Creating a Creative Impact

Our second trimester started with a lot of new and exciting subjects, where three days have been set aside for general management courses and three days for our varsity classes. Every one of us was really looking forward to our varsity classes to start. One of the most exciting classes that we were eagerly awaiting was the class on Creativity & Cross Cultural Skills, taken by Ms Mrinali, an ex TCSer and an MBA graduate from INSEAD Singapore and presently running a firm known as “Paperclip”.

The intent of ‘Coaching for Creativity’ module was to help us build confidence about our own creative skills and to inspire people around us with creativity. It was to reinforce that each one of us are creative in our own way. The course started off by the introduction of the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ which really made us think! A small example of something as trivial as going for a picnic requires a great deal of planning. Each one of us eventually planned the picnic- around the principles of the thinking hats.

Another tool that we used was called ‘Po’. This tool taught us to drop what you take for granted for a particular thing, like for example a classroom will have teacher, which is taken for granted. We were told to drop the idea of a classroom having the teacher and then think of new innovative ways of teaching students. Concept of using ‘Random Word’ for helping in decision making, use of alternatives for a particular object were also very captivating. Another new concept introduced was, ‘Mindmap’, making a tree structure describing a person which was all so exciting and really made our creative cells tick.

The Coaching for ‘Cross –cultural Skills’ was another module intended to help us become global managers. This program was essentially a ‘change of mindset’ programme helping us understand the different cultures of the world. The knowledge of different cultures will help us take up assignments in any part of the world and get along with other cultures.

These classes were really very enjoyable and made us think that creativity can be helpful in every small thing that we do, in every stage of our life.

Contributed by Neha Sharan- HR Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

CBS Goes Global

There was a time when working professionals learnt things the hard way in International environments. They learnt communications, culture and business negotiations on the job. The training wasn’t formal, there were no strict rules and they were only educated with “don’t”s. However, since ignorance was indigenous, people invariably found a variety of ways of goofing up. It’s amazing how the B-Schools instantaneously pick up cues and start working on filling the gaps. International exposure is one solution to cover the pitfalls in such areas. However, the exposure must be imparted in Management courses themselves, so that management graduates can leverage their skills more effectively.

Last week, Chennai Business School and Curtin Business School from Australia (incidentally, also called CBS) signed a “Student Articulation Principal Agreement”. The agreement would facilitate transferring students to Curtin Business School for one semester, either at the end of the course or, during the last trimester, thereby making them eligible for a Masters of Management degree from Curtin Business School. We were thrilled at the prospects! No standing in queues at “Study in Australia” exhibitions, no apprehensions about the choice of B-School, no fear of being left alone and no home-sickness. A Post-Graduation programme in Management in one semester is indeed a great opportunity. It was a great feeling when we learnt that Curtin was recognizing our hard-work that we already put in their first semester subjects and declared that they were waiving it off for us. What’s more, they were also recognizing our alumnus. So they too can benefit from the relationship between both the CBS-es.

We had Professor Tony Travaglione – Head of Management studies from Curtin to break the good news to us. Infact, we observed that Curtin like our own Chennai Business School relied on industry professionals and organizations for imparting knowledge to Management students. They have tied up with renowned companies like Qantas, Bankwest, Clayton and Local Chambers for internships and Consulting. The semblance of Curtin with our own CBS was a very comforting feeling and somehow, the Masters Programme in Curtin seems to be an alluring thought – if a student could get that much-sought-after international exposure in the same degree with a little more of time, effort and cost, it’s a wonderful outcome of synergies between two quality institutions.

So, being local is no longer an issue, as long as you think Global!!

Contributed by Narmada. K- BFS Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Out-bound training

One bright and early Tuesday morning, all of us- the students of CBS, dressed in casuals, shoes and sunglasses sat in a big yellow bus, slightly bewildered and extremely excited about the 2 day out-bound training programme that we were going to attend. Out-bound training programme- that is all was said to us. We were not allowed to probe further to retain the element of surprise. But we were promised that we would have fun. And boy, did we have fun!

We went to the Green Coconut Resort in ECR and were welcomed by the Seiger Training Consultants. After a good breakfast, we had the welcoming session with interesting games. We were told that each activity we do, both indoor and outdoor, will teach us some management lesson. We were intrigued and anxious to get started!

We underwent two days of rigorous activities as a means to improve our organizational skills. Activities, both indoor and outdoor, were aimed at enhancing skills like team work, endurance, strategy formation, trust etc. We enjoyed performing these activities, some of which included falling from a height trusting your team members to catch you, obstacle courses, making the longest human chain, balancing etc. We also played interesting indoor games like treasure hunt which taught us strategy, trust and team work. The highlight of the programme was when all of us took turns to walk on flaming fire and came out not only unscathed but also with great confidence that we can achieve anything.

We returned after a final round of music and dancing, bringing back with us memories, achievements, new skills and plenty of new learning!

Contributed by Chandni M- HR Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

AN AFTERNOON WITH Mr.TT.SRINATH

It was a guest lecture with a difference. It was an absolutely absorbing session from the beginning to the end- none of us wanted to miss even a second! We had an interesting, eminent, multifaceted person address us. It was none other than Mr.TT.Srinath, a theatre person, an entrepreneur and a psychologist. Mr. Srinath is an expert in psychodrama, a technique used by psychologists to make their clients complete their actions using role-plays.

Again in contrast to the usual gyaan given on management topics , Mr.Srinath spoke on a light topic like “how to make life happier by falling in love with oneself” and “how to accept ourselves wholly and unconditionally”. He added that by doing this, one is at ease and therefore lives a life that brings the best out of him or her. He said “For one to accept and love others, he or she has to accept and love oneself”.

He also imparted various theatrical techniques to help put ourselves in the shoes of others, which brings in us the feeling of Empathy, an important requisite of a leader. He said “one who is empathetic always makes a good leader”. He also quoted several stories and experiences from his own life reinforcing the same.

On the whole, the afternoon hour after the lunch was exceptionally energizing, enriching and an exhilarating experience. It was like all wisdom transferred under one roof. We students are looking forward to meeting him again.

Contributed by Dwarakesh Srivatsan, HR Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

‘Employability’ Quotient

A few days ago, we had the great opportunity of listening to Mr. Sundar Raman, VP-HR of Sutherland Global Services, during a Guest Lecture session. Mr. Sundar Raman is a pleasant professional who, in spite of his demanding night-shifts, was kind enough to pull out time for speaking to us. We found it hard to believe that he hadn’t slept the previous night and yet, was fresh and energetic at 8:00 am in the morning! That was the first inspiring thing about this wonderful person, who was down-to-earth when he spoke about employability in today’s world.

As he started talking about what bosses look for in prospective recruits, we understood that we had a lot of work right from drafting our goals to our own sentiments at work. Being a VP in the HR function isn’t easy and it was evident from the way he shared a few of his experiences with us. First, he urged us to state our goals in a SMART fashion (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound). Then, he made us realize that companies recruit someone when they believe that the person can add value to them. And, though not many of us knew it, he enlightened us on the risks that people pose in terms of hostile attitudes and discriminatory behavior. It really got us thinking in new lines – if India Inc wanted businesses from abroad, it isn’t going to be easy without adopting some global practices – even more difficult when it comes to implementing it, when not all people might adhere to professional and ethical values. This was one area where he wanted us to be consciously vigilant, as multinationals can’t survive without global people practices in today’s world.

