Mr. Srivatsa Krishna visits Great Lakes

The Class of 2009 is alpine fresh after a scintillating session of a power talk by Mr. Srivatsa Krishna. He reached the campus dot at 16:45 yesterday, the 28th and the talk was scheduled at 17:00 hrs. But before we go any further let me take you through his profile.

Srivatsa topped the Indian Civil Services Examination in 1994 and joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). (This is considered to be one of the toughest examinations in the world, and each year about 500,000 compete for 50 positions.) He went on doing his full time MBA from Harvard Business School and an Advanced Executive Program from The Wharton School of Business. He is currently the Executive Director & CEO South Asia of a Dubai World Group Company, one of the largest infrastructure companies globally. Before Harvard, he was part of the core team of the Government of Andhra Pradesh and was responsible for some of the key investment promotion and e-government initiatives there. In fact the Cyberabad phenomenon could be attributed to him. He was the single most influencing factor to the then Chief Minister Mr. Chandrababu Naidu. Mr. Krishna is also a Staff member – Strategy, Finance and Risk Management Vice Presidency at World Bank in Washington D.C. He is currently co-authoring a case study as part of an ISR with Professor Michael Porter on technology clusters and economic development in India. A noted columnist and writer, he is currently working on a book on Leadership and e-Government Strategy. He has been honored as one of the Top 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum at Davos. Other past awardees include Bill Gates, Tony Blair, Jeff Bezos, Larry Page and Michael Dell to name a few. Srivatsa is also a member of McKinsey and Company’s Global Infrastructure Advisory Board which is one of the most influential consulting practices in the world today. The list would run into a few hundred miles of national highways but I hold.

The next couple of hours took us into a realm of hope, dreams, despondence, optimism, helplessness, all put into one drink. It was amazing. The talk started with the current state of India – The competitive advantage, the Information Technology edge and the general scheme of things; put across in a positive light. And then came the killer – he took us through the Chinese statistics. The sheer progress that China has made in the past couple of decades has been staggering. He went on talking about a part of China which, once upon a time was tagged – deep ditch; now the ‘barren land’ houses more than three thousand and five hundred skyscrapers! That’s more than the total number of skyscrapers in Detroit, SanFransisco, Seattle and New York put together. In fact, what the US has done in the past 40 years, China has done that in 20 years. That itself speaks volumes about the growth rate of the country. Simply put, it’s humungous. He went on hinting that comparing India with China is plain preposterous. The culture of the two countries had a role in molding the nations as they are. The Indian culture of sustainability amidst irreversible ruckus is not in sync with their Chinese counterpart. Of course, questions about human rights in China are bombarded on various occasions but they have so far been kept away from the spotlight. The day concluded with a long question and answer session. He talked about his Harvard days, the Hyderabad stint and umpteen other things under the pale August sky.

It was one of the best presentations that the class has seen. Srivatsa is surely someone the planet has to watch out for.

(References :www.harbus.org and www.globalrealestate.org )

–Suryya Sarkar

Ideas Galore!

Now that we are on a lean period here at Great Lakes, everyone has found something or the other to keep themselves engaged. The latest craze doing the rounds is entering b-plan contests. (Its got an even bigger boost since two teams from from Great Lakes made it to the final round of IIM-B b-plan contest and one of them won first place!!) It has reached such feverish levels that if you find 3 people standing together talking, you can be rest assured that they are discussing a b-plan!

Not to be left behind, and with starry eyes and dreams of prizes, my friends and I too decided “Chalo guys, lets do a b-plan”

“Yeah! great idea. Ill do the operations” said one

“And Ill do the Marketing bit” said the next

“Me, the Financials” said the last

“Cummon guys, give me something to do too!” said I

“You come up with the idea!” All of them chorused…

Great! I get the best part! No use protesting… I wasn’t quick at picking topics… and since we are a democratic race, I have to accept what’s given to me.

OK! let me think! ______________________________________

Ok, I’ve hit a blank in under a minute! Could be a world record of sorts, I’m sure! “Guys! you need to help me out here… What kind of business are we looking at?”

