Great Lakes, with the firing mechanism- a coruscating metallic lock (the biggest mock IPO event); fitted on the wooden butt end -stock of the gun (20 acres green campus); Powered with nine cylindrical smoking barrels (seven of these were Great Lakes teams) fired incessantly for over eight hours.

Even as the met department issued signs of warning, even as the torrential rain consumed the east coast road, Great Lakers escorted the enemy tanks (teams from other institutions) to the war zone. And, soon it began.

Prof. R.S. Veeravalli-Director Executive MBA, opened the event with the characteristic elegance and composure that he is known for. Welcoming the guests, he quipped that Great Lakes has been busy praying for rain this morning, so the visitors would remember the day for a life time. He later remarked that the memorable day has been made possible by the judges who have confirmed to be on the panel, and expressed his deepest gratitude for making to the event despite the deluge.

Judges:

1. Srinivasan Vishwanathan, partner at Apt Talent Partners, Inc
2. K. Ramakrishnan, Executive Director & Head, Spark Capital
3. Mr. R. Narayan, VP, HDFC Bank

Mr. Vishwanathan recalling his meeting with Dr. Bala V. Balachandran (Dean and founder of Great Lakes), noted that his visit to Great Lakes has been a memorable one. He observed “I have not seen such an event anywhere else. Perhaps this is one of its kind; a unique one”. Later he spoke about the sea change in the style of investing today, from what it had been twenty years prior to now. In this context, he noted “I think it was Reliance that changed the way we looked at stocks”. Moving on, he explored the rationale behind the shift. Technology, he opined, shrunk the product life cycles and has brought in short term focus.

The event began with all the teams presenting the companies they represented while investors sifted in their minds, their priorities.

T. S. Eliot resignedly postulated in 1915 (albeit in a different context)

Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse

Every one of us, ones playing investors, ones representing the nine companies, all of us submitted to neurotic indecisiveness in the face of suffocating intensity of the game as the event began.

Every single minute, someone in a corner somewhere in the big hall of three hundred switched his priorities of investment. The worried ones left the hall to sip hot coffee in Bajaj Bistro, the jubilant ones sat meditatively staring at the steel structure in the India Cements Amphitheater.

And, so it went on for over eight hours.
Please check out the winners at our Achievements page.
http://www.greatlakes.edu.in/studentAchievements.php

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Mohit Sewak

(http://mohit.sewak.in) , mohit@sewak.in

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The Changing Consumer Perception

India is poised to become a major Auto hub in the near future. Indian car industry is changing rapidly, so is the mindset of Indian Consumers. We, at the Great Lakes Institute of Management, took an initiative to find out that whether the changing ground realities have also changed the India Auto Consumer’s mindset vis-a-vis their perception of the abilities of various Indian and foreign Auto manufacture to deliver the much sought after attributes in a car. We deliberately, instead of taking individual cars, took BRANDS (as we wanted to analyse the brand perception mapping), and let the consumer decide which brand will he buy (Note: It is important to note that in some cases, though a consumer may covet a brand highly e.g. BMW, but might not intend buying it due to many reasons. So we specifically framed question to analyse the purchase intention), and the attributes for which he will go for that particular brand. It was surprising to find the changing perception of the consumer towards TATA, especially after it being the proud owner of Jaguar and LR on one hand, and the maker of the worlds smallest, and economical (& affordable) car Nano on the other. There were many more surprising results as well, have a look… . .

The Result (Survey Dated 8th Decemper, 2009)

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Attribute Mileage:

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its fuel efficiency (eg. NANO). LOWEST: HONDA- Car people are least like to buy it were for its fuel efficiency (mileage).

Attribute Safety:

Highest: MARUTI- Car people would like to buy the most for its Safety preparedness. LOWEST: TATA- Car people are least like to buy it were for its Safety preparedness.

Attribute Cost:

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its cost effectiveness (eg. NANO). LOWEST: FORD- Car people are least like to buy it were for its cost (value for money).

Attribute Comfort:

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its Comfort (e.g. Jaguar). LOWEST: HONDA- Car people are least like to buy it were for its Comfort.

Attribute After Sales Service (Maintenance cost, frequency and accessibility):

Highest: TATA- Car people would like to buy the most for its After Sales Service. LOWEST: HONDA- Car people are least like to buy it were for its After Sales Service.

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The Process

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Cars Analyzed

(Survey Question: Which Brand of car will you choose?)

1. Tata
2. Honda
3. Maruti
4. Ford
5. Hyundai

Attributes Surveyed

(Survey Question: What factor motivates you to buy this brand?)

