Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys was here…

Whenever there is a power talk scheduled, life seems to hit a flattish speed-breaker. Generally the first half of the day is when most of the power-talks happen and all classes, group-jobs take a break. Good for some.The guests who come and give the talks are the best in class and no one would like to give it a miss even if tons are at stake. So far Great Lakes has seen Indra Nooyi( CEO Pepsico), Narayanmoorthy( Infy), Kotler ( Kellogg), Ravi Kant( Tata Motors) , Gururaj Deshpande, Muthuraman ( Tata Steel), Montek Singh ( Planning Commission) and a couple of pages full of other similar colossal masterpieces.

This time it was Kris Gopalakrishnan , head of Infosys.

On Feb 16^th , Kris took us through the many chapters of the economic downturn. He went on saying that this period of so called pessimism is a perfect case study material. The key is to come out stronger, wiser and more savvy . The hour and a half of incisive, content packed delivery presented new angles and faces to the topic that is talked about everywhere under the pale blue sky. A practical , down to earth, reality encompassing deliberation it was .

The session ended with a note of ambivalent positivity. The general scheme of things are intriguing indeed with endless complexities . We need to keep staring ahead as the curtain is raised a bit further. However for now, we cherish the fact that an hour and a half was well spent…

For a media snapshot on this,click below:

Economic Times

(Suryya Sarkar)

The Spirit of Great Lakes!

Are heroes born? Or do they take form when they are most needed? History seems to prove its the latter. There are times when adversities bring out the best in people, times when personal priorities take a back seat and people come together for a cause they feel is important to them. 13th February was one such life changing day for the 162 students and the 20 odd staff at Great Lakes.

The present campus of Great lakes is located at the upmarket Saidapet Colony in Chennai. Serving the needs of the colony are a group of 10 families living in 1 roomed thatched shacks adjacent to the main colony. The men folk of the slum either work in construction sites or are auto drivers and the women folk work as housemaids in the upscale houses of the colony. These are people who live from one day to the next with little or no savings except their personal belongings and the support of their families. Some of these women also worked as maids in some of our houses.

On the night of 12th February, 2009 tragedy struck in the form of an inferno which engulfed these fragile lives. What started the fire is still being speculated. Some say it was a cigarette butt. Some say it was an electric spark. Some say it was a politically motivated arson move them out of the area. Whatever be the reason, by the end of it 6 houses were razed to the ground and 6 whole families (about 30 people) were left homeless…

I woke up to the news of the fire, but didn’t think the extent of the damage would be much. What I witnessed on my way to college at 7:30 AM for the first of my classes, sent a chill down my spine. Until then, I had never seen the look of total loss in anyone’s eyes. But the vacant look and flowing tear in the eyes of the women there gave me a glimpse of their horror. The fact that one of them was my maid, somehow gave it a feeling of personal loss.

By the time I reached college a task force had already been put in place to try and help the affected. People were abandoning classes to try and do their part. Here was no dearth of volunteers who wanted to pitch in to do their part. In half hour a committee was formed to oversee the donation drive that was put into force. We asked people to contribute whatever they could – money, clothing, food. Anything. And donations came pouring in. We needed 3 people fulltime to just keep track of the money and to keep accounts. We setup a collection box for people to drop all other things. By the end of the day we reached about 40% of the class and stall and managed to collect close to Rs. 19,000/- We contacted the alumni, who also assured assistance. The college, thanks to Prof. Sriram, also pledged to equalise the contribution that we were putting together.

Among the victims was a small time trader who used to trade in scrap paper, metals and glass. This person had close to Rs. 80,000/- in inventory in his shop and lost it all. The remains of the bundles of newspaper were still smouldering till late in the evening. Allen and Vidya took over the task of going from house to house of all Great Lakers living in the area and collected old newspapers, plastic and glass bottles etc that we will be handing over to the person so that his loss may be minimised. The humour in this was that they went about with the collection in a Toyota Corolla!!

The college staff helped out too. Ms Uma, Deputy manager, pulled all the strings that she could and got the ladies of the colony to donate old saris towards the cause. Mr. Balasubhramaniam, Placement Cordinator, literally emptied his pockets when we went to him for donations. All the other staff helped out to the best of their ability.

Parallel to this, we also went over to the affected and asked them what they wanted (In management parlance – Requirements Gathering). Once we had a broad idea of their requirements, we discussed on it and filled the gaps of the bare basic that the families would want (Requirements Analysis phase). Our final list consisted of Cooking vessels and utensils, straw mats and sheets, rice and dal, basic clothes for children and towels. By about 2 PM, 4 of us rushed to Saravana Stores and procured the list of items that we had finalised, taking care to pick up 6 numbers of each item (Operations). By 5:30 PM we were back at college with the items. By that time the others had collected clothes, food items, mattresses etc.

Without further delay, we called the womenfolk of the families and distributed all the items in equal measure and also handed over Rs 500 per house for the other needs that they might have (Delivery). The rest of the money will be used judiciously to by way of helping the children in the families further studies or will be put to such progressive work (Maintenance).

