6 ways to get your teen involved in studies.

Education is the cornerstone of human development. Unfortunately for most teenagers, attending college is more about hanging out with friends than acing mid term papers. So how do you get your teens to take studies seriously? It’s not as hard as you think. Follow these simple steps to encourage your kids to take studying seriously.

1. Keep the channels of communication open

It often happens that parents are so busy with house and work related matters, that they have no time to talk to their children. Make it a point to discuss about school. What classes is he/she taking, what does your teen think of the teacher and/or ask if your teen feels he/she is learning anything. This helps you get an idea as to where your kid stands.

2. Set clear goals

Encourage your kids to discover what they love. Spend some time with them and discuss their interests. Share articles and clippings about their career interests with them. Tell him/her what grades you are expecting. Don’t pressure your kid with the weight of your expectations, instead set a grade after discussion with him/her so you can come to an agreeable result. Set consequences for poor grades as well as rewards for good grades. Keep your expectations in line with what your teen feels he/she can do.

3. Make resources available

Resources are important for high school students. It is absolutely essential that your kid has facilities like the internet, library card etc. Students in the modern age use the internet to complete their homework and to research about new topics, so make sure they have whatever they need to accomplish their goals

4. Get Involved

Show support for your teen’s school by regularly attending parent teacher meetings. Be respectful to your teens teachers but don’t be afraid to ask them the tough questions. Also while teaching your child values is your duty as a parent, you should also support him/her when they are in the right. Be an advocate for your kids and trust them when necessary.

5. Create an atmosphere of learning

Remember all human beings learn something new every day of their lives. Create an atmosphere and culture that promotes learning. Encourage your children to take part in elocution competitions, dance classes, piano lessons etc. This will teach your child that learning is an ongoing process and one that can be a lot of fun. Also promote the habit of reading. Gift your child a book on his birthday and ask him to finish reading it. Build his interests in reading as it helps a lot in building communication skills.

6. Reward your teens for their efforts

Reward your child for his/her positive efforts.  The reward can be anything but the child should feel like he/she has achieved something. For instance, tell your child that he can go out and meet his friends if he finishes his homework or alternatively you can gift him something that he’s wanted from a long time.

Getting your teens to study is no easy task. It does take time and effort, but it should become part of a daily routine that both you and your teen can enjoy more than dread.

Entrepreneurship: The essentials for success!

In August this year, a young programmer named Patrick McConlogue decided to conduct an experiment. He approached a homeless man on the street and gave him two choices, either to accept his donation of $100 or to accept his offer to learn how to code. The homeless man in question, Leo Grand took him up on his offer to learn coding. For the next couple of weeks McConlogue would spend an hour or so with Leo teaching him coding basics, providing him with the books to study and even giving him his old laptop. Today a smiling and proud McConlogue stands beside his protege Leo at the launch of his  first app, ‘Trees for Cars’ on the iStore and Play Store. The app works by calculating the amount of carbon dioxide saved by car pooling and has already received rave reviews on the web. But what makes this story extra special is the fact that until a few months ago, Leo was just a homeless man with no prospects. All it took was the right kind of motivation powered by knowledge and support for Leo to rise above his situation and make his own destiny.

Leo’s story is the quintessential example of the maxim, “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”. The truth is we are all entrepreneurs, the difference being that a few among us have learned to catch their own fish while the rest of us still depend on someone to catch their fish.

Take the example of Arunachalam Muruganantham. He hailed from a small town in rural Coimbatore. His family was poor and largely lived an agrarian life. He noticed that his wife would use rags instead of sanitary pads to control her menstrual cycle since the family couldn’t afford to buy pads. He became obsessed with trying to understand how to develop a low cost sanitary pad which could benefit not only his wife but his entire village, and that’s exactly what he did. Day and night he would experiment to try to make a napkin until one day he successfully developed a prototype. Now all he needed was to test it. He would go around the village asking women to try it on, but everyone ridiculed him and called him mad. He finally tested his invention on himself by using animal blood. In time he was able to create a machine that could develop low cost disposable sanitary napkins. Today his invention has saved the lives of many women in rural India and has provided them with suitable employment in his factories.

The moral of the story is that to become an entrepreneur one must forego ones sense of shame and must be relentless in getting to the bottom of the problem, no matter what. Entrepreneurs are those who see an opportunity or a need and try to fill or bridge that gap by developing a solution.

