The Placement Season

Two people running down the aisle with a cordless phone in hand, worried if they would be able to catch up sir to make calls to the company. Two upstairs are arranging the call-sheets in order of the preference of the calls to be made for the day. Couple others are calling up companies for fixing appointments with Prof. Then there are others running helter skelter between the placement room and the reception trying to courier the brochure. This is the normal routine of the placement folks of PGPM. One thought, one discussion, one worry – whether we will be able to beat the last year’s placement given the gloomy scenario around.

When the worry gets in to too many of us, we call for a placement meeting. Surrounded and “hounded” by tonnes of assignments, group works and quizzes, we set the deadline for the closure of the meeting at the outset every time; even though we know that we would never be able to achieve it. Well who cares, managers set the deadlines; adherence to the deadline is an act which is more often than not forgotten. The meeting starts with a bash, with all the hungry attendees ordering for their own set of delicacies from bistro. Till the snacks come, each one, start pulling legs of others and mimicking the Profs. Now its all fun in the air.

Then the COCO starts writing the agenda of the meeting on the board, with the others adding their own points. Pick one point from the agenda, and tempers start loosing. This transition from a light hearted environment to a tenser environment hardly takes any time. All “WHATs” and “WHYs” come pouring. Ears become red and hot as the discussion intensifies. Grey cells work at their peak to make the matters black and white. At the end of it, the discussion objectively boils down to couple of options for which the voting is done and we close the meeting, errr.. the first agenda, in a truly democratic manner. Well, hold your breath; we also do reach the end of meeting as well.

As placements get closer, people get busy in making unending calls, numerous pleads, uncountable follow-ups – all of which when result in a single “YES” from a company, the team feels elated and victorious and starts congratulating each other. At the same time, when the company bangs the phone down with a rude “NO”, our hearts are broken. We try to dissect every conversation and interaction with the company and pull out even the minuscule reasons which might have apparently offended the company.

Success or Failure of the entire exercise of placement can only bring temporary happiness or sadness in us. But the attitude we develop in terms of well wishing for others, being joyous at the joy of others and mourning at the tears of others, in course of all these activities, truly inculcates a radically different behaviour and changes the entire approach towards life. I am proud of being a part of this team – a FEAT that I will cherish life-long.

What made us come to a One Year MBA Programme (PGPM) here at SPJIMR?

Was it the lure of the motherland or an escape from the confines of a cushy nine-to-five job in the US, with all luxuries and no worries of heading back “offshore”?

Was it my innately foolish desire to see how I can take a risk and yet triumph victorious? Or was it a spark of inspiration that my sub-conscious mind captured after watching SRK’s “Swades”?

After having literally taken no risks in the five plus years of my work experience, something inside me spurred up all the courage my spine could muster to spring up and helped me take the leap.

And no – it was not that I was not forewarned by near and dear friends, who had already been “through the grind” at SPJIMR for this one year programme, and had opined that nothing would be doled out in a plate and we had to earn our meals.  The best thing about challenge is when you are told its not “doable” or “may not give that much ROI” and you are determined that much more to prove things otherwise.  It’s like you are all cranked up and want to again end up being an underdog to emerge triumphant.  

Call it the ego….or the thirst for challenge. But this has definitely made 56 of us leave well defined and well paying careers in reputed organizations in India and all the other continents to take this up lock, stock and barrel.  Each day I have spent since joining this course early this year; have never felt I have ended up in the wrong place after meeting my peers.  In spite of our varied backgrounds and experiences, we work together and agree to disagree and agree to agree on various themes/ topics and discussions. The childlike enthusiasm to play pranks on each other, to crack those stinking jokes which make one cringe and rebuke the joker, to accommodate each others differences and yet accept one and all are some things which are priceless and cannot be weighed in terms of “loss of opportunity cost” or being in some other B-school which is the arm candy of the recruiters, but has MBA’s with the A emphasizing “Attitude”.

The eve of your birthday, when you are thrown up high in the air and caught with the same strong hands that threw you to the skies are the same hands which are going to form really strong bonds and networks for years to come. Birthday parties are celebrated each month with usual frenzy with cake, piece of samosa or a potato crispy and loads of coke and pictures of each other.

