At the appointed hour, questions poured in from eager MBA students from all parts of the country, and Dr S P Parashar was logged on to MBAUniverse.com from his Indore campus. Over the next one hour, Dr Parashar responded questions about finding the balance between academic and co-curricular life, time-management, selecting specialization and what does it take to bag those dream jobs. Edited text from the Expert Chat:
Topic: Orientation for a B-School Life
Expert: Dr. S P Parashar, Director, IIM Indore
Jyoti: I have been selected by a leading MBA institute. However this question still remain in my mind. How would you describe an MBA programme and what does it try to teach students?
Dr. S P Parashar: MBA program facilitates your development to be a future manager/leader. To be manager/leader is to be able to influence the behavior of others/members of the group/team to achieve desired group goal.
Kalpesh: I'm a mechanical engineer from IIT and getting into top MBA prog, how is engineering education is different from management education?
Dr. S P Parashar: In one sense, engineering education is about managing machines and mechanical processes; management education is about people management.
Jyoti: What should be the right preparation on attitude in the beginning of starting MBA education as we all are going through this phase of our life right now?
Dr. S P Parashar: MBA education is fairly demanding. The pedagogy lays much emphasis of self-learning. After all MBA education focuses on knowledge, skills and attitude about managing. Your attitude should be to pick up all this well.
Dipak: Sir, I have just joined MBA programme in Delhi NCR. There is too much happening in my life -- Classes, Courses, Projects, Peers. How should I manage so much? How should I prioritize and balance?
Dr. S P Parashar: I am glad half the answer you have already found...that is you have to prioritize. Whenever over loaded, ask yourself the question: What for are you at a management school...and prioritize accordingly.
To attain balance, do one thing at a time, with least minimum time.
Mathew: What do top management consultancies and investment banking firms look for when they recruit fresh MBAs?
Dr. S P Parashar: Your ability to analyse, present, market and win client trust.
Jyose: I am an engineering graduate background student all subjects are new to me, so on what criteria should I choose my specialisation?
Dr. S P Parashar: In your first year at the management school, you will not have much choice. You will learn core subjects. Choice will emerge at the end of the 1st year...by that time; this question of yours will become pretty simple to answer by yourself. In any case, the kind of job profile you will seek will guide you then.
Nidhi: After doing MBA how can we contribute to society & make a difference to it along with earning high salaries?
Dr. S P Parashar: First and foremost, do your work effectively, efficiently and sincerely. That is the best way to serve the society and yourself.
To enable others and pay back to society should be your general disposition.
Dhawal: Since MBA is more of an applied programme, how important are grades and marks in final analysis?
Dr. S P Parashar: They matter much...as these are necessary elements of judging your progress to wards that ultimate job of applying the program of learning that you have undergone.
Arunkumar: Which books do you recommend beyond course material?
Dr. S P Parashar: Business histories, lives of great business and other leaders...Character building is the key.
Ashwani: Can a fresher get a highest placement if he work hard and is regular in the class? How we can compete with the experienced peers?
Dr. S P Parashar: Lets seek fair reward for our work. Experience, on average, does not carry extraordinary premium. In the kind of world in which we are today, charaterised by talent shortage, well-groomed fresher should not worry about rewards or competition from experienced.
Kapeesh: Sir, what should we see in the company in which we are getting recruited?
Dr. S P Parashar: Values. Care for people. Fair reward for results.
Karthik: How good is a specialization in operations management and where can we expect to be placed?
Dr. S P Parashar: Manufacturing is booming. Logistics and supply chain are seen as great value generators for businesses. Operational quality and efficiency are most critical today. It is advantage all the way for operations.
The position depends on various factors including availability and your fit.
Surabhi: How can students with an engineering background enhance their commerce related knowledge necessary for management?
Dr. S P Parashar: It is no rocket science. It is good common sense. Read, reread and practice. Much as did for your engineering subjects.
Sangita: As my institutes website says there are a lots of seminars and co curricular activities happen at my institute. How do they help me? Between focusing on classes and co-curricular activities how should I prioritize?
Dr. S P Parashar: These are very useful activities. Participation is indeed learning by listening alternative perspectives and also by doing by yourself.
But, in no case, it should be allowed to overtake class work.
Ritesh: Dr Parashar, about how many hours should I put every day to do well in my MBA course? Is there a rough benchmark...
Dr. S P Parashar: I would recommend putting in a minimum of one and half times of the class contact hours.
Pankaj: Is there any value addition that makes Indian MBA graduates competitive against MBA graduates from other world-class universities?
Dr. S P Parashar: Indian MBA gives your challenge and then attitude to win against all odds. Now that Indian businesses are going multinationals, and more and more foreign multinationals are coming to India, Indian MBA will get better value.
Ritesh: Sir. I am a non-MBA. My question is a bit different from this Chat Topic. However please answer. Is MBA essential to do business? Is it a must? Many entrepreneurs say they succeeded without formal education…
Dr. S P Parashar: MBA education is very- very helpful in becoming an entrepreneur. It’s almost essential.
Exception cannot be a rule. If Emperor Akbar was not educated that does not mean that to be an emperor you should be uneducated.
Shweta: Being a Biotech graduate how will different industries react to me at the time of placements?
Dr. S P Parashar: Biotech + MBA will fetch high premium in the relevant sector.
About Dr SP Parashar
Dr. Parashar is the man behind the rapid rise of IIM-Indore in recent years. His academic experience spans well over three decades. Prior to joining IIM, Indore, he has been associated with the Emirates Institute for Banking and Financial Studies Sharjah, UAE; MDI; XLRI and several other institutions. His areas of special interest are Corporate Finance, Banking, and Management Control Systems.
