I I L M I N S T I T U T E F O R H I G H E R E D U C AT I O N
Vol-VII, No. 2,
April-June 2010
FROM THE VICE-CHAIRMAN “The only real wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.” Socrates
Socrates, who is considered by almost universal consensus to be the father of western philosophy, is also regarded by many as an ideal teacher, including myself. Our knowledge of the historical Socrates is rather limited, as there are no contemporary histories, except two. What we know of him has come from his students, principally Plato, but also Xenophon, Aristotle and Aristophanes. This is, in fact, one of the reasons I regard Socrates as a great teacher. A great philosopher like Plato would not have liked to stand on the shoulders of Socrates unless he had really ignited his intellect.
philosophy of Socrates is less important than the pedagogic tool he developed, which till today we know as the Socratic method or generically as dialectic. The Socratic method was to ask a series of questions while simultaneously claiming total ignorance of the possible answers.
Ironically, Socrates declined to consider himself as a teacher. In a famous passage of Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates compared himself with a midwife. He could not as a teacher give birth to wisdom but he could help others to discover and bring to birth the truth within themselves.
This is a method that many of us still use in our classrooms, even after 2,500 years have passed. What has made Socrates a good teacher? Apart from his dialectic, I think it is the consistency between what he preached and what he practised even when it had to lead to his death. B. Bhattacharyya
To us, as teachers in B-Schools, the
EDITORIAL BOARD Mrs Malvika Rai Prof. B. Bhattacharyya Prof. N.Chandra Mohan Prof. Sapna Popli Prof. Kailash Tuli Ms. Rohini Rode
Dialectic consists in evaluating statements by examining their implications on the assumption that if a statement is true, it cannot not lead to false consequences. Socrates’ method is basically a method of elimination of hypotheses — better hypotheses are found by discarding those that led to contradictions.
EDITORIAL TEAM
Design: www.art4design.info
Anshu Arora Jyoti Malkani Niharika Malik Parul Khanna Sara Bower Varun Prakash Dhanda
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CONTENTS INHOUSE MAGAZINE FOR LIMITED CIRCULATION Vol-VII No. 2 April-June 2010
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JAPAN’S FALLING ECONOMY: MISFIRES, FAILED ENDEAVOURS
IT AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING HUMAN RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
04 19 22
CONVOCATION DAY: GEARED UP FOR NEW HORIZONS BUYERS AT RECEIVING END MANAGING HOSPITAL INVENTORY AND SUPPLY CHAIN
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CORPORATE MENTORING MANTRA
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SELF-MANAGEMENT A KEY TO HAPPINESS
ROLE OF MULTIMEDIA LANGUAGE LAB AND SOFT SKILLS IN MPLOYABILITY
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IILM JOINS HANDS WITH IT MAJOR IBM
THE WAR FOR EMERGING TALENT IN INDIA
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BOOK REVIEW STUDENT CORNER CAMPUS NEWS
The Banyan Tree School: Creating lifelong learners....56
A NEW CHAPTER
Vini Kirtani receiving a certificate for securing highest marks in mentoring, coaching and counselling
Geared up for new horizons Around 700 students received their post-graduate diplomas at IILM’s Convocation for the Class of 2010 in which eminent journalist Shekhar Gupta was the chief guest
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Chairperson Malvika Rai lights the lamp The
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he convocation of the Class of 2010 — in which close to 700 students received their post-graduate diplomas — was a ceremony with a difference. The chief guest was not an industry leader or educationist but an eminent journalist, Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, The Indian Express. Sapna Popli, Director of IILM, introduced Mr Gupta as “someone who has helped build the foundation of modern Indian journalism that is fearless, fair and fiercely independent”. His weekly column called National Interest is one of the most credible and independent voices in the media and a touchstone for new ideas in politics, governance, business and sports. He also hosts the interview-based Walk the Talk on
Shruti Kohli receiving the Dr Kulwant Rai Gold medal for securing first position in the post-graduate programme
Sahil Taneja receiving a certificate for securing highest marks in retail management
news channel NDTV 24x7. The Director then went on to elaborate IILM's journey, specifically during the last two years. As a progressive and learning institute, IILM continuously strives to improve in all its facets and its vision 2015 is to be "A leader in values-based management education and business-focused research". At the centre of this vision is "The Student" and the institute's endeavour is to provide an "exceptional student experience" based on the pillars of: ■ creative and inspirational teaching ■ imparting knowledge and skills valued by industry ■ research that flows into teaching and learning ■ and proactive employer engagement in the region IILM aims at maximising the learning value-add in the two years that the student spends at the institution. The curriculum is not only matched with the best schools in India and across the world but also updated with feed-
back from industry. The Dean of the Post Graduate Programme, Dr Shuchi Agrawal, then requested the chief guest to award certificates to students. Following this, Mrs Malvika Rai, chairperson, awarded meritorious
students the Dr. Kulwant Rai Gold and Silver medals for overall excellence in academic and co-curricular activities. This concluded the award of diplomas and medals and cleared the decks for Mr Gupta's convocation address.
Sapna Popli, Director of IILM, Mrs Rai, Chairperson and Mr Rai with Shekhar Gupta The
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‘Talk straight, keep imagining’ In his Convocation speech, Shekhar Gupta asks students to be optimistic and look for solutions where others see problems In real life there is no set curriculum. There is no grading. Your life is more fun in the real world than in college. Learn from life. What does being a student mean when you have walked out of this campus?
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hank you very much Ms Sapna Popli, chairperson, Mrs Malvika Rai, Ms Shuchi Agrawal, senior members of the faculty, my old friend, Mr Anil Rai, and most of all the proud class of 2010, very proud parents, ladies and gentlemen. I'm honoured to be here and delighted to shine in your reflected glory. Today is your day and it belongs to you those who are graduating. But before I get to the real world, I must make a confession. I do not know why I'm here because I do not qualify as an inspirational speaker for business graduates. I joined The Indian Express as a trainee reporter 33 years ago. Then I returned as its editor 15 years later and quickly was asked to wear several hats — marketing, finance, HR, sales and that of the CEO. It just happened one day when I was told that I have to do all these as well. I said yes, only because I did not have any formal management education and didn't quite know what I was
getting into. I quickly lost count of how many hats I have worn. Fortunately, I had a very fine team to pass these hats on to but almost every day I wished I had what you are so privileged to be leaving with — an education in business from one of the finest institutes in this country. I had my degrees in Biology and later in Journalism and back in the 1970s, neither of these were any passports to the future. But very soon I realised that I liked to notice things around which others found dull. I saw patterns where others saw random lines. When I'm asked about the basic qualification of good journalism, I say it is not good writing, knowledge or control over the English language, it is curiosity. I have this quality and that kept me going and I became a journalist. I graduated with Botany, Zoology and Chemistry, accidently with a position in the University. But my interest was military history, sports, and all kinds of
Sapna Popli, Director & Executive Dean, IILM Institute for Higher Education, welcoming Shekhar Gupta
eclectic things. Sometimes fate takes you in funny directions. When I received my marksheet, my name was mis-spelled and while I was running between offices in Punjab to get it corrected, I read a notice saying Department of Journalism was holding an entrance test. As the test was free, I sat for it and by the evening the results were out and the next day I
thought I should join. My father did not speak to me for six months. He had visions of his son becoming a doctor or an IAS officer. It was a very bad time to join a journalism school. India was under Emergency and newspapers were censored. There were no jobs. I came as a trainee to the Times of India where I was given no work for six weeks
When I'm asked about the basic qualification of good journalism, I say it is not good writing, knowledge or control over the English language, it is curiosity. I have this quality and that kept me going and I became a journalist.
Shekhar Gupta, Editor-in -Chief, The Indian Express Group, delivering the convocation address
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Talk straight, act as if your mother's watching and keep imagining the best. 20 years later, when you are giving this convocation address, please add more ideas to this list.