There were two distinctive questions that are generally unwelcome in the Outsourcing industry, and yet, Mr. Sundar Raman answered them for us.

1. Parity issues – When a new recruit joins the company in an equivalent role/designation of another employee who is in-grown, (and who is performing similar kind of duties), there is invariably a parity issue in-terms of salary where the new joinee always ends up earning more than the in-grown employee.

When asked why this was the case, Mr. Sundar Raman asked us not to get carried away with the short-term gains of the new joinee, as the company offered him a higher pay because they had to attract talent from the market and had to go by the market prices.” However, that doesn’t mean that the in-grown employee isn’t rewarded”, he said,” What should be observed here, is their growth-chart. The in-grown employee will always have an edge over the recruit, when it comes to growth prospects”.

2. When a dissatisfied employee left a company for a better offer, why didn’t companies try retaining the employee with the package that he was offered else-where?

To this question, Mr. Sundar Raman replied that it wasn’t a good practice to retain someone that way, as it paved way for the others to try and hold the company to ransom. The whole industry is effectively, in a state of equilibrium, as employees keep changing companies and the net result is nearly the same for all companies in the industry. He however, voiced out the million dollar question in the outsourcing industry because of this trend – High Training and development costs.

Overall, we had a quick-paced, essenceful session when he even suggested that we over-look the unconventional businesses that are in reality, some really great opportunities that are waiting to be explored – like the vanity business, for instance. What started as a session on employability ended in all of us wondering about the off-track business opportunities that we could start. Who knows, a few of us may even set a trend with one such business venture and come back to CBS as a guest lecturer!

Contributed by Narmada K- BFS Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

E-cell inauguration at CBS

After so many hurdles and time constraints the Entrepreneur Development Cell (EDC) has been inaugurated in CBS today with the assist of Ms.Rajeshwari who is heading the EDC of CBS and student representatives- Dwarakesh and Arjun Shankar. There couldn’t be a better day than today for the inauguration of EDC, just after the exams and more importantly before the results and the day before the festival of lights, which brings in all of us a kind of festive mood. The chief guests present in the panel for today’s inauguration are Ms. Priya and Mr. Sudeep Jain IAS- Commissioner Rural Development. Dwarakesh welcomed the guests and invited Arjun Shankar to give a presentation on entrepreneurship and qualities of an entrepreneur. After Arjun’s unequivocal presentation, Dwarakesh gave a laconic introduction of Ms. Priya and invited her to enlighten the budding entrepreneurs about the EDC’s history and purpose.

Ms. Priya started off by saying how the EDC works, where students of different Colleges and B-schools join together for enriching their entrepreneurial abilities. This was followed by a clip of Kiran Mazmumdar, Chairman and Managing Director of Biocon, where she talks about entrepreneurship- “creating business for yourself and job for others”.

She proceeded to elucidate the National Entrepreneur Network’s (NEN) ecosystem. This was followed by a speech by our chief guest- Mr. Sudeep Jain IAS. We came to know how selfless he is after listening to the introduction. He is a Guinness World Record holder for planting 254,464 trees in 24 hours using 300 persons. When he commenced his speech he proved his selflessness again by saying that he is not a record holder; the team is the record holder and he just led the team of 300 persons on achieving that milestone. A great example of leadership indeed!

He commenced his speech by referring to the presentation made by Arjun Shankar saying that he overlooked one of the qualities of entrepreneurs in his speech which is necessary to be a successful entrepreneur. The missing quality is passion, to be a successful entrepreneur one must be passionate about his vision. One must get excited in what he/she is doing. If they do, attaining large scale success and growth is inevitable. He asked the students as to what are the hindrances for an entrepreneur in commencing a business firm. Undisputedly finding finance is placed on top of the pyramid in the hierarchy of hindrances by the students. He changed that perception with examples of Mr. Dhirubhai Ambani,etc. He said that a good business plan will motivate venture capitalists and banks to fund the projects.

He suggested that we should start business while studying, so that we can be guided by staff and guest speakers, which is an untradeable opportunity. He also suggested institute’s management to have a course which will educate them where should students have business while studying. He concluded his inspirational speech by saying “think big and work for it” a fitting finale for his speech.

CBS E-cell couldn’t be motivated more- thanks to the inspirational speeches of Ms. Priya and Mr. Sudeep Jain. CBS has provided the platform to improve our entrepreneurial skills and NEN has promised in mentoring us. It all rests in our hands now and we will never seize to amaze you!

Contributed by K U Mohammad Anwar Sadhath, Marcom Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

A thought provoking session with Mr M.M Murugappan

It was a highly anticipated moment when we got to know that Mr. M.M Murugappan would be addressing us. It wasn’t necessarily a speech or talk, rather it was more like an open house which focused on the topic “Creating value comprehensively for all stake holders”. To start with, stake holder was a very interesting term to use- which means basically everyone who is directly or indirectly involved with the business. Business is said to involve a group of people who serve customers. Our society constitutes the people who work around us, who contribute to our day to day living and in turn create value for us.

The student fraternity of CBS was briefed about the various businesses that the Murugappa group has under its sleeve, and is looking to move ahead in taking India global. CUMI is one prime example of this. CUMI is focused to make industrial consumerables which focuses on ceramic for industrial applications. When asked about how easy or difficult it was to do business in Russia, Mr. Murugappan said that it was a challenge. However, the Murugappa group decided to retain the Russian management there. And also to add to it, the Indian staff that was positioned onsite at Russia performed far better and got accustomed to the culture, climate, food and people faster than expected.

Mr. Murugappan also threw light on what he thought were the key success factors in any form of business. They are: Passion, Quality, Respect, Responsibility and Integrity. Keeping these five factors tightly coupled and as important drivers, one could establish considerable credibility and success. And not to mention- ‘Good work always gets recognition’- was more like the icing on the cake.

Contributed by Vivek A – International Management Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Grundfos MD at CBS

Mr. N K Ranganath, MD, Grundfos Pumps India Pvt Ltd gave us perhaps one of the most enriching sessions on how to survive in a corporate situation in real life. He shared his experiences with us on how we could learn from anybody and everybody. He told us that the best policy is to tell the truth because false and fake claims would certainly kill you in the long run. He added that one should not have any assumptions about his workplace because in reality the workplace breaks all assumptions. Survival in the corporate world today is not as easy as it was before. Workplaces especially in factory situations could be harsh. To deal with such situations a manager should posses the following qualities he says- open mind, open heart, understanding, patience and commitment.

The corporate workplace also breaks a lot of common happenings like birds of the same feather flocks together. In corporate birds of different feathers flock together and they must work together and produce results. There would be a lot of people who could act as “shrinkers” in various levels. Those are the people who influence u negatively within the organisation. It is you who should be careful. Today more than one’s intelligent quotient the emotional quotient plays a vital role in his or her survival in the corporate world. Accept change and always the ability to change proves that you are progressing.

