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Mumbai's National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) is one of Government of India's top centres of excellence along with the IITs, IIMs and the IISc, and its PG Programme in Industrial Management is a coveted option for engineers. Prof Ashok K Pundir took over the charge of NITIE's placements in 2001, when the economy was in a slump. A turnaround has happened since then, bringing NITIE's placements at par with that of the IIMs.

In the first part of the interview with PaGaLGuY.com, Prof Ashok K Pundir talks about the nuts and bolts of the placement process in NITIE and elsewhere.

What has been the trend of placements at NITIE and how has it changed over the years?

The placement trend for the management program has shifted not so much over the amount of recruiters but the job profiles being offered. Very different kinds of companies are now prominent recruiters as compared to 10 years ago.

Earlier the process industry, manufacturing, engineering, FMCG and automobile sector were more visible in the NITIE's placements. I'm not saying that the IT and consultancy sector was weak back then, but the process and manufacturing based companies were in predominance.

Now, since the coming up of new sectors like finance and services in our economy, new phenomena have emerged and some new job profiles have come up that suit NITIE's management graduates. As a result in 2005, we have placed 20 pc of the batch in banking/financial services sector and another 15 pc in consultancy sector. Moreover, 14 pc of the batch have profiles in the area of finance.

How has NITIE been upgrading its curriculum to keep up with the changes?

We keep updating the electives all the time. Even as late as in July, if we think a new elective needs to be introduced, we do it.

What has your personal experience been in the capacity of Associate Dean of Placements?

When I took over the position in 2001-02, the economy was down. It was a tough year for us. I remember that I personally started mailing potential companies, went out and visited them along with the students to regular recruiters as well as first timers, even the ones as far as in Delhi and Gurgaon.

The NITIE Director was very supportive of our work, and he too offered to visit companies for the cause. Despite the non-prevalence of mobile phones in those years, the entire team including the Director and I were in touch on a day-to-day basis all through. The companies on their side were pleasantly surprised of the talent pool we were providing. Since then, things have improved.

What about NITIE's international placements?

Our regular international recruiters have been Barclays Capital and ABC Solutions in Saudi Arabia.

The major international recruiters in India are foreign banks, which mostly recruit for their investment banking divisions. They prefer graduates with a commerce background. At NITIE, we have a batch comprising entirely of engineers so they don't fit in the investment banks.

Financial institutions that do take in NITIE graduates take them in for IT and systems based profiles.

For example Barclays Capital took eight students from a batch of 85 in 2005 for their UK office out of which six were for Systems and IT and only two were for Finance roles.

Which means that almost ten percent of the batch was taken by Barclays alone…

They made their own assessment based on their needs. They went to other institutes including the IIMs too, but preferred us in the end. You can't really probe too deep into the needs of international recruiters, like you can be informal with Indian companies. The people from Barclays before recruiting had several interactions with our students, they mingled freely with the batch before making their decision and even threw a free chaat party.

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How do corporates react to the fact that the entire NITIE batch is comprised of only engineers?

Financial and marketing companies are not as inclined toward us as they are to the IIMs and other b-schools that accept students with commerce backgrounds.

The rest of the companies react very positively to NITIE, because when it comes to profiles involving analytical skills, simulations etc, engineers are a much better choice over commerce graduates.

But do you think that analytical skill as core strength can limit NITIE students' career growth in the future?

No. But I do feel there needs to be greater stress on soft skills. You have to make an extra effort to teach engineering graduates soft skills and some ifs and buts beyond numbers and analysis that commerce graduates are better equipped with as a result of their background.

We are making an effort toward giving NITIE students such soft skills by specially designed exercises. In fact among the first courses in the NITIE curriculum is a detailed communication skills course where students make presentations to video cameras. They are then shown their own video recordings, which helps them in judging their communication skills and improving upon them.

Will NITIE ever remove the bar on students with non-engineering background?

It is unlikely. I personally think that it will be difficult because a lot of the course will have to be changed. We take a lot of skills for granted in engineering students, such as the knowledge of computers, programming and engineering processes. If you include commerce graduates, new courses would have to be introduced and the existing ones changed by a huge margin to bring them at par with the engineers.

Which brings us to, what exactly about NITIE's management programme makes it suitable only for engineers?

As I said, our curriculum takes a lot of skills for granted to be present in engineers. We skip teaching them several computer skills that they would have learned during their engineering. At the same time, we spend a lot of time in teaching our students certain soft skills that a commerce graduate would already know and would find a waste of time.

How do you teach engineering graduates the skill of managing uncertainty in business?

We push them through lots of case studies where we encourage them to take their time in exploring alternatives, looking into other areas and discussing them. The professors also keep learning from the process and the Management Development Programmes and share these experiences with the students.

Coming back to placements, what is the placement process followed at NITIE?

The placement process at NITIE proceeds in broadly three stages. In the first stage, the Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) start coming in by July, after the students return from their summer training.

In the second stage, we send out invites to potential companies and the students begin their groundwork of meeting HR heads and giving them brochures.

The final stage is the placements itself, which takes place near 6-7 January. Earlier we used to follow the one-day spot offer system. But many companies had to go back empty handed in such a process so we replaced it with the multiple offer system, which resulted in 1.7 offers per student on an average in 2005.

We top up the process in between these stages with several high profile corporate visits especially during our Prerna and Lakshya events. Some of the names that have visited the campus or are slated to visit are KV Kamath of ICICI Bank, Subir Raha of ONGC, Captain Gopinath of Air Deccan and Mr Ramachandran from Philips.

When corporates come here, the media coverage brings the institute into limelight and at the same time the corporates get an opporunity to understand the institute better.

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What is with the obsession that Indian b-schools - including the IIMs and NITIE - have with '100 percent placements'? Do you think that the pressure of an institute attaining 100 pc placements keeps students from getting their dream jobs?

You see, India is a country where jobs are few and students are many. Whereas in Europe and the Americas, one can take a fairly low-pay job and still earn enough to say, study side-by-side.

Getting a job itself is a big achievement in Indian families. There is also a lot of importance attached to a job in a 'regular' or a well-known company here. A student who works for a year or two before joining a b-school too does not collect enough to fund his management education. An immediate job after studying is a necessity in the current social context of India and the '100 percent placement' concept is there to serve it.

Our placement process goes by the rule that everyone must first get a job and then they must get their dream job. That is where the multiple offer system of placements helps in a way. A student gives so many interviews without knowing his results in any. When the slots are opened at the end of the day, he can choose his job out of the options he has qualified for.

The best option would be a placement system that would carry on over a long time. A system where we open out the placements in September-October, goes on a continuous basis and students get their dream jobs without being under any pressure. Personally speaking, if I had an option, I'd implement such a system tomorrow itself. But for such an option to work, students have to be mentally prepared. Even in the two-day placement process, many students come under severe pressure. If the placement process is stretched over months, students would have to have a lot of psychological strength to take that kind of uncertainty.

More importantly, for such a system to be put in place, the overall psyche has to be developed. Some of the leading institutes would have to take the initiative and move forward together to bring it in.

In the present system of '100 percent placements', a b-school student takes a job for granted. What according to you then keeps him motivated to excel in the two years of the course?

At the end of the day, it is only the individual performance that counts. Lots of MNCs are now coming down for campus placements and the students have to be individually very competitive to be successful. They have to use the two years to become that competitive. A NITIE or an IIM batch is a product of filtering that is carried out during the admission process, so a minimum quality is assured at these b-schools for companies. But after this stage of filtering, what matters to companies is how you have fared in the two years of the management course.

Why do 100 percent placements happen? How is it possible that all the students in a batch are competitive enough to get into some or the other company?

Companies during the placement process test a student for multiple skill areas. It is a process in which the best area of talent is identified in a student. Let me give you an example. Once, Hindustan Lever Limited was recruiting at NITIE for process and system profiles, when they came upon a student who they thought had real talent for a sales and marketing job. Now HLL has a company policy that allows only IIM students to be placed in sales-marketing profiles. But after several deliberations among themselves, with me and the student in question, they decided that he was really suited for the job and they took him aboard.

(To be continued...)



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Keeping up with the routine of each month MICA hosted Mr. Mahesh Murthy this time for it's lecture series. MICA Lecture series, better known as MLS on campus is a platform where students interact with industry experts to garner from their experiences in the corporate world. Mr. Mahesh Murthy is a venture capitalist, a technocrat, an investor, and writes regularly for Business World. Presently, Mr. Murthy is involved in a startup called PINSTORM (www.pinstorm.com) and is its Director. PINSTORM is a search engine driven marketing company.

