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He began with asking as to what comes to our minds when HR is mentioned with respect to organizations. He mentioned four points: process oriented, best practices, Organized and Innovating. Mr. Ravindran quoted “There is no road ahead” when he took the future of HR. at first, all of us were perplexed. We did not get his point. He then clarified himself by saying that there is no definite tomorrow as far as HR is concerned. He said that it is up to every one who enters the organization to make the road. With this he rephrased the earlier four points as “more of the same”, “copy the same”, “tied down”, “talking about it”.

He said change was the need of the hour. With higher speeds being achieved in the business world, the change in framework for business is inevitable. With more information being available, competition is going at an alarming rate. There are greater risks accompanied with biggest rewards. The customer is constantly changing and is thus said to be very choosy. Unless an HR professional has a bit of Adventure and a penchant for exploring the unknown, he is bound to repeat the four things mentioned earlier. Thus the organization will die. Mr. Ravindran stressed on the importance of value nowadays.Value that is driven by merit and worth and not by post and hierarchy, past or seniority.

He then asked as to whether HR should be different. With a rapidly changing environment, jobs and tasks are becoming increasingly difficult. Ideas are considered viable only if it is brought into application. Therefore, tomorrow's organization is driven by value where there is no hierarchy or no structure. He added that tomorrow's enterprise would one where the focus is less on controls and boundaries and more about exploration and creation.

Mr. Ravindran then made a comparison between two styles followed in organizations, the INSIDE-OUT and OUTSIDE-IN approach. He said that an HR professional should be an HR differentiator. He should be able to help a fellow employee understand him/her self better. It is all about understanding people differently and thus helping them deal with changes or change management. To become the best, one has to do only one thing and that is break through one's inhibitions.

Mr. Ravindran finally concluded by saying that everyone in an enterprise should be considered equal and should be evaluated in terms of value. HR has become about thought leadership, helping teams and individuals, shattering inhibitions and breaking the shackles. With all this HR has definitely the making of an exciting future.

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“What is needed in the students is to build self-confidence. The attention span has reduced by 70% in the last 10 years and similarly the retention power of youth has also reduced,” he said. He also explained how the Art of Living Foundation has been involved in helping over 70,000 youth under the Youth Leadership Training Programme and a majority of them are now working in different industries and many of them have become entrepreneurs also.

During this occasion, Fr. E. Abraham, Director of XIMB, said, “We at XIMB aim to instill social values, ethics and concern for society in our students besides providing them excellent management training.” Fr. Abraham appraised that the Art of Living Foundation is the largest volunteer based NGO working in over 140 countries dedicated to serving society by strengthening the individual. “The contribution of Art of Living Foundation to the society is immense in different spheres like campaigning for peace, counselling, bringing people to the negotiating table. By using ancient techniques, he has brought out thousands of people from depression and helped them in overcoming suicidal tendencies,” said Fr. Abraham.

During the talk, Guruji described India as a continent in itself. “We are so diverse but still we are united. We need to maintain this diversity. Usually managers wish to see uniformity but they should acknowledge the diversity present; as well,” he explained. He urged students to keep themselves away from community, religious and gender prejudices. Guruji reiterated the need for communication without barriers for budding managers. He said “Unless you become a part of the people you can't manage them. One has to learn how to be one with them.”

Addressing a major concern of the students relating to maintaining work-life balance and remaining stress-free, Guruji emphasized the need of spirituality in the corporate world. He averred that our breathing system controls the brain and neural impulses and by adhering to simple breathing exercises, we can indeed keep ourselves composed and free from fatigue and stress.

He particularly urged the students of the rural management programme at XIMB to be sensitive to the rural ways of life. “We don't need to change the rural way of life. We need to honour the rural people and reinforce their confidence,” he insisted. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar blessed all and wished students success in their endeavours.

425
The session began with the doctors explaining the meaning and underlying difference between HIV and AIDS. They acknowledged that one of the primary health concerns of India and the world today is the deadly disease called AIDS- Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, afflicting a mammoth 40 million of the world's population in 2005, and around 4.5 million Indians, leading to 2.5 million deaths (reported by UNAIDS).

With no cure yet for AIDS, the axiom “prevention is better than cure” was repeatedly highlighted while emphasizing the responsibilities of a society. The lack of understanding and awareness of the disease has resulted in exclusion of HIV positive people from the mainstream of society thereby killing their hopes and aspirations. Our society needs to understand that HIV patients are like any other normal, healthy human beings since it may take several years, if at all, for the virus to degenerate into AIDS. During this stage, patients need our acceptance, and understanding and not retribution.

The changing attitude of parents and schools in their desire to educate children on HIV/AIDS has made a huge difference. The doctors stressed the import of introducing sex-education at school level to arm the youth with the necessary information to prevent contracting HIV. The importance of safe sex was emphasized, as were the dangers of transmission of the disease using common needles. According to the doctors, using sterilized needles and disposable syringes was crucial in prevention. The doctors also enlightened the students about the various modes of transmission of HIV, thus dispelling the numerous myths surrounding the disease.

Using the platform of IMI to 'educate' students will have tremendous direct and indirect benefits in addressing this problem. The interactive discussion between the students of PGPHRM, IMI and the doctors of Fortis Hospital was interspersed with an array of questions which cleared many doubts. The students participated in a group activity to understand the causes of HIV infection, classifying them into “no risk”, “low risk” and “high risk” category.

