Ensuring India's demographic dividend-Shantanu Prakash(PGP 88)[Educomp] at IIM-A

Like his alma mater(IIM-A), Shantanu Prakash's company Educomp is unique in India. From pre school to degree college, off line or online, Educomp covers end-end education segment. So when Shantanu agreed to give a 1 hr talk to students on 'Entrepreneurship', there were many takers among the student fraternity. His gentle and relaxed style of speaking won over several hearts(contents of course won over the minds!)

Among the salient points of his talk were the following

• He praised the traditional middle class values of 'integrity, thrift, hardwork and willingness to dream' as his core values but said that we Indians often underused this ability to dream
• Compared to when he started out as an entrepreneur(early liberalization), he said that there was never a better time or place to be an entrepreneur. India is the cynosure of attention globally. 
• Even in his college days, he was an entrepreneur organizing rock shows and earning a decent amount which he then blew up in the stock market!! That partly influenced his decision to join IIM-A(else he may have built a financial services giant)
• When asked about global differences, he said that 'helping kids learn better' philosophy can be adapted globally
• Giving the analogy of how transplants do not work as expected, he felt that home grown business models would help solve the education issue. Indians understand their fellow citizen's needs better, also some things are unique to India/China(family saving for education for instance)
• He explained away the high margins of the business as 'marginal cost of content once created' is zero-or maybe some translation costs. 
• When asked how to decide between multiple appealing areas for entrepreneurship, he gave the analytical view first(pain area, potential, unique way to service it) but quickly added that whatever excited/resonated with you should be chosen. He likened it to relationships..you date many but marry only one person at the end
• Analyzing the multimedia rich world of today, he said that teachers can no longer 'chalk and talk; or be 'sage on the stage'. Instead, they must use technology to engage their students
• He mentioned Educomp's inorganic growth strategy as providing capital and a platform to existing small businesses whose owners are passionate and focused.
• As an indication how objective evolve, he said that now his focus is something bigger for the nation because 'quarterly results take care of themselves'
• When asked how to imagine so much, he said that once you take that first step, the resources, exposure and people around you, open up your mind to even more possibilities
• He said that instead of decrying the lack of skilled, talented teachers, we should focus on retraining them and providing them technology to perform better. 
• Emphasizing the value of reputation/credibility, he said that the first few customers repose faith in YOU and not in the product. There comes the importance of branding, track record, CV etc
• What really impressed me was the courage and power of his vision..and more importantly the ability to translate that into concrete actions.

'Sam Uncle' at IIMA

Yesterday, Sam Pitroda visited IIM-A to deliver an address on "Nation Building in the 21^st Century and Indian Challenges". Like any other initiative of his, the talk was interesting and well thought out. Starting from the origins of nations(in tribes), he discussed the evolution of national building and said that in the present age when goods & services move freely, are borders/passports relevant to keep people out? He discussed Japan & EU which were suffering from economic issues and hoped that India could take its place in the sun soon. He prefers 'Collaboration over Command and control'. He does not see technology as the 'silver bullet' to address India's problems but wants it to be accompanied by 'domain experts' of which India has a chronic shortage(maybe as good engineers either do MS abroad or MBA in India-but I'm digressing). He hoped to spark off a discussion/debate here so that the fruits could be seen over time.


What was more amazing was the Q&A session after his talk. While I have seen blatant abuse of this system elsewhere, today's session was the last straw and I simply had to post the type of Q&A that happens when such sessions are opened to the public(I am NOT elitist but I've not noticed such things in IIM-A only events)

• The attention seeker:-This person spends a disproportionate time on his own introduction/self edification, pushes his own views and asks a 'sitter' question at the end.  For example, the self professed head of a management college was guilty of this during Sam Pitroda's talk.
• The lobbyist:-This type of person(no reference meant to Radia&Co) asks on issues tangential to the talk and wants to push his interest. 
• The crank:-We had a scientist who had developed a machine to 'generate energy out of gravity'. When gently reminded that this talk was not the right forum to air the issue, he walked out with his wife
• The idealist:-This person expects the speaker to be omnipotent and have solutions for all the national issues. It is better to remind such people, "Ask not what the country can do for you but what you can do for your country".

 Those of you wondering why 'Sam Uncle'.well..that's what he was addressed by a student during a Q&A!!!

IIM-A finally recognizes stream disparity in their shortlisting criteria.

Today is the day of heartbreak and joy-when the CAT scores are out. When I checked IIM-A's shortlisting criteria for 2011-13 batch, I first thought it was the same one as 2009-11(where they had given a percentage for 10/12/Graduation without considering streams). For example, getting 90%+ in Commerce is difficult(even more so in Arts) in Std 12/Graduation but that fact was not given weightage.

