i have survived on the challenges that i had put on myself over the last 27 years of my life.Had them at each and every stage of my life and worked hard to get it. these have transcended from being things as silly as being the school topper to things as tough as getting into my dream company. and then even tougher ones, like getting into ISB.i am blessed to have been a self-motivated individual, i have always aimed for my dreams.and the realization of this also means, in some ways, i am an egotist. which is fine. in life, at some occassions, you need to be.but over the last few days, a few things have happened in my life which has led me to think a bit differently. i got bad grades in my first term at ISB. i worked hard in the next three terms and have managed to improve the grades and for this, there was a lot of hard work put in.but, then, what am i seeking to achieve here? another dream job? which i even dont know what it is, at this moment?things suddenly does not make as much sense as it had when i was 21 years old.or, when i had decided to quit and join the b-school.
alum wisdom tells us that the 2nd and the 3rd terms are the toughest at ISB.why do i feel that i feel more of the stress now, in the 5th term, than i had felt a few terms back? is it because something has changed?is it because of the thoughts which engulfed me in the last few weeks?
a couple of years back, in an 'art of living' session, we had this small exercise when we had to share the most important moments of our life with a stranger in just 5 minutes and this gentleman who i had got as a partner told me somethings on these lines.
"in life, i have always associated happiness with getting past some targets and i found that i was always postponing happiness. i had thought thati would be happy once i got good marks. when i got that, i thought i would be happy once i had a good job. once i had that, i thought i would be happy when i bought a car...etc...i was always postponing happiness......"
that sentence has stuck on to me and now, something has happened which brought back that sentence and i dont know what!
life is short and its only once. happiness should never be postponed.
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
B School Rankings
Recently came across a B-school ranking (yet another) published in one of the leading business magazines and I found myself, yet again, thinking who the audience for these kinds of surveys really are?
The survey places the top three IIM’s and ISB among the top 5 institutes. One of the areas where ISB fell short was in the attribute of “faculty” and this, I found to be funny, if not ludicrous.
There are 420 students in my batch at ISB right now and ask then the reason for choosing ISB and 99% of them would say the reason was “world class faculty”.
Let me state on thing upfront loud and clear. The purpose of this post is not to compare IIM’s and ISB. This has been done in as many places on the blog world as there have been b-school surveys, if not more. And by no means am I saying that IIM’s are not the best educational institutions. I believe that these temples of learning have played a big part in the shaping of our country and have been a big reason for the status our country is enjoying today on the world’s centre stage. You just have to look at the best organizations of the country and you would find at least one visionary who boasts of one of the IIM’s as his alma mater. Plus my interactions with a lot of my close friends who have studied at these institutes makes me sure of the kind of caliber of the students over there and hence at the quality of the institutes.
So what is my point? The fact of the matter is that there can be no comparisons between an IIM and ISB and hence it does not make any sense to have a survey which club these institutes, which are different in their model, different in their pedagogy and different in the segment to which it caters to. And so is the case with a lot of other b-schools in the ranking. The difference between ISB and the IIM’s are starker because the underlying model itself is different.
So if people supporting the survey say that the attribute “Faculy” meant full time permanent faculty, then obviously ISB might score lower in comparison, but again it defeats the purpose of the survey. Why? Because the model of the ISB is that professors from all the world class institutes come and stay at the campus for 2 months, take classes and then leave. So, as I said earlier, the model is different and hence a comparison here is like comparing apples to oranges. So while not positively taking into factor the fact that the faculty is more world renowned, this very enviable aspect of ISB is taken as a weakness and the scores on that attribute dips. Fair?
Of course these surveys cleverly have trailing articles on each of these institutes (which fall in various broad categories) and here they talk about the different models of these institutions. But then, why club them in the same ranking?
ISB does not take part in the B-school rankings. ISB was conceived as a global school based in India and aims to be an internationally acclaimed institute. (Again, no need to read between lines here, with respect to the other institutes).
From the Dean’s message to the alumnus on the alumni portal.
In a recent Governing Board meeting, when we were sharing the ISB’s progress and the several challenges that lay ahead of us, the Dean of INSEAD, Professor Gabriel Hawawini, remarked: “You have achieved in five years what INSEAD took 30 years. Why are you in such a hurry?!”
What do these B-school rankings achieve?
Who is the intended audience for these surveys which are published by at least 4 different magazines in an year and continues to be published year after year? If the thinking is that this helps students choose an institute, then sadly this does not seem to be the case. Some years back when information was not widely available as it is now on the pros and cons of the various institutes, yes, these surveys would have been useful. But now? In this age when b-school aspirants can get the required information directly from the b-schools themselves and from various other reliable sources, what is the need to depend on a survey, the methods of conducting which varies between different magazines, and the authenticity of information of which is questionable (Case in point – BITS Pilani refusing to take part in a survey and going to the court on the basis of a survey publishing wrong information).
Of course, not all the surveys might be questionable and some of the methodologies might be sound enough.
For the b-school aspirants out there, no one can tell you which b-school is good for you. You have to decide that yourself by doing extensive research on your own. The decision to take an MBA is not a silly one and so there is no reason why you should not spend enough time scouting through the websites of the institutes which you are targeting. Find out alums from these institutes and reach out to them. Use your network, talk to friends of friends. In short, depend on feedback which are most closest to the real thing and is not just based on statistical samples (I hate statistics! :) )
I don’t see anything that you can gain from religiously following the rankings and being obsessed with it. Sure, I used to follow it during my pre-MBA days, but soon I realized that it is not going to help me in any way how I was going to choose to the institute where I wanted to study. That will depend on what stage of your career you are in, your personal constraints, what you consider to be the biggest takeaway from the MBA, what area of specialization you are looking for and a lot of other factors.