1. Comfort
2. Safety
3. Mileage
4. Cost (Price)
5. After Sales Service

Respondents

Number: 114 Age Group: 24 to 35 Education: Graduation and above Profession: Management Students Ethnicity: Indians- Representing all states of India Social Class: Middle class and above

Analysis Carried Out

• Statistical Tool: Correspondence Analysis
• Mapping Dimensions: 2
• Test: Chi Square
• Test Value: 73.897
• Test Significance: 0.000 . .

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Available Downloads:

1. SPSS Data File For the Research.

2. SPSS Output File For the Data Analysis.

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By: Mohit Sewak, http://mohit.sewak.in

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There was never a longing for sun in Chennai as it is now. It has been a week, sun is held back by the thick clouds that look menacingly towards the earth. I still remember those days when sun would enquiringly peep above the horizon, searchingly shed light on the edge of my table cloth, paint it yellow and pale. Light smoothly slides over, finds a coffee mug or some such object, and glides over it (for the morning light is still weightless); reaches the end of the table, swoops over the edge, and floats on the floor much as a reptile with no legs. The light now passes over a spoon lying on the floor and swathes it crimson gold; now reaches the end and crawls up the wall, above and above it climbs until the wall is flushed yellow.

Must be a cold morning breeze, for the leaves of the tree beside my room gently tap against the window. Slowly the light grows in intensity, now it has gained some weight, it slips from the surface of objects to explore their bodies and uncovers them one after another. Light explores the objects that are submerged in darkness and brings them to life, lifts them out, much as an explorer underwater pulls one out of water; gives form to the table, spoon, floor and the wall. Gradually the objects are rid of their golden colour, now they are firm, inelegant and exuding raw energy. Some glisten as if they find sun inhospitable; others merely stand alive and naked in the sun.

As the sun ascends higher and higher, the light on my bedroom wall slips as if sun is pulling it back; I watch as the light desperately clings on to my spoon here, and table there, I still watch aghast as the last pools of light resting on the curtains by the window part. And the sun was gone.

That was last week, and since then it has been raining here in Chennai. Classes as usual, but the students have reserved themselves with playing football indoors; from upstairs one can see students leaving the canteen covered with umbrellas. The progress of construction of guest rooms inside the campus is slightly hampered by the torrential rains; some of us sneezing (some have moved on to catching cold already);  atmosphere humid and air clean, sky dark and clouds menacing, floor slippery and slippers muddy, shoes heavy and clothes clinging to the body, head scratchy and body aching.

Every one of us is waiting for the sun. The thick clouds are still protesting saintly and the sun has so far failed to pierce them; the clouds above are so low that they are brushing the tips of tall trees beside our campus, and resting on some mountain or plain in the horizon.

So far, no sun!

After filling her plate with bread sandwiches, a bowl full of cornflakes and hot milk, she proceeded to sit in a lonely corner of the canteen. There she held the sandwich loosely between her fingers and brought it closer to her mouth. She was in a rather pensive mood, for she bit into the sandwich meditatively, almost mechanically she chewed her food, and was staring into blankness. Her plaintive mood depressed him, and he rolled his tongue over the over-chewed remains of a single bite of sandwich, much as a bull does in its period of rumination on a lonely afternoon under the shade of a banyan tree- with the sun trying to look through the leaves that shifted with a small whiff of air; and the flies poking into the thick skin; and the white swans deliberately walking over (with their thin weakly long legs, as if in eternal fear and trepidation of something or someone watching them, slowly balanced on one leg, and the other tucked in, about to be deployed. Oh but one must think! Above all one must be sure if the other leg has to be deployed or not. Look around and only after absolute certainty should one walk), the giant mammals preserve their stately state.

The man standing before the kitchen door wonders if breakfast cereals had fibers of melancholy in them, hidden inside they would await a victim, and once in mouth multiply and secrete a juice that produced the hormones of melancholy. And, now he is dragged in too. The network of rumination (the frightful clarity of staring into abyss) drags in each and every occupant of the canteen. Every new person that entered into the canteen, choose (by the inherent virtue of an unknown treaty) some place calm, some place morose, lonely, uneventful, once here the person would reveal himself, expose to the open jagged ends of the spider net. And, it goes on, the invisible spider crawls up above the floor of every single person’s mind, hooks them up and suspends them, baits them for every new person that enters the canteen. It is only a matter of time before everyone submits to the omnipotent and omniscient spider-the spider of drowsiness, and everyone merely stares into the abyss.

