Profile of the week – Mohit Mathur

As I moved up the hierarchy, from an Operations Trainee to a General Manager, I recognized the need for an MBA. I was managing a group of 4 hotels in London where I was enjoying the challenge of taking all the decisions and facing the repercussions. However, I knew that I had to settle in India. Also, after 8 years of working in the hospitality industry I wanted to work in a more broad based industry.

I started my career in hotels in 2000 after passing out of Hotel School from IHM Delhi. The first few years of my career, I worked in Food and Beverages (restaurants) and was a part of opening teams for hotels like Grand Hyatt Delhi, Leela Bangalore, Hyatt Regency Mumbai and Radisson Noida. In between I worked in UAE for a year. In 2006, I was offered an opportunity to rebrand and launch a group of hotels in London. By 2008, I had worked in a leadership role for the past 6 years, been part of the opening team for 6 hotels and 7 restaurants and managed teams in UK, UAE and India. I had also started a coffee machine franchisee in UK and though it did not work out as well as I had planned, I gained tremendously from the experience.

However, I was restless and wanted more from my career. My biggest challenge was my education since Hotel Management was a 3 year Diploma. Luckily for me, in 2005, IGNOU offered an abridged graduation for desperate souls (IHM diploma holders) like me and I travelled thrice from London to Delhi to write my exams. Till now, no one in my family has spent so much in earning a graduate degree. To cut it short, I wrote my GMAT, applied to IIMA and was fortunate to be offered an admission.

One of the things I value the most from my 6 months in PGPX is the opportunity to learn from my batch mates, something which the management books call ‘benchmarking’. Small and simple things like their approach to a problem, presentation skills; the way they manage the pressure and yet come prepared for every class has been a very humbling experience for me. IIMA’s case based approach has helped us to understand frameworks and concepts as well as to learn about different companies and industries. PGPX is helping me to gain a broader perspective in business and helping me to understand Finance, Strategy and Marketing, the way it would not have been possible without taking a year off.

As part of my course, I have been working on research notes in the service sectors like ‘Cost Strategies of Mid-Priced/Economy Hotels’, ‘Restaurants: How Operations Management Can Reduce Costs and Improve Customer Experience’, ‘Strategic Initiatives by MNC Banks’. Hopefully by the end of the year I will be able to cover real estate, real estate and logistics.

I enjoy the problem solving side of business and hope to work in Management Consulting or Supply Chain Management after PGPX. The industries I am targeting are Retail, Real Estate, Banking and Hospitality. I feel my customer orientation, people management experience, understanding of services and the PGPX will prepare me for that role.

- Mohit Mathur

Media Coverage – Target GMAT

PGPX IV Batch has been covered in The Telegraph article “Target GMAT”. The full article is present here -

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090924/jsp/careergraph/story_11531780.jsp

Profile of the Week – Seenu Kurien

It’s Term 3 here at IIMA. It’s barely 3 weeks since the term started and we are already writing final exams!! A schedule packed with core courses plus electives gets pretty rough with classes starting at 8.45 am and ending at 9pm followed by group meetings, assignments and other prep work through the wee hours of night. I realized that this course is also a test of pure physical stamina and mental concentration. Now that we are getting close to the International Immersion Program, placements, project work and so on, the focus is slightly shifting from just class preparations. So that’s where we are for now.

I hail from God’s own country. After finishing undergraduate studies in Architecture from Thiruvananthapuram, I joined the mass exodus to go to the land of opportunities. I took a Masters in Construction Management and Certificate in Business from Texas A & M University. Following graduation I worked for one of the leading private general contractors in the U.S. During my 5 years of work, I was posted on construction sites as a construction manager for the project management division on projects with budgets ranging from $30 million – $55 million. There, I managed subcontractor companies (regional and international), their resources, manpower, material, logistics and project schedule. I also handled contract negotiations, payment requisitions, cost engineering, preconstruction meetings, quality review and sequence of operations. During one of my posting as project scheduler, I managed the project schedule for a $35 million project, analyzed impact of design changes and contingencies on schedule. Even though majority of my experience is in the Mid-Atlantic region, I also travelled to other regional offices for bidding projects ranging from $10 million – $200 million. One of the bids I worked for was the Schaumberg Convention center, Chicago. Some of the projects I worked on are Children’s National Medical Center, Smithsonian Museum renovation and some condominium projects in Washington DC.

Although undergraduate days and graduate days in U.S. offered me plenty of opportunities to pursue extracurricular activities such as dance, theater, travel, various academic and non-academic clubs it is a bit difficult to continue the trend here at IIMA. Not due to lack of opportunities, but due to lack of time. The 1 year condensed program doesn’t offer you much choice to try all the things that you want to try without giving up some other things. However I did brush up my dance skills during the 3 nights of culturals we had here. Other than that, occasionally I try to catch up with some jogging to control stress and to get breath of fresh air.

Post PGPX, I would like to move into either auto or media industry in India primarily in the marketing function. May be it is far-fetched to change both industry and function, but at least I have identified that my passion lies there and so I can’t let it go without giving a try. March 2010 will provide the answer to that. Until then its reading, case preps, assignments, exams, class presentations, group work, project work, sleepless nights etc etc etc…….

- Seenu Kurien

Part I – Budget Analysis (Basic sops and their term impacts)

This is the Part I of the five-part series on the budget 2009 evaluation. This part will focus on Basic sops and their term impacts. I have analyzed some of the provisions in the budget for Hi-Tech industry and possible effects based on my understanding of its working.

The finance minister has extended tax sops for IT exporters by one year under Sections 10A and 10B of the IT Act. This is a temporary measure at the best as it does not encourage new companies to set shop given the 1-yr time-frame only. This will only aid existing companies to weather the global downturn without having to worry about the tax overload on their margins. So this maneuver lacks a strategic vision.

By correcting an anomaly in Section 10AA that affected the tax benefits of companies in Special Economic Zones (SEZs), FM has enabled current companies to extract benefits of expanding operations. Most of the initial SEZs were setup with limited expansion capacities. With the growth in IT sector, companies were forced to grow outside the physical bounds of SEZ. Unfortunately, they were not able to take full benefit of expansion as their operations outside SEZ were taxable. Current measure can help them by making them more cost effective to gather more business and also expand further.

Currently, there are more than 6,000 software units under the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme. They account for about 85-90 per cent of India’s $47 Billion software exports, making them nearly $42 Billion in FY09. The current downturn has brought them down to about $37 Billion (estimated).

By removing multiple taxation on packaged software government is taking some steps towards checking piracy by bringing down the cost of s/w products. Indian IT companies need to move towards s/w product offerings from highly service oriented entities. More products for Indian businesses will improve the software consumption and open up avenues for innovation targeted towards benefiting the Indian consumers. This will enable Indian IT industry to move up the value chain and help preserve high-tech jobs within the country.

The measure to relieve employers from paying fringe benefit tax transfers this entire burden from the employer to the employees. So, for the government it earns them a few brownie points from the organizations while at the same time earning them higher returns. This is because employees will be taxed at a much higher rate than the corporate tax was being levied at. This measure, thus dampens the Income Tax benefits from removal of 10% surcharge on individual taxpayers. Is this government’s way of Corporate appeasement at the cost of individual employees?

-Anirudh

Participant Views on Budget Proposals – DNA feature

PGPX participants were featured in a panel based discussion on budget proposals and presented their views on the impacts of the proposals on the industries and Indian economy.

Here are the links of the feature

http://epaper.dnaindia.com/dnaahmedabad/epapermain.aspx?queryed=5&username=&useremailid=&parenteditioncode=5&eddate=7%2f13%2f2009

http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/special_iim-a-students-evaluate-budget-2009_1273520

Profile of the Week – Nigam Nayak

In case you havent noticed yet, my name is made of two surnames. Like I had a choice! The good thing about it is I can easily connect to anyone from Orissa, Maharashtra, UP or Karnataka; that is only till I open my mouth. Once they realize that I cannot communicate in any of the local languages: Oriya, Marathi, Hindustani or Kannada, the fraud is exposed! However, the blabbermouth that I am, I’ve so far been able to crack ‘em up with my Hindi/English. Funny, nobody has been able to guess that I might be from Gujarat. And even after I state so, I see their heads dancing in disapproval. ‘You don’t look like a typical Gujju’ (Although, nobody has been able to give me a rundown on how a ‘typical gujju’ is supposed to look like!). Maybe it’s the non-chubby face, unlike a typical Gujju bhai. Or the fact that I cannot stomach oily/spicy foods, a well accepted Gujju staple. Or that I have successfully completed 2 Marathons in Mumbai’s swindling humid heat, yet to meet a Gujju who has done so! Or maybe because vacationing twice every year isn’t my first hobby! But my one statement that brings expressions of credibility on their faces is “I went to America” (I am yet to figure out if this is something to be proud of or to be ashamed of for the Gujju community!).

