All Articles

Jobs & Careers
124

Originally I was going to title this “The average student's guide to cracking the CAT” .Then I realized I wasn't average. This could hardly be called a guide. And I hadn't even cracked the CAT. So I modified the title. I was going to rip-off Five Point Someone' s opening line and modify it to read “I am pretty sure lots of other people could write this better if only they'd get off their asses. They didn't. I did. So sit up straight, press Ctrl+D and let's move on.”

Before we go any further, remember that I am going to be giving a lot of examples based on my experience. What worked (or didn't work) for me may not(or may) work for you. The important thing is, you have to decide what to do and be flexible about it. Lately, with the number of students appearing for CAT going up, the starting period of students preparing for the CAT seems to be getting more and more ridiculous. I've seen requests from kids in their first year of Engineering asking for tips/strategies to crack the CAT. So first off, if you are thinking about starting that early, forget it. There's no point. Honestly speaking, the best time to start preparing for the CAT is in May of the year you are going to take the exam. Seven months is more than sufficient time. I know because I managed a 94.5 percentile in CAT 2k3 (I told you I didn't crack the CAT. In my defense, the paper was leaked in this year and I had done a whole lot better in the leaked paper). Read this.

However, there is plenty you can do if you want to start early.

1) If you notice, more often than not, the Verbal section seems to be horror of most students. So, start reading. If you don't already, there's no time like now. Get rid of that vernacular paper. Take in The Hindu, on weekdays and the Economic Times on weekends. Read the editorials. Chuck that SportsStar in favour of a good B (Business for the uninitiated) magazine . Read the books mentioned in this. Read, Read and then Read some more. Did you know that PG himself read over 2000 books before his 12th. He exhausted his local library doing that. Believe me, it shows. How many of you even have a membership to a library??

2) Improve your academic performance. Now is never too late to start. Academics play an important role to some extent, so it helps.

3) Go out and make a difference. Join a social service community. Click here to know more

4) Do some all round improvement. Get into shape, work out, learn to play a musical instrument, improve your relationship with God/Parents/Family members/Friends……. When things get tough these are the people who'll be there.

5) Make friends with Google.

6) Practice for Group Discussions and interviews. Improve your communication skills.


Its May and you've joined some institute. They've given you material and hopefully you've opened them and seen them. Now here's the thing—when I was preparing for the CAT in 2k3, at one of the student meets, one of students asked a faculty member whether the material provided would be enough or whether they should look for more material from other places. The director replied that that particular institute provided 5000 pages of material, and in all his years of teachings, no one had ever gotten through it all. This is true. Most kids have so much material piled up at the end of year its ridiculous. That said, there are a few books I think you should get and go through. Vedic math, Arun Sharma/Guhati, last ten years CAT papers. Vedic mathematics maybe a lot of work on its own but can also be a lot of fun.

{pagebreak}

Discipline yourself. Pace yourself. Draw up a flexible timetable. Contrary to what most people think, a time-table needn't bind you down. Instead it gives you the time to do what you really want without letting you take your eyes off your goal. For instance, when I started prep, I used to wake up at 4 in the morning, study till 5:40 or so and then get ready for class at 6:30. Class finished by 8 and I had to rush back home to grab my bag, a quick bite and run for the college bus. Now my college was an hour and a half away which I spent in sleeping. My classmate on the other had, spent his time reading the editorials which we would then discuss on the trip back home. My VA skills, if I may say so myself , are rather strong so we'd discuss the topic and I'd help him with grammar and correction of sentences. My friend's QA was strong so he'd help me out with that

Form a study group. You are competing with over 1.5lakh students, so your group will just be a sample of what to expect. Make sure your group members are the serious sort-- not the types who run off to watch a movie after every mock. Well ok, they needn't be that serious too because it's important to relax and enjoy the whole experience of preparing but its also important not to get carried away. A study group is very handy when it comes to taking sectional tests, mocks, FLT's et al. Compare your scores with theirs. Find out what questions they attempted in QA that you didn't and why they attempted them. Find out the approach and if there's a way of doing them that you didn't know about. Check those errors in VA. Find out what the easy sets in DI were.

Google has this project for which the tag-line is "Standing on the Shoulders of Giants". Given the competition, every little thing helps. Go ahead, find your Giants.

Majority of you who go for coaching will mostly go 3 times a week, say Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Right now, the mocks haven't started yet, so that means you have 3-4 study sessions before the next class. STUDY!! Four sessions is a lot!!

Let's say you were taught numbers on Monday morning. On Monday evening, study what you were taught and solve the problems from the material. Tuesday morning and evening, solve the problems from whichever book you've picked up. Wednesday morning, have a dekko at the topic that's going to be taught (don't most institute's give you a schedule of sorts??). Above all, make sure you become really thorough with what you are studying. For e.g. all of us know the area of a triangle. Off the top of your head, can you tell me how many such formulae are there? Learn to analyse. It'll be very helpful when it comes to D.I.

Whatcha waiting for?? Go crack that CAT

Neo2000 is a young 24 old who spends his weekdays pretending to code whereas he's actually reading some novel on his computer or surfing PG under the guise of research for his latest project.He spends the weekends trying to study but can usually be found in front of his PC surfing PG or playing the fool. He's met the CAT 3 times in a row and the CAT has been very kind to him, coming one day after, on the same day, and one day before his birthday respectively.

Only recently has he taken to writing about himself in the third person.

126

The theme of FMS Annual Convention 2005 was Brand India, The Next Leap. The entire session was structured in three phases – The Vision Next , The Money Next and The Market Next

The Vision Next : What We See India As…….

