Should youth, especially MBAs enter politics to run the country better?

What fascinates you more - a white collared job with a company or following the unconventional path of politics to be the pole bearer of change and lead the country to reach its maximum potential?

India's portfolio of MBA politicians include Mr Chidambaram, current Union Minister of Finance who is alumnus of Harvard Business School in the class of 1968. Jyotiraditya Madhavrao Scindia, the Union Minister of State for the Ministry of Power has an M.B.A from Stanford University, U.S.A. Sachin Pilot, the 36-year-old minister of state for Corporate Affairs, studied for an MBA at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, and Jitin Prasada, the minister of state of Human Resource Development and Defence is an MBA alumnus from IMI, Delhi.

The talent crunch in the political class is seen as the single-largest spoiler in an aspirational India, the missing glue that could have held together better , the goals of high growth and an equitable spread of wealth. Only 0.05% of the cabinet ministers hold an MBA degree. Suprisingly, a low figure, considering 3,00,000+ MBA graduates that pass out every year in India alone. The statistics look disappointing for an MBA graduate aspiring to enter politics to better run the country.

Let us look at what goes on in becoming a politician. Politics is a full time job that requires a lot of time, energy, money to run the system smoothly. To be elected, candidates have to spend a lot of money just to reach the voters and then to convince them to vote, they have to compete with the heavy weights not only in terms of delivering their promises but also woo voters for their support by entailing sops. Also, the risk associated with politics is very high considering that one can never be sure of the end result despite the efforts.

Politics is also not considered an honourable career because of its susceptibility to corruption. MBA graduates in particular enter b-schools to earn a hefty salary and be associated with reputed companies. Also, politics does not guarantee a safe career option. The job satisfaction that politics give is way greater over selling soaps any day provided the pay package is competitive and the workplace is professional. Both of which a political career cannot guarantee!

Other interesting profiles to get in to politics for an MBA graduate are as political advisors. For instance, Congress Party MP Rahul Gandhi's back-room team is headed by Wharton product Kanishka Singh, who quit Wall Street investment bank Lazard to plunge into politics. Sachin Rao is a Michigan business school graduate in corporate strategy and international business. He co-ordinates affairs of IYC and NSUI. His is inducting panchayati raj institution representatives into the party fold.

The opinion is divided about the effectiveness and usefulness of an MBA degree for a politician. They are few who suggest that an MBA curriculum prepares an individual to be comfortable in the unknown and unpredictable situations which is always the case in politics. The concepts of management such as finance and marketing,would help a candidate to track the trend of government borrowing and create effective marketing campaigns for the political party to attract voters by understanding them and positioning the party as a brand for the people.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, is a prime example of how an MBA degree has helped a politician deliver. The Stanford University MBA (Class of 2001), as Minister of State for Information Technology and Posts in the UPA-I government, was the architect of the award-winning Project Arrow that sought to modernise the Department of Posts. He roped in management consultancy McKinsey & Co. and ad firm Ogilvy & Mather for a corporate-like overhaul and branding of India Post. The result of his efforts has been speedier deliveries, a better customer experience, and fewer failed deliveries (down to decimal figures) in the 500 post offices covered in the first phase of the project. A replica of Project Arrow is being implemented in South Africa under the same name.

But if you look at the flip side, an MBA restricts individual thoughts in terms of frameworks and encourages decision making in terms of ROI and cost-benefit analysis. George Bush's Harvard Business School alumnus performance as the US's First MBA President is considered below average as he led the country to the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression and also a messy war with Iran that cost USA a lot of lives and resources.

For an MBA graduate to be a successful politician, one needs to forget the airs of having an MBA degree from a prestigious b-school. Politics requires people who are extremely open, thick skinned, and are ready to take on challenges. Most important of all, one needs to be completely clear whether one wants to join for the perks or believes in the ideology behind becoming a politician and doing good for the society.

