23rd Week @ XIMB

23rd Week - 13th November to 19th November

13th November : Sunday evening with Lucky Ali. A happening end of the leisure day.

14th November : "A person's a person, no matter how small" - Dr. Seuss, author. I learned this lesson today but don't remember where.

15th November : We presented CCD (CAFE COFFEE DAY) in marketing class and comes unscathed of any negative criticism. ADM lecture was good. Most stupid questions are those that are never asked. It was a really good quote from Gaurish Manerkar.

16th November : People don't know how to use mail. That can only I say now on public forum. Otherwise a regular day.

17th November : It was last class of ITM and PROJM. A happy end of trimester is coming soon. Learned about Brian Wasnik and Duncan J. Watts.

Duncan J. Watts (born 1971) is a principal research scientist at Yahoo! Researcher and the author of the book Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age. I am producing here his famous article in Harvard Business Review- Viral Marketing for the Real World by Duncan J. Watts and Jonah Peretti

Brian Wansink (Ph.D. Stanford 1990) is the John Dyson Endowed Chair in the Applied Economics and Management Department at Cornell University, where he directs the Cornell Food and Brand Lab. Wansink is best known for his work on consumer behavior and food and for popularizing terms such as "mindless eating" and "health halos." I am putting up here the weblink of Mindless Eating for surfing.

We were told about MacArthur winner Sendhil Mullainathan and how he uses the lens of behavioral economics to study a tricky set of social problems — those we know how to solve, but don’t.

Sendhil Mullainathan: Solving social problems with a nudge



29 People of XIMB RM batch have gone together for the movie RockStar. Good break from routine!

18th November : What people here usually called USP (Unique Selling Proposition), it has got better name. Its called PVP (Personal Value Proposition). Build Your Personal Value Proposition is a good blog article by Bill Barnett who led the Strategy Practice at McKinsey & Company.

Kiva - The Pedro Story: A story of how a small loan from you can change the life of a family.



Rural Development is an area where rural managers are launched into battlefield with a service revolver to face AK 47. The overall participation on the basis of merit is quite low in the nature but the problems of development are much complex than any other industry.

19th November :  I was sick today. ADM quiz was a disaster.

Sheena Iyengar studies how we make choices -- and how we feel about the choices we make. At TEDGlobal, she talks about both trivial choices (Coke v. Pepsi) and profound ones, and shares her groundbreaking research that has uncovered some surprising attitudes about our decisions. Thanks to Jeevan Sir for this talk.

Sheena Iyengar: The art of choosing

22nd Week @ XIMB

22nd Week - 6th November to 12th November

6th November - Sunday. SRM lecture is missed . There was good news that I am shortlisted for interview of MSME.

There was election for core place-com committee in the evening. 5 hours of marathon and participatory process was over with 22 candidates (14 Voluntary and 8 at the moment). Politics inside the branch has started officially.

7th November - Interview for MSME was not much satisfactory. But I studied a lot about Clusters of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and livelihood generation through Cluster Development.

M S Swaminathan Research Foundation is doing good work in the area of hunger and food security. As per there Vision : A society where everyone has access to food and nutrition security. And Mission : Ensuring food and nutrition security of vulnerable sections by empowering them, by promotion of focused interventions, by capacity building of various stakeholders, and by research and advocacy.

The ‘Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India’ is prepared by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation with support from the United Nation’s World Food Programme (UNWFP).The Report is in two parts. The first part examines the status of food and nutrition security in Rural India. Ranking of States based on their status has been done using seven indicators, viz., population consuming less than 1890 Kcal, access to safe drinking water, sanitation facility, women with anaemia, women with chronic energy deficiency, stunting in children and children with anemia and comparison made between two time periods. The thrust is on outcome indicators. The second part of Report examines the major public food delivery systems – Public Distribution System (PDS), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid-Day Meals Scheme (MDMS). The Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) has led to exclusion of large number of needy poor. The Report recommends a return to the ‘universal PDS’ that existed till 1997.

An idea about OMFED struck into my mind. I discussed the feasibility of the idea with Gaurish. In the same ADM lecture, we were told about hostile world and effects of missing deadlines.

8th November - There was no study for MEARS test. Interview for core Placecom committee takes place. I was not selected for core Placecom. I was disappointed a bit but life goes on.

A manager should have both bird's and snail eye view for observation. A good lesson learnt about fallacy of the jargon oriented MBA program.

