tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-170344482024-03-07T10:10:06.701+05:30IIM Bangalore PGSEM MBA BlogIndian Institute of Management Bangalore's PGSEM MBA blog, by its students.
PGSEM (Post Graduate Program in Software Enterprise Management) is IIMB's executive MBA program targeted at IT professionals.Bernie | Bernard Vijay Felixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09456541009128888001noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-47080622726402372222013-04-08T18:31:00.000+05:302013-04-08T18:52:51.332+05:30Bidding adieu...<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<b>L</b>ast Monday was the
most memorable day for the outgoing batch of PGSEM - <i>Convocation and receiving
of diploma from Mr. Mukesh Ambani</i>. And I believe this will be my last post as a
PGSEMer in this blog.</div>
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It has been almost
three years since we entered this campus as a PGSEMer. More than 200 case
studies, 60 exams, 30 projects and hundreds of sleepless nights - that is what
it took for us to reach where we are today as a proud IIMB alumnus. Life as a
PGSEMer gifted some of the most memorable days to us. Whether it was the
mesmerizing lectures by our Professors, or interaction with the industry
stalwarts or the long long hours of intellectual discussions during projects -
they provided some of the exciting moments. We had the opportunity to interact
with eminent personalities like Dr APJ Abdul Kalam to Henry Mintzberg or from
Anna Hazare to Narain Karthikeyan<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or
from Harish Hande to Anand Sharma. While it would be unfair to pick just a few,
I would like to call out some of our personal experiences from PGSEM. Grueling;
yet fun-filled orientation days by our seniors were perhaps the most memorable
which helped us break the ice quickly and become a group. Some of the occasions
that proved our caliber were when the 'one' thought that stuck us at 1AM while
sitting in EPGP lounge becoming an insight appreciated by Professor the next
day in Consumer Behavior elective or the five minutes pitch that we made during
class that was well received or the impact we made through our projects in
helping NGOs. At the same time, it was not always positive too; we also had
some 'get-out my class' and even professors closing the class abruptly because
we didn’t read the case. </div>
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Mahatma Gandhi once
said “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live
forever.” I think all the PGSEM students believe in this; otherwise we would
not have joined PGSEM sacrificing the weekends, family functions and official
promotions for three years to learn more. At the same time we all had the
desire somewhere in the mind to achieve those heights that we dream t of, that
the media boasted about for IIM students. Some of us are confident of reaching
those heights, some are already in the path, some are struggling; some are even
skeptical. But, I am one hundred percent sure that with the caliber we have,
each one of us will reach the echelons that we dream t of tomorrow if not today
and make a difference in this world. Otherwise we won't have reached here,
studied in one of the best B Schools and received the wisdom from some of the
brightest faculty in our country<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>received our diplomas from
stalwarts like Mukesh Ambani or Raghuram Rajan. We juggled multiple demands
while we were a PGSEMer; didn't succumb to any pressures and proved what we are
capable of. I am confident we all will strike the iron when it is hot!</div>
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Some of the
life-time friends were made during these years; there was also a couple in our
batch :); some of us started our own; some of us are all set to join big names
in the industry post PGSEM. While we conquer the new heights every day, I wish
we never forget those who helped us to get through this course - the one who
helped us quickly revise portions for an exam or the one who stepped up for us
during projects when we had a bad day at office or the one who gave advice in
handling a personal situation or the ones with whom we watched endless number
of movies; and those who provided us the much needed moral support!</div>
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While I officially
exit the iconic grey wall, some of my long pending dreams are fulfilled, some
are yet to come true. Some of the lessons I learn-t will act as a beacon in my
future and some of the memories are to be forgotten. This blog gave me an inspiration
before joining the course; and to write about my experiences during the course.
Managing some aspects of PGSEM online channels including this blog were some of
my first online marketing experiences :).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hope to continue my blogging at <a href="http://www.anmbadiary.com/" target="_blank">An MBA Diary</a>.</div>
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I thank all the
readers of this blog for the continued patronage to us and I am sure my junior
batches will continue to bring the PGSEM life experience to you through this
blog.</div>
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Once again, I take
this opportunity to <i><b>congratulate PGSEM class of 2013 and wish all the very
best...</b></i></div>
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<i>ps: This post is a
vivified version of my final speech given to the outgoing batch.</i></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-16880956989418501632013-01-10T16:36:00.003+05:302013-01-11T12:19:24.959+05:305 reasons to do an exchange term abroad<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It’s been long since I contributed to this blog however this
is a very apt occasion to make a comeback by describing the experience of an
exchange term. For those uninitiated: PGSEM offers the students a chance (or
2 chances which I’ll explain later) to take one of their term in a foreign
university. This is the same as offered to the PGP batch studying along with
you and same to the extent that the rank list for choosing universities is
common between the PGP and PGSEM students. For e.g. this year’s 2<sup>nd</sup>
ranker overall was a PGSEMer and he got to choose London Business School for
his exchange term.<br />
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Anyways, exchange university selection process is a thrill in itself
but to keep it short, around the 4<sup>th</sup> quarter of your studies, you’re
asked to choose if you want to take a quarter abroad. Now by 2 chances I meant
that since PGSEM has 10 quarters so they get to opt 2 times for the exchange
process (though they can only take 1 exchange term during the course).
Based on your 1<sup>st</sup> quarter marks, all students, PGP and PGSEM are
ranked together and asked to choose the universities in order of the student’s
rank. And don’t worry, IIM Bangalore has <a href="http://www.iimb.ernet.in/student-exchange/partner-schools">partnerships </a>with most top institutes in
all geographies.</div>
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Now coming back to the topic, what are the top 5 reasons for
PGSEM students specifically to do an exchange term abroad? Though reasons
below might overlap with numerous folks who have taken exchange term at
different universities, ones stated below are strictly derived from my
experience at NUS Business School, Singapore. Ordered from least important to
the most important according to me:</div>
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<b>Subject Choice</b> is
good reason for taking up an exchange. A lot of schools IIM has tie up with
work in a university system and what I found exciting was that at NUS Business
School, you have access to the whole university to choose some of the subjects.
People can take up 1 subject outside of Business School in any discipline of
their choice. Some people picked up Chinese language, some picked Music and so
on. I ended up picking a course with school of design and environment out of my
interest in Clean Tech. Even the business school would present you a different
subject choice simply because they’re a different school with different faculty.
To state it another way: It’s not needed that the foreign university is better,
it’s better that there is more variety at your disposal.</div>
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<b>Networking</b>: I feel that exchange term drastically
increases your network. Especially when you’re a PGSEMer, you’re interacting
with your batch mates in classes and to some extent after classes for extracurricular
or projects. Being full-time in a hostel with a bunch of MBA students is a
totally different experience. The friendships formed when you’re studying together,
networking together (read partying) or eating together are fairly more
involved. A totally new environment and new country helps your forge several
new friendships in a short duration. Also since you’re studying full time, you
could pick up even unpaid internships in fields that you’re more interested in
and build your network further.</div>
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<b>Diversity: </b>Your
network is not only large but more Diverse. Going into a foreign university
during the exchange term, brings in people from various nationalities and
various backgrounds. If two people had the same set of people they knew, the
gain in network connections is not that much, but if the set of people are
totally from different field and country, you gained a whole new network of
friends. However perhaps scoring high on people you know is the least benefit
of working in a diverse group. You learn a lot about team work, cultural
sensitivity and tacit knowledge about dealing with a variety of people that’s
much more valuable.</div>
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<b>Career Services: </b>Another
important reason for me to choose exchange was for the career services that the
exchange school provided. Let me clarify, this doesn’t mean that you’ll be
sitting in placements in foreign school. What it means is that you can take
help from career services of these schools to improve your profile, get your
resume reviewed or even attend presentations from companies you’re interested
in. </div>
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<b>Taking MBA without
work: L</b>astly but most importantly for a PGSEMer, an exchange term provides
an opportunity to take your MBA without work. You’d note I didn’t use the word “Full-time”
because for one I can tell is that the number classroom contact hours are exactly
the same per subject either ways. What changes is that you’re much more
focussed on the subjects and don’t have to switch context too much. If it was
to me, I’d say PGSEMers are the most hardened MBA graduates who can balance
more than any other full time folks. However at the same time, it’s a pleasant
break to be able to concentrate on your subjects full time, pick up more
subjects, spend your extra time in extracurricular activities and be a student
again. </div>
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However at the end of the day, there is opportunity cost involved.
PGSEMers are constrained by their work commitments
sometime and cannot take this unpaid break from work. Such long a break might
even put your employment at risk. This decision finally rests on the person
taking it and s/he has to fix all these. There are some schools which even give scholarships to IIM students and if not totally free, the trip costs reduce drastically.<br />
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It was a great experience for me and I hope some of the above
reasons resonate with you and you take this exciting opportunity that
PGSEM provides you.<br />
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Apshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12714080590768486759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-38675922092615097762012-12-27T20:09:00.000+05:302012-12-27T20:09:01.067+05:30Admission Announcement: PGSEM - 2013<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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IIMB has announced the start of the admission process for the PGSEM 2013 batch. More details can be found here: <br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/3497" target="_blank">http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/<wbr></wbr>3497</a><br />
<br />
In FB, we are here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/iimb.pgsem" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/iimb.<wbr></wbr>pgsem</a><br />
<br />
Please feel free to reach out to us for any questions.<br />
</div>
Bernie | Bernard Vijay Felixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09456541009128888001noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-32292167620409794292012-12-11T01:49:00.000+05:302012-12-11T01:49:01.823+05:30Attributes governing emergent strategies<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Academics and practitioners of
strategy distinguish between a firm’s deliberate strategy and
its emergent strategy. As the names imply, a deliberate strategy is what
top management arrives at based on its understanding of market needs
and the firm’s ability to make adequate return on investments while
satisfying that need. Creating a deliberate strategy includes asking
fundamental questions such as what markets to operate in and how to
position a firm. An emergent strategy, on the other hand, is what a firm
adopts as strategy based on its interaction with the ecosystem that it
builds around itself. This ecosystem includes customers, suppliers,
partners, regulators and employees. In a competitive setting where rapid
changes in the business landscape are driven both by innovation and a
challenging macroeconomic environment, it is fairly straightforward to
conclude that successful firms will be ones that have the ability to
seize a promising emergent strategy, quickly align operations to that
strategy and increase the return on investment via flawless execution of
that strategy. But are emergent strategies equally likely in all
industries? Are such strategies to be expected with equal probability
from all players in a firm’s ecosystem? </div>
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In this thought exercise, I have attempted to list the factors that govern emergent strategies.What follows below is the list and the reasons why each factor plays a role in shaping emergent strategy.</div>
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<strong>I. Rate of change – Industry wide innovation:</strong>
The quantum of innovation that drives industry-wide changes in products
or services in a specific industry is a reasonably strong indication of
the presence or absence of an emergent strategy space. The greater the
intellectual activity, the larger the space available. Firms can use
metrics such as patents filed per year, new processes for quality
improvements, new target segments etc. for this purpose.</div>
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<strong>II. Rate of change – Creation and termination of firms:</strong>
In the absence any fundamental structural changes in the industry, the
frequency with which new firms come into existence and existing firms
fail to survive is an indicator of firm-specific emergent strategies
that are either exploited successfully or left unexplored. A firm
witnessing the growth of some of its rivals and the demise of others in
the same time period can infer that the emergent strategy space has not
been fully searched and exploited. Such rapid changes will serve as both
signals of hope and despair to the firms operating in that particular
industry.</div>
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<strong>III. Product/Project Life-cycle:</strong>
Strategies derived from product innovation are one of the most common
sources of emergent strategies for a firm. But firms operating in an
industry with long product build cycles are far less likely to discover
an emergent strategy. The nature of such long-cycle products prevents
the rapid creation, experimentation and selection of prototypes. Rapid
prototyping capabilities, with the objective of selecting the most
viable alternative among competing product innovations are a key
determinant of the frequency of emergent strategies.</div>
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<strong>IV. Partner Ecosystem Complexity:</strong>
The success of a firm’s emergent strategy will largely depend on how
receptive the firm’s partners are. Emergent strategies by their very
definition require that a firm make quick unplanned changes to its
deliberate strategy in it at least one of its functional areas. If that
functional area involves the firm’s partners, then the agility of the
partner ecosystem will play a predominant role in the success of the
emergent strategy.</div>
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<strong>V. Employee feedback channels:</strong>
Employees at all levels have the potential to discover information or
create actionable ideas that can influence a firm’s strategy. In such a
scenario, firms that operate in rapidly changing environments increase
the probability of uncovering new strategies if they setup channels
through which employees can communicate new ideas. Most companies have
employee feedback channels in place. The companies that are open to
radical ideas from employees across different functions, create and
respond through channels that are specifically tuned to watch out for
ideas and suggestions that can be used to derive an emergent strategy.</div>
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<strong>VI. Customer feedback channels:</strong>
Every organization worth its balance sheet collects customer feedback
in one or more ways. While the diligent ones among these use the
feedback to shape the customer experience, the excellent ones use it to
shape the organization itself.</div>
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<strong>VII. Frequency and strength of feedback:</strong>
Unlike deliberate strategies, emergent strategies are more likely to
lack specific signposts that can vouch for their validity. Deliberate
strategies that are in the process of being executed offer the luxury of
clear signs of their success or failure. In many cases, past outcomes
of deliberate strategies might indicate that a few quarters of losses
are worth accommodating to make the strategy a success in the long run.
