CBS Students in CII Convention- Coverage in TV

Short interview given by CBS Marketing Students for Jaya TV during the
CII S'Marketing Convention 2009


Courtesy: Jaya Plus TV

TiECON Chennai 2009- Creating Entrepreneurs, Shaping Minds!

This year’s theme –“Enterprising India – Creating Tomorrow’s Entrepreneur” attracted over 1000 entrepreneurs, investors and business school students and saw the cream of Chennai’s business elite and India’s investing community participating as panelists and speakers.

N Srinivasan, Vice-chairman of India Cements Ltd., inaugurated the one day conclave and also gave away TiE Chennai Entrepreneur Awards for 2009 starting with Kalainithi Maran of Sun Network who received the Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Winners of the other six categories of the awards were - Kami Narayanan of Pre Global Media - Woman Entrepreneur of the Year; P N Vasudevan of Equitas Microfinance - Start-up Entrepreneur of the Year; M B Nirmal of Exnora International - Social Entrepreneur of the Year; Satish Babu of Univercell - Extreme Entrepreneur of the Year; Ravi Appaswamy of Appaswamy Estates and the Residency Group of Hotels - Next Gen Entrepreneur of the Year and M V Subbiah of Murugappa Group - Family Entrepreneur of the Year. N. Srinivasan of India Cements Ltd. was chosen unanimously by the jury for Lifetime Achievement. Gopal Srinivasan, Chairman & MD of TVS Capital Funds Ltd. moderated the entire awards session.

T.T. Rengarajan, founder, Alma Mater, delivered a keynote address on leadership. Based on a research of 500 successful people across all walks of life, he listed seven characteristics that were common to all these successful people, which included the likes of Jesus Christ, Mahatma Gandhi, and Leonardo da Vinci. The seven characteristics are: (1) passion, (2) mastery in communication, (3) team [a strong team to propagate/execute the vision of the successful person], (4) high energy levels, (5) faith, (6) value-based life, and (7) methodology of their own.

As flamboyant and unconventional that Kris Srikkanth is, he delivered a “quickfire keynote post lunch,” as J. Krishnan, Conference Chairman of TiECON 2009 put it, to keep the audience at their wit’s end and also deliver some valuable lessons. He stressed upon believing in oneself, passion, and decision-making as lessons from sports for entrepreneurs. For each of this trait, he had a story to relate.

C. K. Ranganathan, MD, Cavin Kare, the inspiration that he is today for young entrepreneurs, delivered his keynote with panache. His simple demeanor belied his stature of a successful and innovative entrepreneur, and his sincere expression of his life’s lessons made this keynote on timeless principles worthy.

The most valuable lesson he delivered was on tax evasion. When generally people in low-margin, high-volume retail business believed in evading the exorbitant 105% excise tax and a high 20% sales tax, C.K. Ranganathan stood a class apart by paying the taxes without evading. This helped him secure a loan without collateral from a bank manager who found his tax credentials worthy. Then, when people had faith in him, he soared to heights.

The sachet pioneer, [he bought the sachet into the shampoo industry by marketing Chik shampoo in a sachet for the first time to differentiate] also explained the importance of involving all ranks of staff in decision-making as each one of them could bring insights that would not be available at the top. He wished all the budding entrepreneurs the very best in their ventures, in conclusion.

Speaking after inaugurating the conclave, N Srinivasan, Vice Chairman & MD, India Cements Ltd., said, “Access to more funds, better and stronger relationship between universities and industry, flexible curriculum structure and schedule at educational institutions besides on-campus incubators will accelerate entrepreneurial growth in the country.” He also called upon governments and successful entrepreneurs to come forward and provide a funding base that will give impetus to entrepreneurship.

According to J Krishnan, Vice President, TiE Chennai and Chairman of the 2009 conference, “This year it has been bigger with more delegates and bigger names as speakers. The team has worked hard to create simply the single largest platform for entrepreneurs in Chennai and we look forward to being back next year even bigger.” A great learning from successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders!

