Hello Stacy, Media Owner from India, please view and suggest

The background

Im a 25 year old, married male from India.

GPA, major, school
70/100, Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Software) Honors, University of Melbourne, Australia (Is my GPA too low?)

GMAT with breakdown
700 (93%), Q47 (82%), V40 (90%), AWA awaited

Resume highlights, including company name, job titles and promotions

Though a compute engineer by education, I’m an entrepreneur through and through. I come from one of India's largest media business families.

Immediately after college i started my first business in India, away from the core family business of publishing. Basically, had aimed to open a chain of ‘electronic gaming lounges’ across the metros of India, a niche that was completely unoccupied. With a start up capital of US$1 million, worked for a year on the project along with a minority partner (who had the technical know-how of setting up and operating such lounges). We even secured AMD and Samsung as hardware sponsors. After extensive research and project planning i pulled the plug on the venture as the target audience in India wasnt yet prepared to pay the desired amount for the service, that would make the business viable/lucrative. The project concept & model remains solid and I would definitely be open to revisiting it sometime in the future.

Post this, i joined the family business i.e. i headed the group's first foray into broadcasting. For the past 2 years ive been heading this TV venture as ‘Director’. Launched only a year ago with a capital of approx. US$15 million, today the company operates one of the top National News channels of India and is worth over US$30 million. We have recently come into partnership with a major news network of India who operates CNBC and CNN in the region.

Extracurricular involvements

I, along with my family have adopted an orphanage in our home town of Kanpur, in North India. Besides our economic support, we try and personally socialize and interact with the children as often as possible.

In association with a NGO that supported and rehabilitated juvenile criminals, through my Television channel, I launched India’s first and only non-fiction program on juvenile crime, which aims to raise awareness and support for these misguided children.

Awards, patents, publications, etc...

In its first year of launch, my channel was the fastest growing television station - across languages, across genres. A program conceptualized by me and produced and broadcast on my channel, won the award for the best non-fiction series on Indian Television 2005, beating competition from series from the stables of BBC, CNN etc.

Interesting personal facts - countries lived in, challenges faced, unusual interests

Though from a small town in North India, ive traveled extensively over the years. I studied in one of the country's premier boarding school for Boys in Rajasthan for 6 years, and then studied in Australia for my undergraduate degree for 4 years. Now im back in India, residing in New Delhi.

I am very fond of board games and besides obviously playing them, i design board games too. I have designed a 'Stock Market' trading game and a 'Risk' like war-game based on Indian Mythology. Both games have never been commercialized though and their play testing over the past 5 years has been limited to family and friends, which we’ve all thoroughly enjoyed.

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With the TV venture fairly stable and running, i wish to take a sabbatical to earn my MBA. I have a very specific goal in mind now. I’m almost certain that the Media & Entertainment sector is my calling in life and it’s in this field that i know i will flourish. I personally see the US as the flag-bearer of the media & entertainment industry and now wish to professionally work there.

I believe that a full-time 2 year MBA from one of the top US B-schools would be a good stepping stone for that career move.

My question though is now - which school? From their websites and other secondary sources I have been unable to single out any top b-school which has an M&E skew/strength. Factors such as geographical location, tuition fees etc. are moot for me. What are important are:

- a good recruitment office/database for students to utilize post course completion. Basically which school has the best services, network and database (specifically in the M&E sector) to maximize my chances of securing an appropriate job
- Marketing is what i wish to specialize in
- prefrebly a good alumni base in the M&E sector
- modules related to the M&E industry in the course curriculum (if any)

From just basic ‘googling’ and talking around my contacts, im told that LA (UCLA Anderson?) and NY (Columbia?) are the two cities that i should narrow down my search to, as these are the hubs of M&E in the US. On the other hand, considering what google spat out, MITSloan and Wharton also seem good choices, though neither is in LA/NY. Then ofcourse, there is the dream choice of HBS or Stanford.

Further, a doubt has been seeded regarding choosing 'marketing' as the field of specialization. Im told, that apparently my consequent job opportunities in the US would be severely limited, as im from a non-english speaking country and obviously not an american. (Though im neither alien to the english language nor the american culture). Is this true?

I realize this has been a long post , but I hope you can provide some answers Stacy, I would really appreciate it.

Further, ive browsed through your website, but am not clear - should i choose to utilize your services, how will your firm go about assisting me, as im in New Delhi, India and you of course are in the US.

Awaiting your response,
Cheers

Sid

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