But in the case of a emergent strategy, no such reassuring milestone
might be available. So in scenarios involving multiple competing
strategies, the one with a higher frequency and strength of feedback
about the success of the strategy should receive a higher weighting.</div>
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<strong>VIII.Organizational agility and the O in VRIO:</strong>
Assuming all other factors that govern emergent strategies are
positively aligned for an organization – through a combination of past
decisions and propitious present conditions – the decisive factor that
will ensure successful exploitation of an emergent strategy will be the
agility with which the firm exploits the opportunity. This agility
cannot be acquired in the short term but can only be built into the
culture of the firm over a period of time. In the context of agility, a
parallel can be drawn with the ‘Organization’ component of the VRIO
framework. Just as a firm should organize itself to exploit its VRI
resources and capabilities, it should also build capabilities to exploit
emergent strategies without letting past ways of thinking and execution
scuttle the opportunity.</div>
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</div>
Bernie | Bernard Vijay Felixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09456541009128888001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-82883703156377252912012-11-19T09:53:00.002+05:302012-11-19T13:28:02.989+05:30Managerial attention as a key determinant of effectiveness in public governance systems<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Robert Simons in his book "Levers of Control" on management control systems unveils managerial attention as a key determinant of strategy. Before getting into the details of each of the levers that managers can move to control various aspects of the organization to help achieve its goals, Simons asserts that in a world where ideas emerge from all directions, managerial attention is the primary gating factor that goes on to determine which of the emerging ideas will become part of an organization's deliberate strategy. By attention, Simons means "information processing capacity" allocated to a "defined issue or agenda".<br />
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My understanding of this assertion is that, in the face of limited managerial bandwidth, the issues that get top management attention shape the future of the organization. What if this theory holds true in government and public institutions? What if, long before processes like budget allocation and implementation plans start, the way government officials choose to pay attention to certain issues in a certain manner go on to shape not only the immediate goals but also the long term trajectory of a nation?</div>
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Imagine there are 2 levers as shown below.<br />
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Which of the two levers should decision makers in public governance systems move? "Move" in this case means allocating management attention and information processing capacity to these areas. In practical terms, this might translate to decision questions like these: Where should the best administrators in government be deployed? Which type of institutions and research should get funded? Which of the competing alternative solutions to social issues deserve the most attention?</div>
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The 2 levers are different in that, the first lever tries to solve social issues and deliver better governance by taking a perceived root cause view of their existence and attempting to address those root causes. The phrase 'perceived root cause' has been used only because in many cases no clear cause has been established about why citizens behave in certain ways in public that are detrimental to themselves and others. In such a situation, when governments try to achieve certain desired social outcomes, which of these 2 courses of action is better?</div>
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For example:<br />
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<b>Lever I</b>. Spend money on civic sense enhancement via education, celebrity endorsement of specific programs, posters etc. in areas like: courteous driving on roads, queues in bus stops, cleanliness in parks etc<br />
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or<br />
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<b>Lever II.</b> Spend on civic infrastructure enhancement for: monitoring drivers on roads, enforcing queues in bus stops and penalizing people littering in parks.<br />
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The results of using lever I are indirect and hard to measure. The results delivered by using lever II are comparatively more tangible. The catch would be to think this through without letting monetary requirements and other resource constraints cloud the thought process. In the absence of such constraints in the near term, which of the 2 levers yields long term benefits?</div>
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Which of the 2 results listed below shares a stronger link with the 2 options listed above?<br />
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<b>Result I.</b> Government spending on educating citizen's about good behavior in public is effective. Through a combination of learning from such efforts and examples set by others, citizens practice good behavior in the public sphere. As a natural progression, children learn from their parents and future generations too behave the same way.<br />
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<b>Result II.</b> People get used to being monitored and change their behavior.<br />
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In the picture below, which of the two links gets a higher number N or M?<br />
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In the example of citizens' behavior in public cited above, even though the end results of moving either lever seem to be the same, the strength of the link as perceived by decision makers matter. This is because, if Link I were stronger, it would mean that after a period of time, resources - including managerial attention itself - can be deployed to solve other pressing problems of that time. If Link II were stronger, governments should plan for expending effort and resources for the same issues on an ongoing basis. The link strength question from the example above can be extended to other examples like poverty alleviation, job creation etc. It is highly likely that, based on a country's history, demographics, culture and number of other factors, the strength of the link would be higher or lower for lever I or II depending on the issue under consideration.</div>
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This bisected view of public governance systems is not new. But previous writings on this subject take a implementation and resource constraint view of the systems under study. In this post, I have attempted to shift the same view to the left end of the timeline and placed it in the initial stages when processing available information, creating innovative solutions, prioritizing among viable alternatives and planning for effective and efficient implementation are the main activities. According to Simons, the decision to pay managerial attention to certain things and not pay attention to others is one of the most important decisions that shapes all others. If this were true for corporates, from a managerial perspective, it should be true for governments too. In that case, allocating considerable time to decide which areas and methods governments should pay attention to will have a much larger impact on citizens and nations than it does on corporates and employees.</div>
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Bernie | Bernard Vijay Felixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09456541009128888001noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-36526469031654043012012-10-07T12:23:00.000+05:302012-10-07T12:23:42.731+05:30Beginning of the Odyssey called PGSEM<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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just flew off in a flash ... </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Orientation, the journey
began informally here. With a pre-orientation assignment which was required
to be completed before we step into the campus. Surely wasn't the gate pass to
enter it but was interesting as it had diverse cases to be solved in groups of
5. The first day @campus saw everyone happy & smiling having cracked into
the premier institute for management and visualizing themselves 2.5yrs later in
the convocation coat & hat and off-course with the degree. That
is where the visual was blurred & everyone was woken up :) ... The word
orientation actually meant 360deg brain twist which would align it to take the
ride called PGSEM. The starter was "Books" which many of us would
refer to as "once upon a time i used to study from...". And the binders
were also given to us as top-ups which made everyone all the more happier ;-).
Those 3 orientation days had seminar's which still rule the minds of many (Peak
Oil), deliberate & intentional late night cases by seniors which helped us
stay alert and awake all 3 days :P and off-course fun activities which acted as
ice breaker for the batch-mates. The orientation ended on lot of gyan &
maarg-darshan which formed the grounding base for us. Thanks to senior's for
putting their days & nights out from the precious 1 month year break,
in organizing the orientation program.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Q1 formally began 20days after the orientation. 3
Subjects in the quarter- Microeconomics which dealt with theory of supply &
demand, Accounting to help us improve our knowledge about finance &
Strategy Management which would give us insights into firms from various
industries and how the CEO's form strategies to solve problems. The batch was
high on energy and enthusiastic about learning though everyone took their own
time in managing getting up early & staying awake in the lectures.
