Diary of a Rural Manager!

69th Week@XIMB - 30th September to 6th October, 2012 30th September - I was busy whole day in field visit of live project. I over viewed a World Bank page that summarizes Doing Business 2012 data for India . Also, Power of Ideas 2012: NASE , a new voice to boost India's social ventures and Power of Ideas 2012: Quipper Research , an all-women startup, dedicated specifically to qualitative marketing research. 1st October - There was discussion on facilities, capacity design and inventory in SCM lecture. 2nd October - A holiday gone in watching movies and reading pile of newspaper. 3rd October - There was discussion on Supply Chain Design at Jaguar: Bringing 'Nirvana' to Halewood case.( Full Pdf ) There is one more complementary case that was not even mentioned in the class - Jaguar Comes to Halewood: The Story of a Turnaround . Registration of IRP is over and yet exact topic of IRP is still undecided. 4th October - There was discussion on Lifebuoy - Levia...

68th Week@XIMB - 23rd September to 29th September, 2012 23rd September - There was an alumnus visiting the campus who was working with Dow Agro Sciences (Dow Chemicals). I decided first not to attend his lecture because he may be endorsing and promoting Dow Chemicals. Its not the fault of individual but one has to take ethical stand on the corporate misdeeds. The viewpoint of my college differ from me but that is a sort of independence and freedom of speech one is looking for in the college. Then, I reconsidered my decision and attended the lecture to understand his point of view. It is difficult to resist the winds of change and lucrative job offers; nevertheless conviction is all that one needs to withstand the same. Industry Talk of Mr. Amiya Kumar Bartia , National Market Development Leader, Dow Agro Sciences (Dow Chemicals) Career Planning : There is strong need for 4-5 years of investment in field to understand the ground level working of industry. There are five stages...

67th Week@XIMB - 16th September to 22nd September, 2012 16th September - A nice and warm Sunday. Key Learning - आचार्यात् पादमादते पादं शिष्यः स्वमेधया । पादं सब्रह्मचारिभ्यः पादं कालक्रमेण च ॥ (A student learns a quarter from teacher, a quarter from own intelligence, a quarter from fellow students, and the rest in course of time.) 17th September - SCM : Demolishing of fiscal barriers with WTO protocol helped in integrating and increasing efficiency of supply chain in the globalized world. We were suggested to read ' Quality Is Free ' by Philip Crosby. My argument about core competence was demolished by Professor. Prof argued back that core competency can be acquired but it depends of economies of scale. 18th September - Get introduced to the name of Akio Morita in the first lecture of STM. We discussed in the details for the reason of ITC to venture in hotel industry from tobacco business. CBRM- In the first CBRM Lecture, the whole introduction was based on key ...

66th Week@XIMB - 09th September to 15th September, 2012 09th September - Nothing of importance happened today in my life. Yet, I was sad. There was the demise of a great figure among the community of rural managers. The father of White Revolution, Verghese Kurien, is no more with us. 10th September - There is a great article paying tribute to Dr Verghese Kurien - Inspiration to a Rural Manager . Dr. Kurien is being limited by the media as a man who has created Amul, the Brand of India. His contribution is much more than forming the brand Amul. He created a legacy in successfully running a cooperative and never succumbing to political pressure. This becomes more pronounced in the context of the failure of the cooperative movement in India. I was reading QRM in detail for the exam. There was ga reat revelation because I had not taken an interest in the elective course from the start. I got a few facts right from a research paper by Fekede Tuli . 1- The quantitative purists artic...

65th Week@XIMB - 2nd September to 8th September 2012 2nd September - I submitted a team project report on Asian Paints in SDM. The whole process of data mining, compilation, editing, and printing with the team was good learning. There was a scheduled industry talk of SREI Sahaj CEO on Sunday afternoon. The topic of the Talk was 'challenges in the service delivery channel and route to market strategies in rural India'. It began late on time but went quite fantastic overall. The Key learning - ' Positive dissatisfaction ' is a good start for a young professional like us. There are more standard operating procedures and compliance in a big company, hence it is not a good option for fresher to start their work there. Guest : Mr. Sanjay Panigrahi , CEO of SREI Sahaj No rural people will pay for information on weather and government schemes. So business for information directly to the end consumer is not a viable option currently. Delivery and Management should be the...

