newsletterour hypothesis based on the theoretical perspective of the resource based view. we build a...

INTERNATIONAL PAPERS

Mishra, A. and Akbar, M. 2007. “Empirical Examination of DiversificationStrategies in Business Groups: Evidence from Emerging Markets”. InternationalJournal of Emerging Markets, 2(1): 22-38.

To examine the influence of direction ofdiversification on business groups performancein emerging market. We empirically examineour hypothesis based on the theoreticalperspective of the resource based view. Webuild a regression model with the dependentvariable Tobin’s q as a proxy for group/firm valueand various other performance measures(derived from financial data) which theorysuggests influences firm value. We examine thedifferences in firm value measure across threeclasses’ viz. related-diversified business groups,unrelated-diversified business groups andstandalone firms. Our results confirm thefindings of prior research which suggests thatgroup affiliation is beneficial in emergingmarkets. However as a departure, our mainfinding is that the benefits of group affiliation

are not equally available to related-diversifiedand unrelated diversified groups. Whilediversified business groups are valued inemerging markets, our work for the first timeclearly establishes that related-diversificationstrategy is better and more profitable in thecontext of emerging market. Thus businessgroups are better off as related-diversified thanunrelated-diversified. Prior work has examinedthe benefits of group affiliation and the extentof diversification question. We examine thedirection of diversification question which webuild based on the resource-based perspectivefor the first time. This contribution extends ourunderstanding of business groups andperformance linkages in an emerging marketcontext.

“No matter how insignificant the thing you have to do, do it as well as you can,give it as much of your care and attention as you would give to the thing you regardas most important. For it will be by those small things that you shall be judged.”

— Mohandas K. Gandhi, Mahatma

RESEARCH PUBLICATIONS

Gupta, N. and Kumar, P. 2007. “Issues in Cross-Cultural Supervision: Some Examplesfrom Community Work Settings in Australia”. International Journal of Business Strategy,Library of Congress, Washington and California State University, USA. VI(3): 91-103.

Community work practice is increasinglybecoming multicultural, both in terms of thediversity of communities it serves and theworkers it employs. This paper looks at somesupervision examples from community worksettings in Australia. The aim is to highlight

some actual and potential issues which arise incross-cultural supervision and call attention tothe need for further examination of these issuesto inform practice and education of communitywork.

IIMLIIMLIIMLIIMLIIMLNEWSLETTER

OCTOBER, 2007

BOOKS

Mital, A. 2007. “Cases in Strategic Management”. McGraw- Hill Companies, 210.

The case method plays a major role incontemporary teaching of StrategicManagement. It is an effective means ofintroducing management students to commonbusiness situations and practices. Indianbusiness students, academicians andpractitioners have to rely largely on caseswritten in the US or European context. OftenIndian students find it difficult to relate to US orEuropean contexts and hence appreciation andapplication of these cases is limited. This ismainly due to paucity of Strategic ManagementCases in the Indian context. The collection ofStrategic Management cases in this book, allfrom the Indian context, offer students a broadexposure to business problems, issues, policiesand practices, which are appealing to studentsand stimulating to teach. The cases are fromdiverse industries such as Footwear, Brewing,

Gems & Jewelry,Greetings, Logistics,Media, Petroleum, RealEstate, Telecom, Retail,Wind Energy, and WhiteGoods. The 2005 to2007 timeframe makesthem quitecontemporary. Thecases are undisguised and have been classtested to ensure that they are interesting andeffective for illustrating Strategic Managementconcepts. Almost all cases provide completefinancial information about the firms. The CaseInstructor’s Manual provides a comprehensiveteacher’s note for all cases. The teacher’sincludes detailed analyses, questions forclassroom discussion and suggests supportingsupplementary reading material.

RESEARCH PAPERS

Garg, A. K. 2007. “Influence of Board Size and Independence on Firm Performance: AStudy of Indian Companies”. Vikalpa, 32(3): July-Sept 2007.

