I have not included any details of the CAT paper in this blog which will give you an idea of how the question paper actually was due to the non-disclosure agreement. But I felt that I should speak out on how the test is getting mis-managed at certain places. My advice to you people is that to go there with an attitude that "whatever happens I don't care. Anyway I will get complete 2.25 hours to complete the paper in a good environment, so whatever happens before that or after that, I don't care."
I reached CMR institute at 7 am as the scheduled appointment required me to report by 8 am. By 7:30 am, we were promptly allowed into the venue. The security and infrastructure arrangements were elaborate. My ID and Admit card were checked at every entrance. "Good start, Prometric is making them worthy of the $40 million they took from IIMs" I thought. At 8, we were allowed to enter our block and asked to wait inside a waiting room. Then started the series of mismanagement. Every now and then, a guy would come and make an announcement in broken English. I didn't quite catch the announcement initially, but then realized that he was calling people for photo and finger print scanning. Anyway I sat and watched the drama where a bunch of people will run towards the entrance whenever an announcement was made and only 5 out of them were allowed in for the photo shoot. There was a poor guy who tried 6 times (yes, I was counting) and was returned back every time. Anyway when my turn came at 9, I realized that there was only a single personal for an entire group of students. (No wonder, you are asked to come at 8).Basically, the whole process of security check and photo-shoot takes only 10 minutes, the 2 hours bracket is only because Prometric don't have enough employees and volunteers to complete the process smoothly.
By 9:15 am, we were done with all the proceedings and all set to take our tests. By 9:45 am, all the students other than people belonging to my room were allowed to check in into their respective rooms and an announcement came that the test in our room will be delayed by 10 - 15 minutes. "Tests are getting canceled right-left-center and he is talking about a 10 minutes delay, no problems" I thought. But I was too optimistic. 10:15 came and went, so did 10:30 and 11:00 am, still no news about our CAT exam.As the prometric people were tightly hunched up inside the testing room, romour mills started churning out various scenarios - Servers are down; we won't be able to take test today. I was lucky to have bumped against 2 of my friends from NITC, didn't get bored at all during that long wait. But I could see people exhibiting a wide array of emotions. Most of them were extremely tense; that is understandable - such a big day in their life is getting marred with unpredictability. Finally the information came from the officials at 11:55 am. The servers are indeed down; none of the people in our block are taking test. All the ones allowed in are just sitting in front of the computer :). We were lucky we could at least sit and chat in the waiting room. The announcement continued "If the servers doesn't come up by 12:30 pm, the tests will be rescheduled". By 12:25 pm, I have almost made plans for the afternoon when the announcement came "The servers are up, take your seats". Within 3 minutes, I was frisked and seated in front of the computer screen. After that, things were smooth (except for the couple of usual windows read only register errors and date mismatch issues) and we completed the exam by 2:45 pm. Please make it a point to take the tutorial on using the computer apparatus; I was unable to do it because an invigilator while trying to fix an issue with the software directly clicked the "start test" icon.
Basically after this, I feel that Prometric has not effectively handled the gigantic volume of nearly 25,000 people a day, may be they were never ready for it. Their other exams such as GRE generally have around 50 - 100 students in a center per session. The metamorphosis of CAT into an online format was an indispensable affair considering the humongous volumes involved and to a very large extent it has been done well. The test interface is pretty good and the guts the IIMs have shown in doing this is commendable. I will aver that everything else are good, except for the way Prometric has managed the full affair - untested processes and under rated servers are marring the success of this fascinating exercise and as far as the IIMs and Prometric are concerned, the issues may be a few technical problems at a minority of their centers, but for every student who went through that time of unpredictability before his crucial test, each and every second seemed like hours of trauma.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
CAT and Mouse game
The hottest topic of discussion in any CAT website nowadays is about CAT going online. Let me give you the facts first.
1. CAT is going to be online and will be conducted by Prometric International Testing Authority. (They conduct the popular GRE and TOEFEL exams)
2. It is going to be a Computer based test and not a Computer Adaptive Test.
3. The test will be conducted over a period of few days and a student can get a slot in any 1 of these days. The students taking test on different days will get different question papers of equal difficulty.
4. The scores or marks may be displayed soon after the test is submitted.
The CAT has exploded in last few years and was taken by 2.25 lakh people in 2008. Due to the exponential increase in number of takers, the IIMs are finding it increasingly difficult to conduct the test. So they decided to take the test online. The online test will make the correction of the paper and result publishing very easy. This means that the intention was only to simplify some of the processes, so the paper should ideally be the same. In effect, computer based CAT will be just like taking a soft copy of the CAT question paper.
IIMs have clarified the point that CAT is only going to be a Computer based test or a CBT and not a Computer Adaptive Test or a CAT (so CAT is no longer a CAT!!). In spite of this, many coaching institutes are trying to speculate that it could be an adaptive test. The arguments does not seem to make any sense to me as this will result in test takers getting papers with different levels of difficulty and hence result in flattening of marks. This is totally undesirable for a test like CAT where the basic idea itself is to eliminate people.
