Team Building is Fun!

From Fire walk to Dance on the pool it was two full days of Fun, Fun and more FUN! Of course the learning was unlimited as well. Seiger group’s two day out- bound team build program was nothing less than a Super hit!

Day 1 started with Balloon toss which proved that individualistic objectives will take the team nowhere and thinking as a team should be the objective for any work that we do.

Kulamandu – This Marble pass game was creative indeed! We learnt that out-of the box thinking is necessary to find better solutions to our problems. It also showed us that every member in the team is equally important.

Longest link – Optimum utilization of resource is the key for any process was the learning. It also proved that for a team we can break barriers to any extent if the team has to win.

Gold Hunt – A real Brain storming activity. The importance of choosing the right route to success bypassing various situations which could dampen our pace. The mantra is Planning, analyzing and negotiation.

Day 2 started with an obstacle course which included ‘Electric fence’, ‘Tarzan swing’ & ‘Rope walk’. The objective was trust the team, face challenges boldly and rise up to the situation while the pressure is on.

It was too exhausting and thus demanded a dip in the pool. Following this we had the Moon Walk where the team had various handicaps like tied legs and being blind folded. We as a team had to go through a particular path negotiating with the opponents and reach our goal. Our ‘CBS Mimicry gang’ utilized the following break with their skills to imitate their class mates!

Hoopla was a real ‘flex yourself’ activity where we had to go through a spoke-less wheel without breaking the chain. It clearly proved how much we need to be flexible to meet the rising demands.

The highlight of the show was the ‘Fire walk challenge’ where we had to cross a ‘bon fire’. Yes! You read it right. Our heels were numbed by ice and we literally walked on fire! Courage to face any burning situation- quiet literally.

Curtains came down with all folks tapping to the tune on the dance floor. Two well-spent days worth a life time to understand our classmates better and work well as teams.

Contributed by Trisha Saxena, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Expect the Unexpected

After a day filled with assignments and classes we were all prepared for a guest lecture by Mr. Vijayakumar Rangaraju, Deputy General Manager - HR at HCL Technologies Limited. He began by saying that it was a refreshing change to meet young and vibrant people like us. We immediately knew that the next one hour was going to be intellectually stimulating as well as amazing fun!

Mr.Vijayakumar is truly the synonym for multi-tasking. We were listening in awe to the list of activities that he was currently pursuing and incredibly they were in different fields including Hypnosis, Handwriting analysis, Skit and play writing, Carbon Trading and finally Politics. The “Hot Seat” challenge he conducted is just an example of the various creative ways he used to deliver the message - “Expect the Unexpected”. The story about three rats was another innovative way to help us understand that we should all be prepared to face varied situations in life.

He went on to discuss the policies followed by HCL - “5 Principles” that represents the core values of the company, the first one being the Mirror – Mirror philosophy. This is about seeing things as they are and not attaching any fringes to them. This will help truly assess and accept ourselves to achieve set goals. The second principle laid stress on trust that employees have on the management and how this trust is created and maintained through Transparency. The third principle was “Destroy the CEO’s Office” which told us that HCL had an open mind regarding feedback about company policies and employees were encouraged to walk to their superiors with any issues they had. This also helped us understand the next concept which was “Inverting the Pyramid”. This once again showed that HCL was an open organization that appreciated communication across all levels.

The last principle was the best one of them all that said “Learn from the child”. He told us in the end that we should all listen to the child in us and think of creative and innovative ways to tackle a problem. These 5 principles gave us an idea about HCL as a company and the environment that exists there. Mr. Vijayakumar concluded the lecture by narrating another insightful story. The moral of this story was that if we stay in our comfort zone, the possibility of us learning or experiencing the many wonders of life is limited.

The one hour we spent with him made us think about the real world and we were extremely honored that he took time off to educate young minds and inspire us to expect the unexpected and move out of our comfort zones. It was a truly exciting and thought – provoking experience!

Contributed by Pavithra Chandrasekaran, Retail Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Quizzing Unlimited at CBS

“Orkut Buyukkoten” (Founder of Orkut); “Skype” developed by two programmers from Estonia, Niklas Zennström & Janus Friis – these are just some of the simple answers that were part of an exciting quiz event- Inquizzition’09- CBS’s own version of an intra quiz competition that got kicked off with a wide range of questions. 6 teams formed based on the prelims conducted within the class, participated in this event.

Amar Vishwanath, the Quiz master for the first edition of Inquizzition ‘09 pumped up adrenalin with his interesting set of questions. A Senior Systems Engineer working at SETLabs- the Research arm of Infosys Technologies, Bangalore, he conducts quizzes across Infosys DC’S and is passionate about quizzing. He is a member of the Quiz Foundation of India and conducts quizzes in colleges under the Karnataka Quiz Foundation.

The Quiz had interesting rounds. The first round was: “Common place things”, and the opening question was an interesting one about CBS itself! This was followed by “Who, Where, What…”, “Masala Mix” and “Bring on the Visuals” (Theme - Indian Advertisements in the 80's and early 90's).

The rounds involved interesting questions that kept us quizzing for more than an hour. The participation from the teams as well as the audience was great. Finally it was Team 2 comprising Ebinezar, Devipriya and Benoy who won. Team 3 represented by Haritha, Sarathy and Gaurav Jain was the runner up. We thoroughly enjoyed the quiz and were already planning the next event! Inquizzition’09 is only the beginning of a great time of quizzing ahead at CBS. A special word of thanks to Sarathy for helping us get Amar to conduct the Quiz and Pranesh for those excellent posters!

