Happy New Year

I wish all the viewers, ISB aspirants, Class of 2008, Class of 2007 and Alumni a very very happy and prosperous new year. I wish that god may help all of you in realising your dreams of getting into ISB or any other national/international B-school of your choice. For the Alum, I wish that they attain higher paths in their career graph. I wish the current students of ISB that they may get their dream jobs post-ISB. For the applicants who have been admitted into ISB in cycle -1, I wish that they should complete their course with flying colours, adding one more jewel in their crown of success.

ATB for making our India a proud country to reckon with in the international arena - politically, and economically - by improving the standrad of living, distribution of economic growth and making an average Indian comfortable in his or her home.

Is 2007 a bonanza for IPOs & FPOs ?

Year 2007 could be bumper one for Indian capital markets. As much as $12 billion is expected to be raised from the primary markets. The pipe line of IPOs and follow-on public issues (FPOs) is getting longer day by day. At present, over 450 companies are looking to collectively raise around$39 billion over the next 2-3 years, compared to only $5.35 billion were raised through primary market in 2006. these figures are compiled by Prime Database, a database dedicated to the primary capital market.

Of the proposed IPOs and follow-on issues, real estate companies, including the much talked about DLF offer, account for nearly $ 5bn. Energy companies like Power Finance Corporation, Power Grid Corporation and National Hydroelectric Power Corporation are also expected to raise around $1-1.5 billion. Another $ 1 billion is expected from telecom companies, including Ideal Cellular and Spice Telecommunication.

Many banks are also planning to raise money through the capital markets. SBI has a FPO of Rs. 12,000 Crore in the pipeline while Canara Bank's has a Rs. 4,000 Crore one. Central Bank of India, United Bank of India, Indian Bank and Vijaya Bank are some of the other banks that will raise money from the primary market.

Direct tax revenues up by 42.50%

It's definitely a good year for the Revenue Department, with the government's advance tax collections grew by 38% in April-December 18, 2006. The total net direct tax collections upto December 18, 2006 stood at Rs. 1,33,461 Crores, up by 42.50% over the corresponding period of the last year. the budgetary estimate on direct tax front is Rs. 2,10,419 Crores, i.e. already 63.43% of the budgeted target is achieved. The corporate advance tax collections stood at Rs. 59,393 Crore, in April-December 18, 2006, up by 38.51% over the corresponding period of the last year. Usually, the advance tax collections in March, 2006 is more than the double of the cumulative advance tax collections during the period of Aril-December of the Financial Year.

On this basis, I , with 9 years of work experience in the Income Tax Department, estimate around Rs. 1,00,000 Crores to Rs. 1,20,000 Crores as net direct tax collections from Decemeber 19, 2006 to March 31, 2006, making the estimated total net collections for this fiscal between Rs. 2,33,000 Crores to Rs. 2,53,000 Crores, against budget target of Rs. 2,10,419 Crores. This is possible because the industry is doing well, service sector is expanding, resulting in overall growth of net profits of comapnies and surplus incomes of individuals. Moreover, recent introduction of Annual Information Return (AIR), wherein various public and private authoriities like mutual funds, registration authorities, banks have to submit the details of high value transactions, made people aware that the Department is watching them and acting upon the information received through AIR. Due to these measures, the growth in the personal income tax is on par with that of the corporate tax i.e. tax paid by the companies.

The following is the list of Top-10 advance tax payers in India

Company Apr-Dec 18, '06 April-Dec, '05

(In Rs. Crores) (In Rs. Crores)

ONGC 5192 4818

SAIL 2351 1258

SBI 2084 1092

LIC 1527 1387

TISCO 1410 1293

NTPC 1348 840

RIL 1102 628

BSNL 1050 530

ICICI 900 665

Bharti 692 373

Hatching foreign exchange reserves

The Government of India is considering a proposal to use its huge foreign exchange reserves, which stands at a staggering $170 billion to fund the infrastructure sector. This idea was originally was mooted by Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of planning Commission. However, the idea could not see the light of the day due to reservations from several quarters. However, given the huge requirement of around $320 billion during the next five years of the 11th Plan for the infrastructure, the government is now considering using these forex reserves to fund infrastructure projects.

At present, infrastructure investments constitute 5% of the GDP. This needs to be increased to 8%. Over $200 million would be required to be met from public kitty over the next five years, while an estimated $77 billion would have to come from the private sector.

R-2 Interview Experience - 2

This is the interview experience of R-2 applicant whose interview was in Chennai on 28-12-2006
His Pprofile:
U/G Degree : B. Pharm(Hons.) from BITS, Pilani

Work Experience: 6 yrs out of which 5 yrs is in pharma sales in Delhi, Bangalore and currently Coimbatore

GMAT Score : 640
Acads: 95% above in H/s, 70% above in U/G
Awards/Extra Curriculars : fair

"I work with a pharma MNC in sales. I am an R2 applicant at ISB and was shorlisted for the interview in Chennai . ow for my ISB interview experience. There were three in the panel - one was the Director, Admissions and two alumni.

They asked me to rate my career path and its impact on my personal development and evolution. Also they asked about my dream job cover letter and sought to know how energetic I am - whether it is possible and probable etc.. They asked about my sales awards over the years. Nothing else - no grilling. For all R2 shortlisted friends, be extremely clear on your future and have a justification for your past. Let your energy and enthusiasm flow out immensely in your interviews."

Hyderabad Interview Experience - 13

This is an interview experience of R-1 applicant on 30-11-2006 at ISB, Hyderabad

"The interview was quite something as I had to hit the interview straight after traveling through 5 cities and over 36 hrs… but then I guess the adrenaline keeps you going and I couldn’t have rested peacefully until it was done anyway.

The interview lasted for about an hour… reading the posts I certainly wasn’t expecting this, especially since it was the last interview of the evening. The interview started well, but within minutes turned to quite a grilling session… however the grilling wasn’t just random - want you to panic grilling… it was related to something I am very interested in, and is a venture I am looking to set-up in India eventually. So it certainly was food for thought and those 15 minutes certainly helped me understand the feasibility of doing what I am planning… did some number crunching with the AdComm team and after 20 minutes of doing this we moved on to other subjects.

I was asked to give examples of m client negotiation skills, and since I was carrying my portfolio of the creative work I have helped delivered, I asked if I could talk them through my work by showing them examples of what I have done… after which point the conversation went on to the research I have been doing about ISB and the ISB logo became the topic of discussion. Following this I was asked if I had any questions, and I had two questions… one about foreign languages and other about getting involved with the marketing/branding efforts of ISB.

Lastly I was asked how I felt about the interview and the difference between a manager and a leader and which one was I and why (stating examples).

All in all I felt it was a brilliant experience… really enjoyed the interview. The ad comm team was really friendly and on finishing the interview I had the opportunity to meet the others from the team and have an informal chat for about 15 minutes. My advice to anyone giving the interview… stay cool… treat them as business men you are selling a good product to… you are the product and you need to market yourself well…"

Hyderabad Interview Experience - 12

This is the interview experience of an applicant on 29-11-2006 at ISB, hyderabad.

His Profile

Education : M.Sc(Electronics)
Work Ex : Three Years
Acads : Good
Extra Curr : Above Avearge

"I was interviewed by the admissions head Mr Rangarao and Hima from the ad com...We shook hands, exchanged names and before I could sit, came the first question...

1) Why did u backpack to Cambodia?? ( I backpack quite a bit)

2) How did u travel?

3) How many days was it for?

4) Were you always interested in doing this?

5) A couple of questions I dont remember...

6) Why do u have 4 companies in three years?

7) Dont you think you should apply a year later?

8) What were the three things you would do if you were to lead a team??

9) arent your weaknesses too volatile?

10) Why have you chosen this particular company ( in the cover letter essay)?

11) Dont you think delivery management requires a lot of challenege... are u upto it?

12) Three differences between beinh onsite and being offshore...

13) You have organized debates, why didnt you participate in them?

14) What did you feel when you were laid off from your company? I was laid off once along with the entire team...

15) Have you visited the Mysore campus of Infosys? (I am ex Infoscion)

16) A couple of more questions I cant really remember...

17) How will an ISB MBA help you?

18) How was your team experience in all these companies you worked for?

19) Any questions from us...

It was a 20 minute interview. "

International Interview Experience - 12

This is an interview experience of R-1 applicant.

His Profile :
GMAT -750
Age : 28
Work Ex.: 6(2.5 yrs US+SG)
Extra Curr.: Good

"Was I ragged? Oh yes. It was like one of those rapid fire round of quiz contests. The only difference was that you normally face one person firing questions intermittently in a quiz contest whereas I was facing six persons firing questions one after the other during interview. Was it planned or systematic? I can not even judgeI feel that it is still not over. Hanging in my head. I can't put together myself for one more such interview. I will request a school to reject me than requesting for this type of interview.They asked me about

1. some unique aspects of my profile

2. and then went on to my hobbies

3. and then why ISB 3abcd.... I do not remember

4. and then again on my profile

5. and then what if not ISB

6. and then why not reapply next year6abcd.... I do not remember

7. and then again on my profile8. and then again on one of my hobbies, photography

8abcd.... I do not remember

9. and then do you have any questions. I asked two.