I had blogged before on the bias towards engineers. But this year onwards,. there is very little excuse for that. But in this year's shortlisting, the section percentiles have been lowered to 94(overall 99). Also, 75%+ is the pinnacle for Commerce marks but 95% for Engineering marks. The scheme seems designed in the word of one of my batchmates, "to bring in more diversity(via non engineering/work exp people)". Lets hope it works.

Update: Some of my batch mates feel that the criteria rewards mugging. But looking at the points structure, anyone with decent acads in 10/12/Grad would make it. They have only replaced those who slacked off in graduation with those who have workexp/master degrees.  

Bschools DO teach you team work_but restricted to the community

An Arab proverb of unknown origin goes
At home, me against my brother. In the house, me and my brother against our cousins. In the village, me, my brother, my cousins against our neighbors. Outside, me, my brother, my cousins and our neighbors against the whole world."

 For Bschools, the proverb would probably read as
"In library/CT, me against my study group mate.
In class, me and my study group mates against the rest.
Outside the class, me, my study group and rest of the section against other sections.
Outside the  academic block, me and my batch(all 5 sections) against the other batches
Outside the campus, me and all other batches/alums against the world"

The last line is the most powerful. Globally(and India is no exception), Bschool brands are built on the success and networking of their alumni. But that would be of little use if the alumni do not cooperate/help out their fellow alumnus.

At certain times(summer placements, academic contests etc), the team work reaches stupendous heights as exemplified by the LIMCA book record breaking dominos show for which the team endured 10 night outs.  But at other times, as in study group formation, quiz preparation, academic help, that bonding some how vanishes.

Don't "burn bridges at work" and 4 other tips to clinch that summer placement

The IIMA summer placements just ended recently with the entire batch getting placed under the new cluster system.  Competing with 400 of your peers for the summer placements is a totally different experience from even admissions. In all other activities(classroom, sports, extra currics) we do co-operate but this is quite intense competition. Yet, people did co-operate in the best interest of the institute in things like questions in company PPT;s, helping in last minute prep.

People come here hoping to make a career shift(mostly into Fin/Consult thogh that trend is changing). But ontrary to what many people may think, this battle is often won even before you step into the institute.  What I'm stating below holds true only for IIM-A but may apply to other institutes. Without much ado, I'll delve deep into the points an MBA aspirant should consider during his/her prep for MBA, to ensure good placements.

• Stellar undergraduation scores : Think of it as a hygiene factor. When a recruiter is faced with 400 CV's, s(he) would take the easy way out of setting a GPA filter. Not all companies do so, but the ones who do so often overlook all other stellar achievements and reject the CV. I've seen many friends with GPA of even 7-9 getting overlooked due to this factor despite their all round excellence. 
• Undergrad college: Again this is not in your control. For that rare person who's reading this 4 yrs ahead of time, remember that a brand like St Stephens, IIT, few NIT's, St Xaviers, Poddar, BITS etc carry that much more weight with recruiters. By chance or otherwise, the shortlists of top Consults/Fin cos often contain exclusively students with those brands. If you are from a college considered as second rung, do make that extra effort to shine in GATE, GMAT, GRE, inter-college festivals etc, to display your excellence.
• Extra Curriculars/ Student Clubs: Involvement in these things indicates your ability to multitask well, and so is viewed favorably, specially by Consulting firms who view this as pre requisites.  And merely writing about a bit role does not count unless you can substantiate it via examples, incidents etc.
• Academic excellence/understanding: -Do not confuse this with high GPA's. Often the interviews test merely the basics and not rote learning(actually true for IIM interviews also). So be prepared to be grilled on your logic, rationale and what not. The first year portion(taught from July-Oct) is generally not tested unless you are applying for a Finance role.
• High quality work experience: For candidates with work experience, do not burn your bridges at work. Never. It may sound tempting to resign from your job before CAT, do badly at work on grounds of CAT/GD prep but that would back fire when you need substantiation of your work experience, letters of referral and the like. And in this small world, it just takes a call for the recruiters to check you out. And do not take shortcuts like early offs etc. The more variety of work exp you gain, the more valuable you become to recruiters. Think of whether you are working 100 days or 1 day 100 times over..do not let it become mechanical/ routine 

        Each campus has its own post entry patterns of summer prep so I do not discuss that on this forum.  Considering that companies prefer the summer placement route to recruitment,  aspiring MBAs should not underestimate the importance of their background to the whole process. In an ideal world, there would be assessment centres, day long multiple interviews and the like. That is not possible here so background assumes much more importance.

