GMP Students Return from the International Exposure Module

Students of General Management Program (GMP) (2007-08) went to Graduate School of Business, RMIT Australia, for 3 weeks International exposure programme, launched in partnership with RMIT University, Australia.
The program involved two parts, the first being an overview of Australian business climate and industrial scenario.
The second part of the program involved internship in an Australian organization. The work placement was designed to enhance understanding of local business operations and provide Australian companies with an opportunity to gain valuable insights into doing business in India.
Renowned companies from a range of industry segments, like KPMG, Wackett Aerospace Center, CSIRO, Yoober and others participated in the process.
Commenting on the internship experience with XLRI students, Neil T Faulkner, Partner KPMG, said "The General Management Program students who spent time in our organisation in Melbourne were marvellous ambassadors for the program, XLRI, their previous employers, their Country and themselves. They demonstrated exceptional skill, commitment, knowledge, teamwork and global industry awareness."
Dr.Ron Harper, Director GSB, RMIT, who led this engagement with XLRI, said "The exercise is regarded by RMIT as an important grassroots engagement of Australian industry with the new economic superpower that is India."
The sponsored candidates from Tata Steel were sent for a similar stint to Corus, UK.
GMP is a one year full-time business management program for executives, who have had a prior work experience of five years or above.

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Suman

PS: Reproduction of press release

Service Science, Management and Engineering

Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Associate Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, Bangalore talked to GMPians regarding IBM's initiative called Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), which aims to create an ecosystem for developing the knowledge base and train the labor force and to make significant advances in service research and innovation. This is what he had to say "We clearly need to develop a more systematic approach to services innovation if we are to sustain this vital new sector in the economy".
The goal of the SSME discipline is to drive productivity, quality, and sustainability of services, while making the learning rates and innovation rates more predictable across the service sector, especially in complex organization to organization services including business to business, nation to nation and government to population. This new academic discipline brings together ongoing work in fields of computer science, management science, and social science to develop skills required in a services-led economy.
Many leading universities across the world have begun exploring and investing in the field of service science (SSME) to develop exactly these cross-disciplinary skills. University of California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and North Carolina State University are among a handful of universities in the United States which have established programs in service science. Universities in Europe and Asia are also creating programs in this area.

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Indranil

Dr John Papatheohari, Partner IBM addresses GMPians

Dr John Papatheohari, Partner and Global Delivery Leader (Strategy & Change) - IBM India, addressed the students and faculty of XLRI as part of the Institute’s CEO interaction forum. The forum is a regular platform for XLers to interact with Industry leaders. Dr John elaborated on the importance of Strategic Transformation and Change in the current Business context and also highlighted the structure, operations and growth of IBM’s Strategy and Change group in India. The forum culminated with a Q&A session wherein queries on Strategy and Change in general and IBM’s operation in particular were addressed. Subsequently, Dr John also took time to interact with the GMP students (GMP is XLRI’s one year full time executive Management program for professionals with more than 5 years of experience) and highlighted the varied scope of opportunities available in the Strategy and Change group for management students with work experience.

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Rama

All Quiet on the GMP Front?

Yes but only for 5 days when Term 1 ended and most of the GMPians took off for a brief term break. However before they could enjoy the glory of being 1/4 th MBA Term 2 arrived in right earnest. The usual schedule (of assignments , presentations , quizzes and projects) is keeping GMPians occupied full time ( 29*8*40 as one Prof said). Apart from academics there are other things to look forward to - the festive season coming up and the international immersion segment following that.

On the XL front quite a few activities have started. The admissions process of GMP 2009 has been initiated. Details of the same have been posted in the URLs mentioned in the Links section. The eligibility criteria remain the same - minimum 5 years full time work experience after graduation. The qualifying examination is XAT/GMAT. Aspiring candidates may please note the dates mentioned in the related sections in the websites ( http://www.xlri.ac.in/ and http://www.xlri.edu/ ). All the Best!!

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Suman

Ethics and Leadership

Mr Deepak Mullick (Executive Director, Avesthagen) delivered a lecture on ‘Creative & Ethical Leadership’ to the GMP class of 2008. Mr Mullick had held senior management positions in Shaw Wallace, ICI and was the CEO of Advanta India Limited before founding Avesthagen.