American Express:Don’t Leave home without it

 In the competitive financial services world where every banker is vying for the new customers with their superiority in features, this company managed to stay ahead of the competition by positioning itself as a status symbol. I’m sure not many of us are really aware of the brand story of American Express. American Express aka Amex is an American multinational financial services corporation .Amex cards account for approximately 24% of the total dollar volume of credit card transactions in the US. BusinessWeek and Interbrand ranked American Express as the 22nd most valuable brand in the world, estimating the brand to be worth US$14.97 billion. Quite a feat compared to its competitors, Master card ranked at 97 & Visa ranked at 74

As all famous companies do, American Express has its own unique history. It began its life as an express freight company under the slogan safety & dispatch with a bulldog logo. Sometime between 1888 and 1890, J. C. Fargo took a trip to Europe and returned frustrated and infuriated. Despite the fact that he was president of American Express and that he carried with him traditional letters of credit, he found it difficult to obtain cash anywhere except in major cities. Fargo went to Marcellus Flemming Berry and asked him to create a better solution than the traditional letter of credit. Berry introduced the American Express Traveler's Cheque which was launched in 1891 in denominations of $10, $20, $50, and $10.The company grew its reputation as being reliable & trusted by helping US citizens continue to cash their traveller cheques despite troubled times like World War-II & Great Depression

American express is mainly in to two businesses: financial services, Travel. Interestingly, in 1994 American Express spun off its investment banking and institutional businesses as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc which after almost fifteen years of independence would file for bankruptcy protection in 2008 in the late 2000 financial crisis. In recent news, American Express Co (AXP.N), squeezed by tighter corporate travel budgets, is in plans to sell half of its business travel division close in the second quarter of 2014 for up to $1 billion to an investor group led by Certares International Bank LLC

The strength of Amex lies in the fact that American Express uses a spend-centric approach, or as I like to refer to it, a people-centric approach. The theory is this: If a company charges lower fees, provides very lucrative offers, and generally provides a great customer experience, you'll have a card that people -- particularly higher-income groups would want to use and it therefore provides leverage over merchants.On the opposite end of the spectrum is MasterCard and Visa use a lend-based approach . By keeping merchant fees lower and flooding the system with cards, they've ended up with a card that is accepted by a vast number of merchants and is therefore a card people almost have to carry.

American express has broken through the clutter by differentiating from just a credit card company to a friend/ advisor for its consumers to manage their financials. For instance for its key market segment small businesses, it provides a virtual space for small business owners to make connections and share insights, American Express Open Works provides small businesses with the knowledge they need to power their own success. By promoting events like Small Business Saturday, American express through its various gestures and offerings shows that it is committed to supporting the small businesses

The brand name that it has built in the minds of its consumers is also through its unique advertising campaigns. The successful ad campaign featuring Oscar-award-winning actor Karl Malden gets the point across that "it could happen to you, so don’t leave home without them" promoted the American express’ travel cheques. An interesting anecdote about American express credit card ads is the sample American Express Card featured with the name "C F Frost" on the front. This is not a fabricated name, as Charles F. Frost was an advertising executive from Ogilvy & Mather. The recent ad campaigns feature famous American Card members  talking about their lives with the tag line "My life, my card". The emmy award winning black-and-white ad entitled "Animals" starring Ellen DeGeneres is worth a watch!

American Express was one of the earliest users of cause marketing, to great success. American Express conducted a four-year Charge against Hunger program, which generated approximately $22 million for a charity addressing poverty and hunger relief. It also generated approximately a 28% increase in American Express card usage by consumers.

With ubiquity of smart phones,high speed internet available everywhere,consumers have shifted to digital mediums to shop .American Express aims to transform beyond a company that mainly lends to consumers via credit cards in to major player in e-commerce  by pushing new ways for customers to use its cards on mobile devices and online.Lets hope American Express pioneers the way for  plastic free future!
           

 FYK

Just in case you were as curious as I was regarding how interbrand comes to its rankings about brand value.Well they take three parameters in to account:

1)Financial Strength:this is basically the economic profit a brand makes on its products & services. Economic profit is the after-tax operating profit of the brand, minus a charge for the capital used to generate the brand’s revenues and margins 2)Role of a brand:It measures the portion of purchase decision that is attributable to the brand apart from features like usability, convenience, technology superiority etc. The Role of Brand Index (RBI) quantifies this as a percentage

3)Brand strength defines the ability of the brand to create loyalty and generate demand. This depends on 10 factors such as clarity, commitment, responsiveness, protection. Also external factors like authenticity, relevance, consistency, presence, differentiation, understanding