87th Week@XIMB

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.

8th February - “When in Rome, be a Roman” is an often quoted idiom, but I never believed in the the practicality of this phrase. Moreover, it's everybody desire to be like, looked at and responded for walking on an offbeat path. This routine statement became more important in the context of state versus individual. No one can deny moral courage, of a person who stands in the face of public and governmental pressure and to do what is right rather balancing the views. It is necessary to be different and unique in its own sense. That individual walking a different line can only became a though leader and can be taken as an asset for social structure even when society is not conducive to adapt the contradictory form of truth. It is important not only for all of us to understand importance of such person. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult.

9th February - In the absence of Prof Kajri Mishra, our lecture was taken by Prof. Debi Prasad Mishra, who handles the general management strategy and policy department as a senior faculty member at IRMA. The complete lecture was around public system management. There was brief discussion on externality and Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, 2003 (FRBMA). In context of Indian state, post independence state has taken responsibility to provide fair value to producers, reasonable price to consumers and employment to the work force. That was a nearly impossible for any state to attend multiple objectives of the contradictory nature. And generations have to bear the good and bad consequences of such experiment.

It is a common complain that bureaucracy is not of customer friendly nature. It's wrong because there definition of customer is quite different. Citizen who pays for services is not a customer but who is in power hierarchy is a customer for them. This was a deja-vu moment of my learning about government. There are various methods like Citizen's Charter, RTI, Social Audit and e-governance has been taken to make state more citizen friendly. Let me end this week with an old, if cynical, saying about government : “Never believe anything until it is officially denied.”

86th Week@XIMB

86th Week@XIMB - 27th January to 2nd February, 2013

I am away from the laptop, internet and XIMB for a complete week on a trip to home. I was becoming stoic calm proof against vicissitude of academic pressure.

The power of "rural": A special on rural marketing

85th Week@XIMB

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 2013.

26th January - I left for home. Farewell.

84th Week@XIMB

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

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.

82nd Week@XIMB

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

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.

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 5...

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 5...: I didn't come down to XIMB to oversleep. I've worked below what I am capable of. Here in 5 points what I learnt in last 3 months: ...

80th Week@XIMB

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 studying financial inclusion: Financial Inclusion by Extension of Banking Services – Use of Business Correspondents (BCs), Financial Literacy and Credit Counselling Centres and Financial Inclusion talk by Deputy Governor, RBI. Those who are more interested in examining their banking knowledge can give quizzes here at the IIBF website.

20th December - BM guys have nailed very good jobs today. That is much talk of the town today. Always aspire, never envy. I have chosen to take a career path with the TINA effect - there is no alternative.

21st December - FINO aspiration dies slowly. I qualified in the aptitude test but was disqualified in an HR interview. The only one reason that my batch-mates are getting jobs is that they had prepared much meticulously than me. They simply did not turn up and expect things to get done on past achievements. The twin crises of a shortage of jobs and a shortage of skills are hampering mine growth.

22nd December - There was a private meeting of few people with the student placement committee coordinator regarding rumours of future dates of the company visit to campus. With the batch size of 100, it will be a gargantuan achievement for placing all people in their favourite sectors. RM is not given importance by the administration and Placement Coordinator at XIMB. When the placement will falter, a lot of low paying NGO's will be pushed for recruitment. I have been hoping for the last 18 months that things will be all right as opposed to wanting to make them all right. How bad will it get before it gets better?

There is a rage within each student of the RM program with this careless approach. I am in the right mind will never ask anybody to join this program until a new campus is established. Nothing grows in the shadows of the big banyan tree. Continuing to the raging voices, there is nothing more risky and volatile of all things than a self-pitying majority. It's now is the question of identity and only partition is the solution. XIMB - BM has a big network of alumni who are spread all across the globe and have made their names in different fields. And for few exceptions, there is not much harmony at a 'professional' level between these two courses. Also, the majority of students have the habit of placing loyalty to their programs above professionalism for the sake of XIMB.

One must record history to prevent atrocities from happening again. I am finding pleasure to write this blog now. Placing a story of struggle in the placement scenario is a position that goes against the dominant narrative manufactured by B Schools. It is generally believed that anything that is not read, watched or consumed with immediate gratification can't survive for long. Even if I have to compromise on the delay in leaking out such heated debates about XIMB, I assume it's worth it and will never compromise on the authenticity of every written word.

79th Week@XIMB

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 environment for the nine students who opted to work with the UMN students is praiseworthy. The RMAX coordinator(s) and all the participants of last years contests have been good brand ambassadors and we need to thank them for that. XIMB students have not fought shy of constant engagement and hard work that this collaboration has entailed.

In an era of T20 B plan contests I feel happy to see XIMB students showing the ability to have the patience and persistence for Test match kind of engagements. I sincerely hope that the Indian cricket team learns a bit from them at Nagpur!


9th December - CBRM & SCM presentation.

10th December - Mckinsey Newsletter had a amazing article - From oxcart to Wal-Mart: Four keys to reaching emerging-market consumer.

11th December - People belonging to Hindi heartland must read Munshi Premchand to have basic understanding of the rural India. It may be idealistic version but must read

12th December - BASF live project final presentation was over today. Finding the need to innovate is difficult rather than already existing products. This was key learning. I heard first time about Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) in the presentation.

BoP is like a holy grail chased by every company these days in the name of sustainable business. Economy, Ecology, Society defines Sustainable Business. Since BASF is a company working in B2B, it is difficult to have B2C transition. Transitions that happen by default, clearly lack the foresight and hence the planning. Trade Fairs is a better way of B2B Marketing as you know your customer. Lower period of pyramid need different modes of selling. Hence we need to solve the both puzzles of product innovation and business model.