The event was inaugurated with Subir Gokarn, Chief Economist, CRISIL Ltd., delivering a talk on “Indian Economic Scenario, A Global Perspective”. He informed the audience that the inflation rates around the world are on a decline due to liberalization and globalization being adopted on an ever-expanding scale, but to make the best of the opportunities, India will have to come up with breakthroughs in the manufacturing and technology sectors as the differential it currently enjoys due to low-cost labor will cease to be an advantage in the future. Prof. Abad Ahmed, ex-dean FMS, talked of the ongoing grey revolution in the country and summarized the research reports about India's prospects by stating that the Indian economy is on course to overtake Italy by 2015, China by 2010, Japan by 2025, and Germany by 2032.

Mr. Rajdeep Sahrawat, Vice-President, Nasscom, delivered an enthralling and visionary talk on 'Innovation Factories' and outlined his idea of taking India forward by harnessing its core ideals by establishing a 'Saraswati to Laxmi Continuum' that touches every Indian.


The Money Next , India Finance: Beyond Bubbles and Booms

The next session jingled with hard-boiled financers like Mr. Ashwani Puri, Executive Director, Price Water House Coopers, Dr. Manoj Vaish, CEO, Dun and Bradstreet Information Services, India and Mr. Munish Dayal, President Business Banking, YES Bank dissecting issues like Securitization, Risk Management Systems, Regulation, Corporate Governance and Portfolio Management. The Indian financial institutional framework was hotly debated and the relevant macro economic trends were scrutinized with the aim of sorting out the best possible approaches to create and manage wealth in Corporate India's concerted efforts to fill up its coffers.


The Market Next: And the Future entails …

The dynamic and engaging speakers in the concluding session: Mr. Sanjeev Mohanty, Director, Sales and Marketing, Benetton, and Mr. Ravi Kiran, CEO – South Asia, Starcom Worldwide, left the audience mesmerized.

Mr. Mohanty talked of “India, the Goliath in the making” and offered invaluable insights into the strategies being adopted by the sales force of the country to increase the size as well as their share of the pie. Mr. Kiran made an instant connect with the audience by his perky delivery and ingenuous comparison of the marketing and promotions game to wooing one's lady love. He put forth the observation that the marketing strategies of tomorrow will not try to shock and awe the target audience, but will seek to win her over by honest and insightful messages.

As confirmed by the participants, the three sessions were of tremendous value add and the next thing to watch out for is FMS Annual Convention 2006, with a new theme to bring out the best from the best managerial brains in the country.

127

The LAN room in the Old Hostel is packed with members of the Design Team. The room is strewn with bits and pieces of paper which tend to spell I-N-T-A-G-L-I-O either partially or fully. In the mess, a heated discussion is on about strategies for the upcoming games. In the New Hostel Quad, the infrastructure team is deep in discussion. In the New Teaching Block, the core team is debating how to go about ensuring ISO certification. Student rooms are hubs for various teams all contributing towards one big goal……INTAGLIO……and guess what time of day it is…..3 am. That's right, it's almost as if no one wants to sleep here and that's why IIMC is dubbed as the campus “Where the sun never sets! “.

The Design team is totally engrossed with preparing posters, information kits and of course updating the website. Take a look at http://www.iimcal.ac.in/intaglio/ and you will appreciate the excellent work they are doing.

Alongside, the Infrastructure team is busy as a beaver organizing seating arrangements, signposts to guide visitors, lighting arrangements, accommodation, food and beverages, transportation, speaker systems, seminar presentation gear and the list goes on. This team provides a stable platform for the whole event to operate on and a combination of indomitable enthusiasm, insanely few hours of sleep and wonderful camaraderie enables them to do an admirable job.

Intaglio is but a massive “event” and the Events Team is focussing on organizing the schedule of events. Countless man-hours are being invested to ensure silk-smooth sequencing of events. The team is also working towards ensuring that every event is conducted to the total satisfaction of all participants.

The Sponsorship, Media and Public Relations and Contacts teams provide the interface between Intaglio and the outside world. The excellent efforts of the Sponsorship Team have attracted prominent sponsors such as The Times Group, Tata Consultancy Services, UBS, McKinsey & Company, and Bank of America among many others. Currently, the sponsorship team is liaising with the sponsor companies and keeping them informed of progress within Intaglio.

The Contacts Team are playing their part by forging relationships with some of the best management institutes both within India and also overseas. Thanks to their efforts, American heavyweights such as Harvard, Wharton, Kellogg, Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business and leading Asia-Pacific business schools such as the University of Melbourne Business School, Asian Institute of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, National University of Singapore and the other Indian Institutes of Management will grace Intaglio with their presence.

Finally, the Media and Public Relations Team is working hard at bringing Intaglio to the world. So watch out for lots more Intaglio on television, newspapers and magazines!






Discuss this article in the Forum!
128

The programme, which is in its conceptual stage, would use the GMAT exam followed by recommendation and Statement of Purpose letters for admission, IIM Calcutta's Dean of Program Initiatives Dr Anup K Sinha told PaGaLGuY.com on Friday.

The course would be announced very soon, he added.

"We are basically pitching this program for people who are planning to be CEOs or join the boardroom in the 5-10 years after completing the course," Prof Sinha said.

"We want the pedagogy to be different, the experience to be different and make it much more discussion based with more role games," he elaborated.

In anticipation of married executives bringing their spouses along after joining the one-year programme, IIM Calcutta is also planning to build studio apartments that would have rooms with attached bathrooms, kitchenette and common dining facilities.

The complete initiative, planning and execution of the course is being done independently by the IIM.

"We are not dependent on the government for the course but the government certainly is supportive," said Prof Sinha.



Discuss this article in the Forum!
130

Roger Desai asserted that the mobile is the first object since the key that people carry at all times. He also said that traditional advertising is dead and that to be effective, sellers need to be aware of the new buy cycle: discover-learn-try-buy-recommend. In this context, Roger's company Rave Wireless takes a holistic approach when designing its products. Their products are created after understanding the entire customer experience.

