Latest news with #MichiganRoss
Mint
12-05-2025
- Business
- Mint
When serendipity helps build a strong career
Serendipity played a major role in Vishal Mehta's life. In 1999, after having worked for four years in the telecom sector in India, he decided to do an MBA from Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan in the United States. When he began studying for his degree, he had a clear vision: to either make a professional shift into the consultancy space or continue in the telecom sector. This was the time that India's privatization story had just about started, and many new private ventures were being set up across sectors including financial services, telecom, education and healthcare. Up until that time, most of these services and their delivery was dominated by government run and controlled institutions. Vishal's job in the telecom space in India was a direct result of this privatization story where he also very quickly realized that most of these new ventures were being set up for the higher income segment in India and for the masses the life wasn't really changing much. This realization of non-inclusive growth that he was witnessing was buried somewhere down in his priorities and did not get exposed until he got to University of Michigan. Also read: Is early retirement a good idea? Not for your health But when he began his studies at the University of Michigan, he took a course that would, quite literally, change his life. The course was taught by C.K. Prahalad, then one of the world's most visionary management thinkers. Prahalad had been teaching at Michigan Ross since 1981, but his influence grew in 2004 when he co-authored a book, titled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. The book galvanized how multinational corporations (MNCs) across the world looked at dealing with the poorest consumers. In itself, 'bottom of the pyramid' was not a new concept. It had first been used by the US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, in 1932, when he talked about poor people who were often forgotten, because they lived at the bottom of the economic pyramid. This demographic segment, argued Prahalad, was actually a profitable consumer base. As he explained, ' . . . typical pictures of poverty mask the fact that the very poor represent resilient entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers.' In his opinion, what was needed was a better, more empathetic approach to help the very poor—one that involved partnering with them to drive innovation and to create sustainable scenarios where they remained actively engaged while companies profitably provided products and services. Prahalad wrote: 'Such an approach exists and has, in several instances, gone well past the idea stage as private enterprises, both large and small, have begun to successfully build markets at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) as a way of eradicating poverty.' This would mean that a formula would have to be created to achieve optimum results. Prahalad devised a 'low price, low margin, high volume' model; products could be offered at very low prices and margins, to generate profits simply by selling in enormous quantities. This model changed management strategies almost permanently. In India, the greatest example was Hindustan Unilever's success in selling the Wheel brand of detergent to low-income consumers in India. Also read: The secret of success? Energy management Prahalad wasn't a very flamboyant speaker. There were no antics on stage, and he spoke with almost no expressiveness or voice modulation. But when he did speak, it always left a profound impact on those who were listening to him. This was exactly the effect on Vishal. This resonated with the lack of inclusive growth he had witnessed in his stint at private sector in India. It was perhaps serendipitous that at this same moment, he met Dr Aravind, then his senior at Michigan Ross. Aravind is the grandson of Dr Govindappa Venkataswamy, founder and former chairman of Aravind Eye Care chain of hospitals, and was involved with the hospital chain, focused on addressing the needs of low and middle-income people in India. As Vishal spent time with Aravind, he began to think along the lines of what he had heard Prahalad discuss in class. One of the first opportunities to test these ideas was the possibility of replicating Aravind Eye Care's model in Africa as part of one of his elective courses during his MBA. It was the first time that Vishal was thinking actively of a business model where profit maximization was not the objective, and where shareholder value was seen in a very different way. His experiences convinced Vishal that his interests lay not in the telecom sector as he had once thought, but in the social sector. But practicality intervened. He had to still pay off his student loans, so for the next couple of years, Vishal worked at Capital One, a consulting firm in Washington DC. Then, he began to actively scout for new opportunities in the social space. Almost a year passed. Unfortunately, the traditional non-profit sector was looking for vintage and sector expertise—the one thing that Vishal lacked, since he was from a fairly commercial mainstream business background. As nearly every opportunity hit a dead end, once again, serendipity took the wheel. Also read: The power of hitting pause during a workday It was around this time that Rajiv Lall moved to New York. Lall was then a managing partner at Warburg Pincus, one of the world's largest private equity firms. Lall wanted to use the same principle of venture capital for socially relevant businesses. He wanted to put his significant experience in investment to use in India. Naturally, then, he was looking for someone who would be able to drive this cause forward and be based out of India. Rajiv heard about Vishal from a common acquaintance. He liked what he heard and gave Vishal a cold call, which reached his voice mail. As he listened to Lall's voice message, Vishal quickly did some preliminary research on Warburg Pincus, as he was totally unaware of the private equity industry. Soon, the two set up a meeting over coffee. It was serendipity once more. After a three-hour long meeting, Vishal was ready to move back to India and get to work (on almost a quarter of the salary he was earning) to build Lall's vision. The two men had even come up with a name: Lok Capital. Delighted, Lall asked him to discuss matters with his wife before making any kind of firm commitment. Vishal laughed and said, 'I will discuss it with her, but I'm making this commitment to you: I will move to India!' Excerpted with permission from Penguin Random House India. The book will be published later this month. Write to us at lounge@ Also read:
Axios
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Detroit rapper Tee Grizzley is a Twitch star
After first making his name as a rapper, Detroit's Tee Grizzley is now making money as an online gamer with more than 1 million people following his streaming channel. The big picture: Tee Grizzley is at the forefront of rappers and musicians who are branching out into livestreaming to prolong their careers and earn more money. Zoom in: On streaming platform Twitch, subscribers and followers watch for hours at a time as Tee Grizzley plays a modified version of "Grand Theft Auto V" and other games. Tee role-played a law enforcement officer in one recent livestream, narrating his movements, arresting other players and initiating conversations with them by asking questions like, "You got a gun license for that gun?" Catch up quick: Tee's rap career exploded eight years ago with the release of " First Day Out." He began focusing on gaming during the pandemic, when he was often playing video games at home. The latest:"I was a gamer before I was a rapper," he said last week during a StockX event at Gilly's downtown. He was there to promote his upcoming album, " Forever My Moment," with the "All The Smoke" podcast. Tee acknowledged making good money from gaming, but he wasn't pressed for specifics. In 2022, he told the "Million Dollaz Worth of Game" podcast that he was making about $50,000 per week: "I get paid from Twitch. I take the Twitch videos that I already streamed, put it on YouTube, get paid from YouTube … then you got sponsorships, you got ads." By the numbers: Since April 2019, Tee has streamed for more than 4,800 hours, per He has nearly 1.2 million followers and more than 2,000 subscribers. Prices range from $5.99 to $24.99 per month. Subscribers get fewer advertisements and access to chat boards. Twitch creators keep 50%-70% of their subscription fees, says Justin T. Huang, a Michigan Ross assistant professor of marketing who studies social media and online ecosystems. It's "definitely within the realm of possibility" that Tee Grizzley is making $50,000 weekly with that and money from ads and other revenue sources, Huang says.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
From Michigan Ross, Concrete Answers To The Question: How Will An OMBA Boost My Career?