Corporate governance issues flow from theconcept of accountability and governance andassume greater significance and magnitude incase of corporate form of organization wherethe ownership and management oforganizations are distanced. And, it is in thiscontext that the pivotal role played by theboard of directors in maintaining an effectiveorganization assumes much importance. Amajor part of the debate on corporategovernance centres around board composition

especially board size and independence.Various committees and corporate governanceguidelines have mandated a minimumpercentage of independent directors. However,the relationship of board characteristics suchas composition, size, and independence withperformance has not yet been established. Thispaper addresses the question whether theboard size and independence really matter interms of influencing firm’s performance.

Mishra, A. and Akbar, M. 2007. “Parenting Advantage in Business Groups ofEmerging Markets”. In: Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 11: 1-10,November 2, July-September, 2007.

The concept of parenting was originallyproposed by Campbell et al. (1995) in the

context of conglomerates in developedeconomies. The developed economies’ firms


OCTOBER, 2007

structure themselves around the businessdivisions but the emerging markets structuredifferent businesses through new venturesunder the business groups. This paper redefinesthe concept of Parenting Advantage as relevantto business groups, articulate the drivers ofparenting value for the affiliated firms, and

discuses the nuances of parenting and itsadvantages in an emerging market. We alsodiscuss the parenting disadvantages in suchcontexts. Therefore, the paper conceptuallyrefines the construct of parenting in emergingmarkets, whose importance in the presenteconomic context can not be over emphasized.

Nair, S.K.B. 2007. “Hunger Pangs: The Case of Internationalization”. The SmartManager, 6(5): 99-111. (This case was earlier used for the TCS Smart Manager CaseContest #29 in July-August 2007, jointly sponsored by Tata Consultancy Servicesand The Smart Manager publication)..

This case research based publication depictsthe case of South Indian Foods, which hademerged as a private limited company in theIndian market with a strong product line in1989. Although the company had started withonly three products, it owned twelve branded

products by 1997. By the end of 2005, thecompany had successfully achieved the desiredpenetration and product quality leadership inthe packaged food industry segment of SouthIndian market. The case illustrates the situationsthat led the company to internationalization.

CONFERENCE /SEMINAR PAPERS

Ali, J. 2007. “Performance of Commodity Markets for Pulses in India: Can FuturesTrading Help in Bringing Market Efficiency and Production Diversification?”. Paperpresented at One-Day Seminar on Agri-Commodity Futures in India: Impact onProduction and Prices, organized by the MCX Academia of Economic Research inassociation with the Indian Society of Agricultural Economics and the Department

of Economics, Univ. of Mumbai on 28 Sep’07, at Kalina Campus, Univ. of Mumbai.

The regime of market support for agriculturalcommodities has been initiated to provideassured market with remunerative prices toproducers, ensure availability of essential fooditems for consumers at reasonable prices andto balance the production system ofagricultural commodities in sustainablemanner keeping in mind the marketrequirements. Technological intervention inagriculture during mid-60s coupled with pricesupport policy of the government throughpromotion of rice-wheat system has broughtthe nation from food deficit stage to foodsurplus stage. However, this process hasseriously affected the production of pulses inthe country. This paper aims at analyzing the

performance of futures market for majorpulses in price discovery and how the futuresmarket can help in production diversification.


OCTOBER, 2007

Ali, J. and Gupta, K.B. 2007. “Efficiency Analysis of Futures Markets inIndia for Agricultural Commodities: Using Cointegration and CausalityTests”, Paper Presented in the National Workshop on Commodity Researchorganized by NCDEX Institute of Commodity Markets and Research at

India International Centre, New Delhi on 10 Oct’ 07.

This paper analyses the efficiency of agriculturalcommodity markets by assessing therelationships between future prices and spotmarket prices of 23 major agriculturalcommodities in India through Johansen’sCointegration Analysis and Granger CausalityTest. Unit root test procedures such asAugmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) and non-parametric Phillips-Perron (PP) are initiallyapplied to examine whether future and spotprices are stationary or not. The direction of

relationship between futures and spot prices arefurther analyzed by the causality test. Based oncointegration and causality tests, this papercategorizes the selected commodities based onlevel of efficiency in the futures and spotmarkets. The results of this study providesdirections to various stakeholders, such asproducers, traders, commission agents,commodity exchange’s participants, regulatorsand policy makers, for better decision making.