Another associated question that is discussed all over the net is that if the interface will provide a navigation tab to move around the question paper. As I suggested earlier, if the intention is only to take CAT into a computer, the interface should behave exactly like the question paper and hence should have a navigation panel. Time management is one of the most important aspects CAT tests and freedom of navigation is an important constituent in time management.
Computer Based testing enables the scores to be calculated within seconds after the test gets over but as the test is distributed over a few days, the actual percentile can be available only after all the test takers are done with the test. So if the IIMs want they can give the scores of the test takers soon after the test but not their percentiles. Percentiles and shortlists will have to wait, may for a week.
Your approach for preparation need not change because you are going to click the radio buttons instead of shading the bubbles. The funda remains the same, be prepared with the topics and you will be able to clear any test. Only section which will have some change will be DI; you won’t have the liberty to do your calculations on the tables and diagrams in question. So I have a feeling that this year, IIMs may reduce the number of caselets in DI which will have a lot of data presented in the form of tables and chart. They may decide to stick with a lot of puzzles and data sufficiency instead.
1. CAT is going to be online and will be conducted by Prometric International Testing Authority. (They conduct the popular GRE and TOEFEL exams)
2. It is going to be a Computer based test and not a Computer Adaptive Test.
3. The test will be conducted over a period of few days and a student can get a slot in any 1 of these days. The students taking test on different days will get different question papers of equal difficulty.
4. The scores or marks may be displayed soon after the test is submitted.
The CAT has exploded in last few years and was taken by 2.25 lakh people in 2008. Due to the exponential increase in number of takers, the IIMs are finding it increasingly difficult to conduct the test. So they decided to take the test online. The online test will make the correction of the paper and result publishing very easy. This means that the intention was only to simplify some of the processes, so the paper should ideally be the same. In effect, computer based CAT will be just like taking a soft copy of the CAT question paper.
IIMs have clarified the point that CAT is only going to be a Computer based test or a CBT and not a Computer Adaptive Test or a CAT (so CAT is no longer a CAT!!). In spite of this, many coaching institutes are trying to speculate that it could be an adaptive test. The arguments does not seem to make any sense to me as this will result in test takers getting papers with different levels of difficulty and hence result in flattening of marks. This is totally undesirable for a test like CAT where the basic idea itself is to eliminate people.
Another associated question that is discussed all over the net is that if the interface will provide a navigation tab to move around the question paper. As I suggested earlier, if the intention is only to take CAT into a computer, the interface should behave exactly like the question paper and hence should have a navigation panel. Time management is one of the most important aspects CAT tests and freedom of navigation is an important constituent in time management.
Computer Based testing enables the scores to be calculated within seconds after the test gets over but as the test is distributed over a few days, the actual percentile can be available only after all the test takers are done with the test. So if the IIMs want they can give the scores of the test takers soon after the test but not their percentiles. Percentiles and shortlists will have to wait, may for a week.
Your approach for preparation need not change because you are going to click the radio buttons instead of shading the bubbles. The funda remains the same, be prepared with the topics and you will be able to clear any test. Only section which will have some change will be DI; you won’t have the liberty to do your calculations on the tables and diagrams in question. So I have a feeling that this year, IIMs may reduce the number of caselets in DI which will have a lot of data presented in the form of tables and chart. They may decide to stick with a lot of puzzles and data sufficiency instead.
Kitten to CAT
I took CAT for the 1st time in 2005. At that time, the director of the institute where I was doing my coaching started the class by saying that CAT is all about speed and typically you need to be a JOAMON (Jack of All Master of None) to crack it. You can’t say that this was an entirely wrong statement because till 2003, CAT had 150 questions and one needed to be really fast to maximize his score. But what he missed out was the metamorphosis of CAT. CAT underwent massive changes in the next 5 years – the number of questions changed with every paper – from 150 to 123 to 90 to 75 and finally to 90. IIMs introduced the concept of questions with different markings in 2004 and scrapped it after 2 years. They started making English sections more and more abstruse to an extent that in 2006, only philosophers could answer the questions. In year 2006, the answers to the English section were an unsolved mystery – the big 3 in CAT coaching came out with totally different solutions to the same CAT paper. The funny thing was that the IIMs came out with a solution which differed a lot from all 3 big CAT masters.
Anyways the CAT has grown, it is no longer a kitten and it is no longer a test where JOAMONs can do well. When I met the same director after CAT 2006, he told me that a year back; he thought the CAT is no longer a test for JOAMONs but a test for JOAMOO (Jack Of All and Master Of One) i.e people who can do ok in 2 sections and who are really good at 1 of the 3 sections, but after 2006 which had only 75 questions; he thinks that CAT is for MOA (Master of All) sections.
