To those who are yet to begin on the admission process:
http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcgrrvvk_29ds36frdz - I've consolidated here, my various "MBA Applications" related posts from this blog.

Above and beyond the obvious striking features of Ivey such as these, the distinguishing element, according to me, is the comprehensive success Ivey alumni could demonstrate. Having extensively benefited from BITS-Pilani alumni, I comprehend the potential behind a powerful alumni network and I view these networking rudiments as crucial components that will accelerate my dreams towards reality. Ivey has 20,000+ alumni worldwide and one in four of them hold titles such as Chair, President, CEO, Vice-Chair, Vice-President, Managing Director or Partner in their companies.

Notable alumni include:
  • Kym Anthony, Former Chairman & CEO, TD Securities, Canada
  • Paul Atkinson, CEO & Chairman, Casero Inc., Canada
  • Thomas Bailey, Founder, Janus Capital, USA
  • E. Scott Beattie , Chairman / CEO, Elizabeth Arden Inc., USA
  • Duncan Brown, CEO, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, Canada
  • Laurie G. Campbell, Managing Director - Debt Capital Markets, Banc of America Securities LLC, USA
  • Ronald D. Charles, Managing Partner, Caldwell Partners International Inc., Canada
  • Henry Cheng, Managing Director, New World Development Co. Ltd., Hong Kong
  • Andrew Chisholm, Managing Director - Investment Banking, Goldman Sachs & Company, USA
  • George Cope, President & COO, Bell Canada, Canada
  • David Cornhill, Chairman / President & CFO, AltaGas Income Trust, Canada
  • Patrick Crowley, CFO, OMERS Administration Corporation, Canada
  • Darin Deschamps, Managing Director - Corporate & Investment Banking, National Bank Financial, Canada
  • Kirsten Feldman, Advisory Director, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co, USA
  • Don Getty, Former Premier of Alberta, Canada
  • Serge Gouin, Chairman of the Board, Quebecor Media Inc., Canada
  • Steven Gunn, CEO, Sleep Country Canada, Canada
  • Paul J. Hill, President & CEO, Harvard Developments Inc., Canada
  • Timothy Hockey, Group Head Personal Banking & Co-Chair, TD Canada Trust, Canada
  • Timothy E. Hodgson, CEO, Goldman Sachs Canada, Canada
  • James Hunter, CEO, NexGen Financial LP, Canada
  • Richard W. Ivey, Chairman and CEO, Ivest Corporation, Canada
  • Donald Johnson, Former Vice Chairman Investment Banking, BMO Capital Markets, Canada
  • Michael Kanovsky, President, Sky Energy Corporation, Canada
  • David J. Kassie, Chair & CEO, Genuity Capital Markets, Canada
  • Edward Kennedy, President & CEO, The North West Company, Canada
  • Gar Knutson, Former Minister of Parliament, Government of Canada, Canada
  • Arkadi R. Kuhlmann, Chairman / President & CEO, ING Direct USA, USA
  • Louis Lagasse, Chairman, Group Lagasse, Canada
  • Gilles Lamoureux, Vice-Chairman, Ernst & Young Orenda Corporate Finance Inc., Canada
  • Walter LeGrow, Entrepreneur, LeGrow HR Consulting, Canada
  • Stephen Lister, Managing Partner, Imperial Capital Group, Canada
  • John Love, Managing Partner, KingSett Capital, Canada
  • Terrence Lyons, Chairman, Northgate Minerals Corporation, Canada
  • Timothy Macdonald, President, A.T. Kearney Ltd., Canada
  • Christine Magee, President, Sleep Country Canada, Canada
  • Chris Matthews, Chairman, Hay Group, USA
  • Michael McCain, President & CEO, Maple Leaf Foods Inc., Canada
  • Stephen D. McDonald, Co-Head, Scotia Capital Inc., Canada
  • Donald McDougall, President, Rambri Management Inc., Canada
  • Pierre Morrissette, President & CEO, Pelmorex Inc., Canada
  • Michael Needham, Chairmain / President & CEO, SimEx Inc., Canada
  • Richard Nesbitt, CEO, Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), Canada
  • Dave Nichol, Founder, President's Choice, Canada
  • Robert Nourse, Founder, The Bombay Company, USA
  • Kevin O'Brien, Partner, SECOR Consulting, Canada
  • T. Kevin O'Leary, Managing Director / Dragon from Dragon's Den, NorthCoast Captal LLC, USA
  • R. Jeffrey Orr, President & CEO, Power Financial Corporation, Canada
  • Gilles Ouellette, President & CEO - Private Client Group BMO Financial Group & Vice Chairman, BMO Nesbitt Burns Inc., Canada
  • C. James Prieur, Former Corporate President and COO for SunLife Financial, CEO, Conseco Inc., USA
  • Stephen Quinn, Chief Marketing Officer, Wal-Mart Inc., USA
  • Bruce H. Reid, Former President & CEO, The Brick, Canada
  • Larry Rosen, Chairman & CEO, Harry Rosen Inc., Canada
  • Paul Sabourin, Chairman & Chief Investment Officer, Polar Securities Inc., Canada
  • Heather Shaw, Executive Chair, Corus Entertainment Inc., Canada
  • Joseph C. Shlesinger, Managing Director, Callisto Capital LP, Canada (former Director / Co-founder of Bain & Company Canada)
  • William Shurniak, Chairman & President, Northern Gas Networks Ltd., UK
  • Douglas Speers, Chairman, Emco Corporation, Canada
  • V. Prem Watsa, Chairman & CEO, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited, Canada
  • Andrew Wiswell, President & CEO, NAL Resources Trust, Canada
  • Donald Woodley, Former President, Oracle Corporation Canada & Compaq Canada, Canada
  • Lee Seng Wee, Former Chairman, Oversea Chinese Banking Corporation, Singapore

