The chanakya july 2013

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1 The Chanakya, July 2013
he eNewsletter, mbauniverse.com dated 4 May 2013, has shame!!What would it say about the credibility of a B-School which
Thighlighted one critical and one curious aspect, as well as one changes its tune in adverse circumstances? KIAMS has always
conundrum,oftheMBA/ PGDM reality. maintained that we will deliver good academics and, armed with
that, the student should go out and do battle in the placement arena.
1) The critical aspect: 'Placement no longer a guarantee even in The Institute seamlessly moves from the leading partner in
Top B-schools' academics, to a supporting partner in placements. Let no one read
The article makes a big issue of the fact that many top B-Schools this statement, or pluck it out of context, as an abrogation of the
have conducted their convocation without a placement report.To my placement KRA; read this as the Institute's guiding principle. In
mind, a convocation is part of an academic process, while support that we are not badly out-of-step, I quote again from the
placements is sequenced after the academic process. That industry article an eminent academician (who I respect): “B-schools are
and institute reality has made these two processes run parallel in meant for creation, dissemination and application of knowledge,
part, is acceptable. But the conclusion from this adjustment that both therefore the academic strength of a B-school capable of taking this
processes should coincide is artificial. Hence my amazement that motto forward should be the criterion for students and the placement
one feels inadequate when a convocation is conducted before reports,”
placements are completed. At KIAMS we have always conducted
the convocation in March, at the end of the academic process. But 3) The Conundrum: While MBA Aspirants use B-school
our Placementprocess continues till May of the year.There are many Placement reports as one of the major criterion while selecting
companies which do conduct their recruitment beyond March. It is a theirMBAProgramme, placement 2013 season leaves them a bit
normal belief that the early bird gets the worm, but one forgets the confused
late bird. And when worms abound, the late bird can also have a I empathise with the student. Barring a sane voice here and there,
pick! I have personally experienced how the artificial anxiety of they have all along been led to believe that once they pay their fees,
'placement before convocation' destabilizes the academic process. their next step is placements (almost Pavlovian!). But what is the
Hence it gladdened my heart to read that B-Schools are 'continuing confusion? Is it that placements are poor this year? Will the
rolling placement to place all their students', despite the caveat that explanation of 'slowing economy' not satisfy them? My feeling is
the situation is due to 'the cautious approach of recruiters in a 'No'. In good times, B-Schools had puffed their chests and claimed
slowing economy'. I sincerely hope that even when the economy credit wholly, without pointing out that they were living in good
recovers,thesanenessofseparatingthetwoprocesseswillremain 'economic' times. They were Gods! Who can therefore blame the
aspirant when it suddenly dawns that their God has feet of clay! The
2) The Curious aspect: B-schools argue for 'Academic strength' 'slowing economy'reasonwouldactuallysound asanexcuse.
and not 'Placements'
I would like to quote here an amazing sentence from the article 'With It would confuse the aspirants to be told now (ref a quote in the
the placement scenario losing its sheen at top B-schools, the feeling article) “many B-schools published fudged (placement) data which
is sinking in at B-schools as well. The B-schools are arguing that is not reliable”. Another blow to the credibility of B-Schools!
academic strength of a B-school should be the yardstick for MBA KIAMS, however, should pose the least credibility challenge to the
aspirants to choose their MBA programme and not the placement aspirant in these tough time because (i) We always had our
data.' What does this say about B-Schools?! But for this wake-up perspective of Academic and Placement processes right (ii) All our
call of poor placements, would B-Schools have continued to PlacementDataisauditedandtransparentlypostedontheIPRS site
promote themselves in a way that would put Placement Agencies to
!
earReaders,
DA very warm welcome to Batch 16 and Batch 15 who have come
back with their learning's from Summer Internship Project and
getting ready to start their second innings in the new academic
session.
“Social media spark a revelation that we, the people, have a voice,
and through the democratization of content and ideas we can once
again unite around common passions, inspire movements, and ignite
change.”With these lines,Team Chanakya welcomes you to the July
issue of the year 2013. This issue focuses on “Dominance of
online/socialmedia”.
that has been embraced by millions of people around the world.
Sites such as Facebook
and Twitter have been hailed as revolutionising way of sharing
information. The world hailed the arrival of a new era of political
protests: the 'Twitter revolutions' wherein the activists post their
opinionsonthecurrentcriticalissueandproteston-line.
This issue of Chanakya includes several articles that touch upon
various online and social media trends and how it would continue to
influence our lifestyle. So, in the beginning of the new academic
year Team Chanakya wishes you all a great success and glory. With
high hopes and spirits let us all welcome this opportunity with full of
thingsthatneverwere.
This is a time of great changes. Online social networking has
exploded in popularity over the last decade. In just a few years, HappyReading!
social media has grown from a novelty into a communication system TheEditorialTeam.
The
term social media can be described the “way people share ideas,
content, thoughts, and relationships online.”
From the Director
Editorial

Internet - Changing the way we work
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day in the life of an average working adult – Wake up by 7 am, Files and software not available outside the office network – This is
Aget ready within an hour, hurry through breakfast in 5-10 the most easy to fix. The current day network access technologies
minutes and head out to work. The first thing the person is greeted and tools allow access to the files, softwares and systems in a very
by, is the horrible traffic. After commuting in the traffic in secure manner and it is just a matter of having the right setup and
sweltering heat for more than an hour, she reaches barely in time for tools.
the 10 am meeting. She is already drained before she starts her work!
After a challenging and hectic day at work, she wraps up at 7 pm. Access to these files and software being very slow from home – The
She has to go through the same or even worse traffic before she can advent of affordable and reliable broadband has relieved this
get home at 8.30 pm. Now, she is completely drained to spend any bottleneck to a huge extent. The cost of a 10 mbps broadband in a
time on any of her other interests and the only thing in her mind is to city like Bangalore is lesser than the cost of commuting 10 kms to
get to sleep after dinner to be able to wake up in time the next day. andfroeveryday.
And, before she knows, a whole life has passed by without her
havingmadeadenton'thingstodobefore60'. Having to meet colleagues, clients and vendors – Effective audio
and video conferencing tools, in conjunction with high speed
Now picture this –Waking up at 7 am, hitting the gym or the pool for internet connection makes online interactions very effective. Most
a refreshing exercise/swim, spending a good one hour with of the global teams in the IT industry today would not have been a
family/kids and having a relaxed breakfast. And still being able to reality without such tools. We are just looking at an extension to the
make in time for the 10 am meeting, with 30 minutes preparation usage of these tools to between home-office as compared to office-
time to spare. Once done with work at 7 pm, be able to spend a client office.And in some cases, clients still want to have the human
couple of hours with friends/family or favourite pass-time, before touch-point and want to interact in person with the vendor. But that
dinner.And no hassles of traffic in the whole day. Doesn't this sound would change when the costs outweigh the benefits. For an instance,
nice? remote training, remote presentations, etc. are becoming more
preferred over flying down the trainer or consultant for the same due
This is already a reality for many a folks (mostly in IT sector), and tocostreasons.
could very well be the reality for employees in other industries too in
a few years. Telecommuting, more popularly known as 'Work from There are a lot of benefits to both employer and employee in such a
home' as a concept, is fast catching up and has been a blessing to setup. For starters, the employee gets more free time in her hand and
many people, that has made the above dream a reality. With the hence a better work-life balance. The employee works in an
advent of cheap broadband and a whole suite of online environment where she is most comfortable and hence is more
communication tools, one can setup a completely virtual office that creative and effective. The employee has the comfort of staying
does not require its employees to be physically present at the office close to the family the whole day and does not have to worry about
premises and be as effective, if not more effective and efficient in their well-being especially in cases where one of the members is
gettingthework done. unwell. A happier workforce is more efficient and hence the
employer benefits from this setup. And more importantly, the
Most of the white collar work in the current day environment is employer can hire the person without constraint of the hometown of
carried out through a computer and has minimal physical touch the prospective employee being different. This provides excellent
points like interaction with papers or instruments. A few sample opportunities for companies to tap into a nation-wide or even a
cases: A finance executive in the olden days had to work with global talent pool. And lastly there is a good cost saving associated
physical books of accounts, go through physical ledgers, bills, withareduced,lesssumptuousofficespace.
documents or reports. But, the same is now available on a computer
and most of the repetitive tasks are automated by the software. The The biggest challenge to make such a setup work successfully has
executive uses her brain for human decision making, and the inputs been the lack of trust from employers that the employees would
for those decisions are obtained from the computer. The recording work effectively from a remote location even when no one is
and implementation of the decision are done through the computer. monitoring, and equally, the lack of discipline from employees
An architect in the olden days had to work with drafters, drawings when they work in such a setup. Working from home requires a
etc. for most of the day apart from the time she was meeting with the strong disciplined approach from the employee to ensure that she is
client.Thesameisnow achievedthroughdesignsoftwares. putting in the same time and efforts that she would put in if she were
at office. Having a separate marked out office-space at home helps
This leaves us with the question that why people still continue in this aspect. On the employer part, there are tools that effectively
commuting to office for work. The answers are mostly, the monitor whether an employee is putting in the time and effort on the
electronic files and software are not available outside the office said work. These tools capture the screen image at random points in
network, access to the files and software is very slow from home, regular intervals and keeps track of keyboard and mouse activity as
havingtomeetcolleagues,clientsorvendors. well and report those to the employer (with the employee's consent
Mr. Srinath Gunasekaran
Online / Social Media