Distance from highway is a good criteria to select villages and people. But we need more information on income group and spending/ borrowing habits of the people.
Co-relation National Highway, Block and Village with Average Income will be interesting thing to note for BoP market. There is already need of reliable and Valid data in both Qualitative and Quantitative analysis.

13th December - Management@Grassroots programme is another academic initiative of XIMB which aims at providing community relevant course contents and pedagogy with active participation from the target audience of these courses. Kudos XIMB !!!

14th December - CBRM and SCM end term.

15th December - No exams, hence a day of rest.

78th Week@XIMB

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 situation that matters most for winning candidate. Talent alone looks attractive but hard-work is effective in a long run.

7th December - I was alone and deep in gargantuan trouble of hopelessness. What happens when big ego meets official rejection news again and again ? To lose one job interview may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose two looks like carelessness. And as to losing three, well its a streak of nonperformance in my own eyes.

7th December - I am feeling numb and energy-less. Currently, I am in shambles with the state resembling to Indian cricket team. There is nowhere to hide for Indian team that has been exposed as a mediocre team. India has fallen from where they rose and the circle is complete. The time has come for me to move on in the life.

77th Week@XIMB

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 appreciated easy times. I felt the high standard of academic pressure will be there at XIMB. But alas, the academic rigour has been diluted leading to the creation of mediocre but arrogant managers. Do MBA graduates actually possess the level of logical and reasoning skills employers are looking for ?

It may be with a little chance that its not about uninterested youngsters sleeping in classroom ? Are colleges pushing down a whole lot of uninteresting stuff down the throats of students ? What for? To receive the education that would fetch employment
but kill the spirit of entrepreneurship. B school rarely occupy us with life tools to analyze and reason about complicated social situations.

28th November - Harsha trust was celebrating its 10th anniversary reflecting on its decade long journey in the development sector (livelihoods) in Odisha and have for this event Mr.Deep Joshi as a chief guest. In the world of development sector that is fragmented with aesthetics, political and ideological divisions. Only great few persons like Deep Joshi are admired and respected by almost all, across all divisions.

I was reading on public health in India. Side-effects of poor public health was a nice article written by Professor Biswa Swarup Misra. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), on average a person needs 3 litres of water for drinking, 4 litres for cooking, 20 litres for bathing, 40 litres for sanitation, 25 litres to wash vessels and 23 litres for gardening. I am not sure that our notion of development is fulfilling any of these criteria. As Dr Nata Menabde, World Health Organisation (WHO) Representative to India has said : “A good society is one that takes care of its vulnerable, its aged, its poor and its sick.” Access to credit, insurance and savings are critical in coping with shocks. I think our design of welfare state has failed us.

29th November - I finished pending works and delegated assignments to others before signing off to Raipur for two days.

30th November - Holiday :)

1st December - Holiday :)

76th Week@XIMB -

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 mails requesting you for active participation. Student Placecom ensuring attendance indicates the interest of the students for the particular organization and high rate of absenteeism jeopardizes our chances of converting them for final placements. There were few people debarred from applying for the respective company for which they did not attend the talk and also from the immediate next company for which application would be floated. The decision was taken after consulting with Faculty placement committee.
There is nothing more sorry scene than to waste an opputunity through reckless attitude.

23rd November - Last visit of BASF is completed today. I sat in boring immersion course of CRM (Customer Relationship Management).

24th November - Congratulations to Sreevidya N Gowda for getting placed in Mlinda Foundation as the Operations Manager! From a placecom's perspective: each person having job by off campus is one less to place.

I was reading a report on Entrepreneurship in India by National Knowledge Commission published in 2008. One line that struck me : 70% of the entrepreneurs interviewed do not have an MBA qualification. This may suggest that an MBA degree is not a sine qua non to become an entrepreneur, though perceptions may be changing. So why should one person go for MBA degree : The 10 Most Under-Rated Reasons Why You Should Get An MBA

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. - GB Shaw

75th Week@XIMB

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 wealth fail, they at least fail with style and grace, and their gut soon recognizes that failure is only a resting place, not a place in which to spend a lifetime. Their places will never be with those nameless souls who know neither victory nor defeat, who receive weekly paychecks regard­less of their week's performance, who are hired hands in the labor in someone else's garden. These doers are producers and no matter what their lot is at any given moment, they 'II never take a place beside the takers, for theirs is a unique place, alone, under the sun. They are entrepreneurs! - Joseph R. Mancuso

11th November -

13th November - Happy Diwali. I will produce talk on entrepreneurship by Inir Pinheiro.

Whenever you endeavor, the structures are not there. You have to make your own path. Need conducive environment in the college for people to venture differently. It matters from which community one comes from. Lack of opportunity creates violence. That shows clearly in the relationship of a B-School batch around placement week where everyone wants to go for glorified desk-job. There are two types of journey: The journey without and The journey within. Then, he asked us to watch a TED talk by Dan Pink

Dan Pink: The puzzle of motivation



Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don't: Traditional rewards aren't always as effective as we think.

14th November - There were several complaints about the speed of the internet connectivity off late. The speed has been affected because college is upgrading its internet connection. Initially, we had 70Mbps Airtel + 20 Mbps Ortel and we are currently upgrading the airtel connection to 110Mbps.

Funny things B-school students say and what they actually mean



15th November - There was a case discussion on : Diffusion of Innovative Teaching Method: Case of The Heritage School (A) and (B)

Diffusion is the process by which an innovation is propagated through certain channels over time among the units of a system. Innovation: From the point of view of a customer, a solution is considered innovation when it is new or perceived as new by the individual or the unit of adoption.

