Exams Over

My exams of the 5th trimester were over yesterday and they went well as all the papers were very easy. After the exams I went with my friends to watch Avatar and 3 Idiots back to back. I really liked the two movies and the experience was simply awesome. I hope such movies also continue in the new year which is going to come in a few hours.

End Term Exams

The End Term Exams of the 5th trimester are starting from today. The schedule is

21st CRM 3pm

24th RM 10am

28th SBM 10am

29th LAB 10 am

29th SM 2pm

30th CSR 10 am

Genesis 09

The Genesis festival in our college was held on 7th and 8th November. The festival was a little better than last year and the participation level was good. The main problem was in the marketing of the festival. Genesis can be a premium brand building exercise for the college but the marketing including the website and posters was truly below par.

I had participated in the treasure hunt, debate and inter college quiz. I won the second prize in the quiz. overall it was a good experience

Exchange Program

Our college conducts an exchange program in association with ESC- Rennes in Rennes France. Every year upto 6 students of our college goto Rennes to study for 1 term from January to April end. This time I have also applied for the program. The interview will be held on 16th or 17th . Lets see what happens

L.G. recruitment

L.G. had come to our college for recruitment for the post of sales manager. The CTC was 5.75 lacs. They took a GD and the topics were management related. I could not qualify in the GD. I will now try in the next company that comes in the campus. The process has just started so hopefully I will get a good job.

5th term begins

The 5th term begins today. In this term I have 4 subjects of marketing worth 3 credits (Sales and Retail are 1/2 credit each). there are 1 and a 1/2 credit of core subjects. Today there is just registration and 1 class. in the evening I am going to mumbai and will return on 5th morning.

End Term Exams

The End Term Exams for the 4th term are starting from today. They will continue till 29th of this month. I have 9 papers 6 electives and 3 core.

Markibrand 09

Yesterday I had gone to FMS, Delhi for Markibrand their annual marketing conclave. The theme for this years conclave was "R.I.P. Brand Loyalty ... In search of Resurection"

The conclave took place in the auditorium of FMS in the South Campus of Delhi university. A galaxy of speakers from the industry were present and they gave their views on the subject of brand loyalty and how their companies are working to increase the brand loyalty of the consumers.

The conclavc began with the key note address by Dr. H.V. Verma a professor at F.M.S. He talked about the shifting consumer loyalties and said that what appears to be loyalty is a constructed facade. He said that if companies need to generate loyalty they have to create a belief and value system for the product.

The first speaker from the industry was Mr. Punit Modhgil. He emphasized on the need to create experiences for the consumers to get their loyalty. Other speakers like Mr. Manishi Sanyal of LVMH and Mr. Tarun Puri of Nike stressed on the need of Passion and Innovation in the companies to generate loyalty. Some speakers like Mr. Anupam Dutta of Kellogs and Mr. Saxena from Future Brands talked on the theme of loyalty as consistency. Many speakers emphasized that Word of Mouth is one of the best way to spread awareness about your brand and have consumer loyalty.

In the evening session Mr. Gurmukh from Intel and Mr. Prakash from Ogilvy and Mather gave the examples of Barack Obama and Rajnikant respectively as great brands and how they command such consumer loyalty and what the other companies can learn from them. They emphasized on sticking to core values and spreading the word of mouth to retain the loyalty of consumers

The underline theme of the speakers was that the consumers now don't think in black and white but in gray and have the whole continum of choices. The brands have to differentiate and create a niche for themselves to retain the loyalty.

It was a very informative and enjoyable session. It was a good chance to see what views the industry stalwarts have on pertinent questions facing the marketers in these times

A Quarter Century

Today I have completed 25 years of my life. I feel it is a time to look at the past and plan for the future.

I was born on 21st August 1984 in what was then known as Bombay (now Mumbai) As my father is in O.N.G.C. so I grew up and studied in many places like Dehradun, Delhi and Vadodara. I did my 10th from Navarachana Senior Secondary School, Vadodara and then did my 12th from New Era Senior Secondary School, Vadodara as I could not get admision in science stream in Navarachna. After 12th I got admission in Dehradun Institute of Technology, Dehradun which was affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University. I did my B.Tech in Electronics and Communications from the college. During my years in D.I.T. I got a little deviated from studies and more interested in some extracurricular activities as a result of which I had to repeat my 3rd year in college. This gave me a big jolt and I then started studying more.

