Diary of a Rural Manager!

The informal economy in India is run by entrepreneurs providing products and services to the customers. These low-skilled occupations require low financial investments and thus have a relatively low threshold for entering. The street vendors have created a carefully constructed beehive of economic activity in the public space. They have created a functional system for themselves without waiting for government to provide them the legal permission, space and subsidy. In the series of street entrepreneurs ( first part ), I am presenting here a blog post by Anishok Mishra from the 2016-18 batch of XIMB: The Cost behind the Taste - The Chaiwalas of Bhubaneswar . Tea, or as we fondly call it "Chai" is one of India's most preferred hot beverages. Almost every person in our country has had a sip of this drink once in their lifetimes. Some prefer it black, some with milk, some with a splash of lemon and those looking to get healthier by drinking it prefer it "Green...

"No man is a fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot I personally identify and like to attach with the cause of the underdogs in general. There is a dilemma involved with this choice because by descent, upbringing, education and needs; I am a person belonging to middle class society. I am fond of middle−class comforts (like 3rd AC train compartments),a bit of liberal values and even risk free career aspirations. And now, I have undertaken a job in the OLM (Odisha Livelihood Mission) as a "young professional" (a word designated by World Bank for their fresh joiner) so that my work can directly have a positive impact on the people. I had made a new path in the career by abandoning engineering to work in the rural areas for a brief time. The line that boosted my career jump was- If gamblers start worrying about the odds, they would never gamble. Our generation has an old mindset of scarcity (money) and risk aversion (care...

On Monday, March 25, 2013 at 6.00 P.M. we had our 22nd Convocation. Shri Jaspal Singh Bindra, Executive Director and CEO-Asia, Standard Chartered PLC of Standard Chartered Bank Ltd. came as the Chief Guest. I finally convocated from the Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneswar (XIMB). The degree of rural manager was awarded not only in letters but also in spirit. It will be impossible to say when so many of us will gather at the same place again. May be in upcoming 10- 15 years ! This could not have been achieved without emotional support and confidence by my parents, Prem bhaiya, Chandan, Shreyash, Abhishek and college friends like Gaurish, Gautam, Anshumani, Partha, Abhijeet etc. As an overpriced assets, we all are out of the walls of the college campus. I suddenly understand why values like humility, sincerity and honesty are more important than qualities like intelligence and achievements. A person's most useful asset is not a head full of knowledge but a heart full of l...

90th Week@XIMB - 24th February to 2nd March 2013 24th February - It's not about good grades. It's about surviving the last trimester...!! 25th February - Abhijit Sen Committee was setup once to examine whether and to what extent futures trading has contributed to price rise in agricultural commodities. I couldn’t find the report on any of the government website but found the report on Mint’s website ( Draft Report of the Expert Committee on Commodity Futures Trading ). There was no evidence to suggest that futures trading stoked inflation. 26th February - The line between recklessness and overconfidence can be difficult to find. I crossed that line in CMD end term paper and find bamboozled by the question paper. That came as a shocking eye opener for the last trimester. Batch 2011- 2013 at XIMB gets grand farewell with recalling success, achievements and memories over the last two years. People will be missed but never forgotten. 27th February - Milestone...

89th Week@XIMB - 17th February to 23rd February 2013 17th February - Sikkim Trip 18th February - Sikkim Trip 19th February - Sikkim Trip 20th February - All classes were finished till now. I only remember Hobbes quote mentioned in Ethics class - It is a bleak world where there is continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short. The following seven students of RM II have won the worldwide ACARA Challenge of USA (University of Minnesota). The Teams are: Pure Pots- V Ramesh, Pabitra Nayak- Prize $ 1500; Nutricycle- Jyoti Kumar Mainali, Omprakash Singh, Shreyas Bhartiya- Prize $ 1000; Community Shops- Amit Verma, Sachin Pethkar- Honorable Mention- (Prize money on Pitching) 21st February - Only one student had completed IRP in a entire batch of 330 students, and that puts his effort in perspective. B Srinivas Rao completed his IRP with full dedication and efforts. 22nd February - This was the last class of CMD where ...

