Chat: July 21, at noon EDT
Guest: Oliver Ashby, manager of recruitment and admissions at London Business School
Business schools overseas have been getting more attention in recent years, and London Business School (LBS Full-Time MBA Profile), ranked No. 5 by Bloomberg Businessweek, is among the top international MBA programs. If you're interested in snagging a seat at LBS, then you don't want to miss our next live chat event on July 21 at noon EDT, when Oliver Ashby, manager of recruitment and admissions at LBS, will take your questions on everything from the application to the curriculum.
Ashby has served as a recruitment and admissions manager at LBS, where his responsibilities include reviewing applications, since 2008. He had previously worked in the school's financial aid office, assisting students in securing loans and scholarship funding.
To participate in the chat, head to the Chat Auditorium about 10 minutes before the scheduled event. You may be prompted to create a user name and password. It's free and should only take a few minutes. Francesca Di Meglio (screen name: FrancescaBW) will be your host. If you cannot attend the event, you can send your questions ahead of time to Francesca at FDBloombergBW@gmail.com with the subject "LBS Chat."
www.credila.com
Friday, July 23, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Learning from crime
Tucked away in a nondescript room in the Ecole Militaire, the venerable military training centre in Paris, a team of six men and a woman sit in intense discussion.
As their company’s crisis management team, they have been informed that 10 colleagues, including their chief executive, have been kidnapped at the opening ceremony of a production plant in Colombia. Within seconds, the company’s security chief in Bogota is on the phone; “It looks like it could be the Farc [the Marxist Colombian rebel group]. It’s a hell of a mess here.”
For the next half hour the seven discuss options and make plans, while fielding calls from within the company as well as from the French authorities, the media and anxious customers. Then Bogota calls again with the news they feared. “We had a call from a guy calling himself José. He says the Farc are detaining the hostages and they want $6m ransom.”
MBA blog
MBA students round the globe blog their experiences
..Fortunately, the kidnapping is an exercise and the seven are all students – albeit with considerable management experience – in the first intake of a one-year criminal risk management programme designed by Edhec, the French business school with campuses in Nice, Paris and Lille.
“They are all so into it . . . And some of these people have already worked in crisis situations. I’m amazed myself [at the involvement],” says Bertrand Monnet, head of Edhec’s research centre into criminal risk management and the professor behind the programme.
Created in co-operation with INHESJ, the education centre and think-tank of the French interior and justice ministries, the programme is the most tangible result to date of Edhec’s decision five years ago to introduce criminal risk management into its curriculum.
The rationale is simple. Today’s business leaders need to be able to understand and make informed judgments about a wide variety of criminal threats, says Prof Monnet, a former officer in the French Marine Corps. The course looks at the challenges facing multinational companies, from fraud to extortion, piracy, terrorism and failed states.
“Organised criminal and terrorist gangs today are targeting private companies, specifically multinationals, for example through counterfeiting, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and piracy. We set out to identify and then understand the risk generators in order to find solutions to manage the threats,” he says.
The criminal risk research centre monitors criminal and terrorist incidents that affect businesses worldwide. Using a dedicated search engine designed by the centre, it researches and monitors criminal activities via media reports on organised crime worldwide. Prof Monnet also makes field trips to gain a hands-on view of the criminal threats to business.
“We have to understand the psychology of the stakeholders. In Nigeria, for example, it is possible to meet some of the groups; in Colombia and Italy, it is not,” he says.
Such visits also lead to close connections with security officers grappling with the problems on a day-to-day basis, some of whom have become visiting lecturers at Edhec.
One such is Nicolas Krmic, a security manager with Acergy, an equipment supplier to the oil and gas industry, who faces threats including kidnapping, data theft and armed robbery on a daily basis in his work in Nigeria and other African states.
“You have a lot of companies with former military guys – as I am – heading security who are most interested in showing muscles. But security is much more than that, it’s linked to all aspects of business,” he says.
Integrating security and risk management into a company’s ethos is not only necessary for effective security protection, it has the added result of enhancing corporate competitiveness, Mr Krmic argues.
“Security did not use to be a [core] business topic for most companies. But we have to understand that to win business you must deal with it . . . And if you prove reliable, clients will want to deal with you again.”
This dovetails with the thinking at Edhec. “This is not only about crisis management, but about risk management as a whole. It’s not just another add on, it’s a whole philosophy which we apply from our financial research centre to the programmes in the teaching rooms. This is a strategic option for our school, for students at all levels,” says Pierre-Guy Hourquet, dean of executive programmes.
