B-School Reform: Better Late Than Never

Five years ago we were in near despair over the deteriorating state of graduate business education. Increasingly, we had grown concerned by the fact that too many MBA programs—often those at prestigious research universities—were failing to (a) impart useful skills; (b) develop leaders; (c) instill high ethical norms; and (d) prepare mangers to deal with complex, cross-disciplinary, nonquantifiable issues. So we did what professors invariably do when they have bees in their bonnets: We put pen to paper. The article we wrote, "How Business Schools Lost Their Way," was published in the Harvard Business Review, and, while we wish it had been otherwise, the professoriate's initial reaction was overwhelmingly negative.

Our call for reform of the MBA curriculum didn't fall on deaf ears as we had anticipated it would; instead, it became the shot heard 'round the B-school world. Among the faculty at many B-schools, our critique generated considerable anger and vituperation: They responded as if we were "flat earthers," greeting our proposal for change with as much welcome as the proverbial foreign object in a punch bowl. At the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School (Wharton Full-Time MBA Profile), the dean at the time reportedly ripped our article to shreds at a new student orientation. How's that for a warm Wharton welcome?

Recently, Joel M. Podolny, who in his five years as dean of Yale's School of Management (Yale Full-Time MBA Profile) successfully led that institution to the forefront of innovation, captured the manner in which the article was received: "Based on my interactions with colleagues from academia over the past several years," he said, "… there is a large number in the academy who have reacted strongly to this article, though invariably in a negative fashion and, of course, invariably without reading the article."

About HBS 2+2 Program:

• Venue : Harvard Business School, Boston
• By: Harvard Business School
• Important Dates :  Deadline for Submission of Applications: June 15, 2010
• Eligibility : Final Year UnderGraduate

Harvard Business School has opened the doors on an innovative new program for college juniors. It's called HBS 2+2: two years of work, then two years of immersion in the Harvard Business School MBA Program. In order to be eligible for the 2+2 Program you must be a current college junior ( i.e. completed pre-final year and entering final year for Indian Students) with at least one remaining semester, after July 2010, necessary for the completion of your degree. 

Students pursuing undergraduate degrees that are shorter or longer than 4 years are also eligible to apply. Students should apply the summer prior to their final year of study.

The HBS 2+2 Program application for the MBA class entering fall of 2013 consists of the following materials. All materials must be submitted online. Please assemble and prepare them to help us access your qualifications.

1. Stanford University (CA)
   Stanford Graduate School of Business offers an MBA Program that is a two-year, full-time residential program, focusing on the academic facets of general business management. A PhD Program and the Stanford Sloan Program, a ten-month general management program for mid-career executives, leading to a master of science in management. MBA | PhD



2. Harvard Business School (MA)
   Harvard Business School offers a two year MBA Program. You can apply Online to this program. In addition, HBS also offers Doctoral Programs leading to a PhD in Management in any of the eight streams of Management. MBA | PhD



3. Kellogg School of Management Northwestern University (IL)
   Kellogg School of Management offers full-time, part-time, executive and international executive MBA programs. Kellogg is organized into six academic departments and each area offers individual Doctoral Programs. MBA | PhD



4. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
   Wharton offers full time Undergraduate Program in Business Management. The MBA Program offers a variety of flexible options to students to earn Dual or Joint Degrees. The School also offers Wharton Executive MBA, Wharton Technology Management Course and Executive MBA programs. The Doctoral Program in the B School leads to a PhD in about 10 disciplines ranging from Marketing to Insurance and Risk. UG | MBA | PhD

Tips for Admissions in B-school And Real IIM GD Topics

IIM Lucknow's post-CAT selection process consists of three parts:
    1. Written ability test (of 15 minutes duration)
    2. Group discussion (on a given topic for 20 minutes)
    3. Personal interview

Last year, the process began with the written ability test, which is typically an essay-writing exercise. Over the past three years, the topics for this test have been one line abstract topics and the time allotted for this is 15 minutes.

Evaluation of the essay is done on the parameters of perspective and communication. This is followed by a group discussion on the same topic. The maximum time allotted for the GD is 20 minutes.

GD topics for CAT 2008

* He who knows how to be poor knows everything
* Habit and routine have an unbelievable power to waste and destroy
* A fool can ask more questions in an hour than a wise man can answer in seven years
* You have to break a few eggs to make an omellette
* When all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail
* If you want peace, prepare for war
* Patience is a bitter plant but it bears sweet fruit
* Cursing the weather is bad farming
* It is better to be born lucky than rich
* Good judgement comes from experience and experience comes from poor judgement
* If you are not a part of the solution, you are part of the problem
* Rules are made to be broken

GD topics for CAT 2007

* Business and Ethics do not go together
* Performance enhancing drugs should be legalised in sports
* The test of a successful man is not an ability to eliminate the problem before it exists, but to meet and resolve it whenever it arises
* Good economics is bad politics
* A successful man is not one who has ability to eliminate problems before they occur, but who can face the difficulties as they arise and solve them
* Good things always arise from good thinking
* A successful man is one who plans for the problems and avoids them and not one who faces problems as they come and solves them
* Faith is to believe what you do not yet see, reward for faith is to see what you believe
* Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative
* When you find that you are on the side of majority, it is time to reform
* Science without religion is lame and religion without science is blind
* Morality is the creation of the weak to deter and limit the strong
* Winning is what matters, whatever may be the cost
* Education is a progressive way of discovering your ignorance
* Great spirits face violent opposition from mediocre minds
* Helping hands are better than praying lips
* Necessity is the mother of all invention
* Thinking about the worst prepares you for the worst
* A closed mouth catches no flies
* You don't have to be different to be good; but you have to be good to be different
* If you give a man a fish, he eats it once. You teach a man to fish, you lose a business opportunity
* A man with words and no deeds is like a garden full of weeds
* For an idea to be accepted it has to be advertised by a good salesman
* Law is the creation of the strong to rule the weak
* Happiness is a mystery like religion, and it should not be rationalised
* Hope for ill gains is the beginning of loss
* Education is what remains after one forgets what one has learnt in school

GD topics for CAT 2006

Top 50 Business Schools in India by Career360

It all began with the shortlisting of 136 institutions, identified from the last five years' rankings conducted by four magazines. We wrote to each B-school, requesting them to participate in our review and ranking exercise.

Fifty-six institutions expressed interest in participating in the survey. Two institutions allowed us to review them, but explicitly refused to participate in the rankings (MICA, TISS). We did rank them based on available data, since we believed the students must know where they stand.

The top 50 B-schools list is a result of analysing 136 B-schools that we shortlisted from the B-school rankings done by four magazines over the past five years.

ISB Achieved Hat-trick in top 100 B-Schools of the World

Indian School of Business (ISB) Hyderabad achieved 12th rank among top 100 business schools of the world.

Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, achieved a hat-trick of sorts after making it to the Financial Times (FT) Global MBA ranking of the top 100 B-schools around the world for the third consecutive year. ISB has been the only Indian B-school on the list for the last three years.

The management institution has bettered its own erformance at the FT Rankings, and is now 12th on the list of top B-schools around the world. The ISB ranked 20th in 2008 and 15th in 2009. This year, ISB has beaten the likes of New York University: Stern, Yale School of Management, University of Oxford's Said Business School and University of Cambridge's Judge Business School.