however unbelievable it might sound, I might also be able to drop in, with Deepti & Shameek... if the timing of meet is right.. landing at Mum on penultimate weekend & then rolling off to Goa for some important last week work.. So, will def add to the numbers if dates are good & schedule doesnt get kicked around... Else, please provide a 1 800 number for others to dial in to the meeting.

what say mumbai folks

But we are absolutely doing that. In our current process, every IIM is being compared to every IIM and every school out there. So why should one redo the process again? Wouldn't it be redundant?

What I meant was the current methodology assumes that perception ratings are uniformly spread across 76 institutes, whereas they are not. for eg, if perception could vary on a scale of 1-10 then imo when you look at the distribution of scores from Rank 1 to Rank 76 it could look something like as follows -

9.92 , 9.85, 9.84, 9.83, 9.81, 9.75, 9.73, 9.70, ......, 8.60, 8.55, 8.50, 8.45, 8.40,.... 6.5, 6.4, 6.3 .... 3.4, 3.1, 2.9

So, my hypothesis is - scores would be tightly packed in the top 15-20. But the current survey compares each college against each other college same number of times (which is once in 1 round of polling). So, if we think that the above hypothesis is true, we should have more number of comparisons of colleges amongst themselves in top quartile.

Now that I think about it, you actually dont need a different set of polling. Looks like we already have many respondents. Which means that we would have say 20 rounds of polling (1400 odd respondents). What can be done is take the results of first 10 rounds. Score colleges according to that. Then take the remaining 10 rounds & only use the answers of questions which compare colleges in top 15-20 out of 76. For the second 10 rounds, discard the responses which compare colleges in top 15-20 to 20+. Essence being that you dont need 20 rounds to separate rank 4 from rank 40 but you cerainly need 20 rounds to separate rank 4 from rank 5.

What say.

pagalguy Says

This would be just the begining and the insights might stun people. We are seeing major trends and also we are now getting to see first hand the elasticity between different schools which is something no one could have measured before ;)

Whoa, elasticity between schools.. looks like microeconomics lectures @W are kicking in big time

if the meet is done, can you pls post a few pics. Plus Perception/(half) reality post the meet. I remember that used to be a fashion for Hyd PG meets back in old days.

Just filled up the survey.. first up.. this is one helluva positive application of wisdom of the PG crowds. Team behind this concept & execution deserves an applause even before the results are out. . Now lemme come to the usual part, viz easy - critical analysis
I read through the methodology of rankings & hopefully understood it. Its a simple elimination round ranking, so to say where the one who emerges on the top has to be checked in all of its questions & so on.. Also, read Apruv's post on the reasons behind not going with the data based ranking methodology. Agree with that too.

One thing this will conclusively do is - layout the rankings based on perceptions. So, if another one of India's best selling business magazine comes out with a ranking which shocks 95% of readers, we know where to go.

But the fact that those perceptions are also based on a long history of half truths which have been fed to the responders by the so called mainstream media, network of friends & other sources of info. & We can reasonably assume that there would be no one of the list of responders who would have even basic information about all of the colleges listed there. So, when you are asking me to pick a XYZ based in Nagpur with ABC based in Coimbatore, my responses are near random and can change the next time I take the survey. So, how do you plan to factor for this error. Thats a separate discussion.

Second thing - which is more of an idea to expand the same survey -once you have the initial results (which is your ranking of 1-70), is it possible to break this up into 2 (or maybe 3) buckets of say 1-20 & 21-70 and run the process again. .
Twofold reasoning for this -

1. Most of the money is in the outliers, i.e. its the top 20 list which will be the object of interest. I dont think it matters much whether I come 44th or 56th.
2. While its always an easy answer when you compare a top institute to an unknown insti, the real perceptions will be uncovered when you are asked to compare IIM X v/s IIM Y.

btw, this means the above is a separate survey which should not be taken by the people who have already taken the first one.

ideas/abuses ?

Am sure all these things would be under consideration from the team behind the project, but since I am at it, lemme go the whole hog.

What about breaking the perceptions down by areas mentioned by Apurv. So, questions would be like - which of these schools do you think rates higher on Infrastructure? or which school's faculty do you think rocks more? So, your end results are in the form of rankings on multiple areas. All still based on perceptions but much more detailed. & should be more fun I guess.

