Category: News & Events

Folks, I am part of the IIT Mentors group where I mentor a team of professionals during their career. We are organising a panel discussion for corporate executives who wish to do an MBA. If you have friends interested in doing an MBA, please pass this message to them. And, if you wish, please post this on your corporate bulletin board.  My book will also be available there at a discounted price.

Thank you for reading this.

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Business school is for the informed and the driven. It is a planned intervention in your career to lift you from where you are to the next higher level. B-School education, across the globe, comes with a heavy price tag (typically above Rs. 30 Lakhs) and just having any B-School degree is not good enough to change your fortune. In fact our experience shows most successful MBA grads did very diligent homework of fact finding around B-school education before plunging into it.

IIT Mentors (http://www.iitmentors.org) is proud to bring an extraordinary session for those who want to undertake MBA education to leapfrog their career. So, register now – to get answer to all your queries – whether it be do’s and don’ts of an application letter or how does a USA or an International B-school fares against its Indian counterparts – from noted experts in the field of MBA across the prominent geographies. Seats are limited to ensure the quality and depth of interactions, so register now to secure your opportunity to attend one of the most sought-after pre-MBA workshops.

The pre MBA workshop would mainly cover three areas: Selection of B schools and managing your profile, Leveraging maximum out of an MBA degree and Career progression post MBA.

Panel of experts

1. Chirantan Chatterjee – Assistant Professor IIM Bangalore, IIT Roorkee alumnus

2. Pamli Deka – Alumnus INSEAD 2010, IIT Roorkee alumnus

3. Dinesh Nilkanth – Principal, Jain University Bangalore

Registration fee: Rs. 200/- only

Find out more and Register here: http://iitmentors-event-workshop-23june2012.doattend.com/

About IIT Mentors:

IIT Mentors is a unique PanIIT ‘nation building’ program that aims to unlock the powerful network of the IIT alumni across the globe. With the vision of ‘Touching the lives’, this program offers global mentorship opportunities in an informal, supportive and resourceful manner through the multi-domain pool of the alumni mentors, knowledge resources and local networks. With the core belief that true mentoring can only be gifted, IIT Mentors are aspiring to touch the life of every young professional.

Folks, this is a review of my workshop on Career Development for executives, who believe that their career is stuck. Have a dekko…

http://www.iitmentors.org/india/newsletter_online/Sampark%20Issue%203,%20Jan%202012/index.html#

I am pleased to announce that my website has made it into the top 20 websites in the Management Skills category.

www.top20sites.com/Top-Management-Skills-Sites

Thank you readers.

Chandu

I was mentioned in the following article of Deccan Herald.

http://www.deccanherald.com/content/176886/in-search-life.html

Relevant excerpt is given below—

Chandra Kant, who teaches at a management school in Bangalore, has a different approach to spirituality. He says what triggered his thinking was a term called ‘drop dead money’ that he read in a book. This is a term used by a character in the book to describe the amount of money she wanted to earn, so that after she possessed this ‘X’ amount, if anybody asked her to do something she did not want to do, she could simply refuse, and ask them to ‘drop dead’ without fearing the consequences.

Chandra Kant worked in Japan — he is an IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Kolkata alumnus — and was able to make a specific amount of money that he thought would be sufficient for him to have his version of the ‘drop dead money.’ On his return to India, he says, he was able to join companies where he could truly make a difference with his knowledge and skills, rather than be dependent on them for his bread and butter. “This way, if I found I had finished contributing to the company and found myself redundant, I could quit and move on to another where I could make myself more useful. This also helped when there were issues of ethics — I could easily refuse to do something if I found it was wrong from my point of view.” He also found numerous colleagues discussing with him the changes he had wrought in their way of thinking and working. This set him thinking. When a college of management opened near his residence, he turned to teaching students as a full-time professor.

Apart from teaching them ‘management gyaan’, as he puts it, he also speaks to students on issues such as self-esteem and a more holistic approach to management. He uses tools like staging theatrical plays and making films using mobile phones as project work. This, he says, drives home the point of working together towards a goal, marketing, or managing ego-based issues — things that are sure to crop up in their lives ahead as corporate workers.