16th November - There was an evaluation and feedback session for the volunteers for NSORM today. Our work was well applauded by Kajri Madam.

Batch-meet was organized by RM Placement committee tonight and the future job scenario was looking bleak. It again reconfirmed my predictions that XIMB RM had not have market sense in the expansion of batch size from 50 to 100 for 2011-2013 batch without backing up for job opportunities in bad times. This institute had indeed dimmed diamonds in a sense of peer learning.

Deep and meaningful professional development comes from setting high expectations, from challenging oneself, and from supporting them. With hard times coming, I must demonstrate greater wisdom and confidence. If one is not enjoying what he/she is doing, then probably one will neither be doing justice to yourself nor your dependents.Hence, one should choose job carefully.

Gore Vidal once made a very fine statement: At any given moment, public opinion is a chaos of superstition, misinformation, and prejudice. This was shown after the completion of the batch meet when rumors and gossips were running high.

17th November -There were first three classes of Product and Brand Management for Agri-input Products (PBMAP) by Prof. P. Venugopal of XLRI. We learnt about Market Structure - Conduct -Performance in Agri-inputs, Farmer Buying Behaviour and Store loyalty v/s brand loyalty.

74th Week@XIMB

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 process of self-reflection. One can only progress by taking a leap of faith, not in God necessarily, but in oneself.

I was reading basic facts about Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) 2011. Also, I got a census 2001 data of SC and ST population in each state of India. The data was necessary to frame and study caste based reservations.

5th November - We have a first wave of pro business reforms rather than pro market ones. Due to this, the excessive power of the few big players impose a larger cost on everyone else. There is huge need of investment in the infrastructure through eight core sector industries : coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilizers, steel, cement and electricity. The need of the hour is to re-evaluate the distorted political economy of the financial sector, do away with these price distortions and allow competition in these sectors. And mostly nobody want to open Pandora Box that can reveal the scandalous matters our corporates and government are involved into. The allegation of RIL forcing Jaipal Reddy from oil ministry can't be entirely false.

The state retains control of key resources — currency, credit, energy, water, land, minerals, and the airwaves. But the true wealth of any nation is in fertile soil, abundant water, clean air, safe food and its people educated for independent action and free to practice it. Education is a better economic driver than a country’s natural resources. And our government is even failing to reach targets of average spending for education expenditure at 6% of GDP and health at 2% of GDP. And for God's sake, we don't have to compare India with China otherwise will get into the dilemma: Are Effective States compatible with Active Citizens ?

Bad policy is the result of bad lobbying. And there is mediocrity and compromise in public discourse, and mismanagement and cronyism in public policy—go hand in hand. I am no communist but believe in what Frankfurt says: "With respect to the distribution of economic assets, what is important from the point of view of morality is not that everyone should have the same but that each should have enough."

6th November - Two XIMBian Digvijay Singh and Zeeshan Arfi (Rural Management batch 2009) have kicked off on the social entrepreneurship path. Their intervention is enabling and empowering the life's of rural youth at Mahagaon in Mandla a tribal district in MP. Meaningful Livelihood for Rural Youth is the core theme behind there project.

All students enter rural management program with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the poor, but after two years of competition and having an opportunity for easy money, we care for nothing but the right jobs with the right companies where we can quantum jump each year to earn big bucks. Hence, there spirit of entrepreneurship with focusing on capacity building of poor must be applauded with greater cheer. This country need to have more role models come out and take entrepreneurship as a career path.

There are lot of people who don't give XAT/CAT score and may have lacked proper knowledge of English language and quantitative skills. But they have more guts to open there own business. A pawn shop owner even earning 1/10th of a MNC employee is working hard with his/her own identity and independence. Starting a business isn't fast or seamless. If anyone want to start a business and want it to be meaningful, be prepared for it to be something of a slow process. That seems a tough proposition in the age of immediate gratification. I feel like an immature Student of a premature Institute whose only concern is to get a high packaged job in any MNC. What a waste of money and time on my education !

7th November -

8th November - The 1st National Symposium on Rural Management, titled “Building Professionals for Inclusive Growth” will be held at XIMB from November 9-10, 2012. This symposium will reflect on the issues and develop strategies and designs for expansion, institutionalization and better domain engagement of the Rural Management Programme. Eminent speakers from the field of Rural Management have been invited to speak on their innovative ideas.

9th November -The Inauguration Function was held at the Auditorium with Dr. Mihir Shah, Member, Planning Commission, Govt. of India has kindly consented to deliver the Inaugural and Keynote Address. Some one pointed out a beautiful line in the prolong and tedious sessions : Integrity. It’s a bit like virginity. Either you have it…or you don’t!

I had a chance of an informal session with Dr. M S Sriram. He told us about social and business enterprises. Profit or Purpose: The Dilemma of Social Enterprises ; If the business fails then its accounting case study and if business succeeds then it is marketing case study. Such is the safe life of academician. But for a social entrepreneur, the path  becomes hell when he deviates from original mission and vision. As those mission statements will make a perception in the minds of the customers and stakeholders early. Hence, they have to manage with extra caution any evolution in mission either to keep venture floating or scaling up with private equity as this might affect brand positioning. He gave classic case of Vikram Akula who will look like saint in comparison to Vijay Mallya today.

He told us about Limited liability clause where the clause faces a limit on the amount that can be claimed for a breach of contract, regardless of the actual loss. That comes handy for crony capitalist of India. India is strange country with failed enterprise and successful entrepreneurs.

