Addendum - ON@TCC

Attended a talk by Chetan Bhagat today. He's promoting his second book "One night at the call center"
I bought both his books and got them autographed too !
Posts on the books after I finish reading them first....after my Mid terms.

My earlier post (in which Chetan is mentioned is here )
Chetan's Website is here

Coming now to his talk...

He spoke on the 4Ps of marketing books in India. 95 bucks (Price) , Coffee shops, launches, Bookstores (Place) , countless interviews and promos (like this one, i guessed) (Promotion)
and His "insightful" book (Product)
Couldnt quite figure out how it fitted in though...

Also spoke on the "Book publishing in India" and the difficulties involved in getting a good book published in our country at a reasonable price. Must agree with him compelely here.

He did go a bit overboard with his take on how the IITJEE is being made simpler this year because the IITK chaps read his book and the pressures on the IITians.

Also a lot of gyan , on "following your heart" and "doing what you like" and the old be-patient-the-money-will-come etc.

Anyways a welcome change for me from my usual mugging schedule . Will post later on this and others soon.

Aravind Eye Hospitals

We had a strategic management workshop here on campus. It was conducted by our distinguished alumni... The attendance was on the lower side. We - first years - had to contend with CV submissions, Company applications, Approaching Mid-terms and the incessant rainfall.
I was very much present for the inauguration and the first part of the session till 11:40 (which was about what follows in this post) but I confess leaving in the break , to attend to certain of my pending errands (like this blog.) I remain convinced of having lost out on a lot of value

The case dealt with the "aravind eye hospital" chain and how they are able to provide world class eye care at practically no cost. It was a real eye opener for me. Till then I had believed that quality always had to be bought. The concept of how high quality eye care can be provided, free of cost in remote Indian villages , to those who need it the most is something totally new to me.

This , story is something we need to be proud of. Harvard uses this as a case-study. And when I attended the presentation, I was stunned. (you'll soon see why.)
The company is a savvy marketer of services and its innovation and service-mindedness makes it stand out among clutter.

The Original Case study is available at http://www.savefile.com/files/2411751
This is a must read (though I will be summarizing it below)

The Eye hospital chain has 1400 beds and is the largest of its kind in the world. What makes it all the more remarkable is that it is in a largely rural setting in India. Facing a dream of eradicating needless blindness in India, the company faces 20 million patients and even at the stupendous rate of 1000000 surgeries a year (!!!), it cant keep pace with the burgeoning population.
The primary cause of blindness in India is cataract. I wont go into details here. Suffice it to say, it is very common and totally curable with a surgery,.
The chain was started by Dr. Govindappa Venkataswamy in 1918.and expanded from 30 to 1400 beds.It has seven hospitals.

The hospital performs 70% of its surgeries free. The remaining 30% of the patients are charged and this money is used as a cross subsidy.

The company operates a main hospital (with top notch facilities which come at a price.) It also operates a more toned down, free and correspondingly chaotic "free Hospital". In addition there are a series of free eye camps (which are fairly well attended)
Free camps are held in villages and semi-rural towns. They are sponsored by other organizations with the hospital only in a supporting role. Such camps are sponsored by religious charities , Movie star Fan clubs or Lions' Club etc.

Lenses are manufactured captively at an unbelievable $3 per lens , while ensuring quality comparable with imported lenses.

Some other gems not available in the case -

* The company uses local media -newspapers, word of mouth, even folk music to spread awareness and information about eye health and its services in the community.
* The company uses satellite technology and GIS to map and locate target communities for eye camps (Those of who who think the IT revolution is only in cities, eat crow !)
* Several doctors are educated abroad (in the US for example)
* The costs are unbelievable . A surgery costs $50 , Glasses $5 and Intra ocular lenses come at $3

These kinds of organizations are real torchbearers in the path towards marketing to the rural customer. Their approach to their service holds lessons for all of us. They have managed to cut out the common misconceptions about rural Indians and their priorities and managed to bridge the HUGE gap that exists between the needs of the poor and Quality service to cover those needs.

IT - Factofthematter

Rashmi's take on IT this time
Hope Software Junta agree to the observations
I go along based on my (limited) exp of IT in India...