10. and then thank you

11. I also said thank you

Interview over guys in 20 mins. There were atleast 30 questions. I was neither happy nor unhappy. Kept wondering, felt stranded and dejected, felt like laughing, felt like crying. Actually I was hoping for a smooth interview and had prepared for most of the questions. Though preparation helped but not much. "

Market is shaping up for mobile TV in India

With the braodcasters and telecom operators bracing themselves for a full-fledged launch of mobile televesion in India, there are different formats of content which are going to be on the mobile subsribers platter. Emerging views on the Indian market suggest that abbreviated content and interactive platforms could be the main area of opportunity in the mobile TV space.

While price and quality of service would determine how mobile TV is able to go mass in the booming mobile market, nobody is doubting the potential that the market presents for both the broadcasters as content providers and for telecom operators. Mobile TV would become an additional distribution channel for content providers other than cable and if backed with right pricing model, it has huge revenue potential.

Don Price, Director (networks) at Bharti Airtel, adds that the market is at a nascent level and it may take at least one year to see how the market shapes up. However, he points out that the international markets, where it was already launched, are giving some indications like full length movies may not be what the market is particularly inclined to spend on.

The opportunities include entertainment content in capsule form like songs, interactive programmes like game shows as well as sports. However, pricing of handsets compatible with good quality streaming of content would be a factor which would determine the penetration rate of mobile TV in the country.

Source : The Economic Times

Interesting sites : Mobile TV Forum

RBI makes it easier for Indians to invest abroad

India is already on the path to make complete convertibility on capital account. Currently, we are fully convertible on current account involving export & import of goods and services. However, we are cautilously moving towards the capital account convertibility so that we can achieve it in a phased manner as it will not have any impact on our financial system especially on capital out flows and in turn, the valuation of our rupee vis-a-vis international currencies.

In this direction, RBI has now made it easier for Indian residents to invest abroad by liberalising the remittance scheme of $50,000 for resident individuals. These changes are as follows:

-> Now Resident individuals can invest in stocks of foreign companies, foreign mutual funds or foreign currency deposits in international banks with no Indian presence. previously, inviduals could invest in overseas companies that are listed on a recognised stock exchange and hold at least 10% stake in a listed Indian enterprise i.e you could not buy shares like Google or Bank of New York.

-> Resident individuals can also gift or donate upto $50,000 in a financial year.

-> For all remittances, individuals will have to disclose their PAN number and source of funds along with the beneficiary's name, address and account number.

->With these changes in policy, foreign banks - even those with no branches in India - can sell deposits and other financial services products to residents while Indian banks can act as agents, subject to RBI approval.

Youth Unplugged - ISB - NDTV

Based on a post from the current student of ISB, I would like to inform the viewers that NDTV Profit will air an episode featuring ISB students in a programme called Youth Unplugged. Below are the dates and timings of this programme.

Starting tomorrow:

30th December, Saturday , 2:30 pm
30th December, Saturday , 2:30 at night (repeat)
2nd January, Tuesday, 6:30 am (repeat )
4th January, Thursday , 6:00pm (repeat)
4th January, Thursday , 2:30 at night (repeat)
6th January , Saturday , 6:00 am (repeat)

You could get a sense of the student life here at the ISB.

R-2 Interview Experience - 1

The R-2 interviews have started and here is the experience of an R-2 applicant whose interview was on 27-12-2006.

His Profile

Exp: 5.5 yrs
Acads: Good
Ex. Curr: Decent

GMAT: 740

"It was a very plain/non-stress interview. I had to write an essay on mobile phones pre-interview. There were two panelists from the ad com.

Initially there were questions on working in US and questions asking me to fit an american vs. Indian employee as a Superior/Peer/Sub-ordinate. I was then asked to do a SWOT analysis of Infosys. This went on for 20 mins or so. I was then asked about the standard of new employees in the company. After this I was asked to compare offshore vs. onsite roles and was asked on my further career progression path in my company. I was asked to list two non-professional goals. Then they asked if I had any questions.

I asked about exchange programs in ISB(WGCP in particular) and they explained the bidding process at ISB. I then asked why Google is not in the list of recruiters. They said Google didn't come last year but came for both years before that.

I was then asked if it was my dream company and I was asked to reason it. I had some prepared stuff to talk about here. Then I thanked ISB for the opportunity given to interview with them.Overall I had no stellar moments in the interview and my answers were very bland . Post-interview I get a feeling that they were probably not interested in me. "

Likely Trends in Job Market - 2007

As per the Ma Foi Employment Survey conducted by Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, a Chennai-based recruitment firm, 41% of employers in the country are expecting to increase manpower in Q1 of the coming year. As per the report, western region of the country is the best place to look for a job in early 2007, as it has the highest proportion of employers who are expected to hire as against those who will cut work force.Mining & Constrcution are the sectors to top in the search for jobs, followed by services; finance & real estate; manufacturing.

Earlier Survey Ma Foi Employment Survey - 2006

Emerging India - 2006, The year that was

Everywhere the mood is bouyant with the word "growth" touching every day lives whether be it pay packages, land prices, stock prices etc. the year 2006 was a boon to corporate India with GDP growth during the last two quarters at 9%. The highlights of the year are

-> It is the year in which an Indian woman, Indra Nooyi, heads Pepsi, one of the largest food companies in the world. The day may not be far off for Indians to head companies like Microsoft, Dell, IBM, Google etc.

-> The value and number of outbound M&A deals have far exceeded the inbound deals.

-> Exports are at an all time gigh. FDI continues to break the previous records. For the first time, Private equity overtook IPOs in raising funds for the corporate world

-> Sensex is on a roller coaster ride - Does 30,000 look impossible?

-> Entry level IITians are getting overseas offers at close to $1,00,000 per annum. Investment Bankers and fund managers are raking in more than a crore in their pockets.

-> New sectors like Real Estate, Infrastructure, Biotechnology, Energy, Retail, Aviation, Advertising, Logistics, Supply Chain Management, Financial Services, Knowledge Process Outsourcing, and BPO in Pharma Sector are emerging generating multitude of employment opportunities.

-> Reversing the earlier brain drain, brain gain is happening all around in India wherein the well qualified professionals in the filed of medicine, IT etc are looking back to their mother land. These are the same persons who left India for green pastures in the industrialised world. With Indian economy booming, opportunities plenty and improved quality of life and infrastrucure, these people are on a come back drive.

-> ECB guidelines are liberalised so that the Indian corporates and financial institutions can have access to cheaper credit overseas.

The next few decades belong to India - it is in our hands to make India rock among the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China)

Fund Managers are breaking the records

Fund managers with experience across bull and bear equity markets are becoming a rarity in the industry. Very few left with more than a decade of good track record. Asset management companies are paying skyrocketing salaries to retain these 'rare species'.

The top echelon fund managers today include Prashant jain of HDFC, Nilesh Shah of PruICICI, A K Sridhar of UTI, R Sukumar of Franklin Templeton and K Rajagopal of Reliance MF. They have stayed in the industry for more than a decade with a good track record of performance. Their salaries range anywhere between Rs. 50 Lakh and Rs. 2 Crore.

Fund managers compensation structures are typically related to the performance of their schemes vis-a-vis peers. They mostly come from top rung B-schools and are found on the wrong side of 30s or early 40s.

Prashant Jain, a 38 year old IIT-IIM alumnus, has spent more than a decade in the fund industry. Earlier, he was with Zurich India MF. Nilesh Shah, a CA, is famous in debt market, has shifted recently to equity markets after joining PruICICI AMC. Likewise, Mr. Sukumar and K N Subramanian of Franklin Templeton, both BE and IIM alumni, have had more than a decade-long experience in the equity market.

Reputed fund managers are paid astronomical salaries - more than CEOs of many listed companies. A typical fund manager with 3-5 years of experience earns upwards of Rs. 60 lakh per annum and the best upto Rs. 2 crore. Typically, there are fixed and variable factors with the variable component ranging anywhere between 50-100% of the fixed component. Variable factors include fund performance relative to its peers.

Outside India, fund manager slaries have higher linkage to relative performance of funds. Optimix overseas for instance, follows 12-month rolling relative return for giving bonuses. This compensation structure is not expected to be any different in case of Indian funds.

Source : The Economic Times

ISB Interview Dates for Round-2

As per the website of ISB, the following are the tentative interview dates in cycle-2:

Chennai 28 – 30 December, 06
Kolkata 28 – 30 December, 06
Bangalore 04 – 07 January, 07
New Delhi 11 – 14 January, 07
Pune 13 – 14 January, 07
Mumbai 18 – 21 January, 07
Hyderabad 25 – 31 January, 07
International 25 – 31 January, 07

As per the site, these are tentative dates and are subject to change without any notice in view of circumstances beyond their control. Decision of the Admissions Committee is final.