Gupta, K. B. 2007. “Structural Analysis and Performance of Indian Agricultural andAllied Sector in International Trade”. Paper presented in the Annual Conference ofInternational Academy of Business and Economics at Las Vegas, Nevada, USA during14-17 October, 2007. (Also acted as discussant in one of the technical sessions inthe conference).

Based on data collected from various tradedatabases and Ministry of Agriculture,Government of India, the present studyexplores the structure and performance ofinternational trade in agricultural and alliedproducts from India over the years throughestimation of some commonly used indicatorssuch as growth and share, trade openness,trade intensity coefficient, index of intra sub-

sector trade, revealed comparative advantage,measures of products and export marketdiversification, trade complementarity indexand linkage of the agricultural and allied sectorwith the rest of economy. Some of theindicators were modified especially to representthe performance of agricultural and allied sub-sectors.


OCTOBER, 2007

Chandrasekhar, H. and Bhasker, B. 2007. “Collaborative Filtering Based on the EntropyMeasure” in Proceedings of the 9th IEEE International Conference on E-CommerceTechnology and The 4th IEEE International Conference on Enterprise Computing, E-Commerce and E-Services (CEC-EEE 2007), 23-27 Jul’ 07; 203-210.

This paper introduces a new memory basedapproach to ratings based Collaborativefiltering. Unlike existing memory basedCollaborative Filtering approaches, thisapproach exploits the predictable portions ofeven some complex relationships betweenusers while selecting the mentors for an activeuser through the use of the novel notion ofSelective Predictability, which can be measuredusing the Entropy measure.

The proposed approach has been tested usingthe MovieLens dataset, and it is expected thatthis approach should work equally well for anygiven dataset This flexibility would make itpossible to make use of this approach in a widevariety of application domains including e-commerce where recommendations need to beprovided to users based on the ratings providedimplicitly or explicitly by different users todifferent items in the past. However the items

BOOK REVIEW

Srivastava, S. K. and Ravichandran, N. (Ed.). 2007. “Management Science and Practice”,Allied Publishers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. In: Vision: The Journal of Business Perspective, 11(3):87-88.

The book is an edited volume of select paperspresented at the first National Conference onManagement Science and Practice held at theIndian Institute of Management Ahmedabad,March 31 - April 1, 2006. The included paperscover a few practical and utilitarian applicationsin the field. They are diverse in both contentand quality. Typical topics covered include siteselection, supply chains, quality, vehiclerouting, scheduling, inventory models,portfolio selection and decision supportsystems. They relate to diverse sectors likerailways, road transportation, airports, healthand food. However, topics related to e-

governance, sustainable development, ICTenabled delivery of products and services andsectors like agriculture, banking and retail aswell as methodologies like game theory, systemdynamics, fuzzy logic and neural networks donot find any place in the book. Overall, it mayserve as a reference on the applied aspects ofoperations research in the Indian context.Categories of prospective readers wouldprobably be practitioners and at most policymakers. It is more suited as a reference book inindustry and academic libraries may give it askip if the price is on the higher side.


Kumar, P. 2007. “Issues in Cross-Cultural Supervision: Some Examples from CommunityWork Settings in Australia”. Paper Presented at International Conference organized byInternational Academy of Business and Economics (IABE) Las Vegas, USA on 15 Oct’07.

Community work practice is increasinglybecoming multicultural, both in terms of thediversity of communities it serves and theworkers it employs. This paper looks at somesupervision examples from community worksettings in Australia. The aim is to highlight

some actual and potential issues which arise incross-cultural supervision and call attention tothe need for further examination of these issuesto inform practice and education of communitywork.

should represent a relatively homogeneousgroup like movies, music albums, compact

disks, books, software and research articles etc.

