EDITION 3

DECEMBER ‘12

PGDM (Executive) NEWS Bulletin

From the Newsletter’s Desk ….

Greetings to all !!! We are back with the December edition of Reflexions. First off, wish you all Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! We are glad that Reflexions is being highly appreciated by readers, IMT alumni and the industry. This keeps us going, and we’d like to hear more from everyone. Please continue sending the encouragement notes and suggestions. We’d love to hear from everyone. After the success of Markarena, 2012 - Marketing symposium, it was the turn of pITstOP, 2012 – an IT and Operations symposium. This edition includes the details on the sympo-sium. We also introduce a new column in this edition - Alumni Speaks. Do write to us at reflexions.imt@gmail.com for your suggestions and feedbacks

Inside this issue:

Simplicity is Complexity 2

Alumni Speaks 2

Operation/IT Symposium Nov’2012 3

Faculty Speaks 4

NEWS & Did You Know 5

Student write up—Life Is…. 6

Student write up—Sometimes... 7

reflEXions’2012

Have you noticed every day we are bombarded with com-

plexity? Complex information, complex task, complex con-

nections, nothing's simple anymore. Isn’t it?

It's amazing how complex our lives have become. Noth-

ing's simple anymore. We are involved in so many complex

activities right from the very beginning when we entered

the school, trying to put the pieces together, trying to make

a mark. It’s hard to remember actually what we started

talking about in the first place when all this started. The

increase in complexity has led to a decrease in focus.

Sometimes it's hard to figure out what even matters any-

more.

Think about it. Our Facebook page has hundreds of up-

dates every day. Tweets are flying at supersonic speeds,

filling our minds with a continuous stream of information,

and crowding out those very few things that were really

meaningful to our lives.

I believe one of the most valuable skills in the world today

is the ability to explain complex concepts in simple, easy-

to-understand terms. Look at Google search, it has be-

come synonymous to internet only because whenever we

want to know anything, all we have to do is type in that

little box & click, because it’s simple & hence successful.

So try & be simple.

I read somewhere that worldwide an average person

spends at least an hour a day waiting in line, & you’d have

surely noticed when forced to wait, life seems unnecessar-

ily complex for us only because we have so much to do &

yet it seems there is so little time.

So we may wonder how can we bring simplicity back to our

lives, how can we reduce this complexity if we can’t escape it

altogether?

To me it seems that firstly, we should try & maximize time

available to us. Maximizing our available time can greatly re-

duce complexity as we can make use of it for things we actu-

ally want.

Secondly, knowledge makes everything simpler. You can’t

deny the fact that when we don’t have full knowledge of

something that is being discussed, we are most of the time

wondering and hence complexity arises. Knowing the task

thus removes inherent complexity.

Lastly, some things can never be made simple, & that’s fine I

guess!

Just know when to stop simplifying & just relax.

By Nitin Sharma

Simplicity in complexity

IMT Days….

What began amid the humid monsoons of July 2010 remains the best year of my life. Now don’t let your imagination run

wild will you! It ain’t a romance that I am talking about here! As an afterthought I think it indeed was a romance - “romance

with life.” Like they say for any blockbuster, “Isme Action Hai, Drama hai, comedy hai, tragedy hai!” it is a befitting descrip-

tion for the entire year. Though there are numerous anecdotes for all that was done in that one year (believe me some of

them you don’t want know) what stands out in the year is the time with friends!

Nostalgia is paramount when I think of the study sessions in the library and how the Chai breaks were longer than the ac-

tual study time. How amphi bon fires were a way of life in winters. Despite being the so called senior citizens on the cam-

pus how we were known for the fun we had and the cheering we did in all the sports despite the odds of a victory

(negligible in most cases).

While most of us were determined to achieve great heights, what tested us the most was to keep our selves awake during

the numerous uninteresting lectures. The madness of projects and the gravity of the exams well balanced with crazy mails

and facebook posts. Teasing each other was perpetual. The birthday celebrations were the time to make terrible concus-

sions to marinate the birthday person and the close mates. The quizzes and the scoring of them remained quizzical right

till the end. There were the professors who we adored and those that we imitated but nothing compromised on the intent

of a proxy We were an amalgamation of sorts, each more distinct and mad than the other and yet the harmony and sync

existed somehow!

Cheers for all the crazy nuts and for that year at IMT that bought us together!

