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

Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow today announced its fourth six months General Management Programme for Defence officers. This 24 weeks General Management Programme is the fourth in a series of such programmes being organized for Defence officers, and the first at NOIDA campus. The programme is open to both short service commission officers and others. The programme was inaugurated today at the NOIDA campus by the Major General, SG Chatterji, VSM, Director General, Resettlement.

The response to the first three programmes conducted by IIML was a huge success with all 49 officers of the first programme and 60 of the second getting good job offers. The third batch, which is undergoing placements right now, is also witnessing a slew of great offers. This year after applying the selection criteria 59 Defence Officers from all three branches of the Armed forces have been selected for the programme. Out of the 59 Officers, 7 candidates are Lady Officers.

“Management education to defence personnel contributes to providing defence officers a second career choice after retirement. But the larger role in the national interest is to prepare a disciplined and responsible citizen to play important roles in today’s competitive business scenario” say Prof. NK Gupta & Prof. SC Bansal, Program Directors.

The Indian Armed Forces carefully selects Officers and continuously trains them in the art, science and craft of WINNING. Every year, hundreds of these Officers retire, with rich experience in learning, critical reasoning, objective decision making, creative thinking, leading and motivating people, running organisations and managing projects. The aim of the programme is to capitalize on these skills of the officers and optimize them to suit the corporate world’s requirements.

As in the past, the fourth programme is also expected to generate an enthusiastic response from the corporate world and given the intense nature of the programme it is sure to equip the participants with the necessary skill set so very essential to conquer the corporate world.

The objective of the GMP is to provide the participants with a basic understanding of the managerial systems and processes. The programme has been designed to provide the defence officers with basic functional inputs in subjects such as accounting and finance, decision sciences, organizational behavior, human resources management, communication skills, marketing, strategy, information technology and business environment.

The idea is to familiarize the officers with the requisite analytical tools and techniques; and develop a holistic perspective and global mindset to understand issues of an enterprise.

Source : prurgent.com

There were 22 MBA Vietnamese graduates and eight BA Vietnamese graduates in these first classes receiving the degrees of the University of Bolton. The degrees are recognized by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Deborah Clarke, British consul general in HCMC, said there would be plenty of opportunities for Vietnamese graduates as Vietnam’s economic success and integration into the global economy is fuelling demand for well-educated managers who are able to operate in a global market-place.

She added education is one of the five key pillars of the UK’s relationship with Vietnam and that the collaborative partnership between the two universities will help to create a critical mass of skilled professionals with an international outlook in Vietnam as well as further strengthen educational links between the UK and Vietnam and promote understanding between the two countries.

Working in partnership with HCMC University of Banking, the University of Bolton has delivered the programs in HCMC since 2006. The programs include Bachelor of Accounting, Bachelor of Business Administration, and transfer program for Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration.

An enrolment seminar for these programs will be held at 8:30 a.m. on July 19 at Kim Do Hotel, 133 Nguyen Hue Boulevard, District 1, HCMC. For details, contact the Center for International Cooperation of the HCMC University of Banking (2nd floor, 39 Ham Nghi Boulevard, District 1, tel: (08) 821 4660, ext: 101).

More : english.vietnamnet.vn

THE SECOND batch complete the Graduate Diploma in Post-Infrastructure Management (PGDIM), proposed by the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), is scheduled for the beginning of the School of Management for buildings, facilities and development strategies (MINDS) India, here.

The PGDIM one year full-time for graduates in all disciplines of engineering sciences, including agriculture and the technical architecture and doctorates in other disciplines.

The program focuses on planning tools, project management, Contract Management, Infrastructure Finance, Information and communication technologies (ICTs), applications and geographic information systems; strategic environmental assessment, legal and regulatory environment and emerging paradigms.

ISD signed a Memorandum of Understanding

The city-based Dayananda Sagar institutions (ISD) has, in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uganda as a technical partner and academic institutions of higher education is it in Uganda, for the know - make the ISD.