He told us about three types of corruption : Nazrana, Shukrana and Jabrana. I searched more on this matter and found this in a column of Sunday Guardian:- The first is Nazrana, or the traditional tribute to be paid to the person in power by ordinary people. The second form of corruption is Jabrana, or extortion. Anyone who wants anything done in government has to pay the "extortioner" his fee, or jabrana. The third form is Shukrana, or money paid by way of gratitude by a person whose work has been done without his having to pay a bribe.

10th November -Small changes can produce big results—but the areas of highest leverage are often the least obvious. That was a brilliant line of thinking along re-positioning of Rural Management brand and curriculum makeover. The funny aspect of the whole conference was sometimes it look like a get together party for IRMAns.

There were people with missionary zeal, personal agenda, varied experiences and history of diverse skill sets in NSORM. They pointed that availability of a loan is not a good enough reason for a very high fees and EMI should not dictate choice of job. The dilemma of'How to earn money with soiling their hands' was better discussed among all the stakeholders. One of them also suggested that Indians have the dirty mindset that does want to pay. Indians only study so we could avoid hard work. Minimum wages of the field staff while earning too much for themselves is common phenomenon here.

73rd Week@XIMB

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 before and after the peak promotion season of previous 3-5 years. That will help in fair impact assessment of promotion offers.

01st November - We studied in the case study how Honda entered and gained dominance of the USA motorcycle industry in STM class.

MART has initiated the knowledge series as part of its commitment to disseminate knowledge among larger stakeholders since 2009. The list of knowledge series documents given by MART is here.

02nd November - Xpressions is the annual B-School fest organised by the student community of XIMB, in their endeavor to foster interactions with the corporate world and other B-Schools.

Vinayak Veerakesavan and Binayak Acharya managed to get a special mention award in the Sitaramrao Case Study Competition this year. Narrowly missed the top three. They were working on Manglajodi Eco Tourism. Great Work guys !!!

I applied in IFMR and mine CV was selected for first round. Knowledge of econometrics and qualitative tool was must for this profile. I studied a little about Randomized Controlled Trials (Research Paper)and Impact Assessment (148 Page PDF).

03rd November - I got rejected in IFMR after interview. There were rejection in past weeks in CEAT Campus Connect Contest and Social Entrepreneurship contest. In order to succeed, one must be given a chance to fail. I am going through that phase of failures. Short term success gives me that confirmation to keep doing the hard work and keep trying to move forward. Faith in oneself for cracking big shot is never enough. Recently, I have began to doubt on my capabilities and talent. Still, I respect the journey and accept failure. I am looking for a nice break away from hard luck. I am off for the rest.

72nd Week@XIMB

72nd Week@XIMB - 21st October to 27th October, 2012

21st October - “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results not attributes.” ― Peter F. Drucker

I never fully understood importance of leadership until landed here in XIMB. Any university that does not offer its student this freedom and opportunity will fail to develop promising leaders and managers. I am lucky to have ITBHU and XIMB as institute of higher education. I guess any student needs to do study about something he/she is truly passionate about – if he/she is sitting in classes merely for the sake of grades/ – he’s just missed the point! There are some courses that may be no practical use in desk job, field service or even research, there is most certainly value. If you want to be a leader, there has to be irrationality in your setting up of the dreams. As Nelson Mandela rightly said "There is no passion to be found playing small."

Any institute or organization don't just need firefighters, they need architects too; Leadership is not just about solving problems but exploring opportunities. Leadership at the organization often becomes confusing and uninspiring. Top talent leave an organization when they’re badly managed. And generally immediate supervisors are the prime reason. People are always ready to work hard in the conducive environment and can even compromise salaries for a stability. But when senior management don’t hear the voice of the employee below, the plot of disaster creeps in the team. “People leave managers not companies.” This is highly cited quote in corporate world and I agree with this statement. What are leadership traits ? There is no hardcore and strict signs but the motivation and innovation will come high in my list.

22nd October - Kolkata tour is on.

23rd October - Kolkata tour ends today.

24th October - Back to Bhubaneswar and sleeping with luxury.

25th October - I am down with fever, cold, headache and body pain. The winters have arrived in this part of the world.

26th October - There was discussion on Balance Scorecard, Bench Marking and Scenario Analysis in KMSDS class.

27th October - With experiencing so many upheavals, I am more mature now. You are obviously wiser at 27 than when you are 21-22. I have understood my abilities and weak points. Passion is still there [though] faded due to academic burden.

71st Week@XIMB

71st Week@XIMB - 14th October to 20th October, 2012

14th October - Binayak Acharya & Gaurish Manerkar won 1st Prize at B-plan competition in KIIT. That is a one more positive news for XIMB.

15th October - In SCM, we discussed about basics of network design in supply chain.

We were taught in CBRM lecture about attitude formation that is explained through tri component model of Cognition, Affective and Conative process. (Source; Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004). I was suggested to read about The Stanford Prison Experiment.We were told about tom sawyer effect where sometimes a very unattractive thing can also be made very attractive. There is a webpage for more study.

16th October - There was case study on Timex corporation in strategy class.

There was discussion on Daniel Kanheman in CBRM lecture and his Dual process theory where System 1 is Automatic & unconscious and System 2 is Slow and sequential thinking. I read a good article on discounts- Paying more in a sale? How to spot a real bargain from sneaky retail tricks.

The symbols are powerful instrument in touching the chords of the customer. When Gandhi broke the salt laws, he was expressing pent up emotions among Indians. The salt tax charged the Indian people for a basic human necessity and prevented them making their own salt. Hence, Indians were forced to look for the meaning of freedom in their daily life affected by British Rule.

