Some of the biggest names in the corporate world didn&rsquo;t go to business schools. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were college dropouts and yet went on to build two rival empires. Probably, the stories sound illusory but they are true. However, in the world which you and I live, this cannot be generalised.

Creating warriors not foot soldiers

Business Standard

Management education has become a fad in a virtually connected universe. Post 2000, the acclaimed MBA programme has witnessed unprecedented heights in the form of pluralism across academics, industries and think tanks in India. Pluralism in this context talks about the outreach of this programme among a larger section of society.

Do we need value-based management education in India?

There is nothing better than seeing one&rsquo;s start-up venture soar. But even if it falters, it is a risk most B-schoolers are willing to take nowadays. Considering that they are never short of options, it is a small price for being able to go off the beaten track after a gruelling time learning the ropes of management. Meet our start-up entrepreneurs: They don&rsquo;t report to a boss, but have got their own team.

Start-up CEOs

Emerging markets are characterized by high volatility. Economic circumstances are constantly changing. Growth rates are often in double digits, and the competitive landscape is often shifting. New laws and regulations are constantly being put into place, and policy is constantly evolving. So jugaad innovators need to experiment as they go along and be willing to try multiple options, rather than adopting one approach at the start and sticking to it thereafter. Unlike their counterparts in Silicon Valley, jugaad innovators do not attempt to work everything out in advance or rely on a business plan to determine the mid- to long-term roadmap for their new ventures. Instead, they improvise their next course of action as circumstances change, and they do so from within a framework of deep knowledge and passion. Their approach is in fact more akin to a jazz band than to an orchestra: everything is improvised, fluid, and dynamic.

Jugaad innovators don't plan - they improvise

You know that Holy Grail that ad agencies keep chasing and promising? The one where research, insight and expertise lead to an idea, solution and partnerships that are then seamlessly brought to life in a 360-degree campaign? Well, Aamir Khan just delivered it. And no, even though we&rsquo;ve only just seen the first five episodes of Satyamev Jayate so far, it&rsquo;s not too early to say so. Here&rsquo;s how it builds the perfect pitch.

The perfect pitch

Here&rsquo;s one CEO who believes in management by walking around. &ldquo;I devote a lot of time to speak to clients because that&rsquo;s the way to understand the strategic direction clients are taking and how we need to innovate in order to solve their problems,&rdquo; says N V &lsquo;Tiger&rsquo; Tyagarajan, president and CEO, Genpact.

When countries like India go for change, they go straight to best-in-class: N V Tyagarajan

    This person was appointed professor of painting and sculpture at the University of New York (now New York University) during the 1830s. He invented a marble-cutting machine that could carve a three dimensional sculpture in marble/stone and later discovered that it was not patentable because it infringed an earlier invention. One of his famous paintings is that of the Dying Hercules. Name him.

Answers to last week's The Strategist Quiz (#255)

Our world is getting ever more consumed by technology. It is but natural that organisations will have to adapt fast to keep pace with changing consumers and business requirements. In years to come strategic thinking and paradigms will be built using strong data analytics: data which is no longer just numbers but includes all forms of communication and interactions. If we were to follow IDC&rsquo;s forecast, analytics has a promising year ahead as the market for business analytics software is estimated to grow by 8.9 per cent, to $33.9 bn. This means companies need to start thinking seriously about whether they are organised enough to exploit the potential of Big Data &mdash; the combination of structured and unstructured data.

Empowering the new-age professional

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The top 10 business bestsellers

The Indian book publishing industry is currently pegged at Rs 10,000 crore. Non-academic books market in India is estimated to be Rs 2,000 crore. The online players are estimated to be selling around Rs 400 crore of books. Online books market will grow at a higher rate in years to come, hence in percentage terms this market will gain share over brick and mortar book retailers.

KIT: Publishing business in India

The most useful thing about a principle is that it can always be sacrificed to expediency.

Debashis Basu: The silence of the boards

Single entrance exam for NITs, IITs brings a great sigh of relief to all the students both financially and mentally. However, relevance of coaching institutes will not be lost rather will get modified.

Student&#8217s corner

Answer: The first item in each example is designed to keep you working as close to a 24X7 workday as physically feasible and the last two are intended to make the first psychologically acceptable.

Kanika Datta: Toeing the party line

Singapore, a small island with a 682 square km area, about half of Delhi&rsquo;s size, is becoming a hot destination for Indian aspirants of management education abroad, while getting greater attention from the global educational fraternity.

Singapore, new B-school hub

Resolution of the six-year battle between the US-based Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has provided the much-needed relief to the former. Ashvin P Vibhakar, its managing director, Asia Pacific Operations, tells Kalpana Pathak about the institute's expansion plans in India and how it is hoping for an early resolution of its case with ICFAI University.

We are closer to a resolution to our case with ICFAI: Ashvin P Vibhakar

To equip biotechnology students with job-oriented skills and to cater to companies with right manpower, Lucknow-based Biotech Park has launched a unique &lsquo;Finishing School&rsquo;.

Now, a 'Finishing School' for biotech students

Conventional wisdom says when companies are slashing budgets across the board to weather the economic downturn, senior executives would have better things to do than talent management (jargon for keeping the people you want engaged). The logic is that that&rsquo;s something you do when the going is good, not when you know that they have nowhere to go in this crummy job market.

Shyamal Majumdar: It's talent, stupid

Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode, on Thursday said its satellite campus at Kochi would be launched on June 9. The campus will focus on executive education with full time and part-time programmes for middle and senior level executives.

IIM Kozhikode to launch satellite campus in Kochi

The Rail Yatri Niwas outside the New Delhi railway station has the best occupancy figures in the country. Each of the 108 rooms, managed by Tata Group-promoted Ginger Hotels, is fully occupied every single day, with guests sometimes booking rooms nearly a month in advance.

Ginger comes back on track

Pod1, &ldquo;an advertising agency in New York that specializes in creative digital services, with a focus on clients in e-commerce,&rdquo; is being acquired by Group FMG.

Will advertisement agencies move work to India?

Brand building, say experts, is about establishing a person-to-person relationship as opposed to a salesperson-to-customer relationship, and that tough conditions test the brand management skills of a manager more than anything else.

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