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What top three factors set IMT Ghaziabad apart from other Indian b-schools in the same segment?

Academic excellence, quality research and strong industry interface set us apart for other B-schools in the same segment. Also, our international links have enabled us to have MoUs with 23 b-schools worldwide for student exchange programs for which students don't have to pay extra tuition fees. This has also extended to faculty exchange programs in which our faculty can visit any of these B-schools for about a semester or a year and take part in joint research activities, seminars, international conferences and joint publications. Last year around 63-65 students had taken advantage of the exchange program but now we expect to extend our association to 40 such B-schools so that at least a third of our current batch size of 360 can be an active part of it.

What are some of the latest developments at IMT Ghaziabad?

Currently we have 65 faculty members which we expect to grow to at least 80 members. They have been provided with latest laptops, laser printers and separate AC cabins. We have made the entire campus wi-fi including the hostels, faculty rooms and grounds. Our library has around 32,000 books, 12,000 online journals, 6,000 e-books and about 300 print journals. We specifically have a budget of close to a crore for the library and over a crore for IT facilities. Power is a great problem in Ghaziabad but we have a 100 pc backup. Also, we have added two more floors for our Management Development and Research Center.

Which management areas has IMT Ghaziabad gained specific expertise in?

We provide specializations in Marketing, Finance, Operations and Systems, IT, Human Resources, International Business and General Management. Also we have a number of vertical specializations like Retail, CRM and more. IMT had initially predominantly focused on Marketing but now we are focusing on all the areas because the market requirement is dynamic.

Could you mention the number of faculty members in each area of specialization?

Currently we have 65 faculty members divided in each specialization as follows -

Economic Environment and Strategy: 10
Finance: 12
HR and Business communication: 11
IT and Systems: 10
Marketing: 14
Operations: 9

We tend to increase the number proportionally in each of the specializations.

What is the percentage of students placed in each area?

For the class of 2007 our placements were as follows -

Banking and Finance: 36 pc
IT and ITES: 22 pc
Retailing: 7 pc
Manufacturing: 5 pc
Investment Banking: 13 pc
Telecom: 8 pc
Consulting: 3 pc
Others: 7 pc

What have the CAT percentile cut-offs at IMT Ghaziabad been in the last 3 years?

Our CAT percentile cut-off for the year 2005 was 95 percentile, while for 2006 it went to 96 percentile and for 2007 the average percentile of the students called for group discussions was 98. Even after we increased our intake from 200 to 360 we have maintained a minimum of 96 percentile and an average percentile of 98 for shortlists.

On what criteria do you shortlist for the group discussion stage?

Candidates can apply to IMT Ghaziabad online and offline mentioning clearly their CAT registration number through which we get their scores. A maximum weightage of 70 pc is given to CAT scores on the basis of which we give discussion and interview calls. Besides the CAT score we also give weightage to educational qualification at this stage.

Briefly, on what criteria do you evaluate candidates for final admission?

For the final calls we again factor the CAT score on a 70 pc weightage and allocate the remaining weightage to personality as measured in the group discussion stage, work experience and educational qualifications.

What are the three biggest mistakes candidate make during the group discussion and interview stage of IMT Ghaziabad?

Firstly, during a group discussion candidates simply want to prove themselves. They do not give others a chance to speak. What happens then is that everybody starts speaking simultaneously and nothing gets conveyed. What they should do is plan and motivate other fellow participants. Also whatever you say should be to the point and crisp. During the interview, students should be honest and should not give vague answers.

What exactly is the status of management or paid seats at IMT Ghaziabad?

We follow AICTE rules under which we have no management quota.

Which B-schools does IMT Ghaziabad usually lose admitted students to?

Losing students is a phenomenon that happens to every institute, even to the IIMs because that is a relative decision.

Last year's IMT Ghaziabad placement report reported an average salary figure of Rs 10.36 lakhs, factoring both Indian and currency-converted international salaries. Do you think clubbing Indian and overseas salaries is an ethical way to report a school's salaries, given that many aspirants make their decision to join a b-school on the basis of salaries?

We had noticeably mentioned the over all average salary clearly stating Indian salary as 9.5 lakhs and so there was no confusion.

What is IMT's strategy behind opening the Dubai campus? Could you state advantages of studying in Dubai campus as opposed to Ghaziabad?

Ghaziabad being a parent campus we received a large number of applications from abroad especially from NRIs and we felt that we couldn't accommodate all of them. We did a market survey and zeroed down to Dubai as an alternate campus for such students. We then purchased land and constructed our building after getting an approval for the program from the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, Government of UAE as a university-status approved MBA. This also allowed international exposure to our students. Currently, most of our Dubai students are Indians or NRIs but our target is to make it a ratio of 50:50 between Indians and NRIs, and Foreigners.

What are your future plans with respect to IMT-Ghaziabad? Are you planning to open more IMT campuses besides Nagpur and Dubai?

Besides increasing the number of our faculty members at Ghaziabad, we are planning to introduce super specializations focused under PGDBM (Marketing) like Retail, Customer Relationship, Market Research Analyst and more. These specializations will be introduced in a year's time. We are planning to open two more campuses in India and one more international campus in coming five years. Currently, the locations have not been decided.

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Prominent serial entrepreneurs, angels and venture capitalists from Silicon Valley in the US will come to Cambridge to meet with their UK peers, Cambridge students and alumni, over a three day forum entitled 'New Barriers and New Opportunities: Disrupting in a Global Collaborative World'.

The event will be held at the business school and will include seminars, plenary sessions and master class lectures covering exit strategies through to entrepreneurial strategy 102. These will be followed by networking and exclusive dinners during which entrepreneurs, investors, scientists and students will discuss topics of importance to our global economy. A panel debate on the first day will consider the premise that Europe, not Silicon Valley, will become the best place to build the future billion dollar companies.