In the last nine months, we have been twice to the lush green locales of Khandala-Lonavla where we had fun and some subjects. We have had an opportunity to do pro-bono work with NGO’s and provide them consulting, to improve their operations which has been very satisfying for the heart and mind. The numerous presentations in class, the trillions of assignments, the no. of surprise quizzes, the antakshari competition, the grand welcome party given to our junior batch, the wins of our batch mates in various  B-school competitions, the guest lecture series, the company visits and the alumni interaction through MILAN 2008 have all indeed brought out the synergies of being in the B-school where I should have been and where I am proud to be.

A one year programme indeed provides you the opportunity to have the same fun and enjoyment in less the time with the same learning’s as a two year programme as your prior work experience makes your learning curve much shorter.  Raised eyebrows on the one year programmes – try giving us a look and am sure you would be impressed!

-Deepak

MILAN 2008 - Part II

Ok, so picking the threads from where we left last time (lagta hai jaise koi sweater bana raha hoon :)), once the reception activities were over, we all settled in Dome-2 for the fun to begin. And it was truly fun-filled and at the same time informative evening.

We had participants from PGPM105, PGPM206, and PGPM306 batches, apart from the current PGPM407 batch. PGPM306 – you were sorely missed, with lot of people not being able to make it for various reasons. We hope to see more of you in MILAN 2009. From the faculty side, we had Prof. Sawant and Prof. Siddiqui.

DC did the compeering for the first part of the event. The event started with a ragging session – ragging with a difference. PGPM being a one-year course, there is very little overlap between two consecutive batches. As a result, senior-junior interaction (read ragging) is very limited. Hence, we took advantage of this Alumni meet (sorry, what was it, oh yeah ‘senior interaction’, remember the tabooed words) for the ragging sessions. But, then where was the difference. Well, here the juniors got to rag the seniors! :) So, we had some participants from different PGPM batches get called upon the dais and perform for the entertainment of the class.

From the seniors’ side, Harish and Sudhir spoke, and they spoke brilliantly – showing all signs of a true MBA… some really inspiring stuff. From PGPM407, we had DC, Munish, Padma and AriD getting ragged. AriD was the rock-star as usual. Padma was graceful as ever, Munish got trapped in his own mayajaal when he was asked to speak on ‘Marriage – Before or After MBA’. DC was good, but then when is he not? So no lines for him; plus he also didn’t allow me to send my CV for Accenture, so he doesn’t get a line here.

After all this began the serious stuff, or supposedly serious stuff. Tarun took over the compeering from DC; thank you Tarun for that :P. Kaustubh, from 206 batch, was called on dias to talk about ‘Brand PGPM’. Just to add some weight to the blog, Kaustubh is the Deputy Director at Frost & Sullivan. He appears on the Economic Times almost every other day. Well again, he is not some “Most Wanted” guy. He just happens to offer very thoughtful and insightful suggestions to various industries which gets published. Haan, abhi kaan khade ho gaye na, ab suno :). Yeah, so where were we, Kaustubh, yes, oh man, you had to be there to hear the uproar when Kaustubh got up to speak. The man had some weight, I thought (and saw also, big man he is, you see). Then Kaustubh started, and we listened, and he spoke more and we all just listened. Wow, what oratory skills. Readers, buy Frost & Sullivan stocks if it is a listed company, the company is in absolutely safe hands and has a great future! :)

Next to arrive was M. S. Sudhir from SAP India. He was to talk to us about the Emerging opportunities from the IM perspective. That was a difficult topic to speak on, given the current state of the market. Sab kuch to doob raha hai, Emerging kahan se kuch hoga. But, Sudhir spoke exceptionally well. And that’s the learning from these guys, the clarity of thought that they have, and the way they put it forward. All I can say is that these guys are blessed!

Devendra Kumar, Associate Vice-President from HSBC (PGPM105 participant) was the next on stage. Yeah, yeah, I am flaunting the designation. And why not, these are the people who have done us proud. Devendra - an OM guy, rather a proud OM guy, spoke about the markets from the OM perspective. He did give a big hope to all our friends who want to barge the financial domain and make a name (and a little bit of money) for themselves. The good part of listening to guys like Devendra is that you get to know the latest things in the industry, and more importantly the practical aspects of such issues. After all, who asks you about Porter’s five forces, when you are trying to sell a new product to a customer.

