Students of VGSoM are gearing up to hit the ‘MADison Avenue’ this weekend. Yes, this is the name of the marketing and branding workshop being held at VGSoM on the 8^th and 9^th March ’08, coined after the Marketing and ADvertising club – the MAD Club of VGSoM. The club is actually a group of students dedicated to promoting activities and learning related to the ‘marketing’ function of management and its associated fields like branding, advertising etc.! MADison Avenue, which is planning to go global in its very first launch, will bring to its participants, a plethora of online events like quizzes and case study competitions which will be open to all corporates, B-school students as well as aspirants. Apart from these, there is also a workshop and lecture series on various issues related to branding which will invite eminent dignitaries from various corporate giants and brand leaders like Airtel, Cavin Kare, Cognizant, ITC Foods, Fortune Park Hotels, Pantaloons, Zee Sports and more, some of whom are also sponsoring this fiesta. Some of the other sponsors are Tata Mcgraw-Hill and Voltas. Also, PaGalGuy.com is the online media partner for the event.

Check out the all the MADness happening on MADison Avenue website.

Keep checking this space for more updates!!!

An engrossing talk was delivered on the afternoon of 12^th February 2008 to the students of VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur by Mr. Siddhartha Dasgupta, Emeritus Quality Expert, Philips Electronics. He spoke to the gathering on “BUSINESS EXCELLENCE THROUGH VALUE ADDITION”.

 He set the keynote for the talk by emphasizing on the way of business excellence and how we must look at businesses from the quality perspective. He went on to talk about the field of Business Analytics, what its role was in today’s businesses and its strategic importance. He cited an interesting example on how the UPS Customer Intelligence Group used business analytics tools to predict customer defections. Students were given an overview of companies which work with “ideal business processes”. Mr. Dasgupta, in a very lucid manner, explained to the audience that such companies know WHAT to make, HOW to make and WHAT to sell and they give due importance to quality in all these aspects.

He delved deep into his immense wealth of experiences and said that what ails most managers today is not the lack of solutions to problems but the lack of knowledge of existence of tools to solve his problems. “You must be aware of what is available to you”, he reiterated. He harped on the intelligent use of business analytics as a smart way of dealing with problems.

Top management orientation, to a large extent, determines where a company is headed. Mr. Dasgupta dwelt on the demand for excellence being enforced by the top management.

 For marketing enthusiasts, he had a word of advice: “Business Processes are among the last remaining points of differentiation to be exploited”.

 He also spoke about lagging (all financial indicators) and leading indicators (people, processes and customers) and their importance to organizations. He also recollected his experiences at Philips and cited examples of how analytics tools helped them rectify problems.

 He presented the concept of the Zero-Defect Flowchart and continued further to talk about how we could make innovation predictable. He also accentuated the importance of retaining talent within an organization. To conclude, he spoke about the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Excellence Model which talks about achieving results by correct use of enablers.

 At the end of the lecture, VGSOM students were privileged to listen to an authority in the field of quality and get an insight into the signification of quality in the industry today.

After MIT and Harvard, Partha Ghosh now at VGSOM..!

VGSOM students will soon have the privilege of taking leadership lessons from Mr. Partha S. Ghosh who is a world renowned strategist, consultant, author and the chairman of board of Boston Analytics. Mr. Ghosh, ex-partner of McKinsey & Co., will be delivering a lecture series at VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur from 14th to 17th Feb 2008 after having conducted the same at Harvard University and MIT, which will also be his first at an Indian B-School, on the issues of strategic problem solving, leadership and globalization.

Mr. Partha Ghosh, based in Boston is famous as an innovator of Business and Economic Models. He is currently in an advisory role with multiple organizations world wide and the Chairman & Chief Mentor of Boston Analytics, a firm specializing in providing precision analytical services/financial modeling tools to corporate and government agencies. He is also the Chairman of the Board of Advisors of Boutique Cross Border M & A /Strategic Alliance Advisory firm Access International, and Chairman of Business Intelligence firm Intersoft K.K based in Tokyo. Earlier Mr. Ghosh was a partner at McKinsey & Company and is the founder/Managing director of Strategy/Policy advisory firm Partha S Ghosh & Associates. His clients view him as a “creative problem solver” and a “visionary leader.”

