Faculty @ Great Lakes Series – Vol 2

After having amzing faculties for first semester, the bar was raised and to say that Great Lakes was able to surprass that bar would be an understatement. We are already in the mid of Term 2 and there have been a few new faces coming and teaching us. And i feel lucky to be taught by such an amazing grp of faculties.

We started the new semester with Strategic Management. The subject was taught by Prof Rasheed from University of Texas. Amazing sense of humor and a knack of keeping people awake, made him one of the most liked ones in Great Lakes. He is a firepower of knoweldge from varied fields and his jokes really made a subject like strategic management very very interesting. For more info on him pls check his homepage http://management.uta.edu/bulletin/rasheed.htm or http://management.uta.edu/Dr.Rasheed/Home.htm

Next in line Prof Raj from XLRI Jamshedpur. He was here to teach Organisational Behavior and impressed every sould in Great Lakes with his understanding of human behavior. He gave a few inventories and then analysed scores of most students and most of the people here were shocked to find out the truth in his findings. He is also one of the most polite prof that i have ever studied from and gave utmost respect to students. He is still left with a few courses and we are eagerly waiting for his return. for more on him check www.xlri.ac.in/scripts/faculty_profiles.php

For Micro Economics we have Prof Radhakrishnan, from Madras Institute of Development Studies. He carries along with him stacks full of achievements, experience and knowledge. Distinctive feature of Prof RadhaKrishnan was his ability to ask puzzles before and after finishing his lectures. And these puzzles really make you think for ex…Metro in Coma — Bombay Dying:) But its not just about asking puzzles thats a complementary thing with his ability to transfer knowledge. For more information on him http://www.mids.ac.in/prk.htm

And few days from now we start Accounting and the course will be taught by our Honrary Dean Dr Bala V Balachandran. Now do i need to write anything about him, his achievements are widely known and acknowledged in academia and industry circuits. And thats one of the reason i am writing about him before his course, because I have so much faith and trust on his ability to teach that i dont even feel like waiting for the course to begin. For more on him http://www20.kellogg.northwestern.edu/
facdir/facpage.asp?sid=474
or
http://www.glakes.org/founders-message.htm

Thats it as of now – will continue writing about the faculty@great lakes

Meet the Dean

Hey All….
Do not miss the ‘Meet the Dean’ sessions at Delhi, Chennai & Mumbai this month. A lot of ur queries can get solved over there.
Please take this as an oppurtunity to meet our dear uncle.. Dr. Bala V Balachandran, Founder & Honorary Dean (JL Kellogg Distinguished Professor, Management, North Western Univ)
More info at….
http://www.glakes.org/meetthedean.htm

Student’s role in Great Lakes

While Manik updates you all with the faculty and other related issues, I would talk more about the student activities and the way of life here.

I guess you might have heard that students at great lakes involve in almost all the college related activities and contribute to the growth of the institution.

Apart from solving case studies, assignments and doing Karma Yoga project (ofcoz also attending classes: mind u 100% attendance is a must here) its a norm here that every GLaker have to be a part of atleast one of the committees and have to participate in acheiving the goals of their respective committees.

There are around 9 committees and 4 study groups..there is no limit to no.of committees, interested people can start a new comittee too..(Enterprenuership comm has been started this year)
Committees
- Branding & Public Relations Com
- Placement com
- Admissions com
- Events com
- IT Com
- Enterprenuership Com
- GLakes Consulting Com
- Food Com
- Sports Com
The purpose of these coms is to facilitate the GLakes administration in running the institution according to the consensus of all the students ( as students are stake holders in GLakes, every body has a chance to raise their voice and express their concerns…)

Study Gropus
- Finance Study Grp
- Operations Study Grp
- Marketing Study
- HR study Grp
The aim of these study grps is to help students learn and understand the fundas/basics of subjects that were not known. For eg recently for Financial Accounting term exam, one of the students who is a CA by profession, taught the concepts of accounting to non finance background students.. it helped us a great deal in cracking the balance sheets and transactions…

Kotler’s Visit
The first big task for us now is to handle the arrangements of Dr.Kotler’s visit. Almost everyday atleast one of these committees are meeting to discuss how to go about the arrangements, share the work and network with the other coms. All the meetings are lively and the discussions are going on in a constructive manner. In a way with the participation in these comms we are all learning how to resolve arguments, how to express our views to peers with out contradicting their opinions, how to achieve the golas with out sacrificing the principles…etc.
This is a great learning experience for us and I am sure that by the end of this course we all will be ready to face any kind of business discussions and board meetings.