Microeconomics was a web of graphs each one similar to the previous and adding
to the confusion with every session. The Accounting Balance sheet & Income
statement balanced everything except the confusions. Strategy was more or less
a sleepy venture with energy levels on an all-time low. If we plot a graph of
energy vs. time we'll get a "Bell curve", rising slowly from sleepy
eyes in Microeconomics it peaked highest during Accounting (being a math based
subject) & finally diminishing in Strategy. We were asked to form groups of
5 (thankfully) to solve cases which the professors insisted us to read/solve
before coming to the lectures for our own good and getting more benefit from
the discussions.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The Quarter had hardly begun and we had our first
event organizing opportunity with "Pehel", kind of fresher
party and a medium to felicitate the senior students who had done well in the
program. Managing time for the event along with studies and work got even
tougher. The enthu was high being the first event participation for all and the
preps though began late were managed somehow. It was lot more
interesting finalizing events, participants, practice sessions, teams
for handling various sub-events and the volunteers. The program was
well perceived by everyone and we pulled it off well.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The joyous mood of the event had not even ended
that we realized the midterms sitting on our head. We were still to
open our eyes from the sleepy early morning sessions & woke up only to find
ourselves sitting after a long time in an "Exam" aka fight for
grades. As a discount or thankfully we had midterm for only 2 subjects
(Microeconomics & Accounting). The third subject
was utilized to create exam strategy by everyone (How to give
midterms). The exams format was unknown to all and for this the Profs
helped us with some sample papers and hints on the type of questions. The
midterms ended in mixed reactions with some calling it a disaster, some others
leaving the exam room smiling and even before time (which only added to the
tension of those still writing) and others with an average reaction on face and
still others with reactions like "hogaye midterms bas...thats an
achievement".</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The midterms ended only to invite the Final exams
which followed in a couple of weeks. All the more tension prevailed with the
project submissions and presentation along with them. The projects got more
complex every time we asked more details from
the Professors. The expectations were high and we were all thinking would
we be able to make justice with the projects. Finally we got an extra week after
exams for project submissions and that was a huge relief as everyone could
concentrate on the finals and mend the destruction done by the midterms. The
final exams ended on a high note with people finally able to see the end of Quarter
1, and with only a week more of slogging for the project submissions. The
projects were not an easy affair either with lot of thought process involved, gruelling
late night discussions, trying to fit in the funda's we had learned in
class. Finally the projects finished with people submitting their hard
worked reports to the Professors with expectations in return. Expectation of
what? That's what we call "GRADES" ... Waiting anxiously...</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">The 3 subjects not only formed the solid base for future quarters/subjects
but also gave us immense learning in a short time span. Microeconomics helped
us understand the consumer and the firms using demand and supply curves,
Factors affecting these and how firms and consumers react. The Professor made
us understand the subject in the most intuitive way i.e. by real economic
scenarios. Accounting, more on playing with the numbers helped us understand
how to look at a company’s financials (profit loss statements, balance sheet,
cash flow statements) how to analyse them quickly and make conclusions. The
cases, class discussions and the patience of the professor to handle all
queries helped us immensely to grab the essence of the subject. Strategy opened
a wide dimension to our knowledge with the sessions involving only real life
cases addressing problems faced by the company and then forming strategies for
the same. Learning various models (Porters Five forces, RBV analysis etc.) to
form a strategy gave us a glimpse of how strategic analysis is done. In short
the subjects though 3 gave us insights & knowledge no less than an encyclopaedia.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Managing studies, office projects, activities,
family etc. or to say Real-time Multitasking was all the new experience for
everyone in the batch. It was uncomfortable as the journey started but I guess
everyone has got accustomed to it. Time management was one subject not
included in the syllabus but I guess everyone learnt it the hard way (without a
professor or a book) or are still trying to master it. The Quarter ended with
an unmatched gain for everyone, though everyone took a big breathe of relief
having bid Q1 adieu and thought to take a sleep after the gruelling 10
odd weeks but not yet... "picture abhi baaki hai mere
dost....." </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm;">
<span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;">Only to realize there's no sleep for another 11
Quarters ... Q2 begins next week and with a bang (Books & Binders already
in hand) ... The Journey continues -> Q2</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-IN;"></span></div>
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Anupam Nandahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06332053005904045738noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-62813469913150414612012-09-17T17:31:00.000+05:302012-09-17T17:40:01.555+05:30Tête-à-Tête with Sai Sreekanth M<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCZTCJyu82shMlsM9vEFueCQUoE1yCEKD2FTzlWlkmGSh4Se5-sWl4JAuagNeZr5vajPLrSI2FSQfgDGtYLfG6GcH8mTfd_EB3MTYE8r98JHcq9vrQZtKKdZXypCq__UuzWXt/s1600/sai%2520profile.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" hea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaCZTCJyu82shMlsM9vEFueCQUoE1yCEKD2FTzlWlkmGSh4Se5-sWl4JAuagNeZr5vajPLrSI2FSQfgDGtYLfG6GcH8mTfd_EB3MTYE8r98JHcq9vrQZtKKdZXypCq__UuzWXt/s320/sai%2520profile.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<strong><u><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Sai Sreekanth M</span></u></strong><br />
<strong><u><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Product Manager</span></u></strong><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><a href="https://webmail.iimb.ernet.in/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://in.linkedin.com/in/saisreekanth" name="webProfileURL" target="_blank" title="View public profile"><span style="color: #0066cc;">in.linkedin.com/in/saisreekanth</span></a> <br /><strong><u>Total Years of Experience: 18<br />Role Before Joining PGSEM: </u></strong></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt;"><strong><u>Engineering Manager</u></strong></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><strong><u>Role After Completing PGSEM: Product Management</u></strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. Tell us a bit about yourself. [Family, Education, Hobbies] </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">I am a Telugu speaking person from coastal Andhra but have lived in Bangalore (in fact in a 5 sq. km area) all my life. I speak 5 Indian languages, enjoy reading about India and travelling within India. Think I have a good understanding of what Indians do and think. I listen to Carnatic music a lot, have been learning it for a few years (can’t sing well though). I follow other arts such as theatre, dance, lectures and discourses based on literature, films and documentaries. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">I have an undergraduate degree in Computer science from University Visvesvaraya college of Engineering, Bangalore and have completed the PGSEM programme (first batch) from IIM Bangalore. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">I am married to Sheela who is currently teaching and we have a son(6 years old) and a daughter (3 years old). </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. Please describe your current job/role that you perform?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">I am a Product Manager in the Emerging Markets team at Google. I have worked in Emerging Markets teams at HP and Yahoo for the past 9 years. Over these years and now at Google, I am interesting in conceiving and delivering useful technology applications to emerging market users. Would like to leverage my understanding of emerging market user needs and technology background in rolling out impactful services for users. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. What would be the most challenging aspect of your role?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Product management involves orchestrating several teams and stake holders in delivering impactful solutions. Very often, we need to do this without any explicit authority over other teams and this requires a great deal of tact, rigor and understanding of wide range of issues. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. How did PGSEM help transform your career?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">PGSEM did transform my career in moving from a software engineering management role to that of product management.</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">More important than the career shift, was the education that I obtained through the PGSEM programme. I learnt to analyze industries/economies, understand how businesses are managed, learnt about users and people behaviors, got to work really hard on complex problems etc. This knowledge is an asset that I put to use in several contexts and not just in my professional career. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. What are the trends that you see in the business space today in terms of the skill requirements and the supply of the same?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Nothing profound to share here. I do notice that there is a significant increase in the quantity of skilled resources (engineering, management, legal, finance) but do not see a change in the quality. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. Describe THE incident which has influenced you the most to be what you are today.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"> Can’t think of an incident that has influenced me the most. Have been lucky to come across several skilled, well-meaning people and they have had an indirect impact in developing my own perspective. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. What do you think are the key attributes of a good leader?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">* Lead by example</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">* Honesty of purpose</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">* Focus, sustenance, perseverance</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. Whom do you consider as your Role Model and Why?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Again, can’t think of one person. Have been lucky to come across hundreds of good people who are doing great selfless work in serving people and bettering their lives. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. What is your take on the importance of a value system in business? </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Find it strange that such a question is being asked. A good value system is not a negotiable thing not just for businesses but also for living your life well. Can’t see how businesses derive their value systems independent of its owners/founders/workers. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. What is your Mantra for work life balance?</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Do what you like to do and are good at and the question of work life balance does not arise. </span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">Q. Your message to students at IIMB-PGSEM today</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 18pt;">?</span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;">Identify an area or two that you are really passionate about and have a good ability in. Work to be the best in that area. </span></div>
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Saumya Sanjeevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15229945200367381539noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-32315284295611167202012-07-21T23:23:00.000+05:302012-07-21T23:23:22.762+05:30PGSEM 2013 Admissions - Open House on July 28, 2012<div style="text-align: justify;">
The 2nd open house for clarifying your queries related to PGSEM, admissions for 2013 batch and interaction with students, alumni & faculty will be held on July 28, 2012 at IIM Bangalore Auditorium. If you are interested in the program or planning to apply for the program next year or have queries, please make sure you attend the open house next Saturday. <a href="http://iimberpsrv.iimb.ernet.in:9040/prod/szkpgoh.sfshow" target="_blank">Register for the event here</a>.</div>
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As we noted earlier and also clarified in <a href="https://www.facebook.com/iimb.pgsem" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and IIMB website, the major policy change with respect to admissions next year onwards is that <b>ONLY CAT 2012 and GMAT (taken after Jan 1, 2010)</b> will be considered and there is <b>NO PGSEM Admission test</b>. </div>
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This is a good opportunity to spend your Sunday in a green resort-like campus of IIMB :) Also the best opportunity to meet current students of PGSEM, alumni, Professors to clarify all your doubts about PGSEM and IIMB admission philosophy. The agenda for the day is provided below.</div>
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<b>Timings</b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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<b>Agenda</b><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></b></div>
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10:00 A.M<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Participants Assemble
@ Auditorium</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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10:10 - 10:15<span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Welcome
Address by Prof. S Ramesh Kumar, Chairperson, PGSEM</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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10:15 - 10:20 <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Address by
Prof. Narendra M Agarwal, Chairperson, CSITM</span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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10:20 - 10:25 <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Mr. Rakesh
Godhwani, PGSEM Alumni </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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10:25 - 10:30 <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Mr. Rajesh
Pandit, CSITM </span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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10:30 – 10:35 </div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Mr. Karthik
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10:35 – 10:40</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Ms. Bhavani
Koti, PGSEM SAC</span></div>
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10:40 – 10:50</div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Coffee/Tea
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10:50 - 12:00 <span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Q &
A with a Panel consisting of :</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span>Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Prof. S Ramesh Kumar, Chairperson,
