How to Choose the Right MBA

When it comes to choosing the right management program, students often face the confusion of choosing either a masters or an MBA program.

• MBA programs typically demand work experience of 5 or 6 years. These are generally for those who are already in a management position, with a team working under them, and are looking to climb up the corporate ladder. For individuals who fall under this category who know how to manage budgets and people, MBA programs are the right study option.  

• The Masters in Management, however, is for freshers and students with no experience in the field. Generally for those who have completed an undergraduate degree and have a year or two  of experience, the Masters in Management is the right choice. This will give them ground standing in the area he chooses and is more specific and technical in nature. On completion, students may work in senior positions but these won’t fetch them promotions to top managerial roles. For reaching these kind of positions,  MBA is required. After completion of the masters, students are suggested to work and acquire 4- 5 years of experience and then go for an MBA program.

There are so many things to consider when choosing your MBA programme. Criteria vary in importance depending on where you are in your life: a corporate executive with a wealth of experience, an entrepreneur, a creative freelancer, a parent, 25 years old, 40 years old, where you live, your financial situation, to mention but a few variables. If your goal is to advance your career tangibly with an MBA, you are definitely on the right track. Demand for a business degree is greater than ever in top corporate circles and in an increasing number of industries. The source of your MBA is crucial, so aiming as high as you can afford is probably the best advice possible. To this end, you might wish to consult the well established rankings of the world’s top MBA programmes, compiled by the likes of The Economist, The Financial Times and Forbes. Your search should not stop with the rankings, though. To make the very best choice for you, you need to understand why you want to pursue an MBA degree and what you expect to happen afterwards. Here are seven of the most common considerations when taking an MBA:
1. Kick-start your career
Having an MBA degree in your 20s or early 30s, before you have carved too deep a career, is a great way to utilise your sharp and youthful brain, as well as your still lavish amount of free time. If you are targeting the corporate world to start and develop your career, business school is the right place for you.
2. Change the course of your career
This is the most common reason why people choose to take on an MBA. It has indeed been shown to be an almost foolproof strategy, as more often than not a business degree provides a number of assets in that direction: it allows you to immerse yourself for one or two years in a totally new environment where you think, sleep, dream, and devise strategies for your new field of expertise, 24/7. You will have access to case studies to prepare for your new career, sometimes more useful than one or two years of actual experience in the field. If you choose a top school, you will be visible to business scouts as soon as you have completed half of your studies. Surveys show that the top business school alumni manage to secure a job before the end of their studies. You may want to look at some career placement statistics available online as well as from the various schools, statistics that provide information on the salary prospects of MBA graduates, as well as the chances of finding a job within certain periods of time both before and after graduation. Such information is usually readily available either on the schools’ websites or from their admission offices. Among other valuable information, you will also be able to see how many graduates have found placements within your industry of interest.
3. Become business savvy
Being successful in business is dependent on many things, including good luck. Still, there are some very technical and hands-on techniques that are crucial and usually take years of experience and bitter trial-and-error to muster. An MBA programme really can spare you a load of headaches in that department. Learning from others’ successes and mistakes is valuable beyond calculation. Think of it as precious advice from very fancy lawyers, bankers and financial advisors. Programmes based on case studies offer just that: the opportunity to tap into the hard-earned success (or failure, for that matter) stories of hundreds before you who have left their mark on the world of business. Again, if you are currently practising in the humanitarian field, you are teacher, a lawyer, a creative type, or hold a less commercial position within a very commercial company, etc., it is only natural that you might be lacking purely business skills. Then an MBA is right for you. Make a practical choice: select a programme where you will be able to achieve just those skills. You need results more than you need student vibe and pretty campuses. Go and learn how business really is made, now.

4. Expand your network
Joining an MBA programme, you will be spending your busy days with other ambitious and intense personalities who may end up being your business partners, competitors, employers, lawyers, accountants, suppliers, etc. They in turn may provide you with access to their own networks of valuable individuals. A Full-time MBA will be the best time in your life to build some of your most enduring and valuable contacts in business as well as some of your best friendships. In order to make the most of the programme then, you need to think of a good location and an appropriate size. If you are in the banking sector, then focusing on an MBA in a bank-intense region would be key, as ultimately it would attract similar types who could form a strong, consistent and prolific network. It would hardly be practical to join a school known for its successes in the pharmaceutical industry.

