MBA for Hire

Life’s best lessons always seem to be learned at the worst times. I cannot say it better than this because right now, I’m on the verge of joining an MNC but this has come after months of perseverance, patience and waiting. But during this whole time of persistence I’ve learned a lot of lessons from colleagues, friends and my family. What I’m writing is only a reflection of what I have felt through this period of recuperation from the two year ambition-driven MBA program and what looked good all along is good, except that it really isn’t! My observations are not bread crumbs. They do not dissolve. They are from years of experience with a leading IT company and a melting pot of an institution. Most of it has also been shared on the internet via Twitter and I am happy to share them.

MBA Wallah

Indian MBA’s, particularly those from Tier II B-Schools are living in a state of delusion. Clearly, none of us, atleast with whom I graduated, and they are a major lot, are worthy of joining consultancies and MNC’s. Having done MBA, some of us can’t even have a casual talk with our own classmates. I ask myself, “What kind of businesses will they support?” It is a pitiful state. It is rarely a case where I have come across MBA folks who read and write well in English. They struggle. Simply struggle. I have always said this, communication skills with the use of flurry words and flashy accent will only show you the door, won’t let you enter. There is much room for improvement, to develop comprehensive English skills. I myself struggle a lot with the right dialect, the roll of tongue, thanks to where I come from. But I make ample and consistent efforts to correct myself, to improve and be effective in business communication - Business Communication! It is important to stay away from jargon, MBA lingo and stick to basics. The key is the ability to communicate clearly.

Although it does and I’m sure it did, make one proud to be talking about job titles, salary packages and other discussions around new life, new beginning, etc. (talks that make me sick and boring). Hundreds of them, and I say hundreds, will be quite content taking down orders and contributing substandard outputs with minimal ambition and definitely lacking in creativity. Their promises will be shattered, torn to bits and rattled on ground like dust. This happens when you’re under pressure and go on a wild goose chase, something I can accuse many of my friends who did during the campus placements. I fear, just like a lot of our seniors who job hopped every year, some of us will continue the trend. I have already come across a dozen of them who have shown signs of quitting their first job. A few of them have already done while few others are most likely doing so. Instead, what we must do is balance some of our talents with the demands in the industry that it is most suitable. But important to note and I was told that if one does not have good grades nor any relevant work experience he must not be averse to any company on campus. I agree. The problem is, we MBA wallah’s with our decorated degree and fancy job titles like to take on career on a cruise control mode. Big mistake! The truth will become more and more apparent as we continue to climb the corporate ladder. (I haven’t mentioned up or down, leaving it to the reader’s own imagination).

What I’m trying to say here is that I have already said, and am not trying anymore. Well, what I’m saying here is that MBA’s with whom I graduated, and I have to say this every time, lack the hunger and drive to take on responsibility for their own career. They do not wish to learn, invest or attend trainings. The problem is that this MBA tag gives them the right to feel and believe they know it all. But the grim truth is that this is only the beginning of learning and the desire to walk down a successful career track will only depend on how much more you learn and acquire by being inquisitive, by staying foolish and hungry (just quoting Steve Jobs). “Some of our greatest discoveries emerge from the state of being lost.” One of my favorite Bill Cosby lines. It is always best to join an organization which has a culture, which has tremendous room for learning and that helps one create a market value for himself/herself. So, by being lost in that big ocean, one will interact, observe and emulate the successes of others and in his/her own way carve his/her own.

MBA for Hire

Now let me tell you, Bill Cosby also said “Life is not Burger King, we can’t always have it our way”. I cannot agree more for I have always wanted to be in Facebook, and I used to say, “I don’t want to be on Facebook, I’d rather be in it” ever since I understood its business in bits and pieces, gave it all during the rigorous interviews and tests, but failed to get selected and still remains that elusive dream company to work with. So I started out with Facebook - my first real step towards a new career. Then I applied to a string of American MNC’s. As far as the processes are concerned, the less said the better. But I knew God always had a bigger plan for me than I had for myself. All I had to do was to wait and be patient. As part of any endeavor, logic takes you from one place to another and then, competency based on imagination and approach takes you places. I have learned that my ability based on my experience and education will put me on an interview with the recruiters but beyond that only my approach will see me through. This didn’t happen with any of the above multinationals except where it really did!