What stood out during this entire exercise was the solidarity and compassion shown by Great Lakers on the whole. There were many people who were out of town, but many of them contacted us and assured help as soon as they were back in town. The way a few of the Great Lakers unselfishly, at the cost of their classes, ran around the entire day, tirelessly working towards a solution was highly commendable. Of special note was Kavitha, Sijo, Rahul Prakash, Sheeba, Vidya, Allen and a few others. The passion shown by each of the Great Lakers was unparalleled.

What is more heart warming is the fact that it will be this set of 162 individuals who will be holding aloft the beacons of the Indian Industry in a few year’s time. And from what was witnessed, it can be safely said that the beacon will shine high and bright for years to come.

Celebrating the spirit of Great Lakes – Global Mindset Indian Roots. 

George Mathew

Class of 2009

Quelling the blaze…

12 AM ( 0000 hrs) Between 12^th and 13^th Feb : A few of us were sitting in the college library reinforcing our management ideals. By 11 :59 , just when the closing bell was rung, our security guards came running in, frantically yelling “Firing!!” four times. That was too unusual under any standards. Instantly our minds ran through an intricate network of images and recent memories. Could firing mean a terrorist attack near Great Lakes? Simultaneously a few more neurons negated the thought telling that Chennai could not be a football field for terrorists …yet. For a moment, the grey cells reprocessed the word “Firing” – this time adding facts like the variations in the word usage , and thus removed ‘-ing’ . “Fire” , throbbed the gut. All of us rushed to the college gate and what we saw shook us momentarily.

The workers colony which is located just left of the turning ahead of the college gate was up in flares. The houses were not the concrete kinds and were made up of organic matter – all an easy fuel for any kind of splinter. The flames, engulfing the shelters , were standing tall and threatened to take on the adjacent houses along . Cables , trees , window panes and curtains of adjoining pukka houses were already caught in the onslaught . It was midnight and the blaze killed all darkness around painting a heart-sinking, scary picture. Loud explosions from Freon cylinders of the neighbors’ air conditioners sliced through the midnight quiet. The inhabitants of the four houses were all out into the street looking helplessly at all their belongings getting swallowed by the ruthless conflagration. There were men, women and children. The elders were trying in vain to douse the fire by splashing water from buckets that were getting filled at the nearby tube well. But it was too little an arm against the monstrous inferno that would not budge. The fire brigade arrived . However it was too late . Within a matter of an hour or so the dwellings were reduced into a barren ground carrying the charred remains of the homes that once used to be. The occupants, some crying at the huge loss were inconsolable at first .They took shelter in one of the temples close by.

The next morning saw Great Lakers pouring in immediate support to the victims. A central aid team was formed who talked with the victims, the mayor and others concerned to understand the ways through which help could be channelized. A fund collection cell was formed and generous contributions from all the students, faculty and staff poured in at once. Great Lakes Management announced an equal contribution to all the collected fund . By evening , the core team expanded and went on collecting used /unused clothes, utensils , utilities etc . to make sure that the basic requirements were immediately taken care of. Within a span of half a day a considerably large relief package was ready for deployment.

The rest is history…

(Suryya Sarkar, Class of ’09)

The thing about an MBA.

The moment I type “Slumdog Millionaire” on one pristine blank document unearthed from the unending repository of Microsoft Works , a corrugated , wavy line appears beneath Slumdog. Spell check error. Right click -> ignore all; only to see all the Slumdogs in the document breathing a sigh of utter relief on being wafted ashore. No. I really do not mean that those red corrugated underlines reminded me of a lake full of parasites. What I try pointing is that land and water are but the only two things left on Earth and being on one of them is but stark inevitable.

2009 is turning out to be the most happening of years that top B Schools are facing . The economy (or rather the lack of it ) on one hand and the campus placements across schools on the other hand. It has already taken a shape of a war.

How long will the time last , we don’t know , but what we do know is that the world is never going to look the same again. Here’s why :

One. An MBA will no more be treated as a short -term -end -realization -shot -in –the- arm. Only those who want to get educated in the field of management science would plunge into it. Value addition is guaranteed and a return in the long term would be assured.

Two. MBA will stop being a buzzword for most wannabe hip-hops who are so often seen munching burgers and slurping gelatos in the thousand malls carelessly strewn across the city landscape in mainland India. It would make sense only to the select little who has got grey cells running extra time and really want to do something worthwhile with their lives.

Three. Fields like Research and Development, Engineering Innovation, Traditional Sciences, Literature, Arts and Defense would suddenly start making sense to a good number of people in ‘India’, whose heart lied in the same but ran a risk of getting dislodged by the mega tornado called MBA.

Four , Only those who have it in them to make a ‘business’ leader will take up the MBA. The ones who see themselves turning into a Kalpana Chawla, Stephen Hawkins or George Clooney will continue doing what it takes to reach there. That’s because all professions will gain a recognition equity .Performance in any field is what is going to be the decider. Be it Design, Arts , Rocket science or yes, Management .

In short, we welcome the new world order. For the time being , am playing the role of an overgrown optimist of guessing that we will reach a day when 10% of all  2009-MBAs globally, will have two job offers and the rest – three. Keeping the fingers crossed in the shape of a “+”.

[Disclaimer: The post is in no way an attempt to influence any decisions or perceptions. It’s just an output of a well working laptop and a few fingers left alone which had no other use for an hour between two back to back marketing lectures. ]

- Suryya Sarkar