Iconic entrepreneurs, including Megan Smith (Google), Hermann Hauser (Amadeus Capital Partners) and Reid Hoffman (Linkedin) and investors such as James Slavet (Greylock), and Emily Melton (DFJ) will share their views on the latest and most innovative disruptive business models, providing best practice advice on how and why they came to create and fund some of today's most successful disruptive technology companies. They will also identify key emerging technologies, and provide analysis on which companies are growing the fastest in 'the valley'. These bi-directional discussions, whilst generating global perspectives, will also sow the seeds of substantive international relationships that will impact how (and with whom) everyone does business in the future.

Professor Arnoud De Meyer, Director, Judge Business School said, "This forum is a fantastic demonstration of the unique strength of the business school and university which together can act as an 'agora', drawing together talent and ability, and facilitating engagement and a free-flow of ideas around the implications of new business models which will be used by students who will lead the businesses of tomorrow.”

Commenting on the forum, Sherry Coutu, Trustee of NESTA and Finance Board member of Cambridge University said,"This is an amazing opportunity for students and alumni of Cambridge University and Judge Business School to make personal connections with, and gain inspiration from, the movers and shakers in Silicon Valley who have created the leading gorilla companies of today. We know the leaders of tomorrow are here at Cambridge and we hope that this event will supercharge them so that they are more able to make an even bigger difference in the world by starting or joining the companies that will dominate the global scene in a few years time.”

For more information, go to
http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/news/events/index.html
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He emphasized on exploring management insights within oneself with the preliminary talk of what people want and then moving on to how they should achieve it. “Everyone has to be an informed, capable, efficient manager in life. People need to learn these things and experience makes them worldly wise” he said.

A person has the right to choose, eliminate and say 'yes' or 'no' and he should not be taken for a ride by fancies of any other person, be it friends, relatives or anyone. A person should have freedom of – 'to do', 'not to do' and 'to do it differently'. He should have a choice over his emotions as well as control over the reins of his desires and wants.

Constitution talks about 'Freedom of Speech', but a manager should exercise 'Freedom over Speech'. He should put into effect evocative selection of his words and always respect the audience. Swamiji continued enhancing student's knowledge base by unleashing a new angle of thought regarding the power and tool to control anger, rage and irritation.

Anger Management is very crucial in controlling emotions and managing oneself. According to him, the best way to manage anger is to write one's emotions on a piece of paper and destroy it completely. By doing so, a person accomplishes two tasks in one shot, one of killing the burning rage inside him and the second of avoiding unnecessary fights and tussles.

Carved beautifully came out his words “What you don't want others to do to you, don't do it to others” which makes you give a second thought to your expectations and doings from others as well as yourself. He concluded by saying that using a little bit of common sense, one can decide on what is right and what is wrong for him and if a person applies his vivek, then he can handle any situation effectively and efficiently. The lecture ended with a vote of thanks by Prof. Doshit on behalf of the college for an enlightening session.

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Footprints, is an avenue for the Indian media industry and aspiring media professionals to interact during the course of a daylong seminar. The seminar comprises of sessions with prominent speakers who are pioneers in their fields of expertise and will act as guides to the media aspirants participating in this event.

The schedule for Footprints 2007 and the topic of the seminars in each city is:

31st October – Mumbai - PR and Media

2nd November- Lucknow - Why tell the truth? - Said the Fourth Estate

24th November Hyderabad -Hyderabad beyond Biryani

25th November Delhi - Citizen Media – audience empowered

27th November Chandigarh - Communication – the next big Thing

29th November Kolkata - Is the Media creating clones?

1st December Chennai: The Indian spectrum – Brand Tamil Nadu

2nd December Bangalore - “Namma Bengaluru” and Bangalore Inc. (Evolution of Brand Bangalore)

4th December Kochi – “Malayalam Media” – raring to go

6th December Indore “The heart of India speaks the language of the heart – Hindi”

8th December Vadodara – Communicating 'Garvi Gujarat”

9th December Pune – “Tune into the Radio Wave”

Footprints 07 starts on the 31st of October in Mumbai. SIMC has joined hands with Association of Business Communicators of India, for the Mumbai Footprints. Together they will host a daylong media seminar on 'PR and Media Interface – Bridging the Gap'.

Our speaker panel includes

Mr. Peter Yorke VP - Mktg & Communications, I-flex Solutions, Bangalore
Mr.Deepak Kanulkar - Head Strategies, Good Relations
Mrs. Manisha Mhaiskar IAS, Director General Information & PR, Government of Maharashtra
Mr. Govindraj Ethiraj - Former Executive Editor - CNBC India
Ms. Paulomi Dhawan - Director Advertising & PR Raymond Limited
Mr.Jayram Menon - Jt.Gen.Manager Advtg & Pr, L&T;
Mr. Ram Mankekar - Head Corp Comm, GMR Group
Mr.Gokul Krishnamurthy - Editor, Impact Magazine
Mr.Ujjwal Kumar Chowdhary,Dean, Symbiosis Institute of Media & Communication Mr.Yogesh Joshi - President, Association of Business Communications in India.

Our chief guest for the day is Mrs. Joyce Shankaran – Director, Higher & Technical Education, Government of Maharashtra.

The seminar will be followed by an award ceremony to felicitate the achievers in the field of 'Financial Journalism'. The seminar is being held on the 31st of October'07 at Indian Merchant Chamber, Churchgate.

For passes, please contact Nadir Kanthawala – 9819043930 or Drashti – 9820561623.

Footprints will be held in 11 other cities as per schedule on the dates mentioned above. These seminars would thus mould careers of hundreds.






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The Summit brought together prominent industry leaders and marketing experts, who shared their diverse, forward-looking perspectives on pertinent issues those marketers in emerging economies face today.

In his welcome note, Deputy Dean Ajit Rangnekar said that the ISB thrives on diversity with special focus on emerging markets. The purpose of ikshaa thus was to bring the two characteristics together.

