25% MBA complete

End terms are over :-)
I haven't done too badly but there are a few areas for improvement...the most important being time management. If you ask me what is the single most important skill that you need to master in order to survive in a B-school then I'd say it's time management - more so in a 1-year MBA.
It's been 2.5 months and it seems like y'day...time really flies in a B-school with all the assignments / quizzes(announced & surprised) / mid-terms / end-terms / projects (individual & group) et al.
2nd term is gonna be more hectic so I'll recharge my batteries & be back on the 5th of next month.

P.S. Loads of stuff to share with you guys so don't go anywhere...I'll be blogging daily during the term breaks to compensate for not blogging enough during the 1st term

End terms are here !

End terms exams have started. Today we had the BECC paper. Tomorrow we have 2 exams - Mktg & Mgr Comm. followed by Mgr Eco on tuesday, QT on wednesday and finally MANAC & OB on thursday. I will be leaving for Kolkata on thursday night. All exams other than MGE & OB will be open notes. Looking fwd to another 4 sleepless nights :-(

Two Xlers in News

Sharat Dhall (93BMD) joins Expedia as India Head
Sharath Dhall (93BMD) has been appointed online travel portal Expedia.com as its head of India operations.
...Prior to joining Times Internet Ltd (TIL) as its Director (e-Commerce) about a year-and-a-half ago, Dhall was working for HLL (now, HUL) as business head of its rural venture, Project Shakti. He has 14 years of experience and has also worked with Asian Paints.
Expedia created buzz in October 2006 when it said it was looking for a person to head its imminent operations in India. The company now has an office in Gurgaon, but has not announced any other plans. Expedia offers the ‘Expedia Best Price Guarantee’ which guarantees customers the best rates for all types of travel -- it offers vacation packages, flights, hotels, car rentals, cruises and in-destination activities. Since Expedia is very strong globally on hotel bookings, the company is expected to follow the same route when it officially launches in India.



Madhukar Kamath (76BMD) is AAAI President
The Hindu (July 31): Mr Madhukar Kamath (76BMD), Managing Director & CEO of the Mudra Group, has been unanimously elected as the new President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) for the year 2007-2008.
The AAAI is the apex body of advertising agencies in the country and comprises 84 members who account for approximately 80 per cent of all the advertising business in the country.
Commenting on his appointment as the President of AAAI, Mr Kamath said, “The Indian advertising industry is undergoing tremendous change. I believe marketing communications play a valuable role in the economy. The task at hand is to improve the image of the industry and to promote the interests of the advertising agencies so that they continue to make an essential and ever-increasing contribution to the nation.”

The Goal

As part of our OB (MHB) course we have to complete a book review. I just finished the book assigned to me which is "The Goal" written by Eliyahu Goldratt. Plainly speaking The Goal is a book on Theory of Constraints. However along with the message, another important side to this book is the method the author has adopted to deliver the message.
Alex Rogo is a harried plant manager who is continually fighting to meet the output requirements of his business. There are ongoing conflicts between marketing, accounting and production in the organization. His factory is rapidly heading for disaster. So is his marriage. He has ninety days to save his plant - or it will be closed by corporate HQ, with hundreds of job losses. It takes a chance meeting with a colleague from student days - Jonah - to help him break out of conventional ways of thinking to see what needs to be done. Through some suggestions from Jonah, Rogo learns to identify and manage the problem areas in the operation. Specifically, Rogo identifies production bottlenecks that are the critical points determining the rate of production of the operation. Then he develops strategies for overcoming or living with the bottlenecks.
Eliyahu Goldratt uses the approach of Socratic inductive reasoning to teach his Theory of Constraints. He does this by presenting ideas in the form of a fascinating novel about people dealing with the problems managers face at home and at work every day. Goldratt's ideas are surprisingly applicable in manufacturing and service environments. By studying and applying these ideas, one could improve the organizational effectiveness and productivity, free up capital tied up in excess inventory, reduce customer frustration and reduce organizational anxiety. The Goal should be on the "must read" list for most managers.

XL - Pics

XLRI Learning Centre



Campus at Night



Way to Class



MDP Residence



MDP Dining Hall

M&A: Human Capital Challenge

Last month SAPPHIRE invited Mr Sunit Sinha to talk about M&A: Human Capital Challenge. Mr Sinha is a M&A Consulting Business Leader at Mercer Human Resource Consulting, India. Incidentally, he happens to be an XLRI alumni.
M&A transactions continue to boom, driven by increasing globalisation, healthy financial results and an increase in available financing. Yet many deals fail to meet the strategic, operational and financial objectives underlying the deal rationale. Why?
The most common reason for this failure is lack of attention paid to the human capital aspects of due diligence and integration.

