MBAs’ guide to lasting fulfilment

Posted on October 12, 2007

MBAs’ guide to lasting fulfilment
By Della Bradshaw

It is a rare business school programme that invokes in its participants a similar fervour to that experienced in a revivalist religious meeting. But this would appear to be the case with Srikumar Rao’s elective course, Creative and Personal Mastery.

Now in its third year at London Business School, the course has also run at Columbia , New York, and may soon become part of the MBA programme at the Haas school at Berkeley.

Prof Rao, a businessman more than an academic and armed with practical experience rather than research, is one of a new breed of business school teachers. They eschew number-crunching and regression models in favour of personal issues.

“It is designed to get [students] to think about things rarely acknowledged in business schools. What makes me happy? What makes me happy at work?” Most people, he says, “don’t have a clue” about such things.

Many, however, would accept Prof Rao’s hypothesis. “When putting in long hours, if you don’t get a deep sense of fulfilment at work, you’re wasting your life.” His solution? “Your ideal job isn’t something that exists; it’s something you can craft.”

Just how to do that is at the core of his programme, which receives gushing praise from many students. “The technical skills that I learn at school will only get me so far and will one day be obsolete,” says Nick Wai, a recent LBS graduate. “What I learn in CPM, however, will help me build a foundation not only as a business person, leader even, but more importantly as a human being.”

Natasja Giezen, another London MBA, says the course teaches the “why” when most business school courses teach the “how”. She believes MBA students are the ideal target audience. “At business school we all think a lot about what we want from our future and this seems to fit in seamlessly.”

Prof Rao says there are four main planks to the course: learning techniques to spark creativity; helping students find their purpose in life; learning how to be most effective; and how to find balance in life.

Many university strictures have been rewritten. Students hand in written work when they think it is ready rather than to a deadline, and they have to make a public commitment to do something for their peers. A weekend retreat is included in the programme.

Prof Rao’s advice on landing a job flies in the face of many careers service dicta. You are most unlikely to find your ideal job straight out of business school, he says, so accept the “least worst” job you are offered.

As for interview techniques, he recommends that the aim should be to find out whether the company is one you want to work for, rather than trying to impress the interviewer.

Once you have your first job, you can start turning it into the job you want, he says. One piece of advice he gives is to focus on the good things about the job and then set the target of increasing the proportion of the job that is the good stuff. An element of learning should be involved in the process.

Prof Rao’s own work record includes experience in both the academic and the business worlds. His own MBA is from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and he has consulted for several blue chip corporations and taught on the corporate programmes of companies such as Bell Atlantic.

He also has a PhD in marketing from Columbia Business School and is no shrinking violet when it comes to promoting the programme he teaches. Students queue to learn about the course, he says, and it is the only business school programme with its own alumni association.

What differentiates the course from a self-help manual, however, are the mental models and long-term exercises the professor sets. MBA students are often labelled the most “me”-centric group on the planet. The obvious enthusiasm of past and present participants, who are undoubtedly some of the smartest cookies around, sets this programme apart.

http://www.areyoureadytosucceed.com
The Financial Times Limited 2007

TOP OF THE RANGE MBA Programmes Worldwide

Posted on October 12, 2007

Top masters in management programmes 2007

1. HEC Paris
2. Cems
3. London School of Economics and Political Science
4. ESCP-EAP European School of Management
5. Essec Business School
6. EM Lyon
7. Grenoble Graduate School of Business
8. Audencia
9. Stockholm School of Economics
10. RSM Erasmus Univeristy

Top executive education custom programmes 2007

1. Duke Corporate Education
2. IMD
3, Harvard Business School
4. Iese Business School
5. Babson Executive Education
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. Columbia Business School
8. Thunderbird School of Global Management
9. MIT: Sloan
10.Ashridge

Top executive education open programmes 2007

1. Harvard Business School
2. Stanford University GSB
3. University of Virginia: Darden
4. University of Chicago GSB
5. IMD
6. Center for Creative Leadership
7. Instituto de Empresa
9. Iese Business School
9. Northwestern University: Kellogg
10.Babson Executive Education