& finally, after the team succeeds on perception based results, it should be time to get into preferences. Which is when the whole structure & objectives of the game would change. Broadly speaking, the objectives of uncovering the B Schooling preferences of Indian crowd would be to rank various parameters (some of the ones listed by Apurv) in the order of importance.

If you ask anyone where do they want to do their MBA, am sure anybody would say a B School which has the average salary of 150K USD, has the fee structure of FMS, is based in downtown Manhattan, gets its faculty from H/S/W/top 10, has the best pub on campus, has the infrastructure of ISB (), is an hours drive from their home, has a 50-50 male-female ratio & yes, btw, doesnt focus much on grades. But I dont think we have a school like this as yet. Long story short - you cant have the world. So, what are the preferences (which are completely different from perceptions - currently being measured) of Indian crowd. Do you want maximum number of IB jobs or a support system to start your company on campus, etc etc. That I am sure can be the point of arrival of this initiative.

Then if we can tackle the problem of unreliable data, guess what, we can actually match the preferences to the best school available in Indian market for various sets of people. Dont I sound like an MBA myself.

so, ppl what do ya think. am hooked on to this for more action hopefully.

well, i looked up the Nestle website for their new launches.. looks like the Funshakes are targeted at young kids rather than teens. & the idea is to cash on to the flavoured milk drinking trend (& if its already not a trend in homes with young kids, then hoping that it will soon be). given this additional context, would now change my reponse for FunShakes category from 'No' to can't say.

consider me in guys.. so what are the special priveleges of this group membership? Air Miles?

Interesting Marketing case Jas_maverick... as someone said .. such a problem would require a full fledged research & analysis of the brand/category & its consumers. But we dont have anything to lose (atleast from the comfort of my sofa here). So, lemme take a wild shot at it..

One angle to think about brand extension of Milkmaid is - who are the actual buyers the traditional Milkmaid product in India thus far - Moms. Right? Or people who shop for groceries - family members. Given the traditional brand positioning of Milkmaid - which is taste, healthy, dairy product - to be used for making desserts for the entire family, extending the brand to Flavoured Yogurts is a reasonable idea. Becase fruit flavoured yogurt is something which you consume before/after a meal in India (as a snack or as a dessert itself sometimes). So, the Moms would feel comfortable in buying a Milkmaid branded yogurt for their family. However, there is a strong challenger in this category - which is Amul. & thats why I said, it requires much more exhaustive thinking than I can do after a junk dinner now.

As for Fun Shakes - I think its a clear No. Given the customer segment towards which Funshakes is targeted (Teens/Young Folks, College Goers, People on the move, Party drink) Milkmaid's brand equity wont sell. Coke's/Pepsi's would. So, taking a Minute Maid or a monster of a brand head on is not a good idea.

So, my answer is a Yes & a No.. What say.

Hello folks ... am not exactly a newbee.. but its been quite sometime since I did something meaningful on the forum.. & the place looks more lively, pro & bigger than ever..

so here goes my (re) introduction ... will take the reverse chronological route.. been working with a small consulting firm post MBA for last year & a half.. graduated from ISB in 06 .. worked for about 5 yrs before that .. thats the boring part.. been the part of PG revolution since its beginning.. I think I too gave CAT once.. when it got cancelled I think.. was a part of Hyd PG gang.. then the delhi gang .. tried to kickstart the community service initiative there.. used be in touch with all the folks .. PG, Subbu, Anil, Apurv, Simba, Chandoo, PsychoD, Shameek ... have been lucky to be a part of this community .. met my spouse for the first time in one of what we used to call 'Pg meets'.. .. dunno what are they called these days.. work & studies kept me away for a while.. looking fwd to be more regular now.. hopefully it'll be more fun than before..

capreal

pagalguy Says

Until the day someone says - 3 visionaries .. I be on my path of fultoo attack . I am glad you liked the interview though.. It was a bit tough to try like making sense

I didnt specify which 2..

2 visionaries in one.. beautiful interview.. felt like reading a good marketing article after a while.. as usual, precise & purposeful questions by Allwin. tell you what, you can actually charge money for such content & I am sure ppl wouldnt minding paying a buck for it. btw, how does it feel like to be chauffered in a Merc ?