With changes in the difficulty levels and question pattern, IIMs have tried to keep CAT elusive. There is even a saying which a top CAT coaching institute imparts to its students as gospel – “The only thing predictable about CAT is its unpredictability”. To an extent it is true, but not entirely. The sections of quant and DI and certain part of verbal are predictable hence one can effectively prepare for them. What is unpredictable then? The number of questions, the marks distribution, the nature of questions in 1 or 2 sub-sections of verbal and toughness of the reading comprehensions. If you are well prepared with the syllabi, these are non-entities and will in no way effect your percentile. Just think about this, your school never used to tell you the number of questions, the mark distribution etc in your school exam papers, still you used to do well in them if you were prepared with the portions. So CAT preparations is not about speculating the various combinations of time distributions for each available question, instead it is about learning the portions and getting some practice which will get you ready for the deed day and this is exactly what we will help you achieve at Noesis.
Given below are charts which give the distribution of marks for Quant and verbal sections in CAT for last 8 years. I didn’t make it myself but copied from a website which has been advertising our techniques and questions as their own; just a tit for a tat. This will give you an idea of the portions you need to concentrate while preparing.
Ignore the percentages and focus on the trend of questions. You can see that topics such as Algebra and Number are gaining more and more importance and topics like Commercial Maths are receding into background. A similar trend is seen in verbal with topics such as Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary gaining importance. Another point you should note is that the break-up done here categorizes the topics into a headings based on the direct questions from that topic but our pedagogy is totally out of the box and we specialize in solving the questions in easiest possible way, this may be by converting them into a totally different topic. (You may even see questions in geometry solved with number patterns).
Anyways the CAT has grown, it is no longer a kitten and it is no longer a test where JOAMONs can do well. When I met the same director after CAT 2006, he told me that a year back; he thought the CAT is no longer a test for JOAMONs but a test for JOAMOO (Jack Of All and Master Of One) i.e people who can do ok in 2 sections and who are really good at 1 of the 3 sections, but after 2006 which had only 75 questions; he thinks that CAT is for MOA (Master of All) sections.
With changes in the difficulty levels and question pattern, IIMs have tried to keep CAT elusive. There is even a saying which a top CAT coaching institute imparts to its students as gospel – “The only thing predictable about CAT is its unpredictability”. To an extent it is true, but not entirely. The sections of quant and DI and certain part of verbal are predictable hence one can effectively prepare for them. What is unpredictable then? The number of questions, the marks distribution, the nature of questions in 1 or 2 sub-sections of verbal and toughness of the reading comprehensions. If you are well prepared with the syllabi, these are non-entities and will in no way effect your percentile. Just think about this, your school never used to tell you the number of questions, the mark distribution etc in your school exam papers, still you used to do well in them if you were prepared with the portions. So CAT preparations is not about speculating the various combinations of time distributions for each available question, instead it is about learning the portions and getting some practice which will get you ready for the deed day and this is exactly what we will help you achieve at Noesis.
Given below are charts which give the distribution of marks for Quant and verbal sections in CAT for last 8 years. I didn’t make it myself but copied from a website which has been advertising our techniques and questions as their own; just a tit for a tat. This will give you an idea of the portions you need to concentrate while preparing.
Ignore the percentages and focus on the trend of questions. You can see that topics such as Algebra and Number are gaining more and more importance and topics like Commercial Maths are receding into background. A similar trend is seen in verbal with topics such as Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary gaining importance. Another point you should note is that the break-up done here categorizes the topics into a headings based on the direct questions from that topic but our pedagogy is totally out of the box and we specialize in solving the questions in easiest possible way, this may be by converting them into a totally different topic. (You may even see questions in geometry solved with number patterns).
How to get into a ‘good’ B-school?
Due to the huge media attention they have been enjoying, the B-school admissions have become the hotspot of competition. The limited number of seats and ever increasing number of students taking the exams makes it really tough for a student to get into a prestigious B-school. The number of people taking CAT have clocked up by 25000 every year reaching 2.25 lakhs in 2008.
The admission process generally has 3 stages –
Written competitive exams with 3 sections on basic maths, data analysis and English. Certain exams have an additional section on current affairs.
Group Discussion
Personal Interview
The most popular competitive exams for B-school admissions in India are:-
1. CAT - Entrance test for admission into 7 IIMs. Accepted by over 100 management schools
2. XAT - The entrance test for XLRI and more than 50 management schools
3. JMET - The entrance test for the Schools of Management at the IITs and IISc
4. SNAP - The entrance test for SIBM, SCMHRD and other Symbiosis group institutes
5. MAT - Accepted by more than 100 management schools
6. ATMA - Accepted by more than 100 management schools
As I suggested earlier, the only way to crack these exams is to get trained on the aspects which they quiz you which is nothing but math, English and communication.
The admission process generally has 3 stages –
Written competitive exams with 3 sections on basic maths, data analysis and English. Certain exams have an additional section on current affairs.
Group Discussion
Personal Interview
The most popular competitive exams for B-school admissions in India are:-
1. CAT - Entrance test for admission into 7 IIMs. Accepted by over 100 management schools
2. XAT - The entrance test for XLRI and more than 50 management schools
3. JMET - The entrance test for the Schools of Management at the IITs and IISc
4. SNAP - The entrance test for SIBM, SCMHRD and other Symbiosis group institutes
5. MAT - Accepted by more than 100 management schools
6. ATMA - Accepted by more than 100 management schools
As I suggested earlier, the only way to crack these exams is to get trained on the aspects which they quiz you which is nothing but math, English and communication.