LECTURES/KEYNOTES ADRESSES DELIVEREDProf. Bharat Bhasker delivered Keynote Address titled “Integration of Services- What Web 2.0offers?” at Uttarakhand.IT@Dehradun organized by the Information Technology DevelopmentAgency of Uttarakhand Government and National Electronic Governance Program (NeGP) of Govt.of India, in Dehradun, on 3 Aug’ 07.Prof. Bharat Bhasker delivered Dr. Vikram Sarabhai Memorial Lecture organized by Indian Societyof Remote Sensing, Lucknow on Remote Sensing Day at National Remote Sensing AgencyAuditorium on 16 Aug’ 07.

OCTOBER, 2007

Prof. Rao, D. Tripati (2007) was invited to deliver talk on “Economic Reforms, The Elusive HumanFace and Inclusive Growth” in National Summit: India at 60: Challenges for Inclusive Socio-EconomicDevelopment, to commomerate 103 birth anniversary of late Prime Minister of India, Sri LalBhadhur Shastri, 6 Oct’ 07, organised by LBSIMT, Bareilly.

Gandhi Jayanti (2nd October, 2007), was observed thisyear as the first International Day of Non-Violence andwas celeberated with the pledge ‘INDIA OF MY DEAMS’ (asper directives received from the Ministry of HRD) in theInstitute on 2nd October at 10:00 a.m. The acting director,Prof. Vipul delivered a soul stirring speech in which hehighlighted the importance of Gandhian thoughts eventoday. This was followed by ‘Shram Daan’ and a ‘CaptionContest about Non-violence’, oganized by the Students’Council.

Prof. Saji K.B. Nair (2007) served on the editorial review board of the conference proceedingsof Product Development & Management Association (PDMA) Research Forum held at Orlando,Florida, USA during September 29-30, 2007. He worked with Prof. Albert L. Page and Prof. JosephCherian of University of Illinois at Chicago for the track ‘Marketing Strategy’.

COMMUNITY AFFAIRS

Prof. Mohd. Akbar (2007) has been nominated by the Vice Chnacellor, AMU Aligarh, as Externalmember of the Committee for Advanced Studies and Research (CASR), Faculty of Commerce fora period of two years w.e.f 17 Jul’ 07.

Team Bhavishya, IIM Lucknow’s student run social initiative group organized an innovative fundraising event- “The Harmony Cup”, a cricket tournament. To celebrate the spirit of unity and har-mony the students of IIM Lucknow joined hands to spread the message of peace. The event wasused to raise funds for children from the economically weaker strata.

Bhavishya is active in the domains of education,unemployment and health and women empowerment. Thecommittee leverages the technical and managerialcompetency of students and the faculty to aid NGOs and thegovernment. Over the years it has emerged as one of thelargest social action group run by students.The cricket leg of Sikander took place between the 3rd Octoberand 11th October on the Soccer grounds. The matches wereplayed during the nights under flood lit arrangements. Theleague matches were of 12 overs each while the semis and

STUDENT ACTIVITIES


Prof. Bharat Bhasker (2007) was appointed by H.E. Governor of Uttar Pradesh as Director inthe Board of UP Electronics Corporation, Lucknow, for the period of five years w.e.f Mar’ 07.

EDITORIAL ASSIGNMENTS

Cricket

Shram DaanShram DaanShram DaanShram DaanShram Daan

ALUMNI ASSOCIATION CHRONICLES

Mentorship:After a successful launch of the program last year, the second phase of mentorshipwas launched last month. Some highlights of the Second phase launch:• Participation of 120 mentors with 140 mentees enthusiastic to get guidancefrom the mentors.• An online portal through which

Mentors can view the profiles ,pitches of the interested students and thenchoose a mentee whom they can guide;Mentees can upload their information as well as receive information and guidance onsubjects like CV preparation which mentors put up on the portals shout box.