So, yeah, just like the majority of engineers from my generation, I haven’t done anything “engineering” in my 7 years of work experience. MS (Industrial Engg) from Houston, US was easier than BE (Production Engg) from NIT Surat. Both, however, were equally hazy and boring. I am not complaining though because I am sure that played a vital role in my selection to PGPX program. I’ve worked as a Quality Engineer and later as Quality Manager for 3 different companies in the US for about 6 years. I used to play a lot of tennis and racquetball while in the US. In fact, I won the 2006 Texas State Open Tennis Tournament and was ranked #4 in Texas. But those were the good old days when I was young! Now, in India, it’s down to running Marathons. And here, at IIMA, I forget about my midlife crisis (at 30!) on the few days that I can manage to sneak out for a half-hour jog after defeating (ignoring!) the “pressure cooker approach”, “academic rigor”, “pencil pushing” and “number crunching” (phrases coined by the IIMA professors, not me!)

Needless to mention, my first hobby ‘reading’ (the real one, not the IIMA course material reading) has fallen out of favor with me. The last couple of books that I had read ‘The Blank Slate – The Modern Denial of Human Nature’ (1) and ‘Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance’ (2) had spurred me on to read ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ (3). Not sure when shall I be able to do that. Pray for me!

 (1) by Steven Pinker

(2) by Robert Pirsig

(3) by Immanuel Kant … (citations, the IIMA way!)

- Nigam Nayak

Globalization and Indian IT industry – Part 1

Initial growth phase
 
In the ’80s and early ’90s the Indian IT industry used to find it tough to compete with their western counterparts in bidding for projects. Though Indian companies possessed the process and technical knowledge to deliver quality services, the perception of “made in India” brand in western world was still low-quality. The Indian IT industry benefitted from the first wave of globalization necessitated in part by the Y2K crisis. For a while we rode the path laid by this anomaly, between the then existing 2-characters (YY) date fields in the systems vs. the desired 4-characters (YYYY). What it enabled for us was the rapid development of IT infrastructure and provide finances for rapidly training our man-power for IT services. Consider for a moment, the rapid infusion of many engineering talents from non-IT backgrounds of premier engineering institutes that have made it big in IT industry.
 
With the IT bubble bursting in 2001 came the next round of funding. The world suddenly looking to reduce its costs, found the newly developing mass of Indian IT infrastructure alluring enough to ‘out-source’ their work here. Thus, rose the Indian BPO industry which fueled the second wave of growth in Indian ITES sector.
 
From mid-90s, the Indian IT majors had built enough in-roads into US and EU markets to start moving up the value chain. They had now moved beyond the maintenance and migration projects of ’90s to undertake major turnkey development projects in 2000s. Several new services related to infrastructure development and maintenance, testing, ERP/CRM were also started and many Indian companies made their forays into product development.
 
In my next post, I’ll be commenting on some factors that have fuelled the growth of Indian IT industry.

Anirudh Gupta

Transaction based Pricing Model (TPM) for IT services

Though Transaction based Pricing Model (TPM) has been there for a number of years, particularly for IT product based services, off late it has become a buzzword in the IT services industry. But, is it really suitable for IT services? What does it take to get the best out of a TPM?
 
This article examines the benefits of TPM for IT service delivery, implementation prerequisites, what are the typical roadblocks.
 
Why TPM in IT services?
1. Outflow linked to revenues – Customer pays per transaction processed – pays less during lean periods which translates to less burden when revenue is low.
2. Like any other outcome based models, customer does not bother about intermediate processes (black box approach), which reduces the vendor management time drastically.
3. reduces subjectivity in vendor productivity measurement – productivity can be linked to transaction volume and hence can be measured objectively
 
Suitability of TPM
 One size does not fit all –TPM is not best solution for all situations.
1. TPM is best suited for IT maintenance & support and BPO activities
2. TPM fits well with business environments with volume fluctuation. E.g. in a order management system where the order volume changes drastically from month to month
 
Pre-conditions for implementing a TPM
1. Mature relationship with the vendor – first and a foremost requirement before rolling out TPM, which in turn save heartburns later.   
2. Clear cut agreement of a transaction and well defined methodology to track the transactions e.g. a good ticketing system to keep track of maintenance/support tickets. All alternative paths of the transaction life cycle must be identified. E.g. if order processing is the transaction, equity order processing, fixed income order processing, handling of a failed order etc. will follow independent processing steps  
3. Floor and ceiling volume/price – Customer and vendor must agree on a minimum and maximum volume before implementing. Vendor needs to maintain a minimum workforce for lights-on and the commercial model will not be viable if volume consistently falls below a certain minimum level. Similarly, vendor needs to cap its billings for better price predictability.        
 
Time period
 It typically takes six to 12 months to implement TPM
 
Other measures that add value to TPM: 
1. IT BPO integration – Appointing a single vendor for the business operations as well as underlying IT services helps assigning ownership and accountability. Certain SLA can be combined across IT and BPO.
2. Gain sharing model – TPM helps increasing productivity that results in gains for the customer. Incentivizing a TPM by sharing gains will make the commercial model sustainable for a much longer term

Lalit Dash

Media Coverage – Music Club

PGPX Music Club was featured in DNA recently. Follow the news story here.

Media Coverage – Green Tech Club

The Green Technology club at PGPX was featured in TOI recently. The article reported on the club interests and activities. Here is the text of the article.

Ahmedabad: Green is the word for a group of 20 corporate honchos who are pursuing their Post Graduate Programme for Executives (PGPX) at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A). They have formed a special interest group Green Tech Club to bring together sustainable development, green passion and entrepreneurial spirit. Members of the group who are primarily from information and technology background are looking at green technology as  
their future area of operation when they finish their year-long course.  
   “Our mission is to make the green initiative sustainable by integrating it with business to make it economically viable. Many of them are considering entrepreneurship after the course with a green approach,” said Nitin Sharma, founder of the group.  
“We are sensitive to the problems world is facing on environment front and inclined towards bringing out solutions for the same. The group will work towards understanding the human and natural impact on climate change, track new policies and understand geo-politics of the green eco-system, learn sustainable development concepts from Indian context and understand United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC ) and Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC) initiatives and its impact on global and Indian business community,” added Sharma. The group is exploring opportunities in this rapidly expanding green sector, which includes carbon trading to green initiatives in IT industry to energy generation from solar thermal energy.  
   “Besides spreading awareness about environmental issues, we will work with Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE). CIIE has a lot of work in the area of green technology and since it is a part of the institute, our collaboration gives us easy access to new technology. We will help incubatees at CIIE develop their business plans. It will be a hands-on experience for us and will benefit them as well,” said Manish Sharma, a member.

Media coverage – Diversity in PGPX4

The 4th PGPX batch prides itself on its diversity and is excited to share the media coverage of the same.

 The Times Of India – http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/On-a-common-platform-/articleshow/4629084.cms

DNA India – http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1263000

The batch profile can be accessed at http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/pgpx/currentbatch.html

PGPX 2009 Placement News

This post covers information on PGPX 2009 placements.

Placement information on IIMA website – http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/pgpx/pgpxplacement.html

Economic TImes - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobscarreers/Recruiters-seen-back-at-IIM-A/articleshow/4614690.cms

Economic Times - http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News/News-By-Industry/Jobs/IIM-A-fails-to-achieve-100-placement-for-PGPX/articleshow/4604726.cms

Coolavenues – http://coolavenues.com/placements/2009/06/01/iima-pgpx-placements-2009-hits-air-pocket-93-of-batch-placed-in-5-months/

Earlier this month, various sites covered the PGPX 2009 placement news, but unfortunately carried incorrect and worthless information. Readers are encouraged to get the right placement information from the IIMA website.

Profile of the Week – Ganesh Jayaraman

I am a General Manager from the IT industry. I gained bulk of my managerial experience while supporting the mission critical security application for a Global Credit Card and Financial Services client. I have had the opportunity to work very close with both my customers and my team and these opportunities have provided me with quite a few moments of epiphany. 

 I perceive my experience from the following backdrops: 

Customer: Understanding the stated and unstated needs of the customer and the ability to predict the customer’s future needs and to convert them into tangible deliveries – I say these are the moments when you experience poetry in work-life. 

Organization: Successfully served as the first Portfolio Director for a newly created portfolio. I ensured maximum value delivery for both the client and my organization by globally dispersing my portfolio – My three teams were structured to operate seamlessly from the US, Latin America and four different locations in India. 

People: “Ganesh cared about our career progression” – I consider this feedback from one of my team members very close to my heart. Our portfolio’s success in the customer and organization fronts was enabled by its enthusiastic members. 

 The reason behind my success in work-life? My personal life! 

I am blissfully married and have a five year old ‘bundle of joy!!’ I have avid interests in reading, travel and photography.

 To know more about me, visit my linkedin profile here

An energetic day @ PGPX!