5. Last but not least: “To thine ownself be true”. (Shakespeare)
You are talking of one or two years of your life and your youth. Make sure you use them well. Follow your instincts and choose a place that you feel will suit you. If you wish to challenge yourself and test your limits, that’s fantastic. Go for it. If not however, don’t go counter to yourself. If you are the quiet, focused type, maybe a smaller programme with a more intimate environment would be a better fit for you. If you are expansive and larger than life, make sure your school reflects that too. Be pro-active and study your options. May this be the most informed decision of your life. It is well worth the effort.

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Symposium on Budget'16 & GST @ ISME

To bring differing perspectives on the proposals in the Budget'16 presented by the Finance Minister on 29th February, 2016, ISME organised "Symposium on Budget'16 & GST". The event found success having invited an eminent practitioner CA Madhukar Hiragange as a keynote speaker.

The program commenced with students Ambiye Prajaktha and Shreesh Sharan giving an overview of the Budget'16 and its pivotal stance in the current economic situation. 

Dr. Swaroop Reddy gave his seminar lecture on the topic "State of Economy - Global & India" to bring the context of economic importance of India's policy decisions. He took us through a top-down approach of global perspective to Indian economic view. 

Keynote Speaker CA Hiragange took the audience through a set of challenges faced in the area of indirect taxes by businesses and few modifications, especially, the ease of doing business proposals, were seen to be positives. Giving no clear roadmap towards GST implementation was a concern raised by Mr. Hiragange. His speech included the impact of these proposals in the overall economy's good worth.

The program ended with thanksgiving by the students, while munching on the takeaways of the program.

- Compiled by Kiran Kumar K V, ISME Literary Club

 
 

Sales incentives-which one works better?

Sales is a field which can be tough but rewarding, if one persists in it. The toughness is due to the long hours and the constant stress due to targets. It may also get frustrating due to the need to be patient with prospects who may ignore repeated calls, pushy bosses and the different type of customers and prospects that the salesperson has to face and deal with, day to day. Having said all this, for a successful salesperson who has stayed the course, the reward comes in the form of two things. One is the feeling of achievement that one gets when he/she reaches the target and the other is the possible monetary incentive that goes along with it. There are many ways in which salespeople at retail showrooms are remunerated.
For the context of this study, we are only going to look at sales that happens at Retail Showroom spaces, especially related to Consumer Durables.
The aim of this article is to discuss which of these methods is bound to be most successful.

Today, the Consumer Durables products field is dominated by some big global brand names. Almost every product variety has almost ten to twenty manufacturers. Also the distribution for these products is now available in both online and physical form. In the physical form, there are dozens of retail outlets in every city. If we were to take an example, for a product like a LED TV, we have manufacturers like Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony, Toshiba, Videocon, AOC, Sansui, Philips, Reconnect (Reliance’s own brand) and Croma (Tata’s own brand). On the number of outlets, just to give a comparison, Reliance Digital alone has 40 outlets, Tata Croma has 15 and Girias has close to 30, allin and around Bangalore. Apart from this are the other retail outlets including the manufacturer’s ownoutlets like Sony World.Needless to mention and not included are also the online e-commerce sites. This, as you can imagine, results in a pitched battle out there for customer footfalls into the showrooms. Assuming the manufacturers and distributors are doing what they can to create awareness and interest in their products, the real deal is in what happens when the prospect steps into the showroom. Inside the showroom, the sales person who attends to the prospect plays a major role in converting him to a customer.  Sales people in these showrooms are remunerated in different ways.
In Consumer Durables sales, the general practice is that the salespeople are remunerated in one of these three ways:
a. A fixed salary
b. A fixed salary plus individual incentive based on sales value attained or
c. A fixed salary plus group incentive based on total showroom sales.
Let’s analyze which of these ways is bound to be more successful in bringing about better conversion of prospects to successful sales.

