LinkedIn's Classmates Rocks

We all like to know what our yesteryear classmates are currently doing? - Especially to understand whether we are doing better or worse than them. Personally, I was looking for answers to these questions

1. Where does IIM Indore students actually settle?
2. How many actually went to a finance role?
3. Which is the company that has most of IIM Indore Alumni?

Thanks to the new linkedIn Feature - Classmates, it is possible to know the answers to these questions with a single click of the mouse. Please find below a few details about IIM Indore Alumni. Though Cognizant was not a surprise, it was a surprise to see Business Development being the dominant roles of most of the alumni. 

Screenshot of My LinkedIn Classmate Page

Can read a detailed article about the feature @ http://blog.linkedin.com/2011/10/19/linkedin-classmates/

IIM Indore's Baffling Move to Undergraduate Segment

Disclaimer: I am an IIM Indore '08 Alumni. 

When IIM Indore decided to offer a five year Integrated Program in Management (BBA+MBA equivalent), I was baffled

1. 5 Year Integrated Program will never attract the best talent. Without the best talent, placement numbers are never going to be good
2. Handling & Managing a 17 or 18 year old kid out of the school is a skill in itself. And IIM Indore (a post graduate institute) currently does not have this skill. 
3. Not sure whether IIM Indore's currently faculty bandwidth would allow it. 

So it was no surprise to read Times of India article on undergraduate students (who were offered a seat for 5 year Integrated Program in Management @ IIM Indore) being baffled by IIM Indore notice to pursue a distance program on the side.

The story underlines that IIMs are not empowered to give degrees to academic institution. As an alumni, this was not a surprise to me. That is why the programs are not called MBAs but rather PGPs.

But suggesting the candidates to pursue a three year distance education program is taking it a little too far. Sad to see IIM Indore going the IIPM way.. :(

Goodbye IIM Indore

IIM Indore is one of the few places on earth where only a few could resist falling in love with the place. And a single post is surely not enough to share the fun and amazing experiences that one has in the hillock that never sleeps. In 2 years, there were few things that amazed me, a huge number of things that I am going to miss and an infinite number of things that i loved about the campus.

IIM Indore is a campus where things/people can never stop amazing you. Once I landed in IIM Indore, the first thing that amazed me was the wonderful, down-to-earth, intelligent people you get to meet in the campus. And the people never stopped amazing me in my 2 years there. And I can vouch that most of them is going to make big in their lives.

After living in IIM Indore for 2 years, everybody would have their unique hundreds of things that they are going to miss. My List would include Late night Maggis, Alive at 4am Work Style, Always 'Busy' GTalk Status,Thousands of movies and Hundreds of Serials on ODC, CPs, Late night walks, Heated Arguments on Ordinary Issues and Boring Professors. Hmm.... But the thing I most loved about this place is living in a planet pre-occupied with itself and totally disconnected from the world.

Now the time has come to move on. Good Bye! IIM Indore - Place where i came to know my love for Blogging and Place a boy Became a Man! Good Bye.

P.S: Can read 'Farewell Posts' of other IIM Indore Students here, here, here and here.

Placement '08 @ IIM Indore

Campus Placements are always a great experience in anyone's lives. It is the time when you are unsure of your future and have a thousand of questions in your heart - whether I will be placed? If so, where? What will be my salary?, etc.. Studying in an elite institute like IIM Indore has an advantage that you can be sure about getting a job offer. Only Question would be whether you will get your dream profile in the dream company with a dream salary.

But this time, the situation was different. With Sub Prime Crisis and precarious state of US Economy, rumors were flying around that a huge number of Investment Banks & foreign companies(Day Zero Companies) were not going to turn up in IIM - Ahmedabad, IIM - Bangalore and IIM - Calcutta. So we were worried whether this would have any cascading effect on IIM Indore. But thanks to an awesome work done by IIM Indore Placement committee, most of the students were happy with the offers they received.

