Joining an IIM brings a lot of excitement since it is one of the top b-schools of India. However, IIMs also bring hectic schedules with numbers of lectures and crazy life with tons of assignments and projects. But it also brought a whole new learning technique for me that I haven’t witnessed but the only herd which is “the pedagogy of case study”, a process in which you learn with past experiences of others and apply your theories and principles on that situation and act like a key decision maker.
In the first lecture of my 1st year, I had a case to read a case for marketing which was going to be discussed on the next day. While reading the case it felt like a story where a man was starting his own business with some funds. That made me confuse that how will I learn about marketing from this story. However, after attending my first class I realised that it was more than just a story which had a lot of learnings included inside. It was like solving a cryptic cypher and gaining insights and core business learnings from that story.
On that day I was not in a condition to solve that cypher. However, I also realised that this is a skill which can only be mastered with continuous practice and by putting a lot of efforts and with a great time investment.
After the completion of my 1st year, I have realised that my lot of time was spent in reading the cases, but that different case situations helped me a lot during my summer internship program. Many students tell others that case reading will not bring you any learnings to you but it is not true. These are the stories of success and failures of businesses which can give you a lot of insights of business processes, industry scenarios, culture in different industries and what not.
On the other hand, apart from these managerial learnings IIM, Indore also provided an opportunity to understand the rural lifestyle through “Rural Immersion Program”. I learned about state government policies and their implementation etc. However, I also realised that insight of the classroom under simulated environment is not enough to solve the actual problem in real life. However, it helped a lot in making decisions and giving recommendations for improvements to the village.
There are many more interesting things that cannot be explained in words. And to witness it, the only thing you have to do is attend the class.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
From the beginning of my MBA curriculum, I found marketing and retailing extremely attractive. Also, I found apparel business very interesting from the marketing perspective. It will be a great opportunity for me to be a part of Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited which would provide exposure of branded apparel business, in-house brands such as Allen Solly, Peter England and also provide an opportunity to gain exposure of multi-brand fashion retail chain like pantaloons. The opportunity of marketing differently branded apparels of different market segments will be a good learning for me as a beginner
- KeyurKumar Bhuriya