Usually for shortlisted candidates for interview, they get interview calls approximately one week before the scheduled date. If you have given your mobile number in your application, message will come first, and then e-mail and then your online status will change.

Judge Business School and ISB agree to foster technology entrepreneurship

In October 2006, Judge Business School of Cambridge University and the Indian School of Business have signeed a three year international student exchange programme. The programme will enable selected students from the ISB to visit Cambridge and enroll as full-time MBA students for one academic semester, whilst the selected students from Judge Business School will enroll at Hyderabad for a similar appropriate period.

While visiting their host schools, the students will attend lectures and undertake consulting projects with host Microsoft Research on "emerging" technologies in order to familiarise themselves with technology entrepreneurship. Microsoft Research is supporting this international exchange programme. To help foster technology enterpreneurship, it will be inviting the exchange students to undertake business feasibility studies on technologies arising from the research activities at their Cambridge, England and Banglore, India laboratories. These projects will allow the students to learn about global issues in a fast growing technology environment, equipping them with the insight and practical skills necessary to develop them into managers for the future.

Cellphone users in India crossed 100 million

Source : Deccan Chronicle

The higlights of the growth of our telecom sector are

1. The telecom sector grew by 50% during 2006, when compared to a growth of 35% over the same period last year

2. The total number of telephone subscribers increased to 183 million as on November 30, 2006

3. Today, the number of wireless subscribers exceed the fixed subscribers in India

4. The number of internet subscribers grew at 25 percent while braodband subscribers grew from 0.18 million to 1.32 million.

5. Teledensity has increased to 16.28% from 11.32% at the beginning of the year.

6. In 2006, India joined the world's 100 million mobile club, having more than 100 million mobile phone users. Presently, China, US, Japan and Russia were in the club.

7. Nearly seven million subscribers are added to the network every month, making it the highest growth rate in the world, even surpassing that of China.

8. In 2006, Delhi became the first city in India that has more than 10 million mobile users. Hyderabad is following the suit.

Whether BPO is transforming into BTO?

The concept of Business Transformation Outsourcing (BTO) has come up in a major IT conference in 2002. The basic demand that propelled the growth of the business process outsourcing (BPO) market was process expertise. Providers' process reengineering expertise and economies of scale met buyers' demands of generating process improvements and cost reduction. But process improvements can only go so far.

Buyers now have two or three years of good results with their BPO deals; but they are realizing the ability to continue generating new value is not inherent in those arrangements. The market is moving, with buyers asking providers to help them become more competitive and using outsourcing to change business outcomes. This requires a new breed of BPO provider with the resources to deliver on the promise of business transformational outsourcing. Essentially BTO does the following (as per IBM Global Services) :

1. adapts quickly to market changes
2. innovates around the process areas while improving them
3. speeds the time to benefit realization around the process innovations
4. improves real-time data capture to enhance decision support on an enterprise-wide level.

Lessons (from the Outsourcing Journal):

1. Moving beyond BPO, BTO providers achieve innovation and ever-evolving enterprise-wide transformational outcomes, not just cost reduction and reengineered functions.

2. When evaluating potential BTO providers, buyers should ensure a provider is making deep capital investments in ongoing research/development around innovation and software/systems integration solutions.

3. Unlike BPO (where solutions are process centric), BTO solutions will be industry led.

4. Seek a provider that can turn its sophisticated industry insight into innovative, enterprise-wide solutions.

As per the IT Secretary Jainender Singh, the market potential for BTO is expected to be around $680 billion towards the end of March, 2009. It is expected to grow at 9% to 10% per annum. The percentage of BTO services in the outsourcing spectrum is expected to increase from 19% in 2004 to 31% by 2009.

Other related articles :

1. If a Business Process Outsourcer Improves a Function, Is It Business Transformational Outsourcing?

2. Business Transformation Outsourcing Reinvents the Wheel to Create Strategic Impact

3. Buyer's Guide to Business Transformational Outsourcing Essentials

4. Buyers Ready For Business Transformation Outsourcing

5. Required Reading on the Realities of Business Transformational Outsourcing

6. The Greening of the BTO Environment

7. IBM - Business transformation outsourcing

8. Business Transformation Outsourcing: A premium strategy for insurance providers

Pre-paid Cards for Multiplexes

Innovation always helps to be ahead of race especially in the present competitive environment. In this context, a Chennai multiplex owner has introduced the concept of pre-paid cards for viewing movies on big screen. The popular Satyam Cinema in Chennai has begun issuing pre-paid cards costing Rs. 300 for cinema goers. If a person pays Rs. 300 and purchases his card, he can at any time, for any show, walk into the theatre and get a seat. The card is renewable. So, if aone has watched Rs. 200 worth of movies, he can recharge the card and his seat is assured for all ftuture films.

Satyam is a multiplex with six screens and seating for 2900 peple. With Satyam showing the way, other multiplexes in Inida may have to come up with pre-paid cards soon.

IIM graduate with Lehman Brothers

Mr. Pranav Chawla, from IIM-Bangalore (batch 2005), was absorbed by investment bank Lehman Brothers. He is a Senior Analyst and earns $ 1,20,000 per annum (approximately Rs 5,416,750). He is posted in Tokyo.

The summary of his placement process is as fllows:

1. His recruitment was based on his summer internship with Lehman Brothers
2. Lehman Brothers has been rated the number one investment bank in fixed income securities for quite some time now. (Know about your recruiter)
3. None of the interviews conducted by the firm were stressful. They were trying to make the candidates feel at ease and bring out the best in them.
4. His IIT background and his comfort with mathematics helped him a lot during his summer internship. The summer internship experience helped him build a good reputation for himself in the firm.
5. He would be working on the Derivatives Trading Desk (derivatives is a financial instrument used for stock market trading), which is a much-coveted department in investment banks today. (Work Profile)
6. His advice - People at campuses are driven more by what is perceived as a good job at the campus. But what should be considered is the fit between the person's strengths and the company.

For complete details of his interview, please visit MBA placements: Clinch your dream job

Dell - Business Analyst Manager - II - Delhi

Designation : Business Analyst Manager - II
Location : Delhi
Schedule : Full Time
Shift: Evening Job

Description

Typically responsible for mid to large sized project.
· Impact is on the entire function or process.
· Experienced organizing and planning skills.
· Strong priority setting skills.
· Strong initiative.
· Ability to communicate clearly.
· Ability to multi-task in a dynamic environment.
· Ability to lead cross-functional project teams.
· Demonstrate attentiveness to quality and productivity.
· Experienced analytical, problem solving, negotiation and organizational

Qualifications MBA

See Dell-Business Analyst Manager-Delhi for details.

Dell - Brand Manager - Hyderabad

Postion : Brand Manager
Location : Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh
Schedule : Full Time
Shift : Day Job

Job Segment : EMEA Sales

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Own and manage the UKI DHS product mix, PRU, PMU and total units. Develop programs to drive growth at 20% above the market growth rates.

Pricing — Work with the pricing team to develop the correct pricing proposal to support the PLS.
Provide information and sales tools to support Sales
Marketing Communications - Ensuring the product is positioned and branded correctly within the monthly Marcom activities (online and offline) — ensure that marcom is correct and accurate in all vehicles and that the appropriate product is merchandised
Product Management
Manage launch/ EOL of products.
Ensure all marcom/web content is correct (ownership of Dellshare input) and best positioned from a product perspective to maximize sales.
Competitor Analysis - Producing monthly price&product updates on Dell's competitors in cooperation with pricing analyst
Providing sales tools&product information to the relevant sales teams
Develop marketing lead sales activities and incentives to drive notebook mix within the DHS organisation

Qualifications
5+ Years of Product/ Marketing Experience

Management Degree Preferred

Please visit Dell Offers - Brand Manager for details

Placements at Dell in India

Postion : Area Manager - Customer Care - E-mail/Chat
Location : Banglore, Karnataka
Schedule : Full Time
Shift : Evening Job

Job Summary: People manager responsible for supporting the sales organization through customer, customer care activities. Increase sales efficiency and effectiveness.

Principal Accountabilities: Responsible for managing operational support to the DIS Care call centers through cross-functional partnerships, enabling the business to scale while improving key performance indicators impacting their efficiencies and improving overall customer experience.

Qualifications

Knowledge & Skills :
. Intermediate knowledge of scheduling and real time principles and strategies, including agent skilling, shrinkage, AHT, etc.

· Same knowledge and skills as the level one role.

· General financial and business knowledge.

· Thorough presentation and interpersonal skills.

· Works on assignments that are unique in nature requiring analytical ability to resolve.

· Manage projects independently bringing recommendations to management.

· Works on problems of diverse scope where analysis of situation or data requires evaluation of identifiable factors.

Qualification:

10-12 yrs work experience with 3+ yrs in operation manager roles in international contact center operations.

MBA preferred.


