are now used in more than 150 countries and Dr.Spencer has 22 US patents in his name. Need I say more?

SEARCH ENGINE- The world’s first search engine was created as a school project by a computer science student Alan Emtage. In the year 1990, Alan developed Archie (Archive without the ‘V’) at McGill University, Montreal. In spite of being a groundbreaking technology , the immense business potential it encompassed was still untapped. Until the year 1994 when the legendary giant “Yahoo!” arrived. Yahoo! made money every time a user clicked on one of the ads in its search results. This avant-garde technique was known as pay-per-click advertising.

In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Bin launched ‘Google’. They created a revolutionary  algorithm called Page Rank, which was based on relevancy rankings. But at that time, Google was a relatively unknown player in the industry. Later on, in the year 2000, Yahoo! partnered with Google to power their organic search results. Ironically, the end result was that Yahoo! inadvertently introduced its biggest competitor which ultimately made Google into a household name. Then, in the year 2003, Google acquired blogger.com and launched Ad Sense which marked the beginning of the present-day blogging revolution. The sponsored link that you see when you search for a related phrase is a system devised by Google called Ad Words, which assists those who need to market their products or services through the ubiquitous Google search engine.

E-COMMERCE- As you all know Electronic Commerce is the process of trading across the Internet and includes Online Shopping/Trading, Mobile Commerce, Internet Marketing, Internet Banking etc. The origin of E-Commerce dates back to the year 1971 when the U.S. Department of Defense developed ARPANET (predecessor of the Internet we presently use). Subsequently, in the 1970s, it was used by academics for sharing research material. Then in the year 1989, when Tim Berners Lee (A scientist at CERN- A Swiss-based research organization) proposed the World Wide Web (WWW), the use of E-Commerce became widespread and grew at an exponential rate. Then in the early 90s, with the advent of Microsoft Windows based affordable Personal Computers and easy access to the Internet further surged up its usage for the common man.

However, it was until 1994 when Marc Andersen invented Netscape Navigator, which quickly became the world’s most popular web browser. In 1995, Microsoft responded with the widely-used Internet Explorer, which led to a further surge in Online Shopping. As a result, in July’95 Jeff Bezos sold the first ever book from his garage on Amazon.com. Within 30 days, Amazon was selling books all over the U.S and 45 more countries.

 

Soon after, in 1995, a software programmer Pierre Omidyar sold a broken laser pointer to a willing buyer based on a bidding system. Thus, the online auction and shopping giant  ‘eBay’ was created! Bezos and Pierre are the undisputed founding fathers of E-Commerce and eventually paved the way for today’s e-commerce merchants. They absolutely changed the way consumers all over the world make their purchases today.

In India, though Rediff.com introduced the concept in 1999, it was deep discount model of Flipkart.com, which actually changed the face of online shopping in 2007.

IPHONE- Graham Bell made the first telephone call in the year 1878. Motorola introduced the world’s first cellular phone namely DynaTAC 8000x in 1984. And just when people thought that telephones have come a long way, IBM launched the world’s first Smart-phone in 1994 under the name ‘Simon Personal Communicator’. It was a touch-screen phone which was able to send & receive faxes and Emails. It offered useful apps like World Clock, Alarm, Address Book, Calendar, Calculator, Notepad etc. Interestingly though, these were not called “Apps” back then. They were referred to as “Features”. Sadly, the ingenious ‘Simon’ lived fast and died young.

At the beginning of year 2007, Nokia was the top-selling mobile company in the world. Android phones didn’t exist and high-ranking executives were addicted to their Blackberries. On the 9^th day of January 2007, Steve Job’s Apple absolutely reinvented the smart-phone market when it introduced iPhone to the world. It was marketed as a wide-screen iPod, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communicator all rolled into one magical gadget. It brought ‘touch-computing’ into mainstream acceptance and use. The iPhone, like the Macintosh and the iPod truly redefined the market. A whopping 1.4 million iPhones were sold within 3 months of its launch.By 2013, Apple had sold more than 150 million iPhones worldwide and generated over $90 billion in sales. It was the greatest business and technological innovation of the decade and is considered as an important milestone in the history of modern computing.

Some more path-breaking business ideas worthy of mention: Recycling Industry Business, Interest on Money, Franchise business model, Credit Card, Fitness Industry and Multi-Level Marketing.