VGSOM is all set to roll out the red carpet for Mr. Ghosh who is seen by the CEOs from around the globe as a leader who “inspires leaders to build lasting legacies”.

For more details, please refer to http://www.som.iitkgp.ernet.in/popup/ParthaGhosh.html

This was the succinct advice given to students at VGSoM by Mr. Radhakrishnan Nair, Chief of Corporate HR, Tata Steel.  He  said this while telling the students about his experience with fresh recruits under him all these years and advising on things to keep in mind before stepping into the corporate world.

In a guest talk with students of both batches, Mr. Nair spoke about the mistakes he had committed during his career. He told the students about his first job at Indian Aluminium Company after passing out of XLRI and how he was given the job of maintaining the leave record. Instead of complaining about the mundane job, he impressed his boss by performing an effective analysis of the leave record. His experience taught him that we must not state the unpleasant truth.

He then went on to speak about “Change Management” and felt that we should be invisible agents in the change and line managers are the ones supposed to bring about change.

Mr. Nair also highlighted the difference in various industries such as hardcore manufacturing, consulting and IT. The difference in the HR focus is a result of the different evolution curves of the industry as a whole and the different needs that it has.

The Tata Corus integration on the HR front was one of the focus areas of his talk. He spoke about the Tata Group philosophy of not looking at the acquisition of a company as an “acquisition” but as a “partnering”. Tata has given raw material security to Corus while Corus has benefited Tata by high-technology sharing.

His closing remark struck a chord with the students, “You are successful when you are free from fear. You have to attain that stage of freedom from fear of what you are doing.

3 Days – 3 Nights full of Fun and Adventure..!!

For three gruelling, action-packed and fun-filled days, students of VGSOM, IIT Kharagpur got an opportunity to test their physical and mental limits and learnt to push themselves beyond it. John Buchan once said, “The task of leadership is not to put greatness into people, but to elicit it, for the greatness is there already.” The students of VGSOM learnt the art of eliciting this greatness at the TASF camp.

On the first day, we were driven to the Tumung village from the Jamshedpur station where TASF had set up a camp. We were taught rock-climbing, caving, rappling and setting up our own tents. We were put in groups and an obstacle race was organized for us which tested our planning and team skills and our physical endurance.

The second day was devoted to water-sports in the picturesque Dimna Lake. We camped on an island at the centre of the lake. We were taught rafting and subsequently had to build our own improvised rafts and we competed to be the first team to row our raft across the lake.

We went trekking up the Dalma Hill on the third day. The trek up and down the hill tested the best amongst us. However, we helped each other along the steep climb and we enjoyed every moment of it.

It was an opportunity for all the students at VGSOM to scale the learning curve of leadership and team skills. It supplemented the Leadership course that fourth semester students at VGSOM undergo. Harold Geneen had said “Leadership cannot really be taught. It can only be learned.” At the TASF camp, we got an opportunity to learn and practice leadership amidst nature and it was a rewarding experience for all of us. As all of us prepare to step into the corporate world, it taught us how to build and work in teams and provide inspirational leadership.

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Sharing decades of his diverse and rich experience with the budding managers was one of his ways of giving back to his Alma matter. Capt Mohan Ram, an ex-naval officer and a business veteran- the man behind the historic turnaround of TVS Motor Company, and an ex- IIT-Kgpian of the batch of 1953 returned to deliver lectures on “Structured Product Development” and “Turnaround Management”. A man in his 70s, he spoke at both sessions with such passion, enthusiasm and energy that we 20-somethings were totally awe-struck. A series of power packed lectures infused with a healthy dose of wit and humour with the help of anecdotes was truly stimulating.

The first of the veteran’s lecture was on “Corporate Turnaround” aided with the real-time case study on the turnaround of TVS Motor Company which is a legendary feat in the Indian corporate world. The TVS story through crisis, survival, revival, renewal, results, challenges and responses was nothing less than a Hollywood block buster that had the audience sitting at the edge of their seats. With the narration of each of the adversities and their management, the audience could see many B-School textbook lessons coming to life. Though he probably was thankful to god for providing him with the opportunity (disguised as adversity) to hone and show case his skills, he wished that none of us go through such stormy weather ever in our lives. The journey from a market leader in mopeds to a factory lockout to the Deming Quality Award to finally the present TVS Motor Company taught the budding managers memorable lessons that were learnt through experience and will surely come handy in our long careers ahead.

