The Last Lecture – Redux

The last lectures are always highly anticipated. Some become blockbusters, some taper into damp squibs. Some, however, become stuff legends are made of and told to generations. That happens if your name is a certain Randy Pausch or in this case Dr. Rakesh Singh.

Rakesh Singh is an enigma. He reminds you of the classic nameless western cowboy who rejects everything and walks into the sunset. It doesn’t matter to him whether you applaud or applaud (We don’t think there is any other option). A gold medalist in economics at his university when Bombay was still called Bombay, he unbelongs. He seems a misfit in this system which churns out men and women who are in search of a career rather than a direction. We are glad that he is all that and more.

It’s not often that you are taught by a student of Amartya Sen and that too someone as belief-shaking and opinion-forming as Rocky, as we all lovingly call him, when he is not present (:P). And like Rocky Balboa he knocked out our false pride today as he had done in all classes before, when he made us realize we know nothing about India. It has been a remarkable journey of India for most of the gladiators through his classes. The real India that smells of spices, bicycles to work and is aspiring for more. An India, devoid of multiplexes, where lanterns still glow in the dark and people come back home after a hard day’s toil in the fields. He talked about places we have heard of in Doordarshan news of the yore and conveniently yet sadly forgot as we got sucked into this world of glitz and glamour. This couldn’t have happened on a more appropriate day when we also had a conference on “Financial Inclusion”.

We had heard a lot about this day from our seniors and this last lecture. Expectations were high and he didn’t disappoint. Today was no different. It’s a painfully loud noise that comes when your pride is shattered and we could hear it, loud and clear. There was no escaping the agony of it but the catharsis that came with it was unbounded. Seconds became hours and hours decades as he told us “The India Story”, his India story and what a story it was! He questioned our beliefs, ripped apart our opinions and reformed them.

Sir, thank you very much.

Coming together…

There’s a lot of activity at the G1G room…or the GiG room as we call it. A small bunch of people move in and out in a clandestine fashion locking the doors behind them. As they move out, they carry huge boxes, boxes of various shapes and sizes. Students standing by the stairs, in the common area wonder what is happening at this hour. When most people are worried about tomorrow’s ‘surprise’ quiz, a small group of people feverishly move about the floors with their boxes and a grin on their faces. They gather from G1G at the room on the first floor. Lights are dimmed. The few who know what is going on gather inside and are sworn to secrecy. Was this some top-secret presentation the group was working on? No, it can’t be. What would explain the huge boxes?

It’s a little past 1 AM.A student slowly drags himself into bed. It has been a long day of classes, guest lectures and assignments. All the student looks forward to is his few hours of sleep before he has to wake up and begin work on the pre-reads for the next day’s class ( or that day’s class…it is past 1 AM). Just as he settles into his bed, and as the sandman enters the room, the student is rudely awakened by a noise that he can’t quite figure out. Nothing on campus makes this much noise at this hour. The noise seems oddly familiar. He’s heard it before. It wasn’t noise. It was something far more heavenly. As he quickly darts out of his room and hurries towards the noise, it becomes clearer by the minute. It sounds a lot like a haunting tune from the axe of Roger Glover. It’s probably someone testing out their new music system, but something odd about the combination of the tune. He runs across the floor towards the point from where he heard the familiar tune, slowly opens the door…

And there, it all made sense, the clandestine activity, the huge boxes, the cloak and dagger. It all made sense. For that night, he witnessed the birth of the first Rock Band at the new campus of Manamai. Debut song running on the brand new Ibanez guitar is that of Roger Glover’s famous “Smoke on the Water”. And from the small room, huddled together like a can of sardines, was a huge drum kit, 3 guitarists and a vocalist having what is probably the time of their lives. To any normal person, being claustrophobic in a small room with so many equipments playing tunes like ‘Born to be Wild’, ‘Rocking in the Free World’, etc at full volume is nothing but insanity. But then, all musicians are insane. And the boys in the room were no different.

That fortunate evening, one witnessed the birth of a rock band at the new campus of Great Lakes Institute of Management. This could be a legacy left by the few insane who dared to wake up the entire college at an unearthly hour, and would continue to do so in the many months to come. The band prays that numerous bands follow in their footsteps to make music a cult at the college. Hopefully, a legacy that will, like music, live on for eternity.

