Group Discussion & Personal Interview Lounge

After Effects

2009-06-28T02:49:00.000-07:00

Ok, Guys. I have not been writing for quite a while now. Was very busy with things in NMIMS. My course is seriously tough both physically and mentally and I dare no one can challenge that.

But lets talk about you guys. Some of you have been asking me to discuss the scores on this blog and also the future aspects for admission.

So what I would suggest is please post your score (individually of GD & PI) here. And also ur total score. Those who have got less, do not hesitate to write ur scores. It's nothing much, v can definitely work out things and may be I can guide u guys in a way next time dat u come out as toppers.

I would also post cut-offs of previous year and expected cut-off (as per my knowledge this year).

To know top B schools click on da link http://www.time4education.com/List_of_Top90-Schools.asp

If any of u have specific doubts do write it here.

End of Season

2009-06-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hi Guys,,

Writing after a long time. I started this blog on 10-may and since then I must say the response has been fabulous. Some of u guys have been regularly following this blog and putting up ur comments.

Ur support has helped me write in a better sense. I believe my english was not all dat gr8 but ya the knowledge helped me to move forward.

All the best to all of u guys for ur future. Do well which ever college u move into.

I ll come back next year a bit early to help all a new bunch of ppl and might be some old. This year I stepped in late so, cud nt help da candidates tu da fullest......but hopefully i might make bigger difference next year.

I ll like to give a special danks to all my followers who hv signed in. Without ur support writing here wud nt hv been possible.

Best of luck to all.

My CET PI experience

2009-05-28T02:42:00.000-07:00

Venue: JBIMS

Date: 25-May-09

Time: 4-5 pm

Hello guys, I finally got some time to write down this. After finishing my GD, we were send on the next floor. I still hadn’t completed that PI form. My one form was incomplete and I had to also complete the other form. I rushed on to complete the form, whereas people who were done with it went in PI room. I did not see well but I suppose there were 4 rooms.

As soon as I completed my forms I went to get the forms stamped, I signed on one paper, went back and set on the sofa. Just about 2 minutes later I was asked to go in.

I knocked the door, took the permission, went in. As expected there were two guys not so old (unexpected), I greeted them and set on the chair, and it all began.

Q: Tell me something about yourself?

A: Puri ram kahani suna di, starting from school till office and achievements everything.

Q: So u did ur pharmacy from SVBcp, verdarajan wala college?

A: yes sir

Q: Who is the principal now?

A: Donno sir, they keep on changing every 6 months.

Q: You know shettigar?

A: Rajni shettigar,(then principal of the college, was one of the best) yes sir, I was in good touch with her as i was sports secereatry of the college so had to interact a lot with her (thoda shining mara, but I think use samajh gaya mai kya kar raha tha)

Q: Where was ur office?

A: Vikhroli west

Q: U know setare?

A: Setare Irani, yes sir, she is in HR looks after placements.

Q: which is the most imp event in last decade, (I was not asked this question in last year’s PI)

A: Loan Waiver, (I explained him whatever I have written in that earlier post)

Q: What would u do if in ur office u are not in good terms with someone?

A: Sir, I would wait for an opportunity where in I can help them in their work and through that I would like to build a Rapport. I had such an incident when I was working in TCS, wherein I helped 2 guys of some different dept. (with whom I was not in good terms) that works hand in hand with my dept, in order to gain their trust. (It was a utter lie, but he definitely believed it)

Q: What should be done for India to become global power?

A: Improve ties with neighbouring countries.

Q: How would you deal with Pakistan?

A: Sir, I believe now we should impose on Pakistan govt to take help of our military power if they like it or not, and help them getting rid of terrorist group.

Q: But you are forcing some1, that is very different from what you said u would do in ur office.

A: I know sir, but there is a time frame for everything, and I believe the time is passed in case of Pakistan.

Q: What are ur strengths?

A: Adaptability and interpersonal skills (I explained it)

Q: What is ur weakness?

A: Multitasking

Q: But that is the strength of all the great personalities, why is it ur weakness?

A: Sir, it might be for others, but what happens is I have a tendency to work on different things or in different department at the sametime and help people, so what happens is the job that I have in my hand is at times delayed, which crestes a problem for me.

This thing has actually happened with me twice in my office wherein I received the mail from my client, and the work was supposed to be done ASAP, but I was not able to. (utter lie again, I do not know if he buy it or not)

Q: ok thanks

A: thank you sir

It was around 10 mins and PI was over. All in all a decent PI but I was not satisfied as it just slipped out of my mind to tell that about the fact that I do blogging and work for a NGO.

But then it was a good PI.

Alos Guys I am having a long weekend so ll nt be able to answer ny queries........but nyways I hope u all r prepared and so I wish u all the best......go ahead and screw all ur opponents

PI form questions

2009-05-26T02:32:00.001-07:00

1. All your details as in Roll no, application ID date and bla bla bla

2. Qualification from SSC, HSC yearwise details of graduation including year of paasing and marks in %.

3. Work ex if any.

4. Family background in short.

5. Academic achievement

6. Extra curricular achievement (intercollege and highest level)

7. Most Important event in last decade.

8. How can India become global power in coming years

9. Strengths and weakness

10. What makes you think you can become a successful manager.

My Answers

· Most important event in last decade – loan waiver, I have explained this in detail in my last post

· How can India become global power in coming years- I said by improving the ties with neighbouring countries.

By improving these ties we can save the huge amounts spent every year on defence and use that money for economic development. Moreover trade between these countries is cheaper and as a fact our neighbouring countries are full of natural resources we can advantage from it a lot. And also country like srilanka which is very strategically located can help us in trade with other eastern and western countries.

Strengths

· Adaptability

· Inter personal skills

Weakness

· Multitasking

· Attention to details

HERE IS MY CET GD EXPERIENCE- 2009

2009-05-26T02:16:00.000-07:00

It was 25^th Monday and I actually forgot about the fact that I was supposed to go for gdpi today unless one of my family member happened to ask me ‘when is ur gdpi?’

DATE: 25^th May

TIME: 4-5 pm

VENUE: JBIMS

I reached the centre at 3.45 pm (but I would suggest you guys to reach atleat 30 mins before time). As soon as I reached there I showed my hall ticket and the female registered my name. I was given two similar forms by her, I thought she did a mistake, But after few minutes I realized that I was supposed to fill both of them. It was new as last year I had filled only one form.

I was filling my first form and was just half way through that I was called for my GD. Roll no wise every1 entered the room and got seated. But I do not know y we were sitting in wrong places even after following the instructions so the panel inside called us roll no wise again and rearranged our places. It was actually funny.

One of the panellist opened a sealed envelope and gave us two topics and asked us to choose one topic. “Indian women compared to women of other nations.” And I do not remember other topic.

