Monday, June 8, 2009

Meeting Omar Maktari


This morning I met a very interesting personality - Omar Maktari, son of Arabic and Finnish couple in Dubai. I planned to meet him for an hour or so but when the conversation began within no time it was time for lunch. Very passionate human being with strong interest in cars. Probably this is something which kept the conversation going between us for so long. Omar is the one who started the Brand Community for Ford Mustang in U.A.E. and fortunately is associated with Al Tayer Motors. We talked a lot about Brand Communities and the challenges which comes in way while creating them. Ford Mustang brand community in Dubai was a great example in every story he shared.

After a long time I met someone who shares the same passion about cars and bikes. It was really a thirst quenching conversation. Offcourse thanks to Murad Hussein for introducing both of us.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Hult International Business School

This post is for readers who are planning to do MBA and are considering Hult International Business School for a one year MBA program. From last few days I am recieving queries from prospective students who want to know about Hult IBS and the program. This post addresses most of the queries.

I am a current student at Hult IBS and having spent last 8 months I have come across good as well as not so good things at the school. I am putting light on few key things which will help you in deciding your MBA plans, specifically about Hult.

MBA Education:
Course syllabus at Hult IBS gives emphasis on honing general management skill but few areas of the one year program also concentrate on management consulting in specific. The course content can be compared with any Ivey League school and is inline with the standards followed by the best MBA program world over. The course sequence is designed to give complete insight of tools, techniques and frame works used to manage businesses. It starts with toolbox, which makes the starting trouble easy for few and then the 4 modules follows. Module A & B are done in your home campus and the last two modules (C & D) can be completed at any campus you choose (Boston, Dubai, London, Shanghai). During the one year program, for some, the approach towards a real life problem improves a lot.

Diversity:
Class of 2009 has student from 7 continents, 34 countries, and age ranging from 25 years to 52 years, 7 years of avg. work experience. Diversity is one of the important assets which Hult has got. This sounds really very cool, but reality is not so cool. Being in multi-cultural environment is not so easy. You need to do many sacrifices, understand what is acceptable and what is not. Different people from different cultures share things with each other and learn together. Taking maximum advantage is dependent on how adaptable and open the person is to other cultures. If you come to Hult, make-up your mind to get a cultural shock for the initial few days.

Life at Hult:
This is not the best place to live, rather this is one of the worst, stressful, challenging place to live. When people from different walks of life come this is bound to happen. There is no specific time to sleep, no specific time to eat. Lots of reading is required before the class and lot of team projects to be done. At Hult IBS, more focus is given on team projects and when the project is going on your sleeping, eating and everything is dependent on the team. If you are someone who don’t like to work in team then for you Hult will be hell.
Apart from studies there are many things which happen. Sports, weekend outings, weekend parties, etc etc…… there is a dedicated people in administration who will take care of all recreations.
Networking Events and Executive Speaker Series – Industry experts from variety of fields come to campus and share their experience, knowledge with the students. You will learn in this process and will get an opportunity to built network in the industry. This is my most favourite event at Hult and fortunately Career Services team organise this every week and some time more than that.

Faculty:
Hult has got some of the best brains in the industry. I don’t want to say much on this. You can visit Hult website <http://hult.edu/mba-program/our-program/faculty>, they have detailed it better. I just want to say – Be assured you will never get disappointed on this front.

Jobs and Placement:
Hult is a business school and not a placement agency. It is there to make students capable to get into the right job and not to spoon feed. Professor and career services team will guide the students and will facilitate in finding the right job. No spoon feeding at this stage.

FINAL VERDICT:

Amazing place to groom yourself, learn and grow. Not a very popular name if compared with Ivey League schools but a great place to know about different cultures and to learn that there is so much to learn. If you are doing MBA only for better job and more money than this is not the place. Join Hult only when you have zeal to learn and contribute to the development of your classmates because in MBA you learn from your Professors and you learn more from your classmates.

I tried to give a very unbiased picture of Hult which will help you in your decision making for MBA. If you have any further queries please leave your comment, I will try my best to give as much information as possible. Best of luck for your MBA admission.