88th Week@XIMB - 10th February to 16th February 2013 10th February - A person's essential fair-mindedness is perhaps its most striking and skillful feature that can won him over adversaries. That was my assumption until I came at XIMB. Here, the bias decision will win you more friends and build a reputation of caretaker. I hoped that such scenario changes in coming times in vain. The lobbies, peer pressure and affiliation became stronger with each passing day. I read a quote by Warren Buffett that cleared the fog in the mind: "If they don't have integrity, they never will. The chains of habit are sometimes too heavy to be broken." 11th February - George Orwell had said long time back: " Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it." This holds so true for each batch of engineering or management that I have been part of. 12th February - I read a wonderful stateme...

87th Week@XIMB - 3rd February to 9th February 2013 3rd February - Not in campus. 4th February - Not in campus. 5th February - Not in campus. 6th February - I returned to the campus and attended GID lecture. I became aware of the term Green GDP for first time. The green gross domestic product (green GDP) is an index of economic growth with the environmental consequences of that growth factored in. Due to lack of training in economics, I was also unaware of the term Shadow Pricing . While discussing more about economics, I came to know about Ithaca Hours , Joan Robinson , Gender-related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM). There was a general consensus that our society with market economy has transformed into market society in the age of neo liberalization. 7th February - There was discussion on audit process of an organization in GD class. That led our informal discussion in the class to Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India. 8t...

85th Week@XIMB - 20th January to 26th January, 2013 20th January - I got a great Facebook status over sales job : In Sales -someday you are the P*mp and someday you are the Whore. I am not much of a sales or finance person but what I realized that it only matters to do our work with integrity, excellence and discipline irrespective of where one is working in future. 21st January - Small clusters of graduation friends is a creating frog in the well attitude of the entire RM community. Author himself has not dwelled much beyond 100 people but has not hard lined himself with any lobby or Legacy system. 22nd January - We have started to speak the language of B schools and consultancies like ‘products’, ‘customers’ or 'stakeholders' even in our normal talks. This education is showing its toxic side effects. 23rd January - No updates for today. 24th January - I was packing for the upcoming home trip. 25th January - Our mid term exam of CMD got postponed to March 2...

84th Week@XIMB - 13th January to 19th January 2013 There was no record written for this whole week. Procrastination and laziness have completely captured me. The jargons like - Knowledge, Networking, Soft-skills, Development, Corporate, High asymmetry of information, Dichotomy, Business and government, Market, Customers and Growth, Value creation, Stakeholders, Institutions, Relationship Management, Structures, Innovation and Entrepreneurship: rampantly used in GD & PI's were put on rest. I am leaving readers with a brilliant convocation address and will be away from all social networking websites like Blogs, Vlogs, Blogs, wikis and even micro blogging site Twitter for a week. Salman Khan gives commencement address at MIT (2012)

83rd Week@XIMB - 6th January to 12th January, 2012 6th January - ' Theory of maximising shareholder value has done great harm to businesses ': Meet Philip Kotler, the SC Johnson & Son Distinguished Professor of International Marketing at Northwestern University’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Chicago, and, in the words of Management Centre Europe, “the world’s foremost expert on the strategic practice of marketing”. 7th January - I was feeling quite low and listening to this song. Hausla Buland - Haywards 5000 Anthem Theme Song 8th January - I started preparing for AIDMI, Srijan and OLM with keeping in mind that risk of unemployment reduces slowly and at great cost. 9th January - I applied in Ujjivan Microfinance today but withdrew my application later. Yet, I attended talk of CEO, Ujjivan MFI given by Mr. Samit Ghosh. Founder & Chief Executive Officer of Ujjivan Financial Service (Ujjivan) , a micro finance institution which provides financi...

