Supply Chain Management by myBskool

Supply Chain Management course has been delivered by Suresh Srinivasan. He has a Master of Management Studies(MMS - MBA equivalent) from BITS Pilani. He has done a Management Education Program (MEP) from IIM -Ahmedabad. He has close to 30 years of work experience - 21 years in the industry and 9 years in management education. Visit myBskool for enrolling in our expert management programs. 

Business Communication - myBskool

Nature and Scope of Business Communication module for myBskool PGDM course has been delivered by Prof. Uma Gopalakrishnan , Founder SpringBoard Career Development Services & Corporate Trainer. 

Social Media Marketing by Sorav Jain

Industry experts like Sorav Jain have delivered learning modules for myBskool.

         

Online vs Face-to-Face Education - Learning Outcomes

Key report findings include:

• Over 6.1 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2010 term, an increase of 560,000 students over the previous year.

• The 10% growth rate for online enrollments far exceeds the 2% growth in the overall higher education student population.

• Thirty-one percent of higher education students now take at least one course online.

• Reported year-to-year enrollment changes for fully online programs by discipline show most are growing.

• Academic leaders believe that the level of student satisfaction is equivalent for online and face-to-face courses.

• 65% of higher education institutions now say that online learning is a critical part of their long-term strategy.

• There continues to be a consistent minority of academic leaders concerned that the quality of online instruction is not equal to courses delivered face-to-face.

Isn't a Housewife or Homemaker the Best Manager?

“You do have some people who still question how well you can develop socialization skills to work with other people if you are getting the degree online,” Bailey says. “One person I interviewed said, ‘How do I know if someone who spent the last two or three years getting their MBA in pajamas can come into the office?’ That maybe a sarcastic comment, but that is what some people still think about people who get their degrees online from home. 

Trying a parallel argument, isn't a homemaker the best manager? She pays electricity and newspaper bills, bargains with the fruit vendor, works 24 x 7, delivers breakfast, lunch, and dinner on time. She coaches her son for final exams and attends parent-teacher meetings at school. And gives some homemade medicine to her ailing mother-in-law.

What about a Punjabi housewife who runs a Paying Guest outlet in her home? She manages young women from different backgrounds who work in different industries. She allocates rooms as per the rent the working women are willing to give. And delivers food on time everyday. 

So, how does being at home or working at home, make these women less of managers or entrepreneurs? 

The same holds good for a student or working professional who gets a management degree online. Say, for instance the experience of a student who does a PGDM online from myBskool. The student does not study in isolation. The social learning platform has online chat rooms where students can chat with professors and batchmates. The student can also call a professor on the mobile. The student engagement officer throws an activity chart every week that helps the student to study subjects regularly.

But, employers are now warming up to online MBA professionals. And hope technology fuels and solves the communication question! 

17 Thoughts for a Marketing Strategy

Marketing takes your product to your customer or consumer. Without marketing, the reach of your product is limited and the profits may be low. But, marketing infuses life into the selling cycle and brings huge profits.

Let us look at few points to develop a good marketing strategy.

1. Identify your target market/customer: An useful acronym to remember is aeiog that stands for age, education, income, occupation, gender, and geographical location of your prospective customers. Describe your customer in about half a page and talk to this imaginary customer. You need to make a psychographic study and know the hobby, interests, and quirks of your customer.

2. Your USP: The next step is to identify your "Unique Selling Proposition", For e.g, the USP for Domino's Pizza is "a pizza at your doorstep within 30 minutes of placing an order."

3. Do a SWOT Analysis: Analyze your internal strengths and weaknesses and also external opportunities and threats. 

4. Pricing and Positioning: Narrow down your target customers and focus your efforts towards this target group. Keep in mind that 76% of people do not believe your advertisements.

5. Distribution : Decide if you will sell directly to customers or to distributors or use a combination of both.

6. Your Offers: Free offers, discount, packaged offers, guarantee offers, act now offers.

7. Marketing Material: All marketing material such as banners, blogs, newsletters, and paper advertisements will talk to the target customer.