Well we were given 2 mins to jot down points. 2 mins were over but the panel didn’t ask us to start. I was ready so I looked around, I looked at a guy and he also seemed ready, so I smartly asked him to start without sayin a word. What he did was funny, he asked the panel if he could start and as expected by me panel immediately refused and asked him to wait. It was just 30-40 seconds later the panel asked us to start.

Discussion started, 2-3 guys pitched in ,I think I was 3-4 one to speak and I spoke for the first time in 2 mins of time. This is important as u need to enter the GD at every stage by keeping the time. Like if it is 10 min GD make sure u speak in first 2 min, then in nxt 3 mins and then twice in last 5 mins.

As discussion went along, I realized that I am in the right place at right time. People around me were seriously dumb they went emotional, someone spoke in hindi and no one gave facts and figures initially. I jumped in by throwing some light on history like sati pratha, dowry and still women as housewives.

Then I went on to compare women all over the world with Indian women, described Indian women in corporate world, example of shakti, Indian women in space. Then reservation of women in parliament. On flip side I also talked about mangalore incident, Juhu beach last year, etc.

Once I thought people were just repeating the points and some dumb’s were getting emotional about the topicand I in very short summarized what we had discussed till now and then Asked them to come up with solution in order to solve the problem.

At last panel asked us to summarize the topic, I took the initiative and summarized it well. All in all a good GD and my gamble of taking a Monday and first day helped me as candidates around me were seriously dumb. It would have been so because firstly any experienced or a working candidate would not come on working day, so a big intelligent lot is excluded and moreover all intelligent people want to listen first from others about this years GDPI and then go for GD.

Event in Last Decade

2009-05-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

Well I know every1 is wondering what to answer in this question. And it is quite tricky. I will give 2-3 events and you can choose anyone.

Whatever event you choose just make sure that you are able to explain a global impact of that event along with a national impact.

Loan Waiver

This would be quite unique if you say this. It was last year when in the budget congress declared loan waiver to farmers across the country.

Lets talk about Vidharbha in Maharashtra which has remain in news for farmers suicide and bad crop.Under the scheme, farmers holding more than 2ha of land are only eligible for a one-time waiver of Rs2,000, or 25% of their outstanding loans, whichever is higher. And this benefit, too, will be available only to those farmers who give an undertaking that they will pay up 75% of their loans by June 2009. Most farmers in Vidarbha are in no position to do this.

What happened is, congress immediately got the confidence back of farmers in the country. And given the fact that more than 60% of the population in our country depends on agriculture, a big vote bank was in favour of congress now. Even Rahul Gandhi after election win admitted that Loan waiver proved to be the pinch they required.

This I consider is a most important reason why congress won this election. And this win will definitely effect the country’s presence on global platform. Like still there would not be any change in policy with Pakistan and no urgency would be shown to get the culprits to India. There would be quotas for muslims in private sector now as said by congress in their manifesto.

It would be good as we will still have a honest Manmohan singh has PM. Congress will not raise ram mandir issue so no hindu-muslim problem there.

National Highway Development Project

The project was implemented in 1998. “National Highways” account for only about 2% of the total length of roads, but carry about 40% of the total traffic across the length and breadth of the country.

It lead to start of development of Golden Quadrilateral connecting four major cities Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata. In total 5846 km. Then there was establishment of North-Southand East-West corridor (7300 km).

Follow the link to know more.

What has this done is given a big boost to Indian infrastructure development. And as you know Infrastructure is most important for economic progress of any country, this project has immensely contributed to increasing FDI as the businesses have been given a boost and thus placing India very high on a global platform.

Other events

Here are some events which are important without any doubt but would be quite common and every 7-8 atleast out of 10 would be saying this. So if you want to say this get a nice way to put your point forward.

· 26/11

· IPL (get the necessary figures in my previous post on IPL)

· India on Moon

Nuclear deal (big boost to power sector. You can get the necessary figures on wikipedia)

Do write the comments and let me know what do you think about this post.

Political Figures related to this years election.

2009-05-22T02:26:00.000-07:00

Guys before I start this I forgot to tell you thinking u all might be aware of it.

Please read Times of India until ur GD/PI. It's very very important.

$2 billion (10000 crore) spent in this year elections. It is more than spent in US presidential race of 2008-09 which was 1.8 billion and also double to what was spent in our 2004 election which was 4500 crore.

Number of young voters increased a gr8 deal. Lok Sabha members between 25-40 years of age in last election were 34 which increased to a whopping 79 this election. No. Of members betwn 56-100 last election were 288 and this time 226.

Campaign sources were online media, social networking sites, mobile service operators, FM channels and yes never forget this year they started putting advertisement on Television in a way which was never done before.

Congress

Congress appointed Crayons advertising and JWT to handle it’s political campaign for whopping 150 crore.

It appointed Percept Picture company for it’s media campaign. Congress bought exclusive rights for A.R. Rehman’s “JAI HO” song from Super Cassettes Industries for another Rs 10 million.

BJP

15 agencies were invited to pitch in for BJP’s creative account that includes Euro RSCG, Grey Worldwide, Graphisads etc. But BJP hired two add firms viz: Frank Simoes-Tag and Utopia for it’s campaign.

History

1966- Swatantra party appointed Kersey Katrak a creative genius for it’s campaign

1984- Rajiv Gandhi called on Rediffusion Y&R to handle party’s creative duties.

GOLDEN FIGURES

2009-05-22T02:23:00.000-07:00

Here is my best post till date.

Best because this will give you immense opportunity in a GD to get the WOW effect in front of panellist. Just read and learn the things by heart.

60%- of the Indian population is below 24 years of age

You can use this sentence in any GD come what may. You just have to give a youth angle to it in order to use this. You can use it in politics (youth politics), election (awareness created by kaizad bhamgarh, read my post on India is socially responsible), bollywood, IPL, Managment studies, education system etc.

2,50,000- Number of cyber cafes in India

2%- Projected share of Indian software and BPO companies in global pie by 2015.

15- Number of brand SRK endorses today. 5crore/yr for each approx figure.

14.13- TRP of KBC 1&2. It’s the average figure.

11.14- TRP of KBC 3. SRK wala.

60%- of the rural household owns a meare less than 1 hectare land

7.5- lakh hectare of agriculture land are being diverted to other uses every year.

$50- billion required by developing countries every year to tackle global warming.

30%- of the world greenhouse gasses is contributed alone by US.

20.18- metric tonnes is US’s per capita emission of greenhouse gasses which is far ahead of UK’s 9.62. China contributes 2.9 and INDIA 1.09.

2012- year in which Kyoto Protocol will expire.

67,000 crore- expected revenue of Airtel by 2010. It was 16k in 2007.

50cr- expected subcriber’s of Airtel by 2010. As of today it has crossed 10cr mark.

