Life@DoMS,IIT Madras

[rmbt]

Hi Puys,

I m opening this thread as it can benefit MBA aspirants who want to know what does DoMS has to offer besides good placements, excellent facilites and great profs.

To start with ill post of few of the last years happening:

1. We have a forum called CEO connect where the CEOs of the companies come and address about there companies strategy, the market, latest trends and how does MBA graduates fit into the company.

2. Corporate Wisdom is the platform where the top corporates except the CEO come and address the students about the above said topic.

3. Through MIST we try to get the top people from the social organisations to share there experince of how to run a non profit organisation efeectively and contribute to the society in the apt way.

I am posting last sems happening as i am consolidating lot of the latest developements and will be posting them shortly.


Rajat Saxena
DoMS,IIT Madras
Batch of 2006-08

[rmbt]

THE BEGINNING OF NEW LIFE @ DoMS, IITM

The taxi entered the gates of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The driver headed towards the Gajendra circle, and I was seated in the backseat, staring out of the window. Just looking around, a strange current flowing through my body……Yes I had arrived!! As a youngster, getting here had always been my dream and today here I was…..There are some moments in life, very few of them which can’t be expressed in words. It can only be felt. The feeling of being at IIT was certainly one of them.

Getting to my hostel, setting up my room, meeting new people and before I new it, my first day at IIT was over. Over the next three days we had our formal orientation programme. Brief introductions by our faculty members coupled with a couple of sessions conducted by the people of the industry made it quite interesting. The highlight was the address by the Director of IIT who happens to be one of the most erudite persons I have ever heard speak. He was simply over whelming in his clarity of thought and speech. Citing numerous examples, quotes and excerpts from books, his speech was greatly inspiring, to say the least. He managed to drive home the importance of hard work and excellence and also urged us to spend a lot of our time in the library. Following his speech we had a welcome note by the HoD, DoMS and then got down to the most interesting part of all- getting to know our classmates. There was great sense of excitement as each one of us went on to the dais and introduced ourselves to the whole class, and as we did so, a mini-India had already started to evolve in front of our eyes. We started chatting with one another, had tea in the department with the Profs. The warmth which had been generated was enough to keep us chugging for the rest of the day.

