Guidelines for Personal Interview

As mentioned earlier, goal clarity is one word you will keep coming across in interview as well as during two years of study. Your goal must align with MBA program and you will be asked to explain how goals and MBA curriculum fit together. There is no uniform answer for this question because for every individual, objectives and goals differ. Similarly, different candidates have different reasons for doing MBA and there can be more than one reason for doing MBA. Think of all these possibilities and analyze beforehand.

Always be original in front of the interview panel. Never ever try to imitate someone. Keep the fact in your mind that, all the students have their own particular strengths and weaknesses. Don’t try to copy perfect answers. There is a great chance of it not working for you. Always play to your strengths.

One of the primary ingredients of performing well in PI is to be completely aware of your inner self. Call it self-awareness which implies that candidate must be able to talk about each and everything related to his personality including academics, institutes, hobbies, family background. Having complete knowledge of your strengths and weaknesses is a great asset during the time of PI.

Performing under pressure is a good indicator of your personality strength. Always try to maintain calm because that will what help you a great deal. You will be grilled on your weak aspects so be prepared to handle things with calm. Never every try to lie to panelists because they are very experienced people and can literally catch your bluff. Just be honest. Follow all these steps and you are sure to conquer the final frontier.

B-school Personal Interview

In the previous article we talked about concept of Group Discussion and few suggestions to perform well in GD. The next and final stage is Personal Interview or also called as PI. As mentioned in previous article, CAT examination analyzes your personality on every level. Academic skills were tested in the entrance test whereas GD aimed at gauging one’s people and presentation skills. The purpose of Personal Interview is to analyze personality. Personality aspect includes getting an idea about yourself in your own eyes, knowing your goals and how you relate your personality traits to your goals and vision. Normally the questions raised in PI aims at knowing your true self rather than your academics.

Before going for PI, one must analyze his strengths and weaknesses. It pays big time to figure out in advance about goals and answers of few common questions. These few questions can range from your ambition, about your personal goals, your hobbies, why you want to pursue MBA, aspects like strengths and weakness etc. One should also be prepared to tell about himself and your vision of your coming future. One must not be casual while preparing for personal interview section. After all, you are projecting yourself as a future manager with lots of promises. Also keep in mind, there are no set rules for PI like GD section. It’s a free-flowing interaction session where the panelists manage to dissect your entire mentality and personality.

Group Discussion- Tips

Group discussion can be defined as a discussion among few members for duration of 20 to 30 minutes. The discussion topic can range from an economic policy to sports to current political affair. The main objective behind conducting group discussion is to find students with ability to make his presence felt in a team. The topics often given for discussion also aim to analyze students’ ability and confidence apart from knowledge of relevant topics. Group discussion is a wonderful process which focuses upon participating students’ ability to analyze the given topic, stand on the topic and presentation skills. GD is often conducted in a semi-circle arrangement.

GD manages to give a glance about students’ various characteristics including decision-making skills and leadership quality. The thing to remember is it’s not about winning or losing; rather it’s about presenting things in a skillful way. To perform well in a group discussion, candidates need to possess good listening skills. Listening skills is all about listening attentively to what other persons are saying and understanding it as well. One should also have good knowledge about the topic being discussed. This good knowledge will only come from being tuned to current affairs through newspapers, magazines etc. candidates at any cost must possess, good confidence while presenting what they are saying. Confidence goes a long way in deciding your fate in group discussion. Other details one should care about is not speaking too much, refrain from intruding when someone is making a valid point and never ever get emotional. Also, try to be a good participant rather than a dominant one. All these small things make a big difference in your final marks.

Group Discussion- Purpose

Many of the candidates who have taken this year’s CAT exam must be feeling very relieved and anxious at the same time. Relieved because, they have just managed to go through rigorous entrance examination after months of hard work and anxious because of the obvious reason of impending GD/PI schedule. So what exactly is the purpose of Group Discussion stage? The reason is very simple. Students who have worked hard and slogged for months and even year have great chances of clearing entrance test but clearing GD is a different matter altogether. Candidates need to get this fact right that, MBA institutes are not just looking for bookworms. They are looking for all round personalities who can be molded and modified to fit into rough and tumble of corporate world.

The entrance test only manages to check the fundamental intelligence which will be needed to understand the course that students have to learn during the MBA programme. But managerial life is more than that. It involves decision making ability, leadership quality, pressure handling skills and logical and analytical thinking to name a few much needed attributes. GD and PI complete the process of assessing a candidate’s personality. There are several tools to assess that aspect but these two important stages of GD and PI are more of accepted tools. It shows a glimpse of candidate’s personality within a time frame. Managerial traits are natural as well as polished and most often that not this polishing process is done during MBA course and prepare students for top jobs in corporate world.

Entrepreneurs and Risk-Taking

Why do thousands of youngsters dream of doing MBA from reputed institutions? Slogging it out for months and burning the candle at both ends, these aspirants dream of big business successes. Doing MBA from a reputed institute is the first step towards that big dream. There, one learns all the essential fundamentals required to succeed in the hustle-bustle of corporate life. However, business success majorly depends upon people’s ability of taking risk. In other words, business success is a sum total of all the calculated risks taken by management people.

In times like these, when world economy is going through severe crisis, risk taking factor is even more crucial. When a management graduate aspires of becoming someone like Henry Ford or Steve Jobs or Bill Gates, he has to take unprecedented decisions which can greatly influence the outcome of his business endeavors.

This is a world of entrepreneurs as is evident by choices of several passed out candidates from colleges’ world over. When one dreams of being a successful entrepreneur, he has to take several decisions which can make or mar his business enterprise. In that case, risk taking is all about grabbing opportunities in a fast changing economic scenario. Even a recent study conducted emphasizes the same point. When an entrepreneur starts his own venture, he also becomes accountable to accompanying risks like reputation, finances, family, stability etc. ability to quick, rational decision under difficult situations largely decides success of an entrepreneur. According to the above mentioned study, most of the risk taking decisions proves to be of advantage when combined with enhanced flexible problem solving.

CAT- Expected Cut-off Marks

So after weeks and months of preparation, the D-day came and went leaving behind many hopes and crushed aspirations. Imagine the number; 2.70 lakhs! So, now all said and done students must be waiting for cut-off marks. Those who are quite confident of their results must have already started to prepare for GD and PI. But before that lets check out the anticipated cut-off marks of various institutes and colleges.

Institute Name -----> Test Exam ----> Anticipated Cut-off Marks
IIM Ahmedabad---> CAT----> 99.3
IIM Bangalore ---->CAT ----> 98+
IIM Calcutta ----> CAT ----> 98.96
IIM Lucknow ----> CAT ----> 98+
Indian School of Business ----> GMAT ----> 690+ (SCORE)
Xavier Labour Relations Institute ----> XAT ----> 98.5 & PM&IR- 97.5
Faculty of Management Studies ----> FMS ----> 92+
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade ----> IIFT ----> 92+
IIM Kozhikode ----> CAT ----> 98
IIM Indore ----> CAT ----> 85
Institute of Rural Management Anand IRMA ----> 95+
Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies ---->MH CET----> 183(Score)
Management Development Institute ---->CAT----> 95+
National Institute of Industrial Engineering ---->CAT ---->92 – 95
S P Jain Institute of Management & Research ---->CAT / XAT/ GMAT----> 85 / 680
Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT Powai ---->JMET----> Up to 400 (Rank)
T A Pai Management Institute ---->CAT/GMAT ----> 88/650
Tata Institute of Social Sciences ---->TISS----> 43 marks
Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneshwar ---->XAT----> 96.21
Bharathidasan Institute of Management ---->CAT----> 95
Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi ---->JMET----> 401-850 (Rank)
Goa Institute of Management ---->XAT----> 90.01
Institute of Management Technology ---->CAT----> 96
K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research---->CAT/CET ---->96.35 / 171(Score)
Loyola Institute of Business Administration ---->XAT----> 90+
Mudra Institute of Communication Ahmedabad ---->CAT / GMAT----> 90
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies ---->NMAT----> 95+
Praxis Business School ---->CAT / XAT / GMAT ---->No cut-offs*
Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource----> SNAP----> 89 (Score)approx
Symbiosis Institute of Business Management----> SNAP ---->85 (Score)approx
University Business School ---->CAT----> 85+
Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur----> JMET----> 851-1400 (Rank)

CAT 2008 Examination Analysis

The CAT examination has a tendency of surprising students all these years. CAT 2008 was no exception. This year, total number of questions increased by 20 percent. What caught students’ off-guard was added emphasis on verbal section. That also means, weightage of verbal section was almost 45 percent resulting mainly from 40 percent increases in verbal questions. Students with adequate vocab knowledge and grammatical efficiency must have relished the surprise. RC (Reading comprehension) also had five questions per passage. Last year, it was three questions per passage. That way, verbal section became lengthier but it was also quite manageable. Coming to Quant and DI sections, there were not many surprises except few question patterns based on the previous CAT exams.

