Kotler in Chennai

Dr.Philip Kotler, the economist turned marketing guru was in Chennai last month (17/July/2006) on an invitation from Great Lakes Institute of Management. All of us would have welcomed an opportunity to get some gyan from the father of marketing.

But did you know that Dr.Kotler got some gyan on RFID from Ashok Balasubramanian (Student, PGSEM 2005 Chennai). RFID is set to revolutionize retailing and Ashok (also known as TCS Ashok or DML Ashok) is a pro in designing solutions for retail.

Here's Ashok, second from right, demonstrating the RFID enabled store at the TCS campus in Chennai. Dr.Kotler is second from left.

Way to go Ashok ...

The Advanced Masters Program for GDW

Prof S Krishna, the first Chairperson of the PGSEM program, Professor in the Information System & Quantitative Methods area, as well as Co-chair of the GDW Foundation has sent this out to all PGSEM alumni about an advanced master's program that will be conducted across the world.

The program is delivered with the participation of top class institutions in four regions of the World-India, USA, Europe and China as follows:
1. Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, India
2. UCLA, Anderson School of Business, Centre for Management in the Information Economy, Los Angeles, USA
3. Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University, Netherlands
4. Faculty of Business, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong/Suzhou, China

For further details and application material, a request may please be sent to gdw@iimb.ernet.in

Hilarious yet insightful post on MBA admissions

MBA admission interviews – A view from the other side, on the 'The India Story' blog. Link thanks to Desi Pundit. Also cross posted on my blog (link).

FPM Waiver for PGSEM Students

The PGSEM Students Affair Council (SAC) has just sent this very good piece of news for students that just cannot get enough of studies:

The IIMB faculty has just approved the following for the PGSEM alumni:
Any PGSEM alumni who is interested in pursing the FPM program will get the same exemptions and waivers that are currently applicable only to the PGP alumni. That is henceforth, PGSEM and PGP alumni who graduated on or after 1997 (for FPM 2007 admissions), with a minimum CGPA of 2.75 are exempted from taking CAT and also the first year of course work.

Happy learning! Now if IIMB would only allow students to enroll in the FPM on a part time basis... I am sure there are at least a few people out there who would like to pursue doctoral level studies and research but cannot do so because of the full-time requirements of the program; cannot afford to be not earning for the entire 3-4 year duration of the FPM. There are scholarships available, but not enough of them. Infosys for example provides a scholarship to some FPM candidates who pursue a doctoral thesis in an IT related subject. The amount of the scholarship is more than Rs 10,000 per month or so I think... Something to think about, eh?

Wierdness of India Stock Markets

There has been silence on PGSEM blog front so I decided to toss one of the things that is bothoring me for quite some time now to fellow PGSEM students and alumni. Let's see if there is a rational and reasonable answer that comes out from them. I just don't get the point of Indian Stock Markets. I am not making a general rant but I am looking at specific instances. Take the following example.

As of today evening, following is some of the data with respect to certain stocks in Banking sector.

• ICICI Bank, P/E = 18.82, EPS(2006) = 32.15, EPS(2007)expected = 35.55, EPS(2008)expected = 46.25. Now from this data I can understand that market expects 10% growth in profits in 2007 with respect to 2006 and 43% growth in 2008 with respect to 2006
• State Bank, P/E = 9.78, EPS(2006) = 81.79, EPS(2007)expected = 86.61, EPS(2008)expected = 96.25. Now from this data I can understand that market expects 5% growth in profits in 2007 with respect to 2006 and 17% growth in 2008 with respect to 2006
• Corporation Bank, P/E = 9.69, EPS(2006) = 30.99, EPS(2007)expected = 36.77, EPS(2008)expected = 40.98. Now from this data I can understand that market expects 18.65% growth in profits in 2007 with respect to 2006 and 32% growth in 2008 with respect to 2006

After looking at these numbers, I am really confused. Can somebody (who is not really numerically challenged) explain to me why state bank and corporation and stuck at P/E of less than 10 while ICICI bank can command a P/E of 18.