The itinerary read: 04:30 PM- Movie “The Corporation”. Nobody among us had even the slightest doubt that the name of the movie was misprinted. “It ought to be ‘Corporate’ macha!!” the word spread and excitement was brewing among the guys- I mean what could be more exciting than watching the sultry Bipasha Basu right on the first day of the curriculum. But alas! That was not to be. There was no mistake in the print. To brand ‘The Corporation’ as a movie would be at best a euphemism for a dreary documentary running for an entire 3 hours. Meant to open our eyes towards the activities and responsibilities of corporations, the documentary was no doubt an informative one.
After that got over we were about to jump from our seats and get back to hostels in anticipation of a good nights’ sleep when the ‘breaking news’ came in – a strict deadline by the seniors to present a power point presentation by 10:00 PM which was a pre-requirement for the seniors-juniors interaction. To be frank our hurriedly prepared presentations were pathetic- didn’t deserve a consideration, but then who was there to consider them – our seniors were simply preparing us for the difficult days ahead. The interaction was a cool one, had lots of fun asking weird questions, receiving equally weird answers, eyes red from sleeplessness, dozing off towards the end it seemed to me as if the session would never end. It ended with another announcement “We are not happy with the way it was done. Tomorrow make one more presentation and also sell a product!!! “.So the next night was even better. Things went on till about 4 am. There I was walking back to my hostel room and cursing as to why we should be subjected to such treatment so soon…..
When I went to class the next morning I realized that I knew the names of most of the people in my class. That’s when it struck me and I said to myself ‘Geez..The events of the last two nights organized by the seniors was indeed a very good ice breaking session ‘. The entire exercise was to help us know our classmates and our seniors better.
We had a brilliant and interactive talk session by Mr. V. Balaraman, President, Madras Chamber of Commerce who gave us real insights as to what the industry expects from an MBA graduate. His experiences during his long stint at HLL, which he shared with us generously, helped a lot of us to get over with some misconceptions and instilled many new ideas about the workings of the corporate sector. And this was just the beginning of a series of more inspiring and informative lectures by industry leaders, not to forget a good session on ‘leadership’ by Daniel Jebasingh, Director – HR, Ajuba Systems. And yes…..no orientation at IIT can end without the mention of the concept so popularized by Chetan Bhagat’s Five Point Someone, the CGPA. We had a faculty member explaining the intricacies of the CGPA and asking us to put in our best effort.
Fresher’s party is something one associates with engineering college. I had no clue or rather not expected it at a B School in such a pompous fashion. Maybe I wasn’t aware. Still if you ask most of the students, the general opinion would be that we would have a party. But what we got was just amazing. Two of them, back to back on a Saturday and Sunday night, both in complete contrast to one another, thus by no means making it repetitive. The first was a very formal one with the faulty members also joining in. After the declaration of Mr & Ms. Freshers and a small ‘nick-name’ game, our group was supposed to come up with a dance, song & play but we got lost somewhere in between and managed a medley only. However the medley was so well received that we had almost the entire student community on the dance floor. Later the movie ‘Italian job’ was screened and we finally got back to the hostel at around two in the morning.
The second party was a much more ‘energetic’ one if I may use that word. Dance, dance and more dance was the order of the night. By the time it ended there was great deal of camaraderie among students of both batches. The kind of effort put in by the organizers during the entire week was just amazing. They have set a benchmark for us and it’s up to us to raise the bar higher.
I was also privileged enough to witness the Convocation ceremony held at the SAC Centre. Listening to the Director and also Mr Ratan Tata was really inspiring. This was followed by an Annual Reunion for DOMS students, a great idea conceived by our HOD. It allowed us to interact with a lot of our seniors who are in the corporate world and get a real feel of the things.
In just 2 weeks we have already had two business quizzes organized by students of DOMS. We also had a crossword contest organized for all the students of IIT. I’m sure it’s a sign of great things to come. The other day I was sitting in my room, doing some self introspection about how it felt to be back at school after having worked for quite sometime. And the answer I got was what my heart truly felt. It feels great to be at IIT.
I would like to end by saying something that I strongly feel about. Perception is something on which the world operates. There is a strong feeling that IIT is a technology oriented institution. It’s very difficult to change people’s minds. I don’t think we need to also. We need to use this aura of excellence and quality as one of our strengths, build on it and make DoMS IIT Madras one of the best management schools in the country. This would take a lot of effort from all of us. I’m sure we will be up to it.
Being at IIT is a dream come true and the pressure works on each one here. However harder we study…. The harder WE PARTY!!

[rmbt]

The attached file elobrate about the Corporate Wisdom.

Happy Reading.

PS: The two zip files are the snap of batch of 2006-08

[rmbt]

Prominent Speakers at CEO Connect, in the past were:
§ Mr. Satish Kumar (CEO, Henkel Spic)
§ Mr. Lakshmi Narayanan (CEO & President, Cognizant Technologies Solutions)
§ Mr. Phaneesh Murthy (CEO & MD, iGate Global Solutions)
§ Mr. V. Pradeep Kumar (CEO, Sara Lee Household & Body Care India Pvt. Ltd.)
§ Mr. B. Santhanam (MD, Saint Gobain Glass India)
§ Mr. C. K. Ranganathan (CMD, CavinKare Pvt. Ltd.)
§ Mr. Abhay Gupte (Managing Director, EDS)
§ Dr. Surinder Kapur (CMD, Sona Koyo Group)
§ Mr. B. Muthuraman (CEO, TATA Steel)
§ Mr. V Rajagopal (CMD, Celebrity Fashions)
§ Mr. George Zacharias, (CMD, Yahoo ! India)
§ Mr. Devendra Saharia ( President, Ajuba International)
§ Mr. K Pandiyarajan (CEO & MD, MaFoi Consultants)

[rmbt]

Rendezvous with an IT Consultant who propagated that an individual rather cut hair than develop software for $10 per hour’

Blueshift was established in 1993 by entrepreneurs Sankaran P. Raghunathan and Valmiki P. Raghunathan. Blueshift is a high quality provider of technology solutions in the Human Resources Management and Education domains. Their vision is to enable “Touching people through technology”. And at present its clients are some of the best in the industry like UNICEF, Eastman Kodak, BellSouth, CAP Gemini, Infosys, Wipro, Computer Sciences Corporation, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, XLRI, Symbiosis Group, Indian Institute of Science … the list is endless.
CEO Connect invited Dr. Raghunathan, the founder of Blueshift for a session on IT Consultancy on March 2007. Dr. Raghunathan earned his doctoral degree from Temple University, Philadelphia. After his undergraduate degree in Commerce and a degree in Law from the University of Madras, he also graduated with a MBA degree from XLRI, India. He has had various stints in the industry; having worked for four years in Banking; he shifted to the Information Systems industry.

