Volume 7, Edition 1, April 1-15, 2011 April 1-15, 2011
Editor’s Note It’s only a matter of time before we reconnect, relate and rejoice in the warmth of close-knit relationships. The FIIB newsletter, earlier called the Fortune Times has undergone a rich renewal and is now presented to you as Fortune Cookies. In this bi-monthly edition, we bring you news, views and amusements from the multi-facets of FIIB. Please enjoy this collective effort by the FIIB News Desk and the student editorial. Happy reading! - Sindhu Kaushik
What the Whack! Can’t Stand Your Boss? Eat Him Up! Five cannibals get appointed as engineers in a Oil Company. During the welcoming ceremony the boss says: "You're all part of our team now. You can earn good money here, and you can go to the cafeteria for something to eat. So don't trouble the other employees". The cannibals promise not to trouble the other employees. Four weeks later the boss returns and says: "You're all working very hard, and I'm very satisfied with all of you. One of our cleaners has disappeared, however. Do any of you know what happened to her?" The cannibals disavow all knowledge of the cleaner. After the boss has left, the leader of the cannibals says to the others: "Which of you idiots ate the cleaning lady?"A hand rises hesitantly, to which the leader of the cannibals says: "You fool! For four weeks we've been eating Team Leaders, Task Leaders and Project Managers so no one would notice anything, and you have to go and eat the cleaning lady!“
Quick trivia Our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/fiibindia was fanned by over 1000 friends in less a week. The page is now competition to the Arctic Circle. Don’t trust us? Check it out for yourselves!
Faculty Spotlight Leadership is a Well-Crafted Art
Dr. Sunita Chugh
Exuberant, articulate, compellingly intelligent and extremely passionate. That’s Dr. Sunita Chugh, who’s joining the FIIB family as a senior faculty in HR. She makes no bones about being an over-achiever. She has no qualms about admitting that she absolutely adores her inlaws and even dedicates her PhD to her mother-in-law. An actor, singer and artist, she instinctively sees leadership opportunities in every situation. Too startling to be true? Well, here’s more, in a tête-à-tête with Sindhu Kaushik.
Sindhu Kaushik: Firstly, how about a little something about yourself? Sunita Chugh: I am a Rajputni, married to a Punjabi. And talking about my career, I was previously with SOIL. SK: How did your association with FIIB begin? SC: All thanks to Radhika Shrivastava and Manish Kheterpal for their organizational entrepreneurship – they’ve leveraged on my strengths and interests. Secondly, Prof KBC Saxena is well-known known for bringing in the culture of cross function, open research and research with relevance. He simplifies things beautifully. Knowing that he is here, I was inspired to contribute to FIIB. Besides, it’s the curiosity arising from my studentship that’s motivating me even today. SK: What do you envision for the future of FIIB? SC: With this very studentship, I would be glad if I can shape the journal and make it the best marketing tool for FIIB. Perhaps even try and host the journal online and help establish linkages with foreign universities. My vision is to make the journal, the visiting card for FIIB. Given that Leadership is one of the four pillars of management, my vision is to drive the curriculum around Leadership and mould every FIIB’ian into a Professional (with self-integrity), Global (every sphere of management) and Sustainable (accountable through time and space) leader. SK: What inspired you to pursue HR? SC: Parenting, organization, movies, the IPL, everything revolves around Innovation and Leadership. Management is morphed into Leadership. Leadership is understanding the uniqueness of people. It is this love and respect for diversity in people that triggered my thought processes. People are about differences and leadership is about containing such differences.
SK: Besides your passion for understanding people, what are your other interests? SC: Why, you’ll be surprised but since childhood, I’ve only been interested in management books. Therefore, I am absolutely passionate about management. I was all of eight years, when I knew my father’s curriculum thoroughly – he went to study MBA at the Asian Institute of Management, Philippines. My childhood revolved around serious academics. That apart, I’ve acted in many management films, even. My father, Dr PN Singh was the first person to write for Ascent, the TOI supplement. In fact, I did my MBA in HR to outdo him. I did not want to succumb to the Amitabh Bacchan – Abhishek Bacchan crisis and be overshadowed by my father’s towering success. Therefore, I’ve been a high achiever – I’ve always stood first in academics. That apart, I enjoy singing bhajans and Vittal Abhangs. I once received a scholarship in sketching as well. I am basically an achiever. I aim to attain nothing less than the highest position in everything I attempt.