“India has the richest portfolio and the India growth story is hotting up, especially in the FMCG sector,” said keynote speaker Douglas Baillie, CEO Hindustan Unilever Ltd. Conveying the fact that Unilever has deep roots in developing countries, which generated 40 percent of the revenues, he added that in today's market digitalization, co-creation, scale and sustainability is inevitable. “Co- creation with customers is one big opportunity. As for scale – would you lend 50 million to one person or lend $1 to 50 million people? he asked.

He also shared that in India, rural consumption levels are on the rise and that created a new class of consumers with unique, new needs. “In order to approach this new class we need to follow a top down approach”, he said.

“Doing the same thing as everyone cannot give great results. We need to discover the next paradigm, leap-frog solutions, co-create and engage in deep dialogues, in order to be successful, “Baillie noted.

He also suggested some required paradigm shifts – “Build ecosystems to create relationships with consumers, deliver more on core functionality, employ women as engines of entrepreneurship, and consider the potential of micro-marketing and micro- credit.”

Baillie summed up, “Successful brands of the future will not satisfy consumer fundamental needs alone, but will also address their concerns as citizens.

The other half of the day saw a panel discussion about the opportunities that the large and increasing lower income segment in India poses to a number of Indian and multi-national companies

The panel deliberated on the multi-faceted challenges - infrastructure, technology, vast geographic reach, diverse cultures and consumer mindset etc- that these companies have to face and the on re-thinking of strategies in order to successfully address this segment.

Sanjay Behl, Head of Marketing, Reliance Communication said, “The business of mobile phones in India is relevant to the Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP). In the next 3- 5 years, everyone in India will walk and talk. The main concern however is availability and affordability.” Reliance, he informed, was aiming to move from population coverage to landmass coverage in the next 6 months. Reliance's approach to crack the BoP, he said, was to provide cheaper handsets, share infrastructure with other operators and partner with government.

“The coming together of the ecosystem will reduce the cost of electronics,” Behl predicted.

Some other initiatives targeted to this sector , he said, was the agrarian application of mobile, e- recharge, multi-lingual voice portal etc.

R Suresh, MD, TNS Research India, expressed that the term 'beyond rich India' is an “oxymoron”. “Beyond rich India, there is just India, “he said. He also shared that markets outside the four metros is growing and that statistics reveal that rural India spends 20 % more than urban India and it spends 50% more on food.

“Do you eat at Dhabaas, how many language and dialects do you speak, does a relative who speaks in a regional language embarrass you? “asked Sashi Maudgal, Executive President (Marketing) Hindalco, to the audience. He posited that maybe management students are not equipped enough to tap the BoP segment. He said that one needs to belong to the lower middle class and middle class and preferably not have an MBA in order to empathize with this segment.

“You need a mindset that is open, honest and empathetic, and intimacy and familiarity gives you a competitive edge,” Suresh said. He felt that only an empathetic marketer can bring together India A and India B.

Rajiv Sabharwal, Head of Retail Assets, Rural & Micro Banking Group, ICICI Bank said that the urban poor were a growing portion of the market and that this is a high migrant population, who have links to the rural economy. Sabharwal talked about ICICI's “holistic” approaches to tap and serve this sector. “A product driven strategy, using hybrid channels and a multiple product approach,” he recommended.

He also shared some initiatives like the Biometrics ATM, mobile banking, and tele- banking etc which can “reach out to a larger section of borrowers at lower costs.”

The future of banking, he said, was an “inclusive banking paradigm.”

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PaGalGuy.com had earlier reported on the first day of MICANVAS. The second day began on an auspicious note with the SBI Bank onus, a competition which sought to explore the Business Planning abilities of students and was won by Micans. The other events of the day included a strategic plan contest, Cerebrus, the first prize was bagged by IIM Calcutta. Innovative events such as Ad-Dict, Sell Hell, DC-Picto and Slide Rules had students enthusiastically making presentation from scraps, using their intellect to find various uses of props, coining whacky tag-lines and grappling with the difficult language of semiotics.

The highlight of the day was the celebrated theatre competition- Spotlight, which showcased a multitude of talents from IMT, Ghaziabad; Lady Shreeram College, New Delhi; IIM, Ahmedabad; NMIMS, Mumbai and DAICT, Gandhinagar. Stories of partition, friendship and life unfolded.

The eventful day concluded with an even more eventful night with a treasure hunt, Mirchi ki khoj. A game which saw students explored every nook and corner of the campus, enthusiastically searching for clues.

The third day began on an auspicious note with an engaging panel discussions which had dignitaries like Raju Narisetti, MD (Mint), T.Seshukumar, Head of Rural Marketing (ITC) and Lloyd Mathias, MD (Motorola) with Prof Atul Tandan, Director (MICA) as the moderator. The discussion ranged from the passions deep rooted in every Indian's heart to how media will be able to showcase the various flavours of India and help her get the glory she deserves.

The students on campus pepped up their day by taking part in competitions like the Last Man Standing which had a prize worth Rs 60,000 and was won by IIFT, New Delhi. Events such as Paras Mindbenders, USP Age Brand It and Business Barons (a business quiz) which left students grappling with the concepts of marketing when they were asked to launch new and failed products respectively. The ability to think on one's feet was tested by Slide Rules and innovative thinking sought a new definition with Sell Hell.

Fun filled events such as DC-Picto and Jam had students dealing with the difficult language of semiotics on one side and trying to speak too much in too little on the other. The Salsa workshop was a huge success as expected with huge turn outs participating enthusiastically.

Thousands of people turned up and added to the electrifying energy of the famous rock bands 'Zero' and 'Parikrama' later in the evening.

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The GIFT society has been organizing this event for past three years as a platform for B-school students and practitioners from the industry to share their views in the area of Flexibility and Change Management. This year the theme of the competition was 'Building a Resilient Organization'. The theme was selected in the context of growing need for risk modeling and contingency planning in the organizations and the issues confronting in this regard.

