Ever since the day I got admission into Indian Institute of Management Indore, one of the most coveted B-schools of the country, the journey has been really breathtaking with several ups and downs. I still remember the date 16.06.2017, Friday, the day that I got my admission offer from the institute. My happiness saw no bounds as it was like a dream come true for me to get selected into an IIM.
After surviving the hectic first term in which we were called as “PGP-Survivors”, the term quoted by our former RBI Governor honourable Mr. Raghuram Rajan, we were all searching for some inspiration to happen in the subsequent trimesters. In our third trimester, we had one of the workshop courses titled “Design Thinking”. When I first saw the name of the course on the Intranet website I started thinking what value addition would I get by joining this course.
When the course finally started off I still had the apprehension towards it as it was being taught by a guest faculty Prof Ankur. He had come along with his team of eight people who were supposed to take this workshop simultaneously for four sections with five lectures each planned on subsequent days. The first lecture was quite normal as he initiated the discussion by asking our opinions about what we thought about “Design Thinking” and showing us some inspirational videos on how to think out of the box.
In the subsequent session, we were divided into groups of six people each and were asked to pick one among six to seven topics wherein we had to present some ideas on how to create something innovative for the people in that sector. Among the several topics, we chose to study the income level of staff employees and devise some scheme so as to increase their levels of income by reducing their daily expenses.
The first stage for this process was to imagine ourselves in place of these employees and plan their daily schedule of activities as per our imagination in the most creative way possible. Hence we created a flowchart diagram of their daily routine sectioning time slots for each of their activities at home and while working in the college.
In the next stage, we had to interact with these people and ask them about their problems and think about probable solutions to their problems. This was the most important part of the process and I was really touched when I heard about their hardships and the struggles that they had to face on a daily basis to meet both ends successfully. Initially, they were very hesitant to speak to us as they were scared of their supervisors saying something to them if they were seen interacting with the students. But when we consoled them and spoke to them in privacy we saw the real hardships people were facing with several of them walking more than 20kms on a daily basis to save Rs. 50 per day which amounts to Rs. 1500 per month of travel expenses.
Subsequently, we sat back as a group and discussed what we could possibly do as a team to increase their income or their savings which would help them live a better life. We jotted down each of our ideas whatever came to our mind in a time stamp of five minutes on sticky notes and then compared and contrasted the feasibility of each one of them. Finally, we came up with a solution on what should be done and prepared our proposal for them.
In the next stage, we went back to these people with our ideas and presented to them what we thought could be done to improve their situation. On discussing with them we realized the pros and cons of our ideas and came back to our classrooms to work more on refining them.
In the final sessions, we had to present our ideas to the class explaining in the detail the various stages of our thinking process and what we learnt from each one of them. It was really overwhelming for us to receive a very good response from our classmates and our professor on our presentation as everyone was left tear eyed on listening to the problems of the workers.
We received the highest grade in that subject out of a class of 73 students, however, what was more important to me as a person was to know and help out these people who are in actual need of our help and support. The relationship which I have formed with these people is really strange and amazing as they always look up to me with a smiling face no matter how worried they are from their inside. They are always ready to help me with whatever I need and I also make sure that I can do whatever is possible from my side to help them out.
As a wrap-up for the course, we had to form a small presentation telling about the various learnings and stages through which we underwent during the course. While forming the presentation and going through all those sticky notes and observations I realized that money is not what is always important rather it is the nature and that “Jadoo ki Jhappi” which creates a bigger impact on the lives of people.
I want to join Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited which deals primarily with formals and casual clothing for men, women and kids. With a plethora of brands including Pantaloons, People, Forever 21, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England, Louis Philippe and many more ABRFL is the leading conglomerate in the fashion and retail industry. Coming from a business-oriented family I have always wanted to learn more about the retail and fashion industry. How it operates internally, their fashion sense and the secret success mantra that has helped them become successful not only in India but all across the globe.