There are two kinds of engineering students in India -- the cats whom all companies run after, and the underdogs, who are running after the companies. The cats usually bag the cool jobs which pay you well, send you abroad and keep you far far away from sweaty industrial shopfloors. 55,000 such cats found employment with the likes of Infosys, Wipro, TCS and other such companies in 2003-2004, by Nasscom estimates. But considering that India produces over 300,000 engineers annually, it's a dog's life for many fresh graduates out there.

So, what is it that separates the IT cats from the dogs? It's a question that needs to be asked, as yet another admissions season is upon us. The mad rush for engineering seats continues fuelled by this simple logic: Engineering has more value in the job market than an 'ordinary' BSc. And the jobs that are fuelling this perception are the lucrative software careers. Few would be happy building roads and bridges or working in factories -- as previous generations of engineers did.

Let's face it -- an engineering degree is a means to an end, not an end in itself. But it can turn into a dead end if you don't keep the following facts in mind:

* It's not what you study, but where you study that counts: Always, always choose college over branch. The reputation of a college is what determines campus placement prospects. This might mean doing civil engineering at VJTI although you have little interest in the subject. Live with it. At the end of 4 years, a bunch of software companies will visit the campus. If you pass their aptitude test and interviews, you're in.

It sounds illogical but companies look at it this way. "We believe in the generic concept of learnability," says Hema Ravichander, Senior VP (HR) at Infosys. "This, we define as the ability of the individual to derive generic knowledge from specific experiences and apply the same to future contexts." So when the company visits a campus engineers from any stream are welcome to apply for the aptitude test. All recruits are subsequently put through 14 1/2 weeks of intense training.

The scene at Wipro is similar. "At one time, we insisted on BE Electronics/Computer Science," says Ranjan Acharya, corporate VP, HRD, Wipro. "Now we look at basic analytical ability, understanding and grasping power." Wipro has a 45-day training program for computer engineers, and a longer one of 70-days for those from other streams.

Here's the catch, though. Infosys visits 60 to 70 engineering colleges for campus placements annually. IITs, NITs and a few top colleges in every state make up that list. "Historical relationship, performance of hires from a particular campus, ratio of offers made:joined are the main factors which determine which colleges we visit for placement year after year," says Ms Ravichander. Wipro visits 120 colleges, but its intake is less than Infy. TCS is the other large recruiter which visits about 130 colleges.

A relatively new recruiter -- Cognizant Technologies -- has also started hiring aggressively from premier engineering campuses. The company planned to pick up 60% of its targetted 4,000 new recruits for 2004 through campus placements.

* Performance does matter: The top software companies are pretty sticky when it comes to grades. It's not enough to just get into a great college, you must perform once you get there. Consistency is a very important -- companies will look at your grades right from class X onwards and expect to see a first class through all years of engineering. ATKTs (Allowed To Keep Term despite failing a subject) or dropped years are a strict no no.

This is a tall order, especially in some universities like Mumbai known for its vagaries, which often affect even the brightest students. As a popular shayari on Mumbai engineering campuses goes: Woh baap hi kya jiski beti nahin... Woh engineer hi kya jiski ATKT nahin.

Jokes apart, performance is key even if you get into a college which doesn't have attractive campus placements. A 60% throughout your engineering career ensures you still have a shot at your dream job. You can apply when these companies conduct aptitude tests off-campus.

The story goes like this. Companies have to make offers through the campus placement route, 12 to 15 months before the actual joining date. A lot can happen during this period -- often requirements drastically change. So a certain % of freshers are taken in at a later date, through off campus hiring. Infosys for example will visit various cities and test up to 10,000 applicants in a single day. Graduates from any engineering college can apply, as long as they have a first class throughout.

Aptitude tests normally cover arithmetic and analytical skills, GDs (group discussions) gauge communication skills and in the interview applicants are usually quizzed on basics from their core subjects. Any project work you may have done, as well as extra technical knowledge, eg having leant a popular programming language could help tip the scales in your favour.

Since many engineers are eventually put on the project management track, qualities such as leadership skills, teamwork and all round personality also matter.