Top MBA programmes 2007

1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
2. Columbia Business School
3. Harvard Business School;
4. Stanford University GSB
5. London Business School
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. Insead
8. New York University: Stern
9. Dartmouth College: Tuck
10. Yale School of Management

Top European Business Schools 2006

1. HEC Paris
2. London Business School
3. IMD
4. Instituto de Empresa
5. Iese Business School
6. ESCP-EAP
7. RSM Erasmus University
8. University of Bradford/TiasNimbas
9.Cranfield School of Management
10. Insead

Top EMBA programmes 2006

1. University of Pennsylvania: Wharton
2. Columbia/London Business School
3. Kellogg/Hong Kong UST Business School
4. Trium: HEC Paris/LSE/New York University: Stern
5. Instituto de Empresa
6. University of Chicago GSB
7. London Business School
8. Washington University: Olin
9. Duke University: Fuqua
10. Northwestern University: Kellogg

Ten Steps To Make Sure Your Sales Training Works!

Posted on October 9, 2007

Ten Steps To Make Sure Your Sales Training Works!

How do you make sure your salespeople are trained effectively and make it a meaningful learning experience for all concerned?

Think of the following elements as building blocks, as the ten keys to sales training success. They should be kept in mind when planning and implementing any sales training program that you run:

1. Comprehensive
2. Customised
3. Relevant
4. Performance oriented
5. Motivational
6. Modular
7. Easy to test and measure
8. Interactive
9. Cost effective
10. Embraced by top management

Block 1. Sales training should be comprehensive

It should provide, to the greatest extent possible, a total solution encompassing not only specific product sales-related courses, but it should also provide:

* An overall plan, based on broad, fundamental and explicitly stated goals. Obviously, you must think about what you want your salespeople to actually learn. However, try to think what kind of salespeople you want them to become through the training.

* Here are two examples:

– “Our salespeople will create the sort of buying experience that will encourage loyalty from our existing customers and increased purchase intention from our prospects”

– “Our salespeople will assume a more professional behaviour when addressing customer needs, thus creating higher levels of customer trust and confidence. The impact of this effort will be measured and monitored through our customer viewpoint surveys.”

* An assessment tool to ensure that salespeople who are enrolled in the program are properly placed. While the your overall recruiting process is the first screening mechanism for bringing people into sales, closer and more accurate evaluation provided within the sales training system could reveal that an individual is better suited to another staff position.

* A tracking system to monitor progress and measure post- training increases.

* A follow-up agenda to provide reinforcement, as well as additional mentoring and coaching, as needed.

* An ongoing plan for continued development, to ensure that all relevant additional or revised information about your products, marketplace, competition, etc. is quickly assimilated into learning for your salespeople.

Block 2 – Sales training should be customised

It should develop logically out of the dynamics of the specific sales environment in which your salespeople work. To accomplish this, all training should be designed to meet the unique requirements of your company. It should be carefully matched to individual needs, limitations and prerequisites.

Ask what the training programme will cover before your salesperson attends. Discuss the subjects with the salesperson to determine which sections will be most relevant and what questions need to be answered. Ensure the salesperson knows what the objectives of the training are, so that they can customise some of the materials to their own needs.

Block 3 – Sales training should be relevant

It should introduce opportunities for your salespeople to acquire and practice skills in a protected and supportive atmosphere that parallels their real world job responsibilities.

This means that case studies (customer scenarios) should be used extensively. Case studies should, of course, reflect realistic customer environments and interactions, including both successes and failures. If it’s a retail course, ensure the activities will assist your salespeople to develop the retail skills they need for your franchise. If it’s a business oriented course, find out what the activities will enable your salespeople to accomplish.

Block 4 – Sales training should be performance oriented

It should build “bridges” and connect to the real world:

* Before training, discuss with the salesperson how it will fit in with their job-related performance objectives. This should dictate the appropriateness of sales training content, learning activities, and instructional methodology.

