One comes to an IIM with the aim to fulfil their dreams and be the manager they always dreamed of becoming. An IIM is famous for their demanding schedules, academic rigour and the plethora of opportunities provided to the students. Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur is no different. Being a baby IIM, IIM Sirmaur has not yet flourished nevertheless this provides the students with the chance to pave the way for the future of this institute. Being a new IIM, we have a limited number of faculties on the campus and are visited by many extraordinary minds from various management institutes to teach us. Among all the interesting classes we had, the most memorable classroom experience I have had was a quiz I gave in my third term of the 1
st year.
Prof. Rakesh V had come to teach us Supply Chain Management and being inclined towards Operations as my major, it was already intriguing. Supply Chain Management is the study of operations delving into the entire process of procuring the raw material to delivering the finished good. As a student, operations interests me with the beauty of something being made and to be able to learn about how. Generating interest among the students, giving relatable real-life experiences and explaining the complexity in extremely simple terms, he increased the interest multifold. We learned in steps about several aspects of inventory and the different models of managing inventory including the various costs involved. Starting with the simplest model, he explained each of them with numerical examples and move to a comparatively complicated model in the next class. This method of teaching had made our learning extremely thorough. But the day he earned utmost respect as a professor was the day of the quiz. The topic was the inventory model and he gave us the question paper. Though our concepts were clear, he gave us the solved numerical problems we had solved in class and told us that we can take the entire class to finish the paper. Open book exams are pretty common in B-Schools. The way this quiz became unique was that we could help each other with the answers. We did not have to sit at a spot and solve the paper but we move around helping those who were struggling. It didn’t matter to him who got the highest and who completed the fastest, it mattered if everyone had learned. Needless to say, we helped each other and this ended up being a boon as one knows if they have learned something only when they are able to teach it. At the end of the class, he even said that he expected someone to take the lead to come to the board and solve all the problems but was delighted how different leaders came about in the process of the quiz. This was something that students do not expect in the education system and it caught us by immense surprise. Most of us got full marks in that quiz but all of us were stirred by his emphasis on learning and not marks. As William Arthur Ward once said, “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.”
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
An Aditya Birla group company I would want to work for is DOMSJÖ FABRIKER. The processing of raw forest materials to produce cellulose, lignin and bio-ethanol will provide an opportunity to learn about the essence of supply chain management. Being an operations major, working with the entire process will be a memorable experience. Also, Domsjo Fabriker has a focus on sustainability and produces multiple biofriendly by-products. The increasing inclination of the customers towards sustainable solutions for every problem, this is an industry that will gain more significance in the future. Being a prime centre of research and development in the industry, Domsjo will also give the opportunity to learn about the latest technology in the field of pulp and bio-refinery.
-Atreyee Roy