Common GD PI for all IIMs?

Unlike the UPSC which conducts a common interview for the various cadres of the Civil Services Examinations, the IIMs have been conducting separate Group Discussions (GD) and Personal Interviews (PI) for each IIM. This has allowed each IIM to maintain its own discretion in selecting students as per its criteria - over the years we have often noticed that a students may get an interview call from say IIM Ahmedabad but not from IIM Bangalore or he may get a call from IIM Kolkata and IIM Lucknow but not from IIM Indore. This was because of certain differences in the selection criteria adopted by an IIM - in the last few years, it has been observed that IIM Bangalore prefers to give a GD PI call to a student with work-ex compared to another candidate who may have performed better at the CAT. Similary, the other IIMs had their own selection system.

Now an IIM Review Committee headed by R C Bhargava has recommended a common GD PI System for the IIMs. With the number of IIMs slated to increase to upto 13 in the coming years, the committee feels that it will no longer be feasible for candidates who get multiple Group Discussion & Interview calls to manage. It is also a waste of time, since the same job can be accomplished with much fewer GDs & PIs if the system was unified by the IIMs. The final allotment would then be similar to what happens after the IIT JEE or the Medical Entrance Exams - starting from the 1st rank students can choose the IIM they wish to enrol in.

However, the report adds that not all IIM Directors were happy with the recommendations and as such it may be initially implemented on a voluntary basis. While a common Interview System for the IIMs has its obvious benefits, the existing system had its own merits.

Different admission criteria allowed a larger pool of students to have a reasonable chance of making it to an IIM - a student may have been weak in a particular aspect, but if even one of the IIMs had a relaxed outlook on that particular point, this student stood a chance of realizing his IIM dream. The unified system would now have one 'ideal profile' or 'aggregate sum of points on one set of admission criteria', thus ruling out many bright students.

Another benefit of the separate GD PI system was that it reduced the pressure on the interviewee - just one bad day wouldn't make or break him; while a bad candidate would always be found lacking, a bright student who might have had a bad interview or GD at a particular IIM would get a chance to redeem himself in the next one.

B-School Interview Questions: Sample 1

Whether it is the IIMs, XLRI, MICA or any other Business School, one interview question you are unlike to escape goes like this:

" Why MBA? "

It is surprising how many b-school aspirants, whether in India, US or UK go wrong with this simplest of all interview questions. Future MBAs just don't seem to realize the importance of this question - they get so embroiled in more difficult facts and figures that the most expected questions escape them; there can be no other explanation for this failure.

The fact is - most interview candidates have no clue why they want to do an MBA. For a majority of them, the sad reality is that they are here because MBA was the only option seemingly left for them. The B-School has become the last refuge for many!! But obviously the interview panel doesn't want to hear your sob story. They genuinely want to know why you want to do what you are saying what you want to do. So it makes a lot of sense to be ready for this 'stumper'.

Let's analyze the possible answers to this question.

1. The corporate world fascinates you - you want to be the next big CEO.

2. Besides cricket, bollywood and big-ticket politics an MBA seems to be the best path to big money. Since the doors to the other three look pretty darn closed, hence IIM!

3. You are already doing business management - pursuing a BBS from the Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University / Symbiosis, Pune / one of the many IP University colleges offering a BBA programme / Manipal / Bangalore / Mumbai University... and think that you have chosen the right path, and want to continue on it.

4. HeadBoy in school, the President of numerous college bodies, active in the local clubs - leadership comes naturally to you. So why not become a business leader.

5. Dad insists on MBA.

6. ....

7. ..........

In our next post, we will discuss how you should go about formulating your 'own' and 'correct' answer to the all important b-school interview question. Till then, don't forget to mull over it.

Why do B-Schools Entrance include GD & PI?

