Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research inks MOU on Energy Management with Great Lakes

Dignitaries: Dr. Baldev Raj, Dr. Sai Baba and Dr. Prabhat Kumar

Dr. Baldev Raj, Director, IGCAR and Dr. Bala V. Balachandran, Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management signed a MOU today pledging co-operation in the study of Energy Management

Energy scenario

In his characteristic and insightful speech Padma Shri Dr. Baldev talked about the importance of energy and the pivotal role it plays in nation building. “Coal is still the king, but we need science & technology to find out newer ways to make country energy secure”. He sympathized and said “Common person is concerned about availability of energy”. In another 25 years energy industry will become a trillion dollar industry. According to him, this is an apt time for the younger generation to take initiative and develop multi parameter thinking. India is known for frugal engineering and it should be put to use in the energy sector.

Dr. Baldev also felt that there is an urgent need for a think tank on energy. Though India is a global leader in Fast Breeder Reactors, the country needs to come up with long term strategies to harness the renewable sources of energies like the Solar, Wind and Tidal energies. He emphasized that Science and Technology alone cannot accomplish this herculean task – razor sharp management minds and in-depth Financial Risk Management of such large scale projects are required to successfully execute them.

MOU

The association of Great Lakes with Department of Atomic Energy goes a long way. Dr. Baldev Raj also taught as a visiting faculty at Great Lakes. The MOU will develop the idea based collaboration at Great Lakes with the energy management insight of IGCAR. Great Lakes, in collaboration with Baur College of Business, University of Houston, is in advanced stages of finalizing an Executive Programme on Energy Management.

Great Lakes has also partnered with IGCAR to make a difference to the neighboring areas of Kalpakkam, situated at around 65 Km from Chennai. Karma Yoga, an initiative where all the 260 students of Great Lakes visit assigned villages and work for the upliftment in terms of health care, sanitation, communication, micro finance among others.

About IGCAR

IGCAR was established in the year 1971, under the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India. The centre is engaged in broad based multidisciplinary programme of scientific research and advanced engineering directed towards the development of Fast Breeder Reactor technology.

Fast Breeder Test Reactor based on unique mixed Plutonium Uranium Carbide fuel, First of its kind in the world and KAMINI Reactor, the only operating Reactor in the World using U233 fuel are successfully operated.

The design of 500 MWe Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor is completed and the construction is in progress.

URL: http://www.igcar.ernet.in/

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

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)

CREATIVITY… can it be taught ?

Boy, you must be kidding !! Nothing can be farther from the truth and this subject statement is completely Hogwash.

Well this bold statement was made by Mr. K R Ravi who’d come to deliver us a guest lecture on “Lateral Thinking & Creativity“. One has to keep one’s eyes and ears open when the speaker is none other than a well known management guru who also happens to be South Asia’s First Dr. EDWARD DE BONO certified public trainer in Lateral Thinking.

But then, I must admit, he definitely had some point.

Contrary to popular perception, Creativity is not only something which Mr. M F Hussein or Mr. Javed Akhtar are bestowed with. Even generation of new ideas during brainstorming session in a Boardroom can also be termed as Creativity. Looking at the same problem with altogether a different mindset is another example of being creative. And this Creativity, Mr. Ravi emphasized, can be very well taught and learnt. So Creativity is nothing more than a skill with a specific set of techniques which can be learnt by anybody.

Some other management gyaan from this guru :
- If you have defined a given problem in only one way, you might not have defined the problem completely.
- If you have come up with only one solution to a given problem, you might not have got the complete solution.

His final words of advice to us :
Keep on challenging the existing notions, beliefs and assumptions as they are the biggest stumbling blocks in way of Lateral Thinking and Creativity.

Well said Mr Ravi…..!!

Arun Tuli

Class of 2009

Ni Hao Ma!

We Great Lakers dont really wish in  Chinese, or IM in Chinese, but we would get a fair hang of a Chinese movie than most others   and NDTV acknowledges the fact that Great Lakes is the only B school thats realised the importance of Chinese in adding a dimension to understand the culture of China, which offers immense business oppurtunities.

Check this Link on how Indian B-Schoolers can benefit from learning Chinese- http://www.ndtvprofit.com/2008/07/01102255/Indian-MBAs-can-benefit-from-l.html

PS: Ni Hao Ma means, How are you in Chinese, the words that my Tam Brahm Chinese instructor drilled every day while at Great Lakes

Posted by Kartik Kannan

PGPM Class of 2008

 

We are moving, soon!