Reactions from the pioneer students are very positive. Pierre-Yves Arnaud, a security consultant, has worked in the field with oil companies in Nigeria and Chad. In spite of such a wealth of practical experience, he says the programme has given him a better analytical understanding of risk and “a methodology to apply in any situation” for assessment.
“I should have started [my career] with this,” he says. He says he now better understands what he calls “the strategic importance of communications” in a crisis. “Whether you technically succeed or not, if you have a good communication with media, you will ‘win’ the case,” he says.
The security services also value co-operation with the school.
“When we mount an operation, for example, to release hostages, it is to our advantage that that top management in companies know us a little bit and understand what we do and how we work. This is why we work with Edhec,” says Lieutenant-Colonel Franck Chaix, commander of the Intervention Force of the GIGN, the French anti-terrorist unit.
The GIGN-Edhec course was the first such course the anti-terrorist unit has agreed to be part of, and is an example of the partnership between the two to establish contacts with business leaders.
Prof Monnet plans to refine the certificate programme with the lessons learnt before creating a full MSc programme in criminal risk management from 2011. “We’ll wait for another year to be sure that the programme is absolutely sustainable, and performing well.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
As their company’s crisis management team, they have been informed that 10 colleagues, including their chief executive, have been kidnapped at the opening ceremony of a production plant in Colombia. Within seconds, the company’s security chief in Bogota is on the phone; “It looks like it could be the Farc [the Marxist Colombian rebel group]. It’s a hell of a mess here.”
For the next half hour the seven discuss options and make plans, while fielding calls from within the company as well as from the French authorities, the media and anxious customers. Then Bogota calls again with the news they feared. “We had a call from a guy calling himself José. He says the Farc are detaining the hostages and they want $6m ransom.”
MBA blog
MBA students round the globe blog their experiences
..Fortunately, the kidnapping is an exercise and the seven are all students – albeit with considerable management experience – in the first intake of a one-year criminal risk management programme designed by Edhec, the French business school with campuses in Nice, Paris and Lille.
“They are all so into it . . . And some of these people have already worked in crisis situations. I’m amazed myself [at the involvement],” says Bertrand Monnet, head of Edhec’s research centre into criminal risk management and the professor behind the programme.
Created in co-operation with INHESJ, the education centre and think-tank of the French interior and justice ministries, the programme is the most tangible result to date of Edhec’s decision five years ago to introduce criminal risk management into its curriculum.
The rationale is simple. Today’s business leaders need to be able to understand and make informed judgments about a wide variety of criminal threats, says Prof Monnet, a former officer in the French Marine Corps. The course looks at the challenges facing multinational companies, from fraud to extortion, piracy, terrorism and failed states.
“Organised criminal and terrorist gangs today are targeting private companies, specifically multinationals, for example through counterfeiting, extortion, kidnapping, money laundering and piracy. We set out to identify and then understand the risk generators in order to find solutions to manage the threats,” he says.
The criminal risk research centre monitors criminal and terrorist incidents that affect businesses worldwide. Using a dedicated search engine designed by the centre, it researches and monitors criminal activities via media reports on organised crime worldwide. Prof Monnet also makes field trips to gain a hands-on view of the criminal threats to business.
“We have to understand the psychology of the stakeholders. In Nigeria, for example, it is possible to meet some of the groups; in Colombia and Italy, it is not,” he says.
Such visits also lead to close connections with security officers grappling with the problems on a day-to-day basis, some of whom have become visiting lecturers at Edhec.
One such is Nicolas Krmic, a security manager with Acergy, an equipment supplier to the oil and gas industry, who faces threats including kidnapping, data theft and armed robbery on a daily basis in his work in Nigeria and other African states.
“You have a lot of companies with former military guys – as I am – heading security who are most interested in showing muscles. But security is much more than that, it’s linked to all aspects of business,” he says.
Integrating security and risk management into a company’s ethos is not only necessary for effective security protection, it has the added result of enhancing corporate competitiveness, Mr Krmic argues.
“Security did not use to be a [core] business topic for most companies. But we have to understand that to win business you must deal with it . . . And if you prove reliable, clients will want to deal with you again.”
This dovetails with the thinking at Edhec. “This is not only about crisis management, but about risk management as a whole. It’s not just another add on, it’s a whole philosophy which we apply from our financial research centre to the programmes in the teaching rooms. This is a strategic option for our school, for students at all levels,” says Pierre-Guy Hourquet, dean of executive programmes.