68%- Adult Literacy rate in India whereas in China it is 95%.

27.5%- population below poverty line. No change from 2004 figure.

8.1%- unemployment rate

Miscellaneous

MHADA and the dream house

MHADA has collected rs 1300 cr from over 4.30 lakh applicants for 3863 flats.It is expected to earn approx Rs 20 crore as interest on this amount.

Liberalization

Happened in 1991. It opened the gateways for foreign investments first time in country after independence. Before that India was to file bankruptcy in 10 days. Under pressure from IMF, finance minister Manmohan Singh implemented new laws allowing foreign investment in India.

	Pre 1991	Post 1991
GDP	0.75%	7.5%
Inflation	18%	6%
Foreign Reserves	$1 bn	$20 bn

Strength and Weakness

2009-05-21T01:36:00.000-07:00

This is among the most expected question in a PI. And believe u me most of the answers are very very common. About 80% of the candidates go and say their strength is communication skill or good leadership quality. And among weakness there some stupid ones who say they that are emotional.

So please for God’s sake do not do such a mistake. Come up with some very nice and different strength and weakness. Now an important thing about your weakness should be that it should come out as your strength when you work on it. So think hard before you say anything.

Those who read this post will surely be at an advantage. I wil give you some strength and weaknesses which you can say and just back it up with certain proof (right or wrong doesn’t matter).

Top STRENGTH’s

1. Hard working

2. Workoholic

3. Proactive

4. Assertive

5. Time management (very imp from managerial aspect)

6. Passionate for work

7. Adaptable

8. Empathy

9. Problem Solving skills

Now even if you want to say communication skill use some better word atleast. Example Inter personal skill which include things like communication skill, leadership skill ability, to motivate others etc.

Also be ready with an explanation that you are going to give for your strength. I will show how

Adaptable: During my career in TCS and retail pharmacy and was involved in different procceses which were different from each other in so and so aspect and moreover having worked in a comfortable environment of IT company and exactly opposite environment in retail I truly believe I am very flexible in my approach.

Top Weaknesses

Please do not say that ur emotional or impatient. This things are absolutely no no for a manager.

More importantly never say that you have no weakness. Every person has one and panellist wants to know how much do you know yourself or how confident are you about yourself.

1. Multitasking

2. Workoholic

3. Impatient for deadline

4. Speak to the point

5. Daydreamer

Multitasking: During my career in TCS my major job responsibility was in Discrepancy management but along with that I use to be very inquisitive to learn how other processes like vigilance, coding etc work and generally use to help them in their functions. In that process I would at times effect my productivity. So now I am learning to concentrate on one thing only and gaining just the knowledge of other departments.

Follow what I said and see the difference.

How is prep going on? And how much is this blog helping?

2009-05-20T12:05:00.000-07:00

CET gd/pi are now on a verge. It’s 25^th when it all starts. Probably ur registration process would be over by now and you all would be excited about the centres.

But during this time and your D-day do remember to take the things lightly. As per my experience I truly believe that if you panic or are nervous even a bit it shows definitely in your GD. You stop thinking and start searching for words when you speak in GD. Here’s a tip watch a nice movie before you go for GD or have a fun time with people you like just to have that adrenaline going the other way.

(Seriously I like writing this. It makes me feel that I am something big now addressing people. lol)

And make sure about one thing you would have got any centre may it be JB or SNDT or thakur do not worry it all depends on the ot with which u r in ur GD. So do not worry. If you keep reading this blog regularly you will see how u have a edge on come what may.

How am I helping?

I have been writing this blog for just 10 days and number of visitor’s have reached more than 900. It’s amazing. (you can see the counter on extreme bottom right of the blog).

Thanks all for your appreciation.

Hey tell me how is this blog making difference in your preparation. What are specific topics or things that you have liked the most (the best one is yet to come).

And yes make sure even if you are out of time for preparation read following post on this blog:

1. IPL

2. Why MBA

3. Recession

4. Is India socially responsible?

And one more thing I would like to know how do you guys know about this blog

· Through my scrap on orkut

· Through my add on www.abhinavsaonkar.com

· Through friends.

Do post in your comments

Nepotism (Family) in Politics:

2009-05-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

See this Link. Article on Nepotism

Nepotism is giving preference to a person based on relationship, rather than on an evaluation of ones potential and ability. For an instance offering a job to ones relative rather than to a person who is much more qualified for the job.

Nepotism is a common accusation in politics when the relative of a powerful figure ascends to similar power seemingly without appropriate qualifications. Well if we talk about nepotism in politics the first thing which comes to our mind is dominance of Nehru-Gandhi family in Indian poltics. But if we look well into the topic, history has witnessed nepotism all around the world

When John F Kennedy appointed his brother Robert Kennedy attorney general he was acussed of nepotism. Apart from this the one more example: father of ex US president was also a president….n his great grand father was a senator.

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was daughter for Former Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto.

BENJAMIN DISRAELI, England’s first and only Jewish prime minister, once said, "In a progressive country change is constant; change is inevitable." But, I don’t think this applies to Indian politics because the scourge of nepotism has never left the centre stage of Indian politics. It’s constant.

INDIAN POLITICS

— Dominance of Nehru-Gandhi family

— Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was daughter of Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru

— Former prime minister Rajeev Gandhi was son of Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

In the state of Tamilnadu, legendary politician Karunanidhi promotes his entire family members in various leadership positions in his party DMK, his first son M. K. Azhagiri controls the party in southern areas, whereas his second son M.K. Stalin is nominated for next party president and Chief ministerial candidate, his daughter Kanimozhi is Member of Parliament, his nephew Murasoli Maran and grand nephew Dayanidhi Maran were central ministers.

From Abdullas of Jammu and Kashmir to Akalis of Punjab, from Choutallas of Haryana to Thackerays of Maharashtra, nepotism has spread across the India.

Most of the political parties are nothing but private limited companies.

Moreover a party being bulged up with many family politicians it’s always hard for a deserving candidate to rise up in the party and do good things for the nation. Like for example if Narendra Modi would have been in congress there would have never been talks of him entering national level politics.

What happens is even when candidates are not deserving or have not done much for the country they get unnecessary media hype and their image appears as great leaders well can be good can be bad leaders.

SAME CONSTITUENCY

Most of time relative of established politicians don’t even change their constituency for contesting election.

— Jawaharlal Nehru represented Amethi

— His grandson Rajiv Gandhi also represented Amethi

— Rahul Gandhi son of Rajiv Gandhi also represented Amethi and have won two election from that seat (2004 and 2009 general election)

IN FAVOUR OF NEPOTISM

People believe son or daughter of great leaders inherit those qualities.But such claims are not always true. There have been many failure of children of great politicians. For example Udhav Thackeray son of dynamic politician failed to reach expectation of public.

