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 - 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.
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 - 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.
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.
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 - 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.
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.
