Double Delight for me....

Yes, it was a double delight for me, what else can you say. I achieved both of my goals one after the other. The short term goals I had set and for which I had been working hard for months to achieve them. Those goals were, firstly to secure good grades in college and to get a placement in a good company with the profile of my area of interest. Just after my Summer Internship, I had set these goals as after being the part of the highly competitive corporate world, I knew that I had to have something extra and unique to sustain in this competition and lay a strong foundation for my career.

The Second year of my MBA was nothing less than a tapasya for me. I sacrificed all the pleasures, any kind of entertainment and also isolated myself from everyone in order to be focussed and achieve the set goals. For these months, I left participating in any sports, any functions and dance parties at the college. I know all these are equally important for the holistic development of a student and I was very actively involved in them during my first year of MBA. It is also said that these 2 years of your MBA are the one which you should enjoy the most as you won’t get time when you are busy in your professional life. But I gave priority to attaining more and more knowledge and also develop my personality as a whole.

Now coming to my first goal of securing good grades in my MBA, I had targeted to maintain the increasing trend of my GPA and atleast to get a GPA of more than 3.5 out of 4. And working towards getting the desired result I had targeted to get 5 to 6 As and A+s in Term 4. I was not only able to achieve the desired result but also topped in Term 4 among Finance majors and Marketing majors students.

Now the second goal of getting a placement in a good company with the profile of my area of interest was achieved just after the results of Term 4 were out in the Mumbai Placement of my college. The areas of my interest were Marketing Research and Insurance. I was fortunate enough to get offers from both of the areas of my interest. Firstly, the luck came my way when I got a chance to sit for an Interview of a Marketing Research profile and that too in real estate giant Kalpa-taru Group. Finally, I was selected and was offered a good profile and a decent package. Following that came across a Pre-placement offer for me from ICICI Lombard, Lucknow. Both the offers were of my area that I aspired for and more over the packages were the same but the profile and the scope of learning in Kalpa-taru made me to choose it between both of them.

Really, these series of events have been like a dream run from me and after this my belief that hard work and dedication pays off has become stronger. I would like to thank all of you for your heartiest wishes and support, which has made all this possible. Now, I will try to continue my hard work and dedication in my professional life as well and learn more and more and work for the growth of the organization and continue the success run. Thanks to god for fulfilling all my desired dreams.

MR MemoRies for me

Marketing Research (MR) is a common part of curriculum of every MBA program offered around the world. It was included as an Elective course for Marketing students in our college as well. But for me MR gave away many MemoRies, which I will remember for my life time.

It all started with decision of electing this subject. Initially I was not taking this subject but after knowing about the importance of the subject as told to me by my seniors and especially Shaurya Sir, who motivated me to take this and some other marketing subjects as electives. It was told that this subject is very important and will be of much use us when we are in our job even if we are not working in a Marketing Research Firm. That proved more than enough to motivate me for taking up this subject.

Then when the term started we came to know that the subject has to be taken up by Professor RNV. It was a delight for me to know that, not because he had given me ‘A+s’ in the previous subjects he had taught us but as he is one Statistics Teacher, who is so much clear and confident in all the concepts that he can take on anyone on that, which was hard to find in Statistics teachers I encountered with during by graduation. I had a talk to him and he told me that the subject is so important and practical that some of the seniors (Mandira Ma’am he named) still contact him to clarify their doubts about the subject, the chat with him not only increased my interest for the subject but also increased my determination to perform well in the subject.

The days went by and we reached the exam time, some of my batch mates asked me to explain to them the concepts of MR as they saw me very much involved during the classes and I did it for 2-3 group of students but everyday some one new came and asked to explain it to them too. Then Rahul Dhamija asked me to conduct a class before exams, which would give everyone a chance to come and understand. I agreed upon that seeing the importance of the subject and its future scope, but as the whole of the batch was dependent on my class that even created pressure on me. So, during the gap before MR exam, which I could have utilized for preparing for other upcoming exams as I was already prepared for MR but I decided to strengthen my knowledge of MR more and prepare some notes, which could be beneficial for others for the preparation. So, I sat with both Malhotra’s and Nagundkar’s books for the whole night and prepared some notes, which I shared with all my batch mates.