The band, christened ‘The Straight F’s ’ ( F signifying the F grade that can strike horror into the heart of many an MBA student) are expected to play their first of many gigs at the first edition of Sangamitra for the year 2009-2010.

Living at the Riot House…

For me, and many others, this was the first time we’re living in a hostel. Now, one is sufficiently educated about the etiquette one is expected to follow while at a hostel. Rules handed down from elder brothers which if not followed, can result in a fairly unpleasant time.

Before I continue, I need to step back in time and give a small history lesson from the great generation of rock and roll. The Andaz West Hollywood is a 257-room Hyatt hotel located at West Hollywood, California. In the late 1960s and 1970s the hotel became the preferred accommodation in Los Angeles for traveling rock bands, due largely to its close proximity to popular clubs such as the Whisky a Go Go. It was during this time that it was given the nickname Riot House on account of the wild antics carried out by band members there, most notably those of English rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, The Who and the Rolling Stones. The hotel was known to be the types that had madness and activity round the clock.

Back to Kannathur village (that’s where the new campus is located). The boy’s hostel is no different from the Riot House. And we do have actual riots. Just last night, after a grueling week of exam after exam, most of the boys were deep in slumber; having dreams of chi-square tests, hypothesis tests, GDP, fiscal deficit and all the data that we had stuffed into our craniums over the week. One would expect the hostel to be as silent as a tomb owing to all the lack of sleep during the week. But then, we’re all rockstars….in the sense, we’re living the rockstar life style. Sleeping was a big mistake.

At 2 in the morning, we have this parade of guys making rounds in all the floors and blocks banging on the doors and waking people up. They were especially merciful to those who had the audacity to shut their lights out and actually sleep. In every hostel, sleep is a blasphemous concept which finds no mercy. Thou shall be woken up at odd hours with regard to mundane things. For me, it is normally a wake up call to ask for my guitar. To top it all, once the parade has passed by your door, a bunch of guys begin playing volleyball. This is at nearly 3 in the morning. Round about the same time, not wanting to feel left out of all the pandemonium and chaos, I turn on ‘Lamb of God’ at full volume, but to no avail. My speakers are not meant for competing with natural noise.

Jam sessions go on late into the night. If that fails, we have Counter strike matches over the LAN which normally begins around midnight. You always have the sincere bunch of future CEO’s and CFO’s with their noses buried in their books and similar paraphernalia. There is always a decent contingent of coffee drinkers. The canteen for quick snacks such as bhel puri and ice cream is almost always occupied by some one or the other. The hostel almost never ever sleeps. And a golden rule, as explained to me was it is futile to resist and oppose change and the natural greater order of hostel etiquette.

Hostel life is nothing but a learning to exist and co-exist in chaos. I remember seeing a description of how the Riot House looked, back in the day on television. We’re almost there. We ought to break-even as far as chaos goes by the end of this term. I guess, we are our own riot house. And the inmates..sorry….students are nothing less than loud, unconcerned rockstars looking to rule the world. Welcome to the Riot house….hope you have a nice day.

- Nikhilesh Murthy

Can I have some fries to go with that order please?

Looks like this is the real deal. A taste of things to come. If we thought things were tough so far, I think we were all fooling ourselves. As of this week, the batch has been quite graciously welcomed by the true spirit of the one year MBA course. And in quite gallant fashion one might add. And to think, we all volunteered for this.

For many of us, we thought that taking our normal sleeping hours from 8-9 and bringing it down to perhaps 5 hours was perhaps the greatest sacrifice we were making, but try not sleeping at all. This seems to be the order on the menu until the end of this week….a week whose end we are all clearly looking forward to. Despite being subjected to the brutalities of the workplace where the extra few hours put in seemed almost barbaric, this week has us redefining the word ‘insane’. Allow me to read out the menu… 3 exams, 1 product launch, 1 case study presentation, 1 presentation to be done on chart (as you would have read earlier) and 1 book review of at least 1500 words…all to be done in a span of 3 days. And the three exams are all biggies…Economics, Statistics and Operations management. For all of us who were drawn into a false sense of security that we had seen the worst, life just upped the ante.

