It was 9:30:00 when he entered the classroom. The first thing that he did was lock the door behind him, giving us our first and possibly the most important lesson – punctuality. Nobody was allowed inside the class after 9:30:00. It was clear. Citing shlokas from the Bhagwat Geeta, Professor P.R.S. Sharma introduced himself in the most uncanny fashion imaginable. A bit surprised at this, but still very excited, the 60 odd students greeted their guru as he cut the red ribbons to their 2-year journey at the Indian Institute Of Management, Raipur.
He talked about the idea behind Boeing 747, about the rivalry between Airbus and Boeing. He talked about Amazon, and their ‘bald billionaire’ Jeff Bezos. He talked about how ATMs were a remarkable invention, for both the Bankers and the customers. A little while later, he talked about Valentines Day. He went on and on for 60 minutes, talking about influential people, remarkable inventions, and fortune 500 companies. All 60 students of the class were involved, their attention at 110%. We thought we were being made comfortable; that this was just an introductory class, and we had learnt nothing about the subject.
But that was the magic of Professor P.R.S. Sharma. He proved our judgements wrong. Because in the last 10 minutes, he related all of the anecdotes, all of the examples to the subject of Operations Management in the Supply Chain. He used some definitions, some jargon, some technical terms, and some more examples. And by the time the 90-minute session was over, we all had learnt so much about ‘OM’, without even trying – we had completed our first chapter.
It was our first interactive, case study based class of our 2-year program. And we learnt so much, so easily. It was our first of the many memorable classroom experiences we are going to have. And we all look forward to them.
ABG Company I would like to work for:
Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd, the parent of Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, People, Pantaloons, Hackett London, Forever 21 and many more are what interest me. Aditya Birla’s fashion arm is already a well-established player in the booming Indian market. It is in its growth stage and has the resources and the means necessary to become a leader in the Indian segment. I think my skills and knowledge as a fashion enthusiast would make me suitable to add value to this particular segment of the Aditya Birla Group, which is why I would want to join the Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd.
Divyansh S Chauhan - is a 1st-year student at IIM Raipur