PROMISES TO KEEP......LAUNCH OF ETHNOS - THE MAIDEN HR CLUB OF CBS

Bygones can be bygones but they could be or become inseparable memories from our minds. The launch of the Human Resource (HR) club ETHNOS was one such event. The day 15th of September 2011 will be etched in the minds of all the students of the HR varsity as an auspicious day as it marked the launch of the maiden club of the HR varsity, ETHNOS. This day would always be special for students as well as the staff of Chennai Business School as this club is the first one of its kind in the pages of the history of CBS.

The venue of the launch was within the premises of CBS in the classroom Ganga. The evening’s events started of with a thought provoking quote by Charles Darwin delivered by the MC. The MC Ethnarian Ramya Rani then requested the audience and the distinguished guests to pray in silence followed by the welcome address by Ethnarian Lalith Sajan .The Chief guest for the day Mr. David Nallathambi, Senior VP HR, Standard Chartered bank (Scope International) was welcomed with fresh flowers by Ethnarian Nivya and the other guest for the evening Mr.Ramesh Sreedhar , Manager, HR, Mahindra Satyam, was welcomed by Ethnarian Gokul. The members of the club i.e. the students of the HR varsity would be called Ethnarians. Ethnarian Saravanan introduced the Chief Guest to the audience. A small presentation on the objectives of the club was screened and the Logo for the club was launched by the Chief Guest by lighting the lamp. The presentation for the club was brought to life by Ethnarian Ganesh who was supported by Ethnarians Poornima and Chinnaraj.

The Chief Guest for the day Mr.David Nallathambi, Senior VP HR, Standard Chartered bank (Scope International) then shared his thoughts with us on the role of a HR professional in an organisation . He dispelled myths lurking in the minds of students on the function of a HR Professional in an organisation. The chief guest also gave valuable insights on how students should start to groom themselves right from college and evolve into better personalities. He also answered some of the queries put forth by students. It was a very enlightening speech by the Chief guest.
Mr.Ramesh Sreedhar , Manager, HR, Mahindra Satyam, also emphasized on the responsibility of a HR professional in an organisation. He also shared some thoughts on his role as a HR Manager at Mahindra Satyam. These thoughts shared by the distinguished guests has created a Domino effect in the students leading to a mind boggling thought process which will help us evolve into better professionals of tomorrow.

The evening’s events concluded with the vote of thanks by Ethnarian Sangita. Alls well that ends well. The events leading to the launch of Ethnos went on well as planned , picture perfect and well organised and co ordinated. The efforts of all the Ethnarians as a team who put in their minds, with great strength and support pumped in by the Head of the HR varsity Senior Ethnarian Dr. Prasanna had seen attaining fruition on the 15th of September,2011. One thought lingers in everyone’s mind, the launch of the club may have gone as planned but it only opens up to newer horizons and new beginnings and new promises to keep and as Ethnarians Miles to go before we sleep and Miles to go before we sleep ...................

Team Members
Ramya , Sangita,Poornima, Chinnaraj, Vel Vikram, Lalith, Ragav, Gokul, Ganesh, Nancy, Nivya, Saravannan

The Effective Manager

INDUSTRY SPEAKER
Mr. S. Ramakrishnan CEO, Real Estate of MARG Limited

As part of the induction program, Mr. Ramakrishnan , CEO, MARG PROPERTIES, addressed the students on how to become an effective and efficient manager. He touched on various aspects of being a good manager. Here are a few .
Communicate effectively.
Innovate,
Be a professional.
Quick decision making especially in tough situations.
Adopt a balanced approach.
He emphasized the need to adopt a value based approach to business.

It was an absolutely absorbing session. He shared his varied experiences in various fields. His enthusiasm was infectious and he had us all involved in an interactive question and answer session. An energizing, enriching session indeed!

Entreprenurship and Cloud Computing.

