The Term 1 that was!

Term 1 of my GMP@XLRI has come to an end. What an eventful 3 months it has been. I have never been this much stretched and sleep deprived as I have been in last 3 months. Jumping from one assignment to the other, running for marketing project meeting to ELCC ,MANAC, Macro,Micro Economics group meeting, it has been a true roller coaster ride with surprise element built in every moment.

Classes/Studies: On an average we had 3-4 classes of 1.5 hours each. Sometimes it felt it is too much to do with case reading for marketing, Ethical leadership, management accounting practice and of course revision of dreaded classes of Quantitative techniques for Managerial Decisions to complete. Some subjects were taught by multiple professors, hence multiple midterm exams along with end term exams. With a day’s break, term 2 has begun and it seems it is going to be lot more hectic than the 1st term.

Exams: XLRI is very academic oriented Business school but focus remains on basics and applications. The biggest surprise element of XLRI is marquee list of Professors. Profs Make sure students read come prepared and perform at the highest level in various exams and quizzes. Lately, competitive spirit has taken front seat and everyone is talking about grades, marks etc. People say it is all only about leaning and not grades but culture of marks, grades, academic orientation builds in when Professors force you to study hard and remind you of exams in every class. Every exam is different; Standard of exam papers was very high in most of the courses in Term 1. Some exams were open book and some were closed book. Don’t ask for performance in open book. Open book doesn’t mean you will sail through instead you will struggle more than the other format. Only one professor, Prof. Sarosh Ghandy didn’t take any formal exam but he had his unique ways of asking us to submit answers to various questions on Ethics and Leadership on A4 sheets of paper.

Myth: B-school is all about partying, extra circulars: this myth was broken in first fifteen days when I started to realize that I don’t have time for any other activity other than studies. One needs to be incredibly good at time management to manage academic and non academic studies.

The CR factor

I have always been on the opinion that Bschools are perfect ground for networking, peer learning, managing conflict view points and learning prioritization. I have been fortunate that class reposed faith in me in selecting me as Class Representative. I am not sure how class evaluates me but I have tried to do justice to the job. Class Rep is a bridge between professors and students. There have been moment of high adrenaline, excitement, anxiety, frustration, dissatisfaction but overall it has been marvelous experience to manage 48 (strength of my section) of different opinions. Sometimes it becomes huge distraction, many a times you can’t concentrate on your individual priorities but it has made me realize why things move slowly in a democratic setup. Hats off to Indian growth despite Indian plurality and democracy.

CEO visits, guest lecture:I had opportunity to attend gyan sessions of CEO of Airtel, Bihar and Jharkhand, CEO of SELCO, Dr Harish Hande, CEO of Goonj, Anshu Gupta and TATA Tiscon Branding guest lecture by Mr. Sharan from TQMS. One of the professors even humorously pointed me that I skipped his class to attend these CEO visits. It has been inspiring to know the exemplary work done by Dr. Hande and his team in areas of solar powering of Rural Karnataka and Anshu Gupta’s team. I remember his chilling narration left the whole CII YI team, (which I am part of) in pin drop silence. His words were of utmost disbelief to us.

CII-YI: Four GMPians got chance and were selected in CII Young Indians society of XLRI. We have already organized Kshitij, a one day event for underprivileged school children. I am not very satisfied with my involvement till date as it has been limited because of academics and exam. I hope to compensate for the same in Term 2.Online group: I am part of the Online group which handles online branding –Blogging, Newsletters, marketing GMP in online space, connecting with prospective students etc. So far the groups’ performance has been satisfactory and but we need to speed up the activities.

Accommodation:The first welcome surprise was Accommodation. Hostel accommodations are very comfortable with AC, phones etc. The housekeeping staff is excellent. Although people have varying opinions about our mess food, but I have liked it very much and no complains at all. In fact, our GMP Mess committee members are doing a commendable job by keeping tab on quality, menu etc.
Parties

The academic pressure has not made us drab personalities, in fact we have had 2-3 parties, Thanks to our Party/Admin committee members.
Village Trip

XLRI’s focus on social entrepreneurship is commendable. A 3 day trip to villages is mandatory for all flagship programs. I along with my group happened to go to three tribal villages and was awestruck with grim realities of rural India. We had to walk for an hour to cross a mountain to reach the one of the villages. The village didn’t have electricity, road, school, primary health care centre but had lots of hope that things will improve for them one day.
Adventure Trip

The Adventure trip organized by Tata steel Adventure foundation was life time experience. Various Team building exercises such as Rock Climbing, Caving, self made rafting on Dimna Lake was truly amazing experience. These events not only helped us understand each other better but also helped us explore our limits.

Today is the first day of Term 2. Human resource management case writing projects need to be formed; I need to read about HUL’s Sangam initiative and solve a question in Optimization in Managerial decision making for tomorrow’s class. I hope term 2 to be as exciting and promising as term 1 and to get some time to scribble few lines on the blog…….

Meeting with XLRI GMP 08-09 on convocation day

Saikat Das and I visited Jamshedpur on 09th May, Saturday which coincided with Convocation ceremony of current batch. I was happily surprised with Sunil Bansal’s invite for attending convocation ceremony. We reached around 11:30 am to Fr. Prabhu Hall where convocation ceremony was going on. Chief guest for convocation ceremony was Mr. Shubhendu Amitabh, Head corporate affairs and development. http://www.adityabirla.com/the_group/corp_affrs_devl_cell.htm The ceremony was attended by graduates, their families, staff and faculty members.