9th November - I was neither selected in SIP of MSME foundation not shortlisted for Birla Tyres. I missed out last MEARS class where there was emphasis given by faculty that we are students of rural management, not rural development.

There was presentation on Kudumbashree by Mr. Nair. Kudumbashree : prosperity of the family, launched in 1998 is women oriented and community based State Poverty Eradication Mission of Government of Kerala. The programme has 37 lakh members and covers more than 50% of the households in Kerala. Built around three critical components, micro credit, entrepreneurship and empowerment, the Kudumbashree initiative has today succeeded in addressing the basic needs of the less privileged women.

I am embedding here the youtube video whose small section was shown in RPLS classroom.

World Economic Forum: East Asian Solutions for Global Food Security



10th November Launch of EXPRESSION and various games committee involved.
There was case discussion on Custom Car Care by Anne M. Martin, John F. Graham. This comprehensive case provides an opportunity to cover the entire marketing framework and is particularly useful to demonstrate a break-even with a profit level.

I was also part of marketing team for game Kurukshetra. Kurukshetra stands tall as the prodigy behind Xpressions and is one of the flagship events which can proudly boast about its rich legacy of the past 16 yrs.

11th November Finally XPRESSIONS started. There was CONCLAVE- a panel discussion in the morning. Harish Bijoor and Rita Soni were invited guests. Harish Bijoor run a private-label consulting firm that specializes in Brand and business strategy and teaches Rural Marketing at ISB Hyderabad. I am putting his blog profile for the reference. Ms. Rita Soni is CEO of NASSCOM Foundation. Her detail can be found on the website of NASSCOM Foundation. Alas, I missed the event as was busy in a meeting at CGIAR Orissa for RLLE.

12th November : A day of relaxation and sleep. A rarity in the life of Jhabier student.

21st Week @ XIMB

21st Week - 30th October to 5th November

30th October: The Mid-term exam is over and the whole day has passed in watching movies and roaming around. I read a good quote today from C K Prahalad that states: Executives are constrained not by resources, but by their imagination.

All Aboard The Slave Ship: An open letter to Young India, callous and comfy in its cocoon.

31st October: Winters and studies post mid-term have started. I have been allotted Meghalaya for RLLE (Rural living and learning experience) and hoping to see the true picture of BHARAT vis a vis India.

My CV was also not shortlisted for a summer internship at TERI, hence, I was quite disappointed today. Hoping for a new start. Gaurish, Partha, and AP give much moral support to overcome this grief.

An old Interview with students of PGDM-RM students (Future Rural Managers)

1st November: Apple's Think Different advertising campaign. 1997-2002 re-consolidated my conclusion that thinking differently and independently is the ultimate path of growth.

There was mention of noble laureates Elinor Ostrom and Paul Krugman in marketing class. Elinor Ostrom's speech and Paul Krugman's speech at the Nobel Prize ceremony are linked to the common good . As a budding rural manager, one should know a little about the works of Elinor Ostrom.

She was awarded the 2009 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which she shared with Oliver E. Williamson, for "her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons." Ostrom is considered one of the leading scholars in the study of common pool resources (CPR). In particular, Ostrom's work emphasizes how humans interact with ecosystems to maintain long-term sustainable resource yields.

As per the advice of faculty teaching ADM course, two types of abilities are needed to get a premium over others. One is our ability to relate and learn, other is our ability to forecast the future.

2nd November: I missed MEARS lecture for SRM assignment.

Our Human Behavior can be predicted by laws of Mathematics. It was a revelation for me despite having an engineering background. Heard about Sheikh Maktoum and Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (Phantom of Bombay House) in ITM class for the first time.

3rd November: Learned much from below two study materials and one short video.

McKinsey & Company - The 'bird of gold': The rise of India's consumer market: If India continues on its current high growth path, incomes will almost triple over the next two decades, and the country will climb from its position as the 12th-largest consumer market today to become the world's 5th-largest consumer market by 2025.

McKinsey & Company - India's urban awakening: Building inclusive cities, sustaining economic growth : India has a young and rapidly growing population—a potential demographic dividend. But India needs thriving cities if that dividend is to pay out. New MGI research estimates that cities could generate 70 percent of net new jobs created by 2030, produce around 70 percent of Indian GDP, and drive a nearly fourfold increase in per capita incomes across the nation.

Food and You:

This animated story journeys through the broken food system and then looks at the transformation that is already underway to bring about change. It brings it back to you, the individual at the root level, and invites you to be part of the movement to grow a better future.

