Sunday, October 23, 2011

19th Week @ XIMB

19th Week- 16th October to 22nd October

16th October : One fine day is Sunday. Still post Gramotsava, there was 2 hour session on EQ & Leadership. I learned that there is always lack in abundance.

17th October : The whole day just passed away. I did't think any productive work was done today. Still I was able to read one good article :- Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where do I Start? Notes by Don Davis, Columbia University.

18th October : FSA quiz was a disaster. Missed Kuru meeting and slept quite early at night. Since, I was roaming out in the morning, soft skill training session was also missed.

Rediscovered Facebook Page of India - Rural Livelihoods.  For implementing the inclusive growth agenda, it is crucial to prop up agriculture, the soft underbelly of our economy. The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) should take charge of dry-land farming now by Ramesh S Arunachalam.

19th October : Alumni Talk was given by Mr.Patnaik. He is a rural management program pass-out of first batch. He has expertise in banking, insurance and micro-finance sector.

1- XIMB started one year Post Graduate Diploma Program in Rural Management for the graduates and NGO members in 1995 which was upgraded to the two year PGDM (Rural Management) programme from 1999.

2- Before entering in the corporate sector, one must ask -: How am I going to build my career ? Package of the placement offer is not necessary but selection of right sector. Work in the organization for atleast 2 years is necessary to build a robust professional network inside the company. This time duration helps in getting an overall picture of the company and sector. Hence, One should do cost benefit analysis before switching over to another company.

Catch : Its easy to switch from corporate sector to development sector rather than reverse phenomenon.

3- And there was once a lot of RM-XIMB versus IRMA debate but it has now cooled down.

Last but not least, customer retention is more important than customer service in banking sector. Huge investment is needed in human resource for any company to sustain and grow in the long term.

Case study Analysis:

Harvard Business School: "Inside the Case Method" -1




Harvard Business School: "Inside the Case Method" -2



20th October : There was case discussion on TI cycles whose diagnosis were done by four different professors in this paper at Vikalpa, The Journal for Decision Makers that is a quarterly publication of the IIM-A. It ends with the profound quote by Thomas Edison : I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.

When India marketeres in trouble, they pray to rural markets - Prof. Mithileshwar Jha, Marketing IIMB . I learned about dumping and tariff  in ITM class and quoted brilliantly in PROJM class to Gaurish - Things are interesting when you take interest in it.

At a lot of times, economics and formal education is not everything. I found one more evidence in support of this. In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works. Sustenance with existing resources is the crux of his talk.

Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement


There was soft skill training conducted by Placecom today. I attained mock interview session & it was quite effective. Lesson learnt but not sure about it :- One has to build/fake success stories while presenting in MBA interview.

21st October : Day was passed in academic activities. One good case study was done in Prof Peepin's first class about MEADOW and Titan Industry. This case study can be found in (Page 75-86) of Livelihood Manual Book [Download in PDF Format] . An alternate reading material :- Corporate Non Profit partnerships - Case Study of MEADOW is good source for details. In 1995, Titan began working with local NGO Myrada. Al Fernandez, the promotor of MYRADA, one of the leading NGOs in the country used to say this :'We (those associated with MF work) need poor for our survival. But the poor have survived generations after generations even without any of these institutions.' Following early successes the initiative was converted into a privately held company run and owned by the women themselves, supported by further technical training and expertise from Titan. The company was called MEADOW (Management of Enterprise and Development of Women). “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence” Mr. Jamsetji N Tata, (Founder, Tata Group)

 22nd October : Complete Day was passed in finalizing PROJM and FSA assignments. Evening time was occupied by Finomics'11. XFin hosted Finomics'11, a national level panel discussion. The theme for Finomics'11 is 'Emerging trends in Risk management'. The eminent speakers for the panel discussion were: Mr. C. S. Mohapatra, Director, Capital markets, Finance Ministry, GoI Prof. Girish V S, Group Editorat BFSI NexT & CFO NexT Dr. K. C. Mishra, Vice Chancellor, Sri Sri University, Orissa Mr. K. C. Samal, Executive Director (Finance), NALCO.

Notes Undertaken -: 1) Every risk has return period. The vulnerability to risk (like effect of hurricane on GDP at Bangladesh vs USA) varies. It also determines the opportunities and threat. Each visionary converts possible risk into the development. 2) "It will not happen to me " is the basic assumption of the people to avoid any investment in the risk management. 3) Even Basel II is not implemented fully in Indian banks. 4) There are three type of people everywhere - EITHER "My Way", "Know it All" and "Let it Go" OR "Taker", "Owner" and "Manager" of risk. 5) What I avoid is 'Let it Go' attitude and record all mine memorable experiences for the benefit of others in the long run. 6) Lot of complicated mathematical models require lot of knowledge that is possessed by only few. All CEO are dependent on the complex mathematical models but unable to understand them. 7) Public Secto company like NALCO gives more emphasis on risk caused by production and environment issues rather than financial matters. 8) Regulator is not the risk operator but only facilitator in mitigating the risk. This was said in the reference for banking sector. But,I found it true for each path of the life and business. 9) Operational risk comes in the term of fraud. Lot of study has been done on this in the field of behavioral economics. 10) Indian bureaucracy has tendency to save its skin by talking/consulting with everybody. Sub Prime crisis at wall street has opened eyes for many to stay alert and engaged in lot of confidence building efforts. [News Link] The Central Government on Thursday constituted the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) under the chairmanship of former Justice B. N. Srikrishna to rewrite and harmonise financial sector legislations, rules and regulations. --- In many industry, Demand forecasting is done through TSCR model (Trend, Seasonality, Cyclicality and Random).