The Three Unique Pillars Of IIM Sirmaur

14 July 2017. Exactly one-year back, one of the best things in my life happened to me. I had made my way into the campus of Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur. When I look back and think of what make my campus unique, I find the cap of a few hundred words to be extremely constricting, but I feel fortunate for the amazing memories that will remain with me for my lifetime.

I will keep the scope of this article limited to three important things: the campus, my peers & faculties. These are some primary pillars that come to mind when you think about any B-school & I am proud that in each of these pillars my institute has abundant unique things.

As you step in from the gate of the institute, you fall in love with the lush green campus & you feel the warm welcome of the institute. When you establish an emotional connection with an institute, each and everything in the campus talks to you. The campus is surrounded by mountains, trees & the calm Yamuna river. This place gives you pure oxygen for two years, a free add-on to your PGP course & definitely, pumping in a few more years into your lifespan. Establishing and nurturing balance in the trinity of Body, Mind and Soul, is as effortless as a quiet stroll in the campus, right in the lap of Mother Nature. This is the perfect environment which enables you to maintain a sound mind & a sound body.

The second pillar is my classmates. What a bunch of unique and creative people!  More than 100 amazingly unique people bustling about in the campus at a time. When you have people around you from all over India, that too true ambassadors of their states and cultures, it is a great time to undergo a crash course on cultures even if it is just over a cup of tea. I am an engineer and all engineers will understand the value of a crash course just before an exam. The learnings from this crash course will come quite handy when we find ourselves taking strategic decisions in the corporate world.

Though I cannot write about all of these unique characters in this article, however, I will definitely like to mention some because I think these bunch of people are the greatest asset of my life. I consider them as goodwill on my balance sheet of life & one cannot assign a certain specific value to goodwill.

It feels really nice when you study along with the captain of the winning team of the National Open Basketball Fest (2013). Yes, Arjun Dixit studies in my class. What a great player! Youngest player to play in under 19 all-India CBSE basketball cluster tournament and baton bearer of the commonwealth youth games 2008: a true sportsman!

I met Phukhato Sema who hails from Assam. Present to him any musical instrument & he will come up with a good music within minutes. He is a wonder! A free guitar concert at our hostel at demand. An effervescence of talent with an extremely grounded nature, he is a kind of person I have never met before.

Then comes the statistics expert. Prof. Bagchi, as I call him, is arguably the brightest brain in the campus in Mathematics. A man who knows his way through numbers, even on his worst day.

I can go on and on... These are just a few examples I have mentioned here about my friends & there are many more. You could surely drop by the campus to meet them.

The third pillar and extremely crucial for guaranteeing the academic rigour of an IIM, Faculty. Being a new IIM, IIM Sirmaur is in a process of recruiting permanent faculty. Currently, almost 70% faculty comes from top B-School to teach here. So, I got opportunities to learn from the top faculties from IIM Lucknow, IIT Bombay, IIFT, XLRI, MDI, NITIE etc. This is the opportunity to learn and connect with multiple faculties of top B-schools under one roof. There is also uniqueness coming from the various faculties and their method of teaching.

Which ABG company I like the most and why?

Before joining IIM Sirmaur, I worked with Godrej Interio, Mumbai. I have diverse experience in Manufacturing industry in multiple spheres like Process Engg, QA, Strategic Sourcing. So, I have dealt with practical situations in handling operations & supply chain management. Considering my experience in operations along with my majors in Strategy & Marketing, I will be able to contribute towards retail business of Aditya Birla Group(ABRL). Retail business is extremely challenging & customers keep changing their preferences & demands. So, it will give me good opportunity to learn from people & the very competitive environment, at the same time implement my learnings to make a difference!

Abhijeet Lovalekar,

PGP03001.

IIM Sirmaur.