B-School Networking

Networking, an intangible part of the MBA curriculum, is one of the most valued key take away from the B-School campus. Not surprisingly, most of the B-School alumni rate networking as the most useful “head fake” (head fake= indirect learning. Head Fake comes from the “Last Lecture Series of Randy Pausch”) in the MBA learning curve. This article covers is meant as an elementary write-up on networking skills especially for the B-School whiz kids covering benefits of networking, essentials and how of networking.

Why Networking? Benefits associated with networking vary from individual level to organizational level. Impact of individual benefits of networking like job referrals, tertiary referrals (a node in your network introduces you to a node in his network), information gathering about organization, business, profession, college etc are limited to an individual however organizational level benefits like business development, new recruit background checks, recruitments via social media etc have much wider impact especially in the times of recession.

B-School Networking: Today for MBA aspirants, networking with MBA students and B-School alumni goes beyond tips on how to prepare for admission to evaluation of college based on first hand information about the college from the concerned students which is generally not available on the information platter (website, brochure etc) provided by the college. No wonder B-Schools have recognized the modern mode of information gathering and many have appointed or volunteered admission counsellors and teams for MBA forums. For the first year students, the networking can form an influencing medium for deciding upon the internship organizations, the selection of specialization and for some in fact it forms a means to get an internship. In times of recession, especially for Investment Banking and Consulting aspirants networking becomes a very powerful tool for entry into the industry.

No wonder why organizations including B-Schools are emphasizing on building and maintaining relationships with their alumni network. Most of the B-Schools sent out SOS messages to their alumni network in assisting the institution in securing 100% placements and have made more than usual efforts in placing the interns in contact with the alumni in the organizations the first year students intern at.

Essentials of Networking: Even though the user base of social networking sites like LinkedIn, Orkut, Facebook etc have immensely increased in India over the period of time, but not all users of the social networking sites are able to leverage their networks. This can be attributed to some of the reasons like low awareness about networking benefits, low interpersonal cum communication skills and low activeness on online social forums. The last characteristic is not only applicable to less internet savvy individuals but also to high internet savvy students of B-Schools.

How do I Network? A few tips on how to build your network are:

1. Recognize a few friends of common interest even before you land up in your college. Make use of MBA forums for this. The exercise to this would indirectly help you know the common grounds you share with your prospective batch.
2. Try to be a member of various cells and special interest groups in your college especially the placement cell and alumni cells. These two cells present its members with large exposure to professionally managing relationships, improves communication cum interpersonal skills and most importantly helps you manage cold calls well which you shall be surely doing while building your network. Association with special interest groups like economics cell, finance cell, consulting cell etc will put you abreast to what your counterparts in the same arena are up to.
3. Be active on online social forums on networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Orkut etc. Note that just being a member of such forums will not serve the purpose; you need to be an active member for developing a rapport among the members of the forum.
4. Online Special interest group forums outside the campus like ConsultingNetwork, ZeneSys, Learn2consult etc help not only build the basic fundamentals required for entry into the industry but also help to develop networks within the group.
5. Always prefer telephonic conversations to emails. Emails are sometimes put to the backburner by the respondents.
6. As far as possible, with individuals with whom you have already established your connection, start conversation on topics away from their professional work life. Especially, investment bankers and consultants would not like to talk on economics, recessions etc as these are the daily chores for them. A small conversation on topic of their interest like movies, sports might help breaking the ice. In order to learn about interests and background of the individual do some homework. LinkedIn, Orkut, Facebook, individual’s blogs etc can be of good help in this regard. However, with individuals whom you are talking for the first time, directly addressing the purpose might be a better tactic.
7. Make a point that you freshen up your memory with the previous dialogue with the individual before you start your next conversation. It helps you develop grounds for talks.
8. Tertiary Referrals are preferred over direct contacts. It helps you convert a cold call into a warm call. For Example: If you are referred by Mr. X to Mr. Y and you make the first call to Mr. Y refer to the conversation where Mr. X referred you to Mr. Y, this helps to break the initial thaw.
9. For individuals networking for job referrals using an excel sheet to track your developments is heavily recommended else your work may go haphazard and this may not reflect well on your prospective employer and colleague. Also, keep an eye on Job Boards on networking sites like LinkedIn which has now being slowly accepted as a preferred means of recruitment to Middle levels and senior levels.