Mr. Murthy talked on the topic 'Kotler is dead: The new rules for marketing for 21st century'. A talk that was completely non conformist in style and content, he talked about the new rules of marketing in today's world and how the theories of marketing gurus such as Philip Kotler, David Aaker and Ries and Trout have become obsolete to today's marketers. He challenged the students minds by putting forth and defending his belief that the famous marketing theories that are taught in every management school like the 4Ps of marketing etc have become irrelevant.

A stimulating discussion followed the talk where students were trying to make sense of these theories and statements.

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Retaining talent in a company, Basel II, entrepreneurship, mergers and aquisitions, these were just some of the varied and interesting topics covered in “Horizons 2005” annual management seminar of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode held at institute's campus in the picturesque hills of Kozhikode (Calicut), Kerala, on 8th October, 2005.


The seminar was inaugurated by Dr. A.C. Muthiah, Chairman, SPIC, Chennai and Chairman of the Board of Governors, IIM Kozhikode and Dr. Krishna Kumar, Director of IIM Kozhikode delivered the welcome speech.


Google India's HR Head, Mr. Manoj Varghese, was the first speaker to address the seminar. He talked about HR in emerging sectors, and the very relevant issue of talent management and retention. He commented that in the IT enabled sector today, due to the need for more people at higher levels of the pyramid, many techies are pushed too soon into management roles. He emphasized that a key factor in enabling talent is to modify our education philosophy, which should focus on equipping the participant with the know-how to find the best solution, rather than teach 'one way to do it.' Continuing in the same vein, Mr. Somas Jeevan from EDS, also the India HR head, gave an engaging and extremely interactive talk on a wide variety of topics. He mentioned how HR, being a child of the social sciences, was an art as well as a science. He recounted his experiences while setting up the first few outlets of the McDonald's chain in India, and said that people management was about managing diversity, be it cultural, educational, technological or functional.


The post-lunch session began with Mr. M.J. Aravind, partner, Artiman Ventures, recounting his experiences of starting his own venture, Daksh. The session was very informative and provided a glimpse into the problems one has to grapple with when starting a new venture. He vividly mentioned the complex and often inexplicable legalities and infrastructural problems that plagued this pathbreaking business in the beginning, but were overcome through planning, having solid backups in place, and determination. One of Daksh's key success factors was their training model, which was painstakingly developed over time, so that the employees could handle services in any functional domain with only a few weeks of training. In line with the optimistic spirit prevalent in the nation, Mr. Bijou Kurien, Chief Operating Officer of Titan Industries spoke on India's capability in creating global brands. The talk centered on the reasons and challenges faced by Titan Industries in deciding to go global. He also talked about the success attained by Tanishq in branding jewellery, which has been traditionally viewed as a commodity. He concluded his talk with the message that to be global it is necessary that we make use of our capability advantages along with better government initiatives in areas of policy making and implementation.


The CFO of CRISIL, Mr. D. Ravishankar then took over with an extremely informative and interactive talk on Basel II for banks. He talked about the different types of risk a bank faces, and how each of these needs to be hedged for by the banks. He also talked about the difference in Standardized credit rating of external agencies and the internal IRB rating that banks could go for, and fended a lot of questions from the engrossed audience on the same. The architect of mega-mergers like Glaxo-Wellcome, Glaxo-Smithkline and Tata-Tetley was up next. Mr Homi Khusrokhan, who was the MD of these companies when he led them through these massive mergers, and is now the ED of Tata Chemicals, told the participants about his experience with mergers & acquisitions over a period of nearly 40 years. He mentioned that the prime reason many mergers fail is because revenue synergies are ignored in favor of rampant cost-cutting. Mr Khusrokhan stressed that in this age of international mergers, convergence of values is more crucial than that of culture, since some differences in culture are inevitable, but they can be ironed out if the companies' value-systems match. He concluded by saying that treating people sensitively goes a long way in cultural integration, which was a fitting end to a seminar that brought together experts from such diverse backgrounds.



The participants of the seminar went away with rich learnings from the masters of diverse domains, with a view to incorporate the same into their careers. FICCI was the knowledge partner for this event, and Sify.in was the media partner.
For more information please visit http://intranet.iimk.ac.in/events/horizons/.

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MANTHAN – AN INTRODUCTION


Manthan – the mythological churning of the ocean was essentially a quest for 'Amrit' – the nectar of immortality. Amrit is said to be a mixture of 5 elements, namely, Avadoha, Deva, Madhu, Dadhegegena, Pipayata and Tamara. Manthan, by its very name, therefore, is symbolic of the effort expended in the quest for the ultimate elixir. The effort of the students of the Personnel Management and Industrial Relations batch of the Tata institute of Social Sciences was to realise this symbolism in the intellectual sphere through Manthan-2005, a business seminar. The purpose of this annual business seminar this year was thus, to clear some amount of ambiguity surrounding the new roles of HR, answers some questions and raise some others that will stimulate new thinking in the field, thereby enabling HR to in effect achieve what was termed 'sustained value creation'.


To facilitate this process, the sessions at Manthan-2005 had been planned, in alignment with a central theme. The theme was “New Age HR – Enabling Sustained Value Creation in Organizations” while the sessions were “Role of HR – An internal Customer Perspective”, “Employer Branding – A Value Proposition”, “Leveraging new Technology – Application and Issues” and “Quantifying HR – What gets Measured gets Done”. These were those aspects in HR that the students perceived as being the greatest challenges, at least in the immediate future covering respectively, the domains of Positioning, People, Process Facilitation and Practise Evaluation. The reason behind the selection of such a theme and such sessions was the fact that today HR as a body of knowledge has become diverse, complex and fluid, that is, it is constantly evolving. The theory of HR, be it concepts such as HRM or HRD, has evolved extensively over the last decade. Literature on HR has become easily available and widely read. Certain works such as the 'HR Champions' by Dave Ulrich have virtually gained the status of a cult. HR has come to be regarded as the greatest resource in any organization and every organization would like to see itself, and be seen as, one that values HR. Therefore, at a time when organizations have begun valuing HR, can HR reciprocate by creating value for the organization? And if it succeeds in such value creation, can it ensure that the success is sustained over the long term with incremental value?


Manthan – 2005 was held at the Leela Kempinski, Mumbai, on the 29th and 30th of September 2005. The seminar served as a forum for interaction between members of the corporate world, academicians, and students, debating and discussing whether the current hype about HR and its integration with business is just a passing phase or a deserved recognition.


KEYNOTE ADDRESS


The keynote address was delivered by Mr. Arun Maira, Chairman, Boston Consulting Group. He gave a fresh perspective on the oft-debated topic of whether the teeming millions of India would present a threat or leverage economic potential. More importantly, whether the country can adopt a development model where every single citizen of these teeming millions can find a rightful place in both the society and the economy. He drew an analogy between the engines of the industrial versus knowledge economies, where the fuel for the former was coal and petroleum while for the latter is people. Throwing light on the perceptions of brain drain, Mr. Maira also suggested how technology has actually helped India export its services, without exporting its people. Despite our strength in numbers however, what is important in case of population, as in the case of fuel, is quality and accessibility.


Mr. Maira emphasised 'scenario thinking' where people are involved in scanning the environment and understanding how the future will unfold given the present scenario. This would enable people to be in a situation to change the future for a better. He explained four different scenarios wherein development can take place. The ideal is where every Indian is a leader, where each individual is his own light and has command over himself and his environment in whatever little capacity possible. With local leadership, social entrepreneurship, and this model of development, we would be able to realise sustainable and equitable growth in the country.

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SESSION I: QUANTIFYING HR – WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS DONE This session was delivered by Mr. Awdhesh Krishna, VP-HR, GE Capital. He spoke about how metrics will play a pivotal role in defining the future of HR by showing the value of human capital. There is a need to measure and to apply measurement to strategic analysis and decision-making. By showing the value of assets as return on investment, HR metrics becomes the key to advancing the HR profession and creating value for business. The crux of this 'metricization' is to look at it from the customer's span and do away with the multiplicity in the definitions of various HR processes. GE Capital is an excellent example that HR will get a face-lift if there is quantification, for it will provide clarity and focus of purpose, pride and improved morale as HR professionals also know what is expected from them and how well their service has been received. As a word of caution however, is the thought that quantification cannot and must not be used just for its own sake.

SESSION II: EMPLOYER BRANDING – A VALUE PROPOSITION

This session, delivered by Prasanjeet Bhattacharya from Grow Talent, traced the meaning of the term 'Brand', the different facet it acquired when used in the term 'Employer Brand' and the components and processes of the latter. The most important idea put forth was the fact that brand as such and employer brand in particular are both intangible assets. A brand is a perception built over time that reflects an expectation and a commitment. The brand may relate to just products or extend to several stakeholders including the employees, which brings us to the concept of an employer brand. Building the employer brand revolves around both recruitment and retention of employees in the organisation, is a targeted process and reflected in the actions of the employer. Various factors may affect an employer brand's architecture and these influences (which vary from organization to organization) must be recognised for successful brand building.