Best B-schools in India
Nowadays school ranking is something every other magazine and media house do. Most of these rankings are flawed and are nothing but an advertising platform for the B-schools. Certain B-schools have even gone ahead and commissioned their rankings (in a surreptitious manner) in which of course they top (You know which school I am talking about). There is only 1 aspect that is common with every one of these rankings – IIMA, IIMB and IIMC occupying the first 3 places. There is nothing surprising about this; the trio imparts a sense of credibility to the rankings.
I am listing down a few B-schools in India which imparts the kind of education which I have been talking about in earlier paragraphs. Bracket gives the specializations in which they are the best:
1. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2. Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata
3. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
4. Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
5. Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
6. Indian Institute of Management, Indore
7. Indian Institute of Management, Shillong
8. Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
9. FMS, Delhi
10. S P Jain, Mumbai
11. XLRI, Jamshedpur
12. MDI, Gurgaon
13. Jamnalal Bajaj, Mumbai
14. IIFT, Delhi (International Business)
15. IRMA, Anand (Rural Management)
16. NITIE, Mumbai (Industrial Management)
17. TISS, Mumbai (Social Sciences)
18. MICA, Ahmedabad (Communication/Arts)
I am listing down a few B-schools in India which imparts the kind of education which I have been talking about in earlier paragraphs. Bracket gives the specializations in which they are the best:
1. Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
2. Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata
3. Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore
4. Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
5. Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode
6. Indian Institute of Management, Indore
7. Indian Institute of Management, Shillong
8. Indian School of Business, Hyderabad
9. FMS, Delhi
10. S P Jain, Mumbai
11. XLRI, Jamshedpur
12. MDI, Gurgaon
13. Jamnalal Bajaj, Mumbai
14. IIFT, Delhi (International Business)
15. IRMA, Anand (Rural Management)
16. NITIE, Mumbai (Industrial Management)
17. TISS, Mumbai (Social Sciences)
18. MICA, Ahmedabad (Communication/Arts)
What does business schools teach?
Business education is an American innovation. Americans felt that they needed people who understand business well to run large corporations which took birth after Second World War. The trend was and to a large extent still is (in US and Europe) to work for a couple of years after your graduation and then go to B-school when you reach a managerial level.
MBA in real terms stands more much more than a degree in business. It is a supposedly a course designed to prepare professionals to deal with all the aspects of the modern day complex and competitive world. MBA is a generic course unlike any other masters and thus violates the basic definition of mastering a particular subject. It is so because the professionals who come out with a MBA degree should be able to adapt to and perform in any industry. The core topics covered in a MBA degree are:-
• Finance
• Marketing
• Operations
• Human Resource
• Strategy
• Law
• Economics
• Accounting
• Company Structure and Organizational Management
• Information Management and Technology
• Ethics
Most MBA courses are structured in such a way that the students will have to take core topics in the first year and electives on particular specialization in the second year. As a part of the electives, the students are offered a wide range of courses in the second year spanning various specializations and he/she is supposed to choose a specified number of electives focusing on a particular subject. IIMA is a exception to such a system; the curriculum at IIMA doesn’t constraint the students to focus on electives belonging to a certain subject and allows them to take electives from all subjects. In past few years, finance has been the hot favorite of students due to the mammoth pay packets offered for trading jobs by Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the late Lehman Brothers.
MBA in real terms stands more much more than a degree in business. It is a supposedly a course designed to prepare professionals to deal with all the aspects of the modern day complex and competitive world. MBA is a generic course unlike any other masters and thus violates the basic definition of mastering a particular subject. It is so because the professionals who come out with a MBA degree should be able to adapt to and perform in any industry. The core topics covered in a MBA degree are:-
• Finance
• Marketing
• Operations
• Human Resource
• Strategy
• Law
• Economics
• Accounting
• Company Structure and Organizational Management
• Information Management and Technology
• Ethics
Most MBA courses are structured in such a way that the students will have to take core topics in the first year and electives on particular specialization in the second year. As a part of the electives, the students are offered a wide range of courses in the second year spanning various specializations and he/she is supposed to choose a specified number of electives focusing on a particular subject. IIMA is a exception to such a system; the curriculum at IIMA doesn’t constraint the students to focus on electives belonging to a certain subject and allows them to take electives from all subjects. In past few years, finance has been the hot favorite of students due to the mammoth pay packets offered for trading jobs by Investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and the late Lehman Brothers.
Why MBA?
This is the question which plagues majority of students who are getting ready for a B-school interview. The gist of the problem is very simple, most of us decide to go for MBA due to a single reason – the fat pay package. There is no other degree in this world which will help an unskilled 24 year old earn more lakhs per year than his age. But of course, you can’t say that in an interview. So you need to build up a story, a story good enough to elude the smart professors who will be interviewing you. So start thinking about it now itself.