Contributed by Pranesh Padmanabhan, Marcom Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

CII S'Marketing Convention 2009

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CII S'Marketing Convention 2009

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

HRM- The strategic edge

The HRM function has gained critical significance in today’s corporate world, more so in the IT and ITES Sector. This fact was emphasized by Ms. Angelyn Jayaseelan, Associate General Manager-HR at Hexaware Technologies, who shared her rich experience and some latest developments in the HR field with us. An expert in the HR field, Ms Angelyn has worked with a variety of companies such as S&S Power Switchgear Limited, Ford India and iNautix Technologies, before joining Hexaware. She beautifully connected the various HR functions with the practices at Hexaware and highlighted some of the innovative initiatives adopted by their company. Using the famous “Hare & Tortoise Story” she reiterated the importance of team work, especially in today’s corporate scenario. We were enlightened on recruitment through Assessment Centers, the various feedback and appraisal mechanisms and competency mapping- the latest developments in the HR field. The one hour interaction with her and the Q&A that followed left us motivated and inspired to reach to greater heights in our careers.

Contributed by Syed Nihal Hussain, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

A creative interaction

“Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual”

The campus was abuzz with activity. From ropes to shoe laces to ID card strings and duppatas- nothing was left out! The challenge was to create the longest straight line with what was available in and around. The next day, the challenge was to build the tallest tower! The occasion was the session on creativity by Mr. Rahool Saksena, an exceptionally creative person, interacting with us through his varied and rich experiences. Through interesting exercises, activities and visuals he illustrated how creativity is all about out-of-the-box thinking. He deftly explained the right-left conflict in the brain and emphasized that to be creative, one must not be restricted by conditional thinking and perception. He left us spell bound with his masterpieces - a visiting card holder (made for a client promoting a leading brand of cycles) using cycle parts- the cycle chain and mud guard; a giraffe made out of a discarded stapler; a wooden carving of Abdul Kalam; a man sitting on a chair reading a newspaper (made out of newspaper, for a leading publishing house) and many more. We were amazed how creativity could transform junk or trash into such amazing work of art. He showcased the various methods in which creativity can be used to advertise for products in dark markets. It was a session where each of us ended up deciding that we will make a creative imprint for ourselves and for those around us. Hats off to Mr. Rahool Saksena for making us think about a side of us which many of us hadn’t explored yet.

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

“Creativity is the mother of intelligence” was rightly said and proved true by Mr. Rahool Saksena. He, in his own creative way taught us and made us appreciate that it is possible to achieve greater heights by following our hearts and thinking creatively. We played a lot of games and solved many puzzles which actually made us realize that given any situation we can think in a different way and come through successfully.

Contributed by Priya Chopra, BFS Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10

A stimulating simulated session!

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation” – this quote, voices the opinion of the entire batch on the Management Games conducted by Mantis. The only thing is that instead of an hour, it stretched over a day. We were promised an entire day of absolutely not having to study or sit with books, a day when all that we had to do was to interact with each other and have fun and most importantly a day that would dispel our fear of numbers and calculation.....and Dr. Vinod Dumblekar made sure that this promise was kept.

Mantis is the country’s only organisation devoted solely to non-formal learning including simulation games for management and other education. Mantis is managed and led by Dr. Vinod in partnership, association and networks with other professionals, academia and researchers in India and abroad. Dr. Vinod put us through a stimulating session of simulation where we had to assume roles of a CFO, CMO or COO and play our part. It was challenging and a wonderful learning experience as we were exposed to various harsh realities of the business environment. We were provided a Quarterly Report of a manufacturing company that we had to manage for the next two quarters. We had to plan and strategise various aspects such as production of the plant, pricing of raw materials, selling price, advertisement cost and dealer commission in about 45 minutes. At the end of it, the quarterly result of each team was published and we were able to see and analyse the implications of our decisions. It was highly competitive and exciting as eight teams were vying against one another in terms of production capacity and market share.

Planning for the second quarter gave us an opportunity to learn from our mistakes that we committed in the first quarter. Dr. Vinod made things tougher for us in the second quarter by introducing another product to the existing product line. We prepared the Quarterly Report for the second quarter and the reports of all the teams were analysed. The game helped us understand the concepts of balance sheet, income statements and cash statements better. Furthermore, it emphasised the importance of communication and decision making within a cross functional team.

On the whole, the session was interesting and informative and delivered what CBS truly believes in – “Learning for the real world”

Contributed by Meena Ganesh Ram, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10.