Reactions from the pioneer students are very positive. Pierre-Yves Arnaud, a security consultant, has worked in the field with oil companies in Nigeria and Chad. In spite of such a wealth of practical experience, he says the programme has given him a better analytical understanding of risk and “a methodology to apply in any situation” for assessment.
“I should have started [my career] with this,” he says. He says he now better understands what he calls “the strategic importance of communications” in a crisis. “Whether you technically succeed or not, if you have a good communication with media, you will ‘win’ the case,” he says.
The security services also value co-operation with the school.
“When we mount an operation, for example, to release hostages, it is to our advantage that that top management in companies know us a little bit and understand what we do and how we work. This is why we work with Edhec,” says Lieutenant-Colonel Franck Chaix, commander of the Intervention Force of the GIGN, the French anti-terrorist unit.
The GIGN-Edhec course was the first such course the anti-terrorist unit has agreed to be part of, and is an example of the partnership between the two to establish contacts with business leaders.
Prof Monnet plans to refine the certificate programme with the lessons learnt before creating a full MSc programme in criminal risk management from 2011. “We’ll wait for another year to be sure that the programme is absolutely sustainable, and performing well.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
Lessons in the art of giving
Most aspiring MBAs go to business school to learn how to make a great deal of money. But these days, business schools are also teaching students how to give it away.
A growing number of business programmes are introducing courses focused on “practising philanthropy,” with the aim of teaching MBA students how to have a strategic edge in their giving by conducting site visits to non-profit organisations, tracking social and operational metrics and measuring the impact of their charitable contributions.
The courses are most popular with students specialising in non-profit administration, but the classes are gaining momentum with general management students too, according to Kristen McCormack, who teaches a course on practising philanthropy at Boston University School of Management.
“At some point in their lives, most of these students will either be a corporate donor or an individual donor and my class teaches them how to do philanthropy effectively,” she says. “Most general MBAs that I’ve taught marvel that there is this world out there that they never thought existed, and they are surprised by how hard it is to give away money.”
The curricula vary from school to school, but most courses involve lectures and readings on the history of philanthropy, issues in the grant-making process and issues in philanthropy and public policy. In addition, many courses include an element of experiential philanthropy, whereby students donate an amount of money to non-profit organisations they have deemed worthy, based on a variety of metrics.
According to Campus Compact, a collation of college and university presidents that promote civic engagement and service learning, there are more than 100 college and business schools in the US offering courses about philanthropy that involve students as grant makers.
The courses reinforce skills such as teamwork, empathy, rigorous thinking, communication and group decision-making, says Maggie Grove, a consultant at Campus Compact, based in Boston. But most importantly the classes dispel the notion that “to be a philanthropist you have to be a person of great wealth”, she says. “These courses are broadening the definition of philanthropy and helping people perceive themselves as active and engaged citizens.”
Elenore Garton, a senior researcher at the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University, teaches a course on practising philanthropy in conjunction with the business school. She says the training is useful for a range of careers, from those who work as grant writers for non-profits, to government employees working on public-private partnerships, to people who work for companies striving to be good corporate citizens.
Throughout the semester-long course, her goal is to demystify philanthropy and help students understand the mindset of the donor.
“People tend to think, ‘Philanthropy: that’s easy. You have a lot of money, and you give it away’. But to do philanthropy well, you have to understand social problems and what is at the root of them, you have to be able to take in a lot of information and evaluate what an organisation is doing and you have to make hard choices. Donors have a lot of challenges and I want students to understand their perspective,” she says.
Beth Bryant, an MBA student at Brandeis with a background in non-profit management, says that the class changed both her personal and professional ideas about charitable giving.
“In the non-profit world, we talk a lot about fund-raising and how to attract more money,” she says. “It’s a narrow perspective. You think about your organisation, what you need. You don’t stop and think about the philanthropist’s point of view. They have to say ‘no’ a lot more often than they say ‘yes’. And there are hard choices: do you give to a start-up, or to a group with a proven track record of results?”
Ms Bryant says that the class showed her that philanthropy is a bottom up endeavour that’s less about how much money you give and more about how you deploy it.
“The class broke the myth that you have to be rich to be a philanthropist.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
A growing number of business programmes are introducing courses focused on “practising philanthropy,” with the aim of teaching MBA students how to have a strategic edge in their giving by conducting site visits to non-profit organisations, tracking social and operational metrics and measuring the impact of their charitable contributions.