By Ashima Kakar (PGDEM 2010-11 BATCH)

The IT and Operations symposium organized by PGDM – Executive batch,

2012 held on 24th November was inaugurated by Mr Siva Prasad (Director

-Operations, Areva-Alstom India, who was the first distinguished speaker

for the day and Dr. Kunal Ganguly, Assistant Professor, Operations Man-

agement and Decision Sciences, IMT Ghaziabad.

Areva-Alstom India is involved in Transmission and distribution of power,

Renewable Energy and Transport. Mr. Siva Prasad gave an operations’

overview of the Grid and its footprints in India. The session was focused

on discussion around management, improvement of the quality and reten-

tion of resources, cash and capital and risk and opportunity management.

This was followed by the next esteemed speaker for the day - Mr. Rahul

Pandit (President and Executive Director, The Lemon Tree Hotels). Mr. Ra-

hul Pandit dealt with Entrepreneurship and Brand Building in the Indian

Hotel Industry. He took the audience through concepts involving inverted

pyramid of supply in India, the Idea-Talent-Capital tripod and the advent of

Private equity in the Indian Hotel Industry.

Mr. Rajan Kashyap (Deputy General Manager, Birlasoft) was the third speaker

from the industry who discussed about new emerging technology of Cloud

Computing, its characteristics and role in today’s businesses. This session also

included an overview of Big Data and its impact on retail solutions, medical

industry, insurance and financial services and the service industry.

The last speaker for the day was Mr Rishi Tarar (People Manager, IBM). Mr. Tarar

gave an insight into the technical side of Cloud Computing. Adding to it, several

aspects of security violation of the network environment were discussed which

fully engaged the audience. The various issues and challenges related to Cloud

Computing also formed a part of the discussion.

Overall, the distinguished speakers from the industry and the audience actively engaged in a Q&As discussing modern tech-

nologies and their impact in today’s businesses – an extremely vital topic for all the budding managers.

Three cheers to the IT and Operations organizing team which ensured that pITstOP was a grand success.

PIT-STOP 2012 Operations/IT Symposium

Hyper Connectivity

The Global IT Report 2012 has introduced a new term called Hyperconnectivity. It refers to the accelerating trends of prolifera-

tion in variety and functionalities of mobile devices on the one hand and social media on the other hand, leading to newer and

novel ways to communicate. This phenomenon has resulted in infinitely faster increase in the contacts among people to peo-

ple, people to machines and machines to machines. The hyper-connected world is super-fast, always-on, on-the-move, roam-

ing seamlessly and providing connectivity anywhere, any time and through any device.

The impact of this phenomenon on individuals, consumers, enterprises and citizens is high, and can be seen in terms of new

ways of doing business, generating new products and services and improving delivery of public services. However, many a

risks and challenges such as security, cybercrime, privacy and ability to access the Internet confront this phenomenon.

Conceptually, the technological developments in IT can be categorized as those happening on the cloud, on the pipes

(networks) and on the devices. The boundaries between devices such as TV, smartphones, PCs and tablets etc. is blurring

fast. The network infrastructures are increasingly based on optical technology and mobile networks are surpassing fixed te-

lephony networks, thereby providing faster speeds and flexibility. The Internet of Things, which refers to the machine-to-

machine connectivity, is fast spreading. Intel has estimated that 15 billion smart devices will exist by 2015. These may in-

clude home appliances, vehicles, energy meters, vending machines, security cameras, nanny cams and pet cams etc. It is

estimated that the number of networked devices globally has already exceeded the global population in the year 2011.

Interestingly, the traffic over the networks is increasing much faster than the pace at which the networks themselves are ex-

panding. The network providers are increasingly conscious of the costs involved in expanding the network and have started

scrutinizing the content of the traffic flowing through the networks.

In this hyper-connected world, transactions take various forms such as messages, sensor readings, inventory movement, etc.

These are being captured at a granular level and stored in databases. Can we use this "big data" to increase our collective

knowledge?

Twitter crossed the threshold of 50 million tweets in a year, whereas Facebook has over 500 million users world-wide. Unlike

standard structured data, the data generated on the social media is unstructured or at best loosely structured. Analysis of Big

Data using Social Analytics gives handsome results. For example, the health sector in the US benefits from bio-surveillance, a

new discipline making extensive use of real time data from the outbreak of a disease with other related data (such as

weather & climate conditions and food supply chains) to "overlay data over maps to visualize disease outbreaks in newer geo-

graphical areas. The authors describe the content created on the social media as "civic long tails".

