Career with MBA

A career in management is an extremely rewarding one – both in financial terms as well as in quality of work/responsibilities. With opportunities ranging from top MNCs, domestic firms, small business and mushrooming start-ups, an MBA is essential for faster career growth, better financial rewards and quality of work.

After pursuing an MBA a candidate can pursue a career in the following domains:

1. Management Consulting

One of the most glamorous and attractive roles after an MBA is that of management consulting. Firms such as McKinsey & Co, BCG, Bain and Company, Ernst and Young, KPMG, PwC etc. consult companies of all sizes and contexts in various problems that include corporate strategy, new market entry, enhancing revenue/profitability, Mergers and Acquisitions etc. An MBA can perform various roles here ranging from research, due-diligence, consultant, associate, manager or partner. Considered extremely competitive, management consultants need to be smart, confident, eloquent, ruthless and willing to work really long hours to survive the rigours of this industry.

2. Finance

The goal of any business is to make money, and professionals are no different! Working in the field of commerce and management, a career in finance is probably the most rewarding one. While the finance function is key in any organization, the BFSI sector (Banking, Financial Services and Insurance) has many kinds on roles that an MBA can vie for depending on the skill-sets that he/she possesses.

1. Commercial Banks offer a range of financial services such as Current Accounts/Savings Accounts, Credit cards, Loans and Insurance. Professionals can work either in branch roles or corporate roles.
2. Investment Banking, one of the most glamorous career options, deals with issuing securities, trading on the secondary market and advisory services to both corporate and HNIs. Professionals in this field typically sit on various desks which include trading, M&A, derivatives etc.
3. Corporate Finance roles are offered in companies of all sizes and involve the raising as well as managing a company’s finances and aim at maximizing value while limiting the associated financial risk. Positions here include Treasury, Financial analysts and audit roles.
4. Hedge funds are private investment funds that are involved in the buying and selling of a wide array of assets and financial products. The roles on offer are quite similar to those in investment banks and include Securities Trader, Financial & Quantitative Analyst, Portfolio Manager etc.
5. Venture Capital Firms and Private Equity firms help businesses in raising capital for their operational and expansion needs, besides managing buyouts and M&A opportunities. The typical roles here also include Corporate finance, Financial Analyst, Securities Trading and M&A.

3. Sales and Marketing

Any sustainable business is built on the fundamental premise of being able to create products & services of value to its targeted consumers, and extracting the maximum value from the same. Thus, the sales and marketing function is one of the most important ones in any organization and is pivotal to the company’s growth and sustainability. Quite rightly, a sales and marketing professional

The various roles on offer in this domain include:

1. Sales Managers are typically operate like business owners in their limited geography, needing to keep a close track of the value of goods/services sold, plan and optimize the associated costs, manage logistics and inventory to ensure availability, plan budgets and adhere to those etc.
2. Sales Activation roles focus on BTL (below-the-line) activities for companies and manage the complexities involved in ensuring that promotional activities are flawlessly executed with the desired reach and appeal. The associated activities include mall & store activation, in-store promotions, new product launches, consumer sampling, sponsored events etc.
3. Brand Managers focus their energies on creating and managing the key elements of the marketing mix i.e. Product, Price, Place and Promotions. A brand manager tracks the pulse of the market, segments the consumers into various types, understands the positioning of the key offerings (both company and competition), creates and modifies the targeting strategy, constantly updates product features & packaging to maximize appeal, manages the production and logistics function, and plans and manages the execution of both ATL and BTL activities to ensure greater market share and profits.
4. Modern Trade management roles are becoming ever-relevant in today’s evolving market dynamics. With traditional mom-and-pop stores being replaced by supermarkets, hyper-markets and other large formats, there is a real need for managers to understand the inherent complexities that this channel presents. The role hence includes sku management, managing inventory across stores, ensuring availability as well as in-store visibility, store promotions etc.
5. Advertising professionals usually function as clients to their brand manager counterparts. With a more creative bent, advertising professionals focus on crafting clear communication strategies to meet the brand’s objective of branding, awareness and appeal. They plan and execute campaigns that span across the various available media that include Television, Print, Radio, Social Media etc.
6. Business Development roles are common in all sorts of companies ranging from small businesses, start-ups and large B2B as well as B2C businesses. The primary task is to engage with the target customers, add new accounts, manage existing accounts and increase the overall awareness of the brand amongst the target audience.
7. Digital Marketing roles are increasingly become critical for an organization’s customer reach and brand awareness strategy. Even if not an exclusive role, most companies employ people and resources towards having a strong and coherent digital footprint, interact and engage with customers and the target audience online, create impactful digital and social media campaigns to achieve desired brand objectives etc.

4. Human Resources

No business can be sustainable without managing its most critical resource i.e. its manpower. The HR function typically deals with recruitments, training and development, regular employee feedback, assessments and incentives, while also ensuring a safe and secure workplace environment. While the HR function is typically empowered in manufacturing and production related domains, recruitment & training/assessment firms are holding their own as well in today’s rapidly growing economy. Recent trends also indicate the use of social media and data analytics to aid/empower the HR function in an unprecedented manner.

5. Supply Chain and Logistics

With the advent of modern retail and burgeoning e-Commerce, the role of supply chain and logistics is taking an ever increasing importance in today’s world. A manager here needs to track the product at each step right from the time of manufacture till it reaches the hands of the consumer. Thus, it includes managing the raw-material inventory, planning production and warehousing, vendor management, dealing with logistics partners, keeping a real-time track of product movement and optimizing throughput etc.

6. IT Manager

With the second inflection point in IT now behind us, the keywords in today’s increasingly technology-driven world are SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud). With the era of Business Process Outsourcing now behind us, most IT firms are looking to move up the value chain and offer value-added products and services in sync with the technological needs of the day. Such IT firms usually hire MBAs with IT experience, sometimes in a lower-level management position, and definitely with the skills to manage and deal with teams of executives.