“The money making kind!” they said… Trust my friends to give out readymade answers for these very critical and important questions in unison…

“I know it needs to be money making and all. But are we looking at products or services?” I prod

“Products!”
“Services!”
“Either!”

Great! For this, they don’t have a common answer!

“Ok lets go over it, what kind of product?”

“Oh! Oh! I’ve got it!” said Mr V. He was so excited that he was going round an round on all fours all over his bed as if chasing his own tail!

“Dude! What’s with the doggy bit?! Calm down and spit out the bone!”

He gave me a frown that I swear only a doggy could have given. I decided not to press the issue, lest I end up barking up the wrong tree…

“How about making an oil cube?” he said

A what?? Is it some kind of industrial stuff?

“Err… what?” we ask

“An oil cube! Y’know instead of buying an entire 1 liter pack of cooking oil, buy just a cube of it” he said

I guess we stared at him way too long. He continued “Ok, Ok how about a Chai Cube? Y’know like sugar cubes?”

“Guys, cummon! Thats a good idea no?… No?? Ok, Ok, how about cigarette cubes?”

And I’m wondering why he is so fixated on cubes! I guess he realised it too, and he changed his underlying ideas… on life itself!

“How about an automatic shaver?” he asked

“How would that work?” we asked

“Well it will have a mechanism like a rubber band that you put across your ears in front of your face and then the blade will move automatically over it and clean those stubs!”

Yeah! Right! and by the end of it all we will look like the Terminator without its living covering tissue!

“Or how about a chair that you will never fall down from?”

Why? Are you stuck to it, I felt like retorting.

“How it will work is that it will have high pressure air blowers from below that will keep the chair from falling down! Fantastic, right?!”

By the end of these barrage of ideas we decided that ‘product’ was not the way to go about with our b-plan.

Finally, we did hit upon a services idea that we discussed and implemented a b-plan on.

But Mr V still has not given upon his futuristic product ideas. We find him lost in thought and every once in a while he jumps up and goes “Eureka! Eureka!”. Luckily for us, he stops with the exclamations and does not do what Archimedes did – run across the street streaking!

 

George Mathew

Class of 2009

LOVE is all around us….

At Great lakes we are privileged to have considerable time kept aside for LOVE. Oh Yeah! You heard that right… We have designated time set aside, that too with the permission of the management, for LOVE. It happens almost every Sunday (and sometimes on other days in the evenings) when a few of us get together for these amazing sessions. And frankly, its one of the most exciting times we have here. Yes it is!

But before your kinky dirty mind starts imagining all sorts of things let me tell you what LOVE means to us. Our Uncle Bala defines LOVE as Leveraging Our Varied Experience. In essence, it is about sharing information or knowledge that has been gained from all the years that we had been working, whether in IT or manufacturing or Banking or Shipping or Logistics or wherever. The sessions are run entirely by the current students for the students. It is a medium for spreading knowledge (to those who seek it). It is a medium for expanding horizons. It is a medium for incubating and sustaining interest in fields otherwise alien to us.

A few examples:

Abhimanyu Shandilya, a Lawyer and classmate, takes a course called “Law for Managers” on free Sundays. He basically introduces us to many of the intricacies that we as managers need to be aware of. Of course, we cannot obviously expect him to teach a 5 year course in a few hours. But he does lend us enough information on contracts and Indian law to help us be on our toes. It is one of the best LOVE sessions currently running on House-Full status at Great Lakes. Infact, Abhimanyu does such a good job that he can probably give our real professors a run for their money. I personally think he will be very successful if he ever thinks of getting into the education field.

The other LOVE session of interest is the one conduced by the Punter’s club where experienced investors like Umesh gives us novice investors gyan on how to beat the market using his Technical Analysis, Elliot Wave patters, Candle Sticks and Fibonacci series methods. Most of the analysis he did made a lot of sense and the proof was right there in front of us to see. He has managed a whopping 54% returns on the current bear market in under one month!! Now that’s true Experience!!

The Great Lakes management is really forward looking in this way. They believe that the students need to be part of the institution building and is willing to help us in any way possible in our endeavours.

We the students also take the opportunity extended to us and make use of it the LOVE way!!