My friend who has undergone some special training in Mumbai for a private wealth management firm comes back all thrilled and excited about how it is in Mumbai. He no longer aspires to learn and grow the mediocre way. His dreams are big, his goals bigger and boy, he is never satisfied. I heard him out, his goal, his approach. They seemed right for an MBA to pursue and achieve and why not, it meant big bucks too. But I’m not one to be blown away by dreams of others. My dream, big or small, in its own way has its priority and I’m breathing life into it, slowly, steadily and I know all good things come to those who wait. So, everyone must have dreams, ambitions, career goals or otherwise, in case it is to get married to a beautiful woman and honeymoon in Paris and have a posh and happy life ever after. I have also recently said we must have two kinds of educational upbringing - One that teaches how to make a living. Another that teaches how to live. Because, just as a boat requires water to run, we need money. But if the water seeps inside the boat, it will sink, just as we cannot let money enter our lives and ruin our ties with friends and family, a little fun and gaiety.

The Highway

After all these extra vacation and free time, its time I get back to joining my friends on the highway. I’ve got a new engine or Search Engine, if I may add. As of this particular rant, I now announce that there will be no further additions or subtractions or other mathematical equations. Thereto and wherefore and whereas, upon itself, I conclude.

C.O.Y.G !

So close to pull off one of the biggest comebacks in European football. It was our chance to make history. Considered underdogs and having only an outside chance before the start of the match, not many but Wenger believed that his team could make it. We showed class, spirit and character. But fairy tales don’t happen every day and Arsenal’s night ended in glorious failure.

It’s that kind of feeling that is hard to describe. One where Arsenal displayed one of the best performances in European Championships which was filled with spirit and verve. But, failed to qualify to the next round due to a poor show in the first leg in Milan City.

Milan came to London as favorites to go through, thanks to their 4-0 win at home. And if history and legacy had something to talk about, Milan (seven times) along with Real Madrid (nine times) have won maximum Champions League trophies. So, Milan just needed to ensure they defended that margin or fill one in the 90 minutes at the same time, allowing less than 4 to Arsenal. But owing to a poor show from their striker Ibrahimovic and a lackluster tempo throughout, gifted easy goals within the first 10 minutes. A very good in-swinging corner by Oxlade-Chamberlain found an unmarked Koscielny to finish with the perfect header in the 7^th minute to give Arsenal the lead.  Rosicky’s second was largely due to a bizarre clearance from Silva inside the box. And with sluggish defending by Mesbah, Oxlade-Chamberlain won a penalty which van Persie converted with one of the best penalty kicks ever that is almost impossible to save. HT: Arsenal 3-0 Milan.

The second half was less fascinating (in all honesty) and I think it was due to some intent shown by Milan players as well as fatigue to Arsenal players especially when Oxlade-Chamberlain was found struggling due to cramps early in the second half. There were chances at both ends but nobody really finished it off. Szczęsny saved a couple of times and Abbiati also managed a few easy saves but what was disappointing was the confusion among the mid-fielders and the strikers when they had the ball and were free to go. Walcott could have easily taken a U-turn and shot with force with his left foot when he ran into the box instead of winning a corner in the 54^th minute.

There were several positives from the game. In the post-match comments, Wenger mentioned that “the players gave a faultless performance”, which was almost true (except the van Persie chip and the Rosicky-Gervinho one-two inside the box). Rosicky has found his form and usefulness to the side with his movements in the middle. Oxlade-Chamberlain continues to show he’s got it for top first class football. Walcott is providing all the assists that van Persie needs and the defense line (Koscielny, Varmaelean, and Sagna) are becoming more and more formidable by the day, which is something that Arsenal needs because their attacking line is in great form.

