IIM-R CAMPUS CONNECTMonthly Newsletter - Indian Institute of Management Rohtak

Vol. 01, No. 07 - July 2014

“In Dreams begin Responsibilities”- William Butler Yates

nflinching professional focus, uncompromising adherence to values and unparalleled social commitment- IIM Rohtak's vision to give back to India, managers with the above astonishing qualities has traversed one more leap Uforward with the commencement of a successful induction program for its 5th batch of students. Students who have

joined this prestigious institute with a bundle of apprehensions, dreams, passion and enthusiasm carried back an experience of their lifetime, which will be cherished by them forever.

Even before the induction program, carried out through the

most creative and interactive PDP module, this next set of

leaders were able to understand about the legacy left behind

by previous batches in terms of clubs, committees, socially

responsible events and various other laurels.

The three day long induction program kick-started with a soul

stirring prayer song by the seniors and was followed by a

welcome speech by our respected director. It was followed by

an inspiring inaugural address by Mr Ashish Gupta,

Evalueserve's COO and Global Business Unit Head. He spoke

about the importance of passion in everyone's life and

encouraged all the students to pursue excellence rather than money. He also spoke about the importance of

entrepreneurship and how one should chase their dreams. He quoted examples from his own life and also from his

experiences as a manger in McKinsey & Co before he became an entrepreneur. Students had a lot of things to take back from

the experiences of this awesome personality. This was followed by two more informative yet engaging sessions from Mr

Sumit Bhatnagar (DELL) and Ms Ankita Singh (Wipro). With these interactive platforms students were able to get rid of all

their fears, doubts and myths about the corporate world. They got a clear picture about different specializations,

importance of generalized MBA and many other important facets required for an MBA aspirant. The day ended with

students gaining important information regarding their two-year PGP program from Program In-charge PGP.

The second day started with another exalting speech by Prof. Uday Damodaran from XLRI. He tried to impart to students the

art of enjoying one`s work and making passion one`s profession so as to live life king size. He also entertained the students

with awesome stories from his life discussing his love for statistics, his love for travel and much more. This was followed by

explanation of teaching pedagogy and case study concept by Prof. Pradyumana Khokle from IIMA with an aim of giving the

students an insight into two years of splendid learning experience at an IIM.

The last day of the induction program started with an awe-inspiring speech from Mr Nikhil Sahani, President of Yes Bank. He

started with the five important qualities that make a successful Manager and encouraged students to chase their dreams

and to never look back. These three days of awesomeness ended with a mind-blowing Welcome program by seniors and

followed by a mouth-watering Welcome Dinner. The creative side of the future leaders was showcased through this

Welcome Program and students were able to witness talents of few inspiring seniors.

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IIM-R welcomes the 5th Batch

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Overall, the induction program for PGP 05 will definitely become a memorable experience for all the students and will be

cherished by them forever. It educated and also imparted a sort of responsibility in the young minds not only towards the

college but also towards the society and the nation at large. And as said, “Hope is a good thing and no good thing ever dies”,

let's hope each and every student from the PGP 05 will bring laurels to his motherland in whatever field he/she chooses to

be in.

Sneha Arolkar, B.K. Tejaswani and Sainadh Duvvuru are three people who we can now

proudly call 'Ace Managers'. Their participation and subsequent 2nd ranking in India at the

BNP Paribas 'Ace Manager 6' innovative online game has brought accolades to IIM Rohtak.

Designed by BNP Paribas experts, 'Ace Manager' is an innovative online game that allows

students to experience three of the bank's core businesses: Retail Banking, Investment

Solutions and Corporate and Investment Banking. Students from the best business schools

and universities around the world form teams of three and solve business case simulations,

combining management, strategy, marketing and financial know-how. Sneha and her team,

the 'Globe Masters' had many experiences during the energy-charged competition that

took place in May '14 while they were undergoing their respective internships. Sneha

recounts how hectic things got as all of them had internships going on in different places.