George Mathew

Class of 2009

SWIM – 2008

SWIM – Successful Women in Management, the one of its kind of event in B Schools celebrating the Success of Women. The first event of the Champions Batch, the Class of 2009 of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai was carried with a bang today. The event was a huge success and all the guests, speakers, participants and the organisers were rocking for the whole day. The SWIM community, initiated in 2005, works towards identifying and drawing inspiration from successful women from various walks of life. SWIM is conducted to identify and promote Women who have the traits to assume leadership roles in management. It enables and empowers women to be effective, ethical and socially conscious members of society.

 

 

 

SWIM, this time had the theme ‘Women as Trailblazers - Dreaming, Exploring and Discovering new horizons’. The basic agenda comprised the Keynote address by the Chief Guest, Ms. Anu Aga, Power Talks by the guests, Panel Discussion moderated by Mr. T N Seshan and a post lunch ‘Quiz’. The theme was well justified with the list of guests of honour. Ms Anu Aga, Director Thermax, was the Chief guest and along with her, Padmasri Sudha Raghunathan, noted Carnatic Vocalist; Ms. Mridula Ramesh of Sundaram Textiles and Ms. Hemu Ramaiah, founder of Landmark agreed to share the main stage along with our beloved Founder and Honorary Dean of Great Lakes Institute of Management, Dr. Bala V. Balachandran .The Executive Director of PGPM at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Prof. S. Sriram was also present. All the guests shared their experiences at length with students, giving the insights of the corporate world , women as an upcoming entrepreneur and how she maintains the balance of society. Ms. Anu Aga in her opening speech said that it was important to balance professional responsibilities and personal life and emphasized on Vipasana or the art of living. Ms Sudha Raghunathan talked about her journey to becoming a maestro in classical music. She discussed the challenges faced during her journey, and how she overcame them. Ms. Hemu Ramaiah opined that it is important to think out of the box to reach “the other side” and achieve success. She elaborated on the lessons learnt in running an entrepreneurial venture. According to her, entrepreneurs must plan when to start and exit a business plan. Ms. Mridula Ramesh talked about four success enablers for women, namely role models, proving early competence in a language known by competitors, courage, and family support.

 

 

 

Power Talks was followed by the launch of the SWIM magazine having the write-ups of eminent women writers and some Champions. The magazine work was all done by the in-house team of enthusiastic students i.e members of Gravity team.

 

 

 

The event had a panel discussion on the topic “Educated, Intelligent, energetic, and just in her forties – can she still pursue her career dreams”. The discussion was moderated by Mr. T. N. Seshan, former CEC of India. The panel included Ms. Pushpa Kandaswamy, Noted TV producer, Ms. Indra Subramanyam, MD, Ehrlich Lab, Ms. Lalitha Maheswaran, HR Consultant and Ms. Sarda Ramani, president of C I Global Solutions. Mr. Seshan introduced the theme, and enraptured the audience with his characteristic persona and witty remarks throughout the discussion. Ms Indra Subramanyam stated that desire is what takes women towards their goals. She also said that for a country to prosper, men and women must work together without compromising on domestic life. Ms. Pushpa Kandaswamy said that relations were more important than numbers. She vehemently supported the theme and emphasized that women are adaptable, efficient and capable of multi tasking. According to Ms Sharda, determination and grit are important and even if one were to take a break in professional life, one can still get back as and when one feels like, and make the best out of it. Ms Lalitha, a visiting faculty at Great Lakes, addressed the women in the audience and advised them to define success for themselves, and not neglect their own selves. She said every decision taken will have its own consequences, it is important to make a choice and live by it. This was followed by an open house session where the audience, comprising the distinguished guests, students and faculty, posed a variety of questions related to women’s lives and their career orientation.

 

 

 

The tasty lunch was followed by the quiz ‘Les Quizerables’ in which almost 46 teams participated from different colleges and corporates. Six of them qualified for the final round and the winners bagged away a whopping total prize money of 35000 rupees.

 

 

 

The SWIM and Gravity teams toiled for almost two months along with the help from Events, BPR and all the champions for the success of the event. It was the best example of team work and how the same can bring laurels and charm.

