GDPI Primer Doc

8/20/2019 GDPI Primer Doc

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PI PREPARATORY MATERIAL

[An ADCOM initiative]

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:


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PI QUESTIONS

Below are some of the questions that have been asked in the past. We

suggest you to ponder over how you would go about tackling them. These

questions are not exhaustive and the actual questions asked may vary depending

on the panel. Some of these questions may be applicable to a select set of

participants only.

Know Yourself

1. Tell us something about yourself?

2.

What does your name mean?

3.

(If name is popular), you are named after a famous personality, what do

you know about him/her?

4. What are your strengths/ why should we select you/ what makes you

different from rest of the candidates?

5.

Why should we not select you?

6.

Tell us something about your family?

7. What do you do in your free time?

8.

Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

9.

Questions on native city, state and places you have stayed or visited

10.

What did you do in this gap of 6 months - 1 year before joining MDI?11.

Tell us something about yourself which is not in your CV?

12. Describe yourself in one word

13.

How are you different from others?

Instances from your life

1.

Narrate an incident where you showed leadership skills?

2.

Did you face any situation where you were in some ethical dilemma in your

work life? If yes then what and how did you manage that situation?

3. Give an instance when you failed to achieve something?

4.

Which is your greatest achievement and why?

5.

Are you a team player? Describe an instance where you exhibited your skills


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College life

1.

Your performance seems to have consistently dropped. You did really well

in school but your graduation scores have reduced drastically. At this pace

you might not even manage to complete your MBA. Justify2.

Which were your favorite subjects? Follow up questions

3.

What's the connection between your graduation and MBA? How would you

use your Btech/Comm/Science etc in MBA?

Work life

1.

Tell us something about your work?

2.

Your experience is close to 3.5 years. Why not opt for an executive MBAand save both money and time?

3.

Post MBA you might again land up to your present company then why the

hustle?

4.

What is the one thing you hated about your previous company?

5.

Have you bought about any revolution in your previous company?

6.

Questions on quarterly results of your company

7.

Who is the CEO, head of department etc.?

8.

(If from TCS, Infy etc.) Another one from TCS…..so many from TCS.. Tell mewhy are we getting so many applicants from TCS?


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MBA QUESTIONS

1.

Why MBA?

2.

Do you think MBA is required for a street smart person?

3.

Why MDI?4.

You did your engineering in electronics/computer science, and then worked

in software industry and now you want to do MBA, you seem to be

confused. Justify?

5.

What value addition would you bring to MDI?

6. Which specialization and why?

7.

What other calls do you have and where does MDI rank in them? Why?

General Questions

1.

What is difference between information, knowledge and data?

2.

What are the qualities of a good leader?

3.

Which leaders have impressed you?

4. Which paper do you read? Who is the editor, publisher?

5.

Pick any recent news topic and give us your opinion on the same.

6.

Who is your role model and why?


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FINANCE

What is Finance?

Finance is the science of managing money, i.e., how institutions generate andmanage their wealth. A degree in finance prepares future professionals to guide

corporations through uncertainties, short and long term planning. Finance majors

in various business firms evaluate their market positions, profitability and

economic policies that have implications for their businesses.

Why Finance?

Despite the increased prominence of other MBA specializations since the 2008

crisis, finance still remains to be a sought after major by many MBA students. Not

only has finance continued to be a core area, its significance as a part of MBA

program has been growing over the years. Moreover, it‘s not purely the financial

services sector that employs MBA graduates well-versed in finance but

organizations outside of the sector also require leaders with an in-depth financial

know-how, and as the global economy evolves this need is growing more than

ever. Majoring in Finance involves learning about commercial and investment

banking, forecasting, budgeting, asset and liability management, stocks, bonds,

how markets function, portfolio management, risk management, etc. Hence it

would give an opportunity to enter into numerous career paths, some of which

are listed below.

Career Prospects:

1.

Consumer Banking

2. Investment Banking

3.

Institutional Finance4. Merchant Banking

5.

Corporate Finance

6.

International Finance


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Career Options:

Credit Analyst, Financial Analyst, Investment Banker, Loan Officer, Risk and

Insurance Managers, Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, Corporate

Controller, Trader, Treasury Officer, Management Consultant

Important topics for Interview preparation

Why Finance?

What are the different career options in Finance? You are interested in

which vertical of finance?

Questions related to GDP, GNP, Sub-prime crisis, rupee depreciation

Fiscal Deficit, Trade Deficit

FDI and FII and its implications in Indian economic structure

SENSEX and NIFTY

Capital markets and their structure

Differences between Debt and Equity market

Differences between stock market products like Bonds, Preference Shares

and Equity

Banking structure in India, RBI rules and regulations , BASEL Norms

Microfinance institutions in India and Financial Inclusion

RBI rates – CRR, SLR, Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate

Beyond classes at MDI

Monetrix is the Finance Club of MDI; it exists to stimulate logical thinking and

spread awareness in the area of Finance and Economics, and to provide

opportunities to put theoretical foundations to practice. The vision of this club is

to help MDI students create an edge by demonstrating superior knowledge and

grasp of things. Each of the activity performed by the club is a step towards this

shared goal.


