course structure of 2 year full time MBA in India

A typical course structure of 2 year full time MBA in India looks somewhat like this :

1)First year has two or three semester/trimesters where all the students of the batch study same subjects and all the subjects are compulsory. The number of subjects covered in the year varies from 12 to 25 depending upon the depth of the subject covered under each subject. The topic covered during the first year are designed to impart basic knowledge of management and to familiarise the students with Management. The course structure varies from institute to institute but it typically covers the following :

FIRST YEAR :
GENERAL MANAGEMENT including Management Process, Management Science, Business Law , Communications, Indian Economy and Managerial Economics, Business Environment.

FINANCE AND ACCOUNTING including Financial Management, Management Accounting, Financial Accounting and Corporate Finance.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT including Sales and Distribution Management, Market Research, Consumer Behaviour, Advertising etc.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT including Organisational Behaviour, Organisation Effectiveness, Management of Change and Industrial Relations and Industrial Law etc.

PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT including Operation Management, Material management, logistics, Quality
management, Inventory management etc.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY including Computer Applications in Management, Management of Information Systems etc.

DECISION MAKING : Statistics, Quantitative Methods, Operations Research etc.


2) At the end of the first year the students undergo a summer training in a business organisation under the supervision of the faculty and the department in the organisation. The summer training lasts for 8 to 10 weeks and at the end of the training the students have to submit a project report. The summer training is usually in the field in which the student want to specialise in the second year of the MBA. Apart from the summer Training there will be few industrial visits during the 2 years. This summer training and industrial visits provides exposure to the real life working environment to the
students.

3) During the second year students are taught a few common subject which are compulsory for all the students and the remaining subjects are on the basis of the specialisation they have opted for. Typically there may be about 2 to 6 compulsory subject and 10 to 18 optional subjects to be covered in the second year. These optional subjects provide in-depth knowledge in the area of specialisation the student have opted for. There may also be a dissertation project which the students have to do in the area of his/her specialisation. Some institutes also provide dual specialisation which is very helpful in some cases. Like someone who has specialisation in both Marketing and Finance may be the right candidate for a job of Marketing of Financial instruments.

SECOND YEAR :
Common Subjects in Second Year : Strategic Management,
Business Environment, Business Policy and Business Law,
Dissertation Project .


SPECILAISATION IS TYPICALLY AVAILABLE IN FOLLOWING
AREAS:
A) FINANCE
B) MARKETING
C) HUMAN RESOURCE/PERSONNEL
D) INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
E) PRODUCTION/OPERATION MANAGEMENT

There may be other specialisation like agribusiness, banking, general Management, family business maanagement etc available in some of the institutes.

A) The specialisation in FINANCE prepares students for jobs in corporate finance, Bullion sector, investment banking, merchant Banking, stock exchanges, financial institutions and research firms. Those opting for FINANCE specialisation are likely to cover most of the following topics during the second year.

1. Quantitative Analysis of Financial Decisions,
2. Management of Financial Institutions,
3. Security Analysis and Investment Management,
4. Management of Financial Services,
5. Financial Markets,
6. Project financing, Analysis and Management,
7. International Financial Markets and Financial management,
8. Derivatives and Risk management,
9. Portfolio Management,
10. Cost Management,
11. Mergers and Acquisitions,
12. Management Control System,
13. International Accounting,
14. Taxation,
15. Financial Derivatives.

B) The specialisation in MARKETING prepares students for jobs in Advertising, Market research, Sales etc. Those opting for Marketing specialisation will cover following topics during the second year.

1. Product Management,
2. Sales and Distribution Management,
3. Market Research,
4. Quantitative Techniques for Market Research,
5. Consumer Behaviour,
6. Advertising Management,
7. International Marketing,
8. Brand Management
9. Strategic Marketing
10. Retailing & Franchising
11. Business Negotiation Skills
12. Rural and Social Marketing

C) The specialisation in HRM/PERSONNEL prepares students for jobs in Personnel department of business organisation spread across all the major sectors. Those opting for HRM specialisation will cover following topics during the second year.