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

With a vitriolic campaign, involving bitter attacks from all the parties concerned and a long recession, the General Elections of May 2014 were a watershed in in Indian politics. After more than a decade of political uncertainty and coalition politics, the Indian voter had appeared to give a single majority to a single party based on the promises and plans detailed by a single candidate.

The elections ended the policy stalemate of at least two financial years which had cost the economy tremendously in terms of delayed and cancelled projects increasing the cost of doing business and making a negative impact by bringing all the inherent fault lines to the fore in all the key and critical areas of the economy like infrastructure, transport and most importantly banking.

The new government headed by Mr Modi has either announced or put in place a slew of measures and policy reviews which will have important and long lasting ramifications on the students entering or undergoing the MBA programme.

With the basic premise of the new government and the new ‘regime’ being minimum government, there are very few cabinet ministers and in most cases, it is a Minister of State (MoS) who is carrying on important activities such as Human Resources Department and Education.

Several new initiatives have been announced by the government, and all these call for greater, wider and more in depth participation by all companies operating out of India.

This greater participation not only calls for all companies both domestic and foreign to not only increase their investment in India, but also abroad.

The government has also consistently nudged the corporates including even the state run banks to carry out their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities to further the cause of government welfare programs and schemes. Case in point— the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana which is scheduled to have a ripple effect on banking which will last in the years to come.

Starting with the mere opening of accounts, this scheme has now diversified to include the beneficiaries in enrolling themselves for both life and accidental insurance. Steps have been taken for a pension scheme as well to improve the social safety net for all Indians.

The incremental jobs created in the entire gamut of the financial sector-comprising the Banking, Financial, Services and Insurance industries is something all MBA aspirants and students must watch out for.

Both the first and the second budgets presented by the Finance Minister, while being criticized for not taking the big and bold steps the government should have taken, are taking the country and its all-important finances in a new area.

Steps being taken to make the Indian Railways more viable will free up more resources for the government budget deficit and improve fund allocation to other fund starved sectors such as renewable energy, inland waterway transportation, and dedicated freight corridors.

MBA aspirants and students interested in the fields of operations research and warehousing will find an immense demand for their skills.

The huge push in policy making towards the defense production sector has already seen many domestic companies such as Bharat Forge, Mahindra, and the Tatas taking the first steps towards indigenous production of defense equipment. Even by the most conservative estimates, defense procurement by India has been ranked consistently amongst the highest in the world, and even a mere 10% substitution of these costly defense imports by these Indian stalwarts will create many jobs for the skilled graduates.

Engineers, armed with an MBA degree will be much in demand for industries involving considerable greenfield project experience along with execution skills.

The Indian economy, while showing the first green shoots of recovery is yet to achieve the dizzying growth rates of the erstwhile Asian tigers. The level of industrialization as well the scale of economic reforms required to be undertaken along with reforms in taxation and law are beyond the scope of a five year term for a government.

The initiatives in the foreign policy space for the government are encouraging investors, both Institutional and others to look at investments in India with a fresh, long term perspective. Nowhere is this more evident than in the huge, bustling and sometimes stumbling industry of e-commerce.

E-commerce firms, both established ones and start-ups alike are managing to achieve what no other centrally or otherwise sponsored government program has tried to achieve–that of connecting millions of small customers to millions of small sellers in Tier II and Tier III cities in India. If, figures are anything to go by, then the demand for the latest fashionable shirts and mobiles is strong and vibrant enough to drive the sales of mobiles exclusively via digital and online channels rather than traditional ‘brick and mortar’ stores.

The resultant gains in cost and efficiency is something to watch out for. MBA aspirants in the marketing and digital marketing fields will stand to benefit immensely from every investment in a start-up by an angel investor or venture capitalists.

The passage of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill in the Lower house of the Parliament will free Indian manufacturing and trade of some of the ignominies of an extremely regressive taxation structure which increases the cost of doing business in India. (For MBA aspirants hoping to crack their GD’s in 2016, this might be a much heated topic of discussion and presentation)

The most important announcement which shall drive Indian manufacturing and industry is the start of the ambitious ‘Make in India’ initiative. If the government, (and it’s a very big IF) is able to supplement and support this initiative with substantial reforms in Labor Law, Environmental Law, and Taxation, this will have the potential of generating 20 million new jobs which will go a long way in addressing some of the issues of rural India and agriculture.