It’s the second night in a row that we’ve gone with a maximum of an hours sleep. People have been showing up to class in a near zombie state. We’ve all reached a stage where our mere sub-conscious seems to have taken over daily activities. And the profs haven’t been given us any mercy what so ever. Attendance and class participation is being monitored even more seriously now. A respectable number of people have fallen victim to sleep in the middle of class, only to be woken up by the professor asking them a question regarding what was being taught. I am quite sure that the cafeteria’s business has nearly tippled thanks to the sale of only tea and coffee. Quite obviously, this would go hand in hand with an increase in the sales of cigarettes in the small shop just outside the campus. The stubble on my face is not because I’m trying to cash in on the whole rugged look, but is an indication that we need way more than a mere 24 hours in a single day. And for each of us, there are our own ways in which we sport the bruises of the last few days. Dark circles and blood shot eyes are the most common scars.

But, all the agony aside, I think this is probably a good thing. At some deep level, this is a sign of the kind of responsibility that industry expects from us and for us to be students with both experience and an MBA degree, we’d all probably look back at days like these and laugh it off thinking it was all a piece of cake. Like Steve Jobs said in his speech at Stanford, “ A lot of things make sense when you connect the dots backwards.” So, the lack of sleep, brain wracking, number crunching, practice and reviews is probably a good thing. At least for me, a great comfort comes from the fact that we don’t have a single reported case of mental insanity or mental breakdown from our seniors, so maybe this is all part and parcel of the order called an MBA degree. Since I’m digesting so much, can I have some fries on the side please? Actually, I had better not ask for any more….lest it leads to indigestion.

– Nikhilesh Murthy

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

A Fortnight After the PGPM Degree.

Its been a fortnight, since we the batch of 08, were conferred our PGPM degree. It suddenly feels eerie and lonely to get out of the student life mode. Gone are the days we chatted galore over special tea at Tamil Nadu stores, the endless Ghee dosais at Purushottam, night Noodles in the Canteen, Midnight parties, Early morning Movies on Projector, Beach walks at 4 in the morning. Now the sandstorm of a year is over and  the dust has settled down and all of us are back again into the corporate world to carve our niche.

 

 I had a made a video for the Sangamitra Night about our past year at Great Lakes with the help of Sham Shet and Athma. Actually replaying this video time and again to relive memories at Great Lakes. I guess I will also miss the time I had posting the Great Lakes Blog, but I guess I would love to chip in as an alumnus on the Blog, whenever I get some time.

Here is the link to the video played on the 30th April at Sangamitra-

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkODMALFBjo

There were a couple of other Nostalgic Videos made during the Year. The interested folks can point their mouse right here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpdC_X6OJwc&NR=1 - Life after 3 months at GREAT LAKES(Class 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADylLCvDw8A&feature=related- A Day in the Life of a Great Laker(Class 2008)

Regards

Kartik Kannan

PGPM Class of 08, Great Lakes Inst of Mgmnt

 

 

 

Racing to the Finish Line

You know its not going to be a podium finish, but you still run the race like mad, just because you need to be ackowledged that you ran the race. Here I am 5 45 in the morning, doing my last set of presentations, case assignments and tests. The course ends on 23rd, and we have a test on 24th. After that its a briefing session for the next 5 days with our junior batch, and on 30th, we get royally kicked out of college, via a convocation. Sometimes, the 1 year MBA itself becomes a drag, given the number of days that we spend sleepless nights, the 2 year course must be a test of patience. I might flunk in yesterday’s FSAV exam, and if that wasnt enough there’s Investment Banking’s end term tommorow. There’s only so many D’s and F’s that I can afford. I hope I get a D in FSAV, that leaves me affording one more D in Investment banking. 3 D’s and I still pass the course.God Save me!

Life at Great Lakes-The past year!