The courses are most popular with students specialising in non-profit administration, but the classes are gaining momentum with general management students too, according to Kristen McCormack, who teaches a course on practising philanthropy at Boston University School of Management.
“At some point in their lives, most of these students will either be a corporate donor or an individual donor and my class teaches them how to do philanthropy effectively,” she says. “Most general MBAs that I’ve taught marvel that there is this world out there that they never thought existed, and they are surprised by how hard it is to give away money.”
The curricula vary from school to school, but most courses involve lectures and readings on the history of philanthropy, issues in the grant-making process and issues in philanthropy and public policy. In addition, many courses include an element of experiential philanthropy, whereby students donate an amount of money to non-profit organisations they have deemed worthy, based on a variety of metrics.
According to Campus Compact, a collation of college and university presidents that promote civic engagement and service learning, there are more than 100 college and business schools in the US offering courses about philanthropy that involve students as grant makers.
The courses reinforce skills such as teamwork, empathy, rigorous thinking, communication and group decision-making, says Maggie Grove, a consultant at Campus Compact, based in Boston. But most importantly the classes dispel the notion that “to be a philanthropist you have to be a person of great wealth”, she says. “These courses are broadening the definition of philanthropy and helping people perceive themselves as active and engaged citizens.”
Elenore Garton, a senior researcher at the Sillerman Center for the Advancement of Philanthropy at Brandeis University, teaches a course on practising philanthropy in conjunction with the business school. She says the training is useful for a range of careers, from those who work as grant writers for non-profits, to government employees working on public-private partnerships, to people who work for companies striving to be good corporate citizens.
Throughout the semester-long course, her goal is to demystify philanthropy and help students understand the mindset of the donor.
“People tend to think, ‘Philanthropy: that’s easy. You have a lot of money, and you give it away’. But to do philanthropy well, you have to understand social problems and what is at the root of them, you have to be able to take in a lot of information and evaluate what an organisation is doing and you have to make hard choices. Donors have a lot of challenges and I want students to understand their perspective,” she says.
Beth Bryant, an MBA student at Brandeis with a background in non-profit management, says that the class changed both her personal and professional ideas about charitable giving.
“In the non-profit world, we talk a lot about fund-raising and how to attract more money,” she says. “It’s a narrow perspective. You think about your organisation, what you need. You don’t stop and think about the philanthropist’s point of view. They have to say ‘no’ a lot more often than they say ‘yes’. And there are hard choices: do you give to a start-up, or to a group with a proven track record of results?”
Ms Bryant says that the class showed her that philanthropy is a bottom up endeavour that’s less about how much money you give and more about how you deploy it.
“The class broke the myth that you have to be rich to be a philanthropist.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
Opportunity for change
t is not every day that one of the world’s most reputable research universities decides to set up a business school. But that is exactly what Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has done. With a renowned medical school and a global reputation for its teaching in public health and life sciences, it has decided to add a world-class international MBA degree to its list of programmes.
The man chosen to deliver it is Yash Gupta, inaugural dean of the business school. He believes his programme will be the most innovative around when it launches in August. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity to redefine business education,” he says.
Amid the plethora of concerns about the values of management training, competitors and supporters alike will be watching closely to see what this means for the business school, which was established in December 2006 following a $50m gift from William Carey, a New York City investment banker.
One of the biggest challenges for Prof Gupta will be to differentiate the old from the new – Johns Hopkins has been awarding graduate-level business degrees since 1961 and an MBA since 1999. Indeed, it has a range of largely part-time MBA programmes, that will continue alongside Prof Gupta’s programme. There is also a full-time MBA/Master of public health degree and 4,000 MBA alumni.
Robert Sullivan, the inaugural dean of the Rady school at the University of San Diego, empathises with Prof Gupta. “What he has to do is to invent a new degree and a new brand, given the legacy,” Prof Sullivan says. The best way to do this, he says, is to work with the university. “Johns Hopkins is a world-class research institute in health sciences and engineering. With his new degree he is riding on the coat tail. I think he’ll be very successful.”
It is a strategy Prof Gupta adopted from the start. At Johns Hopkins it will be compulsory for MBA students to work with the department of medicine and public health. For example, business students will have to work with their scientific counterparts to write a business plan and bring a product to market “connecting invention with innovation”, as Prof Gupta puts it. “If I am going to pull this together, I’ve got to have a synergystic school,” he says.