So, how do we sow the seeds of entrepreneurship amongst the youth of today? It can be done through a problem solving approach of education rather than a test based system for grading intelligence. Entrepreneurs have a keen sense of their surroundings and look to use their skills to seal a demand in the market. In this regard, entrepreneurs must,

1. Have a keen understanding of the environment and market forces

2. Have the knowledge to foresee a demand or a need in the market.

3. Have the potential to meet this need with suitable solutions.

Students of this generation are the kinds that like to take charge of their life. Many are attracted to the prospect of entrepreneurship as it gives them the freedom to run their own life and work for themselves, but entrepreneurship is a lot more challenging than that. To become an entrepreneur one must not only take risks but must do so, smartly, thinking 5 steps ahead. It isn’t difficult to succeed in today’s business environment, however one would need to find where the next big opportunity lies and bet big on it.

In the next section, we will cover the traits of a successful entrepreneur and how gaining a sound business sense is the first step on your journey to being an entrepreneur.

A renowned college makes all the difference to an MBA graduate

An MBA is one of the most widely sought after degree amongst postgraduate students. And why shouldn’t it be? It gives an individual all the skills and insight needed to forward their careers in the right path. Research indicates that MBA grads advance faster in their careers as against non-MBA, or postgraduates with a lesser degree or diploma. Little wonder then that not just fresh graduates, but also professionals with a few years experience as well are opting for an MBA, albeit an executive MBA, these days. In the recent past we have considered several pros and cons of an MBA, and this post focuses on another aspect of an MBA that is often ignored. That aspect of course, is the reputation of a college from which a student completes, his or her MBA from.

Why should I consider the reputation of the college/institution?

Excellent question. To understand the importance of a college’s reputation, here’s an analogy. Let’s say someone in your family needs a life saving surgery. Will you go with the first surgeon you find? Or will you thoroughly research a list of surgeons, and only then decide the professional that you will trust with your loved one’s health? We believe your answer will be the latter. The same is true with the reputation of an institution a student chooses to pursue an MBA from.

Affects Career Trajectory: The institute’s reputation will often determine a student’s career trajectory. Quite simply because, in case of an excellent college, it alumni will already have ascended the corporate ladder and would prefer working with others from their alma mater as opposed to another college of a lesser stature.

Industry Perception: Another important aspect about the reputation of a college is the perception it carries in the industry. A college with a proven track record of producing, excellent managers, will definitely be perceived as that of a higher calibre. Needless to say then, the name of one’s college could come in pretty handy when giving an interview in the near future!

Quality of Faculty: A college’s reputation often times decides the quality of the faculty it attracts. Says Suman Rangachari, visiting faculty with a reputed college, and brand manager with an FMCG company, “the reason I chose to be established with this particular institution, is simply because of the fantastic reputation it has in the market. Besides their facilities and the rest of the faculty really add value in many ways to the lives of their students and in many ways to my career as well!” This sentiment is also echoed by Afzal Jamadar, a first year MBA student, “the kind of people who come here to teach is fantastic, the only reason these professional powerhouses decide to devote their time to students in this college is the reputation the college enjoys.

Educational Tie-ups: Reputed colleges often have international and intranational educational tie-ups with institutions across the board. Many reputed MBA colleges have entire modules that are formulated by universities abroad, some even offer accredited and recognised MBA degrees from foreign universities, at a much lower rate, thus eliminating the need to go abroad.

Better infrastructure: Reputed MBA institutions have top notch facilities in terms of well-equipped libraries, computer labs, reference materials and other important facilities that are a huge help to its students. Besides for an MBA institution to be accredited it must pass through a pretty intensive screening process to get a certificate in the first place.

Career Avenues for the new MBA grad…

There is an old adage, “it is the quality of the general and not the standard of equipment at his disposal that decides the outcome of a battle.” Nowhere is this old saying truer than in the field of modern business and commerce. An integral part of the success of virtually any business is a great manager. And being a great manager means having the skill set required to extract the best possible results from any situation or resource. An MBA degree does not guarantee that a person will be a great manager, but it definitely hones the skills required by a person to be said kind of manager.

Career Prospects for fresh MBA grads:

Considering the fact that MBA offers a number of specialisations, the job prospects for MBA students are as diverse as the specialisation they choose. Gone are the days when an MBA in Marketing meant that only Marketing Manager positions were ideal for a fresh grad. With businesses themselves looking to diversify outward and inward, the number of newer positions that are being created are virtually endless (in a matter of speaking). The fresh MBA grad today has a plethora of career prospects based on his/her individual specialization and interest.