Moreover a son of Manmohan Singh or Advani would have seen political scenario and would have seen how certain activities are perfomed in this area and may be at an advantage.

The end result is our political parties, while fighting tooth and nail to perpetrate their kinds of rule in their local strongholds, are never interested in spending time and energy to democratize their internal systems. Most of the political parties are nothing but private limited companies.

Quality is a Myth

2009-05-19T10:50:00.000-07:00

Defining the topic:

Quality is an abstract term so to define it is bit difficult. But I will try doing that. “Quality is what satisfies the customer” (I have given this definition because you as a MBA are expected to think from customer point of view) Quality of a product made by a company is always dependant on the type of product and more importantly on type of consumers they target.

Like for example Television manufacturers will always have TV’s with different picture quality in market and as quality increases so does the price. But manufacturers of soft drinks have a price that is affordable by all and moreover they deal with health of a person so they cannot negotiate with the quality of their product.

Quality is something that gives three majors aspects to any product or services that is Reliability, maintainability and Safety. It suggests standards maintained by the company maybe high or low. If its a good quality product so is the goodwill of the company.

Now quality is not always a myth neither it’s always a reality, so in a GD do abstain from taking a stance instantly.

REALITY

Talking about India, India has set a Quality Council in 1997. QCI provides strategic direction to the quality movement in the country by establishing recognition of India conformity assessment system at the international level. QCI also has quality quality inspection bodies for regular quality assessment in any industry.

Quality helps in defining countries economy/GDP and it’s stature in global map.

Example’s GERMANY is known to manufacture it’s high quality cars which has luxurious and are one of their type in the world like Mercedes, Porsche, Smart etc.

INDIA is known for it’s services, which is of highest quality, in service sector industry which contributes more than 50% in GDP.

Companies like JUST DIAL have grown because of excellent quality of the service they provide. Whenever we call the helpline of justdial, an operator would attend to your call in less than 5 seconds which is less than most of the service providers.

JUMBO VADAPAV runs its business on the quality of vadapav they provide for which it doesn’t matter to them if their vadapav is costlier than the one found anywhere else. It now has 100 centres all over Mumbai and their major success factor is quality of their product.

In any pharma company in INDIA or abroad quality is something they cannot play with. They have to maintain the FDA recommended “Good Manufacturing Practices” even if they like it or not.

MYTH

But having said all this its not so nice everywhere. Quality remains still a myth at several places.

China is known to focus on quantity rather than quality. China mobiles in market are cheaper then you can imagine. Phones with same facilities in other brands are available at 4-5 times the cost of China mobiles. But the quality of phone and their accountability is never guaranteed. I mean if you see their sound quality its like the phone is still of ancient times.

Indian market some products that do lack quality due to following reasons: Cost, Time, Attitude, Lack of Competition etc. It takes an initial cost to renovate an existing product to bring in quality and assurance of quality. The 'chalta hai' attitude of some producers is taking its toll. For example, every year some thousands of farmers are committing suicides for fake seeds. And government than have to induce huge money like last year (25,000 crore were infused in agriculture industry as a bailout plan). We seriously lack in quality fertiliser and irrigation facilities. Many are dying due to food poisoning.

Many buildings are collapsing due to lack of quality in their planning. Example during Gujarat earthquake of 2001, in a city like Ahmedabad which has 4.6 million population as many as 50 multi storeyed buildings collapsed, and the main reason being that they were not constructed in a way where they can resisit an earthquake. For example most of the buildings there stood only on pillars at their base but if u see in Mumbai most of the buildings have large walls or some rooms at their parking place and not just pillars which makes the buildings more resistant to earthquakes.

Drastic differences:

· We have a high quality mineralised water (Bisleri) but at so many places there is lack of portable drinking water.

· Our ambulances cannot reach the destination in even an hour but we have pizzas delivered in less than half an hour.

· Our city roads are full of potholes and so called KHADAS and just connecting them would be express highway that shortens the journey time quite a bit.

Well friends do add in some points which you think are worth discussing in this topic.

I would say I had the toughest time writing this as it is not at all an easy topic to discuss on. I hope I did justice to the topic.

Why MBA? And Why do a MBA without Work ex?

2009-05-18T12:18:00.000-07:00

Personal Interview Tips

Ok so as per request laid down by some of you I will throw some light on the two questions above.

Why MBA?

Now first I will answer this for those who have a work ex. For fresher’s answer needs to be different.

In simple term’s say

“During my career in so and so company I had a chance to know a bit how Marketing, Finance and HR department works. But I had just an overview of the processes and so never was able to know exactly how this three processes gel in a company and helps it to move forward in a stable manner. During my 2 years of management studies I would like to have a deeper knowledge of these three processes and would want to excel in one. Moreover I would also like to learn and develop attributes that would help in problem solving, strategic decision making and a framework approach to a problem.”

NOTE: In an interview always be clear what specialization you want to do (even if in your mind you are still confused) in MBA as in 80% interviews this question is asked or if not asked panellist can sense if you are confused or know what you want to do.

Why you want to do a MBA without a work ex?

See first of all it’s always better to do a MBA after having a work ex and whatever you say believe me the panellist sitting over there are going to laugh. But still in order to make them laugh a bit less and in order to give them something to think about I will give you two responses. Choose either of them or both of them.

1. Throughout my career I have craved for knowledge. I generally would like to know the things in detail or will work hard to get the knowledge about a particular activity and then perform it. (Try and back it up with some example: like talk about some quiz competition u have taken part in, tell them you joined your graduation course after learning the industry as a whole and also overview of the subjects of the course.) So if I start working in a company which would obviously have a finance, marketing and HR dept and if I would not know what this department do then I might not be able to give my 100% to the job. So I would like to do a MBA and then pursue my career in the Industry.

2. Say that I have throughout my career kept a balance between academics and extra/cocuricular activities. I have been involved in managing events at intra/inter college level. (Come up with numbers like I have managed event concerning x no of colleges having y no of events and some z no of students participated in it). I was able to do that in my third and final year of graduation because I had seen how the events work for first two years of college. So now I want to enter a company after knowing how different departments work in it so that whenever I get a chance to lead an activity I am ready, with me having attributes that helps problem solving, strategic decision making and a framework approach to a problem.

Give your suggestion on the post in the comment section it is always encouraging.

"If you like the blog Be a follower" (see the side bar on the right side).

SATYAM SAGA

2009-05-17T14:09:00.000-07:00

Now I am not expecting this topic to come in this year GD. But I have seen cases where in PI of several colleges this year questions on Satyam fraud were asked. So on request from some of you I will go through the important fact and figure of the company and the fraud.