Comparative Performance of Domestic and Foreign Owned Firms:
Evidence from an emerging Market
Literature Review of Open Shop Scheduling Problems
of course). This serves as a measure to build the trust with the week, or to a set of trusted employees at first. They key is to setup an
employer that the employee is working on the given assignment, existing culture of effective work-from-home setup and they can
and it also helps build the discipline in the employee to focus on slowlyinductothersintotheprogramwhilemaintainingtheculture.
work withoutdistractions.
Telecommuting is getting more widely accepted in the IT industry
At the other end of the spectrum care must also be taken to ensure and is slowly catching up in education sector (online trainings,
that the work does not stretch for the whole day and eat into personal online classes etc.), and is being experimented in the healthcare
life, just because one has the ability to work for the whole day from sector too (online consultation). There have been cases of people
home. Care must also be taken to ensure that there is enough social working in vacation-work mode where they travel to different
interaction with friends, to fill the void created by lack of in-person countries and cities and continue working remotely from those
interactionatoffice. places. For the concept to catch up more, currently it is a culture shift
that is needed, rather than technology limitations; much like the
From past experience, telecommuting usually works best with initial resistance to outsourcing.Aworld with office-less companies
experienced employees than freshers. This is mainly because withaglobalwork-force,couldverywellbearealityverysoon
freshers require more frequent interactions to learn the ropes and
Mr. Srinath Gunasekaranneed to be given an environment where they do not hesitate to reach
VP of Developmentout to other colleagues. Having a remote work environment
Abyeti Technologies
hampers that a bit. Also, the experienced employees have a good
understanding of the culture and discipline required to get the work (The author is the VP of Development at Abyeti Technologies and works
done in a remote setup. That said, when the concept catches up more remotely with a global client team – most of the days from his home-office).
in the industry, it would make it easier to have everyone including
freshers work effectively from home. To introduce telecommuting,
companies can start with providing the option for a few days in a
!
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3
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The Chanakya, July 2013
paper on “
A ”, by Dr
was accepted for presentation at
SIBR Conference on Interdisciplinary Business and Economics
Research,2013inBangkok.
Abstract–
Comparative Performance of Domestic and Foreign two points of time 2002-03 and 2011-2012 using four measures of
Owned Firms: Evidence from an emerging Market . V economic performance. These include operating profit margin
S Pai and Mr. Chetan V. Hiremath (OPM), net profit margin (NPM), return on net worth (RONW) and
asset turnover ratio (ATR).We employed theWELCHTest (W-test),
Bonferroin post-hoc test as well as the Linear DiscriminantAnalysis
technique. Our finding is that all three groups of firms performed at
par
Dr. V S Pai, ProfessorWe studied the performance of 45 companies, 15 each from three
Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Harihar
groups of firms namely, foreign subsidiaries, domestic private, and
public sector companies. Our intent was to determine which of these Mr. Chetan V. Hiremath, Sr. Lecturer,
displayed superior economic performance. We analyzed data for Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Harihar
!
-Dr. V S Pai, Mr. Chetan V. Hiremath
paper on “ jobs, minimization of sum of weighted tardiness of all jobs,
A ”, by Dr minimization of weighted sum of tardy jobs and miscellaneous
measures of the open shop scheduling problem. Within each
category, the literatureis further classified based on approaches used
and the contributions of researchers in the respective categories are
Abstract– presented.Attheend,directionsforfutureresearcharepresented
Dr. R. Panneerselvam, ProfessorThis paper discusses review of literature of open shop scheduling
Dept of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry
problem. First, the problem is classified as per different measures of University.
performance, viz. minimization of makespan, minimization of sum
of completion times of jobs, minimization of sum of weighted Mr. Ellur Anand, Sr. Lecturer
completion times of all jobs, minimization of total tardiness of all
Literature review of open shop scheduling
problems . R. Panneerselvam and Mr. EllurAnand was
sent to International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing
Technology.
Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Harihar
!
-Dr. R.Panneerselvam and Mr. Ellur Anand

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Introduction brandandotherproducts.
ince the beginning of the 1990s, the strategies Digital marketing is the practice of promoting products and services
S b y t o d a y ' s m e d i a a n d using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely,
telecommunication companies have led to increased relevant, personal and cost-effective manner. More dominating and
concentration within the industry. In part, this popularcomponentsare:
concentration can be explained by worldwide
deregulation and privatization trends. This, in turn, · SocialMedia
has contributed to a decrease in so-called natural · SearchEngineMarketing
monopoly structures. The digitalization and · MobileMarketing
convergence of information and communication · Branding&Design
technologies (ICT) has also had a significant impact · Emailmarketing
on media business strategy. In addition, the
development of digital and interactive technologies According to a digital survey-2013, today's consumers are now
has accelerated the erosion of the existing frontiers spending more time with online media than they are with traditional
betweenthemediaindustries(Peltier,2004). forms of media. Globally, social media and mobile internet usage
now accountsfor57%ofdailymediatime.
Gracie Lawson says that “Intelligent networking is
defined here as the use of media and communication Overall, consumers now spend an average of 10.7 hours a day with
technologies across various delivery platforms for all forms of media and 5.6 hours of that on digital. The trend to
unlimiteddigitalconnectionstoreachorfosterniche online is most marked in countries such as UAE and China, where
and broad-based connections whether business, total online time, which includes PC, tablet and mobile, takes up 7.3
educationlifestyleandmediainterests”. and6.1hours respectively.
With the advent of each new technological device, There are now well over 1 billion internet users around Asia out of
its invention, subsequent production and that 874 million of these people use social media and is reflecting
distribution process has been accelerating the desire 18% growth compared to last year. More than 10 million new users
for information and connectivity. We are living in an inAsia join Facebook every month which contributes to 50% of the
environment where everything is characterized with world's social media new users.There are more than 3 billion mobile
the time in which individuals and organizations are subscriptions in Asia which contributes to 81% of penetration.
driven by a need to know, connect, create and share, Researchers expected that there would be 1.4 billion smartphones
which is enhanced by the digital capabilities of will be activated in 2013. The number of mobile-connected devices
mediainthe21stcentury. willexceedtheworld's populationbythisyearend.
Internet gives access to a large base of audience who These statistics are encouraging the business to choose this as a
engage regularly in various activities of social medium for connecting, communicating, and serving to the
networking sites. The term social networking is customer. Social media has shown a smooth way to creating and
most often misunderstood only in terms of the attracting the target audience more economically in global
virtual forums where people can come, create slowdown.
communities, share their images and updates and
make friends. There are instead different types of Yogesh Bansal
social networking site ruling the internet world.
These includes blogs, social networks, social
bookmarks, media sharing, user generated contents,
micro-bloggingetc.
st
21 century–SocialEra
The debut of digital gadgets such as smart phones
and digital tablets have resonated across Organizations use Social media's like Facebook,Twitter to converse
communication and media industries to increase the with prospects, provide customer service and drive website traffic.
ways emerging digital technologies influence Social Media can rev up Lead generation, Branding, and
content delivery as well as behaviour of users. Engagement.
Companies like Apple, Samsung have responded
well to integrate mobile and tablet apps with their Social media is able to create attention rather buy attention of mass
e m p l o y e d
, founder and CEO, ApnaCircle.com says that
“Apart from social networking, professional networking has been
engaging the users. Professional networking sites are more popular
among young females and have the second highest average time
spent. It is also anticipated that the rate of growth in mobile usage
will exceed the growth in usage through personal computers for the
foreseeablefuture.”
- Prof. Vinay Bhushan
A world of social media – True mirror

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audience. Compared to the Traditional CRM, Social media is types of engagement” said Jacqueline Anderson, director of social
alwaysavailablewhenevertheywantit,needit. mediaandtextanalyticsatJ.D. Power andAssociates.
SocialmediaMethodology: Companies need to understand how their consumers use social
media and then develop a strategy that addresses their usage
Because social media is all about RELATIONSHIPS, It takes a lot of patterns. “If your customers want service and you're pushing
work to make it work for you. It is simple to communicate but there discount coupons out to them while ignoring their attempts to
will be lot of adverse effect on your brand if you are not able to tackle connect with you, you're going to end up with dissatisfied
ordeliverinrightway. customers”addedAnderson.
The study finds a correlation between overall satisfaction with a
company's social marketing efforts and consumers' likelihood to
purchase and their overall perception of the company. Among
highly-satisfied consumers (satisfaction scores of 951 and higher on
a 1,000-point scale), 87% indicate that the online social interaction
with the company “positively impacted” their likelihood to
purchase from that company. Conversely, among consumers who
are less satisfied (scores less than 500), one in 10 consumers indicate
that the interaction “negatively impacted” their likelihood to
purchasefromthecompany.
The study also finds that some industries are more successful than
others at implementing best practices into their social media
engagement strategies than others. When looking across industries,
the auto industry performs particularly well in both marketing and
servicing social media interactions, the only industry to do so. Other
industries performing well are wireless in social servicing
interactionsandutilityinsocialmarketinginteractions.
To deliver right, you should follow a methodology which guides the Companies that are focused only on promoting their brand and
management for opportunity and add value to the customer or brand. deals, or only servicing existing customers, are excluding major
The research says that27% of the brand is affected with social media groups of their online community, negatively impacting their
wherethemarketcapitalizationisjust18%. satisfaction and influencing their future purchasing decision.Aone-
pronged approach to social is no longer an option. Social media is
"The idea of getting the right person over the right time at the right huge for brands because people trust what their friends say more
opportunity and yield the right result was really important.”-Jeff than what a company says. Social marketing as well as word-of-
Schick,VPSocialSoftware mouth, blogging and buzz marking are shown to be extremely
effective.
Companies need to be well defined with Social media to achieve
success. Creating the culture of sharing should be the primary
objective. Create a platform where people are comfortable talking
and expressing themselves openly where each stakeholders can
support each other. Believe in creating Masses of (relevant)
Communication and not mass communication that has a one-size-
fits-all approach with KISS (Keep it Simple, Silly). Companies need
to have disciplined systems in place to communicate 24/7. The
system should be well equipped with defining the need and actions
else you will be trapped in to unnecessary controversies and
conflicts which can lead immediate brand damage in social
community.
Businesses can no longer adopt a trial-and-error approach to social
media as all-new research finds a link between social media and
business metrics such as consumers' likelihood to purchase or
interact with companies through leading social channels, according
to the J.D. Power and Associates 2013 Social Media Benchmark
Study,releasedrecently.
“While there are vast differences among age groups in the frequency
of servicing and marketing engagements, there is a consistency in
the impact on brand perception and purchase intent through both
Figure1:SocialMediaMethodology(EthinosDigitalMarketing)
The survey by AIMA, grouping of management professionals,
found that more than one-third (38 per cent) of respondents believe
that social media participation has improved their brand equity as
wellasstakeholderengagement.
Today's consumers are more active on social media than ever before,
and not surprisingly, many marketers are struggling to keep up. It
seems that, with an ever-evolving sea of data and technology,
marketers don't know where to start. Marketers are told what they
need to do, but no one's telling them WHY these tactics are
important or HOWto execute a campaign around them.TheWHYis
justasimportantastheWHATandWHERE.
In order to dominate, we have to remember the basics of social
media marketing and management. So let's get back to the basics:
1.OptimizeCampaign Performance
Most successful marketing campaigns running today have one thing
in common: they include consumer touch- points that cross multiple
channels. And in today's consumer landscape, the one channel you
cannotaffordtoignoreissocialmedia.
Build a social brand presence on Facebook by publishing Pages that
facilitate consumer interaction and then ask for that interaction.