82nd Week@XIMB - 30th December to 5th January, 2012 30th December - I stayed true to myself and started preparation for the development sector. 31st December - Why MBA in Rural Management and Engineering? The most cliche and funny answer given these days is 'competitive advantage'. 1st January - I went out to Chilika Lake for a vacationer tour. 2nd January - I missed classes to study for placement purpose. I had a surprise quiz in 3rd January - I was not selected in BRLPS (Jeevika). I studies from the website only but find this document(pdf) quite useful. 4th January - I was not selected in AISECT. I studied and prepared from a compendium on Mission mode projects under NeGP. 5th January - I am posting here the websites that will be useful for exploring data. FAOSTAT , World Bank Data Center , OECD Statistics & Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, India ( National Data Warehouse of Official Statistics )

81st Week@XIMB - 23rd December to 29th December, 2012 23rd December - XIMB stops accepting IRMA scores for rural management program , will now only accept CAT, XAT or CMAT. That is the news rolling over at pagalguy. I don't know its implications. XIMB-RM may succeeds tactically in the eyes of AICTE, but fails strategically in the eyes of applicants in term of its reputation. Rather than trying to be a person I cannot be - to do this or do that - I went back to reconstruct my own strengths. I had come here for development hence will not go for a high paying (sales/marketing) job. 24th December - CMD, GID and SER class. It was quite nice to study sociology in GID lecture. Even today, after years of education and modernity, women didn't get the respect that they are entitled to. Yes, low enrollment of girls in this course is quite dramatically low. May be these girls either know everything or just don't want to discuss these issues. 25th December - Christmas is in ...

80th Week@XIMB - 16th December to 22nd December 2012 16th December - STM book reading session started today. Prof Deepak Malhotra - HBS - 2012 Speech to Graduating Harvard MBA Students 17th December - STM reading session continues. 18th December -   “Complacency is a part of Indian psyche and you can’t do much about it. Every time an Indian tries to be ambitious he is pulled down and that’s one of the reasons why Indians don’t have the killer mentality,” Sunil Gavaskar once observed. The fees are submitted. Yet I didn't find enough motivation to attend classes next trimester. Without a dream to chase, the soul stagnates. This has happened to many individuals here at this place. I once wanted to change the brawn environment of RM but failed miserably. This place has the capacity to pull down in an institutionalized way. Neither are we great in knowledge nor have sufficient human capital in the alumni database. 19th December - STM exams were over. I started stud...

79th Week@XIMB - 9th December to 15th December, 2012 9th December - There was an interesting collaboration that XIMB has had with the University of Minnesota this trimester. We had (almost) simultaneous courses running on "Social entrepreneurship" (XIMB) and UMN-Acara's "Design for Sustainable Development" ( syllabus ). Nine students of SE paired with four teams of UMN and after initial facilitation from both sides the students have been working on joint problems with regular discussions over skype. The teams had their live presentations on Dec 7th which was conducted on an open platform with students here able to add and listen to their counterparts. This low (no) cost experiment has happened with good learning on both sides. While positioning some of the advantages of XIMB, the noteworthy was the ability of RM students to be more awake when Americans are! The manner in which successive batches of RM students have participated and created a conducive e...

78th Week@XIMB - 2nd December to 8th December, 2012 2nd December - I was back in Bhubaneswar from Raipur. I was rejected in Manipal Process after playing simulation game round. People don't remember why they even join this course. 3rd December - Its Institute day i.e. Holiday. Fr. Paul Fernandes, S.J., Ph.D is appointed as the Director of XIMB by its Board of Governors with effect from December 4, 2012. 4th December - I wasted another precious day of my life. 5th December - In a closed and localized market, increased productivity only resulted in surplus goods and falling prices. That may happen to Amul and directly affect to the prices paid to producers. Indian government must start exporting milk and milk products to avoid such condition. And we are also self sufficient in milk production. 6th December - I qualified for the written test but rejected again in interview. I observed that beyond a solid knowledge of subject, it is temperament in stressful situatio...