Merchandising:IIML.STUFF-Your avenue to collect your memories of IIM L and to wear Brand IIML.A new initiativeto ensure the alumni, students and staff have access to interesting merchandise and memorabiliaso that they can flaunt their BRAND IIML. The merchandising initiative was launched in campusthis month with an exclusive T-shirt range in association with United Colors of Benetton. Soon tobe launched for the alumni as well this initiative is an endeavor looked forward to by everyone.Ayudh-the placement package:Summer placements are round the corner and AA and AlCom endeavor to involve Alumni to givePGP1’s the tools or the Ayudh to help prepare for the task ahead .In that respect the activities heldlast month include:

• Online CV Review- It involved CV mentors reviving the CV’s of PGP1 students, givingthem tips on the DO’s and DON’Ts of CV preparation. The objective of the On-line CV reviewis to get CVs of students appearing in summer placements, reviewed by alumni. More than200 students and 75 alumni participated in this activity. This time a portal was used toshare CVs and other information between students and alumni.


OCTOBER, 2007

finals were for 15 overs. The matches were held for 11 boys’ hostels constituting 8 teams andthere was also a girls’ match between the 1st year students and second year students. The boysevent was won by Hostel 9 as they beat Hostel 11 in the finals, while the girls match was one bythe 1st year team.

RETIREMENTShri R.C. Srivastava got retirement from the services of IIML on October 31, 2007. In his honour,a farewell get-together was arranged in the campus on October 29, 2007.

This year, on the 14th of October 2007, history was made when IIM Lucknow was crowned winnerat Tata Boardroom Wars, one of the most coveted competitions amongst B-schools the nationover. Six students from the institute – Akshat Agarwal, Animesh Saxena, Arpit Singh, HemantGangaraju, Mukesh Patnaik and Prerna Bhutani – fought it out against 8 teams from India’s top B-Schools (including all IIMs, FMS and SP Jain) for two grueling days at Vista 2007, the annualmanagement festival of IIM Bangalore. At the end of two days, the team emerged as clear winnershaving outshone all others in their ability to strategize and work as a coherent unit, thereby makingthe shareholders of their fictitious company (which they were supposed to run as part of thecontest) very happy. They deftly handled all questions in the Annual General Meeting, which wasthe final round of the competition, and proved their mettle to everyone present, thus addinganother feather to the cap of IIM Lucknow.

IIML TEAM WINS TATA BOARDROOM WARS

• Soft Skills Workshop - A Soft Skill Workshop was conducted in the campus on6th and 7th October 2007, with Nidhi Kapoor-Sinha, HR head, Bio-Rads Ltd. (IIML class of2004). The workshop included discussion on general CV preparation, interviews and anoverall brief of recruitment process for the summer internship, one- on- one session, thespecialization specific interviews, grooming tips for the interviews, specific readings andpreparation for the summer recruitment process.• Remote Interaction - An Interactive session with Paras Berawala, Ernst& Young,and IIML class of 2004 was held on 14th October 2007 in the Audio-video interactive Labat Gyanodaya, Library. The session was focused on insights into Investment Bankingand Private Equity space as a profession and Ernst & Young as a destination. It also talkedabout his experiences pertaining to the sought-after profiles in PE and I-banks.


OCTOBER, 2007

Entries invited for LMAawards16 Oct. 2007

Pre-placement offers make IIMgrads ‘crorepatis’1 Oct. 2007The rising accolades for India on theworld corporate arena is not benefiting thecompanies alone, the would-be managersin are also getting a pie with job offersrunning into crores.Still to complete their study, five studentsat Indian Institute of Management,Lucknow have got pre-placement joboffers with an average salary of Rs onecrore, all coming from global nvestmentbanks.”The number of offers have alreadysurpassed the last year’s figures when onlyfour students had bagged PPOs till thetime of final placements,” IIM-L’s StudentRecruitment Co-ordinator Mahesh Nairsaid.All the five offers are frominternational investment banks, Nair said,but did not divulge the employers’names.The other IIMs are also seeing arush of international corporates with anincreasing number of pre-placement offers(PPOs) for their students.PPOs are finalplacement offers made to the studentsbased on their performance duringsummer internships at a company after thefirst year of MBA.Job offers have been pouring for IIM-Bstudents this year, with a record 70 pre-placement offers having been made for abatch of 250 students. At IIM-Ahmedabad, nine students have alreadybagged PPOs from leading investmentbanks, with many more associate offersbeing in the pipeline.