The session ended by the doctors simultaneously quoting, “spread the word, not the virus”.


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The highly anticipated event chronicled the legends in the business of sweat and success, which have pioneered the finest practices in supply chain management. It was launched in the year 2004 and the response from industry has been overwhelming with cases from leading companies including Ashok Leyland, Asian Paints, Cummins, Gillette, Marico, M&M;, Maruti, MICO, Nicholas Piramal, Ranbaxy, Shoppers Stop, Titan Industries, Tata Motors and Tata Steel.

This year the evaluation was done by the jury members comprising of a panel of supply chain management experts including Prof. G Raghuram, Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, Prof. M. Korgaonkar, Director General, NICMAR, Mr. Surku Sinnadurai, MD, I2 Solutions, Mr Gaurav Asthana, VP, Renoir Consulting, Mr Sachin Mirashi, Country Head, CSL, P&G;, Mr. Sunil Gera, AGM Operations and Prof. Jamshed Modi, Professor, Manufacturing and Operations, SPJIMR. The winners were selected based on the tangible and intangible benefits and impact of the innovative supply chain management solution on the overall business and the long-term sustenance of the initiative.

After the enlightening paper presentations by the six short listed companies, there was a panel discussion on the topic 'Vision for developing a logistic solution for India in the new millennium' chaired by Prof. M. Korgaonkar, Director General, NICMAR and included Prof. G Raghuram, Professor, IIM Ahmedabad, Mr. Niraj N Ambani, Sr. VP, Reliance Logistics Ltd., Mr. Nishit Kumar, Head, Awareness and Advocacy, Childline India Foundation and Mr. S. Harinarayanan, Member, National Committee on Logistic Services, Confederation of Indian Industries (CII).

The panel discussed the challenges in supply chain management in India, highlighting the issues of capacity constraint, infrastructure, technology, planning process, regulatory and strategic concerns of logistic service providers and private sector companies. The sweeping revolution in supply chain practices across companies in India has come at a most appropriate time creating a profound impact on our country's economy. The solution lies in a collaborative framework, so that the smaller associations co longer view each other merely as competitors. Logistics and supply chain needs to be treated like a silo and the parameters should be driven more that business objectives than targeting just the logistic issues; logistic strategy has to be a pass through process. It is integral to correlate planning process and adapt logistics when changes take place in the organization. Mr Ambani reiterated that the impact would be the transition from operational and functional bias to domain knowledge for collaboration. Multi-modalism is driven by logistics; Prof. G Raghuram said that we are far from the minimum requirements and there is great scope for entrepreneurship in this domain. Open investment in infrastructure, IT solutions to business problems, reduction in government exercising management control, need to reduce liability gap in funding, better risk assessment and regulatory framework were the suggestions provided by the panel. The right amount of professionalism is important in organizations and we need to step up branding to provide sustainable qualities to the end users.

Mr. S. Harinarayanan spoke about better integration and fine-tuning of the existing models to fill the gap between companies, suppliers and customers. The human dimension to supply chain management practices was provide by Mr. Nishit Kumar, with his insight into the need for building supply chain solutions in the social realm and breaking existing supply chains to save lives. He spoke about his organization Childline, which is a 24-hour phone outreach help line for children, which receives 2.5 million calls per year, 20% of the world's children's help line.

The grand finale was the awards ceremony and after much debate and deliberation the jury presented the prestigious SSEA to TATA Motors for their very well put together and relevant 'E-sourcing innovations' paper. The jury reiterated that the company had shown excellent application of innovation in today's dynamic business context by professionalizing it successfully throughout their company. Mr Sailesh Chandra, divisional Manager and Mr. Anurag Verma, Divisional Manager, TATA Motors were all smiles when they went up to claim the coveted trophy and prize money of Rs 1,00,000/- as the participants rose to their feet to give the team a standing ovation. The second place of Rs. 75,00,000/-at this year's SSEA was shared by TATA MOTORS and MARICO to an unremitting applause. The focus of TATA Motors moved from organization and supply to the customer end with their presentation on 'Strategic Cost Management through Target Costing'. MARICO covered the social implication context of e-procurement in the agricultural sector presented on 'Sourcing Transformation through E buying'. Dr. Tapan Bagchi, professor operations management awarded the TATA MOTORS and MARICO teams. As runners up, the MARICO team comprising of Senior Managers Mr Jaydip Mukhopadhyay and Mr. Ramaswamy Gnanial walked away with the trophy and prize money as the SPJIMR students gave a resounding cheer.



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With the purpose of building long-lasting and fruitful relationships of the institute with the Alumni from these batches, this event aims to makes the Alumni feel special and honored by generating enthusiasm and greater participation from them. Celebrated
The versatile legend Mr. Gulzar, who is an enigmatic poet and famous film personality, will be the Chief Guest for the evening to make this SPANDAN a special memory. This year around 120 Alumni are expected to attend the event. Speaking about SPJIMR, Gulzar Saab, the present day Ghalib says, “S P Jain reinforces the values that I learnt growing up. It taught me that in business the same rules apply as they do in personal life. Business is about people and one can never go wrong with being honest even at the cost of losing business, respecting individuals and doing what's right for the customers.”
The chief idea behind this event is not only to provide opportunities for networking and socializing amongst the select club of the SPJIMR family but also to celebrate their innumerable achievements. These Alumni are the true ambassadors of the S P Jain Institute of Management & Research. They are the epitome of the philosophy, beliefs and values that SPJIMR stands for and their success has done the institute proud. From the 'Batch of Origin' that passed out from the Institute in 1983, to twenty batches down the line in 2002 SPAN (SP Alumni Network) has reached a cumulative membership of almost 1800 today. They have seen much success and carved a niche for themselves in the highly competitive and dynamic corporate arena; in the leading companies across the world or creating their own success stories as flourishing entrepreneurs.