The Company

Satyam was founded in 1987 by Ramalinga Raju. It was presently the fourth largest IT company in the country. It is spread over 66 countries and it’s reported employee strength before the fraud was 53,000.

The company offers information technology (IT) services spanning various sectors, and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, Euronext and BSE. Satyam has strategic technology and marketing alliances with over 50 companies.

The Fraud

In 2008, Satyam attempted to acquire two infrastructure companies (Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties) founded by family relations of company founder Ramalinga Raju for $1.6 billion, despite concerns raised by independent board directors. Both companies are owned by Raju's sons. The deal was overvalued and what raju tried to do with this deal is that he wanted to transfer the inflated profits shown in satyam’s balance sheet towards these companies.

Another alarming bell was Raju’s consistent decreasing stake in the company. Stock Exchange figures show a number of senior people in the company, including Raju and CFO Vadlamani were reportedly selling Satyam's shares over the last 22 quarters.

June 2001, Raju had nearly 23 per cent shares. By December that year, his share was down to 22.4 per cent.

September 2002, it fell to 21.6 per cent which fell a year later to just over 19 per cent.

2004, Raju's holding was 16 per cent which fell to 14 per cent in 2005, 11 per cent in 2006. In 2007 it was in single digit.

September 2008, Raju's share was just 8.27 per cent.

Other senior officials also reportedly sold large number of shares. Sources say they include one Kiran Cavale who reportedly sold 400,000 shares and 10,000 ADRs and one Rajan Nagarajan who reportedly sold 430,000 shares and 70,000 ADRs.

While some say that the Satyam scandal will not have a long-term negative impact on the working of India’s reputed information technology (IT) industry, others say it could negatively impact India’s booming IT services which chalked up overall sales worth 52 billion dollars in 2007-2008.

Overstated Numbers

Satyam’s employee strength was shown to be 53,000 but it said to be actually only 40,000 or may be less.

Satyam’s operating margin wasn’t the 24% as shown in its accounts audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers, but just 3%.

Satyam’s worth was estimated at seven billion dollars, before the fraud, is now worth less than 330 million dollars.

The shares of Satyam plunged nearly 78% and also brought down the broader market.

See Ramalinga Raju’s letter for more.

World Bank Angle

The World Bank had banned Satyam from doing business with it for 8 years due to inappropriate payments to the World Bank's staff. The World Bank accused Satyam of giving improper benefits to its (the Bank's) staff and of failing to maintain documentation to support fees charged for its subcontractors. However, it clarified that Satyam was not involved in incidences of data theft or malicious attacks that had been made on the Bank's information systems.

Pricewaterhouse Coopers

It is the world's largest professional services firm. It was founded in 1998.

This company carried out audits of satyam over the year’s and never had a good record.

India's accounting standards agency ICAI is investigating partners of PwC for professional negligence in the now-defunct Global Trust Bank Ltd. case of 2007. Like Satyam, Global Trust Bank was also based in Hyderabad. This led to Reserve Bank of India banning PwC from auditing any financial company for over a year. PwC was also associated with the accounting scandal at DSQ Software in India. In July 2006, PwC’s Japanese affiliate Chuo Aoyama was handed a two-month ban. Following the Satyam scandal, the Mumbai-based Small Investor Grievances Association (SIGA) has requested the Indian stock market regulator SEBI to ban PwC permanently and seize its assets in India alleging few more scandals like "Ketan Parekh stock manipulations."

Lawsuits

There are 11 firms who have filed lawsuits against satyam in US. To know the names follow the link.

Upaid also filed a lawsuit, Upaid employed Satyam in 1997 to develop software needed for the commercial deployment of Upaid's advanced intelligent payments processing framework. Court admissions in London show that the Indian company deliberately and systematically misled Upaid about the existence of internal assignments of IP by Satyam's own employees. Satyam's own witness testimony makes clear at the time Satyam purportedly assigned all ownership rights to Upaid in 1998; it did not in fact own what it was selling to the payments service firm.

A patent infringement court case launched in Texas against third parties in 2005 revealed the use of forged signatures by Satyam employees on critical documents provided to Upaid by Satyam in the course of the software development.

After Effects

Ramalinga Raju resigned and now can face a seven year long imprisonment.

CBI will try to find out the details of the missing Rs 7,000 crore, the 250 benami accounts and the alleged thousands of accounts in the brothers' names.

Tech Mahindra acquired Satyam. Upon being declared the highest bidder, Tech Mahindra and Satyam executed an agreement whereby Tech Mahindra agreed to subscribe to and acquire 30.28 crore shares of Satyam, representing 31 per cent of its share capital, at Rs. 58 a share. This will infuse Satyam with Rs. 1,756 crore. The subsequent open offer for 20 per cent, amounting to Rs. 1,132 crore, will result in a total of Rs. 2,889 crore coming into the company for the 51 per cent stake.

Corporate governance in India

It passes one’s understanding how malfeasance of such a magnitude could escape the eyes of the auditors, with even cash balances apparently remaining unconfirmed with banks. It is puzzling too that such a huge hole in the finances did not show up somewhere and could not be spotted by the numerous investment analysts or the several investment banks and institutional investors holding shares in Satyam. The Satyam fiasco casts a shadow over the nature of corporate governance in India.

Learning’s

We need to put in place systems and procedures to prevent their recurrence. A start could be made with changes in audit procedures and in the role and the responsibility of auditors.

INDIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

2009-05-17T04:23:00.000-07:00

Now I know you all are masters in this topic but still I am posting this to make you aware of the figures in it and to make you realize how it can be used in any GD that comes across you.

Example if anything comes on politics talk about sharad pawar in IPL, then it being moved out of country this year. If something comes on economy talk about the big boost it has given to organized as well as unorganized market, If something comes on Indian sports at international level u can talk about IPL comparing it with football and NBA league of US. Other places are topics on bollywood, beurocrats, Indian on international level and lots more.

So let’s get started.

As I always say, U should very well know the history of a topic and should say a few things at the start.

HISTORY

T20 started in England, and first game was played in 2003. Describe the game as in T20 is a slam bang way to play cricket, short, dramatic and lots of fans.

Also when talking about IPL do mention at the start of GD that first it was ICL and then IPL league started by Subhash Chandra of ZEE TV.

Players in ICL- Shane Bond (NZ), Brian Lara (WI), Inzaman-ul-haq (PAK)

Contrast in television earnings

Television Rights of this tournament have been jointly bought by SONY entertainment television and the World sports group for $1.03 billion (4000 cr approx) for 10 years.

Comparing it with ICC , it last year sold its entire block of broadcasting rights upto 2015- including all world cups to be organised till then to ESPN-STAR for $1.1 billion (4400 cr). IPL is only one tournament and it is valued more than all the combined tournaments that including several cricketing nations. They also had to compulsorily spend $108 million (432cr approx).