Analysis
Let’s take the case a) where employees in a showroom are paid only a fixed salary.
In this method of remuneration, salespeople are not motivated to push themselves to achieve more. They remain quite happy with whatever sells. Sometimes, distributors threaten salespeople that they would lose their job if they didn’t achieve their numbers. This may act as a spur for a short time, but it doesn’t help much. Salespeople just leave. However, this may work when the salesperson is motivated to perform based on certain factors like a) salary being higher than competition, b) works for a significantly better brand name.
Let’s take the case of (b) above where sales incentives are paid on individual sales value along with a fixed salary. More often than not, this system is also based on a slab system which works like this. A salesperson is, say, eligible for a per unit incentive of Rs. 2000/- per unit if he sells minimum 8 units up to10 units, and Rs. 3000/- per unit if he sells anything more than 10 units.
On the face of it, this looks attractive and motivating for anyone to try and reach more than 8 units. However, it so happens that many times, the individual salesperson falls quite short of the target of 8 units and he does not make the incentive.
Having observed this method during my years as channel sales manager, I can recall the intense unhealthy competition this system promotes among salespeople. Many a time, salespeople hold on to prospects even though they may not convert themselves nor will they let anyone else do it; there are many cases where sales leads have been leaked to competitors (it may be the own brand’s another sales outlet or a different brand altogether)
Also, this leads to salespeople holding back sales orders so that it can be accounted for in their next month’s sales quota, thereby leading to less than true sales numbers every month. In the example above, if he/she were to fall short of the 8 unit target narrowly, they tend to forestall orders and try to postpone it to the next month in the hope that they would be able to make the target the of 8 units(to be eligible for their individual incentive).
Now let’s look at the case of (c) above. This format was followed by one of my car dealers and was a runaway success. Here the sales executives get incentivized right from the first unit they sell. Also, the incentives are distributed based on the total number that the team achieves. Here also, the incentives increase on a slab basis, i. e. higher incentive amount for a higher number of units sold but this format differs in that the incentive kicks in right from the first unit sold. Also, as the incentive is distributed to the team based on team numbers and not on individual achievements, the team is motivated to push for higher numbers, better transparency among team members about customer details and little leak of vital prospect related information outside.
There can be a view that even non-performers could gain by being on this team. However, this rarely happens when the sales manager keeps constantly monitoring the leads and conversions and is able to allocate leads better.
Another aspect of sales incentives is timing of distribution of incentives. If the incentives are distributed as soon as the month ends and the numbers have been tallied up, nothing works better than this in motivating sales executives. There are still a large number of dealers who delay incentive distribution citing many reasons. This only results in the sales team losing interest and looking for greener pastures outside.

Conclusion
Based on my personal experience, out of the three incentivizing methods used for Sales people, method C mentioned above works best not only in motivating sales executives but also in the overall business success for the distributor.

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World of Marketing Wars

Abstract
 
In this article, attempt has been made to depict the ways the marketers compete with each other for a share of the pie – customers’ discretionary income. The competition is increasing in severity to the extent that the players drag each other to the court of law to settle dispute. Few examples of such wars are described and discussed in this article. The technological development may be one of the causes for the increased intensity of the competition or say ‘war’. The views expressed herein are completely authors own.
Introduction
“The Marketing Wars, or the Market Wars, was a universal military conflict which started in 2307 due to the heavy competition of the four multinational corporations that existed at the time. The three clans were born out of this war.

Each of the multinational corporations had mercenary troops under their central command. Their objective was to stabilize and in some cases increase, their organization’s sphere of influence. Such structuring has proven adverse for the companies in some respects. The arming and training of local militia, ex-soldiers and small time gang members has opened a power vacuum in the streets. Well-organized and powerful members of the “underworld” have developed independent and efficient clans, with their own hierarchy, supply chain, justice and code of honour. Three clans have crystallized as the strongest among them…”
So reads a story – “The Marketing Wars” – appearing on internet.
If you think the above is the work of a fiction, think again! None of us of present era may live to find out what really happens in 2307. But we can surmise the scenario from the current events. Present day marketers wage war bitterly so much so that the conventional marketing is turning bloody enough to be called ‘Red Ocean’. The battle for a share of customers’ pocket is no less severe less than the conventional war – except that explicitly no one is killed. In fact, as is well known, much of marketing techniques are drawn from military science and no wonder then the marketers wage war against each other in one way or the other.