Mr. Rangarajan said that the most important department in the company is the group of people who face the customers directly. They could actually be from any department within the company but what matters is the impact they create on the customers. He then summed up by saying that corporate 'survival' is not a very tough thing to do -all you have to do is to be boringly consistent and innovate in all ways possible.

Contributed by A. Yuvanath – International Management Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Real time thoughts on NPD

On 4^th September 10 we had a noteworthy guest lecturer- Mr. Saumitra Prasad, Marketing Manager from CavinKare (CK). The topic for the class was New Product Development. He chose one example and based on that example he explained the whole concept. This was easy for us to relate the concept and it was free from complexity. He chose “Indica hair dye” product of CK as his example. He enlightened us about the stages of NPD (New Product Development).

There are 4 stages in NPD. NPD process initiates with ‘identifying the concept’, where the unmet needs of the customers are ascertained. Based on the unmet needs a product is developed to satisfy those unmet needs. This is the second step in the process- ‘development of product’. Once the product is designed a test launch is conducted in certain parts of the country- for instance, the southern region. This process is known as ‘execution’ which is the most crucial stage. The finale of NPD process is ‘expansion’. If the test launch proves to be a success then the company can proceed with the distribution of the product. The decision of distribution channel must be based on the area in which their test launch was conducted.

Most of the companies skip the ‘execution’ process which proves to be suicidal at times. The reason for such avidity is that if the competitor arrives before, then the company will lose the competitive advantage and will incur colossal loss. As my friend Sathya said it is indeed a ‘rat race’.

It was a valuable session and we couldn’t ascertain the span of the session as it was enthralling. We thank Mr. Prasad for sharing his experiences with us and enlightening our knowledge. We thank CBS for creating such opportunities and training us for “the real world”.

Contributed by K U Mohammad Anwar Sadhath, Marcom Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

A sip of energy

A few days ago, we had Mr. Chandrashekar, CEO of Java Green, address us. It was a sheer pleasure and honor to listen to him, as his speech was very much like the fresh coffee you’d get in the Reliance’s coffee shop chain. For those who don’t know much about Java Green, it is a coffee shop with a technological difference – what began as a way to make customers stay longer, has now become the unique selling proposition of the chain. Java Green boasts of a high-speed internet cafe for individuals and video conferencing facilities available on rent for small and medium sized companies.

Mr. Chandrashekar had a very captivating way of delivering his ideas. He spoke about how Management as a practice is different from Management as a subject. When we study, we are always given data along with the problem at hand. The pros and cons, the constraints and the cushions are clearly defined for us. “Unfortunately, that is not the case in reality”, he said. “Data is a luxury in most cases. In many situations, we have to go to great lengths to get related data, if not the real data under question”.

He recounted an incident, wherein they had to predict the demand for Tomato Purée, in on his previous marketing assignments. Since the product was the first of its kind and didn’t have previous data for comparison they computed it based on the production, prices and demand for Tomatoes. Now, predicting the trends for tomatoes is tricky, as it depends on the monsoons and they had to get the data from Weather department. It all went to prove the importance of data and that evening, we realized the importance of all those appendixes that came with our case studies which we dreaded to read and interpret and resolved to love and respect them from then on!

The next important thing that we registered in our minds was that, the tertiary job was of primary importance to anyone sitting on top of the Management chain. Simply put, the feed-back of a salesperson was something which should never be neglected by the Top Management. This is because the salesperson is the contact point with the customer and he knows the needs and wants of the customer. Every CEO who wants to know the success of his/her products, must be sensitive to the feed-back of the Salesperson, as they are a direct-line to the Customer’s mind.

Last but not the least, Mr. Chandrashekar also gave us some insights on the trade-offs that we could end up having in our Management careers and urged us to take the responsibility of our own decisions. It didn’t take us very long to understand what he was talking about. Like every other stream, peer pressure could take a toll on us, and he impressed upon us that priorities and preferences vary for individuals and hence our decisions - a point very well taken, Sir!

Contributed by Narmada K- BFS Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Real World Gyan From Marg CEO

It was Thursday evening and we were all waiting for our first guest lecturer of the academic year. As we sat there with a lot of expectations and wondered what he would talk about, in walked Mr. Ramakrishnan, the CEO of MARG. Mr. Ramakrishnan’s lecture was thought provoking and filled with a lot of real world gyaan that was required for budding managers like us. He started off saying that ‘every man should know to manage else man will age’ that certainly did the trick of grabbing all our attention. He went on to say that ‘if the man is right, then the world would become alright’, stressing the importance of man management. According to him a man should always aim for more and never be content with how much he/she has achieved. He explained this point with context to his own life and how he has been doing what he loves like writing, real estate, managing etc. He said that we should remove the word ‘if’ from our dictionary as it stops one from going forward and trying something. This was truly inspirational. We should strive to achieve our goals and approach all our problems with a positive attitude…and I just couldn’t agree more. But the fun part was when he spoke about what a husband expects from a wife and vice-versa and how both should work on their marriage to make it a success and he related that to an organization…how you look at an organization and what you expect from it and vice versa. This implied that one has to always realize what an organization wants from you and work together for both individual and organization success. When one of the students asked who is more important- happy customers or happy employees, he said that only if employees are happy, an organization can get happy customers. He ended his mesmerizing lecture by saying that we all should have the sky as our limit and never be satisfied with how much we have achieved and constantly strive to change ourselves for the better.

Contributed by Asif Sultan- International Management Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

CBS Students in "NDTV HINDU - U Special" Discussion Panel - PART I

CBS 10 11 NDTV 1 clip0

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CBS Students in "NDTV HINDU - U Special" Part II

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

No…this is not the story of Dorothy, the one written by Frank Baum.

Two weeks ago, we had Dr. Kerry Pedigo, Academic Director from The Curtin Business School, Perth, Australia. Dr. Pedigo has a long list of credentials, but for us – ignoramuses, it is just convenient to address her as the Wizard. Chennai Business School has signed an MOU with Curtin Business School and as a part of this, Dr. Pedigo was with us for a week and interacted with us on certain topics in Organizational Behaviour like Learning styles, Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethics.

The session was…..intriguing. In the era of globalization, we are in the age where we have to finely balance out the cultural demands with ethical values, corporate social responsibility with profitability and customer relationship management against corruption. Dr. Pedigo’s lectures opened up a fresh perspective on the global business scenario, on the sensitive side, for a change.

A glimpse of some activities we did in her class:

- We were given a personality test and were made to assess ourselves. The results of the test came as a surprise as we weren’t really, what we thought we were. This resulted in accepting the fact that we could be wrong about our assumptions on others too. For instance, people with a laid-back, but a criticizing attitude could be a source of irritation to others. But in reality, they belong to the personality category of ‘Reflectors’ who are just over-cautious.

- She gave us a set of fifteen different crimes and asked us to rank them. When we were done, we were surprised that the crimes that were insignificant to us, could actually call for capital punishments in other countries.

- We discussed a famous Corporate scandal in a very unique way. A few of us, represented the Company in question and justified its stand (though we knew that the company was at fault) and surprisingly, we were able to stump the others who argued against us. We understood that Ethics and Laws were two different things. We might not be bound by our laws, when we cross our boundaries, but we are bound by our ethics and values.

