Posts tagged ‘Life at Great Lakes’
The Part 3 of IIM C Alumni workshop started with a warm welcome extended by Prof. Swaminathan to MR. Ajay Jain Director, Enzotech Solutions Pvt. Ltd. who as a moderator staged the soap case study presentation with a detailed structure of soap industry and how its marketing strategy should be. Having a plethora of experience in the defined industry, Mr. Jain rightfully quoted
“marketing is something that you do on a day-to-day basis, the real-time marketing”
With this he invited the best four teams to propose their marketing strategy presentation to take over
The Boondock Saints - Gokulendu, Mukesh and Siddharth
being the first in the arena to present the case identified the outline of the case study. With Gokulendu, Mukesh and Siddharth as a team, Boondock saints strategically portrayed the soapy tales with characterization of its different usages and the key players in the Soap industry.
proposing a solution of non-ambiguous branding strategy, well-defined product line boundaries and brand elements which make unique and strong associations, this team left no stone un-turned to make-believe a full-proof branding strategy for Soapy tails.
Team DIODVAC – Avni, hariharan and Gajendran
As with the name this team is a power package in itself, briefly outlining the key issues of the case. the presenter extensively addressed the current market scenario of the soap industry keenly identifying the potential available in organised retail sector and FMCG sector. DIODVAC equally emphasized the market threat and challenges due to competition and increased input cost.
Proposing revitalizing and re-positioning of the current brand portfolio, to create an emotional attachment with the consumer and create a strategy based on such a target proposal DIODVAC wishes to come true to the promises done to consumers.
Team SAAPS – Saumya, ankita, Poonam, Preshit & Shriram
Being third in a row of competing for that one spot at the top, SAAPS jump started with the challanges faced by the business currently, extrapolating which the team slowly identified its market strategy for re-branding M as a family soap, where as FF into men’s freshness segment and P in the baby soft segment. SAAPS primary focused on packaging and the target marketing for premium men’s soap segment.
Team BUD : Shashank, Anshul, Richa, Akriti & Bhanu
The grand finale for the session 3 for IIM C Workshop on soapy tales case study, jump starting with a power packed presentation, Team Bud left the audience bedazzled with their catchy slides. Targeting the masculine passive space in the soap industry their market entry strategy revolved around the understanding of the men’s soap segment which currently prevailed less cluttered than the others.
As quoted by Akriti
“Absence of appeal and excitement led Team BUD to target a particular segment”
With this the last session of IIM C Workshop concludes with intense competition within all the four teams and spectacular presentations to aid them. Spartans imbibed the essence of live discussion between the participants and the panelists involving a huge potential to unlearn the marketing myths from industry experts and learn the real strengths of marketing skills.
Team SAAPS was judged the first and Team BUD being judged the second in position by the panelist as winners for this session. Mr. Ajay Jain encapsulated the essence of soapy tales complete presentation in few business specific norms and factors, pin pointing teams to be more precise on numbers and re-positioning to a market friendly segment the moderator for the event factually emphasized on value creation selling.
As they say, no story remains untold. The success of IIM C workshop is a story well scripted by the arduous effort put by management, student volunteers, panelists and participants. Spartans at their best yet again successfully concluded the last session for the day.
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November 19, 2011 at 4:10 pm Debashree
“Once a sales man, always a sales man… its just that you graduate to selling your dreams”
– Ashok Jayaram
Certainly, “History is not a burden on the memory but an illumination of the soul”
With the best of IIM Calcutta Alumni in the walkways of Great Lakes institute of Management. This Saturday morning is a special retreat, with the trimmed black suits and formals bringing in the best of a B-School presentations, the director of PGPM Prof. T.N. Swaminathan opened the workshop by IIM C Alumni, Chennai chapter with a warm welcome extending his gratitude of behalf of Spartans and the college.
Mr. Ashok Jayaram, (CEO, Coaching foundation India) charted the workshop with a short crisp introductory speech, dotting the two major milestones in his sales life, of one bringing in the first sales pitch and second having a repeat customer as the primer in a sales marketer’s lifecycle. Closing up with a feeling of gratification to have received few of the best presentation from GLIM, he passed the baton of introduction to Mr. J. Krishnan.