Being an alumni of MBA entrance coaching classes and presently a fellow men of MBA student fraternity, I sometimes feel that majority of B-School aspirants and even B-School students are not aware of the reason to pursue an MBA? Cursory glance thrrough the following forum on PagalGuy To Hell with MBA will give you an insight into the veractiy of my statements. Applying 80:20 rule to the number of applicants in CAT, we derive that only 50,000 out of 2,50,000 applicants are aware of their reasons to do an MBA.

A step-wise approach is essential in any decision making procedure and the same implies to the decision making process of pursuing an MBA. The approach consists of three questions “YWH” which need to be asked in the same order as it is mentioned for an effective decision. In case of a decision of pursuing an MBA one needs to ask three questions viz “Why MBA?”,  ”When MBA?” and “How MBA?”. The first question shall answer the reason for one to do an MBA and which MBA will suit him the most, the second one answers the best time to do the MBA which he has zeroed in for and the third answers how to go about it.

Though “Why MBA?” is the first and the most important question to be answered, it is the least bothered element in decision making for majority of the MBAs as I have pointed out in the earlier section of the article. Even in a coaching institute, the faculty and students remain confined to the boundaries of how to crack an MBA entrance test and the discussion to answer “Why MBA?” remains at the back burner except during the preparation for GD/PI. The answers prepared during the GD/PI stage are mostly cosmetic and do not represent the real candidates views and thoughts.

Many B-School students pursuing MBA become aimless and hence are not able to reap the best out of MBA course. As per my opinion, this is one of the reason due to which Indian MBA courses create managers not leaders. A Harvard Professor once commented about Indian MBA - “Indian managers can keep a ship (business) afloat but cannot salvage out a sinking ship (business)”.

January, Febrauary and March are the seasons of final admission process for majority of B-Schools around India. And a huge chunk of students will be brainstorming on how to get through the last hurdle. Though answer to the question “Why MBA?” is not the sole criteria for ones admit to B-Schools but I would advocate every candidate to do a retrospection before he/she gets into the corridors of B-Schools to reap the best of your MBA. Better late than never!!!

With B-School admission process round the corner, prospective students are busy filling forms of the admit exams and colleges. The decision of choosing a prospective B-School amidst large number of B-Schools is one of the most difficult phase in the admission process for a prospective student. Traditionally, B-School Surveys, Word of Mouth about college, Website and Placement Figures were some of the cues which helped students choose a school. These means miss one of the 7 P’s of Service Marketing i.e. “Physical Evidence” hence do not reflect true internal value of the school. 

Majority of the B-schools in India notoriously place them behind veils. Many of the B-School students complaint about heavy fake advertising by some B-Schools which does not indicate the true value of the B-School and its student community. Then, how can a prospective student see through these artificial clouds to understand the reality of the B-Schools?

Information Technology comes to our rescue. With the proliferation of information technology, the means and measures of selecting a B-School has been changing tremendously. Advent of MBA forums like PagalGuy.Com, MbaClubIndia.com, TotalGadha.com etc have made a difference in how and what information prospective MBA student looks for. These forums have an influx of B-School Students, B-Schools Alumni, B-School Counsellors and Prospective students who share their views and opinions. A visit to the following the following thread Which B-Schools to Apply? can give an insight into how B-School Students and Prospective Students collaborate to gain better insights into the B-Schools. Observing this trend many of the B-Schools have initiated admission teams catering admission related information to such forums and resolving admission related queries of the forum users.

One of the means of information for the prospective students which I recently discovered  is BLOGS. Blogs of B-School students, alumni and professors can give a very true indication of the B-School. Blog boom in B-School and Learning via Blogs in B-School present a change which IT has brought in the B-School community. Students, Alumni and Professors voice their opinions and views via blogs and indirectly give out the reality behind the veil. These blogs can be a source of information directly from the horses’ nose and hence can be used by prospective students seeking admissions.

One may question “These IT means mentioned above too can be faked to present an unreal reality about the school. So how does one completely rely on these?”.  The answer is “A prospective Manager needs to evaluate the information about the schools available via various means and then take an informed decision. Furthermore, a smart manager is supposed to take good decisions amidst uncertanity. Isn’t it?” Selecting an apt B-School is also a test for prospective B-School managers !!!!!