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They put forward the example of i-flex with respect to the changing business environment; new issues coming up and the response given by the company to grab opportunities.

Series was started with first session by Mr. Tushar Chitra (Senior Manager, Mergers and Acquisitions). He talked about the transformation phase in which i-flex is right now and positive effect of M&As.; He explained that complete game plan is to “Build -> Buy -> Align”. The real success mantra is to “Have Thoughts -> Get Focus -> Give Direction -> Turn into Reality”. Later he talked about combined role of Finance and HR in a merger.

The second session was by Ms. Mona Cheriyan (GM, Human Resource Group). She talked about 'Branding' in HR terms; specifically 'Employer branding'. Branding is about Trust, Personality Association and Projecting Proper Image. She talked about five factors, which a company uses to get Employee Engagement. These factors are Trust, Management Accessibility, Interesting Job, Opportunities for Promotion and Compensation. “To get employee's belief in brand it is necessary to translate brand value in experience”, she said. Later she talked in individual perspective that how a person can brand himself. The inputs were highly useful as those were given from employer's point of view.

In third session Mr. S. Hariharan (Senior VP, Infrastructure Support and Services Group) delivered lecture about the infrastructural problems faced by any big company and the step-by-step procedure to solve these. He took example of their own star selling product 'FLEXCUBE'. He told that any system is not alone, the external associations and relative product components always create challenges, and the matter is how one can create business opportunities out of these problems faced by the industry.

In the post lunch session Mr. A. Shrinivasan (VP, Global Sales Operation) talked about evolution of banking and global changes happening in banking industry. According to him the entire technology upgradation in banking system is just because customer is demanding the same. These demands are ease of service, elimination of paper work and security measures. The future driver for IT and Business Space is 'Service Oriented Architecture' and 'Business Process Management' respectively. All the functions of sales and marketing have evolved in a highly scientific and process oriented manner.
Last session was by Mr. Vijay Sharma (Senior VP, Consulting Services). He said that consulting is about specialization; how specifically one can analyze, predict changes and give solutions. In any business where IT has an integral role to play; consulting can be given in five core areas like Business Transformation, Risk and Compliance, IT Strategy and Architecture, Program and System Integration and IT Process and Quality Management. A consulting firm can tap new business areas through Speaker Events, Web Sites and White Papers on Industry specific issues. Industries do give high response to these tools. He explained the counseling mechanism having example of i-flex giving counseling to banks and designing the system.
In this way the series gave insight about relation between business process and all the major internal functions, which is so rare to get without self-experience.

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Thomas Schmidheiny, on behalf of 'Spectrum Value management' based in Switzerland, has committed to fund the Chair on Family Business and Family Wealth Management at the ISB. The funding will support the Chair for an initial period of five years in order to support research, education, publications and conferences conducted by the Chair.

Professor Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB said, “ We are privileged that Dr Schmidheiny has agreed to fund this Chair at the ISB. The ISB's Centre for Entrepreneurship Development has been conducting several courses on family business as this is a key area of study for India as well as other emerging markets. With the Research Chair being established, we will be able to conduct in depth research as well.”

Talking about his decision to support this Chair Schmidheiny said, “ I have closely watched the ISB's very promising five years and I am convinced that the ISB is on the right track to develop into a world-class institution which can easily compare with other leading institutions in the US and Europe. I hope this Chair will enable Indian families to learn about the subject, exchange best practices and profit from cutting-edge research. I see a huge demand for knowledge in this field, especially in the Indian context.”

Dr Schmidheiny is a leading figure in entrepreneurial circles both in Switzerland and abroad. He comes from a highly influential family of industrialists and political leaders. For over 25 years, Dr Schmidheiny was the CEO and Chairman of HOLCIM, the world's leading cement, concrete and aggregates enterprise. He has built up the company internationally and is currently the company's largest stakeholder.

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Thomas Schmidheiny, on behalf of 'Spectrum Value management' based in Switzerland, has committed to fund the Chair on Family Business and Family Wealth Management at the ISB. The funding will support the Chair for an initial period of five years in order to support research, education, publications and conferences conducted by the Chair.

Professor Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB said, “ We are privileged that Dr Schmidheiny has agreed to fund this Chair at the ISB. The ISB's Centre for Entrepreneurship Development has been conducting several courses on family business as this is a key area of study for India as well as other emerging markets. With the Research Chair being established, we will be able to conduct in depth research as well.”

Talking about his decision to support this Chair Schmidheiny said, “ I have closely watched the ISB's very promising five years and I am convinced that the ISB is on the right track to develop into a world-class institution which can easily compare with other leading institutions in the US and Europe. I hope this Chair will enable Indian families to learn about the subject, exchange best practices and profit from cutting-edge research. I see a huge demand for knowledge in this field, especially in the Indian context.”