He briefed us about his humble start in the industry and his methodology of structuring his organization. The importance of segmenting the market, understanding customer requirements and maintaining good relations with the clients was highlighted in his talk. He gave the students an insight on the various domains of IT Consultancy that an MBA could work in namely Product Architecture, Technical Architecture, Design, Development Strategy, Project Management, Quality Issues, Security issues and Usability and he elaborated on the three vital pieces of IT consultancy namely technology, domain and product market. Though Consultancy is in vogue now and most MBA graduates want a consultancy job right after graduation, he suggested that experience in a particular domain before entering into consultancy would be a good idea as specialization was of utmost importance in consultancy.

We were not just listening to an IT Consultant speak, we were also listening to an entrepreneur who lived life on his own terms and believed in enjoying his work. He talked about his new passion of selling organic vegetables and the learning experience from his pet project. His other passions included selling white shirts on the net, selling dogs and a lot more. He made the students realize that there is a huge opportunity in the job market and IT was not the only means to earn a livelihood. He asked us to explore the other avenues and take up a job that we were passionate about. On a lighter vein, he kept the audience on their toes by distributing free t-shirts for right answers and flyers…and the students loved his engaging style of conversation.

We sincerely thank Mr. Sankaran P Raghunathan for not merely giving us a talk but making us think about life, work and the beauty of both. Here was a CEO who managed to make a difference to the student community of IIT Madras.

[rmbt]

‘A session by a CEO who could inspire us to dream...’

CEO Connect invited Mr. Pandia Rajan, the Founder of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. Ma Foi is the No.1 Consultancy firm in India with its branches in 9 countries through 94 offices – India, UAE, UK, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Oman, Bahrain, and USA. Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd was established by Mr. Pandia Rajan K in 1992 with a focus on recruitment and human resources services. Over the years, Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd. (Ma Foi) has evolved into an integrated human resources services company with a commitment to provide people and people-related services, and enhance net worth of the human capital of the organizations. Ma Foi (pronounced as ‘Ma Fwa’) means ‘my word’ in French. It aptly reflects the ethos of an organization anchored on the values of integrity, transparency, growth, and diversity.

Mr. Pandia Rajan spoke about his personal experience, his trials and tribulations in establishing his consultancy and the ways in which he overcame the difficulties and made Ma Foi a force to be reckoned with in the HR Industry. He gave us insights on a host of topics ranging from the 5 Ps of marketing (product, promotion, price, place and pace), segmentation of the market, advertising strategy (the tagline of their first commercial was ‘Let us Engineer your Career Overseas’) to expansion plans, six sigma approach and HR policies. Mr. Pandia Rajan spoke about the expansion plans of his company. Ma Foi had expanded in scale, scope and depth through three phases, the first phase involved small equity and bonus issues, the second phase involved the dot com revolution and venture capital and the third phase was a strategic based growth phase. He also gave us a glimpse of the franchisee model being used in Ma Foi and the dilemma of adopting a client focused or candidate focused model.

The session by Mr. Pandia Rajan was very inspirational and thought provoking and it was a delight listening to an entrepreneur who had made it big through sheer hard work and dedication. We are very grateful to Mr. Pandia Rajan for spending his valuable time with the student community of IIT Madras…and we hope that after his talk the students would aspire to become entrepreneurs.

[rmbt]

Day One - Summary

Mr. M.Damodaran, Chairman SEBI greeted the participants of Samanvay 2007 with an inspirational speech. Prior to launch of the opening event ‘Saaransh’, in an interactive session with the participants, he spoke about the importance of recognizing the strengths, identifying, building and reinforcing the same as the key to build a successful organization. He spoke about his responsibilities at SEBI which he categorically stated as creating an environment for people to perform to their best and also to continuously challenge them. In a lighter vein, he spoke about his college days and narrated quite a few interesting anecdotes that had the audience spellbound. In response to a query on role models in India when there is so much cynicism, the SEBI Chief said that we should believe in India’s strengths rather than focusing on its weaknesses. He stressed on the fact that there are role models all around us and we just need to identify and recognize them.

