PI PREPARATORY MATERIAL

[An ADCOM initiative]

IN ASSOCIATION WITH:

PI QUESTIONS
Below are some of the questions that have been asked in the past. We
suggest you to ponder over how you would go about tackling them. These
questions are not exhaustive and the actual questions asked may vary depending
on the panel. Some of these questions may be applicable to a select set of
participants only.

Know Yourself
1. Tell us something about yourself?
2. What does your name mean?
3. (If name is popular), you are named after a famous personality, what do
you know about him/her?
4. What are your strengths/ why should we select you/ what makes you
different from rest of the candidates?
5. Why should we not select you?
6. Tell us something about your family?
7. What do you do in your free time?
8. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
9. Questions on native city, state and places you have stayed or visited
10.What did you do in this gap of 6 months - 1 year before joining MDI?
11.Tell us something about yourself which is not in your CV?
12.Describe yourself in one word
13.How are you different from others?

Instances from your life

1. Narrate an incident where you showed leadership skills?
2. Did you face any situation where you were in some ethical dilemma in your
work life? If yes then what and how did you manage that situation?
3. Give an instance when you failed to achieve something?
4. Which is your greatest achievement and why?
5. Are you a team player? Describe an instance where you exhibited your skills

College life
1. Your performance seems to have consistently dropped. You did really well
in school but your graduation scores have reduced drastically. At this pace
you might not even manage to complete your MBA. Justify
2. Which were your favorite subjects? Follow up questions
3. What's the connection between your graduation and MBA? How would you
use your Btech/Comm/Science etc in MBA?

Work life
1. Tell us something about your work?
2. Your experience is close to 3.5 years. Why not opt for an executive MBA
and save both money and time?
3. Post MBA you might again land up to your present company then why the
hustle?
4. What is the one thing you hated about your previous company?
5. Have you bought about any revolution in your previous company?
6. Questions on quarterly results of your company
7. Who is the CEO, head of department etc.?
8. (If from TCS, Infy etc.) Another one from TCS..so many from TCS.. Tell me
why are we getting so many applicants from TCS?

MBA QUESTIONS
1.
2.
3.
4.

Why MBA?
Do you think MBA is required for a street smart person?
Why MDI?
You did your engineering in electronics/computer science, and then worked
in software industry and now you want to do MBA, you seem to be
confused. Justify?
5. What value addition would you bring to MDI?
6. Which specialization and why?
7. What other calls do you have and where does MDI rank in them? Why?

General Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

What is difference between information, knowledge and data?

What are the qualities of a good leader?
Which leaders have impressed you?
Which paper do you read? Who is the editor, publisher?
Pick any recent news topic and give us your opinion on the same.
Who is your role model and why?

FINANCE
What is Finance?
Finance is the science of managing money, i.e., how institutions generate and
manage their wealth. A degree in finance prepares future professionals to guide
corporations through uncertainties, short and long term planning. Finance majors
in various business firms evaluate their market positions, profitability and
economic policies that have implications for their businesses.

Why Finance?
Despite the increased prominence of other MBA specializations since the 2008
crisis, finance still remains to be a sought after major by many MBA students. Not
only has finance continued to be a core area, its significance as a part of MBA
program has been growing over the years. Moreover, its not purely the financial
services sector that employs MBA graduates well-versed in finance but
organizations outside of the sector also require leaders with an in-depth financial
know-how, and as the global economy evolves this need is growing more than
ever. Majoring in Finance involves learning about commercial and investment
banking, forecasting, budgeting, asset and liability management, stocks, bonds,
how markets function, portfolio management, risk management, etc. Hence it
would give an opportunity to enter into numerous career paths, some of which
are listed below.

Career Prospects:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Consumer Banking
Investment Banking
Institutional Finance
Merchant Banking
Corporate Finance
International Finance

Career Options:
Credit Analyst, Financial Analyst, Investment Banker, Loan Officer, Risk and
Insurance Managers, Investment Advisor, Financial Planner, Corporate
Controller, Trader, Treasury Officer, Management Consultant

Important topics for Interview preparation

Why Finance?
What are the different career options in Finance? You are interested in
which vertical of finance?
Questions related to GDP, GNP, Sub-prime crisis, rupee depreciation
Fiscal Deficit, Trade Deficit
FDI and FII and its implications in Indian economic structure
SENSEX and NIFTY
Capital markets and their structure
Differences between Debt and Equity market
Differences between stock market products like Bonds, Preference Shares
and Equity
Banking structure in India, RBI rules and regulations , BASEL Norms
Microfinance institutions in India and Financial Inclusion

RBI rates CRR, SLR, Repo Rate, Reverse Repo Rate

Beyond classes at MDI
Monetrix is the Finance Club of MDI; it exists to stimulate logical thinking and
spread awareness in the area of Finance and Economics, and to provide
opportunities to put theoretical foundations to practice. The vision of this club is
to help MDI students create an edge by demonstrating superior knowledge and
grasp of things. Each of the activity performed by the club is a step towards this
shared goal.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
What is Information Management?
Information Management is primarily concerned with the incorporation of
technology in business processes. This area deals with understanding the IT
requirements of an organization, optimize their processes in order to achieve
better efficiency. Information management focuses on areas like IT consulting,
Analytics, e-business, IT security, etc.