- Finally, while discussing the international work culture, we had another interesting group activity, where we learnt that every part of the Globe has its own culture, the way people see things there and when we go there to do business with them, it is absolutely important to be aware of the cultural aspects of the place for successful ventures. In an interesting manner, we enacted different aspects of the Indian culture, to give a feel of unity in diversity in India to Dr. Pedigo.

It is just so sad that all good things come to an end. It happened in Dr. Pedigo’s case as well. One week was just too less for us. The ideas that were introduced to us, the cases that were presented, the statistic that we saw in her power point presentations made us wonder – “Is it really a small world?” May be we have managed to defy the tyranny of time and space. But where are we culturally? Well, all we can say is that – “We are going to need a lot of bridges, and we better get to work!”

Contributed by Narmada K- BFS Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Breaking Ice- The Theater Way

A week ago my life was so closed and restricted to a small cubicle. I never realized that until I joined CBS…and till we had the amazing ‘corporate theatre session’ hosted by Mr. Prakash Dharmaraj at the Boat Club. I never knew how much I had missed in life! His agenda was to teach us the value of teamwork and the method he used was highly innovative. He made us do small things such as introducing ourselves in a weird way, performing a photo scene and playing a renewed version of dumb charades!

The fun I had over there can’t be expressed in this tiny section but my experience can be shared though. On doing those small things we forgot about our self-consciousness, and "forgetting your self-consciousness makes you look good!” Mr. Prakash added. We realized that self-consciousness was our arch nemesis for growth. We all sat down, formed a circle and each of us were asked to share our experiences. For the first time I expressed my true experience- the whole session inspired me to a whole new level.

When I came to know the background of my classmates I thought that this is never gonna work- mainly because of the diversity- those with 8 years experience,4 years experience, engineering, arts, freshers etc. I was among a mixed group of people like Vivek aka perfectionist; Harsha aka mind freak, social girl; Satya aka entrepreneur; Arjun aka maths geek, etc- people like them could easily be driven by attitude. But I chewed my hat when I was proven wrong, the unity among our class members is undisputable, none of them had any glimpse of attitude in them. I experienced lack of unity in my school and under-graduation days where there is absolutely no diversity, but over here at CBS, its totally different. This moved me so much that I felt 1 year is too short. I am inspired and ready for the upcoming year. I will pray that the unity stays on forever. On my way back home I heard this song by Nickleback- ‘If everybody cared’ and the song was apt. The following lines inspired me and reminded me more of the corporate theatre:

"If everyone cared and nobody cried

If everyone loved and nobody lied

If everyone shared and swallowed their pride

Then we'd see the day when nobody died…"

Remove "if" and "then" from the above lines and that would summarise my CBS mates. Now its time to demolish my small cubicle and explore the "real world" along with them. And the corporate theater was the perfect beginning.

Contributed by K U Mohammad Anwar Sadhath, Marcom Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

My first day at CBS...

The date was July 14^th, a Wednesday. A day my memory certainly will not forget. It was my first day at CBS. Everything seemed so different...new people, a B-school, smart air conditioned classrooms... and even myself at that point! I was totally confused and not sure of how the new environment was going to be.

It was almost nine in the morning and as I was sitting there filled with mixed emotions, the Dean walked in with a confident looking team comprising the Governing Council and the faculty members for the introductory session. Mr. P.K. Mohapatra, a member of the Governing Council gave a really thought provoking speech, which certainly inspired me a lot. I actually learnt more about world economy and politics in those thirty odd minutes he spoke than what I had known all my life till then. The knowledge enrichment ride was continued by the other Governing Council members, Mr. Mohan Menon, Mr. Sathasivam and Mr. M. S. Ravichandran.

We then paused for tea. As the day progressed, everything new seemed so good. The faculty introduction assured me that I was in the right place. A brief explanation about the various varsities and their objectives were put forward by the Dean. The pedagogy of study at CBS sounded really interesting- extensive use of case studies. I soon realised that I am in for a challenging time and my expectations were already building up. It was then lunch time and the Dean came up and said, “...today the lunch is on the house.....and only for today”. While having my lunch I still had that one last confusion within. How am I going to get along with my class mates and keep it going over the next whole year? I have never been in an educational institution before with such a diverse group especially with respect to age and experience. Post lunch we got into the group activity session.

It was the best session of the day for me simply because all we had then was fun. I soon realised how differences could seem not so different. It was the perfect ice breaking session we all needed to get to know each other. It also was a really enjoyable way of learning how working in groups could prove so productive. As the day concluded on a very light note I realised a positive change in me. I came in feeling tensed and went out with a lot of confidence and clarity. As I made my way back home I was sure that I was in the right place. I felt assured that it was going to be a fulfilling year, ‘learning for the real world’ and was sure that CBS was the right place for it. All the learning, fun and excitement had just started and I am looking forward to a great time at CBS.

Contributed by A. Yuvanath – International Management Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Convocation at CBS...

The evening of 24^th July 2010 was teeming with excitement, anticipation and relief for the fourth batch of students of CBS. Their hard-work and commitment had finally paid off and they were about to receive their degrees. One could see proud faces dressed in black graduation robes, cheerfully meeting up with old buddies, recalling their good old days and exchanging congratulations.

The evening started with Mr. Mohan Menon’s inspiring and encouraging welcome address. He started by sharing some details on the book ‘An area of darkness’ by V.S. Naipaul that enunciated the poverty and the sad state of India as a country in the late sixties. Mr. Menon correlated the situation in the book to the recent recession and the role of students as managers who can bring light into such ‘dark ages’.

Mr. R.J Shahaney briefed, those present, on the various planned initiatives of the school and shared few pearls of wisdom for the students to carry to their Managerial lives. Some of the best were – “Be passionate about your work”,” Think Big”,” Take decisions and stand by them” and most importantly – “Live life by design and not by default”.

The next to speak was the Guest of Honour Mr. Jairam Varadaraj, who threw light on the brand image of India Inc. True that we were a cost-effective out-sourcing haven, but then, it is not healthy to settle down for such an image. We have a lot to accomplish when it comes to developing, strategizing and executing solutions to help customers and thereby, ascending in the value chain. We are replete with tools, he said. But unless we know the utility of such tools, they are just, a mere ritual. The ideas presented by him were intriguing and intellectually stimulating.

And then came Mr. Santrupt Misra, the Chief Guest who had the audience in splits when he equated the convocation to a ‘conspiracy’ wherein the students were made to sit through one last boring lecture by the professors! (surely not in the context of CBS) He gave five beautiful pieces of advice – 1) Managers learn everyday, 2) Failures are, in reality, hidden opportunities, 3)Focus on win-win situations rather than cut-throat competition, 4) Career success is a gross-product of several attributes of oneself and finally, 5) Giving back to the society is the best possible way to advancement.

Finally our Dean, Prof Sridar Natarajan, took over the podium for distribution of degree certificates and announced the best student awards for various Varsities. Varsha Vasudevan was the best outgoing student for overall academic performance. The event concluded with a vote of thanks by the Dean.