The competition was open for all the B-school students and working professionals with more than 2 years of experience. The contest had 31 entries from various B-schools like IIM Bangalore, IIM Calcutta, S P Jain, NITIE, FMS, MDI, DMS-IIT Delhi, IIFT, IMI, SCMHRD and other reputed institutions. The corporates participating in this event included SBI Capital, Knowledge Management Systems and NTPC. After a scrutiny process, 7 papers were short listed for final presentation.

In the keynote address, the chief guest of the function Mr S. B. Khare, Deputy Director General, BSNL shared his views on resilience by defining it as “Capacity of a system which is potentially exposed to hazards, to adapt by resisting or changing in order to reach and maintain an acceptable level of functioning.”

The President GIFT, Prof. P. K. Jain related the theme with the financial considerations of a company in evaluation of a project with varying levels of sales, capacity constraints and thereby applying sensitivity analysis in the decision making process. The Founder President Prof. Sushil emphasized on the pressing need for the building of resilience and invited the B-schools and corporates for the promotion of GIFT society as a medium to convey the message strongly.

The paper presentation session was a grueling session with participants from FMS, NITIE, S P Jain, SBI Capital, DMS IIT Delhi and IMI, Delhi. The presentations were evaluated by Dr Shyam Sethi, former Vice-President Kelvinator India Ltd., Mr Siddarth Tiwari, Adword Manager, Google, Mr A.K. Garg, Chief (Technology), Corporate Exploration Centre –ONGC.

Mr Uttam Thakur and Mr Rajdeep Mittal from NITIE got the first prize, while Mr Sumit Singh Gandhi and Mr Vikash Choudhary of S.P. Jain, Mumbai were the winners of the Runners' Up prize. The principal sponsor of the event was ONGC, and the associate sponsors were Punjab National Bank and State Bank of India.


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Beginning with a brief history of the growth of VXL Instruments Ltd, he talked about how by means of several innovations and expansion into the world markets, the organization which started as a garage in 1976, climbed the ladder of success to become the fourth largest player in the Thin Clients market internationally with a turnover of 73 crores in 2006-07.

Moving on, he gave some valuable insights on different aspects of management. “Management is actually not what we want, what we want is leadership, which may be wrong in the democratic sense, but it does not mean everybody is of the same capability”, he said. Moreover, a leader cannot be a good leader without being a good manager. Management consists of 20 pc knowledge and 80 pc the art of dealing effectively with people. He went on to add that 90pc of leadership is character – most CEOs apparently don't know much about business.

Thereafter, he gave many important suggestions on becoming a good manager from an industry perspective such as holistic development approach, practical reality, inmate curiosity, swabhava, title bondage, having a dream and taking risk. That “money is not everything”, and one should “be selfish”, were the two pieces of advice with which he concluded the lecture. The students were highly influenced by the profound thoughts of the speaker.

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Crescita 2007 comes forth with the theme 'India Rising' and aims at bringing out the 'Emerging issues in India Inc.'. CRESCITA 2007 is about the next super power, India. This conference will create the platform for discussing the challenges, opportunities and ideas that are paving the way for India rising as an economic super power. Industry captains from diverse sectors would be discussing this behemoth phenomenon and try to evolve strategic solutions for the opportunities and challenges ahead. Economic Times is the media partner for Crescita 2007.

The list of emiment speakers for this year's event is as follows:

Mr P. K Hariharan – Associate Director , P & G

Mr B Dharma Teja – Vice President Operations, Lanco Infratech Ltd

Mr Moorthy Chockkanathan, Senior VP India, Head Delivery, Hexaware Technologies

Mr R Radhakrishnan, GM ( Southern Region), Retail Petroleum, HPCL

Mr Ashok Vardhan Shetty, I.A.S, Secretary to Govt of Tamil Nadu, Rural Development

Mr V. B Athreya, Head Food Securities Programme, M S Swaminathan Research Institute

Mr B Venkatrama, VP HR, Reliance Retail

Mr B .L . Ghasolia, Executive Director CCF, ONGC

Mr K Raghavulu, Chief General Manager, TN Region, NABARD

Mr Alvin Saldanha, National Creative Director,Showbiz Integrated Marketing Communications

Ms. Punitha Arumugam, CEO, Madison Communications Pvt Ltd

Mr R Christodas Gandhi, I A S, Secretary to the Govt of Tamil Nadu, Social Reforms.

BIMQuest, the quizzing club of BIM, along with Greycaps will conduct a corporate quiz on 3 November 2007.

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Samanvay kicked off on 27 October 2007 with Mr Sanjay Nayar, CEO Citi India addressing the students on the current banking and economic scenario of India. He underscored the importance of a good regulator like the RBI and why it is important to have strong but consolidated national banks. He recommended that any mature economy should have 20 established and powerful banks. Mr Nayar was of the opinion that the credit and mortgage markets in India have a long way to go. Looking at the future, he commented that India should move away from its cost advantage stance to a better quality one. “There is a big population paradox in India. In fields like IT and ITES there is dearth of quality professionals whereas many people are struggling to make meet ends in other locations. The seeds of discontent and rebellion are sown here and this is something we need to overcome.” Mr. Nayar opined. He also advocated education as the only remedy for our problems and path to success.

Mr R Ravimohan, Managing Director, Standard and Poor, South Asia made a presentation on 'How Global are Indian markets'. He talked about the Global linkages for trade and investments, and advantages of strong domestic participants and a high degree of liquidity. However some of the risks in this market would include event based volatility and a risk of contagion. Domestic players are generally unprepared for such eventualities. The session ended with Mr Ravimohan urging students to adopt a sound investment philosophy. He talked about the importance of diversification across different asset classes and different markets.