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because the chief editor thought by encouraging us to become journalists, he'll ruin our careers. One day he called me and said, "You are very persistent. You come every day." I replied, "I want some work. He said, "I'll not give you any work. You studied Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, what are you doing in journalism? Everybody is in jail. Go back to your University where you have a wonderful centre for chemical engineering and come back with a degree. When you come back, I have contacts in Delhi. We will set up a factory and we will make paints." Still I was persistent and I was told to work in the sports department. That's an investment I value greatly because through my life I have enjoyed sports. Life has different direction to take you but the skills you acquire in college are never wasted. Just the other day at a conference,
Rajdeep Sardesai of the CNN-IBN TV channel said, "I don't know how you keep featuring Biology Nobel Laureates on Walk the Talk?" I replied, "This is my only formal education". I'll share with you some lessons that I learned and unlearned since that period and the first lesson is something that may not be most appropriate to state today, especially when many of you are enjoying the fact that it is the end of your days as a student. The first is, all your life stay a student. In real life there is no set curriculum. There is no one grading you. There are no extra marks for attendance. Your life is much more fun in the real world than in college. Learn from life. What does being a student mean when you have walked out of this campus? It means making learning a life-long occupation; keeping alive the same sense of impatience; asking questions; being aware that there is always a gap between what you know and what you need to know and admiring those who are better than you. Being a student is a great survival tool because in many ways when you are in the real world you'll be as confused as muddled as you have been in the campus.
Jon Stewart said in his commencement address at The College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia: "College is something you complete. Life is something you experience." Steve Jobs of Apple said "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." It means, stay curious and be always willing to learn more. There is nothing that has more value today than credibility. Both our professions — journalism and business — are facing a crisis these days. In media, everything is breaking news. Similarly in business we know what the biggest and brightest names on Wall Street have been up to. Whether you are in media or management, marketing, sales, or HR, you are dealing and trading with information that has the potential to affect the lives of people you'll never meet. These people believe you because of the institution you work for or the institution you graduated from has built into them an expectation of trust. I tell my reporters that when you write a story, it should pass your landlord's test. Will your landlord understand and appreciate what you have written? Don't write for your mother. But when it comes to credibility and
ethics, you should only think of your mother. The third lesson is that your imagination is your most valuable asset. Use imagination in whatever you see. With imagination comes innovation and entrepreneurship — attributes to admire — and a very important aspect, hope. This brings me to the last lesson. Remain a realist but be an optimist. I have more than my share of critics including the blogs who things why I say such awfully optimistic things even in awfully dark times. Optimism forces me to look beyond to engage with the future, look for solutions where others see problems. So, stay hungry, stay foolish, talk straight, act as if your mother's watching and keep imagining the best. Twenty years later, when you are up on the stage giving this convocation address please add more ideas to this list. Thank you.
Being a student is a great survival tool because in many ways when you are in the real world you'll be as confused as muddled as you have been in the campus.
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SURGING AHEAD
IILM joins hands with IT major IBM to train future frontline managers This unique industry-academia tie-up offers high-end and specialised executive development programmes for its top talent
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ndustry interface has always been a top priority at IILM. Over the years, the IILM academic fraternity has made conscious efforts to blend in its teaching a good exposure to students on how businesses function so that these future managers make meaningful contributions at work. In an endeavour to take this commitment to the next level, IILM has joined hands with IBM and launched a high-end executive development programme for its top talent in December 2009. With the constant changes in the economic and market scenarios, IBM feels a strong need to develop robust leaders internally in order to exceed the service delivery expectations and has identified IILM as its institutional partner to offer the programme. The IILM-IBM Foundational Management programme (FMP) is the first step towards empowering the talented IBM executives to quickly take up people and process management roles. Recognising the need for developing a strong internal channel to prepare frontline managers in today's dynamic and challenging quality service focused environment, the FMP is customised learning offered to IBM executives to develop a skilled leadership pipeline of future frontline managers. The programme orients participants on the fundamentals of management as a discipline and finer aspects of the specialisation opted for, that will help them develop their technical, conceptual and interpersonal skills to make them effective frontline managers. The six-month intensive programme is aimed at providing participants an opportunity The
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to learn skills that would help them deal with challenges and opportunities and take up future business responsibilities. The standard and rigour of the programme is as high as the two-year full-time business management programme and provides participants an immediate opportunity to work on business projects in IBM Daksh. The faculty teaching at the FMP is handpicked by IILM who have regular meetings to brainstorm on learning maximisation and value addition to the programme. The programme is spread over eight months and comprises three tracks. Track I is called, “Transition to Leadership� and is a three-day classroom session delivered by trained and certified facilitators at IBM. The participants also interact
We would like to extend a big Thank You to the entire IILM team for their relentless support and proactiveness. We have had two sets of contact classes with IILM professors and have received excellent feedback from the participants. KAREENA JAIN FMP programme lead manager, I Learning and Development, IBM Daksh Business Process
with subject matter experts during the session to gain insight into various functions and roles prevalent in IBM. Before attending Track I, participants are required to do a robust pre-work of one month's duration which includes reading material, on line psychometric test and individual and group assignments. The Track II of the programme is entrusted to IILM, the duration of which is six months. The Track II of the programme is customised and specially packaged to enhance the participants’ people management, project management and leadership skills. The participants are offered a compulsory general management module along with a choice of one specialisation to be selected out of three offered. The subjects offered are as under : General Management module Principles of Management Specialisation Modules : Human Resource Management Organisation behaviour Organisational Dynamics & Group Processes HRM Employee Relations Financial Management Finance for Non-finance Managers Working Capital Management Management Control Systems Capital Investment and Financial Decisions Operations Management Production Operations Management Management Information Systems Operations Research Project Management There is heavy use of information technology in the teaching learning process. The teaching practices
Kakoli Sen and Kareena Jain with other participants of the Foundational Management Programme
I thank the IBM Learning Team. I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate everything you've done to help us. Please accept this small token of our appreciation. The impact of your help is so significant. It will help us for the rest of our professional & personal life as well. The knowledge and guidance of all the professors was invaluable in helping us to understand the theories behind the day-to-day practical tasks and processes we perform at our work. Now, we understand them better. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least. BHAWNA K APOOR A participant in FMP batch 1, Lead Operations, Platinum
adopted in Track II are a combination of face-to-face, onsite and offsite techniques. In the contact classes, offsite participants can log into the assigned web resource and participate in live sessions delivered by IILM faculty through a video conferencing facility or through an audio conference bridge. Participants can also do selflearning through the course material provided by IILM. In addition, there are other reading materials/references provided to the participants to enhance their knowledge base. Electronic platform for online discussions forums, quizzes, assignment
posting, and message boards are offered to facilitate online learning for the participants. Each participant has his / her own ID to access the same. The Track III or Leap Ahead is a phase of project and on the job assignments. It comprises an integrated project work jointly monitored by IBM and IILM. The duration of this learning phase is two months and is focused towards implementing the knowledge and know how gained from Track I & II. Participants successfully completing all the tracks in the programme are awarded IILM’s Executive Diploma and a certificate
Rahul Mishra, head of industry engagement, in discussion with the participants of the foundational development programme
from IBM. IILM also offers FMP participants access to its well-equipped and centrally air-conditioned library that provides latest and up-to-date reference material, reports, books, thesauri, macro and micro documents and audiovisual material. Participants can borrow books, browse through catalogues and place an online request for reading material. They are given a login ID through which they can access learning material and communicate with faculty facilitators. The material is posted on the learning management system that can be accessed from any location. The current FMP has been well rated and highly appreciated by participants as well as top executives of the Learning and Development team.The IILM-IBM academic tie-up is a high value proposition to both partners who are working on taking the partnership to the next level and are exploring opportunities of offering a range of customised programmes for the working executives. IILM is also in the process of getting empaneled with IBM as a key training partner to offer such programmes in future in any location across the world.
KAKOLI SEN Assistant Professor, OB and HR The
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LOOKING EAST
JAPAN’S FALLING ECONOMY: MISFIRES, FAILED ENDEAVOURS After years of boom, Japan has been going through tough times in the past two decades. Experts say its flawed monetary policies are to blame.
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ABHA SADANA Lecturer, Economics IILM, Lodhi Road
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fter decades of miraculous economic growth, Japan’s economy abruptly faltered in 1990 and has since then stagnated. In order to gauge the 'why element' of Japan's bubble and bust, it is essential to understand what happened during the last two decades. This article will initially focus on the Keynesian and Monetarist explanations for the recession in general and their application to the Japanese economy followed by their suggestions to overcome the problem but which have actually been proven ineffective. The Austrian theory of the business cycle gives some insight to the real cause behind the two decades of continuing problems with no respite. Japan had to appreciate its currency under the Plaza Accord in 1985, which affected exports hard and reduced economic growth from 4.4 per cent to 2.9 per
cent by 1986. In order to offset this, the Bank of Japan adopted an easy monetary policy and reduced the discount rate from 5 per cent to 2.5 per cent in February 1987. This resulted in an inflation of asset prices in the real estate and stock markets, which created one of the biggest financial bubbles in history. In response to this, the Bank of Japan tightened the monetary policy by increasing the discount rate five times to 6 per cent in 1989 and 1990. This instigated the collapse of the market. The Nikkei stock market index fell more than 60 per cent from 40,000 in 1989 to under 15,000 by 1992. Real estate prices also declined by 80 per cent from 1991 to 1998. The GDP growth rate stagnated for a long time and turned negative since 1998. Unemployment rate rose from about 2 per cent in 1991 to about 5 per cent by 2000.
