Opera at ASB, Coimbatore

HR - Future and Challenges

Prof. Madhuri Menon is the CEO of Amaya Management Consultants, Chennai. She gave us an overview of the HR scenario in the current corporate world.She started the session by giving us a bird’s eye view of India. The total population of India as per census of 2011 is 1.21 billion, which is equivalent to total population of US, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan put together!And the good news is that by 2020 in India there would be around 40 million new jobs generating an annual revenue of $200 billion. 

Now the question is how do we meet this demand for skilled and qualified people?

Madhuri Ma'am enlightened us more on this point by showing some statistics on employment scenarios. Nationwide employability study - 2012 done by MeriTrac and MBAUniverse.com has concluded that only 21% of MBA graduates are ‘employable’ whereas the previous study by MeriTrac of 2007 had placed this figure at 25%. Some of the hiring highs and lows in July 2012 were as follows

• ITES, Telecom, Insurance – witnessed an increase in hiring of 4- 8%. However, this increase is less by 12%, 18% & 35% as compared to pre-recession period.
• ITES, BPO professionals – increase in demand.
• Project management, HR, marketing and ITsoftware – dip in hiring.

The data she showed was from “Hindu Opportunities” dated 29^th August 2012.

Having set the context she took us to the changing scenarios in HR. She told that there are many changes around which are quite visible. Over the past few decades changes have been noticed in employee profile. The age of the knowledge worker is changing. There is more youth coming forward to take over the corporate world. The expectations of both – the “management” and the “workmen” are not stagnant; they are always dynamic in nature.

Ma’am threw a light on what challenges does the current generation face? She asked whether   the  choice of specialization is based on market demand or a better understanding of options within a specialization and one’s own skills, interests and competencies?

HR is all about people and a lot more. It is not at all a glamorous field. A HR does take care of many things, right from the climate of the organization to motivating people, from the culture of the company to an employee’s passion.  All this done by various processes like Personnel management,Industrial relations, Organizational development (OD),Organizational behavior (OB) and Training & development

As a concluding note we were told the best and the worst case scenarios in HR practices. The Best case scenario in HR practice comprises of Tatas,Infosys, TCS, Wipro and the worst case scenario in HR practice has Manesar, Maruti case, Pricol case.

Careers in Finance for MBA grads

                   

                   

The session on “Careers in Finance for MBA grads” by Mr.VijayaRaghavan on September 1, 2012 turned out to be a master class in Finance for me, Aarathy Jayakrishnan . Being a Finance aspirant, it helped me get a clear picture of Finance and its various divisions. During the session Mr.Vijayaraghavan explained Corporate finance, Financial services and Investment services in very simple terms. Corporate finance includes Investment and Financial functions which deal with obtaining money for investment. Financial services comprise Commercial banking which is essentially sourcing and deploying merchant banking which involves broking and Consulting. A valuable tip given by him was to identify one’s industry of interest and start accumulating knowledge in it through the reading of newspapers and business journals. He assured us that doing so would help us develop our domain knowledge to a great extent and improve our performance during the time of recruitment. He also addressed the problem of MBA graduates finding it difficult to get into corporate finance and gave us a few suggestions on how to tackle it effectively. These included the need for high level of personal ethics, passion for numbers, attention to details, ability to acquire and soak information, a total understanding of the global market, the ability to network with bankers, peers and detect frauds. A very interesting fact which came up during the session was that Engineers and mathematicians have contributed the most to the field of Finance. Through this fact, he assured us that our UG background is immaterial and that analytical skills, problem solving skills and common sense are all that mattered. He also emphasized on the importance of pursuing high level certifications like CFA along with our MBA’s, which would open the doors of Corporate finance for us. On the whole, I feel that we, as first years, are lucky to attend this session which gave us a complete overview of finance at such an early stage of our course.    
  
                                                                              By Aarathy Jayakrishnan (Team Colloquia Member)

The serial entrepreneur - Amit Agnihotri

Amit Agnihotri  is a serial entrepreneur, academician and marketing expert all rolled into one. His vision is to see India as No 1 global destination for management talents and skills, and Triumph MediaTech & MBAUniverse.com as a catalyst in the process.
Soon after his MBA from MDI Gurgaon, he served the corporate sector working at World’s leading companies. In 2000, Amit co-founded 100 people strong exchange4media Group which today owns many media brands including exchange4media.com, Pitch Magazine and Impact, Reality Plus, and Franchise Plus. He is strongly driven by the motto,” Life is a marathon, not a 100 meter sprint”!

