The Credit Crunch MBA Life

Q. How much would you pay for a life where you had to work and study about 70 hours a week, save money wherever possible and always be uncertain about the future ?

I’m sure you are scratching your head and asking yourself as to why you would pay anything for a life like that. Well, as it turns out that is what an International MBA at a top business school is like and people pay thousands of dollars for it.

Life during an MBA is an experience by itself. There is always so much to do that one can get overwhelmed very easily and it’s hard to keep calm at times. I suppose the MBA trains its students to master the art of multi-tasking and prioritizing as those are the scenarios that any manager has to face in the real world.
The MBA program has a number of unique qualities but the one that stands out the most is that your average class would have people with various years of work experience and a great deal of diversity. During a good economic environment people would tend to maximize their learning and enjoy their time at school in the company of similar people. However given the GFC and the current economic turmoil this facet of MBA life has definitely been affected.

The “Credit Crunch MBA” generation comprises of people who’ve always wanted to get an MBA and found the current financial atmosphere to be the most suited for it. Present MBA students who would be passing out in the middle of next year are strongly hoping that things would get better by that time. This hope and expectation coupled with news of the tough job market and the need to be a perfect match for any position has led to a highly competitive environment. Getting the best grades has suddenly become a high priority as everyone strives for perfection.

The MBA however is also a great platform to showcase your leadership and ability. One of the positive things that have come out of the GFC for current B-School students is that people have realized that there is no right or wrong solution. Thus class lectures devote more time to discussions and student feedback on lectures is taken very seriously by the academic affairs.

Overall it is said and widely believed that the MBA experience is a tough but highly rewarding and satisfying journey. The Credit Crunch MBA generation is certainly hoping for the same.

Networking Your Way To The Top Job

Attending Business School is like an experience in itself, especially if you’re doing the AGSM MBA. The decision to go for an MBA is always a well-thought out one although very few people would actually follow a traditional decision making process usually followed in business. Unlike any other Undergraduate course or postgraduate course, the MBA places great stress on all-round development.

So while it is important to learn about finance, accounting and the other core business subjects it also important to know how to create and deliver an effective presentation, how to handle difficult conversations and most importantly how to network . These are qualities and skills that most people, who have been in the workforce for a couple of years tend to take for granted. But step into a global MBA and only then would you realize that what you knew is just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the core competencies that any global Manager must possess is excellent networking skills. These are not only essential to find the right job but later on become an important tool for growing a business, winning important contracts etc. The MBA places great stress on this area and more than 30% jobs in International B-Schools are found through effective networking. However that is easier said than done. Psychologists and experts have identified certain barriers that prevent people from Networking effectively, some of these are:

1. We feel pushy.
2. We feel shy.
3. We feel intimated.
4. We fear rejection.
5. We consider it to be a waste of time.

Most International MBA programs run sessions to remove these fears amongst their students and at AGSM this starts of from the very first day when each student is encouraged to know all his classmates, something that is not possible at Wharton or Harvard given the number of students in an MBA class.

The video below is an excellent guide on how to overcome your anxiety of meeting people and establishing effective contacts.

Obama in Class – Dissecting The Qualities Of A Leader

21^st January, 2009(Sydney Time) was a historic day for the United States of America and for world in general. It was the day when Barack Hussein Obama stepped in to become the country’s first ever Black President. His road to victory in itself was quite remarkable and very few people in the world could have ever predicted that such a man would ever become POTUS.

Over here at the Australian Graduate School Of Management a bunch of 65 odd global citizens and future global leaders were busy dissecting the Obama speech to discover the qualities of a good Manager/Leader. Obama without a doubt is an excellent orator and speaker and packs such a force when he speaks that it’s hard not to feel emotional at the end. We watched the 15 minutes + of his acceptance speech and came up with the following qualities that must be present in a global leader,

1. The ability to communicate effectively.
2. The ability to set goals and make decisions.
3. To be able to stay calm and still be fair.
4. To be culturally sensitive.
5. To be charismatic and pragmatic.
6. To have a positive attitude.
7. The ability to motivate and work under pressure.
8. To be able to listen and ask good questions. Many a times asking the right questions is all it takes to solve even the most complicated problems.

The above are just a small subset of the numerous qualities that the class came up with and it’s amazing to see that while Obama does not have a lot of political experience, people still expect him to have most of the qualities mentioned above, just because he is able to portray some of them effectively. What do you think are some of the essential qualities that a global leader must have ? Share them with us.

The Right Side Of The Graph

In the last few days in class(at the Australian Graduate School Of Management in Sydney), we have been going through a phase of self reflection. This phase included surveys, inventories and questioners, as well as group discussions and self reflection, both written and mental.

The last day, our facilitator presented us with the following graph:

The basic idea is to think about our parts in teams and later about our jobs and pinpoint actions we employ daily to their respective places on the graph. I think this is a very simple but usable tool in order to self reflect.