Keynesian and Monetarist Strategies in resolving Recession John Keynes proposed fiscal and monetary policy measures such as increase in government spending, expansion of money supply, etc. During the last two decades, Japan launched many fiscal stimulus packages but they failed to overcome the recession. In fact, these actions of the Governments have put the country into poor fiscal shape resulting in public debt exceeding 200 per cent of GDP. As per the Keynesian prescription, the government should lend directly to business instead of creating liquidity in the banking system. Money should be allocated to the most efficient projects. But the decisions that the government took were to cater to the supporters of the Liberal Democratic Party (which ruled Japan for almost a half a century), who belonged to the construction industry. "It was the epitome of bridges to nowhere," says economist Ed Lincoln, director of the Center for Japan-U.S. Business and Economic Studies at New York University. "There was apparently a $2 billion bridge built to an island of 800 people."It is apparent that no proper cost and benefit analysis was done of the specific projects before taking such decisions. The Japanese government's efforts were spread over several years but it was as if its leaders couldn't pick one strategy and stick to it. Besides market-based consumer preferences such as social services, health care, education, etc. were not considered and funds got channelised to the most politically connected business men," according to Yang, J.L. On the other hand, the Monetarist school blames the incorrect implementation of monetarist policies as the reason for Japan's recession. The Bank of Japan (BAJ) deliberately loosened the monetary policy in the mid1980s resulting in an artificial boom in the real estate market, which drove property values up by sixty percent within a year. But then Ministry of Finance introduced restrictive laws and regulations on land transactions. These devices were possibly the main reasons for the bursting of the bubble. The increasing rate of
stock prices hit a peak in 1989 and turned negative in the second half of 1990. Land prices also started falling in the middle of 1990, and recorded negative rates in the fourth quarter of 1991. ( Jiushi, T. Kuroki, Y. And Miyao, R. pp.132) In order to correct its mistakes, the BOJ (following monetarist suggestions) started loosening its monetary measures from July 1991 and finally brought to 0.5 per cent, the lowest level in the BOJ's history by September 1995. Despite taking these measures, the economy continued to be stagnant and inflation dropped to 0 per cent. From February 1999, BOJ took another big step by adopting zero interest rate policy (ZIRP) off and on. Despite all these steps, Japanese economy entered into a recession. Unfortunately, the monetary policies adopted by the BOJ over the years actually left Japan in a prolonged deflationary environment. The conventional monetary policy of lowering the short-term interest rate is no longer effective because this rate has already hit a floor of zero. Moreover, the past Japanese monetary policy has left the Bank of Japan with a severe credibility problem and people are losing confidence in the bank. When visualised at a macro level, not all monetary approaches can be termed as a failure. This is true of Keynesian theory is also as well. However, neither of the policies have helped Japan out of its recession.
The monetary policies adopted by BOJ left Japan in a prolonged deflationary environment. The conventional monetary policy of lowering shortterm interest rate is no longer effective because the rate has already hit a floor of zero.
AN ALTERNATIVE STRATEGY: AUSTRIAN VIEW ON JAPAN’S RECESSION The Austrian School of Business comes in fact closer to describing the Japanese scenario. To a large extent, this could be because the Austrian theory of business cycle is more about an unsustainable boom than the theory of depression. Historically speaking, Japan’s economy in the later part of the 1980s is what the Austrian theory considers as an unsustainable boom that must collapse. Any recession or collapse that follows such a boom is unavoidable because actually what takes place is an alignment of consumer time preferences (between The
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The Austrian theory emphasises economic self-correction can only take place with due passage of time. But the crux of the problem is that Japan's government has done everything but left the economy alone and allows self-correction.
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consumption and investment) and the structure of production. In specific terms, the Austrian theory blames the artificial boom to Bank of Japan's expansionary monetary policies because it expanded its money stock by an average of 10 per cent from 1986 until 1990 (International Year Book, 2001). In addition, the Bank of Japan had pushed interest rates close to zero, and obstructed market correction of the bad investments of the boom of the late 1980s. This has led to the structure of production in such a pattern that is not corresponding to consumer demand. The Austrian theory emphasises that economic self-correction can only take place with due passage of time. But the crux of the problem is that Japan's government has done everything but left the economy alone and allows self-correction. The Keynesian stimulus packages have shifted the structure of production to satisfy government demand instead of allowing the markets to adjust to consumer demands by overemphasising on the development of the construction industry to meet political ends. The government has hindered the market process of adjustment by maintaining the capital structure that does not reflect consumer desires. Even the stock markets in which the banks invested dropped drastically. Banks started giving loans with very little effort and paperwork and interest rates were held down artificially by the central bank. As real estate and risk investments soared in value, banks continually granted more and more increasingly risky loans. As the bubble burst, and the "postbubble ice age" began to take hold, the government poured trillions of Yen into the Japanese economy and banking system. It then started nationalising banks and put many restrictions on them that they ceased conducting any type of normal business. It did not let these sick and bankrupt companies keep them alive rather than allowing them to die a natural death. Anil Kashyap, an economist at the University of Chicago's business school, labeled them "zombie banks," as they resembled the walking dead.
According to the Austrian theories, these are precisely the companies that should go bankrupt if the economy is going to recover. Real resources are not lost when the company goes bankrupt because labour and capital are reallocated to companies in tandem with consumer preferences. When we perceive the above steps from an Austrian business cycle model, it appears that no comprehensive strategy was adopted by the Japan Government and the steps taken were independent of each other. The Austrian theory provides reason for the Japanese recession but unlike other schools, their policy recommendations have not been tried.
PRESENT SCENARIO AND FORECAST During the last five decades, Japan has emphasised on government intervention and planning in the economy. The policies, especially with regard to banks, combine in ways that have done more harm than good. More importantly, policymakers themselves are more inclined to avoid problems than address them; they would base most of their decisions on emotion (such as fear of shame) rather than reason. During the recent past, this policy of the government has clearly emerged in the form of increase in spending in the form of increase in public works, increase in monetary base, decrease in interest rates, helping and nationalisng some banks, decrease in taxes. All these steps were taken to maintain the existing structure of production instead of letting the market forces to correct the artificial boom's malinvestments, especially in capital-intensive industries in the earlier stages of production and to realign the structure of production to match consumer preferences. There is no doubt that recovery in the economy began in late 2002 but domestic reforms contributed marginally to this improvement. The progress was primarily due to the growth in China, the United States and East Asian countries, which began buying more exports from Japan. Hence, when the collapse in US consumption took place in late 2000, Japan's exports, industrial output and
Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of BoJ, said in January that 'the baseline scenario is that the economy is likely to continue picking up on the back of improvements in overseas economies and the effects of economic policy measures. investment plunged. Masaaki Shirakawa, Governor of BoJ, admitted in January 2010 that 'the baseline scenario is that the economy is likely to continue picking up on the back of improvements in overseas economies and the effects of economic policy measures. However, the pace of improvement in Japan's economy is likely to be moderate until around the middle of fiscal 2010, since the pace of recovery in the global economy is likely to remain moderate and in Japan, pressure for adjusting employment and wages is likely to remain." Moreover, Shirakawa recommended that it's high time steps are taken to overcome deflation by establishing a supply system that corresponds to potential demand and thereby raises productivity. Japan also has to work towards depreciating its currency in order to make its exports attractive for these countries to remain its customers. Another problem that Japan would have to face in the near future is that the expectations of future economic growth have declined. This decline in growth expectation is on account of the aging and shrinking of its population. This scenario
has dampened investment in the corporate sector and heightened the anxiety over future income in the household sector. There is a lack of demand due to decline in growth expectations. Even the general public has a fear of apprehension and is concentrating more on savings than triggering consumption. The economy can only progress when the government efforts through stimulus packages are matched with public support. Alas, this is not true in the present day Japan. Even the IMF feels that Japan may need to ease its very loose monetary policy further because of the damage that deflation can cause to its fragile economic recovery. It would be interesting to see what steps the present ruling government would take in monetary and fiscal policies so that the dichotomy between the supply side and demand side decreases. As famed economist Alfred Marshall pointed out more than a century ago — the scissors need two blades: supply and demand. Japan has trouble growing because both the blades don't cut well and the dullness of one blade worsens the other. The revival of Japan's economy is a test case for its economists. The
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CHANGING ROLES Human resource is no longer just about managing payrolls. It is also about employee growth. Helping it in a big way is information technology.