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INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

What is Information Management?

Information Management is primarily concerned with the incorporation oftechnology in business processes. This area deals with understanding the IT

requirements of an organization, optimize their processes in order to achieve

better efficiency. Information management focuses on areas like IT consulting,

Analytics, e-business, IT security, etc.

Important topics for Interview preparation

1)

You are already in IT domain, then why MBA and get into IT again?

(Specifically for those coming from IT)

2)

Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC framework)

3) IT project management, PERT and CPM techniques

4)

SDLC, Waterfall model, Prototyping Model

5)

Big data and its scope in current IT industry

6)

Cloud computing and its current implementations

7)

Knowledge about ERP, PaaS and SaaS

Beyond Classes at MDI

Classroom sessions and quizzes, though rigorous, can only take one so far in

knowledge in today’s globally competitive world. To keep all information

management and on a larger scale, all technology enthusiasts on their toes, we

have ThinC - the Business Technology club of MDI. The club takes care of major

updates in the world of information management, data analytics and product

management. In this age of smart phones, smart-wears and smart everything,

ThinC acts as the point of contact in establishing and exploring links betweenbusiness and technology.


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STRATEGY

What is Strategy?

Strategy is about solving real world business problems and devising newstrategies for the organization going forward. In this area business cases and

guesstimates are used to increase core thinking abilities.

The interviews in this domain are focused on guesstimates. For example, how

many people use Delhi metro between 7-9 AM at MG road Station. The real

numbers are not required in this case. They test critical thinking and innovative

thinking ability of in individual.

Important topics for interview preparation

1)

Why do you want to specialize in Strategy? Any specific reasons?

2)

Any question on guesstimates (Low probability of being asked but still a

basic approach can be read about)

3)

Value Chain Analysis, Competitive Strategy

4)

Current business affairs and strategies behind them

5)

An example like, Google bought Motorola and then sold it in some time at

much lesser value. What could be the strategy behind this?


STRATEGIST helps people in recognizing and developing their key skills. Whether

you wish to specialize in finance or Marketing; or you want to be an

entrepreneur; one thing that you need to be is to be a ‘STRATEGIST’. Club

Strategist provides such an environment to all the fellow members. We seek to

retain, extend and leverage the interest of the students in the area of strategy

and act as a pillar of the strategic activities in the institute.

Being member of strategist, apart from core knowledge, one cultivates expertise

in event management, creativity, marketing of events, team building by being

with few of the brightest brains in the country.


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MARKETING

What is Marketing?

It is an art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping andgrowing customers through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and

services of value with others.

Marketing Vs Selling

Some Important Concepts

Needs, Wants and Demand

Need is state of felt deprivation for basic items such as food and clothing and

complex needs such as for belonging, i.e. I am hungry. Wants are a step ahead of

needs and are largely dependent on the needs of humans themselves. When an

individual wants something which is premium, but he also has the ability to buy it,

then these wants are converted to demands.

SEGMENTATION, TARGETING & POSITIONING

Segmentation is the process of identification of prospective buyer groups

(segments) that have common needs/tastes/wants and that might respond

similarly to a marketing ploy. Targeting is the actual selection of the segment you

Marketing

Profit Oriented

Long Term Planning

Emphasis onConsumer Needs and

Wants

Sales

Sales volume oriented

Short Term Results

Emphasis on theProduct


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want to serve and the target market is the group. Positioning is the use of

marketing to enable people to form a mental image of your product in the

consumer minds (relative to other products).

4Ps of Marketing


Marketing isn’t taken up only during scheduled class hours or during last ditch

exam preparation but is talked, discussed and played with all through the

academic year. The dedicated marketing club Marquity, ensures regular updates

about all that happens in the marketing world, prepares stunningly objective info-

graphics and holds regular competitions and quizzes to keep people abreast and

updated.

Many of you will be interested in this specialization and it’s time to gear up for

the process ahead. Having a basic understanding of the trending matters in the

world of marketing like conventional v/s digital marketing or inventory v/s

marketplace models in e-com will surely help. Good luck for the preparation and

we hope to see in this prestigious institution.


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OPERATIONS

What is Operations Management

Operations Management deals with the design and management of products,

processes, services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development,

and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their

clients want. Representative strategic issues include determining the size and

location of manufacturing plants, deciding the structure of service or

telecommunications networks, and designing technology supply chains.

Production process

A production process is defined as a user of resources to transform inputs into

output. For a plant that manufactures tyres, raw material, labor and capital canbe inputs while the finished rubber tyre will be output. The steps through which

the raw material is converted into a finished good can be referred to as a process.

Bottleneck

A point of congestion in a system that occurs when workloads arrive at a given

point more quickly than that point can handle them. The inefficiencies brought

often create a queue and a longer overall cycle time. The primary objective of a

manager is to eliminate the bottleneck that exists in the process.

