Revamp management education

It is nobody’s case that management institutes should stop listening to the needs and wants of industry. But they cannot afford to be perceived as placement agencies rather than educational institutes, says Vasant V Bang.

EVEN before the current financial meltdown, scholars from within the management education fraternity had questioned the ways of management schools. Henry Mintzberg wrote a book titled Managers, not MBAs. Last year Harvard professors Rakesh Khurana and Jim Heskette wrote about deprofessionalisation of management education. Joan Magretta a former editor of Harvard Business Review wrote: “Leading business schools certainly played a role in legitimising the culture of easy money in 1990s. The pitch business schools made to the students in the late nineties was: you shall need connections. We have got them.”

The Brand Called Me

Is branding oneself a positive approach that employees should have? Personal branding is not all about selfpromotion and marketing tactics; it is more fundamental than that. It is a clear, deep, and profound understanding of who you are and what you stand for. “Every organisation should believe in playing with the strengths of the individual. The employees who can brand and market themselves well carry an image that gets associated with not only their brand name but also the organisation’s. Self-branding always helps.

The Business Partner Model: past & future perspectives

The informal business partner model has existed for well over 100 years when effective staff support functions, including HR, contributed to business results. Formalizing how HR professionals create more value as “business partners” has been of increased interest in the last 10-15 years. Given the emerging importance of HR as a contributor to business success, we suggest that it might be useful to pause and reflect on what we have learned in the past decade about the relevance of the business partner model and on the challenges that lie ahead.

More from Dave Ulrich

Awakening entrepreneurial spirit

An 18 day train journey to meet with business and social entrepreneurs who are changing India

Tata Jagriti Yatra '08 (December 24th 2008 - January 11th, 2009) is an annual train journey that will take 350 of India's highly motivated youth (with some participation of international students) between the ages of 18-25 on a eighteen day national odyssey, introducing them to unsung heroes of India. The aim is to awaken the spirit of entrepreneurship - both social and economic - within India's youth by exposing them to individuals and institutions that are developing unique solutions to India's challenges. Through this national event we will inspire them to lead and develop institutions nationally and within their communities. This event is conducted in 13 locations across India.

A to Z for Global Meldown

Dear Friends,
I got this wonderful link for the given subject. As we know we are about to launch our professional career. In the process we will challenge many tools for screaning in an interview as like Group Discussion.
If we would be able to give something more than the selection board's expectations, it can be a strong reason for our selection. It is difficult to accept but we know that the general mindset of industry people--HR students have a less exposure in Finance World.
So to break this myth for us, we should be very handy for finacial and economical trends. Do visit to this link which will be very beneficial to all of us.

http://www.rediff.com/money/lehman.html

Global meltdown to affect MBA placements

With the global financial crisis hitting several sectors, top management institutes are worried it will adversely affect the job prospects of their students, who are expecting a drop in the number of offers and the level of pay packages. Several top notch companies have already conveyed their intention to freeze campus placements, while some have decided to hire a limited number of candidates in the final placements.

Management institutes like the IITs fear the hike in average pay packages could reduce by 20 per cent, whereas students are apprehensive of a more severe downturn.

"The market meltdown will definitely affect the final campus placements with indications that companies would squeeze their requirements to a bare minimum. Companies, which had recruited five-six students during the last campus placements, may now restrict the number to one or two," Prof Sourav Mukherjee, placement chairman, IIM-Bangalore, said.


Pay packages for fresh students may not be as attractive this time. For the last five years, the increase in annual package offered to fresh graduates used to be in the range of 20-30 per cent, but now it could be in the range of 10 per cent, with average salary being Rs 14,00,000," said Prof Sushil Kumar, placements chairman, IIM-Lucknow

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Retrenchment shadow falls on HR personnel

With most companies either retrenching or freezing recruitment plans, human resources personnel across sectors are a worried lot.
Recruitment-related HR executives are being moved to other HR functions like training and development and other day-to-day HR functions, or being taken on contract. If things worsen, there could also be layoffs.

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TO START OR NOT TO START?

A downturn is both a good and a bad time for entrepreneurs. It throws up numerous opportunities but also seperates the wheat from the chaff.

STARTING a business may not be the most important thing on the minds of salaried professionals worried by future layoffs by cost-conscious employers in a downturn. But for those wanting to turn entrepreneurs for some time, this could actually be the right opportunity to jump right in—with the right kind of business models. While starting a new business in these difficult times, one needs to understand that people are spending less, and more carefully too. “A smart entrepreneur will look at opportunities that didn’t exist till now. Whenever there is a mess, there is an opportunity to think out-of-the-box,” says Saurabh Srivastava, founding member of the Indian Angel Network.

Innovation In designing the Office of Today

What if you step into your office building, one fine day and find out that the entire appearance of the office has undergone a major makeover? You find that all the glass cubicles have been dismantled to create more open space and you now share your workstation with your CEO! Your canteen has a LAN connection and you are encouraged to work using your laptop, sipping cappuccino, while being seated cozily on a beanbag. Your boss encourages you to have your weekly brainstorming sessions at the office recreational centre, while working out on the treadmill. Your new office is swanky, contemporary and stylish!

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Downturn in economy can mean new opportunities for entrepreneurs

However, believe it or not, some experts say that this is just the time for launching a start up. Just speak to Hitesh Oberoi, part of the team that launched highly successful ventures like naukri.com, jeevansathi.com, and 99acres.com. He believes that “it’s a great time to be an entrepreneur again…. [Companies are] going to try and cut costs, be more efficient; manpower is easily available so it’s a good time to start a company.”

What You Need To Know About Surviving Layoffs

Every morning, it seems, you read an article in the paper about layoffs at another company. Those layoffs are hard on the people who get laid off, but they are also just as hard on the people left behind. There is more work to be done and fewer people to do it. There is the lingering fear that more layoffs might happen or that the company might close altogether. Here’s what you need to know to survive in this business climate, both as a manager and as an employee.

Best big companies to work for

Valero Energy
Fortune 1000 rank:

16 Best Companies rank: 67 No. of U.S. employees: 17,488

Most common salaried job: Store Manager - RetailAvg. pay in that job: $97,73 What makes it so great? Largest oil refiner in North America makes its corporate jet available for employees with medical emergencies and covers 100% of health insurance premiums.

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Top 10 Tips to Attract,Retain & Motivate Employees

Grimme's Top 10 Tips: To Attract, Retain & Motivate Employees
1-Pay employees fairly and well - then get them to forget about money.
2-Treat each and every employee with respect. Show them that you care about them as persons, not just as workers.
3-Praise accomplishments and attempts…

What kind of employee are you ?

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Aries employees make excellent troubleshooters.They'll usually want to be out in the field at a variety of different work sites fixing things. They certainly won't be happy for very long behind a desk in a 9 to 5 schedule. The bored Aries employee ..........

Taurus Employee Profile (april 20 - may 20)
Taureans make some of the best employees. They are loyal, hardworking, and no-nonsense. They work methodically and follow projects through until they are complete. Some may appear to work a little too slowly-usually because ......

Talent Management through Psychological Contract

According to a survey by Merit Trac, there is 93% gap in the employability even after professional qualification. This raises serious questions regarding our education system. Skill and competency is a result of nurturing right learning attitude.

People and knowledge have always been the foundation of any organisation, however, the importance in last decade has grown many fold due to globalisation and Information Technology Revolution. Products and processes no longer are competitive edge and can be replaced by better ones. Psychological contract between people and organisations are becoming more important than the written contracts