Great Lakes canteen is a rarity in itself, it has the seething brilliance of an afternoon, and accommodates almost punctually to the chaotic snacking of the evenings, princely (and stately) catering of the night, but above all preserves the glory (with a certain wickedness) of the mornings. After a vertiginous night out (with the brain servicing room for more, and more, and more….. flooding of information), and barely enough sleep (for the dusk sinks they are awake, and the dawn rises they are awake), Great Lakers wake up to a fine breakfast. Each student walks into a lonely corner of the canteen; (mornings) canteen is rid of the usual chatter, the kitchen door is open and the milk man walks in and out delivering packages of milk, a lonely person (where there would be tens during the rest of the day) stands before the counter serving nonchalantly, the white dog before the canteen door would still be sleeping, the maid inside the kitchen leisurely chops off carrots (or potatoes or tomatoes…). The absence of hubbub in canteen makes it such a desirable place that only sleepwalkers would fail to notice. Someone turns on the radio from inside the kitchen, or the delivery van has come and the man is unloading the day’s vegetables (fresh from the market), and the men get to work solely, slowly, languidly. The morning glory of the canteen lasts only for a precious thirty minutes (on some days, it lasts longer, perhaps on a Sunday), and it gradually dissolves into the surroundings as the kitchen crew pours in.

And, just as the morning glory of the canteen dissolves, the spider of drowsiness retreats into its shelf, and all the students un tethered and unhooked from the bonds of the spider, become active and the day goes on until the next morning, until the spider wakes up, until the morning glory of the canteen magically conjures up.

Frigidity, ah I reprimand such an indecent display of nature’s will! She thought as she looked about her helplessly. Unhitching the torn sari’s end from the hatchet lying on the dried and woodened floor, she gaped at the horrific sight before her. Dusty wind stormed towards her, hurling dry twigs, sticks of wood and burnt ash (of trees that the villagers fell). Wind passed her by, now swooping to collect debris by the hut here, now dropping it on the corpse of a buffalo there. Poor thing, he is limping now, she thought as she approached her husband. Fatigue and fright had deprived him of humanness. He felt dizzy and nauseated; he hated himself for the nature’s wrath (famine). He trusted no one, the figure approaching him was menacing, no they would never understand him, mankind was upon him, it was a terrible curse, to be born and to live a life such as this. Her husband was talking to himself; he bothered her, only yesterday he talked about killing himself. Such a terrible thing to say, for a man like him, they had better lives, in those days; he walked about the village in his neatly ironed cotton shirt, but now, nature with her spiteful venom dried up their wells, sucked up the clouds (so high were they now, it no longer rained) and ruined their lives. ‘The terrible creature again’ he ran madly, ‘they are going to kill me now’ he screamed with mortified terror of the unknown and crawled up into the attic that disturbed the kettle that was suspended from the roof. The kettle tumbled on the floor, with the pugnacious dog by its side, for the rice from previous night was now emptied out of it. The creature maliciously craned its neck and faced the indescribably hapless owner, dropped its neck and began eating as the owner watched the day’s food being snatched away mercilessly.

Splendid, ah how I like it! Such a beauty, the drapes fluttered joyously as the hostess opened the window. Wind blew the drapes over the smooth round pillars, lollopped over the velvet fabric and caused a rapid flapping- tut, tut, tut, and the hostess closed the window, duly apologizing for her mannerisms. The window doors creaked softly, reminding the hostess of the remarkable job done by her carpenter. I must invite him for the party next time, she thought. The wind receded, with one huge whimper and the drapes slowly settled into folds by the window side as if life beneath them has been sucked away, and wrinkled, there, they lay for the rest of the party. A man in an impeccable suit, brown hair, blue eyes and stout shoulders walked into the big hall that was radiating with energy. The hostess soon recovered (for she wasn’t expecting him) and stately, she approached him. ‘How delighted I am that you accepted my invitation’ she rejoiced with her cheeks flushed. His hair was drawn back and neatly combed, ‘he looks fabulous’, she thought.  The hall was decorated with majestic velvet drapes, a huge chandelier in the middle suspended from the roof that mimicked an octopus with the tentacles (coloured in gold) running all the way from the roof to the floor (thickening on their journey) and branching into the pillars draped in velvet. The hostess lifted her cat and patted it. She fed her cat with the most delicious food and blushed as the creature took turns between licking its paws and nibbling at the bread crumbs.

The stark contrast between the two lives is depressingly clear. ‘Great Lakes’ endorses the idea of fundamental disciplines. In its attempt to build leaders of tomorrow, the institute has sworn to deliver on its promises-to churn out men of character, of desire to balance the pans (of rich and poor, of educated and uneducated, of good and bad). It is said that a nation progresses together with all of its people or merely tips the balance way off. Great Lakes is endeavouring to foster social responsibility among tomorrow’s leaders. It is the responsibility of tomorrow’s leaders to build a strong nation- a nation full of heroes.