Learning from Chap1 of "MBA in a day": Human Resources

General pointers
  • Recruiting and retaining competent employees tops the agenda of a HR
  • Managers and HR must be flexible and adapt to the changes
Planning
  • Assess current staffing requirements and (or) project future
    • Organization’s strategic vision
    • Short/long term goals
    • Market’s impact on the changes in organisation
    • Impact of resistance to these changes
  • Evaluate the human capacity needed to meet objectives of the organisation, estimating number of people required per department/team/etc. This is done based on feedback
    • Requires understanding of business + assessments from experienced managers
    • Comparing with the benchmarks (perhaps with numbers from similar organisations)
    • Excessive workload to employees can often lead to burnouts and increased costs in the long run

  • Do Job Analysis and publish job descriptions
    • Job Analysis - collecting sufficient information to understand what is entailed to perform the job
    • Job description – lists activities that an employee need to perform and the skills/qualities required to meet job objectives
    • Job description helps in understanding responsibility expectations for candidates evaluation within team, compensation levels, etc

Implementing the HR plan
  • Recruitment
    • HR needs to work with managers
    • Internet/print ads, referrals, outsourced placement agencies, job fairs, campus (college) recruiting, etc
    • Employee leasing/ project based recruiting is prevalent – companies hiring these contract employees are free of associated bookkeeping and administrative costs such as payroll, benefits, etc
    • Internal hiring – choose from a known pool of talent; minimises misperceptions among candidates about the actual requirement, cost effective, motivates existing employees
    • External hiring might help in avoiding the “musical chairs” syndrome that doesn’t give staff to mature into their respective jobs. On the other hand, internal hiring must ensure well planned cross-trainings
  • Selection
    • Interviews, reference checks, background checks, skill test/work examples, personality tests, physical ability tests, drug tests, etc are prevalent as appropriate

  • Appraisal
    • 360-degree assessment tool is commonly used nowadays. This receives and gives feedback not only from managers, but also from peers, clients, direct reports, etc. Has been proved to be an effective tool to adjudge the employee performance

  • Employee personal/professional development and rewards
    • Helping employees attain their fullest potential is more important than hiring great candidates. Training and development is an essential component of all organizations
    • Increases value and capacity of human assets of the company
    • Sometimes, provides alternatives to external recruiting
    • Often creates potential leaders of the company
    • Helps individuals motivated and interested in their positions providing room for advancement
    • Initial orientation for employees in vital, especially for experienced professionals
    • Leadership development programs help managers turn to leaders

Good news for internationals considering Canadian programs...

Government of Canada introduces changes to work permits for international students, making Canada more attractive for skilled individuals... read on

This is an age old fable of the tortoise and hare race. A more recent version follows...