SESSION III: ROLE OF HR – AN INTERNAL CUSTOMER PERSPECTIVE

Some industry commentators call the HR function the last bastion of bureaucracy. They are not exactly to be blamed. Traditionally, the HR department focussed predominantly on basic administration, record keeping and transactional duties. Delivered by Ms. Madhuri Puri Bhuj, Head - Product and Technology, ICICI Bank, this session thus, underlined the need for HR to align itself to the business. If this is not done, line managers run HR the way they wan to, thus reducing the role of HR to an administrative function. With careful attention to forging an identity, the HR Department can learn to provide what the internal and external customers expect. Within such an environment, the HR professional is considered necessary by line managers, is a strategic partner, an employee sponsor and a change champion.

SESSION IV: LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY – APPLICATIONS AND ISSUES IN HR

This session was jointly delivered by Mr. Shovon Mukherjee and Ms. Neelam Malhotra from IBM PeopleSoft. The session dealt with how given the modern world, globalisation and market-focus, there are various pressures on the HR function in any organisation. With the growing mismatch between employers and employees, several stages in the HR journey have come into being. That is, HR in a company may be at the level of administration and compliance or at a higher level of HR Leadership. Thus, for the various roles HR has to play, one may envisage different functions and corresponding technologies. They illustrated this significance of technology usage through examples of organisations including IBM wherein different IT solutions including employee portals offer different value propositions. Thus any organisation must consider two parameters before selecting the type and extent of technology they intend to use, which are, the ease of implementation of that technology and its value which in turn to lead to the birth of what could be called e-HR.

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KHOJ: This was the corporate paper presentation, for which Manthan-2005 received a most enthusiastic response from those in the corporate world. The evaluation of the papers had been carried out by a panel of well-qualified judges prior to the actual event of Manthan. The winner of Khoj, Mr. Harsh Biyani, of Edelweiss Capital presented his prize-winning paper to the delegates present at Manthan. The theme was 'Success across Time Frames - Moving towards a healthy organization' and using experience from various organisations, Mr. Biyani proceeded to identifying the important factors for a healthy organisation as recruitment and retention, brand image programs and feedback systems.

KAUSTUBHAM:

This was the student paper presentation that received an overwhelming response of 90 entries from student teams across the country. The final four short-listed teams from TISS, SCMHRD, IIT-Mumbai, and NMIMS presented their papers at the Manthan forum of delegates and were judged by a panel of four judges. After the presentations on the topic “What is the Business of Business? Is it Business or is it not just Business?” and answering the questions of the judges and the delegates, the prizes for the papers were declared, the first of which went to the team from NMIMS. BUSINESS QUIZ:

This was one of the most awaited of the Manthan events line up. After eliminations conducted a day prior to Manthan, there were 7 teams that qualified to the finals. Conducted by

Parnov Mukherjee, the quiz got the attention of not just the participating teams but also the audience for a full two hours throwing light on several new facts from the corporate world.

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Click to read Part 1 of the interview

Which according to you are NITIE's peer institutes?

NITIE features along with the IIMs, IITs and IISc (Bangalore) in the Union HRD Ministry's list of the top centres of excellence in India. Earlier, both XLRI (Jamshedpur) and FMS (University of Delhi) were in the same league too but lately they seem to have gone on a low profile.

Also, it is a misnomer that NITIE is a 'sectoral b-school', since we create the same job profiles as that of any of the IIMs.

Which brings us to, what do you think of b-school rankings?

We think they are misnomers. Although we do give the ranking agencies feedback and our students fill their forms.

However, few isolated points made in the rankings do make us want to look back in introspection.

What are the pros and cons of being a government funded institute?

A government institute enjoys a certain credibility that private institutes do not. With a government institute, people take a certain level of quality and commitment for granted. The government on its side earnestly strives to make their institutes centres of excellence.

As for the cons, bringing about changes takes time. Say, if a government institute wants to open a centre abroad, long procedures have to be followed. But the long process always ends up in a more thorough job than private institutes would do. Also, private institutes are profit-oriented, so they open and close centres at will. A government institute's centre once opened, even if it follows slow processes, is always there to stay.

All the top international universities like Harvard, Stanford are private. Will government institutes ever be competitive on a global level?

The Indian society is different. Here, we look up to the government for everything essential in life. Our private sector has not really evolved much. Though there are good institutes like BITS (Pilani) and at Manipal, the real excellence in India is only in government institutes like the IITs and IIMs.

Do our students value education much with the existence of subsidies?

To encourage meritocracy in India, subsidies are a necessity. Much of our talent is in the rural areas, I have seen it myself. To encourage this talent towards merit, education has to be affordable. Take a close look at the profile of many of our CEOs in Indian companies, I'd
say half of them are from a rural background. If education is made expensive, I believe many meritorious people will be left out.

Also do note the fact that despite having earned with some work experience, most b-school students have to take loans to pay even for the subsidized fees.

How do you rate a school like Indian School of Business, Hyderabad in the Indian scenario?

It is a one-year course and different from ours. I believe ISB is a school for people with work experience to upgrade their skills. You do some work, then you join ISB for a major upgradation of skills and move further. ISB does not cater much to beginners. However, ISB's management programme is not AICTE recognized, so one can't go for higher studies after ISB.

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How subjective is a selection process like NITIE's, where you judge students' caliber through a tally of numbers? Are the parameters open for public knowledge?

It is quite subjective, because we use a large number of parameters. People from both academic side as well as industry are called for judging the group discussions and personal interviews, so the final tally takes into account a vast range of details. For example, the group discussions are judged by experts and professors of organizational behaviour and behavioral psychology. The 25 minutes duration of a group discussion is enough for them to make an accurate judgement of a student.

The parameters are not open for public knowledge. But we consider more than one tally and if the student makes it across any of the cutoffs in these tallies, we give the admission.

Also, b-schools are still evolving in India, so the process will refine itself over time.

So when the final decision of whether to take a student in or not is made, are only the tallies considered? Does any member of the admissions committee have the power of selecting a student who just missed the tally by a very low margin, because he might have shown promise not measurable in numbers?

No. Only the numbers are considered. Nobody has an overriding control on final selection.

Tell us any 3 Dos and DONTs for a student qualified for NITIE's GD-PI stage.

DOs
1- Be honest, most importantly to yourself
2- Have confidence
3- Stick to your conviction

DONTs
1- Do not lie
2- Do not boss around in the GD, don't make it a shouting match
3- Do not hesitate in starting the discussion. Be a leader

Also keep in mind that the content of what you speak is important and not how much you speak.

How important is a student's undergraduate performance in the selection process?

Only those engineering graduates who have graduated with first class are eligible to reach NITIE's GD-PI process. Once at the GD-PI stage, they are all on the same plane as far as undergraduate performance is concerned.

What kind of a student is best fit to be in NITIE?

We look at how confident the student is, how clear is the communication, whether he or she is fit to be in a management profession or a research environment. Then we see how truthful the student is, the capability to handle stress and put in the best at the same time, honesty, integrity and sincerity. Also, we say, do not answer a question when you don't know it. It's better than making a bad attempt. Management is a subject of practice. Passing a management course is easy, but practising management requires skills. We look at that potential.

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What is your current intake and do you plan to increase it?

We currently take in a batch of 120, and there are no plans for expansion immediately.

Why is the intake so low, considering that American b-schools take in over 700 in a batch?

I agree there is good talent in the country, but an institute must have enough faculty and sufficient infrastructure to support a large intake.

Why is it that alumni of Indian b-schools do not give back financially to their alma-mater?

I think it is because they spend a very less amount of time in a management course to develop an emotional bonding. They spend two years here, but mostly it is an in-and-out kind of affair.

The reason why the IITs get donations from their alumni is because they spend four fundamental years of their lives there.

With b-schools in India, somewhere the emotional bonding is lacking.

Do you think it is because somewhere the alumni does not think that b-school education added much to their success?

I don't think that is the reason. B-school adds a lot to not only career, but also personal moulding.

Thank you very much, sir for the interview.

It has been a pleasure, thank you.


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Prashant Goyal- Co-ordinator IRIS 2005
IRIS began as a small fest started by IIM Indore's cultural committee. Earlier all the participants were from local colleges in and around Indore. Since then IRIS as a festival has come a long way. Last year (2004) was the first time that IRIS was organized on a full-fledged scale in IIM Indore's new campus.

This year's IRIS promises to be the biggest yet. We have introduced a lot of new games and also added a lot of informal events, which will make it 4 days of non-stop excitement.

