Strategies for Growth


The Monieson Centre at Queen's School of Business is a top research centre focused on knowledge in organizations. Its mandate is to bridge the gap between business theory and business practice-- a key mission of Queen's School of Business.

In conjunction with Deloitte Canada, Queen's School of Business is proud to present the "Fast 50" program, Canada's only award specifically for technology companies. Please click on the following link to read the special report, "Strategies for Growth", authored by Queen's for the winners of the award:
http://business.queensu.ca/overview/docs/Fast50publicationSep04.pdf

Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) rankings


The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) (a partner to The Economist) has released the Business School Rankings for the year 2005.

Surprisingly, a non American MBA Program IESE Business School at the University of Navarra in Spain, is No. 1.

The top five on the EIU list were rounded out by the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, Stanford Graduate School of Business and the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland.

The rankings have invoked mixed responses.The two top business schools -- Wharton and Harvard -- have been dropped from the rankings because the schools declined to participate in the information-gathering process.

Incidentally, even the Indian Institute of Management,Ahmedabad (IIMA) has refused to participate in any Indian B school survey.Yet, a few Indian magazines keep ranking it as No 1 in India. Read this for more details. BTW, IIMA has done quite well in these ETU rankings.It stands No 1 in the school that "Open New Opportunities" ! Great.

My personal opinion is that one should not blindly make a decision based on the rankings. The rankings, are if nothing else,a good starting point.Once you get the information, you should create "rankings relative to you".The "Best Fit" school should be your goal.

Whether other schools will follow the Harvard and Wharton lead and decline to participate in future magazine rankings remains to be seen. But for potential B-school students, the situation is likely to give them an early object lesson in competing priorities.

The Full rankings EIu rankings are available here:

Here are the rankings for Queen's university
Criteria Ranking(Out of 100)
Overall rank :71
Open new career opportunities :82
Diversity of recruiters :81
Number in jobs three months after graduation :95
Jobs found through the careers service :61
Student assessment :43
Personal development and educational experience :40
Faculty quality :21
Student quality :21
Student diversity :70
Education experience :52
Increase in salary :100
Post-graduation salary :100
Final salary :99
Potential to network :4
Breadth of alumni network :9
Internationalism of alumni :6
Alumni effectiveness :24

Happy Birthday Google




I use it at work..I use it at home..I use it to find more info about B schools..I use it for my quiz questions...I use it to connect to my old friends....I use it to get info when I visit a new place.Thanks to it, I don't bother about storage of emails now.

In fact, I use it more number of times than the number of instances I talk to my folks at home.The Desktop, the E-Mail service, the maps,the Orkut,the blospot ,the Blog and of course the search engine.Itz a common word and essential part of my life now.And it turns a year older today.

Yep !Google turns 7.A kid that has impacted our life in a BIG manner..
Happy Birthday Google...Keep growing.And have a blast !

Read more here:
Google- An English Word.
Google's birthday offer
From 'Backrub' to 'Google'- The Google story.

Imitation is the highest form of flaterry?

In response to changing business world realities and feedback received from the recruiters, business leaders etc,the Richard Ivey Business School in Canada is launching one year MBA starting May 06. !

And guess what..
The Queen's School of Business realized the need for a 1 yr MBA way back in 1996!

Way to go folks!:)

The origin of the word etiquette is the French etiquet or estiquette, which refers to a notice attached to something.A few hundred years ago, in Western Europe, it was a custom to attach the code of dress and behaviour to every party invitation, especially to those coming from the royal or aristocratic families.

This was to ensure that people conducted themselves well and there were no faux pas to embarrass the hosts. Luckily, we no longer live in that uptight era. However, basic social etiquette is still important. Take this quiz and find out how familiar you are with contemporary etiquette norms.

Also, you can find answers to your etiquette questions here.

Met Bharani this Sunday and during the conversation, he told me that Prof Tina Dacin of Queen's Business School was here in Hyderabad to take classes at ISB.A Professor of Strategy and Organizations, she is here to teach on Management of Organisations.
I contacted her and asked her if she was available this Tuesday.She immediately agreed.So,at 10 am on a rainy morning, I went to the Indian School of Business to meet her.She was the first Professor from Queen's that I met.I had a telephonic interview for my admission and had only been interacting with the adcom and professors over the phone or through emails.So, it was great meeting her.

She answered my queries.Since I have some time in hand before I begin classes at Kingston, I asked her if I should be preparing myself on something.She gave some good inputs.She then talked about her experiences in India and ISB.This was the third time she was visiting the school and liked the student community here.She also commented that the students at ISB ask a lot of questions and she likes being "challenged".

I am looking forward to attending her classes at Kingston next year.

The Rain God hasn't been kind to me.
Today, when I was done with all tasks and all set to leave the Nizam City,I reach the Hyderabad railway station only to find out that the Indian Railways had cancelled the train services.The reason - Heavy rains and a cyclone in the coast of Andhra Pradesh.Hope the impact is not high and things return to normalcy soon.

I was disappointed and had to book my air tickets for tomorrow. (The last minute high air fares added more to the disappointment).Hope things work fine now and I finally get back home! This is not the first time I experienced the same thing. Just a few weeks back on August 03rd, the heavy downpour in Mumbai forced me to cancel my tickets from Ahmedabad to Mumbai.