Leaders are made...not born

Clarity of Intent, Context to act and perform- these according to Dr. T. T. Srinath, Managing Director of Pegasus Travels and Tours Ltd., were the three basic essentials of Leadership. Dr. Srinath enthralled us with his energy and positivity while illustrating the principles and qualities of a leader. He defined a leader as one who might not necessarily know all the answers but the one who always knows where he is going. He also added that leaders should have unconditional acceptance of themselves as well as others and that their attitude is extremely important. Motivating us to think beyond our limitations, he said there is no such thing as weakness but they are just the self limiting beliefs we are conditioned to.

Interspersed with interesting narrations of the one handed throw ball player, Leonardo Da Vinci and Michael Jordon, Dr. Srinath illustrated leadership principles in a simple yet powerful way. His thoughts on what a mirror answers one was indeed fascinating. The interactive session also had management exercises that demonstrated the concept of perception and the power of thoughts. He emphasised the importance of positive thinking stating that if the feeling is right we don’t need the best language to express it.

Citing examples from his own life, Dr Srinath said that one needs to always have the fighting spirit to face the challenges and come up in life. Three things close to his heart are respect, gratitude and humility. Count your blessings- that was his practical advice to us. He said that everyday he writes one full page of things he is grateful for and suggested the same to us.

A highly interesting session which left us inspired that we can all be leaders in our chosen areas and achieve greater heights.

Contributed by A. Manoj, CBS Batch 4 (2009-10)

Flavours, Fragrance and more...

Ice cream, biscuits, confectionery, snacks and carbonated drinks- apart from their lip smacking and finger licking taste, a vital aspect of these products is their smell or flavour. International Flavours and Fragrances (IFF) is the company behind a lot of these flavours and fragrances that we consume; and Mr. Sridhar Balakrishnan its Managing Director is the man behind its Indian operations. It was our privilege to hear from him about this unique company and its prudent adoption of the latest business practices.

Mr. Sridhar defined flavour as a consumption that leaves a lasting impact. With its presence across 31 countries in the globe and with annual sales of 2.4 billion USD the company invested heavily into its R&D, spending 9% of their sales on it. Through R&D, they tried to concoct innovative recipes that will enhance the flavour of a food product and ameliorate the fragrance of perfumes, skin care products and detergents. IFF has an impressive client list including Unilever, Pepsico, Amul, Nestle, Wrigley, P&G, Johnson & Johnson and Henkel, to name a few. They have created a significant presence in all major categories of flavours and fragrance. Highlighting the relevance of change management, Mr. Sridhar cited the example of his company. The business scenario for IFF a few decades back was that of a monopolistic player enjoying dominance. They were sales oriented and reactive in their approach. He highlighted the fact that they had no compulsion to change but they still did! IFF shifted gears from being reactive to proactive. They began anticipating changes in customer requirements and remodeled their approach to deliver based on specific customer needs.

Citing various other instances, he stressed the importance of constant change and the advantages of being proactive. Mr. Sridhar emphasized the need for timing change and also spoke explicitly about enhancing core competencies and business preparedness. The current business scenario spells expanding international exposure, increased number of players and high consumer awareness and therefore it is imperative that constant innovation should be imbibed as a part of the work process. He also suggested possible ways to handle constraints such as time and people issues, retention of customer focus, prioritization and customer conflicts. He felt the bottom-line was in prioritizing and making the right choices to avoid conflict of any sort.

Mr. Sridhar effectively enlaced fragrance and flavours with business concepts. He summarized stating that change is inevitable and goaded us to make the change happen before it pushes us. His talk was flavoured with valuable components and we are certain that it will definitely have a lasting effect on us!

Contributed by Meena Ganesh Ram, HR Varsity, CBS Batch 4, 2009-10.

Be the change you want to see…

A little child pestered her father who was back after a busy day at work to play with her. The father, not in a mood to accede to his daughter’s demand, kept putting her off. The little girl however was adamant. Hoping to buy more time, the father took a part of the newspaper, which had a world map on it, tore it into many pieces and asked the girl to put them in order and then come back to play with him. To the father’s surprise, the child returned in a few minutes saying, “Papa can you play with me now?” “How did you join these pieces so fast?” the father asked. The little girl replied “…papa, I don't know anything about the countries in the world, but the other-side of the paper had a man’s face and I knew where his eyes, nose and ears are ...and so when I got the man’s face right, the world was in place!”