Let us now see who the people who really need an MBA are. Basically an MBA is required for a manager or a business leader who manages a group of individuals. The idea of the course is to inculcate some leadership qualities into a person to effectively manage his team. But the million dollar question is that if management education or any other education in this world can impart leadership qualities to a person in mere 2 years. It is possible if the person possesses some level of these qualities already. The idea of selection processes is to identify such people - who are good at analyzing a problem from various angles; who are good at effectively communicating the same to their peers and who are good at leading a group in the right direction. Thanks to the modern day competitive exams, such inherent talents are no longer a pre-requisite.
Presently the people who make to management institutes are people who are good at number crunching, well versed in reading comprehension and well trained (by their coaching institutes) in group discussion and interviews. The whole process has become conventional and predictable. CAT is the closest aberration to this theory – it is still able to keep its unpredictability under wraps, but only just. A validation to this theory is the fact that IIMs have 90% of engineers. This is not only because engineers are closer to mathematics; it is only because of the fact that these engineers are people who have been always good at their studies. Because they were good at competitive exams, they got into good T-schools and subsequently into great B-schools. Prominently there are 2 reasons why an engineer decides to go for an MBA – Either he finds out later in his life (could be in engineering college or his work place) that he is not good at engineering or he finds out he cannot make enough money as an engineer. Anyway the B-schools don’t care and select them if they feel that he/she can “contribute to the B-school batch”.
Business is very different from other occupations because you don’t need a certificate to practice business unlike a doctor or a lawyer. Why does one need a BBA/MBA to practice business? Simple, it is no longer a simple world; you can’t expect yourself to be a successful businessman without the knowledge of the world. It is this knowledge or exposure that a good business school imparts to its students. They take examples from past to teach you business. In most renowned colleges, the tool used to teach businesses are case studies. Case studies can be considered as short stories which talks about how a company achieved a particular target. For eg., the turn-around of Indian railways is a case study. The best part of the case study is the analysis which follows that, the students are supposed to make groups and analyze the case study from all angles. Most of the business concepts get clarified through this story and post-analysis. For eg., let us say that the case study is about the Satyam scam. While doing an analysis of the same, the students are supposed to go and study the company laws which were violated by Ramalinga Raju as without that knowledge their analysis won’t be complete. This methodology of analysis has students as a vital component. The better brains you discuss the problem with, the better understanding you gain about the problem. Or let me re-phrase it, the more diversity you have, the more angles you cover. This is one of the reasons why, B-schools are constantly in a look out for people from diverse backgrounds.
Let us now see who the people who really need an MBA are. Basically an MBA is required for a manager or a business leader who manages a group of individuals. The idea of the course is to inculcate some leadership qualities into a person to effectively manage his team. But the million dollar question is that if management education or any other education in this world can impart leadership qualities to a person in mere 2 years. It is possible if the person possesses some level of these qualities already. The idea of selection processes is to identify such people - who are good at analyzing a problem from various angles; who are good at effectively communicating the same to their peers and who are good at leading a group in the right direction. Thanks to the modern day competitive exams, such inherent talents are no longer a pre-requisite.
Presently the people who make to management institutes are people who are good at number crunching, well versed in reading comprehension and well trained (by their coaching institutes) in group discussion and interviews. The whole process has become conventional and predictable. CAT is the closest aberration to this theory – it is still able to keep its unpredictability under wraps, but only just. A validation to this theory is the fact that IIMs have 90% of engineers. This is not only because engineers are closer to mathematics; it is only because of the fact that these engineers are people who have been always good at their studies. Because they were good at competitive exams, they got into good T-schools and subsequently into great B-schools. Prominently there are 2 reasons why an engineer decides to go for an MBA – Either he finds out later in his life (could be in engineering college or his work place) that he is not good at engineering or he finds out he cannot make enough money as an engineer. Anyway the B-schools don’t care and select them if they feel that he/she can “contribute to the B-school batch”.
Business is very different from other occupations because you don’t need a certificate to practice business unlike a doctor or a lawyer. Why does one need a BBA/MBA to practice business? Simple, it is no longer a simple world; you can’t expect yourself to be a successful businessman without the knowledge of the world. It is this knowledge or exposure that a good business school imparts to its students. They take examples from past to teach you business. In most renowned colleges, the tool used to teach businesses are case studies. Case studies can be considered as short stories which talks about how a company achieved a particular target. For eg., the turn-around of Indian railways is a case study. The best part of the case study is the analysis which follows that, the students are supposed to make groups and analyze the case study from all angles. Most of the business concepts get clarified through this story and post-analysis. For eg., let us say that the case study is about the Satyam scam. While doing an analysis of the same, the students are supposed to go and study the company laws which were violated by Ramalinga Raju as without that knowledge their analysis won’t be complete. This methodology of analysis has students as a vital component. The better brains you discuss the problem with, the better understanding you gain about the problem. Or let me re-phrase it, the more diversity you have, the more angles you cover. This is one of the reasons why, B-schools are constantly in a look out for people from diverse backgrounds.