Next man on was the most queerest and talented entertainer of the evening. He did not speak on any topic in particular; was invited to talk since our next speaker was running late. The man is Vishal Jain, PGPM206 guy, at ATOS Origin right now. The ‘right now’ bit in the previous sentence is important:P. Despite other better orators at the event, if there is one person I’d like to emulate, Vishal would be it. He delivers each line with a punch. And by each line, I am not exaggerating. Without sounding repetitive at all, he delivered a punch in EVERY SINGLE LINE he spoke. I think he can join the boxing ring some day if only boxing were done with words! Sigh! Extremely talented man, he had people laughing and applauding all through. Sitcom guys, here’s your next superstar. Jerry (Seinfield) goodbye!

Before leaving Vishal gave a prelude of things to come. But, we never thought he was serious about our next speaker. But, when Pradeep Mishra arrived, all doubts in our minds were cleared. Pradeep comes from the second batch, and is currently working with Reliance Retail and I am sure he knows more about retail then any of those guys at Reliance, or for that matter any other Retail store. Power-packed retail session; even our own retail guru – Akshat – was impressed. Whether we understood everything he spoke about or not, he definitely had us thinking and by the time he finished we were starving (for real food)

With dinner time just minutes away, we had the ceremonial event closure talks. Prof. Sawant came on stage to conclude the proceedings, and smart to sense our hungry looks. He came, he spoke and he conquered, all in 90 seconds. To everyone’s delight, here was a Prof who sounded like he was one amongst us! He’s a youngster after all :)

Thanking time came and everyone expected DC to deliver. But we saw Prof. Siddiqqui walking up to the dias. Surprise package we thought. And, what a surprise it was. He won many a heart, and deservingly so. He didn’t miss out any name, made special mention of each and everyone who was directly or indirectly part of the event. Sir, you were truly awesome! Thank you for the thank you speech.

The event came to a closure with a well-served dinner.

The end of MILAN 2008 marked the beginning of a completely new chapter in the PGPM story – the MILAN story. And we are more than grateful to the authors of this new chapter. Thanks again Ram, Karthik, Vaibhav, Manish, Mittal, Hemant, Tarun and DC. Miles to go before we hit our respective beds, I guess!

Love,

Baldi

PS: There is a small note on MILAN that needs to be published; will be out in a couple of days time, group works permitting!

MILAN 2008 – Part I

No no, its not about the fashion event; MILAN is just a small ‘get-together’ for PGPM folks to meet their ‘seniors’.   Actually we at PGPM also wanted to use heavy-duty words like ‘conclave’ (for get-together), ‘alumni’ (for seniors), but such words are considered too MBA'ish, more so when they come from PGPM mouths. So we decided to use bachchu words. What we called it was MILAN. Simple enough I guess. However, we did use these words in the acronym below :)

MILAN is: 

Meet Intended for Leveraging Alumni Network

First and foremost (unlike the usual last but not the least) these are the elegant eight who made MILAN possible - Ram, Vaibhav, Karthik, Manish, Mittal Bros - Mittal Shah & Hemant Mittal, Tarun and DC.   Given the success of MILAN, I am sure these eight men will hold their head high in pride for a long time to come for their stupendous achievements.   More importantly they will proudly tell their grand-children about the first ever MILAN and how they started this grand-event!  And we, PGPM407, and the entire PGPM community will be grateful to them for a long time to come for taking up this initiative. And maybe we might have a statue erected in campus as well. Or…atleast somewhere near Pran Ganga if the administration does not have a problem with it!

Ok, I’ll accept it; MILAN team did sponsor my breakfast at Shetty’s this morning :P and I must admit it was pretty sumptuous.

Fine let us now get down to the event – MILAN 2008.  Wow, what a day it was.  The evening started with high-tea.  A small goof-up by the team meant that all of us could pounce on the veg-sandwiches after a long day in class.  That’s where the fun started, and fortunately for all of us, it did not end there.

We had Ram, Karthik and Vaibhav at the reception.   Knowing how diligent these three are, you won’t be surprised if I told you that these guys were calling the alumni, oops! sorry ‘seniors’ (taboo word you see) till the last moment.  Then, Karthik received a call from a certain Naina from second batch, saying that she would not be able to the make it to the event, no no ‘get-together’ (thou shalt not use tabooed words), and that she won’t be able to make it since she was pregnant.   Now, Karthik was perplexed for two good reasons –

-          Who was Naina, because her name did not figure in the list of seniors he had.