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla

We had Prof. D. P. Ghosh of ICFAI visiting us over the weekend. He took 3 sessions in 'Integrated Marketing Communications' & 'Pricing'. There were a lot of takeaways from his Marketing class. He is an alumni of XLRI (73 batch).
We were also shown a movie on saturday as part of the MHB course. The name of the movie is "Ek Ruka Hua Faisla". The story goes like this -> 12 male members of a jury gather together in an enclosed room to deliberate their decision on a charge of murder against a young man who has been accused of killing his father. All of the jury, save for one, are convinced of this young man's guilt, and they would like to convince their colleague also to come to the same unanimous decision. However this dissenting juror slowly manages to convince the others that the case is not as obviously clear as it seemed in court. It's an adaptation of the English movie "12 Angry Men". Go & check it out (I mean the English version).

Adventure Trip

Hi guys, I'm back after a long hiatus. Some of you have mailed me. I'll try to write more regularly henceforth. We (GMP students) recently went on a three-day adventure trip co-ordinated by Tata Adventure Sports Foundation (TASF), Jamshedpur. This is a regular annual event to be taken up by all students.
This program aims to inculcate management lessons among the students the natural way. TASF, a professional body under dynamic leadership of Ms. Bachendri Pal, is engaged in organizing such adventure programs for corporates and institutions all over the country.
The three days trip involved students admiring the hardships of nature as well as actually enjoying the same by means of several exciting management games which brought out their mental and physical prowess to the fore. The events included rock-climbing, caving, trenching, abseiling at a place near Jamshedpur and water rafting at Dimna Lake.
Ms. Bachendri Pal, the first Indian women to climb Mt. Everest, gave a pep talk to the students on leadership skills. She was all praise for the enthusiasm and high degree of involvement shown by the students. The trip ended with the event of water rafting at Dimna Lake and the names of the overall group members were announced by a senior TASF official. The trip ended on a sweet note with recapitulations of learning spread over three days. GMP students were upbeat with the rigor and relevance of this program. Some of the learning's from the program include leadership skills, working in teams, building strategies, making optimal use of available resources, overcoming the fears of unknown, leadership, and introspection skills.

1st Term Begins

Academic year starts from tomorrow... Here's wishing everyone in our batch all the very best ! In the meanwhile we are trying to come up with a collaborative GMP blog. I'm sure that there are a good number of bloggers/creative writers in our batch so that there will be no dearth of contributors. Keep watching this space for more info. regarding the collaborative blog.
P.S. We have also elected the 2 CRs of our class this week. A lot of work ahead of them :-)

1st Week @ XLRI

I'm trying to settle down here. We are having a preparatory programme during the 1st week. Prof. Madhukar Shukla took us through the history of Indian Business starting from the post independence era till the late nineties. We were introduced to Case Methodology with the case of "Ross Abermathy and the Frontier National Bank". For anyone interested this case has been taken from Peter Drucher's 'Management Cases'. Since I have an engineering background I was quite skeptical about Accounting & Finance. However, after attending a couple of sessions of Prof. Sabyasachi Sengupta all my demons have vanished. In fact, I have started to believe that I will probably enjoy the subject. The way he introduced the concepts is simply amazing. Kudos to him.. Registration is tomorrow...

Reached XLRI

I reached XLRI on 19th evening. It's been raining here lately. Unfortunately some of us could not be accomodated in the MDP Residence so we are temporarily put up in St.Thomas Men's Residence. Hopefully we would be able to shift to the MDP Residence by month end. In fact a new residential facility is coming up in the campus where all the GMP participants would be housed. This facility is expected to be operational by 1st week of September. So, a lot of packing/shifting ahead of us :-(

Here I come !

The countdown has begun...I shall be leaving for XLRI on 19th June. I'll be travelling with 3 other friends, Shailendra, Suman & Nikhilesh. Santosh was also supposed to travel with us but unfortunately he couldn't make it due to prior professional commitments.
Hopefully the weather at Jamshedpur would be better this time around with the Monsoon setting in. Anyway, that's not my prime concern since from what I heard the Classrooms and the MDP Residence are all centrally airconditioned.
The academic calendar is as follows:
1. Welcome & Preparatory Programme : June 20 - 24, 2007
2. Registration & Briefing for GMP Programme : June 24, 2007 (3 PM)
3. Term 1 Begins - June 25, 2007

XLRI Campus Pics

While browsing through some MBA student blogs I stumbled upon these excellent pics of the XLRI campus. Kudos to the photographer for capturing some really breathtaking snaps. Please see for yourself here !