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Offer Facebook fans and Twitter followers a reason to engage via on social media and work toward nurturing a positive brand
social channels and drive conversions with fan-gated promotions experience.
andcoupons.
Whatever content you decide to “pin” or “star,” make sure it's
One of the recent cases for social campaign of Oreo's 'Pride' was capable of enhancing your Facebook presence. Your network of
aimed at taking a stand on gay rights and showing their support to Facebook fans should find it interesting, relevant, and be eager to
the community. Not only did this make people get up and take notice engagewithyoubecauseofit.
but also strengthened a positive brand image for Oreo.The Result of
this campaign has increased the engagement and attracted the One of best example for this is ExactTarget -AUS based marketing
consumers. Their post generated 143,000 'Likes', close to 18,000 softwarevendor:
comments, and was subsequently featured as a success story in
manyleadingmarketingpublications ExactTarget Conference monitored Twitter and found a blogger
who was tweeting about the conference. The company decided to
2.GrowYourSubscriberListwith Facebook. surprisehim.On arrivaltotheconferencevenuehereceived:
Data collected via social media, combined with CRM and
behavioural marketing data, has proven to increase overall · Registeredbadge
campaign effectiveness. After all, the more you know about your · Surprisegift
consumers,thebetteryoucandeliverrelevant,timelymessages. · Hotelreservations
If you want consumer data, you have got to ask for it. So start by · Proposeditineraryfortheevent
promoting a branded lead form on Facebook that requests email
addressesalongwithbasicdemographicinformation. As the result of the constant monitoring the social media,
ExactTarget able to trace the loyal customer and rewarding the loyal
During the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII when a power outage customer. The delighted customer happened to be a prominent
at the Superdome caused some of the lights to go out for 34 bloggerwho spreadtheword andadded34%newcustomerbase.
minutes, the sandwich cookie's social media team jumped on the
cultural moment, tweeting an ad that read “Power Out? No 4.RemembertheMathematics
problem” with a starkly-lit image of a solitary Oreo and the caption,
“You can still dunk in the dark.” The message caught on almost We must get betterat analyzingand using data to createpersonalized
immediately, getting nearly 15,000 retweets (as of this writing) and and relevant messaging for our future and current customers. This
morethan20,000likesonFacebook. could be as simple as keeping track of names, addresses, and past
purchases via a spreadsheet. It could also be as complex as
In an environment where advertisers are spending nearly $4 million managing millions of different data points. Only the data relevant
to run a spot during the Big Game, having a brand respond in real- willsurvive.
time on social media is a clever way to reach people on smartphones
andcomputers. AddingMilestonestoyourFacebookTimelineisasimpleprocess.
Startbywritingdown yourmilestonesonasheetofpapers
Here are 5 ideas for adding milestones on Social medias likeWharton marketing professor Jonah Berger says that “Retweet is
Facebook,Twitter…much more engaged, it is suggesting that the audience is not only
processing this message but actively engaging with the message and
selecting the message to pass on to their friends. That said, is this · Describehow yourindustryhaschanged
going to sell more Oreos at the end of the day? Hard to tell. [But] It · Photo's oforiginalstaff/currentstaff
definitely makes the brand seem like a cleverer, more interesting, · Photos andstoriesofyourfirstofficeorvehicle
sharp brand. So in terms of brand equity this is as effective, if not · Featureyourmostloyalemployeeoremployees
moreeffective,thanjustshowinganotherSuperBowlad.” · Reprintofyouroriginalbrochurecoverorlogo
3.EngageLoyalCustomers by Using theTimeline Youcanmaketimelinefocusingyourbusiness:
In order for a brand to be successful on Facebook today, they must
· Dayinbusiness
see engagement from their fans. While it does require more strategy
· Officeand higher-quality content, it also provides a greater opportunity to
· Employee(s)engage with previously idle fans, turning them into customers and
· Customereventualbrandadvocates.
· Invoice
· News storiesGather your most engaging content and draw attention to it by
“starring” and “pinning” it to your Timeline. For your brand, this
Remember, that the lifeblood of any company is measured on ourmay include - Video footage, Commercials, Event promotions, and
ability to create happier customers. We are reaching the point inSpecialannouncements
social media where we must become more responsible with data and
measuringtheROI ofeverychannelUse Value-Add messaging to engage your customers. Ensure that
they get the most out of their like and/or purchase. Publish tips and
Prof. Vinay Bhushan
tricks that maximize the value of their engagement with your brand Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.
!

Effective Promotions – Paper Media vs. Social Media
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forthesamefigurestandsatroughly14.2%·
· According to popular site mashable.com the average time· Does itdeservetobeapartofmymarketingmix?
people spend on social media sites is around 7 hours per month.· Is socialmediapromotionexpensejustifiedintoday'sscenario?
Indians on the other hand spend a little more than 3 hours of their· Whichplatformwouldbestsuitmycompany'srequirement?
time on social media sites (which is more than 25% of their time· My business isasmallone.Willsocialmediahelpme?
online)
hese are perhaps some burning questions which have given
The paid circulations of newspapers around the world haveTmarketing gurus and marketing heads of big MNCs a couple of
continued to decline especially in US and more developed countries
sleepless nights in the recent past. The article here will try to explore
like Japan. India is now the most world's fastest-growing newspaper
the relevance of social media promotion strategy, how is it different
market. Between 2005 and 2009 the number of paid-for daily
from the traditional marketing strategies in terms of mode of
newspapers in the country increased by 44% to 2700. In 2008 India
operation as well as the power and reach it brings to the table which
overtook China to become the leader in paid-for daily circulation,
inturnwouldhelpus todevelopabetterinsightonthesequestions with110mcopiessoldeachday
Summing up it can be said that the reach of social media is growing
leaps and bounds. The penetration of print media is growing but the
rate is much slower. Moreover developed geographies that are
characterized by high spending and high consumerism are the hubs
ofsocialmedia.
Social media marketing refers to the process of gaining traffic or
attention through social media sites. Today when social media has
become an integral part of our life it seems obvious that the next
marketing revolution will be on social media platform. If today's
customer is contemplating to buy a product, he/she could just post it
on his social media profile page and invite his 'network of trusted
connections' to get feedback on the various options available and
their reviews - instantaneously. Hence, today's companies are also
realizing this insight to create communities around their products or
offerings, invite and encourage members to join them, and then
convert them into loyal customers and advocates The recent
attemptsbymarketeerstoconquerthisterritorythusseemobvious.
Marketeers are coming with all sort of promotional ideas to outwit
their opponents. With every inch and mm of traditional medium like
newspaper, magazines and television advertising already covered
and all possible efforts towards direct marketing already taken care
ofthenextbattlegroundformarketeerswillbesocialmedia
Well put simply the term social media refers to any site that enables
exchange of information and/or content through web to a large
target audience which is usually (but not restricted to) people known Theimageaboveclearlyshows how theprospectivecustomers
to the poster of the content. The content exchanged can range from may use these platforms for their business needs. Though social
simple text updates on micro blogging sites like twitter to videos media is still in its infancy especially in a developing country like
posted on video sharing sites like Youtube. Social media has Indiabutaboominthisfieldisinevitable.
followed the path of exponential growth in recent years engulfing
users to its fold in a virtual world which gives them a chance to
“CONNECT SHAREAND EXPRESS”.
Social media in today's world has evolved in a powerful medium of
The image on the left above gives us a rough idea about the main information dissemination. It has evolved into an essential tool of
social networking sites, their user count in US and the growth rate. word of mouth marketing something that has been a trusted part of a
Some facts and figures that show the importance of social media in marketeer's arsenal but in a virtual environment. However as long as
today'scontextareasfollows: the customer is ready to identify with the blogger or his online
contactdoesitreallymatter?
· Nearly 48% of US residents are on facebook. The world stat
Is socialmediaafad?
Promotiononsocialmedia
Socialmediaand itsimportance
Socialmedia:Afadoravitalpartofmediastrategy
Mr. Prafull Srivastava