Life in the past year has been a roller coaster ride at Great Lakes. Life has seen the joys, the moments of exhilaration, the darker moments and disappointments also. When one comes to a B school, every body comes with the aim of becoming a transformed person who then goes on to make his mark later in life. Transformation- The English dictionary defines it as , especially extreme psychological or character change, as in the context and vocabulary, but a B schooler wants something more. Well to get an idea, how’s this for that something more? Financial transformations on the paycheque from being software engineer to a strategy consultant/investment banker. A Bschoolers life ideally revolves around first getting subscribed to the fact that this one year is going to be a no-pay year, and they would have to keep costs low, and manage accounts well. They are into the second month at B school and their accounts seemed to be managed well so far, until Financial/Management Accounting comes and reminds them that there is lot more to accounting than what meets the eye. They start to pay closer attention to terminologies like CREDIT and DEBIT, by looking hard at their online bank accounts, and figuring out that life could be so much more easier without so much complex accounting. If those were the first instances of troubling your normal life, here comes the killer whale in the dreaded Stats. Statistics, made us realise how important was it to stay afloat on the sea of numbers and formulae, and we all started paying serious attention to that ubiquitous software called Microsoft Excel that you borrowed from your friend. Apart from all this was to wait in Eastern Philosophy for the noose to be hung around your neck when your chance came to answer, and it was in those moments that I discovered my strengths of predicting my probability of answering a question right was far closer to what Aryabhatta called zero, and depended on arbit and desperate participation to get some points against your name.

B school life is not all that dull and boring, with exams and pre reads. It depends on how you want to make use of the time post dinner. Dinner at the nearby dhabas became a good networking ground for most folks and conversations frequently hovered upon how one got good North Indian food in Chennai, which would unanimously turn out as the next mass networking joint. When folks were too tired after dinner, and didn’t want to devote their attention to the pre reads that were outstanding from the previous information transaction called Class, a bunch of intelligent folks found out how to form a movie club and play movies in the classrooms that were deserted at night. The MNMC(Mid Night Movie club) had movies of all genres and at times even was the host of many stress breakers like the all night carrom tournament and the Counter Strike networking sessions.While some saw strategy in Kotler and Porter, others swore by Age of Empires. In between the din and chaos of the gamers, were silent souls who in other classrooms would be holding a joint meeting to analyse the case given the previous day even as sleep would threaten their logic and resolve.

3 months into B school, one is used to snooze sessions in between classes (for 15-30 minutes) to catch up on those divine moments of peace, extra snooze sessions in classes, and crazy expectation of profs to accomadate pre reads and case study analyses. We learnt the importance of qualititative multitasking and forming strategic joint ventures, so that the group did well in the next days presentations. We still pride ourselves for becoming detectives at night, solving cases all night, to discover that 10 other groups have done much better than your so-called-solution. I for one started hating the word competition for a while, competition in class rooms, cases, pre reads, and even competition to eat lunch beating the queues. Nirvana for a B schooler is snooze, and some like minded friends to step away into a utopian world for a while, as it relieves the stress of the previous day. Life at Great Lakes has helped us to bond better and fight better, keeping the larger objective in mind.All these interactions have helped us see the corporate world and the possible problems that may arise, and the attitude required to take firm decisions.

6 months into Great Lakes, we braved ourselves for the first monetary and functional competition in the race for internship slots. The internship was a peek into the big bad corporate world and just a reflection to remind you that the world out there is not as linear and utopian as a B schooler starts to think after what he calls his “best strategy” in the cases he used to solve.

9 months into Great Lakes, the Pressure and tension was at a all time high, with heavy courses and assessments, competing with monetary dreams, as placement season looms large. Placement season saw a battle that each one was fighting as an individual and as a team, for that was the most tangible take away from the course apart from the eye opening interactions during the courses. Placement season rained jobs and offers, and once that was over, you hardly have the inclination to put even half the effort into the courses scheduled after placement season. The challenge now is to come to college, and not about offering your 2 paisa worth arbit and desperate class participation.

Now as 15 days remain for the program to end, you realise that all that buzz and activity has now settled down in fine dust, that would leave behind traces of an era that just got over. The Junior Crusaders are passing out… and its time for some new wine in the bottle called B school. Long Live the B Schooler’s Life!

Whats Cooking at Great Lakes?

Sessions of Carrom, in between classes

Last doses of Assignment tension and Tensionless sleeping

Desperate measures to copy all important files-presentations done over the year

Fin Guys ruminating over the absolutely bad health of the financial sector.
The page talks about nothing, but JOB CUTS…
Hat Tip( Thanks to Koushik Barua for pointing this out)

Pooran has just returned after being sprayed with colours and slushy water

I look like an alien with my vest and shirt ripped apart in Holi madness. Thats the first time I celebrated Holi in my life

It makes quite a difference when a corpulent guy like Neeraj is made to remove his shirt. Neeraj seemed to give quite a complex to some of the girls with his build

We could have easily been mistaken for colourful beggars, but standing outside a business school with a Strategic Profitability Management book and talks on Financial Statement probably gave it away that we were B schoolersIts the last month at B school, and its these moments that make life lighter. Here I am at 4 am, trying to infuse some mood to sit and type my term paper case on Strategic profitability Management, even as 2 other cases stare at me. Its actually fun, when you slog on a case and you have presented your points well at the end. Felt it with so many presentations over the year. But right now, the freeloader in me is coming alive, and I am sure Logendra and Archana Avaneendran would acknowledge that.