Speaker : Mr Alok Singh, CEO, Novatium solutions

Mr Alok Singh was an enthusiastic speaker and took us through his experiences as an entrepreneur and his career journey.
Mr Singh was a mechanical engineer by profession and had started his career by setting up a manufacturing unit of Diesel Engines . That was just the beginning. Mr Singh has more than two decades of experience in service marketing and service delivery, solutions designing, marketing, manufacturing & consulting. Prior to joining Novatium Mr Singh was was the CEO of Cummins Auto Services Ltd.
Under his leadership, Novatium has taken giant strides from being a start-up technology product company in Chennai to being an established technology service company catering to homes and enterprises nation-wide.
Novatium is India's first cloud computing on wireless broadband. He also talked about Novatium's cutting edge products and superior technology which made it a runaway success. Their endeavour is to simplify computing that will make everyday tasks easier and allow common people to get the most out of their personal computer. He told us that high configuration of personal computers is not needed for accessing mundane activities. He also said that cloud computing is generally much safer. Novatium’s target is to provide a superior and convenient computing experience at affordable prices for the next billion users, especially in emerging and developing markets.
Mr Alok Singh spoke in length about the challenges of being an entrepreneur.
To be an successful entrepreneur
• If you have any ideas of starting your own venture, IMPLEMENT immediately. It should not be just ‘talk’, but having the conviction to put your ideas into practice.
• It is ok to make mistakes but learn from them
• When a venture needs funding, we should look at different options, including angel investors.
• Hard work.

What is cloud computing ?
Cloud computing is a general term for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These services are broadly divided into three categories: Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that's often used to represent the Internet in flowcharts and diagrams.

CAREERS IN CLOUD COMPUTING
IT professionals have to learn about the various ways in which services can be delivered to customers. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model has already proved a good value proposition for enterprises, they just outsource their application requirement to a third party to manage and provide them with that service. And SaaS is just a pre-cursor to cloud computing.
Cloud Computing in coming years is going to transform the IT infrastructure space. It is a platform where service providers will deliver IT-enabled services to consumers with a host of features and benefits.

Contributed by Shravan, Nikesh, Sabari Giri

A novel business venture

INDUSTRY SPEAKER: Ms Sridevi Raghavan , Amelio Childcare Services Ltd.



“Babies are always more trouble than you thought and more wonderful” – Charles Osgood. Ms. Sridevi Raghavan, the founder of Amelio Childcare Services Ltd., would certainly know what Charles Osgood is talking about, as she spends most of her time with children. Ms. Raghavan shared with us her experiences in starting a business venture. Equipped with an MBA from Harvard Business School, Ms. Raghavan started an entrepreneurial venture with a difference - a quality day care service for infants right at their mother’s place of work! She along with a close friend conceived of this novel venture. Amelio Childcare takes in babies from the age of 6 months to 3 years. Having their children at their place of work sets the mother’s mind at rest and promotes efficiency. Moreover, they know that their child is in safe hands and only a few steps away. Yes! The mother can walk in at any time and spend time with her baby. Amelio has grown over the years and is set to go places.

As Ms. Sridevi Raghavan talked of her novel business venture we realised that there are scores of business opportunities out there waiting to be explored!

An interesting guest lecture!

We had a guest lecture by Mr. Krish Ganesan, Vice President of Tata Consultancy services.

He spoke on a various topics ranging from social etiquette to social commitment.
Mr. Krish Ganesan stressed on the importance of effective communication. He said that one should practice good manners and etiquette in order to succeed. In today’s world of globalization, where one had the opportunity to meet and interact with people from diverse cultures it was important to appreciate the values and perception of others and possess the ability to adjust with people from all over the world.

At work, Mr. Krish said one should be willing to work hard and diligently and this would certainly bring success. Enjoying one’s work was more important than monetary considerations and if we inculcate this attitude we would derive a lot of job satisfaction.

Mr. Krish Ganesan talked of the pioneering efforts of the Tata Group in introducing employee benefit schemes. For instance, the concept of maternity leave was first introduced by the Tata Group and this he said had proved beneficial to the women in the enterprise.
The high level of social commitment of the Tata Steel CSR team was brought out by the amount of work done by them for the welfare of the socially and economically disadvantaged communities living in and around their areas of operation. The CSR programme is managed by three organisations — Tata Steel Rural Development Society (TSRDS), Tata Steel Family Initiatives Foundation (TSFIF) and the Tribal Culture Society (TCS). Its initiatives have encompassed provision of healthcare services, drinking water, rain water harvesting, tribal development, relief and rehabilitation endeavours, income and employment generation, women’s health and education, awareness programmes on the ill-effects of drugs, alcohol and HIV/AIDS, and patronage to sports and cultural activities.