Kunal, current student addressed on behalf of students regarding his experiences of GMP at XL. During the whole session photography and video recording was on full swing. Nobody wanted to miss any shot. The ceremony ended with National Anthem. Students congratulated each other and extended round of photo session began. While all this was going on, saikat and I went for a stroll around the campus recalling our interview that was held in Centre for small enterprises. We returned after a while to Learning Centre where we congratulated graduates and accompanied Sandeep Vadnere and Sairam Iyer to GMP Hostel. I began asking Sairam with his experiences of ET 1000 ideas and topic soon shifted to current placements.

Because of recession, XL admins have allowed current batch to stay for more time till 31st may to give shape to ongoing placements. 2-3 months back, Placement committee was reorganized with different faces to give impetus to placement process of remaining people. It’s a war like situation and students are not leaving any stone unturned. Lot of interviews has happened in last few weeks and many more are planned. Placements have been made very flexible. Interviews are happening over telephone, video conference and in person. Students are travelling to company premises for interviews.
While we were talking with Sandeep and Sairam, Ranjit who is part of place com joined us. Students were looking relaxed perhaps it was because of convocation effect. There was humor and joy in air. Soon, Sunil Bansal joined us and we proceeded to join student Ambassador Committee members over lunch. Our meeting with Siva, Sai meera and Sunil Bansal, all student ambassadors started at 1:30 pm and to our disbelief it lasted for 4 hours.
Canteen: This was second time I had food in GMP Dining hall and food has been very good on both occasions. I got to know from Siva that they one of the students was overseeing Canteen operations .He has done tremendous job in quality control, menu preparation and because of his negotiation skills, he managed to cut down the mess bill by Rs 10,000 per person and also got waiver of fees during 3 weeks of international immersion. Current batch has suggested for a similar approach where we can achieve the same results by having one or two folks in charge of canteen coordination.
Exams: They informed us that XL admins are considering to reduce contact hours. Classes start at 8:30am and end at 7:30 pm with lunch and other breaks in between. Because of stringent deadlines, it has been very challenging for students to involve in lot of activities, and thus prioritization, time management skills are very important for the group. Exam pattern tend to vary from one prof to the other. Overall, GMP students are considered to be one difficult group to be taught. Profs and schedule for our batch is currently geting worked on.

Most important thing, if whole batch comes together on an issue, then things could be waived, altered, added or deleted from the program. Hence students play a very vital role in what they get.
Town Vists:Students were funded by XLRI to travel different cities in India to give presentations to companies and network with XL alumni with sole purpose to establishing GMP brand recognition among corporate and influencing them to recruit from GMP batch. Siva, Sai, Sunil strongly suggested continuing this initiative.
Initiatives: This batch was double the size of the previous one and started new initiatives and they have asked us to continue those to carry forward the legacy. They have suggested to form Clubs, groups within 1 month.
Newsletter: One newsletter was published but due to paucity of time and divided focus on other activities, this could not be continued on periodic basis. Batch has asked to publish achievements and activities in form of Newsletter on quarterly basis and share it through various channels to spread GMP happenings.
CEO Visit: Only one CEO visit could be organized. This was huge success. The CEO happened to come because of one of the current student’s initiative. They have asked to use XL contacts and our own contacts to continue this tradition and organize 3-4 CXO visits in coming year. This will help create awareness about batch which will ultimately help in placements.
Student Ambassador Club is writing a hand over document highlighting dos and don’ts, initiatives etc.
TV Room and Disc floor: There is a TV room which has become an IPL adda these days and part of Dining hall is converted into a Disc Floor from time to time.
Press and publicity: It’s very important to build linkage with Press (ET, Business Standard, Hindu Business line etc) for GMP brand creation. They have strongly asked to send feeds to press on a periodic basis. First one could start with “MBBS to MBA: New batch of GMP starts with five docs in batch.

Brochure team: there is a brochure team which decides content of placement brochure and get it published.
International Immersion: Those who have not been abroad should participate in it as it would be an enriching experience. 3 weeks program is devised by Host university. Projects and industry assignments are organized by host university. Overall it’s a nice break from hectic schedule.
2yr and 1yr Interaction
There have been fewer opportunities to interact with 2 yr program but some GMP students have participated in clubs such as MAXI, etc. There is an impression that XL has not tried to create platforms for students to interact on a formal basis. Both programs are separated on an extreme end of 180 degrees.

Bschool case competitions: Students could not participate because of academic schedule.
Outbound trip organized by Tata Adventure Foundation led by legendary Bechandri pal. Student did Water Rafting, Rock Climbing etc.
Not to miss in Jsr: A dozen of Tata factories and establishments are in JSR. One should not miss opportunity to visit them and experience the shop floor etc. This is especially true for students with IT background. Visits such as one to see Uranium mines should not be missed.
Generally students don’t take HR subjects and min 20 students are needed for a course to be conducted. Students believed subjects such as Strategic HRM is an excellent course.
Placement committee: Student s from placecom and student ambassador clubs have suggested to have dedicated and strong placement comm. GMP Dean suggests forming the placecom by Aug but this formation should be delayed till we get right mix of candidates to for placement com. Placement committee is majorly responsible for good or bad placements. It is a very intensive job and requires passion, dynaimism, good communication skills and selfless motivation and strong execution skills to achieve the desired for the whole group. Some of the mistakes such as approaching a company after it has finished recruitment, not targeting SME and startup etc needs to be avoided at all cost. Performance of Placements committee should be judged every 2 months and reelection of members can happen at time. Fresh faces can come into committee or performers can continue to be part of placecom. Placement database and other information will be handed over by outgoing place com to incoming placecom.
I would like to profusely thank Siva, Sunil Bansal, Sai Meera, Sandeep and Sairam for answering all the questions patiently and giving numerous suggestions. Special thanks to Siva for showing us the campus.