Mr. J. Krishnan, who pioneered the chair of Chief executive officer, Deccan Chargers for the two years of its inception is an IIT Madras, IIM C Alumnus. Currently associated with UniMity Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Mr. Krishnan showed his pleasure to visit Great Lakes for the second year in concurrence.
Following the lead of luminaries, to join us were Mr. Jagannathan from Godrej, Mr. Prateek Pota, Executive Director – South, Pepsi. Mr. Mali Mahalingam, Partner, T.S. Mahalingam & Sons. Mr. B Ravindranath, Director, Kadamba Technologies Pvt. Ltd and Dr. P. V. R. Murthy CEO, Executive Search Consultants.
With dignitaries gracing the presentation, Mr. Prateek Pota took charge for the workshop briefly outlining the structure for Lemon Aid case study. The Ongoing IIM C workshop – Chennai Chapter in GLIM, the batch of Spartans are exuberated to be a part of the session marking the launch of career counseling session for fall of 2011.
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November 19, 2011 at 11:20 am Debashree
Choosing between right and wrong is not always as easy a decision as it sounds. Because, what is right cannot determined in absolute terms; the movie ‘The Bridge on the river Kwai’ is a testimony to this observation. The movie was screened recently for all the Spartans under the aegis of the films appreciation club. The show was successful, being a welcome change from the rigorous routine!
The movie is a World War II story of a British soldier’s unit and the days they spend in Japanese captivity – first treated as slaves but eventually winning the respect of a tyrant enemy. The sole responsibility of this turnaround could be credited to the British Commander Colonel Nicholson who adapts dynamic and fitting tactics to deal with his Japanese counterpart Colonel Saito. The movie, like most of the war movies, succeeds in displaying a wide array of emotions that suffering of war brings upon. However, this movie offers a few unique perspectives that are worth noting.
1.) Have a value system and guard it to life.
2.) If you flourish on getting garlanded as a leader, be ready to pay back with gusto when it counts!
3.) Learn to respect yourself before you expect the world to respect you.
Colonel Nicholson during his first few meetings with Colonel Saito tried to win the rightful conduct for his unit and was jeered at repeatedly. Never did he act out of code and bravely confronted the Japanese abuse of the situation. To win dignity and respect from others one should first award them to himself! In one of the scenes during this phase- suffering from acute weakness and dehydration, the Colonel did not let himself be dragged in front of his unit; he indeed marched like a soldier should and won his terms from Colonel Saito!
4.) When you negotiate – negotiate hard!
Upon his release, Colonel Nicholson recognized how he held upper hand over Colonel Saito due to the pending construction of the bridge. Col Nicholson did not mince words when they mattered and smartly procured all the things he desired from Col Saito for his unit and officers. He was deft enough to do this without hurting Japanese ego!
5.) What is ought to be done is ought to be done! There is only one righteous path.
There comes a time in movie when Major Clipton gets perplexed by the honesty with which Col Nicholson gets into the project of building the bridge across the river Kwai for Japanese – the enemies! To which the colonel replies with an astute message of giving the best even as a POW and that he would be proud to be recalled by the future generations as the builder of this bridge. This philosophy is exactly the one preached in Indian scriptures as ‘Dharma’ or ‘Swa-Dharma’ to be precise. Every being has to perform his duties in a righteous way – but this righteous way is itself a function of circumstances. Hence, we as humans shall perform what is right under all conditions.
The ending act of Colonel in the movie, when he blows up the bridge himself, is also a manifestation of realization of ‘Swa-dharma’. Colonel Nicholson was able to think through the right way to act given the sudden change in circumstances. He sided with Japanese when he thought was right and played his part as the British Colonel when he became aware of the orders of higher authorities.
The movie teaches many lessons and I am sure other viewers would be able to append/modify what I tried to summarize. This churning up of thoughts is what we at Film Appreciation Club would attempt to do every time we screen a movie. I am looking forward to your thoughts and views on this remarkable movie.
By
Devashish Pandey
Films Appreciation Club.
