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

Prospective and current graduate business students who used a Web site to cheat on entrance examinations over the last five years could have their scores thrown out.

The exam’s publisher, the Graduate Management Admission Council, is tracking down users of Scoretop.com after winning a lawsuit to shut down the site and seize a computer hard drive containing payment information and user identifications.

Scoretop sold VIP access for $30 a month, giving users previews to current questions on the latest Graduate Management Admission Test. Some were posted by users after taking the exam.

U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema also ordered site operator Lei Shi to pay $2.35 million plus legal costs in a June 20 ruling in the copyright infringement lawsuit.

In court documents, GMAC cited a posting by a user who said the information offered on the site was “inestimable,” saying that he saw 10 to 12 “word by word” items and “many of the other questions felt very familiar.”

About 6,000 GMAT scores from when the Web site started in 2003 to the present are in question, GMAC spokeswoman Judy Phair said Wednesday. It’s unclear how many test-takers are involved, because they can take the test several times a year.

“We have an ethical responsibility to schools and students to say this is a secure and fair test,” Phair said. “Obviously, you’re not being fair if you have an unfair advantage.”

The council plans to match data with test-takers and cancel the scores of anyone it determines knowingly used Scoretop to cheat on the GMAT. It will also notify the schools receiving scores, and perhaps prevent them from retaking the test. Phair said she can’t offer a timetable on the process.

Shi wasn’t represented by an attorney, according to court documents. McLean, Va.-based GMAC said Shi has returned to his native China and couldn’t be reached.

More : ap.google.com

Samford University’s Brock School of Business is changing the schedule of its evening MBA program.

The graduate program - taken often by working professionals - is being revamped into two semesters that are nine weeks each with a 10-week summer semester, the school reported Thursday.

The program used to have five, nine-week terms in a year.

Under the new schedule, each course will meet for a two-hour class each week, giving students more time to study and learn the material, school officials said.

“We have retained the flexibility and convenience for working professionals through the option of attending one evening a week,” said Larry Harper, director of Graduate and Executive Education Programs at the Brock School of Business in a news release. “In addition, students can complete the degree in as little as 12 months by attending full-time or 22 months by attending part-time.”

The new curriculum covers all business functions and is designed to offer a more complete general management experience. Students also learn to exercise ethical business practices.

“Managers need comprehensive skills and sound values in order to achieve the disparate goals of their investors, customers, employees and the public at large,” said Beck A. Taylor, dean of the Brock School of Business. “At the Brock School, our charge is to help current and aspiring managers to discover solutions that meet these goals.”

The evening MBA program is the oldest in the state of Alabama and takes applications year round. Students can enter the program in January, June and August.

More : bizjournals.com

It is that time of the year again when thousands of students across the country appear for a slew of entrance examinations conducted by various business schools in the country.

This year, the examinations begin on November 11 and end on January 6. Unfortunately, Symbiosis National Aptitude Test (SNAP) and ICFAI Business School Aptitude Test (IBSAT) are scheduled on the same day (December 16).

Speaking to The Hindu, Ajay Arora, Director, Triumphant Institute of Management Education, Bangalore centre, said that the clash in the dates of a few management aptitude tests is not uncommon. “I do not know what the fuss is all about. Every year, something similar happens,” he said.

Last year, the entrance exam for Faculty of Management Studies and Narsee Monjee Aptitude Test were held on the same day. “One cannot blame the institutions for the clash in dates. The best time to conduct the entrance tests is between November and January, as the students will not be over-burdened with mid-term examinations,” Mr. Arora said.

The admission cycle is such that for a programme to commence in June, the entrance test must be conducted between November and January, so that the results may be announced in April. Mr. Arora said that around 20,000 students of the country appear for the IBSAT and 18,000 to 20,000 appear for SNAP. “The question is how many of those students will appear for both the entrance tests. That group is not very big. The number of students ‘affected’ is minimal,” he said.

Bangalore: ICFAI Business School (IBS) began in 2008 authorization of two years MBA program, said the director of Bangalore IBS TR Venkatesh.

Sharing the calendar of events, on Friday said IBS Venkatesh, Bangalore, recognize, some 500 students, including participation in national competitions. IBSAT, the entrance test will take place in 200 centres, December 16.

According to the timetable, the deadline for filing the application is 20 November. Interview and approval of the decision, in the admission examinations will take place between February 4 and 18 years.
New Campus

IBS said Venkatesh building was a State-of-the-art campus in Mysore Road, priced at Rs 70 crore. He said IBS has already acquired the land and worked other formalities. The new campus is a youth hostel for students and districts of the Faculty. It would be ready by June 2009, he said.

Hugh Mullin is the bet that in three of the largest this year, the acquisitions is to contribute to its Putnam funds for growth and income outperformance of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index for a sixth year right.

Procter & Gamble, Bank of America and Johnson & Johnson 7.6 percent of $ 17 billion Putnam fund’s biggest.

Mullin this year on its three plants the company, the purchase of Gillette, MBNA and Guidant, respectively.

“The resumption of mergers and acquisitions shows a little more confidence on the part of Chief Executive and it’s good for the market,” Mullin said in an interview from his office in Boston.

Putnam’s growth and profits funds was 2.3 per cent this year, Stand August 31, more than 1.9 percent before the S & P 500, including reinvested dividends. Mullin’s Fund rose at an annual rate of 2.9 percent from 1999 to 2004, compared to 2.3 per cent decline in the S & P-500.

Over the past five years, funds up to 50 competitors in the seventh Fund invests in a combination of U.S. companies above average dividends and above the average growth, according to data from Bloomberg. The Scudder Large Cap Value Fund, managed by Thomas Sassi, the top performer, rising at an average rate of 7.5 per cent.

Mullin, stocks, is about 3 ½ years, on average, try not deliberately companies operating in acquisitions. It tends to invest in companies whose shares provide low prices compared to turnover or profits projected.

P & G’s purchase of Boston-based Gillette, valued at $ 57.1 billion this year, office on the list of business acquisitions. American companies have announced, it is worth $ 687 billion, which is most strongly affected by year for acquisitions since 2000, Bloomberg data.

“These two companies really a powerhouse on a global scale, and they complement each other very well,” said Mullin, whose funds are 5.46 million shares of P & G on June 30.

Robert Bruner, author of “Deals From Hell: M & A lessons Rise Above the Ashes,” two aspects of the transaction increases concern. Payment of the reserve and the fact that the transaction comes at a time of renewed acquisitions increase the likelihood that P & G too much for Gillette, said Bruner, Dean of the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

“The mass of research suggests, mergers and acquisitions afford, but this is not pumping money,” said Bruner. “It is not guaranteed through the creation of value.”

Bank nation’s $ 42 billion purchase of Bank America in 1998, the train, what is now Bank of America, was a waste of money Deal for investors.

Enjoy yourself fallen in three of first four quarters after the agreement was concluded, since the company wrote off bad loans. The action has fallen by 25 per cent for three years until 2000, the S & P 500 has gained 36 percent.