1) Execution by Ram Charan & Larry Bossidy - Talks about how important & oft neglected execution is in running large organizations

2) Chasing Daylight by Eugene O'Kelly - The ex-CEO of KPMG discovers he has just couple of months to live when he's diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The book captures those months of his life when he lives it the most & shows the reader the importance of prioritizing in life

3) Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - This book is now being made into a motion picture with Julia Roberts in the lead. A slightly girlish read, but a good one on discovering life

All the above books were gifts by my bosses...hint hint...either am working too much...or not working at all

A Life less Ordinary
Journey of a Simple Graduate to Post Graduate to Working Professional.
From writing entrance exams to clearing IBSAT, to appearing for the Micro presentation to clearing the Interview, the joy in the voice of the loved ones when we cleared IBS Hyderabad gave us a sense of achivement. We packed our bags for Hyderabad leaving many hearts heavy.
Cut to ICFAI Tech, 3 in a room accomodation, no porters to lift your bags to any floor you are on, boys and girls mess separate, girls hostel shut at 9.30 pm, yes thats where we landed up on the first day. The parents grew frantic looking at the make shift arrangement. Slowly things settle down and here comes the first event that the Class of 2008 put up, Masti Ki Pathshala. We saw the faces of talent in our batch; it was an evening to remember. The open theater got all of us not only close but also was the foundation of a journey not to be forgotten. The sections in first semester were like a group of inseperable lot.
The season of packing starts again, we were being moved to OUR campus, another issue to be managed by the batch. The boys were helpful enough to lift the bags and mount on the top of the top of the buses. We were steered through something that looked like a Jungle to this huge place that consisted of 2 unfinished buildings, a mess and far from completed academic block. The accomodation was 2 in a room. Slowly we all got engrossed in the academic and non-academic activities and some how gave up compliaining. It was our place and it is we who make it or leave it alone. May be sub consciously we all decided to make it, to give it a character. One day the announcement of the freshers party came out way. All the 13 sections were divides into 4 clans- Mughals, Aryans, Nizams ans Rajputs. This is the time when the competition sunk in us, it was not only to be the best but to make it an event to remember.
After the first semester exams, we headed to our homes; but even when we were home we longed to come back to the place that was now our home.
Series of lectures, presentations and cases followed but we could sneak in enough time to cash on the new found freedoom. Oh and not to forget we got the Single occupancy and Internet too.
Cut to Nov 2008, we lost two friends in an accident. Jasmine and Prabuddha, May Lord rest their soul in peace. Yet again the batch stood but the grieved and gave extended our strength to them.
Semester two called for Summer Internship orrportunites with the different organizations. We all wanted the best, to say the least. Internships gave us an opportunity to find which field suits our personality and interest. Many of us were focussed and knew where do we see ourselves, but many were still in doubt. The internships gave us a birdd eye view of the way the industry flows through the departments that we were a part of. Another season of grades, reports and presentation ended.
Cut to semester three- the season of specializations was here; trust me to find the best combination from the available subjects is a task on its own. We all got over this also. But suddemly we realized that we are sharing our COLLEGE with new faces. Then it struck us that the Class of 2009 was here. So we got a little jealous and took trips of the new commers, without offending them much.
It was our turn to give them a Frehsers Party, the planning and negotiations kicked off and we had a grand celebration by the end of it all. Semester three gave us new friends who may be a part of our line of business and industry. Now comes the baap of all semesters, Semester Four, PLACEMENTS and more PLACEMENTS. These words were ringing in our ear day in and out. The dream companies, profiles, package and et al were here. All we had to do was to be patient, give it our best and be happy for others or coax them. Anxiety and tenrsions grew by the end of October and many of us were still not placed. The process continued till January until then most were placed.
The season of seperation was about the set in when we saw the cupid strike hearts of many. Congratuoations to the happy couples who are married and are soon to be married. The farewell was more fun them teary eyed though all had their share of tears and private emotions. The Class of 2009 gave us a really great farewell and this called to the day when we finally packed our bags to leave for our homes This time FOREVER.
Today we all sit in our corporate space and only remember the moments that will never fade in time to come.
The circle is not complete my friends, we shall be close no matter what, just a hand needs to be extended and there will be many who will hand hold you and help you through!!!
Ideas contributed by Raj Vardhan Bagaria
Written by Pallavi Puri