Students must spend time in developing countries, such as India, Rwanda, Kenya or Peru, and work in teams on economic development projects, such as introducing a drug delivery system for people with Aids.
The MBA programme was designed with the help of corporations in industries such as healthcare and technology, who were asked to predict their future management needs.
“What will the healthcare industry look like in 10 to 15 years?” asks Prof Gupta. “The past is no barometer for where the industry is heading. Because we don’t know, we need to educate people differently.”
His cathchphrase is “intellectual flexibility”, meaning that the programme needs to “help create a mindset that will roll with the punches, that will help you get to your destination”. The school will arrange for each student to have a host family in the Baltimore area from a different cultural or ethnic background.
And there are also plans for the class to adopt a local inner-city high school where students will be expected to introduce a measurable improvement in pupils’ achievements.
The class mix is also unusual, with 50 per cent of the class from outside the US and ages ranging from undergraduates to managers with up to 10 years’ experience. Although it is clear what the younger students will glean from the experience of their elders, Prof Gupta says the older managers will also learn. “They need to understand the mindset of the 23s and 24s.”
The decision to involve companies in the initial stages of the programmes has produced positive results. When the 80 students begin the inaugural programme, each will be allocated a sponsoring company, where they will complete their 2011 internships. Prof Gupta believes this link to the corporate world will also mean a high employment rate among Carey’s graduating students.
This will be significant because, innovative though the curriculum is, Prof Gupta has stuck to the traditional two-year US degree format for the MBA. With total fees of $92,000, plus living costs, graduates could have expensive debts to service.
“If you’re looking at it in a . . . social framework, it is not acceptable for students to . . . [finish] with such huge debts,” says Prof Gupta. “From a transactional point of view, someone has to pay . . . It’s not about return on investment, it’s about education.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
The man chosen to deliver it is Yash Gupta, inaugural dean of the business school. He believes his programme will be the most innovative around when it launches in August. “It’s a phenomenal opportunity to redefine business education,” he says.
Amid the plethora of concerns about the values of management training, competitors and supporters alike will be watching closely to see what this means for the business school, which was established in December 2006 following a $50m gift from William Carey, a New York City investment banker.
One of the biggest challenges for Prof Gupta will be to differentiate the old from the new – Johns Hopkins has been awarding graduate-level business degrees since 1961 and an MBA since 1999. Indeed, it has a range of largely part-time MBA programmes, that will continue alongside Prof Gupta’s programme. There is also a full-time MBA/Master of public health degree and 4,000 MBA alumni.
Robert Sullivan, the inaugural dean of the Rady school at the University of San Diego, empathises with Prof Gupta. “What he has to do is to invent a new degree and a new brand, given the legacy,” Prof Sullivan says. The best way to do this, he says, is to work with the university. “Johns Hopkins is a world-class research institute in health sciences and engineering. With his new degree he is riding on the coat tail. I think he’ll be very successful.”
It is a strategy Prof Gupta adopted from the start. At Johns Hopkins it will be compulsory for MBA students to work with the department of medicine and public health. For example, business students will have to work with their scientific counterparts to write a business plan and bring a product to market “connecting invention with innovation”, as Prof Gupta puts it. “If I am going to pull this together, I’ve got to have a synergystic school,” he says.
Students must spend time in developing countries, such as India, Rwanda, Kenya or Peru, and work in teams on economic development projects, such as introducing a drug delivery system for people with Aids.
The MBA programme was designed with the help of corporations in industries such as healthcare and technology, who were asked to predict their future management needs.
“What will the healthcare industry look like in 10 to 15 years?” asks Prof Gupta. “The past is no barometer for where the industry is heading. Because we don’t know, we need to educate people differently.”
His cathchphrase is “intellectual flexibility”, meaning that the programme needs to “help create a mindset that will roll with the punches, that will help you get to your destination”. The school will arrange for each student to have a host family in the Baltimore area from a different cultural or ethnic background.
And there are also plans for the class to adopt a local inner-city high school where students will be expected to introduce a measurable improvement in pupils’ achievements.
The class mix is also unusual, with 50 per cent of the class from outside the US and ages ranging from undergraduates to managers with up to 10 years’ experience. Although it is clear what the younger students will glean from the experience of their elders, Prof Gupta says the older managers will also learn. “They need to understand the mindset of the 23s and 24s.”
The decision to involve companies in the initial stages of the programmes has produced positive results. When the 80 students begin the inaugural programme, each will be allocated a sponsoring company, where they will complete their 2011 internships. Prof Gupta believes this link to the corporate world will also mean a high employment rate among Carey’s graduating students.