1. Human Resource Planning,
2. Team building and Organisational Development,
3. Training & Development,
4. Industrial Relations,
5. IT based Human Resource Management
6. Management of Change,
7. Recruitment, Appraisal and Compensation
8. Labour Law,
9. Counselling Skills.

D) The specialisation in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY prepares students for jobs in IT related field. This specialisation typically produces IT consultants who can understand business requirement and are aware of general management. Those opting for INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY specialisation will cover following topics during the second year.

1. IT Management,
2. Management Support System, Decision Support System,
3. Software Engineering and Project Management,
4. System Analysis and Design,
5. Business Process Re-engineering,
6. Business Intelligence Systems,
7. Strategic Management of Information Technology ,
8. Database Management,
9. Telecommunications for Business,
10. Software Quality Management,
11. E-Commerce,
12. Networking.

E) The specialisation in PRODUCTION/OPERATION MANAGEMENT prepares students for jobs in Industrial and manufacturing units. Those opting for PRODUCTION/OPERATION MANAGEMENT specialisation will cover following topics during the second year.

1. Manufacturing planning,
2. Operations Strategy,
3. Quality Management, Six Sigma, JIT, TQM etc.
4. Production, Planning & Control,
5. Strategic Cost Management,
6. Production Planning and Control,
7. Management of Technology,
8. Supply Chain Management,
9. Research and Development,
10. Inventory and Vendor Management.

Why should you do an MBA?

This is an invariable question in any MBA entrance-interview. Getting this answer pat right is critically important because it shows how clear you are about your expectations from the course. It is imperative that you answer this question to yourself before you rush to fill up forms to various MBA colleges.

It is crucial on two counts:
1. If you do qualify for a course and find yourself acomplete misfit for the curriculum it would mean you are actually not cut out for the management cadre in the corporate world. So you are likely to saddle yourself with a career that makes you unhappy.
2. An MBA course is an investment both in terms of time and money hence wasting it is an offence.Moving on, let’s look at a few caricatures wherein an MBA
degree can be handy:

• The Anointed Heir who wants to hold the keys to his/her kingdom. This guy is someone like an industrialist’s son, who will have to take over the running of an existing corporate empire.
  
• The Shop Floor Enthusiast who wants to sit in the gilded corporate office This guy is typically someone who has devoted many years on the shop floor (it could also be in a lab..or in sales..or in data collection),mostly a technical person who executes rather thanstrategises. This guy now wants to be a part of th strategic team.
  
• The Intrepid Entrepreneur who wants to create an empire. This guy is someone who is all set to start his or her own business and wants to know the tools of how to do so.
  
• The Power Seeker who wants to crack the management ceiling he/she has hit because of a lack of an MBA degree. This person is typically someone who is a part of management but sees many promotions pass by him/ her due to a perceived lack of managerial perspective. Most of the top management believe that a person with a management degree has managerial perspective.
• The Money Player who would like to increase his/her pay packet. An MBA degree immediately increases your market value. If a postgraduate in economics is offered say Rs. 7000 per month as a starting salary, an MBA graduate is typically offered at least Rs. 30000 to 40000 per month.
  
• Reluctant Graduate who believes that he/she has learnt nothing at all that can get him/her a job.The non-professional graduate courses available today are not perceived to have any marketable value by the corporate world. These therefore need to be augmented to make the graduate ‘market worthy’.

The underlying advantage in all the six caricatures is that an MBA degree immediately flags you off as someone who can be trained to take up positions of authority.Apart from the positive boost that a person’s careergets, an MBA degree also offers three side benefits. Some
may argue that these are the main benefits ..

1. An MBA course is a hothouse where you are pushedto deliver. You are introduced to fierce competition.The conditions work on you in such a way that either you breakdown and leave the course half way or you end up becoming a tough professional.
   
2. MBA programme exposes you to a very wide area of experience in terms of subjects and people. You get exposed to varied subjects like macroeconomics,consumer behaviour, psychology, marketing, cultural heritage, communication theory, operations research,quantitative techniques, finance, HR, etc. Most programmes cover over 30 subjects! Apart from exposure to subjects, you meet people from various backgrounds and places.This really broadens your outlook!
3. And last but not the least, an MBA course brings together impressionable young men and women and you may just catch your soul mate while slogging over case studies!

