B-school trends come and go, but one that seems to have legs is the creation of specialized MBA programs, particularly by second-tier schools. The schools find them useful for attracting students and cementing their brand identities at a time when competition among schools for the best students is intense. In recent years, they’ve becoming increasingly common (BusinessWeek.com, 7/19/07) even at high-profile schools. Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management, and the Wharton School now offer specialized MBAs, majors, or dual degree programs in areas like real estate, sports management, biosciences, electronic commerce, and health care.

But is a specialized program always a good choice for an MBA student?

Not necessarily. While established programs have placement records on par with those of their general MBAs, many newer programs have not yet established the kind of recruiting relationships that guarantee students high-paying jobs at graduation. And graduates always run the risk of getting hamstrung by their specialties later in their careers, when an industry downturn forces them to look outside their specialties for opportunities.
Chart Your Own Path

Some who have gone through the specialized programs say they are best for those with a firm idea of their future goals, and who are keen to chart their own path. “I knew what I wanted to do,” said Carrie Stern Rathod, who received her MBA from Wisconsin’s Brand ‐ Product Management Center in 2005 and now works for Procter & Gamble (PG), which recruits regularly from the program. “There’s a range of people for whom this program is ideal. If you have an entrepreneurial bent but are not sure you’re ready to take the leap yet, the program might be right.” But, she added, “I think it would be tough if you wanted to go into consulting or something like that.”

For students who aren’t comfortable breaking away from the pack or seeking out professional contacts in unconventional ways, a specialized MBA might not be the best choice. This is especially true at less well-known schools, where big companies often don’t recruit. Students in these programs agree that making industry connections can require a lot of initiative from the student. “If you have a very specific company in mind, you might need to be a trailblazer in making relationships with those companies,” says Rathod.

More : businessweek.com

A survey of 759 graduating MBAs from 11 top U.S. business schools revealed that a company’s corporate social responsibility performance is a major factor when they select whom to work for, reports BusinessGreen.

The graduates expect to make an annual salary of $103,650 from their first employer, but 97 percent said they would be willing to sacrifice up to $15,000 to work for a company with an exemplary environmental performance, ethical business conduct and good employee and stakeholder relations.

The survey was conducted by David Montgomery of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and Catherine Ramus of the University of California Santa Barbara. They used an anonymous online survey to limit bias in the survey.

Source : itbusinessedge.com

The National Academy of Sciences, a private organization established by Congress in 1863 to advise the Federal Government, has elected 60 new members. The election brings the number of active members to 1,683.

The academy also named 15 nonvoting foreign associates, bringing their total to 298.

Election to the academy is considered one of the highest honors that can be accorded an American scientist or engineer. The academy said election recognized “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.”

Following are the new members and their affiliations at the time of the election. New Members

Yakir Aharonov, professor of physics, Tel Aviv University, Israel, and University of South Carolina, Columbia.

Paul G. Ahlquist, professor, Institute for Molecular Virology and department of plant pathology, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Bishnu S. Atal, head, speech research department, A.T.& T. Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, N.J.

Bruce S. Baker, professor of biological sciences, Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.

Ransom Lee Baldwin Jr., professor of animal science, University of California, Davis.

Denis Baylor, professor and chair of neurobiology, Stanford University.

Malcolm R. Beasley, professor of applied physics and electrical engineering, Stanford University.

Klaus Biemann, professor of chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge.

Claude R. Canizares, professor of physics, head of the astrophysics division and director of the Center for Space Research, M.I.T.

Charles P. Casey, Helfaer Professor of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin.

C. Thomas Caskey, chief of medical genetics; professor of medicine and biochemistry; director, Institute of Molecular Genetics; Henry and Emma Meyer Chair in Molecular Genetics, and investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston.

Patents are the measure of output of R&D labs. That is how an IBM or an Intel publicises its research output. Even countries measure their research output based on the number of patents. India started appearing significantly on the radar only since 1998, the year when statistical reports from the US patents office show a separate breakout. The number of patents granted every year to companies in India has been growing since-from 85 in 1998 to 131 in 2000 to 179 in 2001 to 342 in 2002 (according to data with the Director-General of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research). That translates into a whopping 91 per cent in the last year.

This is still very small compared to many other countries, even companies. The US state of California filed 20,863 patents in 2001, Germany, 11,895 and IBM, 3,411. But take South Korea-home to giants like Samsung and LG-which filed 3,763 patents in 2001 or the red dragon that filed a very modest 266 patents in 2001 and the picture begins to look very different.

CSIR, which holds 42 per cent of Indian patents granted in 2002, filed 728 foreign patents thus far this year. A potential client list for 2003 of one of the patent lawyers in the country lists 112 non-it companies, including Indian companies, laboratories and MNCs. If MNCs, which have set up R&D centres (about a 100 of them have), file patents, these will be accounted under India.