This will be significant because, innovative though the curriculum is, Prof Gupta has stuck to the traditional two-year US degree format for the MBA. With total fees of $92,000, plus living costs, graduates could have expensive debts to service.
“If you’re looking at it in a . . . social framework, it is not acceptable for students to . . . [finish] with such huge debts,” says Prof Gupta. “From a transactional point of view, someone has to pay . . . It’s not about return on investment, it’s about education.”
.Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
www.credila.com
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Meet Mr. Anuragi Raman, IIT - Kharagpur
Interview with Mr. Anuragi Raman who started his career with Marubeni Corporation after
graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad. After a stint of Business Planning for Modi Telstra (later
acquired by Airtel) he headed roaming operations for Airtel's Kolkata circle.
Mr. Raman started his Six Sigma journey in GE Capital International Services in 2002. Since then he has been in the Six Sigma / Process Excellence field. He spent three & half years in WNS Global Services in various lead roles.
In his last role he headed the Business Process Excellence and Transformation function for one of its four verticals. Mr. Raman Heads the Information Technology & Business Process Excellence team at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, A leading financial services company.
Mr. Raman is from IIT – Kharagpur and IIM - Bangalore
1. You have been one of those highly respected lot of students who have done both IIT and IIM. How does it feel?
It feels great. In fact it used to feel much greater around the time of passing out. God has been
good to me that I was blessed with parents who encouraged and supported me in all decisions I
took regarding these two great institutes of learning. I took one major decision each to get into
IIT-Kharagpur and IIM – Ahmedabad. I think as we grow I feel sense of responsibility towards society in general and nation in particular to contribute and enable people to become better and wiser. I tend to focus on these responsibilities while making money for myself and enable organizations improve profits.
2. In which way IIT and IIM has changed you?
A lot! Both institutes made me face the real world. In school it was a different environment and I was on top of the world but after entering these institutes I met with the real world and transformation of boy into man happened, I would say. I studied in Hindi medium till class so it was an additional challenge for me. Having said above, I feel incomplete as I grow and interact with more people – I guess that is the truth. These institutes made me focus on my strengths and forced me to work on my weaknesses. One more aspect of self realization happened in both institutes and that is improved self-confidence. Humans come to study and I was also one more
of them … no special shape, size etc. was required to get in there. Specifically, while IIT helped
me shape my overall personality and make me some great friends, IIM helped me sustain
pressure and improved my endurance, especially first year and more specifically the first term
where the pressure of academics was so huge that any minute wasted seemed like a big crime.
In those days I felt it was unnecessary pressure but I did not realize that institute prepared
students sustain pressure in corporate world.
3. To what extent the institutes play a role in your career growth?
A great deal. They are definitely great stamps on your resume. One can focus on performing well
at work after having these certificates instead of getting more certificates during job to enhance
one’s resume. Though academically they may not have directly helped me through subject matter
expertise but overall development does helps in corporate world. I still remember how MOC at
IIM-A has helped me all through. Another important aspect is networking with some great people
there. Our batch mates are all over the place at various senior positions in different industries and
geographies. Though need has not arisen so far but I am confident if there will be need these
friends will be there to help me.
4. What’s your advice to the students who are preparing for IITs and IIMs?
Just chill and focus on building core strengths and conceptual understanding. Mugging never
helps you get through these entrance formats. Do not be under pressure just do your best by
focusing on right studies and leave the rest to almighty. Getting a good coach (coach who
focuses on above said aspects) is critical. In the hindsight I feel a coach would have helped me
further … I did not have one. Even if you do not get through … it is not end of the world.
5. Some students have to make a choice between IIMs and MBA overseas. What’s your
advice to such students
IIMs. Action is here. The academics wise IIMs would be closer to Indian market and now there
are people who are migrating to India so why think of going overseas. However, in the event that
you choose to then make sure you go to one of the IVY leagues even if they cost you a bomb.
6. Other than academics, what else did you learn from IIT and IIM?
I think byproducts I learnt other than academics have been much more useful. I learnt a lot …
overall personality development, making friends, politics and how to deal with that; how to be self
and still deal with the world. Above all I guess self belief and self-confidence.
7. Which institute influenced you more IIT or IIM?
Difficult to differentiate between the two. Both influenced me in different way. While IIT shaped
me as a person, IIM helped me get into a good career. If I am forced to choose one out the two, I
will choose IIT.