The partnership, according to the authorities JG allows upgradation of existing programs and new programs from time to time in institutions of higher education in Uganda. “DSI, put its infrastructure and the Faculty for teachers and students work on joint programmes and Bangalore in Uganda,” she said.

In addition to the partnership allows the exchange of professors and students between universities in Uganda and DSI.

DSI receive students in universities in Uganda charging on its institutions of higher education within the partnership.

The technical and scientific cooperation in information technology, engineering, management, languages, health sciences and health care.

As part of the agreement, which Sagar group will help to plan and build a pediatric health care in Uganda with the commitment to the development of national centres of education in this country, JG President D. Hemachandra Sagar.

The declaration of intent was signed by Fred Beyendoca, High Commissioner and Nimisha Madhvani, Deputy High Commissioner of the Government of India in Uganda, and Dr. Sagar.

Mr. and Mrs. James S. Wey of Needham, Mass., have announced the engagement of their daughter, Susan M. Wey, to William Colyer Crum, son of Prof. and Mrs. Colyer Crum of Weston, Mass., and Sunapee, N.H.

A September wedding is planned in Needham. Miss Wey, an engineer at Honeywell Electro-Optics Operations in Lexington, Mass., was graduated cum laude from Wellesley College and next month expects to receive an M.S. degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University.

Her father is with the trust department of Hale & Dorr in Boston.

Mr. Crum, who is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, is a third-year student in the joint J.D.-M.B.A. degree program at the Harvard Law School and the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration. His father is James R. Williston Professor of Investment Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.

The announcement National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), demand and pushed aside and non-effort pushed the Union Member of the Planning Commission BN Yugandhar said here Monday.

A fund is created and pooling resources from various systems, such as the National Food for Work, Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana and the region back Grants Fund, said Yugandhar journalists after opening a workshop organized by the Round Table on public expenditure (PERT), Institute of Management Consultants and Madras, India University’s Department of Management Studies, to rethink approaches to the provision of public services.

Prisé as 50 other districts would be chosen for the NREGS (in addition to the 150 covered under the national programme Food for Work Program), he said that the selection of parameters such as GDP per capita agricultural productivity, wages and the population covered Box / Scheduled Tribes. “These parameters are value neutral and acceptable to all States,” he said.

Panchayats village social audit of the money under the regulation.

Earlier, in his address, “said Yugandhar with the introduction of a number of systems, each district was more and more additional funds in an amount of Rs 100 crores of RS. 300 crores per year, without spending plan of the Federal state governments.

He proposed that the resources available with the development of systems constituency Members of Parliament and members of legislatures are used for public financing of elections.

K. Venkataraman, said the chairman of the PERT of the exercise of preparing budgets result would be useful if the system has tainted surrender.

As always, you professionals are faced with the problem of deciding whether or not to join higher education or remotely via the campus mode. They asked the settings in different perspectives.

As an engineer, you have decided, in the field of materials management, which is encouraging. As fresh diploma, you need to examine the program at regular intervals with the Indian Institute of Materials Management (IIMM)

It could be graduation diploma in regular Materials Management (GDMM), which is managed by the Human Resource Development Ministry for the purpose of obtaining staff to senior posts and services in the central government. At the end of the program, you can exercise, as an MBA (Material Management) as a regular / student correspondence lateral entry into the system, which lasts one year. Under this plan, you’ll be able to make a mark. MP Bhoj Open University is recognized by the UGC, IAU (Association of Indian Universities) and AICTE and, therefore, there is no discomfort in monitoring the course by IIMM. In Bangalore, you can contact the Indian Institute of Materials Management, 304, 3rd Floor, Mittal Towers, No. 6, MG Road, Bangalore-560 001 Tel: 25327251/25327252.

Wipro Technologies, the Global IT services division of Wipro Limited (NYSE:WIT), has become the first company outside the United States to be conferred the prestigious award for Software Process Achievement (SPA) by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. The SPA award was presented to Wipro Technologies on May 7th in an International Conference on Software Engineering held at Portland, Oregon USA. The award is given for achieving a high software process capability and establishing a basis for moving to a very broad improvement program that concerns people and product, rather than just process and issues. Adding another feather to its cap, Wipro is the first Indian company ever to be nominated for this award.