Students needed to apply unconventional methods including substitution method and numerous options to answer questions of DI and Quant sections. There were also several question formats and styles quite similar to previous CAT exams and it was also anticipated to some extent. So that must have helped students while handling these questions. DI was definitely tough whereas Quant was manageable for well prepared students.

According to experts, CAT paper was of reasonable complexity level. Because of more choices in English section, paper was also considered balanced. Total number of questions was 90 compared to 75 questions last year. DI and Quant had 25 questions each whereas Verbal section contributed 40 questions. Expected cut-off is 125-128 from IIMs.

Section wise expected cut-off marks are;
Verbal- 45-49
DI- 27-30 and
Quant- 30-33

CAT Trends

CAT has seen many changes over the years. It used to be a 120 minutes exam prior to 2006. In the mid-nineties, students were supposed to spend equal time on each of the section but 2006 onwards, students were allowed 150 minutes. The prime reason behind that change was increasingly high level of questions and fewer questions. With increased time duration, candidates’ candidates could focus better on difficult questions. That also implied that, speed was no more the most important factor.

With changing time, marks assigned to each question have also changed. The normal rule was assigning equal weightage to each mark whereas some other time, questions carried different marks depending upon their easiness and difficulty level. But since last two year, each question carried four marks. Another significant change was seen in terms of number of choices each question had. Before 2006, each question had four answer choices but since 2006, all the questions carry five choices. This has managed to increase the difficulty level a bit.

IIMs have never revealed about negative marking scheme and cut-off marks. So that makes it difficult to check about these things. But in 2005, negative marking scheme was revealed for the first time. IIMs have followed negative marking scheme; sometimes its one-third for every wrong answer and some other time, 25 per cent of the weight of a correct answer. With CAT paper being done today, students are expected to prepare for all the surprises. Competition is definitely tough with more than 2.5 Lakhs students vying for 1600 seats of IIMs. Wishing all the students good luck.

Changing Pattern of CAT

The much anticipated D-Day is round the corner. The Common Admission Test (CAT) is one of the toughest management entrance examinations in the world but at the same time, it opens a world of wonderful opportunities for the successful candidates. The difficulty level of this exam can be gauged from the fact that only one percent of total appearing candidates manage to get through the prestigious IIMs. CAT is very unpredictable by nature. The reason behind that unpredictability can be credited to the fact that, students need to prepare themselves for encounter surprise situations and changeable business environment.

Students should be prepared to face unpredictability element in form of number of questions, scoring pattern, sections, negative marking, test duration of the test and questions pattern. CAT question paper has kept on changing with changing times. If we go back to 90s, we will see that, exam paper was quite long with 4 sections and almost 180 questions in it. The four sections were, Quantitative Ability, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Ability, and Data Interpretation. In subsequent years, the sections were reduced to three and number of questions 165.

By the year 2004, the number of questions was reduced even further to 123, 90 in 2005 and 75 in 2006. By changing number of questions, students were made to prepare thoroughly. This also implied that, now onwards, no questions were easy and students couldn’t afford to ignore any particular section. This change also made sure that, candidates would be preparing hard and attempt each question seriously. The implication of such a reduction was that students could no longer afford to leave any area out of their preparation nor could one find 'easy' questions to answer by searching through the paper. A paper with a lower number of questions obviously reduces choice that students have and would play into the hands of those who prepare really well and have left no stone unturned in their quest for excellence.

Data Interpretation: Strategies

Almost all of us read the newspapers and magazines on a daily basis. While going through them, we often come across some data presented in the form of charts, bars, pie-charts and other diagrams. One of the most relevant examples is movement of the sensex of the BSE or NIFTY chart over a period of time. These are often represented by a line diagram. Now, students with regular practice of DI can easily make out the movement of the sensex depicting from the chart. It will almost always easy for him to tell accurately which day of the week saw maximum gain or loss.

In the same way, inflation index or cricket statistics or the rise in price levels are also depicted in chart or diagram format. It will be fun to draw your own consluions based on charts without even looking at the text written below.

Other method could be mental calculations. Whether you are filling up petrol or counting numbers written on the number plates of vehicles or buying vegetables or analyzing price movement of a particular share, one should use mental mathematics and revise percentages and approximations. Candidates with strong interest in cricket can also use that mental mathematics for calculating run rate, over rate or strike rate.

While preparing for Data Interpretations, candidates should also focus on learning square roots and cube roots of numbers upto 10. Then, knowing reciprocals and percentages of numbers upto 20 is also a must. Similarly, one should also be familiar with squares of numbers upto 30 and the cubes of numbers upto 20.

Analytical Reasoning: Strategies

Once students have got the hang of type of questions being asked in DI and Reasoning section, they must devise the proper strategies. Regular practice must be followed by well planned strategies to solve these set of questions. While practicing, students must strive to find the inherent patterns associated with different set of analytical reasoning questions and practice accordingly. Most often than not, more than one method can be used to solve such problems. Understand all these methods are of paramount importance which must be followed by choosing the one that works best for particular candidate.

One also must assure availability of good practice material. Having few good books for practice proves very useful during the actual exam. There are number of well compiled books available with comprehensive range of diagrams and diagrams. One of the recommended books is 'The Great Book of Mind Teasers and Puzzles' by George Summers which is very effective for such preparation. In this book, there are number of puzzles and amazing range of different questions. Few of them are quite easy whereas others are tricky. Books by Shakuntala Devi, the great mathematical wizard, are other useful options.

One should also focus upon being more 'analytical' and at the same time improve his or her 'mathematical logic'. However, this requires time and patience but then again, practice is the key. Consistency is another critical factor while preparing for analytical reasoning. One should solve questions daily. That way, mind will also get used to the habit and adopted techniques.

CAT: DI & Analytical Reasoning

Data Interpretation and Analytical Reasoning is one of the important sections of the Common Admission Test (CAT). In this section, candidates are given different types of graphs, diagrams, pie-charts, or other kinds of figures related to data. Candidates are also expected to answer questions on analytical reasoning which are basically mathematical puzzles and can be solved using various principles of logic.

While preparing for CAT, students are expected to be familiar with various types of problems. It has often been seen that particular sort of questions with little bit of modification, here and there, are seen regularly in the CAT. One common type of question is matching ones where candidates are provided with number of statements or clues to help them make the correct match. Though, time consuming, but students should bear one fact in mind that often often two to four linked questions are solved using one right sequence. The only way to prepare for such questions is proper practice. Look out for past papers and mock tests with such pattern and with reasonable practice, students are bound to get it right on the D-day.

One also comes across questions related to diagrams. In this case, simple visual inspection methodology will help students to get them used to such questions and they will also find it easier to crack such questions. Solving such problems also go long ways for future assignments including that of corporate life. One must use pen and paper whenever necessary.

The Final Tips..

CAT is as much about strategy as it is about thorough preparation. As exam date is approaching, candidates’ should start thinking about strategy. A strategy should always be flexible enough. There is no point being rigid about your strategy. One should start analyzing oneself critically. Analysis should involve, assessing your areas of strengths, subjects and questions where you always manage to perform well in mock tests. Similarly, your weak subjects should be very clear to you. It also pays to formulate different strategies for different mock tests and check which one works out better. One should be very clear about the order of questions he or she would be attempting on the D-day. Don’t press yourself hard for your weak subjects. In fact, stop worrying about them. Just give a glance to those questions set but don’t indulge in over-scrutinizing yourself. One does not really need to start afresh in one’s weak subjects at this stage of time.