Cricket Australia earns $ 55 million (220 cr) a year and England Crickt board earns $ 75 million (300 cr) from media sales of its entire cricket programme.

Playing With Money

BCCI franchised eight teams to prominent bidders for a cumulative amount of $723.6 million (2994 crore), again for 10 years.

BCCI can also create four more teams during this time.

The title and trophy sponsorship was taken by DLF for $50 million (200crore) for 5 years which will be followed by fresh bids.

Lalit Modi, Vice president of BCCI said “ I am very sure that the minimum revenues of the IPL will amount to well over $2 billion in it’s first decade”.

Teams

· Mumbai- Mukesh Ambani- $112 million ( 448cr)

· Bangalore- Vijay Mallya- $111 million (444cr)

· Kolkata- SRK- Rs 300 crore

Revenue Generation

Revenue during the IPL is generated from various ways advertising, gate receipts, stadium rentals as well as range of associated businesses in tourism and hospitality.

Given the fact India has 65% of the world’s television audience for cricket, The SET-WSG combine has plans to capitalise on this. SET-WSG is offered a combine of 12750 10 seconds slot every year which can be sold to advertisers. According to their calculation it can sell these for an average rate of $ 6000-6200 (rs 2.4 to 2.5 lakh) over a three year period.

IPL has also help to increase the prime time 4 pm to 11.30 pm during the season.

Marketing

BCCI has appointed advertising firm O&M (one who does Vodafone advertisements) to conduct a promotional campaign worth approx Rs 100 cr to be carried out for the duration of tournament.

A senior manager of media firm Mindshare believes that the franchisee will spend an average of rs 25 crore each on their respective brands thus a cumulative of 192-200 crore and this is to increase at the rate of 8-10 per cent every year.

Players

Dhoni was bought on three year contract for Rs 6 crore. Thus weekly earnings of Dhoni per season comes out to 1 crore. John Terry, Captain England football team earns almost the same.

Symonds was bought for 5.4 crore per seson which is higher than the annual contract awarded to any Australian cricketer by that nations cricket board.

International Leagues

IPL has around 50-60 matches that lasts around six weeks and this would increase once BCCI increase the number of teams from 8 to 12.

Major League Baseball in US consists of 30 teams with 162 games in a year but it stretches for around 6 months. So in a month around 27 games per month which is lamost at par with IPL.

In football English Premier clubs play around 80 to 100 days a year to generate the critical mass of advertising opportunity.

Boost to Indian Economy

Now such a huge amount of money introduced into the country helps various classes in the society. Cricketers who used to play ranji trophy earler never made enough money to sustain family once they leave cricket but now the things are different. More number of Indian cricketers are able to make good amount of money from IPL.

Organized sectors like tourism and hospitality is affected very positively.

More and more people are getting jobs as ground staff and maintenance personnel in the country with many new grounds coming up.

Unorganized market also gets a boost. Example being there were around 500 chaiwallas and 150 pan and cigarette walas outside stadium in Mumbai last year during IPL matches.

Well this is a large topic and points from this post can be used to correlate with many other topics so read out carefully and do post your comments and tell me if you liked the topic or not.

General GD topics- Must for All

2009-05-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

GENERAL GD TOPICS - MUST FOR ALL

I present here a few topics that I have collected which I think will certainly help you all. These are topics that are generally asked or are likely to be asked.

1. Is coalition politics here to stay?
2. Does India need a dictator?
3. Is India moving away from a secularist state?
4. Education in India - or the lack of it
5. What ails Indian sports?
6. The Age of Information
7. Is Philosophy just an armchair theory?
8. Success is all about human relations
9. Borderless worlds - Dream or reality?
10. Quality is a myth in India.
11. Education and success - Is there a correlation?
12. We don't learn from history, we repeat it
13. Do we need a global policeman?
14. Indian villages - our strength or our weakness?
15. Agrarian Economy in India - boon or bane
16. if there were no armies in the world......
17. Indian customs - are we in a time warp?
18. "How green was my valley........". Is nature paying the price ?
19. Management Education - Is it necessary to succeed in business
20. The role of NGOs in economics and politics
21. NGOs - Do they serve peoples interests or are they pressure groups?
22. Death of Socialism
23. Role of women in development
24. Kids today are not what they used to be
25. Casteless India - A pipe dream
26. Should Trade Unionism be banned in India
27. Repeated elections - Should taxpayers pay for it?
28. Indian bureaucracy - foundation strengths or colonial hangovers?
29. In India, the whole is less than the parts - Do we lack in team spirit?
30. Generation X - Drivers of our future or are they our lost souls?
31. Do we need a cut in the defense budget?
32. "Dot.com" companies - Is there room for everyone?
33. Artificial Intelligence - Will man be ever replaced by machines?
34. if I were to choose my person of the millennium...
35. All the world is a stage....
36. when managers become Hamlets...
37. If Patel were our first Prime Minister.......
38. Materialism - Have we sold our souls to the Devil?
39. You've come a long way, baby - The rise and rise of feminist power .
40. Role of ethics in tobacco industry, liquor industry etc.
41. Should gambling be legalized in India?
42. Are we unfit for Democracy?
43. Survival tools for the new millennium
44. Examinations - has it killed education
45. Cultural Invasion through the air waves
46. Should doctors be tried in Consumer Courts
47. Abortion and Euthanasia - Is it morally right for society
48. Are beauty pageants necessary?
49. The relevance of Gandhism today 50. Nipotism in politics.

Some expected topics related to political scenario

2009-05-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Is coalition politics here to stay?

Since 1990, the Indian electorate has consistently thrown fragmented verdicts both at the state and national levels. This has led parties with small (and sometimes fundamental) ideological differences to come together as a loose federation of parties to stake claim for power.

The following points could be discussed under this topic:

Nature of coalition politics, Indecisiveness of elections, No particular party is getting the peoples mandate, Advantage of coalition politics in enabling formation of government.

Flipside of coalition politics- a party with a handful of seats become powerful, Government falls before tenure, Fresh elections each time,

Suggest a way out of this problem, for e.g.: once a party pledges support to a coalition, it will not withdraw its support until it has watched a governments performance for at least three years...etc The future -will it only have coalitions ,emerging political trends...etc...

election 2004

Does India need a dictator?

The following points could be discussed under this topic:

Always discuss the past, like the age old King rule was like a dictatorship, where it all started etc. Discuss the past of our country and also which present rulers are supposingly have dictator lke image eg. Narendra Modi

The current political structure. Drawbacks of it, like with existence of too many political parties its not possible to take right or innovative decision (nuclear deal wonderful example) Bureaucracy, layers in decision making, anarchy.

Give example of some international dictators like Hitler under whom, Germany had much more and faster economic progress, East India Company ruled India for over 150 years and India showed more economic progress from 1910 to 1940 than from 1947 to 1980.

