84th Week@XIMB - 13th January to 19th January, 2013
There was no record written for this whole week. Procrastination and laziness has 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 financial services to over a million urban & semi-urban poor across 20 states in India. Ujjivan started operations on November 1, 2005 and is headquartered in Bangalore. Ujjivan believes in holistic approach to poverty alleviation and works closely with a sister non-profit institution, Parinaam Foundation to provide services in healthcare, education, vocational training & community development to its microfinance customers.
The whole batch was unaware that average tenure of CEO is only 1.5-2 years. The clarity in your structures, Walk the Talk, Leadership & Types of Investors always define any organization. Ujjivan MFI wants happy customers not a money lending NBFC(MFI) and it had proven by emerging virtually unharmed at the times of MFI crisis as with their risk assessment, they decided not to move in Andhra.. That validated that company is going in right direction. Mr. Ghosh told us about middle class financial inclusion in late 1980's and 1990's era. There was a gradual movement middle class - ICICI, HDFC, HSBC and CITI Bank leading the baton of the private sector. Currently available two wheeler, four wheeler and housings loan were unheard in 1985. The same process is going for bottom of pyramid customers now. BOP customers even bank account but they were not financially included till now.
10th January - The pressure is on. As they say, it rains hardest on those who deserve the sun. We were delighted to host Ved Arya for a talk today. Ved shared his experiences founding and building SRIJAN -- "Creation" in Hindi, and an acronym for Self-Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action. It was registered, as a public charitable trust in Delhi with the aim to promote strong self-reliant village organizations, partnerships and enterprises to enhance people’s access to natural resources and their capacity to manage them sustainably. I was especially impressed with Ved's holistic perspective on the value chain of self-help and joint-support and cluster development and technological innovation which come together to be of differentiating benefit to rural Indian farmers and their families.
11th January - I applied for two enterprises working in the development sector. One was SRIJAN (Self Reliant Initiatives through Joint Action) that is a not-for-profit organization. They were looking for professionals who are enthusiastic to work at grassroots for the upliftment of the rural population of India. I had good discussion with Ved Arya who considered me unsuitable for this job. This was partially due to my commitment to family and age factor. It is very strong to comment but people like C P Mohan and Ved Arya involved in core development will always fail to grab why money security is a prime motive for rural managers of neo-liberalization era.
The other enterprise was National Rural Livelihood Mission, Odisha. It was a contractual job similar on the lines of Jeevika, Bihar. More can be read about their sister organization: TRIPTI and Aajeevika. I qualified three rounds consisting of written Test(Essay on Poverty and its eradication), GD (FDI in Retail)and Personal Interview (Based on Winter Internship and Book Reading).
I had finally seized the day. Carpe diem !!!
12th January - Streak of lazy days has just began.
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 the town, hence holiday. I had became shadow of the person who once was possessed with an individuality and self-belief. There is a clear difference between me as the person on two different occasion- one fighting inner demons, the other surrendering to the mental barriers.
Sound logic with brutal and bare truths is the Australian way. I will be adding conversation with friends, meditation and music in the to daily routine.
26th December - There were more discussion in GID class about sex and gender issues. Diversity of views were amazing that made me look and appreciate perspectives that I never knew existed.
27th December - Managers have to navigate the dynamics of governance contexts at various levels that impact organizational trajectories of the international environmental and trading regimes to shifts in national policy or market regulation to changes in organizational relationships with partners and networks. Thus was the brief introduction of GD course.
Yes, there is hidden apartheid and distinction between various courses floating at XIMB. Not all courses are treated equally by majority of faculty and administration. Some of this can be attributed to the lack of sincerity by RM students throughout many batches. There is no clear communication by faculty encourage people to plan their life and career more sensibly. A vocational college fails under current framework when its student operate under pressurized and uncertain job situation, as this don't provide them even elusive social or economic security necessary for survival. People also say “we all agree that we need to ensure rural managers get paid” even though, from the perspective of an individual welfare against loan, discussions rather than action are completely unimportant.
28th December - Our seniors had left few companies that are not well-suited to them in less than a year. That is harming our proposition in this dull market.
29th December - I am not able to focus for few minutes on a single thing. IRP field work is pending from a long time. I had made my life in the pursuit of short term goals.