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Volume 7, Edition 1, April 1-15, 2011
March 2011
Alumni Corner Tata Yatra – An FIIB-ian’s Dream
Harshie Wahie 2008-2010
Does serious entrepreneurship refer to taking sticky risks with minimum amenities, making an adventurous trip via a second class train over a fortnight and exploring resources around the country, purely for the benefit of your society? Well, that was pretty much the agenda on the mind of Ms. Harshie Wahie, an alumina of FIIB (Batch 2008-2010), when she decided to participate in the Tata Jagriti Yatra.
Harshie Wahie
Unfettered by the hurdles that Ms. Wahie knew she would be encumbered with, en route to her various destinations, she remained motivated to undertake the Yatra, to pick up invaluable lessons in entrepreneurship. The Tata Jagriti Yatra, an annual train journey that takes hundreds of India’s highly motivated youth in the age group of 20-25 years, and experienced professionals above 25 years of age, on an eighteen day national odyssey, dss
introduces them to the lesser known entrepreneurs, who are contributing abundantly to the nation. She said, “By doing so, they can turn from being job seekers to job creators. Apart from this economic argument, they also discover a purpose that is appropriate for their talents. Only if we create a movement around enterprise led development, will India’s youth employment and development issues be resolved.” The lessons that she picked up during this tour ranged from branding exercises, lessons on ambiguity (to be prepared for anything), the importance of motivation and several creative activities that brought out the best in her. Her journey from Kanyakumari to Delhi opened her eyes to inspirational initiatives – each place imparting a value in Corporate Social Responsibility in Business management. Ms. Wahie recollects, “At Trivandrum, I learnt never to compromise on values. At Madurai, Aravind Eye Care, the lesson was to never limit one’s dreams. In Chennai, from R. Elango, we learnt the importance of engaging with the local community and to get started from the community around oneself.” Naandi foundation at Hyderabad that provided mid-day meals, aimed at eliminating hunger; the Gram Vikas at Bhubaneshwar strived to improve quality of life and Tata Steel at Jamshedpur drove home the point that social responsibility for commercial business was of top priority. In Delhi, from Mr Anshu Gupta, Goonj, Ms. Wahie sensed that in India, clothes for the poor and needy are crucial. At the Barefoot College in Tiloniya, she gathered that the real need is for “education beyond literacy and a profession beyond degrees.” Her Tata Yatra was thereby a fruitful journey, gearing her up for her future entrepreneurial ventures.
From the Student Desk A vow to be FAT - Afzal Alam, 2010-’12 What is the scariest moment of your life? What makes you palpitate in nervousness? What makes your palms sweat and your motion, still? When do your gestures matter the most? When do you feel embarrassed over your dssds body language? When are you caught speechless and your soul wrong prays for time to expire? Now, these are scary situations every person encounters and of course, I am one of them! So far, I thought I would be caught in each one of these situations, when I speak before an audience. But now, Toastmasters is here to my rescue. The Division C Conference of Toastmasters International held on April 3, 2011, at FIIB’s Ishwar Dayal Auditorium was extraordinary. Contestants demonstrated their art of speaking and attempted to position themselves as competent speakers. It was not about competing but about collaborating. The experience was a right blend of learning, motivation, confidence, attitude and leadership. We imbibed the success mantra – ‘To be successful you need to be FAT - Focus, Attitude and Tenacity, for success to knock at your door. Much without my knowledge, I found myself gathering my strengths and gearing up for our next club meet.
I saw, I applauded, I learnt - Manisha Singh, 2010-’12 Members of Cue @ FIIB had the golden opportunity of attending the prestigious Toastmasters Conference. We were holophrastic Toastmasters and the contestants, were magnificent. I was thrilled with their performances. Their speeches were knowledge-driven, entertaining and inspiring. To me, they all appeared as polished diamonds. Sitting in the auditorium, I sensed the gap between me and them, like we were poles apart. I need to fill these gaps and I am sure I would be able to achieve this through Toastmasters. With the first speaker’s performance, the mood for the contest was aptly set. I eagerly waited for the second speaker, wondering on what topic he would speak and in what way? Likewise, the next and so on. What was common between all of them was that they all started their speech with interesting stories. Through their performances, I learnt that to do anything that’s worth doing, one must not hesitate, wondering about the cold and danger but should jump in head on. Though I have read many books on effective speaking, I couldn’t put them to use so far. There is a huge difference between learning through reading and learning from actually witnessing it or experiencing it. My heartiest thanks to FIIB for such a great experience!
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