* The year you graduate matters: An engineering course takes 4 years to complete. A lot can happen in the IT world in that time.

Some factors are simply not in your control. The graduating class of 2002 had a tough time finding jobs. 2003 was better, and the current year -- 2004 -- has seen a boom in demand for freshers. Infosys alone recruited 10,000 employees, a majority of them straight from engineering campuses. At Bangalore's RV College of Engineering 43% of the 460 students seeking placement were recruited by just 4 software companies -- Infy, TCS, Syntel and Cognizant.

This upward trend is expected to continue. But if you are entering an engineering college today, it's hard to tell exactly what the job scene will look like in 2008. Especially since the ups and downs in the US economy directly affect the fortunes of Indian software companies.

In boom years, students have more choices and better prospects. For example, at IIT Chennai last year, a strange thing happened. Less than half of the 450 eligible students took the TCS aptitude test. And there wasn't a single computer science student in that lot. Why? The salaries offered by Indian software companies (in the Rs 1.8 lakh to Rs 4 lakh per annum range) weren't attractive enough compared to other recruiters like McKinsey (Rs 7 lakhs pa), Intel and HLL (both offered Rs 4.6 lakhs pa).

In a tough year such as 2002 there was a major hue and cry when Infosys hinted it was reconsidering some of the offers made on the IIT campus several months earlier. The offers were later honoured. Companies realise that some years are hard on freshers. For example, in February 2004 TCS continued to invite entry level applications from engineers who had graduated in 2002 and 2003, as long as they had not been interviewed by the company within the last 6 months.

* You're no 22, try harder: It's true that graduating from a lesser known engineering school may mean you leave campus without a job. But it's not the end of the world. It simply means you have to conduct your own jobhunt. Respond to ads in newspapers, upload your resume on job sites and start doing the rounds of companies. Staying in touch with friends and seniors who've already got jobs is a great way to get to know about openings and entrance tests. Some companies actually prefer to recruit through employee referrals.

The good news is, a sustained effort of 3 to 6 months usually gets you a job. The important thing is to stay optimistic! As an underdog, you may end up joining an underdog company, ie a smaller outfit. But with the right experience and skills picked up along the way you can always hop, skip and jump your way to the software company of your dreams.

* Engineers@call centres: Last but not the least -- the call centre option. BPO outfits such as Wipro Spectramind actively recruit engineers, paying them higher salaries than regular graduates. And they have no dearth of applicants. But most engineers see call centre jobs -- even if they're in technical support -- only as a short term option.

If things don't work out on the software front, there's always the option of going in for higher studies. Which for most, boils down to an MBA. But remember, there are two kinds of MBA students in India -- the cats whom all companies run after, and the underdogs, who are running after the companies... But that, is another story waiting to be old.

MBA - Factofthematter

Another article from Rashmi, also originally on Rediff
I am constrained to agree to this also.....


There are two kinds of folks who aim to clear the CAT -- the 'MBA nahin to kuch nahin' and the 'Kuch nahin to MBA.'The first category discovered at an early age that M, B and A spelt the magic and politically correct answer to the inevitable question: "Beta aap bade hokar kya banna chahte ho?"

The second took the medicine-engineering route only to be disillusioned with their course of study or future prospects. No particular pyaar for management but chalo, paisa to kam se kam zyaada milega.

The MBA programme -- which allows graduates from ANY stream to apply -- thus offers one final hope of personal and professional salvation.
In India, the MBA magic has worked on two fronts. Say you plan to do an MBA and parents will be a lot less worried about your taking up Eco or Commerce and avoiding the PMT/JEE.

Secondly, in case you did make it through those toughies and find you haven't the faintest interest in electronics or electrocardiograms, you can at least dream of leaping off the wrong bus onto the MBA bandwagon. The 'luxury coach' that offers a ride in the fast lane!

Unfortunately, these coaches are very few and very hard to get a seat on. And although in theory ANYONE from any background has an equal chance at making it there, the statistics paint a different picture.