8. Your advice to parents of aspiring IIT and IIM students:
Do not put undue pressure on your wards. Just give them all that they need to prepare to enter
into these institutes and leave the rest to them. Another thing: do not be over or under confident
about your ward … both are bad for your mental health and your kid’s chances of getting into
them. Parents must understand the real potential of their kid instead of just expecting him/her to
get into these institutes because your neighbor’s son/daughter has gone there … it puts extra
pressure on the ward. Try to focus on giving right and good values to the kids instead of getting
into a rat race. I think my parents could be the one who can advice parents better :-)
9. What’s your advice to students who can’t or didn’t make it to IIT or IIM?
As I have said above. IIT or IIM is not the end of the world … they are one of many routes to
become a good human being and be successful in life. If you do not get through, sulk for few
days only (because if you do not that would mean you did not try seriously ;-)) and then get on to
alternate journey to be a great human being etc. It is important to realize what is your goal and
accept that IIT and IIM can be one of many ways to get there.
www.credila.com
graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad. After a stint of Business Planning for Modi Telstra (later
acquired by Airtel) he headed roaming operations for Airtel's Kolkata circle.
Mr. Raman started his Six Sigma journey in GE Capital International Services in 2002. Since then he has been in the Six Sigma / Process Excellence field. He spent three & half years in WNS Global Services in various lead roles.
In his last role he headed the Business Process Excellence and Transformation function for one of its four verticals. Mr. Raman Heads the Information Technology & Business Process Excellence team at Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, A leading financial services company.
Mr. Raman is from IIT – Kharagpur and IIM - Bangalore
1. You have been one of those highly respected lot of students who have done both IIT and IIM. How does it feel?
It feels great. In fact it used to feel much greater around the time of passing out. God has been
good to me that I was blessed with parents who encouraged and supported me in all decisions I
took regarding these two great institutes of learning. I took one major decision each to get into
IIT-Kharagpur and IIM – Ahmedabad. I think as we grow I feel sense of responsibility towards society in general and nation in particular to contribute and enable people to become better and wiser. I tend to focus on these responsibilities while making money for myself and enable organizations improve profits.
2. In which way IIT and IIM has changed you?
A lot! Both institutes made me face the real world. In school it was a different environment and I was on top of the world but after entering these institutes I met with the real world and transformation of boy into man happened, I would say. I studied in Hindi medium till class so it was an additional challenge for me. Having said above, I feel incomplete as I grow and interact with more people – I guess that is the truth. These institutes made me focus on my strengths and forced me to work on my weaknesses. One more aspect of self realization happened in both institutes and that is improved self-confidence. Humans come to study and I was also one more
of them … no special shape, size etc. was required to get in there. Specifically, while IIT helped
me shape my overall personality and make me some great friends, IIM helped me sustain
pressure and improved my endurance, especially first year and more specifically the first term
where the pressure of academics was so huge that any minute wasted seemed like a big crime.
In those days I felt it was unnecessary pressure but I did not realize that institute prepared
students sustain pressure in corporate world.
3. To what extent the institutes play a role in your career growth?
A great deal. They are definitely great stamps on your resume. One can focus on performing well
at work after having these certificates instead of getting more certificates during job to enhance
one’s resume. Though academically they may not have directly helped me through subject matter
expertise but overall development does helps in corporate world. I still remember how MOC at
IIM-A has helped me all through. Another important aspect is networking with some great people
there. Our batch mates are all over the place at various senior positions in different industries and
geographies. Though need has not arisen so far but I am confident if there will be need these
friends will be there to help me.
4. What’s your advice to the students who are preparing for IITs and IIMs?
Just chill and focus on building core strengths and conceptual understanding. Mugging never
helps you get through these entrance formats. Do not be under pressure just do your best by
focusing on right studies and leave the rest to almighty. Getting a good coach (coach who
focuses on above said aspects) is critical. In the hindsight I feel a coach would have helped me
further … I did not have one. Even if you do not get through … it is not end of the world.
5. Some students have to make a choice between IIMs and MBA overseas. What’s your
advice to such students
IIMs. Action is here. The academics wise IIMs would be closer to Indian market and now there
are people who are migrating to India so why think of going overseas. However, in the event that
you choose to then make sure you go to one of the IVY leagues even if they cost you a bomb.