PGSEM</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span>Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Prof. M Jayadev</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Wingdings;"><span>Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Mr. Akshat Kumar, PGSEM Alumni</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt;"><span>Ø<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: "Garamond","serif";">Mr. Kapil Gupta, PGSEM Alumni</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-34062260711961850432012-07-14T00:35:00.000+05:302012-07-14T00:44:51.670+05:30The Split Personality Disorder of Engineer-MBAs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Friday Morning: </b></div>
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<b>Operations Management Class:</b></div>
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The course is taught by a professor who has written a text book on the subject and has consulted for many companies across industries in Banaglore. He talks about streamlining processes, predictability, quality etc. I don't just nod in agreement. I am totally convinced. Words like "process" not only sound reasonable but inevitable. </div>
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"Process is paramount. How else can you manage a company with many different products and thousands of employees?" he asks. </div>
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"Yes sir" I think as I listen to him.</div>
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"Documentation is important"</div>
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"Completely agree sir"</div>
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"Metrics are critical"</div>
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"We would have it no other way sir"</div>
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On other Fridays and Saturdays, other professors lecture us about objectives, numbers and hierarchies. It all seems to make sense and most often looks like the only way right way to do things.</div>
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It is not as much about agreement as it is about belief. And the concomitant imagination that as a manager I would do the same thing.</div>
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<b>And then...</b></div>
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<b>Monday Morning:</b></div>
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I return to office as an engineer. To the world of system engineering built on Unix and C code. A world built by long-haired hackers, programmers who never went to college, start-ups, all-night coding, the thrill of breaking programs by testing...</div>
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A world in which "process" is an anathema. Build something you truly care about. Code for fun. Break it for the adrenaline ride. Do it all over again till you get it right.</div>
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In this place, words like "hierarchy" and "metrics" have little meaning. In this place, a program doesn't just solve a problem. When written well, it is a elegant piece of craft and is as much about a programmer's passion as it is about his or her technical talent.</div>
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I love this world. I would rather live in this place than any place else. </div>
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Looks like my beliefs are tuned into one thing while I enjoy doing something else.</div>
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And so the story goes. Between management and engineering. Between t-shirts and suits. Between hackers and bureaucrats.</div>
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Are these 2 worlds truly dichotomous? </div>
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Can companies not innovate and yet be process-driven?</div>
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Can they not ensure quality without taking away the creative freedom of their engineers?</div>
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Can they grow to 3000 people and yet tolerate the mavericks?</div>
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The two of us continue to search for answers...!</div>
</div>Bernie | Bernard Vijay Felixhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09456541009128888001noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-43590563795163833362012-06-19T13:10:00.000+05:302012-06-19T13:11:41.317+05:30Tête-à-Tête with Abhinav Agarwal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQc5jSpXdp8mHKTncxpS8_Iz-Zofg5dDEUGigKKC8dakrhUVAkQKyeuWpuwALcTOSUglVeqhBgVcMUoX2bseeB4RWaD7qjbYDaJFwNsUFpZEvsI_NnhMdBzgTSNyy2Px2hEBSl/s1600/Abhinav+(3).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rca="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQc5jSpXdp8mHKTncxpS8_Iz-Zofg5dDEUGigKKC8dakrhUVAkQKyeuWpuwALcTOSUglVeqhBgVcMUoX2bseeB4RWaD7qjbYDaJFwNsUFpZEvsI_NnhMdBzgTSNyy2Px2hEBSl/s320/Abhinav+(3).jpg" width="304" /></a></div>
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<b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Abhinav Agarwal<br />Director of Product Management<br /><br />Total Years of Experience: 17<br />Role Before Joining PGSEM: Product Management<br />Role After Completing PGSEM: Product Management</span></u></b><b><i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. Tell us a bit about yourself.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I have been living in Bangalore for the last 10 years, am married and have two daughters. I have a BE (Hons) degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, and in 2006 graduated from IIMB’s PGSEM program. My hobbies are mostly reading and photography, and I cover both of these on my blog, at </span><a href="https://webmail.iimb.ernet.in/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://blog.abhinavagarwal.net/" target="_blank"><span style="color: #1155cc; font-size: 10pt;">http://blog.abhinavagarwal.net/</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. Please describe your current job/role that you perform?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">My role is product management at Oracle, and I am a Director of Product Management and Strategy. In that capacity I am responsible for our company’s Business Intelligence Mobile product, advanced data visualizations, and spatial analytics, all within the Oracle BI EE suite. I also engage with partners, customers, and our marketing and sales organizations to help our customers be successful with our company’s tools and products.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. What would be the most challenging aspect of your role?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> Managing the time difference between Bangalore, where I live and work out of, and Redwood Shores, where the development of the products I am responsible for happens, has been the single most challenging aspect of my role.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. How did PGSEM help transform your career?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> PGSEM helped provide a broader perspective to what I do. The disciplines of marketing and strategy mostly so, but also other disciplines like Human Resources and Finance helped me better understand the context and background in which companies operate. Certain theories and constructs like Porter’s Five Forces, Christensen’s Theory of Disruptive Innovations, Moore’s Chasm Theory, and Teece’s complementarity's of assets - have all hugely influenced me. I was fortunate enough to be doing product management when I joined the PGSEM program, so the learning’s from the PGSEM program could be applied directly to my job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. What are the trends that you see in the business space today in terms of the skill requirements and the supply of the same?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The rapidly growing market and the spread of technology is enabling the rise of a new class of techno-entrepreneurs in India today. The scale of the market affords Indians today the opportunity to create new businesses and ventures that can be originated, funded, staffed, launched, and made successful entirely in India. This was not the case even five or ten years ago. The next ten years will see several billion dollar startups emerge from India. While entrepreneurs will be the original product managers of new ventures, what these companies will need and require will be world-class product managers - to articulate and drive strategy and product direction. The companies that can find and retain such product managers are the ones that will stand a greater chance of succeeding in the marketplace. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. Describe THE incident which has influenced you the most to be what you are today.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> There has not been any one single incident, but there have been a few incidents that have helped me evolve my philosophy towards my professional and even personal life. The most important I would consider the birth of my daughters to be. That helped me realize and better assess what was more important in life.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. What do you think are the key attributes of a good leader?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A good leader must be, fundamentally, a good person. Everything else is secondary. A good person will be able to take the decisions a good leader has to take. A person with a selfish, short-sighted, or individualistic attitude towards life will take decisions that reflect his/her own value system. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. Whom do you consider as your Role Model and Why?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">At work my role models have been a few over the past several years. Some have been people I directly worked with in my teams, while others have been people I have had the good fortune to observe closely while at work, even though I did not have a direct working relationship with them at the time. From executive management to fellow product managers to my direct managers, learning and role models have been there to help guide me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. What is your take on the importance of a value system in business? </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A value system has to be the articulation and enforcement of a set of guiding principles that are inviolate. Anything else is no more important of relevant than an election slogan or a marketing gimmick. The value system a company and its leaders articulate and follow and hold themselves and others to is what differentiates a successful company from a great company that people want to work at.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. What is your Mantra for work life balance?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> If there is a mantra for work-life balance, then surely I am still trying to discover and learn it! A work-life balance is difficult to achieve, and certainly an optimal balance even more so. We each have to evaluate our priorities in life, and the decisions we make based on that assessment are what determine how much balance we actually attain in our professional and personal lives.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 18pt;">Q. Your message to students at IIMB-PGSEM today</span><span style="font-size: 18pt;">?</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The PGSEM program is an investment in your future. As with investing, remember to invest for the long-term. That is what will result in the largest payout.</span></div>
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</div>Saumya Sanjeevhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15229945200367381539noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-68446867438938524962012-05-29T14:01:00.000+05:302012-05-29T14:01:07.548+05:30Anjan Lahiri, President of IT Services at MindTree inaugurates 15th batch of PGSEM<div style="text-align: justify;">
On May 25, 2012, the fifteenth batch of Post Graduate Programme in Software Enterprise Management (PGSEM) was inaugurated. Mr. Anjan Lahiri, President of IT Services at MindTree was the Chief Guest this year and delivered the keynote address. PGSEM, started in the year 1998 is a general management program offered exclusively to IT professionals. The incoming batch represents participants from 30+ companies and professional experience ranging from 2-15 years. The inauguration was followed by a guest lecture by Mr. Mansoor Khan on his topic Peak Oil and End of Growth – The Third Curve. Watch out for another post on what we heard from him. Orientation for the incoming batch was for three days which included ice breakers, industry talks, faculty sessions, sports and more fun. </div>
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Mr. Anjan discussed the topic - ‘Challenges of managing LOW growth for the Indian software industry’. He shared his views on why Indian software industry may not grow in the pace it had grown and what can mid-level professionals in the industry can do to manage their career in this ‘low’ growth industry. He started off with data which cannot be disputed to show how much Indian Software Industry has achieved. From a modest beginning of $2 bn dollars in the late 90’s; it has now grown into a $70 bn industry. Anjan put some comparisons in place to make us think what each of this ‘billion’ figures mean. He opined that India’s success in IT industry was the major factor in helping out an Indian professional to stand out in the global stage. McKinsey and NASSCOM are expecting the industry to grow to $250 bn by 2020. He didn’t contest these figures and in fact agreed that we can expect such growths going forward. But will this growth rate reflect the same for a mid-career professional in the industry? – His view was NO. He backed his view with solid quantitative analysis comparing the growth of the industry from $2B in 1999 to the present figure of $70B. This had CAGR of 30%. This means we had the opportunity to grow professionals also at a rate of 30% or more of personal growth. But if we consider the growth to $250B in 2020 – it indicates a YoY growth of 15%. Considering that there will be new domains to look for growth, the actual growth rate relevant to the current leadership will be even lesser which could be dismal. </div>
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<i><b>Now, if that is the case – what can a mid-career IT professional like a PGSEMer do?</b></i> </div>
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Mr. Anjan had his guidance. In his view, the concept of senior managers and what is expected out of them will change. Due to the accelerated growth the services industry witnessed, the responsibilities of senior managers got limited to serving the needs of employees and team members – forgetting customer. Utilization, attrition and billing captured prominence losing customer from the picture. In the nascent stages of the industry, experience means more capability to solve customer problems. Even the senior most professional was billed and customers were ready to pay for his experience. But this is not the case today. Anjan discussed the contemporary paradigm of ‘The New Normal’. </div>
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<i>“The new normal for managing one’s career is that we should consciously remember that we are in the
services industry in which we have to directly deliver value to the customer. Not support someone who
delivers value, not manage someone who delivers value, not facilitate, encourage, enable -- but directly
deliver value.”</i> </div>
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<i><b>So how can we keep us relevant? </b></i></div>
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A low growth means reduced number of requirements for General Managers. Anjan opined that however good ‘general management’ capabilities are even scarcer. Hence the requirement can come down even more. Mr. Anjan shared four guiding principles to tackle this challenge. </div>
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1. Think externally – Think about the customer and provide direct value to them. </div>
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2. Don't get into the delusion of management – Management, except at the highest level, is a support function in a services company. </div>
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3. New responsibilities will no longer just come to you – With growth opportunities just came to you in the past. Now it will not </div>
