IIM-A Students and Faculty ready for a Public Sector Stint!

Public Policy SIG of IIM-A conducted a panel discussion on the National Youth Policy draft bill that is to be tabled in the parliament next season. The panel was headed by Prof Anil K Gupta (Padma Shri award winner and founder of Honey Bee Network) and consisted of six students from IIM-A. Apart from students across programs of IIM-A, the event was also attended by faculty, Prof Shailendra Mehta and Prof Dhiman Bhadra. The panel critiqued the bill and pointed out several of its shortcomings like lack of concrete and radical measures to tackle problems faced by youth in skill development and entrepreneurship.

Prof Anil Gupta urged students not just to think what India can do for its youth but also what the youth can do for India. He floated the idea of three month compulsory stint for management students in public administration, public enterprises, rural or developmental sector, similar to the compulsory stint required for doctors. His idea was received with applause by the students. Prof Dhiman Bhadra joined the fray and suggested that IIM-A professors can also go on short stint to rural or developmental sector. The participants acknowledged that such stints will be very helpful for both faculty and students in getting to know the ground realities of India.

The feedback and suggestions collated from the discussion are to be submitted to the government as a part of its policy consultation process.

Prof. Anil Gupta’s talk can also be viewed on  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcvcDd5JLNE&feature=g-user-u

Dr. Sarah Cooper talks about technology innovation and entrepreneurship

In an event organized by the Entrepreneurship Club of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), Dr. Sarah Cooper, the Director at Centre for Entrepreneurship Research at the University of Edinburgh came down to campus to deliver a talk on technology entrepreneurship. She was accompanied by Professor Rakesh Basant, Professor of Economics and Chairperson, Center for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) at IIM, Ahmedabad.

While delivering a talk at the CIIE, Dr Cooper brought some interesting research findings to light. She explained that the average age of the lead entrepreneur in the software domain is fairly young –  lower than other all other areas that are witnessing entrepreneurial bustle. “Principal entrepreneurs in the software domain start as early as 24 years of age”, she quipped. “This drastically goes up to 40 in case of biotechnology”.

She also added, “a  balanced team and strong industry connections – which are the essence of social and human capital play a key role in the startup phase”. Usually, magnet organizations – established talent hubs, help in forming a web of skilled credible workers and quality jobs. Magnet organizations also help in bringing the principal entrepreneur in contact with suitable team member. “It has been noted that even though the principal entrepreneur is younger, there need to be experienced members in the team to form the right mix.

“Cluster creation and growth are closely linked to entrepreneurship. Spin outs from such hubs provide the requisite knowledge base to start ups”, she added.

Her research indicates that the recessionary phase helps in bringing out the risk-taking ability of a knowledge worker to the forefront. This leads to more product innovations and subsequent boost in employment generation. The impetus for cluster development lies on the industry as well as the government.

In an exclusive interactive session with the students of IIMA, the entrepreneurial drive of the students was at the forefront as they posed compelling questions to Dr. Cooper. Technology – specifically in the software domain, seemed to be the running thread of the conversation.

The buzz around native app development ran high. However, Dr. Cooper cautioned technology-focused individuals to first develop a sound understanding of the customer needs and emphasised on the importance of feedback. She also laid stress on understanding the financial viability before undertaking projects in this domain. “A single app is not sufficient to spell success. You need to develop a range of products to realise profits”, she said.

She brought to light an interesting suggestion of collaborating with large firms by offering complementary products to ensure a continuity of sales.

She gave pointers on following a ‘service to product’ transition – initially selling software services to third parties, thereby gaining productive business insights and subsequently generating cash flows even before one goes out to launch their own products.

While discussing the activities of the university’s entrepreneur cell, she talked pooling of talent – collaboration between the tech students and the B-school students. She remarked, “A single set of knowledge base and skills is not sufficient to run a business efficiently”.

On being asked about the viability of a geographically distributed team, she mentioned that it poses both opportunities and challenges. In the initial phases of a start up, this poses a challenge. However, it stands at a litmus test of the commitment and work ethics of the team member. In the slightly mature phase, it acts as a boon for market penetration.

The student community at IIMA  expressed interest in setting up social businesses. Dr. Cooper advised them to formulate a sound revenue model – as the principles of business are essentially governed by sustainability for all businesses. At instances where the target customers for a particular models is not well-off to pay, it becomes imperative to work on a unique model for revenue generation. This could mean creation of an alternate revenue stream altogether.

For those gravitating towards the non-profit route, she suggested that there needs to be a compelling story that urges the audience to donate.