In my final year at D.I.T. I was selected in Hughes Communication India Ltd. The company had selected 8-10 students of our college and they said that we will be given a training in networking technologies and will then be absorbed into the company. We were excited and joined the training after paying Rs. 13000. We were given extensive training. The classes were conducted via video conferencing and I attended them from Dehradun. I lived at my house in Dehradun during this period. After training we gave a test and cleared it but were not given a job. A few weeks later we were called for an interview in Gurgaon. There were several rounds of interviews but at the end of it I was not selected and my effort to get into the corporate world received a setback.

During that time I was also preparing for CAT and other MBA entrance exams. I gave CAT in November 2007 along with many other MBA entrance exams. In December I came back to Gurgaon and started giving interviews in many companies. Within a week I was selected in Genpact and joined the corporate world on 28th December 2007.

I joined Genpact as a Process Associate and was part of a team responsible for the maintenance of the GE Healthcare network in EMEA (Europe Middle East and Africa) region. I was a trainee in Genpact. For the first two months I attended compulsory communication training. I was also given training about the job I had to do. My training on networking that I had received in Hughes proved to be really helpful as I could easily understand the concepts and my job requirements. The corporate life was really very good. My boss Mr. Ankur Jhingran was a very supportive person and he encouraged me to learn many new things. My teammates like Unmesh, Smit Pallavi, Gracy etc were also very supportive and taught me many things. Genpact was not an all work and no play environment and we went to many outings and parties also. It was fun working in Genpact.

During the time I worked in Genpact I also appeared for a lot of GDs and Interviews of various MBA colleges. I was selected in ICFAI Dehradun but was not interested in joining the college. Finally when it seemed that I might not get into a good college I got admission in FORE School of Management. I immediately resigned from Genpact after just 6 months of joining the company.

I joined FORE on 19th June 2008 but did not attend the orientation program as I had to complete the notice period in Genpact. I joined the college full time on 28th June. The main classes started on 2nd July. My time in FORE was very fruitful and I learnt many new things and principles of management. I also made a lot of new friends like Prashant, Prafful, Krishabh, Murli, Pallavi, Vaibhav, Shruti etc. In April I joined N.J. India Invest a Mutual Fund Distribution House for my summer internship. I spend 2 months marketing Mutual Funds and also conducted a survey on "Awareness about Investment Instruments among Young Investors" I am currently in my second year 4th trimester of MBA and I have taken Marketing as my major.

I was never a top student but was average. I have a very inquisitive mindset and like to question people a lot. This adds to my knowledge. I am also a very creative innovative and socially responsible person. I am a volunteer for the Teach India Program and have started an organization Green Future for the spread of awareness about climate change. I am also the member of Antar the CSR club of my college.

The future looks very bright to me. The economy is getting out of recession and companies are again hiring. I am studying in a great college and very soon the companies are going to come for placements which will start in october end. I hope to get a good job in Delhi or Mumbai and continue my work in Teach India. Green Future is on a hold for sometime but I hope to review it once more. This year I also plan to enter in inter-college competitions. I would like to get a job in the marketing department of a good organization. I plan on staying in the organization for a long time and not resort to job switching. A few years down the line I also want to go into teaching as a visiting faculty in various colleges. This will help me in interacting with bright young minds and also help me in earning good financial rewards.

I have sincere hopes that my future will be very bright and I will be highly succesfull in life

Swine Flu leads to cancellation of plans

I had planned to go to Mumbai today to meet with my parents. There was 3-4 days holiday and I had planned to enjoy the break from my studies. Unfortunately with swine flu spreading rapidly in Mumbai and other areas I had to cancel my plans. All the schools , colleges , malls etc have been shut in Mumbai and even the janmashtami celebrations have been curbed. This has put paid to my carefull plans to go to Mumbai. Lets see when can I next get a chance to go to the city.

Mid Term Exams

The mid term exams of 4th trimester are starting from tommorow. This time there will be no structured midterms and the teachers will take them as per their own convenience. Thsi is because the students havce different subjects and it will be difficult to accomodate all the students and the subjects fotr the mid terms.

The midterms sheduled as yet are DLM on 10th, TQM and RM on 11th and ASM on the 18th. Rest will be known later.

Student Council Election

I could not be successful in the student council election The election was a landslide victory for Ashish of Section C. the final vote was

Ashish 60 Votes

Prateek 30 votes

Me 24 votes

Kailash 8 votes

There were 21 blank votes and one candidate Sumit withdrew from the race.