Our PGPX batch of 2009-2010 has an average age of 33 and average work experience of over 10 years. Ask 80 of us to simulate a market place for ships (that we had to build using stationeries – colored paper, glue etc) and you get elements of organization structure, manufacturing, product design, customer/agent/seller negotiation, price competition et al compressed in 40 minutes. It was 40 minutes of uproar, just short of a fish market. I role-played an agent and I almost felt like a street smart businessman striking deals with manufactures and sellers.

Would you have guessed that this was an exercise on organizational effectiveness in the Organizational Behavior class? The day started at a good and energetic note for me.

“An Overview of India’s Energy Scenario and the Relevant Policy Implications” – I, an ignorant soul who knows nothing about energy and power sector but yes curious about it, didn’t have to think twice to attend the seminar. The lecture was delivered by Mr. Surya P. Sethi, currently working as Principal Adviser (Energy), Planning Commission, Government of India. A man of gentle demeanor but with a powerful message – India must lower energy demand through energy conservation and higher energy efficiency. Nothing earth shattering! I agree but hearing it from a man who has been swimming against the tide for past couple of years to make energy related policy changes at the highest level means much more than reading an article on energy.

Mr. Sethi agreed to spend the evening and have dinner with couple of us. Conversations meandered to energy conservation, energy alternatives, climate change, political agenda vs. policy changes – big words for me that I do not know much about. It was just being in the presence of a man with humility and knowledge that was so stimulating and eye-opening. The day ended at a very high note.

Would I have got a chance to hear Mr. Sethi if I was pursuing MBA in USA? I do not know but I felt reaffirmed that the decision to join PGPX was the right decision for me.

 - Abhishek Kumar

The Telecom Club rings in….

The Telecom Club of PGPX-IV is an open forum for all IIM-A members who are interested in staying abreast of the telecommunications industry. The discussions in the club meetings span a wide array of topics including wireless and cellular communications, wireline and broadband, applications and software, and the convergence between broadband, voice, video, and mobile – normally referred to as “quad-play”.

Our focus includes the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), carriers and service providers, and telecom software vendors. Our members bring a wealth of experience from the industry and an unparalleled technical and business expertise.

 The following are the primary objectives of the Telecom Club:

•  To track the business and technology trends in the telecom space by continuous knowledge acquisition and dissemination
• To interact with industry leaders regularly and understand the management challenges faced by the businesses
• To engage in high quality brainstorming and panel discussions on Telecom business related topics
• To enhance our business skills by working on real-life problems faced by telecommunication firms
• To interact and work closely with the IIMA Idea Telecom Centre of Excellence (IITCOE)

- Vinod Ramachandran

PGPX goes Green!

PGPX participants have created a Green Technology Interest Group where Sustainable development, Green passion and entrepreneurial spirit is coming together.

The group’s agenda guides various activities that it has pursued already and more are being planned:

• Explore the opportunities and trends in Green technology
• Understand the human and natural impact on climate change
• Track new policies and understand geo-politics of the green eco-system
• Learn sustainable development concepts from Indian context
• Understand UNFCCC and IPCC initiatives and its impact on global and Indian business community
• Collaborate with CIIE RE-Search to work with budding entrepreneurs

We coordinate with IIMA professors who are also member of IPCC to understand the field and identify projects in green technology. We also work with Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIMA to identify and help budding entrepreneurs in green energy space. As part of speaker series, we are trying to get CSO (Chief Sustainability Officer) at Tata Energy and Suzlon senior management to address the students.

Events organized so far include:

1. Awareness sessions for the PGPX batch on Green issues
2. Interactive session with Prof. Amit Garg on carbon related subjects and carbon finance
3. Screening of “Inconvenient Truth” – a documentary on climate change featuring Senator Al Gore
4. Meet and greet with CIIE entrepreneurs

Watch this space for more Green activities and updates…..

- Nitin Sharma

Movers-n-Shakers @ the dance party!

Yes it was one of those weeks with submissions, case discussions leading up to the wee hours of the morning every day followed by a series of grilling quant classes, topped with final exams and quizzes. And then came Saturday night and I couldn’t help saying Phew!!..one more week down and 40 something more weeks to go!

Ever since we joined PGPX, this is all we had been doing – studying, discussing, writing, studying and more discussing and even more writing..so it was a good time for an impromptu break – a night to chill. Out went the group mail and some students perked up and cobbled together makeshift audio system, chain of extension cords (!) and music collections. Some of us gathered in the lawn between Dorm 26 and Dorm 27 (singles’ accommodation) and started playing upbeat music. Hearing the commotion, more and more folks joined with their families. What followed was 3 hours of foot tapping music, dancing and removal of “serious PGPX student” mask and replacement with “we are people who also like fun and shake a leg” masks. It reminded all of us of good old college days! We have all consciously decided to go back to college and be students for a year..so what’s college life without elements like this??

We had great fun and have decided to do this more often …….but when is the question? Things will get busy soon and we will forget to have fun…or who knows the next chill out would be yet another impromptu event.

- Seenu

Here come the Marketers!

IIMA is the cradle for best marketing brains in the country and imagine the might of the club when it comes with 250+ years of work experience.

This is the difference between ‘PGPX marketing club’ and ‘student’s marketing club’. 

The diversity of participants and a shared passion for marketing makes this club unique. From an Army Major to IT major, a Brand Manager to Construction Manager,  Sailor to Hackers (yeah they survive!!!) you can find them animatedly discussing the intricacies of “Value Proposition” & “Brand Communication”.

 Here, its not just about Ideas, its Relevant Ideas, its about Creativity with a direction, its about Imagination with Application.

This is a bunch of innovators, honing their skills. Each session is like a marketing conference where ideas are brutally thrashed and marketing strategies are questioned.

So, if you are looking for quality discussion, this is the place to be.

 Watch this space for Ideas and Marketing Insights.

- Hemant

IIP – Visit from the Amsterdam Business School

As an integral and core component of the PGPX program, participants have to undergo a term on International Immersion (IIP). This is a two-part program conducted during the month of November and December. The first part of this 5-week program is executed from an international b-school. This is followed by a 4-week international project with one of the sponsoring firms.

 For the first part of academic capsule on IIP, Amsterdam Business School (ABS) has been one of the sought-after exchange schools. So when the representatives of ABS visited IIM-A campus on May 18^th, there was definite excitement on what they had to offer this year. We arranged a session with Professor Jacob Smit, Programme Director, and Ms Louise Verbeek, Programme Manager, to understand their program and share our expectations. Our interaction was on diverse topics; it ranged from queries on life in Amsterdam to the current economic condition in Europe. Professor Smit provided us insight on Netherland’s annual $20billion burgeoning floral market and explained to us how this industry came into existence. He also demonstrated how a typical “Dutch” auction works in these markets and promised us a visit to these “floral” exchanges, should we choose ABS for our international immersion.

Any topic on an Amsterdam institution is incomplete without a brief on the city! Amsterdam is the financial and cultural capital of Netherlands and one of the most prominent cities in the European Union. Also it is possibly one of the most revered tourist destinations in the world. It’s known for its architecture, “free-spirited” culture and dynamic people. Undoubtedly, many from the previous batches have taken this unique opportunity to combine business with pleasure!

The PGPX batch looks forward to interacting with  ABS during this year’s IIP.

- Prithvish

16.666667% done?

It’s been almost 2 months now, since we began our PGPX journey. At registration time we were handed a set of books and class readings about 12-inches tall. To say the least, that pile was intimidating. I’ve been a voracious reader for as long as I can remember, yet, to visualize going through the thousands of pages of unfamiliar stuff in six weeks, was pretty far-fetched.

Today, my email system organization says we’re through five of the ten subjects in Term 1. I can’t believe I’ve read through so much of so many books. Add to that all the cases, and note-taking, and after-class sessions, and it becomes all-involving, all-encompassing all at once.

It’s funny that I’m learning a skill that I didn’t care to acquire before, in all my schooling and tertiary studies – the art of ‘gisting’, or skimming, or scanning. I’m totally old school when it comes to reading. I want to read cover to cover, each word. It’s a habit that’s held me in good stead, except for PGPX. The amount of information one is given is simply phenomenal, and it is practically impossible to read every word. Perhaps it’s by design that one cannot read everything one comes across. After really struggling with it in the beginning, I have gotten better (I think) at locating the nuggets in all the dirt (so to speak) in all the reading-work we are given.

Of the many skills we will develop further, this particular one is turning out to be of great immediate use. If you’re in Ahmedabad, watch out for any folks speed-reading their way through tomes in the public. You might very well be looking at a PGPXian!

- Peyush

Noisemakers of the PGPX world unite!!

Hear ye Hear Ye!

Some noisy PGPX participants have chosen to get together and create a music club to begin their transformational ‘progression’ from ‘cacophony’ to ‘harmony’. They may be novices at the art but make no mistake, their hearts ‘beat’ as one, love of music is the  ‘chord’ that binds them, they want to ‘amplify’ their knowledge and in the process help to keep up the ‘tempo’ of the PGPX batch.