17th October - There is an urgent need to learn linear programming model for going through basic of distribution network design.

We all learned something about Power Chemical companies through the case - Creating Fertile Ground for Knowledge at Monsanto. In power chemical sector, life of patent is 7 years while that is 16 -20 years for pharma sector. We were given insight about core competence through example of Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

18th October - In STM, there was focus on growth, stability and other strategies followed by companies. In this CBRM lecture, I learned about different type of heuristic : Anchoring, Availability, Naive Diversification, Affect, Social Proof and Effort.

19th October - The classes are closed leading to Puja Holiday.

20th October - I should interact with persons from different social strata to understand the aspirations, source of strength and fears of individual. TV, Social Media and Internet is not reality, go outside, travel, talk to different people and live. There are places where people have never seen a proper doctor. Mike Horn, the adventurer has aptly put importance of living life full of new experiences: "If you don't have any challenges, you don't have experience and if you don't have experience you haven't lived life."

70th Week@XIMB

70th Week@XIMB - 7th October to 13th October, 2012

7th October - Sunday : BASF field visit.

8th October - I learned about CST, VAT and upcoming GST in SCM lecture. Under the CST Act, the tax is collected at one stage of purchase or sale of goods. Therefore, the burden of the full tax bond is borne by only one dealer, either the first or the last dealer. However, under the VAT system, the tax burden would be shared by all the dealers from first to last. Then, such tax would be passed upon the final consumers. There was brief discussion on FDI in retail that is a hot topic these days .

9th October - There were no classes. There was very important batch meet regarding placement. We all are heading towards the future determined by the placement, there is an uncertainty in the even calm minds also. As Keynes has said, we have, as a rule, only the vaguest idea of any but the most direct consequence of our acts. In our decisions, the pull of reality is greater than pull of dreams. I don't know where I will flow!

10th October - In this SCM lecture, there was study on transportation and inventory cost.

11th October -Fr. Sirinus Topno, S.J. left for his heavenly abode yesterday evening due to cardiac arrest. Fr. Sirinus served the Institute in various capacities such as Administrator of CENDERET and MDC since 2010.

Gramotsava launch. Gramotsava, an event conceptualised by students of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar is done to promote products and business concepts among rural masses, got underway from Thursday. The event, organised by Rural Managers’ Association of XIMB (RMAX), saw the unveiling of the official banner for Gramotsava 2012 with the theme ‘Back to the Roots’ here.

There was a talk given our alumni Parul from CMF -IFMR. This talk revolved around impact assessment of the project. Her work profile was more a policy based action research that requires good knowledge of statistics & econometrics with software's like SPSS, STATA.

12th October - The launch will be followed by a two-day fair in the rural haats of Tangi and Begunia in the districts of Cuttack and Khurda, respectively. Daily Pioneer newspaper has covered the item in detail.

13th October - I was absent from the 2nd day of Gramotsava. Better said than done, guys (Binayak Acharya, Kshitij Gupta & Gaurish Manerkar) from batch had won 1st Prize in a debate competition held at KIIT.

69th Week@XIMB

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 - Leviathan or Legend case in STM lecture. I learned that a market leader should be ready with a fighting brand but should not introduce unless competition is stiff as it can led to cannibalism of its own premium brand.

5th October - There was only one lecture of KMSDS revolving around a case discussion. Chaos Theory: Harness Knowledge to Benefit Front-Line Service Delivery Teams, Staff, Customers, Clients and Health-Care Providers. I learned about organization life cycle.

6th October - I volunteered with group of SE students to visit Milk Mantra Plant. I was able to see the procurement and processing part of the complete business model. Milk Mantra facility at Gop, Puri district - Ethical Milk Sourcing programme creates a sustainable impact on the lives of more than 5000 milk suppliers on fair pricing policy. And, the network of farmers also get access a variety of extension services aimed to

68th Week@XIMB

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 of a student in the market : commodity, product, brand, super-brand and cult. New recruit is a commodity and M S Banga is a cult like Harley Davidson. Learning agility will set one part from fellow colleague and competitor.

1- A dichotomous question offers just two answer choices, typically in a yes/no format. A double-barreled question raises several separate issues but provides only one
set of responses.

2- There is a shift in fertilizer policy where there is now more focus on giving incentive's at farmer level. Hence, there is shift from commodity to trading system i.e. a competitive environment. In risk gain matrix, fertilizers come in low-low segment while seeds come in high-high segment. Defect is an area of improvement. Dow Agri Science focus on cotton and is new entrant in paddy. 450 rs is a labour charge in peak season for plucking of cotton.

3- Sales of Financial service and agro chemicals require a techno commercial skill while consumer goods require only commercial skills. Market development is done by field staff in agri input companies. They must have sound knowledge of product and also be more knowledgeable than farmers. A valuable lesson in rural marketing is economical does not always mean cheaper. The cash flows of consumer must be studies for designing of the product.

24th September - SCM class. US logistics costs were over 12 percent of GDP in the early 80's steadily decreasing until 2003 to 9 percent of GDP. That was achieved by focusing on reducing the their costs as well as of their supply chain partners. Currently, that can also be done in India and only 1% reduction with save $18.5 Billion US dollars at current prices - 2011.

I was selected in BASF live project. BASF is a leading Chemical Company in the world.

Objective of the Project:
• To explore the local residents’ purchase and consumption and identify the need gaps and assess perceived needs of products/services amongst the community.
• Proposal for new products/ delivery mechanisms to address the needs of the BoP customer base.
• To study the current practices and trends for rural households in following three segments : Rural Housing, Performance products for Water Treatment & Products for increasing efficiency in Storage (Increase in shelf life of stored produce,energy efficiency of warehouses).
• Identify the potential for BASF products/services in the three segments.