Please visit Dell Offers - Area Manager for details

Openings at Deutsche Bank in India

Looking for new challenges? Deutsche Bank will help you take your career to the next level while you realize your true potential. If you are a passionate performer seeking a truly global, diverse and result-oriented culture that values trust, teamwork and innovation - Deutsche Bank is your employer of choice. Successful applicants are confident, flexible, decisive and solid under pressure. If you are motivated and place your clients at the center of your activities, you can apply to join their team.

To apply for a position at Deutsche Bank please use their Online-Application. For positions in Germany you can also use their "Job search" where you specify your search criteria by selecting from the drop-down menu.

Special opportunities for professionals are currently available in India. Please click here to apply for a job at their Indian subsidiaries.

Note :- You can submit a paperless application by answering the series of questions and then sending your completed questionnaire electronically. It is recommended that you have the relevant paperwork available (CV, references, etc.) to enable you to respond to all of their questions. If you need some preparation time, bookmark this page and dial in later. You will need about 30 to 45 minutes to enter your application details. After you send the online application, you will have the opportunity to print it out. Please allow yourself enough time to answer the questions as accurately as possible. You can also fill up the application in multiple sittings just like ISB's.

After receiving your application, they will keep it on file for 6 months in case a suitable opportunity should arise at a later date. You may rest assured that your details will be processed confidentially and the data transmission will be encrypted.

Placement Fever - 1

Though there is some more time for the placement season to begin at ISB, entire campus is gearing up with the tools and preparations. Mc Kinsey, BCG and other top tier consulting firms conducted workshops and presentations on resumes, interview preparations, Dos and Don’ts. Focus groups are formed across and started cracking the cases. By this time, most of the students could have made umpteen number of changes to their resume. Hence, a piece of advice is that start developing your resume from day one at ISB.

Rs. 1 Crore Pay Package - Is it becoming the order of the day?

It is a good news for all MBA aspirants, who want to do it in ISB, IIMs and other top B-schools in India, that pay packages are crossing Rs. 1 Crore mark for many of the budding graduates from these schools.

Previously freshers at IIMs were offered only analyst positions. But, this year they have been offered at associate level carrying higher responsibilities and pay packages. For example, Deutsche Bank has made offers of associate position to over 10 so far this year. The average salary of GBP 10,000 a month is higher than the average salary of GBP 7,500 a month for an analyst position. This is a good news especially for youngsters who are advised to do MBA even if they have two to four years experience. Hit the rod while the iron is hot.

Other investment bankers such as Goldman Scahs, BNP Pribas, Barclays Capital, Merill Lynch, UBS, JP Morgan, Lehman Brothers and HSBC have all made pre-placement offers this year nut not at associate level. They may offer asscoiate positions from next year onwards for freshers.

All the best.

CAF Winter Research Conference 2006

The Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) at the ISB, organized the Winter Research Conference, between December 17 - 19, 2006. The theme of the meet was ‘Microstructure of International Financial Markets.’ The conference was sponsored by the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE). A $ 5,000 Best Paper Award was instituted by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

CAF organizes two research conferences each year, one in summer (mid-August) and the other during winter (late December).This year saw a submission of 45 research papers, for 10 final spots on the program. All papers went through two rounds of reviewing- an initial round for relevance and quality and a final round, when they were compared against each other. The final round saw all the papers being reviewed by two members of the program committee.

Complete Details : CAF Winter Research Conference 2006

First International Symposium of Information Systems

The Centre for IT and the Networked Economy (CITNE), at the ISB, along with the Fox School of Business at Temple University, Philadelphia, hosted the First International Symposium of Information Systems from December 16-18, 2006. The conference, facilitated discussion and presentation of research papers on all aspects of Information Systems. The focus of the meet was on the role of IT in enhancing global competitiveness and economic development.

The first two days of the conference dealt with academic research. Some of the reseach topics were - Auctioning Online Advertisements, Web 2.0 and the consumer Internet, Designing a Social Network Based Electronic Market, Knowledge Sharing in Global Work, Role of ICT in Economic Development etc.

The final day, tagged as the ‘Industry-Academia Day’, proved to be a productive interface between leading IT business leaders and the academia. Dean M R Rao, in his address, stressed on the growth phase of the ISB, and pointed out the ongoing relationship between NASSCOM and all the Centres of Excellence at the ISB.

Keynote speaker, Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM, highlighted the setbacks of the Indian education system, which, according to him, stressed on “regurgitating given facts without questioning.” “Our educational system does not impart soft skills like communication and team work. One is not encouraged to raise issues and question the given. Our system does not inculcate team work and peer criticism,” he said. This shortcoming, however, had a quick fix, according to Karnik. A four month training in soft skills, particularly in articulation, something like a finishing school, was what he prescribed. The more serious problem facing the industry today, according to Karnik, was the fact that few young people today opt for research as they get lured by jobs at their second year of professional college itself. He made a point about a sense of freedom prevalent at the ISB, which was the key behind the ISB “success story. Karnik concluded his note with a practical solution to the ailing educational system. “Create special education zones. Liberate education from bureaucracy. Allow private investment in education, just like the hospitals, which have managed to create benchmarks for themselves globally,” he suggested.

The concluding day of the Symposium saw four panels in animated discussions. They were -

IT and BPO Outsourcing: A View From Both Sides, moderated by Professor Ravi Aron, Wharton

An Inward Looking Indian IT- Revolution: Fuelling Economic Development Through Innovation, moderated by Professor Prabhudev Konnana, UT Austin

Excellence in Software Engineering: People, Process and Performance, moderated by Professor Rajiv Banker, Temple/ISB

Strategic Use of IT: the Indian Context, moderated by Professor V Sambamurthy, Michigan State University.

For complete details, please visit First International Symposium of Information Systems

Academic Rigour and Curriculum -3

One of the very few pains of being at ISB is the continuous, unhealthy and hostile barrage of assignment submissions you have to face every other day. You have classes on the first four days of the week and from Thursday evening to Saturday evening, it's party time. Professors diligently ensure that you have enough work in the form of case analyses or a truckload of mathematical problems to solve throughout the week and especially in the weekends.

One of the current students say "As the deadline for assignment submission approaches, the population density in the library and the atrium markedly increases - innocent guys facing testing times stoically. Printers start getting busy and start failing due to overload. Frustrated groups of students hang around them checking their print jobs in the printer queue. IT Services guys start getting d-looks from us. And then when finally the much awaited prints come out, it's a total mess figuring out who gave which print. Finally the right ones are assembled and we head towards the "blue dropbox" kept for submission of assignments. Sometimes they get jammed with an overload of assignments too. Assignments, Speaker series, Events, Classes, Presentations."

The process of selection for elective courses is based on bidding system subject to the number of seats avaialble for the course. You bid for it and you get it if you have bid well enough and if there are enough seats to accommodate you in the class for the course. Though this sounds a bit weird but it’s a fair procedure. The course selection and bidding for the elective terms is something you will understand more when you are at the warfront here to experience it. True to the spirit of free markets the course allocation for the elective terms takes place through competitive bidding, each student is allotted a total of 4000 points which is the currency for bidding. In one of the current student's words "While term 5 bidding went over peacefully with most of the people getting the course they wanted and also getting them cheap, term 6 bidding proved to be a sharp contrast. The hottest course is “Corporate Controls, Mergers & Acquisitions”, almost the entire campus bid for the 165 available seats for the course, and true to expectations the cut off bid crossed 1000 points. Courses like “investing in private equity” and “pricing” also came close with the cutoff’s crossing 500. Some are worried they have spent all points they had, while some are disappointed they didn’t spend enough… call it the play of demand and supply or just exorbitant exuberance… its still by far the most efficient way of allocating scarce course seats….. that’s free markets in action".

Some of the major electives offered by ISB are Branding, International Finance, IT Strategy and Economics, Pricing, Sales management, Consumer Behaviour, Corporate Control M & A, Financial Statement Analysis, Investing in Private Equity, Marketing Research, Advertising, Corporate Risk Management, IT Services Project Management, Marketing Strategy and economic analysis, Global Issues in IT management, Indian Financial system, Managing Strategic Partnerships, New Product Development and Retail Marketing……

You have a course by name "Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture". It’s more of hands on than a classroom course. You have to form groups of 2-3, then bring up an idea and start working towards it. This would involve most of the course that you have been taught till then. You would have to do a market analysis for the segment you are targeting and then draw some figures from it to show the idea's viability.

You have lots of round table discussions. Assignments of many courses are time consuming and they take lot of your energy. As many of alumni said, most of the times you get 4 to 5 hours to sleep. You have Class Particpation for which some of the course have marks as well for CP.

In November I attended Healthcare and Pharma Summit. In the introductory lecture by the Dean, Ranga Rao, he said that the entire arrangements for the summit have been made by the current students. He also said that it took almost one month preperation before the summit could start.

I read in some of the ISB blogs that some people play games like tennis at 2:00 am in the morning. I should say, based on the experiences of Alum and current students, that most of them were not sure where to go?" and only at the end of Term 6 that they would be very clear and sink in that "this is it".. "this is where I need to go"..