Professionals in Human Resources (HR) will see a surge in recruitment activities along with new challenges of rapid growth and industrialization. MBA students will do good in updating themselves on production trends in the economy so as to correctly identify and understand which particular sector will grow the most and plan their skill up gradation accordingly.

All MBA aspirants, students and those expected to pass out within the next two years must constantly strive to constantly acquire, upgrade and consistently enhance their skills-be it adoption of new technologies and improve their understanding of different markets and economies.

Contributed By : Sunil Iyer ( Class of 2008, IBS Gurgaon).

Life is all about the choices we make every day. Whether it is about deciding on an outfit to wear for an annual meeting or about considering getting married to a special someone, it is critical that we make a wise decision.

For some of us every decision is an internal battle and we are never quite sure about how good or bad the decision is.When we are in a situation where we have to make a choice we either go by our gut feeling or choose the logical path.

The challenges we often face when confronted by a decision-making situation are:

1. We do not consider all possible options:

When faced with a decision-making situation weinstinctivelylimit the number of choices assuming that they are too complex or may have a negative outcome.

Let us see how Eonex softsol overcame this issue. Eonex Softsol, an IT consulting firm was looking for a technology solution provider to partner with. There were two companies that topped their list. The first company had excellent products but poor service and the second company had an average product but excellent marketing and after sales training and support. Eon ex was in a dilemma as to go for the company with excellent products or the one with excellent service. Both aspects were equally important.

After a lot of brainstorming the firm came up with an option of partnering with both the companies as against the natural option of going with just one company. Clients had multiple options to choose from. The clients who were already comfortable with technology and did not need in-depth training opted for the product from the first company whereas those clients who wanted their staff to be well trained went for the product from the second company. By not limiting their options Eon ex could leverage the strength of both the partner firms and cater to the requirements of a larger customer base.

2. We look for information that supports our thought process:

When we watch news, we follow more of those channels that agree and support our views. This strengthens and confirms our thought process. In other words, we see what we like to see, we hear what we want to hear and we interpret in the way we want to understand.

Similarly, when it comes to analyzing the alternatives for a decision, we have a tendency to look for and collect options that supports our point of view. Our point of view may not be correct, neutral or fair always. But we make critical decisions based on the analysis of such options, thinking that we are being rational.This is known as confirmation bias and it affects all of us in one way or the other.

To deal with confirmation bias, the first thing that needs to be done is to initially take in all the information as it is without getting into any analysis. Secondly, for every option that is considered, come up with 3-4 supporting reasons. Thirdly, rather than looking for information that confirms with your views, try to come up with reasons that dis confirms. This will give a holistic and unbiased perspective to the analysis. This will also boost up the probability of sticking with the most suitable option. Once the above three are accomplished revisit all the options once again. This will ensure that you are systematically dealing with the tendency to be biased.

3. We find it tough to overcome short-term concerns:

Short-term concerns pose to be a big hurdle in the path of change. Everyone resists change and it becomes difficult to look beyond the current issues to find the

long-term benefits. There could also be a situation in which you are able to see the big picture but there may be others in your family, your team or your organization who are unable to and therefore may cause resistance.

There are many ways to deal with this issue. The first being familiarity. Introducing something in a big bang manner will lead people to a state of shock. It is always better to bring in new concepts in small packets over a period of time. Familiarity leads to acceptance and understanding. Organizations use this technique when a new change is implemented. Newsletters and office magazines are sent out to introduce the topic to the employees. Employee sentiments are gauged through meetings and informal talks. Time is given deliberately for the concept to sink in and in due time the change is brought about.

Taking a step back also helps to give a new perspective. If you are planning a life style change but are unable to get out of the daily grind, your plan will never get implemented.  You will need to slow down and create time and space for yourself to think and introspect. Familiarity will give you the knowledge and reduce resistance but taking a step back will give you clearer ideas, effective solutions and prove to be your way forward.

4. We are overconfident about our previous decisions.

A typical case of overconfidence is when physicians close the initial diagnosis without completely listening to patient. This leads to incorrect diagnosis and multiple visits to the clinic before the actual problem is found out.

This usually happens with a person when the previous decisions were a success. We stop questioning our assumptions, seeking dis confirming information or checking our biases. We become over assured and start ignoring the process that lead to our past success.  Every major decision should be an outcome of critical thinking.

Power is another reason where people become overconfident about their knowledge and stop listening to others who present a different point of view.