Highlight of the Placement '08 in IIM Indore:

• 42% growth in the number of participating companies (Batch Size increased by 50% this year)
• 20% growth in Average Domestic Salary over Last year [Driven by the huge increase in Average salary of Marketing Offers - Highest Ever in the Campus]
• Highest Domestic Salary offered - 26 Lakhs p.a. [44% Increase compared to last year]
• About 50% of the batch accepted offers from the Banking and Financial Services.
• Among the different sectors, Average Salary of IT companies was the lowest [With US Recession looming around, all the IT companies were pretty cautious]
• Top 50 offers had an average salary of INR 18 Lakhs per annum [International offers may have been included in calculating this]
• Average Salary of accepted offers - INR 13.07 Lakhs per annum [Here too, International offers may have been included]

To read the complete report, Click IIM Indore - Final Placement Report 2008.

IIM Indore in its 10 years of existence has surely achieved some stupendous growth and recognition in the Indian Corporate. This year's Placement stands testament to the fact that IIM Indore can attract top notch placement not only during the boom years but also when things are not going its way.

Disclaimer: All the facts and numbers are taken from IIM Indore's Placement report. Hope you know that the placement report of all the B-Schools have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

When Words Fail You....

No words can describe the sorrow the IIM - Indore family has gone through in the last 3 days. Two of our beloved friends - Nitesh & Neha are not with us any more. Thomas Campbell, a Scottish Poet once said,

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die."

Though the choral river may have taken them from us , it would never take them from our hearts. Nitesh & Neha, You will always be living in our hearts.

In News
http://creativenits.blogspot.com/2007/08/when-hopes-died.html
http://nishantzworld.blogspot.com/2007/08/memories.html

Death leaves a heartache no one can heal, love leaves a memory no one can steal.

~From a headstone in Ireland

Sambhar Night @ IIM Indore

To explain Sambhar Night, I have to travel back a year down in my memory lanes...

Flashback. zhig..

It was the first time that I have been outside TamilNadu for such a long time. That too, Indore being a God forsaken place, did not offer much to a foodie. And one month into IIM Indore, my mouth has started watering on just hearing the names of the South Indian Dishes i grew up with - Idli, Dosa, sambhar, rasam, etc. Then one fine day, PGP2 guys got the wisdom and decided to take us-PGP1 to a Tamil Mess - SICA around 20kms from IIM Indore... They said it is a tradition at IIM Indore among tamils..

That day I understood, how simple & common food that u grew up with can become the 'Amirtham'[Elixir in tamil] of your life. I still remember the fulfilment i had after the meals that made me look double my size.

Flashback Over.. Back to Colour Screen..

And the tradition continues... Sambhar Night 07' took place on July 7. And another batch of IIM Indorians got to savour the taste of amazing Tamil Food at SICA, Indore.

IIM Indore rocks 'as usual' in the International arena

One of the good things about international competitions is that you get to compete with the best in the world and know your position vis-à-vis the rest of the world. L'Oreal e-strat Challenge is one such event.

Tit-Bits About L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge:

L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge is one of the world's biggest online business simulations. This international competition is open to undergraduate and MBA students in their final two years of university or business school. In its first six editions, the L’Oréal e-Strat Challenge has brought together over 132,000 students from 2190 schools representing 125 countries.

The International Finalist teams, the top undergraduate and MBA team of each zone win an all expenses paid trip to Paris to compete for the first place! The two most strategic, professional and convincing teams will win a trip to the destination of their choice worth 10,000€ !

IIM-Indore @ L'Oreal e-Strat Challenge 7:
This time around, there was an enthusiastic participation from IIM-Indore with around 40 teams participating in this esteemed international event. It is the not the participation but the achievement of the IIM-Indore teams that is worth a mention. Listing down a few:

• 3 of the top 8 teams in the end of the semi-finals in MBA category were from IIM-Indore [8 teams qualify for the finals, with the 'Only one team from each Zone' rule ensuring that only one IIM Indore team qualifies.. :-( ] Link : See Page No:24 in the pdf file - 'Top 20 MBA Teams'
  
• An IIM Indore team, Gothic Trinity leads the whole pack as they move to the finals on 18 April 2007
  
• Top 3 Share Price Index(Simulation Score) were reached by IIM Indore teams in MBA category [ Link : Final Results - MBA category : A PDF file]

With the whole heart, I wish & believe that 'Gothic Trinity' team would come back with this year title.