ISB Interview Tips-1

This is based on a post by R-1 admit and I reframed it for your convenience.

1. Read Interview experiences - Browse through the several interview experiences that have been written over the last few months . It will give you a general idea of what questions to expect .

2. Go through your resume thoroughly and see any gaps in your education or career and be ready for a probable question on that.

3. Read your essays really well - Focus on the weak parts .

4. Be Specific with your answers - Be very very VERY specific with your answers . Selling yourself is standing out . Make the mediocre look good.

5. Dream Job - Please read up about the company and its operations . You have to tell clearly to the adcom whether your dream job is real or hypothetical.

6. Confidence - Be confident during your interview . Not Pompous . Confident . There is no mantra for this . Just feeling from within that on your day you are the best candidate around. Or one of the best . Feel that way .

7. Mirror Talk - Sit in front of the mirror and ask questions . U will be surprised that your facial expressions are so got damn easy to read and interpret . Plus it gives you a great insight into body language .

8. Case questions - Dont worry about the case questions part . All they test is a logical approach . There is no right answer . So relax . And remember there is a large domain from which the case questions can come . and you cant prepare for all of them .

9. Smile - It helps . Enter with a smile and leave with a smile . Smiling and even a slight sense of humour goes a long way in relaxing your nerves and easing anxiety .

10. Be yourself - There are only a few basic questions that you can prepare for Why ISB ? , Why MBA ? What after MBA ? Any questions for us ? 5 year and 10 year plan ? Why this dream job . Rest of it ....be impromptu please . Say what you feel is in your heart .

11 . Read about ISB - The last question will be "Any questions for us " . Please base your questions on the info on the site. By your questions, they want gauge your seriousness about doing an MBA from ISB and how much you know about the school or its curriculum

After saying all this, I would like to give the following eight criteria based on which they admit you and there is no fixed percentage for each criteria (according to my opinion).

1. GMAT - For your analytical skills

2. Undergraduate Degree - For acads and academic rigour

3. Work Experience - Whether the length and nature of service are suitable for ISB

4. Application Essays - It reflects your personality.

5. Extracurricular Activities - Advantageous for applicants with less number of years of experience and in fact, in one of the interviews given by the Adcom to the media, it was mentioned that absence of extracurricular activities may not be disavantageous in the backdrop of our up bringing , our education system, which is unlike the system of US where community service is part of the students' curriculum.

6. Placement - Whether they can place you well after completing the course at ISB and

7. Suitability - Wether you are suitable for a shift in your career.

8. Interview - I underplay the significance of the interview because it tests only whether you are the same person as depicted by you in your application and essays.

All the best for the R2 Applicants

The academic rigour and curriculum - 2

Continuing the discussion on curriculum.....

There are many simulation excercises during the course. Markstrat is one such computer simulation environment in which many firms will compete to maximize their profits. You will be using this software as part of the advanced Marketing course. The entire batch is split into groups of 4 or 5 and 18 "parallel" play industries will be created. Five firms A, E, I, O and U compete in each of these parallel worlds. Each firm holds a different market position like in a real world. One will be a market leader, one will be a close second, one might be a player catering to a niche requirement, etc. The particiating groups compete over a period of 8 years. At the beginning of each year you are expected to make a marketing decision and you will see the result of your decisions (w.r.t. those made by your opponents) at the end of the year. Various factors are in your control. You can invest in R&D, you decide how much to produce, you control inventory levels, you control the distribution channel, etc. Many current ISB students said that the Markstrat has been the most interesting they have done so far at this School.

further, the schedules are so planned that you do not get used to a particular timing of classes, thus while you may have a morning schedule in term 1, the timings for term-2 may be in the afternoons and you may be back to a morning schedule next term. At first glance, the courses for most of the terms look pretty quant heavy, the general perception is that IIT guys would find it pretty easy while the rest would have to work a bit harder.

You have various clubs. The one of the major club in ISB is the consulting club which conducts panel discussions, speaker series. The alumni students also participate in the discussions of the club. Typically, the alumni share mainly on subjects like a consultant’s typical day etc. Most of the alumni, who took placements in consultancy, emphasized that though consulting careers give you a great opportunity to constantly learn, innovate and challenge yourself, it’s a tough job at the end of the day and you need to be one up always to succeed. Further, it was clearly mentioned that consultants had to travel a lot and keep away from their base offices for long periods adding to the challenges of the job.

For the current Class of 2007, ISB has done away with interviews for selecting candidates for exchange programme, instead the bidding system has been extended to exchange selection as well. The bidding system is commonly used across b-schools to allocate elective courses. Each student is alloted a fixed quota of bidding points that can be used to bid for courses and now also the exchange programme. The ones bidding the highest are selected for the course. As was expected the bids for the exchange programme reached some very high levels with people bidding almost all the available points to the exchange programme.

One of the current student said "The only shortcoming with exchange in a one year course is that the exchange period typically includes the placement period, which would mean that you might not be able to participate in the campus placement process. Although, last year some of the students did travel back to India during the placement period , but it still is viewed as a risk by most since whether you can come back or not also depends on the schedule of exams etc at the school. Having said that being on a foreign campus is also a once in a lifetime experience.... life's full of choices, heard about tradeoffs...."

Enjoy the journey called ISB.

Payslips – Reading between the lines

This is the abstract of an article in The Economic Times. It is not against any B-school, but it is a fact which every B-School student should be aware of.

Life may not be that rosy for you as promised by an impressive “CTC” (Cost to the Company) of the new company you would join after passing out of B-school. Well, CTC is actually a way too high than the actual salary that you may take home. ET’s conclusion (after verifying the actual pay-slips of some young executives working in MNCs and domestic corporates): CTCs are misleading more often than not.

For instance one candidate, passed out of MDI Gurgaon, took a lucrative job offer of Rs. 12 Lakh CTC at an FMCG multinational company. Even after working for more than six months, he never took more than Rs. 60,000 to his home in any month.

While making salary offers, companies are increasingly harping on components that may not be of any use to an individual in the short run. In fact, some of these components, such as the supper annuity scheme, are virtually impossible to leverage. For example, I am in Government service which is a pensionable job and if I have to quantify the CTC on account of pension, my CTC will be much higher than my present salary. In a annuity scheme, the company pays some amount of money at regular intervals say for 20 years, after which the employee will get a monthly fixed amount. But, chances are that you change jobs frequently in the private sector for which you may ever get that benefit.

Insurance policies like mediclaim are the other vague terms that’s counted a aprt of the CTC. Interestingly, some companies are even counting EMIs for laptops given to executives as part of the CTC. Even club membership fees are paid from your pocket. Of late, deffered salary plan has also been forming part of CTC. According to this practice, incentives are not cleared along with monthly salaries and rather accumulate and are paid on half-yearly or annual basis.

At times, even the house rent allowance component may be misleading. Some young engineers, who were recruited by a leading infrastructure company and posted in a small town in western UP, were promised an HRA of Rs. 10,000 (reimbursable against actual expenditure) at the time of recruitment. However, during their posting in UP, they were provided company accommodation, where four young engineers were made to stay in one apartment, for which they cannot claim HRA.

Experts say students expecting placement need to read between the lines. Firstly, they should look out for discounts that companies can include in the package. These may not necessarily be used by the students. Secondly, at times companies may include a loan amount to the total salary stating that this loan can be availed at a lower rate of interest compared to the market. So, use your soft skills developed at ISB to negotiate for a transparent pay package wherein you can take home with full packets.

Do not get disheartened, but the truth is that the average domestic salary for the Class of 2006 at ISB is Rs. 11 Lakhs. You can get an hefty package only if you are going for an international placement, and the highest packages will be for those who had previous experience in the field of finance, consultancy or banking. Sometimes, I may be wrong. But I am trying to give an objective version from the interactions with current and past students. You will support me only after you are through your PGPM for six months down the line. However, unanimously everybody, including me, agrees that the experience at ISB is top class and worth spending for it. No doubt about it. Hat off to ISB.

Realty Boom – Is it a boom for Management Graduates?

Real estate consultancy is emerging as an attractive career options for graduates from IIMs and IITs. Even ISBians should take advantage of this boom. Realty consultancy companies are now offering top dollars to lure talent. Real estate and retail are the sunrise sectors of our economy and offer exciting opportunities for both freshers and lateral hires. DTZ (Debenham Tie Leung), a London-based consulting firm, is visiting premium educational institutions and offering compensation packages varying from 5 to 8 lakh for freshers and about 10 lakh/annum for lateral hires. Another real estate consultant Jones Lang LaSell has recruited 24 students from IIT-Kharagpur this year. Many more companies are expected to visit Indian campuses during next year, which is a good news for Class of 2008 at ISB.

In fact, recently, ISB has established a research chair on Realty Sector .