Lastly start small rather than trying to completely avoid making decisions. As you consciously become comfortable with small decisions your confidence will increase. For critical issues be ready with the needed information; question the information; ask opinion from others typically someone who is an expert in the matter; try not to be too sensitive about how others will perceive you if the decision fails.

Be prepared for the worst-case scenario. If your decision goes wrong, accept it and try to find out what went wrong and use it as a lesson to be kept in mind and not a reason to escape.

Contributed By : Sanjit Das (Class of 2005, IBS Hyderabad).

“Entrepreneurship” – To work for one own self and run one’s own business. In short,to earn for one’s own living. Initially it is just like watering a seed without any surety if it will grow to a plant or not. It is like that seed, which a farmer pampers with pesticide and waters every day and in some days is glad to see the steam popping out. With excitement and more care, the steam gets leaves and with further care and hard work, it grows to a full lavish tree with leaves and fruits. Likewise, entrepreneurship is just the same like nourishing the seed. If one has a logical business plan in place, working towards it and investing in it surely multiples the investments with virtue of time. Initially there is more running around, stress and much more of hard work to do but when with time we see things turning the way it should be then the level of stress and hard work also sobers down.

Gone are the trends when lots of young talent after completing the academics and work experience had a drive to do something on their own. A person with utmost courage and full confidence can only take up to a decision of doing his own thing. It doesn’t matter what grades one carry or how bad one has been in particular subject, if one has a business drive to do something of an own and not work under achieving somebody else targets, the story starts then. Had the coke not been packaged from a roadside drink, it wouldn’t have been the brand it is today. Companies like Facebook, snapdeal are the examples of young talents who had a drive to do something on its own. Not to talk about corporate if they do not interest you, the best example is of the comedian Kapil Sharma, we saw him as a stand up comedian in a reality show. The man took a decision to run his own format show, created the first five episodes of content on his own expense. He went to Star Network first with his content and they did not entertain him. Post that he took the content to zee and did not see any interest coming. Finally Viacom network agreed to telecast only five episodes in the prime time and now they cannot imagine colors without the “Comedy Nights with Kapil” and hence with time his production house is doing pretty well for him. Had he been working in some reality show he would not have been the brand he is today. I am sure it would not have been an easy task for him when his content was rejected and not bought by any but eventually the stress and running around is a worth for.

Today when there is world to hire management pass outs, we get lured by the job positions, brands and the monies that we are offered. During placements we see people sitting for the job profiles they would not have imagined to be in just for heck of monies offered. The same people have grown up saying “I want to become XYZ” and eventually get lured by some HR coming and offering an amount and a created position to sit on.  If we are determined to begin our career fixing that I want to do something of my own and start working towards it, five year down the line life is much secured than your peers who would have joined elsewhere under someone. We get carried away that we will not have any investments in the job and at least we have an assured salary that we will make at the end of the month. But that is not even right, there is no job security and stability that if it doesn’t work and the company doesn’t make monies we will have to hunt for another job. Over and above that there is no job satisfaction, because most of the times we work for the monies and do not have a choice of profile. On the contrary, when you are an entrepreneur, no one can replace you as it is your own venture and you are the boss. Also, things happen your own way, any change in working or any strategic implementation is just your call away. Having a choice of doing something of your own it becomes easy to pick things which interest you.

There was a time when any potential business man would do irrespective of what business plan they had in place as it was a monopoly phase where everything would sell. With the changing consumer behavior and market, the number of sellers has enormously increased compared to the takers in the market, hence when we have imbalanced demand and supply, one needs a factual business plan in place. So a potential entrepreneur needs at least a five year business plan with the projected budget of investments and marketing plan so as to define the working of the business. Rolling behind the bush does not work anymore. The reasons the companies are changing the advertisements every then and how and are advertising on all the mediums possible to tap the customers is the fact that now the seller has to go all the way to tap the potential customers let it be by hiring a PR agency and holding events or by raising for a social cause and positioning as a social friendly brand.

Every profile that we take has its difficulties and sugar points. Let it be running around the targets in the corporate or managing the own investments in the business by taking loans. Tensions are everywhere and so is the reward. If we perform well in the job that we do no one can stop us from getting us what we deserve. Now it is on us to choose what do we want to work on basis what interests us. Rather than growing old and thing I wish I would have… its better to get out of the discomfort zone and start doing thing which you want to see yourself growing old to.

Contributed By : Rahul Wadhwa (Class of 2013, IBS Gurgaon).