6. Other than academics, what else did you learn from IIT and IIM?
I think byproducts I learnt other than academics have been much more useful. I learnt a lot …
overall personality development, making friends, politics and how to deal with that; how to be self
and still deal with the world. Above all I guess self belief and self-confidence.
7. Which institute influenced you more IIT or IIM?
Difficult to differentiate between the two. Both influenced me in different way. While IIT shaped
me as a person, IIM helped me get into a good career. If I am forced to choose one out the two, I
will choose IIT.
8. Your advice to parents of aspiring IIT and IIM students:
Do not put undue pressure on your wards. Just give them all that they need to prepare to enter
into these institutes and leave the rest to them. Another thing: do not be over or under confident
about your ward … both are bad for your mental health and your kid’s chances of getting into
them. Parents must understand the real potential of their kid instead of just expecting him/her to
get into these institutes because your neighbor’s son/daughter has gone there … it puts extra
pressure on the ward. Try to focus on giving right and good values to the kids instead of getting
into a rat race. I think my parents could be the one who can advice parents better :-)
9. What’s your advice to students who can’t or didn’t make it to IIT or IIM?
As I have said above. IIT or IIM is not the end of the world … they are one of many routes to
become a good human being and be successful in life. If you do not get through, sulk for few
days only (because if you do not that would mean you did not try seriously ;-)) and then get on to
alternate journey to be a great human being etc. It is important to realize what is your goal and
accept that IIT and IIM can be one of many ways to get there.
www.credila.com
Tips to know before going to the U.S.
Register with the State Department using online service at https://travelregistration.state.gov to help contact when travelling in the US. This is important if family members back home need to get in touch for some urgent reason.
Familiarize with local laws and conditions as these are extremely important. What may not be `wrong’ in one country could very well be a criminal offence in another. To avoid trouble, it is better to be up to date with all laws and conditions which directly impact you.
In case of emergencies contact: 1-888-407-4747, if calling from the U.S. or Canada, or 202-501-4444, if calling from overseas.
www.credila.com
Familiarize with local laws and conditions as these are extremely important. What may not be `wrong’ in one country could very well be a criminal offence in another. To avoid trouble, it is better to be up to date with all laws and conditions which directly impact you.
In case of emergencies contact: 1-888-407-4747, if calling from the U.S. or Canada, or 202-501-4444, if calling from overseas.
www.credila.com
Safety in the United States
Unlike what most people believe, US is not a dangerous country. Most institutions have safety norms in place and campus orientation programs outline all the important factors which students need to keep in mind while studying in US.
Being Alert
This is extremely important and one should not take anyone or anything for granted. Most crimes happen because people are either ignorant or they do not pay enough attention.
Night Times
It is better to avoid being alone out in the night in areas which are know be to troublesome. If there is a requirement to walk in the nights, then it is better to go with a companion and not alone. Even within a campus if you are walking to your room, then preferably you should do it while it is still early evening or walk with a companion.
Larceny
Theft in campuses is quite common and losing valuables can be avoided with a little care. Never leave belongings unattended and one should not leave valuables, wallets lying around as there is a chance that it will get lost. Taking care of one’s belongings can avoid unnecessary problems.
Housing
Whatever type of house you stay in, i.e. campus dormitory, off campus, it is always better to lock the doors and windows at night time. Never open the door to strangers in daytime or night time. If someone says that they are a law official, ask them to show the badge which you can see through the key hole or `peep’ hole before you open the door.
Personal information and Identity are commonly stolen and therefore it is in your interest to safeguard this information.
www.credila.com
Being Alert
This is extremely important and one should not take anyone or anything for granted. Most crimes happen because people are either ignorant or they do not pay enough attention.
Night Times
It is better to avoid being alone out in the night in areas which are know be to troublesome. If there is a requirement to walk in the nights, then it is better to go with a companion and not alone. Even within a campus if you are walking to your room, then preferably you should do it while it is still early evening or walk with a companion.
Larceny
Theft in campuses is quite common and losing valuables can be avoided with a little care. Never leave belongings unattended and one should not leave valuables, wallets lying around as there is a chance that it will get lost. Taking care of one’s belongings can avoid unnecessary problems.
Housing
Whatever type of house you stay in, i.e. campus dormitory, off campus, it is always better to lock the doors and windows at night time. Never open the door to strangers in daytime or night time. If someone says that they are a law official, ask them to show the badge which you can see through the key hole or `peep’ hole before you open the door.
Personal information and Identity are commonly stolen and therefore it is in your interest to safeguard this information.
www.credila.com
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