#pgpm912

[pathakshashik]

Week 13 & 14 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

Lot has happened over last two weeks. But before I delve upon actions on campus, I must mention something here. I was invited for the send off party of my colleague, boss, a mentor who recently called it quits from PwC. It was a privilege of some sort to have been invited and feeling was bit nostalgic as I felt part of it entirely during the time I spent there dining and dancing with old pals. An evening spent well to connect with people with whom you have worked and whom you have known for important part of your life. It was indeed surprising to get a feedback from one of senior managers who came close by and asked whether everything is alright as my weekly blog have not been updated. Noted & here it is updated !!!

Well we are done with second trimester and entered into third trimester. It has been quite eventful with end term exams of 6 credit courses.

While the third trimester has started personally I need to still come to terms with subjects. Business Negotiation, Business Policy & Strategy, Consulting in Business, International Business & Eco, Marketing Simulation and Decision Making through Simulation are subjects that we need to master not exactly but know what's in it.

Apart from these literary, business centric subjects we also have to spend two weeks with an NGO to help them in their business operations. There are varied subjects to choose from such as women empowerment, disability, healthcare, education, social entrepreneurship to name few. The regional scope for this year's program is limited to NGOs in states such as Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. The initiative popularly called as  development of corporate citizenship(DOCC) is pioneer and most awarded one in education sector across the world. Looking forward to this.

Batch 811 had their convocation ceremony yesterday. I couldn't attend the event which I am sure was eventful.

I believe in learning through doing, working and engaging and in my opinion that is the only way to maximize takeaways that stay with you forever. In yet another assignment as part of Consulting in Business we have to engage with one of the department at Bhavans to help them maximize their revenue. Worked on the proposal that had to be submitted and this reminded me of the times that I spent at my previous organization on proposals for clients. Our group has been lucky to get a live project in comparison to several other group who have to work on dummy project. It is completely different experience to work for clients in real world than for dummy client in an academic environment.

Whoa will keep updating !!!

[pathakshashik]

Week 12 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

I have to say this, despite being needless, the fact that I am in a bschool, and that I am learning immensely and at the pace that I have never done before. Unearthing potential every day and night(in the dream thinking about the next morning) in self that I have never done before. Well all this may sound like a cool music to all those who after hopping around several pages on the net for sound advice have come to this page, I know with the admissions open for the next batch and season around b-school starting soon, I am sure many are contemplating MBA as a decision. But let me tell reiterate the few words of wisdom from one of our professors, "Every information that you come across must be treated with a pinch of salt". And now  let me justify why am I telling this. It is great to go with the stream but when it comes to taking a decision that matters to your career you must be extremely careful and certainly avoid going with the stream. Your requirements, aspirations and needs from life may or may not be similar and certainly not same as that any individual in this world. Each one of us is unique in the way, the degree of dissimilarity increases with age, that's how we have grown trying to prove to the world that we are unique. With clicking time personalities divulge. So one must assess on the merit of aspiration and that may seem to make him/her happy in future.

I do this quite often, learn from people around me. And I realize that it is quite fashionable at times to justify to yourself about things that are trendier and how you are able to relate to it well. By now I am sure quite a few of you would have already made up your mind to justify that MBA will make you happier. Yeah, no kidding, that's how it is. I can explain, take for example, a case of choosing a job post your MBA. Most professional consultants would tell you to choose a career/job that you would love or one that would make you happy. To me this is most awful advice. How on earth can you decide on the basis of parameter that is nebulous like love and happiness is and that cannot be decided without really experiencing it - people just fail to understand that some subjects cannot be treated like finance (valuation today based on analysis of future cash flow). Typically such a decision regarding could be better arrived at based on analysis of your strengths, your skills/competencies and past professional experience. But moment one would hear about judgement based on love/happiness, he/she would start listing down things that would make him/her happy without understanding what really entails. Some examples "You know what, I think I'll love consulting" or "consulting is something that would make me happier", etc, etc

I sincerely, suggest you to choose your college, course, specialization based on your needs for career, that may help you to advance in your career to a next level. 