The story sounds quite common, but reflected a deep inner meaning- most of the larger problems in life can be fixed if we get our personal life and attitudes right. This was just the beginning of Mr. S. Ramakrishnan’s (CEO, Real Estate of Marg Limited) motivational talk. Before joining Marg, Mr. Ramakrishnan who is a certified chartered accountant had a brief stint with IBM Daksh. Author of the book “You can become a complete manager” Mr. Ramakrishnan kept us enthralled with his thoughts on how to succeed in our career. From the beginning of his speech till the end, he gave us some of the best solutions to both personal and professional life that plague professionals of the corporate world today.

To the question “How do you become a successful leader?” the candid reply was, “Accepting the past, Changing the present and Aligning the future”. The purpose of the gerund "ing" in all the above processes is to denote continuity, he said. Drawing from his varied corporate experiences, he took us through the professional life cycle and enlightened us on how to stay motivated and effective in our careers. Explaining the work-life-social balance through the three sides of a triangle, he said that unless all three aspects augment, the area of the triangle would not increase. Replete with vivid illustrations and thought-provoking ideas, his entire speech was an illumination into the realm of higher management philosophy. We were truly enlightened by the session and took a step a forward in learning for the real world.

K Sarathy, IT Varsity, 4th Batch, CBS 2009-2010

Words of wisdom from Mr. George Zacharias

A career path is said to be a long, winding road that often gets turbulent on occasions and blocked by innumerous hurdles. Energy, education and experience- although are the key ingredients for any manager or a successful career, “there’s still so much more,” said Mr. George Zacharias, the former MD of Yahoo India, and our guest lecturer for the day.

Beginning with recollection of his student days at XLRI and the deft exposition on ‘reality’ by Father McGrath, Mr. George very tactfully sensitized us to the ‘real’ side of management. Illustrating from his career experiences and through three beautiful poems he expounded the different managerial skills and leadership qualities one should possess. Throughout the lecture he accentuated on the different virtues such as to remain humble, dare to dream but be realistic in every approach, the importance of perseverance and above all the power of self confidence. Rise above the rest and experience your own true path. He emphasized the importance of ‘knowledge power’, which was required to sieve us from the rest and challenged us to think ‘laterally’.

The lecture not only fired the spark of the knowledge quest but also helped us understand how to apply knowledge gained tactfully. He reminded each of us of our potential and also encouraged us to enjoy the joys of life at every opportunity.

“If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

But make allowance for their doubting too;

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,

Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,

Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,

And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise……..

….Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son! – Rudyard Kipling

These words of wisdom will surely ring in our ears long after.

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

A rendezvous with the former NASSCOM chief!

A blend of factual comparisons coupled with witty one liners was the recipe for the day, as Dr. Ganesh Natarajan, ex-NASSCOM Chairman and current CEO, Zensar Technologies Ltd. took us through the advent of Information Technology trends in the past decade and the business models to be sought for the future. The session started with statistical information on the software sector in India- the US $60 billion industry with 23 lakh direct, 85 lakh support and 45% incremental employment year on year in the past decade. Heavily hit by the ongoing economic meltdown, Dr. Ganesh underlined the need for innovative technical and business skills to cope with the current market conditions. The phenomenal growth in the proportion of women in the IT workforce was also highlighted.

One of the critical factors discussed was that of the average working age of the population, which inarguably is a double edged sword. “India is reaping benefits out of a failed family planning policy”, he remarked. Though the numbers favor India, the challenge of employable resources remains a point of contention. Comparisons were drawn with US and Japan, the former with a major retiree population and the latter with falling average working age. On the contrary, the offshore IT base in India alone stands at 16 lakhs.

Possible erosion of core service lines viz. technology and business services were highlighted. With increase in automation of basic services such as testing and data entry by techniques such as optical character reading, such trends in the industry were imminent. The Information and Communication technologies (ICT) sector was touted to be a ray of hope that could transform the country by harnessing technological advancements to ensure inclusive growth. Areas including Healthcare, Financial services, Education and Public services could be potentially worked on for better results. In specific, the presentation illustrated that technology can provide primary health care at half its cost, enable access for 80% of unbanked Indian households, address 3-fold teacher shortage through remote solutions and also help overcome 40%-50% leakage in public food distribution, by ensuring transparency.