The Computer Society’s Award for Software Process Achievement is given for improvement in an organization’s software process. “Process discipline is the most critical success element of offshore outsourcing,” said Dean Davison, Vice President of Meta Group. To be considered for this award, the improvement must be sustained, measured and significant. Wipro Technologies underwent a thorough evaluation process amongst nominations from different organizations across the globe. The evaluation process included initial short listing of nominees as finalists and then site visit by the evaluation committee.

The IEEE Evaluation committee consisted of Quality Guru’s like Watts Humphrey of Software Engineering Institute (SEI) USA; William Riddle, Solution Architect at TeraQuest Metrics Inc; Prof. Victor Basili, Founder & Member of International Software Engineering Research Network and Prof. Manny Lehman, of Imperial College, an authority on software engineering. The committee visited Wipro Technologies software development center at Bangalore and evaluated Wipro’s Processes and Practices following nomination of Wipro Technologies for the Award.

Complimenting Wipro on the award, the IEEE Evaluation committee said, “Wipro’s well-defined and implemented software process improvement program was appreciated and the breadth & depth of the organisation’s capability achievement and improvement program were lauded as the best that the committee had found since inception of the award nine years ago.”

“We are very excited and receiving this prestigious award is a great honour,” said Sambuddha Deb, Chief Quality Officer, Wipro Technologies. “This recognition from the IEEE Computer Society is yet another feather in Wipro’s cap and validates our vision of making quality a culture within and validates the significant strides we have taken in our quest for quality,” he added.

The committee also recognised that Wipro achieved Capability Maturity Model Level V (An international standard for quality) throughout its 10,000 plus person, international workforce unlike most other organizations reviewed who had achieved this level of capability within only part of their organization. In addition, Maturity Level V for both the P-CMM and CMMI capability maturity models were achieved very quickly, the breadth and speed of which were unprecedented.

With this award Wipro joins a select group of organizations like the Software Engineering Laboratory at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and Directorate of Aircraft Management, Test Software and Industrial Automation Branches, Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center.

ANAND: “If a nation does not have a vision, small heads,” said Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, the architect of the Indian missile programme and the pioneer in the field of missile technology to India.

It was the provision of the address on the convening of the 21 annual Convocation of the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand.

Kalam, India has the highest civilian honor of the Bharat Ratna _ said that India should be a mission. He said: “The minimum objective is a crime. If the country does not have a vision, small heads resumption of the nation.” Kalam said: “I visited the school Anandalaya here this morning, where a student asked me ‘uncle is our enemy.” I was puzzled and asked students to respond. One of them said poverty. ”

“This is the best answer and India, the mission must be the eradication of poverty. The country needs integrated development and students should think, as this can be achieved by a combination of technologies and skills. J hope that students who devote their life IRMA for rural development. You can send me their views by e-mail, “he says with his E-mail Id.

Kalam said that before independence, India had a mission. It was a mission to oust the British. India has had five internationally renowned scientists, while 1925 to 1935. “They were scientists, have fought for the freedom of science, to show the world that Indians can progress and development.

Similarly, Jamshed Naroji dream to build a steel plant in India in 1900. It was ridiculous by the British to dream big. The shack Jamshedpur crafts, is now a symbol of a industrialists are fighting for freedom. Today, we need in the fight against another enemy and exceed the nation priority should be given to the eradication of poverty, “he said.

“When I went to school Mahatma Gandhiji’s Alfred-Saint-school Rajkot, a student asked me are models to follow. Gujarat, a legacy of the Great, Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Patel of Vikram Sarabhai, initiated the Indian Space research programmes. There is no lack of models. India should be a mission to destroy itself poverty, “he said.

Interspersing his speech with anecdotes about his experience in the field of space research, Kalam said that two characteristics are important for the success _ the feeling of universal service and conduct.