Oh let me also share this piece of information. It may take sometime for the official release of news from SPJIMR in public domain but I take pleasure in sharing that PGPM program has been approved by AICTE and would be called a PGDM-EX from next academic year.

Cheers

[pathakshashik]

Week 11 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

The end of week 10 did not see the same end as the other weeks saw. It ended with a three day break due to Holi, weekly Thursday off and Good Friday. Three day break brought to most a brief spell of fun time with family and friends and to all moments to recuperate and to heal mental wounds caused due to rigor and time to rethink the strategy and way forward.

I chose to spend time with family and had a quiet and dry Holi amidst hue and cry of drought in certain parts of Maharashtra. Feels good to save and contribute in such causes. Post lunch, a sumptuous combo of non veg and 'malpua', a holi special, took time to closely watch some actions online, on the campus. And apparently participants on campus seemed

to have blast.

    Great clicks !!!

Couple of days ago the 'P'lay button for placements were pressed too. With just couple of months into the course it may appear premature but such is the course design, time compression ratio is 2.0, that nothing can be termed early of before time. Every thing is just about right time. During this break participants were encouraged to spend time on their respective profiles that would be part of the placement brochure. 

The placement records for 811 batch were officially declared too, and despite relatively gloomy outlook the batch could make a mark for lateral hires.

[pathakshashik]

Week9 & 10 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

Guest lectures, career counseling, and the routine class sessions packed with quizzes, group work and presentation continue to be our regime and I guess this shall continue for some time.

After long and seemingly an arduous selection process, members of placement committee have been finalized and participants, alumni and PR & Faculty have bestowed faith on me too. I thank everyone, request for continued patronage and hope that I am able to achieve that I am expected to.

Apart from placement committee some of the other committees that were finalized include Industry Integration, Alumni, Admission, Academic, Competition and PR. As can be interpreted several activities are student driven with a strong support from faculty.

While I am slightly aloof from the academics to my liking, the explanation given by Rohit Kapoor, an ISB alumnus who came for career counseling gave an extremely valid perspective, which I thought was both philosophically and psychologically apt. According to him at the beginning, most students are aggressive about the academics and due to herd mentality most tend to focus really towards the elusive and exclusive merit list. But the reality beckons and as it had happened in my case we start to make a choice between academics and learning process. I enjoyed that he said, “As though, people who are aspiring for merit aren't really learning”. Absolutely, most give up on the rigor, but that isn't wrong all together. As Rohit said if that is what makes one happy, he/she must go for it.

In fact nothing is absolute in the practical context. Things are merely relevant or irrelevant specific to the time horizon. To me what is more important is whether I enjoy the process. As long as I do, I really am doing. Priorities does matter and I shall continue to experiment this year. I have changed my approach of study in comparison to how I had until engineering. Pick & choose is my 'mantra' and when I have some time reflect back of the important theory that I would want to master. For rest of the time enjoy life and learn music.

In fact after all the career counseling sessions I have come up with new expression for a popular acronym MBA – Motivation for Best Aspirations. Really, all I have learnt is to think big and make it happen.

The admission for next batch has kicked off last week and I wish all the prospective students, Good luck. I was one of you last year dreaming to be in one of the leading b-schools in India. This blog is in fact dedicated to all prospective students. In case you have any doubt that is lingering in your mind and want to get clarified from student experiencing it right here this year, I encourage each one you to ask @ http://pathakshashik.tumblr.com/ask if you are on tumblr. In case, I have answer, shall answer else shall get you an appropriate response from my colleagues in Admission Committee. Cheers!!!