Our Flagship event Ashwamedha promises to be the ultimate face-off between the best Managers from the TOP B-Schools. The various games and events scheduled are designed to test the skill levels of participants in every function related to management right from operations, finance, marketing to negotiation & presentation skills.
We also have talks and presentations from leading people from the industry as well as talks by Entrepreneurs who dared to do things differently.

IRIS is a very important event for IIM Indore because it is our chance to interact with participants from other b-schools. The image of IIM Indore in the eyes of the external participants would depend to a large extent on what happens here during the 4 days of IRIS. Hence, it becomes all the more important to ensure that everything is carried out smoothly. On a personal note acting as a Co-ordinator for IRIS has taught me a whole lot of things. It is an immense responsibility and an even bigger challenge to live up to expectations.

Dejo George, Events Co-ordinator: For me, IRIS means EXCITEMENT!

One of our faculties once said that the only event for which the students of IIM Indore give everything is not even placements but IRIS and I agree with that statement 100%. IRIS boasts of holding the maximum number of events across 4 days than any other management institute in India. Every one of the events have been developed and implemented by the participants themselves. A lot of games are also legacies that have been passed down from batch to batch and ever batch tries to improve on the game. Of course sometimes mistakes may have been committed but everyone puts in a lot of effort to ensure that the game is better than the year before. A lot of time has to be put in to ensure that the events are successfully held. Co-coordinator for any particular game needs to put in at least 5 hours a day starting 30 days prior to the event in order to ensure that the event is a success. Considering the rigorous academic schedule people still take time to go beyond and contribute towards making the event a success. It is nothing but the spirit of IRIS, which drives them. And it is this spirit that makes people own up to their responsibility. IRIS is the biggest gaming extravaganza in India. There is a lot to expect from it.

Parvez A Qazi - Co-ordinator, Participations: For me, IRIS is IIM Indore's chance to show the world what we are capable of.

My responsibility is to ensure that the communication regarding various events at IRIS reaches all participating institutions. Also keeping track of queries from participants and entries for events is another important function. Once IRIS begins we assign participants the responsibility of taking care of external participants. Good hospitality needs to be ensured. Last year IIM Indore was applauded for the excellent hospitality provided to all the external participants. In fact, it's one of the strong points of IRIS.

Last year was the first year where we had a full-fledged festival on the new campus. Even the online games were started last year. It was a first time experience of handling a crowd of about 150 participants on campus. This year the number is going to be much higher and the challenges would be greater.

Sanchit Shinghal –Co-ordinator Creative - For me IRIS means Ego, A matter of PRIDE for all of us

Purna Chandra Rao D- Co-ordinator-Media Partnerships - For me IRIS is a Challenge- It is our responsibility to make it bigger than last year.

As part of the media and creative team we are responsible for everything right from brochures, posters, banners, the website and publicity. At IIM Indore, we have always strived to be different. This shows in our communications too. For example if every other institute went for colors in their brochures and communication we try to make a statement with just Black and White. Again when most of the institutes were formal in their communications regarding events, we went for a splash of colour and jazz in the way we handle our fest.

Jitendra Saraogi - Co-ordinator, Finance: For me IRIS means 'EXCITEMENT'

Iris is a matter of pride for all of us. What drives us is the desire for IRIS to be the biggest festival.
Iris had taught me a lot about negotiating, whether it is for getting extra financial support or for allocating money. Managing good control over the limited budget is crucial. Allocating prize money between various games all of which are competing with each other for the biggest prize money can be dicey too. IRIS, with its scale and number of activities provides a lot of challenges and excitement for the professional in me.

Saurabh Arya - Co-ordinator, Operations:

IRIS 2004 was praised because of the hospitality provided to the participants. Additionally every one of the events was held in clockwork precision and there was almost no case of any event being delayed. For the operations team, the 4 days over which IRIS is held is non stop work.

Working in operations teaches you about how things work in the background. It teaches you to work behind the scenes and ensure that everything is in order when the event starts to take place. Again it builds your relationships with the administration and staff at the college since over the 4 days you need all the help you can get from the administration and staff to ensure that the event takes place without a hitch. Most important thing with operations is that you need to ensure that every event is run on schedule and everything is ready before the event takes place. One also needs to plan for alternate events to take place so that events continue even in the event of any last minute glitches.

This year the scale is going to be bigger than last year, with around 200 participants. This year's rock show will also feature 'Euphoria', which is one of the biggest Indian bands with a nationwide fan following. The Rock show is also one of the few events for which the local Indore population would also be present. Making arrangements to handle the crowd as well as coordinating the security and other arrangements to handle a show of this size is going to be a big challenge.

IRIS to me is Challenge-Fun-Excitement and finally JOY
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As a part of “Ribandar Talks – A lecture series by eminent personalities” (a student driven initiative), Goa Institute of Management, Goa organized a talk by
Mr. R. Gopalkrishnan
Executive Director, TATA SONS
Chairman, Rallis India
Ex Vice-Chairman, Hindustan Lever Limited


“The Man Who Became A Bonsai”

Mr. Gopalkrishnan sees a typical manager as a “Bonsai” whose growth has been restricted by undertaking stereotype tasks without much challenge. He feels management is all about instincts. There is no definite protocol which can be followed in management.


A typical manager becomes a “Bonsai Manager” by the age of thirty unless he/she chooses to look out for grass root experience and be ready to sweat out on the shop floor. There is a need to increase one's span of mind, go for healthy mental food and accelerate one's growth by following his/her instincts.
He cites his example and attributes his success to his days in Hindustan Lever wherein after graduating from IIT Kharagpur in Computer Science he joined HLL and was asked to go out and sell soaps in markets of Nashik (he fancied of sitting in an air-conditioned cabin punching keys). According to him there is a need to understand the product and the consumer, failing which one can never be a good manager.
He feels management education does not guide us to take instinctive decisions. It just provides us with knowledge required to follow our “Gut Feeling” to take such decisions. In the world of management there are no proven managers because management is all about instincts.


When one rises in management one should rely on his instinctive decisions since there are no prescriptive solutions. “Managers should be implementers rather than mere planners.”
Management is an art which cannot be taught unlike subjects like marketing, finance, etc. Subjects like HR and OB only help in providing an insight to management and those who learn what is not taught grow to become Top Class Managers.


According to him, the human brain structure consists of three layers*:
1. Pea – This part controls the basic life functions and co-ordinates the physical activities.
2. Lemon – This part is capable of basic emotions.
3. Cabbage – This part makes us diplomatic, and this is what differentiates the humans from animals.
Most of the mistakes made by the top managers are elementary in nature. At such crucial moments one should rely on their instinctive Brain (pea and lemon) rather than on their top quality brain (cabbage).
He also talked about BRIM (Brain Remote Instinctive Memory). It consist of two parts
Short term & Long term memory (Explicit memory)
Remote Memory (Implicit memory, emotional events)
He stresses the need to rely on the “remote memory” as that regulates one's instincts and things stored here are indestructible.


Every individual in an organization has a different perspective and level of thinking and a manager would be successful only if he is able to connect with each individual at the right time. He should be able to motivate people and get the best out of them by engaging their emotions. This needs to be done at times when they are least motivated.


The first ten years are crucial in shaping the future of a successful manager, since it is in these ten years that one would be exposed to grass-root experiences and gain by the challenges he comes across.


* Cabbage, the largest part of the brain is supposedly in the head. Lemon is in the centre and the pea is at the bottom near the neck.

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Prerana Day One Report
Prerana, NITIE's annual B-school fest kicked-off with a bang with the fourth Prerana Business Meet, organized at the ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton Mumbai on Friday, October 21, 2005. The meet was attended by dignitaries such as Mr. Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao: Chairman & CEO, MphasiS and past Chairman, Nasscom, Dr LS Kanodia: founder Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services and Chairman of Datamatics and Mr. K. Ramachandran, CEO of Philips Electronics India Limited. The meeting was hosted by Director of NITIE, Dr. Subhash D. Awale and Professor Ashok. K. Pundir.


The topic of discussion at this meet was “Brand India: From emergence to Leadership”. The discussion was kick started by Dr. Awale who connected the meaning of Prerana itself to the roots and traditions of India and thus recognized the role that our past traditions and culture plays in our present as well as future. The discussion was then taken over by Dr. Kanodia who painted a very vibrant picture of what India is and what it will be in the years to come. Dr. Kanodia also emphasized the fact that there was still a long way to go for India and gave the example of India's per capita income being just 10% of the average per capita income of the world and the vast inequalities which still exist in the Indian society. “What USA is today we were 220 years ago”, this is how Dr. Kanodia summed up the loss India has suffered in its past. Dr. Kanodia felt that the value of brand India once fully developed would be invaluable provided we overcome the obstacles of poor infrastructure and corruption.