25th September - In the third STM lecture, we learned through various example Porter five forces.

26th September - SCM : Information sharing is required for integration of the whole supply chain. Customer relationship management (CRM),Integrated Supply Chain Management (ISCM) and Supplier relationship management (SRM) together focuses on increasing the size of pie rather than fighting over share of pie.

27th September - In 4th STM lecture, there was discussion on competitive positioning. Our faculty gave example of delayed service of Air India and Indian Airlines that affected schedule of eminent personality like Louis Kahn and I G Patel

In CBRM class, we learned about Perceptual mapping, social conformity and attitudes.

The behavior of buckling under group pressure due to the risk of social rejection is lot more common in society on the controversial issues. There can be wisdom in crowds but not always. People do this to avoid the discomfort that accompanies disagreement with the social conformity. Let us see this in given video.

Asch's Conformity

There was a prep talk by Mr. Deepak Sachude from Natueco farming science. The whole talk revolved around spiritual values and farming. I had an interaction with Shanu Prasad and Prabin Nath post prep talk. Got an insight of marketing side of Tafe and operation side of Fino. I need to learn about online auction and tender process.

28th September - There was discussion n tacit and explicit knowledge with a discussion on case study : “If Only HP Knew What HP Knows . . .”. Knowledge is created, captured and stored through bottom up approach while it is used, updated and reused in top down approach in any organization.

29th September -  I participated in CEAT Campus Compass project. This was about radial tyre industry. A good reading material was enough for us.

Industry Talk of Mr. Debaraj Behra from BRLPS.

Mr. Behra took an interactive session on the Livelihood projects undertaken by BRLPS. Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (BRLPS) is an independent society set up by the Government of Bihar and supported by the World Bank. Key Learning Points are mentioned below -:

1- Creation of choice in credit is one of the major development tasks required for poor.
2- BRLPS work without any subsidy hence chances of corruption is far less.
3- Affinity based SHG is formed by them. There is a Para professional chosen from the community who keeps books for the community.
4-134 signs were required for a loan of 12,000 by 3 women. This shows the bureaucratic hurdles in the financial inclusion.
5- A person can assess the credit needs, value chain, supply and demand gap by working at the ground level only.

6- Never compromise on health, integrity and dreams.

67th Week@XIMB

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 words like : Mind of market, Network, Preference Groups, Demographic variables, Rationality and Identity, Optimization.  There was a valid reason for choosing this elective as an insight gained from consumer behaviour will lead to the development of an effective marketing strategy that secures the loyalty of today’s discerning customer. We were suggested to watch TED talks of Rory Sutherland who stands at the center of an advertising revolution in brand identities, designing cutting-edge, interactive campaigns that blur the line between ad and entertainment. There are websites like ideas42 and thefuntheory examining human behaviour in detail.

Talk by Vinay Jaju, Founder, ONergy.

“We didn’t want to be another ‘marketer’ of solar products, but a solutions firm that meets household energy requirements" — Piyush Jaju & Vinay Jaju, Founders, ONergy

ONergy sells customised solar power solutions to rural homes in East India. Jaju brothers have been featured in recent edition of Outlook as social entrepreneurs. They have been told earlier by a leading social entrepreneur :"You will only sell if the product is sexy in the eyes of end consumer."

As per Vinay, affordable product does not mean cheap. Onergy is currently in business of decentralized distributed energy solution. Currently, an average use of family on kerosene in 7 liters a month costing 210 Rs. Hence, poor is ready to spent money on energy solution.

Key Learning : Giving consumer choice is a mark of respect. Good service lead to the endorsement of product by the customer itself. Concept of subsidy is good, the problem lies in structural design and management.

19th September - Holiday on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi. Read a great quote today : “Once people said: Give me liberty or give me death. Now they say: Make me a slave, just pay me enough.” ― Todd Garlington

20th September - In the 2nd STM lecture, I learned that Japanese market had more belief in product and American market in the marketing. Suzuki guys discarded market research report prepared by Indians because of their belief in their products. We were also told anecdote of La Quinta hotels and traveling salesman. Got introduced to the concept of working capital cycle.

In CBRM, there was discussion about sensory perception and synesthesia. There is one BBC documentary : Is Seeing Believing? and two TED profiles to watch for in coming days. First is of Julian Treasure studies sound and advises businesses on how best to use it. And second is of neurologist V.S. Ramachandran looks deep into the brain’s most basic mechanisms. By working with those who have very specific mental disabilities caused by brain injury or stroke, he can map functions of the mind to physical structures of the brain.

Rob Legato: The art of creating awe


The SPICMACAY Chapter of XIMB is organizing a Rajasthani folk music (Langa) performance by Gazi Khan Mangeniar and Group.

21st September - In the first lecture of KMSDS, there was a professor who was teaching us case analysis in a solid way.

• Objective Given, Summary of Case and Perspective View of Yours.
• Industry ( Macro and Micro Economic View); Porter's Five Forces.
• Organization (VMG) and (Core Competence and Organization Life Cycle).
• Issues (Man, Machine, Money and Time Available) ( Problems and Challenges).
• Best Fit Solutions.
• Conclusion - Quantitative (ROI and NPV) and Qualitative (Employee, Society at Large and Policy Environment).
• Find out Stakeholders and their objectives. (Ensure Win Win situation for everybody)We were suggested to read industry reports undertaken by consulting firms.