Midterm review of Indian Economy

The main highlights of the midterm review of our economy, presented to the Parliament, are

1. The GDP has grown at a rate of 9.1% during the first six months of current fiscal year
2. Manufacturing is resurgent with a growth rate of 10.90%
3. Services sector is going strong at a growth rate of 10.70%

4. Revenue collections buoyant. In the first half of the fiscal, the revenue collections stood at Rs. 1,29,986 Crores which was almost 40% of the budget estimates. Direct tax collections during April-November stood at Rs.1,00,315 crore as compared to Rs. 71,464 Crores, registering a growth of 40% over that of the same period of the last year. Indirect tax collections also did well during the first six months. While customs collections grew by 32.70%, service tax collections by 63.40%, excise duty clocked a growth of 7.40% in the period under review.

6. Inflation is under control. The wholesale prices-based annual inflation rate declined to 5.16 percent for the week ended December 2, 2006 from 5.30 percent and 5.45 percent in the two previous weeks.

7. Export Growth is at 37.30%

8. Foreign investment inflows are strong. Net capital inflows accelerated to $12.50 billion during April - June ’06 as compared to $7.7 billion during the corresponding period of the last year
No overheating of the economy.

However, there are some areas of concerns which needs to be addressed

1. Reforms in labour laws
2. Deregulation of mining
3. Steps to boost growth in agriculture sector which grew only by 2.6% in the first six months of this fiscal.

3. Setting up the additional power generation capacity.
4. Massive funds needed for infrastructure in the 11th Plan

I hope with right policy initiatives by Govt. of India, it is not far away for us to achieve a GDP growth rate of 10%.

STPI units may get its tax benefits extended

The software bigwigs - TCS, Infosys, and Wipro - may be for a pleasant surprise in the forthcoming Budget. The government may extend the Software Technology Parks of India scheme beyond March 31, 2009. Under this scheme, any unit of a software company is located in an STPI area, gets income tax exemption on its export earning for a period of 10 years. However, as per the sunset clause, this benefit will expire by March 31, 2009. The government may extend the deadline by a few years. The Nasscom wants it to be extended for another 10 years.

Postmortem - My Interview Experience

For the benefit of the propsective applicants for ISB, I have analysed my interview as follows.

Before going further, I would like to give my profile

Age : 34
Marital Status : Married
GMAT - 660 (AWA-5.5)
Undergraduation : IIT, Kharagpur (1993)
Work Exp. :- 8 months in ECIL in Corporate R&D
9 years in Income Tax Department as IRS Officer

Extracurricular activities : Not bad
Achievements : Lot many
Specialisation : Taxation, Accounting, Banking Enquiries, Investigation of Tax Frauds,Analysis of Financial Statements
Post-ISB plans (were): Work for 2-3 years in phrama or IT realted industry and then start my own venture

Now, coming to my interview, it lasted for 45 minutes and I answered all questions confidently except one question on benchmarking, which I did not know. At the beginning of the interview, they said that I have a good profile and also that they are looking for people like me. But at the end of the day, I could not get it. Then I wondered what could be the reasons. Then I remember that Ms. Hima Bindu from Adcom stressed on my placement post-ISB as I said that I want to change my career, work for two to three years in private sector and then start my own venture. She asked my "are you sure you want to work only for two to three years as I have to give my recommendation to the placement cell?". Then I said "yes". The main reason for my rejection, it appears, is placement.

After the interview is over in respect of an applicant, the interview feedback is combined with the application evaluation, including your essays. The final call is made after a meeting is held by the admission commitee with the Dean and management. In the final call, the main aspect seen is how to increase brand value of ISB. In this respect, whether ISB can place you well after completion of PGPM is also one of the factor. Myself being in Government Service for almost 10 years, it may be difficult for ISB to place me properly post-ISB. I can also give one more live example of my friend whose experience was 10 years with present salary of around Rs. 15 lakhs who could not get into ISB. Here also the placement played a major role.

Many of the high salaries in ISB are from international placements and mostly in consultancy sector. For consultancy, most of the companies who are coming to ISB are looking for placements at junior level management, suitable for candidates with 3 to 4 years experience. In fact, the upper age limit for any consultancy job is around 30 years as it involves lot of travelling, extended working hours etc. They know that I will not be able to shift my family at this stage of life. Hence, they thought that ISB may not be able to provide me suitable placement for me in India.

I sincerely advise the prospective applicants to introspect whether ISB can give you the proper placements.

Sunset on Corus Deal by Jan 30,2006

UK's Takeover Panel wants to settle the siege as Corus has indefinitely postponed its EGM beyond December 20, coupled with prolonging uncertainity of the deal. It set the deadline as Januray 30,2006 for making or withdrawing offers by Tatas or CSN, who are in the race to acuqire the Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus. If the bidding crosses the deadline date, an auction conducted by Panel will decide the winner.

I hope Indian government is listening to this as India does not have any panel like UK's The Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, which is an independent body, established in 1968, whose main functions are to issue and administer the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers and to supervise and regulate takeovers and other matters to which the Code applies. Its central objective is to ensure fair treatment for all shareholders in takeover bids.

Present scenario is apt to establish such Panel as many corporates are taking the retail investors for a ride even in take overs on in mergers and acquisitions. As more and more Indian companies are shopping abroad for acquisitions, lack of detail;ed information regarding these deals, a watchdog is necessary to superwise such delas. To protect the interest of small and medium shareholders during the hostile or other take over bids, India should establish a regulatory body on the lines of Takeover Panel of UK, with sufficient powers to see that the small shareholders get their due economic advantage arising out of takeovwrs, mergers or acquisitions.

The academic rigour and curriculum - 1

After reading various blogs, online resources and interaction with some of the students of Class of 2007 at ISB, I summarise the academic rigour at this prestigious school.

The students have a busy year, and are involved in

1) Exchanging programmes with the associate schools,
2) International collaborative projects such as the Wharton Global Consulting Practicum, Innovative Challenge etc.
3) Real time learning through the Experiential Learning Programme,

4) Several other activities that give them opportunities to explore their areas of interest.
5) Conferences and panel discussions on topical subjects are a regular feature on campus, and the students lead most of these initiatives.

6) Exercises, simulations, cases and conceptual models to become more effective both as team members and as leaders.
7) Extensive interaction with achievers from various walks of life who are invited to participate in the ISB Speaker Series.

ISB mainly teaches in Accounting, Marketing, Economics & Public Policy, Entrepreneurship, Organisational Behaviour, Operations, Finance, Strategy and Information Systems, with many more electives to choose from.

The curriculum of international standard to be taught in a span of one year makes the course tough and energy consuming, mentally and physically. The course has 8 terms spanning a period of one year. Each term at ISB is just six weeks with exams almost every two and a half weeks (mid terms and then the final term exam). Between two terms, you may get breaks. But, the feedback I got from the current students is that these holidays are also mostly used for studying or preparing for projects etc. Till Term 4, all the sections attend classes together. First four terms are called core terms.

The first week is dedicated entirely to the induction, called Orientation Week, wherein the alumni from the previous batch turn out in large numbers to interact with the current batch and organise a large number of sessions around various club activities, their experience during placements and life at ISB in general. Then, there are week long modules known as pre terms. These are designed to acquaint you of the basic concepts to be applied during the core terms. There are three courses on offer (Quant, Stats and Accounting).

Time is the most precious commodity at ISB. There is so much to do and so many avenues and forums that one has to carefully choose what all he wants to be involved into. Perhaps everyone of the 400 and odd students have had a creditable past but what might differentiate them at the end of the year would be the way they manage 24 hrs in each day. Many people realise after spending first few weeks on campus that one needs to maintain a strong focus. You have 400+ friends around, innumerable student clubs, numerous other activities and a few classes and group activities in between, but just a year on hand.

You have pre-read every day before the class starts. You will be given a hand out running into sometimes 100 pages, which has to be read and understood so that whatever is taught in the class is digested. Somebody on his blog told that around 100 pages for marketing class, 100 odd for economics et all. For example, I have attended a class on Corporate Finance by Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhry in October, 2006. In a span of two-three hours, three topics of Corporate Finance - debt vs. equity, IPOs and Mergers & Acquistions were covered. Being from taxation background, fortunately, I could understand the jargon used except one term, beta, which I came to know later on. The experience of this class itself shows me that the pre-reads have to be taken very seriously. Class Participation(CP) is a big deal in B-School. There are special points (which count for the final grade) usually alloted for "Relevant, direction changing" (insightful) CPs. Sometimes these points can account for about 40% of one's grade in a course.

A conventional two year MBA format offers a period of internship where students work and learn on the job, with a one year MBA model there’s no time window available for a full time internship. The Experiential Learning Program is a way around, this is a short term project where teams work remotely for most of the project and spend a short time at the client location.

The exams conducted in middle of a term and at the end of each term may be a open book or closed book. In a closed book one however you are allowed to carry a single page of notes to the exam, that’s a cheat sheet in ISB parlance. In the open book exam, you are allowed to carry any amount of books, notes etc to the exam centre. Well honestly, as many students of Class of 2007 admitted, none can help, if you have not prepared well.

