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.

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

Headlines Today – The plight of an MBA student

“WHAT!? WHY!? HOW!?”

“Eww… look at that!”

“Yuck! What a sight!”

“What’s that sticking out of that thing!?”

“How can something so big and round be so sickening!?”

“Ohh… I think I’m gonna be sick!”

“Arrhh!… I think I’m having a heart attack…”

These were but some of the reactions I got when I went to class on the morning of 4th october, 2008… Now before you crazy heads out there think that I have something sticking out from somewhere let me tell me confirm I don’t! (have it sticking out I mean!!)

Ahh! 3rd October, 2008! A day to remember! 2 Exams back-to-back, 3 case studies, 3 assignment submissions, 2 classes, 1 presentation preparation… all in the span of a mere 8 hours of college time… ofcourse for us students, it was a matter of days and days of preparation… not to mention sleepless nights… groups of 5-6 working together towards the common goal – Come out alive by the end of the day!

Some one told me that day “George, 3rd October is one day we will never forget in our lives” True! We will never ever forget that day. Especially me… since 3rd October, THE most fantastic day yet in our MBA studies, also happened to be my Birthday!!! And what a way to celebrate the day!

The reason for the comments in the beginning were due to a fit of insanity I had after this day… What did I do? I went tonsured my head! I guess I was half expecting the barber fellow to slip and cut off my head in the process… but unluckily for me, he was a through professional…

Now I’ve gone from Brahman to Bhrandan! (mad man) See pic below…

And my roommate Mr. Vivek also calls me “Shrek” now… and he also took a pic of mine to prove the point! Please see below!

:-S

Brahman to Bhrandan!

The Shrek Avatar

Ideas Galore!

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

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

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

“And Ill do the Marketing bit” said the next

“Me, the Financials” said the last

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

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

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

OK! let me think! ______________________________________

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

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

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

“Products!”
“Services!”
“Either!”

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

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

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

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

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

“How about making an oil cube?” he said

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

“Err… what?” we ask

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

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

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

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

“How about an automatic shaver?” he asked

“How would that work?” we asked

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

George Mathew

Class of 2009

LOVE is all around us….

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

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

A few examples:

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

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

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

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

George Mathew

Class of 2009

Livin’ La Vida Salsa…

The last 4 days have been lots of fun. We had Salsa and Jive week at Great lakes taught by Mr Unni.

26 (13 enthusiastic guys and 13 nervous girls – they were nervous seeing the guys’ extreme enthusiasm) of us signed up for the first session which lasted 4 days, 2 hours a day. As was expected, most of the girls took to dancing as ducks take to water… they could atleast float if not swim! We guys on the other hand were like those bomber ships during the 2nd world war – Huge, bulky, lightning fast, full of fire in the belly, ready to shoot – and yet sank right down into the sea :-S

Salsa, even though conceived as a form of street dance, is a sophisticated art form requiring talent and grace. A lot of the fun depends on your partner. If the partner has talent, you can hide behind that glory. Being devoid of any talent, grace was the only thing I could rely upon to salvage my pride. But from what I hear from others who watched me and some other unfortunate souls who danced with me, I scored very high on the ‘Losers Hall-of-Fame’ in both characteristics. I guess the problem is that I tend to kinda become all charged up when I hear lively music which makes me go into the realm of “Dappankooth” (a south Indian style of street dancing). Hey! In my defense, its atleast street dancing!!! At the end of it all we broke major myths – that we guys were good at dancing! Nothing could have been farther from the truth.

As for my partner, it was poor Miss Namratha. She is one of the smallest girls in our class (but very bubbly) and I’m no Tiny Tim myself. I think she got stuck with me coz while all the others were searching for partners, they probably dint see her. It was almost like David and Goliath dancing, except here David was a girl… And Goliath, as in the Bible, was me, the dumb Ogre… There was one more difference. In the legend David wins, but here neither of us won even though there was considerable violence and bloodshed… (punches on the face, arms twisting, backs cracking, toes bleeding… all the works!)

You don’t believe me? Well on day One, we were taught the basics of Salsa and Jive. So, it was pretty fine except for the bleeding toes and twisting arms. But on the second day, the variations (some, pretty complicated) started. Yet, we danced away for the full 2 hours. Many a time I caught Namratha trying to sneak out of the back door, but me being the charged up guy that I was, I always managed to pull her back in. At one point, we were to do a sequence in Jive where the guy is supposed to balance the girl by the hips and swing her down – The Back Flip (please see pics). Namratha refused to do this step with me. She was scared that if I were to lose my balance and fall on her, she would be stuck to the floor, as flat as a pancake!