East Coast Road, the express highway that connects Chennai to Pondicherry and runs along the Bay of Bengal Coastline, has beautiful sights to offer. The road which boasts of a number of attractions for the tourists will now have the best management students flocking to it.

Great Lakes Institute of Management will soon have a new address. Construction is on in full swing at the site of new campus. The Institute will move into the new 13.11 acre campus which is located 55 kms from Chennai, on the scenic East Coast Road (ECR). The Wi-fi enabled building will have three wings, namely residential, recreational and academic and is using the Green Architecture techniques of construction. A Green building ensures that harmful impact of the construction on environment and human health is minimum. Such a construction reduces energy usage, waste material and operation/maintenance costs. The sprawling new campus would be platinum rated – the highest possible rating for any Green building.

More formal coverage of this news here:

http://www.indiainfoline.com/Bschool/innernews.asp?storyId=66198&lmn=13&val=1

and here:

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/12/02/stories/2006120201870200.htm

Some pictures taken at the site 3 months back

Pillars of Excellence

Architect’s rendition of things to come:

To watch the virtual campus in action click on the link below:

http://greatlakes.edu.in/manamaiAnimation.php

Farewell Party for Jaycees at Flame

Fresh from a two day outbound at the scenic Green Coconuts Resort, I was high on the newly formed friendships and hung over on the fun we had there as a team. Everyone I knew was desperately looking forward to test their newly learned salsa skills on the dance floor. The opportunity came to us in the form of the Farewell Party.

The Champions (Class of 2009) bid adieu to the Jaycees (Class of 2008 ) in style at the Flame Le Club, La Royal Meridian. We made sure that the outgoing class had one last wild night of partying they would cherish forever.

The college buzzed with activity on the day of the party. Students collecting their invitations, the events group rehearsing their acts and all of us just wanting to fast forward to the evening. Everyone rushed home after the last lecture to change into their party clothes.

The venue was one of the most happening nightclubs in Chennai, Flame Le Club, or so I had heard. As soon as we entered the club I knew we are in for a great evening. The shiny disco balls made me dizzy, the music was entrancing, the bar well stocked with drinks and snacks but I decided to put everything on hold and headed towards the pool table. I shot pool with Champions and Jaycees and lost all the matches, which was no surprise since I was totally out of practice. Giving up, I headed to meet the other Great Lakers who were pouring in as the time for the events to begin closed in. There was a huge crowd near the stage area but I found a convenient place atop a table to watch the on-goings.

Sijo and group set the flavor of the night by singing and playing along to Papa Kahte hain and Sutta Na Mila. This was followed by two rocking dance performances and Jaycees and Champions alike were pulled in to the dance frenzy. Nostalgia was invoked by a video depicting different stages of Jaycees’ one year journey through the PGPM.

After a couple of rounds of complimentary drinks and snacks, everyone was set to hit the dance floor. With the DJ churning the best of latest dance hits, the atmosphere was electric. The Great Lakers put on their dancing shoes and set the dance floor on fire.

What followed on the dance floor could best be described by the pictures given below.

Not even the sumptuous dinner could pull people away from the dance floor and the partying continued well into the night.

~ Prakash

Convocation of PGPM Batch of 08

The 4th Batch of Great Lakes flagship program, PGPM along with EMBA students graduated on 30th April 2008. The event saw Chief Editor of Hindu N Ram & Satyam’s Ramalinga Raju addressing the students.  They urged business schools not to ignore factors such as the national deficit, the country’s poor human development indicators and the massive challenges of poverty, illiteracy and poor healthcare.

The event was covered in various news dailies & links for some of them are mentioned below

http://www.hindu.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050157310500.htm

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/05/01/stories/2008050151941000.htm

With every year Great Lakes has been able to make a mark in the industry & this year too saw the brand equity of “Great Lakes” going higher than expected.

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.

The Day never ends…or does it?

Life seems to drag on. Earlier we used to slog, with placements in mind as the scenario. Placements happened, or rather its still happening for specific profiles, and life looked like it had changed with a sense of freedom. The assignments are back, late nights are back, 3 am cofee sessions are back…all with a month to go for our course to end. Cant believe that one year has passed so quickly. It was only last April that we joined, and its already 11 months. I realised the pinch, when the results for Great Lakes 2008-09 batch was released last night. I seem to have rusted in the month of february, and with a month to go, the adrenalin is slowly getting back. I guess its time, I hit the sack, as I need to be fresh to be able to present something that makes sense to the former Chief election commisioner of India- Mr T.N.Seshan. Any answer I give in class, he makes me think whether what I uttered was worthy of attention at all, makes me rethink on my statement again and again, that when I speak to him, its a highly doctored version of my viewpoint that goes through 2 stages of “dhulai” within my mind and then comes out. Its also time for Tata Crucibles quiz later in the day, which I have been awaiting, after the rather dissapointing performance in the ET in campus quiz, where we came 4th. Finishing in the finals did make me happy, but getting stuck on stage at crucial moments was our undoing. Ok, I keep promising that I would hit the sack, but this time, I am ending the post right here right now as mosquitos in Chennai seem to be on a rage to explore my pants.

