Disaster strikes

Well today was supposed to be an historic occasion. It was meant to be the day when the ANALyst conquered the obstacle called GMAT. It was the day he was meant to showcase his verbal quantitative superiority over lesser mortals. It was the day, when the first of four obstacles towards getting into the hallowed grounds of the bschool would be removed.

Only, it didn’t. The ANALyst managed to f**k up. Yes, impossible as it sounds, that is exactly what happened. The ANALyst managed to run out of time in the quantitative section without attempting the last eight questions. EIGHT questions unanswered in a GMAT is as good as dead.

Ended up with a disastrous 640, which by any stretch of my imagination isn’t going to get me admission into a top-school. Not with only two and a half years of work experience, even if one of those years was spent in the Emerging Economy.

Given, that it is already mid-November and I haven’t really started on the essays, doing the GMAT again in December would be a tad late for round 2 applications this year. So I guess, this means no b-school in ’10 :-(.

What happens to me now? Well, I frankly don’t know!!! I was pretty set on applying to b-school this year, but seems like some higher soul had other plans. If you guys have any ideas, please let me know. For once The ANALyst is listening!

Another visit to BBS.

Having created a username and password at the application page of BBS (refer earlier post), I got invited to the Student’s Conclave today. It was a whole day event from 10 am to 7 pm. Thanks to a lack of sleep, completely attributed to alcohol and project work, I almost didn’t make it. However, given that this would be the only chance I would get to attend a classroom session at any b-school prior to joining one, I decided against passing up on the opportunity.

The day started off with the invited prospective students to join the marketing club’s annual panel discussion event at the main auditorium (separate post on that later). The panel discussion event lasted for about three hours, most of which was quite interesting.

This was followed by lunch for the invited prospective students. Having dozed off during the announcements, I had little idea as to the location where the delicacies were being served. I ended up wandering around the campus instead. The campus is beautiful, serene and modern. Facilities are state of the art and the accomodation on par with hotels (fully serviced). In the course of this little adventure, I bumped into another lost soul looking for the lunch venue. He happened to be a Big4 consultant from the Big Apple, who decided he wanted to return to his motherland for b-school and the life beyond.

Next session was the one I was most looking forward to. A classroom case study, with one of the professors, titled “Negotiations in the corporate world”. Aah! Why not! While the prospectives gathered in the assigned lecture hall, one over enthusiastic soul decided to take charge, “While we are waiting, why don’t we introduce ourselves and where we come from….our backgrounds and which round are we applying to…” My new found friend from the Big Apple gave me the “What the **** is wrong with this guy look”. I concurred. What a twerp!

Anyway, the professor strode in and much to my disappointment, announced that instead of the case study he would just have a discussion on negotiations! Apparently, one hour wasn’t enough for him to conduct a meaningful case study. He distributed a set of questions where you are meant to make a decision, followed by a discussion on the same. It was supposed to enlighten the students on errors made during decision making in the absence of complete information. By all means, the points he made were very valid and a lot of the class seemed to enjoy it. There were lots of “ahaa” moments. However, it wasn’t something any decent consultant with more than two months work experience wouldn’t know already. I don’t blame the professor though – he was catering to a very wide audience with the majority being fairly young people.

The last session (or atleast the last that I attended), was about the various student run clubs at BBS. Mainly generic stuff present at most good b-schools.

Overall impression – still unchanged from my previous experience, although I really liked the calibre of people they had invited to the marketing panel discussion. Was also impressed with the knowledge and background of the above mentioned professor, although it was a shame, I did not get to see a real classroom case study. Applicant pool – fairly diverse (atleast in terms of industry and experience, if not nationality).

Will I apply? Probably! No harm  in applying is there. Will I go there if selected? I don’t know yet!

ANALysis of the best business school in the Emerging Economy

The Emerging Economy’s best business school (BBS henceforth) was conducting an information session today which I decided to grace with my presence. The school is only 6 or 7 years old but has managed to rank within the top 20 in the Financial Times MBA rankings for 2009. Not bad!!!

Although, given that this school was founded with the blessings of the then Managing Director of McClumsy and literally who’s who of the Emerging Economy’s business world, there was little reason for this school to not be a phenomenal success. So let’s begin the ANALyst’s assessment of the Emerging Economy’s best b-school

1. Reputation and Ranking

BBS’ reputation as the best in the Emerging Economy is unquestioned. It is the school that all applicants in the Emerging Economy with any sort of work experience aspire to get in to. Financial Times has ranked the school within the top 20 in the world, which for a six year old school is just unbelievable.

Furthermore, the school has alliances with the likes of Cornflakes, CityBoy Business School across the pond and that other famous school which is neither in the west coast nor in Boston.

2. Coursework

BBS offers a one year course beginning and ending in April, the start time being quite a departure from convention. It claims not to have compromised on course material by really compressing the material and “not offering any holidays at all”. The faculty is a mixture of resident and visiting faculty. Resident faculty are mainly from the Emerging Economy, but who were previously faculty members in the US business schools and have now decided to return to their homeland.

Visiting faculty are from all over the world, and I got the impression that they really put in a lot of effort to get the best people to teach the courses. All the popular majors are offered, with the exception of Human Resources. They claim that so far there hasn’t been enough demand amongst the students to get enough electives to constitute a major in HR. Change management electives however do exist.

3. Post MBA Job Opportunities

Plentiful – if you wish to work in the Emerging Economy. All the multinational corporates are present on campus and recruit heavily. In terms of the names of companies, you could mistake the bschool as one being in the US.

BUT, and this is a big but, most of these companies recruit for their operations within the Emerging Economy and not for overseas ops. So for instance if you wanted to do an MBA at that school in Boston and then wished to cross the pond – perfectly doable. Here….not so sure.

Furthermore, I wasn’t very impressed with the post b-school salaries. They didn’t seem like a large figure compared with global standards. Those in the Emerging Economy already working in finance or business consulting, will probably not see much of a jump at all.

However, if you are amongst the one-fifth of all graduates offered places overseas, your pay is comparable to that anywhere in the world.

4. Alumni

Being only a six year old school, it would be unfair to expect the alumni size or influence to compare with that of the other b-schools of the world. Having said that, the alumni network does seem like a very tight and closed bunch – almost like a frat. Going forward, this will only increase and get better.

5. Networking

I feel that this is an achilles heel for the school at the moment. Again, not for the fault of the school itself, but given that it is a six year old institution, it still does not attract the diversity of students from around the globe that the schools in the Old and the New World do.

BBS is taking steps to counter this, having set up exchange programs with many of the best schools around the world and I think with time, we will begin to see a much more diverse pool. But as of today, the interaction opportunities are limited.

6.Calibre of students

Technically – brilliant. Measured in quantitative ability alone, they would be amongst the best in the world. What do you expect when 65% of the admitted students have an undergraduate degree in engineering!

Soft skills – needs improvement. For the most part, they are not the typical suave, smooth, consultant type people you see in most b-schools. While that is not a measure of ability, it does tend to reduce the perception of ability as a b-school graduate.

Bottomline:

I think BBS is a great school, that has really come places in six years. It is the ideal school should you wish to work or do business in the Emerging Economy or the surroundings. But if your primary choice of work place is either the Old or the New World, I would still recommend you go to one of the schools there.