22nd September - XIMB claims that it does not churn out only managers; instead it aids in the holistic development of the students into responsible and aware citizens who will take up the baton of social responsibility. I looked through Vision, Mission and Values of XIMB for the first time. Even, it has always leveraged everywhere on connecting business and society. I don't see this much different from another B School. There is always a difference between words and action due to economic constraints.

Our Vision - Inspired by the Jesuits spirit of 'Magis', XIMB strives to be a premier institute globally recognized for management education, training, research, and consulting that help build a just and humane society.

Our Mission - We shall continue to be an institute with a difference by developing competent, committed and compassionate leaders through management education, knowledge generation and dissemination, capacity building, technology enabled learning and organizational development.

Our Values - 1. Integrity and Honesty 2. Respect for Individuals 3. Transparency and Accountability 4. Commitment and Dedication 5. Concern for Quality 6. Passion for Innovation and Performance 7. Social, Ecological and Ethical Sensitivity

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 4...

Sparsh: Development in a Trimester of rural management - 4...: An IRMA Prof. Arunathan always ask a very profound question on poor and rural managers : “Why we are here and why they are there? ” There ...

66th Week@XIMB

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 demise of a great figure among the community of rural managers. Father of White Revolution, Verghese Kurien was no more with us.

10th September - There is great article paying tribute to Dr Verghese Kurien - Inspiration to a Rural Manager. Dr. Kurien is being limited by media as a man who has created Amul, the Brand of India. His contribution is much more than forming brand Amul. He created a legacy in successfully running cooperative and never succumbing to political pressure. This becomes more outshining in the context of failure of cooperative movement in India.

I was reading QRM in detail for exam. There were great revelation because I had not taken interest in the elective course from start. I got few facts right from a research paper of Fekede Tuli -

1- The quantitative purists articulate assumptions that are consistent with what is commonly called positivist paradigm and believe that social observations should be treated as entities in much the same way that physical scientists treat physical phenomena. To the contrary, the qualitative purist also called interprativist or constructivist by rejecting the positivist assumption contended that reality is subjective, multiple and socially constructed by its participants (Krauss,2005; Bryman, 1984;  Lincoln & Guba 2000; Guba and Lincoln, 1994; Amare, 2004).

2- Positivism is based on the assumption that there are universal laws that govern social events, and uncovering these laws enables researchers to describe, predict, and control social phenomena. Interpretive research, in contrast, seeks to understand values, beliefs, and meanings of social phenomena, thereby obtaining a deep and sympathetic understanding of human cultural activities and experiences.

11th September - ESM and QRM paper were over today. I came to know about Sanjay Ghouse whose mission in his own words “To change the world and make a difference in the lives of the ordinary people”. He is a real inspiration for all of us rural managers.

12th September - CM exam was the last paper. I read about producer companies in detail : Resource Handbook For establishing a Producer Company.

13th September - This is the last day of 4th Trimester.

Let us start with a great line by Peter F Drucker in the "The Practice of Management" first published in 1955.

"No greater damage could be done to our economy or to our society than to attempt to professionalize management by licensing managers, for instance, or by limiting access to management to people with a special academic degree."

Following are his arguments in support of the view:

1. A degree in management does not by itself make an individual a professional manager any more than does a degree in philosophy make an individual philosopher. The essence of professional management is achievement, not knowledge; results not logic. By insisting on holding a degree, we are overemphasising knoledge and completely overlooking skill. This will eliminated those who individuals who, though highly skilled, do not have reqired degree.

2. People once certified as professionals on the basis of their academic degrees would always remain professionals, despite their knowledge becoming obsolete in later years.

14th September - New trimester and new promises. Yet day gone in completing backlog of assignments and submitting fees. There was no coordination between administration and finance. 13th Sept was the last date of fees submission and that coincided with the exam schedule.

15th September - AMDA, QRM and ESM assignments were completed today. There deadlines were within 3 hours.

The Story of Agriculture and the Green Economy

The future of our world depends on addressing global challenges now. We need to create sustainable livelihoods, feed a growing population and safeguard the environment. We need to make the global economy green.

65th Week@XIMB

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 key focus for a good business model in rural India. Most companies in India have a strong urban model while only Agri-input companies can claim to have a dent in the rural market. Few companies like Unilever, Dabur, and CavinKare have partial success in this rural arena. People who had worked in rural branches of SBI and RRB's have also knowledge of the rural mindset. Amul is like any other MNC in the front end while rural in the back end.

How to identify and define rural areas? This is a bigger question in front of companies. (I agree with this questioning as one sure way to get the wrong answer is by not framing the right questions). LG has defined an area below the population of 1 lakh as rural. That is an absurd definition. The worst criteria are population as consumer behavior differs due to cultural aspects in different parts of India. Assam and Bengal are more outgoing for education than Bihar and Orissa. One of the good methods employed by companies to classify rural pockets was the distance from highways.

The largest expenditure incurred by companies on advertisement is taken by DD due to its outreach. Local broadcasting channels like Mahua TV and Sarang TV are a good way to reach a rural audience of particular regions. Government has credibility in the rural areas that are lacked by private players. There are nearly 77,000 branches of banks and 1,36,000 Post offices (data not exact) in India. Yet, that number is quite low. Along with high operational cost, due to this trust factor, local MFI's and banking correspondent were used by leading banks for lending in rural India. This shows the importance of trust in making transactions with the rural customer segment.