When did some one say Sunday’s were resting? Whoever said it did not have a B schoolers life on his mind at all.

Placement Week!

Placement week started on the 28th, and went till the 29th. This was organised at Shelters resorts near Mahabalipuram, and went off very well. Just as the case is with every growing B school, since there is a huge diversity in the batch, and some students are very specific about the profiles they have recieved, some more companies are being invited to make sure evry one gets the right fit employment. Most of them have 1,2,3 and in some cases 4 offers, and right now, the focus is get the final list that says who is opting for which company. This process has just started, and so have more companies started to evince their interest,by offering more better roles, as they come after the placement process, in the hope to attract students, already having offers. A detailed placement update, will be up soon, as the average can be computed only after the students have decided on their final choice of companies, as some more students have evinced interest in sitting for companies that are coming post placement. The experience of placement week, saw euphoric faces, some saw tense faces, and of course lots of advice and strategy floating around, on where to apply smartly in the limited time. The whole experience in pictures would be up on the blog in some time. I am collating pictures taken by all students armed with either a digicam/camera mobile to capture some of the best shots of those 2 days.

The GD/PI rounds start today, with the Chennai candidates,who would be coming to the campus, in a few hours. Will give an update of the same, in some time.

72 Hours to Placement Season! Whats Cooking up?

Even I have started to visit the library, as I need to get some gnyaan on Marketing.


After Nihit did his internship at Fashion Networks, he seems to have learnt to
pose like a model

Akash Vaze, seems to be sunk in the wave of the Sensex crashing, and is keeping track of what stocks to sell and buy.

Swaminathan, seems to be making last ditch efforts to collect more xerox copies of notes,while also simultaneously slogging out as part of the admission comittee.

Jaideep Chanda generally doesnt make sense, when he reads a book, as he gives me hot competition to doze off, but since moolah is at stake, JD is all about Brands, and would love to sell himself as the self proclaimed progeny of Kotler.

Karthikeyan, seems to be pissed about something, as he chats with friends over careers in the Financial domain

Pravar Saxena, seems more bothered about hefty biceps and abs, as a method to cool off before placements

Sudhir has his goals for corporate life, LOUD and CLEAR!

Prakritish, generally a Travel/Audio/Movies freak, has changed for the call of the moolah.

Talk about Yuppy Onsite Dreams to USA!

Shweta Reddy dozing over business news!

Shweta Reddy trying her best to come over dozing at the Library. Funny antics a’int it?

Rahul and Prachi at 2 in the morning! , and some people never get tired!

Midnight Birthday bashes. Sometimes it pains the heart that such a tasty cake finds its way all over the body except the stomach, when cake smashing happens. I for sure did feel that way

What a way to welcome a person into his 2nd quarter of existence?

Thats what a person gets for playing pichkari at the boys giving the birthday bumps

Mobbed and Chocolated all over! A pity that he was reading Consumer Behaviour, a while before this happened. He could do nothing to stop the mob behaviour .

If somebody gives too much Gnyaan especially when one is tense, his fate is sealed! Kota discovers the hard way

Birthday Cake all over Rishikesh Sinha, as Anubhav seems consoling him, to leave the last bit of Chocolate cake for him.

Abhishek Rai and Himanshu Pahuja, exchanging pleasantries! (errrr…..!!!!)

Vibhor, with the ruins of the “cake battle”. His glasses were quashed in the mad cake melee

So Thats it for now. I have quite a few companies lined up on various slots, plus a music show to attend, and cram whatever time is left for some studies. Actually pretty Jam packed week, but quite an important one. Keep clued on to the blog, to see many behind the scenes sneak previews.

Reported by the Veeranam Times Syndicate!

Whom Do You Want to be Today?