As we watched the previous batch graduate in all their glory, it occurred to us that a year from now, it would be our turn...

Contributed by Narmada. K- BFS Varsity & Chandni. M- HR Varsity (V Batch 2010-11)

Industry-ready MBAs are Chennai biz school's focus

CBS invites professionals to talk to and teach students..

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CBS has launched its executive PG programme in management, the objective of which is to provide inputs and tools for decision-making that would help executives execute their roles more effectively in their businesses.

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Chennai Business School's one-year compressed course is attractive for working professionals keen to get back to the jobs market.

Vinay Kamath

“Too much obscure, pseudo-scientific research is being pursued by unworldly academics living in a ‘publish or perish' culture. The students emerging from these schools are ill-equipped to deal with the real, messy world of management. They have theories and flowcharts and quaint analysis coming out of their ears, but little experience, poor judgement and questionable values.”

Warren Bennis, Leadership Guru, Harvard Business Review, as published on the Chennai Business School Web site.

R. Jyotsna passed out with an MBA in the retail discipline from the first batch of Chennai Business School's (CBS)' management programme in 2006, perhaps, the first time a business school was offering a course in retail management. Now a manager with Aditya Birla group company Madura Garments, Jyotsna manages the Esprit store in Chennai and has just been promoted as Area Manager responsible for four stores of the brand in the South.

Jyotsna was one of 10 MBAs that the Future group's Pantaloon Retail picked up, and after two intensive years with the group in places such as Mangalore and Bangalore, she joined Madura. “After six months of general management in the CBS programme we focused on our specialisation, in my case retail, and internships in Spencer's and Lifestyle, gave me a good focus before I joined the industry,” she recalls.

Even though only three of her batch continue to work in retail, Jyotsna symbolises the kind of MBA graduates that CBS wants to turn out: industry-ready and raring to go.

As CBS' philosophy, outlined by the group of CEOs who incubated the school with their personal monies, says, there is a concern in the world of business, that business schools graduate are not being equipped to handle real-life issues of business.

This is true of a large number of business schools in India and overseas alike. As Pradipta Mohapatra, one of the founders of CBS, says, “The industry focus has been our differentiator. Half our programme is delivered by outside faculty who are senior industry professionals, so it is easier for us to cover real-life case studies and create a bunch of street-smart kids.”

Adds Mohan Menon, another co-founder and CEO of CBS, “Learning banking from the vice-president of a bank or advertising from the head of a leading advertising agency is significantly different from learning them from academicians.”

This year, CBS will see its fourth batch of 48 students graduate. Quite similar to businesses being hit last year, CBS too found its intake of students dropping from a batch of 76 the previous year to 48, while placements and median salary levels too took a dip.

As Dean Sridar Natarajan points out, while last year the average salary levels for its students hovered around Rs 3 lakh (with a peak of Rs 7 lakh), this year, on an average, the compensation package has been Rs 4.2 lakh a year in various streams — IT, HR and retail being the main.

Almost 50 per cent of its students have work experience. A one-year compressed course too is a huge differentiator, points out Menon, as most working professionals want to get back to the jobs market, often switching streams.

The CBS founders — apart from Mohapatra and Menon, they are K. Krishnan, J.N. Amrolia, N. Sathasivam and M.S. Ravichandran — invested their personal monies to the tune of Rs 2.5 crore to start the business school four years ago.

Having spent years in the corporate world before focusing on academia, the founders were able to leverage their networks to get professionals to talk to and teach students on a regular basis. The school is located in rented premises in Velachery, a relatively new and rapidly developing suburb of Chennai, but the objective is to move to its own campus eventually.

The group of founders have invested in a 2.5-acre plot of land off the Chennai-Puducherry highway and as Mohapatra indicates, they are looking at funding models to develop a new campus. “We want to complete a round of funding for the campus in the next one year,” he adds.

CBS has also diversified its revenue streams by launching its executive PG programme in management, the objective of which is to provide inputs and tools for decision-making that would help executives execute their roles more effectively in their businesses. Within six months of its launch, CBS has two batches with classes being scheduled during weekends, points out Dean Natarajan.

That apart, CBS has entered into a partnership with Escorts to design, deliver and certify courses proposed to be offered at the Escorts Institute of Farm Mechanisation in Bangalore. The centre is being revamped to streamline and standardise training and to deliver a variety of courses in the areas of sales, service, business management and other competencies. This initiative of Escorts, points out Menon, is to enhance competency levels across its market-facing organisation. The training programmes will target managerial talent in sales and service functions, dealers and influencers. It is expected to train 3,000 people over a three-year period.

CBS is also training senior executives of electronics company Mel Systems in a custom-made programme for executive development.

A senior Chennai-based consultant, who also teaches at several B-schools, says the pedigree of the founders has helped the school establish itself and the school is attracting brighter students with good analytical capabilities well as language skills and is also attracting good placements for its students.

Making a comparison with the other B-school that has come up in Chennai, Great Lakes, this consultant says CBS has not achieved the same profile as yet but is getting there.

The Hindu Business Line, June 7, 2010

C.K. Prahalad- A guru who foresaw the future

The newspapers on the morning of 17 April were abuzz with the sad and sudden demise of Prof. Dr. Coimbatore Krishnarao Prahalad at the age of 69. In his passing away the world has lost an eminent management guru whose bottom of the pyramid theory is perhaps the tipping point for social entrepreneurship activism seen of late. His thinking and work is sure to inspire the next generation of management thinkers, entrepreneurs, strategy consultants, and a broad spectrum of people to whom his research holds relevance.

Prof. Prahalad was born in 1941. His early roots were in Chennai where he got his B.Sc. degree from the Loyola College in 1960 and went on to study MBA at IIM-A (1966). His research on multinational management won him a Doctor of Business Administration in just two and a half years from the Harvard Business School (1975). After serving IIM-A as a professor in 1976-77, he joined the University of Michigan.

According to the University of Michigan website, Prof. Prahalad, The Paul and Ruth McCracken Distinguished University Professor of Strategy at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, US, is a globally known figure and has consulted with the top management of many of the world's foremost companies. His research specializes in corporate strategy and the role and value added of top managements in large, diversified, multinational corporations.

Prof. Prahalad has been among top ten management thinkers in every major survey for over ten years. Forbes said of him: "a brilliant Teacher, Futurist, he may well be the most influential thinker on business strategy today."

Prof. C.K. Prahalad is the author of a number of well-known works in corporate strategy including The Core Competence of the Corporation (Harvard Business Review, May-June, 1990). He authored several international bestsellers, including Competing for the Future (with Gary Hamel), 1994, The Future of Competition (with Venkat Ramaswamy), 2004 and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits, Wharton School Publishing, 2004. His last book with co-author M. S. Krishnan is called The New Age of Innovation, which became a best seller. At the time of his passing away he was still on the board of TiE, The Indus Entrepreneurs.