Educational Loan

I was in Jamshedpur last week to arrange the education loan. I could have paid the entire course fee from my personal funds but decided against the same after some contemplation. My decision to go for the education loan is not based upon financial reasons but to avail the tax advantage associated with the repayment of the loan. Section 80-E of the Income Tax Act contains a provision for availing deduction on the total income on account of educational loans for the purpose of computing taxable income, provided the loan is in the name of the assessee.
For anyone interested the details are as follows:
GMP Course Fee - Rs 6,26,000
Disbursing Bank - State Bank of India
Loan Sanctioned - Rs 5,94,000 (approx 95 %)
Rate of Interest (Floating) - 11.25 % per annum
Repayment - 84 EMI of Rs 10,249
Security/Third Party Guarantee - Waived

XLRI Search Engine

Google’s Custom Search Engine restricts the search only to the sites specified by target user community. The target websites can be collaboratively maintained and managed. I was inspired to create a custom search engine for XLRI after seeing Bharani create one for ISB. Currently the search is targeted to 10 sites including the XLRI Website and XLRI student blogs. Check it out for yourself and let me know your feedback.
I welcome my readers to add many more relevant sites to this search engine, by clicking the “Volunteer to contribute to this search engine” link on the search home page.

G-Day Result

On Nov 21, 2006 I took the GMAT and scored a 720 (96th Percentile). The breakup of my score is as follows:

QA - 49, VA- 40, AWA - 5.0

I was not too satisfied with the overall score, but I was confident that this score would keep me competitive for the top MBA programs that I would eventually apply to.

In the near future, I'll write a detailed follow up of my test experience, as well as a summary and reflection of the entire preparation process which would hopefully help future GMAT aspirants.

GMP 2007 - Placements

I have already mentioned in one of earlier posts that XLRI had for the first time this year offered placement to it's GMP students.
49 students, 26 participating companies and 106 offers – that pretty much sums up the XLRI GMP Placement 2007. The highest international offer was USD 100,000, the highest domestic offer stood at a whopping Rs 35 lakhs and the average salary offered for the GMP Class of 2007 was Rs 15 lakhs. Offers poured in from diverse sectors like Investment banks, FMCG, Telecom, Banking, Management Consulting, Manufacturing, IT and ITES. Firms such as ADAG Group, Atos Origin, CTS, Feedback Ventures, Godrej Consumer, HCL, ICICI, ICRA Management Consulting, JSPL, L &T, Mindtree Consulting, Patni, RPG group, Satyam, SBI Caps, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors etc. participated in the placement process.
The Information Technology (IT & ITeS) sector lapped up 35% of the students, Financial sector 30%, Manufacturing 15%, Telecom 10%, and the remaining 10% were picked up by Consulting firms.
The placement performance vindicated the confidence that the students placed in a bold new open-format, flexible, rolling, placement-process. The slot free transparent process was aimed at finding the right organization fit for the candidates who were seeking roles of their interest. The process also offered a menu of location choices to recruiters, with the Institute bringing the entire batch of students to Mumbai for one part of the process. This facilitated an interaction between the candidates and top management of the participating organizations. The feature was much appreciated by the participating organizations especially given the fact that multiple rounds of interviews were often necessary to decide the best fit for candidates based on their prior experience, interests and organizational needs.
In the words of Prof. Uday Damodaran, the chairperson of the XLRI placement committee: “Given the care with which we selected participants for this programme, the thinking that went into the design of the programme and the quality of delivery of the programme, we were always confident of the success of the Placement Process. But the enthusiastic response of the recruiters exceeded even our own expectations. Notably so, because a significant number of participating companies even had their Managing Directors on their interview panels”.

Placement Snapshot
Number of candidates - 49
Companies participated in the placement process - 26
Total offers - 106
International offers - 2
Average Salary - 15 Lakhs
Highest International Offer - 1,00,000 USD
Highest domestic offer - 35 Lakhs INR
Number of offers per candidate - 2.16

XLRI - GMP

XLRI has evolved a one year consolidated programme in general management with the objectives of providing the participants a substantial exposure to theoretical foundations in management as well as to provide them a holistic perspective of business.
The programme consists of Core & Optional courses specially designed for fast track executives with work experience. In order to enrich the GMP and make it more contemporary, XLRI has increased the number of core courses to 20, while that of electives to 12. The entire programme spans for more than 1000 contact hours in class spread over four terms. The programme incorporates a group project which will be based on live problems from the industry and involves an important part of the learning process. The Institute is in the process of further restructuring the programme by making the courses more appropriate and contemporary by introducing a complement of international exposure. The international immersion is designed to prepare the participants to take on challenges anywhere in the globalized world.
XLRI awards the Executive Postgraduate Diploma In General Management to the participants who successfully complete all the requirements of this programme.