IT
AS A TOOL FOR ENHANCING HUMAN RESOURCE EFFICIENCY
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NALIN CHANDRA JHA Lecturer-IT IILM, Gurgaon
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hatever challenges today's Human Resource departments are facing today couldn't be predicted — or anticipated — less than a decade ago. Human Resources departments play a vital role in contributing to the overall efficiency and potency of an organisation. The HR department of any organisation cannot function without IT solutions to make its task easier and more efficient. This article basically focuses on applications and solutions provided by IT vendors for HR departments and also explains how technology is making the lives of HR managers and executives easier. This is the key reason why organisations are constantly strengthening their HR departments with updated IT solutions. Its been rightly said by Joseph Boyett, (The guru guide to the new economy) that " Leading practice companies recognise that in a knowledge-incentive, innovate-or-die world, HR's role cannot be limited to doing the administrative stuff of hiring, firing, and employee-related paperwork, HR has to do more. It has to become a full-fledged business partner/advisor not just an employee advocate." A key challenge many organisations are facing is to raise employee productivity, increase the retention of key talent through greater employee commitment
and alignment, and support greater compliance and at the same time protect existing system investments. In recent years, a growing priority of HR departments has been the development and delivery of complete employee information and education on policies, procedures and regulations that can impact divisions, departments, individuals — and the entire company culture as a whole. However, in today's growing business scene, HR has been forced to come up with more effective and reasonable methods of delivering timely information to personnel extending all over the globe. Not only has bringing geographically discrete people in for education and training become exorbitantly expensive, but sending the experts to remote offices has its own set of problems, since they must travel long distances at the company’s expense and attempt to host events that accommodate different schedules. Use of technology in HR management goes ahead of the framework of just managing the payroll system and other databases. Organisations see it as an efficient and effective tool for increasing employee productivity and skills. Applications and solutions provided by IT vendors for HR departments are making lives of HR managers and executives easier. Even though companies store employee data or per-
INFORMATION SYSTEMS FOR HR HR role
P & A dept
HRD
Talent manager
Business manager
HR process
Payroll
Compensation benefits Training business alignment Staffing resourcing & planning Variable pay Performance planning HRIS
AMR
Strategic consultative role Knowledge
Leave
Attendance
Recruitment
IS architecture
Files & records
sonnel files on paper, certain data are held electronically. Organisations recognise the need to automate their manual, paper-based processes and transaction, such as tax, payroll and benefits. Small organisations may hold employee data in spreadsheet form while larger ones may implement ERP system that does far more than just hold employee data. To improve their own efficiency and contribute to the organisation's bottom line, many HR@organisations are moving to an e-HR business model, moving conventional HR responsibilities, tools and processes onto internal intranets or the internet via a portal. Organisations are looking for e-HR solutions that can facilitate mechanised tasks and an efficient workflow, and develop the efficiency of the workforce by providing self-service tools, training and information. Another way to increase HR efficiency with the help of information technology is HR portals. It offers access to additional process-based tools and applications that enable staff to achieve major efficiencies in their work. The HR portal has now become a habitual tool for employees to manage all of their work-related tasks; from requesting a holiday to through managing their performance and development, as well as providing access to improved communication tools to enable collaboration. Now, adoption of IT (both as a process and a tool) is becoming a necessity for HR managers. By using information systems for storing, organising, or disseminating information to the
People & management Talent
Innovative role
ERM model
ERP
Internet/Intranet
employees, IT is playing a key role in the personnel/people development/HR departments of companies. There is one more system known as HRIS (human resource information system) that is fast becoming a necessary component of HR. Human resource information system (HRIS) is a software and supporting computer hardware system designed to store and process all HR information. HRIS integrates all these programmes through a common database and single-user interface. An HR information system can enable managers to have an accurate picture of the skills and knowledge within their own business unit and as a result they can engage more directly and effectively in employee development. Some of the advantages of an HRIS are: competency and skills profiles can be searched to find potential candidates for a new position or project, or to identify an appropriate position for an employee or candidate, and a more effective career and succession planning helps align business needs with employee aspirations and ensures that key positions are not left vacant. Challenges before HRIS efforts are: *Focusing on the value of information and its delivery. *By enhancing the benefits of the web-based technologies to optimise the processing of HR information. *Using technology to make the most of outsourcing opportunities. *Building employee relations by adopting Internet culture. *Driving the transformation of an HR
Another way to increase HR efficiency with the help of information technology is HR portals. They offer access to additional process-based tools and applications that enable staff to achieve major efficiencies in their work.
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Organisations are keen to understand and know details of employees and keep a tab on their personal life so that they can provide the best bargains to these internal customers. Also, HR can focus on helping employees perform better.
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organisation from an administrative to a strategic management focus. Information systems for recruitment and selection: Some of the advantages of using this information system are getting both quality and quantity of participants, saving on recruitment costs, and making the hiring process faster. The hiring managers have to deal with less paper work with most of the routine work automated. Three areas of selection where technology seems to play a major role are: *Resume scanning applications. *Online testing and assessment tools. *Initial interviewing. Information system for training and development: Nowadays, technology tools can be used for a wide and flexible range of learning activities — instructorled live training courses, e-learning, selfplaced activities, web-based training, live 'webinars', seminars, conferences, white pares, books, degree programmes, and ad hoc learning experiences. Employee relationship management through information systems: Organisations are keen to understand and know details of employees and keep a tab on their personal life so that they can provide the best bargains to these internal customers. Also, HR can focus on its real job of helping employees develop and perform better. Central to that effort is eHR, the concept of getting non-strategic tasks done faster and cheaper with less reliance on HR staff. Employee self-service is an important component of the eHR equation, in part because it allows HR to play a more strategic role in the organisation. It is about creating a gateway to the organisation through which employees and supervisors can manage employment relationship. Information systems for Performance Management: A performance management system builds a bridge between enterprise strategies and employee execution, and creates a synergy between enterprise strategy and employee action, reducing costs at the same time. The following are the various functions of a PMS (performance management systems): *Growing employee success. *Driving business results *Increasing employee success
*Improving talent management *Utilising expert performance content Employee Portals for HR: Organisations are making significant new investments in their intranets and figuring out how to use them to help employees work better, smarter, and faster. The result is an employee portal — a singlepoint access, available anywhere, to all information and resources employees need to do their job. One of the major advantages of an employee portal is the increased involvement of employees in HR practices, and the increased knowledge they have about HR issue. The main objective of the HR self-service, collaboration, and community solution deployment is to improve services to employees and managers. TCS has recently launched its digital HR information system that allows an individual to apply for leave, get online approvals, file for loans directly, and voice grievances. It includes a visa information processing system and a branch assets library, maintained on the company's intranet by the HR department. Hero Honda has opted for a SAP HR module. SAIL provides its employees with the option of online access to information about salary, leave, tax, loan, etc. Today's new HR model reflects an age of planned management that emphasises knowledge-based completion. HR systems are being designed to develop and strengthen ideas of intellectual capital and knowledge management that drive strategy conception. An HR portal consolidates legacy HR systems and other HR tools with portal-based applications to create a flawless habitual people management. HRIS expedite staff selection and record keeping. An increasing amount of recruiting is done via the web. Managers often use evaluation software to help assess their subordinates' performance. Employees can use expert systems to choose health care and other benefits programs that best suit their solutions. HR professionals are trying to put together the traditional HR functions flawlessly with other business valueadding actions because HR information systems is now being accepted for its potential in strategic planning and decision support.
CONSUMER RIGHTS
BUYERS AT RECEIVING END Most of us do not have adequate knowledge about consumer rights. And unscrupulous shopkeepers take undue advantage of this ignorance.