CK's greatest contribution shall always remain his prophecy for India and the catalytic role he played in helping India dream big. His book "Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid" concentrated at the economic opportunities that existed at the bottom of the economic ladder. A visionary, he talked about India joining the big league way back in 1995. His initiative- India@75 partnering with CII, launched a massive visioning exercise simultaneously across 22 Indian states. Adopting a bottom-up approach, through various stakeholders' workshops, primary data is being collected to help India become economically strong, technically vital and an ethical global leader by the year 2022.

He showed the signs of becoming a good instructor and consultant early. While still in his early 20s, he would organise simulation-based management games for young managers at his company, India Pistons, part of the Amalgamations Group. Prahalad left for IIM Ahmedabad soon, where he was a student in the first graduating class of that institute. He then left for Harvard. He came back to work in India, at IIM-A for a short stint. It was at the University of Michigan, which he joined after returning from India to the US (almost for good), that Prahalad really blossomed, first as an instructor, then as management thinker, author, and consultant.

Business strategy was his forte, which could explain why he focused on issues such as competition, collaboration, and innovation through the 1990s. His best-known book is Competing for the Future, co-authored with Gary Hamel. The book gave the world a buzz term: core competence. In the late 1990s and 2000s Prahalad started talking about the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid (which resulted in an eponymous book).

All through, he remained someone who believed in India, although he was acutely conscious of the problems the country needs to overcome if it wanted to claim what he thought was its rightful place under the sun. Despite his fame (and fortune) Prahalad remained almost the same person who had worked as a young manager at India Pistons.

Prahalad may be gone but his emergence paved the way for a succession of Indian management gurus and writers—Bala Balachandran, Vijay Govindarajan, and Tarun Khanna among them.

He was the first recipient of the Lal Bahadur Shastri Award for contributions to Management and Public Administration presented by the President of India in 2000. He was honored with Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2009. The Times voted him to be the most influential management thinker on its Thinkers 50 list in 2009.

Prof. Prahalad might have passed into history but his influence on us will continue for a long, long time to come.

Contributed by Sarathy Guru Shankar. K, IT Varsity, CBS Batch 4 (2009-‘10)

Microfinance Projects by CBS Students!

Objective of the study

•To gain an insight on the concept of a Self-Help Group (SHG) as a tool for micro credit, its working, bank linkage.
•Working of Sruthi SHG

Sruthi SHG’s Model

•Started in 2005 by 18 women residing in the same locality
•All of them had no previous “work” experience
•But they did small scale business activities like undertaking party orders, selling homemade snacks, sarees, etc
•They got to know of SHG concept through another similar one operating in the same locality
•Approached Women’s Development Committee of TN and formed Sruthi SHG
Associated with an NGO called Asha Nivas
•Started off its SHG activity by setting up a canteen in Co- optex, Chennai
•Initial money was invested by the members
•On initiation, 5 notebooks for account maintenance is given
•Bank loans are based on the strict maintenance of the accounts
•Weekly meetings are held and the minutes of the meeting are recorded
•Discussions are held on current affairs and info from the weekly magazine circulated by the NGO
•Profits are shared on a weekly basis and the salaries are weekly too
•Brownie points for CSR activities
•Awarded the Best SHG by the TN Govt for 2008 & 2010
•Common account opened with Indian Bank with minimum savings of Rs.100 p.m
•Members can borrow from the fund at an interest rate of 1paise repayable in 10 months
•The interest received is again split among the members
•The members also borrow on the SHG account for their personal & business development needs.
•Prefer to borrow as SHG because of low formalities .
•Accounts are maintained by 3 members nominated by the group.
•Loan amount to members is based on the monthly savings they have in the common fund
•Sruthi SHG has so far borrowed close to 5 lakhs from Indian bank through their micro credit wing under the Bank –SHG linkage programme
•I Loan – 40K (Repaid)
•II Loan – 1.3 Lakhs (Repaid)
•III Loan – 3.6 Lakhs (Active)
•Out of the loan amount, 36K is taken away in the beginning and a fixed deposit for that amount is made.
•Only principal repayment for the Fixed Deposit value.
•In case of default the FD is taken by the Bank
•If repaid, the FD along with the interest is given to the SHG.

Sruthi SHG Canteen

Advantages of the Bank – SHG Linkage

The linkages of SHGs with banks aims at using the intermediation of SHGs between banks and the rural poor for cutting down the transaction costs for both banks and their rural clients. The objective of the linkage Programme could be:
-To evolve supplementary credit strategies for meeting the credit needs of the poor
-To build mutual trust and confidence between bankers and the rural poor.
- To encourage banking activity, both on the thrift and credit sides, in a segment of the population that formal financial institutions usually find difficult to reach.

Besides, financing through SHGs reduces transaction costs for both lenders and borrowers.
•While lenders have to handle only a single SHG account instead of a large number of small-sized individual accounts,
•Borrowers as part of a SHG cut down expenses on travel (to & from the branch and other places) for completing paper work and on the loss of workdays in canvassing for loans.

Project submitted by S Shanmugapriya, BFS Varsity, CBS Batch 4 (2009-'10)

Lessons from the Trenches...

On a gloomy Saturday morning we assembled for a presentation by Mr. V. Vishwakiran, who is handling the module on "Sales and Large Account Management" for the students of Marketing and IT. A PGDM in marketing, Vishwakiran joined an Indian IT major in their Sales and marketing support function, after a brief stint in media and advertising agencies.

His presentation was mind blowing, amazing and colorful, with picturesque visuals from his Mac. His session titled "Lessons from the Trenches", kept us spell-bound throughout.

The objective of the session was to make us understand that as managers we must, in addition to managing the repetitive and regular issues, be dynamic, resilient and mature to handle crisis with the required clarity and not get overawed by the situation. In this context he narrated the lessons he learnt the hard way in his corporate career and the hits and misses he had in his life.

He delivered this in an innovative way. For example, the presentation's first slide had a World War-II trench picture with soldiers in bitter condition. The idea was to convey the lessons the world learnt under tough conditions during the brutal trench warfare of WW-I.

He had done his homework of going through our profiles from our college website and he called us by names and asked us to recall our experiences in the appropriate context, thus making the whole session a participative event. He was open and shared some of his personal experiences at a conceptual level and discussed his learnings.Some of the themes discussed during the session were:

- Creating your value systems
- Dealing with others
- Staying on top
- Art of communication
- Work ethics

Mr. Vishwakiran had his own unique way of conveying his messages that was loved by one and all in the class. This was through movies and quotes from famous personalities. A hollywood movie buff, he made effective use of movies to convey critical points. To suit each context, he quoted relevant movie dialogues from Hollywood movies and presented them in a picturesque way in his PPt's.

For example, he quoted a dialogue from the Tom Cruise movie, Jerry Maguire- "The Key to any Business is Personal relationships"
“If everyone is thinking the same thing, someone is not thinking”
- from the movie MacArthur
“Every battles is won before it is ever fought…”
-from the movie Wall Street
“If you don’t dream, you don’t have anything…”
-from the movie The Rookie

We had a good practical insight into management and work ethics. It was a Saturday that will linger in our minds for a long, long time.......

Contributed by Sarathy Guru Shankar. K, IT Varsity, CBS Batch 4 (2009-‘10)

Enhancing our Spiritual Quotient

This year’s women’s day would be an unforgettable day for many of us, as we were exposed to a new kind of engineering- inner engineering by Mr. Vinod Hari of Isha yoga.