Student Council Election

Tommorow there is an election of the Student Council President. The election was called because the previously elected president was involved in some disciplinary action and hence he had to step down. This time I am also a candidate for the post of the president. If I win it will help me greatly. I will have a great opportunity to develop my leadership skills and will get to network with a lot of important people. I will also be able to follow my dream of helping in building up the Brand FORE.

I have already sent my manifesto to the students. On monday I will be giving a presentation on what I would like to do. After the presentation there will be a voting to elect the new president and vice president. I hope people like my views and vision and vote for me.

350.org

Yesterday Mr. Bill Mckibben the CEO of 350.org an organization working for climate change gave a lecture in our college. The lecture was organized by Antar. During the lecture Mr Bill spoke about climate change and the need to cut back on the carbon emmisions. He also explained the significance of the number 350. The number is the maximum possible safe CO2 content ppm in the atmosphere as calculated by scientists. Today this has increased significantly. as a result we are seeing the melting of glaciers, wierd climatic patterns etc. it is the duty of the governments of the world to sit together and taclek this climate change.

Fresher's Party

The Fresher's Party for the new batch took place yesterday. It was a remarkably improved performance by the Nexus commitee which oversees the cultural events. The performance by the students was exceptional and the organization of the event was also good. The theme of the event was a rock show and a rock band was also invited along with the obligatory DJ. The DJ was also very good. at the end of the party there was a dinner which was prepared by our canteen contractor. The dinner also tasted very good unlike the stuff he dishes out at lunch. overall the party was a great success. I enjoyed the party very much

Teach India

Yesterday I went to the induction program of Teach India. Teach India is an initiative by the Times of India group to promote the education for the underprivalaged section of the society. In this initiative Times of India connects volunteers to the various NGOs who work for the underprivalaged children.

During the induction session held all over the city the volunteers were asked to meet the representatives of the various NGOs. My induction was held in S.L. House in Panchasheel Park. There were the representatives of 3 NGOs Katha, Prayas and Butterflies. They gave the detatils about the work they are doing and the centres from which they operate. we were asked to choose the NGO which with we would like to be associated with and possible time and venue where we would like to volunteer. I chose Katha and the tughlakabad area. I will be able to volunteer on the saturday evenings

We will receive the mails regarding our NGOs and the time adn place in a few days. We have to serve for a minimim period of 3 months. I am really looking forward to this work and a chance to give back to the soceity

Antar GDs

Today I took part in conducting GDs for the first year students who want to join Antar the CSR club. There were 6-7 groups of people with around 33 students in all. We have selected 14 people for the interviews to be held tommorow and of them we will select 6 people to be the juniour members of Antar.

Earlier 83 students had expressed their desire to join Antar which was quiet surprisingly a very good response. We had shortlisted people for the GDs based on a test about writing 1000 words about 3 abstract pictures. Tommorow after the third round our junior team will be complete.

Second Year begins!!!!!!

Today was the first day of the second year of MBA. We have to study our own subjects in the second year along with a few CORE subjects. This trimester I have taken 6 lective subjects 4 of Marketing and 2 of operations. I plan to major in marketing and will have just 3 subjects of operations

Today I had only one classthat of DLM or Distribution and Logistics Management taught By Asif Zameer Sir. It was just an introduction class. This year we have some French exchange students in our class. We have to form groups and one of the French student Marco is part of my group in DLM. I feel that this will be a great opportunity to know about French people and the education there.

from now the routine of the classes have started and this will now continue. I hope this second yr is going to be great for me.

Summer training

My summer training at N.J. India Invest is finally over. Inintially I had been given the job of recruiting agents but within 10 days it was changed to marketing of Mutual funds with clients. Firstly I along with one classmate was assigned with Mr. A. Dagar. He did not have enough clients for the 2 of us so I was reassigned to Mr. Dharamveer Arya. I had to market Mutual Fund products to the cleints of Mr. Dharamveer. I also had to conduct a research about the awareness of investment instruments among young investors. I made a questionnaire and distributed among the respondents directly and via email. I analysed tha data and have made a report about the same which I shall be presenting to the college and the company.

Tommorow I am leaving for home for a few days.After that my college starts for a new year   

1st YEAR OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The first year of MBA is finally over with the final term exams ending today. Itnhad been a year of ups and downs. Made a lot of new friends, learnt many things made maaaaaaaany projects and presentations and had a lot of fun along the way. Now there is the sumnmer training to look forward to. I will be joining N.J.India Invest from the 1st of April. lets see how that goes. till then it is a bit of relaxation for 4-5 days. I will also work on my website www.greenfuture.in and try to make it better than present and to increase its visibility.