And the ‘octave’ is quite an ‘ensemble’ –

Pavan – trained classical singer

Bhaswar – drummer

Esmail, Rohit, Vaibhav – music lovers with varied listening interests

Rachana – perfect combination of the love for music and dance

Naveen – Sufi and traditional Punjabi music lover

Parag – keyboardist and singer

The group is currently cobbling together musical instruments and are in the process of creating the PGPX “Nukkad” band.  Watch this space for more musical action soon……

PGPX featured in BBC coverage

During the recent elections in India, BBC organized a team of about 30 correspondents that traveled across India in a special train covering the election process. The team consists of international and Indian correspondents representing their world service (radio), TV and online channels and Ahmedabad was their first stop in this journey.

PGPX participants held an interaction with the BBC team and presented their views on the elections process, possibility of politics being a career option for management graduates and today’s youth, changes that the youth wants to see in the system, the participants’ vision for India and how will they contribute towards realizing that vision. The recorded statements were then packaged as short feeds for BBC FM partners in 12 different Indian FM stations and also for the BBC world service broadcasting in other nations.

The PGPX community was represented by Rachana Salgia, Sandeep Desale, Vikram Batra, Vaibhav Khandelwal , Dinesh Rathi, Anil Kumar, Hemant Tirthani and Parag Prasad.

Blatant and Latent Needs!!

Well, the PGPX bullet-train hurtles along and I find myself barely hanging from a footboard trying desperately to stay aboard. There are 10 subjects in the very 1st term, each of them coming at you with an average of 8 cases, 2 quizzes, 5 submissions, and 1 end-term exam.  While pursuing studies is the primary concern, I don’t want my life to become uni-dimensional and hence try to keep myself involved with extra-curricular activities as well. I equate this to fulfilling both my blatant and latent needs, and talking about needs, here are a few others described a bit more.

Activity	Blatant Need	Latent Need
Media Rep activities	Contributing to overall PGPX marketing	Getting fellow student Manoj Khare a role in some “Saas-Bahu” serial
Morning Walks	Reduce the paunch	Want the toothpaste froth to fall directly in the sink and not on the tummy
Music, Song & Dance stuff	Reduce stress, enjoy peer company	Giving Kumar Sanu a run for his money
Meddling with food menu in the PGPX mess	Getting healthier and more palatable food	Obtaining systemic power to stop the damn server from snatching my plate away mid-meal
Gym	Getting into shape	Avoid  getting into a bigger spherical shape
Managing the PGPX blog	Contributing towards PGPX Branding	Outlet for creative juices and itchy finger relief
Sports – cricket & TT	Physical activity	Taking out frustration of bad grades by hitting the ball

Signing off with the hope that the study-load will not exceed what it already is , and that there will be adequate time and opportunites this year, to fulfill both my set of needs!

- Parag

PGPX-IV is in town!!

The 4th batch has joined the PGPX program and is mid-way into its 1st term. Watch this space for more updates on its profile and other related information.

The InsideIIMAPGPX blogsite is also undergoing changes to make it more useful for both prospective and current students. Watch this space for more PGPX-IV action and site changes soon!!

Harsh Thakkar running for ‘Social Cause’

Pattu is skilled in making bags & flower pots using plastic wires. She makes lot of such goods & sells it in the weekly market. Since she did not have money to invest, she was not able to make more such products even though she had enough demand.

Dhanabakiam is an ‘established’ tailor and she is now getting regular orders for uniforms from school and bags from textile and fancy stores. She wants to buy a new embroidery machine and meet the increasing demand.

Neither of them was willing to give up dignity and get ‘buried’ under the obligation of ‘donation’ or ‘charity’

A ’social investment’ enabled them to multiply their income and be a WINNER in their own right!

About 200 such ‘borrowers’ are awaiting their turn to be another WINNER!

“Until we all win; we all loose!”

Will you please help?
… with this thought in mind, a Gurgaon resident has decided to RUN in the World 10km in Bangalore on 31st May for a cause!

What is Social Investment?

One way of defining ’social investment’ is ‘to lend money to individuals who do not have access to credit’. Your social investment will help you connect with borrowers by lending small sums of money at low interest rates. This means that more and more people will be able to access credit and begin to grow above their existing economic condition. RangDe is a non profit social initiative that aims to make low cost micro credit a reality. It provides an online platform that connects a social investor to a needy individual, looking for a means to set up or expand his means of livelihood.  GOOD thing is – you get your money back and a 3.5% pa. interest – so it is NOT charity!

What it is NOT?

• It is not charity (and therefore not a tax exempt donation)
• It is not like a regular investment – atleast does not get you loads of ‘interest income’ so that you need to worry about ‘tax’

How can you help?
Online

•  
  • Go to RangDe website and become a ’social investor’ in simple steps http://rangde.org/runnerpage.htm?runnerId=2

Off-line

•  
  • Send a check/draft drawn in favor of “RangDe Org” to him (Email him at harshthakkar@gmail.com to find out more) [you can invest in multiples of Rs. 500]

Have Questions? Contact harshthakkar@gmail.com to find out more

Lets share the colors of joy!

Birds and Nests…

As I strolled today evening out from the tunnel to the old campus, flock after flock of birds returned back to the trees. After a day’s hard work, they were back to their safe places. The noises, the shaking of trees, the falling of dried leaves continued for a while. As dusk changed into night and the various shades of orange in the sky changed to the cool night….the birds quietened. Just a chirp here and there was heard.

I came back from the stroll, to my room. As a habit, I turned on my laptop, turned on the browser and the homepage came up. Log in and check….no new mail! I checked the internet connection…thats ok. I refreshed the page again hoping it was a cached page. Nope…no new mail.

The birds of PGPX3 had quietened down. There were less than 10 mails in the day. Some of us(including me) were trying to send mails from the first term hoping to see some new conversation on the cyber-lobby of PGPX…

The birds were preparing for the flight home.Some had already flown. I suddenly felt choked.

After a rocking party yesterday night, it was difficult to suddenly swallow the fact that we all will move now. A year full of cases, readings, CP, arguments, business games and unbreakable bonds between such wonderful people and families.

This one year has a special place in our hearts and I know all of us are now unsure about coping with this sudden dislocation from our dear CR11 class.

The birds’ nests have moved. Memories linger on…

- Siddharth

Mystic Music from the Master at Chaos 2009!

We, at IIMA, had the privilege of listening to the sweetest sound that man has produced from wood. On a mild winter evening of 29th January 2009, the great Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia enthralled the audience in Chaos 2009 with his flute magic.

I am a novice in classical music and generally depend on what my parents or colleagues recommend to me. I seriously need to change this and start proactively listening to more of this. Yesterday’s performance certainly took me in a mood that was soothing and calming. So soothing that I actually felt lighter and so calming that I completely forgot about my pending assignments

I reached there with a time limit, mindful of the assignments. But then I soon lost all consciousness in the magical ragas coming from Panditji and his colleagues. I tried to remember the names they told, but I think I need more education in this field.

What is interesting is the practice these maestros put in to achieve these heights. The 4 human beings on the stage never looked at each other or told each other. They just knew what each other wanted, expected and it was delivered that way. On tabla, was Pt. Ghate who would spice up the rhythm every once in a while. As that happened, it was amazing to see the expression of joy and fun in the eyse of the masters on the stage. They just knew where the music was taking the audience.

As I walked back to the dining hall, a few questions lingered in my mind….

In this running around behind goals and targets, can we take a pause and practice a game so much that we become masters like Pt. Chaurasia and Pt. Ghate? Can we, unconsciously, independently and reflexively, perform our tasks so well that together comes an output that is as harmonious and sweet as Shri Krishna’s music? Is it worthwhile to skip experimenting and work on mastering an art so well that world gets awed by the final output?

I don’t have the answers but I would like to think on these lines more.

- Siddharth

PGPX in Mumbai Marathon!

Three of our colleagues – Asif, Raja and Venkata, participated in the Mumbai Marathon and made us all very very proud!!! I need to mention the name of Arvind Krishnan who was with them throughout in preparing for the marathon. We are especially proud because the above 4 did their running practice in addition to the normal rigour at the institute!

This was also a unique event in that 4 batches of PGPX came together. This is a first and definitely not the last.

More information here, 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Ahmedabad/Now_IIM_students_mix_business_with_pleasure/articleshow/3998578.cms

PGPX Rocks!

Cheers,

Siddharth

Kites are simple

“I am not sure there is enough of a breeze”, I said.  “Maybe up there it is ok”, Sudhir replied. We were looking up at the terrace of his building.  The yellow kite with a red circle in the middle was struggling to take air and fly.

“See you”, I said as I crossed the road towards my building.  The winter evening is pleasant and I feel like lingering.  That’s when I really heard the excited voices, kids playing, parents laughing – general mirth in the air.  I looked back up at the terrace to Sudhir’s place – Arun, his right arm bent in a ‘V’, was pulling at the kite in short, quick movements, coaxing it to stay afloat, to catch the breeze.  The others were in various stages getting ready to fly their own kites – Prabhu was ‘launching’ the kite for Rakesh, the spouses were watching eagerly.  Should I join the party? I hesitated.