To learn more about Oxfam International Youth Partnerships, visit the website here: http://oiyp.oxfam.org.au/

4th November: Today, the Programme coordinator of PGDRM proposed to send students next year to understand farmers' crisis in different places (In 16 years, farm suicides crossed a quarter million). He also encourages all students to understand local issues in great detail, irrespective of the given location. This step is inspired by IIM students to study ‘crop holiday’ villages. (The much discussed ‘crop holiday,’ declared by the farmers in East and West Godavari districts has drawn the attention of IIM Ahmadabad agri-business management students.)

Milton Friedman on Libertarianism and Humility: Human freedom is inextricably bound with tolerance. As Milton Friedman argued (see the video), the foundation of libertarianism is tolerance. (Fantastic 43 minutes long talk especially for the critics of Ayn Rand).

5th November: It was a day that lasted with 5 lectures. The most happening discussion was done in ITM class on Snacko India Limited: Leveraging Trade. Promotions for Competitive Advantage by Sajjan Raj Singhvi, Rajat Gera.

There was also a brief discussion on the case study of SEWA Union: Organising Bidi-workers. Book Download Link. Ela Ramesh Bhatt is the founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA).

20th Week @ XIMB

20th Week- 23rd October to 29th October

23rd October: Learned about TSCR (Trend, Seasonality, Cyclicity and Random)

24th October: An Introduction to Livelihood Promotion : Traditionally the solution to the problems of poverty was conceived as an increase in income levels through the generation of employment. However this vision has changed in the last two decades. This publication shows how it is possible to promote livelihoods as a means for poverty reduction.

One cannot feed the hungry on statistics - David Lloyd George

MEARS- 85 % of savings accounts and 60 % of current accounts act as fixed deposit.

RPLS- Muhammad Yunus : Poverty was not created by the poor. There is nothing wrong with these people. They are just as capable and inventive and have as much potential as others. The system simply never gave them a chance to grow. If you really want to solve poverty you should enable people to take matters into their own hands.



25th October: Didn't recall events of today. I read an interesting statement by Gopal Vittal, Executive director for home and personal care at Hindustan Unilever on Indian market - Don’t Bet Your Money on India, Bet on its States. Only states that excel in the quality of human capital and infrastructure, rate of private investment and have a smaller government will attract more business.

26th October: Diwali Holiday ! Celebrated with harmony, joy and lot of fun. Students were looking more like human than machines after a long time.

27th October: I was told about Toolkit Break-Even Analysis tool in Marketing class. HBS (Harvard Business School) Toolkit Break-Even Analysis :Marketers studying the launch of a new product or service use break-even analysis to help determine at what point the product or service can be expected to be profitable. This downloadable interactive workbook, one of several workbooks/ tutorials from the HBS Toolkit used by Harvard Business School students, is designed to help calculate a break-even point or target-profit level based on the fixed costs, variable costs, and unit price of the product or service being analyzed.

28th October: MEARS mid term exam.

29th October: FSA mid term exam.

19th Week @ XIMB

19th Week- 16th October to 22nd October

16th October : One fine day is Sunday. Still post Gramotsava, there was 2 hour session on EQ & Leadership. I learned that there is always lack in abundance.

17th October : The whole day just passed away. I did't think any productive work was done today. Still I was able to read one good article :- Ph.D. Thesis Research: Where do I Start? Notes by Don Davis, Columbia University.

18th October : FSA quiz was a disaster. Missed Kuru meeting and slept quite early at night. Since, I was roaming out in the morning, soft skill training session was also missed.

Rediscovered Facebook Page of India - Rural Livelihoods.  For implementing the inclusive growth agenda, it is crucial to prop up agriculture, the soft underbelly of our economy. The National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) should take charge of dry-land farming now by Ramesh S Arunachalam.

19th October : Alumni Talk was given by Mr.Patnaik. He is a rural management program pass-out of first batch. He has expertise in banking, insurance and micro-finance sector.

1- XIMB started one year Post Graduate Diploma Program in Rural Management for the graduates and NGO members in 1995 which was upgraded to the two year PGDM (Rural Management) programme from 1999.

2- Before entering in the corporate sector, one must ask -: How am I going to build my career ? Package of the placement offer is not necessary but selection of right sector. Work in the organization for atleast 2 years is necessary to build a robust professional network inside the company. This time duration helps in getting an overall picture of the company and sector. Hence, One should do cost benefit analysis before switching over to another company.

Catch : Its easy to switch from corporate sector to development sector rather than reverse phenomenon.

