Getting into an MBA program is no easy task these days. Check out our tips on where, when, and how to apply for your ticket to the best B-school for you.

The central challenge of management development is to control and manage the learning process of managers, focused on individual development and career success and/or reaching organizational goals.

Here is a booklet compiled to highlight those tasks and proceedings that are necessary to ensure productive and effective meetings. Written for Scouts but of general use for anyone conducting meetings.

The previous 10 years have seen a massive growth of interest in corporate responsibility. But how do you put it into in practice?

Good managers make quick, sound and efficient decisions. However, they must be willing to accept ambiguity and uncertainty when dealing with creative product ideas, says Thomas Mannarelli.

Why do people help one another at work? Is it a form of egoism or of altruism? In this working paper, Professors Leslie Perlow and John R. Weeks investigate helping in Indian and American software firms, considering both the motivations behind the action as well as the contexts in which it occurs. Their results may surprise you.

The absence of universally integrated privacy policy means consumers at the moment cannot feel confident that their personal details will remain confidential if they choose to do business online. The demand for greater protection must lead to companies and governments developing privacy policies on a global scale if e-commerce is ever to reach its potential.

A basic tutorial on marketing 'preferences' (part of an excellent series of marketing tutorials from MarketingProfs.com)

Three MBAs. Three interviews. The razor-sharp recruiter who scored them. And what you can learn from their mistakes.

Janet Hanson, 14-year veteran of Goldman Sachs and founder of investment advisory firm Milestone Capital, described her rocky but ultimately victorious road to success at the Wharton Women in Business Conference held earlier this month. Later in the day a panel of women in international management positions talked about the cultural challenges that still confront businesswomen both here and abroad.

This article offers 9 suggestions for dealing with an economic downturn, and while some of them are specific to the current recession and war on terrorism, most are of general value.

Venture Capitalists Always Find Something To Complain About

The question of the desirablity and value of board diversity is not new. Yet there can still be disagreement as to the scope and goal of diversity and the way in which this should be achieved.

Not to mince words, but corporate budgeting is a joke, argues HBS professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen in this Harvard Business Review excerpt. The problem isn't with the budget process—it's when budget targets are used to determine compensation.

Giant companies like Coca-Cola are adopting localised marketing strategies after decades of globalisation. It is time to ask if global marketing's financial benefits are being outweighed by other costs, writes Isabelle Schuiling.

Sales promotions encourage consumers to stockpile. But what happens next? Do consumers accelerate their consumption of these products or simply wait longer before repurchasing? To address these questions, Professors Pierre Chandon and Brian Wansink develop a framework of postpurchase consumption decisions which looks at how we decide when and how much to consume.

Experts say that acing the GMAT doesn't guarantee you'll get into business school, but a low score can definitely keep you out. So how can you make sure you're in the running? Check out our GMAT cheat sheet to learn how to tame the test.

"Alliances force managers to rethink their businesses. By offering them an opportunity to recast the value chain differently, managers are asked to radically alter their view of how to compete in their industries. Often they are able to reformulate the rules of the game. Thus, alliances offer an opportunity for managers to be entrepreneurial."

See 'Using Alliances To Create Value And Competitive Advantage', an audio interview on this topic with Dr. Rangan, at:
http://www.babsoninsight.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/566

The turmoil in Argentina and the collapse of the ten-year link between the peso and the dollar has revived the debate about currency regimes for emerging-market economies. Was Argentina wrong to adopt the link in the first place, or wrong to try so hard and so fruitlessly to maintain it?

A quick look at culture implications of the three primary funding models for startups:
- Self-funding from the entrepreneur's personal resources and "friends and family"
- Funding from venture capital firms
- Funding from larger corporate and governmental agencies

There are several senior positions you can hold without any formal qualifications - senior manager, parent and prime minister, for example. You can also be a company director without undergoing any real training. In the UK, however, a growing number of senior executives are submitting themselves to an exhausting and rigorous process which allows them to call themselves chartered directors. The Institute of Directors, which has devised the chartered directors' programme, believes it is first such qualification in the world.

BusinessWeek takes a look at the top (and fallen) managers and entrepreneurs for 2001 (and those to watch in 2002). Some include:
Louis V. Gerstner Jr.
Howard Schultz
Fujio Mitarai
Oprah Winfrey
Robert A. Eckert
Richard S. Fuld Jr.
Daniel Vasella
John Browne
Kent Kresa
Carole Black
Barry Lam
L. Dennis Kozlowski
Jeffrey L. Bewkes
Charles Lee and Ivan Seidenberg
Jeffrey C. Barbakow
Maurice R. Greenberg
Steven A. Ballmer
Reuben Mark
Steven S Reinemund
Margaret C. Whitman
Craig A. Conway
Hiroyuki Yoshino
H. Lee Scott Jr.
John D. Wren
Richard B. Priory

The Top 25 Managers:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_02/b3765001.htm

Managers to Watch 2002:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_02/b3765053.htm

The Top Entrepreneurs:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_02/b3765054.htm

The Fallen:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_02/b3765055.htm

A new Index going beyond narrow economic issues has been compiled to assess to what extent countries are prepared for the 21st century. This article explains the thinking behind the initiative – on the next two pages two experts give their reactions..

Note: you can read the article on the web page, but for a bigger font and to get the graphics referenced, read the .pdf version instead (link on the right side of page).

What does an interview look like from the recruiter's chair? Which answers impress? Which comments annoy? What shoots you dead? Top recruiters, career consultants, and psychologists offer shrewd tips and subtle tricks for moving from "How do you do?" to "When can you start?"

Marketing practitioners and academics alike regard brand equity as a platform upon which to build a competitive advantage, future earnings streams, and shareholder wealth. Nevertheless, the conceptualization and measurement of brand equity, including its sources and outcomes, remain a challenge.