New semantics are being created in relation to hyper-activity. We are talking for example about "social media analytics", "real

time analysis", "next generation analytics" and "near field communications". The impacts of these disciplines can be seen

through the phenomena of "community marketing" and "influencing the influencer". The end results of hyperconnectivity are

better ability to know, much better ability to dialogue in real time and increased ability to innovate.

By Mr.Surinder Batra

North East West South-NEWS

FIPB clears IKEA's proposal to invest in single-brand retail The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) has approved the proposal of Swedish furniture major IKEA's Rs 10,500-crore

projects. IKEA's entry would be the largest investment in the single- brand retailing ever since the government has allowed

foreign investment in this sector in January 2012.

Reference – PTI

Diageo to launch United Spirits tender offer on Jan 7 Diageo Plc (DGE.L) will launch a mandatory share tender offer to buy up to 26 percent additional stake in United Spirits Ltd

(UNSP.NS) from public shareholders on January 7, 2013 the manager to the offer said in a notice to the Bombay Stock Ex-

change.

Reference – Reuters

Moody's strips France of AAA-rating Moody's stripped France of its prized triple-A badge on Monday cutting the sovereign credit rating on Europe's No. 2 economy

by one notch to AA1 from AAA, citing an uncertain fiscal outlook and deteriorating economy.

Reference – Reuters

Ratan Tata steps down as Chairman of Tata Global Beverages "Effective November 20, 2012, Ratan Tata has stepped down as Chairman of Tata Global Beverages Ltd and Cyrus P Mistry

has been appointed Chairman," the company said in a note to BSE.

Reference – Business Standard

DID YOU KNOW???

Bill Bowerman, founder of the shoe company Nike, got his first shoe idea after staring at a waffle iron. This gave him

the idea of using squared spikes to make the shoes lighter.

7-Eleven is the largest retail chain in the world.

In 1976, fourteen banks merged to form a bank credit card called "MasterCharge." This was later renamed to what is

now known as "Mastercard."

In the late 1650's the first known check was written in Europe.

Ray Kroc bought McDonalds for $2.7 million in 1961 from the McDonald brothers.

The largest employer in the world is the Indian railway system in India, employing over 1.6 million people.

The largest hotel in the world is the MGM Grand, which has 5.034 rooms and is located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The name Reebok was named after the African Gazelle.

In a study that was done by the University of Chicago in 1907, it was concluded that the easiest color to spot is yellow.

This is why John Hertz, who is the founder of the Yellow Cab Company picked cabs to be yellow.

Life is….

LIFE is complicated; and so am I

Livin’ on the edge; it’s time to bid my final bye!!

I have some questions but solutions are awaited

Can there be some point in time, when this pain is abated.

Smile on my face; I carry it along

You stupid agony, why can’t you stay alone??

Everything was so clean; when I was a child

A low profile IDIOT but LIFE was “king size”!!

Mamma take me back in your womb, and reverse the tide

I will stay in bliss and LIFE would be simplified.

They say change is inevitable; things will never be the same

This vibe, this terror driving me insane!!

Everday a piece of mine takes last breadth and dies

Don’t know this ironic flair; but I learn to survive!!

It’s now I realize; deep in my soul there is some light

A STRONG being prepared to fight and make it right!!

So now in the morning, when I see a “dawn in vain”

I say to myself- LIFE is a game, let’s play it once again…let’s play it afresh again!!

LIFE is complicated; and so am I

Still lot to experience; not so soon to bid my final bye!!

By Saurab Chabra

Sometimes….

Prologue

Are human beings always born to win? There can be times when you try but still you fail. It is from these failures that you

learn. Failure is an imperative part of life. It can be big, it can be small. You fail as a student, as a professional, as a partner or

as a human being....

This small composition has made me think and quote those thoughts in words. This one is dedicated to all those who believe

in making a fuss of the situation. I'll just say one thing, "Friends, after all life is not about winning and losing. It teaches you to

live with failures. Life is just a life with an unpredictable end. ACCEPT IT!”

Sometimes we lose,

Sometimes we win,

Moments of Joy

And always not a sin.

You bear the hue,

You hear the cry,

You know the truth,

Still you wanna try.

At times you'll scream,

At times you'll feel,

Accolades may miss,

Not a big deal.

Accept the defeat,

Reject the myth,

You gotta win someday,

It's a true belief.

Unless you're pained,

You got to fail,

Success will then knock,

And truth will prevail....

Jeet P. Dahibawkar