Remember to choose questions wisely and judiciously. Success mantra says, candidate should pick right questions to answer. CAT tests your smart choices and not your in-depth knowledge. One should also take a full length test only once a week and analyze the answers and results thoroughly.

Finally, stay calm and relaxed. Just don’t be bookworms. Have adequate sleep, little time for movies and sports as well. Spend time with your loved ones. You should keep doing whatever you like. This has a calming effect on stressed minds. Don’t think too much about the exam and feel positive energy inside. Last but not the least, this is just an exam. World does not begins and ends with this. There are more exams to come.

Strategy Tips for CAT

A very vital method of preparation is, going through the last few years' CAT papers. One should focus on analyzing the trends, variety of topics and kind of questions. This way, student can have a slightly better idea about what sort of questions are most likely to appear in exam. This probability method of questions helps a lot in concentrating on particular set of questions.

Candidates should also strive to allocate same amount of time to all sections. Giving undue weightage to one section over others is not a smart strategy because it increases the probability of allocating less time for other section and consequently less marks which overall affects cut-off marks. Remember to treat all sections equally. Students are also advised to identify the type of questions which they consider themselves good at. Once the identification process is done, one should revise them properly so that chances of making a mistake in those questions are minimized. In the run up to CAT, last few months are all about strengthening yourself and preparing yourself to the best of your ability. It’s better to cut out any scope for errors.

All the serious candidates develop some good habits while preparing for this mother of all management exams. One must ensure, those habits remain there till the very end. One of those habits is reading. Stick to this wonderful habit. Keep reading and keep reading any and everything. Reading all those diverse topics and enjoying yourselves is the key.

Strategizing for CAT

Not much time is left for the D-day! It’s just a month away and all the hard work of months gone by will be put to a strenuous test. So how should students take this last one but very vital month before they actually sit for the most prestigious management entrance examination in India?

It all should start with finding yourself motivated to perform and give your best. The moment, the feel good factor starts generating within, things will appear much more positive and bright. Candidates need to reflect about how they have worked so hard all these months, about how they started, why they started, and finally what they wanted to attain with so much of enthusiasm. The dreams, the passion and all the aspirations and soon students will find themselves all motivated and charged up for the final hurrah!

On preparation front, students should begin with measuring their mock tests frequency. It all differs from student to student. Many find it convenient to take one test a week whereas few others used to take more than 2-3 tests per week. Important thing is to not to overdo things and acquire unnecessary stress. It’s more vital to focus and concentrate for 2.5 hours and make yourself comfortable. Revision and analysis must be followed after the test. This helps in fine-tuning the few remaining glitches in your armory. Candidates can opt for motivation classes or few yoga techniques which would help in improving concentration and focus.

Strategies for Quant

Quant refers to quantitative aptitude, a very important part of any MBA examination. Often, this section proves to be bugbear of many students. To solve that problem, we need to look at few fundamental strategies carefully in order to tackle quant section successfully.

It begins with careful choice of questions. Ideally, we should choose question that will get us maximum marks in stipulated time. This means, aspirants should always pick those questions first, they are more comfortable with. One should always read question properly and then judge about its easiness or difficulty level.

The second step is prioritizing topics according to their weightage in CAT. One can not predict accurately about the orderly importance of questions but looking at past CAT papers helps a lot in this regard. In general, sections like; Data Sufficiency, Time, Circles, Number Theory, Functions, Permutations and Combinations, Sequences and Series, Speed and Distance are some of the important sections, students should focus upon.

Third step involves Intelligent guessing. It needs smartness as well as an alert mind. It helps in narrowing down the answer options to two and then ticking one of them. Chances are, this method has good chances to pay off.

Fourth step is Substitution to simplify. There are several ways one can solve questions using substitution. This helps in saving time.

The last and concluding step is Learning Formulae and tables. This is a great way to cut down on time by using formulas. Several methods including Vedic mathematics and new forms of creative tables prove quite beneficial in subjects like geometry.

Improving Vocab- Culmination

- Associating Method. This useful method implies that, we need to relate or attach a particular word with someone or something. That associating factor could be any relative or companion or company name or sports or similar thing. For example, the word; ‘impulsive’ can be associated with a friend who has an impulsive nature or who is always in hurry. Whenever we meet or see that friend, this word will automatically come to our mind and that way, we will remember that word for a much longer duration.

- Weaving interesting stories. This method is quite an interesting way to work up one’s vocab collection. Suppose, we take a word; panoramic or kaleidoscopic. Now think of a trip to a hill station and recall the natures’ view. From that story of our trip to a certain hill station we will immediately recall these two words which signify beauty of landscape or beauty of a particular view or object.

- Source citing method. Source citing technique refers to visiting online dictionary or encyclopedia or thesaurus sites. These sites are regularly updated and for every word they mention its source of origin. That way, we learn about background of the words and ultimately learning process gets much easier.

- Swapping. This system refers to using synonyms. We have the option of using synonyms in context as well as meaning method. For example, we can swap or replace ‘impulsive’ with impetuous, rash, hasty etc. this tremendously helps in increasing our words capabilities.

These are few methods which will help the MBA aspirants in a major way towards improving their vocab and consequently improving self-confidence. Keep practicing. The words will come to you and stick by you.

Improving Vocab- Process

Most potent way of improving vocab is reading quite a lot of stuff including newspaper, magazines, english speaking books, novels, journals etc. Most of the words which are currently in vogue and not included in dictionaries yet, can be found in above mentioned reading materials. The key is to realize, more you read, better are the chances of coming across new words. It also helps to keep taking vocab test every now and then. One should also realize that, trying to mug words doesn’t help much. One should develop genuine fondness for reading and that proves very crucial in grasping and retaining new words.

Few other methods apart from voluntarily reading are;

- Focusing on learning prefixes, suffixes and roots. Many people will vouch for this technique for its effectiveness. So how does this work? Knowing prefixes, suffixes and roots gives us a hint about the meaning of the words. Once we get a hang of these, anticipating meanings of even difficult words will not pose many problems. Let’s understand this with an example; ‘pathy’ means feeling. We must have heard many words with this suffix like, sympathy (similar sort of feelings), antipathy (negative feelings) or apathy (absence of feelings) or empathy. We can follow this pattern and try to find out other suffixes and can test ourselves.

- Flash cards method. What if we manage to incorporate a bit of fun while learning? Surely, it makes things more interesting and fun as well. Flash cards is one of those interesting way to build up your vocab. Writing words on one side of the cards and the meaning on the other side. This is convenient as well as amusing.

Improving Vocab

Currently, thousands of students across India are burning midnight oils to get into CAT exams in coming months. It’s a dream to get through those prestigious colleges because that will signify firmly embarking on a successful path which in most likelihood will lead to corporate success. CAT examination tests students on several fronts. Subjects like Math’s, Data Interpretations, Logical abilities, English and General Awareness combine together to form the tough barriers which the candidates need to cross in order to get into their dream college.

All the subjects mentioned above are important; however English poses the biggest challenge for majority of the students. We have already discussed about improving Reading Comprehension section. Its time to focus on Vocabulary, now. One of the most interesting aspects about English language is, it keeps evolving, modifying words, adding new words every day. One just can’t sit on the words learned before. Updating yourself is the key.

Language helps us in expressing our feelings and emotions. But sometimes, lack of exact words hinders us in expressing our actual thoughts. That makes it even more imperative to have a good vocabulary because during MBA and life after that we will constantly need to express ourselves in form of presentations, seminars, speech, discussions and similar things. It also helps in functioning in more effective ways. With changing times and enhanced technology, one tends to come across several new words which are tough to find even in a dictionary. Words like, glocalisation, marketing, burqini, cyborg etc are known as new fangled words.

PG admissions in TISS

The Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is one of the topmost Indian management schools. It offers various Post-Graduate Degree Programmes that includes;

Hospital Administration
Education (Elementary)
Development Studies
Social Work
Human Resources Management & Labour Relations
Health Administration
Public Health
Counseling
Women's Studies
Disaster Management
Globalisation and Labour
Social Entrepreneurship
Disability Studies and Action
Media and Cultural Studies

TISS has started the admission process by inviting applications for 2009-11 sessions. The eligibility criterion is a Bachelor's Degree of a minimum of 3 years duration or its equivalent (fulfilling the mandatory requirements of 15 years formal education) from a recognized university in any discipline with minimum aggregate marks of 50% (40% for SCs and STs).