[pathakshashik]

Week8 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

The last end term exam of GM-I was that of financial statement analysis and it left me in a state of complete shock. The phase of ninety minutes was extremely distasteful and it left me with guilt of not knowing the subject well. One can blame it on time, but that is an awful excuse. This essentially means that this subject gets to my to-study list, what is worrying is that most/all topics in this subject gets into that list, sort of huge back-log. But than it has to be part of this list, as I realize the importance of this subject forever. Talking about second trimester, the schedule seems no different, rather it is even worse. The calendar is extremely packed with most days starting from 9AM and ending at 630PM. And those are only the classroom sessions, the real work shall commence post 630 in the evening, making the day longer by few more hours than in GM-I. The subjects that have been introduced to us in the last week include Cost Management, Macro-Economics, Business Communication, ADMAP and Corporate Finance. Few interesting sessions from visiting faculty for marketing & consultant on career counseling. Looking forward to couple more sessions from visiting faculty in marketing who had quiet an impact on our mind. It was nothing less than thrilling experience to listen to  him for the entire duration without any lapse in concentration. Probably the hypothesis that average human minds cannot concentrate for more than 21 minutes has some exceptions directly dependent on the ability of speaker. This session probably was one of them. Kudos to such speakers who have innate ability to hold his listeners attention for so long. An art worth mastering!!! The start of any course always throws up an opportunity to relax and spend some time with family. I grabbed that opportunity and decided to do exactly that. The outcome of few chilled out moments was a Hindi poem based on experience that I and my batch mates share. http://pathakshashik.tumblr.com/post/44713931547

[pathakshashik]

Week7 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

She came, we saw, not sure whether we conquered, but she went. No I am not talking about a beautiful lady but the general management I term. The six week long marathon is just about to end tomorrow with an end term exam of FSA on Monday and kick off General Management II the same day.

Dread the quantitative methodology most, just wasn't able to keep up to the pace of professor. Felt like I lost the way since probability session, in fact feel the need to go back to some of the class such as hypothesis testing, regression, variance, co-efficient of variance for their practical application. I hope the scrom content development topic would at least help in mastering one topic. Oh, the team of 108 people is up for task, i.e. content development for an online course for prospective students in future. Online learning as a concept is picking up & I believe that is way forward. Consumers in every segment need the power to choose & student is no different. Gone are days of strict classroom session when you just had to listen to professor, that model is still prevalent in India, but time will dictate terms soon. In fact, just the other day, QM Prof. suggested about research about mind’s continuous concentration level. According to that on an average 21 minutes is longest stretch of continuous and steady concentration level & average mind is not able to do that for more than 7 minutes. This study alone is compelling reason for online learning, a power for student to play at desired time, pause at drop in concentration level, rewind to review content spoken about. That’s the future!!!

The entire week, we actually ate, drank & slept, literally, with presentations and case submissions. We had a marathon session in Managing IT & Marketing for group presentations. The boundaries were defined in case of Managing IT as we had to present a comparison of the IT approaches adopted by two companies & their strength of its success and weaknesses of failure. In marketing though, we presented a marketing plan for a particular product. It was an experience but some more time in actually studying a market for new product or service would have given us more realistic learning experience. Nevertheless, it was good and it gave a perspective on how one should go about preparing a marketing plan. The real fun was marketing simulation, which is still to be completed.

Personally, I have been struggling in managing time and reason to that. Not an excuse but that remember I told about the choice that one has to make among few options that one has to do at a given moment. I many such moments spread across three days here last week. The 'Sangeet Mahotsav' provided me those moments that cherished and dreamt since I started playing Sitar. And I must thank Pt. Dhruba Ghosh for requesting me to be part of the event. This was easy, I took close to 12 hours off from academic activities for this, courtesy my group for allowing me to do that & bearing the pressure and taking that extra pressure off my back. Thanks Sushil, Smriti, Venkit, Vishu, Somkant. The three day festival was organized to commemorate Dr. K. M Munshi for his 125th birthday anniversary and platinum jubilee of Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan. I felt so blessed to meet some of the legends up close & personal and talk to them on the subject of Music. In the course of three days I met, Vidwan Balamurli Krishna, Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty, Ustad Shujaat Khan, Ustad Taufiq Qureshi, Pt. Yogesh Samsi, Vidwan Sridar Parthasarathy, Panjit Barot. Especially, I learnt a lot in a few minutes of discussion with Ustad Shujaat Khan Sahab & I shall treasure them forever.

Ok, back to school, another marathon now for financial statement analysis and quantitative methodology is about to begin. As we are almost at the doorstep of the end of GM I and when the going is getting tough just hope that tough doesn't get going!!!