Tuesday, March 03, 2009
The stone corriders of power
The day began badly with the news that CH has contracted Chicken pox and will not be attending the IIMB interviews. I felt bad and decided to do my best to present his case in front of the IIMB people. So I decided to scrap my original plan of an A/C volvo and instead took an auto to IIMB. I reached there by 8:20 and found a friend from TIME GD/PI batch all tucked up in her business suit. "This is the first one of the innumerable suit clad aspirants I am going to see today" I thought. Of course I expected this when I dressed up myself in a simple formal wear(no tie, no suit). She helped me find our interview room and I found that CH and I am were in the same panel, now that makes it easier. I met the person in charge and told him the situation. Next I went on to meet my panel and found that 3 of the 4 guys in the panel were Arjuns. That was surprising, I always thought my name was not that common. :( Anyways it was a nice group and in a few minutes, we were all engrossed in chit-chat.
Precisely at 9, we were called in for the GD and given a case to read. The case was about how English is getting more priority when it comes to primary education and how vernacular languages are losing out. The various issues leading to the problem etc etc.
I think the GD went pretty well. I started the GD and gave it a direction with some historical examples. ;) Can't help it, somehow or the other history finds me everywhere. We discussed how and why English is more popular and important in the present globalized world. Then we discussed about how this is becoming an economic problem as government is not realizing this and is still going by its dilapidated policies. How it is tough to learn 2 languages if the script and grammar are completely different and how tough it is for people with vernacular language background to cope up with an English language syllabus once they go for professional education. We discussed on and on for full 20 minutes and I found it really tough to summarize the GD. (I hope the faculty were able to decode my summary) :(
Next came the long wait for my interview turn. Actually it was not that long a wait because I was continuously chatting with the people waiting around. Finally my turn came at 11:30 am. I went in and greeted the 2 professors - a lady prof.(P1) and a man(P2) who looked as if he is in his early 40s.
P2: What do you think makes you unique, Arjun?
me: Sir, I have a dream. Told about my dream to set up a loom based industry in Kannur and told him how you won't find a lot of people like me who will be willing to sacrifice a successful career and take such a chance esp. with the notorious name enjoyed by Kannur due to trade union activities. Added that how the dream is not only money oriented but due to the emotional attachment I have with my hometown.
This was a lucky strike because I wanted them to ask me more about these things. So the interview was moving in the direction I wanted.
P2: Define entrepreneurship
me: Initially screwed it up. But patched up some how by saying that starting something new, a new business with the intention to make some money out of it.
P1: Money out of it? Then what is social entrepreneurship
me: I really screwed up the definition here. Came back by bringing in the point of helping people and adding that it is not always money oriented
P1: Ok, then tell me social entrepreneur who made money
me: Mohammed Younus and gave a small description of the concept of Micro finance and how he helped the people in Bangladesh with his Gramin bank. Added that he also made money out of this business
P1 looked convinced
P2: So Arjun, you are an electronics engineer. Why MBA now?
me: Told him CAT 2008 was my 4th attempt elucidating how MBA was always my plan. Again told about my dream company and how I need excellent managerial abilities to make inroads into the matured industy of loom.
P2: Why Rambus and Noesis then (companies I had worked)? How had they helped you? There seems to be a disconnect.
me: Explained how the basic ideas of business never changes. How the B2B marketing will be typically the same in both the industries.
P2: Now that is too much of generalisation. I can related anything to anything in that case.
me: Explained a little about the textile buyers and told him how it is also typically B2B marketing. Explained how at Rambus the business was similar. Talked a bit about what I did at Noesis, explained how it gave me opportunities to innovate and keep an eye for new opportunities.
P2 looked convinced, asked for the certificates
P1: What do you think changed in you after 4 years at NITC?
me: Told how NITC changed me. How it created a completely new person.
P1: What do you think will change in you after 2 years at IIMB?
me: Told her that I am a highly receptive person and I am sure that being with a highly intellectual peer group and faculty will help me figure out the deficiencies in me and will help in correcting them. Added that if you ask me specifically which all new values will be added, I don't know.
P2: Have you thought about your electives.
me: No sir, I tried going through the institute website but found that I will need a good knowledge of almost all the subjects be it Quantitative methods or fin. account to do well as an entrepreneur. So I am keeping my options open until I get a clear idea of these subjects. I am sure that when I learn them in deep, I will understand that which one will be more useful for me.
P2: You want to go into textile industry. But you don't have any experience in the same. How will you contribute to the batch and IIMB?
me: Although I don't have any experience in the industry, I have been seeing the industry from outside and I accept that my knowledge in the same is perfunctionary. Added that I know that IIMB encourages live projects in various industries. Told him how I plan to do my 1st live project on this industry and because I have genuine interset I will gain knowledge fast and hence start contributing to the batch. Also told that I can contribute with my knowledge of semiconductor and education industries where I have experience.
P2: Ok Arjun, any questions for us
me: I was going through your website and an idea hit me. Can I share it with you?