From a futuristic viewpoint, importance of new business models was emphasized. There would be significant opportunity outside today’s core markets with varying kinds and needs of customers. The 2020 demand in terms of customers would be attuned with factors like global delivery in place of the current offshore/onshore style and shift toward public sector companies against the predominantly private owned ones at present. A deployable talent pool, global people supply chain with globalized recruitment and talent practices would help the industry to move forward and gain competitive advantage.

The lighter moments on “Applied electricity by Ancestors” and “Indo-US political leader’s bridge story” along with all the enlightening statistics were an ideal dose of food for thought. Ms. Prameela Kalive, Global Head HR, Zensar Technologies Ltd. who was also present on the occasion offered practical advice on career choices. Recalling from her career growth, she added that it was better to be a ‘big fish in a small pond’ rather than being a ‘small fish in a big pond’.

Thanks to the management, students and Dr. Ganesh for all the time spent in sharing and learning together!

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, Batch 4, CBS

Adieu... Bonne Chance – CBS third convocation ceremony

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On the evening of the 1st of August 2009, the whole of CBS family gathered at Anugraha Hall to award and bid farewell to the CBS 3rd batch students (2008-2009). For most of them, it would have been a time of mixed feelings of joy at having finally completed a tough and demanding one-year course, relief at having successfully reached the next significant threshold in their lives and perhaps some trepidation about what the future holds for them. Seated on the left of the aisle, they exuded a quiet yet infectious sense of anticipation and excitement, causing us all to look forward to the proceedings.

Mr. Mohan Menon, member of the Governing Council, gave an introductory speech, in which he mentioned the recession and its effect on the employment market. He said that even the economists could not predict the downturn. The Queen of England who lost a bundle in the meltdown asked her advisors as to why no one saw it coming. Their answer "..it was a result of the combined failure of brilliant minds". However, he concluded that things were gradually turning around, economy is limping up and companies have started hiring, therefore, the students should see the brighter side of the current situation.

Then, Mr. Ram Shahaney, Chairman of Ashok-Leyland and Chairman, Board of Advisors of CBS gave a short speech advising all of us to have a burning desire to achieve our goals, yet not to let go of our core values.

Mr. C.R. Swaminathan,( Chairman- CII Southern Region and Chief Executive, PSG Institutions) the chief guest of the evening, gave an stirring speech saying that today’s professionals should effectively focus on the well-informed customers. It is essential for the managers to have a wide knowledge of the global market which has a significant impact on the national one. He ended his speech with a moving and stimulating short story about balancing work, family and relationships. Then came the most awaited moment, the distribution of degree certificates.

This was followed by an inspiring speech by the guest of honour, Mr. B. Santhanam, Managing Director, Saint Gobain Glasses India Pvt. Ltd. He stressed on the importance of emotional intelligence, a fundamental skill that all managers should develop, since that is a great differentiating factor. While being competitive, today’s world requires collaboration too, often between competitors. Therefore, he suggested the students to learn to be able to work as competitors as well as collaborators. According to Mr.Santhanam, social networking is another expertise that we must acquire, investing time in it, and training ourselves to make accurate insights, which would help us in the long run. Finally, he concluded by saying that in-depth domain knowledge is indispensable for a bright career.

Mr. Santhanam then gave away the special awards to the outstanding students and also released the maiden issue of “CBS Business Review”. The brilliant ceremony concluded with the national anthem.

As we made our way up to the food bar for the high-tea, I wondered, what we would feel at this time next year. So much of it would depend on our own all-round growth as professionals and of course on the economic situation then. Nevertheless we would, like them, be ready to face the new challenges awaiting us in the real world outside. So, from the part of CBS Batch 4, we wish them... Adieu... Bonne Chance!

By Ishita Deshmukh, Marketing & Communications Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

Introduced to a New World

The final day in Pondicherry was an incessant flurry of activity for me. The packing and unpacking, the last-minute shopping, the good-byes over continuous telephone calls with relatives and close family friends... All occupied my time and mind, without leaving room for further thought. Not once did I worry about the one-year course I had taken up in Chennai Business School (CBS) without actually doing any detailed background study of the institution or calling up the alumni for further information. Therefore, on the first day, the 8^th of July, I went there with an open mind, ready to understand, accept and work to my best advantage, whatever it offered.