8. Promotion Strategy: Decide if you will do Trade shows/ Direct mails/ WOM/ Podcasts / Radio advertisements or more.

9. Online Marketing Strategy: Identify keywords and do SEO. Pay Per Click (PPC)  works better than Search Engine Optimization(SEO).

10. Conversion Strategy: Improve your offers and sales script. Increase your social proof, nurture and never give up.

11. Look for Joint Ventures and Partnerships: Look for partners who will include your brand name in their marketing material or promotions.

12. Referral Strategy: Ask your existing customers to refer new customers. 

13. Strategy to Increase Transaction Prices: Raise your prices, up sell, cross sell, and offer product packages. Your primary goal is to close the sale, and second goal is to maximize the price of sale or increase order size. 

14. Retention Strategy: Ongoing communication, loyalty programs, and continuity programs.

15. Public Relations Activities: Advertising is a weak media unless supported by PR.

16. Draw a Marketing Calendar - Keep in mind days such as Mother's Day, Valentines Day, Children's day etc. 

17.  Make a Marketing Budget: And allocate funds for different activities. 

How Does myBskool make Videos on Management?

myBskool sources the best professors and/or industry experts for each subject such as economics, accounting, banking, strategic management, supply chain management, MIS, and more. myBskool has a database of more than 20 professors who have done their Ph.D and have submitted research papers in national and international forums. Many professors are alumni of IIT and IIM. The professors make powerpoint presentations based on their experience and the latest books and journals that myBskool gives them. The presentations are vetted for content and language quality. Then the professor talks about the presentation in the studio adding his/her viewpoints on the fly. The studio has the latest infrastructure and software to produce high-quality videos. 

myBskool now offers 1500+ power-packed video lectures, 6000+ powerpoint audio lessons, and case study discussions on video/podcast. These videos are suitable for various platforms such as tablets, PC, and smartphones. 

A professor getting ready for the video shoot

Applying Six Thinking Hats to myBskool PGDM

Hey, do you have lot of doubts about doing an online management program? Let us use the The Six Thinking Hats of Edward De Bono to analyze the myBskool PGDM course. Now, you will wear the hats as a student and brainstorm about the myBskool courses.

Today, June 21st is World Music Day

Music is the most beautiful sound that can pass through our ear. Music is a natural medicine and gives stress relief and boosts your spirit. Today, June 21st is World Music Day. In 1976, an American musician, Joel Cohen, employed by the national French radio station, France Musique thought of a day dedicated to celebrating music. in 1982, the thought became reality with the French Government blessing Fete' de la Musique. Two of the caveats to being sanctioned by the official Fête de la Musique organization in Paris are that all concerts must be free to the public, and all In Paris and Ile-de-France, the return of summer is celebrated in music. 

The music day was created in 1982. This nation-wide party of the people has become so important that it has even been exported to over a hundred foreign countries. On 21st June, both amateur and professional musicians take to the streets to let their creativity run wild.

In squares, public gardens and alleyways improvised stages are erected and sound systems blossom at the windows. Electro DJs, classical, jazz or accordion groups, choirs, French chanson, pop rock or traditional bands...everyone dances and sings with their family and friends in a joyful cacophony. Bars, concert venues, festivals (and also museums, churches, conservatoires etc...) take the opportunity to remain open until all hours, with free concerts both indoors and on their terraces. Exceptional free shows are performed by French and international stars, notably in the Place de la Bastille, the Champ de Mars and La Défense. And to help people get around, public transport services are provided all night long.

Few celebrations in India today : http://www.meraevents.com/blog/2012/06/18/world-music-day-2012/

                .

Flash Mob or Smart Mob?

A flash mob (or flashmob) is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a brief time, then disperse, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and artistic expression. Flash mobs are organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.

The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals.In these cases of a planned purpose for the social activity in question, the term smart mobs is often applied instead.

Why Working Professionals Prefer Online MBA?