Belonging to no particular belief system, Isha yoga offers what is needed for the modern world. We were shown videos by Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the founder of Isha yoga about what is inner engineering and what could it do for us. The questions posed by Sadguru in the video were so powerful and so piercing.

Why inner engineering?

All human experiences are internal- be it happiness, joy or blissfulness, but the problem is that we have given the starter button for this in someone else’s hand.

If the world is not happening the way you want it to, it’s absolutely ok. But if the main person i.e. you, are not working the way you want it to, there comes the real tragedy. Inner engineering is an enabler to make at least this one person (yourself) to work your way.

Inner engineering combines the powerful yoga technique called “shambavi mahamudra” and “pranayama” (breathing technique). People like Mr. Ravi Venkatesh (MD, Microsoft India) stand testimony to its prowess.

Samples of Sadguru’s wisdom

He narrated the interesting story of a bull and pheasant where a weak pheasant eating bull’s dung reaches the top of a tree and gets shot, inferring that, “At times even bull shit can take you to the top but never lets you to stay there”. This is what would happen if we don’t know how to handle ourselves.

As Sadguru says “we did a lot of engineering to our external world so that it functions better for us, now it’s time we do a bit of engineering for ourselves.”

Sadguru was right in stating that “The best moments of our lives are when we express our love- not when we search for it”. But unfortunately for most of us, much of our lives is wasted in pursuing happiness.

He was scientific in his approach when he said that peace is just a kind of chemistry and said that what a pill could do for you for a brief moment by bringing calmness, yoga could do eternally. The entire chemistry of our system could be changed by yoga, bringing us back to our natural self of joy and happiness.

All his words are of utmost clarity. He was right in saying “be human first”- forgetting humanity, divinity is just farce. No two humans have the same capability, if you function to your full potential you are a fortunate being and would always be blissful, and inner engineering is a starting point to realise your full potential. Mr. Ravi Venkatesh asks in the video, “If you are unable to manage yourself, how could you be a manager managing others?” This made all us future managers to think.

Answering to a question on how to be stress free Sadguru was right in saying that “whenever people are in a state where they have no control over their inner situation they would be stressful, not because of any external situation.”

Most of us act compulsively not consciously and to be aware of knowing oneself is the first step and inner engineering initiates this process.

The presenter was excellent in the way he communicated and the way he answered our questions. As Sadguru pointed that, “unless you do the right things, right things will not happen to you." I think we have done the right thing on having a speaker from Isha and enrolling ourselves for this life changing inner engineering program.

Special thanks to Vidhya ma’m from Orchid for making this happen.

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

“Karthi-keen” on new HR ecosystem

Today I attended a rather intriguing lecture, by none other than the well known Dr. R. Karthikeyan, a qualified psychologist from National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), as well as a consultant and now the management educator and pioneer of the Gemba School of HR, Chennai.

He first started with how he got into the field of HR or should I rephrase as how Dr. Karthikeyen believes- "how HR chose him." To explain this he began with a small flashback, when he was in his first job at Salem Steel, where he was asked to conduct a four-day training session for the employees. He admitted openly that he was totally baffled as to how to go on about it. Yet with proper groundwork, he said with a slight glint, that he 'somehow managed to pull it off.' Hence, his first bump with HR.

It was only after this training session that he started looking at HR in a new light. HR management is basically discovering, recognizing, strengthening, refining and finally acquiring human talent, skills and power. He also stated the importance and value of the HR domain in every enterprise. Though the main HR techniques and practices depend upon the traditional management theories; however in the present era the current issues and dilemmas have proved to be much more complex and dynamic than before. Hence, there requires a cry for change in basic HR methods, both theoretically and practically.

Dr. Karthikeyan also spoke about Psychometric testing, a useful recruitment tool that is used to assess a person's knowledge, abilities, priorities, attitudes and personality traits. But the sad fact is that many HR professionals themselves aren't aware of the basic skills to handle crisis situations. At this point he threw light on the 5 W and 1 H, that is who, why, what, where, when and how.

Some of the other interesting anecdotes he shared with us were the various challenges he encountered during his career growth. One of them that he talked about was the one where he had to eliminate 1500 employees from work. The amount of thought process he had to go through and the homework he had done was tremendous. He used the help of role plays and mock exit interviews. The second challenge he faced, was when he had to recruit 1200 in 9 months. For that, he had organized a walk-in for the ITI's at the Montford Grounds. But unfortunately things fouled up when there was an unexpected turnout of people overcrowding the grounds that even traffic came to a standstill. And in this turbulence of things, there was a lot of loss and damage caused to the institute's property. He concluded by accepting that he hadn't foreseen the change of events and he should have planned the event in a much more efficient way.

The lecture ended with him inculcating in us a different outlook about HR altogether. HR today has transformed from being only performance oriented to people oriented. And after this lecture, I feel that the changes brought within the HR wing would bring about changes to the entire organization.

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

Experience speaks!

When one speaks with heart there tends to be a lot of acceptance and appreciation. It’s more to do with the words untold and also those “read in between lines”. For someone who is as seasoned as Mr. Karthikeyan, it was more of spontaneity and instincts taking the lead. A Trained Psychologist and consultant, he spoke the’ HR language’ with a lot of depth and conviction. Stories of his own failures and hard lessons broke the shackles one could have on learning by failing in life.

“Is it feasible for assessment centers in the private sectors?” I asked. Karthikeyan had actually done it in his previous assignments as consultant. He went over the process in his earlier stints with fine tooth comb. Neatly presenting the story, he posed questions on HR concepts that had the students gripped completely, not to forget those moments shared to mull over certain serious lapses that occur in recruitment.

Couple of anecdotes on strategies is worth mentioning. Karthikeyan had emphasized on absorbing ITI students outside Chennai to fill in for as large as 1500 technicians for a top automotive player. The underlying motive was to retain people for a considerable time. Additionally, the pay offered was too less for a worker from within the city. This turned out to be a huge trump card in success of the recruitment process with the automotive giant.

Life comes 360 degrees. Yes, he had his failures too, when a mass recruitment drive went berserk. This was one such incident where Karthikeyan had to recruit for front office executives. There was huge turn around with police getting involved to control the ‘mob’. Eventually, people were asked to drop in their resumes. And guess what, there were torn resumes deposited all over, an indication of torn hearts due to improper communication. It was a clear illustration of a poorly written “Job Description”.

Importance of observation was stressed on as a HR professional. Empathy to sit through the allotted time with an interviewee was discussed further. Never ‘Test’ an individual and ‘Dump’. It’s extremely important to provide a candid feedback to ensure he/she works on the shortcomings. Karthikeyan was particular on such ‘humane’ dimensions that complete a HR as a person and also the role per se.