Creating your own Niche

Niche is a marketing concept as well as one of IIMA's best run clubs but that is not the topic of this post. Summer Placements 2011 are over in IIMB/C and are well in progress here. During the break, I had time to  introspect over a book by Garrison Wynn-Real Truth about success(http://www.flipkart.com/real-truth-success-wynn-book-0070702276) and then the truth hit me.

We try hard to conform with the rest whether it be presentation techniques, academic curriculum etc. If an engineer is weak in FRA or a CA is weak at PS over here, they typically work more towards overcoming their weakness than on reinforcing their strengths. From what I noticed of my classmates preparing for summer placements, they were focussing on the weakness based approach(get good on their weak areas) rather than be an expert on their strong ones. That is why in the HR type questions "What makes you different/Why should we recruit you" etc they badly faltered. If they had focussed on their unique strengths better, things may have been different.

I am not advocating that one should not work on weaknesses. But in this competitive world, there is no need to play by other's rules by using a certain type of skillsets only. In a batch of 95% engineers, it is safe to assume that there is little to distinguish them in the core areas of quantitative ability, under-graduation grades etc. Both in placements and later on in work, what would bring top performance and excellence is not what is common with others but what is unique.

That is why instead of competing with others on their homeground, is is better to pick your battlefield and then win.

You know you are in IIM-A when..

1. You see 12pm on a clock and immediately think 23:59:59(each second counts here)
2. You toss out a 1000word WAC report overnight and still outscore the guy who works on it the full week
3. You speak some BS as "Class Participation" and get swatted down
4. Whatever you say in class is taken down by the TA(Teaching Assistant) though you are not the Prof
5. The Prof mails you assignments just when you were about to sleep(even 2am!!!!)
6. You do not sleep for 36hours and still consider yourself as lucky(I'm not making this up!)
7. Anything you say to outsiders is taken as gospel even though you may not know a thing(actually we DO know but that would'nt make a difference).
8. You hear the word "Juice" and immediately think of a certain bulletin board(come here and find out)

Thats all for now.As campus life progresses, I can add some more to this list.

Who ever thought that open book exams could be so challenging?

Before coming to IIM A, I had this perception that open book exams are somehow "softer" and simpler to crack. Only after 2 Slots(4 more to go!)  realized(after some eyeopenng papers) that they reflect the way we work in the real world.

Think about it. When faced wth a situation at work will you avoid opening any reference books/notes etc or would you rely only on what you learnt last in college. The former obviously is what most people would do.
The skills sets needed to mug are far different from the skill sets needed to refer to/locate information in the Googled world. And that is what open book exams teach you.

Risk taking & winning-the Story of the IIM-A Beta quiz

Today was the annual Finquest(finance related trivia quiz organized by Beta-the premier Finance Club of IIM-A for the Fucchas(first years). The entries numbered about 100+ teams of 2 members each.

Naturally, so many teams cannot compete in the finals. They conducted a written elimination round to shortlist 6 teams. Myself and Miheer Desai qualified for the finals and sat as the third team.

By the 2nd last round end, we were at 85, the top team at 120 and third team at 65. The round had an exciting format that 6 areas were given(1 area per team) with the team getting to select areas in order of their rankings. I.e 1st team could choose area of questions and then 2nd ranked team could choose its area. There was an added twist of choosing points scheme BEFORE seeing the question(viz +60 -30; +40 -20; +20 -10). The first ranked team played safe, chose +20 -10 & secured 20 pts totalling 140.

Now, we could go for 60/30 option & try to get 145 and win. But if we lost, then we get 55 & slide to 3rd. We played safe; chose 20/10 and secured 105 pts. But then the team at 65 took 60/30 gamble and won coming 2nd!!!!

To compound it, we were told that it was the same qn for all 3. The qn format was designed to reward risk takers and we lost our oppurtunity at 1st place

Some phrases to use in any class participation

In my first 2 weeks here on campus, I noticed 1 thing irrespective of the class. Whenever the Prof would expound some theory/idea/concept, some smark aleck(s) racks up some CP(Class Participation) points by saying the following:-
-It depends on the Situation
-We cannot apply this in all cases
-We need a balance of positive/negative
-I agree with him
-.....(rephrasing somebody else points)
-Sir as you said.. Even if the Prof has not said anything like that, he can rarely say so(unless he is utterly wrong). And the person putting CP gets brownie points for hanging on to the Prof's words

These weasel words just add fluff/gas to the situation without contributing any new idea. But an unwary academic associate(the person watching class participation) may just count the number of interventions and award marks. Thankfully, both the Profs and Academic Associates are quite competent and experienced to observe such tactics. Then why they are still applied is a mystery to me.