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4. Customer must want to pay for your time – If not, you are not relevant to either the customer or to your own people </div>
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Mr. Anjan urged the incoming batch to come out of the ‘senior’ delusion and reflect on "<i>what do we not know?</i>” to stay relevant and proper in this industry. He wished every success to the incoming batch for enrolling in this program to embark on the journey of exploring ‘<i>what you don't know</i>’!! </div>
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<i>It was indeed a privilege and a wonderful opportunity for us to hear and interact with Anjan and on behalf of the PGSEM community; we thank him for taking time from his hectic schedule and addressing PGSEMers.</i></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, Bannerghatta Rd, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560 076, India12.8956944 77.602277812.8802164 77.5825368 12.9111724 77.622018799999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-41568907835409838242012-05-21T09:20:00.000+05:302012-05-21T09:20:14.113+05:30Leadership: Words Of Wisdom From Sri Sri Ravi Shankar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The follwing interview was conducted as part of course work by Jamshida EM, Sudhindra Kadur Keshava Murthy, Anusha Rajagopal, Remya Roy Zachariah Cherian and Gaurav Rastogi from the PGSEM 2011 batch.<br />
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<b>1. What is the one differentiating factor (leadership challenge) critical to a spiritual leader's quest to bring about a social change/impact to the masses?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri:</i> The crisis facing the world today is fundamentally one of identification. People identify themselves with limited characteristics such as gender, race, religion and nationality, forgetting their basic identity as part of the universal spirit. These limited identifications lead to conflict both globally and on a personal level.<br />
Every individual is much more than the sum of these limited identifications. The highest identification we can have is that we are part of Divinity. Then comes the identity that we are human beings and members of the human family. In divine creation, the whole of the human race is united. The work of a spiritual master is just this; to give you a larger picture.<br />
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<b>2. Many instances of interactions with various classes in the society requires a spiritual guru to take a stand - how important and feasible is it for a guru to take an unbiased, unprejudiced stand? And how is this feasible?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri: </i>Spiritual leaders don’t belong to a particular group. They stand for truth.and they keep forth that which is true and then suggest accordingly. When you are unbiased in your mind, compassion simply flows. When you have belongingness with everyone, irrespective of their class, economic background, intellect, if you can connect, then compassion flows. You could be anybody - Chinese, African - put yourself in different shoes, playing different roles, then suddenly you find that you are stuck as being somebody, and then you will see it is much more universal.<br />
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<b>3. Is leadership a science or an art? Is there any facet specific to spiritual leadership?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri: </i>It is both! It is science because it requires planning and reasoning. And it is art as leadership is all about heart.A good leader should be 'satya-darshi' (truthful), 'sam-darshi' (equanimous), ‘priya-darshi’(pleasant personality), ‘par-darshi’(transperant) and 'door-darshi' (farsighted). A leader should have a mission and a vision and a spirit of sacrifice, compassion and commitment. <br />
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<b>4. Corporate leadership is all about capitalism, what is your message to make the corporate leadership more inclusive?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri: </i>Capitalism per se is not a bad word. But it has to be applied with humanism. There is no problem in having an idea/asset and using it commercially for gainful returns. Problem comes when profit and returns become the only motive of capitalism. I would ask the Corporate leadership to take a few deep breaths, assess and analyse, and then move in such a direction where capitalism and humanism move hand in hand. Taking care of genuine needs of the work force, setting aside some part of the profit each year for Corporate Social Responsibility and using green and non-polluting technologies can be some ways to move ahead. Many of the Capitalists and companies are already doing so and they need to be encouraged.<br />
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<b>5. What inspires a spiritual leader and how does he/she convert the inspiring thought to actions?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri: </i>The thought of alleviating the sufferings of people inspires a truly spiritual person. The “sankalpa” (intention) manifests itself effortlessly when a person moves ahead with the motive of common good. Nature joins in to support anyone working for common good. Things start happening to support the sankalpa of a spiritual person which is always aimed at larger public interest.<br />
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<b>6. How does a spiritual leader set goals, evaluate results?</b><br />
<i>Sri Sri: </i>A spiritual leader sets goals in terms of how betterment can be brought to society as a whole. Of course there are also measurable goals which are set. The important thing is that although a spiritual leader sets goals, there is no “jwar” (feverishness) in it. The goals are set and surrendered to the Divine and actions are taken according to the goals but without fretting over them constantly. Results are evaluated not only in terms of achievement of those goals but also the empowerment and enrichment attained by those who are involved in the process of achievement of the goals.<br />
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For further queries/contacts - <a href="http://www.artofliving.org/">www.artofliving.org</a>.<br />
</div>Vineethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02842634646687045432noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-32508043518310153352012-05-12T22:39:00.000+05:302012-05-12T22:39:22.771+05:30Welcome to the 15th batch of PGSEM!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-71228960546895321212012-05-07T22:20:00.002+05:302012-05-08T17:00:17.974+05:30Drishtikon 2012: The CSITM-PGSEM Annual Conference<div style="text-align: justify;">
Last year, stalwarts from industry and academia discussed about 'moving up the value chain' in the one day <a href="http://iimbpgsem.blogspot.in/2011/05/csitm-participatory-workshop.html" target="_blank">CSITM-PGSEM annual conference</a>.</div>
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This year, Center for Software and Information Technology Management (CSITM) at IIM Bangalore and PGSEM Students presents the second edition of its annual conference - <b>Drishtikon 2012</b>. This year's theme is <i><b> </b></i></div>
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<i><b>Benefiting the masses profitably – An Opportunity for Indian Technology Industry</b></i></div>
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This year we have some of the best industrialists who have pioneered this concept in an out in their life taking about their experiences, vision, opportunities and challenges for Indian IT Industry. Stay tuned for more details...</div>
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Register for the event <a href="http://hrm.iimb.ernet.in/iimb/csitm/csitm-2012.asp" target="_blank">here</a></div>
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The day-long conference is being designed to highlight industry and the
academician's perspectives on the opportunities that exist in leveraging
Technology to benefit the masses and how Indian Technology industry can
do so profitably. The conference is intended to enable dialogue between
various stakeholders of the Technology industry, academicians and
researchers.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-77697981056405125852012-04-20T16:10:00.000+05:302012-04-23T22:15:10.157+05:30Making History! A Conversation With Mr. Sumit Chowdhury<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyKSSZBlaRrxZDtmHFonsWHc-nYmdPVrlX8OzMzBV1iU0xFZHiKZc2JIY9OVfIm6YXYa4uajMBTSzKosRIQ0rlf5AOsm6-fmYzXMIpCY0M7-bjZHCSeqZ1gIewfBQTDLFNcssi/s1600/mlc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyKSSZBlaRrxZDtmHFonsWHc-nYmdPVrlX8OzMzBV1iU0xFZHiKZc2JIY9OVfIm6YXYa4uajMBTSzKosRIQ0rlf5AOsm6-fmYzXMIpCY0M7-bjZHCSeqZ1gIewfBQTDLFNcssi/s200/mlc.jpg" width="139" /></a><b><span style="font-size: large;"></span></b><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span></b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: large;">
Entrepreneur of 'My Life Chronicles'</span></b></div>
</span></span></b></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">PGSEM 2005-08</span></span></b></h2>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.mylifechronicles.com/">www.mylifechronicles.com</a></span></b></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: center;">
<b style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></b></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<b style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">1)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;"><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Why did you decide to start My Life Chronicles</span></b></h3>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">The
idea came to my mind while speaking casually to a couple of my PGSEM batch mates
at IIMB. It was Dec 2008. My father passed away from cancer in 1998 and I left
home right after that. My elder brother had left home earlier. Being a very
organized person my father used to write journals regularly and keep all
letters and other paper records neatly filed. On my visits to home town years
later, I could see that those diaries and folders were gathering dust and even
being sold away to the <i>raddiwalla</i>. I could not do much while on a
short vacation but wanted to at least scan and digitize the old photos and
letters. This desire led me to the idea of preserving individual and family
stories and then on to preserving institute and corporate memories. When I
googled I found that there is an organization in the USA called APH,
Association of Personal Historians who are already doing this for 15 years. That
was the time I realized that we Indians are poor preservers of our past and
that needed to change and change fast.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">2)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Tell a little about yourself -
education, work, family - the story so far.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Born
and brought up in Steel City of Durgapur, I completed my secondary education
from St. Xavier’s, Durgapur and Higher Secondary education from Bidhan Chandra
Institution, Durgapur. I went on to complete my BE(Hons) from REC Durgapur and
chose to work at SAIL, Durgapur. This was the time my father was suffering from
cancer and I cherish the time I stayed close to him. Father passed away in 1998
and I moved to Bangalore a year later in 1999 following my IT dreams. Infosys
was about 3500 people and still a close family when I joined the company. I
remember sitting close to NRN's cabin in the Heritage Building, Electronics
City. Infosys gave me an opportunity to broaden my exposure and knowledge by
sending me on various foreign assignments. This happened pretty quickly in my
career and the rich interactions with customers helped shape my thought
processes. I got married to Tandra in 2000, an alumna from my college. We moved
to Banerghatta Road, very close to IIMB. We still stay here. Tandra works in
Novellus Systems. We have 2 daughters, Ananya of 8 years and Anwesha 3 of
years. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4uzBFkrzM5urZlvEBjKc22rGBpO7HUd9oirui7zpTb-vrByquiOcL_Pg5yK7Jn5U2jP84PHWS6h2cBihZhyphenhyphenwjajbjY1UqMnWexD6YmtgMnSj0hi-hA1qe4BQVlJIDFj5HybcE/s1600/sumit.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4uzBFkrzM5urZlvEBjKc22rGBpO7HUd9oirui7zpTb-vrByquiOcL_Pg5yK7Jn5U2jP84PHWS6h2cBihZhyphenhyphenwjajbjY1UqMnWexD6YmtgMnSj0hi-hA1qe4BQVlJIDFj5HybcE/s200/sumit.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">In 2003, I went through this phase where I had a major urge to do a PhD
in Operations Management (Sunil Mehta's book inspired me). I took the GMAT and
applied to a few universities in the USA. Georgia Tech found me worthy of a
scholarship and invited me over. Reality struck me hard as I realized the full
impact of the decision. Leaving my 6 month old daughter and family for a degree
which takes 5 years, by a conservative estimate sounded impossible. Taking them
along meant sacrificing settled lives and careers. I sent a painful rejection
note to Georgia Tech and appeared for the neighborhood IIMB PGSM program
interview instead. This was the same time I moved from IT Delivery to Pre-Sales
and Marketing at Infosys, hoping to focus on academics for a couple of years. 2004-2007
was a roller coaster ride juggling PGSM assignments, Pre-Sales RFPs and family.
However, this is the time that gave me the confidence and courage to attempt
something different, to start on an entrepreneurial journey. I felt I was not
ready and to get a different perspective I challenged myself to join a completely
different work environment. I joined Honeywell,
an industrial automation giant working on New Product Development
projects. I kept working on my entrepreneurial ideas and goals till the time I
left Honeywell to start My Life Chronicles 3+ years later. My Life Chronicles
has been a labor of love ever since.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">3)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">How did you manage the risks, how are
you paying the bills<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Having
a working and supportive spouse helps. It has been more than a year and I
continue to depend on her to meet our bills. However, I am planning to start
taking a small monthly salary from My Life Chronicles to ease the burden.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">4)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Are you happy <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">I
am having the most enjoyable albeit the most hectic time of my life. I am no
more known by Infosys or Honeywell but by My Life Chronicles alone. This is a
fundamental shift in thinking and can give entrepreneur nightmares in the
initial months and years.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">5)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Would you want to go back to Honeywell<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">No,
unless I am compelled to because of financial or other pressures.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">6)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">What next<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">My
Life Chronicles, I would like to believe, is at an inflexion point. I will be
joined by partners in the next few months, partners who see value in what I am
doing and who would like to share the risk. While stories of individuals is
where my heart lies, corporate chronicles is showing a lot of promise. I am
working with CRISIL (A Standard & Poor's co.), a well-known brand
with a tremendous reach across India and even globally. In the process, I
have been personally interviewing Senior Management and Board members of large corporate
and all of them have been very positive about the idea. Making high quality
memoirs and chronicles affordable and easy, still remains my dream.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; margin-left: 0.25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -0.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">7)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Advise to those who want to take the Plunge<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Follow