No presentation in power point, nothing ‘flash’y, yet clear and profound way of reaching out to the student community with relevance to one’s hardships in life. The session would stay in our mind, as a definite reminiscence of the gentleman and his methodology of teaching.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

Innovative HR Practices

I missed the window pane by inches. It would have been yet another hit on my forehead, which had already been sculpted with historic marks besides my either eyebrows. We ran, huffed & puffed, shouted and gasped for breath. Eventually we managed to be back alive, with limbs in appropriate places. Well, it was one such exercise as a part of team building to foster trust and test leadership in an individual.

Johari window made me peep into my own territories of strength and weakness. It also presented an opportunity for others to have a ‘go’ at my shortcomings, of course in a positive and constructive manner. “Who is the Murderer”, a situation maze, brought-out the “Sherlock Holmes” in each of us, and at the same time taught us wonderfully on team spirit and working together for a common cause.

Managing Competencies and Performance requires clear demarcation. Aren’t organizations muddling things up? To an extent true, but I learnt how to deal with this important ‘Duality’ of HR, keeping them separate and gauging individually. The Left brain was challenged with logic, predominantly testing the analytical knowhow. We also strategized, instructed and created structures in similar lines to collage. Communication was questioned, coordination was pushed to limits, and yes- leaders emerged too, some ripe and others slightly infant.

It is a great learning thus far. Innovative HR practices have not only been food for thought academically, but also a real time application in understanding oneself and also fellow HR brains at CBS.

Many thanks to Prof Kashinath and his inspiring pedagogy.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

‘Live wire’ in campus

Being a generalist HR at TAFE, with end to end responsibilities, Kamala Manohari brimmed with knowledge and energy. She deals with as wide a bandwidth as Recruitment, Learning & Development, Employee relations and MIS. Life is so easy when we have a single shop housing all that we need. Likewise, she was one such ‘go-to’ personality to address the HR varsity students. The interaction kicked-off focusing on training that included technical and behavioral parameters.

Unlike the general notion that the gap between academics and industry is quite large, Kamala urged us in getting the basics right- from books. For instance, “Iceberg” model emphasizes on understanding the behavior that are explicitly not visible. This will need to be imbibed well within to appreciate and implement any form of Performance Management. It thus becomes imperative to learn all that comes in through the academic route, which can ultimately be customized per rigors of life and business.

Ratios and SLAs are so integral to organizations. “Job Change Index” was one such ratio we came across, providing an absolute check on the stability in one’s career. To be precise:

Job Change Index (JCI) = No of Job Changes/No of Professional years of experience

It goes without saying that this needs to be minimal while gauging an individual’s resume for recruitment. ‘Cycle Time’ was yet another SLA Kamala dwelt on. Negative Cycle time was one surprising element highlighted, bringing out the intuition element of HR, the Predictive Recruitment.

And the critical paradigm in HR is to handle misfits and related disorders. She brought out the implications and ways of handling such situations with her own experiences.

Sourcing, Competency mapping, Reports on recruitment and manpower, open house/get together and fun at work…the list seemed to be mindboggling, yet what a challenge for a young professional to take on! Kamala’s session reaffirmed the pride of being a HR and handling the intangible elements in a workplace.

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

She came like thunder, went like lightning. And yes, we did get drenched with all those vital industrial awareness.

“Innovativeness” is the key – Nippon Paints

It was an inspiring lecture delivered by Mr. Mahesh Anand from Nippon Paints on April 3rd and 4th 2010 at Chennai Business School. Mr. Mahesh is the zonal head of Southern India for Nippon Paints- and he comes with a 20 yrs work experience. He talked with abundant information about the paint industry in India and how Nippon paints carved its way in the Indian paint industry.

Decorative paints are made available with different colors and patterns and it covers around 70% of the Indian market. The paint industry in India is mostly dominated by the Asian Paints company, a veteran paint giant with market share of 56% and having more than 25000 dealers across the country.

Nippon paints – the 129 year old international paint major, headquartered in Japan penetrated into the Indian market showcasing its innovative property of elasticity, odorless and environment friendly paints developed from its numerous research and development centers established using Japanese technology.

The company has maintained a robust supply chain management. Having learnt that shipping duty is more than the cost of the product, it has setup two distinctive manufacturing units in India, one at Chennai and the other at Gurgaon. It has capacious warehouses that enable to store bulk amount of products as per the specific requirements of the clients. This made the cost effective supply of paint products across the country through only specific and experienced paint dealers. It targeted Asian paint dealers who had relevant experience and exposure with the Indian market scenario.

Nippon is the first company to setup an exclusive specialty retail outlet for paints- this helped various consumers like building contractors, builders, painters and even common people by exhibiting its various products with distinctive features and quality. It has helped the consumers to feel the product and realize Nippon’s USP. These exclusive stores will provide professional help and consultancy service apart from providing a retail experience that will be exciting, customer friendly and product centric.

Contributed by Leela Vijay Kumar, Retail Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)

Bowled Over

“Oh, that’s a beautiful delivery. That’s the flipper, and he is gone right through Andy Flower”. It was 2003 Cricket World cup when one of the greatest players of spin bowling was bamboozled by this ‘china man’ bowler. A typical tough Aussie, known to take on battle on the field was up for it this time, on a completely different play area. Brad Hogg, the cricketer and an alumni of Curtin University, Perth spun his enriching web on strategy, leadership and attitudinal facets an individual should possess, and the secret of touching heights in one’s life.

“Pup (Clarke) has been through troubled times of late” remarked Hogg, answering to my question on succession planning. He pointed to the importance of building second string leadership and backed Clarke as an able leader in the making. Half the battle is won in minds and very little involves the actual skills and technical shortcomings. This was the strategy that Mc Grath used to destabilize Sachin with his in-swingers. Killer-Instinct was an integral part of the game plan Aussies had. This often enabled them to play with a lot more intensity, pressurizing the opponents with a ‘never die’ spirit.

Waiting under the wings of Warne ensured Clarke learnt the lessons of ‘deserving’ to play only through performance and appropriate results. It brought out the importance of being ‘mentored’ thereby understanding intricacies in the art of bowling (of business). “ I would n’t mind taking Sachin or Lara giving away 200 odd runs, instead of running through the lower order” opined Hogg, hinting at the fact that efforts needs to be channelized in targeting and winning the best in business, and not just the stand alone records in the form of numbers.

While Waugh used to deal with players upfront, Ponting in comparison was relatively quiet. This shows how leaders use different styles and strategies to tackle situations and team members. Mental disintegration (Sledging) was yet again such a vital tool, to get to the nerve of the opposition, as long as it never crossed the line. Sportsman spirit, camaraderie is fine, beyond these was ‘Uncle Sam’ (referee) watching to axe the ones with suspensions, who get a little too carried away. Need for controlled aggression was put forth in typical cricket’s ‘Mouthful’ language!

Apart from the synergies that management and cricket shared, there was a competitive round of questions asked. Hogg presented self autographed bats to students. Hogging the limelight, the magician from West Australia spoke on Injury- “When one enjoys what he does, he neither feels the pain nor complains”. Drawing analogy to organizations, when someone works with passion, he looks at the larger picture of success than the trivial issues.

Thanks Hoggy, you have left your “rough” marks to make the most out of. We will exploit it and spin our way to glory in the times ahead!

Contributed by Balaji MS, HR Varsity, CBS Batch-4 (2009-10)