* During training, get the salesperson to make sure they use structured techniques for applying knowledge through the use of skill-based practice activities, such as group discussions, planning exercises and role playing.

* After training, make sure salespeople are put in touch with relevant information sources, given job aids, provided with structured coaching/mentoring, taken on joint sales calls with more experienced personnel, etc. This ensures the application and transfer of knowledge and skills to the job.

Block 5 – Sales training should be motivational

All training should inspire enthusiasm by focusing on need-to- know information, presented in sufficient depth to impart both confidence and competence to the salesperson.

When presented in a workshop format, sales training should be conducted by dynamic, experienced facilitators who possess a dependable knowledge of the products or services being sold, a realistic and up-to-date understanding of the selling environment, and expertise in moderating learning sessions for adults.

In other words, good sales training recognises that time spent in training is time away from direct sales activities; therefore, it makes efficient and best use of sales people’s time and energy.

Block 6 – Sales training should be modular

All sales training should fit together and should be composed of stand-alone (although related) modules.

These allow your salespeople to complete only those portions of sales training that are most closely connected to their own specific requirements.

To minimise the time that salespeople will have to spend away from sales, training should be designed to be as concise as realistically feasible.

Block 7 – Sales training should be easy to test and measure

It should allow salespeople to “test out” the parts of the training that target information or skills they already have mastered.

It should also require them to complete only those portions of sales training related to their most pressing areas of need.

You can do this by checking what they learned during your review sessions with them, and then applying the follow up methods discussed in Block 1.

Block 8 – Sales training should be interactive

It should consist of workshops, seminars, peer discussion groups, and similar types of interactive activities that allow for the maximum exchange of ideas and sharing of experiences among participants.

Block 9 – Sales training should be cost effective

It should be designed to maximise the organisation’s investment in training, achieving your company’s key goals with the lowest possible cost per participant.

When calculating costs of training, preview what the salesperson will be able to do in, say, six months.

Then determine the costs of manufacturer training courses, coaching, mentoring, distance learning and other forms of development over that time period and equate the overall investment against desired returns.

That way, you can convince your boss that the training budget will be well spent.

Block 10 – Sales training should be embraced by top management

It should have solid management backing, in order to ensure that all learning ideas and principles are adequately supported.

Remember, salespeople will immediately know the real culture of the company if they are told that they are to go on a training course simply to ‘tick a box’.

Get the Manager to discuss with the salesperson what they learned on the course and how their development is important to the company.

It will only take a few minutes but will show how important the role of training is in the company.

Without this, the salesperson will have the belief that their development is not really important to you, and they are not worth investing in.

** The final cement mix **

These keys hold true regardless of who is providing sales training. Here are some percentages from Training Magazine detailing who is providing sales training in organisations with more than 100 employees:

– 24 percent of training provided by in-house staff only
– 14 percent of training provided by outside suppliers only
– 62 percent of training provided by both

So consider how you can give yourself the best possible opportunities to help your sales people’s development have a firm foundation.

These blocks should help you build a great team spirit and create a positive learning culture within your department.

Like always if you would like help on any aspect of your business please feel free to drop us a line with what you need help on and then my team and I can let you know what we could do for you.

All the best.

By Sreeram CA for CiteHR

Webometrics Ranking of World Universities

Posted on October 7, 2007

Webometrics Ranking of World Universities

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has been ranked 17 out of top 100 in the Indian Subcontinent Region in “Webometrics Ranking of World Universities”, a leading international website http://www.webometrics.info.

IGNOU, a distance educational institution has competed with conventional institutions like IIMs, IITs, Anna University, University of Pune, University of Delhi, AIIMS, B.H.U. and Open University of Sri Lanka, Virtual University of Pakistan, North South University, Bangladesh, University of Dhaka etc.

The Universities are classified by a mathematical combination of the rankings according to their websize, number of rich files, number of papers published in the last years and records in the Google Scholar. The criteria combined include link visibility, number of citations to papers in the IST database and number of visits (popularity) to the web domains.

The methodological section adheres the Berlin Principles on Ranking of Higher Education Institutions.