your heart but have a safety net. Prepare for the worst case, take your family
into confidence and take the plunge. The 'right time' will never come. The
right time is now. You are not going to die if you take the plunge!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">8)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">What role and importance would
you attribute to PGSEM in your journey so far?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Without PGSEM I would not have had the
confidence to venture out. Through PGSEM I have come to know a few people who
have helped me with their thoughts, suggestions and encouragement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">9)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">How did you evaluate the
opportunity in terms of the critical elements of success? The competition and
the potential market? Did you make a business plan?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">This is a new concept in India. There was no
data available as such. We did some primary research which didn’t throw up
positive results. It was more of gut feel and the passion to do something I
enjoy that led me to plunge.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: .25in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">10)<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Any specific learning’s you
would like to share with the budding entrepreneurs.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: 'Century Gothic', sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Meet as many potential customers you can and
listen to what they want. Meet start-up founders and understand/learn from
their challenges/mistakes. Moonlight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-45995406231377892002012-04-18T12:58:00.003+05:302012-04-18T12:58:59.473+05:30Graduation Day 2012 In Pictures<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XxOfqHUunsKKtdUhEV3aVIxNEIDI8haH09NTAZloUKexiBT5QMxZRtWjt6ZJe7Lnx19Y2YF-lL7-r7skfTqYMiVEWa1ATdNK2JcXnEG57xkebTc0DrQu2n_Olg04gJsImNX3/s1600/PGSEM+Convocation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8XxOfqHUunsKKtdUhEV3aVIxNEIDI8haH09NTAZloUKexiBT5QMxZRtWjt6ZJe7Lnx19Y2YF-lL7-r7skfTqYMiVEWa1ATdNK2JcXnEG57xkebTc0DrQu2n_Olg04gJsImNX3/s640/PGSEM+Convocation.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /></div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-89923375643278771122012-04-12T21:34:00.002+05:302012-04-12T21:34:50.994+05:30Social Network Analysis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Social Network Analysis is one of the electives this quarter offered by Professor <a href="http://www.iimb.ernet.in/user/110" target="_blank">Suresh Bhagavatula</a>. With the Facebook IPO coming up in May, this has to be one of the better seasons to discuss this subject after all...<br />
<br />
Apart from coming to know about software tools like UCINET and NodeXL to analyze social networks of popular tools like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, the course so far has charted the not-so-unfamiliar territory of interesting stories.<br />
<br />
The first interesting one has to be the Stanley Milgram's "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_world_experiment" target="_blank">Small World</a>" experiment. Done way back in 1960's and 70's it provided the theoretical underpinning for the idea of a world with <i>Six-Degrees-Of-Separation</i>. Theories apart, what captures me, was the simplicity behind Milgram's experiment. Milgram handed out small packages to mine workers in Kansas, which they had to deliver to specific individuals in Boston. The catch however was that the packages had to be passed along through acquittances. No couriers, No mail. Interesting... huh?<br />
<br />
The interesting case study of Heidi Roizen brings to perspective the often misunderstood subject of people with a better Social Network climbing the org-ladders faster. Roizen boasts of being the most influential networker in Silicon Valley having painstakingly built her network starting as a humble 'Creative Writer'.<br />
<br />
But coming back to Facebook. Obnoxious valuations aside, there would not be a single marketeer out there who would not shell out money to get a list of all those who hit the 'Like' button of his product page. And just today I came across this <a href="http://www.paulwriter.com/resources/case-studies/item/565-facebook-application-for-consumer-engagement" target="_blank">article </a>showcasing some truly interesting contests happening on Facebook fan pages. And how did I come across this one? Twitter of course!!<br />
<br />
By the way, check out your InMap on LinkedIn if you haven't already - <a href="http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com/">http://inmaps.linkedinlabs.com</a>. They truly look fabulous.</div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-37698723604052769982012-03-28T08:07:00.000+05:302012-03-28T09:30:24.669+05:30Tête-à-Tête With Mr. Shamit Bagchi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<h3 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Entrepreneur of Dhonuk.com</span></h3>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">PGSEM 2008-11</span></h4>
<div>
<span style="color: #666666; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">1. What was your background before you started the venture?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://api.ning.com/files/C-eXpp5KNiGsE7YyHbeGoENda6RYu9QhadKfA6TeSzn3utfbqs9HMg*0SUQruf0X-UCvmBLMpRHk9TB2tNCXdBWSWMe4MBSj/GuyKawasaki.jpg?width=184&height=184&crop=1%3A1" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="color: #666666;"><img border="0" src="http://api.ning.com/files/C-eXpp5KNiGsE7YyHbeGoENda6RYu9QhadKfA6TeSzn3utfbqs9HMg*0SUQruf0X-UCvmBLMpRHk9TB2tNCXdBWSWMe4MBSj/GuyKawasaki.jpg?width=184&height=184&crop=1%3A1" /></span></a><span style="color: #666666;">I was a software engineer (total experience of 7 years) who
had worked for 2 years in public sector – Bharat Electronics Limited, and just
above 5 years in Honeywell in avionics embedded/real-time software and business
development, marketing (about 9 months).<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">2. Who/What was your biggest influence that made u
interested in entrepreneurship? Any role model?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">A creative endeavour is what I sought to bring forth. It
is this creative urge to create a platform for young and budding artists that
made me create a forum of this sort that would also make business sense. It was
also my urge to showcase my own art works. It was also the love of art and the
feeling that just coding/development in the IT industry not being my calling
that added to the urgency in creation of Dhonuk along with a supportive IIMB
culture – the professors and students. A unique course by Prof Balasubramaniam
Shekar at IIM Bangalore also paved the way to create something unique in the
management space related to the arts.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">3. Did your educational/professional/social background
helped u in starting the venture?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Yes and no. Yes in terms of some technology aspects. No
as the area was niche and there was a lot to learn and that was really fruitful
(the learning). I was quite initiative driven and had conducted events and been
an active volunteer having managed (being the editor-in-chief of Xpressions)
and enjoyed the experience having worked with creative people in house magazine
in Honeywell - Xpressions. Social yes I was always a volunteer with the local
Durga Puja activities and this always helps – volunteering is a very important
if I may say so ‘feature’ of an entrepreneur/potential entrepreneur.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">4. Was this your 1st venture?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Yes.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">5. If no, please let us know the details of the previous
venture(s) and did it(they) help in any way for the current venture?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">I was quite initiative driven and had conducted events
and been an active volunteer having managed (being the editor-in-chief of
Xpressions) and enjoyed the experience having worked with creative people in
house magazine in Honeywell - Xpressions.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">6. How did you spot the opportunity for Dhonuk? How did it
surface?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">It was this rise in the middle class’s disposable income
and the growth of social networks and internet usage that combined to signal a
possible market opportunity. It was also as I mentioned a love for arts and
Indian art formats and artists that propelled the idea and pure profit motive
was not always the objective.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">7. How did you evaluate the opportunity in terms of the
critical elements of success? The competition and the potential market?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">We did several projects both at PGSEM level and in my
personal capacity. I along with others in the team also created studies and
research at IIMB to drive the study of the business of art – which was
indirectly related to Dhonuk and I feel has added to the overall increase in
knowledge of the arts and also its appreciation/feasibility as a business
venture. It was a way for introducing art in the management studies beyond just
elite organizations such as Saffronart etc. A case on Dhonuk has also been
created with Prof Ramesh Kumar of Marketing and Consumer Behaviour.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;"><i>A </i><a href="https://www.iveycases.com/ProductView.aspx?id=51527" target="_blank"><i>business case study</i></a><i> on Dhonuk titled '</i><a href="http://www.dhonuk.com/" target="_blank"><i>www.dhonuk.com</i></a><i> – Marketing Art in an Emerging Market' written by Prof S Ramesh Kumar,
Marketing area, IIM Bangalore and Shamit Bagchi was published by the Richard
Ivey School of Business , Western Ontario, Canada (known worldwide for its
business case studies) in its case collection.<b><o:p></o:p></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">8. Can you please share any specifics of the business plan
you had.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">I can share the entire plan – I see Dhonuk as a means of
management/entrepreneurial learning and will be ready to share all aspects of it
with you! I will send the plan, as a document.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">9. Was it a one-man show or did you have partners?How did
the financing come in for the venture?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Self financed and largely a one man show except some
branding and promo material by Anshuman Majumdar. The idea also was to create a
social organization wherein content and ideas would be from members of Dhonuk
(online) acting as pseudo employees. During exhibitions this actually worked. The
open innovation concept (P&G) was also an inspiration for this.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">10. What all were the external sources of help (if any) u
got for Dhonuk to start and float? Any one who stands out in your mind.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Some very excited and talented volunteer’s whose works
were showcased in specific Anshuman Majumdar from Bangalore, Pritesh
Ananthakrishnan from Sweden. Towards the initial stage Parashar Shah helped
with some technology aspects and later stage Adarsh Natarajan also helped out
to think on reviving certain areas. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">11. Any specific "aha" moment in the venture you
would like to share?The most challenging moment you have faced till date in the
venture.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">A research project was seed funded by IIM Bangalore on
these aspects although not directly related to Dhonuk it was on the area of
business of art. A related paper was also created and was just published
recently as it was selected as part of a recently concluded conference
COGNITIVE 2011 at Rome, Italy. The paper 'A Framework
for Creativity-oriented Autonomy based on Online Social Networks' can be found
here:<b> </b><a href="http://www.thinkmind.org/index.php?view=article&articleid=cognitive_2011_6_20_40077" target="_blank">http://www.thinkmind.org/index.php?view=article&articleid=cognitive_2011_6_20_40077</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Another was being the creative partner with IIM
Bangalore’s Unmaad 2011 fest. See this page: <a href="http://www.unmaad.com/dhonuk.php" target="_blank">http://www.unmaad.com/dhonuk.php</a>. Not being able to get a solid team going as it was a
niche field is/was the most challenging and daunting aspect. Part time
interests don’t always work out and at least one more person needs to be there
all the time. By the time someone wanted to join in as a genuinely interested
partner I was already in the process of moving into a corporate role. We met
Sarnath Banerjee the graphic novelist and wanted to create a graphic novel wing
to Dhonuk. It didn’t take place. Some testimonial are
here: <a href="http://www.dhonuk.com/page/testimonials-1" target="_blank">http://www.dhonuk.com/page/testimonials-1</a> This will give you an idea of how value is being generated as part of this
online ecosystem (art buyers, art sellers and art enthusiasts predominantly
visual arts). So that is in itself a very encouraging!</span></div>
<div align="left" class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">12. Now that you are back into corporate world, do u feel
its going to affect the dedication level to Dhonuk?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Yes ofcourse! The forum is running as an online social
network and with minimal intervention from my end. Let me see how I can revive
other plans on generating revenues and ROI etc. It is in a non-revenue
generating state now! Plan to reposition it as a creativity hub – was
discussing this with a former co-founder Anshuman Majumdar.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">13. Being in a niche business, what are your future growth
plans for Dhonuk?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Who knows what the future holds!<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">14. As you look back, what do u find personally rewarding
and satisfying as an entrepreneur?</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Yes a rewarding learning experience that also helps me
identify my own strengths and weaknesses both personal and interpersonal. I
could have done better and let us see what the future has in store, there is
always scope to improve once you know. Also it was a experience that made me
that much more strong - mentally.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span style="color: #666666;">15. Any specific learnings you would like to share with the
budding entrepreneurs.</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">I think to get a strong team going is very important. This
would be something in my view, I didn’t do very well as my idea was to get a
loosely fit team going and I did get carried away with assuming interest from
many others. Assumptions don’t work when building the team, they may mean good,
and may give ideas but they will not be able to contribute in any big way for
the enterprise, be it your friends even close ones – doesn’t work out that way!
In some aspects they can help and ultimately it is left to a few of us (what
I’d call the core team). They need to have a solid interest and belief in the
idea. Part-time members can rarely fulfill this long term need for a strong
team. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Trust factor has to be slowly built and people with
different values from the core team can and should not be allowed to hijack –
that said I reiterate ‘trust’ is the cornerstone in my view in setting up and
growing an endeavour such as an enterprise. Genuine sincerity and interest in
the idea also plays a role. Being solo can sap a lot of energy out of you! My
thought was to have each artist as an entrepreneur and then get them to create
value for potential customers and not have an in-house team per se (even if it
is 2 strong). This did succeed to some extent as the forum itself and the few
exhibitions we did was running purely due to talented artists and their works.