This team has quality. This team can fight. Walcott, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, van Persie, Rosicky, Koscielny, Song, Szczęsny, all had their moments and played impactful part in the match. What was a heroic effort will remain etched in Arsenal history as a heroic effort and that’s that. If van Persie had taken his shot at the rebound off Abbiati rather than trying to be clever, the match would’ve been fought at extra time and with the kind of cheer from the supporters, the motivation among the players, just about everything the game was about, Arsenal might have just pulled it off. Now, out of FA Cup and Champions League, Arsenal can focus on finishing well in the premiership ahead of Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle, all breathing down heavily. 

Come On You Gunners !

Match Statistics                Arsenal           AC Milan

Yellow Cards                          3                      4

Possession                               46%                 54%

Corners                                    5                      1

Shots                                       14                    18

Goals                                       3                      0

Forget the 90's

What rankles me when I read articles in the media that reports of a film having made 100+ crore businesses in less than 2 weeks of its release is the question on how these films go on making such huge businesses? Case in point being the most recent traumatic disaster like Agneepath having made 100 crore business within 11 days of its release.

I may attribute this trend to some lackluster cricket performance, miserable TV shows and excellent marketing gimmicks by film makers. It is often said that good advertising kills a bad product but this concept doesn’t seem to apply in Hindi Films. Reason, there is no product. It’s like advertising for an advertisement of a longer duration. Simply an ad of heavyweight stars in Bollywood. Unfortunately, the junta is buying it. Slick advertising, promotion and marketing gimmicks seem to be working for them. Peddling a poor product on the back of deft editing is doing the trick and narrowly escaping the technical-specific film critic as well.

The 100+ Crore business films club has got a few remarkable films of the recent years, 3 Idiots, Dabangg, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD) aside, none of the others seem to be deserving of this scale.  Golmaal 3, Ready, Singham, Bodyguard, Don 2 in the list is nothing less than shocking to me. This outrage is because when we talk of progress and moving on, on the one side, the junta is asking intelligent film-makers to bring us back the 90’s masala oriented, slapstick comedy and thrills that made Shaktiman an action hero. I mean, when progressive films like ZNMD, Rockstar and Delhi Belly were embraced, why ask for shit like Ready and Bodyguard from the same group of film-makers and artistes?  

It is appalling to see that action, slapstick and melodramatic agony aunties of the 90’s are finding space in today’s theaters while Academy nominated films like The Girl with the dragon Tattoo are being pulled up. I waited for over 4 months to see a classic like The Descendents and was thoroughly overjoyed (Boy, what a classic!) but it was hurting at the same time because the rest of the educated, city-bred Hinglish speaking crowd walked out of half a dozen theaters screening ‘Ad’neepath. Today, with innovation, the idea is to embrace technology, checked with Ra.One. With Ra.One, the movie as a whole is a disaster but the whole idea of film business is applaudable because Ra.One brought in technology to Hindi Films and Indian Cinema that is expensive and state-of-the-art. Kudos to SRK to have that kind of courage and taking the risk of making a film that did not have an iota of a concept to take us through its runtime. Again, slick marketing and extra-mile promotions worked for SRK and team.

Other than technology, good script and real top notch acting is essential, checked with ZNMD. ZNMD brought in that breath of fresh air in an otherwise uninspiring 2011. Changes are required, Dilwale Dulhaniya, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti, Taare Zameen Par were some path breaking Hindi films and expectations keep growing with such films but the purpose is defeated when film-makers are encouraged to produce more films like Ready and Agneepath which are nothing but re-makes of failed films of the past. Hence, audiences are quite easily foxed to run to the theaters and spend nothing less than Rs. 500 per visit (everyone pays for the popcorn, nachos and Coke).

This angst is simply because I do not enjoy watching shit on a multiplex screen after paying so much. Sometimes, I’m so disgusted even the popcorn taste like puke. The ideal satisfaction and delight factor for an audience/customer is when he feels “So much for so little”, but in the current season, all I get to say is “So little for so much”. This is not going down well with a marketing grad myself. I wish audiences would get some sense and this would stop soon, just like a fad.