It was a pleasure interacting with Mr. Krish Ganesan and we look forward to more such sessions!

The Story behind the Story

Mr.Ragunanthan, Founder of Disha Strategic Foundations came to CBS as a part of the induction program and addressed us on the topic- “The Story behind the Story”.
The first thing which came to my mind on hearing this topic was the movie of superstar Rajinikanth-Badshah. Its success at the box office can be attributed to being based on the concept- “Story behind the Story”.
Mr.Ragunanthan kindled our interest by starting off with an activity. He asked a few of us to write our names on a slip of paper and also the reason why our parents/ family had given us that particular name. The others had to guess as to why each of us had been given a particular name. We all took turns in hazarding a guess, but were way off the mark. Surprisingly, most of us did not know why we had been given a particular name!
Later he told us the reason for this activity. He said that there is a reason for everything which happens. He impressed upon us the need to live in the present, without being weighed down by our past or worried about the future. He said that if we were “alive” to the present then there would be an incident which would guide us to a wonderful future.
To make us understand it better, he gave us the example of T.K. Rajendran, I.P.S, ADGP (Tamil Nadu Intelligence wing). Mr. Rajendran had planned on joining London Business School to pursue his post graduation when there was an unexpected incident in his life. As he was travelling to Delhi by train in order to take a flight from there to London, he lost his luggage. He immediately went to the RPF to complain about the incident. But there was no proper action taken. He was made to run from pillar to post, but the authorities did not take any responsibility. Totally frustrated by the callous attitude displayed by the authorities he decided to join the Police force in order to bring in some discipline and accountability in the Force. This incident was the turning point in his life and changed the course of his life.
Mr.Ragunanthan also told about the life of Mother Theresa, who devoted her life to the needy, sick and dying. He narrated the incident which led to Mother Theresa starting the organization-Missionaries of Charity. Once as she was travelling by train to Loreto Convent, Darjeeling from Calcutta for her annual retreat, she saw the image of Jesus Christ bleeding. She described this vision as being “the call within the call”, which made her establish the Missionaries of Charity.
The session with Mr.Ragunanthan was an eye opener. We all benefited by the session and also realized that there could be a turning point at any juncture in our life, which would have an indelible impact on our future!

CBS PROFESSOR RELEASES BOOK

It is not only the students who bring name and pride to an institution- it’s also the faculty members who make the future of the nation- who bring good name to an institution. On that note, our Professor and the HOD- Marketing, Retail and International Management, K.Rajeshwari has brought immense pride and honour to the CBS fraternity by releasing her book “My life, My choice”.
The book chronicles the life of people who have left their initial lucrative careers and have opted to do something that they are very passionate about. The author herself is a very fine example. She is an alumnus of IIM Ahemdabad. After having a rich experience of about 15 years in corporate India in various companies like HUL, Cavin Kare and Nippon Paint in the field of marketing and sales, she has now taken to teaching as her second career after a lot of self evaluation. This book tries to answer the common question like “Do I have to be in the same career all my life? “.
Commenting on the book, author K Rajeshwari said, “Middle age is the time when we re-set the agenda for the rest of our lives; and work defines a large part of our agenda in terms of who we are. So we cannot have a fulfilling life if we feel we do not have a fulfilling career. I sincerely hope this book inspires people to take that first step.”
Launching the book, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, said, “Rajeshwari’s book is extremely relevant in today’s context as the career opportunities available are aplenty in India. For the country to progress well, it is important that we contribute significantly in our careers. And that is possible only when we choose our careers consciously”.
The book discusses alternative career choices that include politics, teaching, joining a NGO, starting an entrepreneurship venture and even getting back to one’s childhood passion. There are respondents across each of these professions featured in the book. The author states that the shift may be done for various reasons ranging from a stagnant learning in the first career or wanting to paint one’s ambitions on a bigger canvas or even for personal/family needs. Out of the ten stories, two are about women who have made the career shifts. By giving a flavour of the different career options that people take up, the book aims to give readers a perspective of what a shift means both in terms of the new career understanding and that of self-understanding.
On the whole, this book is a wonderful read that gives a lot of take aways.
The book is available at Rs 345 at all leading book shops or can be bought online at www.macmillanindia.com.

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