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question.While facebook continues to withhold its position as the jack
of all trades businesses have found a much dramatic success when they
used a more appropriate medium. Zomato's Instragram competition,
Lipton Ice tea chill out campaign on Twitter and Share my Dabba
campaign by Mumbai's very own dabbawalas are some recent success
stories.
What these companies did right was they chose the right medium to
connect with their audience. Zomato for example was all about food
and there was no better way to connect with foodies than photos and
instagram was best at that.This strategy is similar to choosing the right
For those who argue that social media is a fad here are some magazine or right page to popularize your business when using a print
statistics campaign. Thus this too is a concept that is just an expansion of your
· FacebookhastoppedGoogleforweeklytrafficinUS printmediacampaign
· It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million,TVtook 13 and ipod
Social media however stands out from its paper counterpart when ittook 3 years. If they continue their hold on the public why will
comes to costs involved. A carefully crafted social media can helpnotsocialmediathatachievedthefeatinunderayear?
companies to get a lot of attention for as low as nothing. Even in case of· Youtube has become the second largest search engine next to
a paid service the cost is much less than the traditional media. This isgoogleonly
the reason that a lot of small businesses are turning to social media and· Pinterest the blue-eyed child of social media achieved a
havebeensuccessfulintheirendeavours.growth of 1037% something that has been never experienced
bybusiness community
· The attempts of IT biggies to march in the field of social
So while the above examples show the importance of social media inmedia marketing bears further testimony to the fact that it is
today's times the big question that remains is social media marketing
the next big thing. What else can explain Oracle's purchase of
self sufficient to promote a brand. Frankly speaking while it appears
Virtue for $300 million, and then Salesforce buying Buddy
that social media will probably eliminate paper media to many, it
Mediafor$689million
seems highly unlikely today in a country like India. The limited
internet penetration and the slow internet speed are hurdles that stand
It must be noted that while paper media or any other media are all
before this media with no signs of a soon approaching breakthrough.
one-directional. Marketers create content and try to push it out to
The firms today can at best used social media as a supplement to their
consumers well enough. The secret of social media's success lies
marketingcampaigns.
in the fact that it creates an environment where information flows
two ways.The customers dictate the content, not the marketers. In
Going by the present scenario TV and print media will continue to
factalotofcontentcanbecreatedbycustomersitself.
dominate the marketing budget of firms especially due to their efforts
to capture the rural markets. Moreover with thousands and millions of
The recent Micromax logo design contest is an excellent example Blogs and posts about any and everything available on internet which
how a company used social media to get a lot of eyeballs. Not just may change within seconds has somewhat had a negative impact on
it helped to spread awareness about the brand without spending a the credibility of social media. Paper media is miles ahead in this
dime it got a host of fresh logos to choose from. Also perhaps no respect due to somewhat permanent nature of the post. A positive
sports extravaganza has taken advantage of social media like this mention in the headlines of a leading magazine may work wonders to
years IPL. From team Twitter Battles to ESPN's social thebrandimageofthecompany.
companion. From Vodafone's Super Fan contest to Yes Bank's
facebook and twitter Quiz, social media has brought fans a step Thus it is important to balance your paper media marketing with social
closer to their favourite stars and the game. Cricinfo.com media marketing. The social side can be used to create communities of
attributes a lot of viewer engagement of this year's IPL to its customers, share ideas and gain feedback. This can then be reaffirmed
successfulsocialmediastrategy. with printed marketing. It will be this partnership that will be the best
strategyforbusinesses andtheonethatwillleadthemtobestrewards
Mr. Prafull Srivastava,
MBA(IB), 2012-14,
Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, Kolkatta.
· http://www.digijeff.com/home/2012/05/coca-cola-vs-pepsi-the-social-media-
battle/
· http://pinterest.com/jamesball/the-best-social-media-infographics/
· http://www.slideshare.net/profmanishparihar/research-paper-on-social-media
· http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/09/16/social-media-is-everywhere-but-is-
print-still-valuable/Social Media Strategy for a firm depends primarily on its
· http://www.digijeff.com/home/2012/05/coca-cola-vs-pepsi-the-social-media-battle/
business, domain size and expectations. Even the choice of · http://pinterest.com/jamesball/the-best-social-media-infographics/
medium is seldom if not always dominated by the firm in
Conclusion
References:
· http://www.essentiallyali.com/is-social-media-a-short-lived-fad/
· http://www.slideshare.net/profmanishparihar/research-paper-on-social-media
· http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2011/09/16/social-media-is-everywhere-but-is-
print-still-valuable/
CarvingasuccessfulSocialMediaStrategy
!

Effective promotion – Paper media vs. Social media
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Introduction
Many marketers see Social media as an additional broadcasting
channel. This point of view limits the impact of it. The new mindset
is about seeing Social media as a possibility to build a strong
relationship with your audience and to change the “likes” into active
ambassadors. It has to use 80-20 principle, 80% of the time use
technology and the entertainment industry. In business, Social
media can be used to build consumer/client confidence by helping
successful business is judged by its profits. Managers would establish you as an expert, it can help harbour relationships with
Abe smart to realize that marketing and advertising should be current and potential clients, and it can provide more avenues for
done to bring together ideas to get the name of their company before potential clients to find out about your business. Companies have
its target group irrespective of size of the business. For anyone who identified that increased enterprise social networking can add
runs a business of any kind, the true question is not whether we need immense values to the organisational functions such as Product
marketing, but how much do we need? A store owner can have the Development, Marketing and Sales, Operations and Distribution,
best products available on the market, and will still flounder Customer Service and Business Support. The emergence of
financially if no one is able to find their products. So managers have Internet-based Social media made it possible for one person to
to exposes people to their products through available paper media communicate with over hundreds of thousands or even millions of
andSocialmedia. individuals, many of whom may have little interest in your business.
But when properly developed, can be effective in building customer
With the prediction that the growth of Internet users will be in excess base and brand loyalty. Social media(also referred to as consumer-
of 15% per year it is interesting to note that the demand for Internet generated media) is a hybrid element of the promotion mix because
comes not only from Indian cities, but also from rural population. in a traditional sense it enables companies to talk to their customers,
India is expected to have in excess of 125 million Internet users by while in a non traditional sense it enables customers to talk among
2013 end in which 66 million would be using Social media with themselves.
Facebook as the most accessed website followed by Google+ and
LinkedIn. However, low literacy rates and poor penetration of Modeofworking
internet at the moment provides a challenge for this medium to Earlier marketers promoting their products online have followed a
prosper. Statistics reveal that digital advertising in US was $36.6 fairly standard arc, first buying digital ads and building their own
billionandIndiaitwas just$418millionlastyear. Web sites. Now, companies are increasingly running online ads that
focus less on pitching their products than promoting their Facebook
Newspaper is cheap so people buy it and they also see a value in it. In pages and Twitter accounts. Social media as a medium of promotion
spite of the fact that people are digitally aware but a morning contributes through its immediacy to a healthy and direct relation
newspaper with a cup of coffee is a must and it will stay for quite between brands and their public the ability to be present, to
some time. A saving grace for paper media would be technology communicate, to impact and maintain a stronger position towards
because 3G and 4G will take a few more years to establish itself in brandsinanonlineenvironment.
India. Hence, it will keep the paper media very comfortable at least
forthenextfewyears. Outlook
HowcanSocialmediahelpinbusiness?
Because of its speed, reach and ease of use, Social media is fast
changing the public discourse in society and setting trends and
agendas in topics that range from the environment and politics to
-Dr.Himanshu Ujaoney

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Social media to share useful, relevant and valuable content with
audience essentially following the guidelines of this article. The
other 20% of the time get off-topic and break these guidelines. By
getting off track occasionally and posting something random, we
canremindouraudiencethatwe'repeopletoo.
Cons
· Social marketing relies on customers being highly interactive
ontheinternet.
· Social media marketing places high demands on talent. It can
be difficult to constantly come up with innovative exciting
content that interests a variety of readers and, without
Pros and Cons ofPapermedia relevance, your efforts in content creation, edition, approval
Pros: andpublishingwillbewasted.
· With different ad sizes and rates even small businesses and · Control is less. Anything published is up for grabs, and
start-upscanplaceanadthatwon't pinchthebudget. backlashisthelastthingyouwantonSocialmedia.
· In addition, magazines and other paper media enjoy loyal · Return on investment is delayed. It takes its own time and
audiences. Magazines may be kept around for a longer period, dedication.
whichgivesmorevisibilitytoyourproduct.
· Paper media provides opportunities to advertisers to reach Conclusion
targetedaudiencesinalocalmarket. According to available data, more than half of the world's adult
population reads a newspaper. More than 2.5 billion read the paper
Cons: edition. This represents more readers than total global users of the
· Traditional marketing is usually forced on the viewer, as they internet. According to the Readership Institute at Northwestern
come across it in their daily lives. Hence this old school University, advertising is in top five drivers of newspaper
marketinghasaverylowresponserate. consumption. Almost two-thirds of readers say they enjoy reading
magazine ads, while more than half read their favourite paper· People don't share a community with the brand, and hence don't
magazines specifically to gain information about new brands. In thecareaboutitscampaigns.
recent Deloitte Media Democracy Survey, almost 64% identified· While its true newspaper is a cost-effective advertising
television as the primary influencer and about 63% mentionedmedium, when it comes to magazine advertising, the cost can
newspapers as the next influencer. But sadly this trend is declining,be sky high. Furthermore, the magazine industry has long lead
is likely to stay around for the next few year. Also in India,times.
Newspapers being published will continue to grow at around 6%· Once the ad is papered, it is set in type. However if there is any
every year. The paper media industry grew at single digit rates forchange in the promotion or a mistake in the papering, the
six consecutive whereas Social media users are expected to grow byentireprocessmustberestarted.
21%. The average time spent by Indian on Social media is 29.6· Paper ads are flat on the page, so they do not have the flashy
minutes on weekdays as compared to 28.8 minutes on weekendappealoftelevision,radioorInternetads.
days. However, a recent Harvard Business review survey showed
that only 12% of the companies feel they are using Social mediaPros and Cons ofSocialmedia
effectively.Pros
· Internet ads can combine copy, music and voices to grab the
In a battle for supremacy, traditional marketing is falling further
attentionofapotentialcustomer.
behind. But that doesn't mean that it is no longer competent. Your
· It has much higher conversion ratios because all social business still needs real world promotions to succeed. The ploy
marketingcanbetrackedandadjusted. should be to spend more on social marketing. The 80/20 rule can
· Social media helps in building communities around brands, apply here as well. Invest in 80% social marketing, and 20%
whichremarkablyincreasesrepeatsales. traditional marketing. There are still a few out there that are not
· Helps reach customers that traditional marketing misses. You familiarwithsocialmarketing
can never anticipate who will direct a friend to your blog or
Dr.Himanshu Ujaoney
Facebookpage,so chancesofnewleadsisunlimited. PGDBM, I
· Demonstrate your personality, interact with customers and Sydenham Institute of Management Studies, Research and Entrepreneurship
helpsinbuildingbrandloyalty. Education, Mumbai.
· Encourage open communication through public comments to
improveyourproductsandservices.
· Makes one learn more about their target audience, by their Sources
comments and studying visitor analytics. This information · itu.dk/~rkva/2011-Spring-EB22/readings/Mangold-
can prove precious while planning other marketing SocialMedia.pdf
campaigns.
· www.ijsrp.org/research_paper_may2012/ijsrp-may-2012-
· Social media marketing is cost-efficient when compared with 24.pdf
other marketing methods, even if you hire a dedicated team or
· www.smallbusiness.chron.com/social-media-vs-newsletter-
outsourceyourSocialmediacontentneeds.
effectiveness-48831.html
· The content that you distribute on one Social media channel
· www.mashable.com/2009/03/11/newspaper-industry/
can be used on another. One simple blog can be tweaked the
· comm.soc.northwestern.edu/leonardi/files/2012/09/socialmedia.wayyouwant.
· www.hpl.hp.com/research/scl/papers/socialmedia/socialmedia
!

