It was 12 in the night and I was going through the case study due for the lectures next day. It was the last couple of lectures of Organisational Behaviour Course the next day and till now we were taught about group dynamics, influencing and group decision making, collaboration and negotiation, organisational culture and many such fancy terms. I was unsure whether I would be able to use any of these concepts after stepping into corporate life. Amidst these thoughts, my phone buzzed with an email from our professor stating that the last couple of lectures would be a simulation for the entire batch and all the 540 odd students have been divided into groups of 10 or 11. Till now my experience with simulations wasn’t very good, many of them were easily cracked by students leading to moderate grading and rest were too tricky leading to people randomly guessing and speculating the outcome. I assumed that this would also be like either one but why it was a group task was still out of my wit. A lot of questions were popping in my head but I decided to go with the flow and went to sleep.
The next morning when we reached the auditorium, we were briefed about the Boat Building Exercise and told that there were three different markets and all the groups will represent either Bankers, Boat Builders, Raw Material Suppliers or Customers. All the groups have to maximise their profits. The entire simulation was divided into 4 periods of 30 minutes each. There were a lot of market regulations and customer demands that changed every 30 minutes. We were told to select a CEO, CFO, COO and CMO from each group. Each of us had separate tasks, the CFO had to deal with the finances and borrowings of the group, CMO had to go and deal with the customers, COO was responsible for managing the workflow amongst the members of the group and CEO had to make sure all the regulatory requirements are being met.
It was really enthralling, this was the first time I experienced a real-life corporate experience. Everyone had his own set of duties and the collective effort would lead to team’s victory. Everyone was busy negotiating with clients/bankers/suppliers, understanding the business requirements and collaborating with other team members. At times of policy change or new requirements, it was important to collectively reach to a consensus and then take a decision. It was really important for everyone on the team to be on the same page, communicating and keeping everyone on board was the key. This simulation was indeed a memorable experience for me and made me realise the importance of collective effort in organisations.
Which ABG company would you want to work for and why?
I was always interested in working as a Research Analyst with a top Asset Management Company or Mutual Fund House and Aditya Birla Capital will be the dream company for me to work for. With over 2,246 billion of total assets under management, Aditya Birla Sun Life is one of the largest fund houses in India. All the Equity, Debt and balanced fund schemes of ABSL have consistently outperformed the benchmark indices over the years and have given
great returns to all its investors. I believe I can’t get a better platform than Aditya Birla Group to kickstart my career.
- Rohan Banga