MBA @ Speed of Light

Today I had the last class at ISB. Tomorrow I have a presentation and one exam on Saturday. With that, the academic life at ISB comes to an end. We have a week off and the graduation ceremony is on next Saturday.

I thought of answering two questions in the comments section in this blog.

Sujayath - do you think, at the end of it, the 15 lac investment was worth it?Sahil

I would say, definitely.

I wonder why this question is never asked to any IIM guy. I think ISB guys face this question just because the fee is high. Think like this – An average ISB guy gets around 10 L salary and if this is excluded from the fee to effectively compare with the IIMs, the course fee will be just 2 L and other amenities like laptop, hostel etc adding to 3 more lakh. So, the fee is out of question.

I don’t have to talk about faculty. If they are not the best, ISB has no reason to get them to campus.

Personally, for a person like me who has just around 2 -3 years of work ex, this is a huge leap, in terms of learning, designation, salary etc. Apart from that, ISB has refined my intuition process and I can take any work assignment confidently. I have learnt a lot from the experienced peer group, I mean it.

It doesn’t mean though, that every ISB student has been moulded into a great piece … You might find some guys not that promising … As I said already, ISB is a Gym, but not everybody works out.

On : 3/24/2005 4:24:37 AM Truthringer (www) said:
I agree about ISB being pathetic when it comes to media-saviness. MBA is nothing but a perception game. Never mind if half the class get 5 L salaries. If u r able to successfully broadcast the one or two guys who got the big ticket jobs, that has the public flocking. Last yr, ISB had a grad picked up by GS for 150 K. But, hardly anyone knew about it. This time same thing happened in IIMA and the whole world knows... Sujayath, maybe ur bschool administration will do well to attend a few mktg classes from all those profs u get from Wharton....hahahaha

I would say the other way – ISB handles media more effectively than any other institutions.

The common question is why ISB is not making a lot of news (noise??) like other B schools. The reply from me would be that doing so will make ISB look like IIPM which dares to think beyond IIMs. Media is a dangerous weapon and I am totally convinced that ISB communications department is handling it in the best possible way.

Yes, last year GS picked up a guy for 150k. And publishing that news created a lot of problems to the ISB from recruiters’ side. I think they don’t want ISB to publish the figures as other institutions might demand more the next year. I don’t know exactly what the highest offer at ISB is but soon it will be published, if the recruiters agree. You should also note that this year 152k paid in IIMA was for a lateral, which is reasonable. The guy with good experience should be able to get good offers whether he is at ISB or at the top IIMs.

And again as correctly pointed out, MBA is a perception game. Don’t get carried away by the highest salary. What does it mean to us if we are not the ones who are getting it?

Go through this article which makes a lot of sense:

http://in.rediff.com/getahead/2005/mar/23rashmi.htm