The world renowned Cranfield School of Management in the UK will present a scholarship to any member of the three leading IFAC accountancy bodies in Sri Lanka, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), the Institute of Chartered Accountants Sri Lanka (ICASL) or the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants Sri Lanka Branch (CIMA). Full Time MBA Programme Director Sean Rickard who informed Sri Lanka of the scholarship said, “We hope the scholarship attracts candidates who will benefit from this initiative and that, with the help of the accounting bodies in Sri Lanka, it will raise Cranfield’s profile. We are extremely grateful for the support of the institutes in this. We will be reviewing the success of the programme after two years.”

ACCA Sri Lanka’s Immediate Past President, Dilshan Rodrigo, himself an alumni of the Cranfield School of Management extends his best wishes to all candidates and says, “I hope most sincerely that this initiative will signal the birth of a new generation of professional skilled managers who will add value to the corporate boardrooms of Sri Lanka.” Stating that this is truly a world class MBA ranked consistently as one of the top MBAs in Europe, he adds, “This one year full time programme is ideally suited for members in middle and senior management positions with ambitious career goals.” Rodrigo, who has continued to maintain ties with Cranfield, further reinforced the relationship once he became President of ACCA Sri Lanka, sourcing resource speakers for the ACCA National Conferences in the last two years. “Two people who played significant roles in mooting this scholarship from the Cranfield end are the former Director of the MBA Programme Professor Leo Murray who was the Keynote Speaker at our conference in 2006 and has a soft spot for Sri Lankans and Sri Sriskanthan, a Sri Lankan faculty member on the MBA programme.”

Cranfield has produced a distinguished honour roll of MBA alumni from Sri Lanka over the last two decades including Managing Director of Hatton National Bank Rajendra Theagarajah, Senior Vice President of WNS Arul Sivagananathan and Group Financial Controller of Stretchline Hasantha de Silva. Members of ICASL, ACCA and CIMA must apply directly to Cranfield School of Management, for which instructions are available on the Cranfield website ww.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/, marking the application ‘Sri Lanka Scholarship’.

More : dailymirror.lk

In business, it’s the early bird that rakes in the moolah. Taking cue from the age-old proverb, two MBA students have turned entrepreneurs even before graduating.

H.R. Sampreet and Saurav Dhiman, second-year students of the Vinod Gupta School of Management at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, have launched their own company, Enfount Business Solutions. Their maiden venture is Bulkdeals.co.in, a Bangalore-based online retail window specialising in institutional and organisational buying of laptops, desktops and other electronic items.

“Across campuses, students form groups to buy computers so retailers give them a discount,” said Sampreet. “But this happens locally and in an unorganised manner,” he explained.

The duo saw a business opportunity in this campus trend and created an online platform that is a one-stop-shop for bulk deals of laptops and desktops of all brands.

“Here, students can register and get great deals directly from the brands,” Sampreet said. “We estimate this to be a Rs 200-400 crore market. The brands, too, were looking for a single window to reach out to the student community. We had the business model and wanted to hit the market early, so we started even before graduating,” he added.

The company is partnering with almost all top brands such as Dell, LG, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo and HCL.

The website had over 1,000 visitors in the first three days of its launch and already has more than 300 members and over 20 registered colleges, including all the IITs.

When asked how they plan to balance studies with running a business, Saurav said: “It is all about time management. Our business requires just two or three hours a day, which we can easily put in.”

More : telegraphindia.com

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

Five post-graduate programme (PGP) students of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) have set up a Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) club to help students get hands-on experience by involving PE/VC players from India and abroad. Unlike finance clubs run by most B-schools in the country, this club exclusively focuses on PE and VC funding.

The lack of opportunities and experience in the PE and VC space led five students to set up the club called ‘Leverage’. With around 50 students interested in being members, the club will be a forum for students interested in all aspects of private equity and venture capital.

“We came up with an initial skeletal structure of the PE club by looking at institutes like Harvard and others from the Ivy League. But the end product has been entirely our idea of how a PE club should be. Although we prefer to call it an interest group for the time being, we plan to run a full-fledged club with more activities soon,” says Anirudh Singh, a member of the club.

“PE as an industry has boomed in India and we plan to invite speakers to the campus, hold conclaves, workshops and other events to provide a platform for the students and corporates to interact. Also, we are looking forward to hold intra-institute events, where the students can write an investment proposal and a panel of faculty members can judge them.

