The ongoing debates on higher education, especially in the context of the recent Supreme Court judgement on various issues including the issue of regulating unaided or self-financed institutions, as well as the approaches of most Universities and State Governments, go against the grain of commonly held beliefs regarding economics. Although that gives rise to the number of options available to the students and also increases the student inflow and graduates coming up manifold, the quality of students and the education imparted leave a lot to be desired. Hence, employers as well as potential employees, value the overall grooming more than the degrees. The credibility of this filter will be at stake if `fly by night' operators take advantage of liberal policies in licensing higher education. In fact, this defines the very foundation of coaching classes for the mushrooming professional courses.

Due to whopping competition and challenging job profiles, there is enormous demand for managerial cadre in corporates. The number of colleges offering management courses – self-financed institutes; AICTE approved, or otherwise, is rising at a rapid pace. The fringe benefits and lifestyle attached with the `manager' tag make students wanting to put in time, effort and money to secure admission at some good management institutes.

Students wanting to develop career in this track have started enrolling themselves in tutorial institutes, like IMS, Professional Tutorials, Endeavor, et al, offering coaching to take up entrance examinations for the management institutes. These institutes prepare the students for GCET/CAT entrance examinations, the group discussions and personal interviews as well. With the changing scenario, the number of institutes has also increased and the quality of education and professionalism has also increased.

Looking at the need of the hour and demand, four aspiring Ahmedabad-based MBA students – Vikas, Mohit, Rajan and Santosh decided to start a coaching center offering training for MBA entrance examinations. Vikas and Mohit, who had done MBA (Marketing), started collecting market information, competitor information, number of aspiring students, undergraduate college information and other details. Rajan and Santosh, both university rankers, MBA (Finance), handled the second vertical and got busy in getting loan to open center, preparing the necessary documentation, all legal formalities were taken care of by them. They finally inaugurated the center on December 5, 2002 on IIM Roadside, Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

The vision of all four partners was to open a center that can help students increase confidence in facing these entrance exams and the ability to enhance their soft skills. The classes run by them were soon very well appreciated and lots of enrolled students found themselves securing admissions to prestigious B-Schools. Other students started coming for advance admission as the fame spread and the name became the talk of the town. In a span of 4 years, Careers@MBA became one of the top centers in Ahmedabad — ahead of all existing competitors. In the first year, they had enrolled 85 students, which increased to 450 students at the end of fourth year.

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