Candidates can obtain The Application Form and Information Brochure online by downloading it from www.tiss.edu or through demand draft in favor of ‘Tata Institute of Social Sciences’, payable at Mumbai. The third option is collecting the from cash counter (Accounts Section) of TISS between 10 am and 3 pm through cash payment.

Test centres are; Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Cochin, Delhi, Guwahati, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Nagpur, Pune, Ranchi, Patna, Port Blair, and Srinagar.

Last date of submission of Forms is October 24, 2008 whereas Entrance Test will be held on December 14, 2008.

For further details candidates can contact;

TISS
VN Purav Marg,
Deonar,
Mumbai-400088
Phone: (022) 25525264 / 65 / 62, 9223388898 / 9223214955.
Email: pgadmissions@tiss.edu
Website: www.tiss.edu

PGP in Rural Management

Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA) is one of the India’s most prestigious management colleges. It’s unique because of the course it offers. One of the very few colleges which offer course in Rural Management, it attracts horde of students every year. It has invited applications for Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management (PRM 2009-2011) and Fellow Programme in Rural Management (FPRM 2009).

Eligibility for Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management is Graduation in any discipline with 50 per cent (45 per cent for SC/ST/PWD) aggregate marks. Its open for Indian students only.

For Fellow Programme eligibility criteria are Graduation in any discipline or 4-year/ 5-year professional graduation degree. Advantage with this program is Every FPRM participant will get to receive a fellowship of Rs 10,000 per month as well as contingency grant of Rs 20,000 per year for a period of four years.

Written test will be held on November 09, 2008 (Sunday: 9.15 am - 12.15 pm) at 27 different Centres across India. Written test will be followed by group discussion and personal interview. However FPRM aspirants are required to present research proposal apart from written test and Group discussion.

Test centres are as follows:-

Anand, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Dehradun, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Ranchi, Thiruvananthapuram, Udaipur, Chennai, Jaipur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pantnagar, Patna, Pune, Raipur, Rajkot, Varanasi and Vijayawada.

For further details, aspirants can log in to http://www.irma.ac.in/ and get the required details.

CAT 2008: Reading Comprehension Section- Conclusion

Few other suggestions for mastering RC:-

· Reading subjects analytically
· One should keep talking to himself while reading
· One should keep questioning himself while analyzing topic
· Whenever given a chance, Having few words with the author
· Practicing of widening ones’ eye span.
· One should learn to read in his mind than speaking aloud
· Don’t try to memorize. Try to learn and analyze.
· Keeping in check the habit of deterioration.
· Getting out of that every-word knower mindset

Apart from these few tips, students should also learn the art of time management because in the final hours, that factor proves to be utmost importance. CAT exams are designed in such a way. One must also be selective about how much to read in a particular book. One should focus on ideas hidden in the comprehension. A proper strategy would be to read the questions first and then read the passage. One must remember the questions in his mind. One important point is taking as many as mock tests possible. This increases consistency and proves very helpful. One should also strive to experiment with as many as different question tackling styles as possible. And finally, one must believe in his or her abilities. Solving the puzzle of RC is no big deal, provided one has belief and put in the required work.

CAT 2008: Reading Comprehension Section- Introduction

Lakhs of students would be appearing for CAT (common admission test), premium management entrance examination. One of the most important sections in CAT exam is Reading Comprehension (RC). This comes under verbal section. Majority of students face problems in this complicated section. But then, where there is a will, there is a way.

While preparing for RC, candidates must focus on few basic essentials. The work begins with strengthening one’s power of comprehension. This factor becomes very crucial in the examination because of the fact that, direct questions are not asked in CAT. Questions are based on numerous inferences and candidates must be able to read between the lines to score better in this section. Students are advised to improvise upon their skills because that factor will help in reading and comprehending this language.

CAT papers tend to catch candidates off guard because of their unpredictable format. There is no fixed pattern of questions. Similarly, any topic can be a subject in the RC section. That requires students to be well versed in different subjects. One must be a thorough reader. The best way is to read different newspapers, magazines, journals because all of them carry different style and usage of vocabulary and not to forget diverse topics and jargons. This also helps in diversifying one’s reading habits. Other important factor is to become an active reader. Just reading won’t do. One should be able to read critically, which proves crucial in maintaining better focus and time management.

Mudra Institute of Communications

Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad is also known as MICA. One of the topmost management colleges in India, MICA specializes in communication management. A college of great repute in Asia-Pacific region, MICA has produced many famous names in corporate world since its inception. Mudra is also unique in sense that not only in India but in Asia as well, because of its single focus on communication management. MICA offers quite a few quality programs like Post-Graduate Programme in Communications Management (PGPCM), Post Graduate Certificate Programme In Integrated Marketing Management (PGCPIMM), Executive Development Programmes (EDPs) and Professional Development Programmes (PDPs).

MICA’s PGPCM is one of the most sought after management programs in India. It’s a two year residential program and its primary objective is to build well trained and well qualified communicational professional who will be instrumental in managing communication driven business and build long lasting brand names. To get into this program, students need to have a bachelor degree with at least 50%. The admission process begins with taking CAT/GMAT. Once candidates have cleared CAT, they need to appear in MICA’s own test called MICAT. This test aims to test students all round abilities in written communication, Skills, analytical and creative thinking amongst others. MICAT is followed by group discussion and personal interview (GD & PI).

PGCPIMM is one year certificate course which is basically conducted with the help of video conferencing. To get into this course, candidates need to submit their previous work and an application form along with statement of purpose.

MICA is one of the best colleges India has and this has been consistently proved by producing wonderful talents. Mudra also has many exchange programs and world wide collaborations with famous institutions in UK, France, USA, Singapore etc.

MBA colleges in Delhi

It’s a common fact that MBA (Master of business administration) is one of the most popular courses in India. Not only they have been benefited greatly by the advent of globalization and liberalization but they have also been proved instrumental in ever changing dynamics of management. Post graduation in management in India took a flying route in post liberalization era. For management professionals passing out of quality colleges, world became an oyster for displaying their abundant talent. It can be safely assumed that MBAs are the biggest beneficiaries of globalization. Whether one talks about providing direction to day to day functioning of corporate houses or zeroing upon new policies and strategies in ever changing dynamics of business world, MBAs are of utmost importance. For Indian students choice are plenty as far as choosing right place is concerned. Many wonderful colleges are spread across length and breadth of India. New Delhi, India’s capital also boasts of many good institutions in management education. Few of them are;

Faculty of Management Studies (FMS)
Lal Bahadur Shastri Institute of Management
Fore School Of Management
Rai Foundation
Indraprastha University
Indian Institution of Technology Dept. of Management
Birla Institute of Management Technology
Global Institute of Management Technology
NILM Centre for Management Studies
Delhi Institute of Management & Services
Indira Gandhi National Open University
Jagnnatha International Management School
IILM Academy of Higher Learning
Management Education & Research Institute
Institute of Marketing & Management
EMPI Institute of Advertising Communication & Management
Jamia Milia Islamia University of Engineering and Technology
Sardar Patel College of Communication & Management
Times school of Marketing
Apeejay School of Management
International Management Center
DIMS Institute of Management Studies

Hospital Management

Hospital Management is relatively a new phenomenon in the field of management education. The changing times require a specialist in every field for every position. Rising expenditure on healthcare has seen coming up of many new hospitals and treatment centers. Most of them are specialty hospitals catering to specific needs of the patients. Different classes of hospitals are normal hospitals, specialty hospitals and super specialty hospitals. But in order to run smoothly, these specialized healthcare centers require qualified professionals.

Many institutes in India offer various courses in hospital administration. Large number of students are opting for these courses because of its twin benefits of handsome pay package and offering public healthcare services. Few medical colleges offer MD courses in hospital administration. Several diploma and certificate courses are available in hospital management. Apart from these reputed colleges, few others have also started two year MBA programs in hospital management. Institutes like Madurai Kamraj and others are credited to start these courses which are fast gaining in popularity. Medical Council of India is also pitching in with praiseworthy efforts to improve the course contents.