The induction program was two weeks long, introducing the various subjects we had to cover in this course, interspersed with guest lecturers from different industry. There were several aspects of the induction which impressed me, one of them being the gradual acclimatising to the long hours that we had to spend in CBS campus and also studying at home. There were a few assignments given to us in the first week itself with short deadlines of a day or two. So, working in groups, we learnt more about our classmates, while getting back into the academic mode of doing homework. The Governing Council members and the faculty warned us several times that we would not have a second to even blink an eyelid as the year progressed to an end. This was a great challenge and with the fear of being submerged under piles of books and notebooks, came the stubborn desire to find a way up to breath in the fresh air and enjoy the whole course.

The faculty at CBS was another surprise. They were all very well versed in their subjects as well as the current affairs. But the thing that really caught my attention, was their approachability, which was something I had experienced during my schooling and graduation. We felt very reassured that in case of any doubt or difficulty, we could just walk up to them and address the problem. I believe that this is one of the biggest plus points of the institution: the faculty being constantly so inspiring and motivating.

A third aspect of CBS’s system of education which attracted me, was the continuous appraisal through class participation, assignments, debates and quizzes. Again another similarity with my alma mater, and therefore something I was already used to. The major difference being that here we have to take exams and there, there weren’t any. The constant evaluation keeps us on our toes, wanting to do our best at all times. Thus it fairly avoids the age-old trap of studying just before the exams, which leads to mugging up loads of useless information and vomiting it out on the examination table. So, either we know a subject (through regular reading) or we do not, and that is absolutely left to the individual and his reasons for being in CBS.

This brings me to another unusual aspect of the induction program, the 40-page Rule Book, which was something I had never seen or heard of in any other institution. Of course there are other strict institutions, but I wonder if they ever issued the rule books to the students... And immediately our gamut of excuses crashes to the ground!!!

On a more serious note, the most significant asset for any student is the Lesson Plan, which I consider as the best gift we received during the induction program. It is a clear concise route map and a great asset to the time-management skills we have to develop for the course. During a friendly session with the Alumni, they told us, make the best of the time you’ve got here, it’s very short, and not enough to do all that you want to do. So keeping their advice in mind, and still wanting to accommodate my whims and desires, I realised that if we make the right use of the Lesson Plan, we can achieve at least 80-90% of them (including the freaking out!).

In the end, the take-aways from the two-week long induction program are numerous. Most of my friends had laughed and said, “Wow! Two weeks of induction! You guys must be just having a ball of a time!” We did, but more importantly we got an idea of where we wanted to be at the end of the year and how best to get there. It’s the “CBS Way of Learning”, and we are here to make it our own. Good Luck to all of us!

By Ishita Deshmukh, Marketing & Communications Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

CBS Induction 2009

A fine day in July, half past five, a typical Chennai dawn woke me up without my usual outlook invites, morning reports or any arbitration saga. In spite, there was a sense of urgency; an adrenaline rush which did demand attention though not comprehended by the partly awake brain. The momentary dyslexia settled, and finally the calendar spoke a language which triggered my stimuli. 8^th July 2009, first reporting day at the Chennai Business School!

The two weeks of Induction was an ideal preparation for the year’s program. It all started with address by the governing council. Mr. PK Mohapatra’s talk on “Parable of Sadhu” in specific caught the attention of listeners, enunciating the moral aspect of business. Faculty team introduced themselves, and it was a pleasant surprise to hear Prof. Palanivelu sharing his experience on time spent in Bharat Electronics Limited with late Sujatha (Rangarajan), the famous Tamil novelist . The afternoon witnessed students’ introduction along with ice breaker sessions. With neat schedule for subsequent weeks shared, learning for the real world kicked off in full throttle

The phobic accounting basics were touched upon with a feel good factor by Prof. Vijaya. IT for managers was diligently handled by the Dean with his vintage wit. Concepts of MS office basics were covered highlighting the effectiveness of its related tools in official reports generation. The IT session was indeed an eye opener in terms of its application scope. The fact that this indeed would have reduced multiple reporting at my earlier workplace was in itself a big take away for me. In addition, the Dean helped relate all this to resource forecasting, estimations and capacity planning, not to forget the figures generation on a single parent spreadsheet indicating over burn/under burn statistics. I felt myself sitting over a goldmine being greedy of carrying maximum pounds of all that was available.