Web Revolution – An HR functional perspective
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“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It U.S. Field Services Operations (USFO) Group has developed a
cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” paperless wage review (PWR) system. The Web-based system uses
intelligent agents to deal with quarterly reviews of HP's 15,000― Albert Einstein
employees. The agent software lets USFO managers and personnel
access to employee data from both the personnel and functionaln the last decade, we have been witnessing one of the most
databases. The PWR system tracks employee review dates andIimportant technological revolutions in the modern era – the Web
automatically initiates the wage review process. It sends wagerevolution. The web is not only changing the way that we
reviewformstofirst-levelmanagersbye-maileveryquarter.work,study,play and conduct our lives, but it is doing so much more
quickly than any other revolution (such as the Industrial
Training and Human Resources Development – EmployeeRevolution), with impacts that are more far-reaching. For example,
training and retraining is an important activity of the humanfour years ago, blogging was a novelty. Today more than four
resources department. Sophisticated human resources departmentsmillion bloggers are active on web and blogging is an instrument
build a career development plan for each employee. IT can supportused in commerce, politics and entertainment. In another
the planning, monitoring and control of these activities by usingdeveloping technology, Apple sold over 100 million songs on
workflow applications. Some of the most innovative developmentsiTunes during the first year of operation. Further- more, we have
are in the areas of intelligent computer-aided instruction (ICAI) andseen only the tip of iceberg. The web revolution is facilitated by
the application of multimedia support for instructional activities.ever-changinginformationtechnologies.
Training can be improved using Web-based video clips. For
example, using a digital video-editing system, Dairy Queen's in-Developments in web-based systems increased the popularity of
house video production department produced a higher qualityHRIS (Human Resources Information System) as of the late 1990's.
training video at 50% lower costs than by outsourcing it. ThePerhaps the biggest benefit to companies of human relations IT
affordability of the video encourages more dairy Queen franchiseesservices is the release of HR staff from intermediary roles, so they
toparticipateinthetrainingprogram.can focus on strategic planning and human resources organization
and development. In the following write up we see how IT
Managing human resources in large organizations requiresfacilitatedthemanagementofhumanresources(HRM).
extensive planning and detailed strategy. IT can play a vital role in
humanresourceplanningandfunctions.Using the Web for Recruitment – With millions of resumes
available online, it is not surprising that companies are trying to find
Personnel Planning and HR strategies – The HR departmentthe appropriate candidates on the Web, usually with the help of
forecasts requirements for people and skills. Large companiesspecialized search engines. Also, hundreds of thousands of jobs are
develop qualitative and quantitative workforce planning models.advertised on the Web. As more companies expand operations
Such models can be enhanced if IT is used to collect, update andoverseas, global recruiting is becoming a zexing problem. Using the
processtheinformation.internet to recruit from other countries is becoming popular, yet it
requires expertise. The Field Company provides an example of
Employee Relationship Management – In their effort to betterrecruiting by Finish Line Corp. In a 12-month period, more than
manage employees, companies are developing human capital330,000 candidates applied for employment with the company;
management (HCM), facilitated by the Web, to streamline the HRmore than 75% of them applied online. Using screening software
process. These Web applications are more commonly referred to as(Unicru), 112,154 candidates were eliminated immediately. More
Employee Relationship Management (ERM). For example, selfthan 60,000 hours of store managers' time were saved because of the
services such as tracking personal information and online trainingreductioninthenumberofinterviewsconducted.
are very popular in ERM. ERM technologies and applications are
verysimilartothoseofcustomerrelationshipmanagement(CRM).HRM Portals and Salary Surveys – One advantage of the web is
To sum it all, it is rightly said that human resources managers canthe large amount of information available related to job
increase their efficiency and effectiveness by using IT for some ifrequirements. There are both private and public HR portal which
their routine functions. Preparing and training employees to workserve as a search engine. For example, several large companies (eg.,
with business partners frequently in foreign countries requiredIBM,Xerox, GE) created jointly with 120 companies a career portal
knowledge about IT collaboration software operates. CompliancecalledDirectEmployer.com.
with government safety regulations and other human resources-
relatedrequirementscanbefacilitatedbyITsoftwareAnother area for HR portals is salary surveys. Salary surveys help
companies determine how much to pay their employees. Companies
Prof. Sunaina Kuknor,used to pay consultants up to $10,000 for a one-time survey. Now
Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies
they can conduct such surveys themselves by utilizing free data
fromvendorssuchasSalary.com. References
Information Technology for Management – Efraim Turban, Dorothy Leidner &
James WetherbePerformance Evaluation – Most employees are periodically
http://wps.pearsoned.co.uk/ema_uk_he_torrington_hrm_7/79/20381/5217781.evaluated by their immediate supervisors. Evaluations are usually
cw/content/index.html
recorded on paper or electronic forms. Once digitized, evaluations
http://facweb.cs.depaul.edu/nsutcliffe/483readings/Groe-IT%20and%20HR-
can be used to support many decisions, ranging from rewards to session3.htm
transfers to layoffs. For example, Hewlett-Packard's Atlanta-based
!
- Prof. Sunaina Kuknor

Under 'S'tated Su'C'cess: Surrogate and Covert Advertising
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d w a r d d e B o n o s a i d , didn't...because there was nothing
“Creativity involves breaking wrong with them. Except that all ofEout of established patterns in them were Cadillac cars. According
order to look at things in a different to buzzle.com covert advertising is,
way.” The field of Advertising, '...a unique kind of advertising, in
where creativity abounds, stands which a product or a particular
true to Bono's words. From brand is incorporated in some
advertisements blaring out of a entertainment and media channels
simple radio or black-and-white like movies, television shows, or
print ads generously splattered even sports. There is no commercial
across a newspaper, advertising has advertising as such in the
moved to more subtle forms- forms entertainment, but the brand or the
that we seldom recognize as product is subtly (or sometimes
advertising but influence our evidently) showcased in the
choices nonetheless. You could say entertainment show'. Certainly very
that they are 'understated', in the covert,huh?
sense that they are not 'sprung on your face'. I'm talking about the
two very interesting ways of advertising called Covert and In fact, there is a whole book written by David Robb dedicated to
Surrogateadvertising. how the Pentagon influences the masses to be more favourable to its
agendas with the help of Covert advertising (Operation Hollywood:
So what is surrogate advertising? To understand it, let me ask you a How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies). This gets me
question. What does the word 'Kingfisher' bring to your mind? thinking how desperate companies and organizations can be to grab
Premium....soda??? Not by a long shot...the first thing you thought the attention of the people and influence their choices. And when
was 'Vijay Mallya' and 'Beer', right? The very fact that you there is desperation, no stone is ever left unturned. This is clearly
connected Kingfisher with beer rather than soda says that Surrogate seen in the world of advertising with innovative, creative and, if I
Advertising has woven its magic around you just as it has influenced may, manipulative Surrogate and Covert ads successfully swaying
millions of other people. Surrogate advertising is ostensibly the masses. There is much debate with respect to the ethicality of
advertising a brand for a particular product while actually both the forms of advertising. But the fact remains that they are
advertising it for an altogether different product. So your successful.
advertisement says 'soda' while you're actually advertising for beer.
A tobacco company comes up with 'awareness' signboards that They say 'All is fair in love and war'. It seems that all is fair in world
highlight the hazards of smoking while its logo is displayed ofadvertisingtoo
prominently to ensure brand recall. I know what you're
-Ms. Ranjana T Nthinking...'That'sdownrightsneaky!’
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai
Perhaps. But there is a reason why these companies adopt surrogate References:
advertising. Usually it is to circumvent a ban by the government to http://www.timlonghurst.com/blog/2005/04/13/blowing-the-cover-on-covert-
not directly advertise products such as alcohol or tobacco. If it can't advertising/
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-surrogate-advertising.htmbe advertised overtly, it will be advertised covertly!This brings us to
http://www.freestyle-marketing.co.uk/advertising/what-is-surrogate-
the next kind of advertising- Covert advertising. Seen the movie advertising.html
Matrix Reloaded? Oh you have? Did you notice anything strange http://www.buzzle.com/articles/different-types-of-advertising.html
about the cars that are used in the movie? Perhaps you
!
- Ms. Ranjana T N
"Advertising may be described as the science of
arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
- Jef I. Richards