-          And if at all she was a senior who Karthik had contacted earlier for the get-together, then why did she NOT tell him earlier about her inability to come to the get-together.  How did she become pregnant all of a sudden? (Actually honestly speaking, I don’t think the guys thought about the last question at all. I am just penning it down to make it look more sane.)

Anyway, Karthik said ok, fine, congrats etc etc and moved ahead calling other people.  After some time his mobile rings again, and Naina apologizes profusely for not being able to make it.  After some convincing she does hang-up, only to call 5 minutes later again.  This time Karthik hands over the phone to AmitG.   Another bakra for Naina to tell her story.  Amit listens carefully and does his round of ok, fine, congrats etc etc.   When the phone rings again after 10 mins, Karthik is pissed; so in comes savior Ram. Same story, same response again.   In the midst of all this, whoever is free is calling other seniors and getting confirmation.

Its 6:15pm and our reception guys are still at the reception waiting for some seniors who are ‘perpetually stuck in traffic’.   The proceedings for the day were supposed to start at 6:00pm, but are postponed for some time – just 60 mins :)

Karthik’s mobile rings again.  Naina it is.   Naina – “Hey Karthik! Sorry for bothering you.  But I just wanted to tell you that I have delivered a baby!  Please announce it to the gathering, so that my batch mates are aware of this.  They’ll be happy to know, you see!”

Karthik, though pissed, congratulates her and promises to announce.

Naina strikes again after some time, this time its Ram.  In all this, something tells Ram and Kathik that there is something fishy.   At this point in time, a long-faced Srikanth comes and asks these guys if they got a call from someone called Naina.  That’s was it, Karthik and Ram were short of abuses and curses for Sri, realizing that it was he who was bugging them since morning.  People around could not stop laughing when Sri spoke in his err her err his .. whatever Naina voice.

Later I heard of a rumor that these reception heroes were wondering how they forgot to find out the gender of the baby and whether they must call back Naina to find out about it! Duh!!!

Well, after this commotion, it was time for DC and the other folks to escort the rest of PGPM407 batch and the seniors to Dome-2 for the 1 hour delayed beginning of the proceedings.

So that was the whole big story upto the completion of reception.   I’ll take 4 more parts to write till the end of the event.  So 4 more parts coming your way. Please please bear with me.

Love,

Baldi

Nah-Go Skills

9:05am
P1 – Baahar kyon khada hai yaar? Class hasn’t started?
P2 – Nahin, he has locked the room from inside.
P1 – Sahi, Chal breakfast karte hain. Which class was this btw?
P2 – Negotiation Skills.
P1 – hahaha, lets “negotiate” with him in that case. Kidding, chal yaar, I am hungry, breakfast karte hain.
By that time, P3, P4, P5 … P15, P16 had also gathered outside the class.

*At breakfast table*
P1 – What is the next class?
P3 – Same, Nego ka hi hai.

10:30am
Prof – I see more people in this class than the previous class.
P46 – Yes sir, some of them were late for the first class, so they have joined us.
Prof – But this is a “back-to-back” class. Should we allow these people to attend this class?
P32 – Sir, since today is the first class, I think we can allow them.
Prof – But, discipline is very important and we should ensure that we follow the timings since we are going to be budding managers.
P54 – Sir, we can give them a chance.
Prof - *Scratches head, chin* Nah-Go
P10 – Sir, what!?
Prof – NAH-GO

P1 to P16 (and P17) walk out of the class. Professor watches them in surprise, wants to speak, but before he could say anything more, all late comers were outside the class.

P8 – After a long time I have been thrown out of the class.
P3 – Hmmm, it was bad.
P17 – Kya hua people. Chalo, chalo, chalte hain.
P1 – Tu subah kahan tha. We didn’t see you when we were all standing outside the class.
P17 – I was inside the class. Got a chance to skip the second class hence came out with you guys.

Just then, P4, after a long deliberation, utters something.

P4 – Guys, I think, he was asking us to “Negotiate”.
P1 – Kya bakwaas kar raha hai. He clearly said, Nah-Go.
P4 – Precisely. He was asking us to “NEGO” - short for negotiate.
P12 – Shucks, and we thought, he was asking us to leave the class!
P17 (the guy who was there in the first class) – Chalo, chalo, chalte hain. Mast mausam hai, chill karte hain.

