MBA From IIMA Offers More Value Than Harvard, Wharton: Report 11-10

MBA From IIMA Offers More Value Than Harvard, Wharton: Report

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The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) has been ranked the best business school (B-school) in the country year after year for many years. It has been one of the few Indian educational institutions to have found a mention in the global pecking order as well.

Now, a new ranking published by the Economist magazine has placed IIMA much ahead of its Ivy League competitors such as Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg and Wharton. In fact, IIMA is the world's fourth best B-school, when it comes to "Good value MBAs," the Economist says.

The Economist's ranking is based on the return on investment on MBA courses. In simpler terms, it means an MBA course from IIMA offers more bang for your buck.

According to the Economist, the return on investment on an MBA course from IIMA (a year after the course) is 44 per cent as compared to 15 per cent for Harvard, 14 per cent for Stanford and 10 per cent for Kellogg. The immediate return on investment on an MBA course from Wharton is just 6 per cent, the magazine says.

So, the investment on an MBA course from IIMA can be recouped in just over two years, while investments on MBA courses done from Harvard or Stanford will take much longer to recoup.

Only three other B-schools, HEC Paris (67 per cent), Aston (64 per cent) and University of Hong Kong (60 per cent) offer better value MBA courses to students, the Economist has found.

American B-schools are the most expensive and they enroll well-paid executives, who land jobs just a few notches above the ones they left, the magazine says. As a result, the immediate return on such MBA courses is small.

On the other hand, IIMA admits even graduates and charges comparatively less fees, boosting the return on investment post the course.

In the long run, however, a Wharton alumnus is more likely to top the greasy pole, the magazine says.

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8 Tips to Get More From Your Investors and Board 07-28

8 Tips to Get More From Your Investors and Board

If you don't ask, you won't get, says Mark Suster.

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Rob Bailey is the CEO of Data Sift. He wrote a post this long weekend on how he manages the board of Data Sift.

More importantly if you don't know Data Sift but have the need to process real-time social data or historic data it's worth checking them out. It's valuable to any business for marketing, customer research, product development, market analysis, etc.

In his post, Rob asserts, "You get the VCs you deserve" and the corollary, "You get the performance out of your board that you deserve."

His argument is as follows:

• Spend time building investor relationship long before you raise money. 
• By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them.
• Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them.
• Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior.

What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Rob is one of the most driven and successful CEOs I work with.

In his tenure as CEO of DataSift, we have never missed a monthly revenue figure. He has grown our US operations from one employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90 plus percent recurring) and more than 350 percent year-over-year growth.

Growth like this, this early in a company's lifecycle rarely happens.

In this period (less than two years), he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs in sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, VP engineering and more. In his spare time, he raised nearly $30 million.

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder and CTO--Nick Halstead--and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Oh, and did I mention--Rob is in SF and Nick is in the UK. Rob has taken more than 15 trips to England and Nick even more to the US. It is really working.

I point this out partly out of pride. Partly out of the fact that in one week I depart for England to speak at LeWeb, attend our DataSift board meeting and generally make myself available to the DataSift team to meet their customers, partners and employees.

But mostly as I read Rob's post, I didn't think it did justice to the superlative job he has done at managing his rather boisterous board.

It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder--Nick Halstead, a wallflower--yours truly, quiet-as-a-mouse Roger Ehrenberg of IA Ventures, true-to-his-heritage Rory O’Driscoll from Scale Ventures, and then there is the one true gentleman of the bunch--Chris Smart, who is non-exec chairman. In addition to helping manage the board, Chris also helps represent the interests of the angel investors / common stock holders.

Oh, and did I mention:

Roger is in NYC. Rob and Rory are in NorCal. Nick and Chris are in London. And I am in Los Angeles. That in itself is quite a challenge.

So what are Rob's secret hacks that he didn't spill in his blog post? 

Here is what I imagine Rob would say were his most effective tools. Sincerely, he is better at managing his board than any exec I have worked with.

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