He kick started the session with the statistics revealing the reduction in the number of CAT takers to 16.6% from 2008-2011.  After about an hour’s discussion, we were able to appreciate the reasons that were cited for the dwindling demand for MBA seats.  The demand has reduced drastically due to the tremendous increase in the number of MBA colleges.  Also, the economic slowdown has spread its tentacles wide leading to recession and unemployment!

Another reason could be, that the , banking sector has become the most sought after recently, as cracking bank exams appear to be relatively easier.  Most of us still believe that it s a typical 8 hour job and is less stressful. Sadly, that is not the truth!

Only 21% of the MBAs are employable!  Scary that sounds, doesn’t it??  Isn’t that a subtle hint to groom ourselves effectively??  Well, let’s rise to the occasion and make sure that we don’t fall under the “21%” category!! 

How many of us have noticed the patterns of MBA entrance exams like CAT, XAT, MAT, GMAT, etc? As a manager, we need to posses problem solving and analytical skills without which the very purpose of business isn’t served. That‘s where reasoning skills play a major role! Facts n figures have become indispensable in today s world.  Every statement that we make needs to be justified with data that can be validated and quantified; and without the ability of being able to play with numbers, this cannot be done!  Last but not the least, in order to put our messages easily across cultures; we ought to have good verbal skills. This is precisely why we are gauged in these three core areas.

He was kind enough to let us plunge into his world of experiences, where we came to know about what motivated him to become an entrepreneur, the challenges that he faced, the developing phases of his business and many other interesting incidents in his journey of life.

We were touched by his passion for Advertising Management that drove him to the extent of travelling with Mr.Boge to Delhi every time after his lecture hour at MDI Gurgaon.  Knowledge that comes from books is nowhere when compared to experience! It is with this thought in mind that he was motivated to travel with his lecturer so that he gains hands on experience in the field of advertising.  It is from such inspiring people that we learnt as to how passion matters more than the salary! Imagine the gut level that he must have possessed to brush aside the 18000 offer at hand for a 6000 pay package just because he liked it?)!It left most of us thinking as to how many among us would chose the path that he did?

He made us feel at ease even when sharing his attempts of failure and as to how he dealt with them with an impeccable spirit of perseverance and positive attitude. There were days when he had to skip food and work to earn his bread barely to make both ends meet.

I would love to share this quote at this juncture “If you want to reach a level that no one has reached, you must do something that no one has ever done”.

He ended with a note saying “quiet introspection is extremely valuable”. If one can figure out answers to to questions like :

Who am I?

Why am I here?

What is my passion?

And is quite successful in answering them, then there is nothing that can stop him from achieving his goals. So, my dear folks, let’s roll up our sleeves and start looking inwards to become better managers!

                                                                Written By Nirupama N(Team Colloquia Member)

Steve Jobs - leadership model

“While some see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”

We study in organizational behavior about Leadership. The qualities that an ideal leader should possess in order to be successful. Today we had a session where we saw Leadership in a completely different light.

Professor Gael McDonald, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Business and Law), Professor - School of Management and Marketing from Deakin University Australia walked us through “Leadership lessons” by connecting it to the man who personified it all – Steve Jobs.

She opened the presentation by showing the now famous logo of “The Bitten Apple” only that the bitten part had the face of Steve Jobs inscribed in it. That said it all. The life of the man who captured the imagination of corporate houses around the world was going to be discussed in a whole new perspective.

 She told the audience that there are “14 keys to success” namely Focus, simplify, When Behind, Leapfrog, Put Products Before Profits, Bend Reality, Stay Hungry and Stay Foolish to name a few. Each quality was explained with something that Jobs had showcased during his tenure with Apple and Pixar. 

One of the most striking concept was 'Leap-Frog'. Steve jobs, immediately after the enormous success of the i-pod released the i-phone into the market. Now the i-phone with all the features of the i-pod plus more took the market by storm. Hence by self-cannibalizing one of their own most successful products, Apple prevented outside players from eating their market share. This was one of the best strategies ever.

While mentioning the qualities that are required for leadership, Prof. McDonald highlighted the importance of keeping things simple. She recalled an incident where Jobs met one of the founders of Xerox for making a mouse that had only a single button instead of three.

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

Many such incidents were shared with an enthralled audience. A thought provoking session came to an end by giving the sales figures and the profits earned by Apple Inc in the first quarter of 2012.

 These facts struck a chord with us. The concept of Leadership was portrayed through the life of the man who transformed a sick and ailing company into the world's most valuable publicly traded company in 2011. The session left us all with one thought i.e, to

“Think Different”

                                                           By Nikhil P, Rahul Sukumaran (Team Colloquia Members)