Advertising Wars

 
Reckitt Benckiser and Hindustan Unilever
Recently Reckitt Benckiser is locked in a head-on battle with Hindustan Unilever. In the commercial for launching its Dettol Kitchen dishwashing and kitchen cleaning gel, Reckitt Benckiser has opened a front with the giant Hindustan Unilever by clearly showing Vim dish wash. This is not the first time that these two European multinationals have drawn daggers against each other. On earlier occasions, the firms have dragged each other to the court and advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI).
Dettol has some 53% of the Rs300-cr hand wash category while Vim has been dominating the dishwashing space for close to 100 years. Reckitt Benckiser has taken its battle over germ-protection with HUL to the kitchen with the launch of Dettol Kitchen. Apart from Vim, Dettol Kitchen will compete with Henkel-Jyothy’s Pril and Exo. The size of Indian diswashing market that includes bars, powders and liquids stand at Rs 2000 cr. and the size of the liquid diswash segment, which is growing at about 40% a year, is Rs 300 cr.

Strategically speaking, Dettol Kitchen ads were released on a Friday and if HUL approaches the court for stay order on the ad, it has to be on Monday at the earliest. In the meantime the ad would have created considerable impact over the weekend.
“Such ads gives a very strong message psychologically that it’s not just another product and they can compete with the market leader. While HUL almost has a monopoly in the segment, there could be more action now in an otherwise dull segment,” Nitin Mathur, consumer research analyst at Espirito Santo Securities, said.
ASCI chairman Arvind Sharma, who is also the chairman & CEO of Leo Burnett in Indian subcontinent, said that featuring a rival brand in a campaign alone does not break advertising codes. “In general, the consumer complaints council code allows ads to show a rival brand as long as the claims made in the ad are fact-based,” said Sharma who is also the president of Advertising Agencies Association of India.
Dettol Kitchen is positioned by Reckitt Benckiser as a ‘complete kitchen cleaner’, for use as a dish-washing gel and cleaning other kitchen surfaces like sinks and slabs. The 80-year-old Dettol brand, launched first as an antiseptic liquid in 1933, has subsequently been launched across different categories including soap, plaster, handwash, shaving cream, hand sanitiser, and now kitchen cleaner. . India is only the second country after Korea to roll out Dettol Kitchen. Dettol has some 53% of the 300-crore handwash category, followed by Lifebuoy at a share of about 30%. But in soap, Lifebuoy has close to14% share, against Dettol’s 8.2% market share. HUL’s Lifebuoy and Dettol have been rivals for close to three decades.
It seems as though Reckitt Benckiser is giving HUL a taste of its own medicine. Not very long ago (around two years) HUL took a dig at its rival Procter & Gamble when the ads for Rin detergent clearly showed the pictures of Tide in its ad. P&G immediately moved the court (within a day of the ad going on air), and the ad was stopped within days.
But not all the ad wars end up in a court battle. The customer has the final say. He decides whether to buy the advertised product or not.