Ad Creativity

Why do we focus so much on creating better ads, generating more keywords, optimization of the accounts and things like that. Just so we get more traffic, more impression, more clicks and more sales done. It is the imperative to constantly improve the ads that we have, so that the clicks get converted to sales. Our entire activity deals with making sales by reaching out to customers at the most desirable form that can be presented to them. Hence, we focus on our sales team to drive in that conversion of clicks by our customers.

So we not only hope to attract users of the internet but make every visitor a potential customer by turning them to click on our ads. We work hard on our ads and even harder to get the clicks. So what is important is turning the clicks into customers. We however cannot make this possible with everyone since we cannot go on telling people what to do. But what we can do is work on optimization (better, relevant, precise, suggestive ads) so when people get to the site, they will be more likely to make a purchase.

-  Clarity of the value proposition is the most important factor in determining whether a customer buys or not. So, the ability to answer the question of why I as a customer would buy gives a better picture by standing in the customer’s shoes

-  Presenting a concise and summarized description, sub-headings, etc. help attract customers because this makes the page more succinct providing only the necessary details. It is important not to say too much, so learning how to convey the key message through the use of few words is vital

-  Simple is always the best. A user does not require an elaborated landing page. All he does is look for a piece of information and go ahead and click on it if it is suggestive. So, designing a simple yet powerful ad description that is both straightforward and attractive is very important

-  It is good to flaunt the product by giving hints of why it is better than the competitors or what differentiates it from the rest available. So, the option available by using attractive words and phrases like free, offer, discount is appropriate. Getting specific to free offers and indicating free shipping, warranty information is always helpful

-  The search results are very positive if provided with the right landing page through the URLs. So directing the ad to the particular URL with the specific product is very important to get the customer click on it and make the transaction. Credibility is a true statement. Customers will buy only from people who can be trusted and who are genuinely selling the product

The best way to sell a product is to let the customer make the choice of why he should choose this particular product through your ad. This is the key to advertising. Reaching out to the customer’s mind by proving him right is important. This can be achieved through compelling ads and one should keep in mind not to have an argumentative approach but a passive one.

 

Ad Ranking Model

The ranking model refers to the method in which advertisers’ ads that compete against each other are ranked and is applicable to both Sponsored Search as well as Content Match. So once an ad is qualified to be displayed, its rank is determined by an algorithmic combination of its bid and Quality Index score.

                                                Rank = Bid + Quality Index Score

Bid

Since advertisers are allowed to decide and determine how much they want to pay, they pay only when their ad is clicked. This allows them to remain in control of their costs. The average of these click charges is the cost-per-click (CPC).

Quality Index Score (QI)

It is the relative measure of the ad’s performance. An advertiser learns how well his ad is performing, on average. It further reflects an ad’s ability to meet the needs of the users by looking at the click-through-rate (CTR). It identifies those ads that are performing well and separates them from the ones that need attention. The goal of Quality Index is to add value to an ad’s position by more than just the bid.  The goal is to improve the end user’s experience, as well as reward advertisers for developing high-quality ads.  The Quality Index helps advertisers focus their efforts on what matters most to their business that is making effective marketing messages.

When an advertiser creates a new ad, the Quality Index score is based on various relevance factors.  As time goes on and impressions and clicks accumulate, the click-through rate (CTR) becomes the primary factor in calculating a Quality Index score. 

Note : International traffic is not factored into the Quality Index score – only traffic from IP addresses (internet protocol address) located in the account’s marketplace.

Rank Determination

An ad’s rank is determined by an algorithm based on its bid and Quality Index score.  An advertiser with high-quality ads is rewarded with the best position for their bid.  Quality Index greatly impacts how much an advertiser needs to bid and the position in which their ad is displayed. So, even if the cost to the advertiser is low or high, it does not affect its ranking since the rank is purely determined by the QI score and the bid amount.

Calculation of CTR: (Click/Impression)x100

Calculation of CPC: (Cost/Click)

Calculation of CPA: (Cost/Conversion)