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ittle did we realise that it would be an eye-opener for us. I had to accompany my wife and drive her down, and our search for a suitable retail outlet close to my residence took us to M/s Abba Gas, a small store in Kalkaji. This market in South Delhi close to Nehru Place serves households in the low and middle-income bracket, and has a reputation for stores, not for their swanky and glitzy interiors but for utility products that are good value for money. We were contemplating for quite some time on buying a new gas burner after having used the Sunflame burner for over a decade. Though it was meeting our requirement, it needed frequent cleaning by a mechanic from the gas dealer, and was becoming a headache for the lady of the house. Also, we believed the new gas burners currently available are not only trendy but also energy efficient. Abba Gas is a small store and some of its wares were spread outside the shop,
on the footpath. Most prominently displayed were models with two and three burners of a locally manufactured brand, 'Blue Line'. The price tag was Rs 1,500 and above, fixed on the basis of strength and thickness of the gauge and the number of burners. Also available were cheaper locally made brands, their prices ranging from Rs 550 onwards. Obviously, there was a market for such products in that area. The Sunflame brand was deep-seated in our mind. For two decades, our burners were Sunflame and we had been satisfied with its performance and service. Besides, my profession in the marketing business has made me an aware consumer who knows the worth of brand value. Naturally, we asked for a Sunflame gas stove. The retailer, a smart talker, showed Sunshine stating it was superior to Sunflame in terms of quality and workmanship and yet cheaper. The quoted price of Sunshine was Rs.2,580 for a
SUJIT SENGUPTA Associate Professor and Area Chair, Sales, IILM, Lodhi Road
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The Sunflame stove was unpacked and we were quoted a price of Rs. 2,850 which incidentally was the maximum retail price. We were attracted to buy it as the price difference was only Rs. 300 and the stove had an added feature.
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three-burner stove. The retailer made an offer of Rs.1,980 for a similar Blue Line stove after seeing the hesitation on my face, thinking the price didn't suit my budget. However, I insisted on Sunflame only; apprehensive about losing a customer he asked one of the workers to open the Sunflame three-burner gas stove that was lying stacked in one corner of the shop. Apparently, that was the last piece that he had, and he insisted, in his eagerness to sell something else to us, that there was no demand for this brand anymore. “Aajkal itna naya brands a gaya hain market mein, ek se badhkar ek, badhiya stoves aur sastey mein ki logoney yehi pasand karney lagey hain," (there is a plethora of new brands, cheaper yet efficient, so people want these new locally made ones),” he tried to convince us. The Sunflame stove was unpacked and we were quoted a price of Rs. 2,850 which incidentally was the Maximum Retail Price (MRP) printed on the packing box. We were attracted to buy the stove as the price difference was only Rs. 300 and the stove had an added feature of automatic ignition, which my wife thought was a smart and new feature. However, it needed a demonstration as we never used such a stove earlier. The retailer directed the worker to demonstrate the stove to us. The young fellow connected it to a gas cylinder and the burners were ignited by turning the flame control knobs. Strangely, a flame (should have been just a spark, we later found out) burnt at the point of ignition behind the knobs at both the burners. I thought it was unsafe, and perhaps it was a design defect, but the shop keeper argued that this wasn't a fault and that was how all Sunflame automatic ignition burners worked. His worker tried to mumble something, but he made some gestures to the worker, and appeared very helpful, tactfully drawing my attention back to the Sunshine stove. Since its MRP was marked Rs. 2,580, he was prepared to offer a discount of Rs. 80. By then we had spent quite a bit of time in the shop and decided not to bar-
gain anymore. However, while taking out my wallet, I insisted on the bill as this would have served as a document for a 2year guarantee that the manufacturers of the stove offered. He took out a guarantee card and put his rubber stamp with the name of the shop and handed it back to me. He added that if I wanted the bill, I would be required to pay tax (VAT) at 12.5 per cent over the MRP. taking the total cost to Rs.2, 800. In other words, there was no difference between the price of Sunflame, which was an established brand, and Sunshine, a similar sounding name, which itself appears dubious. Being unused to purchasing a product without a bill, I wanted to get out of the situation and told him that I wanted a Sunflame gas stove only. By then I was convinced I was getting cheated, and the Sunflame stove with three burners that he showed me earlier and tried to sell it to me was a defective piece. The retailer had already filled the warranty card with my name and address and he lost his temper. But a warranty card is no substitute for a cash memo. As I was walking out of the showroom I heard him crib and cursing me having made one of his warranty cards useless. I breathed a sigh of relief. It was very clear from his behaviour that he missed a huge profit by a whisker. Having abandoned the purchase from Abba Gas, I drove off to another nearby retail outlet at the corner of the road — Bengal Electro, an authorised retailer for Sunflame and Glenn and other branded appliances. This was an outlet I was familiar with during my corporate days. But a bigger surprise was waiting for me as we asked for a Sunflame three-burner stove with auto ignition — the one we had seen at Abba Gas. The price and the features suited our budget. The proprietor answered that Sunflame had stopped making auto-ignition models. Perhaps, the auto ignition suffered from quality defects and the company withdrew the product from the market. After exploring all the gas stoves displayed at the shop, we zeroed in on a Glenn three-gas burner. The price and
A customer can approach the Consumer Forum for redressal and serious penalties are imposed on errant retailers. Unfortunately, many of us are unaware of this. Especially, in locations where incomes are low. the features were attractive with modern soft looks, burners made of brass and energy efficient — the features that were looking for. The retailer offered us a discount of 10 per cent for old time's sake and the total amount of money that we paid was Rs. 2,850. We realised that since Sunflame stopped manufacturing auto-ignition stoves and yet there was still a demand for it, the Abba Gas shop owner tried to make a fast buck by converting an ordinary burner into an auto ignition one, and tried to sell a local brand instead of that when I refused to buy an unsafe product. He tried to act smart here too, by not providing a cash memo. This is how a gullible customer can be cheated by a smooth talker of a shop keeper. What knowledge does one gain from this experience? In accordance with the Package Commodities Act, MRP is inclusive of all taxes and other charges except in a few rare cases. The retailer under no circumstances can ask a customer to pay more than the MRP. However, he can charge less. A customer can approach the Consumer Forum for redressal of grievances and serious penalties are imposed
on errant retailers. Unfortunately, many of us are unaware of this. Especially, in locations where incomes are low and education limited. Margins on a branded product at the retailer level varies from 15 per cent to 20 per cent whereas for non branded product it could exceed even 50 per cent as the mandatory taxes are not paid. Promoting a non-branded product against a branded one becomes beneficial for such retailer. It is only in the rare case where a customer insists on a branded product the retailer is compelled to accede to the customer's request and maintain one unit in stock as Abba Gas did in this particular instance. They keep single units for demonstration and display purposes with the motive of converting the customer to the preferred brand by undermining their quality. Not being authorised to sell, retailers such as Abba Gas buy the branded product from another authorised retailer in the vicinity at about 10 per cent less than MRP. Therefore, when customers insist on a bill, the retailer has to shell out the VAT element of 12.5 per cent from his margin which no longer is then beneficial. The
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MANAGING HOSPITAL INVENTORY AND SUPPLY CHAIN A highly efficient inventory and supply chain needs to be maintained in hospitals because one careless mistake could cost a human life.