Dr Schmidheiny is a leading figure in entrepreneurial circles both in Switzerland and abroad. He comes from a highly influential family of industrialists and political leaders. For over 25 years, Dr Schmidheiny was the CEO and Chairman of HOLCIM, the world's leading cement, concrete and aggregates enterprise. He has built up the company internationally and is currently the company's largest stakeholder.

433

Thomas Schmidheiny, on behalf of 'Spectrum Value management' based in Switzerland, has committed to fund the Chair on Family Business and Family Wealth Management at the ISB. The funding will support the Chair for an initial period of five years in order to support research, education, publications and conferences conducted by the Chair.

Professor Rammohan Rao, Dean, ISB said, “ We are privileged that Dr Schmidheiny has agreed to fund this Chair at the ISB. The ISB's Centre for Entrepreneurship Development has been conducting several courses on family business as this is a key area of study for India as well as other emerging markets. With the Research Chair being established, we will be able to conduct in depth research as well.”

Talking about his decision to support this Chair Schmidheiny said, “ I have closely watched the ISB's very promising five years and I am convinced that the ISB is on the right track to develop into a world-class institution which can easily compare with other leading institutions in the US and Europe. I hope this Chair will enable Indian families to learn about the subject, exchange best practices and profit from cutting-edge research. I see a huge demand for knowledge in this field, especially in the Indian context.”

Dr Schmidheiny is a leading figure in entrepreneurial circles both in Switzerland and abroad. He comes from a highly influential family of industrialists and political leaders. For over 25 years, Dr Schmidheiny was the CEO and Chairman of HOLCIM, the world's leading cement, concrete and aggregates enterprise. He has built up the company internationally and is currently the company's largest stakeholder.

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In his distinguished career, Mr. Bhoothalingam has served as the President of The Oberoi Group as well as the BAT Plc as the Head of Personnel, VST Industries Ltd. as Managing Director and ITC Ltd. as Director. He has travelled extensively, in China which he consistently referred to as the Central Kingdom and is also the Convener of The Tourism Task Force for the Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar Forum, 'The Kunming Initiative'.

“Confucius, Gandhi and the Rise of Chindia”, focused on the rise and fall of China as well as India's lack or even absence of knowledge about this great 'Central Kingdom'. With native fluency in 6 different languages this profound gentlemen enthralled the audience with a description of the 'effects of a language in forming a country, a civilization.' To a spellbound audience he described the history and understanding of the two great philosophers, Confucius and Gandhi and their effects on their respective countries, yesterday and today.

“When things are investigated, knowledge is extended ; when knowledge is extended , thoughts become sincere; when thoughts become sincere , then the heart becomes pure; when the heart becomes pure, personal life gets cultivated; when personal life gets cultivated, family becomes regulated; when family becomes regulated , the state comes in order ; and when all these happen peace prevails throughout the world.” He rightfully quoted Confucius which followed an ethereal applause.

Mr. Bhoothalingam pointing towards the MBA aspirants once again quoted through Confucius, “I hear then I forget, I see then I remember, but when I do then I understand...” and left the discussion open ended. Leaving the audience restless, an array of questions were posed to him.

International Management Institute, New Delhi chose to celebrate its Silver Jubilee Anniversary by holding lectures by distinguished speakers from various fields to share their experiences, wisdom and knowledge to the IMI students. Christened as 'The Silver Jubilee Lecture Series' is supported by the IMI's Board of Directors who also nominated its Chairman, Shri Subir Raha (former Chairman, ONGC). Among the speakers who have already participated are Swami Bhodananda Saraswathy, Dr. Durval De Noronha Goyos Jr, Mr. Jagdish Sheth, Mr. D.N. Ghosh, Mr. Vinod Dhall and Mr. S Sridhar.

It is proposed that all the lectures delivered will be published in a volume cherished the Silver Jubilee Lecture Series by the end of the programme. The range envisaged to be covered in the series would be varied, and the objective would be to bring out the diversity and richness of the management discipline.

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The debate was organized by Catalyst, a students' forum at XIME. The debate was moderated by Mr. Venkatesha Babu, Associate Editor of Business Today. The topics for the debate were 'Media Industry- A Hype or a Reality' and 'Is Sensex really a true indicator of economic prosperity?'
One student from each of the colleges discussed their views on one topic. Sanchayan Nath, IIM-B and George Abraham, XIME debated on the topic 'Media Industry- A Hype or a Reality'. This was followed by Abhishek Panda, IIM-B and Sandipan Mitra, XIME expressing their opinions on the topic 'Is Sensex really a true indicator of economic prosperity?' The participants were allowed to speak for three minutes, followed by questions from the moderator, Mr. Babu and then the discussion was thrown open, inviting questions and views from the audience comprising of IIM-B and XIME students.

Very interesting opinions and views came up during the course of the debate. In the first debate, on the media industry, the triviality of the content portrayed in the media today was questioned. The discussion then ventured onto the “road much traveled and debated on” about the “regulation of media”, Mr. Babu was of the opinion that media in a democratic country cannot have government censorship and the only feasible solution to this was 'Self regulation'. The topic on Sensex brought up the issues such as volatility of the Sensex, and the small percentage of the retail investors facing the wrath of FII and other institutional investors. The credibility of the phrase 'Stock Market an Indicator of economic prosperity' in the context was discussed. The audience strongly supported the view of the Sensex being an indicator of growth, while Mr. Babu stressed on the need for a better indicator and a decreased dependency on the Sensex.

