What Makes IIM Trichy Unique?
To be frank, the good experiences I have had here during my time at IIM Trichy have come as a surprise. When I arrived on campus a year ago, my hopes and dreams didn’t extend far beyond the IIM tag, being well aware that the future would hold more closed doors than open ones for a man with just a BBM degree in hand. Now, halfway down the road, I can’t help but be startled by how wrong I was. It would be far from true to say there haven’t been bad times – I don’t think anyone can truthfully claim that – but there have been far fewer bad times than good, and for that I am grateful.
As a BBM student with a family steeped in advertising, I had once been keen on Marketing, something that dreary college life quickly nipped in the bud. Left with no direction after college, I quickly drifted into utter randomness and hit rock bottom, copy editing. (10 months of trying to convince writers that it’s ‘on the basis of’ and not just ‘basis’ left me bruised and bloody).
It was a simple observation at IIM – nothing dazzling or out of this world – that introduced me to the magic of Marketing. During a case discussion on RIN detergent, my professor asked us, “Who ultimately decides what detergent is used in the home?”
The answer appeared obvious – the homemaker! It was then that the professor told us – as he had no doubt done before with several other classes full of fresh MBA aspirants – that the true power of decision rested with the shopkeeper – and very often the helper within the shop, at that – rather than with the customer! As it turns out, while in self-service formats, the customer may indeed be king, it’s the retailer that picks out what the customer gets in the traditional mom and pop stores. If the product happens to be a commodity like detergent, the customer will rarely question being given a different brand than was originally asked for – it’s simply not worth the effort, and the shopkeeper is, after all, a trusted advisor. In such a situation, who would you target and how would you allocate resources? Would you utilise pull marketing to lure customers to the store, or would you instead, seeing where a significant portion of the power existed, invest in push marketing to get retailers to push your product?
As one of my less eloquent friends put it – Mind=Blown! Something so simple, so below the radar, and yet so powerful. It sparked an interest in me long since absent, and that interest quickly evolved into a passion. Now, a year on from my first day in Trichy, pursuing a specialization in Marketing, I’ve never been so glad to be wrong.
Which ABGLP Company would I like to work for and why?
Mobile money and a brave future.
Of the many companies that comprise the Aditya Birla Group, I find the most appealing to be one of the newest – the Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank. While I’m well aware that this may be an unconventional choice, given the many stable business units within the conglomerate and the presence of some fierce rivals in the mobile payments space, I believe that few segments within the economy have the potential open to the payments banks. The scope is immense – credit, insurance, easier transactions between individuals and businesses, all relieved from the drawbacks of traditional banking. Exciting, isn’t it?
This story is written by Abhijeet Mohandas (Class of 2019)