They were bombarded with 7-8 case studies by visiting 'virtual offices', all in a span of 2-3

days. Each case study involved extensive reading and research, not to mention constant

vigilance over the news of the day.

There appear to have been many challenges that our 'Ace Managers' had to face. This included logistical problems of how to

watch the case study videos at the same time while being situated in three different locations (These videos could only be

watched once). They figured out an elegant means of video-conferencing that allowed

seamless coordination. Another challenge the team faced was dealing with subject matter

like derivatives that were not yet covered in the academic sessions, and needed to be learnt

on the fly.

When asked about their learning from the competition, Sainadh was quick to remind us

that academic learning is seldom useful unless it is backed by application, which is what

they did throughout the competition. This was evidenced by the division of work tactics

that they employed for some of the tasks, wherein double

verifications would be required and individual as well as

group understanding would be tested. All three team

members are Finance majors, and the one thing Finance

brings to mind are numbers; a plethora of mind-boggling

numbers. But according to Tejaswani, it is the guaranteed

exposure to the real time financial problems that

encouraged her and her team to work day and night. Their

worldwide rank was 100 among the 3000 teams that participated, and they ranked 2nd

throughout India.

The team believes that competitions like these not only demand financial applications but

also test understanding of other aspects of management. As they say, the scope for

improvement never disappears, and we wish the team all the luck to make IIM Rohtak

prouder.

IIM R Students excel as 'Ace Managers’

Sneha

Tejaswani

Sainadh

IIM-R CAMPUS CONNECT

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Internship Experience, Aarti Saini, PGP 04, ICICI

Inauguration of Entrepreneurship Cell at IIM Rohtak

Aarti Saini, a final year student at IIM Rohtak interned at ICICI Bank this past summer.

For Aarti, this was her first tryst with the corporate world. As a commerce graduate, her

interests lie in banking, she says. The profile offered by ICICI was a good fit, she felt, and

after clearing both the group discussion and personal interview, she made the

indiscriminate decision to intern with them.

She spent four days participating in their induction program conducted in Mumbai, where

interns from reputed B-schools from across the country were her company. She was

assigned to the Delhi corporate branch of the bank where she spent the remainder of the

eight weeks of her internship. The project she was assigned lay in the Wholesale Banking

group of the bank. Her task was to figure out an entry strategy for auto ancillary companies

in Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities. Over the next few weeks, she worked on a strategy based on

parameters such as turnover and credit ratings to assess the requirements of working

capital and term loans of such companies.

Her office on Lodi Road, though situated in a beautiful area of Delhi, gave her little time to consider the pleasures of life

outside of work. She spoke excitedly about how her mentor was the Deputy General Manager of the branch, who in turn

assigned her a sub-mentor from his core team. She reported daily to this sub-mentor and shared a good rapport with him.

She was apprehensive about the level of guidance that would be provided to her, a fear most interns suffer from. However,

through her own proactive approach and the helpful attitude of her mentors, she was able to extract maximum learning in

this short duration. She also spoke highly about the work culture in the bank, where she was introduced to the seven other

members of the team. They were warm and helpful and believed in an open culture imbued with honesty and integrity.

The project she worked on was meant to be a 6 month project. Her results would be critically assessed by the company and

applied in the real world. With the protective umbrella of academia removed, she became aware of the expectations from

an employee at a high productivity organization. Time constraint was something that an IIM student was expected to take in

her stride. She felt she experienced almost all domains of management during the course of her project like marketing,

strategy and, of course, banking. She specially mentioned organizational behavior as a course that taught her theory which

was directly applicable to her working environment. It was all the more pertinent since she was one of the only two interns

at her office and they both were assimilated into the workforce rather fluidly.