So my strength was in getting the social system going – of course my frequent
interventions were needed. But a core team is very important to have –
collocation of the team may be secondary.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">Also although starting up is an emotional journey the
practical aspects of planning is very, very important. You can always improvise
on the go but have a basic plan and keep building on it as a form of guidance.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">The firm’s Value Proposition is very important to hone
into. I always had this conflict regarding Dhonuk’s value proposition i.e. was
it for the artist (as a community) vs the customer (as an ecommerce portal)
orientation. Although you can try to cater to different types of people, it is
better to focus and build later after you get a strong foundation or build
strengths in one area. <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #666666;">I think entrepreneurship calls for perseverance – a great
deal of patience and this is repeated all the time yet is absolutely true.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-30796982048731947022012-02-16T19:32:00.001+05:302012-02-16T19:32:57.280+05:30Remembering The PGSEM Interview<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
With the PGSEM Test just over and the interview invites being sent out anytime to prospective candidates for the next batch, I can’t help but remember my own interview experience from last year! It was the second step of the PGSEM admission process and after a few weeks of trying to catch up with what was happening in the world of business or otherwise and forming opinions on it, it had all boiled down to that morning. The interview itself was over in less than 20 minutes…life-changing, looking back on it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The interviews were to be conducted over two days of the weekend and my slot was the first one, the 10 am slot on the first day. I had aimed to reach earlier to avoid confusion about rooms etc and was on campus at about 9:30 am dressed in regular office formals. I was carrying a stack of certificates, documents and what not but none of that was asked for in the interview. Only the mark-sheets were verified after the interview. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
On the lines of the last year’s format I am told, we had an essay writing session before the personal interviews. Fair enough in my opinion. Why should the applicants coming from one exam have to write the essay (as part of the PGSEM exam that is) and the others be allowed to come purely on the basis of their exam scores? So we all settled down in a classroom to start writing out essays at 10 AM.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The topic given to us was ‘India is losing its low cost advantage to countries like Phillipines’ and we had half an hour to complete the essay. My essay was written on the lines of the fact that India had more factors contributing to its success in the arena than just low cost – like a legacy of being a colony and hence having an English speaking population, having the right mix of submissive and assertive attitudes enabling Indians to get into advisory roles when required, a culture of innovation from many centuries ago etc. I talked about the fact that India had got the early mover advantage in the field and had now moved on to being seen as a partner for customers than just a provider of cheap resources. India also has the advantage of a stable political and economic environment that many countries in South East Asia cannot stake claim to. Owing to all these factors, I do not feel that India is losing its advantage but is moving to a higher place in the chain.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I had the third slot in the face-to-face interviews and had to wait for just a little over half an hour for my turn. I couldn’t figure out until later but the panel consisted of one professor and one alumnus, not both professors as I had assumed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I was welcomed with a warm smile by the Professor and they seemed to be holding copies of my extra curricular/work experience information sheet, not my SOP. But this is purely an assumption.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In the below interview, P refers to Professor, A, Alumnus, and Me to well…me.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: You are <someone else’s name?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: No Sir, Anupama Kondayya.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Ah, yes. Here it is. So you’re still with Oracle Anupama?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Yes Sir.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Which office?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: The Marathahalli office.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: And where do you live?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: I live in JP Nagar 6th Phase.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Oh that must be a long commute, although its closer to here.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: It certainly is Sir, and coupled with the traffic it can be quite strenuous. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Yes yes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: So Anupama, can you describe your role and responsibilities to us?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Sure. I am a Demand Resource Analyst (and explanation about handling business for a region, co-ordinating between internal and external stakeholders, forecasting trends periodically to help teams make decisions etc).</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: So you don’t exactly interact with external clients. You get requests for filling resources in already won opportunities, is that right?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Yes it is. It’s the internal market that I deal with.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
A: Do you enjoy the role?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Very much. I moved to this role from a technical profile because it involves communicating with people and is more business oriented, which is where I want to be, on the business side.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: But from what you are describing, it sounds like a postman’s job to me. Just passing on requests to your teams and then sending CVs to customers.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: If you look at the defined scope of the role it certainly is an administrative job and can get monotonous if you just stick to what is strictly expected of you. I don’t get to make any strategic decisions at the moment but I see this role as a great opportunity to get a ring side view of the business and learn from CEMs or Client Engagement Managers. My CEMs involve me in many decision making processes and I get to learn a lot from that. It is also a great place to experiment since it is a controlled market. Hopefully with the learning from this role and business education, I will be able to get to a place that allows me to make strategic decisions in the future.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: So you said you prepare contracts. What kind of contracts are these? Do they have legal clauses also?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>M</b>e: No Sir, the contracts I make are for internal entities and lay down the commercials and some conditions for the resourcing. They don’t have legal clauses.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: Have you ever seen a legal contract?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: No Sir, I have not had the chance to go through one.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: But if you had to guess what kind of clauses go into a legal contract, what would your guess be?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: I would think there would be clauses related to the agreed delivery method. I once had the opportunity to be on a mail trail that was a discussion about a clause on our legal contract with the end client about how many hours of work the consultant needed to put in. Now unofficially all consultants put in more than 8 hours and that’s perfectly fine by us but the client wanted that to be put down on paper. We did not agree since that meant a binding condition and was causing commercial issues. Neither of the parties was ready to budge.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
So yes, delivery clauses. I would also think there would be penalty clauses relating to what happens if the deliverables do not come on time. There could be clauses relating to early termination of resourcing if the services are no longer required before the contract term expires. And yes, expense clauses too.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: Ok.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: So Anupama, I see you write a lot.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: I love writing!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: What is this Chicken Soup that you have mentioned?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Chicken Soup is a series of books mainly published in the USA. They contain personal stories of people that are intended to evoke emotions in the readers. They have had only two country specific editions, one in Singapore and the other in India. That’s the one I write for.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: But why is it called Chicken Soup?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Because when someone has a cold, I believe Chicken Soup makes him or her feel instantly better. The stories in these books are meant to make the readers feel better, like a remedy for their soul.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: But what about vegetarians? Like in India?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: (wondering if he is just trying to lighten the mood I also gave a light answer) yes I think they should have named it Tomato Soup or something.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Do you see a difference in the content of these two editions? The American and the Indian?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Definitely Sir. In America the culture or cultural references are largely the same across the country (professor’s forehead creases and he considers it for a second before nodding his head as if to say ok, let’s assume that and see where she is going). But in the Indian stories, the cultural references change based on which part of the country the writer is from. Someone from Gujarat may not be able to relate to a story written by someone from Bengal because the cultural terminology would be different even though the underlying emotions are the same.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Why do you think there are such cultural differences in India? We all celebrate the same festivals right?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Sir I think the language being different in each state makes a big difference. Assume someone from the North comes to the South to work. Most of us tend to interact in vernaculars outside of work and the person from North may not be able to understand what is being said at all, or relate to certain local references. So naturally people tend to end up in groups that speak the same language.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: But if you see in Europe, all the countries have a different language but the culture is almost the same whether you go to Germany, France etc.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: I had the opportunity to be in Eastern Europe once and I did notice some cultural differences but from a language perspective we did learn some Slovak phrases but when we went to Vienna, we wanted to tell people around us how much we loved their city and how we were loving the food but we couldn’t even begin to express ourselves. I think language, spoken language is our first point of contact with people, our primary expression with others and not being able to make that contact can some in the way. I think even if we all celebrate the same festivals, our expression of that celebration is different and in different languages. Not everyone can relate to the expressions in other parts and I think that is a problem for India.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Do you still sing?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Yes I sing. I was part of the office band until last year, a little before that actually, and then we disbanded. But I sing even now when I get the opportunity/</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Why did you disband?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: All the members left. Even when we had a band we did not have a drummer and we used to have to make our bass guitarist play the drums. We have been looking for people but haven’t had too much success. Once we find people who can play all the instruments we certainly want to firm a band again.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: So Anupama, you handle different countries in Europe in your role. Do you see cultural differences in your interaction with them?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: Yes I do although my communication is primarily on mail and sometimes on the phone. The UK and its people are quite structured and formal in their culture. If they have a request visible 3 months away, they will share the request in advance and follow it up to closure in a structured fashion. But in Italy for instance, I have noticed and also read that people are more laid back and that shows in the way they follow up for resources too. The request may be shared in advance but the follow up might happen weeks later. I can’t comment so much on Israel since our transactions with them are not very high but I have noticed they are quite stern and interact in a very focussed fashion stating the request and expecting a yes or a no and that’s the end of the matter.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: So if you had to increase business in a region like Israel, what would your recommendation to your VP be?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: I would firstly recommend a visit to the region. Recently he visited one of my other regions and met the leaders there in person, understanding their gap areas and expectation from our company and building confidence in our partnership and delivery capabilities. And on his return, we saw an immediate surge in business. So I would recommend a personal visit to build confidence in the fact that we want to support the region and are enabled for it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: When would you recommend he visit Israel?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Me: I haven’t read up too much on travel and can’t comment on a good season to visit Israel but from a business perspective I would recommend sometime in the next one month since it is the year close for us and planning for the new year is on the all business units. So now would be a good time.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: Don’t you think he should visit in co-ordination with Israel’s year close?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: No the planning for us is based on our own calendar and I don’t think alignment with the Israeli calendar year would be required.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: Do you know when the Israeli year closes?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: No Sir, I don’t know that.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>A</b>: And you don’t see any problems because of a mismatch in the calendars?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: We do have problems because of calendar mismatch sometimes but they are of a daily nature from an execution perspective, like the week running differently in the Middle East and our consultants having to work a different week. But I haven’t seen problems because of a difference in financial calendars so far.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: That’s about what we had Anupama. You have any questions for us?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Me</b>: No Sir, I had attended the Open House and also have seniors studying in the course so I got all my doubts clarified. I don’t have any questions at the moment.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<b>P</b>: Alright then, all the best to you. Thank you.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I came out of the interview thinking it was almost a conversation. I was smiling a lot and so were they (not the alumnus though, who maintained a poker face throughout). The professor almost made it seem like a nice conversation and they did not ask me anything at all, about my other hobbies, about world events, Egypt, nothing. So I was a little apprehensive about how I should say it went. Nevertheless, I came home with only one feeling: That I did my best from the exam to the interview and really enjoyed the process not worrying about the result. The rest, I left to them to decide. Fortunately for me, it worked out well and I am now a proud member of the PGSEM 2011 batch of IIM Bangalore!</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Here’s wishing all the best to the prospective candidates for their interviews…</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>Anupamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18110568323331713074noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-87301833729035555472012-02-11T20:30:00.002+05:302012-02-11T20:30:48.873+05:30Art and Craft of Management Consulting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
"Elements of Management Consulting" by Professor Vasudev Murthy (GM at Wipro, Consulting Operations) has been one of those delightful courses that has at once educated, entertained and demystified the enigmatic role of Business Consultant. And today, the class was witness to a truly wonderful and thought provoking lecture by Mr. Sanjay Purohit, <a href="http://www.infosys.com/about/management-profiles/Pages/sanjay-purohit.aspx" target="_blank">Senior VP at Infosys</a>. I could but hardly stop myself from thinking of writing this blog as I sat listening. And though a blog can seldom do justice to such wise thoughts, it is all that this 'practicing' student consultant can do!<br />