Contributed by M. Dhivya, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Changing “Times”

It was show time on a Thursday afternoon at CBS! Ms. Anita Gupta, Senior Vice President and Managing Partner, JWT Chennai shared her experience, interesting “behind- the- scene” information and challenges that she and her team faced while handling the recently acquired account “The Times of India” (TOI).

It was all about the launch of TOI in Chennai. The TOI, usually recognized as a typical Mumbai newspaper, was trying to enter Chennai, the stronghold of the Hindu. This was no simple task and came with its set of challenges. Chennai is a very different city from Mumbai. Although Chennai was constantly changing and trying to keep up with time, it always had the legacy of its deep rooted culture, which was imbibed in every citizen of this city…and the newspaper was an important ingredient of this culture. According to her, the main challenge was to make people relate to the TOI- they needed to see it as a part of Chennai and as a newspaper that understood what Chennai was all about.

Drawing from market research surveys and studies, Anita and her team realised that what Chennai needed was a catalyst for change. JWT saw the ever changing and evolving nature of Chennai and decided to use this aspect to launch TOI in Chennai. TOI would be portrayed as the “Symbol of Change”. Once this idea was on the table and approved, there was no looking back for the JWT team.

Starting-off with a teaser campaign carrying the slogan “Next change?”, buildings, taxis, auto rickshaws and buses were covered with newspaper-like design. The campaign included models wrapped in newspaper sari/dresses strutting the streets of Chennai. The point of this teaser campaign was to let Chennai know that TOI was a local newspaper that ushered-in a welcome change. Anita pointed to the success of this powerful visual campaign and soon enough, after the launch of TOI, its competitors were forced to take notice.

To capture the soul of Chennai- the familiar scenes and sights- the team created a film, “A day in the life of Chennai”. The film featured the hit song ‘Nakka Mukka’ and the video portrayed typical scenes of Chennai - crowded buses, temples and, of course, Mount Road. The film electrified the class room and I was no exception to this! We could relate to every scene that the film depicted. The brilliance of this film was not only noticed by the people of Chennai, the world took notice and it struck gold at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival by winning India's first ever Gold Film Lions.

At the end of the session I was indeed awestruck at the creative and advertising brilliance of the campaign. I walked away with a valuable lesson of how hard work and innovative thinking leads you to win gold and a reminder of how much I love my city, Chennai.

Contributed by Varsha Vasudevan, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Learning for the real world indeed…

Its different at CBS. Looking back at the past two months, its been an array of industry interaction and learning. Rarely are skill sets required for the industry given as inputs in an induction program. It is usually given as a capsule just before placements! Not so at CBS. Going by the saying- a good start is half the job done, CBS has exposed us to the realities of business and industry expectations to give us a focus in our year ahead. A glimpse of the initial industry sessions:

Careers in the Banking Industry

“Banking Industry in India is buzzing with opportunities” – Mr. Karthik from the Corporate Banking Sector in HSBC started his session with these words. Briefing us about the processes involved in a bank, he explained the various verticals and the career opportunities in them. He also highlighted the different job roles and the skill sets required at each level. It was a highly informative and interactive session that helped us appreciate the opportunities and the requirements of the banking industry.

Contributed by Kalai Vani, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Marketing & Communication

Branding and Advertising are normally looked-on as highly glamorous careers. Mr. Prakash the President of the most prestigious ad agency in India, O&M (Ogilvy & Mather), through his informative session helped us understand that advertising is not only about being creative- there’s a lot of science behind the creativity. We were enlightened on the highly competitive and dynamic market conditions and the importance of Branding and PR. A truly thought provoking and interactive session indeed.

Contributed by Sandeep, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

IT Industry

Mr. Ganesh Subramaniam, a Senior Consultant in TCS shared his thoughts on the current IT scenario in India. He highlighted the importance of understanding the customer and elaborated client requirements in the industry. Through this session we learnt how to equip ourselves to match industry expectations.

Contributed by Yogesh Jadav, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

The BPO sector

There are a lot of things happening in this sector- both ups and downs. We had an interactive session with Mr Raghunandan (CEO) and Miss Latha (Consultant-HR) from Athena Info Consulting. The session focused not only on the issues about the current economic conditions but also on the emerging career opportunities in IT and BPO in India, giving not one but many perspectives about the industry and its growth. We realized that the possibilities are virtually unlimited. On the whole, it was yet another very engaging and informative discussion that we had in a week's time.

Contributed by Mohan Vikram, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Manufacturing

Mr. Muthhukumar Tanu from TAFE explained the value-chain from product concept to market and highlighted the role of manufacturing in it. He spoke on the various career opportunities available down the value chain and made us ponder where our skill sets would fit-in. He elaborated on a variety of industries such as pharma, agri, food etc. and the importance of manufacturing in them. A truly inspiring session indeed!

Contributed by Manoj, IT Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Business Communication & Soft Skills

We were introduced to this important aspect of management education by Ms Ramya from Gyana, the professional training academy. She took us through the importance of communication skills, personality development, body language and the need for a positive attitude. Through real life examples, she helped us understand how different people react to different situations and also the importance of cross-cultural behavior. A very informative session which helped us realize how we should prepare ourselves for the real world tomorrow.

Contributed by Dipesh. C. Jain, BFS Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

Interaction with the alumni

With most of our alumni well placed in the corporate world, what better way to learn about career opportunities and skills required than from them! Interaction with the alumni has given us sufficient inputs on how to make the most of our time at CBS, so that we could succeed in our careers ahead. With most of the academic inputs given through professionals and in a more practical way, we are sure of a fulfilling and successful year ahead in learning for the real world.

Contributed by Samiksha Lal, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10