The talk ended on a high note, with her expressing strong growth projections of the technology sector in India and motivating students at IIMA to gain a head start in the same.

LSD ‘awesomizes’ with Section Friction!

LSD conducted “Section Friction” the first inter-section competition of the year to give the fachchas an idea of what section enthusiasm is all about!

In this war of wits, a Speaker and a Rebutter, from each section were assigned a superpower, and then had to go on and justify how that particular superpower would ‘awesomize’ WIMWI.  On one hand it was a chance to get the creative juices flowing and come up with wacky ideas on how their power could transform WIMWI, on the other hand it also provided the opportunity to throw some dirt at the other sections and establish supremacy.

To call it a totally novel event the likes of which has never been seen before wouldn’t be stretching the truth in any sense! In fact the stretching (shape shifting), and the ability to not been seen (invisibility) were all restricted to the duration of the event where some of the participants who had these powers had to justify how theirs was truly the most awesome power.

Arjun Bharadwaj and Achyuth Sanjay made Section B proud by emerging victorious at the end of the keenly contested event.

Paranjoy Guha grabs eyeballs at IIM-A

Independent journalist and educator, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta engaged IIM-A students on a debate about ethics in Indian television news on July 16, 2012. The session organized by Public Policy SIG of IIM-A started with the screening of Paranjoy Guha’s acclaimed documentary film “Grabbing Eyeballs: What’s Unethical about Indian Television News”.  This was followed by a short lecture by Paranjoy Guha on ethical problems in the Indian TV News industry.

Apart from juggling his many roles in the media, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is also a visiting professor in IIM Ahmedabad where he teaches a course in Media Studies. The crowd was rapt with attention throughout the 32 minute documentary film. The event and the documentary film revolved around the ill effects of ‘over-competition’ in the TV News Industry. “Information has to be viewed as a public good. So market failure has to be addressed immediately,” Paranjoy argued. He further criticized the archaic TRP rating systems and urged for an independent regulator to resolve the issue. The discussion turned lively as students discussed their questions and concerns with Paranjoy. “It was great hearing Paranjoy Guha,” said Maruthi Raj, a second year PGP student. “He put his finger right on the core issue plaguing our media. Thanks to him, we were able to make sense of an otherwise chaotic industry,” he added.

RURAL IMMERSION MODULE: Redefining The Rural Landscape

A distinguished blend of faculty, highly zealous students from diverse backgrounds, a rigorous academic curriculum, an impeccable alumni database are some of the ingredients that helped the IIM Ahmedabad’s Post Graduate Program in Agri-Business Management (PGP-ABM) become the No.1 Program globally in the Agri-business / Food Industry Management category.

One unique feature of the PGP-ABM program is Rural Immersion Module (RIM). The Rural Immersion Module helps acquaint the students with the ground realities of the rural landscape, which is home to almost 70 percent of our country’s population. Every year the students from PGP-ABM are required to spend 3-4 weeks in a certain pre decided village. It takes place in two phases. In the first phase the students need to understand and analyze the problems faced by the rural people. The students also brainstorm on the prudent and viable solutions for these problems. The next phase focuses on the implementation of the solutions which are worked out by the students.

The programme management comes up with the states and villages to visit after much discussion and deliberation. The focus is always on the regions where certain major issues are cropping up with regard to agriculture or livelihood. This time around the management chose 2 villages each in Andhra Pradesh (AP), Patna and Jharkhand, and a group each was allotted to these regions.

Andhra Pradesh was chosen because farmers declared a crop holiday in some villages within this state. Students were required to understand the reason for crop holiday. They conducted In-depth interviews with the members of farmer community, visited government offices in and around the villages. They figured some negative effects of NREGA scheme on the labour availability for agricultural purposes. Major shift in land use pattern such as towards aquaculture was observed. Increasingly decreasing returns on agriculture produce was discovered as one major reason for this shift.

In order to deal with these issues, students have ideated increasing extension services to educate farmers about the drying techniques. This would ensure higher returns on produce through minimum support price on a higher grain volume when grains meet the stringent quality criterion set by the Food Corporation of India. Students also opined an alternative means of revenue – setting up coir industry using the abundant coconut tree shells as raw material.

Of the two groups that went to Jharkhand, one was handed over the task of determining the effectiveness of implementation of various government schemes at the grass root level in the Jamshol village area. The group visited the houses and surveyed around 70% of the villagers. They discovered major issues with the schemes like MNREGA, Public distribution system, Indira Awas Yojana and Anganwadi. The villagers were either negligent of these schemes or the authorities vested with the responsibility to carry out these schemes were taking advantage of the uneducated people. The group conducted a Gram Sabha, where the villagers addressed their concerns in front of all people of authorities and a formally signed document was submitted to an active NGO- SEEDS, before leaving.