<br />
How does a young consultant come up with a framework to judge if each Tata Group company is worthy enough to sport that hallowed 'T' logo and brand? How does a consultant (young or not) help in a standoff between the management of a massive enterprise and its union, when the factories have been locked-out? How does a consultant respond when the CEO of a hundred year old enterprise accepts his recommendation to 'fundamentally change' the company in minutes and asks him to start execution?<br />
<br />
Its difficult to comprehend the dizzy world of top-notch consultants commanding rates of hundreds of dollars per hour.. who spend more time in an year in airplanes than at their homes. It becomes even more difficult to comprehend when its said that 80% of all consulting work is the same. And its difficult to believe that spending hours and hours just learning about a client, applying thought and writing reports in simple English can solve some of the most vexed problems that huge company's face.<br />
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But here I should touch upon some of the ideas that got discussed in the class. They included - how/why a client hires a consultant and not the consulting firm. Why organisation simplification is catching on as one of the hot areas of consulting. The idea that management consulting is fast evolving into a job of co-creation with the client. That proposals and deliverable discussions at the start of the engagement could be passé. How could one a build a team where every member feels that the rest of the team is behind him. Open minded consulting. Freelance consulting market being bigger than organized consulting and so on..<br />
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The session included humorous anecdotes on how Indians are fast becoming the fastest English speakers on the planet - speed of talking that most in the world cannot comprehend! And how after all the world of consulting existed before the arrival of powerpoint presentations and people could still exchange thoughts..<br />
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Its a pleasure to sign off the day with such wonderful thoughts and learning's..<br />
<br /></div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-29666193895328601412012-02-03T20:42:00.000+05:302012-02-05T13:32:26.137+05:30PGSEMer speaks at Mobile World India 2012<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Mobile World India 2012</b> is an event covering all aspects of mobile content development and brings together thought leaders and experts from different aspects of the mobile ecosystem. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Our own PGSEMer from 2009 batch Krishna Kumar Balaraman was one of the speakers in the event which was held on Jan 21, 2012. </span><a href="http://www.siliconindia.com/events-speakers/mobile-world-india-Bangalore-MobileWorldIndia2012.html" style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://www.siliconindia.com/events-speakers/mobile-world-india-Bangalore-MobileWorldIndia2012.html</a><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Congratulations Krishna! Wishing you many more successes..</span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #990000; font-size: 15.0pt;">Krishna Balaraman<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://www.siliconindia.com:81/images/siliconindia_events/speakers/speaker1zgt36bQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.siliconindia.com:81/images/siliconindia_events/speakers/speaker1zgt36bQ.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: 9.0pt;">Technical Manager, Alcatel-Lucent<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "Verdana","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />Krishna is currently
involved in developing network management solutions for optical networks which
is used by major telcos around the world. He has Nineteen years of experience
in key leadership roles of product development and management in the domains of
Wireless, Telecom, Datacom, Mobile Handset, Optical Networks, and Data Center
IT Infrastructure. He has extensive cross-functional experience with P&L
responsibilities for independent business unit and new product introduction. He
has experience in the complete product development value chain from the program
inception to customer delivery. He has played leadership roles as a senior
member of management and country leadership councils for organisational
development, scaling and transformation. Krishna holds a Engineering degree in
Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Madras , a Post
Graduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Rights from National Law School of
India University, Bangalore, and an MBA (PGSEM 2012) from Indian Institute of
Management, Bangalore.</span><br />
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<br /></div>Supreethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17274584120217677927noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-43514691054932332942012-01-26T16:39:00.000+05:302012-01-26T16:39:42.195+05:30Yamini: The night that shone bright<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Come 25th January each year and IIMB becomes the host to Indian Classical music afficados of Bangalore. The dusk-to-dawn music festival <a href="http://www.yamini-iimb.com/" target="_blank"><i>Yamini</i> </a>hosted five stalwarts this year - Bharatanatyam by Padma Bhushan Smt <a href="http://www.alarmelvalli.org/">Alarmel Valli</a>, Hindustani vocal by <a href="http://www.ashwinibhide.in/" target="_blank">Dr. Ashwini Bhide Deshpande</a>, Carnatic vocal by Padma Bhushan Vidwan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._N._Seshagopalan" target="_blank">TN. Sheshagopalan</a>, Carnatic flute by Vidwan <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashank_Subramanyam" target="_blank">Shashank Subramanyam</a> and Hindustani violin by Vidwan <a href="http://www.kalaramnath.com/" target="_blank">Kala Ramnath</a>.<br />
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The beautiful landscape, the cool night and the mesmerizing music sent the whole crowd into a trans like state. Some swinging their heads in rhythm. Some eyes-closed, looking up the night sky. If the blissful music soothes one and all, the event itself is provides a rare opportunity for us students to meet our respected professors and their families in a relaxed setting.<br />
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So another year's wait begins for the next <i>Yamini</i>. And lest I forget, wishing all my countrymen a happy 64th year of our proud Indian Republic.. and <i>who knows</i>, maybe a five-thousandth year of our civilization and culture :-)<br />
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<br /></div>Bharathhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10822097708660789781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-87927704020592670872012-01-22T18:54:00.000+05:302012-01-22T18:54:49.377+05:30Second Hand Learning<br />
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Sitting in a PGSEM classroom can be quite an experience sometimes, purely for its awe-inducing value among other things. There is no doubt about the fact that our professors are extremely accomplished individuals who have a wealth of knowledge to share. But sometimes you realize it is not just their knowledge but also that of the world’s foremost authorities on certain subjects that is being passed on to you in class. And that fleeting moment of inspiration (before intimidation follows) is priceless.</div>
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For instance, yesterday we discovered that one of our professors has studied under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narendra_Karmarkar">Narendra Karmarkar</a> at the TIFR. Last quarter, we were taught by a professor who has studied under <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouriel_Roubini">Nouriel Roubini</a>. And it is good to know that we are getting to hear the ideas of these stalwarts somewhere through our professors. While that has the danger of mental tunnelling occurring due to the influences/hand-me-down ideas, it is important to note that it is probably better than not getting to hear these ideas at all. This second hand learning from international authorities has been quite a fascinating aspect of the course, whenever it has presented itself.</div>
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A few weeks ago, the Internet was abuzz with reports of the advent of Facebook reducing the degrees of separation in the world from 6 to 4.74. In our case, we are one degree of separation away from some of the best brains in the world and that is a good spurt of motivation any day!</div>Anupamahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18110568323331713074noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-33995078174995441512012-01-14T21:39:00.001+05:302012-01-14T21:39:47.359+05:30Eventful days ahead in IIMB!!<b>Its raining events in IIM Bangalore!!!</b><br />
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Whether you are a <span dir="ltr" id=":19b">contemporary music buff, classical music cognoscenti or business enthusiast</span>, you have something awaiting you in the coming days @ IIM Bangalore.<br />
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<b>Yamini 2012</b><br />
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<b>January 25-26</b><br />
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<b>Strategy to usher in the next phase of growth in IT Industry</b><br />
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<b>January 27, 2012 </b><br />
Register @ <a href="http://bit.ly/itgrowth-next-decade">http://bit.ly/itgrowth-next-decade</a><b> </b><br />
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<b>Unmaad 2012</b><br />
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<b>January 27-29, 2012</b><br />
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<b>Cloud4U - Industry Trends in Cloud Computing</b><br />
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<b>February 4, 2012</b><br />
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Register @ <span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-color-index: 13; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: dark1; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><a href="http://bit.ly/cloud4u">http://</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-color-index: 13; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: dark1; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"><a href="http://bit.ly/cloud4u">bit.ly/cloud4u</a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 18.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: +mn-cs; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-color-index: 13; mso-fareast-font-family: +mn-ea; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-style-textfill-fill-alpha: 100.0%; mso-style-textfill-fill-color: black; mso-style-textfill-fill-themecolor: dark1; mso-style-textfill-type: solid;"> </span><b> </b><br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17034448.post-51165053772161313522012-01-09T12:20:00.003+05:302012-01-09T17:49:09.587+05:30TEDxIIMB!!Having heard of the TED talk series for a while now, I was totally excited when I got to know that IIMB was having a micro version of its own - the TEDxIIMB event. It was the first time it was being conducted, and is expected to be an annual event. It was scheduled for a Wednesday, so there was a little discomfort with having to take a half-day off from work, and it didn't help that my fellow smarties (the others in the PGSEM programme) gave a lazy look out of the corner of their eyes when I asked who'd be coming along. The reason? "It's a TEDx event man, it'll be on the internet anyway... we can watch it for free! That too, in office!". But for some reason, maybe to partake of a historic moment, I just had to go. And so I did, though I thought the price was exorbitant even AFTER getting the customary IIMB discount. Now, before I come off as this really miserly chap, I better get to the actual topic.<br />
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As always happen, the event that's supposed to start at 2, promptly began around 2:15. That's remarkably early, when you consider IST. The underlying theme was supposed to be "Unconventional Paradigms". So the speakers were chosen aptly, representing a set of people who do.. things.. differently. Some of the speakers seemed to understand what they were supposed to do and came through with a message that made me think. Some of the others had so much to say, they forgot that they weren't the only speakers in the session. Being alloted 15 minutes and taking 45 minutes can *REALLY* test the patience of someone. Even if what you've done is remarkable, I believe that in a talk the audience is important, what you have to say... not as much. You have to get through to them, get them to absorb what you have to say. A couple of the guys came about saying "I did this, I did that" and that leads to a tune-out. Having said all that, tt wasn't as bad as I'm making it out to be! We had a few guys talking to us about how they chose to live life differently, and there were some really cool takeaways there. </div>
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First off, we had Raghuram (of MTV Roadies fame), who spoke to us about why he thought Roadies succeeded when many other reality shows fail here. His main funda was that during the making of the show, its important to build something you like rather than what you THINK the audience likes. Giving examples of how other people thought that a good reality show requires khadoos judges, and lots of swearwords and tantrums, he tried to explain how Roadies was NOT about that and how it just came to be that... like an unintended consequence. Treating it as a design constraint for any reality show doesn't really make sense. Chilled out speaker, but not really the best start to a TEDx if you ask me.</div>
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Next we had Anil Kakodkar, who spoke of how unconventional sources of energy were far more likely to save us in the long run rather than today's methods and sources. Really cool, really technical, where he spoke of Thorium and solar as sources of energy, but man, this was so serious! I heard a couple of guys doze off around me and snore a bit before they caught themselves! (Or was it me?)</div>
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We then had Brigadier Dilawar Singh who was trying an unconventional strategy when it came to combating terrorism. He actually went out of his way to engage with the local populace in some of the most unstable locations and conflict zones! It was fascinating to see the passion of the man who so strongly believed that peace and buy-in can be achieved with the local populace if you're just willing to open up to them and let them open up to you. Yes, he went on for much longer than he was supposed to, and it was undoubtedly an awesome tale, but mannn... after a while you start yawning. The guy next to me kept giving me the 'disgusting!' look, and hit me in the ribs everytime I yawned. Other than grimacing at the jabs, there wasn't much else I could do! Luckily it all stopped when I caught him yawning and gave him a pointed stare after which I was left alone.</div>
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The last talk in the first session was by Vivek Prabhakar of Chumbak.in fame. This was an amazing end to the first session! In his own light-hearted and humor filled way (not to mention Apple-enabled beautiful presentations), he explained how he and his wife got together to start a business and how it wasn't all fun and games. He went on to explain how they came up with their fridge-magnets merchandise, their different takes on Indian mythological charecters and the creative ways in which they got out of sticky situations. At the end of the day, however, he says there's nothing he would otherwise do. It's always awesome to hear the stories of entrepreneurs, tends to motivate you quite a bit...</div>
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The midday session had talks by Ram Prasad (Final Mile Consulting), Amitabh Kant (Incredible India, Kerala - Campaign Architect) and Kiran Bedi (Really? You need an intro?). They had their fair share of stories to tell, and I'd have described them if it wasn't for the fact that you can actually see the videos. I personally thought Kiran Bedi was trying to really push the Lokpal bill across by making people answer some apparently rhetorical questions. Yes, I get how passionate people can be, and even though I felt a little forced by her presentation, I think I'd rather read the Lokpal bill again. I'd urge you to do the same... I wouldn't want her primary concern to remain that way for long. In her own words, she mentions, "Very few of you have given the bill a look through. We need you to do that, this is our last chance of getting through, of getting the way of the people, don't neglect it." At the very least, reading that bill is definitely on top of my list.</div>
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The third session had Pankaj Advani and Khurshid Batliwala open the session, one after the other. Pankaj's story was of a normal guy who made it all the way to the top, and his reflections on what it took to get him there. Khurshid, in a very SriSriRavishankar-ish look explained how he made his way from the IIT Delhi to getting into the Art Of Living. Both the speakers had a good share of humour in their talk, and really gelled with the audience. Prof. Trilochan Sastry who came up next, didn't spend much time actually talking about the ADR (which is what the schedule said he'd talk about), but in his own way he took the audience through an insightful talk on the importance of happiness and contentment in one's life. </div>
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To close for the day, we had Vipul Goyal, another IIT Delhi guy who's become a comedian. Was a nice wrap-up for the day, making jabs at everyday life and getting us to think a little. All in all, it's a nice beginning to what looks to become an annual event. Each of the speakers had something unconventional in them, or their means of dealing. Looks like I'd be buying a ticket for next year's event anyway! :)</div>BigMouthhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02903677272660603501noreply@blogger.com0