3rd Term Electives

My electives in the 3rd term are as follows:
e-Business
Labour Law & Cyber Law
Marketing Strategy and Implementation
Product and Brand Management
Organisational Change and Development
International Financial Management
Resource Based Strategy
Strategies of Cooperation

You will observe that my concentration areas are IT / Marketing / Strategy.
I have taken a single Finance elective this term - IFM. Next term I will be taking another Finance elective - M&A.
This is a conscious decision since I do not intend to pursue a career in Finance. The only 2 Finance electives that I have chosen are purely out of interest.

Service Science, Management and Engineering

It is widely known that the economies of the developed world are predominantly based on services and those of the developing world are headed in the same direction. However, the businesses within the service sector of most economies are still mostly based on narrow and unsystematic methods, leading to lack of competitiveness, speed to value, and most importantly, innovation.
Today Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Associate Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, Bangalore talked to us regarding IBM's initiative called Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), which aims to create an ecosystem for developing the knowledge base and train the labor force and to make significant advances in service research and innovation. This is what he had to say "We clearly need to develop a more systematic approach to services innovation if we are to sustain this vital new sector in the economy".
The goal of the SSME discipline is to drive productivity, quality, and sustainability of services, while making the learning rates and innovation rates more predictable across the service sector, especially in complex organization to organization services including business to business, nation to nation and government to population. This new academic discipline brings together ongoing work in fields of computer science, management science, and social science to develop skills required in a services-led economy.
Many leading universities across the world have begun exploring and investing in the field of service science (SSME) to develop exactly these cross-disciplinary skills. University of California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and North Carolina State University are among a handful of universities in the United States which have established programs in service science. Universities in Europe and Asia are also creating programs in this area.

Back to Jamshedpur

I'm finally back to Jamshedpur after an enjoyable Aussie trip. We reached Kolkata on 12th morning (2:00 AM) from Bangkok. The flight was delayed by around 1.5 hours. One hilarious thing happened at bangkok airport. We were waiting in the lounge (before boarding) when a group of gals sitting in front of us suddenly started giggling uncontrollably. When I turned my back towards the direction in which they were seeing & laughing I saw RC, visibly embarrassed, coming out of the men's restroom in a hurry. Knowing RC and her idiosyncrasies this wasn't too surprising for anyone though ;-) As if this were not enough within a couple of minutes their was another roar of laughter from everywhere around me. This time VM (Bacchu Yadav) mistakenly entered the women's loo and hurriedly came out red faced. Three cheers for RC & VM for producing this "Double Dhamaka" in Bangkok and entertaining everyone around :-)

Project @ OUA

I am working on a project work for Open Universities Australia (OUA). Open Universities Australia is owned by seven leading universities and is the country’s fastest growing online higher education service. Over 110, 000 people have already studied with them since they began in 1993. One can choose to study from over 100 subject areas and graduate with qualifications from 15 academic providers. There are no entry requirements to start studying with OUA.
OUA believes India to be an attractive market and they have already had some success in the Indian market following certain recent initiatives. The focus of our project is to prepare a roadmap/strategy for OUA to expand their business in India.

Melbourne Ahoy

Hi guys! Sorry for not posting for quite a while. I'm in Melbourne currently for the international immersion programme. XLRI has tied up with RMIT for conducting this programme. The duration is approximately 3 weeks. As part of the programme we will be attending some classes at RMIT and work on projects for some organizations in Melbourne. Tomorrow the project groups will be allocated. Some of the companies participating in the programme are KPMG, Delloit, Citi Group etc. I'll share more info. with you as and when I come to know.
BTW, over the weekend 5 of us drove down to Sydney & had a blast. I'll post the details and some snaps in my next post.