Dr J J Irani, Director Tata Sons, started his address by talking about India's share in world trade which was 20 pc in early 1800's , declined to 2 pc by the time of independence and was down to less than 0.5 pc before liberalization. After liberalization, Indian companies have spread their wings, ventured in overseas markets and cornered a significant share of global trade. Being a strong advocate of scientific research and being a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee to the Cabinet, Dr Irani highlighted the importance of industrial and technological research. There has to be an onus on industry to inspire young professionals to take up research, this could be done by offering attractive compensation and opportunities. He also highlighted primary education as a key focus area.

On a different vein, Dr Irani also spoke about the Indo-US Nuclear Deal as being the best thing that could have happened to India. The event ended with an elaborate round of Q and A round with Dr Irani.

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The fest began with KwizKraft, which saw corporates and students matching their wits against each other to find out who knew more about the world around them. This was followed by events like The Village - a simulation where the students had to make agricultural decisions to get the best yield out of their land, 4Ps - a game that redefined the paradigms of marketing, Virtual Stock Market - where the investors of tomorrow were making money today.

The other highlights of the Festival were the Arbit Presentation where students made impromptu and innovative presentations to the audience. Well renowned marketing guru Mr. Nitin Ghadiyar judged the event and enthralled the audience with his scintillating wit and class. The festival culminated with Prayaag Maze. This modern day treasure hunt made the students go through three rigorous rounds of elimination, covering the entire gamut of knowledge and skill expected from an aspiring manager, before they could hunt for the bounty. Only the best survived.

Prayaag 2007 saw participation from more than 1000 students from across the country and an equal number in corporate participation. This year Prayaag saw international participation as well. An event befitting the legacy of the institute!

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The event started with the Director, Dr B S Sahay, Director, IMT Ghaziabad, extending a warm welcome to both the guests and the students. This was followed by Mr Karthik Raina, a well known marketing practitioner and consultant, expressing his views on the fact that there was no marketing without passion. His speech was liberally sprinkled with quotes from Napolean Hill and Peter Drucker.

Next on the agenda was a real life case discussion, followed by a note by Mr. Anoop Kumar Verma on Using Consumer Intelligence to drive your brand.

The Marketing Warfare which followed next saw issues such as 'The Journey of Marketing in the world of Practice and Reality, Sales in the changing Indian market scenario' and 'Integrated Marketing Communication in a B2B market' being discussed by Mr Anoop Kumar Verma, Mr Animesh Puri, and Ms Jaba Sen Menon.

Next up, Mr Rajiv Mathur , Mr Jaideep Bajaj and Mr Pritesh Chotani enumerated on the paradigm shifts in marketing by discussing the new brands and their relevance in a competitive environment such as India with an example of how to create a health care brand in real life.
Mr Arun Kohli, Mr Sumit Gupta, and Mr Paras Goel spoke about the changing dynamics of retail banking in the afternoon session which was devoted to the topic of customer power where the delegates enthused the students with their notes on virtual routes and rural strategies.

Disha '07 was the highlight of the final session, that saw teams from IMT, MDI, IIFT and LBS present their research on the current retail scenario in India. Their task was to suggest the next twenty locations at which PRIL could establish its KB Fair Price shops, as well as the products and services that could be offered here. They were also required to come up with strategies to ward off competition from mom and pop stores. The contest was won by the team from IIFT and team IMT followed suite.

The event ended with a valedictory session where all the speakers were felicitated. The conference was a great learning experience for the enthusiastic bunch of student managers. As Prakriti Banka, a first year student of IMT-G aptly puts it, “we were made aware of the realities which are beyond what is taught to us in class or mentioned in our books.”

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The West Zone regional rounds of the Business Today - Aditya Birla Group Acumen 2007 National B-school Challenge kicked off at Mumbai's Welingkar Institute of Management, campus on Friday, October 26 2007.

The weekend quizzing and debating fever started off with 20 debate teams and 29 quiz teams turning up from across Pune, Mumbai, Navi-Mumbai and Gujarat Management schools. The preliminary rounds yielded IIM A, IRMA, SCMHRD and Welingkar institute of Management as debate semi-finalist at the same time another team of IIM A could also make it to quiz semi-finals along with IIT B, SIBM and NMIMS.

The D-day 27 October 2007 brought a new excitement and as the students started pouring in the campus of Welingkar Institute of Management one could experience the thrill and fun in the atmosphere. The event came into full swing with Harsha Bhogle joining the teams and taking them forward. The host, Welingkar Institute of Management left no stones unturned to make it a memorable one. The feel, the atmosphere, the sound system, the stage and a chick co-host of Harsha Bhogle made it a perfect arrangement for the B-School student's most awaited event.

The first round of semi-final debate competition witnessed Vinamra Srivastava and Mohit Sadani of IIM Ahmedabad speaking for the motion while Giridhar Gopal Bagri and Nayana Renukumaran of IRMA speaking against the motion 'An MBA is the most over-hyped academic qualification in India today.' The second round saw Navtej Singhand Ashwin Jain of SCMHRD speaking for the motion and Deepak Verma and Raj Singh Chauhan of Welingkar speaking against the motion 'Economic reforms in India have benefited only the rich.' IIM Ahmedabad and Welingkar institute of management could finally make it to Final West Zone Debate Competition.