For instance, they interviewed 1000 students on their cell phone usage and emerged with 200 insights on why the mobile phone matters to them. The primary insight was that students live unplanned lives and want the power to know all of their choices at anytime. They found that as soon as students come out of a classroom they make at least one call. Who were they calling and about what? “Students want to know what had happened in the outside world while they were in the classroom. By this I don't mean stuff like weather reports, riots in faraway countries etc. They want to know who is going out with who, who broke up, are there any special offers at the movies or at the pizza shop and such other information that helps them evaluate all their choice”, said Roger. He added that this understanding of the type of information desired by users is what differentiates Rave's products from other information update providers such as yahoo.com or msn.com.

Essentially, the key lies in how close and directly relevant the information is to the individual. Rave has 4 main products – Rave Social allows students to create buddy lists to share moods and recent events. Rave Local enables users to search for near-term events and deals such as real-time traffic information, discount deals etc. Rave University allows students to track down the location of buses using their mobiles. Another insight was that when students are lonely or in a state of fear, they call home and like to talk to their parents. Drawing on this, Rave Guardian allows students to simply double click a button to automatically send their profile and location to the nearest police station.

The effectiveness of Rave's approach to product design is proven by its success. Rave has 1600 students using its system. 10 Universities have signed a deal with Rave. Within the first year of inception, Rave's revenue is $3 million.

The Rave case provides good insight into what differentiates internet information from mobile information. Rave is exploring opportunities within India but faces significant challenges due to poor infrastructure and slower acceptance by Indian communications providers.






Discuss this article in the Forum!
131
With this, Intaglio finds itself in a league of its own as the first and only business school festival in India to achieve the prestigious ISO 9001 quality standard. The audit and recommendation was made by Det Norske Veritas, one of the world's leading certification bodies.

Intaglio has been constantly evolving over the years to maintain the high standards that befit the flagship event of IIM Calcutta. This year Team Intaglio, the student run organization responsible for the festival, decided to rationalize the management of the event by implementing a quantifiable Quality Management System. This would ensure that future versions of Intaglio would maintain world quality standards, thus enhancing the event's value in the minds of participants, and industry and media sponsors. The certification process itself was arduous, requiring a veritable mountain of documentation, from the conceptualization and implementation to the actual execution of each event. All aspects of the festival had to adhere to strict quality standards, requiring a commitment to excellence by every member of Team Intaglio. The successful recommendation for ISO 9001 is a testament to the professionalism with which Intaglio is managed.

The ISO 9001 series of standards are widely accepted internationally, and specify requirements for a Quality Management System. The standard is maintained by the International Organization for Standardization, and administered by local accreditation and certification bodies.






Discuss this article in the Forum!
132

He is presently a Lecturer in Economics at Balliol College, Oxford. He has work experience with NERA Economic Consulting, the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and the European Commission's DG Trade and Microsoft. Mr. Curto Millet has presented several motion proposals to the European Parliament on behalf of Spanish young people and has advised the European Network on Street Children Worldwide. He was also a co-Editor of Europa Magazine and holds several journalistic and IT awards.

The topic of the workshop was “The Importance of Competition Policy for Indian Firms”. The lecture revolved around 3 key issues – what is competition policy and why is it important for India, why should Indian firms be concerned about it and the role of economics in competitive policy. Various other issues were also brought forward like how monopoly can affect the market, how exclusionary or exploitive policies by a cartel or a firm in dominant position in market can affect other players, the long run and short run effects of mergers and acquisitions and the various strategies strengthening collusion.

Light was also shed on the competition policy of India – the history of its inception and the various amendments made to it with time.

It was a very informative as well as interactive session. Students attending the lecture wee very impressed with Mr. Curto Millet's style of communication. Shubha Lal, a student of IIMC, felt that even a person who has no previous knowledge in economics would have found this session lucid enough. To discuss the issues, Mr. Curto Millet used many examples and cases which were very rich in terms of what could be drawn from them.






Discuss this article in the Forum!
133
IIM Calcutta has short listed the candidates for group discussion and personal interviews for CAT 2005. Candidates may view the results at the following link:

http://www.iimcal.ac.in/admissions/cat_resultsxf984phe.php *

About 1,55,000 students appeared for the CAT for entry to the six IIMs this year. The other IIM's shall be putting out their list of candidates who have cleared the round one of the CAT shortly. Watch this space for further details

*The link was found on the official website of IIM Calcutta

***UPDATES***

The other IIM's have also released a list of their shortlisted candidates. The results may be found at the following links which are put up on the official website of the institutes.

IIMA - http://202.41.76.206/catselxc32005gnxqe.php

IIML - http://www.iiml.ac.in/pgpshort.php

IIMB - http://alpha2.iimb.ernet.in/pgp2006/

IIM I - http://www.iimidr.ac.in/iim/pages/CAT-Result/CatGDResult.jsp

IIM K - http://intranet.iimk.ac.in/cat2005/

136

FMS,Delhi won the coveted Tata Business Leadership Award (TBLA) 2006 in the
grand finale at Mumbai on January 4,2006 beating the teams from IIM
Ahmedabad , IIM Bangalore , IIM Calcutta , IIM Lucknow , SP Jain Mumbai and
XLRI Jamshedpur . The winning Team 'Abhudaya' comprising Abhijit Shetty ,
Manuj Ohri , Vidisha Mehta and Aditya S V won the coveted Tata Business
Leadership Award Rolling Trophy and a host of other prizes by presenting
their businessplan to create significant businesses that address 'Bottom of
the Pyramid' through rural kiosks.The challenge this year was to create an
opportunity through innovation in crafting a value proposition,by
developing corresponding business model and strategy that will enable the
creation of value in new ways in the emerging area.

Organized every year in Select Business Schools, the Award brings the best
student minds together to take up a business challenge. This is usually a
strategic problem or situation relevant to the house of Tata.TBLA offers
first and second year students in the selected Business Schools a unique
opportunity to compete with the brightest and display their business
acumen.For the TBLA 2006, the Tata Group has invited participating students
to present path breaking ideas and a plan of action on the business
opportunities that have been less explored. The "Bottom of the pyramid"
constitutes an opportunity space that challenges innovation in crafting a
value proposition, corresponding business model and strategy that will
enable the creation of value in new ways.