[pathakshashik]

Week6 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

Make a note that i am a day late in week 6 post. And could probably have given a miss, but than comes commitment made to prospective students of PGPM which reminds me of staying awake for few minutes and posting about the experience that we went through last week. I will do that...

The very fact that I am late is a good indicator that we are neck deep into assignments that are to be completed and submitted for forthcoming sessions. Presentations, marketing plan and some case studies for subjects such as Managing IT, Marketing, FSA, CSM respectively is pushing us to cut down on our sleeping time...

Our sessions for learning management got over but professor left us with many intriguing thoughts which I believe has ignited our minds for future quests and possibilities. He also threw us in some adventure sports which he promised during his initial sessions, which I missed apart various lectures this week. Had to do that to catch upon some sleep and erase the nostalgia caught for home & baby.

Not to mention several other commitments those were in a way responsible for my absenteeism, not an excuse but then it is question of prioritizing important tasks. Took some time off to visit my erstwhile organization to position the PGPM course, IPIPI, guest lecture & recruitment to some senior leaders in the organization. I believe the exercise must start early so that industry is aware of prospective profiles. All this apart, also awaiting for results of placement committee. But irrespective of the outcome, I shall be committed for our batch & forthcoming batches, that's what I meant by being a brand ambassador of SPJIMR & PGPM

[pathakshashik]

Week5 @PGPM912 SPJIMR

With the passing days, moments are just about starting to get more difficult now as we are fed with too much to ruminate and assimilate. There is a lot of emphasis on the reflection of learning but pace at which sessions are taken, it seems we are just going through the motion. In between sessions, surprise and declared quizzes & exams are conducted just to test the level of understanding .... oh ... no... no.. no... missing the real point... just to ensure that we study.

Apart from the customary core courses such as Financial Statement Analysis, Quantitative Management & Marketing, we have some unconventional courses that most b-schools don't cover. I guess, I did mention about the Gita Shibir that takes place every week and learning is inculcated through video, quiz & q&a session to reinforce certain human & management values per the 'vedas'. Some other unconventional courses are  Managing IT & Learning Management. Managing IT have now been getting listed in the core courses of most b-schools, only as recently as few years. Idea of the course just coin various idea in IT that are used to solve some of strategic business issues. Learning Management, that is most unconventional of all the subjects as one believes as professional with average experience of 7-8 years we must understand what management is all about. But there must be some perspective for having this course and I don't reserve any view for or against it. But just wondered how it should be dealt with? what should be the pedagogy for conducting such a course that talks of general practices? Difficult to imagine case study as a method - doesn't seem relevant, presentation - students hate this and risk is they may doze off, discussion - meaningless. Exactly, there is an interesting method devised to deal this. We have with us the director of Family Managed Business (FMB) program who comes as a motivator for 1.25 hrs, motivates and leaves us thinking. He challenges us on some of our traditional beliefs, tries to break typical notions that we have built over a period of time and that is tightly ingrained in our minds and pushes us (thoughtfully) hard to break those conventional barriers that we have developed out of our experience (He calls it our local database). I enjoy his one hour hate speech, yeah in a way it is, if you don't hit the chord he strums. His method of evaluation also is gonna be unique. He has already given us couple of things that we need to work upon. One of them is to write an email to 100 people whom we know and talk about the risk that we have taken of getting into a b-school like SPJIMR...no pun intended guys, Seems unusual, isn't it? I couldn't wait during the session & quipped "But I am already doing this and sharing it with millions around the world through my blog", He responded as quickly "Who reads your blog, no one!!!" and he went and explained very rationally how blog is an unreliable source that doesn't have any credibility. In fact according to him the order of reliable source of reference is an authored book, corporate surveys, magazine, newspapers and then social media(read blog). Many people talking about Big data may not agree but the context was different. I was not upset at all as I didn't think that he ridiculed me and instead I blended it with the learning of his previous session - "Keep doing things repeatedly such that it becomes of second nature to you, becomes instinctive".

So I shall always blog with such a conviction and responsibility that writing with responsibility in such a manner becomes instinctive to me. Oh, that's BIG STATEMENT & PROMISE!!!