Other noticeable courses are distance learning courses, especially from The Indian Society of Health Administrators (ISHA) and Tamilnadu Open University.

Many top notch institutes like Symbiosis Center of Healthcare, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; The Apollo Hospitals; Armed Forces Medical College, Pune; Tata Institute of Social Science etc provide wonderful job opportunities to the students. Once the course is completed, passing candidates can join as Assistant Hospital Administrator or in finance department in major healthcare institutes, nursing homes and other hospitals.

Careers in Marketing

Marketing department plays a major element in the sustained growth and development of any organization. Right from the ancient times, when traders from other countries used to come to India showcasing the products from their regions, the concept of marketing has existed. These traders were nothing but marketing persons extolling the virtues of their countries and its products. Things have remained the same by and large even in modern times. The structure and designation has changed but the larger goals and objectives have remained the same.

Marketing is one of the most challenging as well as rewarding career. People can find job in marketing department even with basic education. But with increasing competition and improved education, the benchmark for selecting marketing professionals have also gone skyward. Nothing less than a B.Com or M.Com would do. But the best bet for getting a good marketing job in a reputed organization is acquiring MBA degree in Marketing. Students completing their masters in marketing have much greater chances of getting good offers from corporate houses. The most common designations in marketing department are market research analyst, medical transcription representative, brand manager, marketing manager, product manager etc. Booming economy of India coupled with rise of many multinational companies have only added fuel to the demand for marketing professionals.

To get a masters degree in marketing, students need to be a graduate with a confident approach towards rough and tumble of marketing world. Having excellent convincing power with expertise in communication skills will be an added bonus for aspirants. MBA (marketing) is a two year full time course which is also available through distance learning, part time and online mode. MBA Admission process involves aptitude test followed by group discussion and personal interview.

GRE

GRE stands for ‘The Graduate Record Examination’. GRE exam is taken for the purpose of admission into English speaking countries. Students opting to study in USA and European countries apart from Australia have to clear GRE exam. It’s a standardized test which has been created and managed by Educational Testing Service (or ETS). GRE exam is conducted online. Various testing centers all over the world conduct this exam. To the benefits of the candidates, many testing sites are available in many states. It’s important to note that, candidates should register themselves before taking the graduate record examination. Ideally, it’s better if management aspirants register themselves quite a while before actually taking the exams. That increases the chances of getting the desires date. Candidates have also benefited with advent of online registration facility. The procedure involves filling up the registration form. One needs to register six weeks ahead of the exam date.

GRE exam pattern is based on two exams, general test and psychology test. General test aims to check students’ analytical, verbal and quantitative capabilities. Scoring excellently in these subjects is of paramount importance to get into quality management colleges abroad. The normal score range is 200-800 in quantitative and verbal tests. The scale being used in analytical tests is 0 to 6.

Subject test checks candidates’ psychological prowess. Aspirants need to have good preparation in analogies, vocabulary, reading comprehension, algebra and geometry in order to score better and enhance their chances of securing admission in top class B-schools. GRE also requires effective time management. Finally, students with great analytical and abstract thinking skills are much more likely to crack the exam.

Educational Loans

If we look at previous years things were not that rosy for less-than-affluent class family students. Higher education was not easily accessible to them because of high cost of education. This used to deprive many students from realizing their true potential. This in turn, also robbed India of some potentially great talents. Though, option of scholarships was there, but they were far less. But with rising economy, things have changed for better. Now getting educational loans has become a routine affairs and this has really helped in promising students achieving their dreams. Various banks provide educational loans to students and this has resulted in students going whole hog for higher studies. Credit must go to flourishing India’s rich cash generation and especially banking sector. Not only government banks but private banks also are providing loans to students opting for MBA and other professional courses. In fact banks are taking initiating on their own to provide loans to students for various competitive courses.

Banks, offering educational loans are;

State Bank of India, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Allahabad Bank, Bank of India, Central Bank, IDBI, Bank of Baroda, Federal Bank, Karnataka Bank, Punjab National Bank, Mysore Bank, United Western Bank, Indian Bank, HDFC Bank, State Bank of Saurashtra, State Bank of Mysore, Indian Overseas Bank, Bank of Rajasthan, Syndicate Bank, Andhra Bank, State Bank of Indore, UCO Bank, Vysya Bank, United Bank Of India, Bank of Maharashtra, State Bank of Hyderabad, Canara Bank, Vijaya Bank, Punjab and Sind Bank, Development Credit Bank and ICICI bank.

MBA Coaching

MBA is one of the most sought after career choice in India. But getting into reputed MBA colleges requires tremendous efforts. The fact that lakhs of students vie for limited number of seats available in management schools, makes it even more competitive to get through the rigorous MBA entrance exams. Every year large number of students appear of various MBA entrance tests and its never an easy job to make it through painstaking selection procedure used for management admission. The tough competition can be gauged from the fact that only two to three percent appearing candidates manage to make it to esteemed IIMs. Apart from CAT, other well known entrance examinations are XAT, CET, NMAT, SNAP and MAT.

It’s a well known fact that MBA admission procedure has three parts; entrance examination, group discussions and personal interview (GD & PI). Cracking all three stages require great skill and all round capabilities. Here comes MBA coaching institutions in picture. There are hundreds of famous and reputed coaching institutions spread over length and breadth of India. IMS, Brilliant Tutorials, Career Launcher and Time are few of the renowned MBA coaching institutes. These institutions excel at providing required management education to the appearing candidates. Coaching classes aim at preparing students in different subjects like Math’s, Reasoning and logical abilities, Data interpretation and English which are so vital for the entrance test. They also focus on preparing students for group discussions and the interviews by teaching effective communication and developing confidence through numerous practice sessions. Coaching institutes provide necessary subject materials to the students apart from conducting mock test on a regular basis. No doubt, MBA coaching institutions contribute significantly in the career of thousands of students.

Retail Management Colleges

There are many prestigious colleges in India who offer retail management course. The names of the institutes are;

Indian Retail School
SP Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai
Indian Institute of Jewelry
Symbiosis Centre for Distance Learning (SCDL), Pune
Indian Institute of Retail, New Delhi
Pearl Academy of Fashion
Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai
Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai
Birla Institute of Management Technology, New Delhi
RPG Institute of Retail Management
K J Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, Mumbai
National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT)
Mudra Institute of Communications
Institute of Technology and Management
The Retail Academy, Ahmedabad

In Indian context, the opportunities for retail jobs are many, because of the fact that many indian as well as international companies have started their retail chains in India. International companies like, Nike, Adidas, Sony, Macdonald's, Dominos, Sharp, Pizza Hut, Levis, Kodak, Benetton have started their chains in India. Even retail behemoths like Wal-Mart and Starbucks are planning their Indian foray. Apart from these renowned multinational companies several Indian organizations like, Pantaloons, Titan, Barista, Café Coffee Day, Food World, Reliance India, RPG Group, Titan, Crossword, Raymonds, Westside, Bata, Trent and Nilgiris are few of the big names who have already started their operations. All these organizations are in constant need of retail management professionals for the posts of buyer trainee, customer service representative, department managers, merchandising assistant, assistant store managers, and management trainees.

Retail Management

Retail management is one of the most highlighted specializations in the field of business management. An upcoming area of specialization but has already become a sought after management course. Retail management is a relatively new concept. The basic of retail management course comprises of retailing business especially in the field of departmental and shopping mall retailing. The way Indian retail market has grown up in last few years with the advent of hundreds of malls, multiplexes, merchandising, it has also opened bright new opportunities to the professionals in retailing. In retail sector, supply is still less than demands so that provides added incentives for retail professionals. Retail business requires professional for store sales and handling and managing all forms of commodities shipments. Retail people are also expected to satisfy their customers because retail is basically people centric sector. Retail industry is expected to grow by almost 30-40 percent in India and that sort of growth will definitely need many professionals.

Retail management course includes plethora of information on various aspects of retailing. The subjects under retail management are, supply chain management, marketing and business communication, sales promotion, organizational behavior, merchandise management, inventory management, finance management, psychology of retail shoppers, electronic retailing, business ethics, brand management, accounting in retail, public relationship skills, customer relationship, management and quantitative methods in retailing etc. students completing retail management course can find job opportunities in multiplexes, garment industry, music stores, shopping malls, publishing industry to name a few.