But looking at it, made me think about how managers can use this. Because of this simplicity, managers can use this simple tool to know a lot more about their employees.

I believe good managers should focus almost all their efforts on helping people find their strengths and concentrate on them, because this is the way to help people truly excel. Thus, great managers should focus their time on their employees’ strengths instead of focusing it on their weaknesses and areas of improvement. That said it is important to understand that there are different kinds of weakness and different kinds of strengths.

If the weakness is a result of insufficient knowledge or skill, then the manager role is to supply the knowledge, teach the skill or get the employee to learn the skill from an outside source. This is true in a limited number of cases. Sometime people feel incompetent and dislike certain actions, because they don’t know enough about them and never had proper training although they truly have a talent for it. In addition, most skills can be learned to a certain degree.

But in order to excel in certain skills you need talent. And different people have different talents. And with talent I mean not only to quality of being good at something, but actually having the right mental state and the natural inclination for certain skills. And most of time, this talent, if used correctly, can help overcome any weakness much more efficiently then dealing directly with the weakness. Therefore, when a manager recognizes a weakness he should explore which kind of weakness it is and if training or knowledge will help the employee overcome it.

On the other hand, many times as managers, we perceive strengths of people but forget to ask them an important question: do you enjoy doing that role/action? Because some people are really good at something, but they hate doing it. if they don’t feel good when they are doing it, when they don’t reach a state of flow, than they would not be able to that for a long time and they would not be able to truly excel. And what great managers do is find ways to make their employees excel.

The MBA so far has been a really enriching experience and there is still such a long way to go. As leaders in the making it is important for us to have the right vision of the future and this was explained by an excellent quote by John Scharr,

The future is not some place we are going to but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination.

Note: This article has been reproduced with explicit permission from the author. Check the original post here.

Soft Skills Or Harder Skills – First Weeks At AGSM

So you’ve been working in a particular role for a good organization for a couple of years and have enjoyed it. You’re probably working as a manager or you feel that you have the potential to become a manager. This leads you to start preparing for an MBA, a journey that is quite time consuming, expensive and very often a major step in one’s life and career.

What are the kind of expectations that a person normally has before starting an MBA Program. Lots of hard work, long days, multiple assignments, Banging your head over new subjects would probably be some of the notions that a person would have before beginning the program. Well, many of us here at AGSM, Sydney also had similar notions. But that was before the program started.

We would soon be completing about 2 weeks into the program and I can say without a doubt that if your objective in life is

1. To learn from people of different countries and cultures.
2. Explore and Appreciate Diversity.
3. Interact with people from different fields with varying degrees of experiences.

then the AGSM MBA and the AGSM experience would be perfect for you. Over the course of the past 2 weeks, we have learnt so much about ourselves and our class. At AGSM, you are taught that the first step towards becoming an effective manager is to know yourself and your team. The so called “soft skills” are actually “harder skills“, much harder Economics, Finance or Marketing, because the teach you the art of managing people. As any experienced professional who has lead teams, companies and projects would tell you, “if one can master the art of managing people“, then most things can be taken care of.

At the AGSM MBA, it’s all about enjoying the learning process and the company of your classmates. You can choose to take on the pressure of getting the best grades, but the system encourages you to place more stress on the learning than the grades.

The Leader – Manager Dilemma

Today we had a very interesting session in class dealing with leadership. Every person of our 65 people class(at my B-school AGSM, Sydney) had to walk up and talk for about a minute about one important characteristic of a good leader that they think they embody. Now, I know this sounds a bit corny, but the main issue was getting people to speak about themselves and see their presentation skills as well as getting the know everybody.

There were some very interesting presentations and many people talked about important characteristics: Well organized, a good listener, Able to take harsh decision under pressure, passionate, determination, confidence, delegating of authority and more.

But the process and the above mentioned list did get me thinking about the difference between leadership and management. A lot of people mix them. Do leaders really need to be well organized? Or have confidence? I can think of a few leaders who aren’t. I do think it is more important for a manger to have these characteristics.

I was wandering why people mix the two definitions (actually the words are sometimes used as synonyms). I think it is because in too many roles, people are expected to be both. The problem is it is hard to be both.

I think leadership and management are different. I really like Marcus Buckingham’s theory in the book “The one thing you need to know“, claiming that managers’ role is to find the strength of every employee and do what they can to allow him exploit it to excellence while leaders are agent of change, their role is to paint a vivid picture of the future in order to dissipate the our natural fear of the unknown and the uncertain.

Recently, I read Seth Godin’s book Tribes, where he writes:

Management is about manipulating resources to get a known job done… Managers manage a process they’ve seen before, and they react to the outside world, striving to make that process as fast and as cheap as possible. Leadership, on the other hand, is about creating change that you believe in… Leaders have followers. Mangers have employees. Managers make widgets. Leaders make change…

So why is the difference important? If you accept that there is a difference then you accept that there are different talents, skills and knowledge for each group. That means that usually, we cannot expect the same people to do both. But so many roles do. Instead of finding out what is more important to the success of the role, there is an attempt to achieve both, which ends up in an average result. And average, in our society, is just not good enough. So I think this is another conventional wisdom that needs to be broken.