You have big events like TiE - ISB Connect, where delegates from different industries come and share their knowledge with you. The TiE-ISB Connect is a joint initiative of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), Hyderabad Chapter and the Centre for Entrepreneurship at the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad. It is a forum that brings together early stage venture capitalists, start up and growth stage entrepreneurs and academicians, on a common platform to interact and help build successful enterprises. Then the panelists from these industries also speak on these occasions. The main highlight of the event would be the presentation of the business plans to the Venture Capitalists. This year they have discussed trends and opportunities in Media Opportunities (Advertising), Media and Entertainment sector, Retail Sector, Bio-Pharma & Life Sciences Sector, Internet and Internet Services Sector, Sports and Fitness Sector, Real Estate and Infrastructure Sector, Technology Sector, Semiconductor Sector (Embedded Systems), IT and IT Enabled Services (ITES),

ISBians also participate in international competitions like Innovation Challenge. When you compete in the 2006 Innovation Challenge hosted by the Darden Graduate School of Business at the University of Virginia, you'll participate in the world's largest MBA innovation competition. You'll help solve real-world business challenges for top-tier global brands and join an unrivaled global innovation community in pursuit of the $20,000 grand prize and the title of "Most Innovative MBA Team in The World." Out of the record-breaking 440 teams from 88 universities in 15 countries enrolled in the 2006 Innovation Challenge, the Top 10 teams overall have been decided. 42 teams of ISB participated in the competition.

In term-1, the courses taught were :-

1. Financial Accounting

2. Marketing Management

3. Managerial Economics

4. Statistical methods for making decisions.

In Term 4, they had 4 courses and they go as follows:

1. Management of Organizations

2. Investment Analysis

3. Strategic Analysis of Information Technology

4. Government, Society and Business

Keep watching this blog. I will discuss the life at ISB threadbarely in a series of my postings.

Vehicle insurance sector is set for competition

Motor insurance is the single largest business line for insurance companies and is also the fastest growing, on top of increased sales of two hweelers, four wheelers and commercial vehicles in India. Motor insurance comprises insurance for the vehicle and insurance of vehicle owners' liability towards third parties. The Insurance Regulatory & Development Authority (IRDA) has allowed insurers to marginally increase the rates for third party insurance - less profitable area, where as it has freed the pricing for motor vehicle insurance. However, , IRDA has asked insurance companies not to offer insurance for automobiles at rates that are lower than 10% of the tariff. In property insurance, the insurance regulator has fixed a floor of 20% below existing tariff rates.

Motor insurance tariff, along with other insurance products such as fire and property, will be withdrawn from January 1, 2007 when detariffing in the general insurance sector is set to kick off.

The above detariification in the insurance sector by the Government will start a healthy competition among the palyers, benefiting the customers with innovative products being introduced in market by various companies in this sector.

Festive Season for R-1 Applicants

It is a season of joy for all those who got admission into ISB in Round-1 and still a long wait for those who have been waitlisted. These waitlisted applicants will be compared with the applicants interviewed in Round-2 and then the fate of these waitlisted applicants will be decided by the adcom. Kudos to all those who have been selected in Round-1.

I request all those who got admitted in Round-1 and all those who will be selected in Round-2 to give their blog addresses to include in my blog as well as to send any questions regarding Indian taxation laws at my e-mail id pramoneel@yahoo.co.in.

I am also happy that five of our Core Group, Kiran, Sravanthi, Laksmikanth, Arun Kumar and Gajanan Pujari have been selected for Class of 2008 at ISB and and Allu Smitha and Gajanan have been waitlisted. All the best for them in ISB and post-ISB career.

Delhi Interview Experience - 2

This is the interview experience of an R-1 applicant who was admitted into ISB for Class of 2008. His interview was scheduled on 19th nov in Delhi.

His profile:

GMAT 710,
Work Exp: 3.5 in Semiconductor and Embedded Design Industry
Extra curriculars: Theatre, Press club, NGO experience.

Here it goes

"I was asked to write an essay on "Socialism", just before the interview.
Interview started right on time. There were three people in the panel,including one lady. Interview started with general introduction. Overall the panel was very courteous and the interview was like a casual interaction.

Here are the questions I got in my interview.

- How did you manage to get a good score in 12th and admission into BITS pilani.
- Tell us about your family
- Next question came from lady, regarding my extracurriculars (I had mentioned about theatre in BITS)
- what kind of plays you did?
- Names and authers of the plays.
- What kind of roles did you play? (I told them that I mainly played negative roles,)
- A favourite dilogue from any play (This was my strong point. I actually
got up from my seat and performed a five minute solo sequence from one of the plays. I played a negative role of a nazi officer torturing a victim!
I actually couldnt believe that I was doing it right in front of intv panel ;-) )
- So, why didnt you join movies after BITS?
- After this started the work related questions.
- Tell us what kind of role do you play at work?
- Tell us what factors do you take into consideration while planning a project.
- They asked me abt a project, which I had mentioned among the achievements in my resume.
- CEO of ST, my present company, On which stock exchanges is it listed, How
many fabs it has etc.
- Why do you want to join Google after your MBA? (I had written Google as my
dream job)
- The way Google is growing, some people think it will eventually kill Microsoft. What is your stand on this?
- Then they asked me if I had any questions. I asked them about any courses or initiatives at ISB focussing on technology management, I aslo asked them a question regarding the 'centre for IT and Network economy'.

Overall the interview was good. I think, you should be thorough about what
you write in your resume and essays.
Just be confident and yourself and you will be through!!"

He hopes that his interview experience will be of some use to the people targeting ISB.

All the best to R-2 Applicants

At last I could not make it

At last, i could not make it to ISB. I am slightly disappointed. But, still my journey continues and I want to be always ahead in the race. I will prove in another 5 years. No regrets. Neither I have any misapprehension about ISB. They have done their best.

Even now I want Indian school of Business as one of the best B-scools in the world.

I will coninue to post on this blog.

Tit Bits on Indian Manufacturing MNCs

I am giving the gist of our ever increasing Indian MNCs, that is, Indian companies having manufacturing facilities across the globe and their acquisitions.

Bharat Forge

Bharat Forge acquired a German forging company in 2003 to become the second largest forging company in the world after Thyssen Krupp. Today, Bharat Forge has nine production facilities in six countries across Europe, North America and Asia.

Moser Baer

Moser Baer, the third largest producer of optical disc media in the world, started its sixth manufacturing facility in Germany in 2004. Today, company earns more than 80% of its revenues from exports.

Wockhardt

Way back in 1998, Wockhardt, a domestic phrama giant, took over UK based loss making Wallis Laboratories and coverted it into profit within an year.


Tata Tea

In 2000, Tata Tea acquired Tetley Tea, a British tea company. Tetley, which was twice as big as Tata Tea, returned to profits after it was taken over by Tata Tea.

Spentex Industries

In July 2006, Spentex Industries bought Tashkent Toypeta Tekstil, an Uzbek textile company. The deal will fetch an easy access to the vast cotton output of Uzbekistan.

Dr. Reddy's

Dr. Reddy's recently acquired 100% stake in Betapharm Arzneimittel, the fourth largest generic pharmaceutical company in Germany.

Ranbaxy

Recently, Ranbaxy acquired 96% stake in Terapia, the largest generic drug company in Romania.

Suzlon Wind Energy

In March, 2006, Suzlon Wind Energy acquired Hansen Transmissions International of Belgium.


The success stories continue with the latest being the TATA's offer to acquire Corus, an Anglo-Dutch company, to make TATA's 5th largest steel maker in the world.

Rothschild comes to the rescue of Tatas

One more good news for ISB aspirants looking for financial services or consultancy as post-ISB career goal. TATA Steel has roped in NM Rothschild & Sons, the UK-based merchant bankers, as financial advisor for its proposed acquisition of Corus.

Rothschild, part of the 200 year-old financial services conglomerate controlled by the British family by the same name, will be the third advisor to Tata Steel on the deal. ABN Amro and Deutche Bank are already acting as advisors for the Indian company. Rothschild will advise Tata Steel on the strategy part of the revised acquisition and may help them raise funds.

Source : The Economic Times
Full Article : Tata won’t bid Corus adieu, hires Rothschild as advisor

Biotech can grow to $40 bn industry by 2015

The Indian biotech industry whcih ended fiscal 2005-06 with just over $1.40 billion, could potentially grow to $ 40 bn by 2015. Union Minister for science and technology Kapil Sibal feels that the estimate is 'possible' since India will be the centrestage of biotech in the world in future.

The ministry is planning some intiatives to give a fillip to the BT industry. These include creation of a global technology acquisition fund to help companies acquire firms overseas, opening up the education sector while setting up centres of excellence in about 20-40 universities to train faculty etc. However, K.K. Narayanan, president of the Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE) and MD of Metahelix Life Sciences put the Indian biotech industry at a more conservative estimate of $ 20-25 bn by 2015.

