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