Mr. Jerry Rao put forth his points by using the examples of Switzerland and China as two nations which have emerged as strong brands that deliver on certain core values. He also quoted an example of a brand going wrong, by citing Germany's example, where the obsession for quality blinded them from the affordability and value-for-money equation. Mr. Rao also cautioned that the focus should first be on evolving a successful product or service and then branding should follow. The essence of his speech was that a brand cannot emerge from thin air and has to be made out of reality.


Mr. K. Ramachandran, CEO of Philips Electronics India Limited, then took the discussion forward with his presentation on “Positioning Brand 'India'….The Last Mile”.He took a unique approach to the topic by explaining the success of branding in various companies such as Google, Nokia & Philips itself and extending this nationwide - explaining how this approach could be applied to promoting Brand India. Mr. Ramachandran used the example of the difference in facilities provided at the Chennai airport vis-à-vis Kuala Lumpur airport to explain what India really needs to do for developing a strong and powerful brand image.
The meet concluded with a vote of thanks being proposed by Professor Ashok. K. Pundir and distribution of mementos by Dr. Awale to the distinguished guests. The meeting was attended by academicians, corporates and students from the B-School community.


The post-lunch session of day-one witnessed two events where B-school students competed for honours before esteemed panelists from the industry. The first event was “On Your Marks - the Srijan Marketing Case Study contest.” Out of the numerous entries received the top five teams were chosen for the final. The case study, sponsored by Orange, was about developing innovative marketing strategies to capture the growing mobile phone user segment in the 15-21 year old age group. The teams that qualified for the finals were from IIM Calcutta, NITIE, NMIMS, Great Lakes Institute of Management and JBIMS. The panelists for the event were Prof. Rekha Chikalkar, Area- Marketing at NITIE; Mr. Mayank Tiwari, Brand Manager for Axe, HLL; Mr. Anil Bhatia, Sales Director, Financial Solutions Division, NCR Corp India Pvt Ltd; and Mr. Sagar Verma, Assistant VP, Planning and Business Development Group (Polymers), Reliance Industries Limited.


All the teams did a good job of primary and secondary research in analyzing the current market situation and arriving at what the target customer aspires for. All the teams identified the target segment as one which is very technology savvy and hence proposed a slew of value added data-services to capture their attention. Many tie-ups were suggested with places which students frequent such as colleges and coffee-shops. Since, parents are influencers of the purchase decision in this target segment, an innovative marketing campaign targeting the emotional bond between parent and child was proposed.In the end, the teams that managed to marry good research with innovative suggestions emerged on the tops. The team of Srinath and Amol from NITIE came first, the runners up were Susmita and Vikas from the Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai.


The other event of the day was Invest – an equity research contest – sponsored by ICICIDirect.com. Students of esteemed B – Schools across India were invited to submit an equity research report recommending a stock elucidating a long term investment strategy. The panelists for the event were Mr. Prakash Gaba (Professional Technical Analyst, CNBC), Mr. K. Ramachandran (Sr. VP, Head Advisory Desk, BNP Paribas), Mr. Vinod Bajpai (VP, Investment Advisory, Deutsche Bank AG), Prof. Ram Pendelaya (Area- Finance at NITIE), Mr. Harendra Kumar (Head Research - ICICI Direct) and Mr. Anand Rangrajan (Head Trade Finance - Standard Chartered). The event received 320 entries from across the country out of which five finalists were selected.


In the evening, NITIE witnesses an engrossing 'Talk-Show' with speakers drawn from diverse backgrounds such as journalism, acting and social-activism. The panel included Boman Irani, actor and theater artist; Meher Pestonji, author and activist; Srinivasan Jain, Senior Correspondent, NDTV; Naval Bajaj, DCP, Mumbai and Dilip D Souza, author and activist.


Over the next few days a host of events are lined up for B-school students and corporates alike. A rock show will enliven proceedings on the 22nd evening. The much anticipated Prerana Business Quiz is scheduled on the 23rd afternoon.

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Prerana Day Three Report

The crescendo of excitement built over the last two days, reached a feverish pitch on the third and final day of Prerana 2005. The events scheduled on day three were the SCM Summer Project Contest, the Taktics SCM Case Study Contest, the 'Law'Gistics' strategy game and the 'Billboard' advertising game. In the evening, the NITIE lawns played host to the grand spectacle of the Prerana Business Quiz - a corporate versus students business quiz conducted by Parnab Mukherjee that carried a net prize money of one lakh rupees.

The first event of the day was the 'SCM Summer Project Contest.' The jury for the event included – Mr. Lars Sorensen, Managing Director Maersk Logistics; NITIE alumni Mr. R. Suresh, Managing Director, Stanton Chase; Mr. S. Viraraghavan, Head of SCM and Operations, Cargill Foods and Professor N. Sambandam, NITIE, Mumbai. Only 6 entries out of the 140 received made it to the finals. The six finalists were from IIMI, IIMK, NITIE and Sydenham Institute of Management, Mumbai respectively. The contestants presented really interesting projects from that addressed diverse challenges such as efficient components procurement for Maruti Swift, redesigning Diageo's distribution network and charting a roadmap for six-sigma implementation in the shared services department of Dr. Reddy's Labs. Saurabh Sharma from NITIE comfortably bagged first place for his project that involved developing a model for the novel concept of introducing intra-company SLAs between the SCM, Marketing and Finance departments of Nestle to enhance collaboration between these core function groups. Parag Shah from IIML came second. His project dealt with reducing inventory costs of 'gold' in Tanishq's jewelry and watches plant. The summer project contest was followed by a panel discussion on the strategic role of SCM in brand building.

'Taktics', the supply chain case study contest was swept by NITIEns. The five teams that made it to the finals were from Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research, NITIE, VGSoM - IIT Kharagpur and IIMA respectively. The first place went to Amit Dutta, the second prize winners were the team of Saurabh Sharma and P N Madhukar, all from NITIE. The case study dealt with redesigning the distribution set-up of a company in the post-VAT scenario. The jury members were Mr. Rajesh Aggarwal, CEO, Bayer healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Ramesh Singhal, CEO, i-maritime, Ravindra Tulsyan, CEO – Director Aakit Technologies and Head of IMRMI ( Institute of Manufacturing Resource Management of India) and Prof. K. Muthukrishnan, SCM faculty of NITIE.


The Red Herrings series of on-the-spot business games, threw two new challenges in the form of Bill Board and Lawgistics. Bill Board, an advertising game, was designed to align the contestant's attitude with today's dynamic markets for out of the box solutions. The game was held in three rounds, the first being an elimination round that tested the awareness of the teams vis-a-vis Indian and global advertising. The 7 teams that survived this round moved to rounds 2 and 3, which were evaluated by Mr. Abu Mallick, Strategic Planning Director, McCann Erickson India. Round 2 consisted of a print campaign aimed at promoting a social cause that had to be selected and presented by each team. Themes chosen in this round varied from saving the ozone layer to eye donation to AIDS prevention. Round 3 was based on developing a storyline for brands not based in India, or not having a strong presence here. Participants presented in-house productions and creatively thought out themes, such as linking the Vesuvius man for a Rolex ad, and using everyday life at NITIE to promote the Pringles chips brand. After a keenly fought contest, Team Zero of AICAR business school, emerged as winners for their campaign for CPA (print) and Rolex watches (Eric Clapton). Team Karma Chakra of ICFAI, Hyderabad was runners up, with their presentation for PETA (print) and BOSE QC2 headphones (story line).

The other Red Herring event of the day was, Law'Gistics. Law'Gistics tested the creativity of participants in dealing with issues concerning logistics and supply chain management. Teams that participated were from ISB, NITIE, S.P Jain, NMIS etc. Eight teams survived the elimination round to reached round two. The second round was a computer simulated strategy game where the challenge was to build a cost effective distribution network. In the final round the four teams that were short-listed from the second round faced a barrage of questions from Prof. Muthukrishnan. After four grueling rounds of quizzing the team of Kartik Shanker and Sameer Gunjal from NITIE emerged trumps. The team of Umang Kumar and Rohit Kapoor from ISB came second.
The post-lunch session saw people streaming in for the annual Prerana Business Quiz. This grand event which boasts of a net prize money of rupees one lakh, has always been a huge draw for corporates and students alike. The elimination round saw three corporate teams and three student teams make it to the finals. As the sun set on the NITIE lawns, the multi-faceted theater activist cum ace quiz master, Mr. Parnab Mukherjee took stage to conduct the quiz finals. Round after round of scintillating quizzing literally stretched the participants to their wits end!


As the curtains fell on Prerana 2005, the PGDIM batches on NITIE deserved a pat on the back for the brilliant execution of this fascinating three day journey called Prerana!

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How does one tempt the Ashwa?
Beginning with the online prelims on 29th September, the participants would go through many other rounds before they finally make it to the event. All these rounds comprise of a new challenge and more rigor that a manager possibly faces in the corporate jungle.

