Category Business Management

I am student of B.Com final year. I want to know more about MBA. I want to know whether I should do MBA after graduation or after giving the CAT entrance in 2006 and which field I should choose for doing MBA. I would like to clear that I am not so good in maths, so which field would be more suitable for me and what are the chances of placement after doing an MBA. Also tell me about the different entrances conducted for entering a management college.

You need to understand what MBA is. Master of business administration is a postgraduate course in management, which, as the name suggests, you can do only after graduation or an equivalent qualification. But some leading management instructions (or B-schools) providing a course in business management / business administration offer a post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM), AND NOT MBA. CAT is the entrance test for admission to Indian Institutes of Management and several other B-schools. So it’s not a matter of choice that you can do an MBA either after doing your graduation o after CAT.

Yes, there are several other exams besides CAT for admission to B-schools, like XAT for admission to Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, JMET for admission to management programmes run by IITs, CET for admission to Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai, and so on. Those who aspire to join a B-school don’t appear for just CAT (though the first priority for anyone would be an IIM, of course), they appear for all the major tests.

As regards maths, while comfort in maths is no doubt an asset, but a lot of people from non-maths background have also cracked these exams successfully.

 

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I am a third year BE mechanical engineering student. I am interested in pursuing an MBA from a well-known business school, but I need some guidance on the specialisation to opt for. Please help.

 

You would be making use of your engineering education if you join production or systems management. People often talk of ‘hot’ options. But no stream remains hot forever. However, the ‘hot’ choice for you should be where your heart lies. All the five broad areas of management are on par. The key areas of management are on par. The key areas of management are marketing, finance, human resource management, systems management and production.

Marketing: No doubt, marketing is the most popular area among students of management. There are four specific functions:

•  Sales and distribution management.
•  Product/ brand management.
•  Advertising.
•  Market research.

The opportunities in sales and product management in particular are vast.

Finance: This function is concerned with the efficient use of money. There are seven career paths for people who have specialised in finance;

•  Consumer banking.
•  Investment banking.
•  Institutional banking.
•  Merchant banking.
•  Development banking.
•  Non-banking finance.
•  Corporate finance.

Human resource management: It involves activities like performance appraisal, employee counselling, training and motivation programmes. Handling union problems and labour disputes could also be part of your work profile. The broad areas of work are:

•  HRD.
•  Personnel management.
•  Industrial relations.

System management: The job market is very good. There are four career options in this field:

•  Systems consultancy: Systems consultancies recruit MBAs for their teams which provide consultancy to their client organisation.
•  Business development and sales and marketing account management: Organisations specialising in hardware/software solutions recruit MBAs for business development and sales and marketing functions.
•  Project management.
•  Systems departments of organisations: Since information technology is an integral part of every business today, organisations require managers for their systems departments.

Production: Many production theories and techniques have been developed by management schools. How to mange production and make a production unit more efficient is the crux of this area. This field is particularly relevant to engineering graduates. The basic functions are:

•  Productivity improvement.
•  Quality control.
•  Inventory control.
•  Production planning.

You have to take the decision based on the job profile in each area, and on your own interest and aptitude.

 

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I am a B.Com final year student pursuing my degree from Maharshi Dayanand University, Ajmer. I am interested in getting an MBA degree after graduation. But I have a few questions. What exams do I need to take to join an MBA programme? What is the procedure regarding entrance forms, exams? Where do I get application forms from? Is coaching required? What are the affiliated colleges? Can I get direct admission to an affiliated college without taking an entrance exam, such as in Symbiosis Institute, Pune? Do graduation marks count in the admission process? Please clear my doubts.

Your questions has come at a very appropriate time. To begin with there will be just one admission test for management programmes from the forthcoming year. The exact nature of the test, the time-schedule and other modalities are being worked out. The new test could be an amalgam of CAT and other entrance tests that take into account your general awareness too. So, until the structure is decided you should be ready for any kind of questions that are asked in all the entrance exams. As regards direct admission to Symbiosis, well, even SCMHRD and SIBM have entrance exams before admission. To the best of our knowledge, no Indian B-school admits students without an entrance test. And as regards marks, you have to get the qualifying marks in college. Marks in college might be an issue when you are being interviewed but it is up to you to convince the interview panel as to why you did not get, say 60 per cent.

 

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