H K. M. MITAL Professor, Strategy & CSR IILM, Lodhi Road
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ospitals operate in an uncertain and complex environment where time is critical, service levels desired to be of global standards, obsolescence rates of equipment are rapid, and costs of medical supplies, particularly short shelf-life drugs, are considerable. In India, primary healthcare is looked after by government-controlled PHCs (primary health centers) or private practioners (primary care), and secondary and tertiary care is provided by public and private hospitals. This is further supported by non-hospital (ambulatory) and home care services offered in several states of India. Management of inventory and supply chain is needed at all the three levels, namely, primary, secondary and tertiary levels, including home health care services offered by mobile healthcare vans. Inventory management involves activities such as inventory planning, estimating order quantity and safety stock, placing purchase orders for bulk supplies, entering into rate contract for local purchases, monitoring and replenishing stocks, cold chain transportation and storage, vendor analysis, waste disposal, etc. In hospitals, a num-
ber of items such as vaccines, blood and blood products and drugs, barring some general hospital items. are perishable, which makes inventory management more complex. Perishability has the net effect of ordering and issuing in smaller quantities for inventory management. In hospitals, inspection of incoming materials is usually done on a 100 per cent basis in view of the fact that where human lives are at stake, nothing can be left on chance. Hundred per cent inspection is all the more justifiable on statistical evidence that the number of errors brought to light by comprehensive checks of inventories is much smaller when compared to sampling; and that the cost of 100 per cent inspection is much lower compared to the costs of drugs involved. Inventory and supply chain management in hospital needs to be governed by the industry’s best practices. Some best practices can relate to the applications of ICT-related tools. In hospitals, nurses have to frequently run from one place to another in search of missing equipment which, due to space shortage, are often kept in hallways
and underutilized rooms. Vital hospital RFID (radio frequency identification) tags transmit information to transceivers and can help locate them in emergencies. Nurses track down location information through the inventory-tracking system through any of the hospital computers. Information sharing is the backbone of supply chain management. Following availability of improved information regarding drug consumption in hospitals, retailers and distributors can better plan hospital demand profiles. The information can be aggregated into regional profiles and even into entire market-level profiles. As transactions in the IT-driven supply chain are tracked electronically, distributor information can be shared with the pharma company almost real-time. This brief write-up describes issues relating to supply chain and inventory management in hospitals. Hospital Inventory Management Inventory management function relates to all major departments and services of a hospital and accordingly they need to be made knowledgeable about the state-of-theart. Accordingly, an inventory management manual spelling out policies for inventory control, purchase, inward material inspection, storage, disposal of hospital wastes, etc, should be prepared and distributed among all concerned. Medical devices such as surgical instruments and various scopes, dietary items like Horlicks, Lactogen, etc, form part of the general hospital supplies and the latter are as important as hospital medicines.
Perishability of inventory items always conjures up a picture of obsolescence, deterioration, decay or disappearance following evaporation due to environmental factors. Obsolescence in hospital context may also mean a situation when drugs may still be within their shelf -life but it may no longer be advisable to prescribe them when alternative and more effective drugs at competitive rates might have be available in the marketplace. In fact, many well-informed patients themselves insist on new drugs over available drugs in stocks, though existing drugs may be within their shelf-life. Attending doctors thus need to exercise a reasoned choice between patient demands and hospital interests on a caseto-case basis and there can't be any set rule for deciding either way. The list of medicines likely to lose their shelf-life in the ensuing month should be circulated at the beginning of each month. FIFO (first in first out) is most sensible rule for managing perishable inventory in hospitals. Accordingly, it is advisable to load shelves from the back so that old stock is The
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Inventory management involves activities such as inventory planning, estimating order quantity and safety stock, placing purchase orders for bulk supplies, entering into rate contract for local purchases, etc.
moved towards the front and issued first. When items are stored in bulk containers, expiry date should be indicated in bold letters so that pharmacists don't miss it and continually bring it to the notice of medical staff for prescription. Bulk versus local purchases On the ines of a well-documented purchase catalogue, hospitals also need to have their 'approved list of vendors'. Orders for bulk supplies covering medical equipment, testing devices and drugs are placed with vendors who are part of the 'approved list of vendors'. Suppliers included in the 'approved list of vendors' are generally those who are listed in the 'Indian Pharmaceutical Guide' as they are bound by specified codes and standards of performance for medical supplies, e.g., they are governed to charge only the listed price and not any arbitrary price. While making bulk purchases prescribed, a tendering procedure need be followed by giving a uniform chance to all prospective suppliers. NIT (notice inviting tender) for bulk purchases can be advertised in the national press, local press or simply sent to firms featuring in the 'approved list of vendors'. Suppliers for bulk purchases need to be chosen from the 'approved list of vendors' by following a tendering process, and properly documenting reasons wherever deviations made. This list is not all time fixed but as one that needs to be revised, say, minimum once a year following consultations between medical superintendents, invento-
ry managers, and public health representatives. Based on cumulative experience gained with regard to performance of the participating firms in the tendering process, the list of vendors can be modified by deleting certain firms, whose tenders have not consistently been found suitable. Local purchases are made for some new drugs that might have come in the market recently. Accordingly, due to their recent arrivals these may not be featuring in the hospital's standardised list of drugs, but in patients’ interests, their prescription start once their effectiveness is proven. 'Local purchase' is a desirable option for buying short-life perishable items. Local purchase route is also a convenient mode for buying drugs for a visiting mobile van, particularly when it is far away from the hospital pharmacy which buys drugs in bulk quantities. However, even for buying drugs through 'local purchase', the hospital should have some prior rate contract agreement with some local suppliers in the region visited by the medical van. (Fig. 1) Standardized versus varied supplies A purchase catalogue provides a detailed and up-to-date specification for each item maintained in the pharmacy. Catalogues are always specific and precise in description without any scope for ambiguity. Standardisation of items in hospital, however, cannot be at the expense of healthcare needs of people it serves. Although a hospital should be ready to buy any drug which its patient may need, at the
COMPARATIVE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF VENDOR MANAGED VERSUS CO-MANAGED INVENTORY Figure. 1
Inventory Management Co-Managed
Vendor Managed
Appropriate for buying Short Shelf Life Perishable Items Critical Life Saving Drugs may not be readily available More Cost Effective
Bulk vs. Local Purchase Standardized vs. Varied Supplies Inventory Storage Pharmacy Management
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Appropriate in Dealing with Emergencies Critical Life Saving Drugs may be readily available Better Quality Control of Drugs
HOSPITAL INTERNAL SUPPLY CHAIN LINKING SUPPLIERS WITH DISPENSING COUNTERS Figure. 2
Dispensing counter 1
Wholesalers
Dispensing counter 2
Hospital Distributors
Warehouse
Equipment
Hospital Pharmacy
Dispensing counter 3
Dispensing counter 4 Hospital Wards
Patients same time some measure of standardisation is also necessary for efficient resource planning and cost control. Varied supplies lead to higher inventory costs. Thus, in hospital inventory management as in other sectors, a trade-off between standardisation and variety of supplies is often necessary. Hospital administrators, inventory managers and representatives of state public health services (particularly in case of a large corporate hospital) should occasionally consider including some new drugs in the catalogue that might have become available during the period, and deleting some old items, which have been replaced by newer versions. As standardisation limits the number of medical items available in hospital warehouse or pharmacy, in the larger healthcare interests of people, the inclusion of some newer drugs also becomes important. In view of such conflicting interests, endorsement of the catalogue by a public health representative is desirable. Vetting is necessary as in ultimate sense, people's health is far more important than cost minimisation. Inventory storage Items should be stored to suit issue frequency, size, weight and volume. Pareto Law is applicable as much for storage as for
inventory control. Eighty per cent issuance activity relates to 20 per cent of medical stores. When these items are suitably rearranged in stores by frequency of usage, about 80 per cent of work can be organised in 20 per cent of the area. Items frequently needed can be stored close to the exit area to minimise unnecessarily travel. Segregation of different group of items is necessary in hospital stores. Accordingly, drugs, chemicals, hardware, linen, stationery, crockery, provisions, etc, need be kept at different locations, with a view to minimise their contamination by some hospital chemicals and gases. Several hospital items are prone to fire-risks. Plastic products, paraffins, paints, X-ray films, petroleum products, etc thus need to be separately stocked or effectively guarded against fire risks. Containers should be stocked when full, and nested when empty for conserving space. Use of properly designed containers can save time, effort and space in medical stores. A properly designed container means that it should be light and easy to handle, be strong enough to stand rough handling, be stain-resistant and anti-corrosive, and provided with lids and some device for racking, etc. Care needs to be
Information sharing is the backbone of supply chain management. Due to availability of improved information regarding drug consumption, retailers and distributors can better plan hospital demand profiles.
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A strong and well-developed refrigerated supply chain is desirable not only for the supply of perishable pharmaceutical products such as drugs and vaccines but also fruits and vegetables for hospital dietary services.