As I turned back and trudged along, memories of glorious Michigan summers flooded me.  We would all get together and fly kites made of cloth and plastic.  I had never done it much in India but fell in love with it immediately.  There was joy in it – and peace.  You can be with a lot of people when flying a kite and yet be alone; the tension in the twine is company enough.  “Kites are simple”, I smiled to myself – “or are they?”  I ran into DP near the steps to my building.  “Not flying kites?” I asked in greeting.  “I really want to but I am not so sure after I saw those pictures”, he said, passing by with a pink plastic ball in his hand – a familiar sight in the evenings; his little girl was waiting for him.

I knew what he was talking about; I had seen those pictures too.  Some PGPs had written an email, you get so many of them.  This one somehow caught my eye and the images remained with me.  Suddenly I heard loud cheers – I had just come in to my second floor apartment – I knew what was going on; a duel, someone has made a cut.  I slung my bag off my shoulder, not caring where it fell, and hurried back out, up the stairs.  I stumbled across the threshold, on to the terrace and looked up to see a crowd of happy faces; looking right at me, no, a little above and beyond to my left into the sky.  They were not more than a few feet away but on the adjacent terrace.  I felt a little embarrassed to have intruded on their moment and turned away.  That’s when I felt a short, sharp sting in my palm.  I had somehow lost it in the background; the manja going across my terrace had caught in my hand.

I wandered around the terrace looking into the sky – my thoughts back with that email from the PGPs.  They had written about an endangered species of vultures nesting on our campus.  The kites were hanging in the sky, bobbing and weaving like a prize fighter from time to time.  A lot of birds were flying around noisily.  I felt nervous, as if I was anticipating something.  How come the birds cannot see, I mused, suddenly looking down at my palm.  I sensed someone watching me. A big bird, brown with a tuft of white, was perched on the guard rails, looking at me intently, asking something.  And then it was gone.

I started down the steps slowly nodding my head in agreement with DP.

P.S: The kite festival “Uttarayan” is just round the corner on 14th of January, 2009 and every year it is celebrated with great zeal & fervor across Ahmedabad. But the festivities also leave a trail of blood behind. The kite strings are coated with glass powder and cause severe cuts on birds which get entangled in them. Every year, more than 3000 birds are maimed / killed in Ahmedabad alone due to this festival. This includes endangered species of vultures for which IIM A is one among only 4 nesting places in & around Ahmedabad. Courtesy – Help the birds campaign 2009.  The images mentioned can be sees here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btzIRCRABd4

P.P.S: Both DP and I enjoyed flying kites on January 14 from the terrace of our building.  I am happy to report that no birds were harmed in the process.  I did take the precaution of using thread not treated with glass powder and not flying kites early morning and late evening when birds are most active.

IIMA – for Leaders, not just Managers

Its been a wonderful MBA experience here at IIMA. If there is one thing  that stands out for me here, its the professor commitment to our  development. I have not been at other schools but here I am amazed  everyday by the commitment from my teachers. There is of course the famed quality of teaching and the academic rigor, insomnia is now a skill of mine . I did expect the program to be rigorous and I did know that there would be sleepless nights but I did not know that my professors would lead by example when it comes to sheer hard work. I did not know that when they say that professors are approachable they mean 24/7 and for anything and everything.

I did expect to master finance, marketing et al, I did not expect to learn creativity, human behavior, psychology or neuro physiology. I did expect to be equipped to be a great manager, I did not expect to be equipped to be a great human being. I did expect to work late nights, I did not expect to be in class late at night. I did expect that professors would step forward to teach me any particular aspect of a subject, I did not expect that professors would step forward to teach me any subject. I did expect to be in awe of the faculty, I did not expect freinds, philosophers and guides rolled in one.

Here in Europe for my internships, I hear a lot about the shifting reason for organizational existence, from the shareholder perspective to the stakeholder perspective. I realize that it is going to need as much heart as brain. More technically, it is going to need both halves of our brains.

I am happy that my professors have already got me on that path. Probably the most important part of my MBA here has been the food for the heart. When on day one the dean mentioned that we are not a business school but a school of management, I did not probably understand the underpinnings of that message. I could try and explain but you really have to be here at IIMA to understand.

- Subramaniam Vaidyanathan

UFOs in IIMA

When PGPX arrived at the ground, we were presented with the sight of a pink UFO floating around the field. On closer inspection, this extra terrestrial machine seemed to be imparting sustenance through the fingertips of the Greys team. The PGPX squad instantly huddled up and put CP about the edibility of the disk.

After all:
1. It did look somewhat like a pizza
2. It was 11pm – most of us were hungry again
3. Some of us didn’t have any classes during the day, so all that pent-up CP had to go somewhere

We finally decided that since the disk seemed to have touched the ground a few times, and we’ve been trying hard to tell our kids not to eat food that has touched the ground, we’ll go with the ET hypothesis. As the game started, we discussed various strategies to draw some of the above mentioned sustenance from the wierd spinning mechanism, but we realized it was too late – the UFO seemed to have fed everything it had to one guy on the Grey’s squad who had shot up to an incredible height of 8 feet and was therefore able to snatch everything that came by the general vicinity. PGPX started with a girl in the goal who was blocking a few of the hundreds of attempts that came her way. We noticed this, and switched to a guy. Remember – never send a girl to do a man’s job – an all-male ensemble of goalie and defenders (including yours truly), proceeded to not stop anything at all.

In the meantime, on the offence, players found that some wierd concept called “technique” seemed to be needed to launch the UFO. A complementary signalling mechanism was definitely needed to draw the UFO into our hands, since it seemed to land all around us, but never in our hands. At halftime, we regrouped and decided to implement a new strategy called “shove the gits” (not to be confused with “break their knees” – which the referee refused to allow; a deplorably partisan point of view, I must say). We also used the acting talents gained during T-nite to impersonate curtains, which we proceeded to drape over any attacker that got too close to the goal. The latter strategy seemed to work to an extent, as the flow of goals slowed down. The substitution of the 8-ft tall man-alien definitely helped as well.

As we walked back from a game well played, it struck us – the UFO just had an age limit filter. Not a lot you can do about that.

- Senthil

The sweet smell of camaraderie

The end of September has to bring with it the sweet smell of camaraderie wafting across the old campus sports grounds. I am talking, of course, of Combos  – the annual inter-dorm sports tournament where PGPX competes against 3 groups of dorms from PGP. I’m using the words “sweet” and “camaraderie” somewhat loosely, but I didn’t know any better before the games kicked off, so I suspect I can be forgiven for taking these liberties. The morning started innocently enough with cricket, and much love professed for our late opponents (even though we had woken up at 6am for our 7am game and the game didn’t start until 7:45.. grr…), but slowly went South from there.

I bowled a couple of overs, and for a change even managed to get close enough to the stumps to induce a few misshots – as against my regular fare of wides. With my too-slow-to-stay-awake pace, no-balls, thankfully, were completely out of the question. Given the general rust that all of my illustrious PGPX classmates had on display, I even managed to convince myself that the fielders dropped a couple of catches. They, in turn, blamed the sun – how the sun affected them when they were facing away from it I’ll never figure out, but I digress. We didn’t really keep track of the score, but it must have been a tie because both teams were cheering pretty loudly at the end of the game. For the most part, I think my teammates were happy the torture was over, but I’d rather remember the emotion than the actual result

A couple of lectures at the cutting edge of Politics and Economics – and I’m using the word cutting intentionally – the Prof knows her stuff, and can be quite severe on those who throw jargon around without really knowing what they’re talking about. Given the 2+ terms of bandying terms about based on a passing acquaintance with the reading material on the way to class after breakfast, this trait meant most of us were in severe trouble during the course of the presentations we had to make.

Philip Morris and Kraft were up next. Why Philip Morris wanted to acquire Kraft was truly beyond me. And I say this in a spirit of absolute frustration. If they had just gone about on their merry way, poisoning more and more people in the world and being general scumbags, Harvard wouldn’t have written a case about the situation. And maybe I would have actually been able to spend 3 hours of my time more fruitfully, instead of dealing with an exorbitant number of exhibits that just started merging together in front of my eyes. But I digress again.

Having cranked up my levels of frustration through the day, I figured that a night session on the basketball court would be a good way to work off some steam. As it turns out, my teammates seemed to have come to the court with a similar intent, and we soon reached a tacit understanding that what we lacked in speed, skill, knowledge of rules and other such small deficiencies would be made up for by “accidentally” knocking the opponents off their feet whenever they got the ball. After all, there has to be a reason the PGPX class has gained an average of 7.6394 kilos during the past 6 months (as told to me by the resident number cruncher in my study group).