P1 & P2: Sure
me: ok, so IIMB is an institute which gives a lot of emphasis on congenial management and tries to prevent Ivory Tower management. If that is the case, why don't you try to give a course for the top managers of our government. For instance, RAW has been having this problem since decades. And I think you should not even stop with these bureaucrats, you should go and train even the young generation of our politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Yeshodhavaran Schindia
P2: We are already doing it. We have a public policy managment and as part of it, IAS officers and other government managers visit us and undergo trainings. But yes, we have not got an opportunity to interact with Rahul Gandhi or others. What can we do if Rahul Gandhi don't want to interact with us
me: Oh I didn't know that. Sorry for the question then. Why I took the name of Rahul Gandhi was because he, Omar Abdullah and someother politicians attended a Zen teacher's session in parliament. If he is willing to learn from a foreign Zen master, I don't understand why can't he learn from this temple of managment.
P2: yes. I think that is a direction which we should explore.
me: Thank you sir. Thank you madam. It was a great talking to you
And I left. Took an auto and came to office.
Keeping my fingers crossed now for the results.
Precisely at 9, we were called in for the GD and given a case to read. The case was about how English is getting more priority when it comes to primary education and how vernacular languages are losing out. The various issues leading to the problem etc etc.
I think the GD went pretty well. I started the GD and gave it a direction with some historical examples. ;) Can't help it, somehow or the other history finds me everywhere. We discussed how and why English is more popular and important in the present globalized world. Then we discussed about how this is becoming an economic problem as government is not realizing this and is still going by its dilapidated policies. How it is tough to learn 2 languages if the script and grammar are completely different and how tough it is for people with vernacular language background to cope up with an English language syllabus once they go for professional education. We discussed on and on for full 20 minutes and I found it really tough to summarize the GD. (I hope the faculty were able to decode my summary) :(
Next came the long wait for my interview turn. Actually it was not that long a wait because I was continuously chatting with the people waiting around. Finally my turn came at 11:30 am. I went in and greeted the 2 professors - a lady prof.(P1) and a man(P2) who looked as if he is in his early 40s.
P2: What do you think makes you unique, Arjun?
me: Sir, I have a dream. Told about my dream to set up a loom based industry in Kannur and told him how you won't find a lot of people like me who will be willing to sacrifice a successful career and take such a chance esp. with the notorious name enjoyed by Kannur due to trade union activities. Added that how the dream is not only money oriented but due to the emotional attachment I have with my hometown.
This was a lucky strike because I wanted them to ask me more about these things. So the interview was moving in the direction I wanted.
P2: Define entrepreneurship
me: Initially screwed it up. But patched up some how by saying that starting something new, a new business with the intention to make some money out of it.
P1: Money out of it? Then what is social entrepreneurship
me: I really screwed up the definition here. Came back by bringing in the point of helping people and adding that it is not always money oriented
P1: Ok, then tell me social entrepreneur who made money
me
P1 looked convinced
P2: So Arjun, you are an electronics engineer. Why MBA now?
me: Told him CAT 2008 was my 4th attempt elucidating how MBA was always my plan. Again told about my dream company and how I need excellent managerial abilities to make inroads into the matured industy of loom.
P2: Why Rambus and Noesis then (companies I had worked)? How had they helped you? There seems to be a disconnect.
me: Explained how the basic ideas of business never changes. How the B2B marketing will be typically the same in both the industries.
P2
me: Explained a little about the textile buyers and told him how it is also typically B2B marketing. Explained how at Rambus the business was similar. Talked a bit about what I did at Noesis, explained how it gave me opportunities to innovate and keep an eye for new opportunities.
P2 looked convinced, asked for the certificates
P1: What do you think changed in you after 4 years at NITC?
me: Told how NITC changed me. How it created a completely new person.
P1: What do you think will change in you after 2 years at IIMB?
me: Told her that I am a highly receptive person and I am sure that being with a highly intellectual peer group and faculty will help me figure out the deficiencies in me and will help in correcting them. Added that if you ask me specifically which all new values will be added, I don't know.
P2: Have you thought about your electives.
me: No sir, I tried going through the institute website but found that I will need a good knowledge of almost all the subjects be it Quantitative methods or fin. account to do well as an entrepreneur. So I am keeping my options open until I get a clear idea of these subjects. I am sure that when I learn them in deep, I will understand that which one will be more useful for me.
P2: You want to go into textile industry. But you don't have any experience in the same. How will you contribute to the batch and IIMB?
me: Although I don't have any experience in the industry, I have been seeing the industry from outside and I accept that my knowledge in the same is perfunctionary. Added that I know that IIMB encourages live projects in various industries. Told him how I plan to do my 1st live project on this industry and because I have genuine interset I will gain knowledge fast and hence start contributing to the batch. Also told that I can contribute with my knowledge of semiconductor and education industries where I have experience.
P2
me: I was going through your website and an idea hit me. Can I share it with you?