Michigan Ross's 2024 OMBA grads reported a 4.7% salary increase over their 2023 predecessors If you're on the fence about whether an online MBA is worth the investment, the University of Michigan offers some firm answers to your questions in its newly released employment report data. Michigan's Ross School of Business released its OMBA Class of 2024 data this week showing that 100% of reporting graduates received a promotion and/or pivoted to a new industry or function within four months of graduation, 64% received a promotion between starting and finishing the program, and 71% switched industry or function by the time they finished the program. The mean salary was $146,000, up 4.7% from the Class of 2023. 'Online MBA students come to Michigan Ross with great work experience, and we work with them to build off of that experience to help them succeed in the next stage of their career,' says Heather Byrne, managing director of the Career Development Office. 'Whether that's advancing into a higher leadership position at their current company, moving to a different company in their field, or pivoting to an entirely different industry, our coaches provide the personalized support and resources they need to achieve their professional goals. This report demonstrates our graduates' success in leveraging their backgrounds and their Michigan Ross degree.' INDUSTRY % BASE SALARY MEAN BASE SALARY MEDIAN LOW BASE SALARY HIGH BASE SALARY Consulting 13.3% $167,410 $170,000 $109,507 $225,000 Consumer Packaged Goods 6.0% $140,333 $144,000 $112,000 $165,000 Energy 3.6% $146,021 $142,062 $91,000 $205,000 Financial Services 4.8% $118,667 $130,000 $86,000 $140,000 Healthcare 13.3% $173,303 $152,275 $132,455 $236,000 Manufacturing 19.3% $124,143 $119,000 $83,000 $230,000 Technology 21.7% $151,193 $157,302 $91,000 $197,196 Other 18.1% $128,970 $130,000 $80,000 $165,000 Total/Average 100.0% $146,418 $142,000 $80,000 $236,000 The Michigan Ross Online MBA Program is ranked No. 2 by Poets&Quants in 2025 and No. 6 by U.S. News and World Report in 2025. In our ranking, it was fourth in 2023 and 2022 before moving up to a tie for 2nd with Indiana Kelley School of Business in 2024. Of the 57 credits required in the Ross OMBA program, 17 are reserved for electives for OMBA students to explore their interests and goals. Of those electives, the most popular options include Healthcare Markets & Public Policies, Managing the OMBA Fund, Leading Diverse Teams & Organizations: A DEI Toolkit, Strategies for Growth, and Communicating in a Virtual World. While the program is online, it has an in-person component where students attend three of four offered residencies (9 credits) — a highlight of the program. They span Thursday-Sunday at Ross's Ann Arbor campus, or in varying global cities. Options include the Business Leadership Residency, the Business Transformation Residency, Business Innovation Residency, and the Global Business Strategy Residency. Another highlight of the program is the Multidisciplinary Action Project, where student teams act as consultants for a real company and work to deliver a solution to a critical challenge that the organization is facing. Communication with project sponsors takes place primarily online, yet sometimes an on-site visit to the sponsoring organization is required. The Michigan Ross OMBA Class of 2024 pursued careers in a broad range of fields and interests; 30% reported working in a general management function, 22% in technology, and 13% in consulting. Graduates landed career opportunities at some of the world's most sought-after companies, including McKinsey & Company, Apple, Procter & Gamble, Mayo Clinic Health System, and Bain & Company. Not all the news was positive: The new graduating class reported a mean signing bonus of $22,500, down from $27,000 for the Class of 2023. More facts from the Class of 2023: Of responding students, 72% received a promotion between the start of the program and 4 months after graduation; 91% reported a promotion, new industry or function. Mean salary: $139,500. Thirty-six percent reported working in a general management function, 21% in technology, 15% in manufacturing, and 14% in consulting. DON'T MISS The post From Michigan Ross, Concrete Answers To The Question: How Will An OMBA Boost My Career? appeared first on Poets&Quants.