It was great to see that almost all the students who have taken MR turned up for attending my class and the whole of Lecture Hall 1 was filled up. The class I took before the day of exam went on well, I tried to explain all the concepts in as simple way as I can linking them to the practical application. It took around 2 hours to explain the whole 2 credit course. After the class the whole batch stood up and applauded my effort. Everyone thanked me and some added that with chocolates.

Then the results came. It was really an incredible performance by us in the MR Exam. Almost all of us scored in 40s except few in 30s in the 50 marks external exam. Even Sir was surprised to see such a great performance put up by our batch as he was expecting a lot of errors from our side, this also denied any possibility of giving Cs and Ds to any of the student, in fact the lowest marks was 75, which was graded as B-. Even Sir told that our batch has given the best performance in MR compared to the previous batches. Forgot to mention I topped the list with 97% marks.

The results were really great, I just wanted exactly that to happen and believe me I wouldn't have been happy if I would have performed and not d class. The good results showered many ‘thankful and wishful’ mails for me, some of the mails I have posted in the comments. The batch gave the whole credit to me and believed that I had really done something great for them. But I just wanted to share whatever I had known for d benefit of d whole batch and wanted all to be clear with d concepts and the pressure of explaining them took the best out of me and forced me to put some extra efforts to clarify and strengthen my concepts as well, so in return I would like to thank the whole batch for that. My sincere thanks all those who helped me out when I myself had some doubts in the concepts to name few are Debabrata, Abhinav, Ankita etc. and not to forget RNV Sir, who was always there to clarify any kind of doubts I had.

To add to our delight one Marketing Research firm came to our campus with a good profile and package and many of us were confident in applying to that. But many believe that I am a fool that I helped others and invested my time and efforts during the exam, even without that I would have easily scored good marks and got the appreciation and also the extra knowledge of Marketing Research would have been towards my favour during placements and would have reduced competition for me. But this is not something my parents had taught me. I have inherited many good qualities and inculcated many good habits from the upbringing given to me by my parents for which I will be thankful for my whole life and will try to return as much as I can to what they have given to me in this life.

Although, I did not aspire for any kind of benefit for the help but the love and wishes I have received for that is relished by me and I know these heartfelt wishes will always be with me and will help me leading a successful life.

My Experience in Trimester IV of my MBA

The fourth trimester of PGDM started with our experience sharing of our Summer Internship experiences with each other. I came on to the campus on a high note with getting up appreciation both in terms of motivation and rewards at my summers. It really went along very well and was way above my expectations but the story didn’t end here. The words of appreciation continued from all the faculties, my batchmates as well as seniors, it was followed up by me getting an A+ in SIP and the inclusion of My Summer Internship article in this edition of “The Chanakya”.

This was just a start of a wonderful performance I was able to put up during Term IV. The confidence and knowledge, which I acquired during my SIP proved a base for that but I think that it was the reward for my dedication, hard work and hunger to learn. As the term unfolded I came across various opportunities where I could show my potential and I got many chances of helping out others, this is the thing I really like to do and this gives me a lot of satisfaction and makes me feel good.

Then I started working on the Operational Plan of the Sports Activates with two of my co-reps, in which we listed out various reforms, which we could be made in the sports facilities of KIAMS, in the plan we also included the selection criteria for the Sports Reps. for batch 12, which we carried out during this term and the motivation given by us and hearing about the success of the last years sports events we got a Q of students wanting to be the Sports Rep., the no. reached a double figure mark and selecting from the set of well skilled and enthusiastic candidate proved to be a real tough job for us, but after conducting 6 rounds, in which we the candidates on various criteria by us we were able to choose the best three among the lot.

Then I was made the team leader of the “Designing Team” by the placement cell in which I was required to design brochures and flip charts for the Corporate presentation. After designing all the banners for Pragati, presentations for Operacy and designing cover page of every edition of Chanakya, now my batchmates have started calling the “Official Designer of KIAMS”, my part-time experience of working as a DTP Operator and designer is helping me a lot to get a chance to help others.