” I am walking on Dalal street for  6 months and spend the next 6 months in New york crunching numbers. I ski in the alps on weekends after working 20 hours a day 5 days a week, catch the flight back to new york to resume this excercise. I crack 2 big mergers and acquisitions in a year. I will bring Virgin Airways to sign an M&A with Captain Gopinath and become a multi millionare. Investment Banking is in man…..”

“I will change the way marketing happens when it comes to selling soaps and fairness creams. I will tap rural India with innovative advertising, and target the local stores with a cost cutting approach to get contecxtual advertising and make sure that stockists and retailers are given better incentivised targets to create larger sales. FMCG is the way to go!”

“The construction Industry is the best industry to get in, with the real estate boom. One should take a cool package in the excess of a million and work hard in learning new areas working on the learning curve and create newer ways of impactful marketing/advertising in the Construction/Real estate Industry”

“The Radio industry is so cool, I should look at a sales/marketing profile to understand the emerging radio market in India. Probably I should look at a lesser salary and a better profile, as the job is interesting and work should be fun”

” The social media industry looks like its too nascent, is it worth betting on it and takiing an offer or is the IT industry better for minting money and flying abroad? But flying abroad and living abroad, has never been my fancy! Hmmm….. wait on”These are the various moods I find myself today, where I start dreaming whenever a company comes for Pre Placement Talks and starts off on its mission. In between the presentation, I visualise myself working in the company, and a flying career, and a promotion and a fat salary….in the respective field and profile,until the next company shows its wares. The problems are there are too many such dreams and I better start sticking to a shortlisted few so that I make a decision that will help my career in the long run! The Placement season has well and truly rubbed off on me at Great Lakes

Phew! Respite? Not Really

The last 2 weeks have seen me sleeping very less, averaging between 3-4 hours every day due to heavy workload and actually not-so-good efficiency of working. A tiring mind, always takes that much longer to charge up and work full throttle. All the hardwork for Latitude, in making the videos, finally paid some dividends, no goof ups. What was really impressive was to find the unbridled enthusiasm that batchmates had in conducting L’ATTITUDE. I enjoyed evry inch of the sessions except for the times when the auditorium was empty as the other events were conducted in the conference halls. Its been a hectic weekend, at the venue…running helter skelter to put up a good show, and the madness continues. Pending assignments, cases, and readings have piled up. I promised myself that I would be a better student this term and try and learn things better(placement season is round the corner), and right now, I foresee a lot of effort that may be needed to sell myself to employers.

Read more about L’ATTITUDE   right here

Would write in detail about  L’ATTITUDE, in a day or 2

Surveys Season at Great Lakes

I have been swamped with friend’s requests to fill up a survey. It’s that time of our course, where we arrive at the 3rd stage of our empirical research and the research calls for some primary data on people’s perception, and thats why the surveys. Every one is hooked on to freeonlinesurveys and surveymonkey sending surveys through Orkut. If that wasnt enough, they also vehemently put the survey link on their Gtalk status and inundate 164 email inboxes. I dont remember who sent which topic in their surveys, but glance at each one of them and say, your survey will be done BY EOD( A phrase I learnt in the corporate world which meant “ok now leave me alone” ). I guess every one is in that phase where they want others to fill in surveys and also NOT fill others survey as some surveys are time consuming.

 These surveys have made people more innovative as they realise that they need to have what it takes to get the work done. Some go to people personally and sit with them, with a laptop, requesting 2 minutes of their time( 2 minutes… thats the clincher to attention). Logendra was the more innovative of the lot, as he decided to distribute printed copies of his survey when the whole class was waiting for an address from our placement head. It was taking some time, and people were not doing anything special apart from frivolous banter, and it was the right time to give the survey paper, as people could not feign that they were busy. Apart from we B schoolers, the major part of the survey was filled in from industry contacts and our network was basically used to fill in the numbers that remained. 

Enthusiasm is never down, with messages like ” Please fill my easy survey” coming in a few minutes back. Some smart alecks have other pick up lines that attract people to click on the link. However crazy as this may sound, this survey episode reminds of me the existential challenges in Online Marketing, where one does all that one can to elicit user attention to use the emotions experienced at the time of reading that one smart aleck line in the email subject.

May the tribe of the Kotlers rise…………..