Great Lakes wins Case Study Compt at London Business School

Marg Constructions – A Case Study presented by Dr Veeravalli – Director Corporate Initiatives, Great Lakes along with Prof Sriram – Executive Director, Great Lakes has been shortlisted amongst the top 9 winners by London Business School, Aditya Birla India Centre’s initiative.

The List of winners are mentioned on http://www.london.edu/birlaindiacentre/news.html

This  is  great news and would help Great Lakes strengthen its presence in Corporate World. 

Further to this, all the winners of this London Business School, Aditya V.Birla India Centre’s event has been published recently in the 6th Anniversary Issue (Feb-Mar 2008) of  “The Smart Manager” magazine under the cover page story of “Exceptional Case Studies on Transformation Change
Management and Innovation”.

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!

T.N.Seshan Joins Great Lakes as a Permanent Faculty

T N Seshan, the fiery former election commissioner of India, has joined Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai as a full time faculty. He took his introductory class on January 21.Mr. Seshan shall be teaching a course on Leadership at Great Lakes called Leadership, Influence and Managing power from February.  

The 10th Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.N. Seshan served in office between December 1990 and December 1996. Born in Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu, he is known for his introduction of many electoral reforms and his uprightness. Prior to his stint as the CEC, he served as the Director, Ministry of Atomic Energy; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Space; Secretary, Department of Agriculture; Government of Tamil Nadu; Member (Personnel), Oil & Natural Gas Commission(ONGC), Additional Secretary, Ministry of Space, Cabinet Secretary and many other posts.

During his stint as the CEC, he came in confrontation with many politicians because of his strong desire to ensure free and fair elections in many parts of the country. He contested for the post of President of India in 1997, where he lost to K.R. Narayanan. He was awarded the Magsaysay Award for Government Service in 1996.
He has been active even after retirement, founding the Deshbhakt Trust, an NGO devoted to social reforms in India. 

The founder dean of Great Lakes Dr. Bala Balachandran was present at the occasion of Mr Sheshan’s introductory lecture.  

At Great Lakes there was a palpable excitement among students and all of them were looking forward for the course to formally begin. The introductory class was listened to with rapt attention. A transcript of the lecture would be put shortly.

130 Hours to Placements

This is that time of the year, that every one has been waiting for. The mercenary part of the MBA shows itself up. Every one is immersed in his/her own world, imagining numbers and fat perks and great profiles. Some are thinking of the loan to be paid back, while some are willing to compromise their ego’s in getting a better profile, by having a lower salary. There are others who have their ego’s as their benchmark for salaries, while some eye all the locations of the target company, other than India. I remember when Infy BPO came for the pre placement talks, I was curious about what domain operates out of Mauritius, and pat came a stern looking reply that it was their Disaster Recovery centre..tch tch…not an MBA job at a disaster recovery centre.

I am not too cued in on going abroad, but woudlnt mind, if I have assignments on Honolulu or Jamaica. I guess I am the only one cooling my heels and playing Cricket 2007, when I time off from placecom work, as all others immerse themselves in putting on a serious/studious make up for a week to blow the socks of interviewers. 129  hours to placement week, as I write this post, so the countdown begins. I will be taking some sneak preview pictures this week, to record the placement week blues

Brand India Shines at Great Lakes – Business World

Year 2007 ends with conferences and seminars at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai

Great Lakes ended the year on a positive note with two international conferences – Great Lakes – NASMEI (North American Society for Marketing Education in India ) and Yale – Great Lakes 2nd International Conference.

Marketing Conference sponsored by Kotler – Srinavasan Chair of Marketing brought together some of the best marketing academicians from across the globe. The same was inaugrated by Veenu Srinivasan, Co Chair Great Lakes NASMEI Conference and Professor at Stanford University.

Yale – Great Lakes went on to conduct the 2nd international Research seminar on Brand India with Academicians, People from Industry and students from across boundaries getting together to promote “India”.

Both conferences are covered by Business World – http://www.businessworld.in/content/view/3312/3408

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