EntertainmentEdge16 Oct. 2007Tarun Tripathi, theMarketing head ofYash Raj Films, and analumnus of IIMLucknow was oncampus to educate andsensitise the student’sabout the media andthe entertainmentIndustry. Talking onthe importance of thismedium ofcommunication headded, “Whether oneworks for the brand, anagency, or in the mediafield itself, one’sinteraction withcinema, content, and‘ b r a n d e dentertainment’ willonly increase. It ishence important forbusiness student tounderstand this area aswell.”He gave an overviewof the Bollywood, thecurrent Industry trendsand the role ofmarketing in theBollywood by citingexamples of variousfilms of Yash Rajbanners he has workedon.

FROM THE PRESS

It’s time once again for the nomination processof the prestigious Lucknow ManagementAssociation (LMA) Awards 2007. Theseawards are given to eminent persons of UPorigin who have made a very significantcontribution in any walk of life in India/abroad; or eminent persons of any originworldwide who have made a very significantcontribution in any walk of life in UP. Thereare four awards for transformation leadership,creativity & innovation, woman achiever andyoung achiever. Wherever UP has beenreferred, preference is given to Lucknow, otherthings being equal. There is no prescribed agelimit to the awards except the LMA YoungAchiever Award for which the upper age limitis 40 years. Adherence to values, ethics andintegrity would be a common requirement forall award categories.Past recipients of this award include personsof such eminence as ...Prof Hari Gautam,former chairman, University GrantsCommission; Prof Prem Vrat, VC, UPTechnical University; Prof Vipul, dean, IIM-Lucknow, Raja Mehmoodabad and RCTripathi, former IAS officer.The LMA Awards 2007 would be given at aglittering ceremony on November 162007 atHotel Taj Residency, Lucknow. Nominationscan be sent over to LMA by post at B-978,Sector-A, Mahanagar, Lucknow 226006 or e-mail at [email protected] givingdetails of the person, award category,achievements, profile, address, phone numberand e-mail ID. Except in self-nominationcases, senders must send their own details aswell while recommending others for the LMAAwards 2007.


OCTOBER, 2007

IIM-L global management programmefor executiveNew Delhi, Oct. 15The Indian Institute of Management has announcedits International Programme in Management forexecutives (IPMX) at its Noida Campus.The full time,one-year residential executive programme willcommence from April next year. A core componentof the programme is an international module of 4-5weeks at faculty of management, McGill University,Montreal, Canada.The programme is aimed at midand senior level professionals to prepare them forleadership roles. It is designed to develop businesseducation that is grounded in the Indian andInternational business environment and willaccelerate understanding of business at functional andstrategic levels.The curriculum would focus on strategicunderstanding of business, rooted in practical skilldevelopment through action learning projects andindustry interface.

LU national meet on management6 Oct. 2007Lucknow University’s (LU) department of computerscience on Friday organized a national conferenceon “Network security and management”. It wasattended by professors from Indian Institute ofTechnology (IIT) Kharagpur and Chennai, IndianInstitute of Management, Lucknow, J K Institute ofApplied Physics, University of Allahabad amongothers.Among the 85 research papers submitted in theconference, only 29 papers were selected forpresentations.