The conundrum of success and failure is never ending one. You don’t succeed if you don’t try. But when you try, failure is at a knocking distance. But try, you must!

For starters a B School event is nothing like a normal event. Add a heap of a Quiz or two, 1 teaspoon of B Plan contest, one trading simulation game, two crates of white paper contests, for appetizer a Debate contest, as a garnish add a Rock music performance, Eureka you have a B School event.

Present batch of Great Lakes, Patriots, are there all across B Schools these days. These festivals are an amazing place to showcase talent but more importantly it’s a vindication of all your learnings both in the class rooms and out of them.

Every now and then news of a new conquest comes trickling. The quietness of East Coast Road, with an occasional car zooming towards Pondicherry, is in stark contrast to the hectic preparations for the latest event being done inside the Great Lakes campus. May be this very unique mix of ethereal beauty and best management education makes us who we are.

The ongoing ‘Footie’ – Great Lakes football championship is the icing on the cake.

Check out the latest news on Great Lakes Student achievements @:

http://www.greatlakes.edu.in/studentAchievements.php

He opened his eyes slowly, looked at his wife, first the chin, then the nose and finally the forehead. She was sewing, with her lips pursed (as all women do while sewing). He watched her intently, was it the morning’s fog that was rubbing its back against the bedroom window, was it the day’s first shaft of light that slantingly stroked her ears, was it the jocund manner in which she brandished her needle as a child does its scars, he no longer remembered, but she was beautiful, and nothing else mattered. She muttered something indistinctively, rose and brushed the crumbs of bread on her frock, flapped it once in air, pulled the needle away, started, as if she has seen a ghost. He never woke up so early, she held his face up by her pink palms and kissed him on the lips, there is nothing whatever the matter with him, she declared after examining his sleepy eyes and wrinkled forehead with her lips.

Here at Great Lakes, students approach electives as the protagonist did his wife. First the perusal of course outline, then the first session, and finally the assignments. All the trepidation is washed away and the students begin to love the electives, for each elective taught by the best and only the best in that field. Most of the professors fly from US, for they feel united in the sublime cause (to be the change, be the best and make India proud) for which the institute stands for. And, the professors shower their love (fuelled formidably by their passionate reverence to the subject) on the students, just as the protagonist’s wife did.

Holding her purse in one hand, tea cup in another, she approached him. Washing the tea around with a spoon, he lent his eyes to the purse. She was hiding her hands behind her, such a ravishing beauty she was, he thought. Much as a hen spreads her feathers and guards the nest and eggs, she was hiding something from him. He shaded his eyes with the back of his palm and looked at her. With glistening eyes and hair that had fallen over her forehead, with the sun that flew in to catch her smiling, with the parrot on the window sill picking at her wings, with the cat that stopped licking its paws, in the bright morning, she looked frightfully gorgeous. He stroked her cheeks with his palm, held her hair that was smoothly caressing her forehead and tucked it away, rolled it over her ears with his thumb and index finger. Slowly he extended his arms about her, embraced her and pulled the hidden object out of her hands. It was the purse; it had a beautiful rose knitted on one side. After thorough examination, he indicated to her that the rose was so good that it had to be in the middle rather than on a side.  Ah she liked him for that! She loved him the most when he commented on her hobbies. The moment was so precious for her, it was a moment that she lovingly gulped in, if someone walked into the room right now, they wouldn’t realise that a precious and intimate moment had just occurred, and she thought, it was so intimate that only she and her husband would know, it was theirs and no one would notice. She loved him for that.

Much as the relationship between the protagonist and his wife, the lecturers hide their most precious objects (case studies, assignments) until the very end. And, at the end of the course, students lovingly embrace (with a thorough understanding of the subject) the case studies and business plans. And the lecturers are so delighted with the display of passion (by the students in their deliverance of the assignments) that they tuck the moment close to their hearts. And the relationship between any guest lecturer from any part of the globe and the student stays fortified forever, as they promise to come back to Great Lakes, for little did they knew (or expect) that passion of the kind displayed at Great Lakes existed.

It was just today early morning at 1AM when we returned to our campus after having the best two days as a part of Great Lakes. It is not often that you as students are treated so well by a corporate industry and that too by one which is among the best in the country.

We arrived in Mumbai on Oct 22 and were handed over two Innovas which were to be used by the nine of us to go around Mumbai on a sight-seeing trip. Quite a few of us had not visited Mumbai earlier and we made the best use of the vehicles and covered as much as we could from the Gateway of India to Queen’s necklace to the new suspension bridge. All this included a lunch at a Mexican restaurant which just added flavour to the trip. Lots of photos were clicked at various points, most of them being close to the beach area which presented a scenic view.