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ising cost of vegetables may be burning a hole in your pocket healthier students. Most of the girls belong to poor families. After
Rbut there's a place nearAhmedabad where breakfast, lunch and consuming vegetables, their haemoglobin count rose from 6-8% to
dinner costs less than a carton of fruit juice! At Mahadev Desai 12%. Kokila Macwana, a third year student specializing in Gujarati,
Gramseva Maha Vidalaya in Randheja of Gandhinagar district of said,“Wehavenevertastedbeetrootearlier.Butwegrow ithere.
Gujarat state, female students have learnt true empowerment by
growing 18 varieties of vegetables and using the organic greens to Consuming it has increased our haemoglobin count. We also grow
make food for just Rs.23 per person each day. In today's world where carrots, green onions, eggplants (aka brinjal), okra, bitter gourd,
every country has become so dependable on others for its progress broad beans, bottle gourd, garlic, radish, spinach, and peppermint
andwelfare,thisisararecaseofself-reliance. leaves here. Of course improving Haemoglobin level was not on
their agenda, but when god gives you something, he gives in
Institute co-ordinator Rajiv Patel says, “We do not use pesticides abundance. The students get bonus point for their hard work. The
and fertilizers. Our vegetables are organic. Dried leaves are used as concept was first implemented in 2006. But students grew just
manure. Bio-pesticides like dried neem leaves, cow urine and ashes spinach, eggplants, fenugreek, and bottle gourd. Slowly,
are used to keep the plants healthy. We buy wheat and rice from productivity of land and interest of students rose, encouraging them
Krishi Vigyan Kendra. So, we end up spending not more than Rs.23 to grow more vegetables. Second year student Divya Modi says,
on food for a student, without compromising its nutritional value.A “Earlier, we used to buy vegetables from outside. Now, we grow
healthy food made of home-grown vegetables at Rs.23 is a dream everything here. Every day, we produce 40 kg vegetables. In the last
deal. There are 209 second and third year students staying at the eight months, we have produced around 1800 kg of vegetables.”The
Gandhian institute. They took up the Kitchen Garden project as a girl make rotis, cut vegetables and cook sabzi at the hostel, ensuring
means of learning entrepreneurship, and grown vegetables on two thatfooddoesnotgotowaste.
plots in the huge campus. Except for using tractors, the girls do
everything from ploughing land, sowing vegetables, watering them Director of the institute, Dr. Rajiv Patel says, “The idea is the
and harvesting the vegetables.They allot 45 minutes from their daily brainchild of Gujarat Vidyapith registar Rajendra Khimani. As a
schedule for farming. This is nothing compared to time spent on Gandhian institute, we propose self-reliance.” This initiative
FB!!! Let's talk about the daily routine.Ahighly nutritious breakfast propogates women empowerment as well as dignity of labour.
is served that includes alu poha, khichu, sprouted moong, steamed Gandhiji had emphasized on the development of head, heart and
chana or dalwada. A wholesome lunch includes roti, sabzi, dal hands. This effort fulfills all three criteria. He adds, “Though many
chawal and salad while dinner means kichdi, sabzi, bhakri and of the girls belong to the farming community, they know next to
buttermilk. The excess stock is sold to staff members or other nothing about agriculture.” All finances are maintained by the head
hostels. of the family. By growing their own vegetables and selling it instills
confidence in these girls. They learn how to be self-sufficient and
One can only say that the unexpected side-effect of the project is how tomanagemoney.
The following story is about a project taken by
Mahadev Desai Gramseva Maha Vidalaya in
Randheja of Gandhinagar district of Gujarat
state . It is a school running on Gandhian
principles. It is affiliated to Gujarat vidyapith
which is a world renowned education body
running ongandhianprinciples.
Impact Interview
The Kitchen Garden Project

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The project is worth to be appreciated.This project again proves that thinking of implementing this model in other institutes managed by
in a country like India, innovation can be found at any place. Young GujaratVidyapith.Wewish themsuccesswholeheartedly.
childrencando themiraclewhich eventheso-calledadultscouldnot
havethoughtof.
“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it, dream
The project is an example of self-reliance, innovation, management of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of
and team work. There are very few projects or processes which your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone.
encompassallthesequalities. Thisisthewaytosuccess.”
–Swami Vivekanand
In the coming days, food management is going to be very crucial
especially in India where storage and other problems are very
common. The brainchild of the project Dr. Rajendra Khimani is
What inspired you to undertake this project? What arethe most satisfying things about this project?
The whole project encompasses three main principles of self- The girls who are into this project are from poor families. They have
reliance, innovation and teamwork. These three principles are learnt self-reliance at such a young age. All these vegetables are
Gandhian principles. Since our institute is a Gandhian institute, we grown without using any pesticide or other measures. The money
try to implement the Gandhian principles as much as possible in our earned is directly given to the head of the family of that girl.All such
real lives. The students have really put this into action very well. smallthingsgivehugesatisfaction.
Scaleisnotamatterof us butwe wanttodoitinrightway.
Do you have any plans forreplicatingthis model?
How many peopleareassociated with this project?
Innovation comes from within. Our main aim is to innovate further
Right now all the work is done only by students only. So far we have and develop it. We have not yet decided on replicating this model
not felt the need of any extra persons. But right now the scale is elsewherebuttherewillbefurtherimprovementsinthismodel.
small. When it will become large in future, we may look at having
persons from outside. The wonderful thing is that even people who
-As told toarenotdirectlyassociatedwiththisprojecthavebenefittedfromit.
Mr. Saurabh Jadhav, PGDM II, KIAMS
Below are the excerpts from the chat with
Mr. Rajendra Khimani, Registrar, Gujarat Vidyapith.
”There are four ways, and only four ways,
in which we have contact with the world.
We are evaluated and classified by these four contacts:
what we do, how we look, what we say, and how we say it."
- Charles Francis Adams

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ragati 2013 had been a thrilling roller coaster ride and a great February, 2013), students started arriving in KIAMS from 7 a.m.
st
Plearning experience, learned right from the selection process There was a kid of 1 standard dressed gorgeously carrying all the
for Pragati reps to the very end of Pragati 2013. Ever since seniors props for Fancy Dress Competition. It showed the level of
showed us the video of Pragati video for the first time, an urge had enthusiasm both of the kids as well their parents. I wondered if this
developed to be part of this event in some way or the other. The little kid had to wake up real early in the morning to be present in the
preliminary selection process task and then the stress interview campus on the stipulated time. Batch mates at the registration kiosk
were unique. After the declaration of Pragati Reps for Batch15, we got engaged in the process. Communicating with the kids was a bit
chalked out plans to conduct this mega event of KIAMS. difficult because of our inability to speak Kannada but it did not
Accordingly, we decided to have five specialised domain viz- pose much problem. By 10 a.m., we had the opening ceremony and
Prospecting, Promotion, Finance, Operation & Cultural. After our lighting of lamp in the presence of the Faculty and other
batch mates gave their names voluntarily for the respective staffmembers. Considering the hot weather condition, we had set
domains, we selected leads for all the domains. Then for up stalls of Sugarcane juice, Coconut water and potable water (free
prospecting, teams were assigned different industries and of cost) on the ground. The kids were very talented and I was
thereafter, we started the challenging task of contacting corporates amazed at their flawless execution of their skills especially in
to invite them for their participation in Pragati. But we had a mixed Mehendi Competition, Art and Craft. In Mehendi these kids can
experience, the bad over shadowing the good though. Most of the give anyone a run for their money. In Cultural also they performed
corporates pointed out that they do not gain anything from Pragati well and mesmerized us.At noon, acting on the suggestion of batch
as such and many other problems were sighted by them. mates on the ground, it was decided that free Sugarcane Juice be
Considering the reality, we gave a second thought on conducting offered to the all the kids. Accordingly, it was announced and the
Pragatiinthesimilarfashionasconductedpreviously. kids were ecstatic to have it free of cost. As expected there was
commotion near the Sugarcane Juice stall for a while.All in all first
It was decided that Pragati 2013 would be conducted in a scaled day went smoothly. First day saw two schools viz. Vidyadayini
down version.As a result somechanges were made in Pragati 2013. CBSE School & MKET's LK English Medium School that had the
Firstly, Pragati 2013 would be a two day event. Secondly, it would most number of winners. The co-ordination between all the
be held in KIAMS campus instead of Gandhi Maidan and thirdly, volunteers (batch-mates) was immaculate. We had the task of
only the social aspect of Pragati would be addressed. That is, collating the points of all the winners from different schools in order
Pragati would be limited only to Inter-School competition featuring to come out with the winning school. So after every event a list
Sports, Art & Craft and cultural. A Pragati 2013 Rolling Trophy as containing the name of the winners, their position along with
well as a Grand prize of Rs. 20000 worth of tangible item would be his/her school's name was prepared. Input from this list was fed in
given to the winning school. We started the task of visiting schools the main list, which had the total points accumulated by winners
in Harihar & Davangere. We did not get much response from fromaparticularschool.
Davangere as exams were around the corner but schools in Harihar
th
welcomed it with open arms. We got a confirmed participation of On the second day also i.e.24 February, school students competed
more than 300 kids. It was surprising considering exams were with zeal. We again offered free sugarcane juices to the kids.
approaching.Two schools from Harihar namely Vidyadayini CBSE Second day had some fantastic performance by kids especially in
School & MKET's LK English Medium School had sent the largest dance. The auditorium was chock-a-block with audience
contingent of more than 80 school students. In total fourteen (14) comprising school kids, their parents, batch-mates as well as some
schools participated. Simultaneously, the other batch-mates got seniors.All the events got over by 4.30 pm and the prize distribution
involved with the planning of the event. Finalising Judges for all the was supposed to start at 5.30 pm. Just after the end of the cultural
events was a bit difficult but ultimately it was managed. In some event in the auditorium, we arranged the chairs and made seating
events we invited the spouses of our faculty. And they did oblige. arrangements for faculty members and others. Also most
The locations of conducting the various events were not finalised importantly, the main points list was updated with the latest points,
and after brain-storming, we finally decided to conduct sports in which helped us in declaring the winning school. Medals were put
KIAMS ground, culturals in auditorium andArt & craft in different in order.The auditorium was packed to the capacity and some had to
classrooms. Batch mates really took the charge of the respective stand. Participants, their parents as well as their schools teachers
domains and planned accordingly.As the 'D-day' was approaching, were waiting in anticipation. Our Director Dr. Gopal Iyengar along
everything was set in place. The ground was cleaned (thank the with faculty members made their presence felt in the ceremony.
gardeners) and the chairs were put along with the shamiayna and Then the winners were distributed medals by our respected faculty
the ground was made suitable for sports with all the markings. members. After all the winners were distributed the medals, then
Similarly, the auditorium was decked up with the lightings, sound- came the big moment which every student and their schools were
system & chairs. Registration kiosks were set up at the entrance. It eagerly waiting for. Vidyadayini CBSE School was declared
was decided that after every event, both the winning certificates to winners amidst thunderous clapping and cheering of the students of
the winners and the participating certificates to the others would be Vidyadayini School and their parents. We invited Dr. Gopal Iyenger
distributed by the respective Judges. So a team to look after sir on stage to hand over the Pragati 2013 Trophy to the authorities
certificates was formed. The medals (Gold, Silver &Bronze) would of Vidyadayini CBSE School. After the trophy was handed over, the
be distributed on the closing ceremony along with the Pragati students were called to lift the trophy. They were very excited and
rd
Trophy 2013. Everything was set in place. On the D–day (23 lifted the trophy with loud cheers. It was a splendid moment for
-Mr. Kaustav Das
Pragati 2013 - An Eventful Journey