On the third day, my partner came to the dance floor and took a Bharatha Naatyam stance, Y’know with hands clasping the hips…

“Dude, we are not here to do Bharatha Naatam!”, I told her sarcastically
“I’m not trying to do Bharatha Naatyam dumbo.. You broke my hip yesterday!!”, she replied with fire raging in her eyes

Eeeps… I had done it again! Anyway we took it easy that day. Thursday was the grand finale’. The guys were to come dressed in semi formals and the gals in formal party dress.

I took Namratha aside and told her with an air of confidence ”Get ready to be transported to a different place!” {Wink! Wink!}
“Where? You mean the hospital??? “, came her quick retort

George Mathew

Class of 2009

Some Pics

 

The Dancers

The Gents

The Back Flip

Free Fall

Round and Round…

Havin’ Fun

Fast track to success…

How would you define a fast track MBA program? 

Is it finishing Operations Management in 5 days, 4 hours each and being done with 1 Quiz, 1 group case study and a finals in the allotted 20 hrs? 

Or finishing Marketing management with 2 Quizzes, one group project and one finals in 20 hours?

Or finishing Corporate Finance in the equal span of 20 hours but with 13 extra pre-readings (other than text chapters), 3 Quizzes, 1 finals, 1 individual case study and one group project?

How about this: Having to read and understand the entire Bhagavath Gita (A 200 page book from Ramakrishna Math), a complicated research paper on “The Epic Period” and Vivekananda’s discourse on “The Sages of India” in one SINGLE night?

Well, I think the last one defines it the best. 

MBA at Great lakes is so truly fast track that it makes me dizzy!!!

Oh! and BTW, if you haven’t guessed so far, all these (except Marketing Mgmt) are happening in parallel…

:-S

George Mathew

Class of 2009

The Seal of Zzugzzezzzzz…

Open Source Software (OSS) as a phenomenon has the potential of changing the business of software development around the world. OSS has come a long way from its infan… Zzzzzzzzzz….

A way for firms in the open systems business to gain traction and control over the market is to openly innovate and push their own boundaries. Intellectual Property (IP) will give hem an edge over compe… Zzzzzzzzz….

The real purpose of scientific research can be said to be an amalgamation of the truth. This truth is what we try to reach and there’s not…. Zzzzzzzzzzz…

Every industry goes through cycles of growth and decline. To ride this wave, every company needs to be aware of emerging markets and growth cycles. the moment these compa… Zzzzzzzzz….

In recent years, the contagion effect has become more pronounced primarily because of the rapid integration of global economies. Though the phenomenon of global stock market contagion comes for deba… Zzzzzzzzz….

Rural markets have always been ignored by corporates primarily due to the disparity in income when compared to their peers in the urban areas. This is especially true in the case of consumer dura… Zzzzzzzz….

BANG and there I had it! The Archimedes moment had arrived… I ran out of the library shouting “EUREKA! EUREKA! KITTI POYEEEE…” (sans the clothes bit, but with drool all over my face)

I had the answer to the ultimate question: What is the hallmark of a good research paper?

Answer: Put the average reader to sleep within the first 2 sentences!!

Man, I truly hope my research paper will be half as sleep inducing!!!

George Mathew

Class of 2009

The Clubbin Champs!!

TCB – What does it stand for with reference to Great Lakes? The Champions Batch… But a more relevant expansion would be The Clubs Batch… I reckon that’s what we are going to be known as.

Why? Coz as of the last count, there are 3 new clubs formed by members of the present batch. GLick – The Great lakes Click a photography club, The Fountain – A management book discussion club and a Yet-To-Be-Named Financial Markets Club. Mind, this is apart from the umpteen number of committees that we already have here at Great Lakes. And I’m pretty sure there are a couple more ideas floating about in people’s minds.

They say that the idle mind is the devils workshop… But I beg to differ. We dint come up with the Clubs for the sake of it. There is an agenda behind each of them which is integrally connected to Great Lakes in a direct way. If The Fountain is striving to instill the habit of reading up on and understanding management books so that managers can take better decisions, the Financial Markets club is trying to teach interested parties the nuts and bolts of trading and investments while GLick is heavily into branding on the institution. Ours is a very gung-ho batch with a never say die spirit. By the looks of it each of these clubs will not only survive, but go on to be quiet successful setting precedents for the coming batches.