Rest is fine. Waiting eagerly for the training and thesecond year. I have chosen to major in Marketing Management so it promises to be an exciting year ahead.

Green Future

My new blog is Green Future

Student Council presidential election update

Shashwat Mishra from our class has won the student council presidential election. there were thre candidates from our class and initially it was thought that someone from our class would not win because there were just 1 candidate each from other sections and it was expected that the people will vote for the candidates from their sections. 

Today was the voting and to the surprise of many people voted for the person who gave a good presentation and not just who was from there class. As a result Shashwat won by a landslide.

Student council elections

The student council elections are going to take place in our college for electing the president of the council. In all 6 nominees are there. The candidates will give presentations on monday and then the voting will take place on tuesday. 

Jai Ho

It was India's day at the 81st Academy Award, or as they are popularly known as, The Oscars. Slumdog Milllionaire, a British film based in Mumbai with Indian cast including Bollywood stars Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan, Child Actors from India and music by Inidan Composer A.R.Rahman won 8 awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Original Score (A.R.Rahman), Original Song (Jai Ho by A.R. Rahman, Lyrics Gulzar), Sound Mixing (Resool Pookuty), Cinematography, Film Editing and Adapted Screenplay. The film is based on the novel Q & A by Indian Diplomat Vikas Swarup. It had been nominated for 10 Oscars with two nominations for original song for A.R.Rahman. It lost to "The Dark Knight" in Sound Editing.

Apart from Slumdog Milllionaire An Indian Documentory film "Smile Pinky" also won the Oscar. the complete list of nominations and winners can be found here

Mktg Reexam

My mid term exams were over on the 16th and they have gone well. My Marketing Rexam is scheduled on the 2nd of march. It gives me a good time for me to prepare for the exam. moreover as it is on a monday I will have full two days of preparation on saturday and sunday.

Mid term exams

My mid term exams have started from today and will continue till the 16th. Two are over and three left. 

CSR Club Antar

I have become the part of CSR club Antar which is an initiative launched by our college students. The first activity under the CSR club was launched today. We have collected clothes for the poor people. This initiative was conducted in partnership with Gooonj and NGO working for the downtrodden people. We had kept boxes near the college canteen and had asked the students to donate clothes. We plan to do more activities in the near future. 

E-Commerce project

I am doing a new project in ecommerce which is basically a site about Climate change and global Warming. Today I and one of my friend Vaibhav talked to Dr. S.K.Gupta regarding this and h agreed that this can be a good project . Initially he had given a list of 10-12 topics from which we had to choose but had also left open the option of doing an ecommerce business. I think that this is a great time to spread awareness about global warming and so I have decided to try this. This will also be an important point in my resume. The link to the blog can be found in my profile and people can comment on the various articles posted there. You can also log on to            www.climatechange-forum.blogspot.com. 

SUMMER PLACEMENT FINALIZED!!!!!!!!

My Summer training has been finalized. The company is NJIndia Invest, a mutual fund Asset Management Company. The project is to get asset managers for the company who will then sell the mutual funds to the public.  This removes a very big burden from my mind.

N.J. Invest India

A company N.J. Invest India is visiting our campus tommorow for summer placement. I shall be sitting in the process. I had been confident about RFCL but I could not get in there I will continue to work very hard till I get a summer placement.

Shock

Today I got a rude shock as my result for the second trimester was declared. I have failed in marketing which is my favorite subject. I still fail to understand how could I fail in the paper as the paper was pure application based. We had to answer questions about how to promote a perticular product or how to conduct a perticular survey. Now I will have to give the repeat exam in 10 - 15 days. Tis time I will be do my best and I am confident to clear it

Sportscampus.com

A startup company www.sportscampus.com had come to our college yesterday for summers. I also sat for the interview. The person had said in the ppt itself that he had already shortlisted 3 people for his projects and he was here only to find any backup for them. It was a short interview in which he asked me to sell his website to pepsi or any company of my choice. I chose Adidas and tried but he was not very impressed. Overall it was just a learning experience basically how to advertise for your organization without spending a lot of money.  