The group experienced and understood the SHG model setup by Kalamandir at Junmdih for raising livelihood opportunity for the Bhoomji tribes. Kalamandir has provided round the year employment for the otherwise sporadic workers who face exploitation at the brick kiln factories of the area through the grass mat business. As students of the agri-business program, they were able to come up with solutions to problems that are preventing the business from scaling up. Inventory system, aggressive branding and marketing strategy, product costing and a better streamlined process with proper documentations were advised.

Coming onto the groups that were sent to Patna (Bihar), one of them was entrusted with the task of looking after the problems that are prevalent with Madhubani Paintings and the ways to promote eco-tourism in the area. After having talked to a lot of people in the Madhubani region, the major problems that came out with the paintings was absence of channel for marketing and advertisement, large scale exploitation by middlemen, no other source of livelihood, as a result of which artists have given way to artisans. The solutions proposed were – a website to market the product, Expos in major cities through collaboration with existing NGOs and export houses, and the reissuing of ID cards. And for the promotion of tourism – advertisements on major holiday sites, link with several festivals and focus on domestic tourists, the money from whom will help in straightening out the infrastructure, were the solutions that were prescribed.

The other group was made to visit the Vaishali and Sitamari region in Bihar. They devised a model through which a farmer can be advised about the mandi in which he can sell his produce and get the highest returns. They also suggested ways in which tourism can be promoted in the region so as to make the region more prosperous. In Sitamari, the biggest issue that came up was of intermittent electricity supply. The students recommended a rice husk plant to produce electricity in the region and also did the cost-benefit analysis for the same.

Looking at the above instances, one could easily see the multitude of issues that the students were able to find out and analyze. Such an interface between the management students and the villages that RIM was able to provide could go a long way in improving the condition of the people residing in the India’s heartland.

Prarambh is back!

The first event of the academic year, the Fachcha brand quiz “Prarambh”, was back with a bang at IIM-A. Organized by Niche – the marketing club of IIM A – to give the fachchas the first flavor of marketing and brands, it was held on Monday, 2^nd July 2012.

Sponsored by Airtel, it has traditionally been touted as one of most competitive of contests on campus. Prarambh was fuelled by a huge promotion boost with frequent pre-event mailers and posters at prominent hang-out places like the Nescafe outlet, the classroom corridors, etc.  The added attraction was the prize money on offer – Rs. 20,000.

The turnout for the event was overwhelming with as many as 60 three membered teams taking part in the preliminary round, which was more than half the batch! 

The chief quiz master was Kishore Seetharam, also a member of the LSD – the main quizzing club on campus. The questions were essentially centred around major brands, brand logos, marketing trends, products and rarely known yet interesting facts about them. Even the seemingly tough questions were workout-able, and the answers to unanswered questions led to teams exclaiming how they had missed such ‘sitters’.

The enthusiasm of the participant fachchas was really encouraging to see, irrespective of their responses to the questions, as they learned something new with each question.  The logic behind some of the brands and campaigns impressed one and all. As the answers were announced, some goodies were also distributed to select people in the large audience.

The top 6 teams went into the next round. For some other teams it was a case of so near yet so far. To ensure that such teams did not go home disappointed, the next rounds were organized in such a way that the teams on the fringes could also compete with the top 6 teams. And if the fringe teams had a superior performance, they could knock off one of the top teams and earn a wildcard entry. Some of the fringe teams/audience who could get the answers also received vouchers, sponsored by Airtel.

This was an entirely new concept and it ensured that the audience strength, participation and enthusiasm remained almost the same.

The competition for the next rounds was just as hectic as the preliminary round with each team in close pursuit of the other. In the end, after a grueling 1 and a half hours of multiple rounds, there emerged 3 worthy winner teams.

The First Prize was bagged by Achyuth Sanjay, Anubhav Bhattacharjee and Arjun Bharadwaj

 The Second place went to MVR Murthy, Krittika Adhikary and Vinayak Sapru

 The team which finished third was Sachin Bhardwaj, S. Aditya and Chandrasekaran K.

 With quizzing of the highest quality and an overwhelmingly high and enthusiastic response from the best brains of the country, “Prarambh” concluded successfully giving the incoming batch more than an insight into the world of brands and marketing.

LSD presents Lit-Week!

