Smarter Route to Success: Full Time MBA Vs Part Time MBA (Post on Request)

Author: Sheena Anand

Sheena Anand is a Software Engineer in Tata Consultancy Services. She’s a part of the 1000 Crore “Passport Seva Project” at Tata Consultancy Services. She is pursuing her Part Time MBA Program from IMT Gaziabad, a Premier MBA School of India.

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/10/14/stories/2008101452380400.htm

Case – I: An Out-of-College Graduate going for a Full Time MBA Program

 Final Year Undergraduate School Student studies 24 x 7 to get admission into an A-grade Business School (One of the toughest task in India); manages to bag in a seat; and joins an MBA program for 2 years on the completion of his Undergrad Course. Being a hardworking guy, he manages to get a job in one of the top companies.                       

Case – II: An Experienced Professional going for a Part Time MBA Program 

A professional having 5 years work experience, doing great in job, after exploring all his areas of interest, wants to move up the organizational ladder, to switch to a coveted managerial position, which he feels would escalate his career further. He joins a Part Time MBA of an A-grade B-School.

 I look in for a Conclusion:

Out of the above two cases, it’s difficult to objectively decide which has been a better decision. But analyzing both the scenarios, both of them did just the best suiting the situation. After discussing both the situations with a large number of people having expertise in this area, I reached a conclusion which was otherwise difficult to arrive at.

Expanding on Case I:

Since the person is just out of a Grad School and has no work experience, he in general lacks soft skills and the attitude one develops in time, by associating oneself in a professional environment. A full time MBA program can help him achieve instant nirvana, without much of struggle and get him into the organizations management. This approach promises a perfect investment of time and money and pays dividends immediately after graduating.

Expanding on Case II:  Since the person has a substantial work experience, and is looking for a career lift in the same industry, nothing can be better and satisfying for him to pursue a Part Time MBA from a reputed B-School. 

What about Switching Industry post MBA?

Switching the industry is generally not a choice of such experienced professionals for a switch would erode away all his previous work experience. As a matter of fact, even the employers don’t appreciate it. For a person working as a Software Engineer with an IT company for the last 5 years, wanting to get into Marketing of FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), the first thought that would tickle the mind of the employer would be that why at all did the person work in an IT Industry for 5 years if he eventually wanted to move into FMCG – Was he indecisive? Would he be able to cope up well with no prior experience in the FMCG domain?

 A subjective comparison on how the Part Time MBA stacks up against the Full Time MBA:

1) Recruitment opportunities post Full Time MBA Program is tremendous when compared to the limited opportunities post Part Time program. Moreover if the Part Time program is sponsored by your own company, the employee cannot try for recruitment with a new employer.

2) An advantage with Part Time programs is the rich experience brought to classrooms by working executives enrolled in the program which is mostly missing in the Full Time.

3) Part Time program offers a challenge to balance study, work and personal life. 

4) Part Time program is more hands-on and practical when compared to a Full Time Program. On the other hand, a Full Time program endows the student, straight out of books, with business skills and jargons even though the “Practical Implementation” of the concepts is missing. 

5) A Part Time MBA offers earning, learning and experience, all at the same time. On the contrary, a Full Time MBA demands a huge amount of money to be spent, and compromises on your professional experience. 

6) To career changers, a Full Time program offers the advantage of declaring experience to the potential employer through internship. 

The choices are not always digital, “0” or “1”; At times we need to think keeping our mind in the analog state !!!

Brandgain (An SMPO not a BPO) – A tryst with Marketing !

Author: Sheena Anand

 

Journey Of a Thousand Miles… Began with Brandgain, an SMPO not a BPO…

 

At times I wonder, how significant our first step towards a long, never ending career growth journey is!! Graduating from an engineering college and landing into marketing arena before an MBA degree was a not so thought of plan. But the offer just came and I accepted it trusting my technical as well as marketing skills, taking into account the fact that I would not be aware of most of the jargons or marketing concepts but knowing that the product I was supposed to market was Microsoft ERP, ax and navision made me all the more enthusiastic, after all technology was involved, its at my core.

 

Brandgain, Asia’s first Sales and Marketing Process Outsourcing company, based out of Singapore, provided a stupendous platform to expand my vision and enhance my marketing skills. It gave me exposure to interact with the Key Decision Makers, BDMs and TDMs, majorly CIOs, at times CFOs if required, discuss with them their organizations’ technology deployment, analyze the gaps between their technology and our product/service and finally emphasizing on the importance of filling those gaps. With experience in those conversations with the top most people, I realized that building credibility at the start of conversation was one of the very sought after aspect. During this conversation, we tried to figure out if the client was a prospect and called it a Market Qualifying Prospect.

 

Brandgain, apart from other major marketing and event management projects, had the privilege to work with Microsoft directly as their Marketing Consultants and indirectly with Microsoft Channel Partners specializing in sundry verticals like Price Waterhouse Coopers specializing in selling and implementing ERP systems in Professional Services Sector, Tectura in Textiles and Process Industries and the list of partners was growing each day. After generating leads for these partners, we escalated them to the sales team of the respective partner. The work of Brandgain doesn’t stop here and this is where the difference between Brandgain and a BPO is evident. Once the sales team closes the deal, they revert with results, and Brandgain is accountable for the same. And that calls for returning customers. Working with Brandgain was a marvelous learning experience….

 

PagalGuy.Com Marketing Strategy – Missing Links

Author: Business Beyond Reality

 

If I had a free hand in the Marketing Department of PagalGuy.Com, following would be my unique contribution to the way Pagalguy.com markets itself:

1.      Ability to import the calendar available in Pagalguy.com in Google/Yahoo/MSN Calendar. This kind of personalization should have a good penetration. Along with the calendar entries, there would be a line advertisement of Pagalguy.com.

 2.      SMS Alerts of important notices and dates and regular reminders (80 Characters) followed by a single line advertisement (80 Characters).

 3.      A downloadable J2ME application for the JAVA/Symbian Mobile Handsets. The user should be able to read content of Pagalguy.com through a GPRS enabled mobile handset through that application. The application can also contain features like-a new word a day, a quant question a day etc. Every time a user opens the application, a relevant advertisement would be presented to the user.  

 4.      Seminars for MBA Aspirants. Free for last year high performers in CAT and a marginal entrée fee for the others. Having a free seminar would attract the high performers, and if advertised well, the presence of high performers would attract the weak students and newbies to spend money and add up to Pagalguy’s revenue.

 5.      Invited Video Seminar of last year’s MBA top performers, web-casted on Pagalguy.com website.

 6.      Representatives outside banks like Axis Bank or UTI Bank during the period they sell the coveted institute admission forms. These representatives would advertise Pagalguy.com to people coming to buy forms.

 7.      Start a 24 hours pre-recorded internet radio channel.

 8.      Advertising through SIFYs chain of cyber cafes. They advertise websites at the time of users logging in for a nominal charge.