PagalGuy.com (The best educational website in India) is in the process of surveying the best B-Schools in India based on the perception of the MBA community (For more information on the survey visit http://rankings.pagalguy.com ) . But how true do these surveys (any B-school survey) reflect upon the quality of B-schools? How are the perceptions skewed in India? Are perceptions really based on the quality of B-School? I hope I would be able to answer these questions in the coming few paragraphs of my blog.

For a highly informed MBA community, the perception about a B-School would be very close to the reality in terms of quality of the education, placements, student community and faculties. However, for a lesser informed MBA community which forms the majority of the MBA community (even in PagalGuy.com) perceptions would surely vary a lot from the reality. The placement figures play the most vital role in forming opinions about majority of the B-Schools. Furthering the argument I feel if B-Schools are surveyed on various parameters like placement, perception, faculty and infrastructure; the respondents being MBA community, one can observe the rankings based on all other parameters following rankings based on placement statistics with very few variations. Hence, I infer the better placement statistics of a B-School relative to other B-School better would be its perception in the years to come. Hence, any B-School with good placement stats should always project its placement stats in the advertising to attract the most MBA prospective flock (Marketing Gyan).

Propagandas and advertising can surely affect the opinions of the lesser informed MBA community. But the one which affects the most is the placements. And as per me, placements are not the best way to judge quality of the education, student community, infrastructure and faculties of a B-School. Hence, I believe a perception based survey cannot be used as the sole underlying principle to judge the quality of a B-School.

For prospective MBA students, the survey (in fact any survey for the matter) can only form a ground from which they can filter a few good B-Schools and then dig information about each of them and then come to a conclusion about whether the B-School is a good one or not. 

Today, MBA degree is undoubtedly the most famous degree in India. Thanks to the obscene packages (as one of my MBA faculty speaks of the packages) offered to most of the B-School graduates. Rising packages of IIMs and international placements constitue the headlines easily during the placement season. Many students are of the opinion that placements are the USPs of an MBA degree.

However, I am of a different opinion. I genuinely feel that the much hullabaloo (created due to placements) around the MBA degree has done much of a disservice to the student community than good to it. Nearly, every Engineer who passes out of E-School even before personally reading about the MBA program details offered by the institutes orients himself to join a B-School, forget about taking an exposure in the industry or understanding the fundamentals of business administration which should form the guideliness to form a decision to go for an MBA. The ultimate result of which is “A dissatisfied MBA graduate in his post-graduation tenure and finally a non-interested and relatively lesser competent manager than expected  passes into industry”.

Majority of the prospective students entering an MBA do it inorder to switch their career. But, as per my observation, these students are not fully aware of what they want to get into and tend to experiment a lot (Probably, I am one of them). One of the incident I would like to quote here is of one of the alumni of my institute who worked in IT industry wanted a switch, came for an MBA but later in the second year realised he wanted to pursue MBA in advertising which was not offered by the institute. I think the indecisiveness manytimes hits such students badly as was the case with my senior and thereby the student is not able to appreciate the program and design his curriculm (choose electives) to get benefitted from it the most.

Moreover, the Indian mentality of judging a students calibre on his ability to score reflects on the selection system of B-Schools. You would rarely find a 90 percentiler or 80 percentiler student making it to IIMs. But, at the same time you may find a 650 score getter making it to Harvard Business School. B-Schools tend to give more weightage to written scores and the underlying concept is to identify the best score not the best learner which is derivative of the Indian mentality of scoring more nor learning more. The same mentality percolates during the post-graduation tenure as well and the MBA graduates slog hard to get a higher score in the examination. According to many of the passed out MBA graduates, higher score does not necessarily reflect in depth subject knowledge and pragmatic approach.

Taking all of these aspects, I do feel Indian MBAs do not make great leaders. One of the Harvard Professors commented once about Indian MBA Managers “Indian MBA Managers can keep a well-doing business afloat or move upwards, however they cannot errect a dying business.“

One of the panacea for the flaws in the MBA system of India which have been mentioned above can be pre-requisite work experience before joining MBA. The best B-Schools around the world have such pre-requisites of work experience. Work experience often lets a candidate understand the practical aspects of industry, clears confusion about career path and hence is able to appreciate the MBA program in a much better mode.