MBA in Finance: Many MBA students opt for a specialisation in finance these days, simply because of the number of job opportunities this particular specialisation opens up.

Considering that a finance background is required in almost all functions of a business process, like Taxation, Planning, Auditing, Allocation, Marketing Budget, Valuation, International Finance and Financial Statement Reporting and Analysis, the career prospects for a fresh MBA grad are pretty widespread.

The job titles and descriptions are also quite interesting and challenging. Some of the job designations open to MBAs include, Financial Managers, Analysts (in banks and brokerage houses among others), Risk and Insurance Management (in Non-banking Financial Companies and Insurance majors), Investment Banking Associates and Managers (across investment banking firms).

The challenges in the roles faced are also equally different. Says Jatin Vaidya, an investment banking associate, “the challenges we face in an ever evolving, dynamic and fast growing world economic market is really something that excites me. Not only do I have to take stock and keep an eye on commodity and stock markets in India, but with my firm having several international clientele, I have to take an active interest in world markets as well. And because of this, no two days are ever the same!”

MBA in Marketing: Marketing as a function is an essential business process that straddles both communication and sales. An MBA in Marketing therefore needs to possess both a flair for communication as well the aptitude and flair for sales. An MBA in marketing can open doors in both advertising and every allied field of the same as also in corporates with a focus on developing and executing strategy that will affect the bottomline of the company.

The positions available to an MBA in marketing include Client Servicing Executives/Managers in both Advertising and Public Relations, Marketing/Sales Managers in companies across the board, Marketing Strategy Consultants and professionals in firms that research and consult with large scale multinational corporations.

Says Kimberly Athaide, a marketing manager with a fast growing beverage company, “creativity and numbers live in harmony as two vital cogs of my job. If one day is about coordinating with my advertising agency about our latest ad campaign, the next is about strategising about distribution and reach with wholesalers, so that our products are placed and priced competitively vis-a-vis our competitors. Like I said, it is both about numbers and creativity in equal measure…”

MBA in HR: No business can ever run successfully with a dissatisfied staff. An HR MBA equips individuals to better connect with their personnel on matters of morale, remuneration, work ethics, policies and organizational hierarchy.

Job titles in this space can vary from an HR executive to a Chief Motivational Officer (a concept popularised in several tech companies and startups). The challenges facing a fresh grad are complex as HR is about dealing with people and complex relationships within the purvey and framework of a professional set up.

Says Roshi Ahluwalia, an HR officer with a Hotel chain, “my job involves solving, in a mutually beneficial manner, the problems and issues faced by different cadres of people. From day labourers to managers and from chefs to bell boys, I’m the one point of contact for practically everyone who works here. What makes my job satisfying is that I make an impact on people’s lives in a positive manner.”

MBA in Logistics and Operations: An important function of any business is in the maintenance and upkeep of a supply chain. Logistics and operations are vital across several lines of business, and an MBA in this specialisation prepares one for the challenges faced in this critical function. 

Job titles and responsibilities vary in this field and growth is based on performance and skills shown. Companies have known to have Presidents and Vice Presidents (Operations), demonstrating the vital nature of this function to the success of a business.

MBA in IT: There is absolutely no doubt that Information Technology has revolutionised the way one does business. With data and processes now run singlehandedly by smarter computers, an MBA in IT enables a fresh grad to contribute in a positive manner to the efficacy and maximization of IT resources for the stability and growth of a company.

With this degree under one’s belt the glass ceiling is CIO (Chief Information Officer) which in tech companies and several financial majors is seen as on par with the big three job titles i.e. CEO (Chief Executive Officer), CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and COO (Chief Operating Officer).

MBA in Retail: With Retail emerging as one of the strongest sectors in the past decade, a specialisation in the business of retail is seen by many as the next big post graduate degree to have. An MBA in Retail isn’t just about procurement and dispersal of stock, it is in fact a science and an art, in so much as there are several facets to retail. Planning a retail experience is the buzzword in the industry and Retail Management equips a grad to do just that.

Job titles in the ambit of an MBA in Retail include Visual Merchandiser, Store and Retail Manager, Retail Buyers/Merchandisers, Experience Creation Executives, Logistics and Warehouse Managers, Supply Chain Executives/Managers and so forth.