TBLA 2006 was open to FMS Delhi , IIM Ahmedabad , IIM Bangalore , IIM
Calcutta , IIM Lucknow , SP Jain Mumbai and XLRI Jamshedpur .The regional
Campus rounds of TBLA 2006 was held between Dec 17-29, 2005 at FMS Delhi,
IIM Lucknow, IIM Bangalore, IIM Ahmedabad, SP Jain, Mumbai, XLRI Jamshedpur
and IIM Kolkata respectively. Winning teams from each campus round
participated in the national Finals of TBLA 2006 at Tata Management
Training Centre in Pune.

The Tata Business Leadership Award (TBLA), initiated in 2004, is the annual
business school event organised by the Tata Group. The award underlines the
commitment of the Tata Group towards promoting and encouraging future
leaders. It is also an endeavour to create awareness among management
students of the Tata brand. The students (in teams of three to four) are
given a strategic problem or situation relevant to the Group. They have to
make a presentation to senior managers in the Group and defend their case
study. The defence is evaluated on parameters such as creativity, clarity,
relevance and business value.

Preliminary rounds are held on campus and chaired by a panel consisting of
a cross section of senior Tata managers. The final defence presentation,
held at the Tata Management Training Centre in Pune, are judged by senior
Tata Managers and professors from the Harvard Business School.TBLA 2006
presentations were judged by a jury comprising of Prof.Krishna
Palepu,Prof.Nitin Nohria and Prof.Das Narayandas from Harvard Business
School and senior managers in TATA Group.

137

The ISB Leadership Summit 2006 (ILS) was held today at the Indian School of Business. The theme for this year was “India Next”. ILS provides a platform for evoking thought leadership in a global business environment. Eminent leaders and young achievers in the fields of business, politics, academics, literature, and sports, meet and share their vision that explores and discusses the agenda at length. The interaction with current leaders is meant to be instrumental in inspiring leaders of tomorrow from among the student community.

This year's summit was a tribute to the achievements of young leaders of India, and had the following speakers:

Panel Discussion 1 - Youth Participation in Politics

Keynote - Tejendra Khanna (Chairman, Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd)

· Rajendra S Pawar (Chairman, NIIT) – Moderator

· Sandeep Dikshit (Member of Parliament, East Delhi Constituency)

· Chandan Mitra (Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha)

· Jayaprakash Narayan (Social Activist)

· Mudit Kapoor (Assistant Professsor, Economic and Public Policy, ISB)

Panel Discussion 2 - The synergy between government and business in 'India Next'

Keynote - Madhav Mehra (President, World Council for Corporate Governance)

· Govind Ethiraj (Ex-Chief Corporate Editor, CNBC TV1ISB – Moderator

· Satish Reddy (MD & COO, Dr.Reddy's Laboratories Ltd.)

· GK Sood (CEO, Louis Dreyfus India Pvt Ltd)

· Vijay Parthasarathy (Managing Director, Gemplus India Pvt Ltd)

The Opening keynote address had Tejendra Khanna setting the tone for the first panel discussion that followed. He spoke about the need for Indian youth to preserve “certain unique aspects of Indianness” which included our “tradition of intellectualism”, seeing the “goodness in all”, and our “global adaptability” that allowed us to be absorbed into other cultures. He said that “vision capability” and “architectural capability” to translate that vision into concrete realities, were the two requisite qualities for a true leader.

The first panel discussion was moderated by Rajendra Pawar who laid down the framework for the panellists to speak on the following points:

What does it mean to be in politics?

What would motivate young Indians to join politics?

What are the downsides of being in politics?

The panel had several interesting perspectives: Mudit Kapoor felt that one could make significant contributions to society by being politically aware and working to make the administration deliver. Chandan Mitra saw concern in the declining number of youth (aged between 25 and 40) who are MPs – from 162 in the 2nd Lok Sabha, to 60 in the current one. Jayaprakash Narayan said that politics, despite its disrepute, provided the only platform to the nation on which diverse and conflicting issues could be resolved. “The only antidote to politics is more politics, and better politics,” he said. He said that politicians were victims of a vicious circle, and saw optimism in India's future, as a “third wave” comprising of aware and active citizens, would work with like-minded politicians caught in the vicious circle, to bring about a revolutionary change because change was now inevitable. He exhorted students to be active participants in that change. Sandeep Dikshit gave a first-hand account of what it was like being an elected politician. He said that as a politician, he had little choice in deciding who his “foot soldiers” were – a reference to the party workers who were the “middlemen” forging and managing the relationship between the politician and his electorate.a

The second keynote delivered by Madhav Mehra stressed the need for synergies between the government and businesses. He said that corporate social responsibility (CSR) was currently a business objective, and that there was a need for “social good for market capitalisation.” Satish Reddy spoke about the changing attitudes in corporate think tanks with reference to collaborating with governments. Though these interactions were getting better, we still had miles to go. Ideally, business should be “putting its best foot forward, and the government giving the necessary thrust.” G K Sood felt that the government should create the social infrastructure to deliver social justice, while “removing the cobwebs in the legal system.” Vijay Parthasarathy voiced a need for a role reversal in the government dictating business practices.

The moderator for this panel, Govind Ethiraj, ensured enthusiastic audience participation by entertaining insights from them, and by quizzing them on what kind of companies would they work with, with regard to CSR values.

138

The Workshop on Appreciative Intelligence was organised by C Lab, School of Management, TISS, on Januray 6th at the TISS Conference Hall. C lab is the place and process which involves in conducting research activities, providing consultancy services for companies to develop capabilities among managers especially in the field of Human Resources.