Presently, the BT sector is growing at a rate of 39-40%. However, the industry needs to move up the value chain through innovation and product development.

Source: The Economic Times

Manufacturing BOOM benefits IT sector

As the manufacturing industry is witnessing accelerated growth, the IT industry can benefit from this boom. The manufacturing sector is growing at a decent rate of 8-9% Quater-on-Quarter during the current financial year. The sector is expected to grow at an handsome rate of 14% each year for the next ten years. With this growth, manufacturing techniques and technologies grow more sophisticated, making it imperative for companies to rely more on IT systems in several areas.

The broad areas where the IT sector has a role to play are

1. Managing Suppliers - Supply Chain Management (SCM)
2. Managing Customers - Customer Relationship Management
3. Managing Production - Production Planning & Control (PPC)
4. Managing Products - Product Lifecycle management (PLM)consisting of
a. CAD Computer Aided Design
b. CAM Computer Aided Manufacturing
c. CAE Computer Aided Engineering
d. PDM Product Data Management

The role of IT in a manufacturing firm is in the area of 'management' to ensure high levels of efficiency, productivity and profitability. The US-based Emptoris, which boasts of such large clients as Boeing and Owens Corning, opened its India development centre last year and is an important centre for development and support of several products such as Contract Management, Supplier Performance, Spend Analysis and others. Emptoris is the world leader in supply management software and contract management software. Manufacturing companies need to take a lot of decisions pertaining to selection of suppliers, products and services while taking care of the sourcing cycle as well. Emptoris helps its customers in selecting the best mix of these.

There are also specialist companies that are involved in Design / Engineering services that help manufacturing companies make use of CAD / CAM software. Designtech Systems Ltd is one of such companies which helps manufacturing industry to create complete 3-D models of the products using CAD/CAM software.

Product Life Cycle Management (PLM) is another area which is critical for the manufacturing sector. PLM is a strategic business approach that enables companies to create, manage, disseminate and use product definition information. The PLM supports the product through its entire life cycle - from conceptualisation to the end-use stage of the product. PLM is a critical area as sometimes a defective product may even face product recall, wherein a company would have to replace/refurbish specific components. In such a scenario, tracing the defect to a source becomes very complicated if a PLM system is not in place. Recently, Dell has identified a potential issue associated with certain batteries sold with Dell notebook computers. Dell is voluntarily recalling certain Dell-branded batteries with cells manufactured by Sony and offering free replacements for these batteries, as under rare conditions, it is possible for these batteries to overheat, which could pose a risk of fire. In such situations, PLM systems play a crucial role.

Companies like PTC (a PLM specialist) and Geometric Software are specialists in their niche areas and cater to a lot of engineering companies in the manufacturing sector. Geometric offers digital engineering and consulting services to help the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) reduce product development costs, improve quality, shorten time-to-market and increase product business value.

With incresed pressures of globalisation and product competitiveness, companies or firms in manufacturing sector are pursuing strategies to strenghen their core competencies.

Source : The Economic Times

International Research Conference on Entrepreneurship

Source : ISB website
Link: The First International Research Conference on Entrepreneurship in Emerging Regions

The First International Research Conference on Entrepreneurship in Emerging Regions was hosted by the Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development (WCED) at the ISB, along with the Journal of Business Venturing and the Batten Institute, University of Virginia, from December 5-7, 2006. The conference proved to be an innovative platform for thought leaders on entrepreneurship from around the world to share ideas and experiences.

Some technical papers were presented during the three day deliberations. These papers discussed, broadly, areas of entrepreneurial activities like entrepreneurial action in emerging economies and small firms, factors influencing entrepreneurial decisions, niche entrepreneurial opportunities, virtual entrepreneurial clusters, barriers in developing countries to entrepreneurship, growth strategy planning in small entrepreneurial ventures, sustaining family firms in chronically hostile business environment, need for innovation in technical entrepreneurship and MBAs’ perception of and inclination towards entrepreneurship.

Bulging HNIs in India

Here is good news for ISB aspirants looking at financial consultancy, mainly in broking firms, insurance firms, investment bankers and mutual funds.

Source: The Economic Times
Link: India makes its way into world's top 20 wealth club

India made its way into the top 20 wealth markets in the world. India and Russia, first time entrants, ranked 19 and 20 respectively. China and Brazil were there since the report was first published in 2000. The BRIc countries, namely Brazil, Russia, India and China grow at an average rate of 10.6% and India tops the growth chart which may touch 13.30% by 2010, according to the report. Still, India's share in the global wealth market is at a meagre 0.08%. This is the Sixth Edition of Global Wealth, an annual research conducted by the Boston Consulting Group. The common thread in the BRIC countries is high GDP growth combined with booming stick markets.

Indian are traditionally known for putting their savings in cash or fixed deposits (50-60%), rather than in other financial instruments like equity, mutual funds etc. But, there is demographic shift in the asset mix in recent times. The report brought by Mrill Lynch suggested that high net worth individuals (HNIs) in India have more than 31% of their assets in equities, just above the global average of 30%. HNIs in China have the lowest allocation to equities at 14%. Further, the number of HNIs in India are growing at an average rate of 19.30%, highest among BRIC nations. The last year's estimate of millionnaires in India was 84,000. But, I can say with authority that the above number of millionaires are in Hyderabad itself, taking their assets at current market value.


Beacuse of low interest rates, Indian investors, across the board, are titlting towards equity market either directly or indirectly through mutual funds.

The above scenario brings in many opporunities, along with many more jobs in consultancy. I hope this will further raise the stature of ISB, whose placements are the best in financial consultancy.


High Networth Individual is the one whose assets exceed US$ 1 million.

Global Warming - An opportunity for Developing Countries

I could not post for last three days, as I was out of stattion for attending a social function. However, the consensus among relatives who attended the function was that this year the winter is not so chilling as compared to the same period of the last year. I can also feel this because I am not using any blanket or quilt during these days. I heard from our elders saying that they never used fan even in peak summer season in Hyderabad.

The night temperatures in Hyderabad and other Telangana District Headquarters like Nizamabad and Adilabad, which are known for their lowest night temperatures, are hovering around 13-15 Centigrade, when comapred to the night temperatures of around 9-11 centigrade during the same period in the previous years.

What it means? Is it that effect of Global Warming is visible much faster than expected?

In a nutshell, the global warming is the effect of increase in atmospheric temperature due to the increase in the greenhouse gas emissions. Greenhouse gases are those gases which aborb heat from the sunlight. Carbon-di-oxide, a greenhouse gas, is the main culprit in contributing to global warming.

As a country develops, its energy needs increases, which in turn increase pollution, contributing for the ever increasing greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The experience of warm and hot weather inside a car parked in sunlight is a classic example of how the greenhouse effect can be felt as the glass allows sunlight inside but does not allow the heat to pass through, making inside weather hot and warm.

On the other hand, the Global Warming is a blessing in disguise for developing countries. As per the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries have to reduce the level of Carbon di Oxide emmissions, below their current levels. This protocol comes into effect from 01-04-2008. These targets are not applicable for developing countries as their present stage of development involves lot of industrialisation and requires some more time for their development before which they can abide by with any reductions in the emissions of greenhouse gases. Moreover, the emission levels in the developed countries are at much higher level than their developing counterparts. Global companies that have exceeded their emission levels can either cut them down by making the needed investments or buy carbon credits from developing countries. Trading takes place on two stock exchanges, the Chicago Climate Exchange and the European Climate Exchange. Trading can also take place in the open market. European countries and Japan are the major buyers of carbon credit because the US has still not accepted the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.


Carbon credits are measured in units of certified emission reductions (CERs). Each CER is equivalent of One Ton of Carbon dioxide reduction. That means, if a company invests in greener technologies like Bio-diesel, Solid Waste Management, Waste Land Development, Non-renewable Energy Resources like Solar Energy, Wind Power generation, Bio-mass based power plants, Co-generation in any manufacturing concerns, which reduce the effective C02 emissions , it can be awarded carbon credits based on its effective reduction of CO2 in an year by using these greener technologies. For example, a bio-diesel plant effectively reduces 1000 Tons of CO2 every year by way of fuel, it gets 1000 Carbon Credits (CC). A company in France, let's say, wants to reduce its emmission levels, which may not be possible in the short run, it may buy the carbon credits from the above company. These carbon Credits are freely tradeable in the international market. Presently, the rate per CC is around 50 Euros. Imagine, how much money can be earned by the above company by selling the 1000 Carbon Credits.

The process involved in getting CCs is lenghy and cumbersome. It may take anywhere between six months to one year in time and around Rs. 50 lakhs as fee for a consultant as the documentation requires experts in the filed and also Central Goverment and United Nations are involved in granting these CCs.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) has been put in place to facilitate the trade of carbon credits between the developing and developed nations.While many companies are also looking at generating additional revenues through the sale of carbon credits, consultants such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Ernst & Young are already advising more than 100 CDM projects in India.


I hope, in the years to come, this sector may absorb good number of consultants.