I am feeling sleepy now.Therez lot for me to write. My last days with the organization, my meeting with Prof Tina Darcin of Queen's at ISB etc...

Hmm..Lotz of things to write..but had a very tiring day. Hopefully, will blog from a new place tomorrow same time.

Take care and good bye Hyderabad.You've been very nice to me.!

India's MBA Gold Rush

To get an edge in the country's exploding economy, more Indian students are seeking business degrees -- both abroad and at home

Read more about the BusinessWeek article here

I made a quick 3 day trip to Bangalore.I went there to meet my engineering mates....A kind of reunion was planned.
We are all in the corporate world and behave in a certain manner with our colleagues. But when it comes down to meeting your old school/college mates, we all tend to switch back to our old self.There was noise,chaos,laughter,drinks and I just felt as if nothing had changed over the past 5 years.Loved every moment of it!
On the Sunday morning, I met a Queen's Alumni. This guy gave some good inputs.He patiently answered all my queries.

I also met K that evening.I had been interacting with him for a year now.Both of us were B school aspirants last year.I was in the States and he was in UK and we used to talk often over the phone. I met him in person for the first time this sunday.

The weekend was a very good one... .!!

Just do it pal !

I have been spending some time helping a senior colleague of mine who has his IIM A PGPX interview in a couple of weeks.The Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is introducing a 1 yr MBA starting this year for individuals with substantial work ex(>7 yrs).For the first time, the IIM screened applicants based on GMAT score instead of the CAT.

The interview for the shortlisted applicants starts with the candidate making two short 5 minute presentations.This is followed by an informal 20-25 min discussion.

My colleague has been preparing very hard for this interview.He has been giving some mock interviews.He has great work ex,superb analytical abilities and just needs to work a bit more on his presentation skills.

All of us here are praying that he makes it to the program.Hez a nice and honest guy and we would love to see him get the MBA tag.

The Yahoo groups for the IIMA PGPX can be found here.
A list of exhaustive interview questions can be found here.

Horrors of War

Close your eyes and think of someone very close to you. Now imagine someone:

- Piercing this person's ears with hot rods
- Puncturing this person's eyes, gouging them out
- Inflicting burns on his body using cigarettes
- Breaking his bones and teeth
- And after torturing him in this brutal fashion for over 22 days, shooting him dead.

This is what the Pakistani army did to Lt. Saurabh Kalia of the 4th JAT Regiment of the Indian Army during the Kargil war. Imagine the plight of the old parents of this young man who received his body in such a state, imagine their rage and helplessness

Please take a minute to read about this
Would appreciate, if you could sign the online petition of Lt. Saurabh Kalia’s father.

Hurricane Katrina


I have always been curious about the names chosen for Hurricanes.
And since the hurricane that stormed through southern states, especially Louisiana and Mississippi was named Katrina (A supermodel and popular actress in India is also called Katrina), I did a bit of investigation.


A name for a Hurricane?
The weather forecasters, pilots and ship navigators need to communicate quickly and accurately about the storms.Experience shows that the use of short, distinctive given names in written as well as spoken communications is quicker and less subject to error than the older more cumbersome latitude-longitude identification methods.
Hence, the names.Also, short, distinctive names are easy to say and understand.


What kind of names are used?
Having women's names for storms became popular in the United States during World War II.Until the 1979 hurricane season, only women's names were used for tropical storms in the Atlantic. Since then, the lists have included both men's and women's names.


Who names a hurricane?
Since 1953, Atlantic tropical storms have been named from lists originated by the National Hurricane Center and now maintained and updated by an international committee of the World Meteorological Organization.
(http://www.wmo.ch/index-en.html)


So, new names are given every time a hurricane strikes?
No,there are a set (list) of names for storms. One list is used each year and the names are given out in the order the storms occur. After the sixth year, the first list is used again.Thus, the 2004 list will be used again in 2010.


What is "retiring" the name of a Hurricane mean?
Whenever a hurricane has had a major impact, the name of the hurricane can be “retired” by agreement of the WMO. Retiring a name actually means that it cannot be reused for at least 10 years, to facilitate historic references, legal actions, insurance claim activities, etc. and avoid public confusion with another storm of the same name. Therefore,when a name is retired or dropped from the list,another name is added in its place.


What would be the name of the storm after Katrina?
Eleven names have already been used this year. Here are the upcoming Atlantic tropical storm names for 2005 after Katrina: Lee, Maria, Nate, Ophelia, Philippe, Rita, Stan, Tammy, Vince and Wilma.
You can see names for more years at the Web site,
www.nhc.noaa.gov/aboutnames.shtml.


What is the fate of the name 'Katrina'?
The widespread destruction and deaths caused by Hurricane Katrina are likely to lead to retirement of that name from the list of storm names.The final decision is up to a committee of the World Meteorological Organization.


So, is there any relation between the hurricane and the popular Indian actress?
No
Itz just a coincidence that both share the same name.

How can I help the Katrina Victims?
The hurricane Katrina has caused widespread destruction and deaths.
Red Cross begins soliciting donations for hurricane relief efforts
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9115520/)

If you would like to help the victims affected by Katrina, the number one thing would be to donate money.
To donate to relief efforts, see:
http://www.bayarea-redcross.org
http://www.salvationarmyusa.org