Important topics for Interview preparation

1) You are already in IT domain, then why MBA and get into IT again?
(Specifically for those coming from IT)
2) Social, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC framework)
3) IT project management, PERT and CPM techniques
4) SDLC, Waterfall model, Prototyping Model
5) Big data and its scope in current IT industry
6) Cloud computing and its current implementations
7) Knowledge about ERP, PaaS and SaaS

Beyond Classes at MDI

Classroom sessions and quizzes, though rigorous, can only take one so far in
knowledge in todays globally competitive world. To keep all information
management and on a larger scale, all technology enthusiasts on their toes, we
have ThinC - the Business Technology club of MDI. The club takes care of major
updates in the world of information management, data analytics and product
management. In this age of smart phones, smart-wears and smart everything,
ThinC acts as the point of contact in establishing and exploring links between
business and technology.

STRATEGY
What is Strategy?
Strategy is about solving real world business problems and devising new
strategies for the organization going forward. In this area business cases and
guesstimates are used to increase core thinking abilities.
The interviews in this domain are focused on guesstimates. For example, how
many people use Delhi metro between 7-9 AM at MG road Station. The real
numbers are not required in this case. They test critical thinking and innovative
thinking ability of in individual.

Important topics for interview preparation

1) Why do you want to specialize in Strategy? Any specific reasons?
2) Any question on guesstimates (Low probability of being asked but still a
basic approach can be read about)
3) Value Chain Analysis, Competitive Strategy
4) Current business affairs and strategies behind them
5) An example like, Google bought Motorola and then sold it in some time at
much lesser value. What could be the strategy behind this?

Beyond Classes at MDI

STRATEGIST helps people in recognizing and developing their key skills. Whether
you wish to specialize in finance or Marketing; or you want to be an
entrepreneur; one thing that you need to be is to be a STRATEGIST. Club
Strategist provides such an environment to all the fellow members. We seek to
retain, extend and leverage the interest of the students in the area of strategy
and act as a pillar of the strategic activities in the institute.
Being member of strategist, apart from core knowledge, one cultivates expertise
in event management, creativity, marketing of events, team building by being
with few of the brightest brains in the country.

MARKETING
What is Marketing?
It is an art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping and
growing customers through creating, offering and freely exchanging products and
services of value with others.

Marketing Vs Selling

Marketing

Sales

Profit Oriented

Sales volume oriented

Long Term Planning

Short Term Results

Emphasis on
Consumer Needs and
Wants

Emphasis on the
Product

Some Important Concepts

Needs, Wants and Demand
Need is state of felt deprivation for basic items such as food and clothing and
complex needs such as for belonging, i.e. I am hungry. Wants are a step ahead of
needs and are largely dependent on the needs of humans themselves. When an
individual wants something which is premium, but he also has the ability to buy it,
then these wants are converted to demands.
SEGMENTATION, TARGETING & POSITIONING
Segmentation is the process of identification of prospective buyer groups
(segments) that have common needs/tastes/wants and that might respond
similarly to a marketing ploy. Targeting is the actual selection of the segment you

want to serve and the target market is the group. Positioning is the use of
marketing to enable people to form a mental image of your product in the
consumer minds (relative to other products).
4Ps of Marketing

Beyond Classes at MDI

Marketing isnt taken up only during scheduled class hours or during last ditch
exam preparation but is talked, discussed and played with all through the
academic year. The dedicated marketing club Marquity, ensures regular updates
about all that happens in the marketing world, prepares stunningly objective infographics and holds regular competitions and quizzes to keep people abreast and
updated.
Many of you will be interested in this specialization and its time to gear up for
the process ahead. Having a basic understanding of the trending matters in the
world of marketing like conventional v/s digital marketing or inventory v/s
marketplace models in e-com will surely help. Good luck for the preparation and
we hope to see in this prestigious institution.

OPERATIONS
What is Operations Management
Operations Management deals with the design and management of products,
processes, services and supply chains. It considers the acquisition, development,
and utilization of resources that firms need to deliver the goods and services their
clients want. Representative strategic issues include determining the size and
location of manufacturing plants, deciding the structure of service or
telecommunications networks, and designing technology supply chains.

Production process
A production process is defined as a user of resources to transform inputs into
output. For a plant that manufactures tyres, raw material, labor and capital can
be inputs while the finished rubber tyre will be output. The steps through which
the raw material is converted into a finished good can be referred to as a process.

Bottleneck
A point of congestion in a system that occurs when workloads arrive at a given
point more quickly than that point can handle them. The inefficiencies brought
often create a queue and a longer overall cycle time. The primary objective of a
manager is to eliminate the bottleneck that exists in the process.