Check IIM Ahmedabad's Class of 2006 profile -- 70% engineering grads, 8% commerce, 4% IT, 4% science 4%, 3% arts, 1% medicine. Incidentally, Ahmedabad has traditionally had a much more diverse class profile in the IIM fraternity -- the Class of 2004 at IIM-B, C and L all boasted 78% engineers!

The stats should bust a few prevailing myths:

Fact #1: Doing a management course at the undergrad level gives you absolutely no edge. Only 1% of IIM A's 2006 class had an BBA/BMS background.
Fact #2: Humanities are a bad choice if you dream of making it to an IIM. Even among the 3% Arts graduates who've made it, most would be students of Eco -- a quasi-numerical subject.
To put it extremely bluntly, only exceptional 'ordinary graduates' -- the kind who could probably have made it to an engineering school but chose not to -- make it to an IIM A. Many in fact come from colleges like SRCC and St Stephens where the cut-offs for Honours courses are mercilessly high.

Even among the engineers who make it, a large percentage are from the creme de la creme schools -- the IITs, RECs, VJTIs and DCEs. The IIM Calcutta batch profile in fact lists 'engineering' and 'IITs' as two separate categories! Together these grads hog close to 80% of the seats at the Institute.

Why should engineers dominate so completely in an area which purports to offer entry to any kind of graduate?

According to UGC figures (as of March 2002), India's 253 universities and 13,150 colleges churned out 2.5 million graduates annually. Of that number, just about 300,000 -- or 10% -- were engineers.

Now logically one may argue that those who make it through highly competitive engineering entrance exams represent the cream of the nation's Class 12 crop. So four years later they are again more likely to excel when it comes to another competitive exam.

Engineering as a course enjoys such a halo that all but a small sliver of the intelligent school age population ends up in that stream by default!
There is another, more disturbing explanation. Engineers have a huge advantage when it comes to numerical ability. The vast number of ordinary graduates, especially those who have not been in touch with mathematics since Class 10, simply cannot cope.

But the crucial question is this: Does wizardry with numbers a good manager make?

It is unclear why the CAT exam must make such a big deal of how fast you can polish off sums on permutations and combinations. Sure, accounts and finance and operations all deal with numbers. But the level of number crunching undertaken during one's MBA has hardly any co-relation with the actual work profile of most managers later in life. Because as you rise higher up the ladder, success is increasingly defined not by what you know or do, but how you manage and motivate your people.

Engineers are trained to believe every problem in the world has a logical solution. But, people -- whether as employees or consumers or clients -- are far from logical. Why, then rely on a uni-dimensional exam like CAT to identify talent? Yes, it is the fairest and toughest MBA entrance exam in the land -- but are the people being selected through the process the best potential managers?

Top B schools in the US use the GMAT score as ONE of several evaluation criteria. In 2003, 18% of applicants who scored 700 or greater were offered admission by Kellogg. But more than 13% of applicants who scored between 650 and 690 were also admitted. Chicago's Graduate School of Business clearly states that 'successful applicants not only have the credentials but they tell a compelling and well-rounded personal story through their application.'

Fat chance, here!
Sure, there is an interview and GD stage, but to get there you must first score in the 99th percentile (ie be in the top 1% of test takers). And this works for one simple reason: Most admissions are tainted by 'less deserving' candidates using influence or money power. The fact that neither works when it comes to CAT has built a solid equity for the IIM brand. To protect this equity, subjective criteria comes in only at the second stage -- after the CAT hurdle has been crossed. Any other, more holistic form of admission would never achieve the same reverence in this country!

The entire management entrance scene in India, then, boils down to selection of the 'brainiest' and then grooming them towards a management career. Rather than selecting the brains best suited for the purpose. Going by the old Cats and Dogs theory, the funda is to identify and aggregate all the cats in the graduate universe. Add the IIM chhaap and the world and his uncle will accept them as kings of the corporate jungle.

On the flip side, scratch the batch profile of an MBA school and the percentage of engineers you find can give you an accurate picture of where the school is ranked. The Big 4 -- IIM A, B, C, L as well as S P Jain and IIM-K -- admit over 70% engineering graduates. At XLRI (BMD) the figure is above 60% while the likes of MDI, FMS, Bajaj, XIM B and IIM-I boast 55% to 60% engineers.