It's a lovely post, Pallavi and it captures the moments so well..I belong to the 2006 batch. We were born & brought up on the 'Campus' dream since our induction days and were so looking forward to being a part of it. Our MBA was in 2 separate campuses, Nagarjuna Hills & Banjara Hills...ours was a batch which was very similar to yours...we too decided to turn things around and have our share of fun. Being right in the middle of the city has its own advantages and we had fully utilized them . PG was an integral part of my MBA experience..we had great folks from other B-schools as well and all of us would chat on Y! late nights..exchanging assignments & delegating case studies

During the exam times, many of us would stay up all night in the class rooms & go back to our PGs only in the early morning...discotheques, malls, movie halls (infact we had 3-4 pet movie halls which would be 40% occupied by ICFAIns for the 'First Day First Shows' ), we had all the fun...but there was always this one wish...to be part of the upcoming campus.

3 years on...having read your posts, I am really nostalgic about my MBA days...how even we'd crib about IBS...but now, I'd do anything to be able to re-live those 2 years..It truly is one of the best times of one's life.

Have read most of the posts. Mine is about the function, rather than the specialization.

Why HR? Indeed, why? Trust me you, a good majority say coz they didnt know what else to opt for. So that's one myth which is a reality.

HR earns less? Yes. Unless you move to senior management level where you take calls.

An MBA HR is too cliched in thoughtflow? Yes.

You need excellent communication skills? Yes. Most of them survive thanks to it.

You dont have the power to take decisions? Yes.

Why? Coz you dont want to.

Why? Coz that'll held you accountable for it.

So? You wanna save your skin & clam up.

An HR Manager is a post of responsibility. Your team looks upto you to help them. They come to you coz they expect you can help them.

And what do HR Managers really do inturn? Most of them

1. Dont bother to learn about the business & its challenges or its numbers(Mistake 1).
   
2. They dont know about their own policies! (Mistake 2)
   
3. However elaborate, all policies are guidelines for business conduct. That leaves a lot of grey areas where an HR pro can use his discretion. They dont (Mistake 3)
   
4. They dont reach out to their people. They expect them to approach only incase of issues (Mistake 4)
   
5. They act like the Moral Police of the company (Mistake 5)
   
6. Issue resolution TAT sucks!! (Mistake 6)
   
7. They never push back when the business makes unreasonable demands (Mistake 7)
   
8. They complain about not being "On the table". They dont work towards it either (Mistake 8 )
   
9. They preach a lot (Like I jus did) (Mistake 9)
   
10. They are a reactive function (Mistake 10)
    

With 10 grave mistakes, one cant expect to be the blue eyed function of the CEO.

Am not even debating if HR is good/bad. That's a non-issue.You can join if you like it & end up hating it & vice versa. When I joined this function 2 yrs back, I was "passionate" and all. That only provides the initial push....you cant survive on "passion".

A HR Manager needs to have 2 things. 2 essential qualities.
1. He should have an opinion.
2. He should be able to execute it.

Rest all Puys,is gyaan. There's lot more I'd like to discusss on what an HRM's role should be ...but its already too long a post

Read this blog...its a good one...Evil HR Lady

Folks, its United Coffee Shop at CP arnd 2 pm.

ciao...!

..then one night, they actually heard themselves singing and couldnt agree more with what Sr Jill had said about them :neutral:. Dejected, the little Oompa Lompa called Jack went towards Kachumba the Great Valley, to spend some time alone under the starry night when...

pagalguy Says

Even I think that a saturday lunch meet or thereabouts might be a good thing and work well for you guys. I have to leave on saturday evening :)

Saturday lunch is good to go. Details, pls?

Ah! Time for good ol' Oscar B'day speeches!