Alumni Homecoming: Idli boy steals the show

A packed Tata auditorium listened with rapt attention to Sarathababu Elumalai, who was here to share his rags-to-riches story during the XLRI annual Homecoming ceremony.
The other speakers on the topic "Entrepreneurs - Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders" included, Mr S Sivakumar (Chief Executive, ITC Agri-Business), Mr Manish Sabharwal (CEO-Founder, Teamlease), Mr Gautam Mallick (CEO-Founder, LSI Financial Services).
The youth from Chennai, an IIM graduate who refused a brilliant job to start a catering service, said: “I was born in a family of five children in Chennai and my mother worked with the government’s mid-day meal schemes. The money was not sufficient to sustain the large family, so she set up a small idli shop near our home in one of the slum areas of Chennai.”
The founder of FoodKing Catering Services, which today serves home-made hygienic food to offices in Ahmedabad and Goa, recalled how in Class IX his teachers had to persuade him hard not to quit studies.
From selling idlis on the pavements of Chennai to binding books for students, Elumalai had done it all till he reached BITS, Pilani. “I had never heard of the institution as we never got such an exposure. Someone told me that if I study there I will get a job,” he said.
After the engineering degree and a three years’ stint in the corporate world, Elumalai moved to IIM (A).
“The kind of salary and position an IIM graduate is offered is very difficult to turn down. But if I had not taken such a decision, I would have never been able to start my business,” he said.
The business, which started with a mere Rs 5,000 and a small kiosk at Ahmedabad, has today spread to over six branches employing over 175 people whose only job is to supply nutritious home-made food to corporates.
“It was an idea that I chanced upon during my internship at Pilani when I learnt that 30 per cent of the country’s population go to bed without food,” he said. “More than working for somebody I wanted to give jobs to people like me, who did not have other means of livelihood.” Soon his company would venture into other cities and provide employment to at least 15,000 people.
And while Sarathababu surprised everybody with his stories, XLRI today too put its first step in the same direction. After almost three years of negotiations, the much talked about Social Entrepreneurship Trust (SET) was formed today.
Aimed at funding and supporting innovative social entrepreneurship ideas, the trust which is the first of its kind would also work for different tribal upliftment projects in Jharkhand and would provide scholarships to tribal youths for further studies....

ALumni Homecoming

Like the previous 3 years, XLRI will be organising the 4th Annual XLRI Alumni Homecoming during the weekend (Nov 17-18, '07). This annual event brings some alumni from across six decades back to the alma mater, representing different geographies, and companies.

Besides appraising the alumni and the interactions, one of the main events of the Homecoming is the panel discussion which will be held in the evening in the Tata Auditorium (Nov 17th, 6:30pm). Every year XLRI selects a contemporary issue and invites practitioners from the field to share their thoughts and experience on the issue.

This year the topic for panel is Entrepreneurs: Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders?
The purpose of the Panel is to profile the entrepreneurs / entrepreneurial ventures (from various sectors) whose work also aims at initiating systemic changes in the society.

1. Mr E Sarathbabu (the young IIMA graduate who founded the Food King Catering Services Pvt Ltd. to create employment)
He is from the 2006 batch of IIMA, he created a stir when he refused a high-paying job at the campus, and decided to start his own enterprise, The Foodking Catering Services. The vision of his enterprise states (http://foodkingindia.com/). He was inspired by his mother who brought him and his sibling up by working in the mid-day meal scheme and selling sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai. Inaugurated by the Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, Foodking has grown from a small kiosk to six branches (four in Ahmedabad and one each in BITS Pilani campuses in Pilani and Goa).

2. Mr Manish Sabharwal, Founder & CEO, TeamLease Services,
He is the Chairman and co-founder of Teamlease Services, India’s largest temporary staffing firm with over 75,000 employees in 675 cities locations across India. He is also a member of the Planning Commission steering committee on labor and employment for the Eleventh five year plan (2007-12) and is a member of the CII core group on labor reforms.

3. Mr S Sivakumar, Chief Executive ITC - Agri-Business/e-Choupal
He is the CEO of the Rs.3,500/- division, he is also the brain behind the largest internet-based initiative in rural India. 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to more than 3.5 million farmers growing a range of crops - soyabean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over 38,500 villages through nearly 6500 kiosks across nine states...

4. Mr Anjan Dutt, Socio-Cultural Entrepreneur, Director/Producer of “The Bong Connection” & “Bow Barrack Forever”
He is a pioneer in Bengali music, and a multi-faceted artist who is a singer, composer, actor and director. He is the producer/director of the cross-over films like “The Bong Connection” and “Bow Barrack Forever”, besides working for Films such as “Mr & Mrs Iyer”, “City ofJoy”, Yugant”, “Antareen” etc. He is known to have rejuvenated the Bengali music by blending it with the modern and contemporary culure and social issues (e.g., his songs about the killing of Christian Missionaries in Orissa, Bandra Blues, etc.)