Mr Mullick held the GMPians in rapt attention as he narrated his personal account of how he had turned around his life by seeking answers to questions about himself which had been bothering him. Mr Mullick asserted that the key to developing oneself as a leader is to strive to be part of the solution rather than the problem. Mr Mullick narrated experiences from his personal life when he had to face enormous challenges by taking ethical stands and showed how he overcame those obstacles.

Mr Mullick shared an experience where in he took the risk of jeopardizing his career by sticking to his decision of not to pay a bribe. However he asserted that when someone follows absolute standards the other parties realize his/her commitment towards principles and he/she is able to achieve his purpose without using unethical means.

Mr Mullick illustrated how ethics is the heart of leadership and why it is becoming increasingly important in the present scenario to be able to stand by your principles no matter what. In essence it was an inspiring experience for the aspiring leaders to realize that in even today’s world let alone being a deterrent , ethics in fact is most essential ingredient for an enduring success

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Abhishek Mishra

Branding Sariya – the TATA TISCON Story

Mr. N.K Saran (Chief, Long Product Sales Division, Marketing & Sales South, TATA Steel) visited XLRI for delivering a lecture on ‘Branding Commodities – The TATA TISCON Story’ to the GMP 07-08 batch .

Mr. Saran who is an XL alumnus has wide experience in the areas of quality, strategy, marketing & sales. Earlier, he has also worked as Chief Aspire (Business Excellence) for the quality initiatives undertaken in TATA Steel.

The GMP batch had an enriching session with Mr. Saran, who explained the concept of branding and strategy and why was it so important in today’s internationally competitive environment. The discussion started with branding concepts with examples of some of the famous brands that we see around us today, the latest one being Harry Potter.

GMPians listened with rapt attention as Mr Saran went on to the real story of how TATA Steel went about marketing their TMT bar by the introduction of a branded product (TATA TISCON) in an otherwise unbranded, somewhat inefficient and corrupt TMT market, thus introducing transparency and customer satisfaction while being able to build a name for itself in the process.

The session ended with a very enthusiastic series of question & answers by the GMPians, who did not want to let go of the opportunity to understand how TATA Steel was able to use branding as a tool to bring efficiency into the markets. GMPians are looking forward to more such events to enhance their practical knowledge on various marketing principles vis-à-vis the current developments in India and abroad.

GMPians in the Village

While a group of GMPians were managing rock climbing and assorted hurdles in the adventure trip, one other group was packed off for three days and two nights into the villages of Jharkhand. Not that they objected. After all most of them had come from different parts of the country and saw this as a good opportunity to get a first hand feel of Jharkhand.

The GMPians visited few villages outside the limits of Jamshedpur. The coordination and planning was done by NGO’s like Tagore Society of Rural Development, SEEDS, SPAR, MASS. The issues studied by the GMPians were water and sanitation, health facilities , livelihood pattern, literacy related issues, self-help groups, gender issues, farming and animal husbandry, environmental concerns, credit mechanism, consumption pattern and housing patterns.

The study illustrated the welcome progress which started to take place in the last few years in terms of empowering people and making them participate in the development process. Nevertheless, the lack of access to proper healthcare services, secondary and college education was striking. In the villages inhabited by the Sabar tribe, even primary education was a luxury which hardly few could afford.

GMPians returned from trip content with the study done but perhaps with a bigger discontent about the state of affairs of rural India and a resolve to do something more about this than being aware about it. Quite a few GMPians were already associated with NGOs and social organizations before joining XLRI and have fair experience in these activities. So they have more activities lined up on this front. As they say "Miles to Go.....".

Being a GMPian

I couldn’t pay 8 bucks for two cups of Chai to Dadu, as I had no change. He asked me to pay later. And in my mind
“Expenses a/c Debit Rs.8.00
Dadu a/c Credit Rs.8.00”
I laughed at myself.

After spending 6 years in Fashion industry this was a surprise since I expected myself to sleep in accounting classes, which I thought could never be fascinating. Other classes are no different. The first sense of ‘Being GMPian’ was in MHB (Managing Human Behavior) class, where each one of the class had as many perspectives as the number of people and none of the arguments were discountable. In the same week the ‘OutBound learning brought out the best of the strategies among us. I’m sure we have broken all the previous records.

Bright red skies in the evening have always been the badge of Jamshedpur. Thanks to TATA Steel. In the Campus academic grind and weekend chill outs make an incredible blend for our new lease of life far away from corporate cries. Unforgettable weekends with music from DJ (we call Bhaskar) was real delight including Folk songs of Bhojpuri, an offbeat.