Prof. Tojo Thatchenkery, Ph. D. is a professor of Organizational Learning at the School of Public Policy, George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia, USA. He is the author of several books and articles on change management, and has consulted with many international organizations, including IBM, Lucent Technologies, the American Red Cross, British Petroleum, and the International Monetary Fund. He has propounded the concept of “Appreciative Intelligence” to capture this newly identified intelligence. He recently coauthored the book with Carol Metzeker titled “Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn”. The book will be released in March – April 2006

The workshop began with defining Appreciative Intelligence as “The ability to perceive the positive inherent generative potential within the present”. The essence of the workshop was that each one of us has been using appreciative intelligence in our daily lives. The participants were encouraged to identify such success stories in their working lives and share it with the rest of the participants. From each of these stories, the different elements and aspects of Appreciative Intelligence were identified. Finally different techniques were shared with the audience to improve their appreciative intelligence and to increase the success stories in their lives.

As Prof. Tojo puts it “Appreciative intelligence provides a new answer to what enables successful people to dream up their extraordinary and innovative ideas; why employees, partners, colleagues, investors, and other stakeholders join them on the path to their goals, and how they achieve these goals despite obstacles and challenges. It is not simple optimism. People with appreciative intelligence are realistic and action-oriented—they have the ability to not just identify positive potential but to devise a course of action to take advantage of it.”

HR managers from L&T;, NHDSL, Wartsilla, Patni Computers, Mudra Communications etc attended the session. Some of the students from Tata Institute of Social Sciences also had the opportunity to participate in the event.

The workshop was interactive and used data from extensive research that Prof Tojo had done in various firms in India and USA. The participants said that it was indeed new experience.

139

"Reminiscence 2005: IIMC Annual Alumni Reunion" brought together all alumni who have passed out of IIM C and especially felicitated the batch of 1980 which had completed 25 years since graduation.

The IIMCians from 1980 included the likes of corporate leaders such as Aniruddha Basu (CMD, CIANT Corporation), Raja Vaidya (Group Head-South, Reliance Industries), Sanjiv Srivastava (CEO, Logic Gates), Mandeep Singh (Consultant, The World Bank) and Sanjiv Mital (CEO, Bharti Telesoft); academic stalwarts like Professor S Ram (Thunderbird School of Management) and Professor B. B. Chakrabarti (IIM Calcutta); and successful entrepreneurs such as S R Ramachandran (Founder Partner, Ramnath Management Consultants). There were a large number of alumni from all other batches (1965-2005) including Mr. Suvo Sarkar(Head of Retail banking, National Bank of Dubai) and Mr. S. Radhakrishnan (Director, Extreme IT Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) as well.

Coming back to Jokaland after a quarter of a century was a sentimental time for the alums. Whether it was unraveling the mysterious “Surangini” or rocking the campus with their musical compositions-the alums did it all. Stories were told of the two golden years they had spent at IIM Calcutta-about the legends of the jetty and the scenic lakes; about living in the solitary Ramnujan Hostel and the tragedy of just a handful of girls being their batchmates.

The entertainment session for the evening opened with a stage play called Madhavi performed by the Dramatics club of IIM C. This was followed by a presentation by the students, called “A walk down memory lane”. The choreography club presented “Moksha” as the final event for the evening.

The day's events concluded with a rocking performance by the legendary music band of IIM Calcutta, JBS Baro-C. Right from Kandisa to Jhankar Beats, the power packed music had the campus on its feet. Alum P.V. Bhaskar and Kapil Bawa, the JBS veterans participated along with other alumni and students and proved that they could still rock the stage after 25 years.

At this occasion, alumni of the 15th batch also contributed a large sum of money towards the gymnasium. The Alumni reunion ended with a Felicitation ceremony the next morning.

140

What is the mission of IIM C and what sets it apart from other b-schools in the same league?

The mission of IIM C is to be an international centre of excellence. In terms of what sets it apart from other IIMs is the very open academic culture here. There is an enormous amount of involvement of the faculty members in running of the institute and designing of the activities. It is a place where academic work is respected.

Why should a student with calls from all of IIM A, B C should opt for C over A and B?

Firstly, we already have a reputation, that IIM C is what is called in the young generation jargon as a 'very acad kind of place'. There is a lot of depth to the knowledge that is imparted.

Secondly, this place has a huge reputation of a place where there are lots of extra curricular activities. We consciously try and nurture that because there is a lot of experiential learning this way. Look at Intaglio, if you see the scale of events here, you will realize that the people who are organizing it are going to carry it to their old ages. Of course Intaglio is the biggest event, but there are all kinds of smaller events in progress all the time.

Besides that, right now I'd say that Kolkata is a very happening place. Though we are
located outside the main city, there is a lot of Calcutta to discover even when you come to live in IIM C campus.

But the crux of IIM C's exclusivity lies in the mix of academic depth with extra co-curricular activities.

Also see: IIM Calcutta's one year executive programme to cost Rs 6-8 lakhs


What is the general profile of students coming at IIM C and does IIM C prefer any profiles of educational background and work experience over others?

No. We do give a little (stressed) weightage for work-experience. For taking CAT, which is the first round of admission, the undergraduate subject of study doesn't matter. Then at the group discussion and personal interview level we check what we cannot check at the CAT level, that is a student's demeanour, confidence levels, general awareness, communication ability, intellectual ability and reflexes to an extent. I agree that qualities such as ethical ability are hard to check in that short time, but we do try to guage the personality. I think by and large the current young generation students applying to IIM C are very close to one another in terms of personality and background, how they are brought up, the books they read and so on.

How important are past academic scores in the admission process of IIM C and what can a student do to make up for bad acads in undergraduation?

Once the CAT result is out and the candidate is shortlisted, academic scores cease to matter at IIM C. I can't speak for the other IIMs, but at IIM C, we look for the academic performance aspect in the CAT. I know of past students who barely scraped through their undergraduation degrees but did get an admission into IIM C. On the other hand, I will also stress that there is a lot of rigour involved in the IIM C system of study and one has to be studious in order to survive.