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everyone.Thus,Pragati2013cametoaneventfulend. also like to thank seniors for sharing their experiences while
conducting Pragati; Mr Gangadar Yuvaraj for scheduling the
Altogether, Pragati had been an enriching experience. Pragati was a classes in such a way, that we were able to devote sufficient time for
course in itself. Every aspect of management was touched upon be it preparation; Mr Venkatesh,who helped us on the financial front;
Finance, Marketing, Operation, Human-Resource or Information Mr. Raghavendra Dixit, Mr. Parmeshwarappa, Mr. Karibasappa,
Technology. Pragati 2013 taught us how to manage the finance Mr. Shrinath, Dr. Gopi and all the Annas of our Institute. Lastly, not
efficiently and how to cut costs in order to remain within budget. to forget the big hearted effort of the group of my batch-mates, a big
Then we had to sell the brand Pragati to the corporates(initially), THANK YOU to you all, for selflessly coming forward, and
then to the various schools. Co-ordinating all the activities and contributing towards the conduct of Pragati 2013. Hats off to the
running the events simultaneously had the elements of both Cultural Team and the Art & Craft Team, for the flawless execution
operationsaswellashuman-resource. of their respective events. Kudos to the Sports Team for braving the
hot weather and conduct all their events. Thanks to the Certificate
Last but not the least; I would like to thank those, without whom, Team for readying all the certificates on time, the Registration Team
this event would not have been possible. Firstly, our director Dr for the smooth registration process. This event would not have been
Gopal Iyenger who had supported & helped us whenever the possiblewithoutyouguys. Cheersguys.
situation demanded. I would like to thank our Administrator Mr
Mr. Kaustav DasMahesh Revankar, Professor Bidyanand Jha and other faculty
Pragati Rep, B15.members for guiding us to conduct Pragati more efficiently. I would
t was the month of January when the anxiety of SIP (Summer tough, at times even disheartening because we were doing the
IInternship Program) first started creeping inside our minds. The promotions but the sales were just not happening. But next day had
winter of January witnessed term-2 getting over, the entire batch planned something different for us. We hit an old market of the city
and the tenth shop that we visited helped us in initiating our firstgearing up for Samanvay'13, commencement of term-3 and
sales.We cracked the next shop too.That day we earned a sum of Rs.preparations for Pragati'13. Amidst all this, there was always a
600/- and it also marked the beginning of a golden journey. Fromconcern for summer internship among all the students. Everyone, at
that day onwards, we visited several markets, shops, cracked deals,the back of their minds, was thinking whether they will get the SIP
promoted the company and its name all across the city. We utilizedfrom college or will be managing all by themselves. Many of us
our time off during weekends by doing online promotions. Iworried whether the SIPwill in their hometown or not, if it would be
promoted the company on Facebook, Twitter, via Gmail and alsopaidornot,etc.
wrote blogs on the company's website. So, our learning wasn't just
restricted to the outside market and offline customers but thisIn the mean while, I applied to one of the companies, that visited our
internship also added to our knowledge in the field of onlinecollege for second year in a row, Ultra Rich Weddings Pvt. Ltd. It
promotions. For the first time I got a feel of drafting corporate mailswas the day of 'Makar Sankranti' (Kite flying festival) when we had
which I forwarded to around thirty big brands in different fieldsour telephonic interviews. All the applicants were aflutter thinking
rightfromjewellerytobridalwearstomen'swear.about the interview as one candidate went in and the other got lined
up. Once the interviews were over, we all were back to flying kites,
Every day we had to report to our company via mail or message.relaxing and making merry under the winter sun. The results were
Each weekend we got the reports of our work.We got to know wheredeclared a couple of days later. A wave of assuagement passed
we stood in the entire country as far as sales and promotions arethrough our minds when we saw the results displayed on the notice
concerned. Days passed by and the heat kept increasing but theboard. Fourteen of us made through. The elatedness increased when
journey of internship only got more fascinating. My sales keptwe came to know that this company gave us the opportunity to do
increasing and by the end of this internship I had ended up coveringthe internship from our preferred location and it also offered some
thelengthandbreadthofthecity.stipend.
And as every good thing comes to an end, my SIPalso concluded onFinally the day arrived when we left for Ahmedabad from our
eighth of June. After 60 days of SIP, I not only completed a subjecthometowns in order to attend the training. The two day training
on paper, but also came face to face with various concepts ofsession atAhmedabad proved to be a huge learning curve for all the
marketing. I touched upon the real life application of concepts likeinterns coming from all parts of the country and various B-schools.
market research, market survey, market analysis, marketing sales,We got acquainted with complete details about the company, the
online and offline promotions.This project gave me the flavor of thetask we need to perform and the way we need to go about doing our
special emotion that one feels post earning one's first salary. Thisbusiness. We were all back to our workplace (our preferred location
memorable journey with Ultra Rich Weddings Pvt. Ltd and with myfor doing the internship) by thirteenth of April and the mission got
co-intern Miss. ItiAgrawal made me visualize the glimpse of dawninceptedonfifteenthofApril.
that,hopefully,iswaitingtoarriveinnearfuture.
-Mr. Debashish SarkarI still remember the first day when I hit the Lucknow market with
my co-intern. We visited various shops that day, right from the local PGDM II, KIAMS
Stylz beauty parlor to the branded Wills Lifestyle showroom. It was
Mr. Debashish Sarkar
A Glimpse of Dawn
SIP experiences – B15

My Future at Future group!
Two Faces
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he summer internship experience will be etched in my memory Nothing about it was easy. The project demanded a lot of time,
Tforever. No, not because there were stipends to flaunt, or fancy sincerity & self discipline. I made sure that, each task given to me
company name to highlight, but because the two months were was done effectively & submitted to the project guide before the
packed with pure and simple learning and loads of fun. The deadline. At the end of one week, I realized, things were rather
internship experience at Future Group was amazing. I was able to falling into places. The managers & other employees were
gain experience at a job that I potentially had interest in. I learnt welcoming & helpful whenever I approached them with a doubt or
about HR operations & different issues and it was dead right for me. any query. Every day was a new learning day for me. I visited many
My summer internship turned out to be the most exciting two stores & came across more than 400 employees during that time. I
months of my life but looking back, I realized that the excitement was also introduced to Recruitment, T&D, Record keeping &
had started much earlier. During the first few weeks of summer verification of employees. Gradually, I realized ground level staffs
placements at KIAMS, I was shortlisted by few companies but are the biggest contributor towards the success of Future group.
couldn't decide which one would be best for me. And then came Terms like motivation & reward plays such a huge role in the lives of
acrossthiscompany-Futuregroup! those employees. I never realized how everything done in the retail
industry goes through the ground level. It also gave me a knack, on-
Not only, I was about to engage in an amazing learning experience the-job knowledge, skills, and abilities to weather the storm of HR.
for 8 weeks but also I had the freedom to determine the topic for my Listening to different work related issues faced by employees &
project. The project guide asked me a question I had always finding a solution is where the biggest challenge lies for any HR. It's
anticipated, which functions of HR would I prefer to intern in? In a not easy to make employees happy all the time. But their happiness
confident tone, I answered, “I would like to begin with HR & job satisfaction are the keys to success for any organization.
operations".As the smile on his face grew larger, my heart skipped a Towards the end of my SIP, the appreciations from the project guide
beat. After a quick discussion with the senior HR manager, the assured me about the quality of my work and that is when I realized,
project guide asked, if I was comfortable travelling different stores “SIPisanopportunityforlearning,notforearning”.
in Delhi & NCR. Although I wouldn't prefer travelling in a blazing
47 degree temperature, the temptation of bagging a good project For beginning a new journey, an old journey has to end. This
was too strong to avoid, and I ended up answering, “I would be journey has been fantastic with new learning & exposure to many
comfortable travelling stores located at different locations”. As a new things, which am going to cherish forever. And am looking
result, I bagged a project “HR ISSUES” at Future Group. I ended up forward to a new journey post SIP at KIAMS
interning with them for 2 months. The internship opened a door for
- Ms. Biswajita MohantymethatIwouldnotnecessarilyhaveknown was there.
PGDM II, KIAMS
!
- Ms. Biswajita Mohanty
aving my SIP at Mumbai – the city that never sleeps was My role was becoming increasingly challenging as it dealt mergers
Halluring to be honest. I was fortunate to get an opportunity for & acquisitions and more core finance subjects. With these subjects
my SIP at SBICAPS corporate office. With little apprehension, I being taught in Term 4 at KIAMS, I sought help from my other
st
interns. I was lucky to share the office space with students fromsteppedintotheofficeonApril1 .
other top notch colleges like IIMs. The stay with them was really
amazingandIlearntasmuchasIcouldfromthem.My project was all about the consolidation of Non Banking
Financial Companies. Before joining, I had briefly studied about the
Now the other (best) side of my internshipwas gettingto know manytopic and made a quick research in Google. Studying all the
people. The frequent outings and the late night marine drives cancommittee reports and analysis report of various rating companies
never be replaced. Although, the hole in my pocket was gettingdid help me a lot in understanding my project better. Being an
bigger, it was definitely worth the experience. From strangers, toengineer and with no exposure to the world of finance, I did struggle.
acquaintances, and to lovely friends, the transition was short andBut the ground work and TV sir's (B16 may be wondering what I am
sweet. The SIP experience helped me become a better person bothtalking about!) classes did help me during my SIP. I am thankful to
academically and personally. So never miss on anything whilehim. Eventually I started discussing with my mentors and I became
focussing on your internship as well. I am happy that I got to exploremuch clearer and confident with the work culture. Writing case
both the side of it. Finally, I thank 'Chanakya Team' for giving me anstudies in context to my project gave me lot of insight and it was a
opportunitytoexpressproud moment for me to see my name printed against the bank
reports. I also participated in women's bank (Rs. 1000 crore bank as
-Ms. Upasana Lenkaper GOI in budget 2013) logo competition. Though interns were not
PGDM II, KIAMSallowed to participate, nothing stopped me from contributing my
idea.
!
-Ms. Upasana Lenka