B-Schools prefer Tata over Goldman17th Oct’ 07TAS, the flagship talent acquisition and development arm ofthe Tata group, has emerged third among the top 10 mostpreferred recruiters at the premier Indian business schoolsaccording to the recently conducted AC Nielsen campus tracksurvey 2007. The premier institutes include the 7 institutesthat TAS recruits from IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Bangalore, IIMCalcutta, IIM Lucknow, FMS Delhi, SPJAIN Mumbai, XLRIJamshedpur);as well as JBIMS Mumbai

PEs Flock to B-Schools for Summer Placements29 Oct. 2007PRIVATE equity (PE) play is extending its frontiers. Anincreasing number of International PE players are flocking toleading B-Schools for summer recruitments. While in the lastfew years, investment banks and consulting firms have beenhogging the limelight. This year around, it is the turn of PEplayers to draw in the crowds.Joining Barings, Actis, Temasek are PE Players like Mauritius-based Pragnya, UAE-based Sabre-Abraaj among others on thecampus this year. Also in the fray are the PE arms of Indianbanks. While these PE players take very few students, stipendsoffered during summers are upwards of Rs 1 lakh a monthwith packages going up to $ 5,000 per month plusaccommodation for international postings.The trend can be attributed to the change in profile acrossIIMs, where the number of people with work experience issteadily going up. While PE firms have traditionally hiredpeople with work experience, some have even hired freshersfor few profiles. “Last year, Barings Private Equity recruiteda fresher, so it is not necessary that people with workexperience are recruited” said the placement in-charge, IIMLucknow.

The demand amongst doctors, for management courses is beingtriggered by the huge boom in the healthcare and pharmasector. The Indian pharma market size is estimated at around$6 billion. As per a McKinsey projection, it is expected totouch $25 billion by 2010. Insurance, medical equipmentsindustry , consulting and other allied areas too are witnessinggrowth.Take the case of Dr Anil Jadhav at ISB. “I wanted to contributeto medicine in a different way and an MBA seemed to be theideal starting point as you get to address a wider audience.”he says. Similarly, Dr Ruchir at IIM-Lucknow , doesn’t wantto let go off the opportunity.

Doctors, medicine graduates smitten bymanagement bug16 Oct. 2007


OCTOBER, 2007

Q Can I join politics after doing an MBA? In what waycan I help a political party as an MBA professional?—Gopal Dixit

A Many B-school graduates have joined politics in the lastdecade or so, including Kumari Shailaja, JyotiradityaScindia, Naveen Jindal, Milind Deora and Sachin Pilot, butnot as management professionals. But now graduates fromtop B-schools are increasingly being employed in politicsas management professionals.

IIM-Lucknow alumnus Ranjan Kumar, now a full-timeCongress worker, gives strategic inputs to the party generalsecretary, Rahul Gandhi’s team. Prodyut Bora, a ‘99-batchIIM-A graduate, left his consultancy business to join theBJP as the national convenor for its IT cell. Sidharth NathSingh, an alumnus of FMS, Delhi, has found the right mixof running a business and devoting time and energy for theBJP. Singh deftly balances three balls: an assignment withUK’s design and engineering consultancy firm WSP, whileholding the post of party in-charge for Nagaland, besidesbeing appointed as BJP’s publicity in-charge for theupcoming Gujarat elections.Young Congress MP SandeepDikshit, himself an alumnus of Institute of RuralManagement Anand, has motivated a few other IRMAgraduates to work full-time on a project.

Management institutes send their students abroad assummer interns to lure firms for placements.Thestrategies of Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs)are fast being adopted by other Indian B-schools thathave been periodically sending their managementstudents to foreign destinations for internships in abid to get the maximum number of MNCs to come totheir campuses, besides using the alumni network topromote their institution on foreign land.The instituteplans to visit around 150 companies this year. It shellsout around Rs 6 lakh on such promotional activitiesand this year the budget might increase with theinstitute planning to approach companies in the UKand the US. At IIM-Lucknow, too, the placement headwill be travelling shortly to the US for the same. Hehas visited Singapore and Hong Kong already thisyear.The institute also maintains a database of MNCsvisiting Indian B-schools.Visiting MNCs not onlyhelp the institutes position themselves as strongbrands but also give them the advantage of attractingbetter students in future. And for students, nothingcan equate an international summer internshipexperience. Says an IIM-Lucknow professor, “Gettingforeign placement offers is crucial for us, and moreimportant for students who get to learn a lot frominternational exposure.”