Are you saying that once shortlisted, two students with the same cat percentile - but one with 45 percent marks in the undergraduation and the other with 80 percent marks in undergraduation - are on the same plane during the remaining part of the admission process?

Absolutely. At IIM Calcutta, yes.

In light of the case of an IIM Lucknow graduate working in an oil PSU who lost his life fighting for ethics and the diametrically opposite one of an IIM Bangalore graduate who was indicted for committing fraud in Samsung, a question that has arisen is how are ethics imbibed to management students at the IIMs?

I agree that ethics can't be taught, just like leadership cannot be taught. However you can sensitize a person and make the person aware. If you make him think even once that an ethical choice is an important issue, and that it can have implications which you cannot think of when you take the decision, you end up sensitizing that person.

There are two kinds of things. One is when we don't even understand that the choice we're making is in fact based on ethics. The second is when you make a choice but you don't see the implications clearly, that it can be hurtful to other people or appear very damaging to other people. How do we handle that? I think the fact that we give the understanding of such choices equal priority to say, derivative pricing, does send a message to the students somewhere.

Besides, there are specialized optional courses on business ethics in which teach case studies and situations where a typical manager would find himself in. Also in other courses like business policy or economic policy, we talk about ethical issues relevant to that particular context. Even in daily life at IIM C, we teach students to not rag juniors, we call on them to not just cut-paste material off the Internet for assignments, and if you have to take some interesting piece of information from the net, at least assimilate it and then write your own interpretation of it while quoting the source or providing the reference.

{pagebreak}

We recently heard that the CAT might become a computer-aided test.

Yes, Bakul Dholakia (Director, IIM Ahmedabad) did say that in a TV interview. Sometimes, very informally, it has been discussed that while the design of the exam is in constant engagement, the logistics are very difficult to handle. Yet we don't want to outsource CAT .

For example on the CAT day, you will find nobody on campus. all the faculty and their family members are roped in to look after a centre somewhere or the other. As the numbers are exponentially growing, what happens if 3 lakh people take the exam? How do we manage that? So we were thinking if online testing could be a solution. So it's still in the 'is it' phase. First we have to see what are the problems in conducting computer-aided testing, what happens if it goes wrong in backward areas and so on.

The CAT changed drastically this year (2005)...

I'd say the exam itself is evolving. Like couple of years back we started letting the students take the question paper home.

After this CAT 2005, I had a newspaper journalist calling me up frantically, asking me how do I react to the chaos, that the number of questions were reduced, this passage was so difficult, the paper had nothing to do with last year and so on.

The problem is, if we're going to screen 1,500 students from 1.6 lakh, which is a very tough job, I dont want everybody to max the paper. I want them to tell me that it's tough. So CAT has to be unpredictable and difficult.

When you look at b-schools admissions abroad, they are very subjective as opposed to CAT which is extremely objective. Do you think that the IIMs might be losing out on good future leaders due to its extremely objective admission process? If the IIMs have to become globally competent they will have to take these students aboard. But these same students might not be able to crack the CAT. What are the IIMs doing to address this problem?

There is so much excess demand for good quality MBA in India that when you look between 99 percentile and 98 percentile, it becomes a difficult choice. These students are coming from similar backgrounds and their tastes and preferences are also very similar. Who do I take and who do I drop?

The only way this can be resovled is by having a large number of good quality business schools to serve this excess demand. With a mix of such schools where in one they concentrate on solid technical fundas, and others where they look very subjectively into your background, there is a huge space for excellence. The IIMs too are constantly debating whether there is a need for more schools, perhaps with different admission criteria.

However, there is a bigger problem facing management education in India and that is the lack of quality faculty. That is a big constraint because typically a good faculty member will prefer to teach in Singapore or the US and we just cannot match the salaries he gets there. There can be people in the industry who are good practitioners and can also be wonderful teachers but they just don't have the time to teach.

So in india, unless you are very passionate about teaching, or probably you didn't land up the job you wanted so you decided to hang around teaching in a b-school, teaching is not very financially rewarding.

What are the challenges the IIMs are facing in order to go global in a big way?

There are many ways of going global. One is when you have presence in international journals, your faculty is mobile and you have lots of exchange programmes. There is tremendous scope for the IIMs here.

The other way is in terms of a campus presence outside the country. So I can open a campus in Singapore or start a dual degree with a Harvard and so on. Right now, I don't think the IIMs are in a position to exrcise the second option for the simple reason that there is such an excess demand in India, that the government as a stakeholder will not look upon that in kind.

There can be a scenario when a Wharton actually comes to India, sets up a campus here and offers an MBA programme. If that happens, there will be a lot of poaching of good faculty, and the IIMs will have a tough time retaining their faculty. That is also when the brand value of the IIMs built over the years will matter most.



Discuss this article in the Forum!
142

A Six Sigma quality certification endorsed by the Forbes magazine, a fan club that includes Prince Charles and Richard Branson; this guest lecture was sure going to be unlike any other NITIE students have had on campus. The speakers were not the normal pinstripe suite clad swanky corporate types who are often spotted in B-school auditoriums. Instead, they were two humble rustic gentlemen dressed in a dhoti and wearing a Gandhi cap. Mr. Raghunath Munde and Mr. Gangaram Talekar, President and Secretary respectively of the Nutan Mumbai Tiffin Box Suppliers Charity Trust or the dabbawallas as they are fondly known, held NITIEns spellbound with their narration of how a motley gang of 5000 ensures the prompt delivery of over 2, 00,000 lunch boxes every day in the bustling metropolis of Mumbai.

Here is a clutch of statistics that reveals the task that the dabbawallas are up to.

· History : Started in 1880

· Avg. Literacy Rate : 8th Grade Schooling

· Avg. area coverage : 60 Km per Tiffin Box

· Employee Strength : 5000

· Number of Tiffins : 2, 00,000 Tiffin Boxes i.e. 4, 00,000 transactions every day.

