During the initial years, an MBA in sales and marketing generally spends time in research and generates lists of potential customers, provides input on customer briefs, prepares presentations and sales literature, says Dr Ramakrishnan Raman
An MBA degree from a premier Indian B School can give several lucrative opportunities to earn. Many might have this question in their mind, ‘What exactly do MBA graduates do at work after business school?’. This largely depends on the area of specialisation that they choose and the organisation that they join. Some organisations ensure that the MBA graduates have an experience in all functional areas.
They make them have a short stint in marketing, finance, operations human resources and even in International Business. There are others who make them take executive assistant roles, and make them get the experience of working with the top leadership of the organisation. There are others who make them work in core functional areas of business. The initial period of six months goes in understanding the culture of the company along with the organisational politics.
During the initial years an MBA in sales and marketing generally spend time in research and generate lists of potential customers, provide input on customer briefs, prepare presentations and sales literature. They also help to develop client relationships and retain existing accounts. They assist in evaluating new clients and maintain records. They also work with experienced sales and marketing professionals, attend meetings, and participate in other networking activities. An MBA Finance helps in assisting the process of developing and reviewing budgets.
They also provide accurate cash -flow projections to the finance division. They work on the monthly budget and work closely with experienced finance executives in decision making. They help in general ledger management, reconciliation of balance sheets; follow up with various internal stakeholders; prepare monthly schedules for specific accounts and support in the monthly book closing process for expense accrual and accounting adjustments, and also manage prepaid expenses. Some organisations make the MBA finance graduates prepare statutory financials, make notes to accounts and schedules; coordinate external and internal audits; answer audit queries. They also make them support the accounting manager/finance director on expenses and balance sheet analysis, compliance with internal controls and complying with internal controls for accounting functions.
An MBA Operations person is expected to have a customer — focused, ‘service first’ mentality. He /she is expected to assimilate data rapidly and create timely resolutions and solutions to all levels of stakeholders. He/she is expected to be proactive in assessing the processes & procedures and evaluate room for enhancement.
An MBA in operations is expected to have the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment as well as working under pressure, especially when they are in a client facing operation roles. An MBA specialised in human resources (HR) works alongside the HR Business Partner and HR Operations teams as well as the local Management team to provide generalist HR support to the business. An HR Generalist works alongside the HR Centres of Excellence and is responsible for the management and administration of employees through the entire employee life cycle including onboarding, HR Programme support, offboarding among others.
Irrespective of the specialisation MBA graduates are expected to create and present impressive presentations to the internal and external customers of the organisation. They are also expected to be good in using software and data management tools, which can help their reporting managers in better decision making.
The writer is Director — Symbiosis Institute of Business Management (SIBM) — Pune & Dean — Faculty of Management — Symbiosis International (Deemed University)
