From Ideation to Reality - www.MBAHACK.com 'Knowledge sharing portal for MBAs'

Tissues have been their best friends, don't know how many tissues they have wasted while jotting down their so called "different & unconventional" ideas in their not-so-free time ;) (and their pipeline still seems endless)

 

M talking about Three friends from Three different reputed B-schools with ONE common headache - 'Assignments, CASE STUDIES :/, Articles, Reports & MBA related material...where to look out for organized stuff???

 

So that's how starts www.mbahack.com. The site is now at your disposal and we (I, Noor & Archit) hope you will like it & support it by - having your account on it (Simple 4 steps registration world's minimalist , trust me and also that's the only way you can access the imp things that you fish for), Contributing towards the community as it is all about 'sharing', and by promoting it further on social media & other platforms.

 

A brief about MBAhack....

 

Knowledge sharing portal for MBAs

MBAHACK is a free common knowledge sharing platform for B school students, enabling quality education access to all. Website is one of its kind which focuses on providing all the necessary resources you may require in your MBA program. MBAHACK gives competitive edge to its users by providing a platform  to share their solutions, resources, key learning and experiences. Thus enabling students to truly harness Peer learning and global diversity to
transform them into competent global manager.

As it is said "The easiest part of a great MBA program is - getting into it".

Looking for your support :) Thanks.

stay connected - 

www.mbahack.com

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IIPM's Segmentation & Positioning --- "Don't you Dare to think beyond IIPM"

IIPM…the RIGHT way round or the WRONG way round???

Let’s begin with some scenarios & some food for thought – 

a real conversation between a friend & his aunt:

•  SHE: So Deepak, where did you get through in CAT?

    ME: Aunty, I have converted NITIE, Mumbai..

    SHE: ohh..u did not get IIM?

    ME: no Aunty, messed up a section in CAT..

    SHE: (with a sympathetic look turning serious now): You did not even get IIPM? 

    ME: (coughing, obviously mind******!!!): No Aunty, my scores are not that good..

.....this is what IIPMs marketing strategy has achieved...WOM... but unfortunately (or thankfully!..) they have got their 4Ps wrong where it matters the most... Is it???
 

•  Newspaper headlines say "MBA/DU Student met with an accident"... had it been the IIPM, it would have been same... had it been IIM Grad??? The headline would have definitely changed to "IIM Grad met with an accident"...isn’t it???

•  Every yr around 240,000 aspirant takes the exam... That means almost 95% people are not going to make through top colleges.... when the market is so much skewed... where is IIPM faultering?? Are they going ahead targeting these 95% aspirants... Customers??? 

•  By using the full-market attack strategy, did they have managed to target a large proportion of students whose only aim is to obtain  an MBA from anywhere??? Our country has no dearth of karodpatis, esp., the nouveau riche, So isn’t it cool to dare beyond the IIMs???

 

•  Is IIPM playing very smartly... People like us are not their target customers... and they don’t care what we think about their advertisements/tag lines.... their customer wants to join a college with known name... IIPM is a known name....isn’t free latptop & Europe tour is attractive???

Coming to S…T & more of P

•  Had IIPM done the segmentation right they would have realised that quite a few segments of students might be interested in their value proposition. Instead IIPM decided to go for a full market attack strategy and targeted the entire population of students.

•  The situation is very similar to the one where Tata Nano targets all potential car buyers (including the BMW customer). Such a strategy might work for a firm that trades in commodities but definitely is suicidal for a B-school.

•  Now let`s move on to the question of positioning. Here IIPM`s very tagline ” Dare to think beyond IIMs”) says it all! However the very usage of names of the likes of IIMs and IITs made their strategy fall flat.

•  A layman after reading the tagline would assume that IIPM claims to hold a position on the same axis as that of these institutes of repute. Such is the trouble of comparative advertising. You have to be sure about the competitor with whom you are comparing yourself. 

•  In this case IIPM was totally unsure about the value proposition of IITs/IIMs. They assumed that the only point where they were required to match their competitors was on placement figures. The fact remains that IIPM never really tried to fight out IIMs by arranging exceptional placements for their outgoing students but instead they got themselves rated high on fictitious rankings. 

•  IIPM failed to realise that one important component of IIM`s value proposition was its exclusivity. An IIM grad has high regards in the industry because of his business knowledge and also because of the fact that no ordinary Johny can bag a seat in his institute. 

•  They appointed telemarketers to cold call students, their selection procedure had no rigour involved and they began operating in almost thirty branches. In simple words an IIPM admit was an easily available option. This by itself dilutes their entire value proposition.

•  Weak product at an inappropriate price-point sold through improper channels! IIPM`s product strategy is a classic case of marketing myopia. The key highlights of its offering emphasise on free laptop and a Europe trip. These are perhaps the last things that a student is looking for in a B-school. 

•  Years ago Kodak introduced cheap cameras which they tried selling through kirana outlets and failed. The reason was that a kirana outlet visitor has come there to buy groceries and not a cam. Similarly, telemarketing is dangerous for a B-school that compares itself with IIMs in advertisements. It is nothing less than selecting an improper marketing channel.  

•  Its promo budget could well be comparable to those of FMCG giants. Promotion is helpful only when all other steps are in place. Roping in a silver-screen celebrity might be a good option for an FMCG player but is not worthwhile for selling something like Business education. one might take an actors word when it comes to selecting a fairness cream but will one take his advice while choosing a B-school??? 

So, still any daring left??? I think a 'P' in between not only made their name 'different' but also helped them to set a different league for themselves.  

A letter from Pixar animator

Pixar animator Austin Madison took part in the animators letter project, hand-writing a letter that offers a bit of inspiration for the times when creativity feels stifled. Madison’s advice certainly also works for anyone  feeling stuck in a creative funk.