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a faccha in possession of a good wit must be in want of a creative outlet. The LSD Lit Week was just what the doctor prescribed for everyone who fits the above description. The 3-day event served up a sumptuous buffet of Shipwreck, JAM, Quiz and Pot-Pourri & Word Games for the word and trivia gourmand.

Festivities on Day 1 began with Shipwreck where the facchas had to speak extemporaneously for a minute on topics such as “It’s small, but it’s all I have”. The lucky ones who managed to attract the attention of the judges qualified for the 2^nd round and found themselves stranded on a sinking ship. As alter-egos of Poonam Pandey or Roadies’s judge Raghu, they now faced an unenviable task of convincing the captain of the ship to give them the last remaining life-jacket. Little surprise then that M V R Murthy who had to become the alter-ego of Neil Patrick Harris managed to snag the last life-jacket!

 Proceedings on Day 1 continued with JAM (Just-A-Minute). Speaking fluently without being interrupted could be dismissed as a mundane exercise by the churlish. But throw in some funky topics, garnish it with zany rules and add cutthroat competitors with a flair for language and what you get is an explosive mix! JAM saw participation not only from veterans but also from first-timers who weren’t afraid to twist their tongues. Multiple rounds of JAM stretched for over two hours roundly entertaining the audience and participants alike and finally Manish Krishnan, a faccha emerged victorious.

Quiz notices are hardly a sign of elation amongst the student community. Ask any passing faccha about quiz and he’ll tell a tale of woe brought about by 3 consecutive quizzes last week. However, before these quizzes, there was another quiz which was received with much enthusiasm by the facchas. In the first round, facchas in teams of 2 put their heads together to answer 25 questions.  Six teams, after having been graded on an absolute curve were selected for the final round and the keenly contested final round was won by facchas Arjun Bharadwaj& Achyuth Sanjay.

The final day saw Pot-pourri and Word Games being held for facchas. The competition spanned a whole gamut of fun events such as Dumb Dumb Dumb C, Grand Canyon, Anagram Dumb C, Rebus Puzzles, Word Games and Etymology Questions. After a two hour mish-mash of questions on things ranging from women’s swimsuit to Yoda in a variety of formats, the event was won by S Aditya, Achyuth Sanjay and Ashok Kumar K.

The Lit Week was a welcome R&R for the facchas, as they commence their grueling one-year stint known as PGP-I. Prizes worth Rs. 12,000 were taken home over the course of the week and it  also gave the wordsmiths, orators and trivia enthusiasts the opportunity to showcase their unique talents. 

Padmashree Prof. Anil Gupta speaks!

In a bid to encourage the development of leadership amongst the new entrants , the Entrepreneurship club of IIM A recently organized a talk by Padmashree Prof. Anil Gupta. The talk was meant exclusively for the first years as they prepare for the taxing year ahead. It was done keeping in mind that the students remain motivated throughout the year for pursuing their ideas and getting  a step closer to realizing their dreams. Says Dr. Punit G, co-ordinator of the Entrepreneurship club of IIM Ahmedabad who also has a start up in the pet industry, ”The opportunity to study in IIM A is achieved once in a lifetime and anyone with a flair for innovation and creativity needs to make the most of it.”

Prof Anil Gupta is the founder of honey bee network, wherein honey bee is a metaphor signifying the extraction of knowledge and facilitation of communication for ensuring a proper channel for diffusion of innovations in the informal sector. He is also a member of National Innovation council which is chaired by the advisor to Prime minister. His extraordinary feats include establishment of Soceity for research and initiatives for sustainable technologies and institutions(SRISTI,1993) ,Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network(GIAN,1997), and setting up National Innovation Foundation(NIF,2000) for promotion of grassroot innovations and its conversion into viable products.

The talk by Prof Gupta entailed differentiation of leaders and managers and how this place gives one the opportunity to be a thought leader and not just a manager in the two year stint that each one has. Prof. Anil Gupta quotes “Experience is like a rear-view mirror. It tells us the road that we have traveled so far, but not where we should go”. He went further to elucidate the significance of new ideas and how important it is to do what you believe in and how it is ultimately up to a person to either look for jobs oneself or be the one who is in a position to create jobs for others. The students were infused with ideas about how to push their entrepreneurial streak and at the end of the talk they left all excited about following their dreams and realizing their true potential.Ankit Sisodia a first year at PGP says,”   I still haven’t decided what I would do after PGP in Management. I am looking for clues and hints everyday to make that decision. Prof. Gupta’s talk gave me one big clue to help me take that decision. The clue was that the work should be effortless.”