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exercised in storekeeping of precious hospital items such as medical and surgical devices, surgical dressings, and select engineering store items. Central part of racks for medical devices should be used for small but fast moving items, upper shelves for light-weight, slow and non-moving items, and lower shelves for heavy items. While stock control of such items should be done under medical supervision of the CMO or his nominee; for other items supervision by the medical staff concerned is sufficient. A hospital needs to periodically dispose of waste material and refuse generated over the years. This may involve disposal of obsolete or condemned furniture and equipment, obsolete medical devices, refuse and other waste material. Movement of dirty and infected materials within the hospital needs to be minimised to control spread of infection. Dirty and infected hospital waste need be incinerated within the hospital premises prior to their disposal for minimising cross infection risks. Pharmacy management The hospital pharmacy should be centrally located so that both outpatients and inpatients can easily approach it. Its location should be convenient for both OPDs (outpatient departments) and IPDs (inpatient departments) that may also need to dispense medicines at their own drug stocking points. Bulk preparation of drugs by hospital pharmacy should be undertaken only when equivalent drugs are not readily available in the market or when due to larger consumption, there will be appreciable saving in costs. While determining the cost of bulk preparations, concept of fixed and variable costs, equipment depreciation, consumption, etc., need to be taken into account. Stocks of drugs in desired quantity need
be maintained in wards by nursing staff under the overall supervision and control of the hospital pharmacy. After hospitalisation, patients are often issued 'take home drugs' on doctor's advice, which can be either issued from the wards or the pharmacy. After discharge, a person is more stable health-wise and it is more sensible if such drugs are issued by the main pharmacy for more efficient inventory planning and control. CMO and inventory manager should occasionally visit centralised medical pharmacy, and various dispersed stock holding points at OPDs and IPDs for supervising inventory control. The hospital pharmacy should be lockable, access to areas controlled, and pharmacy keys kept with the highest confidant of the CMO. A spare key should be advisedly kept in locker in a sealed envelope. This duplicate key is to be used only in case of emergency such as fire or when the first key lost, in which case the duplicate key after use is put back in the container and resealed. This is followed by a written note on a separately maintained register giving reasons for its emergent withdrawal from its safe custody. In a hospital pharmacy, like any store in a business, stock verification is necessary. As a pharmacy maintains more perishable items, it is necessary that stock verification is done more frequently, say, every quarter. In a quarterly stock verification, items can be selected randomly. Continuous stock verification involves focusing on items that are valuable from the medical and inventory management point of view and that pose greater security risk. Continuous stock-verification involving weekly stock-taking of precious 'A' category items, life-saving drugs, and items involving maximum security risk is much more convenient to perform than discreet full-fledged four times a year stock-verification. Hospital supply chain management A hospital supply chain in India is traditionally characterised by high inventory levels, discontinuous product flow, ineffective coordination between supplier and hospital, outdate (wastage) costs of perishable items, more reliance on traditional channel of communication leading to delays in sup-
plies, more dependence on vendor managed inventory instead of co-managed inventory between the hospital and its vendor, etc Most hospital items need refrigeration facilities for storage and supply chain as they are generally perishable in nature. A strong and well-developed refrigerated supply chain is desirable not only for the supply of perishable pharmaceutical products such as drugs and vaccines but also fruits and vegetables for hospital dietary services in view of their forward and backward linkages with pharmaceutical and food processing industries. A cold chain is a particular supply chain that keeps perishable items usable within their shelf life from the point of production to their destination or point of consumption. Cold chain involves large warehouses and reefer vehicles, which some pharma retail companies employ for transportation of perishable items. A cold chain is essentially a technology driven supply chain. (Fig. 2) The effectiveness of the cold chain depends on professional and technological capabilities of service providers, including refrigeration and equipment vendors, perishable inventory logistics infrastructure, mobile refrigeration, pre-cooling technologies, packaging for cold chain, cold chain management practices, end-to-end cold storage solutions, tracking and monitoring processes, etc. An efficient cold chain reduces the cost of delivering pharma products to end consumers within their shelf life in view of the economies-of-scale, a gain which is partly shared by consumers as well. A pharma company can be linked with a hospital warehouse either directly or through both the wholesaler and retailer. Once supplies reach hospital warehouses from wholesalers, distributors, and equipment suppliers, these are then sent to ward stock holding centres, hospital pharmacies, and finally to dispensing counters, from where these are dispensed to individual patients Concluding Remarks The hospital MIS (medical information system) should maintain record of the number of patients dispensed at OPD dispensing counters, number of patients dispensed at
other stockholding points, number of injections issued daily, number of injections administered per day, number of dressings done daily, number of sonographs taken per day, number of X-rays taken daily, etc. An MIS of this nature provides necessary inputs for efficient hospital inventory and supply chain management. While the pharmacists' role is mainly concerned with medicine dispensing at the counters, in view of their full knowledge about the availability of drugs in the pharmacy, their advice may be timely while prescribing some drugs that may be still within their available shelf-life. Similarly, pharmacists may also suggest prescription of some alternative drugs available in the pharmacy with matching effectiveness. An 'approved list of suppliers' maintained by a hospital is not a fixed document but as one amenable for change based on the feedback of medical and paramedical staff such as pharmacists, as in many cases vendors may tend to deliver 'expired' or 'partially expired' drugs with new label, which pharmacists may detect. The pharmacist can also assist in vendor performance evaluation, which can keep wastage (outdate) costs low. A pharmacist develops considerable knowledge about the usefulness of common drugs dispensed in the hospital, which is valuable from the viewpoint of inventory manager. Inventory control as such is not the direct function of a pharmacist, but his knowledge is useful in selecting appropriate drugs and determining their quantity for placing orders. Effective communication between medical, nursing and pharmacy staff about standards and methods of prescribing, dispensing and administration of drugs is always desirable in the best interests of patients and inventory management.
While pharmacists’ role is concerned with medicine dispensing at counters, in view of their knowledge about availability of drugs, their advice may be timely while prescribing drugs that may be within their shelf-life.
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GUIDING FORCE
CORPORATE MENTORING MANTRA Mentoring helps not just the recipient, it also fosters the spirits of the trainer. Popular in the West, the concept is slowly picking up in India.
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n the present rapidly changing, globalised world, mentorship has become an indispensable tool in fostering rewarding work culture. It has emerged as an effective strategy in building professional, technical, management skills and employee confidence through co-operative and collaborative endeavour. It reduces fear and anxiety of the employees and develops a culture of high performance by ensuring support and contribution. Though the concept of mentoring started in the West in the 1980s and is widely recognised for its impact in leveraging personal and organisational development, it has started emerging in India only recently.
WHAT IS MENTORING? Mentoring is a relationship which gives people the opportunity to share their professional and personal skills and experiences, and to grow and develop in the process. Typically, it is a one-to-one relationship between a more experienced and a less experienced employee. It is based upon encouragement, constructive comments, openness, mutual trust, respect and a willingness to learn and share. The term mentor is over three thousand years old and has its origins in Greek mythology. When Odysseus went off to fight the The
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the relationship between young Chandragupta, a great ruler and Kautiliya, an effective mentor. Through time, mentoring has included trade and craft guilds, apprenticeship systems and matching based on similar learning styles.
SHUCHI AGRAWAL Associate professor (OB&HR), Dean-PGP, IILM, Lodhi Road
Trojans, he left his trusted friend Mentor in charge of his household and his son, Telemacus's, education. Mentor helped Telemachus to become an adult, who would inspire his father's pride. When Odysseus failed to return home at the end of the war, Telemachus left the safety of his home to find his father and bring him home. The triumph of this venture proved the success of Mentor — and mentoring. Since then, mentoring has had a long and reputable history. In the Indian context, the most successful mentoring relationship is the one between Krishna and Arjuna. The choice of Krishna as the ideal mentor is due to the fact that Krishna performed multiple roles and had numerous mentoring styles. He was leader, manager, negotiator, manipulator, motivator, influencer, all rolled into one. Another example from ancient Indian history is
WHY ORGANISATIONS IMPLEMENT MENTORING PROGRAMS Many companies have discovered that the use of a mentor for new employees not only helps them settle into their job and company environment but also contributes to a lower turnover rate. It is an effective way to promote employee growth and development and is an effective method for accelerating learning, fast-tracking leadership, improving retention, elevating morale, strengthening recruitment and promoting diversity. Purposes for mentoring programs include: ■ Induction to help new recruits, trainees or graduates settle into the organisation. ■ Skills enhancement to enable skills to be passed on in the workplace by experienced, highly competent staff to others who need to acquire specified skills. ■ Career development to help staff in the planning, development and management of their careers and to help them become more resilient in times of change, more selfreliant in their careers and selfdirected learners.
■ Affirmative action to assist women and minority groups to redress the imbalance at higher levels in organisations, provide support and help overcome barriers that often block their progress. ■ Leadership and management development to encourage the development of competencies more easily gained through example, guided practice or experience than by education and training. ■ Education support, to bridge the gap between theory and practice. Formal education or training is complemented by the knowledge and the hands-on experience of a competent practitioner. ■ Organisational development and culture change to share the values, vision and mission of the organisation. To communicate and work on a one-to-one basis to develop required changes. ■ Customer service to model desired behaviour, encourage the development of competencies, motivate for service quality, and above all to cultivate the right attitudes.