As you go further down the ladder the number of engineers dips -- a strong local school such as NMIMS had 23% while Welingkar just 6%. At these schools, Commerce graduates dominate -- comprising 50% to 60% of the batch. Again, this reflects the inherent bias in the education system at an earlier stage -- 'students with marks' inevitably join Commerce over Science or Arts!

The engineering overload at B schools is rooted in the fact that there is a strong opportunity cost for an engineer seeking to do an MBA. If he or she is to spend about Rs 4 lakhs for a 2 year course, also forgoing asimilar or greater amount in salary (perhaps even a chance to work abroad, given the software boom) -- the course had better provide a great return. Only the top few schools provide that kind of long term brand value and short term job prospects.

IIM A, B and C placed on average 46% of their students in consulting, finance or banking (the high salary, top dollar variety of jobs). Just about 11% of the batch went into marketing/ sales.

At top B schools other than IIMs only 27% of the batch was placed in consultancy, banking or finance roles while almost 30% went into marketing.

As you go down the ladder marketing jobs dominate even more -- and the prestige/ salary value of the job to an engineer declines.

In the final analysis,"Kuch nahin to MBA" may sound bechara, but the strategy it actually works. Those engineers didn't 'waste' 4 years, they were just biding their time. Conversely, "MBA nahin to kuch nahin" is going to remain a pipe dream for the majority. Koi MBA to mil jayega -- there are 900 + institutes offering the course in this country - but top B schools will continue to elude other graduates.

As far as CAT is concerned, non engineers remain the underdogs.

The MBA Caste system

This article is from Rediff and was written by Rashmi Bansal (of jammag and youthcurry fame)
I read this and thought to myself - How true !

here are two kinds of MBA institutes in India -- a handful from which you leave with a pedigree and the vast majority which offer just degrees. In the first category lie the IIMs, XLRI and, to a lesser extent, FMS and Bajaj -- the institutions which pioneered the concept of management education at a time when the IAS was a far more wanted career path.

In the second lies a vast array of institutes -- the good, the mediocre and the dubious. Evaluating the value proposition in the latter category is the daunting task faced by the majority of MBA aspirants.

The alumni is the brand

So what is it that sets the crème de la crème apart? Resources, faculty, infrastructure? That's just part of the story. By that reckoning, university departments like FMS and Bajaj should have been knocked off their pedestal a long time ago by newer entrants with deeper pockets. But 'pedigree', as the dictionary defines it, is a 'line of ancestors'. In the case of management education, ancestry has one simple definition -- the alumni.

The older institutes boast of alumni who joined the corporate world two-three decades ago and are at -- or very near -- the top today. The alumni effect is two-fold. At the obvious level, the companies they run ensure the alma mater is always on the recruitment radar. But, at a subtler level, alumni achievements rub off on the mother brand, and hence on the current crop of students.

In a sense, the alumni community IS the brand because they are the finished products, so to speak, of the MBA manufacturing process. And they form the one unique component in the matrix that cannot be duplicated by more recent institutes. That, in a nutshell, is the competitive advantage enjoyed by pedigree institutes which -- in the immediate future -- will remain unbeatable.

The 'merit-based' caste system

It's a modern form of the ancient caste system. Once you were born into it, now you arrive into it based on 'merit'. So, you have the 'Brahmin B schools' and some recruiters will visit only these schools, year after year, stating proudly, "We don't go to institutes below Bajaj." There is a certain prestige attached to such companies and this recruitment policy works simply because the number of jobs on offer is pretty small.

Hotshot consulting firms or investment banks essentially need to pick up a dozen fresh MBAs, at max. So it makes great sense to visit only the top schools. And there too, pick up the 'top' students. It's sad but true -- the Cats and Dogs phenomenon continues to hold sway. Despite the fact that all the folks who made it to an IIM-A beat the same odds, some ARE more equal than others.

The 'I schols' breed

This is the breed known as the 'I schols' -- a campus term for the top 20 students who are awarded 'industry scholarships'. The pecking order is swiftly and brutally established in the first few weeks on campus and usually holds good for the rest of the year. And whaddaya know? A large number of toppers are invariably IITians.