The second lectures was on “Structured New Product Development – Key to Quality assurance and effectiveness” taking us through the journey right from customer-need recognition to customer feedback post purchase. He spoke of NDP as being a structured, cross functional and an organizational capability enhancement process that consisted of various elements such as concurrent engineering, measured introduction of new technologies, standardization, patent and IPR protection etc. He then elaborated on the various stages involved in the structured product development process with examples such as the much successful TVS Scooty: the design, development and launch of which the Captain was deeply involved in. He then spoke at length of the customer oriented attitude and culture that corporations must adopt in today’s world in order to survive and thrive, citing examples of companies that have perished because they were not able to evolve from a product oriented company to a customer oriented company. The veteran concluded the talk with this very important lesson in life: “Learn from Failures”.

When the captain’s presentation and the Q&A session ended the audience couldn’t help but give him a standing ovation and hoped that he would return to deliver more such lectures.

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A day in the life of a ‘glorified dukaandar’

The above headings give the essence of what the students of VGSOM learned from one of the experts of the Retail game on 31^st March, 2007.

Mr. S.S. Sheikhawat, VP Marketing, RPG Retail Pvt. Ltd. delivered a truly enlightening guest lecture at the institute on the domain of ‘Retail Marketing’ along with excerpts from his own experience in the field of marketing in general.

The lecture was in two parts – People Issues in the field of retailing, and Major Formats. A point-wise synopsis.

• Unlike the west, Retailing in India is essentially a white collar job, possibly because of the huge talent crunch that the industry faces and the obvious reasons of highly trained, highly skilled labor at low costs.

• Walmart vs Carrefour
  • Carrefour scores over Walmart in one very important respect – excellent record at adapting to local culture, China being a prime example. It’s a highly competitive market & Carrefour is the only foreign retail chain that has successfully carved a niche for itself there.
  • On the other hand, Walmart has failed in almost every market outside the US.

• FDI in retail is not a threat to the ‘kirana’ stores, particularly because of the following two features of a kirana store:
  • Customer Service
    • Nothing can beat the special treatment one receives at the good old neighborhood kirana store, Can it!
  • Convenience

• The biggest challenge that the retail sector faces today is of dealing with dramatically opposite set of people; opposite
  • Demographically, and
  • Psychographically

• You can do three things in RETAILING

• • Discount
    • Walmart
    • Carrefour
    • Tesco

• • Differentiate
    • Trader Joes
    • Sears
    • JCP
    • Macys
    • Pike Place Fish Market

• • Die
    • !!!

Trader Joes is a privately held chain of specialty grocery stores which describes itself as ‘Your Unique Grocery Store’. It is famous in the retail world for having the highest revenue per square foot. But it is not a scalable model since the level of individualized service that it offers can’t be replicated on a scale as big as that of Walmart. Guess the differentiation comes at a cost!

Pike Place Fish Market is a Seattle based fresh fish company. Besides offering
only the best quality, freshest seafood, their dedication to having fun, drama and
creating excitement while at work makes them “world famous”. Designations here look something like these – · CEO – The one who does the least work!· The Manager?· The Customer Getter, etc.

An excerpt from their philosophy (given on the website – http://www.pikeplacefish.com) goes like this –

Back in 1986 the owner, John Yokoyama, hired a business consultant from bizFutures Consulting to work with us for three months on improving our team. Twenty years later he’s still working with us. What he brought was an unusual kind of education that has empowered us to envision an amazing future and have it happen. It’s called bizFutures’ Technology of Being. ™ Early on our bizFutures coach encouraged us to commit ourselves to becoming “world famous” and we have accomplished this – not by spending any money on advertising (we’ve never spent a dime), but by being truly great with people. We interact with people with a strong intention to make a difference for them. We want to give each person the experience of having been served and appreciated, whether they buy fish or not. We love them. At the World Famous Pike Place Fish Market, we know that it’s possible for each of us as human beings to impact the way other people experience life. Through our work, we’re out to improve the quality of life for everyone. We are working inside the possibility of world peace and prosperity for all people. This is our commitment -that’s who we are – it’s what we do. In essence, without differentiation it’s not possible to remain profitable especially in today’s times when the consumer is becoming increasingly demanding.