What next followed was an interesting session of B-School quiz competition. Harsha Bhogle addressed a packed auditorium and Souvik Basu and Govind Grewal, students of NMIMS, Prashant Sampath and Chaitanya Marathe of IIT B, Tanmay Kumar and Alok Dattatray Malshet of SIBM and Srinath T. B and Abid E H of IIM A. As the competition took off NMIMS made a head start by scoring highest.
Harsha, like always, made it a very interactive session by involving the audience and the audience too responded him quite openly. After every question the audience would slowly 'Murmur' the answer and Harsha would ask them not to prompt. Questions that where not answered by the contestant where asked to the audience and one who gave a right answer received a gift by Harsha. After one such answer from a college student Harsha aimed a gift box towards him warning him “If you don't catch, it will strike the man sitting in front of you who is as is it is losing hair like me and then you are responsible.” The guy made it a perfect catch. For another student who gave a right answer and started moving a little forward to catch the gift, Harsha said why don't you come on the stage then there is no catch. Hearing this he went behind but again Harsha said “Now who so ever gets the catch will get the gift. “ Harsha was really bad at times and this time too the winner missed the catch and someone in the front could catch it. So Harsha was smart enough to say, “Come on, now give him the prize after all it's just a T-shirt!”
NMIMS made it a perfect score of 135 leaving behind IIT B at 85, SIBM at 40 and IIM A far off at 15. It was really strange to see one team of IIM A rocking at debate competition and the other losing out badly in quiz competition.
What followed next was the much awaited B-school debate competition, with IIM A and the host school, Welingkar's contestants. Team Welingkar spoke for the motion and Team IIM A spoke against the motion 'Soft skills, more than technical proficiency, are what separate the great managers from the good ones.'
The Welingkar team stressed on the importance of soft skills and quoted various examples to support their argument said an individual cannot climb the ladder of success without good soft skills. The most impact full one was an example of Ghandhiji. On the other hand the IIM A teams focused on technical proficiency by saying that an individual has to prove his technical know how and only then the soft skills come into picture. They said no matter how much PR or marketing an individual does for himself he cannot prove his worth or gain respect in his organization without proving his technical abilities.
Each contestant spoke for 3 minutes followed by questions and answers to the opponent team. Things went interesting when the judges H R Shashikant - Senior President, Group Human Resources, Aditya Birla Group and Pavan Varshnei, Publishing Director, Business Today came into picture. Pavan Varshnei asked individual questions to both the teams and one of the interesting questions asked to IIM A team was what percentage of technical skills and soft skill they would consider while selecting a CEO for their organization for some one who is already a CEO and someone who is a fresh MBA like them? IIM A team very diplomatically answered the question, saying they would consider more of soft skills than technical abilities for a CEO as he would have already proved his abilities in the initial stages of his career. While for a fresh graduate they would consider more of technical skills than soft skills.
Also, IIM A had mentioned that had it not been Dr Manmohan Singh's technical abilities India would have not grown to such a high level. Quoting this, the judge asked the team how they would then clarify their statement considering the popularity and success of P V Narasimha Rao in the political set-up. The team replied saying that they would say that P V Narasimha Rao was successful at the front end because it was Dr Manmohan Singh's technical skills working at the back end.
Commenting on the final Q and A session Harsha said that he felt that the finals were much more matured and of higher level compared to semi-finals. Both the teams received huge response from the audience, not to forget the host team had much more support from the audience but it was the team IIM A that could finally make it.
Later in the evening it was time for Alumni quiz competition and as usual Harsha's humor hormones were active again. One of the questions involved recognizing an image. And all contestants couldn't make out what was it from the place where they were standing. It was funny to see each of them coming out one by one to check the image and Harsha moving in various directions to clear the space for them.
IIFT alumni Saurabh Goel and FMS alumni Rakesh Taklikar were the winners of the alumni quiz competition.
Commenting on what made them to the national finals of Acumen2007; Vinamra Srivastava of IIM A said “It was complete team effort. Well structured and distributed between us (he and Mohit Sadani). It was decided who would speak on technical foundation and who on decision making factors. I feel it was more of an impact full start and end that worked for us.” While Souvik Basu of NMIMS said, “We keep on attending various quiz competitions and follow quiz blogs but what helped us the most was the number of internal quiz and debate competitions happening at NMIMS.”

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Our report earlier this month had brought to light how the top-rated b-school Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur's Singapore arm had been unable to start the MBA-equivalent fulltime PGDBM course, which they had extensively advertised and sought applications for. Read the full story in the link below.

XLRI Singapore unable to start fulltime course, applicants wait for refund

Three weeks after the story, a candidate brought to our notice that he had received a demand draft from XLRI Singapore refunding the application fee of Rs 1,300, along with a regret letter that read 'Please be informed that we did not proceed with the PGDBM program meant for overseas candidates, in June 2007. Hence, Please find enclosed a draft for INR 1,300, being the refund of your application fee.'

Click here to view a scanned copy of the regret letter

Rachit Jain, a Research Associate with Capital IQ and who received his refund said, "It is a big relief to get my money back. I have no regrets towards XLRI Singapore now. No matter what, but at least they have refunded my money."

It is not yet clear how many applicants have received their refund, as the XLRI Singapore administration remains as tight-lipped as ever on the figures. So if you are one of these candidates, you might want to get your radar on alert!

Discuss this article in the Forum!
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"The average GMAT score for the admission offers that are going out is 731 among, the highest in the world, if not the highest. For comparison, the entering class of 2008 at Harvard had an average GMAT score of 707 and that at Wharton had an average GMAT score of 713," said the official spokesperson.

"Additionally, we expect about 10 pc of the entering batch to be women, compared to 5 pc for the second batch. This is a significant achievement because the applicant pool in the age group that comprises the PGPX has fewer women candidates compared to other pools," he added.

Meanwhile, the second PGPX batch at the bschool are slated to leave for the International Immersion component of the program to University of British Columbia - Vancouver, Columbia Business School, Amsterdam Business School, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and Chinese University of Hongkong.

"Columbia and Frankfurt are new additions to our list of overseas partners for International Immersion. We also now have agreements with University of Texas at Austin and are in talks with Warwick Business School, UK and Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa for collaboration in this area," said the spokesperson.

After one week of geographically topical coursework at these schools, the students will intern with companies on different types of projects.

"Sponsor firms include Unilever, Microsoft, IBM, Wipro, Cisco, Posco, Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Morgan Stanley among others", he added.