Politically correct choice

IIMs to be empowered to award degrees7-13 Oct, 2007

The government is formulating a law to empower the premium Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) to offerdegrees like universities without curtail their autonomy. “The government has been examining the issue of bringingthe IIMs in the country under umbrella legislation like the Institutes of Technology Act. It will empower the IIMs toaward degrees to students, which they are not competent to do at present,” the human resource development (HRD)ministry said in the statement, “It may be clarified that bringing the IIMs under the ambit of central law will in noway alter their accountability to parliament or their status of being public institutions,” it said.India has six IIMs at Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Bangalore, Lucknow, Kozhikode and Indore, providing industry-orientedpostgraduate diplomas and executive certificate programmes.Refuting media reports that the ministry is trying to quell the vocal IIMs and curtail their autonomy through theplanned law, the ministry said the IITs have been flourishing as institutes of excellence under the Institutes ofTechnology Act and “their autonomy has in no way adversely affected under the said act”. The IIMs function undertheir respective Memorandums of Association (MoAs) and rules and regulations framed there under. They aresocieties registered under the Societies Registration Act. “The IIMs are public institutions and are accountable toparliament. They enjoy complete autonomy as regards academic matters and matters relating to fees, selection offaculty, introduction of new courses, incurring of expenditure in conformity with the prudence involved in publicspending etc,” the ministry said.

17 Oct. 2007


25 Oct. 2007

OCTOBER, 2007

ACCOUNTINGBerry, Aidan “Accounting in a business context/ Aidan Berry and Robin Jarvis”.—4th ed—London: Thomson, 2006, 535 p; 25 cm.

ADVERTISINGGreyser, Stephen A “Volkswagen of America:AUDI 5000 (A) / Stephen A Greyser and RobertJ Kopp”.— Boston: HBS Press, 1991, 18 p; 28cm.

AGRICULTUREDole, John M. “Floriculture: principles andspecies / John M Dole and Harold F Wilkins”.—2nd ed— New Jersey: Pearson, 2005, 1023 p;29 cm.

BUSINESS ETHICSGibson, Kevin “Ethics and business: anintroduction”. — Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2007, 255 p; 25 cm.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCERaisinghani, Mahesh “Business intelligence inthe digital economy: opportunities,limitations and risks”.— Hershey: IGP, 2004,289 p; 27 cm.

BUSINESS LOGISTICSBallou, Ronald H. “Business logistics / supplychain management: planning, organizing andcontrolling the supply chain.—5th ed— NewDelhi: Pearson, 2006. 789 p: 1 CD-ROM; 25 cm.

COMMUNICATIONDoorley, John “Reputation management: thekey to successful public relations andcorporate communication / John Doorley andHelio Fred Garcia.— New York: Routledge,2007, 432 p; 26 cm.

COMPUTER & INFORMATION SYSTEMS(CIS)Clarke, Steve “Information systems strategicmanagement: an integrated approach.—2nded— London:Routledge, 2007, 196 p; 25 cm.

ECONOMICSLuce, Edward “In spite of the Gods: the strangerise of modern India.— London: Little, Brown,2006, 388 p; 24 cm.

ENTREPRENEURSHIPMark, Ken “Newad: the Digital Signageopportunity / Ken Mark, Jordan Mitchell andStewart Thornhill.— Ontario: Ivey, 2006, 6 p.;28 cm.

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENTFabozzi, Frank J “Introduction to structuredfinance / Frank J Fabozzi, Henry A Davis andMoorad Choudhry.— New Jersey: Wiley, 2006,385 p; 24 cm.

LAWLikosky, Michael B “Law, infrastructure, andhuman rights.— Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2006. 230 p; 23 cm.

GYANODAYA

GYANODAYA- RECENT ARRIVALS


OCTOBER, 2007

newsletterour hypothesis based on the theoretical perspective of the resource based view. we build a...

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