Although the main primary of the Webometrics Ranking is to promote the publication in the web by Universities and other research related institutions, the web indicators produced allow a comparative analysis with other scientometric or bibliometric indicators. The data shows both a global good agreement among rankings and several striking measurements corresponding to a well defined group of countries.

The aim is to show the commitment of these organizations to the electronic publications. The purpose is to offer an extended coverage including information about countries institutions.

This Ranking is being published since 2004 on a regular basis using the web data as indicator of the visibility and impact of the activities of the universities, colleges and research institutions worldwide.

Awareness-cum-Training Packages in Disabilities

Posted on October 7, 2007

Awareness-cum-Training Packages in Disabilities

Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has signed an MoU with Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) to make joint efforts in promoting and implementing extension training and education programmes for the empowerment of the special target groups of people with disabilities.

The agreement was signed by Mr. K Laxman, Registrar, IGNOU and Dr. J. P. Singh, Member Secretary, RCI in the presence of Prof. V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, VC IGNOU and RCI, Chairman Maj. Gen (Retd) lan Cardozo.

IGNOU will collaborate with RCI in programme design and development of special education and rehabilitation programmes through multimedia distance mode and will also facilitate delivery and certificate of such programmes.

This Awareness cum Training programme of 3 months for parents will be upgraded to a Certificate/ Diploma level programmes for the parent’s willing to upgrade their knowledge and having a minimum qualification as decided by experts. This will be a self-viable programme.

It will ensue the translation of the study material for the programme in 8 languages namely Gujrati, Marathi, Malayalam, kannada, Oriya, Bengali, Tamil & Telugu and launch in all the 8 languages within 6 months.

IGNOU & RCI will launch/implement B.Ed/ M.Ed. (Special Education) & PGPD (Special Education) at the places where the State Open Universities are not functioning.

An audio-visual based motivational extension programme with the objective of apprising the parents of the potential of children with special needs and advising them on possible sources of useful information on the education and rehabilitation of children with disabilities will be developed.

A Brief about IGNOU-RCI MoU

An MoU was signed between Indira Gandhi National open University and Rehabilitation Council of India on 18th September, 2007 which would be valid for a period of five years. Under the MoU, IGNOU & RCI will collaborate in programme design and development of special education and rehabilitation programmes through multimedia distance mode and will also facilitate delivery and certification of such programmes. The Degrees/Diplomas/Certificates under this MoU shll be awarded jointly. RCI recognizes IGNOU as the Apex National Resources Centre for Special Education and Rehabilitation Programmes through Distance Mode. RCI will also extend technical expertise to the IGNOU and its study centres. The study centres of IGNOU and training centres of RCI all over the country will provide academic help through tutorials and counseling, through books and other audio visual material specially prepared by the IGNOU in collaboration with RCI

’10×10′ vision of 10 IIM grads

Posted on October 6, 2007

’10×10′ vision of 10 IIM grads

Pallavi Bisaria / New Delhi/ Lucknow BUSINESS STANDARD October 4, 2007

With a vision of “10 x 10”, a group of 10 Indian Institute of Management (IIM) alumni have come together with a view of making over 10, 000 Indians employable by 2010.

Conceptualised by Nishant Saxena, an IIM-Lucknow pass out, the group launched their first institute “Elements Akademia” in Lucknow today. ” The institute aims to groom the youths to make them employable.

“Despite being one of the fastest growing economies with over 8 per cent GDP growth, unemployment has still hovered around 7- 8 per cent for the last decade. Companies do want to hire and there is enough graduate talent, but sadly there is a mismatch between the requirement of the industry and the skills imparted by the education system. Our program aims to bridge this gap and make our youth employable,” Nishant Saxena, chief executive officer, Elements Akademia, told Business Standard.

Saxena, who is from Allahabad, said they had deliberately selected their homeland as their “karma bhumi” as they want to contribute to the state’s development.