1. Once upon a time a tortoise and a hare had an argument about who was faster. They decided to settle the argument with a race. The tortoise and hare both agreed on a route and started off the race. The hare shot ahead and ran briskly for some time. Then seeing that he was far ahead of the tortoise, he thought he'd sit under a tree for some time and relax before continuing the race. He sat under the tree and soon fell asleep. The tortoise plodding on overtook him and soon finished the race, emerging as the undisputed champ. The hare woke up and realised that he'd lost the race. The moral of the story is that slow and steady wins the race. This is the version of the story that we've all grown up with.

2. But then recently, someone told me a more interesting version of this tortoise and hare story. It continues.The hare was disappointed at losing the race and he did some soul-searching. He realised that he'd lost the race only because he had been overconfident, careless and lax. If he had not taken things for granted, there's no way the tortoise could have beaten him. So he challenged the tortoise to another race. The tortoise agreed.
This time, the hare went all out and ran without stopping from start to finish. He won by several miles. The moral of the story? Fast and consistent will always beat the slow and steady. If you have two people in your organisation, one slow, methodical and reliable, and the other fast and still reliable at what he does, the fast and reliable chap will consistently climb the organisational ladder faster than the slow, methodical chap. It's good to be slow and steady; but it's better to be fast and reliable.

3. But the story doesn't end here. The tortoise did some thinking this time, and realised that there's no way he can beat the hare in a race the way it was currently formatted. He thought for a while, and then challenged the hare to another race, but on a slightly different route. The hare agreed. The tortoise and hare started off. In keeping with his self-made commitment to be consistently fast, the hare took off and ran at top speed until he came to a broad river. The finishing line was a couple of kilometres on the other side of the river. The hare sat there wondering what to do. In the meantime the tortoise trundled along, got into the river, swam to the opposite bank, continued walking and finished the race. The moral of the story? First identify your core competency and then change the playing field to suit your core competency. In an organisation, if you are a good speaker, make sure you create opportunities to give presentations that enable the senior management to notice you. If your strength is analysis, make sure you do some sort of research, make a report and send it upstairs. Working to your strengths will not only get you noticed, but will also create opportunities for growth and advancement. The story still hasn't ended.

4. The tortoise and hare, by this time, had become pretty good friends and they did some thinking together. Both realised that the last race could have been run much better. So the tortoise and hare decided to do the last race again, but to run as a team this time. They started off, and this time the hare carried the tortoise till the riverbank. There, the tortoise took over and swam across with the hare on his back. On the opposite bank, the hare again carried the tortoise and they reached the finishing line together. Both the tortoise and hare felt a greater sense of satisfaction than they'd felt earlier. The moral of the story? It's good to be individually brilliant and to have strong core competencies; but unless you're able to work in a team and harness each other's core competencies, you'll always perform below par because there will always be situations at which you'll do poorly and someone else does well. Teamwork is mainly about situational leadership, letting the person with the relevant core competency for a situation take leadership.

There are more lessons to be learnt from this inspirational teamwork story.
Note that neither the tortoise and hare gave up after failures. The hare decided to work harder and put in more effort after his failure. The tortoise changed his strategy because he was already working as hard as he could. In life, when faced with failure, sometimes it is appropriate to work harder and put in more effort. Sometimes it is appropriate to change strategy and try something different. And sometimes it is appropriate to do both. The tortoise and hare also learnt another vital lesson in teamwork. When we stop competing against a rival and instead start competing against the situation, we perform far better. When Roberto Goizueta took over as CEO of Coca-Cola in the 1980s, he was faced with intense competition from Pepsi that was eating into Coke's growth. His executives were Pepsi-focussed and intent on increasing market share 0.1 per cent a time. Goizueta decided to stop competing against Pepsi and instead compete against the situation of 0.1 per cent growth. He asked his executives what was the average fluid intake of an American per day? The answer was 14 ounces. What was Coke's share of that? Two ounces. Goizueta said Coke needed a larger share of that market. The competition wasn't Pepsi. It was the water, tea, coffee, milk and fruit juices that went into the remaining 12 ounces. The public should reach for a Coke whenever they felt like drinking something. To this end, Coke put up vending machines at every street corner. Sales took a quantum jump and Pepsi has never quite caught up since. To sum up, the story of the hare and tortoise teaches us many things. Chief among them are that fast and consistent will always beat slow and steady; work to your competencies; pooling resources and working as a team will always beat individual performers; never give up when faced with failure; and finally, compete against the situation, not against a rival.