IIMs

Indian Institute of Management also known as IIM is the most renowned and prestigious business school in India. It’s a dream for every MBA aspirant to get into IIMs. There are total six IIMs in India;

IIM Ahmedabad
IIM Bangalore
IIM Calcutta
IIM Indore
IIM Kozhikode
IIM Lucknow

Apart from these IIMs, the indian government has also decided to open few more new IIMs in various parts of India. The new IIMs would be located in the places like;

Jammu and Kashmir
Tamil Nadu
Jharkhand
Haryana
Uttarakhand
Chhattisgarh and
Shillong in Meghalaya.

The concept of IIM was established in 1961 when IIM Ahmedabad began its tryst with quality education as an autonomous body. IIMs are a collaboration of central and state governments. The success of IIM-A gave way to five other IIMs. After IIM-A, IIM-Kolkata got off the blocks in 1961, , IIM Banglore in 1971, IIM Lucknow in 1981, IIM Indore almost 10 years back and IIM Kozhikode is also a relatively new one. IIMs are known for their world class teaching facilities, most knowledgeable faculties and quality education. IIMs are even compared to best business schools in the world.

Getting admission into IIM is not an easy deal. One has to perform exceptionally well in the entrance examination (CAT) for making to IIMs. Apart from scoring exceptionally well, candidates are also required to excel in further rounds of group discussion and personal interviews. Having relevant work experience also works in the favor of the eligible candidates. But once admission is secured, students are assured of receiving best of the management education and consequently great placement offers

Management Books-2

One of the other famous books is ‘First, Break all the rules’ written by Gallup's Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. This book focuses on new era’s rules which are quite often against the conventional wisdom. But in order to get success managers should not hesitate in altering those rules. A great study from moral and ethical point of view this book gives us a glance of in depth and in built attributes of great managers.

‘One-Minute Manager’ is a book written by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard. One of the bestsellers, it is an evergreen book. Focusing on most common, universal and timeless management lessons, one minute manager is a hugely recommended book. It uses simple words and is quite brief which makes to much easier for readers to grasp its essence.

‘Communicate with Confidence!’ is another recommended book for potential managers and management students. The book is al about effective communication at work, at home and in any situation.

Apart from these books, there is ‘Now discover your strengths’. A classic written by Marcus that makes the readers understand their own strengths and weaknesses better. A self improvement technique book which is very helpful for business managers to identify the areas that they need to improve.

Few other famous books are Competitive Strategy, Competitive Advantage and Competitive Advantage of Nations written by one of the foremost management gurus, Michael Porter. Tom Peters also wrote a book named ‘In Search Of Excellence’ which was a massive hit. Edward De Bono gave a complete new dimension to management thinking process through his books like ‘Lateral Thinking’.

Management Books

There are large numbers of management related books that are available in the market today. So many of these books are written by world famous authors. In fact, many of these books are a must read for management students. One of the most famous management thinker, philosopher and writer Peter Kotler has written several path breaking books on management. He focused primarily on marketing management, human resource and advertising etc. students all across the world has read one or the other book of Peter Kotler. All of the Peter Kotler’s book use extremely relevant present day examples and that make it really easy for the students to understand the realistic world of business management. He uses examples from all over the world. That makes it very easy to relate to the subject matter.

Apart from classical books of management, there are many other famous books which define and try to explain other aspects of the management as well. These books define Management in simple and lucid language that most of the students are comfortable with. There is this book titled ‘Business: The Ultimate Resource’. A detailed business resource book, this book is very helpful in understanding the nuances of management application in all types of business sectors.

Customer relationship management (CRM) – Softwares

There are many customer relationship management (CRM) softwares available worldwide. These applications strive to provide best-in-class functionality for sales, operations, marketing, and service. These CRM softwares enable organizations to focus on strategies by sustaining customer-facing business progressions across several communication channels. This way companies can aim for customer-driven growth and they also manage to differentiate their products and services in the market by providing a greater customer experience. CRM applications help organizations in delighting their customers, in growing business and empowering their teams.

Major CRM softwares are as follows-

Sales Force Automation
Contact management
Contact management software stores, leads of an enterprise, tracks and manages contacts.

Lead management
Enterprise Lead management software is instrumental in managing, tracking and forecasting sales leads. This application is also important in understanding and improving the conversion rates.

Web based CRM or eCRM or Self Service CRM
Primarily for enabling organizations in handling web based customer interaction, call logs, web site analytics, automation of email and campaign management.

Self service CRM (eCRM) software Survey Management Software
Survey Software automates an enterprise's Electronic Surveys, Questionnaires, and Polls.

Apart from these major CRM applications, other important applications are;
Call Center Software,
Customer Service,
Partner Relationship Management,
Help Desk Software and
Contract Management Software which enables an enterprise to create, track and manage partnerships, contracts, agreements.

Customer relationship management (CRM) – 3

Today, shopping is no more considered as a daily chore. In fact now a day’s consumers are willing to an enjoyable experience while shopping. In the process of selling and buying they are the active participants. Consumers prefer to return back with cheerful experiences. Often conducted Studies emphasize how crucial satisfies customers are to survival of the business. In general, one satisfied customer brings five new customers merely through word of mouth publicity whereas one discontented customer manages to take away nine existing and potential customers. Customers like to share their shopping experiences, about business’s pre-sales and after sales services and that play a very important part in creating a perception in the minds of other potential customers

Analysts have identified People, process and technology as the three major components of customer relation initiatives. Focusing on these three elements help organizations to identify consumers’ needs and behaviour. This further leads to enhanced rapport between companies and customers. Its cutthroat competition amongst organizations and all of them are vying for the major chunk of customers’ attention. How consumers perceive companies is very critical in deciding their purchasing behaviour. A positive perception about a particular company literally makes a big difference to the business’ money flow. These factors make it very imperative for the companies to dutifully execute and implement CRM strategies. Companies with better execution of CRM initiatives definitely hold a competitive advantage.

Customer relationship management (CRM) – 2

Unlike previous times, these days’ customers have many choices and they have become very particular about the place and company they are going to choose for dealing in their requirements. Today, there are plethora of products available to consumers and that too from hundreds of companies. It has also become increasingly difficult to differentiate in quality between same category products offered by companies. In earlier times, consumers did not have many choices and they had very little choice but to choose whatever companies used to offer. But, in the era of globalization, Customers have the option of going for best of the lot from all over the world. It’s not for nothing that customers are said to be the king today. Now, customers don’t hesitate in looking for other options in case they are not pleased with the services offered.

Customer relationship management is basically aimed at maximizing profitability by implementing various customer centric strategies. It helps businesses to distinguish themselves amongst its peers. CRM is nothing but grand total of all the deployed methodologies covering all the functions of business including marketing, sales, customer service, human resource management etc. It is instrumental in coalescing consumer’s faithfulness, enhancing revenues, reducing costs on the whole, superior cross-selling prospects and reorganization inter-related business process by having a holistic approach.

Customer relationship management (CRM) - Introduction

The dynamics of business has kept on changing over the years. Increasing competition has forced companies to set up new strategies and think over the old ones. In accordance with changing times, the corporate mindsets have also changed. Now every business strives to make good, long lasting relationship with its customers. Because success of every business depends upon how good a relationship it shares with its customers. The dawning of this realization in corporate boardrooms has propelled the theory of customer relationship management to the vanguard of many businesses’ tactical planning.

So what is CRM? CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management. Basically, CRM is a process or method which is used to gain knowledge about consumers' requirement and actions in order to grow stronger and better relationships with them. With technological advancement, CRM has acquired various tools but it would not be a great idea to evaluate its importance in purely technological terms. At the core of CRM is a continuously evolving process that helps in bringing together multiple and multi-layered pieces of information about consumers, marketing, sales, awareness and trends prevalent in the market. Its primary function is to help business in using technical know-how and human resources to gain insight into the behavior of customers and the importance of the values that these customers bring.

Crisis Management - Conclusion

There are many crisis management consultants worldwide who helps organizations in dealing with crisis situations. Based on their expertise, there are few recommended steps to be followed in times of crisis.