Yesterday the Biz Showdown also went on very well. The success of the event boosted the confidence of Events comm and they are gearing up for Latitude: the Great Lakes fest. ( the name of the team that won the BizShowdown comp is “The Brahman who sold his Lungi” .Is’nt it sounding similar to “The monk who sold his Ferrari”!!….chumma fun pandringe…)
Enterprenuership comm is also coming up with an intra-section BPlan competition. Hope it will bring out some potential ideas and who knows there can be a future enterprenuer in our grp..

Ok ..Chalo…more abt the activities in the next posts…till then..plz..stay glued..

Contributor
Gopi Krishna Viswanath. A
PGPM 2007.

Day at Great Lakes

Beginning of the Day
(as on May 22, 2006)

6:25 a.m. My alarm clock starts beeping and I reluctantly roll out of my bed. The sun is shining bright (read extremely hot) and it appears to be a nice early-spring day. Our XYZ subject (wouldn’t call it a specific subject as all subjects are equally interesting and gruelling) case for today required some significant pre class room reading and assumptions, and after my shower I hope to quickly compare my assignment with my study group’s write-up, which was sent out to our group late last night.

Study Group

7:30 a.m. I quickly grab some breakfast at the College Cafe as I head to study group. Since today is a three-class day, we usually all get to study group by around 7:40, and after five minutes of socializing and waking up, start our discussion at 7:45.

This morning, we spend about fifteen minutes on each case, just throwing out ideas and questions associated with the protagonist or the decision that has to be made. At this point in the year, we’ve still not figured out fully how to read cases and what exactly we should be prepared for in case of a cold call, but it’s always nice to share thoughts and ideas as one of us has always thought of something none of the rest of us have.

The Section Experience

8:40 a.m. Statistics is my first class of the day in Section S1. One of the greatest things about Section S1 is that, since we stay in the same room with the same fifty four students for half a year, we get to all know each other very, very well. Many bonds and friendships form and the section becomes a strong community, always trying to help each other out whether it’s during a cold call, holding a review before a final exam, or supporting each other outside of the classroom. Later tonight, my class (read people from all sections) is going to a local bar.
11:40 a.m. My second class just finished, and we have thirty minutes until our next class starts. A bunch of my section mates and I go grab lunch in the Coll Café (sign again!) and head outside to enjoy the nice weather (yuck it’s so hot and humid). As we sip on Chai at the local tea shop, we discuss placement plans, among other things.

Speaking in Class

2:00 p.m. As class starts, the professor calls my name… for a split second; I had visions of a cold call! This class is Transformational Leadership and this is the first semester it’s being taught here at Great Lakes. Today’s class is a very interesting ethical dilemma in which an executive of a juice company has a series of decisions to make that do not appear to have an obvious right or wrong answer.

The Day Really Begins
Doing Cases

4:00 p.m. Class ended at 3:30 and I’ve spent the last half-hour grabbing a quick snack and relaxing. Now, it’s time to start my cases for tomorrow (which is a two-case day!). I spend, on average, about an hour preparing each case, although some are shorter or longer than others. The amount of time I spend on a case usually correlates to the previous knowledge I have about the industry (I’ll spend less time on a case for which I already know about the industry) and the amount of number crunching needed to fully prepare a case (I’ll spend more time on cases that require heavy number crunching).

