NUMBER CRUNCHING
Many choose this MBA due to a genuine love for math and not the lure of lucre
The world of finance attracts many top graduates. Household names such as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are synonomous with an exciting and glamorous lifestyle. But many choose to pursue an MBA in Finance not due to the lure of lucre but out of a genuine love for math.
“I chose finance because I genuinely love numbers. Put words together and you can make a sentence or two. Put numbers together and you can build aircrafts, triple your profit figures, change the valuation of a company and much more. But all said, finance is a tough subject, study it only if you are really interested in it,” says Annika Paladhi, 36, who is pursuing a full- time MA finance course at the London Business School.
Financial decisionmaking is the crux of what the course curriculums hopes to instil in students. The core cours-
“DESPITE THE RECESSION , FINANCE HAS REMAINED one of our most popular courses under the general Mba degree across IIMS.”
es one can expect to study are investments, corporate financial modelling, financial accounting and portfolio assessment. Often courses are projectbased, and students will have to report an analysis of an event or situation and put into practice the skills they have learned in the classroom.
“Whatever the economic climate, the world will still revolve around finance. Without accountants your business decisions would be flawed and unprofitable. Money is the most impor
tant asset of every com- pany, managing it effectively will always be top priority. Even more so in times of recession,” explains Paladhi.
A study published by UK’s The Times newspaper in 2005 identified accounting as the most lucrative of all degree courses in terms of the amount of money a graduate could expect to earn in his lifetime. “Despite the recession and speculation, finance has remained one of our most popular courses under the general MBA programme across the IIMs,” says Solanki Ishita N, Manager of Global Partnerships, IIM, Ahmedabad.