· Informing and organizing the crisis team.
· The crisis team must be skilled, trained, multidisciplinary and tested.
· Launching two-way communications with all parties involved. This ensures better crisis response because two-way communication promises better results.
· Team should strive to substantiate incoming information as quickly as possible. Normally, it has been found that most of the preliminary information coming in is incorrect.

· Focus on controlling the crisis. This is initiated by taking instant crisis response actions to diminish the damage.
· It’s also very important to visualize how the crisis can spiral in severity.
· Checking "What if" unconfirmed information is, or is not, true?
· Recognizing worst possible scenarios and taking preventive measures.
· Identifying the ways when this situation can swell out of control?
· Categorizing all impacted stakeholders who are harmed or feel themselves in jeopardy.
· Methodically attending to their apprehensions and needs.
· Visualizing the prospective effect on core assets of the business such as People, Trust, Brand, Reputation, shareholder value, Finances, Business operations, intellectual property and Physical property etc.

· Finally taking essential decisions.
· Intended outcomes.
· Foreseeing the outcome of your decisions.
· probable inadvertent consequences
· Execution of the plans on a real time basis with the help of crisis response and revival phases.
· Implementing focused de-escalation.
· Keeping all channels open for receiving sensible inputs and continuing to observe impact on stakeholders (real and perceived).
· Lastly when the incident is over, carrying out a lessons-learned debriefing as a mandatory guiding principle.

Crisis Management-3

One more example of Crisis management was Nestle-Coke fiasco. In this case, worms and use of insecticides were found inside the bottles. Consequently, their sales took a great dipping. Apart from sales, their images went for a toss. People stopped drinking colas. Sales of chocolates were greatly affected. What followed afterwards was first major instance of crisis management in India. Image building exercises were carried with aplomb. Their products were endorsed by famous celebrities. It was followed by major PR blitzkrieg. The resulting effect was palpable after few months. All these frantic activities helped in damage control. It has been said that in times of crisis companies should never get defensive. Companies dealing the crisis situations with a proactive approach have better chances of emerging on top when the dust is settled.

Similarly in case of automobile major Honda, it had to face huge public embarrassment due to some technical snag found in its automobiles. It was forced to withdraw its vehicles from all over the world because a particular engine part was malfunctioning. This one incident dented Honda’s reputation like never before. It also had to face financial, legal, environmental and political implications. Thereafter, it was a huge exercise for the crisis management team of the company to rebuild the brand image or else the company ran the risk of losing its reliability. These examples prove that, the complete build up towards contingency plan is not easy but forecasting disaster and being prepared for it with convincing solutions helps a lot in the long run.

Crisis Management-2

One of the famous examples of crisis management is during a board meeting; the images of a laptop that suddenly burst into flames were captured on an employee’s cell phone. That particular recording was seen online by millions of awestruck viewers. And the manufacturer of the battery was renowned Sony Corp. Before Sony could do anything the clip was already seen by millions and damage was done. Sony had no choice but to recall millions of lithium-ion batteries which were used in various laptops models. At the same time, they worked to calm and handle the end users and media criticism that ensued.

In disasters like these, the lead role of soothing the ruffled nerves is performed by the PR department. PR department focuses on reconstructing the brand image by promising the consumers about the quality of the products and subsequent services. At the heart of Crisis management is preparation of emergency plans and providing exact information to the public, media and shareholders. While developing appropriate Crisis management plan, companies basically prepare themselves for any crisis that may arise in the future. Crisis management is more effective when swift moves are taken for superior long term results. It’s very important for companies to tell the truth in times of crisis because it reflects their uncompromising uprightness in the ethical and moral sense. This way, the status of the company is protected because the path becomes unambiguous by allowing those outside the team to stay focused on the business.

Crisis Management-1

Crisis management has come up big way in the scheme of the management. Although a topical breakthrough in management plans, it works as a superb tool in the hands of the management. Talking about its function, crisis management is basically concerned with forecasting and anticipating crisis a management could face and the subsequent methods to deal with them. Crisis can be defined as an unpredictable occurrence with potential to cause huge damage to the organization. The damages could be in form of financial loss, loss due to natural causes or perceptual damage. Natural damage is also termed as sudden crisis. Natural loss can be due to natural disaster like, explosions, earthquake, flood, twister, or fire etc. violence could also be a reason for sudden crisis situations. In the event of sudden crisis, organization focuses more on ensuring nominal damages and swift recuperation.

Crisis management helps management in handling unanticipated disaster situation. It also prepares organizations in categorizing the nature and origin of the crisis. Further, it helps in taking precautionary measures, restrict damages and finally recover as quickly as possible. Crisis management is more focused towards damages caused to the image of the organizations. When image of the organization takes a beating, it can prove to be the worst form of crisis for any business. It is often termed as perceptual crisis. In such cases, management deals with the situations on various levels

Media Management-3

Media management plays a great deal of active role in corporate world. Media management decides upon what sort of marketing and advertising policies should the company employ and how PR activities can successfully help the company.
These days, Most of the management institutions exercise the option of industry inputs on how to make media management courses more relevant that caters to the requirement of the industry. In India, the number of colleges offering media courses is relatively less, but with increasing demand more and more institutions are likely to come up with these specialized courses!

Few of the niche courses offered in mass media management are:-
Post Graduate Courses-
Post graduate Course in Cinema Studies
Post Graduate Diploma in Applied Design
Post Graduate Diploma in Documentary Film Production
Post Graduate Diploma in Electronic Cinematography
Post Graduate Diploma in Film Direction
Post Graduate Diploma in Post Production (Editing)
Post Graduate Diploma in Radio & TV Journalism
Post Graduate Diploma in T.V & Video Production
Post Graduate Diploma in Video Production
Post Graduate Diploma in Journalism
Post Graduate Diploma in Communication
Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising
Post Graduate Diploma in Public Relations
Post Graduate Diploma in Advertising and Mass communication
Post Graduate Diploma in Event Management

These are few of the courses offered under Mass media management.

Media Management-2

Unlike a decade ago, media industry is much more organized today. With growing influence of media, jobs in media have become more lucrative. At the same time, this industry is relatively small so positions are few, hence fierce competition. Media management courses have been of great help to the media houses because professionally trained manpower is in short supply in the industry.

Because of the fast speed at which this industry works, most of the media organizations do not wish to waste precious time in training an employee for its work. Success of a media organization is heavily dependent on effective management of time. That explains why production houses, television industry, advertising agencies and corporate need professional skilled employee force that can handle the business from the day they resume work.

So what exactly constitutes a media management course? Media management includes the entire relevant and necessary course elements which are needed by different sections of media houses. Like for television industry, media management skills are of great importance in the marketing department, especially for selling air time and handling different time slots. For advertising agencies, media planning is essentially the sector that takes care of media management. Client servicing takes care of the clients.

Media Management

We are fully aware of the fact that, in current day scenario, management is one of the most appealing and interesting careers that youngsters and professionals can pursue.
We have previously talked about various specializations available to students. In fact, students no longer face the constraint of only few traditional specializations. Just few years back, the specializations available to students were marketing, finance, system and human resources. But, with changing times and increasing competition, a whole new set of specialized courses are available to students. This has managed to open new exciting avenues for candidates. It won’t be wrong to assume if we say that, today students are spoilt for choices as far as management specialization are concerned.

One of the career choices is media management. This particular specialization is the latest buzzword in the industry. This career stream is gathering more and more momentum because of the fact that media industry has evolved in a major way in last decade. It is gaining importance and growing rapidly. In simple terms, media management involves, planning and controlling media activities effectively to promote products and services or to entertain masses. Many MBA colleges are offering media management as part of their curriculum. Apart from full time media management course, part time courses (mainly one year media management programs) are also available across the country.

Leadership-2

Management has always been an art as well as a science. It is a common knowledge that managing requires exceptional skills and talents. Some of the best leaders in the world essentially apply some magical charismatic skills that they possess to efficiently run operations and administer things at work with unparalleled laudable capabilities. Leaders, apart from managing, focus more on leading. Even in managing, there is less of managing and more of delegating. Essentially, managing less is managing better. Delegating works often increases self-esteem of employees. It also makes them excited about their work and when that happens, great things take place and business flourishes.