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MBA students turned out from b-schools across south India, including Bangalore, Chennai, Manipal, Trichy and Calicut to participate in India's best known battle of knowledge, intelligence and wit between future managers.

After the preliminary rounds on November 3, the teams that reached the debate finals were ISB Hyderabad, IIM Bangalore, IIM Kozhikode and Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA), Chennai.

While TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Manipal, BIM Bangalore and the IIMs at Bangalore and Kozhikode made it to the regional quiz finals.

What ensued in the finals remains one of the most memorable rounds in Acumen and even Quizmaster Harsha Bhogle believed so. In the nearly one hour long quiz round, Shamnath M and Chinmay Mishra of IIM Kozhikode nearly blew their opponents to smithereens. When the dust finally settled, the final score read IIM Kozhikode - 230; IIM Bangalore - 60; TAPMI -30 and BIM - 20. The sheer enormity of the win forced the Harsha to comment, "IIMK has created history. I have not seen such a convincing and comprehensive victory in years!"

In another exchange that brought the audience to cheers, Harsha Bhogle responded to an answer by the IIM Kozhikode team saying, "I cannot give that to you, this is not what I'm looking for," only to be countered by "But the answer is right!". Harsha shot back, "Millionaires don't worry about Pennies!"

Meanwhile in the debate finals, IIM Bangalore's Sahil Barua and Sandeep Das brought cheers to their school by winning the regional round. Debating on the favorite Acumen topic 'Leaders and born and not made' and judged by Madura Garments President Mr Ashish Dikshit and Business Today's Publishing Director Mr Pavan Varshnei, the team fought closely with the other finalists to snatch a convincing victory.

The third exciting aspect of Acumen, where working managers in top corporates come back to represent their alma maters in the Acumen Alumni quiz, was won in the south zone by Tanmay Prusty and Anish Raju.

Each of the three winner teams will face the finalists from north, east and west regions in Mumbai on December 15 2007 at Mumbai.

For those who missed out on the action, click on the links to download the complete sets of questions in the Acumen south zone B-school round and Alumni round.

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The seminar included key note addresses and speeches from eminent personalities from the industry working in the field of Logistics and SCM like Mr J Sridharan, President 'WCM Cell' Aditya Birla Group, Mr Amit Kawoor, Cadbury's India Ltd, Mr Nagendra, Country Head, Maersk Logistics Ltd and Mr Sachin Bhatnagar, Head SCM , MARICO to name a few.

The event also had two panel discussion sessions with different themes. Panelists like Mr A Choudhary (M&M;), Mr P Mehta (Mehta Consultings), Ms Ashu Gupta (Sangam Retail), Mr Anup Chaturvedi (HP), Mr Neelkanth (J&J;) and Mr Kalyan Ghosh (Essar Steel) shared their invaluable insights on the contemporary topics related to SCM and logistics management. There was a unanimous agreement on the fact that SCM today is emerging as the most important function in the corporate structure and is redefining its scope. Organizations today can no more afford to ignore its role it their business strategies, after realizing the cost benefits it brings and strong influence on bottom lines. Both the discussions brought to light the problems, innovative solutions and the latest developments taken up by Supply Chain Managers across diversified sectors. The audience were so engrossed in getting their queries satisfied that the schedule overshot almost by an hour.

In addition there were two paper presentations contest 'Prastuti'- one for corporate and another for the students of B-schools. Participants from companies like Wipro, I2 Tech and Cadbury's presented their papers on the theme 'Exploring opportunities and navigating today's supply chain challenges.' The event was judged by professionals from industry as well as renowned academicians. Mr Pawan Soni from WIPRO Technologies won the first prize by presenting a breathtaking paper on evangelizing the supply chain of an idea. It was truly a new dimension added to the traditional meaning of supply chain.

The inter B-school paper presentation, was a huge hit across the country and we saw over hundred entries coming in from all the top colleges of the country. Six teams were shortlisted after the first round and after the final presentation round team from NITIE came first and the team from IIM- A came as runner up.

The seminar was a huge success and it gave a very good exposure to the students who wanted to take SCM as a carrier. The seminar also gave a very good insight into the concept and practice of SCM in the Industry. The event was highly exciting, enriching and a value addition to everyone.

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Introducing the topic- 'Grow & merge or merge & grow', Fr E Abraham, Director of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar said, “The recent spurt in the M & A deals by the business leaders has led to increased activities on this front. This topic is extremely relevant in the current scenario and for the Xpressions, which is a celebration of XIMB's spirit of excellence, competition and desire to strive for perfection in everything we do.”

The panel discussion was moderated by Rajeev Dubey, Deputy Editor of Businessworld, who pointed out how 123 companies have raised $26.9 billion for 697 merger & acquisition deals in the recent past.

Participating in the conclave, Krishna Angara, Director- Operations of Hutch Vodafone said, “Merger & acquisition deals require solid game plan. It is not something like that you sit in a board room and plan to acquire a company and you are done with it. To stay ahead in the competition, it is necessary to grow continuously in the size as well as revenue.”

The panelist agreed to this fact that organizations are trapped in the merger & acquisition syndrome for growth. They pointed out that it does not matter to them whether it is organic growth or inorganic growth. “There can't be a set formula for M & A deals. No game plan can be fixed for this. It does not happen that way, when the opportunity strikes you have to grab with both hands,” explained Mr Angara.
They also discussed how the organizations are going back and moving forward in the value chain to stay ahead in the race. “Nothing comes from the text book in case of M & A as lots of things come from the visionary industry leaders. It is the stock market, which rules today. But for succeeding in the organization, you have to have strong fundamentals and strong growth presence in your home turf,” said Tapal Dasgupta, Senior Vice-President of Wipro.

