[swarnali]

Hi all!

Our exams ended today and that completes 1 year of MBA in the campus...soon we'll start our summers. The only reason why there have been less posts is that there was too much of activity since Jan and trust me...once you are here you guys will go mad during this period. Starting from Jan we had all the fun-filled events -from Samanvay (our B-fest), our class trip to Wayanad, DCL (DoMS Cricket League where teams of girls and boys are formed) to DDO (DoMS Day Out) and finally Farewell to seniors(which was fun but sad at the same time)! I know you people would be really interested to know all these in detail but hang on...

Starting tomorrow, I'll try to relive every moment in the campus since I joined and I'll post all experiences here. So, you guys will have to wait for some time before I reach January...

Most of my posts would show the fun-side of our lives here...at times you'll get dosage of the industry interaction sessions which are also fun in a different way!

So...wait for tomorrow!

Cheers

[bhawik]

Hi Puys,

Its close to a month now since we started off our journey at DoMS, IITM. The place seems to offer you a new facet almost everyday! It did take some time getting used to see deer and monkeys in the campus though
Our orientation threw up surprise after surprise. It was the first time I saw a movie at an orientation program. Could not believe when Prof. Jagadish Bhagwati (he calls Montek Singh Ahluwalia by his first name!) himself came over to address us. I guess thats life at IITM! A bigshot can be expected anytime.
The first week was complete upside down. Seniors had planned some nice intellectual fun for us. We wished we could have more time. How else do you fit in a campus trek, a cricket match, a crazy presentation, a committee interview, a skit, talk with the alumni and a leisurely lunch and dinner hour into 1 day?
Classes came as a welcome change. With all kinds of abstract subjects being discussed, I thought of catching some sleep in the class, but even there I was caught 'napping' It was the passionate discussions that made me jump into the class learning.
Now as the mid terms come near, we all wait with abated anticipation. There is an occasional surprise quiz and regular assignments to keep us on our toes. Just as I type this, one of my friends joins me for a discussion on microeconomics. Catch you later people. Got to know about the test tomorrow just now!

[Milan.IITM]

Hi Puys,

As rain God continues to bless Chennai with the second consecutive day of showers, it almost rained the whole yester night. At 6 am in the morning the alarm clock was finally able to wake me up to find the weather is too tempting to leave the bed. A cursory look at the time table on the wall made me realise that it’s Tuesday when we need to be in class strictly before 8 am courtesy Marketing management. Rushing to the mess for the first meal of the day, somehow managed to reach the institute at 7:55 am. Just reached in enough time to be pleasantly surprised to see the floral decoration under progress, oh rite we are celebrating ONAM today! Assuming that it would be a light day as we have celebration today, we entered class only to be proved wrong after 4 hrs of lectures and an assignment to be solved by 3 pm. We came out of the class in a rush planning about the rest of the day when there was an announcement of ADA PAYASAM distribution at 2 pm. The floral decorations were now complete and were looking beautiful. Another round of photo sessions to celebrate the occasion which is more like pointers to remember the occasions as there are so many things happening around at once. At quarter to 3 we again came together to collect Payasam served hot which was a delight. Enjoying that we lost the track of time and it was 3:05 the time for our class. With the taste of the sweet still fresh in our mouth came the Surprise test, suddenly the last gulp of payasam somehow felt bitter J . Still the day was far from over with a set of presentations due and a session on “ What is takes to be an entrepreneur” organised by C-TIDES the entrepreneurial cell of IIT Madras.
It about one month since we have joined IITM but it still feels like just yesterday. Well, That was just another day at DoMS,IITM.

[Milan.IITM]

Hi all,
Well another Friday, i just cannot believe the pace at which the weeks pass by at IIT. Today being the 4th of September which makes me realize we are one more week nearer to our end of quarter, as final exams will begin from 25th of this month. Not only that, we have another reason to party today as we are celebrating teacher’s day.
I had never felt so grateful to teachers like this, ever before. There is a reason for this, being at IIT you get to meet one of the finest teachers of the countries. People who have unlimited laurels under their belt. They have such a wide experience in all the aspects of life. They have seen country from where it was to where it is today. They have contributed to the development by training the workforce, the children of the country. So many of their students have reached great heights and proved their mettle in the industry.
This thing again makes me think that when on one hand we join a college or a university based on the placements it has or we rank the universities according to the average or the median placements. So one thing is definitely proved, placements or well paid jobs in big industries is something that everyone aspires for. Then if an individual being so competitive that not only he can learn and understand things but can teach them too, leaves a highly paid career and joins the mission to educate the future generation. That is nothing less than a sacrifice where an individual has kept his duties above his personal success or motives.