In BATA – Having the shoe on my other foot
My SIP Experience At VRSSPL
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t is an accepted fact that summer internship is done with a notion dedicated solely to the companies. The website content was taken
Ito apply the concepts taught during the tenure of first year and it is into consideration as all the necessary information that usher a
also agreed that an intern acquires the benefit of getting first prospective buyer must be vividly highlighted. Apart from the
corporate exposure through the virtue of summer internship. website, also pamphlets, brochures were taken into consideration in
However, few exceptions do exist. Like in my case, I had prior order to create the interest and enthusiasm in the mind of the
experience for a year of brace and I never felt like a fish out of water. customers. As the products were highly user specific it was an
But, I was astonished with the type and nature of work profile that important aspect to find out the specific target audience and the
was seemingly very different and challenging from my previous entire project was focused to influence that target audience. The
profiles. I was excited and fastened my seat belts to swiftly go content, design everything was adhered to the need, requirement
throughthesharpcurvesahead. andthepreferencesofthecustomer.
The project assigned to me was related to the branding that will The scope of learning was huge and the most important thing was to
enhance the scope and future prospect of the VR Software Systems implement the concepts within such a short span of two months. One
Private Limited. Being only a seven year old company it had shown important aspect was I had never taken this SIP just as a mere
a remarkable progress in the field of IT application and software component of a curriculum rather it helped me to a great extent to
domain. Though there was no doubt about the expertise and realize the level of suitability or acceptance of myself as an
excellence of the company in the acumen of the IT industry as the individual in the wide spectrum of corporate world, maybe it was of
work force was exceedingly adroit but there had been always a need a short stint for a couple of months and it was impossible to get a
of the marketing of such distinct level of skill sets. The major crystal clear view within such a short duration still as the proverb
challenge was involved in getting the recognition and making the goes “Morning shows the day”, it gave me a certain glimpse to
products apprised to the customers. As there was point of understand my level of performance in the upcoming future,
uncertainty involved regarding the acceptance level on behalf of the perhapsthatwas oneofthetitillatingfactors,Iwas allagog
customers, the cost associated with the process of branding was also
- Mr. Soumik Bhattacharjeea crucial factor. The very first thing that creates perception about an
PGDM II, KIAMSorganization in the mind of customer is the particular website
!
was a bit anxious when I entered into BATA office on April 1. I at BATA store in ABIDS”. This was even more challenging and
Iwas just hoping they don't play a prank on me (for those who dint interesting because I had to directly deal with the vice president,
st
assistant vice president, regional manager and the district manager.get the pun, it wasApril 1 !). For the first week, I was asked to roam
After about ten days I managed to submit my first report andaround the city and visit the different retail outlets of BATA in the
unfortunately, it got rejected. I then had to start it afresh aftercity, and Yes, I had to face the scorching heat of summer in
analyzingthemistakesintheearlierreport.Hyderabad. I was taught and asked to observe anything and
everything under the sun. I never knew what was in store for me in
I was told by one industry expert “If you want to learn how to sellthe days ahead because all I was doing in the first week was roam
footwear, you need to smell the stinking socks the customer wear”.aboutandobservethings.
So for about a week I did the same role that the salesmen did. It was a
tad awkward when my friends and relatives walked into the store;Then one fine day, I was given my first project, “Internal branding
thankfully I realized it was part of the learning curve. Acting as aand promotionsto increasesales atBATAstore in GVK mall”.It was
sales man did help as it gave me a different perspective of thenot as easy as I expected it to be for two reasons – BATA does not
customer. Then one fine day I submitted my final report forbelieve in advertising and the GVK MALL management does not
customerservice.allow promotions outside the store area. Finally after spending a lot
of time in the store and trying to figure a way out, which I think I
There are some fond memories and some gray memories throughoutfinallysucceededin,Imanagedtosubmitthereport.
my SIP. Nevertheless, it did mold me to an extent and understand
certain issues of the corporate life. I hope this experience pays off inDuring the course of my first project, the assistant vice president and
myfuture.the regional manager of BATAhad a visit to Hyderabad.They called
me for a meeting at the hotel they stayed in. After the talks they
-Mr. Nishanth Josephhanded me my second project, “Ways to improve customer service
PGDM II, KIAMS
- Mr. Nishanth Joseph
- Mr. Soumik Bhattacharjee

Reflections - Corporate experience from B14…
SIP a.k.a Systematic Investment Plan
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very phase of life comes to an end and new ones start.Although one thing which waives off all the other things. In college we learned
Emany at times we don't want the older one to end but eventually alotofconceptsandthisis thetimetoputthemintoapplication.
start liking the new one. In school we always wanted to grow up and
go to college and in college it was always the other way round. The Working as an Analyst in Odessa Technologies has given me the
same happens when we pass college and enter in to professional chance to learn a lot of new things. I have gone through software
courses like PGDM or anything else.We always look back and think training which I had never thought that I would ever learn in my life.
why this had to end. As we grow and move forward, we start The interaction with new people and meeting new people almost
enjoyingthephasewe arelivingin,andthatiswhatiscalledLife. every day gives new experiences every day. Every day has its own
learning and as each passing day makes me realize that there is a lot
Beingafresher therewas alotof feartostartthejob.BeingadelhiteI tolearnandthisisjustthestartingtoanew life.
had always wanted to settle down with a job in Delhi itself. This was
also one fear which was in me that how will I be able to settle in In the end that one thing which I can point out as the best thing till
Bangalore. Will I be able to adjust, will I be able to give my best to now is the happiness and the feeling of self-satisfaction that I see on
my job and be able to take it. Having spent nearly two months now in my parents when I told them that I got my first ever salary, and made
the job I now feel that yes I will be able to do my best in this job. The themproud.
corporate life is a very new experience and it is too early to write
somethingaboutit. We always have to move ahead in life and keep cherishing the past
memories because they give us the strength to move forward and
The life at office is very different from the one we lived in college. enjoy life. So although college life is deeply missed but every
The life at college was full of assignments and classes but still it was momentof thecorporatelifeisequallyenjoyed.
quite carefree. There we always thought that doing all this is so
difficult, how to handle it and all other things but as we move into the 'Allgood thingscometoanend.Onlyfor thebetteroncetostart'.
corporatelifewe gettoknow thathow easyallthatwas.
- Ms. Anish Wadhwa
Analyst, Odessa Technologies.Although there are a lot many things which are not liked about the
corporate life, the feeling of Self Dependence and independence is
nd the day arrived finally. And I got to see my name being connected. I gained lot of confidence and comfort after interacting
Aincludedinthelistofplacedstudents. with the top management who made me feel at home. My current
assignment is as a regional coordinator for the retail agency in
I can never explain the exciting rush I had in my head and I doubt if I AndhraPradesh.
would experience such thing in my future either.Today, I am a proud
employee of a brand which is 210 years old. SBI Life is the life I am quite happy that my personality suits the role and having
insurance arm of SBI Group and is a joint venture with European participated in many events at KIAMS has helped me to be more
giantBNPParibasCardiff. organized at work and maintain a better rapport with my clients and
colleagues.
th
My journey with them began as a management trainee on 8 April.
My only piece of advice is, actively participate in as many things asAfter the induction program at Mumbai, I was posted in Chennai for
possible. Learn as much as you can.You will definitely find it usefulmy regional training. Frankly speaking, I was a bit nervous in the
toyourcareeratsomepointinnearfuture.beginning as I had no prior corporate experience. During those
Wishyouallthebest!times, glimpses of my group interaction and case study interactions
- Mr. Bharat Gildaat KIAMS flashed in my mind. And suddenly all the dots were
Management Trainee, SBI Life Insurance.
efore two months if anybody would have asked me what does in Hedge Equities in research team, as an intern for macro-economic
BSIP stands for I would have said Summer Internship Program, analyst. As a macro economic analyst one has to widen the horizon
but now it means Systematic Investment Plan Or KRA initially of his/her thoughts, capture the relevant data on various happening
which meant Key Responsibility Area but now it means KYC in the world and access its impact on Indian economy and Indian
(Know your customer) Registration Agency and there are many markets.This needs a lot of practice and experience.Well in my case
more acronyms whose full form has completely changed because I lacked both of them, but as we know “The journey of thousand
now I am in to a corporate world that is completely different from miles start with a single step”, I believe I have taken that step, with
our college life, whose terminology is different, experiences are the help of my industry mentors and the experience of SIP(this time
different. Two months of SIP has completely changed my thought itmeansSummerInternshipProgram)willhelpmeinmyfuture.
process. It has taken me out of my bookish knowledge to the
-Ms. Meenu Jaincompletely practical scenario, how to apply the basics and most
PGDM II, KIAMS
importantly what the present trends are. I got an opportunity to work

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At last, when all the summer shine
That warmed life's early hours is past,
Your uncertain head seek for my shoulders
And rest them over – at last! At last!
Not off the robin comes to build,
It's nest upon the leafless bough.
By autumn robbed, by winter chilled,
But you dear friend, you are with me now.
Though there are shadows on my brow,
And furrows on my cheek, in truth,
The marks where time's remorseless plough
Broke up the blooming sward of youth,
Though fled is every friendly grace
Might win or hold a friends vow,
Despite my sad and faded face
And darkened heart, my friend you are
I count no more wasted tears,
They left no echo of their fall,
I mourn no more my troublesome years,
This blessed hour atones for all,
I fear not all that time or fate
May bring to burden heart of brow,
Strong in the bond that bind us,
Our friendship shall keep it always now.
Mr. Karan Gupta
PGDM II, KIAMS
now with me
Tone of Friendship..

The chanakya july 2013

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