A note on the links given & added info for aspirants!

Disclaimer: Do not read/try to understand everything & every links here in 1 go, it would surely cause indigestion! Try eating slowly...patience is the key...! :)

...many of you might not know most of these links. I have included them because all of them serve a different purposes. For those who do not have the time to go thru the links to find out more, just a quick note on the same:

The 'A-list' is a must go-thru list. In that, PG - short for Pagalguy is a must. It is huge, with more than 1.8 lakh registered users & 2 lakh vistors/month (as on date), you have immense info on ur hand on almost everything relevant. Also you could sign up for their free question-a-day for Maths, DI etc- which would be extremely good & tough questions which gives u a very good grounding (note- a first user might not find it very useful, since it is too deep. Re-visit it, u will realise its use as you progress across the stages in preparation- especially when it comes to the GD & Interview stages-PG is the best place for you to meet up fellow aspirants).

MBA Universe & MBA paradise might be more useful for those who are undergoing the course or have passed out (though info useful for aspirants are also in these sites).
Jam Mag is pioneered by Rashmi Bansal who is the Editor and Publisher of this popular youth magazine (JAM - Just Another Magazine). She is very balanced in her views unlike most of her other IIM compatriates (offence meant!) and gives plenty of insightful articles useful for B-School aspirants. For example, the follo link gives a comparison among coaching institutes, which is relatively useful- only problem is that the article is slightly outdated & some of the info contained has changed, but still it is useful.

In Solidgyan, you can freely enroll for some parts of the course & can even do previous cat papers online for free as timed tests. Total Gadha has a downloadable collection of previous cat papers + lot of good articles. Urpercentile's free CAT Hurdles are a must for ppl who might be weak in some of those areas & needs some basics & easy to medium level of questions to handle under each topic http://urpercentile.com/Hurdle.htm . Subscribe to their free Yahoogroup to get access to all CAT Hurdles. Though Tenaday has ppt like Devashish Chakravarty who was a 100 percentile scorer in CAT 2004 and 2006 who has graduated from IIM A, it is a new entrant and would have to prove their usefulness to the aspirants by giving more content in the future like the old stalwarts. But given the background of the 4 behind the site, more should surely be coming our way in the future from them.

The 'B-List' gives you some of the older stalwarts. Though TCY online is also pretty old as well as some of the others in the C list, they have not been able to come up as much as the others in the B-list have over the years. Among the B-List, Ascent is not that much high in the radars of the coaching institutes roll-call, but their site has good free content & hence i have included the same. TIME & CL have been ruling the roost, though IMS is the oldie, which has been loosing ground steadily in the past. It is quite obvious that all the old-timers have understood that they need to scale up & hence have ventured into B-schools & Schools- IMS started with Praxis, the B-School, while CL started with Schools first & very recently launched a B-School. I guess TIME would also be launching schools of their own in pretty soon.

Coming back to the B-List, the oldies are proven & time tested. They give a lot of info for free & does lot of good & more systematic work especially just after CAT in bringing out the answer keys & solutions (though CAT English key is always a stumbling block for them). They do give a lot of info abt other B-School tests & analysis & previous papers as well as info abt B-schools. Career Forum also gives a comparitive list of previous B-School rankings .Some of these sites allow you to sign up for free for accessing few resources, so do check them out.

Now coming to the 'C-List'. This is a list which i have arranged in the aphabetical order, so that there is no controversy over who comes first or second. Some of these sites are better than the others, so it is upto the aspirants to go thru them in detail & decide on which one you would stick on to. Each of them has something unique, for example, catalyst4cat.com is a site run by Munira Lokhandwala, an IIMC Alumnus for personalized CAT coaching. She has worked in the past as CAT Product Head and Faculty at IMS & CL and scored 99.99%ile in CAT 2004, 100%ile in CAT 2005 & 99.99%ile in CAT 2006. Though the site does not have much content, those interested in personal coaching of the elitest order might find it useful. So the 'C-List' has to be your take.