Then one day TV sir called me up and asked me to give name for a Presentation competition, which was being organized by LIC of India at KIAMS, in which we were asked to give a 20 minute presentation on “Role of Insurance in Economic Development of India”. I was able to put up a good show in the competition but failure to keep time made me to slip to Second Position in the Competition. But anyways the prize was the same for both the teams, a nice leather executive and I made a full use of during CP.

A Notice was put up on the notice board for the teams going to different places for Corporate Presentations and voila I was given opportunity to lead the Delhi/Gurgaon/Noida Team. It was a nice feeling that I was considered for this important job. This increased my enthusiasm for working for CP as I was waiting to work for that due to importance of CP told to me by all of Alumni, who are in touch with me. I motivated my team to do extensive calling to get as many appointments as they can and I myself not only got appointments for Delhi but also used my personal contacts and was able to fix more than 20 appointments for other City teams as well.

Finally, we went for CP, but it looked that problems were coming from all the sides and almost half of my team was not in the position to go for presentations due to some health problems and injuries. But I tried to manage the situation by engaging the sick members to do the calling to take more appointments from the list which we got from Shaurya Sir, when we reached Delhi, which contained mobile nos. of the HR heads and the appointments were distributed among team members who were well. I went along alone and tried to cover as many appointments and walk-in companies as I can. I visited companies in Delhi, Gurgaon and Noida as well. But soon the situation was under control and the sick members recovered and overall we were able to put up a good show.

Other than this I got several opportunities in academics as well. I was made Course Representatives in some subjects. I successfully organized “Brand Night” for the Brand Management Students, in which we shared our experiences associated with a brand to which we are loyal and also everyone had to come dressing up like that brand or product and the effort was praised by Anantram Sir. And being a Course Representative of Marketing Research I helped my batchmates in understanding the subject and completing their assignments and many of my batchmates, who took MR asked me to explain all the concepts covered by sir and asked to take a class for that. And when I took class on the day before exam almost whole of the class for present there and it took me around 2 hours to explain all the concepts and at the end the whole class just stood up and gave me a round of applause and thanked me to clear their concepts and help them to relate the subject to practical situations.

Academically too, this term proved great for me and I had put up a lots of hard work in learning the new things and this term all the subjects were of my area of Interest and I scored highest marks in internal in almost every subject I have taken. The externals also went on very well (except IF and OS), and I think I will be able to outdo my own performance of last term in which scored A in half of the subjects and to carry on making my graph of CGPA going UP and Up... It was just 2.91 in Term I (with F in OB), went up to 3.01 in Term 2, further strengthened and reached 3.34 in Term 3. Now this term I am expecting that this trend will be continued and I will be able to get something above 3.5

This was all which I can remember and put forward from Term 4, hope to take my performance to the next level in the next term.

The Roller Coaster Journey to MBA

I am like any other guy pursuing MBA.... May be I am more or less the same as the others as there are many POPs (Points of Parities) between me and other students but there are many PODs (Points of Differentiations) too and also have a USP. Don’t worry I am not going the list them out for you but you will certainly come to know about them as you go through my posts on this blog. I think I must not get more into the Marketing terminologies.

At present I am at a very critical position of my life. This juncture of my life is either the make or break for my career and my life. There has been many ups and downs in my life as well as in my career, it has been just like a roller-coaster.

Actually, this was all the result of not planning my career. It all started with preparing for NDA but not able to give the exam due to some reasons, then thinking of doing Engineering but landed up doing B.Sc. The hopes of getting into the armed forces were still in my mind which inspired me to prepare for CDS and also undergo NCC training along with my graduation, which could have become the helping factor of my getting into the armed forces. During this time I was determined, self-motivated and worked very hard to achieve my goals, on the way I had many achievements in NCC, where I made many successful efforts in National camps and successfully topped and secured ‘Aye’ (A) grade in ‘C’ certificate of NCC. After that I cleared my CDS exams and also had direct SSB calls based on my NCC’s training, but there was a twist in my career as my parents said they were not ready to send me to Armed Forces as I am the only son and there it is a risk of life. So, I left my desires for them and started preparing for MBA entrance along with my job in a Bangalore based Hospitality firm as a Guest Relations Executive. And finally at present I am here at Kirloskar doing MBA.