Partly because they are smart and hypercompetitive. But mostly, I think, because they're better equipped to face academic rigour and pressure. Four years at IIT, you've seen it all, done it all. The workload at an IIM, which hits the rest of the junta like a ton of bricks, is no big deal to an IIT grad.

A level playing field?

To offer a more level playing field, CVs sent to companies for summer placements at IIM-A now don't carry the student's CGPA. But the end result is still the same. Coveted recruiters look for the undergraduate background of the student and invariably shortlist those from IIT. IIM may be a brand name, but IIT-IIM is sone pe suhaga.

The IIT crowd will gleefully circulate this column in their e-groups, as further proof of their inherently superior status. Some, I expect, will feel compelled to write to me enumerating exactly how and why IITians really are a breed apart. Believe what you will. My point is: where does it end?

Reaping the benefits or paying the price?

We are reaping the benefits -- or paying the price -- for the actions of our ancestors. Company X has recruited a particular profile of candidates for the last 20 years and will thus continue to pick up the same kind of applicants. At the most basic level, this means it will stick to certain B schools, and within those B schools to certain kinds of students.

It's not just about how well you do at the interview but whether your profile matches with what's worked for the company in the past.

Yup, that's almost as crude as racial stereotyping but no point railing and flailing because that's how the human mind works. It unconsciously tries to fit each individual into a category, making complexity more manageable. We are invariably drawn to people like ourselves.

Companies rationalise that, this way, they get the people who fit into their culture. But the flip side of it is that everyone essentially thinks alike. And can that, in the longer run, really be considered a good thing?

Reasons of merit apart, the policy of sticking to a few select B schools keeps all concerned happy. Recruiters are happy to be in demand at the 'best' B schools, students are happy to be on the exclusive radar of the 'best' recruiters. Maintaining the status quo keeps the halo intact for both parties.

One man's Cat can be another man's Dog

So although numerous B school rankings may be published every year, it rarely if ever alters the recruiter's pecking order. For 'class' or the jobs requiring brainwork, it's a select few institutes. For 'mass' or the gruntwork jobs, it's down the B school ladder. And how low down this ladder a company will go depends on how many freshers it requires.

With so many new sectors opening up -- retail, insurance, BPO, telecom -- it would seem the job pie has grown exponentially. True, except that B school you graduate from often still determines whether you eat your slice at the chairman's table. Many companies follow differential recruitment policies. Better salary, designation and job profiles are offered to the more premium grads.

But, in an ironic twist, one man's Cat can be another's Dog. Several reputed companies -- especially Indian ones -- prefer to recruit from less elite campuses. These MBAs, they believe, work harder to prove themselves and are far more loyal to the organisation.

It's a different thing that, given half the chance, the same MBAs would jump to join the very MNCs that won't touch them!

One final consolation: Dog or cat, at the end of the day the MBA is but a rat. The right MBA can set a scorching pace. The question most forget to ask is -- am I running the right race?

MBA in India - Fact or Hype ?

The stuff below is from the website of Arindam Chaudhuri (of Planman and IIPM fame)
This is his take on MBA education...
NOM to anyone....I dont agree with a word of what he says but I guess , everyones got the right to believe what he wants....
IIPM and Arindam Chaudhuri are quite popular on Blogosphere these days, along with Rashmi Bansal and Gaurav Sabnis. This has to do with a topic unrelated to this post.

Management education as a term has been defined, redefined and today it is being ill-defined. It's common knowledge that management education can be imparted after doing graduation in any stream, be it history, geography, economics, biology, engineering etc. The most important aspect of the above fact is that management is not that well developed a stream for which one has to spend years of education (5 years or more). What I mean is if one wants to do Masters in Geography, he necessary has to have a bachelors Degree in Geography and the same is with physics, economics, and all other streams of higher education. This is so as all these streams are very well developed and therefore to understand a Masters level theory for micro biology for example requires a perfect understanding of all the graduation level theories of the same subject. All the other fields of post graduate studies are post graduate in nature because of the higher level of technicalities and theories in them.