The time is surely short and moving fast ; we have more of XL to experience and more synergies to create….

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Vijay

Management on the Rocks : The GMP way

GMP Students at XLRI Learn Management Lessons on an Adventure Trip

XLRI Jamshedpur's General Management Program (GMP-1 Year MBA) students recently went on a three-day adventure trip co-ordinated by Tata Adventure Sports Foundation (TASF), Jamshedpur. This is a regular annual event to be taken up by all students.
This program aims to inculcate management lessons among the students the natural way. TASF, a professional body under dynamic leadership of Ms. Bachendri Pal, is engaged in organizing such adventure programs for corporates and institutions all over the country.
The three days trip involved students admiring the hardships of nature as well as actually tasting the same by means of several exciting management games which brought out their mental and physical prowess to the fore. The events included rock-climbing, caving, trenching, abseiling at a place near Jamshedpur and water rafting at Dimna Lake.
Ms. Bachendri Pal, the first Indian women to climb Mt. Everest, gave a pep talk to the students on leadership skills. She was all praise for the enthusiasm and high degree of involvement shown by the students. The trip ended with the event of water rafting at Dimna Lake and the names of the overall group members were announced by a senior TASF official. The trip was ended on a sweet note with recapitulations of learning spread over three days. GMP students were upbeat with the rigor and relevance of this program. Some of the learning's from the program include leadership skills, working in teams, building strategies, making optimal use of available resources, overcoming the fears of unknown, leadership, and introspection skills.

URL:http://www.coolavenues.com/bschools/070706/xlri-adventure-1.php

Getting out of the comfort zone

June 19th @ XLRI

A call which had to be taken, was taken.Getting into XL was difficult , once the hurdle was cleared the greater diffculty lay in tackling an existential question of whether to quit a comfortable lifestyle and a successful career ( reasonably so ,very humbly) and take the plunge.

A rather intimidating question for the newly married's and for one of us who was about to take a five day leave in the middle of the programme to get married.

Even this could not flinch people and now we have a group of guys with an average experience of 84 months, with as diverse profiles as you could possibly imagine. We do have professionals from PSUs and IT . We also have CA's, Ex defence personnel , scientists and hold on - a Jesuit Father on board with us. Also need to mention the women partcipants who are managing quants and their kids with amazing ease. And for once average figures not to be taken with a pinch of salt, in Team GMP there are no outliers.

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Suman

Unlearning at XLRI!!!

These are my first days at XLRI jamshedpur and I am being told that I am here to unlearn and time permitting learn.The entire system is conspiring against me to shed old prejudices and take up new ones. I was never prepared to hear "profit is a liability and loss is an asset"- at least not from the Accounts prof.Nor was I ready to see the linearity in the circle in a case methodology class.I have been asked to put my thoughts in spatio temporal coordinates and explicitly state the implicit assumptions before I open my mouth to present something.Settings are perfect to make me believe that whatever I learnt last 30 years are past their use by date....these are the days of unlearning...its fashionable!!!!

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Shailendra

Measures Of Central Tendency In CR Elections

Is the CR ( Class representative) spokesman of the group or leader of the group?This question hit me when I was busy with our XLRI GMP 2007 CR elections.When our batch met for the first time I was sure about the name who should be the CR and it turned out like that eventually. I chose to revisit the existential experience from a cognitive perspective. CR is a central tendency of a class and so is the Leader.However, more often than not, elements of a class would be more tightly concentrated around the CR whereas they will be loosely scattered in the case where leader is the central tendency.In other words the standard deviation in a CR scheme is less than that in a leader scheme.In a leader scheme, an element becomes leader because of its own attributes and its ability to influence some of the attributes of the other elements. In other words when an element , because of its own attributes, asserts itself as the leader, the other elements can get suitably conditioned to revolve around it. If one of them doesn't, it has to then assert itself as the leader.If it can't, it gets dismembered.Primarly , a leader is a distinct element , its likeness with other members is only desirable.In a CR scheme, CR's likeness with other elements is paramount. Hence, a CR does not need to assert itself as CR.Other elements of the group see the "likeness" and designate an element as the CR.My cognitive faculty has run out of fuel..so I will stop here.My existential faculty hopes the CR will take the burden of the collective insecurity of the class.Good Luck to our CR!!!!

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Shailendra