And what does he walk away with?

You don't win silver, you lose gold. The prelims and the two days of action on the campus result in only one competitor emerging as the best of the managers. There are no second or third prizes. Rather, as we like to say, there are only congratulations for the other participants for having survived the trickiest and the toughest of the simulated situations and grueling question answer sessions by the industry experts.The winner walks away with Rs. 1 Lakh prize money, which is the single largest prize money for an individual game for an individual position.

Who is our partner

Our endeavor is supported by Maruti Suzuki, our principal sponsor.

The history of the event

The event draws huge participation from more than thirty B-schools across the country. In the preliminary round conducted online through a case study in 2004, 150 participants contested. Out of these 60 were chosen for another online round - a leadership quotient test. The final 30 participants were invited for IRIS 2004 for several games to test their ultimate mettle and intellect.

How big is it this time

This year round, it has gotten bigger and better. The online round saw 720 participants contesting to enter the list of the 150 who would enter the further round. Next in line is an online case study that will test the survivors for their decision making skills.

The best thirty out of those will be selected by an eminent panel consisting of members of the industry and academia. The D-day will witness them battling it out to tame the horse and claim the coveted treasure. The ultimate war will include battles of extempore, role-play, situation problem solving, strategizing and numerous other forms of verbal warfare.
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BUILDING INDIA INC – SWOT @ 2005
DMS-IIT-Delhi

29th October 2005

Goldman Sachs foresees India, along with China, Brazil and Russia becoming one of the biggest forces in world economy by 2050. To achieve the status of an economic super power India needs to continuously move on the path of sustainable development. As India marches towards economics dominance, its essential for us to pause and analyze our strengths and weaknesses in the light of current opportunities and threats.


The Department of Management Studies, IIT Delhi decided to tread this path of analysis hand in hand with the industry and the policy makers of the nation at its annual seminar series "Building India Inc. – SWOT @ 2005" on the 29th October 29, 2005. Not only was this seminar an analysis but it also served as a workshop to prepare and train budding managers to bring about positive changes in the economic growth of the country.
The seminar started with an introduction of the topic by Prof. Surendra S. Yadav. Then Prof. Vinayshil Gautam made his remarks about the evolution of management education in IIT Delhi. The chief guest, Dr. PS Rana, CMD, HUDCO, talked about the requirement of re-thinking on the development strategy of the country. He said the development has to be an integrated process rather than talkig about it in terms of rural and urban development separately. Mr. Satya Poddar highlighted the importance of the reform process that was started in early 90s and has since been carried on despite road blocks here and there. Mr.MK Venu, senior editor, The Economic Times talked about the importance of liberalization taking an example of ASEAN countries and other developing regions of the world, which have made progress because of liberal environment.


This was followed by three separate sessions each focusing on a different sectors:


Session 1: Manufacturing and Consumer Goods
Session 2: Banking Financial Services and Insurance
Session 3: Information communication & Technology


First session began with Prof. Rajat K. Baisya introducing the topic with focus on manufacturing and consumer goods industry. Referring to the BRIC report and the increasing competitiveness of the Indian market, he highlighted the importance of focusing on core competency.


Mr. Rajiv Karwal carried forward the discussion by giving the Indian firms a mandate to innovate. Innovation and R&D;, he said, will be the key driving factors for the growth of any firm in the future. He left the dais with a plethora of thought provoking question for the house to ponder over.


Mr. KJ Gupta, talked about the paradigm shift of focus in the manufacturing industry with Indian companies seeking to grow bigger. He also talked about the changing consumer behavior and their increasing awareness.
Dr. Sanjeev Gemawat, AVP, Head (Legal) & Company Secretary, JCB India, shared his views about building India's infrastructure. He also spoke about the potential in ITES and auto ancillaries industries and said that India's main weaknesses and threats lay in its labour laws.


Session 2:


The second session was flagged off by Prof. S.S Yadav, the head of the department of management studies who portrayed the banking and financial services industry in the lights of our strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
The first speaker for the session was Mr.Venugopal, Deputy General Manager, State Bank of India who analysed the banking industry and the scenario for the future. He said that the biggest problem in India was that people save in physical assets like gold, which hampered the circulation of money and thus reducing the funds available with banks to contribute towards new and large initiatives. He also underlined the importance of domestic savings for infrastructure development.
The second speaker was Mr. Lalit Wangikar, Senior Consultant, Inductis who spoke to the gathering about the focus of consumer financial services. He analysed the present state of affairs, the growth prospect, the lacunae present and the solutions to bridge this gap.
The third speaker for the session was Prof. Najmal Hasan, from the University of Tempere, Finland. He highlighted some strengths of India and Finland, which could be used for greater cooperation between not only Nordic region and India, but also entire Europe and India.


Session 3:


The third session focused on Information and Communication Technology. The first speaker was Mr. C. Kajwadkar, Senior VP, NSEIT Ltd. He elaborated on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the technology side of the National Stock Exchange, and stressed on the importance of technology in the stock markets and the need for mindful markets. He emphasized the need for socially responsible investments.

Mr. Manoj Chugh, President (India and SAARC), EMC, said that there are three laws of information: All information that is created is not equal; the value of information changes with time and it is bidirectional. He stressed that the ability to create the right intelligent information infrastructure is the key to success.
The third speaker of the session was Mr. Manu Khullar, Senior Director (IT AMIS), ST Microelectronics. He addressed the gathering, speaking about running IT as a business from within an organisation. He analysed ICT with an Indian organisation's perspective and stressed on the importance of IT during mergers and acquisitions.


Mr.Ashok Mehra, Global Head (Business Change), TCS Ltd, concluded the session by highlighting the relevant points in the session and discussed the IT advantage for India. His emphasis was on the importance of the thought process.


The event served as a platform to bring together the government, the corporate, the media and the academia to deliberate on issues and challenges facing the nation and share their experiences and views with the larger audience.

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On Saturday, the 22nd, all roads led to the Taj Ballroom, as Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research & Entrepreneurship Education rolled out its high profile corporate event Simergence- 2005. Over the years Simergence has successfully provided an enlightening meeting ground for industry and academia. With 'Emerging India', as the theme this year, the assembled students were elated as the dignitaries from the corporate world showered them with acute insights on the future course of Indian industry.


The keynote speaker for the event, Mr Gopalakrishnan, ED of Tata Sons, made an insightful presentation comparing the human behaviour to analogies from nature.


The first session started off with the much debated topic 'Will India be able to meet the FII expectations?' Mr Naresh Garg compared the intricacies of FDI and FII's and came out strongly in support of the former. Mr Krishna Murthy Vijayan enlightened the audience, to the reasons India is being looked upon as a super potential FII destination. The unanimous opinion of the panel was that the Government should encourage the FII's and clear the hurdles regarding their participation.


The next session was centred around 'New Paradigms in Marketing Communication'.


The panel discussion was preceded by an entertaining presentation from the SISMREE students as they interspersed theory with entertainment and brought out new media of communication. Sanjay Behl, CMO of Reliance Industries presented in front of the keen audience, the concept of Digital Television, as he revealed that Reliance itself planned to come up with the first intersatellite television in India. Mr Neeraj Roy, CEO of Hungama.com spoke about the powerful medium that internet presented as a communicator and the strong potential that it held for the future.


A panel comprising of Mr. Niranjan Hiranandani, Mr. Ashish Chandrak, Mr. Anuj Bhargava & Mr. Sanjeev Manitri discussed the key issues facing Mumbai for developing it as a commercial hub. The discussions revolved around support services required by a city to thrive so a disaster like 26/7 could be averted.
Taking queues from Hong Kong & Shanghai Mr. Ashish Chandrak of the IDFC fame wants Mumbai to develop a conducive atmosphere for business. Even when the GDP of India grows at 8% Mumbai is just growing by 2% for its contribution. Mr. Hiranandani pointed out that the 66% of Mumbai's population lives in slums and the government was to be blamed for it. This is due to, not fulfilled government promises Amending the rent act, Scrapping the urban cess & Redefining the zones.


Mr. Bhargava of HSBC insisted that Mumbai lacked the leadership and focus as Mr. T Chandrasekhar who turned Thane into a paradise. When compared to city like Dubai; Mumbai has just 4000 Hotel rooms compared to 40000 in the former. Speed of execution was also termed to be the Major factor when it comes to development. There are 3 essential deficits which Mumbai needs to cater to first being the resources of leadership; secondly Knowledge and Enlightenment; finally Authority to reduce the execution time. The need for paradigm shift in the minds of the people not only to think differently but to also make sure that the dream to be a Shanghai stays on track.