AICTE trying to play spoilsport

Now, this one is simply hilarious.
One would imagine that the prestigious Indian School of Business with it's World Class Infrastructure and all the International Exposure would be in the Government’s good books.
However, that does not seem good enough for the All India Council for Technical Education, which has bracketed ISB with a bunch of unapproved B-schools operating in the country.
WHY? Apparently ISB has not bothered to kowtow before the council, seeking its approval or ratings. Instead, the institute is busy lobbying for an international accreditation from the US-based Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business (AACSB).
The AICTE has, since the institute’s inception, sent several warnings and more recently legal notices asking it to get the council’s approval. ISB, though, has been looking the other way. Director (communications) Bhuvana Ramalingam acknowledged that the AICTE has written to them. “But we are not interested" she said.
One important point to be noted here is that none of the past, present or future candidates seem to be unduly worried over the fact that ISB is not recognised by the AICTE...

Why XLRI ?

I have already discussed my reasons for opting for a 1-year MBA.
The 1-year MBA has come out of it's nascent stage and today there are several excellent B-schools that are offering a 1-year MBA.
My pick would be the following: (in alphabetical order)
1> IIM A
2> IIM C
3> ISB
4> SP Jain
5> XLRI

There are others but I would chose to restrict the discussion between the above 5 premier B-schools.
1> IIM A (PGPX)
As national and international rankings of business schools in recent years confirm, IIM A occupies the top slot not only in India but also in the entire Asia Pacific region. The PGPX programme is targetted at executives with substantial work experience (avg. exp of the first 2 batches are around 9.5 years and 9.75 years respectively). Also, the average ages of the participants of the first 2 batches are around 31.5 years and 33 years respectively. This is natural since PGPX aims to place the participants mainly in senior management positions. The placement statistics is really enviable and is testimony to the quality of the students admitted and the quality of training they receive. The cost of the programme is a hopping Rs 14 lacs though.

2> IIM C (PGPEX)
As we all know IIM C is rated as one of the premier B-schools in the APAC region. However, the student response to the first batch of PGPEX is not known to be as good as IIM A. We still need to wait for the performance of the first batch. The programme fees are reasonable - Rs 8 lacs.

3> ISB
The sprawling campus, cutting-edge facilities and faculty members of international repute at ISB is truly unmatched. However the effectiveness of the programme is questionable especially when one takes into account the 420 cattle-like mass at ISB. Also ISB is indecently expensive (~ Rs 18 lacs) and it can hinder one’s career growth. ISB grads are forced to take up high paying jobs rather than the jobs that they would like to take up. Again, if you closely look into the placement statistics then the numbers tell a very different story. If the highest domestic salary is Rs 42 lacs & the average domestic salary is Rs 15 lacs then it doesn't require a genius to calculate the standard deviation and since ISB doesn't report the actual lowest salaries one can imagine the pittance of salaries that are offered to ISB grads who belong to the wrong side of the median.

4> SP Jain (PGPM)
SP Jain has consistently ranked among the top 10 B-schools in India. The thrust given to the course by SP Jain Administration and the locational advantage of being in Mumbai, the commercial capital of the country is indeed impressive. The placement record is fairly decent. The programme fee is extremely reasonable - Rs 5.5 lacs. Unlike the other programmes which offer a General Management programme (and are quite flexible in that respect), SPJIMR offers only 2 specializations - Operations Management & Information Management. Not too sure whether this is due to lack of quality faculty or any other reason.

5> XLRI (GMP)
XLRI is one of the premier Management Institutes of the country. They are the pioneers of the 1 year MBA programme in India. The minimum work experience for GMP is 5 years. A candidate has the option of either taking XAT or GMAT as per their convenience. The slim batch size of GMP (55 students only) is clearly a great advantage. The course fees are very reasonable - Rs 6 lacs (which includes International Trip etc). The GMP placements have been quite impressive (average salary of 15 lacs/exciting profiles offered) considering the B-School had for the first time this year offered placement to it's 55 students.