Personal Comments:
An interesting fact is that not all the 3 teams were from PGP-2. One of the teams, Bizzbeez comprised of all PGP-1 members (Robin, Sreeram & Sajeev). Next year, they would get another shot at this event! Though this game is essentially a strategy game, a lot of marketing is also involved. Personally I learnt more 'Marketing' from this game than from my 'Marketing - I' & 'Marketing - II' courses.

To read about the performance of IIM Indore in the last year's L'Oreal e-Strat Challenge click 'IIM Indore in L'Oreal's e-Strat Business Challenge 6'

P.S - 'Tit-Bits About L'Oréal e-Strat Challenge' is an excerpt from 'What is e-Strat Challenge?"

Clash of Titans - IIM Indore

With the whole campus left to PGP-I after the farewell of 2007 Batch of IIM-Indore, the sportscom decided to come up with an inter section sports meet - 'Clash of Titans' to prove that we are not only nerds but can play ball too. The following sports were shortlisted to find out the best section among the three

• Basketball
• Volleyball
• Cricket
• TT
• Badminton
• Football

Before the sports matches got started, all the experts were of the same opinion that the games would be a walkover for Section B and the only dispute was in how much Rakesh would prove a thron in their path. Alas! they forgot that there is an all rounder in Section A - Girish Nair.

With a great crowd turn-out, the volleyball matches kicked off the event. [To know more about volleyball matches in 'Clash of Titans' please click 'Volleyball in Clash of Titans']

BasketBall - Section B & C tied for the first place sharing the points with Section A losing all its matches

Rakesh's Special Jump(Observe the distance between the guys fighting for ball & their shadows)

Cricket - Here none of the other sections could match with the strong team that Section B fielded. Section C took the second place with Section A ending up last again

TableTennis - Section A proved that not only your talent but also your mental strength - calmness and composure matters in sports especially when both the players are equally matched.

Swapnil after a tightly contested game

Football - Before this event started, most of us were sure that Section - B fielding players who play more football than even academic activities would win the football matches hands down. But a Surprise again was waiting for them! Solid & ferocious defense by AKB combined with talented forwards ensured that Section A walked over with both the football winner title and inter Section Sports Matches title

Section-A FootBall Team

Badminton - With the winners getting decided even before the badminton matches got over, the badminton matches lost steam in the halfway. Section C won the event with Section A coming second

Few Personal Observations:

• High turnout in most of the matches[even at boring games like TT] was a surprise
• After a year full of networking and making friends, it was fun to watch most of us fighting it out for their respective Sections. [Should have more events of these type during the first term itself]
• Certain unexpected events in 'Tug of War' made sure that it will be the most remebered game even though there was no points allocated to this event.

Jaydeep Singh putting all his soul, strength & spirit to pull the rope

Photos Courtesy - Vignesh, PGP-2

VolleyBall in 'Clash of Titans'

Sports Movies (however bad they were) have always been my favorites. The fact that even the underdogs/unknown can beat the favorites in any given day has attracted me like a magent to sports movies . Added to this my zilch participation in any sports event made sure that the emotions that a sports player undergoes enthralls me - anytime, anywhere.

So when the 'Clash of Titans - Inter Section Sports Meet' was declared, I was personally expecting 2 weeks of unadulterated fun. But never did I think that I would be participating in a game. But call it fate or luck, I ended up in the Volleyball team of Section - 'A'. It was one hell of experience that I am surely going to carry for the rest of my life.

’Clash of Titans - 2007’ had a great start with the First Volleyball game between Section A Vs Section B turning to be an absolute thriller. In Set 1, we (Section A) were comprehensively beaten by Section B with Abhishek, Kristoff, Amaresh combining beautifully for them. But by second set, we were able to exploit some weak spots in their game and won the second set. If anybody has expected the third set to be a nail biting one, it turned out to be much more. To make the story short, we found our Midas touch in the last minutes winning the set and the game. Aided by some injuries, Rest of the volleyball matches turned out to be a walk over for us. The only interesting part was that our Section proving that even Mcgrath has to learn sledging from us.