Regards,
Mridul Baldi

Supply Chain Management - I2 Technologies

Supply Chain Management has become the buzz word in the modern business. It has become part and parcel of efficiency improvement exercise in today’s business. The importance of SCM was also realized by the students pursuing PGPM at SPJIMR, Mumbai. So these sharp minds tried to delve further in the topic and invited a top notch supply chain professional from the leading Supply Chain Company “I2 Technologies”. Mr. Jiten Sandhu, Senior Director, I2 technologies was on the campus explaining the nuances of IT in Supply Chain Management on 9^th May, 2008.

Mr. Sandhu started with a video which was an eye opener and brought out the importance of SCM in the success or failure of any business. Then Mr. Sandhu started his power point presentation which was intellectually stimulating. But the participants of PGPM were also not be left behind. They bombarded Mr. Sandhu with questions and a person of his caliber was also left gasping for life. PGPM students brought out the nuances of the subject and the session was very interactive.

IT as we all know has become important support function of all the industries so much so that the new business models are being decided keeping IT in mind. In the areas of SCM also IT has started playing a very important role. The role that IT can play in making Supply Chain effective is tremendous. Mr. Sandhu explained these intricacies in details and the participants were spellbound by the way he handled this complex subject. He explained how IT has changed the way we look at the Supply Chain issues. He explained as to how IT can be used in the successful planning in today’s business. He explained as to how the IT has helped companies to evaluate alternatives, and make effective decisions at the speed of business change. IT tools enables companies to boost customer service levels due to increased product availability and improved responsiveness. Cash-to-cash cycles are lowered with synchronized planning and execution. Better decision-making using IT leads to reduced expediting costs and operating expenses. As productivity increases, companies reduce costs for system changes and upgrades, as well as improve the return on investment from information technology assets.

In a nutshell it was very stimulating session which both the students and Mr. Sandhu enjoyed, who was very impressed with the questions which the students asked. The importance of IT in Supply Chain and Supply Chain per se was realized. Many participants after attending the session have become very much interested in Supply Chain Management and have decided to make a carrier in the hot and happening field of SCM.

Rahula Kr Kashyapa,

PR Committee, PGPM

SPJIMR

70 minute, 70 minute hain tumhaare paas!

Following is the text of the inspirational talk given by our professor just before the Nucor case group work began. This is for all those of you who came in a little late and missed the talk.

“70 minute, 70 minute hain tumhaare paas!

Shaayad tumhare Business Strategy course ke sabse khaas 70 minute.

Aaj tum achchi strategy banao ya buri, yeh 70 minute tumhein poore General Management trimester mein yaad rahenge.

To kaise strategy banana hai, aaja mainn tumhein nahin bataoonga.

Pchchch *shakes head*

Bas itna kahoonga, ki jaao, aur yeh 70 minute jee bhar ke strategy banao, kyonki iske baad aane waale sessions mein, chahe kuch sahi ho ya na ho, chahe tum 5 Forces framework lagao ya 7 S’s framework, tum pass ho ya fail ho, lekin yeh 70 minute tumse koi nahin chheen sakta, koi nahin.

To, meine sooncha ki, is class mein kaise strategy banana hai, aaj mein tumhe nahin bataonga, balki tum mujhe bataoge - startegy banaakar.

Kyonki mein jaanta hoon, ki agar yeh 70 minute, is class ka har ‘participant’ apne General Management trimester ki sabse badhiya strategy bana gaya, to yeh 70 minute SPJIMR bhi tumse wapas nahin maang sakta.

To jaao, jaao aur apne aap se, PGPMRA se, SPJIMR se, aur har us Prof. se jisne tum par bharosa nahin kiya, apne 70 minute chheen lo.”

PS: Pun Intended, No Offences Meant – Seriously :-)

The Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

10:30am-1PM, 5^th May 2008, Bhavan’s Campus (The ‘Pranganga’ Lakeside):

Buntings in various colours fluttering in the hot summer wind, an open-air amphitheatre filled by an attentive (but occasionally raucous) young crowd. A table with a half-dozen occupants, at once part of and distinct from the crowd, is discussing animatedly while an indulgent (but sharp-eyed) lady looks on from the side-lines, and interjects sporadically. The casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that it is a political rally in progress, though he would be stumped when asked to identify the political party from the buntings- hats painted in six different colours. Hats, still reminiscent of the colonial sahib are an unlikely party symbol in India.