November 18, 2011 at 1:58 am Debashree
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt
I have used this quote on countless occasions, in a number of essays and articles for an even greater number of applications, publications and blogs. The beauty of this quote lies in its simplicity and its ability to inspire people. At the risk of sharing my secret recipe for successful applications, I want to share this with all of you because never before have I found it to be more apt, than it is to us right now.
Initially, I was of the opinion that the college I get admitted to would decide my future course of actions. I will be what the college makes of me in the 1 or 2 years for which I am there. With the bigger brand names swinging past me without so much as an acknowledgement, I was picked up by another big brand which apparently saw some potential in me. I was excited, elated, ecstatic, *insert some more synonyms here*, and relieved. Missing out on an opportunity like this would have led to some amount of distress and self-doubt, but all’s well that ends well. It felt like the promise of a long weekend, a glass of ice-cold lemonade on a hot summer afternoon, the aroma of a home-cooked meal after spending months away from home.
Fast-forwarding to today, that feeling has somewhat subsided. Leaving aside the intense amount of labor required to fulfill our academic requirements, I would want to think that there isn’t much I could complain or whine about. Actually there isn’t, because I don’t think it fair to complain about something for which I am as responsible as the next person. And I promise that I am not going to complain about anything, neither should you. But what about the people who do not have to share this burden of responsibility with us but still think of it as theirs? They have every right to complain, but again the beauty lies in the fact that they don’t.
They will tell us, show us, hold our hands and walk up to face it with us, but they will not complain. Why? Because they don’t have the power to do so. The power has been handed down to us, and, for lack of a better cliché, “with great power comes great responsibility”. All of us have heard the fairy tales and the horror stories, the success stories and the struggles, and as another fellow Spartan put it in another post – the good, the bad and the ugly. Our predecessors have witnessed the ugly and the bad so that we can see the good. The question we have to ask ourselves is: Would our successors think of us in the same light?
Not having the power to complain about the unpleasant, I can only exercise my will to appreciate and applaud the pleasurable. There have been moments, people and some moments with some people that have led me to believe that I was not picked by an act of fate. In those moments, people and some moments with some people, I have felt that potential within each one of us, you must have too. There are names I would like to name, moments I would like to recount and feelings I would love to describe. But if you can already think, remember and feel all of these inside your head, my job here is done.
Coming back to the quote we started with, the future has always been in our hands. We just have to believe in our dreams to be able to shape it into whatever we want to make of it. Again, at the risk of using more than one cliché in a space of less than 300 words, “together we can, and we will”.
I am not what this college will make of me, I am what I will make of this college.
- A Spartan
By
Siddharth Goyal
August 26, 2011 at 12:26 am Debashree
“It was 7 in the evening with the night sky almost whitish and clouds all over… “Thunder wow!!” Spoke one of the many who religiously worships the basketball court. No wonder, after-all sports and rain have an ethereal connection. In fact not only with rain, in this campus you just need to utter “let’s Play” and there you go a bay of line either smashing the TT ball, roaring their adrenaline at the foosball table or just jumping high for the sky and basking in the glory of a slam dunk… such is the crazy we love to call ourselves”
But this blog is not just about those sports crazy Spartans. It’s about us, the all of us; it’s about the energy … the verve… the enthusiasm… the everything that I have seen here in every walking mortal.
—-
Not long back I walked into a hot Chennai afternoon and stood watching the tower of reflection and I wondered what is it that I have come here for? I’m sure even though we would have churned the last cells of our brain before stepping into this institution, someday or the other, we all might have asked ourselves this question … yet another time… What is it that I have come here for?
Be it those swooshing cyclists ready to take the streets of Manamai with the first ray of dawn or those emphatic photographers who needless to say can observe the drops while it rains. Be it those who break the barriers of language and can delve all of us into the melody of music or be it that silent onlooker who would sit shyly at the corner bistro table and read peoples mind.
We all have a method in which we feel things and that’s what probably makes us a little different than those outside the walls of this institution. We all might not be virtuosos in statistical analysis neither in the nitty-gritty’s of marketing but we all have something unique which has brought us together, right in the middle of this surreal world to share, build and strive to make not just ourselves but all of us the best. This very difference, our uniqueness is what’s common in us, what binds us together. Otherwise I for one am very sure that no force, no authority and no society can teach you Salsa, Jive, Jazz, photography, music, economics, foosball, Tamil, Chinese and so much more in 30 days.