Teachers do succeed, whenever their students excel. Every Dronacharya is proud of his Arjun, they try make as many of them as possible and still its unfortunate that government many a times fails to acknowledge this greatness. It’s unfortunate to hear teachers being lathi charged or when they have to call strikes. The low wages has always devoid teaching, of the best talents which is very much visible the way India is facing acute shortage of qualified teachers at premium institutes.

I would just want to Salute all the teachers and reach out to them and say that we really appreciate what you do for us. HAPPY TEACHERS DAY...On that note...signing off...

[rmbt]

Hey DoMSite,

Good to see that you guys are proactive and posting regularly.

As said by our LSG sir - A picture is worth 1000 words, keep posting some celebration and day 2 day pics.

All the best @ DoMS

[astute10]

Hi All,

its 1 month already at doms..........but seems just like yesterday when i came here...........think a I'm expressing relativity afteralll................

Well to cut the long talk short..........as the thread tells u.........I'm posting here to tell u bout my experience at doms n all.........so lets get started with it..........

Few things I will tell u before hand.........of late I have been observing that amidst the rush to select a b school.......most guys ......(including upto a time. me )........are bogged down by placement figs.......avg packages......foreign posting n all............ not that they are not imp infact on the contrary they are very imp..........But I won't take that aspect up........because we have been taught here..........DON'T SPEAK DO IT ....... n our past performance is self explanatory of our potential...........

What I will delve upon is a very neglected part of MBA education.......ie EDUCATION itself !!!!!!...........yes, I'll tell u my experience of what doms has offered on the intellectual capital front to me...........

Formal part of education is easily accessable.........we have our faculty profiles on our website........which itself will speak a lot ...........

Whatz new bout DOMS was what I learnt after coming here....... other than our curriculum we have a very strong research culture.here .......YES , Management research and not Tech research............ we have people from different acclaimed management institutes coming here to do research/phds here..........so for all those intellectual buffs .............who may want to delve deeper into building complex OR models or fin models..........u'll have ample of opportunites to do that..........

Secondly the best part is we have access to iit research park..........which is official interface of IITM and industry that does industry consultancy projects........So if ur perfoming well and have some relavant work ex on a given project.......hell u may get a opportunity to work on it...........

Lastly, which I feel some may baulk upon............but the best part is there is open door policy amongst the dept........ie we are free to take up courses on audit basis across the depts of our choice.........So for those hungry for knowldge if u feel in ur engg u weren't satisfied with understanding of numerical methods or simulation........well DOMS can give u 2nd chance.........but this purely from acad point of view .........otherwise professionally if u take OR as elective and do sum research project also in it its always handy to get basics cleared first........

Well this what I saw other that mentioned above or somewhere else in this one month and am now planning how to make the most of these 2 yrs at DOMS.........

Well I won't end with the cliched stanzaz like njoyin life at doms etc etc etc..........But surely I'll say that my search to finding the tip of iceberg still continues !!!!!!!!!!

[bhawik]

The September began this year on an inspirational note with Mr. Raju Venkataraman visiting the IIT Madras campus for addressing MBA students. Mr Raju Venataraman has recently started a new venture called MED-all which focuses on the medical brokerage markets in India. He was awarded India's best entrepreneur of the year in 2000. He had worked with Cadbury’s, then EDS and later transformed himself from an employee to an employer. He had set up the first BPO worth $400 million in India. His motive was to bring 30 thousand jobs to the country. Mr. Raju stressed on the fact that “Your strength lies in your roots not your canopy”. He emphasized the importance of thinking out of the box and moving on to a new pasture as soon as one starts getting "comfortable" with their surroundings and work. He said that it was dangerous to be in one's comfort zone for a longer time as one tends to stagnate.


There were several questions asked by young aspiring students like,” What could be done at this stage to prepare ourselves for future?”, to which he subtly said that one much not only focus on studies but also keep a broad mind and look out for things that one would not generally do, like pick up a new hobby or become a part of some club that challenges one's limits, as Mr. Raju quotes ”bite off a little more than you can chew in the hope that you will quickly learn to chew”.