5. Mr Rajeev Dubey, Dy Editor, Business World will moderate the discussions

My career plans

Although after successful completion of the GMP course a candidate receives a diploma in general management, students can focus on certain key areas of concentration (such as Marketing / Finance) based upon their career interests. For example, in our batch an unusually high proportion of candidates aspire to shift to finance. The reason is that there are a lot of guys from the core sector who have fairly limited career options such as finance / IT domain consulting. Consulting though is another option which is open for the initiated / focussed candidates. Here, of course, I'm assuming that they are not interested to return to the core sector.
As far as I'm concerned I had my priorities clear before coming down to XLRI. I will go back to the IT sector but not in the same function. I am looking for a Business Development role (preferably overseas). I do not have any plan B right now so I'm not too sure what I will do if things do not happen as per my plans. Nowadays, irrespective of size and stature, almost every Indian IT company is planning a ‘big expansion' in scale and scope of operations which implies requirement for new business / clients. Hence, the need for Business Development Managers / Opportunity Managers.

50% MBA

Finally end terms are over...
The last paper was Strategy and it was a 4 hour marathon exam. As I mentioned earlier that this time there were no term-breaks. So 3rd term commenced from today. The schedule was planned this way to accommodate our international exposure programme. As part of this programme we will be travelling to Melbourne for 3 weeks. I will provide more details regarding this trip in my subsequent post. I am planning to go home for a few days. Let's see whether the plan materializes.

Happy Diwali

End Terms

End terms exams have started from today.

The exam schedule is as below:

Nov 5th - Legal Environment of Business
Nov 6th - HRM
Nov 7th - MIS: Technical and Social Perspectives
Nov 8th - Production and Operations Management
Nov 9th - DEEPAWALI
Nov 10th - Financial Management I & II
Nov 11th - Strategic Management

Luckily OMMD paper was scheduled last week along with a host of other submissions & presentations et al. Only LEB exam is open-book.

Here's wishing all of you 'A Very Very Happy Diwali' !

I'll be back soon. This time there are no term-breaks so term III commences on 12th Nov.

Expect the Unexpected

We have a subject called Mgmt Information Systems (MIS) in this term. The focus of this course is on information technology issues facing today’s managers. As part of this course we have to complete a group project. The details of the project are as follows:
1> Form groups of 5
2> Pick up an SME in and around JSR. The business could be Auto ancillary, Construction business, Retail business, Professional Service, etc.
3> The project should provide a brief description of the organization, any internal/external systems that employees use as TPS/MIS and communication & collaboration requirements.
4> If the group feels that there is need for a change in the existing system or need for a new system then the same needs to be justified. Also the group has to design the new system and discuss any constraints that they foresee in implementing the new system.
As luck would have it in my group there are 4 techies (from CTS, TCS & Tech Mahindra) including myself and one guy from Operations background. Now, since I have worked in DW&BI for the last 6 years there was always this danger of trying to showcase my expertise/knowledge and getting carried away in the process.
I have noticed many people (who are experts in their respective domains) somehow getting carried away in similar situations and ending up in a pompous display of knowledge. This may not be appreciated by everyone always. BTW, I have observed the reverse phenomenon as well.
Anyways, there is one thing which amused me. In this project we have to create some DFDs and ER Diagrams. Just prior to writing this post I was creating some stuff in ERwin. I had last worked on these stuff several years ago when I used to be a Data Modeler in IBM. I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be working with Erwin/MS Visio while pursuing MBA in a B-school (especially in a General Management Programme). Life is funny, there are so many unexpected things that just keep happening :-)

Today is Dandiya Night @ XLRI

Beautiful Thoughts

I came across a couple of beautiful quotes today and thought of sharing them with you guys.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin--real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Alfred D. Souza

Life in a B-school

Life has been super busy lately but I feel purposeful and happy. The negative part of it is that I am so wrapped up in the routines of daily life. Days roll into weeks and time just flies by. I’ve been consistently productive for quite some time now, yet the amount of work just continues to pile. It's been more than 4 months that I've joined XLRI and only about 6 months or so remain before I'm outta here. Today I'd like to share with you some observations made during these few months.