· Any Retail Store should appeal to ‘All the Five Senses’!

o “Is it your kind of store?” – The retailer’s primary task is to do everything so that the customer says a BIG ‘YES’ to this!

o Basically a retail store should offer a Complete Shopping Experience§ Everything matters · The level product knowledge the Customer Service Attendant possesses· The time a customer waits at the billing counter· Even the trolley whose tyres squeak needs to be looked into!!!o “Never decide for the consumer. Let the consumer decide for you.”

Last but not least, a few words of wisdom

“Today more and more customers look for ‘Money for value’ rather than ‘Value for money’.”

To sum up, here’s the one question the retailer needs to answer clearly in its vision statement – Do I want to be the Biggest or the Best in the industry?

RPG’s answer – The Best!

With rich natural resources, an ample and able talent pool and carefully engineered industrialization,
Eastern India stands poised to take its place as an economic hub.

Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur, has conceived a platform where policy-makers, corporate doyens, academicians and the student community can bring this grand vision to fruition.

PURVODAYA - National Conclave is where both the opportunities and obstacles that line this path can be explored.

While economic growth is important, it is imperative that the development process is all-inclusive and the spin-offs of the process trickle down to all sections of society. Several issues like striking a balance between agrarian and industrial interests, SEZ’s, need to be explored and debated to enable informed decision-making. It is such strategic, social and geo-political issues related to the development process that will be set before the galaxy of distinguished speakers at PURVODAYA.

The conclave would encompass vital sectors, which would play a prominent role in “Ascent of the East”. The program is divided into four sub-themes each focusing on a key area namely Mining & Manufacturing, Infrastructure, Service Industry and Sustainable Growth along with Manthan – The Panel Discussion.

Speakers who have confirmed participation (till date) include dignitaries like:

Mr. G. Ojha – Director Personnel, SAIL

Mr. Debasis Som – Managing Director, West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation

Mr. S.Shivram – Director, Deloitte

Prof. Prakash Apte – Director, IIMB

Mr. Sunil Mitra – Power Sect. West Bengal Government

Mr. Mundhra – Chairman and Managing Director, Simplex Infrastructure

Mr. Ambarish Dasgupta – Partner, PriceWaterhouseCooper

Mr. Vivekananda Pattanayak [IAS (Retd)] – Head, Bhubaneswar Stock Exchange

Padmashree Prof. G. C. Mitra

Mr. Suman Chattopadhyay – Editor, Kolkatta TV

Mr. N.K. Chaudhari – Ex-CEO Mittal Steel kazakhistan

Dr. A.K Chanda – Chairman, Kolkatta Port Trust

Mr. Kaushik Bhatacharya – IBM

Mr. Gautam Wahi – Asst. Commisioner, Indian Revenue Services

Dr. Y.P Saxena – VP, Ambuja Cement

In addition, the event also includes a challenging competition for students across the nations. Titled SARVUNNATI it aims to bring together the future leaders from different B-schools across the country to present their innovative ideas on various issues of the resurgent east.

PURVODAYA, we hope, will generate ideas that will leave their impression on the “sands of time” and give solution to those outstanding issues that act as roadblocks to the growth of the East.

PURVODAYA welcomes you to shape and share its vision for the Ascent of the East.

To know more about the event click here.

Students and faculty from the University of Nebraska, Omaha (UNO) are in IIT Kharagpur in reciprocation of the visit by students of IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management to Omaha last year (to meet the Oracle of Ohama, Warren Buffet and to interact with students and faculty from UNO).

The students have spent a few days in India and are recording their thoughts online at http://unoindia.vox.com

More on the visit later …

The weekend of 20th and 21st Jan saw some hard-core gyan on the “Art and Science of Brands” by the pro Dr. Sunder M.P. – Group Manager, Brand and Communications – Infosys. Dr. Sunder has a PhD from Harvard Business School, under the legendary marketing guru of this era Dr. Philip Kotler.

From Brand perception to execution through case and M-plan discussions, moving towards rural marketing and touching base with IT marketing and the niches of brand hijack and cult brands, the 2 day workshop spanned the entire spectrum of Branding, with some great interactions, ideas and thoughts flowing across the space.

It ended with a fact-of-life statement by the Doc – “Never Talk in Absolutes in the field of Marketing”. Digest that!