At the completion of her eight weeks, she submitted a comprehensive report of the project including her analysis and

recommendations. Her mentor and sub-mentor appreciated her quality of work and welcomed her suggestions. She feels it

was a great learning experience that exposed her to new knowledge and paradigms of management. Her final words of

advice to prospective interns are to be proactive and network well within the organization. The avenues for learning and

future prospects open up vastly if one utilizes the summer internship opportunity fully. Her time at ICICI provided her with a

plethora of experiences that she will fondly remember and use as a prospective management graduate of IIM Rohtak.

thIndian Institute of Management, Rohtak (IIM R) inaugurated its Entrepreneurship Cell on the 5 Day of July 2014, witnessing

enthusiastic participation from stakeholders across industries, students and faculty. The theme

for the E-Cell is 'Empower, Experiment and Energize'.

An entrepreneurship cell in a B-school is responsible for promoting a culture of creation and

innovation among the students and supports them in fulfilling their dreams. It aims to create an

ecosystem whereby efficient interaction between students, entrepreneurs, mentors and angel

investors would be facilitated. It is the collective effort of three successive batches of students at

IIM Rohtak, some of whom have started their own ventures, that has finally led to the formation

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of an entity with a vision and mission. The E-cell at IIM Rohtak would provide assistance to budding entrepreneurs in

incubating their business plans, marketing, mentorship from panel advisors, consultancy and networking opportunities

with VCs and PE investors.

The inaugural ceremony started with a warm welcome speech by the

Faculty-in-charge, Prof. Venkatesh Murthy and was followed by an

introduction by the Director, IIM R, Prof. Rameshan. The Director had the

audience in splits as he recounted his childhood entrepreneurial

experiences of selling small eatables during the rainy season.

Dr V.P. Singh, HR Director at RJ Corp, later gave an academic analysis on

the entrepreneurial environment in India. He later posed some sharp

questions to Mr Amit Gupta (founder Buddy Retail), who actually gave

some very frank answers, to the assembled students. Particularly, his take

on political and bureaucratic hassles made the students realize why India

is ranked 134th out of 189 countries in terms of ease of doing business.

Mr Osama Manzar, who delivered his lecture subsequently, received a thundering ovation from the student crowd for the

unorthodox career path he took, to reach where he today is. It involved, among other things, late graduation at college with

a lot of hiccups and four long years of unemployment, being provided for by his dear ones. His subsequent rags-to-riches

story in terms of career development in the field of journalism fascinated one and all. He also captivated the students with

his social entrepreneurship dream of connecting rural India through his Digital Empowerment Foundation.

Ms Juhi Rajput, MD of CNFC Media, then took the baton and talked about the formative years of her entrepreneurial

venture. She shared the difficulties she faced and the cynical attitude towards women taking up such ventures. She also

talked about the JSR Foundation, which providing an energy access to remote areas through decentralized distributed

generation for lighting and income generating activities.

The session for the students of IIM R certainly had many eyes looking towards the stars by its end. The long awaited E-cell will

definitely prove to be the tool and inspiration they are looking for.

IIM R Campus Connect is issued monthly by the student-driven Public Relations Cell, IIM Rohtak. The views and opinions expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the

Indian Institute of Management Rohtak© Indian Institute of Management Rohtak 2014

EDITORIAL : Rithvik Vamanagunta, Anusha Krishnan, Nishant Gupta (PGP05) DESIGN: Kriti Gupta, Kunjan, Ashish Ranjan Parida (PGP05)

Credits for the articles : Nitheesh IS, Kshitij Garg

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE MONTH

Ÿ RJ Corp conducts a CRM workshop at IIM R. Students get to know the nuances of CRM in the growing Food and Beverage Sector.

Ÿ IIM R to hold the 4th HR Summit on August 2nd, 2014 on the topic: HR challenges to manage new generation employees.

Ÿ Sparsh the Social Development Projects Cell of IIM R takes nascent steps towards the betterment of society along with Asian Paints CSR initiative Sankalp.

Ÿ Hrish Thota from Happiest Minds gave the students an insight into the emerging world of Digital Marketing.