Life @ SPJ Dubai

[ketanm]

Originally Posted by capreal26

Am curiuos about the electives you guys will do. What exactly will be the focus. Coz generally in most B schools you specialise in a function not in an industry.
So, will it be like studying supply chain electives but with all focus on retail players, studying their specific HR issues, etc etc.

Moreover, are major big-box retailers already there in Dubai? What kind of roles does the retail industry offer to B Schoolers?

Would be great to hear your responses.

thanks
amit

Hi Amit,

I just took a look at the official website of S.P.Jain, Dubai, and found that essentially function wise there are only three specialization.

Finance -> Investment Banking + Wealth Management

Marketing -> Retail Management + Hospitality Management

IT -> IT Management

So definitely the Retail Management, content wise must be more or less should contain marketing related aspects. The site claims that

The RM program combines the disciplines of Business Management and Marketing.

Here are the list of courses as indicated on their web-site

Marketing Management
Core Curriculum and Credits

SEMESTER I CoursesCreditsBasic Arabic

1

Business Environment0.5Business Law0.5Business Strategy1Communications0.5Cost Management0.5Finance Management 1Financial Accounting0.5IT in Business1Marketing2Market Research0.5Micro Economics0.5Operations1People and Performance1.5Quantitative Methods1TOTAL CREDITS (Teaching)13Special Group Project
1.5Comprehensive Exam3TOTAL CREDITS
Core Curriculum17.5


SEMESTER 2

MARKETING

Foundation Courses
CreditsInternational Business0.5CRM1.0Service Management1.0Negotiations0.5TOTAL CREDITS (Foundation)3.0 Common Courses
CreditsSales and Distribution Management
1.0IMC0.5Brand Management1.0Supply Chain Management0.5Project Management0.5Franchising0.5TOTAL CREDITS (Common Courses)4.0 Super-specialization
Retail Management
CreditsIntroduction to Retail
0.5Retail Logistics and Warehousing0.5Retail Strategy and Formats0.5Retail Operations and Customer Service1.0Retail Buying and Merchandising1.0Category Management and ECR1.0Location Strategy and Mall Development0.5Retail Marketing Communication and Store Design0.5TOTAL CREDITS (Retail Management)5.5




Ofcourse, this is what their site claims, the reality has to come from current students only.

HTH
Ketan

[saurabhbansal]

Hi Ketan

I am specializing in RM (Retail Management) from SPJCM. You are right in your observation that RM more or less covers all the aspects of Marketing and business management. In fact, the positioning of this course in the market (both in India and Dubai) is that of specialization in Marketing and super specialization in Retail.
While the first sem covers all the common subjects like HRM, Marketing, Finance, Operations, Quantitative etc which all the managers are expected to know, the second semester gets more into the details of marketing with a stress on Retailing. There have been some changes in the course design this year keeping in view the requiements of the recruiters who look for RM guys. eg. last year there were a lot of IT and Banking companies who wanted RM graduates for their retail segments. Based on their suggestions, suitable changes have been made in the curriculum.
Also please do not relate RM only to shoping malls. There are a lot of other career options open like Retail Banking, FMCG and IT marketing.
Do ask any other doubts you have in mind !! All of us here will be more than happy to address ur queries...

cheers
saurabh

[pooja]

Originally Posted by ashish_u

Hi pooja,

I also have the same query about the profile that retail industrty offer to SPJCM.

Also will it be easy to come back to india after working for two year in DUBAI esp in retail industry and after doing MBA from SPJCM.

Regards

Ashish

Hi,

I have attached a mail below which I received from one of our senior. The mail will give you a fair idea about the kind of jobs offered and companies came for placements.
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1.There are kind of three positions which can be offered to retail students in specifically retail industry- buying and merchandising, store operations and logistics.

Many of our students have got buying positions where you have to and look for best deals, negotiate with companies, take information from sales team, etc.



2. Growth in retail is pretty fast, but that all depends on your performance as retail organisations are generally flat. As far as Dubai market is concerned, taking a general view of Dubai market, where many of my friends are working they say that growth is initially slow, say for 2-3 years then you kind of grow. But this not the case with all companies, there are some very good companies like Al-Futtaim, Spinney, etc.



3. Working in retail in Dubai will add weight age to your resume, if you want to go back to retail. But in marketing, I will say it's better to start career in India. There are people in retail who worked in Dubai for 7-8 years and then headed for India and are currently drawing salaries in the range of 1.5-2 lacs/month.