Now the good part - I walked with a cool 500 rupees for just standing idly and letting the other five players play their game. :-)

P.S - I know this is not an Olympic win to rave about so much but still this is an experience that I would never forget.

Holi @ IIM-Indore

Being a South Indian means you are only exposed to soft 'Holi' where at most a few colour powders were sprinkled on your face and dress. But now in IIM-Indore, as a 2008 PGP Batch we have a few traditions to live up to. Hearing senior's narrations and reading from super senior's blog, My expectations for the Holi celebrations were running high.

Tearing up T-shirts(only boys'!!!!), painting whole hostel blocks with colours, Rolling up people in the 'holi' water pool, Drenching them in mud pool, Bath in coloured waterfalls. It was all i expected to be. Hope the photos conveys the fun we had.

Body Skating in 'Holi' Water Pool

Mud Bath

Traditional IIM-Indore 'Holi' Photo 2007

Hmm.. Another year passes by and another Holi celebrated in this Planet-i. Another South Indian comes to know the ecstasy of 'Holi'.

Photos Courtesy: Asha Anju, PGP-I

Life at Planet-i

Planet-i, an IIM Student.. Now in the campus which is a dream for thousands of students around the country. Have been here for around 4 months. So i think it is the time to take a look back and analyse how the campus has been to me. If you are expecting some stuff about the professors/placements, sh sh sh sh sh.. i am not allowed to talk about them outside. So Ground rules decided. Here Goes my experience in Planet-i.

After getting the admit, there were a lot of mails flying from the seniors to the students giving 'gyan'[hehe.. i know a few Hindi words.] to juniors. Now thinking back i dont remember any of those question.. Except this one. "Is there milk in the canteen?".. And the one page reply to that mail.. Good old days.. Having nothing to do.. Spending the whole day reading mails that used to clock atleast 100 per day..

Then came the time to pack your bags and to move to Indore. After spending more than 2 days in travel, reached the campus with fear, expectations and questions. Lots of them.. Whether i will be able to survive in this campus?.... Whether a person from a place which most of the people do not know will be accepted?.. Whether i will be able to make friends in the campus?.. Whether i will be able to find a church nearby?.. Whether i, a person who does not even 1-10 numbers in Hindi would be able to live in the Hindi heartland?.. And whether i can survive only with chappatis?......

[Note: The story will continue in the next post.. Found out finally that post it immediately when you feel like posting.. If you wait that you will sit one day and fine tune the whole thing. It will be never be posted.. ]

I am in IIM - Indore

For the people who do not know me, i am now studying in IIM - Indore. After reading the blogs of lots of people i know, i decided that i would again start writing the blog. [Earlier taken the decision that the blogs are just a waste of time]. But now with no other major work to do, i have decided to start blogging. Now time to say good bye...

Will never vote for Flies

Fly - This insect until now in my life has been just a two-winged insect... Not to be worried about much or even cared about.. But in these days, these insects have now made me to change my decision.
Here goes my story. As i start spotting a lot of flies near the mess, i thought this is something that is restricted to areas near to the mess.. Also they are attracted by the leftovers of the eggs and other things that are used to bathe the birthday baby.
Yesterday, after coming from the class, saw 10 0r 15 flies inside my closed room.. Thought o.k. it is not a problem. They can be easily driven away. But to be my surprise, these insects are good at dodging away from the well-aimed shots taken by me. If i keep my room open, there are more number of flies eagerly awaiting for their chance to have a darishan of my room.. Just coming to the conclusion that i can do nothing about them, even if they come and sit in my face, i slept.
Next morning, went eagerly to our QT professor's class.. Expecting a good sleep.. But alas, there were more than five flies eagerly awaiting for the students to come. Don't know why they have this attraction[atleast i look attractive in their eye!!!!...] to me, started their time of rest in my body.. Auch! The whole class was wasted to dodging of them... And missed a good sleep.. Would have loved to continue "The Adventures of Robin and Flies".. But have to catch the sleep missed in the QT class.........