They say, 'Morning shows the day’. The proverbial morning in the prestigious Symbiosis Institution of Business Management, Pune, for me was the ice-breaking activity sessions hosted on campus. It was a day of great trepidation and uncertainty. My mind was full of questions, “How will be my classmates?”” Will we get along?”, ”How will be the classes?” Especially coming back to school after almost three years, even though it was anticipated, filled me with curiosity about how the classroom experience will be and it was something I was eagerly looking forward to.
On that fateful day, we stepped into the Convention hall and were promptly split into four divisions. Each division then had to proceed to the classrooms to have our own personal ice-breaking-cum-bonding session to familiarize ourselves with the fellow students we were supposed to spend two years with.
Being in the classroom was an experience itself. The campus located on the beautiful hilltop of Lavale is surrounded with verdant green woods and the academic building oversees a vast and serene valley. Errant clouds float up and touch the windowpanes on murky days. However, this day was full of sunshine, showing us the far away hills and the city of Pune. This view on our way to the very first class made me weak-kneed with excitement.
Finally, we were seated and were asked to introduce ourselves. We talked about our backgrounds and educations and our feelings about this experience. After the initial introduction, we were split into groups of fives and were given an assignment. We were supposed to take one product and create an advertisement. We also had to have a functional marketing strategy to present.
I was in a group with four other girls and never in my life before have had I ever such an instant connection with a group of people. In my previous workplace, I have worked in teams and have enjoyed being a part of a team. But usually, the complete harmony does not happen until you have familiarized yourself with your teammates and have a grasp of their personalities and work ethic. Maybe it was too early to make a judgement, but the five of us fell into a perfect rhythm when we started working on the assigned project.
We had barely an hour to come up with the product and the advertisement. Surprisingly we all had one common idea - we wanted something that would be for every demographic, something affordable and fun.
We finally decided on a type of popsicles made of frozen fruit pulps.We called it Ice-Pops. These popsicles would be made from pure fruit extracts that would be locally sourced to reduce transportation and preservation cost and will be completely sugar-free. This is something we unanimously agreed that we want our product to be organic.
But the most entertaining, also the most memorable part was creating an ad for the product. We knew we wanted to do something funny and catchy. We were given only a chart paper and some art supplies for the task. This made up come up with the idea that we will act out our advertisement! We also created posters that we hand-drawn. Our ad went like this – five of us will be exercising in a yoga studio and after we break one would say they want some ice-cream. But being health conscious it is hard to find a healthy but just as delicious substitute for ice cream. That is when someone would point out the poster-ad (that we previously created) for Fruit-pops and the ad would end with a catchy tagline.
We presented our ad and our idea and we were commended by the supervising Prof. Sandeep Bhattacharya. We received a book as the reward for our work. However, that was not why we felt ecstatic. This was the first task we had done after starting our MBA journey, even the very small accomplishment filled us with joy, and I felt an amazing sense of camaraderie that seems so unexpected with people I had met for the very first time.
In the span of a month, I have had many amazing classroom experiences in this campus but this first session was the one that left a prominent mark in my memory.
Which ABG company I would like to work for?
Growing up we all have that one brand of clothing we love to wear. For me, it was Forever 21. Under Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Limited,in the branded apparel sector, there are multiple brands I have loved to buy and wear but Forever 21 is the brand that caught my attention for their trend-setting fashion. Forever 21 has been crucial in bringing global fashion to India. As a person I have always been deeply interested in the fashion and Retail sector and would love to be actively involved in the industry and be the leading brand in India Forever 21 is just the right place.
- Pritha Haldar
Marketing, SIBM Pune