5. I do agree with you that few retail companies have come, but lot among the batch were aspiring for marketing companies, which they have got. As far as retail companies are concerned, few good names like Shoppers stop, Nayomi, Jumbo, Mckijaie, Landmark, Broadway, MMI have come and taken students. Talks are going on with employers like SHOPRITE, Metro, Al-Futtaim, M.H.Alshaya, etc who will come next year and look at the batch.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
hope it helps

pooja

[rahul_caty]

hi spjcm guys ,i have one big doubt regarding the dubai ,i have heard that there are disparities in salaries for ppl holding indian passport in dubai and they are looked sown second class citizen ,there is problem in promotion and problem in professional growth blah blah,may be i should not post here but i have heard many ppl saying this ,all this may be rumours or absurd facts or may be true to some extent ,i wan to know is there any truth in all this or they are jus rumours
.u ppl mus be having better idea.

waiting for response

[assignus]

Originally Posted by rahul_caty

hi spjcm guys ,i have one big doubt regarding the dubai ,i have heard that there are disparities in salaries for ppl holding indian passport in dubai and they are looked sown second class citizen ,there is problem in promotion and problem in professional growth blah blah,may be i should not post here but i have heard many ppl saying this ,all this may be rumours or absurd facts or may be true to some extent ,i wan to know is there any truth in all this or they are jus rumours
.u ppl mus be having better idea.

waiting for response

hi rahul, let me try to clarify this for u.
Dubai is a very complicated place. People from more than 50 nationalities work here, including the western countries.

Now a days most of the employers have started thinking this way "what is this person worth for us" and when calculating the worth, they calculate in the currency of your home country (sad but true). so they would pay an american 6000$ per month which translates to 20,000dirhams (UAE currency) and now take a indian national, they would pay him say 70,000rs, which translates to 6,000dirhams. Hope u got my point.

This may not be the case with all the employers, but there are quite a few companies which pay asians in dirhams and Westerns in $$.

and one more info, which may be useful to who want make their career in Dubai/ME, Indian/Asian owned companies, pay the least..

Nevertheless, this a very cool place (unlike the rest of the middleeast) with loads of oppurtunities and scope for growth. It has its Minuses as well, cost of living is shooting up day by day.

[rahul_caty]

right now im pursuing engg. in iit ,and almost every body around me is discouraging me not to go to dubai to study because of reasons posted above but seeing the starting placements and faculty profile ,more over it's a one year programme so i am really interseted in applying ,pllzzzzzzzzzzzzz guide me abt all these

[venky_83]

Originally Posted by rahul_caty

right now im pursuing engg. in iit ,and almost every body around me is discouraging me not to go to dubai to study because of reasons posted above but seeing the starting placements and faculty profile ,more over it's a one year programme so i am really interseted in applying ,pllzzzzzzzzzzzzz guide me abt all these

rahul .... since u r posting this msg today i guess u are a prospective student. I am doing the PGDM - Investment Banking here and let me tell you .... if you wanna learn and are interested in acquiring knowledge come here .. but let me warn you, you will not be able to party wildly and stuff like that ... this is rigorous in the sense that you wont have time to spend on other areas, plus the college and the hostel is a bit far from the city, so factor all this in before u decide on it and also if u cud let me kno a bit more abt u ... i wud b in a better position 2 let u kno..

[venky_83]

Originally Posted by DesiGuru

SPJ Dubai sounds like a great deal... Esp if getting a job in Dubai is almost a certainty... With such a heavy cost i am sure most would prefer to get a job there...
Also Dubai is getting bigger and bigger... Probably all the head quarters of top companies for the middle east might be shifted or already located there...
Can one of you describe the class profile as in Age, male-female ratio, backgrounds etc in little more detail and also the lowest CAT score etc acceptable... Is GMAT required?

Also how many resident UAE folks and any junta from other countries?

would love to know more...

K

depends on ur specialization dude ....

[venky_83]

Originally Posted by capreal26

SPJ Dubai Guys,

whats abt this specialisation in 'Retail'. What are the core subs like. What exactly is the focus. Can you shed some light. How different/overlapping is this from marketing/ops?

~ Amit (ISB Co '06)

ok Amit here is what they have done .... they split the marketing specialization into retail and hospitality as they are the ones who are in much demand here. Retail specialization basically is gonna deal with the aspects of retailing like supply chain management, mall management, real estate , etc .

I am not a retail guy so I guess it would be more appropriate if 666 answers ur query ..

[venky_83]

hey guys ,
We will soon have a fully working S P Jain Dubai blog up and running pretty soon.... will keep you guys updated.....

Venky