DP Travel: How To Plan a Backpacking Trip Across Europe, Part I

A New Month, A New Day and yes, yet another new start for DelhiPlanet. Welcome to the first post of DP Travel, the one stop shop for all your travel information needs. Beginning today DelhiPlanet is going to bring to you experiences from across the world. The party spots, the exotic locations, the beaches, how to get there, how to plan your trip and much more.

Life is a Journey, Go out and Explore.

On that note let’s start with the inaugral post, where we are gonna tell you everything you need to know about planning A Backpacking Trip Across Europe. Just like Scotty,Cooper, Jenny and Jamie in the movie Eurotrip(shown above, ofcourse you need to much more careful than they were.)

1. Discuss the Idea: Europe may be the second smallest continent on the planet but it is one of the most fascinating lands in the world. Add to that, it’s remarkable infrastructure and unity and you have a perfect place to vacation and enjoy yourself. After all, which other continent do you know of that allows you to travel to more than 10 countries on a single visa and a single currency. A Euro Trip thus becomes a must have experience. So the first step in planning a euro trip, is to discuss this idea with your closest friends. Form a group of 2-4 adventurous,outdoor, travel loving people and start saving up for this once in a lifetime experience.
2. Decide when to visit: The next step is talk about the period of the year when you along with all the people of your group, would be able to spare time for this adventure cum vacation. The best time of the year to visit europe is between May-September. At this time the weather in most places of europe is pleasant and there are a lot of events that one can attend. The events range from pulsating sporting action(Wimbledon, F1 racing) to beer fests(Oktoberfest) and concerts to wild parties (in places like Ibiza). If you’re a delhiite then june is the best time, as it’s hot to be in delhi around that period.
3. Finalize the Countries and Cities: Now comes the most important part of the planning process, deciding on the list of places and cities that you would like to visit. The whole of Europe is quite huge with more than 40 countries and most likely you won’t be able to cover all of them if you’re on leave from work or a short term break. Don’t try to do too many places as then you would only be travelling most of the time. If you are a first time visitor to europe then you might just want to see the schengen states and a few eastern european countries.
4. Work out the Visas that you need to Get: If you’ve reached till here then the chances are that you are quite keen and serious on this trip. So now get ready to apply for the all important visas that could make or break your plan. For Travelling purposes you can think of europe as being divided into 2 parts, Schengen and Non Schengen. The Schengen countries are those which are a part of the Schengen Agreement, for these countries you get a Special Visa using which you can goto any of the schengen states. Currently there are 15 west european countries under schengen with more to be added soon. For the non-schengen states on the other hand, you need to have a separate visa for each place. For Ex: If you wish to travel to germany,netherlands,spain and france just one visa of any of these places is sufficient as they are all schengen states. However if you wish to travel to turkey,bulgaria and poland, then you need to get 3 visas, one for each place. Checkout the schengen office for more information on this.
5. Decide the exact dates and the Travel Itinerary: Next you need to decide on the exact dates of your travel and a detailed travel itinerary. Not only would you need to book your air tickets based on this info, you’ll also need it to get your visa. If you’re taking a break from work, then leave around a weekend so that you can get those 2 days for your journey. Your Travel Itinerary should contain information regarding the country and city that you would be visiting and the number of days at each place.
6. Work out your Budget: A Backpacking trip is actually a budget trip, and since europe is a popular backpacking destination so there aren’t too many problems that you would face with regards to accomodation and transport. So it’s important to work out a suitable budget for the trip and the fun starts when you really have to stay within that budget. A budget trip would involve you staying in a hostel, using public transport at all times and a lot of walking. Although planning and going on a Euro Trip is slightly expensive but it’s the best way to learn the value of money.
7. Start Collecting the Documents required to get your Visa: Now starts the hectic process of applying and getting your visa. This is supposed to be the scrariest and most confusing part, but it’s quite easy if you follow a methodological approach. Start collecting information on the documents needed for a visa of the country you wish to go to. Once all of them are in place, submit your application at the visa application center. If you are in Delhi and need to apply for the visa of a schengen state then goto the VFS site of that country. For Ex: VFS Netherlands if you’re going to Amsterdam,Utrecht or Rotterdam. Similarly there is VFS Belgium if you’re going to brussels, VFS Germany for Munich,Berlin,Frankfurt and so on. Your visa application form needs to be submitted at the appropriate center along with all the required documents. If there exists no VFS branch for the country of your interest then look up the information on that country’s consulate in India.

Well that’s all for Part 1, stay tuned for Part 2. That’s where your plan would become a reality and no one would dare say Scotty Doesn’t Know.

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