In a short while, HRD and personnel people from large companies and foreign multinationals will be vending their way to the campuses of management colleges for campus placements. And in a couple of months, another batch of trained management graduates will have crossed over from studenthood to the fast-paced rat race of executivedom.

Even though the hype of a management degree has cooled down, there are still thousands of hopefuls who spend an enormous amount of time, much money and many anxious nights trying to get into a good management school. This is because management as a career is still one of the top five most sought after careers for most ambitious youth.

With the steady growth of multinational competitors, the business community whether Indian or foreign, has recognised the urgent need for systematic and efficient management practices. Not only is this happening in the organised sectors of commerce and industry, but in traditionally non-organised areas such as agriculture and handicrafts as well, and in non-commercial establishments, too, such as welfare, health, and development.

This has opened up limitless opportunities for both men and women, in diverse spheres with the promise of adequate rewards in the form of good remuneration, status and scope for professional and personal growth. In fact, in this achievement-oriented profession, women are doing exceedingly well and are coming into greater demand with their inherent inter-personal skills.

Broadly, there are five functional areas of work for professional managers, and most students try to specialise in one of them. These areas are personnel or human resource development, finance, production, marketing and information services. While marketing was traditionally the most sought after specialisation, with the entry of foreign financial companies and their large salary offers, the last couple of years saw most management students focussing on finance. However, offers in the financial sector have plummeted, and so marketing is back as the favourite.

The function of human resources is to make the most effective use of an organisation's human resources -- its people. This means handling recruitment, placement, training, as also staff welfare and industrial relations.

Finance is responsible for the organisation's financial health and handles budgets, executes financial programmes and conducts profitability appraisals.

Production is a vast area that directs, coordinates and controls the operational aspect of an organisation, and the efficient utilisation of men, machines and materials. It is the process by which the physical output of the organisation is planned. Depending on the scope of operations of an organisation, production can also include the planning, purchase and control of materials used, and the maintenance and running of equipment.

The marketing department directs the flow of goods and services from the producer to the end user, and marketing involves the planning of strategy to deliver goods and services efficiently and at the least cost to the customer.

Management information service is gaining in importance as it involves the collection, processing and dissemination of information of significance to the efficiency of an organisation.

As each of these areas is today a major career option, we will examine some of these specialisations in more detail over the following weeks. But this week we will look at the broad spectrum of activity encompassed in the term, Business Management.

The purpose of Management is to make the best use of available resources, human, physical and monetary in order to achieve a given objective. The work of business management professionals covers practically all areas of work. They can, however, work and specialise in several functional areas. These could be in the areas of International Management, dealing with international trade and business, technology transfer; public service management, which includes management of public enterprises, non-governmental organisations and co-operatives; hospital management, responsible for the efficient running of hospitals; hotel management, concentrates on all aspects of hotel administration; technology management, which specialises in all aspects of technology including policy, financing and marketing; rural management concerned with management of rural resources, environment producers and so on.

The best way of gaining entry into the hallowed portals of a management job is obtaining the right training and qualifications. Companies today recruit business graduates who hold an MBA qualification as they have the necessary training for the job ahead of them. However, the great demand for MBA degrees/ diplomats has spawned a mushrooming of business schools around the country. It is advisable to find out all about an institution, the courses it conducts, and its faculty before enrolling.

At the top of the ladder are the national institutions like the Indian Institutes of Management now in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore and Cochin, which are autonomous institutions reputed within the country and abroad. There are also several private academic institutions such as the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, at Jamshedpur, Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Bombay, with high technical standards and excellent results. Most universities now also offer Business Management studies at the under-graduate and post-graduate level, and there are hundreds of other institutes for part-time and even correspondence courses in management.

Most good Business Management schools offer admission through the process of an entrance examination called the CAT or Common Admission Test held in December each year. Other institutions are covered by another entrance exam called MAT or the Management Admission Test. Both these exams gauge verbal and problem solving abilities, comprehension and data interpretation. There are several coaching schools in every city that prepare students for these tests.

Those who have cleared the test are called by one or more institutions they have applied to, to participate in a group discussion, where they are observed on their ability to handle a discussion, leadership qualities and so on. In the final stage of selection, the candidate is called for an interview by a panel of faculty members to assess the candidate's personality and ability to handle a management job.

An under-graduate Business Management programme is for three years while the post-graduate course is of two years' duration. Normally the two-year MBA programme includes a period of hands-on-training in a commercial organisation for a period of about two months.

With the increasing demand for trained professional managerial executives, most companies and recruiting organisations visit the campuses of business management colleges, as most of them have initiated career placement schemes for the benefit of graduating alumni. MBA graduates can find placements with industrial and manufacturing companies, business houses or corporations, export or trading companies, marketing organisations, financial concerns, banks, public sector enterprises, multinational corporations and international agencies. Over the last few years, there has been an increasing demand for MBAs in financial companies with extremely high salaries. However, as financial institutions have cut back on their recruitment, the traditional areas for a majority of MBAs are still marketing and multinational companies.

Attractive as it may sound, not everyone is cut out for the stress and rigours of a business management career. It requires above average intelligence, analytical abilities, business acumen, entrepreneurial competence, leadership qualities, inter-personal skills, great resilience and stamina.

The growth of business and industry has generated a great demand for business managers who can now command starting salaries ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 5 lakh per annum. Those with additional degrees or qualifications such as engineering or chartered accountancy are certainly at an advantage.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.