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OPUS 2005: Operations Seminar at IIM Kozhikode
"Indian Industry at Crossroads: A Century after the Industrial Revolution"
29th October 2005


OPUS 2005, an annual seminar on operations management, was conducted on 29th October 2005 at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode in their Calicut campus. The theme of the seminar was “Indian Industry at Crossroads: A Century after the Industrial Revolution.” The seminar focused on the contemporary issues in operations management, and the challenges faced in the same by organizations.

Dr. Saji Gopinath, faculty coordinator for the event, inaugurated the seminar. In his inaugural speech, he talked about how, despite having cutting edge technology, companies suffered because their suppliers did not have the technology to match the manufacturer's needs.


Mr. Radha Mohan Gupta, Head of Logistics, Reckitt Benckiser, started the seminar with a detailed account of supply chain management, especially in the context of Reckitt Benckiser's operations in India. He mentioned that the two important functions of supply chain management were physical delivery and market mediation. He talked about how systems and technology were an integral part of supply chain management and how Reckitt Benckiser leveraged technology to manage its hundred and twenty five SKUs.


Mr. Mohamed Iqbal Dabhoiwala, Lead Consultant, Supply Chain Practice, Bristlecone India Ltd then took the center stage with an interesting and interactive session on creating value for the customer. He sketched out the current scenario, how the margins were under severe pressure, and how things like policy changes and varying demand affected the supply chain process. He mentioned how satisfying a customer was not only about delivering a good product, but creating further value through processes like speed of delivery, the quality of support and services offered by the company.


Mr. Narayan Rajagopalachari, Vice President, Global Consulting Services, i2 Technologies dealt with the topic “Driving Agility in an Enterprise”. He talked about how the organization that has the ability to thrive in a continuously changing and increasingly complex market would be the leader of tomorrow. He talked about the key characteristics of an agile organization, and how efficient supply chain management helped in maintaining visibility of a product across the network.


Mr. P. Ravindran, Senior Supdt, Dept. of Central Excise, and adjunct faculty at the CII Institute of Logistics, was the next speaker. He very candidly discussed VAT & Supply Chain Management, with all their benefits and pitfalls, especially from government and tax agencies' point of view. Through lots of anecdotes and real-life examples of various companies and countries, he illustrated the different architectures and implementation methods of Value Added Tax. He said that if a philosophy of management is followed, it should be followed all the way, not halfheartedly. The importance of paperwork, with its associated constraints, and the need for widespread monitoring in case of a VAT implementation was analyzed.


Mr. G. Ramesh, Head of Knowledge Organization group, Take Solutions, talked about “SCM: Challenges and the Road Ahead.” Through a highly interactive session laced with personal recollections from his own life, he gradually took the participants through an evolution of SCM. He said that markets shouldn't exist just in the perception of managers, but in the real world, and should be properly tested for their demand levels. He took the audience on an engaging walk through various examples of competent and shoddy SCM implementations.

OPUS 2005 also featured a case study competition named “Opstimum.” The preliminary round had been conducted earlier, with wide participation from top B schools across the country. The selected finalists presented their solutions to a panel of judges from the industry and academia. Mr Aditya Suresh and Mr Krishnan R of Great Lakes Institute of Management placed first. The second place was jointly awarded to the teams from IIM Ahmedabad and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research.


The participants of the seminar went away with rich learning from the masters from operations management, with a view to incorporate it into their careers. According to Ms Lakshmi R, a first year student at IIMK, “This event brought the field of operations into sharp focus. I learnt that even though it's not considered as 'glamorous' as consulting or marketing, it is of crucial importance to any company's bottomline.”

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ZEITGEIST '05 October 28, 2005, IMT Campus, Mouza Dorli, Nagpur


The Institute of Management Technology, Nagpur, recently concluded its first ever national event. Titled 'Zeitgeist', meaning the spirit of the times, the two day event was a fun filled one, with an exciting mix of cultural and business-academic related activities. The theme to this year's event was 'The Significance of the Bottom of the Pyramid', inspired from the much acclaimed book by Dr. C.K. Prahlad 'Fortune at the Bottom of Pyramid'. The individual at the bottom of pyramid being the latest challenge for capitalism, Prahlad advocates the birth of a new thought, the birth of Inclusive Capitalism ; and keeping in mind the spirit of our times, IMT-Nagpur launched an endeavor to understand the significance of Bottom of Pyramid (BoP) for Corporate India.

The BoP theme ran through all the activities and competitions that were held during the course of the event.
Everything from the 'Biz Quiz' – a business quiz competition, compered by the dashing Parnab Mukherjee, to the 'Venture Capitalist Plan' and the 'Paper Writing Competiton' - events where students of various b-schools presented business plans and papers to be evaluated and judged by eminent members of the corporate as well as academic fraternity was about how to get to that elusive fortune at the bottom of the pyramid. There were numerous Seminars and Thought Symposiums, as well as lectures by eminent faculty from b schools from all over the country, about various issues in keeping with the theme (BoP). Thought provoking sessions attended by luminaries like Cyrus Gonda (Vice – Principal, National Institute of Event Management and member, BMA ) Mr. C.K. Taneja, Dr. B.S. Sahai, (Director, IMT Ghaziabad), among others, and conducted by the zippy Parnab Mukherjee made for inspired discussions and deliberations about the topics.


Apart from academics, activities like the 'Haat' provided the perfect platform for students of business management to put into practice whatever they had learnt in class thus far. The haat consisted of a real marketplace set up on the IMT campus itself, and people from the neighboring villages of Katol, Mouza Dorli, and Kalmeshwar were the customers. Teams were given the challenge of marketing and selling their wares (supplied by the organizers) to the villagers – the individuals at the bottom of the pyramid. Mitali Bhattacharya, Shradda Jalan, and Saurabh Singh - all students of IMT Nagpur - took away the honors (marketshare and sales, to use business jargon), despite stiff competition from students from FMS Delhi, SCMHRD Pune, NIAM Jaipur, ICFAI Jaipur , IMT Ghaziabad and other schools.


The highlights of the days, however, were the cultural event and the Channel [V] nite. Channel [V] VJ Sarah - Jane, and Channel [V] Super Singer Ravinder Upadhyay entertained and enthralled the audience with their melodious voice, and endless enthusiasm. Sponsored by TVS Tyres, ICICI bank, Provogue and Coca Cola, the cultural event showcased the talents of students from all over the country. Dance, drama, music and mimicry were the order of the day, with Ankit Malhotra from (IMT Nagpur), Shikha Nigam (ICFAI Jaipur), and many others, stealing the show, the spectators` hearts and most of the prizes (sponsored by Eagle Shoes). All in all, Zeitgeist `05 was a smashing success.

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Mr. Alan Durante: “Creating Winning Brands against All Odds”


As a part of “Ribandar Talks – A lecture series by eminent personalities” (a student driven initiative), Goa Institute of Management organized a talk by Mr. Alan Durante (Executive Director and President, Auto Sector, Mahindra & Mahindra)


The launch of “Mahindra Scorpio”


“Innovation” is the way to sustain competition, the mantra behind the making of Scorpio-'Because nothing else will do'.


Mr. Durante believes that the reason for the phenomenal success of brand Scorpio was 'customer satisfaction' which was central to all decisions taken during the product development stage.A customer survey was conducted which proved that customers were looking for a vehicle which would address their present problems like noise, individual suspension, power steering, etc. in a SUV. Eliminating these problems from the new product made it a very comfortable vehicle to drive.


The above lead to “Project Scorpio”-A 600 crores project involving 120 engineers and development over a period of 4.5 years. The project cost of 600 crores was almost one-fourth of the cost any multinational would have taken to develop the product. This cost-effectiveness was achieved by a series of innovative decisions and relentless push on cost.

This project saw a 100% supplier involvement right from concept development to implementation. The company allowed suppliers freedom to leverage on their design capabilities and development expertise. The suppliers thus used a lot of their past experience and designs that allowed to develop a product without a lot of non-conformity.


Cost was also minimized by using existent components that were already in development. They adopted the target costing concept in which the target costs were based on market driven pricing. Gateway reviews were conducted every 15 days to review the progress of the project. And the next budget was allocated only after this review was satisfactory. Though this led to an increase in the development period by one year, they were able to keep a check on the costs without compromising on product quality.


By managing the costs Mahindra and Mahindra was able to price its vehicle at around 5 lakhs. Prior to this there was no SUV in the market which was as comfortable, as easy for city driving and having imagery comparable to international brands, and all these at a price which the masses could afford.
These product features led to the Scorpio winning a number of coveted awards like 2003 car of the year award by BBC, Car of the year award by CNBC, etc.


A few years back the manufacturing industry in India was considered to be dead, all Indian manufacturing needs were imported , but now due to the achievements of the Indian companies like Mahindra and Mahindra, India is back in the lime light as a manufacturing hub, growing at a fast pace.