When disillusionment sets in…

He says students perceive a management course to be a sure-fire magic wand to a lucrative career, and are soon disillusioned when they find it is a grind like any other course. He has even written a soon-to-be published book on MBA blues, and how students can make it work optimally for them. “Even in this college, this freedom of not being totally dependent on the salary for a living allows me to make a very real contribution to the students and the institution, rather than working on teaching the syllabus and walking away.”

This sort of helping and giving, he says, is his way of spiritual growth. “In the traditional definition of spirituality (where there are four stages), this could be termed my vanaprastha, which is to serve the community. I will be in this stage till I am 60 (he is now in his late 40s) and then will begin my next stage of sanyaasa, which traditionally focuses on God. In my case, I will focus on ecosystems and harmony. Sixty is far away — by then, who knows!” he laughs.

—end of Excerpt

I am pleased to announce that my book “MBA Blues – What Recruiters Want and What B-Schools Don’t Teach” is available at flipkart.com. The url to the book is here.

 

If you look from a recruiter’s point of view, he needs three types of skills.

Subject Matter Knowledge and Expertise.

An MBA is hired because he has had training in various disciplines and therefore has the ability to look at the big picture and understand the impact of a decision on all the disciplines. While a salesman may focus on the revenue generation and client acquisition, an MBA in Sales would also look at the cost of the sale and maybe the sales process efficiency.

There is a difference between knowledge and expertise. Reading from books and listening to lectures may increase knowledge, but expertise comes from practice. Obviously, a recruiter would pay more for expertise.

During the interview, it is difficult for the recruiter to judge this and typically, given the shortage of time, the subject matter expertise is assumed.

Attitude.

“Can-do.”

This is probably the most important attitude that a manager wants in a subordinate. If he orders the MBA to jump, he expects the MBA to responds with, “How High?” He does not expect the MBA to whine about how his muscles ache from the last jump, why he is not motivated, why other persons around him are not jumping or maybe a response like “Maybe, later, when I am in the mood.” Even worse, the MBA may say, “Sure!” and never do the jump or do it half-heartedly.

Ability to rebound and retain balance.

There will always be adversity and rejection. Everything cannot go as planned because you cannot predict the reaction of all persons impacted by an action. A desirable MBA is one who can shrug off these adverse situations, learn from them, regain his emotional and mental balance and soldier on.

Willingness to learn and change.

As said earlier, changes happen all the time. A good MBA is open to change and handles the change. This allows him to survive and be effective.

The recruiter uses his interview time to determine these skills. These are very desirable in a subordinate and an employee. The student’s communication, body language and responses to cases during the interview will show the recruiter these abilities.

Interpersonal, teambuilding and presentations skills.

These skills are self-explanatory. If the MBA cannot forge relationships in all directions, upwards, downwards, and sideways; within the organisation and outside it, he will not be able to get things done.

Another aspect of these skills is the ability to present ideas. Depending on the audience, the method of presentation needs to change. MBAs must have the skills and the experience to do this.

The third aspect of these skills is the ability to work in teams.

– Excerpt from the book “MBA Blues”

 

As many of you know, there has been talk of writing a book, for a long time. Ultimately, it has become a reality. The book has gone for final proof reading, the cover page has been made, ISBN number has been obtained and we are ready to roll.

This is the first book of the 7 books that will be rolled out. This one focuses on ‘The MBA program’ – the demand and supply of MBAs, what recruiters want etc, then managing self and relationships and lastly, critical thinking (bringing some rationality into thinking).  This is for the first trimester.

The other books are on effective project management, and then on hard core sales and negotiation.

Then there will be a book on how to do an effective SIP.

In the 2nd year, I will focus on Emotional Intelligence, the Business Common Sense and lastly transition to corporate life.

All in all, these books are focused on soft skills that are transferable across any job.

Wish me well.  Go to the top of www.mbablues.com and look at the menu options.