What I am trying to drive towards is the non challengeable fact that management as a stream of studies is more hype than content. Infact, after a certain point its actually not possible to develop it any further. That is why today, famous management experts, international management gurus as well as the top management consulting firms in a last ditch effort are trying to come out with newer models which at best border between being silly and at worst being ridiculous. The same theories are today being reformulated with different and more complicated jargons and new circles, triangles, and rectangles added in the same model. English is a beautiful language. From Hallmark to Archies, they all make millions out of this language by putting the same words like "I love you" in millions of different ways in their cards in an effort to produce emotions in their printing factories. Today's management consulting firms and experts are trying to use the same to keep their profession alive.

Anyway coming back to where we were, the fact is management is no nuclear physics for which a very high IQ is required nor is it so technical that only IIT and other top engineering graduates can only understand it. This time I am trying to drive towards the fact that the enormously tough entrance tests for MBA education is absolutely unwarranted and unnecessary. Neither has the level of input imparted got anything to do with it (my point about history to engineering students being offered MBA) nor has the nature of application of the subject. Infact the realization today is that people with more EQ (Emotional Quotient) are definitely better material for a successful manager than those with higher IQ who could definitely do the country some good working in the R&D labs for which the government invests so much on them rather than nurturing ambitions of becoming MBAs and then eventually leaving the country as well. These people (from IIT and likes) should either pay up for the investment the government makes on them as well as the opportunity cost or perhaps barred from changing streams or be asked to serve the public sector/defence sector/government initiatives for at least seven to ten years before they are allowed to venture into other areas. At this point a few lines on the IIT hype itself, I guess, would not be inappropriate.

Inspite of all the current hype which was built around the IITs the reality is that the IIT graduates have not served the country's interests the way they were expected to, because, they were rare commodities in the Indian market for engineers. Most of them were available floating around freely in America or some rare ones in the Indian MBA market. The reality also is that IIT education has nothing to do with the IT revolution and success stories in the Silicon Valley. Agreed many of the people involved in top positions in Silicon Valley might be ex IITians but it is the knowledge they acquired over the last 20 - 30 years and the entire shift in focus that they under went in their career after leaving IIT that helped them reach where they are today. Even today the software part of education at IIT is not world class. In fact it is a pity that they tied up with a private education company to spread the IIT, Kharagpur and IIT, Delhi certified courses through a shady arrangement with them (by setting up something called CEP, a private body with a managing director inside the IIT Kharagpur campus and FITT, another private body with a managing director inside the IIT, Delhi campus) in an effort to confuse the students that they were getting something from IIT.

It made the so called IIT certificates available from shoddy shops set up across the country. Eventually, the company got closed since even the IIT certification could not cover up the primitive contents that the IIT certified courses had.
I know so much about it because in an attempt to search for good partners to provide quality IT education to our students, I also fell for it and made an alliance with this private company. It is only later that I realized and was conveyed clearly by IIT, Kharagpur and IIT, Delhi that they had nothing to do directly with this firm!

However, coming back to the original context of MBA education, I remember, one of the ex deans of FMS, Delhi in a frantic bid to justify the tough entrance tests once said in an interview with CSR that so many questions in so little time basically was a test of the individuals ability to make quick decisions which is the most important aspect of management.
The reality however is that, if you take decisions too quickly you would turn out to be more of a damager than a manager. For a small change in a product such a lot of time consuming systematic research is required. Even before the research is undertaken a whole lot of time is spent on deciding who should be given the contract. All this because such a lot of money is at stake.

Looking at things around I am forced to feel that this country today has a mafia operating in the field of MBA education. A group of people with vested interests who want to keep this simple common sense education limited only to a few so that their starting salaries can be artificially jacked up to anything between Rs. 6 lakhs and 10 lakhs per annum. If they are so good then why don't our public sector companies too employ them and revive instead of going on sale. Why don't we produce 2000 MBAs in each of the IIMs with such phenomenal facilities, acres of land and huge buildings? It is not done so that companies get intimidated by the huge infrastructure, in which just about 150 to 200 students are made to feel in the ninth clouds, and get compelled to pay astronomical sums of money. These schools therefore create an artificial scarcity and capitalise on it. If the number of students are not artificially and unnecessary limited the salaries perhaps would come down to Rs. 1.2 lakhs per annum at the maximum which is their actual worth and with more better quality MBAs the growth rate of our country might break the 2% to 3% barrier which the current number of highly educated MBAs have been able to give the country.