Inventory Management

Inventory management refers to when a firm strives to attain and uphold an

optimal inventory of goods while taking note of all orders, shipping and handling,

and other associated costs.

SCM

Supply chain management is the management of a network of all business

processes and activities involving procurement of raw materials, manufacturing

and distribution management of finished goods. SCM is also called the art of

management of providing the Right Product, At the Right Time, Right Place and at

the Right Cost to the Customer.


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Planning & Forecasting

Planning is defined as “The establishment of objectives, and the formulation,

evaluation and selection of the policies, strategies, tactics and action required to

achieve them. As an operations manager, material requirement planning or

demand estimation needs to be done on a regular basis.

JIT

Just in time is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on

investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs.

Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing is also called Just in Time (JIT). It is based on the principle of

doing more less inventory, fewer workers, less space. So, “JIT” and “Lean

Manufacturing” are used interchangeably.

VALUE CHAINA typical value chain consists of an interlinking of activities that convert inputs

into the desirable outputs into the desirable outputs

Importance of location on cost reduction of critical activities in the

value chain:Normally there is a trade-off between cost reduction in the inbound and

outbound activities of the value chain. Location plays a major role in this context

as proximity to the supplier ensures lower inbound costs while proximity to the

end user or intermediaries ensures lower outbound costs.

The methods normally applied to select an appropriate site location are centre of

gravity method, load distance technique, Brown & Gibson model etc.


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Important Topics for Interview Preparation

What are the Job Profiles offered in operations management if you seek to

it as your major

How is Operations Management different from Supply Chain Management

Challenges being faced in Manufacturing sector

What measures can be taken to reduce bottleneck problem

Various steps involved in value chain system

A brief information/Knowledge on Kanban, TQM and Kaizen


With regular classes, periodic exams and tons of presentations to give, time is of

precious value and managing and optimizing your operations surely does come inhandy. Step in, Opsession, the operations club at MDI. Since its inception in 2005,

it has become the unifying platform for the students interested in pursuing a

career in the field. The club has evolved from a nascent forum for idea sharing to

its current status as a representation of the growing interest in the Operations

field. We look forward to a strong and starry participation from the new batch as

well to continue this legacy.


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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

What is HR Management?

HR is about maximizing the productivity and potential of the human assets of an

organization. HR is not there to police rules and policies. A thorough

understanding of the business is needed in order to strategically support and add

value to the organization.

HR was predominantly what we would describe as an “administrative and

transactional utility”. The transaction and administrative work of HR continues

today, but it is done differently through outsourcing and technology solutions.

Innovations have occurred in rewards, communication, training, recruiting,

succession planning and other HR practice areas. While each of these HR practice

areas innovated in terms of what and how it was done, they also were integratedwith each other to provide a consistent approach to HR. Currently, HR

professionals are responsible for assessing and improving talent, culture, and

leadership to accomplish the overall business strategy.

Sub – Domains of HR

1)

Recruitment – The process of searching for prospective employees and

attracting them to apply for various jobs through internal and external

sources.2) Selection – It deals with identifying and hiring the right employees with a

high likelihood of success in the job.

3)

Performance Management – A continuous process of identifying,

measuring and developing the performance of individuals and teams and

aligning performance with the strategies adopted by the organization.

4)

Compensation and Benefits – A function that deals with designing and

implementing various compensation and benefits policies for employees.

5)

Training and Development – Identifying various learning and training needs

of the employees by monitoring performance and providing for the same.

6)

Employee Engagement – An emerging area in the HR domain which deals

with programs designed to motivate and engage the human capital which

leads to increased productivity and higher profitability.


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7)

Industrial Relations - Industry Relations (IR) is concerned with management

of relations between workers and employer (management) and the role of

regulatory mechanism in resolving any dispute.

Important Topics for Interview Preparation

What are the Job Profiles offered in HRM if you seek it as your major

Why do you wish to specialize in HR

Organizations or practices you know of or admire when HR is concerned

Beyond classes at MDI

The HR club at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon was launched in

2005. The club has been christened "HR Direction @ MDI". In keeping with thespirit of the name, HR Direction conducts regular industry sessions; organizes

competitions for management students across the country.

The members of the club invite corporate heads in HR, as well as leading

academics to help students gain insights into the latest developments of HR. HR

Direction also facilitates live projects, works on increasing corporate interactions

and facilitating brain-storming on current issues in the area of Human Resources.

Some of the live projects brought were from Government of India, KPMG, Tata

Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Neo Educators, Essar, RJ Corp, Kite trainingsolutions, Luxury Hues Consultancy Services, to name a few.


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A GDPI Primer by

MDI Admissions Committee

Corporate Communications

MDI Gurgaon

https://www.facebook.com/mdigurgaon

(This is a student driven initiative. The information in this document is not exhaustive and

should be used only as a reference. )
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