For me, these b-school ranking are simply an easy cover page item for these magazines, which they can repeat every year easily (the basic framework is in place) and count on thousands of star eyed b-school aspirants and their parents to buy them and push their sales up. (If only someone could give me the statistics of number of copies in circulation on average and in the months of these surveys……… )
The survey places the top three IIM’s and ISB among the top 5 institutes. One of the areas where ISB fell short was in the attribute of “faculty” and this, I found to be funny, if not ludicrous.
There are 420 students in my batch at ISB right now and ask then the reason for choosing ISB and 99% of them would say the reason was “world class faculty”.
Let me state on thing upfront loud and clear. The purpose of this post is not to compare IIM’s and ISB. This has been done in as many places on the blog world as there have been b-school surveys, if not more. And by no means am I saying that IIM’s are not the best educational institutions. I believe that these temples of learning have played a big part in the shaping of our country and have been a big reason for the status our country is enjoying today on the world’s centre stage. You just have to look at the best organizations of the country and you would find at least one visionary who boasts of one of the IIM’s as his alma mater. Plus my interactions with a lot of my close friends who have studied at these institutes makes me sure of the kind of caliber of the students over there and hence at the quality of the institutes.
So what is my point? The fact of the matter is that there can be no comparisons between an IIM and ISB and hence it does not make any sense to have a survey which club these institutes, which are different in their model, different in their pedagogy and different in the segment to which it caters to. And so is the case with a lot of other b-schools in the ranking. The difference between ISB and the IIM’s are starker because the underlying model itself is different.
So if people supporting the survey say that the attribute “Faculy” meant full time permanent faculty, then obviously ISB might score lower in comparison, but again it defeats the purpose of the survey. Why? Because the model of the ISB is that professors from all the world class institutes come and stay at the campus for 2 months, take classes and then leave. So, as I said earlier, the model is different and hence a comparison here is like comparing apples to oranges. So while not positively taking into factor the fact that the faculty is more world renowned, this very enviable aspect of ISB is taken as a weakness and the scores on that attribute dips. Fair?
Of course these surveys cleverly have trailing articles on each of these institutes (which fall in various broad categories) and here they talk about the different models of these institutions. But then, why club them in the same ranking?
ISB does not take part in the B-school rankings. ISB was conceived as a global school based in India and aims to be an internationally acclaimed institute. (Again, no need to read between lines here, with respect to the other institutes).
From the Dean’s message to the alumnus on the alumni portal.
In a recent Governing Board meeting, when we were sharing the ISB’s progress and the several challenges that lay ahead of us, the Dean of INSEAD, Professor Gabriel Hawawini, remarked: “You have achieved in five years what INSEAD took 30 years. Why are you in such a hurry?!”
What do these B-school rankings achieve?
Who is the intended audience for these surveys which are published by at least 4 different magazines in an year and continues to be published year after year? If the thinking is that this helps students choose an institute, then sadly this does not seem to be the case. Some years back when information was not widely available as it is now on the pros and cons of the various institutes, yes, these surveys would have been useful. But now? In this age when b-school aspirants can get the required information directly from the b-schools themselves and from various other reliable sources, what is the need to depend on a survey, the methods of conducting which varies between different magazines, and the authenticity of information of which is questionable (Case in point – BITS Pilani refusing to take part in a survey and going to the court on the basis of a survey publishing wrong information).
Of course, not all the surveys might be questionable and some of the methodologies might be sound enough.
For the b-school aspirants out there, no one can tell you which b-school is good for you. You have to decide that yourself by doing extensive research on your own. The decision to take an MBA is not a silly one and so there is no reason why you should not spend enough time scouting through the websites of the institutes which you are targeting. Find out alums from these institutes and reach out to them. Use your network, talk to friends of friends. In short, depend on feedback which are most closest to the real thing and is not just based on statistical samples (I hate statistics! :) )
I don’t see anything that you can gain from religiously following the rankings and being obsessed with it. Sure, I used to follow it during my pre-MBA days, but soon I realized that it is not going to help me in any way how I was going to choose to the institute where I wanted to study. That will depend on what stage of your career you are in, your personal constraints, what you consider to be the biggest takeaway from the MBA, what area of specialization you are looking for and a lot of other factors.
For me, these b-school ranking are simply an easy cover page item for these magazines, which they can repeat every year easily (the basic framework is in place) and count on thousands of star eyed b-school aspirants and their parents to buy them and push their sales up. (If only someone could give me the statistics of number of copies in circulation on average and in the months of these surveys……… )
Monday, October 15, 2007
Blog Action Day
What does it take to switch off the lights when you leave the room?
What does it take to say no to plastic covers when you do shopping?
What does it take to give up standing for more than 5 minutes in the shower and wasting less water?
What does it take to have your vehicle conform to standards?
What does it take to not take your bike for that errand to the nearby shop?
Every action counts. Contribute. Participate. Benefit and gift the next generation.
What does it take to say no to plastic covers when you do shopping?
What does it take to give up standing for more than 5 minutes in the shower and wasting less water?
What does it take to have your vehicle conform to standards?
What does it take to not take your bike for that errand to the nearby shop?
Every action counts. Contribute. Participate. Benefit and gift the next generation.
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