Great leaders exploit all three styles: authoritative/participative/delegative based on the situation:

  • Authoritative - if group members lack knowledge
  • Participative - if group members understand the objectives and roles
  • Delegative - if group members know more than you do
So, what kind of a leader are you? find here

I’ve migrated my personal wiki from wikispaces to google docs. To me, the google docs scores over wikispaces for the following reasons
  • easy to edit and flexible document uploads
  • offline access using google gears
  • sharable and enforceable access control
  • easy file management and web publishing
Please make sure to update your bookmarks.

I’ve now accepted the Ivey’s Admission offer and sent my initial deposit along with the acceptance pledge letter, securing my seat. I was also required to complete the Student biography online, which would be used by the Ivey faculty to learn more about me. The moment I accepted the offer through eZone (an internal online portal for interaction and information), numerous imperative resources such as the MBA handbooks, buy and sell, excel tutorials, information for international students, notebooks, transportation, housing, banking, entertainment, etc were made available instantly. WOW!!!

On the other hand, as part of my pre-MBA preparation, I’d started reading the book “MBA in a DAY: What you would learn at top-tier business schools-if only you had the time” by Steven Stralser. I’ll try consolidating my learning at here.

Ivey MBA is a fast paced programme and quite often students learn 15 cases a week. Previous business experience certainly helps in such an environment where a great deal of reading is required. Having spoken to some current students, I have understood that students like me, with no previous business exposure (especially those from an IT background) had to ensure additional efforts to perform well in the case method. Further, my immediate career objectives after MBA (top five Management Consulting firms) would realistic only if I could manage among the top 10% of the class. Honestly, I don’t know if I would be able to achieve that, but at least, I must be prepared to face such challenges ahead. Given that I have more than a year’s time before I start my MBA, thought I had to invest my time in learning business fundamentals.

I’ve added a section Learning, Pre MBA on my personal wikispace where I shall archive my learning.

I’d just received an email from a student ambassador at Ivey that I have been assigned to a current student, as part of the Ivey Buddy Program. Looks like, I will “formally” be assisted with questions and clarifications that I may have, on getting settled pre/at/post Ivey. I appreciate the fact that Ivey is organizing such innovative networking episodes, this early.

Ivey has always been among my top choice schools. To be honest, I was clearly obsessed with the case method and I found many characteristics to match with my future aspirations. In particular, the following made it obvious that Ivey is the school for me.

  • In Class
    • Experimental learning
      • Professor is a facilitator
      • Each class is a debate
      • Focus is always on decision-making and action
    • Case Method
      • Dress rehearsal show for Real Life
      • Analyze data, develop alternatives, make and defend recommendations and experience the outcomes
      • Three levels of learning: Individual preparation, Diverse learning team and classroom debate guided by professor
      • Perfectly aligned with Management Consulting perspectives (case interview, for example)
      • 400+ case studies in one year
      • Second largest producer of cases, only next to Harvard and largest producer of Asian cases
      • Involuntary leadership development
    • Cross Enterprise Leadership
      • Broad based, Cross-functional and innovative curriculum
      • Team teaching for cross enterprise cases
      • Ivey Cross-Enterprise Field Project/ Ivey Consulting Project/ New venture projects
      • Cross Enterprise Leadership has more to do with entrepreneurial thinking
    • Students
      • Diverse backgrounds: lawyers, engineers, consultants, accountants, communicators, health care professionals, teachers, international students, and more...
    • Astounding faculty
    • 1 year MBA
    • Small class size (around 70 per intake)
  • Career Management
    • Great prospects in Management Consulting
    • Career management integrated with curriculum, right from day one
    • For credit courses on career management: expect to see case studies on career management
    • Wonderful career management team
    • Relationship Managers for 1x1 guidance
    • Career Leader – career development tool
    • Classes, clinics, in-class workshops, one-on-one coaching, etc
    • Networking events
  • Alumni
    • 20,000+ Alumni; 70+ Alumni clubs; 37+ countries
    • Alumni partnership program – students are strategically matched with Ivey graduates, helping students develop career plans
    • 1 in 4 hold the title of Chair, President, CEO, Vice-President or Managing Director/Partner in his or her company
    • Alumni assist in conducting preliminary off-campus student interviews, as part of international recruitment campaign
  • International opportunities
    • International study trip
    • Leader program
    • China teaching project
  • Incredible reputation in Canada; Six decades of management education
  • Ranking
    • Financial Times Global MBA ranking : 53rd overall
    • Financial Times Global MBA ranking: 6th in General management
    • Wall street Journal: #12 among the top 25 internationally focused business schools
    • Business Week: #2 among the schools outside US
  • Extra Professional/Curricular Activities
    • Case competitions
      • IBK Capital Ivey Business Plan Competition
      • AT Kearney
      • Mercury Venture Challenge
      • Thunderbird Global Innovation Challenge
    • Ivey Connects
    • Ivey Builds
    • The Ivey Green
    • Ivey Clubs
      • Consulting Club, Finance Club, Industry & Marketing Club, Entrepreneur Club, Alternative Energy Club, Golf Club, Hockey Club, Ivey Rugby, MBA Association, Student Ambassadors, Wine Tasting Club, Global Village, Women in Management and more
    • Pierre L. Morrissette Institute for Entrepreneurship