Republic Day

Wish every one a very happy 60th Republic Day Jai Hind

Obama's Policy

Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of U.S.A. yesterday. he had given an inaugral address in which he had detailed what his policies were going to be. As he is the most powerfull man in the world being the president of U.S. his policies are going to effect every economy of the world. Our economics sir has asked us to study his speech and analyse it for the effect on the indian economy.

RFCL Interview

Today I attended the summer palcement interview at Ranbaxy Fine Chemicals Ltd. office in Okhla. The interview was very good and I hope to be selected. It was a very short interview. The lady called 3 of us togeher and asked basic questions like why are you interested in Marketing, what do you know about RFCL, what are your expecaions from the work. They asked us our location preference. I gave the location as Baroda/Ahemdabad as I knew very few people will opt for them. Overall my interview was very good. Lets hope for the best

NDTV Talk Show

Yesterday I was invited to represent my college as the audience in a Talk Show by NDTV in which Nidhi Raaazdan from NDTV interviewed David Milliband the Foreign Secretary of U.K. it was held in Taj Palace hotel. among the topics that were discussed were terrorism, Climate Change and Young leaders in the Parliament.

Satyam Update

The govt. has gone ahead and instituted a new board with six members; Deepak Parekh, Kiran Karnik, C. Achutan, Tarun Das, T.N Manoharan & S. Balakrishnan The former chairman Raju has been arreted and a new set of Auditors has been appointed to look into the books. meanwhile SEBI and Police are investigating the whole issue

Satyam: A Rs. 7000 Crore Fraud

the indian corporate world is in shock. On 7th Ramalingaraju the chairman of satyam resigned. in his resignation letter to SEBI and the board members he has confessed to cooking the books of satyam and showing excess cash of the tune of Rs. 7000 Cr. this news has been a shocker not only because of the magnitude of the scam but also because it happened in not a fly-by-night operatorbut in a highly respected company which was the fourth largest IT firm in India. what is also shocking is how such a fraud can escape the auditors (Price Waterhouse Coopers in this case) after the leak of this news the talk in all the classes in the college is about the fallout of this and how to handle such a situation. The latest news is that Ramalinga Raju is untraceble though he is believed to be still in Hyderabad. Satyam had made a new team headed by the interim CEO Ram Maypatni whose name had been suggested by Rajuin his letter but now the Govt has dissolved the board and will appoint a new board which is expected to meet in next few days. the fate of the 53000 employees is uncertain and the investors have lost their money as the stock has nosedived. the govt is trying to make the situation a little better but it remains to be seen how it finally plays out

Eco Book review

We have to review a book in Eco. I have chosen "The origin of development economics" which is a collection of essays and is edited by Jomo K.S and Eric S Reinert. lets see how i like the book and then we wil review

HRM project

We have to study a movie and tell howe the concept of HRM was shown in the movie. the list was impressive RDB, TZP, Guru, Chak De, Lagaan etc initially when we had our own group we had taken guru. but with the roll no wise groups there was the random sampling and we got jodha akbar. I dont see any HRM in that flop film. it was just a 4 hr love story but wil have to see it again to find some HRM.

new year, new trimester, new group dynamics

With the start of the new year there is a new trimester. I have now come in the tird trimester of my six trimester PGDM course. one of the imporant part of the course is the group activities. in each subject we have to form groups of 3-6 members. in first trimester we did not know each other very well but i was lucky to be able to form a group with prafful prashant and pallavi. it was the core group n many subjects and we gelled well with each other. 

In the second trimester there eas a falling out between praful prashant and pallvi. as a result pallavi was in only one of our groups. we took on murli and krishabh and the 5 of us were constant. we even had a group of 5 for those subjects which required a group of 6. we had excellent division of labour. for example for the 10 om cases they were divided into 2 case each this helped us in also concentrating on our studies as all the time was not spent in doing all the group tasks. we were the best group in marketing so mush so that the other groups were jeolous of our success and tried to copy our methods. one of them even challenged us in OM saying that the marketing teacher is soft on us but the OM sir who was known to be very strict will not give us marks. we prooved them wrong and got good marks in OM also.

in this trimester there was a shift in the policies of the teacher and they insisted on roll no wise groups. in HRM we had made our own groups but some people wnt to maam saying that there were some people who do not work and they do not want them in there groups. others did not want them too so the groups became roll no wise. in eco maam said that the groups had to be of 5 members with 1 or 2 girls in them compulsarily so again we had to split our core group and now prashant is in a different group and rashi has come in his place. in ecom there are groups of 3 roll no. wise. he upside is that there are different groups for diferent subjects