Gaurav - Thanks for starting the thread...you are lucky I did have a choc cake yest..else you'd have to foot it for tempting me

JOURNEYTOTHEIIM, vipfloyd, Mahip, Uptowngal (If you are a delhite, lets meet up..I like gals who can think & talk at the same time ), aditi_s, tatimatla, Harsharocks, ohmygoditsali (Whatta userid ;)), anarchy, rmbt, sid_dharth, chicane, nisha_mehta, BLUFFMASTER, amrutesh666, reachmonil, neetusid, i_m_listening (that indeed is a rare feature with people these days ), ritu985, mituag, pankhuri83, jaikishen, profootball25, shank2006, princeparas,

live_n_let_live_99 - Its okay macha...when we learn about new things, we often think it was discovered the other day (Accha..yeh kab se hua..pata hi nahi chala...! )

nikhulk , writetotanveer - Thanks for pointing out...it felt good... :)

pagalguy - Alright!! ALRIGHT! I always knew any conversation between 2 PGites can be used on the forum, but this is heights! You aint getting any share of that omelette now . Thanks for the call!

Cattie - Guruji!!! London mein aapke kitne pracharak ban gaye hain?? Hyd mein kuch seekhaya nahi...abh virtual classes do! ..And thanks...you know for what ;)

Neo - Oye my favt mod (after Subbu )...bandar keep jumping around...we still need evidence we evolved from the Chimps . Thanks for calling, mate!

uRmad - Subbu!! You didnt call :(.

puneet - Thanks for the sms, Puneet..I miss our Y! chats...5 mins of chat on music news, media..50 mins silence..but still sign out with proper 'Byes' :).

Thanks a lot folks....theres nothing as a 'comeback'...never went anywhere...for the last 4 years, have browsed the forum so frequently that it has become a habit...true, we oldies keep cribbing that we cant identify with PG anymore...but PG wasnt meant for Post CAT folks in the first place...it was started for MBA Preps & CAT and its doing superbly well there...I believe it can be expanded in scope...and with time it sure will...and I hope to contribute to that part for sure... :)

Signing off with a :)

Love,

Z.

Hi...



Idea 1:-

Puys appearing for CAT & CAT preps are the strong forces which keep this place running. We have often faced the question on how to 'retain' those who are done with CAT & MBA. We can do some 'forward integration'.

We have a section on Career Interests. We need to develop this more. Lets split it into 2 sections. The first one will be solely for oppurtunities & openings. Job fairs, walk-ins, etc all go here. Anybody who wants to apply should PM the concerned poster. The second one will be for members to post their CVs & areas of interest. In this section itself, we can have tips on handling interviews, writing resumes & stuff on communication skills.

Besides Puys posting jobs openings here, how can we attract other recruiters? Once we have a sizeable database of applicants, naukri.com can use it for their searches.
We can use the Employee Referral route...this way we bank on our huge membership base. Each Puy who refers another Puy & that Puy bags that job, gets some incentive from Pg.com as well. We can also have a dedicated person who'd call up the Hiring Depts of various companies and offer them profiles from our database. The aim behind the whole thing would be to create a network of 'working Puys'. (Lets make exchanging visiting cards a mandate on PG meets ).

But...how will this have any business & revenue impact? Any ideas?

Idea 2 :-

We have coupla good writers on the forum. How about tying up with a business/management magazine to provide content every quarter? They can have a section from "India's largest MBA forum" every three months.

Idea 3 :-

We have CAT prep material all over the forum. Its all too fragmented. Lets consolidate the best material - tie up with IMS - provide online CAT Coaching module for working professionals who dont have time for offline classes. Dunno if something like this is already been done elsewhere. But going by the huge database that we have, there has to be a better way to use it.




And that was my cat typing, so dont blame me

Yeh, folks fake a lot, esp if they know they are been observed. I have come across this in the interviews that I take...they know just the right expressions and the right gestures!! But there's always a way to counter all tht ;)

When I conducted my first interview, the candidate did all the right things. I, being a greenhorn back then, thought he was good to go. But soon, everybody seemed to be doing the right things! On lil investigation, I discovered that the consultants coach candidates on the way the interview would go and they even have perfect answers ready for the typical ques we would ask. I had to find a way to separate the grain from the chaff.

The answer lies in Probing. Probe and probe and probe. Dont go by the face value of the answer. At somepoint, the one who is faking it will wilt under the pressure. And it can be so surprising and revealing at times....the extent to which folks fake things to get the job!!

All said and done...it would take an expert eye to separate the fakes frm the genuine at one glance. And a genius to dodge that expert ;).