I have always been fond of the question - 'why'? Once I know why I need to do something, or why is something happening, it puts everything else in perspective. The 'why' is the crucial differentiator between the two approaches to learning - 'the learn by heart' approach and 'the learn by understanding' approach. Of course, there are a few things that you will need to 'learn by heart' but that should be a subset of the 'learn by understanding' method. What I mean to say is that - you should clearly understand the reason for 'learning by heart'. Once you have answered the 'why', you will find that in more cases than not the 'learning by heart' approach is not called for.

If you are an MBA aspirant, planning to write the CAT or any of the other MBA Entrance Exams, you would have come across plenty of articles and verbal advise on what to do and not to do in the GD (Group Discussion) & PI (Personal Interview). A friend would advise you to "try to initiate the GD", yet another one would warn you against it. Both have their reasons, and they may both be right. But they are still not answering the basic question - why in the first place do B-Schools insist on Group Discussion (GD) & Personal Interview(PI) for selection to the MBA Programme. Why is the CAT or any other written entrance exam not sufficient?

Let's take up GD & PI one by one:

Why Group Discussions (GD)?
You are about to join a B-School, and B-Schools produce managers. And what is the job of a manager? Look at the diagram below:

Henry Mintzberg has identified 10 roles common to managers across the world. Note the first 3 roles which have been clubbed under the head 'Inter-Personal' : Figurehead, Leader & Liaison. Each one of these roles will require the manager to 'interact' with one or more colleagues, who may be his peers, seniors or subordinates. These calls for a variety of skill-sets, which we can generally refer to as 'people skills'. That is what the B-School Group Discussion (GD) is testing - how good you are at these, or more importantly, how potentially good you are at these? Also not the blue box at the bottom - 'Decisional'. Note the roles called 'Disturbance Handler' and "Negotiator". Again these roles call for interacting with more people, assuaging their concerns or managing to convince an 'external' or 'internal' audience.

The GD tests all these and more - so dictum no.1 - in the GD behave like a 'manager'.

Everything else that you should do or not do should flow from the above. Let's pick up the debate between your two friends - 'should you start a GD or not'? Now that you know the 'why', you would have realized that 'the question is irrelevant'. Let's delve into it further:

1. Say the B-School GD topic is: "Should India abandon the democratic model of governance"? There are 3 possible answers that you may have to this question:
- Yes
- No
- You don't know or are not sure

If your answer is the last one, then it becomes obvious that you should not be initiating the GD, because you don't have anything concrete to offer, at least not yet. ( note the word yet, we will come to it later)

If your answer is either 'Yes' or 'No', then further dissection is required. Again the fundamental question 'why' needs to be answered. Say you thought of 'yes' as the answer, but the only reasons which come to mind are:
- The democratic model has been in place for over 60 years now, with little success. Large swathes of the country are still steeped in poverty. We are still grappling with basic concerns like drinking water, food and shelter. Obviously, the model is not working for us.
- China is making better progress than us.

Are these strong enough reasons for a 'manager'? Supposing you were a manager managing a large format 'premier' departmental store. Supposing the sales begun to dip, and kept dipping for 3 consecutive months. Would you recommend closing down the store? Would you recommend closing the store simply because in the same neighbourhood a 'discount' store was doing very well? Wouldn't you analyze further? Delve deeper into details, before making a recommendation?

All you now need to do is - repeat the same process of 'analysis' for the b-school GD. When you do that, and you come up with a concrete analysis, you will know that you have sound reasons for initiating the GD. Else, you need to keep shut and wait for someone else to begin. With the analysis that you have already done, you can now add value to the discussion that has already started. Whether you speak for the motion, or against it, is hardly the point. "What are you speaking' is of crucial essence. Are you adding value to the discussion, do you have a logically built up argument, have you bothered to analyze the facts and figures before speaking? These are the things that the person on the other side of the table is looking for. Give him those things, and you will have given him a reason or two to select you!

( We will continue with this discussion, and take up the B-School Personal Interview, PI in the next post)