Let’s face it! The factual industry affairs have been obscure from our textbooks, except the obligatory one-liners and so-called “examples”, seldom found in the bottoms of paragraphs. Industry affairs help us in understanding dry concepts both quickly and seamlessly, which is a fact. It may just include, say a merely rolled out, simple list of positions of brands. May be based on performance like those found on forbes.com. A list which would at least give the student an inspiration, or a push to dig for more details and find a favourite one. And understand concepts through the moves played by their favourite brands both in prosperity and adversity. But, why someone has to resort to an additional source, when the books can explain everything under one roof? The only reason is, that there will be a need to modify books every year. And the need of modifying books every year will add the need of incurring more time, money and energy for gathering and incorporating information relevant to those dry paragraphs.
Neither the publishers nor the University shall hear us out. So, lets resort to our routines but search for websites that cater to learners of specific fields. In the search-space, lets type for something worth reading, watching and playing. The following is the list of websites, which seems more useful for enthusiasts of the worlds of education:
1. edX.org
EdX offers interactive online classes and MOOCs from the world’s best universities, colleges and organizations. Online courses from MITx, HarvardX, BerkeleyX, UTx and many other universities. Topics include biology, business, chemistry, computer science, economics, finance, electronics, engineering, food and nutrition, history, humanities, law, literature, math, medicine, music, philosophy, physics, science, statistics and more. EdX is a non-profit online initiative created by founding partners Harvard and MIT.
2. TED.com
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world. TED is a non-profit organizations, found to build communities and provide platforms for “ideas worth spreading”.
3. businessinsider.in
Business Insider India has a mix of cutting edge business and technology happenings, entrepreneurial initiatives, creative exchanges, lifestyle concepts and leadership insights. The Indian edition features the country’s business heavyweights, ranging from start-ups to veterans across industries. Over that, they also cater to advances in the Indian technology space, automobiles, gadgets and sports.
4. markstrat.com
Markstrat is a simulation game, that lets the players take control of a virtual corporation; making decisions on its behalf. After the game was developed it was distributed on an ad-hoc basis by INSEAD. The game is widely known, and played in over 500 academic institutions, including 8 of the top 10 international business schools and 25 of the top 30 in the US.The players of the simulation have to make number of decisions, in marketing, finance, research and development areas, in order to achieve a better performance than the competing players who also take control of a company. The best part about markstrat is that their product is also available on the web. So make use of it and turn into a marketing expert while practising just from home.
The above four websites are humungous, each having unique interfaces to provide knowledge. edX.org has the interface of lectures and assessments online, while markstrat.com is about going through a businesslike situations. TED.com along with TEDed provides amazingly curated videos while, businessinsider.in gives a reading platform and edited excerpts relevant to specific industries.
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