We have no restrictions when it comes to corporates as we would be involving both top- and middle-level players to encourage more and more activities in the field of PE and VC,” says Gagandeep Singh, another member of the club.

As part of formalising the club, the students are holding the first intra-institute event called the ‘Zen of Investing’, where the club plans to invite alumni working in the area of private equity, besides involving the faculty and students for the activity.

The club also has plans to tie-up with Post-Graduate Programme in Management for Executives (PGPX) students to getter a better perspective of private equity. “The PGPX students would be able to share their experiences about private equity and with their support, we plan to involve ourselves with the corporates in a deeper way through various activities, including projects and case workshops,” adds Anirudh Singh.

The club is in talks with a few corporates, who have shown interest in sponsoring the club.

“We are considering more options for funding besides the institute and the corporates we are in talks with. Currently, we are in the stage of gauging the responses from the people about the club,” says Anirudh Singh, before adding, “Although we have started out PE and VC, we may consider branching out to other areas like micro finance later.”

More : business-standard.com

Leading business process outsourcing (BPO) firm Genpact has roped in professors from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow to give its employees lessons in management skills and improving productivity.

Through electronically enabled interactive sessions, workers at Genpact’s operation hubs in Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Jaipur will learn the finer nuances of management, soft skills and strategic planning from senior professors of the business school.

This is an e-certificate programme in general management (e-CPGM) and there are 119 participants, most of whom have worked for one to three years.

“The objective of this programme is to develop managerial capabilities among people who are at the early stages of their career to enable them to effectively undertake managerial responsibilities,” said Ajay Singh, course director of IIM Lucknow.

The programme is divided into 12 modules. Keeping in mind the requirements of the industry, the modules are designed to create managerial and leadership competence among the professionals. There are 120 hours of e-enabled interactive sessions.

Singh said the programme was being run from IIM Lucknow’s Noida campus, which was being developed as a centre of excellence in the area of executive education.

The India headquartered Genpact operates service delivery centres in India, China, Hungary, Mexico, the Philippines, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the US.

Suryadatta Institution, Pune offers MBA courses to graduates, and professionals. Fresh graduates can pursue MBA through Suryadatta admission test (SAT).

Suryadatta Institute of Business Management and Technology (SIBMT) offers two years full time PGDM in Retail + FMCG, Telecom + IT and Services + IT Enabled Services.

Suryadatta Institute Of Management and Mass Communication (SIMMC), offers two years full time PGDM in Marketing + International Business (IB), Human Resource + International Business (IB), Finance + Marketing, Marketing + Information Technology (IT), International Business + Information Technology (IT).

Suryadatta Education Foundation’s Suryadatta institutes are offering management education since 2000. The contemporary education backed by industry training and overall development is the key factor of Suryadatta students who are trained in simulated environment and fine-tuned in accordance to the requirements of present corporate world, says a press note.

More : navhindtimes.com

An innovation expert from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be visiting the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A), in November to promote the importance of user-based innovations in creating successful companies.

“India and Indians residing worldwide have a wonderful record as innovators and entrepreneurs. I believe users tend to be the real developers of many important products. Recently, research by my colleagues has shown that many new companies are started by users who become entrepreneurs. Learning about how user innovations foster the creation of successful new companies will be very useful information for IIM students and others in India,” says Eric von Hippel, professor and head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship Group at the MIT Sloan School of Management and professor of Engineering Systems at MIT.

It will be his first trip to India, which he also intends to use “to forge closer contacts with my colleagues at IIM-A, who have very similar research interests”.

The lecture is part of a two-week long ‘Inventors of India’ workshop by the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM-A. About 70 inventors and innovators of all ages and technical background are expected to be present at the event. Premier institutes could also be called to participate at the workshop.

“Eric will participate and may give the inaugural address at the workshop. In addition, he will interact with the faculty and students and explore possibilities of collaborative research. Apart from visiting some grassroot innovators, he will interact with our incubatee companies as well. Several things are being planned and we are quite excited about his visit. Also, we may ask institutes like National Institute of Design (NID) and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad (MICA), to pitch in,” says Rakesh Basant, chairman of CIIE and a professor at IIM-A.