Just like the company of two who would sit through the night in the stairs of amphitheater watching the stars go by. I am sure sometimes we all looked through the empty college campus in the middle of the night and asked ourselves… what is it that I am here for?
Is it that half hearted job, that social pressure of being better than the others that had us push through to be here? Or is that last chance to build what we desired, do what we couldn’t and be what we always wanted to be that has brought us here.
That small burning flame right at the corner of our heart waiting for us to become anything but ordinary, I say that has brought us here.
—-
“Almost 12 in the night now and it started pouring… few running off for the hostel … few for the coffee and few standing with their arms wide open letting the rain seep in … their first Chennai rain… mild yet daunting… cool yet aggressive. A lone seeker goes for another slam dunk into the darkness of a raining sky … welcoming the other side of the midnight”
Debashree Chatterjee
Spartans
May 23, 2011 at 1:27 am Debashree
A week down the line, orientation begins for the new batch, with the registration process underway. We Gladiators slip into a nostalgic mode and talk about how our batch walked into the city office in Saidapet, Chennai not so long ago – all the people we met, that we remember and the fond memories of getting to know each other, getting to know the places around the campus, discovering the campus, so on and so forth.
A walk down the memory lane of the last year would definitely be a long one, given the memories we take back – which if listed, would grow beyond the length of the ECR on which Great Lakes rests as a jewel on the scenic beach way. We are soon to be alumni as we graduate on the 28th and would soon rank high on the pecking order of giving gyaan to those who ask for 
.
The story of the past year at Great Lakes, can be told in 296 different ways by the 296 different Gladiators! But definitely, it has been brilliantly captured across the year by our pro-bloggers Sivaraman and Aarti Pandey on this very medium.
Different people have derived different benefits out of the program and the net result has been positive – immense knowledge gained, time value of money (Optimizing the available time!), chartering a path to one’s future, interaction with peers (the most ambitious batch we have met till now, according to the faculty) and above all finding oneself amongst the many and identifying one’s core strengths for progress. B School probably remains the only place where uniqueness is not unique and the one year stay at Great Lakes has proved it.
A mandatory bit of unsolicited advice, we give to the Spartans, Make fond memories that you would wish to treasure, but do not spend too much of time on capturing them, there are better things to do!
And finally, wishing the Spartans a smooth registration process, a great orientation week and determination and guts to achieve glory in what may be the most illustrious year of your lives!
Quoting one of my batch mates from a Forum:
And today, we truly feel like ‘Gladiators’ at the magnificent Colosseum of Rome. The Gladiators have won the hearts of the people. The people have seen the true spirit of the Gladiators. The people know that the Gladiators are their only hope to the future, the Gladiators with their commitment towards the people of the mighty empire.
Signing off,
Amar Harish, on behalf of the bloggers of 2011
Sivaraman N/ Aarti Pandey – Weblog Team, Batch of 2011,
Venkatanathan Hariharan, Priyambad Pattanayak, Prannoy Kankaria, Narendran A M, Megha Mendon, Sajid Korbu, Nitin Pahuja, Jithendra K, Amit Choudary, Surabhi Gawde, Deepesh Dang, Deepthi Alla, Gaurav Jain, Sonal Bomb, Aadhar Verma, Abhimanyu Sharma/ Ashwin Susarla (Photography)
April 10, 2011 at 11:15 am amarharish
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.
August 6, 2010 at 11:11 pm priyambad
It was in April last year that we stepped in to the Great Lakes Institute of Management and one of the first comments that we heard from our seniors was ‘I assure you that you will go through hell, but then I also assure you that it’ll all be a lot of fun’. Looking back at the year that has gone by, I can say for sure that this one comment clearly sums up the journey that we have undertaken in this institution.