GlaxosmithKline and Colgate-Palmolive

 
Very recently, (less than fortnight) GlaxosmithKline Consumer Healthcare launched its global brand of toothpaste Parodontax targeting the customers with gum trouble – bleeding gums to be specific. This was the segment dominated by Colgate-Palmolive. As was expected, Colgate-Palmolive – the oral care market leader – reacted quickly and forcefully. A week later Colgate-Palmolive started its own campaign claiming its product – Colgate Total Pro Gum – as the best suited for bleeding gums.
The question is, do these kind of high-voltage ad campaigns work? “The cola wars of the 1990s did not help either Coca-Cola or Pepsi. What they did was create excitement in the category,” said Santosh Desai, CEO of Future Brands. “While different brands would have different reasons to come up with competitive advertising, what it does is create either new categories as in the case of specialist oralcare or smartphones, or create excitement in existing ones as in the case of biscuits.”
One would have notice that the advertisements for newer categories like smartphones have gone up and are also persuasive.  Apple has come out with an ad blitz on “Zeros” – zero down payment, zero EMI schemes for its iPhone 5. The smartphone category leader Samsung, not to be left behind, swung in to action by launching a big-bang print ad campaign that announced the revival of its EMI schemes for six premium Galaxy phones. Sony, another smartphone player, has roped in Katrina Kaif for two years to promote its Xperia smartphones and decided to triple its marketing budget for smartphones to Rs 300 crore for next fiscal. Sam Balsara, chairman and MD of Madison, the company that buys media for tobacco-to-biscuits major ITC and telecom services provider Bharti Airtel, said there is increasing realisation among companies that they can’t take growth for granted in a cautious economic environment and with more brands entering the market. “We see an escalation of ad spends, especially among consumer companies, this year,” he said.
Few months earlier, UK biscuits maker McVities started claiming in their ads that their biscuit is the ‘only biscuit without maida’.  This was their way of taking a swipe at the other biscuit brands. “The commercial elevates the digestive category compared to regular biscuits by honing onto a relevant category truth. The objective is to tell consumers why McVitie’s is better,” said Jayant Kapre, president, United Biscuits. “In the heat and dust of the marketplace, you do have skirmishes now and then,” said Sameer Satpathy, marketing head of Marico.
It is always a challenge to a new entrant to create a mark. The new player can attract the attention of the customers either by keeping the price at penetration level or by differentiating the product in one way or the other. Keeping the price low is a challenging proposition for many reasons and claiming superiority over the others is comparatively less demanding, provided that the superiority fact can be established in the minds of the customers. “When there is a new entrant, the best way to gain market share from the leader is to claim superiority. If your claim is based on facts, then it is legitimate because consumers would like to know more about the products they are using,” said Mr Sharma, chairman and chief executive officer of ad agency Leo Burnett, who is also the chairman of the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), the advertising watchdog.

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Welcome To ISME

ISME was founded in 2006 by alumni from CMU, Purdue and Wharton, USA. Many of the ISME’s faculty have international experience or are alumni from top colleges outside India. ISME was established with the vision of serving the society’s educational needs and raising the bar of management education in India.

ISME has formally commenced the process of recognition to join the University’s Teaching Institutions Recognition Framework. Please see our profile here: Click To See

ISME also provides opportunities for students to attend London School of Economics Summer School. 

Quality in Education

ISME’s parent organization (NVT Quality Certification) is a worldwide quality certification body and thus quality in education is in its DNA. ISME represents some of the most innovative and ground breaking approaches of transforming fresh graduates into hardcore professionals.

Industry Focused Curriculum

ISME inculcates the art of excellence in its students through rigorous course work and a uniquely designed industry oriented curriculum. This has been possible through the extensive research and inputs from ISME International Advisors and National Advisory Board, who are graduates of some of the best business schools like MIT- USA, Wharton Business School – USA, Carnegie Mellon University – USA, Purdue University – USA, INSEAD – France, IIMs and other leading schools.

Faculty from Top B Schools

ISME brings together some of the best faculty in the world. They bring the experience of best of B-Schools of the world into classrooms. Faculty members with vast learned industry experience and from world’s top B-Schools and universities of the likes of Purdue University–USA, Carnegie Mellon University-USA, Wharton B-School-USA, NYU–USA, Philadelphia University–USA, NDI-USA, IIM-Bangalore, IIM-Ahmedabad, IMT-Ghaziabad, IIT-Bombay, IIT-Roorkee assemble their combined knowledge and permeate the students with the strong-routed theoretical business management concepts into the pragmatic and contemporary business world. It is this strength of faculty team, ISME today is one of the highly sought after B-Schools in the region and rallying towards becoming a top B-School.

Top Business school in Bangalore

ISME has been consistently ranked among the top B schools in India. Some of the recent rankings are:

1. Ranked among top 63 B Schools in India by The Week 2014.
2. Ranked 6th Best B School in Bangalore by The Week 2014.
3. Ranked Top 10th B school in Karnataka and ranked 24th Top B Schools of Excellence in India By CSR-GHRDC 2014.
4. Ranked 30th in “Beyond IIMs B School Survey 2014” conducted by Higher Education Review 2014..
5. Higher Education Review has recognized ISME for Management College of the Year 2014.

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