Jantar-Mantar: Delhi

Thermal Power Generation: a picture

Inportance of Summer Internship for MBAs

First year MBA students can get exposure to the real business world during summer internships. Between the first and second MBA years, this is an ideal way to learn about an industry and to build a relationship with a prospective employer as well as giving you a chance to simply hone your skills.MBA summer internships are a great way to jump start a career, especially for career switchers.

Landing the best summer internship possible is of huge importance for first-year MBA students. Because an internship in the summer has the potential of leading to a full time job in the future, it is often referred to as the “weeks of interview”. Since every MBA student is encouraged to get a summer internship, competition is just as rough as in the real business environment.

Source:http://www.mba360.com/mba-summer-internships.html

SWOT Analysis - POWER SWOT.

SWOT analysis is a marketing audit that considers an organization's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Our introductory lesson gives you the basics of how to complete your SWOT as you begin to learn about marketing tools. As you learn more about SWOT analysis, you will become aware of a number of potential limitations with this popular tool. This lesson aims to help you overcome potential pitfalls.

Some of the problems that you may encounter with SWOT are as a result of one of its key benefits i.e. its flexibility. Since SWOT analysis can be used in a variety of scenarios, it has to be flexible. However this can lead to a number of anomalies. Problems with basic SWOT analysis can be addressed using a more critical POWER SWOT. POWER is an acronym for Personal experience, Order, Weighting, Emphasize detail, and Rank and prioritize. This is how it works.
P = Personal experience.
How do you the marketing manger fit in relation with the SWOT analysis? You bring your experiences, skills, knowledge, attitudes and beliefs to the audit. Your perception or simple gut feeling will impact the SWOT.
O = Order - strengths or weaknesses, opportunities or threats.
Often marketing managers will inadvertently reverse opportunities and strengths, and threats and weaknesses. This is because the line between internal strengths and weaknesses, and external opportunities and threats is sometimes difficult to spot. For example, in relation to global warming and climate change, one could mistake environmentalism as a threat rather than a potential opportunity.
W = Weighting.
Too often elements of a SWOT analysis are not weighted. Naturally some points will be more controversial than others. So weight the factors. One way would be to use percentages e.g. Threat A = 10%, Threat B = 70%, and Threat C = 20% (they total 100%).
E = Emphasize detail.
Detail, reasoning and justification are often omitted from the SWOT analysis. What one tends to find is that the analysis contains lists of single words. For example, under opportunities one might find the term 'Technology.' This single word does not tell a reader very much. What is really meant is:
'Technology enables marketers to communicate via mobile devices close to the point of purchase. This provides the opportunity of a distinct competitive advantage for our company.'
This will greatly assist you when deciding upon how best to score and weight each element.
R = Rank and prioritize.
Once detail has been added, and factors have been reviewed for weighting, you can then progress to give the SWOT analysis some strategic meaning i.e. you can begin to select those factors that will most greatly influence your marketing strategy albeit a mix of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Essentially you rank them highest to lowest, and then prioritize those with the highest rank e.g. Where Opportunity C = 60%, Opportunity A = 25%, and Opportunity B = 10% - your marketing plan would address Opportunity C first, and Opportunity B last. It is important to address opportunities primarily since your business should be market oriented. Then match strengths to opportunities and look for a fit. Address any gaps between current strengths and future opportunities. Finally attempt to rephrase threats as opportunities (as with global warming and climate change above), and address weaknesses so that they become strengths. Gap analysis would be useful at this point i.e. where we are now, and where do we want to be? Strategies would bridge the gap between them.

Source: http://www.marketingteacher.com/Lessons/lesson_power_swot.htm

India's students report new motives for doing MBA

The latest QS Applicant Research reports that Indians are adopting new ways of assessing their careers. The MBA or Master of Business Administration has been a popular postgraduate qualification for some time now. Ambitious Indians look to the MBA to improve their professional lives, and this is not a new observation.What is new and interesting, however, is a recent change in attitude in prospective Indian MBA candidates. When asked to declare some of the reasons why the candidate is considering business school, results were remarkably different from last year’s.

2007 2006

Primarily for education 17.19 21

To boost salary 26.55 26

To build professional network 41.83 34

To enable career change 34.96 34

Improve career prospects 72.3 73

Learn new skills 55.78 50

Start own business 24.93 24

Other 2.01 2

Table 1: Reasons for studying for an MBA (figures in percentage) Table 1 reveals that prospective MBA applicants from India are looking to build a professional network – 42% up from 34%, and learn new skills – 56% from 50%. Indians are evidently becoming more conscious of the need to network to find that perfect job; the 8% jump in interest being a telltale sign. While Indian culture doesn’t traditionally emphasize networking as a career necessity, ambitious students and professionals are beginning to follow Western footsteps when it comes to this practice. Tuck student, Sujana Patel has taken the networking practice seriously, and offers some advice: “One of the main things to remember is that even though everyone knows that you are networking to get a job, your first contact is not the time to send out a resume. The first email has to be formal and short, stating that you saw their profile and would love to talk with them and get their advice on your resume, available jobs, the company and its environment etc… It always helps to build rapport first. At the end of the day, the resume will really not mean that much if you have built a good foundation with the person. It is said that an interviewer will decide if the interviewee is someone they want within the first 10-15 seconds of seeing them; therefore, the first impression is critical. Don’t ruin it by directly sending them a resume.” In the case of MBA candidates looking to learn new skills (up 6% this year), Western nations like the US or UK, again, may be of influence. Indians are often cast as being monolithic in their career path. They pick a profession and stick to it. This is typically not the case in Western societies, and India is following suit. As the nation’s economy continues to grow, people are noticing the importance of diversifying their skill set – a characteristic of Western societies which has proved fruitful for years.

Source:http://www.123eng.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=25539

Just for MBA's: Appraisal of Projects

Just for MBA's: Appraisal of Projects

Appraisal of Projects

Appraisal of projects refers to the process of identifying, evaluating, implementation and reviewing the projects. Projects generally refer to the plans which are supposed to be implemented in an organization.