“When we considered the first satellite program launched in 1979 a technical error led to its failure. A press conference was to follow. I was director of the mission, but Satish Dawan, the head of India’s space program, provides visibility and makes failure. later, after a few months, when we tried once more satellites start was a success, but Dawan is not ripe for the press conference. wanted me to the centre of success, but I shielded failure, “Kalam said.

A true guide absorbs the failure of the team. If you venture students, do you think that to be true leader, “he said.

In his speech to students who IRMA board of governor of the President, Dr. V, Mansions, “said IRMA tried to give lessons to students share their faith in the Organization, unless and until we need to free our fellow citizens, India are not really free. “We hope that at least some of these graduates today, professional management is an instrument to empower others, not a ticket to a comfortable life,” he said.

Kanbay Incorporated, a global leader Systems Integrator offers high quality, high-quality solutions for the financial industry, was chosen as winner by the Chairman of the Committee for inclusion in the 2003 Computer World Honors Collection.

Recognized among 313 winners representing 33 countries, have developed revolutionary information technology (IT) for the benefit of innovation society, Kanbay has been nominated by Morgan Stanley for its Global Link End-to-End Management Project the quality and overall methodology with the Service Delivery score on several sites.

The chairman of the committee includes more than 100 managers worldwide, including William H. Gates of Microsoft, IBM’s Sam Palmisano, and Merritt Lutz of Morgan Stanley. Each year, members of the presidency of the commission of those organizations whose information has been specially designed for the remarkable technology, the originality of its conception, the breadth of its vision and the importance of their benefits to society . A case study with the method Kanbay Global Link (KGM) is now permanently archived at the National Museum of American History, and more than 125 museums, archives, libraries and other academic institutions worldwide (see http://www.cwheroes.org ).

Raymond Spencer, Kanbay Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, the computer accepts, entitled World Honors medallion during the medal winner of the award ceremony in San Francisco earlier this month. According to Spencer, “We feel honored to be appointed by Morgan Stanley for this prestigious award, and we are delighted to be recognized by the Computer World Honors Program 2003 as a leading innovator in the business field and Related Services category. Given that the strategic direction of économie’s Kanbay, KGM is truly unique because it will provide long-term value for our customers. What differentiates our client-centric methodology is, however, that the overall coherence. While that some computer advice offshore companies emphasis on development as a “Bolt on” regular complement their methodology, KGM uses an integrated approach to all aspects of delivering solutions complex, high-quality projects.

What our customers a unique experience without the procedures, people and performance of several sites in several countries. ”

Used as a microcosm of the global environment-Workplace of the Future

Merritt Lutz, director-counsel of Morgan Stanley, a member of the chairwoman of the committee, appointed KGM for 2003 Computer World Honors Award, recognized the value of Kanbay’s Delivery KGM single model. “In other words, Kanbay is described as” comprehensive “on the right. His ability to integrate with the process of human culture methodology symbolizes a new paradigm for the exploitation of the working environment of the future. During these periods end international conflicts, Kanbay serves as a model to show how people from different regions, cultures and plans can be effectively together to solve common problems and businesses to provide real value to clients in the World whole, “said Lutz. Recognizing the potential of the approach driving KGM success in the global market for technology, Morgan Stanley has an equity position in private Kanbay since 2000.

KGM has a positive influence on the financial consequences Kanbay customers - some of the world’s leading credit cards, bank and credit and insurance organizations - have lived, increased competitive pressure position on the market, the requirements rapid reaction, rapid Time-to-Market and economic effect of the global division of labour cost differences. Scott Earl of Lund, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley, a client of Kanbay, said: “The customer is measured success more than the effective implementation of technology. Traditional computer consultancy firms have on the improved technology for technology want. Kanbay method that detects human creativity, eventually rising technological readers - and not vice versa. Fusing cultural interactions with the improvement of technological processes is what we believe a single qualified Kanbay distinguish, among other things, a world leader in the programm