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While giving a complete overview of the India's energy status he highlighted that the share of crude oil in the country's energy matrix would increase to almost 90 pc by 2025.

"The share of civilian nuclear energy would only increase from 3 pc to 6 pc in meeting the demand, while the high ash content in domestic coal reserves often make it unfeasible to produce power", commented Mani Shankar Aiyer. He highlighted an example where Tamil Nadu had found it cheaper to import coal from Australia rather than transport coal from Indian reserves to produce electricity.

Taking a dig at the speculating forces that artificially increase the prices of global crude oil, he felt that there was urgent need of a truly free market. He said, "Even though there have been instances of some labour trouble in Nigeria, there has been no reduction in the oil production by Nigeria. Yet there are some elements who manage to raise prices of global crude oil to even $70 per barrel. Sometimes even a threat of a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia has the same effect."

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The nature of the talk was such that it was directly related to a lot of things that the students of XIMB learn in their classrooms.

Prior to joining JP Morgan, Mr Bhave worked for the Mckinsey Knowledge Center. He also worked with Divisional Securities for three years, as a research analyst. Mr. Bhave did his PGDBM from the KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies and Research, before which he did his B.Com. from the SIES College of Arts and Sciences, Mumbai.

During the course of his talk, Mr. Bhave started off by breaking the ice and encouraging questions at every stage. The talk was well structured, as it began with the ABCs of Investment Banking and went right up to detailed topics like Valuations. He put forward lots of valuable tips and perspectives, including the fact that Investment Banking is 20 pc theory and 80 pc perspective. Contrary to the popular perception among students, he pointed out that Investment Banking is not all about glamour and money, and initially requires a lot of hard work. Deals are struck only at the VP and MD levels.

Mr Bhave gave the students a clear picture of what Investment Banking involves, right from the identification of needs to the delivery of proper solutions. Throughout the entire process, he emphasized on the importance of understanding the business environment, the sector dynamics, and the nature of the client's business. Building of relationships and the execution of plans are the two key factors that make up the delivery process. Overall, knowledge of both local and global factors is essential.

"The ultimate objective of the Investment Banker is to get the same client to come back to him as a repeat customer. For this to happen, all the functions must be performed perfectly by the banker. These functions include raising and placing of capital, advising on strategy and capital structure, offering risk management services, and making markets in financial instruments," he said.

The question of whether investment banking is an art or a science was dealt with by Mr. Bhave in a very practical and understandable manner, where he mentioned that at the point where Markets, Industry, and the Company converge, ie on the shop floor, is where a certain amount of insight must be developed in order to carry out one's duty effectively. He then went on to explain some of the important transactions that may occur, like Mergers and Acquisitions.

For the students of XIMB, it was a rare opportunity to get an inside view of what is a dream job for many. This was clearly evident from the number of questions that were generated by the students after the talk.

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Mr. Ashok Jayaram (Managing Director, Rotork Controls India), Mr. RD Thulasiraj (Executive Director, LAICO Aravind Eye Care System) ,Mr. Mohan Eddy (Executive Director & Senior VP, Satyam Computer Services), Mr. PVR Murthy (CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants), Mr. KR Chandrasekaran (CEO, Java Green), Mr. Ravi Santhanam (MD, Hindustan Motors), Mr. Deepak Pande (CEO, Bharti Infotel), Mr. R Ramaraj (MD & CEO, Sify) and Mr. K Mali Mahalingam (Partner, Mahalingam & Sons) visited the IIM Calcutta campus on the weekend of October 22 and 23, 2005 to help students of their alma mater understand the finer nuances in each of their respective industries and sectors.

Three sessions covered three different sectors highlighting the trends and nuances particular to each sector: the services sector, the retail sector and the telecom sector. The presentations made by the students on the three cases were critically evaluated by the industry experts and appreciated by all. The freshness of thought provided by the young students along with the experience of alumni helped formulate strategies pertaining to these cases and problems.

The first two sessions were followed by Informal discussions amongst students, faculty and alumni over dinner and cocktail. From Placements to campus life to corporate life, every word spoken seemed to enrich the young students' outlook towards industry.

Managed by Chennai Alumni Association along with Marketing Club IIM Calcutta under the guidance of Prof. Shekhar Chaudhary (Director, IIM Calcutta) and Prof. Sudas Roy, the workshop drew students out of their routine and challenged them to use their mental faculties to come up with innovative and practical solutions to real problems.

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The differentiating factor of this year's festival is the underlying theme: 'Inverting the Pyramid'. This theme will focus on building sustainable profitable business models for mass markets. The theme will be common for all business games, case-analyses, simulations and paper writing contests where leading B-schools and top corporates from across the country will battle it out for top accolades.

Businesses all over the country are waking up to opportunities in the mass markets that have not received attention in the past. Recent trends in Indian markets indicate a distinct shift towards the 'Bottom of the Pyramid'. Each of the events at Ensemble will attempt to give a flavor of the steps that corporates have taken in order to build the commercial infrastructure at the bottom of the pyramid – namely, shaping aspirations, creating buying power, improving access and tailoring local solutions

Corporates such as Reliance Infocomm, ITC, HLL, CTS, Hero Honda, O&M;, Murugappa Group, Tata Steel, Air Deccan, etc. have partnered with XLRI in this effort and all events will involve working on ideas closely linked to real life business needs. The total prize money for all events is around Rs 5.5 lakh

Ensemble 2005 will begin with ideaSUMMIT- the keynote address and panel discussion where luminaries from industry and academia will share their insight and experiences of dealing with the opportunity for tomorrow's businesses and the chance to make India a better place by leveraging the potential at the Bottom of the Pyramid. IdeaSUMMIT will host the originator of the ITC e-Choupal, an executive from HLL's Project Shakti, the man fueling the growth of Reliance Webworld and driving Eveready's mastery of the rural markets, all on the same stage.

This will be followed by a host of events spanning all business functions, i.e. Marketing (Concept2Creative), Finance (Temple of Osiris), HR (The Wicked Knot), Strategy (Abhikalp, Grassroots) and Operations (Flight of Icarus).

The flagship game ITC-Pharaohs will transport the participants to another world, where they while facing odds that are extreme in nature, will have to build a pyramid on the sands of ancient Egypt. It is aimed at testing teams on a slew of skills ranging across all management functions.

Lekh , the annual research paper writing competition , will provide a platform for the best young minds in the field of management studies to present original research articles looking at issues involving current business scenarios with the theme being "Inverting the pyramid - Focusing on mass markets".

Other events are Quizzotic and X-Hume (Quiz Contests), Poonji (an Investment game), Treasure Hunt (one of the most popular events of Ensemble each year with participants fanning out over the entire city in search of that elusive treasure!) and many more.

A befitting finale to two days of hectic competition will see the managers of tomorrow unwinding with some pulsating music. Ensemble 2005 will play host to the grand-daddies of Indian rock - Parikrama.

So come November 12th, XLRI will be home to the best management talent of the country who will compete with each other in an effort which will result in path breaking ideas and new paradigms.

As a part of Ensemble, Maroon, XLRI's business game for MBA aspirants is scheduled to be held in the last week of November.

This game is targeted at all MBA aspirants - undergraduate students and working professionals who hope to get into a top B-school. Last year, the game attracted around 7500 students from across the country- each team consisting of three participants.
The game Maroon would be played online over a span of five days. The game tests business fundamentals in a fun and entertaining way – something, which has captured the imagination of the participants over the past 3 yrs of its existence.

It is heavily publicized across the major cities in India- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkota, Chennai, Bangalore, Trivandrum, Coimbatore, Pune, Chandigarh and Hyderabad among others. The game this year will be hosted by sify.com who will also serve in capacity as our web partner for the event. The Hindu Education Plus, PaGaLGuY.com, BusinessWorld, Barista, Landmark, IMS will be event partners for Maroon.

For more details, please visit:

http://xlri.ac.in/ensemble2005
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Or mail:
[email protected]
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Even as I type this report, the entire hilltop campus is alive with over 100 participants from across the country. You can identify the ones from the south from the multiple layers of winterwear on their bodies.

ISB (Hyderabad), IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Kozhikode, Narsee Monjee (Mumbai), IIM Calcutta, SP Jain (Mumbai), MICA (Ahmedabad), MDI (Gurgaon) and IIM Lucknow are already in, while the rest of the usual suspects from IIM Bangalore, XLRI (Jamshedpur) and others are expected by tomorrow noon.

Scroll on for the first visuals!


With a subtly disguised strain of disappointment, Wayne tells me that the car shown above is only for display purposes.


ExQuizzit - Labyrinth's seven final teams live from the well!


hovers over apna mod Wayne's head


Hospitality, Iristyle


The Academic block adorned by some of the principal sponsors

Watch out tomorrow: Complete coverage of Iris events, interview and pictures.



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