An expert in Principle of Developing Economics, Eric has made two of his books available openly on his website at no cost to the reader: Democratising Innovation, published in 2005 by the MIT Press, and Sources of Innovation, published in 1988 by Oxford University Press. Leading companies in the world have used practical methods based on his research.

Hippel is also expected to meet grassroot innovators at SRISTI, an NGO founded by Anil Gupta, a professor at IIM-A. Incidentally, Gupta too would be lecturing at MIT as part of the Amy Smith’s International design and development course on July 16-17.

More : business-standard.com

You don’t have to have an MBA to know the value of basic business skills. Just ask Greg Shaw, 22, and the 54 other recent graduates of the Carolina Business Institute at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

These new biologists, psychologists and arts majors added the business course to their resumes before stepping out into the real world. Many think it will give them a competitive edge in the workplace. Some think such skills are necessary if they want to one day run their own businesses. And others want the confidence of knowing how to manage personal finances.

UNC’s Friday Center has offered a 4-week business boot camp to non-business students for 16 years. The intense course covers basic business practices including marketing, accounting, finance and operations management.

Its latest class graduated in June.

Among them was Shaw, who received a bachelor’s degree in biology at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Shaw said that in addition to helping with his personal budget, the class gave him the skills to one day manage his own medical practice. “Running a clinic is a business,” he said. “You have to know what to pay people and how to buy equipment and machines.”

Other schools across the nation offer similar programs, including the Tuck Business Bridge program at Dartmouth College and the Summer Institute for General Management at Stanford University.

At North Carolina State University, nonbusiness students are offered four business minors, in accounting, business administration, economics and entrepreneurship, said Steve Barr, a professor who heads the department of management, innovation and entrepreneurship.

In the past, students took such classes mainly to bolster their resumes. But the curriculums have been enhanced to help with a variety of business practices, and students are gleaning practical use from such programs.

Will Aldridge, 28, a UNC psychology graduate who completed the institute in 2006, said the courses give him a competitive advantage in the workplace.

Aldridge was working as an intern at a workplace consulting firm in Atlanta when a client needed advice about the benefits of Six Sigma. It’s a management program that identifies and replaces the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes.

“I told them, ‘Hey, I just had a class on that,’ ” Aldridge said. His boss was not familiar with Six Sigma, so Aldridge used what he had learned to help the client.

More : courant.com

You don’t have to have an MBA to know the value of basic business skills. Just ask Greg Shaw, 22, and the 54 other recent graduates of the Carolina Business Institute at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

These new biologists, psychologists and arts majors added the business course to their resumes before stepping out into the real world. Many think it will give them a competitive edge in the workplace. Some think such skills are necessary if they want to one day run their own businesses. And others want the confidence of knowing how to manage personal finances.

UNC’s Friday Center has offered a 41/2-week business boot camp to non-business students for 16 years. The intense course covers basic business practices including marketing, accounting, finance and operations management.

More : sentinelsource.com

For Indian Business Schools with global ambitions, Singapore is fast, hot as a goal. Earlier this year, IIM Bangalore announced its plans for the creation of a campus. And now Mumbai-based SP Jain Institute of Management and Research expects to likewise.

If this SP Jain overall the second incursion within two years. In 2004, the Institute has a campus in Dubai and was the first to offer a full residential full-time MBA program in the Middle East. Beflügelt by its success, it now has its sights on Singapore.

It is interesting to note that both SP Jain and IIM-B-plane orientation of the Indian diaspora in Singapore. Nearly 7.9 percent of 4 million people of Singapore are of Indian origin, this is the third ethnic group by the Chinese (76.8 percent) and Malays (13.9 percent).

IIM-B is planning to target the leaders to work in Singapore is short-term programmes Executive Education and Executive MBA, while SP Jain can be full-time program or an Executive MBA. “What are we going programmes make a bit of localization,” says ML Shrikant, dean of volunteers, SP Jain. “There will be a strong component of India programmes, such as the Modern World increasingly interested in India in the region, “she added.

Both IIM-B and SP Jain plan to fly down right in India. This could lead to a serious crisis of the resource, especially for SP Jain, given that the same option is also Deputy Director of Dubai. “This is probably a lot more pressure on resources, therefore we are in the process of the Faculty employs more,” said Shrikant