The field of specialization often determines the direction of an individual's career. While doing your MBA, you will have an option to choose a specialized function that you may love the most. At times, institutes also offer a dual specialization. You can choose from:

•  Finance

•  Marketing

•  Systems/MIS

•  Personnel

•  Production/Operations


Finance

Finance is the quantitative tool of measuring how a business is performing. Financial Management aids in measuring the creation of wealth and forecasting adverse trends. The most important challenges of financial management are the corporate value indication (assessment of the real value of the firm rather than the historical value), risk management (managing the volatility and unpredictability of the market to the every move made by the firm), real time reporting (the financial data is presented on real time basis), and Innovating to reduce cost of capital and enhancing share holder value at the same time.

The various opportunities in finance could be:

•  Consumer Finance: The needs and wants of an individual customer are taken into consideration and his portfolio handled accordingly.

•  FOREX Management: FOREX management is the management of foreign exchange. It also includes management of GDRs/ADRs as well as other forms of borrowing like ECBs.

•  Equity Management: Equity is essentially 'owned capital'. Equity management involves raising and management of capital at the lowest possible cost.

•  Corporate Finance: It is the management of finance of a corporate/organization vis-à-vis the goals of the firm. It ensures discipline, which takes into account the capital structure, dividend policy and the various risks involved with them.

Other areas of finance also include Banking, Project appraisals/Feasibility studies and Financial Consultancy.

Marketing

Marketing, according to Philip Kotler is "a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others." In this age of competition where products and services jostle for space and attention, it is the marketing function of management which is considered the important function of a company as it generates revenue. Marketing, as generally perceived, does not involve only sales. It includes understanding the needs and wants of customers as well as consumers and then delighting them through superior value, quality and services.

The various areas in which one can make a career in marketing are:

•  Sales and Distribution Management: Sales is the process of prospecting, communicating and servicing an end client whereas Distribution is the channel through which the product/service reaches the customer.

•  Advertising: Advertising is any paid form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services by an identified sponsor.

•  Brand and Product Management: Brand and Product Management is the analysis, planning and implementation of all the marketing efforts for a particular service, product or ideas and the positioning of the same in the minds of the consumer and society at large.

•  Market Research: Market Research is essentially the systematic design, collection, analysis and presentation of data to a specific market situation that an organization faces.

Other sub-areas of marketing include Public relations and communication, Event management, Retailing and consultancy.

Systems/MIS

Probably the most lucrative and growing industry sector in the country, and of course, world-wide, is the software industry. Indian computer software professionals have carved a position for themselves in the cyber-world by producing quality software at competitive prices. Across the world, Indian firms are executing software projects for companies ranging from banks to telecommunication.

Students can also choose to go in for Management of Information Systems (MIS). For effective decision making, a business manager must have the right kind of information at the right time. Systems Management, to put it in simple terms deals with the smooth flow of information through various channels within an organization.

Career opportunities in this field arise from the need for trained personnel in the following areas.

•  Systems analysis

•  Software programming

•  Project management

•  Management information systems or EDP

•  Consultancy

Personnel

The importance of personnel management can be gauged from the fact that in the knowledge economy of the new millennium, intellect, and thus people are the most important assets of an organization. The personnel function of management deals with the management of 'people' resource of the organization. Personnel management offers career prospects broadly in the following fields:

•  Human Resource Development: This is one of the hottest fields in the industry. It is looked upon as a strategic approach to ensure the motivation, development and actualization of the potential of the employees for the benefit of the organization.

•  Industrial Relations and Labour Law: This is the system's legal face of personnel management, which deals with the laws and, rights of people in a work environment as well as looks into the relationship of the employees and the employer.

•  Training and Development: This field deals with one of the key tools of motivation, development, retention and satisfaction of the employee. Other areas of Personnel management include Labour and recruitment Consultancy.

Production/Operations

The field of operations is concerned with production-related activities. It includes activities such as job-routing, scheduling, quality control, production planning, inventory and control. It also involves other areas of the organization such as accounting procedures, computer systems and other functional areas and systems through which work in the organization is planned and performed.

This area is specially suited for those who are basically engineering graduates. Operations involve application of managerial skills to engineering/technical problems.

Operations professionals, in addition to an MBA, should also possess a strong grounding in technical and statistical skills and have good interpersonal skills. Job openings are mostly concentrated in manufacturing organizations.