 

The media covered the event with full heart and some of the links for the same are as follows :

• Ergo

 

• The Hindu

 

• Business World

 

• Pagal guy

 

• Cool Avenues

 

 

As the dawn comes, the thought process for the next events have already started grabbing the minds of the Champions… Keep looking the space for the upcoming events like Sangamithra, The HR Summit, The Lattitude.

 

(P Murlidhar Naidu)

That same cliché

All else was fine but for a few pot-holes-turned-into-manholes in the islandish city of Mumbai. It was sometime in mid September, just after my twenty-somethingth birthday (blur intended). The sun at last took some time out and graced the wet-clothes which have been hanging on the miles long clothesline between Church-gate and Borivili since June. That was the time the clouds went berserk spraying water all over the place for the next thirteen weeks. It was raining cats and obese dinosaurs all through and almost gave Cherrapunji a shudder.

Things just started looking bright when my befriended roommate came barging in with his usual heavy gait of a drowsy polar bear just after a heavy pasta treat. He incidentally had decided to take part in one of those umpteen essay contests which keep popping up whenever you open your eyes after every blink. The topic – “What woman wants?” I know, I know, this topic is more common than the ubiquitous cows on the streets and everywhere else of suburban and non-urban India. But somehow it appealed to my friend, Ted (name has been misrepresented after severe panic requests from him. They were all from his cell phone).He asked me to sit down with him and storm both our brains so that he can expect the ten grand prize money that was up for grabs. It would take care of his disc, petrol, and SIM CAT expenses for the next month. I didn’t have anything much to do either. And so we sat and talked.

I roughly reproduce the dialogue in my own lingo which is more like English.

Ted: What does a woman want?

Me: Chocolate bars, ice creams, long drives.

Ted: What was that?! I thought you would come up with something more profound. Something that can stir and heat up the thought organs of the readers and make them fetch cups of coffee to read more.

Me: Hey listen, I have spent some time with a few teaspoonfuls of women and I think what I just said is right. But wait. I haven’t finished yet. They also want cute looking teddy bears that they hold tight and sleep.

Ted: I can’t really win the prize with all these brainwaves of yours. Get me something more dramatic. You know what I mean. For instance, they want to be assertive, self-dependent, live-on –their-own kind of things.

Me: O yeah, but don’t think what I said was a tad wrong? Market research statistics yell that there are more teddy bears with women than real bears on the planet. Nestle and Cadbury Schweppes probably claims that seventy percent of their revenues come from feminine tummies. Huh. Let me list down the few things on what they really desire. Hey wait – but there are so many types of women, the smart kinds, the shy kinds. Then we have the arrogant, friendly, vamp, the ones with thousand body-piercings et al. Everyone has so different desires and wants that calling it an essay would be an undersized statement.

Ted: All that is fine. But one newspaper wants an essay out of it and there are going to be entries, right?

Me: Correct.

Ted: So let me give an entry. All right… Let me think. They want good lasting relationships. They want the Mr. Perfect to come to their lives and take them on a heavenly ride. [Pause]. The knight in shining armor on a black horse emerging out of the palace pavement. Purple haze, a chill in the air titillating the senses. He bends down, takes her hand, a kiss and they go on a ride across the rolling meadows, dark jungles, and then back to the palace

Me: Ah! So now you are getting to your point.

Ted: Maybe. [Pause] They also want to do things their way. Climb the Everest, walk on Mars, run Wal-Mart. Rule. Rule. Rule. I want more ideas.

Me: Hmm… Let Freud come back from the washroom.

Ah! I hear the flush.

[P.S. On a heavier note, SWIM (Successful Women In Management) 2009, like every other year, would be conducted on the 12^th of August. It is to celebrate the essence of being a successful woman manager. Ms. Anu Aga of the Thermax Group would be the Chief Guest for this Event. She, along with other women luminaries would be sharing the same floor that very day. It’s one event that the entire Great Lakes fraternity is proud of. The uniqueness, enthusiasm and adrenalin- full marks to all. Do keep visiting the website for more updates on this.]

[Suryya Sarkar]