In a land where the greatness of a teacher is reflected by the amount of education he has spread, here in this field of management we have teachers who want to limit the spread of education for their own respect in society as well as for the profits and superficial glamour of the MBA graduates. They are comparable to our corrupt and illiterate politicians who don't want to educate the public because of the fear that the first thing educated public would do is to reject them. Infact keeping in mind the level of education of our management educators they are a worse lot, for it is worse to be educated and yet wanting education to be limited so that you can milk it than to be uneducated and wanting the masses to remain so.

Being from the management field myself one might wonder what makes me write all this. The truth is inspite of all the hype I do believe that MBA is one field of education which shapes up personalities, so I love this field and I wish that thousands more could benefit out of it and in turn help the country develop faster. In my institute at least, this is what we strive for.

One night at a call center - II

Back after a one week holiday :-D
Continuing my previous post....

The Attrition rate in Call centers is high because -
As I mentioned , the profession itself is not regarded "Permanent" nor is a call center professional respected. Infact there is a common perception of them being overgrown and otherwise unemployable students.

Why do people quit call-centers ?
Lets think....
The personal reasons are -

1. Higher Education - many pros view employment in a call center as a way to spend time and earn a few quick bucks while waiting for admission or preparing for a competitive exam such as GRE,CAT etc.. So obviously they quit once the admission date comes.
2. Other Jobs - Most Pros actively job hunt for other more "acceptable" jobs even as they work in the call-centers.
3. Marriage - Typically applicable only to women (who consist a HUGE chunk of call-center employees.) The late nights demanded by the work profile is definitely NOT in harmony with the indian concept of "family life"

An increasing number of people also quit because -

1. Health concerns - The chronic stress involved in the job burns out most people. Complaints of headaches, backaches, indigestion are commonplace.
2. Job profile- The manpower intensiveness of the job means that the scope for career advancement is limited within a call-canter. The frustration of doing the same thing over and over can be frustrating for most people.

All said and done...the industry itself is here to stay.
It will face huge churning of manpower and there will be a inevitable shakeout which will separate the men from the boys , but the long term for this sector looks bright and rosy.

This isn't a fad by any length of imagination. Companies have experienced REAL and TANGIBLE gains through outsourcing their backroom work to India. They cannot afford to neglect or ignore the outsourcing wave if they want to stay competitive.
India' s large manpower pool and fluency in language will ensure that the lead India has got in this field will not be lost in the , maybe, twenty years.

Career growth in this field is good right now...because of the rapid pace at which call centers are hiring. One may become a "Floor walker" or a "Team Lead" (Hope I got these Designations right !) after 3 or so years. However this may taper off.

There are only three credible threats to this industry as of now-

1. Rising costs - In an attempt to keep attrition low, call centres have lavished pay hikes on their employees , who of course accept them happily. This however has eroded (in a small way) the margins in the business. Continued pay-hikes may not be affordable for companies in the future because of the rate the industry is absorbing manpower and is growing. A strengthening rupee is not helping matters at all on this front.
2. Competition from other countries - Philippines has an edge because of the Filipinos apparently can be understood better by the Americans :-? It lags because of its small manpower pool. Mexico shares a common time zone with the US but lags on the language fluency front. China has a HUGE labor pool and is even cheaper than India. However it lags on the fluency front too. These disadvantages may be quickly overcome though
3. Government policy and inaction - Major Indian cities have horrible infrastructure. They force the call centers to invest in vehicles and cabs to transport employees etc (which do not bring in any profits at all.) Further the calling costs in India are one of the highest in the world. The real whammy comes from the governments policy. A recent ruling by the state government of Haryana requires call-centers not to employ women during the night hours !!!