MFM Entrance- Which Books to Refer

I have received the following question from one of my readers:

"I need some guidance like how to prepare for nift entrance exam, Which books to refer ... I would really appriciate, if you can help us out".

My advice would be to look at the entrance as any other MBA entrance examination. The level of the test is of MAT. The following books will help you a lot in preparing for the entrance.

Quantative Aptitude

1. Mathematics for MBA by RS Aggarwal: A very good book for practicing topics.

2. Magical Book on Quicker Maths: Do this book together with that from RS aggarwal. The quicker methods will help you a lot.

3. Data Interpretation - Dhillon Publication: A very good book with comprehensive practice of the data interpretation.

Reasoning and Mental Ability

1. Reasoning by R.S. Aggarwal: A very good book for practicing topics.

2. Magical Book on Analytical Reasoning: by M.K. Pandey. Do this together with that from R.S. Aggarwal.

3. Magical Book on Non Verbal Reasoning : by Javed Prabhat. A very good book for understanding non verbal topics.

Language

1. English is Easy by Chetnanand Singh: An amazing book to brush up your grammar.

2. Word Power Made Easy: By Normal Lewis: For Vocabulary.

3. Reading Comprehension- Dhillon Publication.

GK

Any GK book and periodic magazines will help.

Rural Marketing for MFM

Rural market is defined as those consisting of villages and small towns having less than 1 million population. It represents a market of 1 million consumers and USD 1 trillion market. It represents 56% of India's income and 64% of the spending and 33% of the savings. Also it is the largest consumption market for FMCG and durables. ( Source )

Rural markets represent a great potential as far as India is concerned. As per Mr Pradeep Kashyap, founder and CEO Mart, a knowledge based consulting firm on emerging markets, the biggest challenge is to  reach your product to 600,000 villages as compared to 5000 towns in urban India. 

Talking of textiles, the views are very different. As per a report in 2010, rural market is not very attractive for textile industry. A need is felt to cater to the need of the rural markets. The marketing strategies would have to be volume based. It should be low value and high volume garments which the rural markets can afford. 

As far as Ready Made Garment Sector is concerned, despite being a big chunk of India's population- about 70%, the rural market segment contributes only 54 per cent of the total domestic RMG industry in 2011. 

Talking of the categories- Saris, trousers, salwaar kameez, jeans and T-shirts account for more than 60% of the domestic RMG market ( value terms). Volume of shirts, trousers, jeans and T-shirts in the rural areas is higher than as compared to urban areas. However, as the unit realisations of these categories are higher in urban areas, their market size is higher in the urban areas. For Sarees and salwaar kameez, the gap in realisations in rural and urban areas is the least among the above-mentioned six major categories. Moreover, owing to higher sales volumes, the market size of sarees and salwar kameez in rural areas is higher than in urban areas ( Source - CRISIL)

Working out an ERP Application for fashion industry- My Experience

The following points I can definitely say about this:

1. The implementer themselves do not know the capabilities and limitations of their programs. So whatever they promise, take it with a pinch of salt.

2. The vision of the software in your mind will be different that you see actually, even if you have given that vision to the implementers in writing.

3. Once committed, they would try to thrust upon their vision to you. Any request for change will meet a resistance in the following way

  - Can be done in the next build
  - that will change the structure of the logic.
  - This is your wish list, wish lists keep on coming.
  - But that is what we discussed initially, and you have agreed to it.
  - But you also have to do some work to run the system.
  - this is a problem of formatting, can be done when logic is closed.

4. Building an issue list doesn't help. There will be key issues which keep on pending, the minor issues will be corrected.

5. There will be no white box testing at their end. They expect you to envisage all scenarios and give the result to them in black box testing. Every issue list will meet a resistance.

6.  If an issue is corrected, then a new issue is created in correcting the first one. Then you have to fight your way to get that issue corrected.

7. Dates and deadlines are never met.

8. If there are n steps to complete a process, with an ERP application, it will take at least n+2 steps. They say this is logical.

9. The biggest drawback here is that they have a one-fix-for-all solution with them. They try to fit all scenarios with that solution, with the result that they lose touch with the reality.

10. There are no error message which are intelligent, no user friendly tips, to start with. Every singly error message, you have to point out to them.

11. They will not document for you, will not train your staff. You have to do this that, yourself.

Some Facts about Apparel Exports

1. EU not only accounts for 49 percent of India’s total apparel exports worth $13 billion, but is also its largest trading partner.


2. Presently, EU imposes an import duty of 9.6 percent per garment and five percent on other textile items from India.


3. So far, Indian goods cost 10-15 percent more than Chinese products and 15-20 percent higher than Bangladesh’s products.

How to Maximize your Chances of success in MFM NIFT Placement

If you are already in MFM of NIFT, it is imperative that you should start preparing for the big event and that is NIFT placement programme. Here are some of the tips that I believe will be helpful for you.

1. SGPA is Vital

SGPA decides if you are in or out, I mean if you are considered for further review or not. The reason for this is simple, every recruiter wants to hire the best of the lot. It is immaterial if a topper will be unsuccessful in the future career, chances are that the topper takes the best of the jobs. If you are not a topper, no need to feel disheartened. Try to be in the top five or top ten or top twenty. If everything else fail, try and maintain your SGPA more than 7.5. It helps a lot, believe me. 

2. Your Resume is the key to your Personality

Every thing that you write in your resume speaks volumes about you. The most obvious key to your personality are your career objective, hobbies and extra curricular activities. So put a lot of thoughts when writing about them. Put the best of your professional photographs in the resume. Only write if you know about it, thus if you have done a project on Kasuti embroidery, you should be able to explain the basics of that. 

3. Past Experience is Important

If you have worked previously, it will not help if you dedicate only one line of your resume regarding this. Give it due weight. Write about your achievement, your numbers. 

4. Present the best of yourself

This is repeated again and again. But the fact remains that still a lot of candidates come without proper thought to their dress. If you are a male, clean shave, mustaches and polished shoes are imperative. A tie, and a formal dress will add to your pitch. If you are a female, dress to the occasion. Watch the other professionals and emulate them. 

5. Don't Lose Track of Smaller Companies

In the NIFT placement, one is often enamored by big companies, but there are smaller companies also that visit and pay much better than the big names. Do not underestimate them. 

6. Negotiate

Negotiate if the job is finally offered to you, learn about the breakup of the salary, profile of the job and everything you want to know. The employers will be more than happy tell you. Often students do not negotiate once the job is offered. But it is always helpful to ask another few thousands, if they can be granted. 

7. You cannot NOT know the following

As an MFM student you are supposed to know the following: MS excel, analysis, brand and retail management, supply chain management and retail merchandising. Do not claim that you don't know these subjects. These subjects are your bread and butter. 

8. Your teachers/mentors are very important

Take help of your teachers when clarifying certain points about the company. They can also recommend to the companies about you. Believe me, recruiters put a great weight on teacher's recommendations.

9. Always check the offer companies have at the time of briefing

More often then not, companies revise their package upwards, or increase the offtake of the number of students at the last moment. It is advisable to listen to the briefing when they come instead of believing what is written on the noticeboard. Also do not believe the announcements from control room, often the announcements about the package etc are outdated. 

I am sure that by working on these points you can maximize your chances in the NIFT placement programme.