3- And there was once a lot of RM-XIMB versus IRMA debate but it has now cooled down.

Last but not least, customer retention is more important than customer service in banking sector. Huge investment is needed in human resource for any company to sustain and grow in the long term.

Case study Analysis:

Harvard Business School: "Inside the Case Method" -1




Harvard Business School: "Inside the Case Method" -2



20th October : There was case discussion on TI cycles whose diagnosis were done by four different professors in this paper at Vikalpa, The Journal for Decision Makers that is a quarterly publication of the IIM-A. It ends with the profound quote by Thomas Edison : I am more of a sponge than an inventor. I absorb ideas from every source. My principal business is giving commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others.

When India marketeres in trouble, they pray to rural markets - Prof. Mithileshwar Jha, Marketing IIMB . I learned about dumping and tariff  in ITM class and quoted brilliantly in PROJM class to Gaurish - Things are interesting when you take interest in it.

At a lot of times, economics and formal education is not everything. I found one more evidence in support of this. In Rajasthan, India, an extraordinary school teaches rural women and men -- many of them illiterate -- to become solar engineers, artisans, dentists and doctors in their own villages. It's called the Barefoot College, and its founder, Bunker Roy, explains how it works. Sustenance with existing resources is the crux of his talk.

Bunker Roy: Learning from a barefoot movement


There was soft skill training conducted by Placecom today. I attained mock interview session & it was quite effective. Lesson learnt but not sure about it :- One has to build/fake success stories while presenting in MBA interview.

21st October : Day was passed in academic activities. One good case study was done in Prof Peepin's first class about MEADOW and Titan Industry. This case study can be found in (Page 75-86) of Livelihood Manual Book [Download in PDF Format] . An alternate reading material :- Corporate Non Profit partnerships - Case Study of MEADOW is good source for details. In 1995, Titan began working with local NGO Myrada. Al Fernandez, the promotor of MYRADA, one of the leading NGOs in the country used to say this :'We (those associated with MF work) need poor for our survival. But the poor have survived generations after generations even without any of these institutions.' Following early successes the initiative was converted into a privately held company run and owned by the women themselves, supported by further technical training and expertise from Titan. The company was called MEADOW (Management of Enterprise and Development of Women). “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence” Mr. Jamsetji N Tata, (Founder, Tata Group)

 22nd October : Complete Day was passed in finalizing PROJM and FSA assignments. Evening time was occupied by Finomics'11. XFin hosted Finomics'11, a national level panel discussion. The theme for Finomics'11 is 'Emerging trends in Risk management'. The eminent speakers for the panel discussion were: Mr. C. S. Mohapatra, Director, Capital markets, Finance Ministry, GoI Prof. Girish V S, Group Editorat BFSI NexT & CFO NexT Dr. K. C. Mishra, Vice Chancellor, Sri Sri University, Orissa Mr. K. C. Samal, Executive Director (Finance), NALCO.

Notes Undertaken -: 1) Every risk has return period. The vulnerability to risk (like effect of hurricane on GDP at Bangladesh vs USA) varies. It also determines the opportunities and threat. Each visionary converts possible risk into the development. 2) "It will not happen to me " is the basic assumption of the people to avoid any investment in the risk management. 3) Even Basel II is not implemented fully in Indian banks. 4) There are three type of people everywhere - EITHER "My Way", "Know it All" and "Let it Go" OR "Taker", "Owner" and "Manager" of risk. 5) What I avoid is 'Let it Go' attitude and record all mine memorable experiences for the benefit of others in the long run. 6) Lot of complicated mathematical models require lot of knowledge that is possessed by only few. All CEO are dependent on the complex mathematical models but unable to understand them. 7) Public Secto company like NALCO gives more emphasis on risk caused by production and environment issues rather than financial matters. 8) Regulator is not the risk operator but only facilitator in mitigating the risk. This was said in the reference for banking sector. But,I found it true for each path of the life and business. 9) Operational risk comes in the term of fraud. Lot of study has been done on this in the field of behavioral economics. 10) Indian bureaucracy has tendency to save its skin by talking/consulting with everybody. Sub Prime crisis at wall street has opened eyes for many to stay alert and engaged in lot of confidence building efforts. [News Link] The Central Government on Thursday constituted the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) under the chairmanship of former Justice B. N. Srikrishna to rewrite and harmonise financial sector legislations, rules and regulations. --- In many industry, Demand forecasting is done through TSCR model (Trend, Seasonality, Cyclicality and Random).