Dictatorship would mean centralized power and faster decision making. But, country run on whims and fancies of an individual. Freedom on individuals could be clamped..etc....give example of this year’s election wherein the results show that individual’s political interest is no longer supported by people Present a balanced argument for and against and take up your position on the issue.

Is India moving away from a secularist state?

The following points could be discussed under this topic:

Define secularism. Constitution calls our country such a state, but how things have changed over the last 50 years, examples of babri masjid, Gujarat riots, Spread of nationalism. Division into majority and minority groups-e.g. benefits given to minority groups perceived as a threat by others.

Role of non-tolerant neighbours in fuelling fundamentalism. It is a passing phenomenon. We have the national character to overcome this....Points along these lines can be discussed.

IS INDIA SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE

2009-05-14T12:47:00.000-07:00

This is an actual GD topic which was asked in this year welingkar’s PGDM exam this year.

If u want to start this GD make sure u know what is social responsibility and by saying that I man u know how to define it.

START

If u wiki the word social responsibility u get the following definition

Social responsibility is an ethical or ideological theory that an entity whether it is a goverment, corporation, organization or individual has a responsibility to society. This responsibility can be "negative", meaning there is a responsibility to refrain from acting (resistance stance) or it can be "positive," meaning there is a responsibility to act (proactive stance)

Beautiful thing about this definition is you instantly open the gates for a broad-spectrum GD because u mention 4 things viz: “ goverment, corporation, organization/institute or individual ”.

Then ask a question in start itself “ How many political parties, goverment, corporation, organization or individual are actually acting in a responsible manner towards the society”

Lets discuss each of them in detail so that we can know is India really a socially responsible state or not.

By giving such a start u open so many points for discussion that candidates will build on your points nd discuss the topic. Thus you not only get full marks to start a GD but u also get good leadership skills marks right at the start because u have given a relevant direction to GD. This is the WOW effect I was talking about in my earlier posts.

Now lets see certain examples in each field which can show if INDIA is socially responsible

Government/ political parties

Classic example of government being socially responsible is our government has introduced a law wherein kids with any disorder can study in any regular school and school cannot suspend him/her on basis of mental disorder (obviously i know this after watching Taare Zameen Par)

Kyoto Protocol : India is a member of this protocol which aims on reducing the green house effect. (To know more visit the link)

Moral police: This is a brilliant point which shows how parties are socially irresponsible.

U just place this point and let the candidates build on it. They will give examples of Ram sena bitting up females in mangalore, Shiv sena bitting up couples on valentine days.

Divide and rule: in this talk about Raj Thackeray and his actions to remove north Indians out of Mumbai, talk about the vote bank politics Manmohan Singh lately said “ Is desh ki amdani par pehla haq muslmano ka hai “

Maharashtra govt. Had introduced a law wherein Taxis older than 15 years were supposd to go off the road. This would have helped the environment and to reduce the carbon footprint.

Also there is a rule in JAPAN wherein number of cars on the road per day are restricted to a particular number. This point can be made just to show how countries around the globe are becoming socially responsible.

Organization/institutes: There are several examples which show how they are socially responsible/irresponsible

Akruti murder case:

This is an example of how a 17 year old lost her life might be because of school / teachers mistake. But even after that Principal of the school did not resign. Now if she would have resigned Police or any investigating team would have been able to do a fair investigation which would have been unbiased but now akrutis parents would never be sure if the investigation were fair and unbiased.

Here principal was not socially responsible enough to resign so that fair trial could have been conducted.

Lead india campaign This is the campaign which shows how Times of India have affected the society in various fields.

NGO’s everyone knows how effective are NGO’s in a society may Narmada bachav Andolan , CRY, Helpage India.

Facts and figures:

In India there are around 1.2-1.5 million NGO’s

In last year Mumbai marathon total amount collected in donations for NGO’s was 6.67 crore wherein highest individual contribution was 19 lakh rupees.

Corporates

Corporate Social Responsibility is something you should talk more about in GD because after doing your MBA most of you would want to go in one or the other corporate giants.

Hindustan lever- Shakti

ITC e-choupal

GE ecomagination

Otherexamples are:

TCS- Conducted a Jagruti yatra wherein it enrolled people from its company who were interested in starting a business. Those enrolled went on a tour all over India, and studied new business ideas from actual businessman may it be at the level of a village or someone else.

Individual

Littering around and throwing waste on roads and streets is not at all being responsible and Indians need to learn that.

Mumbai train blast where people helped each other more than what police or emergency services did at the blast site is a true example of being socially responsible.

Social networking sites This is a platform for many to create social awareness.

To give an example Kaizad Bhamgarh, a 19 year old was so moved after 26/11 in Mumbai that he left of his drums (he use to play in a band) and devoted his spare in time forming a community RISE MUMBAI RISE INDIA on facebook which then became a, blog and then a website. He encouraged people over here to come forward and vote. Right now his community has more than 8000 members.

This is more than sufficient information on this topic and some of the points like carbon footprint, e choupal, shakti etc can be used in more than one topic.

Please post any suggestion regarding this or if you want information on any other thing related to GD/PI.

Tips for Personel Interview

2009-05-13T02:30:00.000-07:00

This is your chance to turn the things your way. Interviews are the key to admission. Even if you have got a strong GD, interviews can turn the things for you the other way.

There is a popular saying that always be honest in your interview, well I would say never make that mistake. Be honest about brighter things in your life but never about the –ve things.

Like if an interviewer asks you what are your weakness never say you are emotional or impatient even if you are.

Secondly never give your strengths or weakness which is very popular like for example never say that communication skill is your primary strength, I bet 80% of the candidates would be saying that during an interview for an MBA college. Come up with something new, something rarely heard.

Just make sure whatever you say you have some examples to prove it. Like if you say your strength as problem solving skills, or adaptability back it up by saying something like as follows:

Adaptable: with the fact that I was engaged in different processes during my career in TCS and me having worked in a very comfortable environment of an IT company and in an exactly opposite environment in a Retail company I would say I am flexible enough (this is my career profile)

For all those who have work ex always try and give examples related to your job. For fresher’s figure out something from your extracurricular like managing an event, or taking part in quizzes.

For a CET interview try and show them some of the manager skills. When an interview asks you “tell me something about yourself” try and tell him some managerial aspects that you have done in your professional or academic career. Such things need not be true but make sure you have answers to any questions that come up your way.

Also in CET interview the panellist are generally old professors so do not try to use your vocab too much stick with basic words, you can use smart words but keep it simple easy to understand.

When asked about hobbies never say you like playing cricket or watching music. More than 85% students would be saying this. Some better hobbies could be photography, coin collection, blogging. Just google it out and learn some basic things about it and go and say it in the interview.