I am happy with whatever I am doing and trying to get the best out of me. I am not still sure to what I want to achieve from my life but I want to become a successful person, I know it is very general and it has different meaning to different people. I just want to have a self satisfaction to whatever I do, serve my family and serve my society and nation in all possible ways in which I can.

My Summer Internship Experience

Summer Internship is an integral part of any MBA curriculum in the country. It serves as the only direct exposure to an organization and its ways of functioning during the entire curriculum. The importance of summer internship in any management course cannot be over-emphasized. Irrespective of the general acceptance of summer internship among the students as well as the corporate, there still exists some scepticism and confusion in the minds of MBA students about the efficacy and usefulness of a summer training programme. But according to me, it is the most effective aid in enabling the students to relate management theory to practice, and in making an informed career choice.

Now coming to my Summer Internship, the title of the project was “Evaluation of the Implementation of Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna in the districts of Uttar Pradesh” and I pursued my summer internship at ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd. The company had a very structured process of summer internship with an initial induction, which gives a bird's eye view of the various perspectives of the business and also prepares interns for the internship. So following that for the first week I had been provided all the reading material and links explaining the details and processes involved the project, Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna, which is a health insurance project for BPL population by Ministry of Labour for which the company was contracted.

Then, I met my Company Guide who seemed fantastic. He had created a motivating list of tasks and assignments that I would complete during the internship and I was free to change anything or add anything extra which I could do. He headed the operations of all 15 districts in which the project was running currently and my task was to visit all those 15 districts and find the problem areas in the processes and give suggestions and recommendations to improve it in the remaining 56 districts in which the project will be implemented this year.

As per the plan I visited all the 15 districts and took a 360 degree feedback from ICICI Lombard employees, Health Card Providers, Hospitals and the BPL beneficiaries through different questionnaires prepared by me. Seeing my zeal, commitment and hard work, my company guide extended the period of my internship to 8 weeks, which was initially 6 weeks so that I could assist the team in implementing the project and learn how the work is done on field. So, in the later half of my internship I assisted in implementation of the project in Central and South Zone of Uttar Pradesh.

I feel a typical internship is not only about work and rigor but also about enjoying the experience, which I got there by visiting throughout the state, seeing different cultures and interacting and knowing how a BPL person feels was a great experience. But at the same time, a lot of travelling took the toll out of me and it proved very hectic as I was not habitual of travelling this much before that.

In the end I found myself all the more confident and willing to face challenges. And not to forget a lot of good relationship's that I made. Certainly, it is a very fun and flexible place to work where Interns are treated like full-time employees in almost every way. I got lot of exposure about how work is done at the field and I proved myself there by introducing innovative things, which can also give direct benefit to the company in form of getting more premiums from the government. It's great to feel trusted and valued for my contributions.

I chose this internship over another internship opportunity as I had prior exposure to the insurance industry with my association with LIC as an Insurance Consultant for several years and also had keen interest and wanted to know and learn more about the insurance industry. And after working on this project I would also like to build my career in this field as there is a lot of opportunity for me not only in this company but in other insurance companies, which are involved in this project in different states of India.

The project was of tremendous value add as it equips me with an understanding of the Public-Private Partnership and Health Insurance business. The project is very beneficial for me as it gives me insight into the business and works behind one of the biggest brands among the private insurance companies in India. Though only eight years old, the Company has a great work profile and healthy environment to work to show your talent with a freedom to work. I was more than happy to get interned at this company. But I must say the whole experience went way above my expectations. The stereotypical summer internship involves performing tedious, boring tasks for a huge company or more commonly a research internship at an Institution or organization, which is almost the opposite of my experience.