The only problem was actually catching up with the little imps. The game actually saw both Hottie and VS getting ticked off – something that has never happened at the same time in their combined existence on God’s green Earth. Hottie, in fact, looked like he was willing to take a swing at whoever was nearest him in the opposite colored jersey. The refs fit this description, but thankfully never got close enough for him to take a swipe. Oh well – there’s always next time

As for me, in the meantime, must… get… fit!!

Cheers,
Senthil

 

 

PGPX, CP and Social Responsibility

Harvard is boringJ, we want the good old PGPX3 back:

“Brownian motion combined with the survival of the most persistent”-This sums up how CP turns out in many discussions. By now, one is able to predict where a discussion will go if the baton passes on to a particular ‘speaker’. Alternatively, imagine you are sitting on a spaceship headed toward the Earth and you are one of the many pilots of the spaceship and the professor the navigator. You have made considerable progress in navigating past the Big planet and the Red one and Earth is in clear sight. ‘When you pass on the baton’ in a discussion, you are essentially giving the pilot seat to someone else. He or she takes over and the next thing you know, you are headed toward Saturn’s ice rings. “What the…?”

Some professors have trained their RAs to give negative marks to people who only fill the classroom with ‘atmospheric content’ i.e. nothing tangible. There are some RAs who have the hang of it. Some jolly well enjoy the parody that a discussion sometimes becomes.

I was impressed with Prof. AG even before he started the class proper.  He was very effective in getting us to follow CP norms without having to constantly remind people.  He probably has seen his fair share of exuberant students – I mean, participants (after all, this is PGPX we are talking about) – and so has hit on an ingenious way of getting the class to follow CP norms.  All he had to do was narrate how CP happens at the hallowed HBS.  Brash contenders for the title of CP king have put on a sage exterior and hold upraised hands with becoming patience.  Politeness and decorum rule.

For the uninitiated, here is a quick primer on CP by one of the 2s and a more egregious one by PJK, my favorite PGPX blogger.  From what I could gather (from faculty descriptions of the rowdy 2s J) we 3s certainly seem to be a mellow lot when it comes to CP.  While people are seldom challenged one to one, the class does have a collective, non-verbal expression of opinion, delivered promptly and unmistakably, through oohs and aahs, vigorous shakes of the head and … you get the drift.  We do have our CP king, but he is more titular than executive, if you know what I mean.  Bottom line, though we were polite, we had our fun in class without worrying about having to set any kind of example.  

Enter Prof. AG, and all has changed.  We have been hypnotized into holding our hands upraised until he looks around to take his pick.  The way people are letting go of opportunities to make counterpoints reminds me of good old Vengsarkar’s leaves outside the off-stump.  Prof. AG, you have had us, hats off to you!

Personally, I look at this as a classic OB case of conflicting incentives – live up to the Harvard example and do socialized CP or maximize the 25% grading for CP.  Any bets on whether it will be business as usual by mid October?

-Sasanka

PS: Mates, we are back on track! Earth straight ahead, resume initial testing of landing gear. Professor is also smiling, hopefully. 

PGPX goes to school

Last Saturday PGPX students revisited their childhood when they paid a visit to the Eklavya School in the Sanathal village in the south western part of Ahmedabad.

The visit was arranged as a part of the “Laboratory for Entrepreneurial Motivation” (LEM) course taken by Prof. Sunil Handa. The school was founded in 1997 by Prof Handa. Set on a huge 35 acre campus, the school provides for all round education of students through an innovative curriculum.

We started off from the IIM A campus in one of the Eklavya school buses. Sitting in the bus triggered several happy thoughts of school picnics and “gaana-bajaana” amongst the PGPX-ers. However before we could turn into a bunch of rowdy school children Prof.Handa brought us to order and gave us a brief background of how he went about starting the school. His passion for the school was there to see. True to his form Prof.Handa spent about 1.5 years reading, researching and visiting hundreds of schools all over the world before he got an answer to the question: “Ye school hota kyaa hai”?

As we entered the school, we were treated by the sight of rows after rows of basketball courts. We knew this was no ordinary school. Everything about Eklavya is grand. There were about 50 of us, including spouses and children. We were immediately split into four groups and accompanied by a teacher went off on a tour of the school. There was a lot to see. We saw the classes, the play areas, dance practice rooms, libraries and the arts and crafts rooms. The walls of the school were decorated with paintings and craftwork done by students and carried inspirational quotes.

One of the coolest things was that each class was given a patch of land where they could sow seeds and grow flowers and vegetables under the watchful eye of a gardener. What better way to teach kids about nature than this! There was also this huge play area with all kinds of see-saws, slides, tunnels and a huge jungle gym. The engineer in me loved the huge models that were built to demonstrate various scientific concepts. Other exciting elements of the visit were visiting the teakwood forest, holding a live turtle and checking out the mammoth indoor gymnasium with itseight TT tables and four badminton courts.

The tour was followed with a Q&A session with Prof.Handa in his big office lined with books from floor to ceiling. Prof.Handa talked more about some of the research he had done on education and shared tips with parents on developing their kids’ intellectual abilities.

All in all, it was a morning well spent. The budding entrepreneurs learnt what it takes to start out on their own. For those interested in doing something in the field of education it was a particularly rewarding experience. Some of us plan to follow it up with a visit to the Fountainhead school in Surat started by Vardan Kabra (PGP ‘04).

- Gaurav (PGPX ‘09)

Links: http://www.eklavya.org

On to Term 2…

After a tormenting first term which was a little extended than what everyone hoped…..we are in for the second term. From what we have heard, the second term is a continuation of the first term in terms of sleepless nights, midnight sandwiches, assignments, reports…

The first surprise (a pleasant one for a change) came with the schedule where we had an official day off. Not to miss the opportunity, the PGPX party primes organized a great party on the eve of the holiday. After a long hiatus, all PGPXians feasted on the fantastic chaat and had a gala time playing tug of war, musical chair and tambola.

While there is some thought that the break is unnecessary, I beg to differ. I think it was a much deserved break and all that we are doing here is gathering back our enthusiasm to continue for the rest of the year.

And indeed a lot of internal activities are continuing. The Center for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship is convening an IIMA entrepreneurial meet for which a lot of PGPXians have volunteered. People are actively discussing their electives for the next term. The international project is becoming an active topic. The placements committee is discussing the aspirations of all. In summary, the class has is reconvening with a focus on future.

All set and geared up we returned to our class yesterday for some amazing Economics discussions and couple of longish but great cases. The shock of first term slightly relaxed as people got to see their papers for one of the feared subjects of term I. Happily, most of the class had done fairly well and it was a collective sigh of relief.

Time to move on to a busy weekend since we have another class of another tough subject and then to assignments, sleepless nights….oh! I think I am repeating stuff. Time to study…

- Siddharth

IIMA PGPX Media releases in June 2008

Press Releases/Coverage for PGPX in June 2008:

1. Business Standard:
IIMA maps global pathway
Click here for Business Standard Article

2. On Rediff. Com based on Business Standard print edition :
“A CBI officer in IIM-Ahmedabad’s exec batch”
Click here for Rediff article

3. Economic Times, Ahmedabad:
IIM-A’s PGPX course attracting more executives settled abroad
Accessible on e-paper, thus…
www.economictimes.com ->epaper->Ahmedabad->June 5, 2008-> Page 2
Click here to go to ET online

4. Prof. Arvind Sahay’s interview to MBAUNIVERSE.com on PGPX programme:
Click here for MBA Universe Article

5. Business Today, Released June 28, 2008, Dated July 13, 2008:

PGPX was featured as a part of the cover story: Look for interviews with Prof.Sahay, PGPX Chairperson; Prof.Mukherjee, Placement chair; PGPX 2 students; and pictures of class and students (Pg 49, 69, 79, 97, 107, primarily).

Accessible online at: (Not sure about permalink, or expiry of the link below. If you have issues reading this, please leave a comment.)

http://emagazine.digitaltoday.in/BusinessToday/13072008/Home.aspx

Uncomplicating life

Yesterday was a day of introspection for a lot of people.

They say when you want to identify a person’s native tongue, the best way to do it is to startle him in the middle of his sleep. It is natural for him to blurt out in the first language he learned growing up.Now, let me explain what that has to do with PGPX.

WIMWI’s pressure cooker approach is a cliche. One can say pressure cooker and one can live pressure cooker. Those on their way to ‘enlightenment’ from within the palisades of Vastrapur New Campus live pressure cooker. It is by being pushed into uncharted territories would we learn how to find our way out. But the initial response is no doubt bound to be as natural as a middle-of-sleep outburst.

For the last six weeks, we have been turned, twisted and juggled around. In the middle of this week came a graded-test like none other. If only a few came out unscathed, it is safe to say that the entire class was shaken. And I am told many things were blurted out by us ‘having been woken up in the middle of the sleep’. After the test, many were seen negotiating with TA with various levels of rationality, or the lack thereof.