1> Students are very competitive, very grade-conscious and work too hard.
2> Majority are focussed towards securing grades rather than towards assimilating knowledge.
3> A lot of students are in a state of flux and have no idea why they are here and/or where they would want to be post-mba.
4> A 1-year mba is extremely intensive & quite stressful and you always keep wondering why there are only 24 hours in a day!
5> Peers evaluate you in terms of your scores/grades.
6> Friendship & camaraderie are passe.
7> Finance & Consultancy rule!
8> Quite a few students would make excellent secretaries (to bosses) since they are able to start taking notes even before the Prof. has uttered a single word.
9> Finally, if MBA is a religion then Profs are God...period!

These are observations based upon my personal experience and you have every right to agree/disagree.

GMP - Admission

Dear Readers,
As many of you may be aware that applications are being invited for admission into 1 year GMP @ XLRI. If anyone has any questions regarding the admission process, course, pedagogy, placements or anything else for that matter then I'll be more than happy to take your queries. I have also been responding to prospective applicant's queries at pagaalguy. So do let me know if you have any queries/doubts.

XLRI ahead of all private B-schools

XLRI has made it to the top slot for the best B-school in the country. In a recent survey by Clore, a market research organization and a business magazine, XLRI, Jamshedpur, was ranked 1st in the private B-schools category. SP Jain & NMIMS are at 2nd and 3rd positions, respectively. The IIMs have retained their position on the list of top government B-schools in the country.
"It is indeed a matter of pride for all at XLRI to be ranked at the top. Prior to this, XLRI was only next to the IIMs but the bifurcation between private and government sectors has surely helped us scale new heights," said E.M. Rao, former dean of XLRI.
XLRI has also made it to the number one position as far as the faculty salaries among all B-schools go - the highest being Rs 27 lakh per annum and the minimum Rs 4.2 lakh annually. IIMs are the lowest, at number 17, with the maximum salaries being only Rs 6 lakh per annum.

Competence / Incompetence

There are 4 possible levels professional aptitude/know-how which could be used to categorize anyone working in an organization. They are as follows:
Unconscious Incompetence - I know not that I know not
Conscious Incompetence - I know that I know not
Conscious Competence - I know that I know
Unconscious Competence - I know not that I know
It is not necessary that a particular individual has to go through all the above phases. However, it is desirable for a competent manager to try and attain the level of Conscious Competence. I was told that Unconscious Competence is probably the hardest to achieve. The problem is that if one is aware of one's capabilities then complacency sets in which restricts one from achieving the highest level of competence.

2nd Term starts

I reached Jamshedpur late last night. I was glad that we had only 3 classes today since I didn't get enough sleep. The POM faculty handed over 2 cases and pre-reads for tomorrow's class.
This term we have the following 7 subjects:
Financial Management (FM)
Human Resource Management (HRM)
MIS : Technical and Social Perspectives (MISTSP)
Production and Operations Management (POM)
Strategic Management
Optimization Models for Managerial Decisions (OMMD)
Legal Environment of Business (LEB)

Free Riders!

Today I will talk about a special breed of MBA grads (in the making) whom I've encountered during these 2.5 months at XLRI - the free riders!
How does one define free riders? Non contributing members of a project who are a liability on the remaining team members are affectionately called free riders. They are really a sad breed among MBAs. They fail to understand the responsibilities which they are expected to shoulder. These are people who believe in the theory of symbiotic living but only partially. They will stick on with you, contribute nothing, reap the benefit and move ahead. Their focus is solely on how not to come in limelight and how to hide their incompetency. They do not show any sense of self consciousness or shame in blatantly copying other people's work. True believers of social theory of justice. The worst part is that some of these people even go to the extent of calling themselves smart workers.
There are many competent people who free-ride. These people can be of 2 types - those who are plain lazy and do not give a damn and those who will do all their individual assignments arduously but will slack off when it comes to group work as they know that someone else will surely do the job.
So, how to stop this menace? I have a simple solution. In general, each member of the group receives the same grade on the project/assignment. However, there may be times when one or more members of a group will free ride on the work of other members. The grades of such free riders should be substantially reduced (up to 25% from the total grade) if consistent evidence of free riding is found. To discover free riding, each member of a group may submit an individual Group Peer-Evaluation Form around the time when the group’s project/assignment is submitted. If someone does not submit a Group Self-Evaluation Form, the Professor will assume that, from this student’s perspective, at least, no free riding problems existed.