Awesomeness ...1 - 3

Awesomeness lies in very small, unnoticed sometime petty things around us to which we don't pay much attention & think rarely about them in our so called busy life.Things as per me that define awesomeness are - 

• GOD or DOG? I admire both. I have a pet but as of now he is at home quite far away from where I am now. Here I have 5 street dogs in my locality. When some of them see me around they come running to me and then do a full stretch with their front paws on my chest...sigh...I know it's going to be an awesome day.

• When you were in school and you get back home after your exam & mom gives you a glass of water and asks 'paper kaisa hua (how was the paper)' and you reply 'theek tha (it was ok)'....You come to know about its awesome value when no one is around to ask the same....when you are in hostel and after depressing after exam discussion with your friends all you want is love.

• The fresh and sublime fragrance/smell of new books which you get after months of summer break as in school or you open just before a day of examination in your college...don't know whether it will make your career or not but definitely it makes that very moment... awesome.

 

The IRCTC Saga - "Unplan My Travel"

“Indian Railway” – The lifeline of India. The most rugged and the most popular public transport that is used by millions “Daily”. Needless to say it is one of the most trusted and one of the biggest brands that India possesses, thanks to the British for leaving this prized possession with India. 

Belonging to a middle class family I also revere Indian Railways. I love to travel by train just because it gives you true experience at best price.

But one acronym that makes me change my tune about the Indian Railway services is IRCTC. Irctc.co.in, the website which facilitates you to get railway tickets online is one of the most pathetically managed services I ever came across. 

Reasons???

• Today having many services just a click away made the life simpler and of course LAZY, being one of the lazy & so called tech savvy I prefer to get most of the things done online. The UI, looks & other visual aspects of Irctc look perfect, but when it comes to book tickets that too in ‘TATKAL’ the whole thing goes haywire.

• One can book online tickets 3 month before the journey date but it is really hard to plan your journey 3 months before, so it happens rarely. When it comes to 2 months, plans start taking the shape.1 month before you make a firm plan and think to book the ticket. So 1 month to go and you start checking the tickets of a train, in my case long distance (24hrs) journey & there is nothing to your amazement you knew that you will end up booking a sensible waitlist ticket (upper waitlist) with a never ending hope that it will get cleared i.e. ‘the hope’ that hundred of Indians have for the same thing at the same time.

The Climax –   

72 hours remaining for your train to leave its source station and tatkal window opens 48 hrs before the train departs from its source station, so still you have 23hrs 59minutes of hope left of getting your waitlist cleared or to touch RAC atleast. But god just wants you to be a better experience holder and enjoy your so called IRCTC experience and never learn from it. Thus your so called booked upper waitlist ticket remains static, it acts as it is Dharamendar and Gabbar has tied it in shackles & it will only allowed to move when you being the Hema malini start saying ‘nahinnnn meri ticket ko chod do’ so in the end you have to show your dancing skills i.e hitting the cancellation button. 

Next day you get up early by 7:45am without even brushing your teeth & visiting your sanctum (the loo) you start your lappy with a ‘fresh hope’. You login 10 minutes before and keep refreshing the same page till it ticks 8:00am. As it ticks 8:00 the awesome page of Irctc you were seeing a few minutes before with lot of enthusiasm shows you “the page cannot be displayed” or “service unavailable”.

But nope being a Indian psyche you never lose hope so you keep refreshing it again & again and the website also loves to play with you sometime even it takes you to the stage of orgasm i.e. till the payment gateway and then never returns you back. So in that case your money is gone time is gone.

But no, hum kahan manene walon main se hain ji so you will not give it up you will give a try again, its already 8:15 and if you are one of the strike lucky you will have 2-3 tickets left but here is the twist, it may happen that the time you will get your payment done you will be pasted with a tatkal waitlist ticket on your face which is more dangerous than having any ticket. So you try your luck & if lucky enough then everything goes well which happens ‘Rarely’, atleast not with me. In the end you have nothing in your hand and your previous waitlist ticket has already sworn of not moving from its place thus you have to cancel it 24 hours before to make the person behind you happy and finally you atleast achieved some sense of pride ‘wow’.

So what did I learn from all this hassle?

Truly, nothing much. As plans are bound to change, sometime they are just sudden and sometime ambiguous till last date. So even if I have a flight ticket two months earlier I am just taking a risk and postponing the same is dearer than getting a tatkal ticket through a railway agent.

Now I have left with few options which are;

• Whether to postpone my traveling plan. 
•  To get in touch with a railway agent and end up paying him more than double the amount of actual ticket. 
• To be there at the physical ticketing counter line from very early morning onwards (3-4am) to get the ticket (even then guys of agent will be 3-4 number ahead of you in line because they use to sleep there whole night, so again risky) 
• Or if I know some BigShot in railway then get in touch with him (not in my case)

So you rely on the agent if your travel is urgent but again they also don’t take 100% responsibility of getting your ticket done and asks for just any hefty figures/numbers come to their mindless money mind.

So what is the whole point? 

The whole point is to urge Indian railway to get the things in place, to get the hassle free service available to every Indian out there as this is not only my story rather of many. 

• The railway minister should reduce or fix the agent quota i.e. they should give only certain amount of licenses in every city only to few trusted agents that too only for online booking which must be only 30% of total tatkal seats available. 
• The government should give some relief to common man who is not tech savvy and who still relies on getting the ticket done on physical counter where the non licensed agents made ticket booking as monkey business. By regular checks and making the counters available only to common man, by checking his/her identity at the time of booking (i.e whose and for whom he is booking the tickets) to curb illegal ways.

Thus all an uncommon mangoman wants is “Uncorrupted” service and comfort of mind as well as travel.