All aspiring professionals will take up managerial and leadership roles as they climb their career ladder. If you are an aspiring professional, you will look for a chance to get a post graduation in management. You plan to equip yourself with theory before you manage people on a real-time basis.

If you start looking at a full-time MBA degree from a reputed management institute, you need to prepare for the admission process. You need to clear CAT, get very good scores. You need to get past a group discussion round. The process sounds challenging, but do you have the time to prepare for this rigorous admission process? Even if you get admission, you need to shell out around 10 lakhs to 11 lakhs as fees.

Do you have the time and money for such a full-time MBA? If not, are there any alternatives?  Yes. There are almost 480 universities offering distance learning MBA. The cost of an online management education is between Rs.50,000 to 1 lakh. Affordable, but is it from a reputed institute?

myBskool has a solution for all your needs. myBskool has a tie-up with IMT Ghaziabad that ranks amongst top 10 b-schools in India. To download the PGDM brochure and look at our sample videos, click here.

Bye Bye Brick and Mortar Schools

Huge costs to build schools and classrooms are driving people to find alternate solutions. With the growing population and industrialization, institutions have to compete for land in urban areas. It is no wonder that online education and work-from-home are the norms of the day!

But sometimes there are shortcuts to success. In Gautemala, a school has been built out of  5000 old plastic bottles and litter. A really creative and cost-effective classroom it is! To read the full story, click here.

No Ragging Online?

Colleges are all set to reopen and youngsters will enter the college premises with dreams and passion. However, the ragging menace always looms large. Is ragging always a threat? Not necessarily. Ragging is an ice-breaker and brings fun and creativity in the initial days of college. And helps to network with seniors who can guide you in studies and around the college campus. Due to ragging, many people fall in love and get married later.

But sometimes the decency limits are crossed during ragging. As students come from diverse backgrounds, what is good for someone may be bad for another. So, ragging is like gambling. The Tamilnadu government has given a mailid raggingcomplaints@gmail.com to which students affected by ragging can send a message.

Online education overcomes the ragging menace. Students meet in the online chat rooms and are focused on clearing subject queries. Higher education Online learners are working professionals and have the maturity to deal with their juniors and peers. So, ragging is not a big threat in Online Education. 

Alvin Toffler's School of Tomorrow

Alvin Toffler, the author of books about change like "Future Shock" and "Revolutionary Wealth", propounds a list of attributes for the School of Tomorrow. Alvin feels that current educational methods cater to the needs of the Industrial Revolution era. The industrial method of working needs all employees to walk into the factory at the same time, work in tandem in the factory line, and mass produce goods. The same model is employed at the schools too. All children walk into the class at the same time, simultaneously take the same set of lessons, and maintain military discipline.

Alvin Toffler envisions a new model of education that caters to the current Knowledge Era of workers. Children can start schools at the age they prefer - one child may start school at age four and another at age eight.

It's (the new school) open 24 hours a day. Different kids arrive at different times. They don't all come at the same time, like an army. They don't just ring the bells at the same time. They're different kids. They have different potentials. Now, in practice, we're not going to be able to get down to the micro level with all of this, I grant you, but in fact, I would be running a twenty-four-hour school, I would have non-teachers working with teachers in that school, I would have the kids coming and going at different times that make sense for them. 

The schools of today are essentially custodial: They're taking care of kids in work hours that are essentially nine to five -- when the whole society was assumed to work. Clearly, that's changing in our society. So should the timing. We're individualizing time; we're personalizing time. We're not having everyone arrive at the same time, leave at the same time. Why should kids arrive at the same time and leave at the same time? 

The textbooks are the same for every child; every child gets the same textbook. Why should that be? Why shouldn't some kids get a textbook -- and you can do this online a lot more easily than you can in print -- why shouldn't a kid who's interested in one particular thing, whether it's painting or drama, or this or that, get a different version of the textbook than the kid sitting in the next seat, who is interested in engineering?

I think that schools have to be completely integrated into the community, to take advantage of the skills in the community. So, there ought to be business offices in the school, from various kinds of business in the community.