All exhausted we made our way to the Godrej guest house at Vikhroli by 7PM. The Godrej housing colony at Vikhroli is a huge campus and seems like a town in itself. All the people freshened up and moved out again at 7:30PM to go on to the next leg of our journey, to a new mall pretty close to the Godrej campus.

The next day after a hearty breakfast at the guest house mess, we all got ready to visit the Godrej Sara Lee office which was five minutes drive from the guest house area. We went straight into a meeting with the top managers of GSLL – Executive Vice President (PSO), K.Somanathan and Associate Vice President (Manufacturing H&BC North East) – R.S. Gopalakrishnan who explained to us about the processes within Godrej Sara Lee. This was followed by a meeting with the Deputy General Manager (Marketing) – Vinod Salvi who threw some light on critical marketing concepts in a manufacturing industry. After this we had a session with the HR Manager – Pooja Sharma. It was good to interact with the top notch managers of a top company. We then proceeded to have our lunch at the Godrej cafeteria. After lunch we were escorted to the R&D centre where the R & D Head – Dr. Sreedharwe showed us how the products in GSLL are created and tested, we then actually got to see the R&D centre and its practices; it was a very insightful trip across the R&D centre. Next was our meeting with Mr. Mahendran, the MD of Godrej Sara Lee wherein all of us shared our two day experience with him and also got to talk exclusively about Godrej Sara Lee as a company and its future plans. It’s always good to listen to person of his stature. It was 4:30PM and two Innovas were waiting to drop us back to the airport for our flight back to Chennai.

We reached Chennai at 11PM due to a delay in flight and reached the campus by 1AM. It was a trip which will be remembered very dearly by all the nine of us, for it was a trip which showed us why Godrej Sara Lee is a leader in quite a few segments of the market!

By

Syed Zoheb [syed.zoheb@mail.greatlakes.edu.in]

There has been a change in the atmosphere inside the campus. In the past couple of days, it has begun raining; the neatly ploughed fields beside the campus are drowned, the deepest of furrows marooned, only the tractor stands in the middle of the fields, lonely as if awaiting its turn to pluck the soil with its sharp rusted teeth on the trail. The sun is covered with thick veils of translucent clouds; the whole sky now looks seamless as if the painter has dabbed the borders of the sky on his painting board with cotton buds.

Just as the driver of a four wheeler, after driving up an incline, pulls his feet off the throttle on a long ride and the four stroke IC engine idles, so the campus is idling presently. The driver sits back and relishes the scenic beauty of the lush green fields on either side of the roadway that converges briefly into a bridge over a canal; the driver stops the vehicle and sits by the bridge-with the sound of water running into rock crevices in the background, he lifts his head and gapes at the bluish sky scarred with a straight line of smoke (a jet plane must have left the trail of cloud). And, the driver wonders, amazed by the straight line of thin streak turning into a thick amorphous cloud and finally disintegrating into the bluish sky.

Seated with his back against the cement wall, sound of water pulling his nerves taut as strings of a guitar, he reacts promptly – he descends into depths of serenity as if water in the canal carried rich sediments from the Himalayas and paused just for the moment on its way to the ocean, for he was present there; birds paused briefly in their flight, swooped down upon him, for he was separating grass stalks holding them by their tips and reaching out to the roots as if he was searching for something (but what! He no longer remembered, but it did not matter anyhow); the wheat fields on either side of the road swayed towards him, for they too wished to be present; the sky lowered itself down; and the clouds enraptured with delight, drizzled, for never before have they all witnessed a person so calm and assimilated into nature.

It is perhaps the atavistic nature of an MBA course, or the anachronistic feeling of a great laker, because we had no classes for the last couple of days. And, this is such a rare moment that every one of us has been epitomizing the driver. Our reflections over the serene comforts of the driver are needless to say, ephemeral, for we have received the time table for our next week and it is anything but serene.

The sun has come out into the open and the lonely tractor in the fields beside our campus has already begun its work. The driver of the countryside is no more than a lucid dream, for the running water, birds, fields, sky and the clouds have all disappeared now, and the roadway if anything is chaotic with vehicles honking horns rapidly. The driver gets into the vehicle and as he drives, he reflects on the brief but enraptured moment of experience he had. As the roadway is punctuated every now and then with small bridges such as the last one, great lakers burn their midnight oil amidst chaotic schedules, anticipating another one of those days with nothingness, another one of those bridges.