Just make sure in an interview that the panel knows that you have three basic attributes

Thinking clearly and analytically
Problem solver
Communication & Presentation skills

In short time, I would also post what answers you could give to a particular questions that come your way in an interview so that these skills what generally any interviewer looks for is seen in you by him.

GLOBAL MELTDOWN/ RECESSION

2009-05-10T04:11:00.000-07:00

If you plan to start this GD get a clear picture about how you gonna define this topic. But before that try and start it with a QUOTE

START: QUOTE It's a recession when your neighbour loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.

Global meltdown means economic slowdown of the economies of the countries around the world. Average decrease in GDP would be around 2%. We had similar scenario back in 1929 during the great depression (always talk a little bit about the history of any topic but only in the start)

Then form a framework by saying “ Lets go through this discussion in the following manner to get a detailed approach first lets discuss what was the cause behind this recession, then we can discuss it effects and later on the ways to come out of this recession.”

This would take around 30-40 seconds and would fetch you full marks to start a GD

And also remember if you lay down a framework for a GD always try and follow that and if people go off the track bring them back in line.

Cause: Subprime mortgages: This typically relates to unprecedented lending by banks. Subprime lending allowed people with less than ideal credit record to become house owner (eg: a person who would have declaredbankrupcy in last 5 years was eligible for a subprime). This lending were done on higher interest rates and moreover such loans/credits can be used for financing other things like cars, furnishings or another house.

Subprime mortgages had increased by 292% from 2003-07.

This resulted in increase in housing rates all over the world.

Grahm leach Bliley act: This act was signed by Bill Clinton in 99-01 that weakened the regulation of Fannie Mae (Federal National Mortgage Association) estb in 1938. This was the reason for getting the loans easily.

Oil Prices: This was a cause or effect cant be said but because of this, price of most of the commodities increased by leaps and bounds.

To know the increase I will give some figures. In 1987 it was around 40$, till 2007 it increased upto 60$ but in just a year in 2008 it went up to become more than 120$. That is 50% increase in 2 decades and 100% increase in 1 year.

Sulphuric Acid prices: This is a chemical used in steel processing, Copper production, bioethanol production etc. Price of H2SO4 increased by 3.5 fold.

Effects: Because of increase in oil and sulphuric acid prices, cost of food products and various FMCG products increase leaps and bounds.

Because of subprime loans banks were unable to recover the money and various banks declared bankruptcy and that lead to sincere –ve effect on economic situation of US and other countries

Automobile industry was severly impacted, inability of middle class to buy the vehicles was one of the major reason. And it still going on eg: expected Nano bookings 5lakh cars by Tata group but it were shocked to see bookings as low as only 2lakh this year.

Industrial production world over saw a decline. In March 09 Japan saw a decrease of 31% whereas Russia saw of 16%.

Unemployment In 2008, US lost 2.6 million jobs. International Labour organisation predicted that at least 20 million jobs will be lost in 2009.

Tourism Industry Because of cost cutting on corporate and personal level various business trips and vacations were cut off because of which aviation and tourism industry suffered a lot. Famous eg: of Jet airways giving pink slips to 1900 employees last year. Moreover low priced air ticket was not seen any more.

Solution: Bailout plans have been really useful, may it be $700 billion in US or 25000 crore plan for farmers in India,

Cost cutting or cost management by MNC’s has been the major tool to fight recession. This meltdown has been an eye opener to various IT companies was they have started saving on very basic things like electricity and stationery. I will give an eg through my personal experience. I used to work for TCS, when I joined in 2007 whenever we asked for notebooks we used to get beautiful spiral binded book with a cover page of TCS, but now we get stapled left over pages at the printer (I also happened to see some of the salary slips in those print outs).
Salary cuts and no promotion policy is also used by many companies.

This much information is more than sufficient for you to talk on any topic related to recession.

Throughout the GD give out some eye-openers like grahm leach Bliley act, some figures like oil prices over the decades, some rarely known facts like cost of Sulphuric acid and get the WOW effect I talked about in previous post

2009-05-10T04:01:00.000-07:00

What is the panel looking for in a GD? And How can you excel in it..

Group discussions are used to gauge various personality traits in you. A typical GD consists anywhere from 8-12 candidates and would generally reflect a board room meeting of a company. Thus by placing you in such a scenario an institution tries to assess the capability of its future students to cope with and perform effectively in a group.

About the panel....

It typically consists of two personnel generally one from industry and one would be a faculty member. In GD’s of CET (I say this from my personal experience) they would generally be faculty members and age would not be on their side. Learning from this never try and act smart in front of them.

What do they look for...and how to excel

First things first you need not necessarily have the qualities like leadership or flexibility in you but the art is that the panellist should believe that you do have it and I will show how to do that...
Leadership skills: a very important aspect. Ultimate desire of most of the students studying in management institute is that one wants to become a successful manager and such a person should have skills of a leader.

In a GD try to give a direction to the discussion for eg: if the topic is on global meltdown start a GD by saying “Lets have a broader approach on the topic and discuss it in the following way 1. Lets UNDERSTAND the topic (define it) 2. Talk about the CAUSE 3.EFFECT’s of it 4. How to COME OUT of the meltdown.

If people are going off the track ask them to pause and make them realize what the topic is truly about (before a panellist does that)

If you are speaking well in the GD try to bring the candidates who have not spoken, into the discussion. This should be done only at the time you see that candidate wants to speak. You can say “ I think gentleman/lady here is trying to make a point so lets give him/her a try”. By saying this you will immediately gain an advantage over others.

Communication Skills: this is a core competency in a GD. Not only your speech but your body language helps in sharpening this skills.

While talking avoid using any fillers eg words as ‘LIKE, you know, i mean “ and a definite avoidance would be use of hindi words like “ matlab ki. Or ki”

Your hands can be your strength in a GD use it in accordance with your talk but never point at any1 along the GD. Never do the mistake of keeping your palms together thats a sign of nervousness.

Eye contact is a major aspect which any examiner clearly notices. Do have an eye contact with everyone and for equal amount of time. And never look at the panellist not even while summarizing or concluding.

Diversification: In a GD have wide variety of points to say, like for a topic on Social responsibility talk about Moral policing, Tax paying, Talk on a cooperate angle like e-choupal, akritis death case, NGO’s etc

Initiatives: Talk about points that helps others to add on and built on it, like if you frame and keep up the point of moral policing I bet immediately someone will come up with ramsena, next person will come up with raj thachkeray. This shows how people follow you in a scenario.

This are four basic things other things would be Assertiveness, Creativity, Flexibility etc:

Finally in an entire GD there should atleast be three places where an examiner should say WOW listening to what you have said this is wat I call the “WOW EFFECT”.

If you have any suggestions please paste a comment here.