The participants reasoned, defended and argued with conviction about their Standpoint.

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Who said that with each passing year family members drift away and lose contact? With Spandan 2006, SPJIMR invited all it's Alumni to spend a nostalgic evening walking down memory lane by revisiting those memorable college years, renewing old acquaintances and meeting new SPJIMR family members. The SPJIMR Alumni have seen great success and carved a niche for themselves in the highly competitive and dynamic corporate arena in the leading companies across the world or creating their own success stories as flourishing entrepreneurs. In keeping with tradition, SPJIMR made the Alumni feel special by felicitating the batches of 1986, 1991, 1996 and 2001 by honoring and presenting them with special mementos.

Spandan 2006, the annual Alumni meet of SPJIMR is not only an event that provides the Alumni with opportunities for networking and socializing amongst the SPJIMR family but also to helps them to catch up on all the latest happenings in the institute that you have missed out on. The participants of SPJIMR enlightened the audience on the many new initiatives taken by SPJIMR like the Consultants Interest Group that gives the participants the right exposure and provide the platform to showcase their potential in the corporate arena.

The event started with the traditional lamp lighting ceremony by the honorable chief guest Gulzaar Saab, Director Prof. Rajan Saxena, Joint Director, Prof. Sunil Rai and Registrar Mrs. Varsha Parab. Speaking at the event, the SPJIMR Director, Dr Rajan Saxena refreshed old memories and said that from the 'Batch of Origin' that passed out from the Institute in 1983, to twenty batches down the line in 2002, the Alumni have been the epitome of the philosophy, beliefs and values that SPJIMR stands for. They have been the true ambassadors of SPJIMR and their success has done the institute proud.
The icing on the cake was the surreal interaction with the modern day Ghalib himself, Gulzar Saab at SPJIMR. A brilliant filmmaker, noted poet, sensitive lyricist and a creative writer - all rolled in one. Gulzar Saab wrote his first film lyric in the early '60s. In the decades since, he has penned a string of timeless songs. He has won 5 National Awards and 18 Filmfare Trophies topping it with the Sahitya Academy Award in 2003 for his collection of short stories "Dhuaan". The Government of India has also conferred him with the National Honour of Padmabushan.

Gulzar Saab's magical verses re-ignited many a passion, tugging at the heartstrings of the spellbound audience when he spoke of his

'Aasmaan Ka Tukda'
'Hum bhi rang birangi sheesho mein chhupe
Apne aasmaan ke tukde ko dhoondhne lage'

He enthralled one and all by reading out from his collection of poems with subjects ranging from the freshness of childhood to the wistful yearnings of love. Their poignancy and simplicity gripped the Alumni as they relished the couplets with resounding cheers and showed childlike enthusiasm as they requested for more. He also shared with the audience his intimate relationship with books and the generation next's growing distance from them because of the computer age was also reflected in his rendition.
The legendary personality spoke about the renewing challenges that life throws our way with his

'Zindagi ki baazi khatm ho jaaye
Toh patte phir se bataate hain'

The audience were invited to an enthusiastic interaction where he discussed some of his favourites nazms, purposefully chose to refrain from discussing movies as he felt that there was scope to discuss many more exciting topics. He revealed to the audience that he savors everything of his past and regaled them with a few lines from his poem

'Wahin tehkhaane mein rakhi hai yaadein
Jab bhi jee chahta hain, chala jaata hoon
Aur so jaata hoon chupke se'

The mesmerized audience gave him a standing ovation and continued to applaud even as he graciously accepted their love and adoration, thanking them in turn.
Delivering the vote of thanks the Joint Director of SPJIMR, Professor Sunil Rai spoke of the pride of the institute, the Alumni of SPJIMR as an integral part of our collective aspiration and that they have all remained a valued part of the extended SPJIMR family. He reiterated that they have contributed enormously in building the knowledge base of the participants by sharing their insightful real-world experiences. He said that SPJIMR have a lot more to learn from them and that he looked forward to the Alumni's greater participation.

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Paul Bennett, Chief Economist and Head of Research Department, New York Stock Exchange said, “We can have common branding, but it is important to maintain a sense of the regional market.” He said that globalisation is more about economies of scope as per economics parley. There are a number of common elements – branding, nature of the product etc. At the same time it is important to have regional regulations in place (a good example is Europe). He informed that NYSE is in talks with Euronext for a merger. He further said that equity markets should be well regulated, and that the prerogative of local regulators is very important. Bennett concluded on a bullish note, “Markets of the future are going to be much more cross-border and global.”

“Mergers seem to be the wave of the future,” noted Josh Felman, Head, International Monetary Fund, India office. Felman pointed out that it is not surprising that exchanges are thinking of mergers during this phase of sweeping globalisation. He, however, recalled that in late 90s and early 2000, a number of alliances and mergers were proposed, but failed. This was, firstly, because of a need to link the IT platforms. Secondly, trading and listing roles were not unified, and thirdly, due to governance problems. Felman concluded that though mergers seem to be the flavour of the month, globalisation and jurisdiction shopping will pose major problem for regulators. He set two questions to sum up his thoughts,”Does 'one size' fit all?' and 'Is regulatory cooperation possible?'