Like one of our batch mates, SG, rightly said- an MBA teaches you like you are taught to ski. The first thing is to learn how to fall. Once you have mastered that, you are not afraid.

We learn something new everyday.Today when the grades were announced, we seemed a little more enlightened, having slept over it.

This week, if it was not the ‘Grateful dead’ that moved us, it might as well have been Avril Lavigne in ‘Complicated’ telling in a different context how not to make life complicated. The lyrics fit like a glove to how we should take it all.

“…And you fall and you crawl and you break
and you take what you get and you turn it into honesty…”

And that’s what we need to do…learn to make life more uncomplicated.

-Gowrish

Mid-summer night’s daze

Up, after the first splash!

I am not a swimmer. Yet, aided by a life-jacket (yeah, not purist aquaphile) I have previously dived in to cold waters. When you hit the water for the first time, head down, the splash causes you to go in to a state of daze, until the buoyancy bobs you up above water. Only then can you breathe. If you get my point, this blog post is one such quick breather.

For email access, internally,we have this page that comes up as the inbox and on the left pane is the list of ready-for-chat users in the PGPX batch. The intent of this post is not to familiarize you with the features of our email system, but to enlighten you how a ‘productivity’ application can become a subtle support system. Let me explain.

The speed at which professors’ assistants send updates, the academic reps post the latest twist in the profs’ plans and the last minute changes to the make-up classes (you wish these were cosmetic) and the updates we get on assignments and submissions, one needs to be checking his email every few minutes. Else, one is working on expired information.

So, now you should guess that my Inbox page is, well, always open.

What do I see now? There is this gentleman SG, who’s right now battling the twists of supply side managerial economics. How do I know that? His current status is “IsoCan’t Curves”. Inspired by this, I update my current status to ’segMental State’ reflecting my state of mind at the maze of jargon surrounding Market Segmentation and Target Marketing. Then there is RR whose status is a smug ‘hmmmm’. I am not sure what she is studying. Not sure if he was really sleepy or just bored, SG-Bandit flags a ‘Bean Counting is fun, Bean Counting is fun, Bean….’.

As I make my way through the Building Blocks of PGPX, post-supper, I increasingly find that
a. It’s already lunch time on the US Pacific Coast
b. My family is already in REM sleep, probably dreaming that I have retired for the night
c. There still are several users online (green user icons) but deeply engrossed in subjects that while enjoyable, remind us that ‘there are no free lunches’. In fact, nowadays, there is very little free time for lunch.

While time chugs along,outside the walls of Vastrapur campus, our Microeconomics Professor (he’s good; he was brought back from retirement) speeds past the topics at a speed tad less than that of light. By the night, we try and run behind this beam encouraged by each others’ ’statuses’ reminding us that ‘we are not alone’. Subtle Support System?

Coming back to the splash: After the first bob, gravity takes over and you go down for many short plunges. Time for me to plunge ‘down’ into Kotler’s maxims.

-Gowrish

PGPX Cricket League Unveiled….

Senior & Middle level job offers for PGPX Students at IIMA

5^th February, 2008 

Press Release:  PGPX Class of 2008  

Almost a month into its placement season, PGPX class of 2008 at IIMA has seen strong response from recruiters. IIMA’s portfolio offering of multiple programs allows recruiters to choose from an array of entry level to very senior level management profiles from the same school. Industry re-affirms PGPX positioning as a unique MBA level programme in India for sourcing talent at senior and middle management roles. Given the experience of the first batch last year, companies are coming with flexible mindsets to marry participant experience & aspirations with organisational requirements. 

Building over the runaway success of the pioneering class’s placement record, the second class is witnessing an overwhelming response to recruit from companies this year. Most recruiters from last year have returned and several new companies have already confirmed dates for recruiting from PGPX class. 

The placement season has begun on the 7^th January and will go until end of February.  Companies can choose to conduct recruitment at their offices and avoid travel given tight placement timelines. 

Key placement related facts

1.      Salary levels

         1.      Average salary so far, on par with last year’s average.

         2.      Discussions for senior positions currently in progress, which is likely to push the upper end of salaries and hence the averages.

2.      Participant experience level range: 7 -17 years

3.      Titles / Roles offered so far

        1.      Senior level: COO/ VP/ GM

        2.      Middle level: Senior Manager / Manager

4.      Key recruiters who are participating

        1.      Consulting co.s : McKinsey, Booz Allen Hamilton, Accenture, ATK, PWC and so on

        2.      Industry / Conglomerates:  Reliance ADAG, RPG, AVB, ITC and so on

        3.      IT / ITES: Microsoft, Google, Infosys China, VSNL, Tech Mahindra, Syntel and so on.

5.      New recruiters: GE, Tata Steel, Adani, Future Group, Fino, Electrotherm, iNautix  and so on

6.      Expecting at least 5-6 boutique consulting companies to recruit at lateral levels based on participant experience.

7.      Participants are choosing roles, growth and compensation in that order when making choices.

8.      Most recruiters from last year returned, vindicating the value of PGPX offering.9.      20% new recruiters are recruiting this year.

10.  A lot of interest from start ups / SMEs this year for senior roles.

11.  Retail and Real estate are emerging as hot areas of recruitment

12.  Challenging international assignments in UK / US / Middle East / Asia Pac – in Consulting / product management / engagement management and account management roles.

13.  The design of PGPX is built on the Institute’s well established experience of designing and running postgraduate management programmes for exceptionally bright students and a wide range of executive education programmes for practicing managers from many countries. It takes into account the substantial and varied experience the selected executives bring to the classroom.

14.  The objective of the programme is to develop bright, enthusiastic, and aspirational executives into management leaders and change agents in the global arena.

Dear friend…… (In the middle of term 2 at IIM Ahmedabad)

Already 4 months passed after I and my wife arrived in India. When I came here, I was embarrassed with killing-hot weather and auto-rickshaw running ruthlessly on the street. However, now my family and I feel so comfortable in the Indian life. Now I think the Indian traffic system without signal lamp is more effective for fast moving.  

When I see the Indian MBA system, I come to envy you. In fact in Korea, there are only several MBA courses (maybe six). Also until now Korean MBA courses are not so attractive to the MBA candidates. Those who want to study management are going out to US (Most go to US, very few go to Europe and China). It means very limited people can get opportunities to study. But in India, including IIMs, there are lots of prestige MBA courses I can easily find from newspaper advertisements. It can raise many highly educated managers who become Indian power. 

Let me introduce Korea shortly. Korea has precious history from 2333 BC. We developed our culture based on Buddhism (Now most Koreans believe in Buddhism and Christianity) Korea has unique letters named “Hangul” which was made by many scholars under order of King Sejong in 1443 AD. Although we had time under the rule of Japanese Imperialism (1910-1945) and Korea War between North and South (1950-1953), we are proud of our history. (Korea’s Independence day is 15-Aug. It is same as India’s) Although until now the cultural exchange between India and Korea has not been promoted so much, I hope by you and me, to be promoted in the near future. 

Now I hope our PGPXians’ dreams come true. 

- Hak Soo Kim

IIMA Looking for PGPX Expansion…

IIMA is looking at the possibility of creating two sections of PGPX. This comes out of the interview of PGPX chairman Prof. Arvind Sahay with Pagalguy. The details of the interview can be accessed at

 http://www.pagalguy.com/index.php?categoryid=51&p2_articleid=849

Dhamaal! – From a Reporter’s diary

End of term 1 ushered some relief when Nitin and co. have unleashed Dhamaal, the first of cultural get together PGPX community had. 

From Hak Soo’s expression of joy through a Korean song to Samita’s (Ashish’s wife) foot tapping solo performance the evening was rocked! Children led the way their enthusiasm and all stops were pulled as talent oozed!
The icing on the cake was the skit and the most promising find has been Suresh with his awesome mimicking skills. Solo songs, antakshari … well…. You name it ….Thanks to Nitin & and many others in creating this magic. You guys have got a wow from all of us, for the evening!

Junta had finally fully let themselves go, when everybody hit the dance floor…including the little ones…

– Raju

Weekend Lessons…

Weekend classes in term two!

….did not sound fun when we received our Term 2 schedule. But the one on the first Sunday of July turned out to be interesting.

On center stage for the first half of day were two brave souls from PGPX-2 who volunteered for a role-play interview with a real recruiter in front of the whole class. The recruiter was none other than Basab Pradhan, CEO Gridstone Research and former head of global sales at Infosys. The session consisted of two half hour interviews with each candidate and reflection on the interview process later by Prof. Monnipally and Mr. Pradhan. Most of us were excited about the process as we are aspiring for senior level roles and wanted to have a feel of how these interviews are different and what is it the recruiter looks for when one already has a good track record, both in academics and in career and with the tag of a top b-school to boot. In a short duration of ½ hour per candidate, one thing that stood out for me was the keen interest shown by Basab in understanding the person behind the interviewees which is not very often evident from the resumes. The focus was on determining the person-organization fit which becomes progressively more important at senior levels.