With various coaching institutes helping aspiring students to crack the tests and the GD/PIs, I feel somewhere the basic aptitude and intellegence of a candidate is not put into test in the present format of tests. Some of the institutes like ISB, G-LAKES, SPJIMR, SCMHRD, even IIMs have now adopted selection process in which the weightage given to written scores have come down and resume evaluation (background story) is being enforced.

Leadership or life cannot be taught in the class, but surely education system and enterance systems can be altered to help student learn leadership outside the class. The underlying fundamental concept of an enterance system needs to be indentifying the best learners not the best scorers.

Share your views

Do CGPA in colleges and Grades in Schools do more harm than good to students? Are CGPA and Grades the best benchmark to compare the individual knowledge base? Do CGPA and Grades actually project the chances of a students’ success in his/her job?

A HR head of an IT MNC remarked “Our markings are performance based rather activity based hence, not the best criteria to judge a student’s potential and criteria.“

A comment on CGPA system goes like this “I think the CGPA system has some disadvantages also. I read it somewhere that in IITs and other institutes(Engg.) where CGP system is used , people recognise each other only by their CGPs. One of my friends (IITD student) told me that they form interest groups, project groups even friends only with the people of nearly the same CGP. Now if it was a problem with him or the complete IIT, I don’t know….“

But, what are the alternatives one has to make a judgment on a student’s caliber and the related success rate? One needs to identify that the present system of grading is a performance based system where a student’s performance across a set of exams is tested. However, a student with good knowledge base and less of presentation skills mars his/her performance in the grading system. An ideal system should be test of students’ involvement in activities related to learning which makes the learning system more holistic.

An activity based grading system needs to be supported by an individualized curriculum wherein the student identifies the area of interest where he requires himself to be tested. In contrast to the present system, the area of interest identified by the student would be more driven by real interest rather than one decided by the society or based on job prospects. Presently, students’ areas of interests are shaped by society or family which is ultimately designed by the job prospects. In such a situation, the real interest is a backburner hence again the system of grading shall fail.

To name a few some of the policies that can followed in such a grading system are:-

• Not giving zeroes for incomplete or missed work. Giving importance to the methodology employed to approach the problem rather than to result obtained thereby giving more importance to the underlying concepts.
• Replacing a more recent score with an old one when the new score represents mastery of the same standard.
• Using trend data rather than percentage to determine summative grades.
• Separating academic from non-academic grades.

Apart from implementing the system, teachers and the authority needs to educate about the need of such a system to the society and the families of the students. Without proper change in the attitude of the society towards education system (education as a means to employment to education as a means to explore one) the proposed system of grading will be a mere theory.

Definition of Education – Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom. But does man learn?

Today’s school education obfuscates a child’s observation, creative and lateral thinking deftness. Intense level of competition in schools and high aspiration of parents (as very vividly elucidated in the flick “Tare Zameen Par”) represses the future innovative leaders. Albert Einstein, a high school dropout, became one of the most profound thinkers of any century. Plato and Socartes carved many renowned theories without any formal education. An S P JAIN (a renowned B-School in India) pass out once commented that “MBA prevents one from exposing himself to entrepreneurship. The risk understanding instilled in a MBA graduate actually averts one from venturing into new innovative and out-of-box ideas and solutions.”

If you were in Mumbai and were clients of Dabawala’s service you would have understood the contrast between the educated efforts we in MNC’s put in with the best possible machines (laptops etc) and processes to get the SIX SIGMA concept implemented and the ease with which DABAWALAS (mostly illiterate using only color codes) manage to get less than 3 errors in 1 million attempts. Where is education leading us to?

World War 1 caused huge number of lives to be lost still humankind in times of World War 2(which was more educated than the times of World War 1) could not prevent itself from entering another massacre of WAR. The war story may not end here the humankind might end up fighting for water, food, land and opportunity in times to come.  

Retrospection on such incidences and facts boggles my mind with a question – “DOES MAN LEARN? And DOES EDUCATION RUIN?”