· Time taken :3 hrs (9 am – 12 pm delivery of carriers, 2 pm – 5 pm collection of empty carriers)

· Cost of service : Rs. 200/month

· Turnover : Rs. 50 crore per month approx.



As Mr. Raghunath Munde took the students through the intricacies of their supply chain, students marvelled at the complex organizational dynamics in place. The dabbwallas are extremely disciplined. Consuming alcohol while on duty attracts a fine of Rs. 1000. If found guilty more than twice, the dabbawalla's contract is terminated. Unwarranted absenteeism is not tolerated and is treated with a similar fine. The Gandhi cap serves as a potent symbol of identification in the crowded railway stations. Not wearing the cap attracts a fine of Rs. 25. Selection of new dabbawallas is done very carefully. Only after the antecedents of the applicant are thoroughly verified is he taken into the fold for a six month probation.

As management students NITIEns learnt a lot from the dabbawallas. They shattered the myth of technology being indispensable to solve complex problems. Their incredibly efficient supply chain that incorporates advanced concepts such as reverse logistics and multi-level coding is worthy of emulation by modern day FMCGs. However, the most enduring lesson that the dabbawallas left them with is to place the customer ahead of everybody else. It is said that when Prince Charles expressed a desire to meet them during his visit in 2003, the dabbawallas requested him to schedule the meeting such that it did not hamper their mid-day delivery deadlines. With that one act the dabbawallas showed the world that “the customer is truly the king!”


143

The Tuck team comprising of Dean Danos, Vijay Govindarajan and Kristine Laca will be visiting India. This is a great way to get to know the school and the faculty.

Registration is essential - please visit www.tuck.edu/indiaevent

Delhi

Date : 22nd Jan 2006
Time : 7-9 pm
Venue : The Oberoi, Dr. Zakir Hussain Marg

Mumbai:

Date : 24th Jan 2006
Time : 7-9 pm
Venue : The Taj Mahal Palace and Tower, Apollo Bunder

Bangalore:
APPLYING TO TOP MBA PROGRAMS - TIPS FROM THE ADMISSIONS COMMITTEE AND HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF A STRONGER APPLICANT
Presenter: Kristine Laca, former Director of admissions and head of the admissions committee at Tuck and currently Strategic Planning advisor to the Dean of the Tuck School of Business
Friday, 20 January 2006
6:30 - 8 PM
Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Electronics City
44, Hosur Road
Bangalore, 560 100
**Please note that registration is REQUIRED to attend the event at Infosys**

THE TUCK SCHOOL OF BUSINESS INFORMATION SESSION - LEARN MORE ABOUT THE TUCK EXPERIENCE, WHY TUCK IS SO UNIQUE AMONG TOP SCHOOLS AND HOW TUCK PROVIDES THE BEST LEADERSHIP EDUCATION IN THE WORLD

Saturday, 21 January 2006
5-7 P.M.
The Oberoi - Bangalore
37-39, Mahatma Gandhi Road
Bangalore

Please register to attend on the website, http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/admissions/events.html. You are welcome to contact them at [email protected] if you have questions.

144
The 27th edition of XLRI Jamshedpur's Marketing Fair concluded successfully on Sunday 22nd Janauary 2006. The event held on the XLRI grounds at Jamshedpur also had the National Investor Mela being held alongside the Marketing Fair. Around 3500 people visited XLRI to be a part of the fair.

This year students of XLRI solved key research problems from Hindustan Lever, Coke, Pepsi, Nestle and TATA Tinplate. A glimpse in the history of the marketing fair boasts of several successes. These include VIP, Brooke Bond, and ITC's biscuit foray. The meet was organized to create awareness among the masses and to address grievances of the retail investors. Genuine grievance cases supported by documentation will be forwarded to respective companies for quick redressal. The meet saw participation from leading financial intermediaries of the country like State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, ICICI Bank, ICICI Prudential, ShareKhan, Bajaj Alliance, and Bank of India.

All the 3500 people visiting the meet a received a handbook to help them in making sense of the deluge of financial products in retail finance. Rakesh Vyas, Secretary, Finance Association at XLRI said that close to 500 research forms were filled today by the team of students who are helping in doing this first of its kind research in financial risk aversion. No other B-school has ever ventured in this field till date.

145
A breathtaking display of skill was interspersed with humorous anecdotes from members of the group. They started with Khajuraho, a song that was composed for, and first performed, at the Millennium Celebrations in Khajuraho. Rahul related how the government organizers were reluctant to allow a song with rather candid lyrics. In the end, however, it was performed, and applauded, by an audience consisting of luminaries like the late President KR Narayanan. Then the band went on to Kya Maloom, which sent the crowd into rapture. As the concert progressed, the audience's excitement reached fever pitch, at times the viewers singing in unison almost drowned out the sound from the massive speaker array. Liberally laced with their trademark instrumental solos and impromptu jugalbandis, the quartet of Rahul Ram, Amit Kilam (Drums), Asheem Chakravarty (Tabla), and Susmit Sen (Guitar) had the listeners bound in a spell of ethereal sound. The climax was reached when they concluded with their classics, Maa Rewa and Kandisa. The audience had other plans, however. They cried themselves hoarse asking for more and their rhythmic chanting forced the band to return to their instruments and perform again. The band was very happy with the crowd's response. Mr Asheem Chakravarty said that it was a great pleasure to perform in front of such a receptive and enthusiastic crowd.

Headbangers at KCors Performance

Those who wanted still more live music had their desire fulfilled as Kcor, an upcoming Bangalore-based rock band, took the stage next. They had the headbangers in frenzy, as they performed covers of hard rock and heavy metal anthems, and Kcor's originals.

The night was still young however; the stage became a dance floor, as a DJ specially called from Bangalore played all-time dance favorites. The party went on till dawn.

Now it's back to classes, reports, presentations and normal B-School life. This experience, however, will remain forever fresh in the minds of all who were a part of it. Every look at the amphitheatre stage will remind people of the evening when they lost themselves in pure music, forgetting all else.