77th Week@XIMB - 25th November to 1st December, 2012 25th November - I was busy in preparing CV for off campus. I attended last three lectures of CRM. 26th November - IRP meeting is going on. I need to acknowledge their past errors in order to avoid them in the future. I will be more regular in updating my seniors. I Couldn't attend a talk on PDS due to excessive drinking at night. This the lowest point of the college life. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt. There are amazing speakers who have worked and achieved fame across various sectors give talks every other day at XIMB. I could have attended if I wanted to. When it becomes a daily occurrence, one start to take it for granted. Don’t. If one want to be great, one has got to learn what’s made great people great. That was their sheer consistency to learn with limited opportunities. 27th November - KM quiz was over today. I loved and hate the feeling of being pushed to the wall. Without that one never apprecia...

76th Week@XIMB - 18th November to 24th November, 2012 18th November - Immersion course of Agri Branding was in full flow. We covered - 4. Steps in brand decision process 5. Types of decision processes 6. Modifying the brand decision process to create Brand "A product can be quickly outdated, but a successful brand is timeless." - Stephen King 19th November - Played Beer Game. I have successfully completed online course of Principles of E-Government issued by 'United Nations Public Administration Network ( UNPAN )'. E-Government Index of India is 0.383 in comparison to average score of 0.497. 20th November - Strategic quiz. 21st November - We learned about competitive advantage of nations over other. Mr.R.S.Sodhi, MD, GCMMF (AMUL) delivered a talk on Synchronizing Management Theories with Business Practices I visited to warehouse of CWC office for SCM presentation. 22nd November - The poor attendance in CEO talks in-spite of the multitude of...

75th Week@XIMB - 11th November to 17th November, 2012 11th November - I recalled a good session on role, commonalities and differences between Entrepreneur and Manager given by EDI Director Dinesh Awasthi. One is the creator of the organization while managers join the organization. Entrepreneur is looking for future plans and involved in creative destruction while Manager looks for past achievement and maintaining status quo. In the end, its the basic difference between puppet and puppeteer between them. It's not the critic who counts, nor the observer who watches from a safe distance. Wealth is created only by doers in the arena who are marred with dirt, dust, blood, and sweat. These are producers who strike out on their own, who know high highs and low lows, great devotions, an who overextend themselves for worthwhile causes. Without exception, they fail more than they succeed and appreciate this reality even before venturing out on their own. But when these producers of we...

74th Week@XIMB - 4th November to 10th November, 2012 4th November - Nothing great is ever accomplished without passion. But, I am feeling rusted or even surrender type of attitude is flowing in my vein. In-spite of such burnout feeling in recent days, I am trying to boom back. Only positive of this rustiness is that I am feeling more calm and less numb. The net value of a great idea unless invested at ground is zero. Possessing talent roots for a strong launch but about having the discipline to summon that talent whenever needed makes one among greats. That is the trick of discipline missed by me. There are always few boys/girls even more talented but, it is determination and eagerness to take up any challenge for a prolong period sets one apart. Hard work and talent are rewarded but they need guidance in this low moral points. Hoping to boost energy within through some movies and long phases of sleep. When a person fail to attain a dream, that is the beginning of a realistic pr...

73rd Week@XIMB - 28th October to 03rd November, 2012 28th October - See a heart moving documentary Dilli'. It is a multiple-award winning documentary that has played in over 80 international film festivals across North America, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. 29th October - Mid term has been taking place in this span of time. Cracking the rural code and Rural consumption boom are two articles for an insight of rural markets. 30th October - SCM quiz was there. 31st October - There was case discussion on Barilla Spa . While learning about pasta in case study, I reached a conclusion that consumption pattern of essential commodities like wheat and rice can't change but only purchase pattern. I learnt that in long run, stability in sales figure can be offered without giving any short term promotions. Promotion and marketing is tow different activity as per prof in supply chain class. To see the effect of promotion, check the sales data of two quarters be...