There is more need for micromanagement in India. Everything is okay, not great at the policy level but implementation is bad at the panchayat/block level. The private player has also to manage and engage daily with governance complexities and lack of infrastructure. Three critical steps changed India in the last decade: First, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and The Golden Quadrilateral. This made rural areas more accessible for product/service delivery. Second, increase in funding through various social welfare schemes. And third, rural laborers were paid remittance through a safety net like NREGA.

There is a huge generation of data that requires intelligent MIS and data analyst. There is more need for knowledge before investing time and money in rural India. There is a need to understand the domestic market more than ever in recessing market example tolerance level is more in rural customers. In this quest for understanding rural consumer, answers can be dramatically different and contrary to the popular belief.

3rd September - A very hectic day amid regular classes. I gossiped a lot in the night for mental relaxation. Last class of SDM. It ended overall on a high note with a surprisingly good TED talk video.

Daniel Pink on the surprising science of motivation

4th September - There was a group presentation in ESM on Organic Farming in Cuba. I wanted to raise several statements of protest in front of Professor. I rather restrained myself in the end.

5th September - There was the last class of QRM that lasted for 45 minutes. I had talked with our Professor. She told us few things about rural management education and pedagogy in India. There is a dearth of teaching cases in the area of rural management. This shows a lack of research and funding in this field.

Key Learning: Writing up field notes immediately is one of the sacred obligations of fieldwork. Sometimes maintaining this diary becomes both boring and painful. I repeat the same behavior every day and expected to churn out a new insight. There are confront unpleasant facts, including lack of acceptance, ambiguity about a question, and gaping holes in the analysis. Believe Everything and Trust Nothing is the mantra of the observation to see clearly through the ideological maze.

While Managers are prepared for risk aversion and to achieve profits, an entrepreneur is a risk-taker. In the rural setting, business development and community mobilization become a key tasks for anyone. Trust is something on which business works in rural areas.

6th September - A great news for XIMB RM 2011-2013 batch. Our batchmate Sreevidya Gowda (India) was chosen among the TOP 50 INDIAFRICA BUSINESS VENTURE Winners. Nirmal purifier has been designed to provide access to iron-free safe drinking water at a low cost. The design was a semifinalist at the Dell Social innovation challenge and a finalist at the Acara Challenge conducted by the University of Minnesota.

Listening to the New Amul Manthan Song

The Manthan music video has a unique emotional appeal. The lines like 'khush rahe tera beta beti' in the new music video show how it is because of the efforts of a rural milk producer that nutritional requirements of a child to an urban mother are taken care of.

7th September - HRM paper over. Do you know who is Amanda Ammann? I was also not knowing about her details till now. I meet her few times but she never revealed her real identity and just enacted as a normal exchange student.

8th September - MFM paper is over. The tragic story of making mistakes in the balance sheet went on this time also.

64th Week@XIMB

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 critical, but am trying hard not to become cynical. As thy folklore wisdom persist that MBA is hyped but post MBA life is over hyped.

27th August There was talk given by Mr.Roy Prosterman, Founder of Rural Development Institute (RDI). He has twice been nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

There was exhaustive discussion on Spectrum Brands, Inc.--The Sales Force Dilemma in SDM class.

28th August There was virtually not much substantial gain in attending MFM, CM and HRM lecture today.

29th August - A huge discussion on the future of RM program in QRM class. RM program has currently ambi dextrous nature. With its position, it is difficult to find any College to do bench-marking for academic curicula. To understand crux of the debate, one need to use right nomenclature either development or management. Any college should have these aspects for growth: Creation of knowledge through research, Application of knowledge within the industry through commercialization and dissemination of knowledge through classroom lectures. There is a huge gap in research area that needed major thrust .

Any college is built around three pillars: administration , faculty and alumni. At the moment, all of them are not clear about their own vision of XIMB and the third we don't listen any about. There is a practical joke in XIMB that those few who raise the slogan of RM in the loudest voices have nothing to do with the vision of this program. Testosterone and allegiance-driven student community has no place to stop and think over vision of the programme.

Not a single memorial exists today for Fr. Bogaert. What a shameful state of XIMB RM that can't even honor its own pioneering professor and patron. Father Bogaert was the first co-ordinator who facilitated in setting up of CENDERET in 1989. He was the driving force for this Rural Development(RD) program that later evolved in to Rural Management(RM).

30th August - The last class of ESM was on corporation and sustainability. The transition to sustainable capitalism will be one of the most complex our species has ever had to negotiate. Traditional accounting methodas never takes in account natural assets.Current financial tool like NPV or IRR can't easily account for intangible benefits. Sustainability is a parameter of long term impacts and we have to look in the economics with more timeless way, for next generation rather only as discounted cash flows. There was an article on sustainable practices of ABB ltd. on same day worth looking.

One of our Alumnus Mr. Nikhar Gyanesh (2005-07 Batch) currently working with CEAT Tyres as Senior Product Manager visited campus. His talk revolved around Tyre industry and importance of academics in the industry for 'gyaan'. Tractor companies were major clients of Tyre Industry. M&M has a share of 41.4 per cent in the tractor market, followed by TAFE at 23.4 per cent and Escorts at 11.4 per cent. John Deere accounts for a market share of only 7.5 per cent.

31st August - I visited to the C&FA office of Dulux paint today. This visit was done for understanding sales and distribution network of Dulux paint. The discussion was very small due to last day of the month. AkzoNobel is the parent company of this brand. We were given additional 'gyaan' that AkzoNobel has been ranked as the most sustainable chemical company in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index (DSJI).

1st September - I have heard and seen a lot of XIMB-RM social group’s view of reality. A lot of talks with fellow rural managers became an important data source on ecosystem of the college, private thoughts, and feelings about after-school jobs and future possibilities.