What You Are to Us:

The demand for management professionals has been increasing over many years.
This can be witnessed in the growing number of corporate and the educational
institutions imparting management education. As with any industry, there was
spread of idea in the market that there is a mismatch in the expectations of the
industry and the skills of young professionals. Though this might be true to some
extent, the possible reason might not be the lack of skills among young
professionals but inexperience of ability to recollect and apply the learned
knowledge and skills at appropriate time. Students and young professionals often
show their helplessness in expressing and putting in application what they know
and what they have learnt. However, the industry environment assesses the
professionals in the initial stages of their career by their application of knowledge
than by the potential knowledge they possess. Such a phase in career of a
professional might make him apprehensive of his potential and build an image of
doubtful and borrowed knowledge. As the time available with the
professionals and also the corporate is limited and as the competition is very high,
many students and professionals miss upon the opportunities they are otherwise
capable of capturing. To go through this phase and grow consistently in career, the
professional should act based on the knowledge he realized by executing and
testing borrowed knowledge from his past experiences, books and personnel.
Professional who realizes his knowledge in this way contributes to the long term
growth of an organization and grows as a person incomparable to the person who
vacillates due to contradictions based on weak foundations of knowledge.
Though the above description is valid for many streams, two such streams where
the current students and professionals are expected of consistent quick learning
and application are Marketing/Sales and Finance. The high demands from
professionals during the entry and initial stages of career require them to
become aware of all that they are expected and supposed to know. This
course is intended to address the issues faced by students and young professionals
in sales, marketing and finance streams during the initial stages of their career and
make firmer the foundations of their knowledge and skills for future growth.
Raising the Sales, Marketing and Finance students and young professionals
from the state of doubtful and borrowed knowledge to the following states is the
objective of the course:

Become aware of and recollect the knowledge and skills learnt during the
course of MBA and through other courses
Become aware of the practical expectations of the industry from entry level
professionals in the fields of sales, marketing and finance and in
understanding business strategy
Learn and communicate the theories necessary for meeting the practical
expectations of industry

Gain the ability to draw boundaries for the application and implementation of
theories
Strengthen specific skills and knowledge by customizing the course design
Get Exposure to and gain experience in performing in entry level interviews
in Sales, Marketing and Finance jobs
Gauge the suitability of a job to long term needs

Course Structure:
Introduction to Corporate Career
This part of the course consists of building exposure among candidates about the
expectations related to different types of jobs for MBA graduates specialized in
Sales, Marketing and Finance. The candidates will be interacting with a team
comprising of working professionals and recruiters. This will help the candidate to
assess the expectations of the industry and his readiness for the same. The
candidate also gets to know about the work culture. He will also be guided through
the process of interaction to enable him to gain maximum from the session.
After the initial introduction to the jobs, the course will be divided into three
modules.
1.
2.
3.
4.

Business and Strategy

Marketing and Sales
Finance
Candidate Module

Business and Strategy Module:

Understanding the working of business and the role of strategy in business has
become very important in corporate world. This is extremely necessary for
candidates aspiring career growth. Interaction with clients, developing marketing
and promotional programs and many such activities require thorough understanding
of business and strategy.
The candidate will be taken through the fundamentals of business by a discussion
on companies and industries he is exposed to and is expected to work in future. The
objective is to develop the acumen of business analysis and ability to predict the
possible reasons for a firm performing a certain action at a certain time. In the
process, the student will gain exposure to following:

Applications and Limitations of Industry Analysis

Knowledge of What to Predict, When to Predict and How to Predict
Responsibilities, expectations and limitations of a strategic analyst
Categorization of Strategies and Selection of Strategies
Distinguish between possible strategy and practical strategy
Formal Communication of Analysis of Strategy

Sales and Marketing Module:

Majority of MBA graduates are recruited into Sales and Marketing Jobs. These
candidates form the face of company and are expected to possess and display
certain personality traits and skills. While some of these are innate skills, some of
them are to be developed through training, experience and time. The subject of
sales and marketing cannot be internalized by candidate unless he goes through the
cycle of learning through testing in experience, the theories learnt. The following
table gives an idea of varied skill based, personality based and subject based
expectations for a typical sales job in the market.

Activity
Identify Customers

Core Qualities
n/a

Core Skills
Reasoning

Refine Customers

n/a

Analytical Skills

Promote to Customers

Patience

Sell to Customers

Inquisitiveness
Patience
Socializing

Trouble shooting
Convincing Ability
Negotiation,
Comparison
Waiting &
Repeating

Satisfy Customers

Patience

Trouble shooting

Maintain Active Relation

with Customers

Socializing,
Patience

n/a

Collections

Pro activeness
Diplomacy

Negotiation
Quantitative
Argumentation

Support Skills
Customer Segmentation
Customer Requirement
Analysis
Customer Behavior
Analysis Competitor
Analysis Product
Understanding
Product Pricing, Product
Quality, Product
Positioning
Product Understanding
Process Understanding
Customer Behavior
Analysis
Understanding
Commission Structure
Understanding Cash
Flows

Realizing the nature of subject, expectations of market and the exposure of

students, this module will be delivered as a package of theories, processes and tools
implemented and expected to be implemented in prospective recruiting companies.
The module has for its objective developing the following among the candidate and
simultaneously making him assess his core qualities and skills described above,
which are required for long term career growth.

Identify potential customers by thorough understanding of company services

and the market demands and gain exposure to the tools available for same
Gain exposure to how companies recruiting the candidates conduct market
research and to use of market information system and internal records
system

Learn to build, grow, maintain and break relations with customers without
compromising on the objectives of the company
Perform Customer Requirement Analysis and segment the customers
Perform Consumer Behavior Analysis and product potential mapping
Perform and Communicate Competitor Product Analysis and Future Product
Possibilities
Understand and Communicate Product Features, Product Pricing, product
Quality and Positioning
Understand Commission Structure and Negotiate on Cash flows

Finance Module:
Finance, for majority of professionals is most feared but most wanted career. While
it is most feared for its complex outer appearance, it is most wanted for the
lucrative careers it offers and it being the differentiating element between non
business activity and business activity. Any business activity has as its root, the
concept of exchange. Finance, in its broadest sense is the science of exchange
through money or assets. It is a tool to read the strategies of firms and their future.
Unfortunately, it is often mistaken for accounting, report making, trading under
certain rules, lending and other repetitive tasks. This module primarily focuses on
building the right exposure and attitude among students towards financial activities
and career and the students are expected to:

Understand the role of finance department in different types and sizes of

firms
Distinguish between application of financial analysis to public firms, private
firms, industry wise firms
Learn to understand business strategies and decisions from Information
sources such as Annual Reports, Financial Statements, Investor Presentations
and Analyst Reports
Learn Preparation and Interpretation of Balance Sheet, Income Statement and
Cash Flow Statement and arriving at further information required for
interpreting financial statements
Understanding linkages between financial statements and annual reports and
other information
Learn Financial Modeling using Excel and use of macros, pivot tables for
enhanced analysis
Gain Exposure to Valuation of Assets and career in valuation

Candidate Module:
This module gives the candidate an opportunity to become active participant from
passive spectator. While the first three modules are developed by our
understanding of your needs, this module is to be developed by your
understanding of your needs. This module can be designed by the batch of
students after assessment of their weaknesses and strengths so that they can gain
complete confidence in their areas of concern. Expert faculty will be interested in
addressing the topics of your concern.