More photos and video-clips will be posted shortly in the K photoblog (http://verdance.blogspot.com)

146
India is a complex market with the social classes varying from adowntroddena to afilthy richa; with the varying aspirations of Indians, from lazy snails to go-getter shatabdis. The Indian consumer is very unpredictable because of these variations. To study this intriguing being, the students of Post Graduate Diploma in Industrial Engineering (PGDIE), NITIE set out to different parts of an even more intriguing city called Mumbai as a part of the unique annual field sales exercise called Mandi, 2006 on Sunday, 22nd January. It is an endeavour to explore the marketing world beyond Philip Kotler, the real world; the streets of Mumbai. As part of it, the students sell products of an NGO called Navnirmiti and they are all learning aids aimed at instilling creativity in children. The sales collection becomes a part of the Navnirmiti fund that supports the noble cause of promoting education among the poor children in Mumbai. Groups of six were provided with inventories of Rs. 10000/- each, of which the minimum acceptable sales was set at least 30% of it. But as it turned out, many groups were completely sold out. The total sales figure stood at Rs. 40,000/- and the highest sales figure achieved was Rs. 9017/-.

Anurag Jain and M. Samba Siva Patnaik share their experience, aWe were able to get a stall in Phoenix mall. After that, we just invited a critical mass. Like a chain reaction, swarms of prospective customers started hovering around the stall. With total sales of Rs. 7000+, we can assert that our sales effort was a success. The collateral learning was invaluable though.a

Prasad Deo says, aWe ventured into the chawls of Dadar and then to Shivaji Park. We were sold out in five hours of overwhelming response from middle class families buying learning and not any product for their beloved children. We were able to sell products worth Rs. 9500.a

Swapnil says, aWe covered Churchgate, Fashion Streetand CST. The customers were mainly from the middle class. Puzzles like tangram and the pyramid sold like hot cakesa.

Kunal Dasgupta says, aThe memorable part of Mandi was selling the products to the Indian cricket team, when we caught them off guard practicing. Kiran More was our first customer and the second customer was Farhaan Dastoor, NDTVas sports reporter. We were filmed selling the products to the Indian team by him.a

Finally, there was a review of the entire dayas experience. Here, the students went into retrospection, finding out the mistakes they committed and analyzing the market segments they dealt with, the efficacy of their presales planning etc. The ideas were then shared with other groups consummating the objective of Mandi, to equip the students with non volatile and everlasting time selling skills.

The promise of the students of PGDIE, NITIE is that each year Mumbai will witness a bigger and a better Mandi. So, hope you will welcome the learning salesman next year also.

147
The Students Entrepreneurship Cell 'Venture' of IIM Kozhikode, in collaboration with Kerala Venture Capital Fund, hosted its first business plan contest, “Idea 2006” on the 21st and 22nd of January at the IIM Kozhikode campus.

With Rs.2 lacs worth of prizes on offer, the competition attracted over 300 entries in the initial stage. The finals witnessed teams from ISB, IIM Calcutta, FMS, IIM Lucknow, SPJIMR, XIME and MDI squaring off against each other. The business plans were based on all kinds of themes, from incorporating the latest in digital image recognition to online tax consulting and filing, promoting branded Khadi to medical tourism.

The two-day event witnessed the teams making 'Elevator Pitches' (A sales pitch that's short enough to be done while riding in an elevator with a possible VC) and presentations on the first day. Five teams were subsequently shortlisted for the second round. Plans were evaluated based on feasibility, sustainability, market potential, exit strategies and evaluation of critical risks.

With the Kerala Venture Capital Fund using the finals as a possible starting point for funding, the finals saw heated competition between two teams from ISB, Hyderabad, one team from MDI, a team from VGSOM - IIT Kharagpur and another from SPJIMR.

The winning entry 'ALTECH' from ISB, aimed to serve customer needs for enhanced security, identity validation and customer service by providing a product for access control, access monitoring, and customer recognition. Their product used a combination of artificial intelligence and neural networks to perform real time and non-invasive face recognition. Besides winning the cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakhs the team shall in the near future be evaluated for venture funding by the Kerala Venture Capital Fund.

The second place entry, 'Ecologic' from MDI, focused on e-waste management and the need to make it safer for the stakeholders and the environment. EcoLogic offered the chance to its clients to align with global standards and distance themselves from practices like child labour and toxic dumping which can become a liability in the future.

The eminent panel of Judges included Mr. Subash Warrier, Founder and CEO, vFortress Security Pvt Limited (Which is the market leader in the IP VPN segment in India), Mr. Satish C. Dutt. Founder and President, EcommIT Inc and Dr. Saji Gopinath, Professor, IIM Kozhikode.

The event was sponsored by Kerala Venture Capital Fund, vFortress Security Pvt. Ltd and Accel Ltd.
149

The seminars are well attended by delegates from different organizations, our distinguished alumni, and students from various business Schools.

First day will see a series of talks on the theme “IT in Business strategy: A journey from 'Enabler' to 'Driver'”.

It will be followed by a panel discussion on “Software Product or Services: Which is the right way?”

Day two will see the focus shifting towards core IT firms with a series of talks on “Cutting edge trends in software industry”

It will be followed by the biz quiz which will be judged by eminent industrial personalities. The continuum will culminate with an IT quiz which will give the audience a chance to exercise their grey cells and to win exciting prizes.

The lectures will be delivered by leading corporates from IT sector like Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon, Accenture, PWC, IBM amongst others.

Besides these, the event will be having a Pannel Discussion participated by Dr.D.B Phatak , the HOD of KReSIT .One of the main attraction of this year's event is a Business Quiz “X-Quiz IT” hosted by ace quiz master Mr. Parnab Mukharjee.

The event is open to all engineering and management institutes. For the registration and other details please visit SJMSOM's website http://www.som.iitb.ac.in/events/2006/sysconti