Ravi Narain, Managing Director and CEO, National Stock Exchange of India Limited, spoke about the Indian context. He said that the NSE was a fairly young exchange – 12 years old. Older perception of an exchange was more of a utility or a monopoly – specialising in specific products. This is no longer true. Now, an exchange participated in all areas – derivatives, currency etc. “Years ago, a typical exchange used to be a staid enterprise, just a utility. We have travelled a long way. Today exchanges realise the importance of derivatives,” he said.

Narain said that present business models are in line with revenue streams “Technology,” he said, “has allowed us to think of new products and service streams.” Speaking about the challenge that regulation poses, he said, “Exchanges is one of the most heavily regulated businesses.” He was upbeat about the fact that technology will induce competitiveness and that the complete break down of national monopoly was significant.

PH Ravi Kumar, Managing Director and CEO, National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX) said that trading in commodity is mostly retail, and that future volume on commodity exchanges has overtaken the future volume on the stock exchange. He pointed out that the regulatory divide in the county is strong – this, according to him, was the main reason for having two different exchanges.

The discussion was moderated by Pradeep Yadav who is W.Ross Johnston Chair in Finance, Price College of Business, Oklahoma.
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Its pretty much a demand-supply issue. Companies need good managerial talent and the avenues to identify and recruit that good managerial talent are limited in India. Between November and March, when most Indian B-schools open up their batches for recruitment, it is top priority for companies to be the first ones to reach the best campuses and grab their share of the talent.


Read Part 1 of the feature - How are placements planned?




Typically, IT companies recruit in scoops of 20 students each or even more from multiple campuses and between themselves, Infosys, Wipro, IBM, Cognizant and few others pick up nearly 30 percent of a batch or more from a campus. However with other companies, which are looking at a more limited intake of MBAs for that year, every B-school believes it has a good chance. The challenge then is in locating the right person in the company to pitch and then convincing her to come to campus.



In a particular company, finding the person who takes the decision to go to campus is very important. The first person you call in a company doesn't necessarily take that decision. It takes the Placement Committee one to one and a half month to reach that person in a company who takes the decision, explains Rajiv Sarin, a GIM Placement Representative.



Once you have that contact, it's very important to keep that confidential. Because if the information of this contact is passed on to other B-schools, it gets very simple for them to contact that person and get that company to their campus, he adds.



Say, a company has an intake of 10 MBAs in mind for a certain B-school. If another B-school gets to know about it and intrudes, that might make the company change their numbers for our school, says Gagan Vohra, another GIM Placement Representative.


Apart from this, duplication of process is a major factor that keeps B-schools from keeping everything about placements confidential until the day 100 percent of the batch is placed.


We believe that the process we follow during placements ensures that everyone has a fair chance to get into their dream company. We do not want other B-schools to know about and replicate this process, explains Vohra.


A month before placements, a bunch of GIM alumni visits the campus to help the second year students choose the sector to seek a job in. The students also grab this opportunity to hone their interview and group discussion skills.


Day Zero, Day 1, Day 2


Most B-schools follow one of the two types of placement processes. In a rolling process, placements are spread over a few months, with companies visiting campus at leisure, even as the school goes around with its normal business of classes, projects and the works.


In the other kind of process, which is followed at GIM, all Indian Institutes of Management, SP Jain, XLRI and others, all activity is brought to a halt and companies are invited to conduct recruitment over 2-3 days.


At GIM, based on the aspirations of students in the batch, quality of profiles offered and salary figures, the GIM Placement Committee gives each company a time slot when the Human Resource Department Managers of the companies can come to the campus, talk about the company and profiles offered in a Pre-Placement Talk, invite resumes and select talent using interviews, group discussions, games or psychometric tests.


The best companies get the slots on the first day, popularly known across campuses as Day Zero. The next best companies are given the Day 1 slot and the rest are slotted on Day 2. At GIM, the placements begin fro Day 1.


Good care is taken to ensure that no two companies from the same sector are slotted simultaneously, or else students would miss out on applying to a company.


This is where the fun begins. Given that the best opportunity to recruit the best talent of the school is more in the earliest slots than the latter ones, companies bargain hard to get a Day Zero slot and hold on to the best candidates.


How companies do it are amusing exploits in their own right, and each B-school has a story to tell. Here are some stories:



  • Just to be in the Day Zero slot, a company would increase the salary offered by a couple of lakhs at times. If the company does not have that luxury, it could even flatly refuse to visit the campus. Of course, its all a negotiation game and the Placement Committee and the company end up finding a common ground. But there are times when the B-school has to let a company go.



  • The hiring team of a company slotted for the evening lands in the city in the morning and shows up uninvited at the B-school directly from the airport, demanding that their slot be preponed or else. These are hard situations to handle for Placement Committees and they often end up bitter.



  • If a company finds a bright candidate during the interviews, it might unnecessarily elongate the interview by asking frivolous questions, at times to as much as 3 hours, just to keep that candidate from attending interviews of other companies.



  • A company slotted later might threaten that if the entire batch did not sit for their selection process even though 70 percent of the batch is already placed they would leave campus and never come again to that B-school.


Once companies start coming to campus, students have the choice to apply to the company they are looking at and sit for their selection process. Some B-schools make it mandatory for students to accept a job once it is offered, while others like GIM have a mechanism that allows them to sit for several companies even while ensuring that they do not hamper the chances of those who do not have any offer yet. While some Pre Placement Talks are a treat to watch, others can be a painful experience due to the lack of a single relevant slide.