64th Week@XIMB - 26th August to 1st September, 2012 26th August Past performance are not an accurate predictor of future outcomes. Yet they can give a reference line about the academic career of the person. So much can be said in reference to the academics grades. Are we the student more than the CV and grades? There was also a lot of thinking gone over the news item - Placement reportage: How the DMS, IIT Delhi 2012 placement report is designed to mislead you? . This shoddy practices of fudging placement report without having a real-world experience of running a values-driven company possess a serious ethical challenge. It is actually a less known but well performed malpractice in most of the B-School! While army officers go beyond the call of duty sacrificing life for the country, investment bankers do exactly opposite. I can understand root cause of such problems in our education system only that never punishes plagiarism and other such activities. This makes me deeply cr...

16th Week --- 25th September to 1st October 25th September : Attended the class of P T Joseph. I shared answers of personal questions in the public. I disagreed with him about the revealing of private data in public. I am gaining guts each day to face down the powerful and say what needs to be said. And I hope that it should inspire introverts and progressives. Since, I am selected for first round of summer internship for TERI, I started studying for the interview. Q&A: Clean Energy for India’s ‘Base of the Pyramid’: WRI’s new report, in collaboration with CDF-IFMR, looks at the market potential for clean and renewable energy in rural India. POWER TO THE PEOPLE : Detail Report in PDF format . TERI has undertaken an initiative of Lighting a Billion Lives (LaBL) through the use of solar lighting devices. The Campaign aims to bring light into the lives of one billion rural people by replacing the kerosene and paraffin lanterns with solar lighting devices. In terms of ph...

15th Week --- 18th September to 24th September 18th September - There is complete lack of any participation of student in decding the course structure of Rural Management. Institute like IRMA (Institute of Rural Management) should be named IRDA (Institute of Rural Development); The camouflage of campus placement does not change the mentality of the faculties who push students towards NGO sector. There is call of "bottom-up development" in every rural management programs without being implemented on their own students ! The recording, identifying and acknowledgment of “every casualty of development propaganda” in a rural management programs is an idea whose time has come. Hope, the rebel voice of mine gets a fruitful result otherwise we all know that the people who produce half a revolution, dig their own grave. 19th September - MEARS : Mischief mongers dig their own grave. Parasite, below poverty line and ungrateful are the words used with full sarcasm by Prof S P...

14th Week --- 11th September to 17th September 11th September - OB and RDA exams are over. Hence, there is formal closure of first trimester with few assignments. There is a difference between fresher and experienced student in the college regarding money. While both of them know how to spend money cautiously, the experienced candidate know how to accumulate money little by little for desired product. A pearl of wisdom from Partha. 12th September - One more installment of fees paid with my hard earned money. Missed SRP presentation due to headache. Demand Draft for 2nd trimester is ready. A special Talk given by Mr. Anshu Gupta who is the CEO of GOONJ (http://goonj.org/). A brilliant and inquisitive mind, he studied journalism as well as Advertising & Public Relations from one of the premier Institute in India (Indian Institute of Mass Communication), and then went on to do a Masters in Economics. While still a graduate student in 1991, he traveled to Uttarkashi, Nort...

13th Week --- 4th September to 10th September 4th September - Sunday. A relaxed day in the life of a XIMB student in the whole weekend. A good video seen today on talent and merit, thanks to Namit Arora Sir (Shunya) 5th September - A holiday before exam... like a silence before storm. 6th September - FR quiz on this day. Talks by person from World Bank and NRLM on Rural Livelihoods: Challenges and Opportunities. I was selected in Kurukshetra  Expressions game whose committee was first launched in 1995. Hence, it has the distinction of being the first game committee of XIMB. Unlike other B schools which look to outsource the game committee framework to a professional third party, Kurukshetra is the brain child of XIMB's own systems genius Dr. Gopal Krishna Nayak. The sophisticated and solid structure of the game is its strength. 7th September - ME: A tough subject is over with an average exam. 8th September - LTB and COMM exams over. 9th September - SADA an...

12th Week --- 28th August to 3rd September 28th August - Sunday. No work and missed Envision organized by XSYS. SRP work finished today. 29th August - Thanks to Partha and AP that I landed up in the class for right time. 30th August - Every teacher is in hurry to finish the course. 31st August - Eid Holiday ! 1st September - Ganesh Pooja Holiday ! Lunch food had came from ISKCON. There are students who didn't know how to eat from their hands. It was hilarious to watch them eating from 2 fingers :P 2nd September - A long day to get tired. 5 classes a day. I was in the part of 2 team and one personal presentation. Goofed up in one slide and mistype "blind spot" as "blood spot"; 3rd September - ME test was done on the basis of pure chances. But QM presentation was superb. Happy with the positive feedback of sir and my team. Gave feedback of each subject and teacher. Indra Nooyi and Ela Bhatt were chosen as examples of woman leaders in LT...