India is still new to the patents game. Till recently, academics and researchers in India were of the opinion that publishing papers was the endgame of research and that knowledge had to be free. The equation now is patents = productisable ideas = wealth creation. And our scientists are now beginning to get it.

R.A. Mashelkar, who took over as Director of National Chemical Laboratory in Pune in 1989, changed the slogan from ‘publish or perish’ to ‘patent, publish and prosper’. Four scientists-current National Chemicals Laboratory Director Swaminathan Sivaram was one of them-from the laboratory patented a polycarbonate innovation. Now, polycarbonates are the playground of GE and the MNC started working with NCL. When then GE CEO Jack Welch found out about this, GE decided to set up shop in Bangalore. Now, the Jack Welch Research Center is slated to grow from 1,600 scientists to 2,400, at which point it will be the company’s largest R&D set-up anywhere in the world, including the US. By 2001, GE India had been granted 17 US patents.

Mashelkar, the Director-General of CSIR, compares the output from his 40 labs to that of Samsung; CSIR filed 184 pct (patents cooperation treaty) applications and tied with the Korean giant for the number one position for the number of pct applications filed by companies in developing countries. And he is not the only scientist who is looking to benchmark his output with that of global private sector labs. The pioneering Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala in IIT Madras asks: “If Huawei, the Chinese telecom giant, could come out of nowhere as late as 1988 and get to be so big, why can’t we create a global company?” The good news is, his research and the goal of the cluster of companies that he has created is all towards reducing the cost of state-of-the-art telecom in India.

After the sixth largest in the charter of Auditors (CA) completion of audits, Bogi Prakash has many options for work ahead of him. Those who, but not in the census a few years. Some hesitation Prakash said proudly: “I have many offers, but it would not be worth mention.

But quickly, he added, “What I can certainly say is that now a CA is, as in an ocean of possibilities.” With Pay packages for fattening, profiles of professions broad and growing demand in all sectors of the economy, CA to find, there is much to celebrate.

After negotiations by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Icici Bank, Tata Sons and Ernst & Young were the first three labour. In August-September 2006 internships, Qualcomm, which Pay-plus package of Rs 27 lakh. The highest national assembly was to pay Rs 12 lakh, offered by a shipowner from Kanpur.

The ranking is based on the number of vacancies by those companies. Of the 4307 candidates appeared for internships during the last legislature, the trio a total of 272 tenders. More than 130 companies spread over different sectors such as information technology, financial services and Business Process Outsourcing on Scouting in different windows placement, by the ICAI in India.

TN MANOHARAN, president, ICAI, said: “Until about five years ago, the average salaries offered, California was an R approximately 15000-20000. These during 2002-2005 has increased gradually to about 25000, but the case was during the years 2005, as salaries jumped by about Rs 35000 and is currently the average monthly salary is Rs 40000-60000.

There are many reasons for the increasing popularity of CA. While entrepreneurship is gaining rapidly in popularity in the professions, by contrast, appears to be done in the case of the competent authorities. Past, CA, launch its own practice, considering that today, largely seeking jobs in enterprises.

“Over the past ten years, people have started moving towards work. The main reason is compensation. Typically, after three years, a person begins drawing Rs 3.5-4 lakh in its own society Council begins a drawing charges, three times higher than the salary immediately upon completion of course, “said Gautam Nayak, ex-president, Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society (bcas).

Mr. MANOHARAN is of the opinion that it is on the momentum in the economies of the world in general and particularly in India. He adds that there is a huge demand certification abroad, but with the request for waiver of India, the migration of CA abroad has considerably decreased.

There are currently about 14000 employees in India in the certification business abroad. Under the legislation, Indian certification are not allowed the establishment of practices in foreign countries. A broad view of this trend is K Ramkumar, groups officer in charge of human resources, Icici Bank, the company which, since the recruitment of a large number of certifications in recent years.

He said that CA can be taken for each job, whether a role in the Corporate Banking, credit management, or operations compliance. Icici she feels as well as MBAs. But, Mr. Ramkumar adds: “But the only difference is that MBAs are much more vulnerable to social skills taught in schools B, while the competent authorities is not.”

But even that has changed. The ICAI nine additional courses such as general management and Communication Skills program is a great success among students. Says Prakash, “The GMCS was a welcome and valuable ground in the field of education we qualifications, such as industry, the approach vis-à-vis clients and organizational behavior.

ICAI and it was still some work with interviews of its campuses. Position windows were opened in places like Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Bhilai, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune.

But even with the unprecedented increase in demand for these professionals, it seems that there is a lack of ausdauerndes CA. Mr. Ramkumar said: “The opportunities are better, but the number of CAS is very little, and there are many many of these specialists.”