The sprawling patio that opens up into a large courtyard inside the 200-year-old heritage structure GIM is housed in is the melting pot of high drama during placements. There are wild cheers and hugs as soon as a student gets a plum job offer, while those who are yet to convert a single company grow tenser as the day passes. These are 119 students who have lived with each other for two years and have a strong bonding among themselves. Celebrations are often muted so as to keep up the spirits of those who are still trying but failing. The day doesnt end for those who have a job offer.


It doesnt matter if you have a job if your closest friends are still trying. Until they get one, we do whatever we can to support them in terms of research, emotional support, ensure that they are eating well and remain motivated, muses GIM student Vikram MR, placed with IBM.


It is only symbolic of the closeness of the batch and collaborative nature of the placement activity that nobody changes into casual clothes until the last person is placed.


Even as this drama unfolds, the first year GIM students silently and steadily operate the unseen machinery behind the placements. A scheduling committee plans and executes the slots, ensuring along with the rooms committee that each company gets a room or a hall to conduct their process in, a mess committee ensures that the grub keeps coming in, the transport committee seamlessly manages cabs to transport companies recruiters from airport to hotel and hotel to campus, while the hotel committee does not let the supply of rooms run out. People hardly sleep 2-3 hours a day during the placement rush.


Late evening of Day 2, the last remaining student gets an offer and the entire MBA class of 2007 of GIM is placed. A loud cheer declares the news and the moment of truth is celebrated with grandeur at Genes, the riverside bar just across the street from GIM. Only physically present in the picturesque Goa country until now, the second year batch of GIM returns mentally to Goa as well.


To be continued... In part 3 of this feature, learn how to read a placement report and make sense of the figures.


This article is neither a sponsored feature by nor an opinion on the Goa Institute of Management placement process. Readers are called upon to conduct their own research before making a judgement on the institiute.


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Mr. Subramanian talked about how insights create great brands and how consistent positioning of these brands spell out their success mantra. He dwelled upon brands like Dove, Harley Davidson, Nike, Body Shop and Arrow to highlight how each one of them leveraged on their consumer insights to be the classic examples of brand connect with the consumers. He enthralled the audience by pointing out how brands like Harley Davidson stresses on “rugged individuality” which is what all consumers identify it with even now, creating such brand loyalty that the consumers brand themselves with the Harley logo via tattoos! Taking Arrow as the example, Mr. Subramanium reminisced how the success of their 'Unstainable' collection was also based on the consumer insights; the massive promotions making people actually try out the effectiveness of the claim. This got the brand the attention that it needed and the collection was out of stock in two months itself. Through various case studies he also brought out how when consumer insights if taken too literally, fails to create the intended impact. The range of cases given was eclectic to say the least and very informative. Needless to say, the students were fascinated by the talk which was carried out brilliantly by the speaker who with a dash of humor and creativity created a perfect learning atmosphere. Like he said, “Dig deep into personal experience, all great insights come from life itself.”

Mr. Shiv Subramanium has had 13 years of experience with JWT before he joined as an integral part of Arvind Mills.



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Mr Ranjay who got placed in HLL after passing out from TISS in 1993 has been with Unilever for the past 13 years. During this span, he has handled various challenging roles and responsibilities. He has worked as a factory manager, handled compensation and benefits and currently he is the Director for Organization Effectiveness and Change at Uniliver and is based out of London.

The 90's has been a decade that has witnessed an evolution of HR in terms of the roles that it plays in organization. In this context outsourcing has been one of the trends that has gained much importance. Companies now a days outsource much of their transactional work and focus on what is popularly known as playing the business partner role. Ranjay spoke in depth about the kind of HR functions that are getting outsourced. It started with Payroll outsourcing and now companies outsource training, recruiting and performance management. When asked as to what HR does after all these functions are outsourced, Ranjay said that HR does the most critical job – Brand Management. In functions like Training, the training needs are identified by HR, training modules are designed by the HR and the rest of functions like arranging the faculty and conducting training programs are outsourced. In Recruiting, the campus visits, the interviews are done by the HR people of the company. In short all those functions that are related to a company's brand or all those functions that constitute the core competency of an organization's HR are done by them and the rest is outsourced.

After that Ranjay explained the economics that went behind the entire process of Outsourcing. He explained some of the reasons why companies are going for Outsourcing. Most of the companies outsource functions to get cost benefits. Organizations also outsource functions that are not their core competency and once these are outsourced, they focus on their core functions and hence add value. He went on to explain the roles that most of the HR professionals are playing today – Strategic Partner and HR Specialist. He gave suitable examples to explain these roles which made all these terms which otherwise appear as mere jargons quite comprehensible.

Ranjay also spoke about the current and the future trends in Outsourcing. The number of HR-BPO deals has skyrocketed which speaks volumes about an industry that is in its incipient stage – HR Outsourcing Industry. He also compared the advantages that outsourcing gave vis-à-vis in sourcing. He said that in sourcing is good for a single product company wherein shared services can be used whereas for a large multi product company shared services would be difficult and hence outsourcing is better.
The board room resonated with the sound of a huge round of applause as the session ended. “One of the best sessions that we have ever had”, said one student, “awesome”, chimed in another.
The session no doubt was one of the best we ever had. Perhaps the greatness lay in the simplicity and the lucidity with which he provided insights into HR Outsourcing.