12:00pm or 11:59:59-why IIM-A deadlines are the latter?

We like round figures but rarely trust/adhere to that level of precision. Tell someone to meet you at 2pm and s(he) turns up at 2:15/2:20 still early by Indian standard time(behind our actual time!).

This is not welcome in IIMA. Class timings are set at 8:44:59 meaning if you enter at 8:45 for the 8:45 class, you are 1.25hrs early for the next one. Most profs, and all campus clubs, enforce this seriously. After all, the future leaders of India should learn to respect their own and other people's time. And oversleeping is not an excuse for missing any deadlines.

After the initial culture shock, sticking to deadlines actually works fine. Because thats a good habit, also it brings in more seriousness.

Why do male engineers bag 90%+ IIM-A/B/C seats?

As a non engineer, I noticed that male engineers dominate IIM-A with around 95% of the batch. This inspite of the IIM's wanting more gender & stream diversity for better classroom discussions.

One reason maybe the online CAT of this year. We males love our gadgets(I'm just making a generalization here without any gender stereotyping so PL do not send me hate-mail) so perhaps the ability to crack a Computer based test(CBT) was better.

And then engineers have an inherent edge in CAT due to intensive MCQ practice, objective test experience and of course aptitude. Since most of them in IIT/NIT are male, this same ratio reflects in CAT.

So what is the impact? The quality of discussion remains high due to different insights, experiences, IQ but the sector diversity is somewhat missing(less finance, law, arts etc). Still, this has been the trend for quite a few years and things are working fine, so maybe this is not a real probleｍ。

Why is IIM-A called hectic?

Even before I stepped into IIM-A, I heard/read stories about 4 hour sleep, 1 hour notice surprise quizzes spoiling lunch and generally about the hectic first year schedule.

Considering that the academic curiculum is (broadly) same across all IIM's in the first year, why does only IIM-A have such a rushed culture? One part of the puzzle lies on our dedicated Profs who prepare hard for the classes even to the extent of sending class materials at 2am for the 8:45 lecture(I'm not making this up!). Seeing their dedication, no one has an excuse for ignorance when s(he) is cold-called. And the classroom time: study time(pre/post class) vastly varies across students but is atleast 1:2. Multiply that into nearly 4 hours classes and you see why people joke that the A in IIM-A stands for Acads.

The second part of the puzzle lies in the various clubs in IIM-A nearly 40 at last count. Fucchas(first years) enrol generally in 1-5 clubs and a good chunk of time goes there. And then assignments, WAC, dorm parties, recreations(Frisbee, soccer, cricket etc), hanging out at eateries is all non(academically)value added time-but which prepares you for life.

Thirdly, punctuality is non negotiable here. Deadlines are given to the last second so 11:00am deadline is 10:59:59 with even 1 second delay not condoned. This of course prepares the student for real life & to discard the "Indian standard time" he is used to. But it is also a major cause of the "pressure".

It is upto the individual. If he just focusses on acads, a pretty relaxed life will ensue. But then, the whole IIMA experience will not just accrue. A fine balance needs to be struck between work and leisure here.

What makes IIM-A unique? It's the culture

A Statistics Prof got me thinking yesterday when he posed this question. The unusual replies like faculty, infrastructure, amenities, age came from all and sundry. Only one guy dared hazard that the students were the secret of IIM-A's success.

After all, the omnipotent Students Activities Council(SAC) runs a significant bit of campus life right from the students shop('Entre') to negotiating the canteen/other outlets T&C to scheduling lectures. Of course, the dorm culture plays a major role in the alumni bonding which really drives most B-schools to success including IIM-A.

But then, the reason person X is at IIMA with person Y at other Bschools is generally an "accident". Bad luck on either the exam day or interview day may make an otherwise stellar candidate lose out. So, quality of students remaining same across top B-schools, it is the institution that makes a difference.

In my 10 days here at campus, what struck me most was the dedication of IIMA staff-right from the contract housekeeping personnel to the administative staff and(of course!) the faculty who shame latecomers by reaching quite ahead of time. That, along with the culture of entrusting wide responsibility to students treating them as mature adults, certainly catalyses their metamorphosis from starry eyed MBA aspirants to the business leaders of tomorrow. The dorm culture not only ensures passing on knowledge, tradition, wisdom of the seniors(Tucchas) but also builds that much needed bonding across batches of the same dorm.

To conclude, the IIM-A culture though hectic at times certainly shapes the person more than anything else. After all, steel goes through fire to become forged steel. Credit should go to the institution for ensuring the 50+ year tradition