All great leaders possess great communication skills. Having an effective communication skill makes things much easier. Leaders are found to have great eyes as well. Eye for detail. Eye for changing pattern and changing preferences. Consequently, they are always able to adapt to change. More so, they are willing to change as and when time and situation demands. Almost all good leaders have one quality in common and that is encouraging new ideas. They welcome new ideas, and focus on values like idea generation, loyalty and commitment to work. They also get themselves involved with all kind of details.

Leadership is an art and it’s worth mastering subtle nuances of this art.

Leadership

A leader is more like a skilled magician who produces unanticipated reality which not only astonishes and amuses the competitive forces but at the same time, a leader also comes with amazing results that satisfy all people connected to the organization including the customers. A leader is a fine culmination of creativity, strong business acumen, inventiveness, organizational and analytical abilities, to name a few. He is a master in the art of management.

What makes a leader tick? What makes him/her different from the normal crowd? Basically, at the core of every leader, there is a human who is more alert, more willing to take risks, more innovative and more prepared for unforeseen situations. It’s not a miracle to be a leader. Rather, it’s that inborn and developed tendency to lead from the front and to go ahead with one’s strong convictions. It has always made for an interesting discussion that where does that rare leadership skills come from? Detailed discussions, observations and studies conclude that some leaders are inborn leaders. Some others develop this talent over the course of life. And finally the third category of leaders emerges out of difficult/challenging situations. But one thing is common amongst all the categories of leaders and that is, these leaders inspire people with vision in their mind of how things can be done better.

Management Insight-3

It has been observed that quality management puts special emphasis on empowering its workers with decision making authority at all the levels in the organization. It also focuses on organizing regular interactive workshop between senior and junior levels of staffs which really help in reducing communication gap and that finally leads to enhanced efficiency and competence. Effective organizations are well aware of the fact that it’s most precious and important constituents are human resources. Considering that they are found to conduct frequent communication skills seminars and personality development programs for its employees. It also helps in long run as leaders develop out of managers.

Every organization wants to have quality leaders because they are one of the most crucial elements for organization’s success. Leaders bring with them vision, goals and clarity which finally makes all the difference. We don’t need to look far to see what some of these great leaders have achieved. When we take names of Ratan Tata, Dhiru Bhai Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Munjal, we find that these leaders single handedly changed the fortunes of their companies and consequently Indian business landscape. They brought revolution, change, new technologies and what not! Behind every successful organization, there was at least one great leader.

Management Insight-2

Talking about first mover advantage, the classical examples are Microsoft in software industry and Coke in Beverage segment. They are renowned for accurately gauging what is going to be required next, what is going to be in demand in coming times and no wonder they are still numero uno in their respective segments. They have always managed to come up with new products befitting the concurrent demands. Talking in Indian context, Maruti and Hero Honda in automobiles segment, Infosys, TCS and the likes have managed to excel because of their first mover strategies. A good management never sits idle on its past laurels. It tends to endlessly strive towards improving its earlier performance and stay ahead of promising competition.

Likewise, fine-tuning itself within the organization is very important in context of today’s situation. A good management recognizes the needs and requirements of its employees. Most of the successful organizations reward their employees for their hard efforts. This helps them standing in good stead in the eyes of employees and at the same time it also motivates employees for better performance. No wonder, it has been found that employee friendly companies tend to perform better than its peers. Successful organizations also follow Delegation of authority and bottom-down management approach, which proves to be very important in enhancing employee’s self-esteem and efficiency.

Management Insight-1

Management is often defined as “The art of getting things done through the people, with the people and by the people”. Global world is changing fast, in fact faster than anything else and so are organizational goals, policies, strategies, formulations etc. the rate of change is so fast that, strategies which worked as magic potion few years back are no longer similarly helpful in today’s circumstances. Earlier theories held as radical are fast turning out to be archaic after some years. That presents a case of the need of dynamics of business being in sync with external world.

Few of the business could not envisage this changing pattern and no wonder, they died a premature death. But smart management is all about foresight and vision. So it tries to be ahead of its time. Most of the successful organizations are found to have this knack of anticipating the approaching changes in the outer world. This proves to be a sure shot way in sustaining a business provided other basics are in place. Consumers have become demanding and that’s not surprising given the fact that they are spoilt for choices. In such situation, anticipating shifting customer inclinations help businesses to diversify themselves and thus preserve and even enlarge their consumer base. It also gives them a first-mover advantage.

Why MBA-3

Thus, keeping up to date periodically through Constant professional development is of paramount importance. This development program includes seminars, focused groups, discussion gatherings etc. No wonder; these steps definitely enhance professionals’ careers and help them in stay afloat in tough corporate world.

In nutshell, MBA is a lucrative profession with opportunities of globe trotting, handsome pay packages and great chances of intellectual stimulation. Apart from giving a business qualification, this degree also improves job opportunities, helps in obtaining specialist skills, gives a firm career direction and last but not the least increases self confidence and self esteem. With fluctuating World economy the uncertainties are a common state of the affair. The eternal circle of boom and depression keeps on repeating themselves. During the time of boom, almost all and any MBA can be employable. They help in keeping that boom phase intact. Whereas, in the time of recession or depression their work is all about handling the economy in most effective way and help it in coming out of that vicious circle. These make the job of MBAs even more crucial. MBAs are the need of the hour. And They are there to stay! Yes, the world of MBA is indeed vivid.

Why MBA -2

Not all courses are same. They always differ in terms of content, methods, duration and elective subjects. The basic degree is general management degree/diploma where all students are supposed to study few core subjects in the first year. In the second year, students get a menu of electives for the purpose of their specialization. It can be, marketing, finance, human resource management, system, operations etc. new age business schools and few reputed ones have also started to provide specialization in new subjects like banking, entrepreneurship and financial services etc. Thus, an MBA course from a good business school prepares the students in such a way that they can face those challenging conditions bravely.

On one hand an MBA course prepares candidates for future challenges and on the other, it should also be kept in mind that, the course won’t suffice for a lifelong professional career. The reason being constant technological change and new knowledge requirements.

To quote “US Department of Labor, technological change and new knowledge requirements have cut the 'half-life of skills' (the amount of time it takes one to lose half the value of his skills) from between seven and fourteen years in the late 1960s to between five and seven years by the late 1980s”. To think of it, this analysis is only about late 80s! What would have happened if we try to analyze that shrinking ratio till 2007? But natural, it will have shrunk even further.

Why MBA?

Another buzzword which tends to hang around corporate corridors is entrepreneurship. Managers are expected to be innovative, think out of the box and get the work done. They are also expected to put more emphasis on proper utilization of organization’s most precious assets, i.e., human power. Respecting the sanctity of Morale and ethics are also ingrained in managers’ minds. All these above mentioned factors glorify the need of having fresh approach towards corporate world. It also emphasizes on development of soft skills like, teamwork, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence and negotiation art, in business professionals.

These factors clearly show that job profile of an MBA is far from a casual walk in the park. Now in these conditions, MBA course from a good institution comes very handy. All of the reputed institutes design their course curriculum in accordance with present and future needs of the corporate world. They duly anticipate the changing scenarios and accordingly include the relevant subjects in the curriculum. An entry level MBA student gets to learn so much about business strategies, different types of industries, their working methodologies, functions, operating techniques that one actually starts feeling the difference within oneself! And from there onwards, it becomes an altogether new journey.

MBA And Corporate Reality

In today’s fast paced competitive world managers are required to work in an increasingly complex, cutthroat and volatile environment. Studies conducted all over the world show massive scale of upheaval in the corporate world. Almost half of all corporate managers experience some form of organizational restructuring in any given year. Looking closely at listed companies and government workforce, more than two thirds of the managers face annual turmoil. When scenario is so tough, management professionals are expected to be up on their toes all the time. Adaptation is the key. Adapting quickly to the changes occurring within and outside the corporate walls is a must. They are also supposed to initiate and manage change themselves.

Present and future managers are always caught up in the strategic planning process and the way things are going work is always going to be even more complex. Workload will keep on increasing because of the fast changing dynamics of the business world. Management professionals require high level of knowledge, skills and flexibility. These requirements become even more prominent in situations of multidisciplinary projects. Management never works in isolation. Almost all functions require joint cooperation across the departments. Team work is of paramount importance and essential to get the work done. Hence, Managers not only need to excel at their own competencies but they are also required to understand various key management functions and their inter-relationship.