He then described the qualities of an entrepreneur. They never accept the word "no" for an answer and gave the famous example of the invention of Ford's radial engine design which was born as a result of the insistence of Henry Ford to not accept 'no' for a 6 cylinder engine. He further said, that the Entrepreneurs have a 'reality distortion syndrome' wherein they do not see reality as others perceive it that because they can see the future as people can’t even imagine. An entrepreneur should produce what a customer would need, after studying the customer's profile. An entrepreneur does things rather than worrying about what others would think of him. He/she is risk taking, resilient, a doer, efficient, innovator, uncompromising, quick learner, change leader and a visionary. He emphasized on the 4 L's namely Live, Love, Legacy and Learn which guided his life at every step.


He reiterated that Competition is not as important as collaboration as one must learn to work with people. Unless one gives value to the customer, one cannot go far. He brought out the idea that if you are making money for someone else in turn you will make money for yourself. He stressed the importance of meticulous planning and taking complete ownership of things happening around you. One must have remarkable survival instincts and he gave an analogy that being an entrepreneur is like being a cockroach crossing a 9 lane highway. He reiterated the importance of attitude being the most important trait. The session was finally concluded with a quote by Lombart that summarized it all: "Winning is not everything, it is the only thing".

[bhawik]

The President of India, Dr. S. Radhakrishnan was the Chief Guest at the first annual convocation and many distinguished personalities have graced the occasion ever since. In true IIT Madras style, Prof. Jagdish N. Bhagwati, an outstanding economist was the Chief Guest of the 46th annual convocation. Prof. Bhagwati addressed MBA students in a special session organized at the Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras.




Prof. Bhagwati served as an external advisor to the Director General of the World Trade Organization in 2001. He worked as an economics policy advisor to the Director-General of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade from 1991 to 1993. He has also served as a member of the advisory board to the Planning Commission of India. Paul Krugman,

one of his students recently won the Nobel prize in economics. He is currently University Professor at Columbia University and is a known proponent of free trade.


It was a privilege to have him address MBA students and research scholars at DoMS. Prof. Bhagwati spoke on "The Critique of Capitalism after the Crisis". He spoke about the advantages of a free market economy and its relevance especially after the recent market recession in an environment where countries are turning protective of their economies. Prof. Bhagwati compared the current scenario with the situation after fall of Berlin Wall. He compared the pre-recession times and the prevailing conditions in East Germany before the fall and subsequent unification. The pictures in the two cases were vastly different- Dilapidated state of East Germany vs Upbeat Global Financial Market.


Prof. Bhagwati spoke about drawbacks of a controlled economy by citing examples of Shortages in Russia and the state of India’s economy during “License Permit Raj” in the pre-liberalization days. He contrasted this with positive aspects of capitalism and how capitalist structures can be made effective in post- recession era. He gave examples of the entrepreneurial spirit of South American farmers and the change in India under a liberal regime. He touched upon the multiple causes for the recession and reemphasized that we should not just be content about the recent signs of recovery but we should also ensure that these are adequately nurtured by more economic stimuli.



The session ended with a Q&A session where Prof. Bhagwati addressed some questions and left students asking for more.

[bhawik]

Its the end quarter time! Never realized that time flew so fast here. Org. Behavior is a pain, but all the subjects are cool. The mid terms were pretty ok and all in the class are planning to get the maximum mileage out of these end terms. ST presentations remain though.. With a furiously pumping heart, I eagerly await tomorrow and the 4 days to come after that. I ll be a 12.5% MBA then! Looking forward to the party for that occassion

[bhawik]

Whoa! That was some tough time for us. Nevertheless, the campus never sleeps. We had an amazing navaratri garba and dandiya night the other day. No one looked as if they had not slept for 3 days. Way to go people! The band was belting out numbers after numbers and we just couldnt stop dancing away. Only in the end after coming back to my room did i realize that my back had gone for a toss, and could only be salvaged by a generous portion of Iodex! As we look forward to the onset of a new quarter, the Saraswati Pooja function promises another round of festivities tomorrow. Shaastra publicity is in its crescendo. The promos of the events are simply mind blowing. Life at the campus truly rocks!