*** But that's just me... Choose the school that you believe is right for you.

Trust me, the wait between the offer of admission and start of MBA is much tough to bear with than the wait for securing an admission.

Looking forward to experiencing an Ivey day like this...

7:45 A.M.
It starts early! Students arrive prior to the beginning of class to grab a coffee and review notes on the day’s case. It promises to be a lively discussion and everyone wants to be fully prepared to participate. The fact that cases discussed and debated in class actually happened and are focused around real business issues makes the experience relevant. The four-hour classes alternate between morning and afternoon sessions, but the days are always full with case preparation, career management events, group work, social activities and, of course, personal time.

8:00 A.M. to Noon

Class begins. Today’s Cross-Enterprise Case involves the acquisition of a North American firm by a Chinese firm. Professor Jim Hatch leads off the session with a discussion on valuing mergers and acquisitions. The time flies by as he examines relative valuation and discounted cash flow methods, and reviews the spreadsheet assignment from the day before. Professor Mary Crossan joins the class and promptly asks: “What’s the value proposition of the Chinese firm versus the North American firm? What’s your strategic plan going forward?” As the various strategic options are vigorously discussed and debated by the class, out of the blue, one of the study groups is asked to present their plan to bring these companies together. The group’s spokesperson stands and delivers and the group proceeds to defend their decisions as the class engages in a thorough dissection of the impact of cultural differences and the vital role of proactive change management. You quickly come to realize the pressures and demands that come with leading an enterprise. Both professors offer their final thoughts on the case before wrapping up the session.

Noon to 1:00 P.M.
Information Sessions to attend. People to meet. The pace doesn’t let up. Interested students head off to a corporate recruiter information session with a well-known consulting firm. Afterwards, students have a valuable opportunity to meet and mingle with the firm’s hiring team.

1:00 to 2:00 P.M.
Lunch and Mingle. No strangers to multitasking, students take this brief interlude to grab lunch and reconvene as a team to compare notes and discuss the next group assignment. They can also take the opportunity to talk with the professors to clarify some points made in class.

2:00 to 4:00 P.M.
Workshops, clubs, and workouts. In the go-go-go atmosphere of the Ivey MBA program, this two-hour window is a valuable opportunity to attend to individual priorities. Some attend a Career Management resume-writing workshop while others meet with their industry Relationship Manager. Members of the Finance Club gather as a few head for the gym downstairs for a workout.

4:00 to 7:30 P.M.
Back to the books. Check out potential career opportunities… or just unwind. Students meet in learning teams to discuss tomorrow’s case, make decisions, and develop their plan of action. A prominent investment bank is hosting a corporate information session as a way for students to get to know them and vice versa. Corporations regularly seek out Ivey graduates because of the added value they bring to their organizations. Interested students make a point of attending to assess the potential opportunities. For students who have nothing scheduled or who just want to unwind, there is one of many regular social events where there will be plenty of good food, music and fun.

7:30 to 9:30 P.M.
One last corporate information session for the day. A leading consumer packaged goods firm is dropping in for a visit…. Students are learning just how valuable an Ivey MBA is in the marketplace. Afterwards, students head home to get themselves ready for the next day. Assignments are completed and cases are reviewed. Or if it’s Friday, relax! They’ve earned it.


***Found this in the Ivey MBA brochure

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