Alvin Tofflers School of Tomorrow:

These are the fundamentals of the futurist's vision for education in the 21st century:

• Open 24 hours a day
• Customized educational experience
• Kids arrive at different times
• Students begin their formalized schooling at different ages
• Curriculum is integrated across disciplines
• Nonteachers work with teachers
• Teachers alternate working in schools and in business world
• Local businesses have offices in the schools
• Increased number of charter schools

The management programs at myBskool match all parameters put across by Alvin Toffler. Check out the PGDM that myBskool offers along with IMT Ghaziabad. Click here.

Great Leaders Inspire Action with the Golden Circle

The communication style of leaders in business and community follows a style - Why, How, and What. They first appeal to your soul with a 'Why' and then give your brain details of 'How' and 'What'.

Welcome June 2012

Corporates and non-profits use calendars to advance their brands. The 2012 year calendar of NGO Pratham Books has beautiful sketches, drawings, and tips that reflect their work - educating poor kids thro picture books. Mediaadds has come out with a calendar that has a fable and management message for each month. At the beginning of the year we get so many calendars that we can hang one in each of our rooms including the bathrooms! So much for branding!

Read, Read, and Read

Everyday, a manager has to take important decisions. So, a manger has to read a lot to know the current economic, political, cultural, technology, and environmental scenarios. Daily, on an average, a good manager will read 50-100 pages of information. The source of information and data can be leading newspapers, magazines, blogs, journals, bestselling non-fiction books, and sometimes even fiction. If you don't have the habit of reading, you need to atleast listen to audiobooks. On the whole, reading is an activity that no manager can escape.

But with information explosion, one needs to have power reading skills. Improving your reading skills will help you to gather key points in a short time. Keeping reading in mind, the IMT Ghaziabad PGDM syllabus includes 'Reading Skills' module under Business Communication.

Tribes and Tribal Leadership

In this interesting TED video, David Logan speaks about the 5 stages of a tribe. All of us live in tribes. And we need to evolve and reach the Level 5 for maximum performance and global good.

Stage 1: People do horrible things - guns, prisons - (2%)
Stage 2: Life sucks - lack initiative, dumb - (25%)
Stage 3: I'm great, and you are not - narcissistic - (48%)
Stage 4: A team passion greater than individual competence - fun, creativity - (22%)
Stage 5: Life is Great - good values - (2%)

Who Can Opt for an One Year Management Program?

Say, you have around 5-15 years of work experience. You are a high performer. You plan to continue in your same field of work e.g electronics, construction engineering, or pharma. You want to equip yourself with a management qualification from a reputed institute - so that you are more confident in front of clients. You also feel that getting a management qualification will help your appraisals and promotion prospects.

Not sure where to take up the course? Visit myBskool. myBskool offers a recognized PGDM in Management from IMT Ghaziabad. It is a one year program. The program has interesting features. 

• Online Course - No Classess to attend
• No break from work
• Anytime, Anywhere learning.
• Widely Recognized by Leading Corporates.
• Exhaustive Study Materials
• Video lectures delivered by Management Gurus 
• Collaborative features for interaction and Social Learning 

To know about IMT advantage, Click here.

myBskool offers The Flipped Classroom

What is a Flipped Classroom? In a Flipped Classroom, the student learns curriculum lessons at his/her own pace using a PC, tablet, or mobile. And then comes to class for debates, discussions, and clearing doubts. 

In traditional methods of teaching inside brick-and-mortar classrooms, the student sits in the class for more than six hours. The student cannot take a break from the lecture, switch to a different topic, or replay an interesting chunk of lecture. The Flipped Classroom helps the student to overcome such learning bottlenecks.  

In a Flipped Classroom, the student is proactive in the classroom and is not a passive listener. He or she comes prepared with a set of questions and has a definite purpose while attending the classroom sessions. Networking, communication, and brainstorming happens in the classroom, leading to a lively session. 

To view the Flipped Classroom that myBskool has designed for IMT Ghaziabad, click here.

To know about the Flipped Classroom that myBskool will design for IIM Ranchi, click here.