It was 9.00 a.m. on March 18, 2016 when everyone was suited up and everyone was busy in arranging things for the Chief Guest of the 4th Convocation Ceremony, Mr. N.R. Narayan Murthy, Cofounder of biggest IT firm Infosys. One rarely gets a chance to meet leaders whom one admires, and listening to their insights, to their valuable experiences is an added incentive. Students of Indian Institute of Management, Kashipur were indeed fortunate to meet such a humble and charismatic leader and to get inspired by his words on such a special day.
Tesla Motors captured the world’s imagination when it announced the launch of its “affordable” electric car Model 3, due in 2017. It will also be available in India. Even though a full prototype isn’t ready yet, it has managed to garner 400,000 bookings and collected an advance of $400 million, which translates into potential revenue of $14 billion, provided no order gets cancelled before the Tesla Gigafactory can start delivering it towards the end of 2017.
Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur has successfully completed its final placements process for the class of 2016.Year after year VGSoM, IIT Kharagpur has grown in its strength and capability to become one of the premier B Schools in the country. Despite almost doubling in batch size, the batch of 2016 has had an outstanding final internship process.The placements are a mere reflection of the kind of talent and knowledge the students possess.
Last year, around the same time, I was waiting anxiously. Every single hour that passed made me more and more restless rather than coming anywhere close to soothe my nerves. Just like so many of you, I was waiting for the IIM Results. The six of them had one common interview and I had done my best in the interview but my best hadn't been enough on earlier occasions, but this time, I had gone one step ahead, I had managed an IIM interview call, lived the experience, smiled through it and even after, there is some fond remembrance. But this was a decision time, not only for the IIMs, but also for me. There were questions of both nature. Will they select me this time? Am I good enough? Will I really get into an IIM? Should I really join any? Which one will be my preference, when everyone claimed about their being the best all over. The wait for the result was a painstaking event. One fine day in the metro, the phone buzzed. There was an email, the sender was admission@iimkashipur. There was a nervous shiver in the spine. The metro was crowded, yet no one was interested in sharing this moment with me. Everyone was so hooked on to the phones and so was I. Nevertheless I read the email. “Please accept my heartiest congratulations” and I was at Cloud 9. The feeling was similar to what I felt after India lifted the world cup in 2011. There was a sense of achievement, an instilment of pride. I was in a different zone and the metro looked so convenient and spacious to accommodate me. None of the passengers gave any admiration. I didn’t exist for them. Getting into an IIM doesn’t make people notice you. It’s what you do after getting here that creates a huge difference. So many of you will have a similar sinking feeling and at times crossing every known frustration, but maintain your calm. I will just say, go on and take that metro ride. Who knows you may get lucky as well. All the best!!
CAT 2014 was my third attempt at belling the CAT. My first attempt was in 2011, during my fourth year of engineering, where although there was enough time to focus on CAT, the determination was lacking. In the year 2012 when I forayed into corporate life for the first time, I felt that getting some work-ex would be good learning experience before going the MBA route; so 2012 was CATless. I was employed with a HVAC firm with their project sales team, which I felt complimented nicely my mechanical engineering background and my ambition to do an MBA. The caveat though was the fact that a sales role entailed a lot of travelling and 6 day working weeks. Soon I realized that juggling both work and CAT prep was something I might not be able to manage.
It all started with catching up with old family friends. One of my close friends joined Deutsche bank after completing his post-graduation from IIM Calcutta. I met him after so long and I could see the change he has undergone during his years at IIMC. This meeting had a strong impact on me and my career goals. I decided to take a leaf out of his book and focus on getting into a management programme.
Using some technology, such as software for business could help and could be complicated at the same time. To get the easy part of using certain kinds of software for business, we will need knowledge and training to use the software properly. Perhaps, we need to use the software consultancy services. This kind of service will be the partner on software consultant and business analysts. The partnership will be about designing, developing and implementing the software that we will be used by the company for business. It could be the solution to optimize the productivity, operational efficiency and profitability of the business.