The guest lectures at such an early stage of the academic year got us an idea on how CBS operates and bridges the gap between academics and industry requisites. We had renowned giants walking in from manufacturing, software and advertising arena, sharing their vast experiences with the students. A brief on the current recruitment scenarios and improving trends in economy, and the emphasis on focusing in academics rather than end results viz placements helped us refocus on curriculum in store. After all, the need of the hour is to make oneself employable by getting the basics right, leaving aside speculations on external market conditions

The group activities pre-conditioned us to take on the business world filled with numbers and dynamic changes. Along with introduction to analyze cases, we also had healthy discussions and debates on pros and cons with purview of the information shared. Assumptions were put to rest and factual justifications were encouraged, inculcating a language of Boolean and statistics based on concrete sources. Application of concepts being the motto, approach to learning was completely pragmatic and thought provoking

And we discovered our “Taj” too; well I meant the coffee shop just opposite to the CBS campus. 10:30 am caffeine along with the optional green chili “bajji’s” have recharacterized our appetite, bringing back all those long lost memories from our under graduation days. The unfinished business of putting things on cellulose resumes as we look forward confidently into the future let alone tuning oneself to changing “constants”.

By M.S.Balaji, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

Experience of a Lifetime, in a few words

Sitting in my cubicle, looking into the calendar kept on my desk, a myriad of thoughts are running in my head. Life, just a year back, was so different.

Last year, this was our last academic month as far as CBS goes. We were in the process of wrapping up the last few final touches and the internship part of the course. The final trimester exams were just ended. As a part of the curriculum, we had to work for a month in any organization, pertaining to our specialization before completing the course. This would help us realize in the practical sense, all that we studied during the one year course at Chennai Business School, from close quarters.

Chennai Business School has played a significant part in our lives. Just imagine a melting pot of people from different backgrounds, professionally, coming together on a single platform to ‘learn for the real world’. That’s CBS in a nutshell for you.

The unique point about CBS and its teaching practice is the amount of emphasis given on learning from experience as opposed to just limiting oneself to the textbooks. The rail fanning trips, trip to a Santhai at Acharapakkam were such experiences that’ll remain etched in our memories for a lifetime. These were a part of our Dynamic curriculum for the Marketing Communications varsity. I would call it Dynamic as it ensured that we were made to implement our learning from the class room on to the field and take the experience back from the field to the class rooms to complete this art called Knowledge.

Management was not only a part of our curriculum, in fact the way we were made to manage time and effort between classes and case study presentations, brought us close to the real world’s organizational situations. Though I must say, we’ve had tremendous fun going through these sessions. It’s not every day that you get to meet key people from the advertising and brand management world taking classes for you. But the fact of the matter is, that here we did get to see this happening almost every day. Lectures can never get just theoretical when the people implementing these concepts on a day to day basis, explain them to you. This aspect of CBS is quite unique to the style of teaching that is undertaken here. Getting to hear concepts from the horse’s mouth is nothing short of an inspiration as it helps in relating to the subject matter in a better way.

At the Marketing and Marcom varsity, we’ve always toyed with this idea of coming up with new means of exchanging information. A part of our lunch time was used for this purpose, where we formed sets of two and presented the most interesting and intriguing news articles for the day. The subject of the news items stretched across industries, but the idea here was to search for a marketing concept in these and discuss the pros and cons involved with the article. This was our way of giving food for our thoughts, literallyJ.

One of the fundamental aspects of doing a post graduation in management for a year is that you need to be at the job almost every day. You have little time to react and you don’t get enough chances coming your way everytime. Such circumstances not only help you understand the pressures of a work environment but also help in developing a balanced temperament towards situations that are in store in future. This was one of the most important take aways for me from this institution.

With the kind of support and guidance that you get from the faculty and other members of the management, learning never looked this enjoyable. Though I must confess, at times we’ve really got on to their nerves. All said and done, this was our way of growing up here.

CBS , to us , will always remain one of those crucial phases of our life, where we rediscovered ourselves and moved ahead in the journey of our life. It’s this journey, which will never end and all the roads will keep leading us back to CBS , in one way or the other.