Shad

5:00 p.m. Whew! Cases are finished for tomorrow. Now its time for some TP session

Evenings at Great Lakes

7:00 p.m. I am about to head back to my room, when suddenly we hear about an assignment which has to be completed by 9am tomorrow. Darn there goes the plan for the evening….
8:00 p.m. After the new case study finishes, we all head over to Ascendas (the new found abode) to eat dinner. We run into some more classmates who join us, and our dinner conversation quickly changes from classes to everyone’s last holiday plans L .
After dinner, I head back to my dorm room to check e-mail, leave some messages, and spend some time relaxing and watching TV.

Post Dinner at Great Lakes

10:00 p.m. there is still more work to be done before we hit the sack….lots of assignments to be done before the month end ..

01:00 a.m. After the canning our assignments into the required format, I head back to my room….am (we) are so tired … I have no trouble falling asleep.

Contributor……..
Sandeep Khanna,
The Crusaders’ (PGPM Class 2007).

Biz Showdown on June 28th

To relieve the stress and to add a bit of fun and knowledge, our Events Comm is gonna conduct a inter section quiz competition on June 28th.
Here are the details…..

EVENT: Business Showdown – Quiz.

· Groups must consists of three members from the same section
· There will be a preliminary round initially to narrow down the teams to six, 2 from each section for finals.
· The quiz will cover a broad range of topics and will not merely a business quiz.
· Register your teams with the representatives of each class:

Contact :-
S1 – Preethy
S2 – Geetha
S3 – Gokul

On or before 22nd June 2006
Winners can look forward to bumper prizes!! Want to win the inter B-School quiz contests????

Here is a chance for you to find your potential.

Join us in the venture to explore your talent. May the best team win!!!

There’s a lot more in store… We’ll keep it for the 28th!!

Faculty @ Great Lakes – Term One

Faculty forms one of the most important part of any good B School. At Great Lakes we get top of the bracket faculty, unmatched knowledge creators. We are on the verge of completion of term 1 and so i thought i will write about the people who have played a major role in increasing our knowledge level.

To Start with we have PGPM Director Mr Venkat Krishnan, from XLRI,who taught us Philosphy in term 1 and though i am not a fan of the subject, we had some of the best times in his sessions when we discussed abt atmans, souls, subtle bodies and bla bla. And i am sure not one Great Laker would forget his fav line” Then you are a Buffalo”:) For more abt him http://www.rkvenkat.com/

We Play the number game with Proff PKV who has enthralled us with loads of exciting and highly motivating sessions. He is the one behind the Statistics Sessions and has danced all through our classes, made us laugh and smile and still has been able to transfer loads and loads of knowledge.

My Fav.Subject,Marketing has been taught by Mr Paul Prabhaker, Associate Dean, Staurt B School, Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago. As per the credentials he has been one of the best teachers and one who has been able to keep people awake even in lengthy sessions. He has been extremely helpful all through out and has been able to create lots of awareness. For more http://www.stuart.iit.edu/faculty/fulltime_bios.asp?ProfID=18

Mr Raghu Iyer from SP Jain Mumbai made us go through the basics of Financial Accounting and was very very intersting. I am sure he did make finance look much easier than what it actually would be.All credit to him:)

National Income and GDP/GNP and similar words are being taught to us by Proff Rakesh Singh. Though we havent been able to become eco-savvy but definetly he has been able to direct us towards the goal!

To end the term one we had Prof SuryaShekhar from Florida University. He had tremendous ability to mix humor with transfer of knowledge. He was very helpful all through out and showed dedication towards making us learn US GAAP.

All these Prof’s are best in their related departments of education but the striking feature was that they came down to our level and helped us improve our intellectual abilities. Another thing which impressed me the most was their humble and helpful attitude.

With Performance expectations increases,so has been the case with Great Lakes! Awaiting better and better faculties in near future:)

Dr. Philip Kotler’s visit

Guess what… GLakers are going to have a special privilege of meeting Dr.Philip Kotler, the marketing guru, next month.

Its a rare opportunity for any Indian management school students to meet such an esteemed and renowned person from the management teaching circles. GLakers are hoping to use this occasion to the best and gain some insights and knowledge from the marketing legend.
Here is the autograph given by him for Great Lakes students.

Contributor : Gopi Krishna