‘Saaransh’, the paper presentation contest sponsored by Infosys had the theme ‘Steps to Improve India’s Ranking in the Global Competitive Index of World Economic Forum’. Some interesting solutions like PPP, encouraging sector specific FDI and SME’s and SEZ modeling were suggested by the participants from leading B School.

An official inauguration ceremony was held at the IC&SR auditorium. The Chief Guests of the evening were Mr. M Damodaran and Dr. K.C Chakrabarty, Chairman and Managing Director, Indian Bank. The event started with an inaugural address by Prof. L.S Ganesh, Head of the Department, DoMS, IIT Madras. He touched upon the fact that festivals like Samanvay are an ideal learning ground for students and Samanvay 2007 was officially declared open.

Prof Ananth, Director, IIT Madras delivered the presidential address. He urged the participants to take this opportunity to enjoy the scenic beauty of the campus. Mr. Damodaran then delivered a speech on “Strengthening and consolidating India’s Financial Security – the regulator’s challenge”. He emphasized the fact that the financial sector is at best a supporting arm of the real sector.He touched upon the issues of energy security, food security, the banking sector and the role of technology. His talk was filled with optimism but at the same time he said that we need to work on the few areas like regional disparity in order to ensure that the growth story is inclusive.

Dr. K.C Chakrabarty spoke about technology and its utilization for increased benefits of the common man. He said that there is a huge challenge of integrating Information with Technology and expressed optimism that Management graduates would be able to successfully achieve this.

The day ended with the National Anthem. And Day 2 followed with its own share of exciting events and famous personalities.

[rmbt]

‘Human Capital: The Supply - Demand Gap’

What happens if you have seven eminent personalities who have achieved resounding success in various walks of life addressing the participants of Samanvay 2007. Sheer Magic!

A panel discussion on the topic ‘Human Capital: The Supply Demand Gap’ was held as part of Samanvay 2007, the Management Festival of DoMS, IIT Madras.
The distinguished guests were:
Dhananjay Ramaswamy, OSS, Manufacturing Manager, Schlumberger India
Mr.N. Chandrasekaran , Exec. Vice-President , TCS
Mr. K Pandia Rajan,Founder and CEO Ma Foi ManagementConsultants Ltd
Mr.R.Subhramaniam, MD, Subhiksha Retail Chain
Sandhya Sekhar, Gardner Research
Mr A. Satish Kumar, MD, Henkel India
Mr.T T Srinivasaraghavan , MD , Sundaram Finance Group

The discussion was moderated by Dhananjay & Sandhya.

India has a huge demographic advantage and this enables us to become one of the leading suppliers of intellectual capital if the right steps was the over arching message of the discussion. There were competing views on the issue of the phenomenal rise in the salary. One view was that the increased salaries encouraged increased consumption which in turns helped the economy grow. At the same time there were concerns that this would reduce the cost advantage which India currently possessed. The issue of bridging the divide between academia and industry was also discussed and the role of Professors as “Knowledge Transformers” was accepted by all.

The issue of the unorganized sector, which employs most of our population, was addressed. The ways used by educational institutions to instill the value of humility and create global citizens was one of the interesting topics raised by the audience.

Finally there was an air of optimism among the panelists because a gap somewhere, is an opportunity somewhere else. The panelists agreed that the stake holders, the industry and the educational institutions need to be involved in coming up with a feasible model. This was indeed an excellent learning experience for one and all.

Earlier in the day we had many Management events which include the following.

“Spin Doctors - a PR Strategy Contest” sponsored by Henkel had the theme “How to build a PR exercise for PRIL Dish wash Liquid Solution”. The panel of judges appreciated the strategies presented by the participants and said will definitely look into this if it can be formulated.

“Mentorz – a HR Contest” - “A case study to analyze whether ‘Temps’ can be a ‘Permanent’ solution in uniting talent with opportunity” .

“Brand Wars – Strategy Recommendations for LIC” was sponsored by LIC. The panel of judges appreciated the strategies presented by the participants such as launching an animated character “Sukhiram”, an animated character as their Brand Ambassador, contingencies back-up, time frame for implementation of strategies, etc.
“Cyclops- an Operations Research Event” had participants from the leading
B-Schools of India. The game was an interesting one which consisted of planning, forecasting, simulation strategies, etc. Along with the prizes, they will be carrying with them some sweet memories of Samanvay and IIT Madras which they can cherish for ever