Inventory Management
Inventory management refers to when a firm strives to attain and uphold an
optimal inventory of goods while taking note of all orders, shipping and handling,
and other associated costs.

SCM
Supply chain management is the management of a network of all business
processes and activities involving procurement of raw materials, manufacturing
and distribution management of finished goods. SCM is also called the art of
management of providing the Right Product, At the Right Time, Right Place and at
the Right Cost to the Customer.

Planning & Forecasting

Planning is defined as The establishment of objectives, and the formulation,
evaluation and selection of the policies, strategies, tactics and action required to
achieve them. As an operations manager, material requirement planning or
demand estimation needs to be done on a regular basis.

JIT
Just in time is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on
investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs.

Lean Manufacturing
Lean Manufacturing is also called Just in Time (JIT). It is based on the principle of
doing more less inventory, fewer workers, less space. So, JIT and Lean
Manufacturing are used interchangeably.

VALUE CHAIN
A typical value chain consists of an interlinking of activities that convert inputs
into the desirable outputs into the desirable outputs

Importance of location on cost reduction of critical activities in the

value chain:
Normally there is a trade-off between cost reduction in the inbound and
outbound activities of the value chain. Location plays a major role in this context
as proximity to the supplier ensures lower inbound costs while proximity to the
end user or intermediaries ensures lower outbound costs.
The methods normally applied to select an appropriate site location are centre of
gravity method, load distance technique, Brown & Gibson model etc.

Important Topics for Interview Preparation

What are the Job Profiles offered in operations management if you seek to

it as your major
How is Operations Management different from Supply Chain Management
Challenges being faced in Manufacturing sector
What measures can be taken to reduce bottleneck problem
Various steps involved in value chain system
A brief information/Knowledge on Kanban, TQM and Kaizen

Beyond Classes at MDI

With regular classes, periodic exams and tons of presentations to give, time is of
precious value and managing and optimizing your operations surely does come in
handy. Step in, Opsession, the operations club at MDI. Since its inception in 2005,
it has become the unifying platform for the students interested in pursuing a
career in the field. The club has evolved from a nascent forum for idea sharing to
its current status as a representation of the growing interest in the Operations
field. We look forward to a strong and starry participation from the new batch as
well to continue this legacy.

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

What is HR Management?
HR is about maximizing the productivity and potential of the human assets of an
organization. HR is not there to police rules and policies. A thorough
understanding of the business is needed in order to strategically support and add
value to the organization.
HR was predominantly what we would describe as an administrative and
transactional utility. The transaction and administrative work of HR continues
today, but it is done differently through outsourcing and technology solutions.
Innovations have occurred in rewards, communication, training, recruiting,
succession planning and other HR practice areas. While each of these HR practice
areas innovated in terms of what and how it was done, they also were integrated
with each other to provide a consistent approach to HR. Currently, HR
professionals are responsible for assessing and improving talent, culture, and
leadership to accomplish the overall business strategy.

Sub Domains of HR
1) Recruitment The process of searching for prospective employees and
attracting them to apply for various jobs through internal and external
sources.
2) Selection It deals with identifying and hiring the right employees with a
high likelihood of success in the job.
3) Performance Management A continuous process of identifying,
measuring and developing the performance of individuals and teams and
aligning performance with the strategies adopted by the organization.
4) Compensation and Benefits A function that deals with designing and
implementing various compensation and benefits policies for employees.
5) Training and Development Identifying various learning and training needs
of the employees by monitoring performance and providing for the same.
6) Employee Engagement An emerging area in the HR domain which deals
with programs designed to motivate and engage the human capital which
leads to increased productivity and higher profitability.

7) Industrial Relations - Industry Relations (IR) is concerned with management

of relations between workers and employer (management) and the role of
regulatory mechanism in resolving any dispute.

Important Topics for Interview Preparation

What are the Job Profiles offered in HRM if you seek it as your major
Why do you wish to specialize in HR
Organizations or practices you know of or admire when HR is concerned
Beyond classes at MDI
The HR club at Management Development Institute, Gurgaon was launched in
2005. The club has been christened "HR Direction @ MDI". In keeping with the
spirit of the name, HR Direction conducts regular industry sessions; organizes
competitions for management students across the country.
The members of the club invite corporate heads in HR, as well as leading
academics to help students gain insights into the latest developments of HR. HR
Direction also facilitates live projects, works on increasing corporate interactions
and facilitating brain-storming on current issues in the area of Human Resources.
Some of the live projects brought were from Government of India, KPMG, Tata
Steel, Tata Consultancy Services, Neo Educators, Essar, RJ Corp, Kite training
solutions, Luxury Hues Consultancy Services, to name a few.

A GDPI Primer by
MDI Admissions Committee
Corporate Communications
MDI Gurgaon
https://www.facebook.com/mdigurgaon
(This is a student driven initiative. The information in this document is not exhaustive and
should be used only as a reference. )