And that’s what you get when a group of highly motivated MBA grads are holed up in a seminar hall and left to fend for themselves. They come up with the weirdest and innovative of ideas… Pitch it to the Professors and students… Gather support… And make sure that they see it to completion. At first glance, it seems to be a very ambitious to have so many Clubs, committees apart from all the extra curriculars coming our way. I mean, the seniors din’t have any of these clubs and associated extra work to content with and yet they barely scraped thru the year due to the nature of the course. With work and studies piling up, all of us have started to feel the pinch too.

So the real question is, is our enthusiasm misplaced? Will we succumb to the pressure and get bogged down? Will the clubs meet a premature demise? Will Harry meet Sally? So many questions, so lil time to answer…

Its true that only time will tell, but sometimes you just know, y’know…

George Mathew

Class of 2009

Time To Loosen Up!

Loosen Up!

Midnight binges of finance books and discussions on derivatives, seem to dominate one set of classrooms, while the other class rooms have smaller group giving the last minute touches for the assignments in ERP, while the HR students seem to be involved in some activity, as the class room floor is strewn with straws and origami designs. It seems like a battlefield that is active at all times, except between 6 am and 7 am, when silence prevails as students use this time to head back to the rooms and get some rest. The last few days have been tense, running from one assignment to the other, burning the midnight oil for the finishing touches to the CGPA’s before the placement season starts. Hunger and sleep seem to be my main issues, as too many cases and promises stack up. I feel like a over worked battery that has lost the enjoyment in the MBA program.

I just rewound life over the past 3 years . I was dyslexic to coding at Infy, and after 14 months of confidence taking a beating, I decided to quit Infy and join a job that allowed me to breathe. Sulekha seemed the right panacea, but at as time wore on, the enjoyment in the job was slowly getting lesser, due to some politics played by some higher mandarins of power. I battled on challenging myself parallely with CAT and GMAT preparation and finally reached a stage when I again reached a stage where I wanted to breathe again. CAT and GMAT didnt go as well as I wanted it.

I got a new lease of life with an employment in Delhi, but that was shortlived as the Great Lakes MBA call came along after the Otto Beishem admit fell through due to visa delays in a student schengen visa. April to January, I have run this race and discovered some great friends, some free loaders, some brainy nuts and in the process have observed like a passenger observes for hours at a station, with trains one by one passing him, to the extent that he doesnt even remember which train passes, but just remembers that the chillness of the air, when the train passed was an experience to cherish.

Now Cases and assignments dont really get me started all up. I have taken in too many things and am just waiting for a break, but as soon as I get a one day break, the feeling of guilt breakes through, as some case/assignment would lie staring at me. Nor have I got peace nor have the assignments got my attention fully.

There is a sense of tension in the air, as the mind is mentally prepared to adjust to the workload that the excel file instructs to complete, and sometimes a sense of resignation too. For the past 2 days, I had taken some long walks around the campus area into saidapet, with the music on, and that seemed to have cooled my frayed nerves. Frankly that’s the best part of the 24 hours that I look forward to thinking about a make believe world, with the songs buzzing in the ear, as I walk along…. thinking about what I want to do about my life.

Life poses many questions with many unfinished ambitions and desires, all of which takes a back seat, during the mad-helter-skelter life at B school. Am I working more hard to get more of this in the years to come? Sometimes when I ask myself this question, I go numb, as the more I work at things that dont exactly give me time to breathe, I go claustrophobic and the small break becomes the whole object of reward for the work, which ultimately affects the work and the break. I spend the whole day wondering why some crazy bunch of CEO’s took some path breaking decisions, and suggest ways to break the problem, by some obscure imaginative reasoning, but when the same applies to decisions in my life I just freeze.

What decisions you may ask? Its like a fight between ego, fame, ambitions and the risk factors and the monetary factors. Newer factors get added….to add to the confusion, when life presents with you with too many options. Strange isnt it? You come to the MBA program to have more options and when you have more options in life, it leads to even more chaos when it comes to choosing. I anyway take decisions based on gut feel in the end, after worrying days over it, so I guess nothing new this time around.

Just feel better penning my frustrations. I guess all this would be laughed at when I take a look at this post 2 years later. Thats life… you keep progressing from one state to another, but the catch is that the problems increase in magnitude too . So that pretty much means I have to loosen up for the final leg of this 1 year race. I am 75% complete with the MBA….

Kartik Kannan

The opinions expressed are the authors personal opinions and in no way represents the opinion of Great Lakes Institute of Management