Looking forward to that road soon.. :)

By Pradeep, Batch-2, 2007-08, Marcom Varsity

Current Employment: Communication Executive , Health Care Services Dept , Apollo Hospitals, Chennai

Life is ‘Busy’-ful

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"The busy man is troubled with but one devil; the idle man by a thousand"

There were these few months before I joined this college, soon after I had quit work and had a few months to “cool off”, when I used to watch TV all day long and slept as I wished. No commitments, no deadlines, no targets, no reprimands to dent my day. Though I missed being busy, I bought the fact that I needed the well deserved break. Soon enough all this came to a stand still. I had heard that the marketing varsity was the highlight of this college from our predecessors. When I joined the college I had my hopes higher and my head even higher, floating on a presumption that my experience in sales would make me one among the elite. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

All that I had assumed in my mind about what marketing was came crashing down to earth. I was introduced to the world behind the products that we see on the shelves, TVs, newspapers and where not, and trust me when I say there’s more to them than meets the eye. I was amazed when I learnt that marketing was way beyond just selling the product but went much into the creation of the product itself. That was when I was introduced to the concepts of segmentation, targeting, positioning, branding, Advertising, B2B, B2C, Services marketing and so on.

Apart from the marketing curriculum, we were exposed to a few sessions in retailing, advertising, PR etc which widened our understanding about the world outside. The best thing about this college was that they deliberately exposed us less to theoretical knowledge and brought in industry speakers from renown companies like CavinKare, HCL, O&M, JWT etc. and CEOs of other business entities, from different industries, to give us a sneak peek into how the jungle outside was and how high their expectation levels were when it came to employability during this recession.

Projects, case studies and assignments were showered upon us during the course with tight deadlines but much to our delight they were interesting enough to set our pulses racing and in the process got over our laziness. Sleepless nights became a habit and presentations became the stimuli for further endeavours. What we didn’t or couldn’t learn from the text books, we learnt through the case studies; So many live cases from Indian companies and a heavy load of global cases from the top B-schools of the world. Each case study opened up our minds to new invaluable strategies and implemental business logic. This gave us a healthy edge over students from other colleges when it came to job hunting as we knew what the employers expected, while the other’s thought they knew, but, eventually didn’t.

Where there is a smoke there is a fire. Similarly, where we fledglings are eventually fluttering around, we have had our favourite award winning Professor and mentor, Prof.Sathyanarayanan, constantly spending long hours at work, improving our curriculum, roping in industry speakers, giving feedback about performance and not to mention a few lighter moments too. This battle hardened knight somehow manufactured time to attend to his chores and also patiently heard us out when we had issues to be addressed. I couldn’t help but observe that we had tons to learn from him apart from the course.

Thus in these last few days, I feel, over the period of the course I’ve transcended to a competitive level of understanding of the complex business world and with my career path lit up I am but at a loss of words for thanking this course, for having set the sails for me.

P.S.Suhas, Batch -3 (2008-09), Marketing Varsity

A year full of practical retail experience

“Retail Is all About Detail” … these words of Mr. P.K Mohapatra, Retail Varsity Chairman are still ringing in my head. And true to his words CBS was able to give us in-depth understanding about the Retail industry. I can proudly claim that our course curriculum is one of the best in the country. The reason being, it has a comprehensive gamut of courses on Retail like Shopper Behavior, Luxury Retail , retail branding, Mall Management, Retail Supply chain Management, merchandise and store management, fashion merchandising, e-tailing, Customer Relationship Management, Rural retail, etc. handled by the industry experts.

That’s not all. “Learning with fun” has been our mantra and we have followed it judiciously by having numerous in-class games, with one of the first being the simulation of a Wholesale market scenario, followed by the “Beer Game” ( though unfortunately there was no beer in it for anyone!!).We also had games to predict Consumer Behavior.

The real-world projects that we did gave us a strong foothold in understanding the nuances of Retail both organized and traditional, right from Kirana store analysis to Big Bazaar Sabse Sasta 3 Din , site location project for an Adidas store and consumer survey work for Spencer’s Daily. If that was not enough, we had the privilege of rubbing shoulders with the who’s who of Retail at various Retail Summits throughout the year. To top it all, we also had several international case studies which let us take a glimpse into the best practices followed all across the world.

All these were carefully woven by Prof.Sathya, our Varsity Head who also deserves a special applause for motivating us, raising the bar and pushing us to do our extra best all throughout the course. It was an amazing year for us in learning about retailing, hands-on.

By Khadeeja Bilquees, CBS, Batch-3 (2008-09), Retail varsity