May 4, 2009 was our first official day at campus and at MBA studies (though practically speaking the very first assignment we got was 2 hours after we registered our names for the course which included close to hundred pages of pre-read for the class to take place the next day!). The initial month at the resort was fabulous. It was royalty at its best with wonderful rooms, beaches to play on, volleyball in the evenings, parties and of course a lot of studies and assignments. To be very honest the first term felt like ‘hell’ had broken lose and if that was not enough it was followed by term 2 and 3 which seemed like the end of the world. To add to it we had our cultural festival taking place at the same time and host of other festivals and events to be organized. It was only because of those sleepless nights and skipped meals that we could make it through those five months.
What followed was the International Study Tour to Malaysia and Singapore, and those were the days that the group (and also the students who had gone back home for a vacation) enjoyed, and that to for the only reason that we were away from assignments for a week! Then came the fourth term and the world had changed, things had become much more easier, assignments seemed much more simpler, pre-reads were managed comfortably, events were conducted swiftly and suddenly we realized that the last 5 months in college had transformed us into individuals who could manage any kind of work load with ease. A lot of this success can be attributed to the fact that we had world class professors from both the industry as well as the renowned institutes all over the world to teach us at our campus. Their inputs and advice has gone a long way to make us what we are today.
The days that followed began the wave of wins that Great Lakes showcased to the world; including those where we heard that students from our batch had won some event by the hour in different parts of the country. Gym sessions began, there were sports tournaments that were organized, Latitude 13 05, our Business fest, visit from dignitaries, everything flowed smoothly. We had VIPs such as Hon’ble Minister Mr. Shashi Tharoor (MoS for External Affairs), Mr. Salman Khurshid (MoS for Corporate Affairs), Mr. MK Stalin (Deputy CM of Tamil Nadu), Mr. TN Seshan (Former Chief Election Commissioner), Mr. Ratan Tata (Chairman of the Tata Group), Mr. Adi Godrej (Chairman of Godrej Group), Ms Kiran Mazumdar Shaw (CMD of Biocon), Mr. Jamshyd Godrej (Chairman and MD of Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Co), Mr. Rahul Bajaj (Chairman and MD of Bajaj Auto Ltd.), Mr. Madhur Bajaj (Director of Bajaj Auto Holdings Ltd.), Mr. A Mahendran (MD of Godrej Sara Lee), Mr. Shibu Lal (COO of Infosys), Mr. Ajit Balakrishnan (CEO of Rediff.com) and so many more visiting our institute. It was rarely that people get to meet so many stalwarts within the span of a year, and we did just that!
It was January, and it was time for placements, there was euphoria on the first day when offers were pouring in from all quarters. The days that followed saw the rolling placement bringing in companies round the season. It was soon that we realized that we had started approaching the end of our course.
There are lots of things that I have missed out here like the transformation of our campus within the one year that we spent to be among the best in the country, the trips to Pondicherry, the opening of the new restaurant just next to our campus, the journey to Mayajaal, the screening of IPL matches etc., though all had their own charm and were cherished to the core.
Finally looking back at the year that has gone by, it does bring in a feeling of nostalgia, something that all of us would miss after a month’s time. We would soon be leaving the campus making way for the next batch the ‘Gladiators’ to take over. What we are handing over to them is the legacy that we inherited from our seniors, and if I have to make that one statement to the incoming batch, it would be ‘I assure you that you will go through hell, but then I also assure you that it’ll all be a lot of fun’.
- Syed Zoheb
March 29, 2010 at 5:24 pm greatlaker
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.
September 2, 2009 at 9:43 pm nikhileshmurthy
When everyone at Great lakes came together to help rehabilitate the fire victims
Continue Reading February 15, 2009 at 1:58 pm georgekaipanat
“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
October 15, 2008 at 9:43 am georgekaipanat
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
August 27, 2008 at 3:37 pm georgekaipanat
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
August 20, 2008 at 4:42 pm georgekaipanat
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
July 20, 2008 at 6:06 pm georgekaipanat
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
June 25, 2008 at 4:53 pm georgekaipanat
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
June 4, 2008 at 9:10 am georgekaipanat
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
May 17, 2008 at 3:01 am georgekaipanat
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
January 11, 2008 at 1:18 pm katchucrap