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In his distinguished career, Ambassador Gross has served as the U.S. Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy in the Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs; he was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate. Ambassador Gross began his career in communications more than twenty years ago. He is a graduate in Economics and then went on to study law at the Columbia University Law School. After graduating from the law school he joined the law firm of Sutherland, Asbill & Brenna. While at the law firm, he became a partner specializing in communications and telecommunications issues. Year 2000, Ambassador Gross joined the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign as the National Executive Director of Lawyers and since his joining of the Department of State he has addressed the United Nations General Assembly and led US delegations several times. Ambassador Gross is also a member of the UN Information and Communications Technologies Task Force.

“Convergence in the 21st Century”, said the Ambassador; was a multi dimensional phenomena, involving politics, technology, sociology, psychology as well as culture. The beauty about the process of convergence at various levels, he said, does not compromise the underlying diversity among nations. He implored students to take advantage of the situation they find themselves today in due to the Internet Revolution and use their knowledge to make the world a better place to live in for their future generations. 'Never have we been so empowered in terms of access to knowledge and information' and this according to him was the single biggest achievement of the digitized era. In answering questions that spanned an expectedly wide canvas, the Ambassador defended America's foreign policy because of what it had achieved in the Middle East and elsewhere. “It has empowered people and hopefully history will recognise the U.S.'s role in bringing freedom and democracy in Iraq.” Some of the audience appeared doubtful, but one thing was clear that whether it was WMD or nuclear rogue states, the Ambassador provided coherent answers to all the googlies thrown to him.

The guest lecture was attended by leading academicians, senior government officials and of course the students. Among those present on the occasion was the Former Secretary of Department of Information and Technology (DIT), Mr. Brajesh Kumar. Although there were many more questions that the audience wanted to ask the Ambassador, paucity of time drew the lecture to a close, with everyone in much the same vein as Oliver, asking for 'More'. Perhaps another visit by the Ambassador is justified stated Prof Ashoka Chandra in his vote of thanks. The Ambassador readily agreed. It will be well worth the wait.

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Ms Nooyi, who epitomizes the theme “Global mindset, Indian Roots”, felt that it was time for academia and research to come with more contemporary methods of 'predicting future behavior' of consumers by observation, by cultural focus and by ethnography rather than using the traditional methods of qualitative research.

Ms Nooyi commended Great Lakes Institute of Management for having an excellent international focus. Ms Nooyi said she was very much impressed to see Chinese language being a part of curriculum, a feat which even eminent universities doesn't have. Ms Nooyi, alumni and also a Board member of Yale, commended Great Lakes Institute of management for partnering with Yale. She said that 'Yale' is very dear to her heart and she would extend her support for strengthening this initiative.

Dr Venkat R. Krishnan, the Director of Yale - Great Lakes center for Management Research, speaking on the occasion, said that the center aims to promote, facilitate and advance India-centric management related research which contributes to the development of basic and applied knowledge in the field of management. He said that this conference will act as a bridge that links scholars around the globe with India as a common interest.

Apart from Ms Indra Nooyi, several illustrious thought leaders and professors of the world shared their views in the conference. Dr Seenu V. Srinivasan of Stanford University, who is regarded as world's foremost authority in marketing research, expounded the technique of a using 'conjoint analysis' as a method to predict future behavior. Prof Paul Prabhakar, Dean of FSU spoke about the DNA of a sustainable business enterprise. Dr Sudhakar Balachandran, who was awarded the outstanding faculty award at Columbia Business School, spoke on Share holder value maximization. There were many interesting case studies/talks by Dr Suj Krishnaswamy, Dr Sridhar Moorthy, Dr Rama Shankar, Dr Siva Nathan, Dr Ashok Vasudevan and Dr Neharika Vohra. Paper presentations from many well known schools like Indian Institutes of Management – Ahmedabad & Bangalore, Indian School of Business-Hyderabad, IIT-Khargpur, IIT- Chennai etc also attracted the audience. Prof Sriram, Executive Director of Great Lakes thanked Ms Indra Nooyi and all other distinguished professors for making such thought provoking speeches.




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Sansmaran is an endeavor to bond the NITIE Family and be inspired from our proud Alumni who have excelled in every walk of life. The Students of the IM batch and the IE batch come together to recall the past memories of NITIE. These are the memories, which are marked on the foothills, lake corners, oval roads, long stairs, and greeneries of Sahyadri.

The program commenced with the speech of Prof. Ashok Pundir, Secretary, NITIE Alumni Association Being the alumnus himself, he spoke on his cherished moments at NITIE. Mr. Ganesh Natarajan, an Alumni of NITIE and CEO of Zensar Technologies Ltd. highlighted the growth of NITIE in all the years and stressed the unique of NITIE's contribution towards hs success.

After Annual General Body meeting, all the respected guests moved to auditorium for witnessing the amazing performances in the form the speeches by alumni and cultural events by students.The closing of the ceremony was done in the lounge of NITIE where games and Dinner were arranged.

"People learn for their past". But if one knows what will happen in the future, things become easy to handle. Our alumni are our future. They are like elders in our home. They guide us about the path where there are lesser thorns and more flowers.

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Find how your story reads in CAT 2006 at the IIM Kozhikode website - http://www.iimk.ac.in/cat2006info.htm

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Good Luck!