Further elaborating about this, Mr Dasgupta said, “For M & A deals and managing expectations of the investors, it is important for organizations to grow, grow and grow. It is all about keep growing. Topline, bottomline and growth rate is very significant for companies in a developing country which offers great potential to growth.”

There are several challenges associated with this M & A and dilution of the bottomline is one of them. “It's not only about the acquiring global company but it is also about the acquiring global brands and talents. There are great risks associated with M & A as it has to be evaluated by the finance department as it affects both topline and bottomline for the merged or acquired entity,” said Mr Dasgupta.

The panelist agreed to this fact that the growth plan is not the only concern rather faster growth plan is becoming more challenging task. “If you have not charted out your growth plan then you enter into a plateau zone and thereafter decline starts. It is also necessary because we don't know the industry which we represent will exist or be relevant anymore after 100-200 years. Technology is changing very fast and the things which surround us will become redundant in due course of time,” said Mr Angara of Vodafone.

However, Mr Dasgupta of Wipro took a different stance, “An organization is not for today or tomorrow. A listed organization has several responsibilities to deliver but to do this the organization has to have long term planning.” He substantiated his statement by citing examples of Kodak as how an inventor of digital camera has been outdone by the competitors in the same business which was a formidable organization about a decade ago.

Both speakers dismissed the over-valuation issues being a cause of concern for the acquiring companies by citing examples of Vodafone who sold 10% stake with no management control in Bharti to two-third stake and management control of Hutchinson-Essar. The panelists were of the opinion that the price rationalization is difficult in the market because of high competition and fewer choices for the organization who are scouting to acquire others.

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The underlying theme of Prerena 2007 – 'From Concept to Creation: India's Journey' was highlighted by each of the dignitaries, and experiences of how they transformed their companies using creativity.

Mr Hiranandani started the session with an advice for the youth – “Do better than the best.” He emphasized the role of housing in Mumbai, and the opportunities for the youth in a crisp manner. He said, 30 Years ago, Mumbai had a population of 7 Mn, with 33 % of its citizens in slums. But today, Mumbai has a population of 14 Mn, with 66 % of its citizens in slums. The British built the Western, Central and Harbor Lines for Mumbai – but no new trains have been introduced in 60 years. He quoted the examples of his own children to showcase the audience the power of youth. Thus, Mr Hiranandani reiterated that by being innovative – youth can achieve success never thought by the previous generations.

On the same lines, Mr Jeh Wadia highlighted his journey from a manager in Bombay Dyeing to MD, Go-Air. Highlighting the journey of Wadia enterprises from ship building in 17th century to the present day, highlighting the need to innovate and stay ahead of competitors. He quoted his experiences during his teenage days, when he started working at a car dealership in England, and learnt the value of money by observing the customers at the dealership. He also spoke about just one experience- which ignited the spark in him to start Go-Air and transform the Indian Aviation industry. He said he used to travel from Mumbai to Chitrakoot, a place in Madhya Pradesh, in his personal Jet. One day, he decided to take a train instead. It took him 27 Hours, and the pathetic conditions on the train- the dirty toilets, discomfort forced him to think about the needs of the masses for a comfortable- yet economical mode of transport. Thus, Go-Air was born.

Mr Wadia attributed the success of Go-Air to team-work and his quotes for the youth were that they should try something new & innovate, understand the entire Food Chain and not just any particular department, and academia teaches us theory but it is up to us to put that into practice.

Mr Ganesh Natrajan rightly summed up the development of India so far as, “Every Generation of India has surpassed its past.” He highlighted how, from being the grandson of an ordinary school teacher in Tamil Nadu, had become a CEO- his father, who had struggled to bring them up could never imagine. Mr Natrajan highlighted the role of IT in India, which has grown 10 fold in one decade.
He gave the classic example of innovation of the site makemytrip.com, which has led to the elimination of travel agents and made online, 24 hrs booking a reality in India.

Mr Natrajan ended his session with a classic example of how the Chinese want to emulate the Indian IT industry. He said a delegation from Shanghai had met him some time back, and had set up an IT park in China, with 47 buildings, and promising them no taxes and free power etc for years to come. Upon enquiring about the reasons for doing so, the Chinese delegation promised her to take better care than the Indian Government.

Ms Anu Aga highlighted the role of interpreneurship, in which employees come up with ideas, and the organization funds the ideas. She highlighted how Thermax has a non-hierarchical structure, and how it has fostered innovation. At the same time, how it led to inefficiencies, and thus leading to performance based schemes being introduced in Thermax – thus highlighting the importance of discipline.

Highlighting the journey of Thermax, she highlighted how Thermax had pulled itself from losses about a few years ago, “ Frog in the boiling water syndrome, where a frog is put in water , and boiled slowly – the frog does not realize its boiling till it's too late.”
She further highlighted the problems a women still has to face in the corporate world, in a male-dominated society.

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With the interesting speakers, there also came interesting topics which were discussed. The discussion ranged from how Media and PR were evolving for GenNext to creative PR strategies to Current 'Hot Spots' in the field of PR and Journalism. The speakers gave anecdotes and examples to bring out the essence of the subject. For instance, while talking about the Current 'Hot Spots' in the field of PR and Journalism, Mr. Gokul Krishnamurthy, Editor, Impact Magazine gave examples of how Film Marketing and Film PR are merging

Apart from the speakers, Mumbai Footprints also had an international personality who joined them as guest speaker – Mr. Donald McGrath from Eaton Solutions who was extremely impressed with the way Mumbai Footprints was organized. His inputs were instrumental because they gave the audience an insight into how PR works in the international setup. There were many students who were looking at making their careers abroad and for them these inputs were highly beneficial.

The main aim of organizing Mumbai Footprints was to go to the core of how Media and PR relations work. With speakers from different fields in PR and Media and an international guest speaker; this aim was fulfilled.

Footprints now moves to Lucknow on the 22nd of November and then to 10 other cities across the country.

For more on footprints log on to www.simcfootprints.com