Before the session could end, we had some more guests – Ten entrepreneurs from PGP ‘89 came and joined the discussion. We were in esteemed company of Sanjeev Bikhchandani, CEO, Naukri.com, Rahul Bhasin, CEO, Barings, Basab Pradhan, CEO, Gridstone Research, Sachit Jain, CEO, Vardhaman Group, R Subramanian, CEO, Subhiksha and others.

The second half of the day was about these entrepreneurs taking us into the nitty gritties of setting up an own venture. The topic for the session was external and internal challenges in setting up an own business.

Details about Basab’s visit to the campus can be followed at his blog -

http://6ampacific.com/2007/07/04/trip-to-iim-ahmedabad/#more-123

– Yogesh.

THE CP MANTRA

Few must do’s to score maximum in class participation, in order of importance are:
1. Start speaking before raising your hand, that is breach of protocol, it’s like the fish moving in the opposite direction to the school of fish. You are bound to get noticed. Most common starting lines are
“Sir, I have a point here.”
“Sir, I have a question here”
“I want to add to this”
“Can I answer that?”
“I have a different view on this”
2. Use the morse code technique, keep repeating following with 3 sec gaps and your stress call will be answered:
Sir—–Sir—–Sir—–Sir
Trends show that your chance of getting instructors attention increase with each “Sir” and the probabilities get added, since they are mutually exclusive events. So, by fourth “sir” you almost reach the six sigma level in Gaussian curve, I mean Normal distribution and it is a “Ho True, Don’t reject Ho” kind of decision for the instructor.
3. Stretch your arm fully as if you are saying “Hail Hitler”. Point to be noted here is that some people can have the height advantage, but don’t get disheartened, use a flashy golden pen as an extender of your arm or wear a flashy golden watch. Remember, it will work like a mirror, which the people who crashed in the desert had and never realised the importance of it.
4. Wear bright colour clothes. Marketing research has shown that bright colours like yellow/orange and red work the best on human minds for attention grabbing. You can take a cue from fire brigades, Zebra crossing or detergent pack colour schemes.
5. Use Cheetah tactic. While answering a question if someone stops to take a breather or think, then he is like a pray, which has suddenly stopped running. Go for the kill, don’t wait for him to get started again and take advantage of the silence in the atmosphere. Say any thing that comes in you mind, I assure you it will turn all the heads.
6. Aggressive hand movement along with loud voice while answering a question will ensure that the sleepy TA wakes up and notices you and when the silence once again prevails, the TA goes back to sleep.
7. Lastly assume you are the only student in the class and others are visitors/guests. Remember we have been taught here to make some assumptions if data is not complete.

– Chatty

0.2 X MBA – End of term 1

Of the ten lacs of my “expenditure”, two lacs today got reclassified as “expense”. To understand the difference you need to wait till you attend your first class of FRA at PGPX, IIMA. If you haven’t guessed what made the chunk of two lacs convert then let me tell you that it has nothing to do with any religious body but with the battle we had been fighting against the rigor and the grind which besides transforming the monetary measure, has also transformed many of us here.

With the end of term I, I don’t know how I did it, but I was enlightened by the fact that I could do it. This is one feeling that I believe runs common in many of the 73 hearts that have been beating at various rates depending on the announced quizzes, the wows, the antries, the Beethoven’s symphonies, and many other things including the book of the dead! We now are pretty well braced up for the second round of such hits and are determined not to have any misses.

The term had its share of fun and some moments that we’d prefer not to meet again. The past 2 months also saw some moments of clashes that will recur in many forms and will go on to add to the already diverse experience pool that we have here (which is 600 to 730 years by someone’s calculation! ) Besides that we now consider ourselves masters at deciding on lungi manufacturing, singing songs that half of the world doesn’t know of, telling lemons from oranges, and lastly dissecting and bisecting the prestige of a telephone company. Not to forget that all this is courtesy Bill Gates who’s been helping us in excelling in all fields.

The only rue is that we have yet not been able to give good time to explore even the campus, forget the city of Ahmedabad. Only last week one of my classmates enquired about the location of the ATM on campus. Many of us haven’t yet found themselves in the company of Vikram Sarabhai (it’s the library’s name here). But I am hopeful, armed with the experiences of term I, the next term should relatively be easier as far as management of time goes. I, for one have kept many things in place to be done on regular basis from next term onwards and blogging is one of ‘em. I won’t be surprised if we see some people converting to bloggers from being .doc writers and if they don’t I’d be disappointed as it’s a joy to read them.

– Tejbir

PGPX@ Mumbai and New Delhi

Time	Place	Location
Thursday 5 July 1800-2100	Mumbai	The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Appollo Bunder Mumbai 400 001 India
Saturday 7 July 1500-1800	New Delhi	Hyatt Regency Delhi Bhikaji Cama Place, Ring Road New Delhi 110 066 India

Open House Session@ Bangalore on 27th May

IIMA is conducting open house session in Bangalore at Le Meridian on May 27th for its PGPX. Chairperson, PGPX – Dr.Arvind Sahay is the speaker of this event. Please visit http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/pgpx/news.htm for more details.

Mungeris meet Maverick @ Entrepreneurs Club

Reveries will turn into realities at the slightest of opportunity and the day is not far off!  It is a class full of ‘mungerilal’s … each and everyone is a dreamer in possession of plentiful desires (though some may name their ‘haseen sapne’s a ’strategy’) However, there are a few whose dreams are of a different type. And a MAVERICK who has ’been there, done that’ is ’lalchav’ing the mungeris to dive into the ocean of big-E  The devotion of the Maverick (read SH) is awesome! He puts in all possible efforts to weed out all doubts that can kill any dream. Here is a sample of some of the indigenous infectious statements from him 

·         Make yourself vulnerable … announce to the world that you are not going to take a job … give up all fall back support … the best in you will come out only then

·         What’s wrong in a ‘me-too’ idea … don’t wait for ‘the-most-beautiful-and-intelligent-girl-who-has-not-seen-face-of-any-man’ type of unique idea … because that will never come … it is not the idea … but the person behind the business execution who does things differently and makes it successful

·         It is your 4th, 5th or maybe 7th venture that will take you places … so no point in investing a lot of time and energy in your first plunge … just go out there and make it happen!

·         No matter what you do … you will regret it later … so why not fulfill your hidden dreams of having your own business

 ·         Business is like a ’spiritual journey’ … you will discover your ‘true self’ on the way …

·         Business is like ’samudra manthan’ … it will shower a lot many things in the process … but you should have the ‘dum’ to handle the ‘vish’ (poison) that might be the first outcome … if you hang on, ‘kamdhenu’ (wishful cow) and ‘laxmi’ and the coveted ‘amrut’ (nectar) are bound to follow 

Such golden tips coming right from the horse’s mouth (that too delivered with passion) and personal attention to each enthusiastic is bound to make a few go OOoPs (Opting Out of Placement).  And who would not like to fly high in the sky with such moral++ support. Go on mungeris … the world is waiting for you !! In words of SH – save your current pictures and note down your thoughts … for they will come in handy when the media will be making a beeline for your interviews few years from now (like they gherao Mr. NarayanMurthy and the likes)  

Papa kehte hai bada naam karega, beta hamara aisa kaam karega … magar yeh to koi na jaane ki meri manzil hai kahan 

– Harsh

 

 

PGPX goes club-ing..

It has been over a month at PGPX and right from the word go there has been a heightened sense of expectation and excitement with various activities happening at a feverish pace on every front, be it quizzes, group submissions, weekend movies, pani-puri sessions…   The highlight though is the starting of various clubs that have gone active with people typically aligning themselves according to areas of interest. Since IIMA PGPX is a one-year program there is a sense of urgency to do things in fast-forward mode. The clubs have quickly put down a structure and have already conducted knowledge sharing sessions by domain experts present within the group, exploring broader/deeper areas of interest within the clubs, generating wish-list for lectures and efforts towards to fulfilling that wish. The groups also work as a whole to bring in electives that are current and are of interest to the group. Leads are also shared for international immersion projects scheduled for November-December 2007.   Reflecting the diverse group that constitutes the PGPX class, clubs in the area of Finance, Strategy, Consulting, IT, Energy, Manufacturing & Entrepreneurship have drawn the most number of participants.  Friday or Saturday evenings are typically the meeting time for various clubs. This is also a good way for most of to unwind from the academic schedule, a time to network beyond the study groups that we have been assigned to for academic work. Since there is not much time to be up-to-date on the various happenings in the area of interest, clubs also ensure that there is a trading of latest information.  A faculty advisor guides each group and supports the students in arranging industry interactions. The alumni network is also tapped in by professors to bring in speakers or for one-to-one meetings based on the student’s level if interest.   There is a center for innovation and incubation which brings entrepreneurs, people with ideas and VCs together. Watch this space for more on the center and on Mr. Sunil Handa’s talks at the Entrepreneur club. – - Uma