P1 & P2: Sure
me: ok, so IIMB is an institute which gives a lot of emphasis on congenial management and tries to prevent Ivory Tower management. If that is the case, why don't you try to give a course for the top managers of our government. For instance, RAW has been having this problem since decades. And I think you should not even stop with these bureaucrats, you should go and train even the young generation of our politicians like Rahul Gandhi and Yeshodhavaran Schindia
P2: We are already doing it. We have a public policy managment and as part of it, IAS officers and other government managers visit us and undergo trainings. But yes, we have not got an opportunity to interact with Rahul Gandhi or others. What can we do if Rahul Gandhi don't want to interact with us
me: Oh I didn't know that. Sorry for the question then. Why I took the name of Rahul Gandhi was because he, Omar Abdullah and someother politicians attended a Zen teacher's session in parliament. If he is willing to learn from a foreign Zen master, I don't understand why can't he learn from this temple of managment.
P2
me: Thank you sir. Thank you madam. It was a great talking to you
And I left. Took an auto and came to office.
Keeping my fingers crossed now for the results.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Where is my money?
This is a story I wrote long time ago. Never got a chance to complete this :)
Two friends lived happily in their worlds and got through their metriculation exams. The village schools like most other Indian village schools only had classes till 10th and so the buddies were in a dilemma what to do next. Luckily for our pair, this village like any other bollywood village had a learnt masterji who knew virtually "everything" about higher education. So our masterji (clad in his impeccable khadi) advised "Mangu and Tingu, go to the city and continue your education. Mangu, you learn Science and Maths because you got 90 % in metriculation and Tingu, you better learn Commerce as you got only a 50 % and your dad won't mind even if you won't get a job after your studies". Now the masterji told this because he was a southern masterji, there are masterjis in other parts of India who would have given an antonymous advice. Anyway kids loved the advice and so did their parents, but a slight problem - Mangu's father doesn't have money to finance him. Oh my, an emotional point - perfect setting for a song, sorry guys we don't have time for a song. So Tingu jumped in and proclaimed "Mangu will study with me and my dad will finance his education". As Mangu's dad was out of the camera focus, we couldn't catch his facial emotion. Anyway Tingu's dad agreed to finance both their education and on June 1st 1996, the boys embarked on their eventful journey to the city.
1996- Mangu loved Calculus especially the derivatives. Even sleep couldn't separate him from his limits, differentials and integrals, he dreamt from all night. Tingu loved the babes in his class and ofcourse dreamt them whenever he got an opportunity to sleep (which was scanty as he spent his time "productively" with them). So 2 years passed, Mangu passed out as the school topper and Tingu managed to barely pass - finally they both were ready for their college. As is the case with all the school toppers, Mangu opted for engineering and went to IIT Chennai to learn the intricacies of softwares and computers(I know you guys would be wondering about how he managed his finances - he got a scholarship :)). Tingu became a CA aspirant and started working as intern for a multinational auditing firm called PWC.
1998- Mangu loved everything about the computer engineering course. He meticulously learnt the erudite algorithms and computer theories and became the class topper. Tingu hated the books but he liked the MNC environment of PWC, so he loittered around. It was in his third year that Mangu heard about CAT and the mythical IIMs. One of his class mates told him "IIMs are for the best engineering graduates, only a guy really good at maths can crack CAT." (What a misleading statement :( )The omniscient friend continued "It is the rigour and competition, one is subjected to while taking CAT which gets rewarded with wonderful placements by the end of your MBA" (I have to agree to this, IIMs have the cream of the population - this is a big reason why companies offer such lucrative packages to its graduates). Anyway 2 aspects of this remark interest our Mangu - one was the idea that IIMs are for the best people (he thought he was the best) and second the prospect of a huge package when he pass out. So Mangu left his beloved algorithms and plunged into CAT preparations. He burnt the mid night oil cramming the Barrons and Wren and Martin.
2002 - Mangu was going to start his classes at IIMA and was happy that he proved once again that he is among the best. Tingu has finally decided that CA is not his cup of tea and returned back to his village. There he took over his father's business and suprisingly enjoyed it. It might have been in his genes because he started growing his father's unorganised businesses into a fantastically organised conglomerate. Mangu and Tingu constantly kept in touch, thanks to the communication revolution, through mail and chat and Mangu literally became a consultant for Tingu. The alliance worked wonders and Tingu was thinking of listing his company through an IPO. He planned to offer the CEO post to Mangu and be the chairman himself. But Mangu had different plans. He has hit gold at the placement season and has received an offer from the top investment banker Lehmann brothers. His posting was in New York and he was raring to go.
2006 - Tingu spearheaded a business empire. He never went for an IPO, he found an investor from Singapore who pumped in millions of dollars into his unlisted firm and helped him with expansion. His communication with Mangu has dried up after Mangu migrated to U.S. Although Tingu missed his friend, he has found a dozen of MBAs form IIMs to help him in his business and one night Tingu and Mangu found them online at the same time.
Mangu : Buddy how r u? long time ha!
Tingu : hey, true. really long time. Where are you? I tried reaching you a million times.
Mangu : Sorry yaar. I was so busy here. Anyways I am still with LB in New York and it is rocking here. I am one of their hot-shot money manager
Tingu : And when did banking get so interesting. What do you do there?
Intended to be continued but not really going to continue :)
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