“With a population of about 5 million youth in the state, about 800,000 graduates pass out every year. However, only 4 per cent of them are employed in organised sector. The state can become a service hub, provided we give the students specialised training. We aim to teach finer elements required to succeed,” added Saxena.

The flagship programme offered by the institute is aimed at graduates in the smaller cities. It is a six-month comprehensive part-time course encompassing business communication, managerial effectiveness, basic computer skills and other specialised domain knowledge in areas like insurance, inventory, management and accounting.

“Our lead corporate partner is Genpact, one of the top third-party BPO company in India. Our unique tie-up with them ensures reimbursement of the students’ course fee after a year of service. Moreover, if you don’t get selected, provide re-training and arrange for re-interviews (also with other partners),” Saxena said.

Genpact has assisted in the course design and delivery, and screening criteria.

“We conducted a survey among students from 25 colleges and multiple companies to understand what they are actually looking for in a candidate,” he said.

The Lucknow-city launch entails an investment of Rs 1 crore, and the firm plans to have 15 more such institutes across India in next few years.

The next institute is planned for Kanpur, to be operational in 3- 4 months’ time. Other cities identified in the state are Agra, Allahabad and Meerut.

On successful completion of the course, the students will receive certificates endorsed by KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, the academic partner for the venture.

Dark chocolate helps fight fatigue

Posted on October 3, 2007

Dark chocolate helps fight fatigue
2 Oct 2007, 0032 hrs IST,Kounteya Sinha,TNN

They are delicious. And now, they also seem to be beneficial for your health. A daily dose of yummy dark chocolate may help patients suffering from the chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).

According to scientists from Hull York Medical School, dark chocolates have been found to lower levels of serotonin, a brain chemical related to CFS. Serotonin is also believed to play an important role in the regulation of anger, aggression, body temperature, mood, sleep, vomiting and appetite.

The team said patients with CFS found that their symptoms were alleviated when they consumed dark chocolate, much more so than when they consumed milk chocolate that had brown dye added to it. The scientists, however, stressed that the quantity of dark chocolate consumed should be moderate.

Endocrinologist Steve Atkin said, “Although it was a small study, two patients went back to work after being off for six months. Dark chocolate is high in polyphenols, which have been associated with health benefits such as reduction in blood pressure. Also, high polyphenols appear to improve levels of serotonin in the brain, which has been linked with CFS.”

According to nutritionist Dr Shikha Sharma, consuming two cubes of dark chocolate is good enough. “Dark chocolates better preserve the benefits of cocoa as they have less sugar in it. Cocoa is rich in antioxidant properties. It’s even better when added with resins or nuts. But it has to be consumed in moderation. Consuming bars of dark chocolate can overstimulate the nervous system,” Sharma said.

Atkin and his team then carried out a trial on 10 patients to check whether dark chocolate benefited them also. As part of the experiment, the patients received a daily dose – 45g – of dark chocolate or white chocolate dyed to look like dark chocolate for two months.

This was followed by a month in which they were not given any chocolate, before being given the other type of chocolate for two months.

To their surprise, the researchers noted that patients taking dark chocolate reported significantly less fatigue when they started eating the sweet. They also reported more fatigue when they stopped eating it.

kounteya.sinha@timesgroup.com

Health benefits of watermelon

Posted on October 3, 2007

Health benefits of watermelon
4 Oct 2007, 0000 hrs IST,TNN

Watermelon is not only delicious, but extremely healthy, as well.

In fact, most melons are rich in potassium, a nutrient that may help control blood pressure, regulate heart beat, and possibly prevent strokes.

Another arm that’s well represented is beta-carotene. Researchers believe that beta-carotene and vitamin C are capable of preventing heart disease, cancer, and other chronic conditions. No matter which way you cut them, when it comes to nutrition, melons are number one.

Watermelon is a valuable source of lycopene, one of the carotenoids that have actually been studied in humans. Research indicates that lycopene is helpful in reducing the risk of prostate, breast, and endometrial cancers, as well as lung and colon cancer.

Whether you choose watermelons for their health benefits or simply for their good flavour, they can be an excellent snack, summer dish.