But heck, no! This was no political rally or camp, despite all superficial resemblances. Indeed, far from it- it was a PGPM Session on the Six Thinking Hats (ah, now you understand the buntings and the colours! J) by Dr. Edward de Bono, conducted by our respected Professor Rukaiya (the sharp-eyed lady mentioned above). (PGPM, by the way, is the Post Graduate Program in Management is a 1-year full time management program in SPJIMR, Mumbai for professionals with experience greater than 5 years in Manufacturing and Operations).

Leaving the lighter vein, the session was indeed a refreshing eye-opener. Workshop, training and group interaction in equal measure, the session was a tremendous success and extremely well-received by the participants. The Six Thinking Hats is a system of thinking strategies for individuals, each Hat representing a different strategy. The Red Hat represents Emotional thinking. The Yellow Hat represents Positive thinking. The Black Hat represents Critical thinking. The White Hat is purely the facts. The Green Hat is Creative thinking. The Blue Hat represents the Big Picture, sort of looking at it from all the viewpoints.

The Six Thinking Hats way opens up the power of parallel thinking and at the same time is an aid to lateral thinking. Dr. de Bono describes six different approaches and each is symbolised by the act of putting on a coloured hat, either actually or imaginatively; the hats are as described above. This can be done either by individuals working alone or in groups.

The session was a splendid example of SPJIMR’s unique ‘Innovative pedagogy’. The participants were divided at random into groups of 6-8 and given a random topic to discuss on, with a group moderator selected at random from the group. Each group was asked to discuss the topic given for 10 minutes. The moderator would anchor the discussion and guide the group through the relevant hats to be worn for each stage of the discussion and was also responsible for timekeeping.

Topics ranged from the highly charged (‘Is T20 a form of Cricket?’) to current affairs (‘Oil above $115 a barrel’- this doesn’t seem very current now with Oil at $135, though) to the political (‘Mee Mumbaikar’) to the mundane (‘Personnel problems post mergers and acquisitions’). But what was astounding was the way the groups, with no prior preparation apart from a reading of Dr. de Bono’s book took the topics up and in a mind-boggling display of parallel thinking. Changing their metaphorical hats every 90 seconds on average, every group came up with salient points on various aspects of the topic/problem. With sound application of the concepts learned from the book, all the groups demonstrated an enhanced ability to think in parallel (‘on the same wavelength’), avoid debate and in the most astonishing display of the power of the Six Thinking Hats, reach a consensus on most topics within the time allotted. Not to be left behind on lateral thinking either, the groups managed to come up with innovative (if somewhat idealistic) solutions to the issues presented in the topics while wearing their ‘Green Hats’.

Another revelation was the ability of some of the randomly selected moderators to control and guide the group through the discussion, keeping track of time( and the Hats!) while eliciting the responses of all members and summing up at the end!! Vaibhav’s style for the cricket based topic, reminiscent of Harsha Bhogle, was much appreciated. At least one guy has an alternative career ready should he ever need it (or even if he doesn’t)!

But all this fun, as with all good things in life came at a cost- self-evaluation, peer evaluation and the much-dreaded post facto ‘write-up’. Every participant graded each group and group member on a variety of parameters (moderators were graded separately) and also did a self-evaluation of his/her own performance with critical comments for the other groups. Of course, the Professor did her own appraisal of each group’s performance.

At then of the 2-odd hours, all of us came away richer and wiser. Specifically, through the group interactions and the thought-stimulation that had occurred, there were a few key learning points.

The importance and the power of parallel and systematic thinking in the Six Thinking Hats framework as opposed to conventional thinking is in bringing out the

· The power of collaboration

· The value of different perspectives brought in by divergent viewpoints

· The ease and the speed in reaching decisions

· Avoiding unnecessary debate

· The improvements in general communication and in lateral thinking

All of us enjoyed the session thoroughly and look forward to more of the same! (Though we would prefer an AC classroom and no write-up the next time J)

- by Prashanth Sadashivan