TYPES OF MENTORING Mentoring happens in all organisations whether it is fostered as a development strategy, allowed or encouraged as an informal process or is an activity that occurs below the consciousness of individuals. People are learning from others, adopting modelled behaviours and attitudes and absorbing the culture and perceived values of the organisation through their personal interactions with co-workers. There have been a number of innovations in mentoring. Most recently, e-mentoring has been shown to work extremely well after an initial level of trust and certain ground rules have been established. Many organisations also follow ' reverse mentoring process'. It is a relationship in which younger person can share experiences with the older generation related to information
Companies such as Smithkline Beecham, Cadbury, Hewlett Packard, Mckinsey, Infosys, etc, are using mentoring to develop their employees from the initial stage. technology, availability of informative websites, etc. Coolins (2008) propounded the concept of 360 degree mentoring in organisations that encompass steps such as defining goals and expectations, selecting mentoring coordinator encouraging reciprocity, evaluating mentoring process regularly and fostering a mentee friendly culture. Many companies such as Smithkline Beecham consumer healthcare, Cadbury, Hewlett Packard, Mckinsey & co., Infosys, etc, are using mentoring to develop their employees from the initial stage. Mariott International and Bank of America have formal mentoring programmes. Senior professionals and managers team up with less experienced protégées with the aim of assisting them to improve their performance and career progress. Accounting firm KPMG made its 'online mentoring program' part of its employer of choice initiative. Dow Chemicals has webbased mentor technology similar to Google search. It enables Dow employees seeking a mentor to create a list of names of potential Dow mentors. Infosys has a three-tier mentoring process. Eureka Forbes Ltd. has a unique mentoring system for existing employees and new recruits. EFL identifies a senior person to whom the new recruit goes with his problems more frequently. The mentoring coordinator records the mentor and mentee and keeps track of their meetings, achievement of the mentoring
objectives and gives feedback to competent authority. Smithkline has adopted mentoring as a tool of human resource development. The programme has been quite successful in developing new recruits. Nestlé has launched several mentoring schemes at different levels in the organisation. In 2009, corporate mentoring programme was launched to accelerate the professional growth of more than 100 senior executives. This programme targeted a fairly senior level across Nestlé's locations and businesses, with mentees being paired with a top leader who will be their mentor for 18 months. Mentoring schemes at a market level includes Nestle Spain's "MentorNes" programme and "Mentoring Nestlé". Through this scheme, senior staff with at least four years’ tenure within Nestlé and 10 years' people management experience were offered the chance to share their experience, knowledge and advice with colleagues becoming managers for the first time or those moving into more complex roles. Nestle Nutrition launched a Corporate Mentoring Program in September 2008 that provided an excellent opportunity for Nestle Nutrition employees to get guidance from colleagues with experience.
CONCLUSION While mentoring may seem at first to be a one-way street, benefiting the recipient of the mentoring, it invigorates everyone involved. Mentors are stimulated by the active need for their skills. They can also learn from the junior employee who brings a fresh outlook and new ideas to what might feel like an old hat for the senior staffer. Finally, mentoring can boost communication, inject new ideas into old formulas, and promote a satisfying, more open work environment — all of which benefit an organisation’s bottom line.
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THE OTHER SIDE
ROLE OF MULTIMEDIA LANGUAGE LAB AND SOFT SKILLS IN EMPLOYABILITY Knowing your job is not enough to make your climb up the corporate ladder easy. Effective communication and soft skills play a major role.
T PALLAVI GHOSH Lecturer, Life Skills & Communication IILM, Lodhi Road
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he society in general, in India and globally, has undergone a seachange and it is amazing that Shakespeare is very potentially relevant in the modern world marked by economy, globalisation and new mind-boggling technologies.In Shakespeare, we find ample areas, especially in his tragedies, where soft skills give a pivotal effect to his tragedies. In Julius Caesar [1600-01], when the Roman Mob is all excited after the speech of Brutus, it is only Antony's public speaking skills and assertive communication that turns the second half of the tragedy towards an unpredictable climax. Motivation and woman leadership skills dates to 1609-11, when Lady Macbeth motivates, inspires and injects the potion of ambition in Macbeth in Shakespeare's monumental work of the same name. Networking and relationship building skills on the one hand and miscommunication on the other are the two pillars on which Othello stands. If Hamlet had more decision-making skills, instead of 'to be or not to be', would Hamlet strike a tragedy? One evolving bright star in manage-
ment and corporate training today is "soft skills", which is gaining respect in corporate culture as well as in areas of modern studies. Life skills or soft skills refers to a large group of psycho-social and interpersonal skills that can help people make informed decisions, communicate effectively, and develop coping and self-management skills that may help them lead a healthy and productive life. Life skills may be directed toward personal actions and actions toward others, as well as actions to change the surrounding environment to make it conducive to health. [http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/index_73 08.html] Soft skills in the corporate world It is vitally important to understand what is meant by behavioural skills or soft skills. Behaviour is defined as manner of acting or controlling you; the action or reaction of something under specified circumstances; "Hard skills" are technical or administrative procedures related to an organisation's core business such as computer protocols, safety standards, financial procedures and sales administration. These skills are typically easy to observe, quantify and measure. "Soft skills" (also
called people / behavioural skills") in contrast, are typically hard to observe, quantify and measure. Soft skills are needed for everyday life as much as they're needed for work. They have to do with how people behave with and relate to each other: communicating, listening, giving feedback, cooperating as a team member, solving problems, resolving conflicts. Interpersonal and leadership skills at all levels rely heavily on people skills, too: setting an example, solving problems, making decisions, planning, encouraging and motivating, etc. Soft skills connect employability Imbibing these skills within individuals is precisely the employability scope of soft skills. Here, of course, when discussing employability, we are considering freshers and students more than others. As APJ Abdul Kalam, former President of India, said, "It is not unemployment that is the major problem; it is the question of unemployability that is the major crisis in this competitive arena..." After a student completes college, his academic skills are tuned. But joining and sustaining in a corporate is a different ball game altogether. The other skills over and above the academic skills such as spoken and written English, interpersonal skills, the art of communication, situational behaviour, and so on play the most vital role in helping the student or candidate fit into the workplace. Absence of these may hamper the candidate's prospects at the interview stage itself or to grab a job at all. Employability skills are those skills that apply across a variety of job and life contexts. The skills employers are looking for have been identified through 'employability skills for the future'; a project funded by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Business Council of Australia(BCA). Employability skills have been endorsed by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) and the National Training Quality Council (NTQC). The report 'Employability Skills for the Future' (ACCI/BCA 2002) identified eight 'Employability Skills':
*Communication *Planning and organising *Team-work *Problem-solving *Technology *Self-management *Learning *Initiative and enterprise Employers perceive 'employability skills' as important or even more, than technical skills. Training on technical skills can often be done on the job but employability skills are needed to help workers successfully negotiate complex situations at work. For example: when somebody joins the corporate as an HR manager, he or she will be oriented on the process and will have an on-the-job training or opportunity of following the senior for a period of time, but s/he will certainly not be trained on decisionmaking skills or problem-solving. That's exactly the job of soft skill training. Are soft skills trainable? An important question here is "can we teach or train problem-solving or decision making or at the least, communication and styles of communication" at all? The answer is 'yes'; the degree or completeness of the training may be 'undecided'. Here, I will cite only a couple of methodologies: tried and tested, that can be used. Methodologies of training 'In-basket exercises' and 'role-plays' have been fantastic in changing or evolving a new style of communication in an individual. If three students in a class have been given to swap roles and present three scenarios in which they need to change their styles of communication from aggressive to passive to assertive, it is found that they certainly perform well. However, it is also observed that in each student, one out of these three styles come out more natural, smooth and flu-
After a student completes college, his academic skills are tuned. But joining and sustaining in a corporate is a different ball game altogether.
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ent. That identifies what the personality type generally tends to. Nevertheless, if a situation needs, s/he can change his style, too. And that is what needs to be emphasised here. 'Soft skills or employability skills by no means,wants the personality to change but to be 'situation-userfriendly', when needed. There are excellent clips from movies in which a character changes their styles of communication to suit the purpose, situation and/or objective such as '300', 'Dewaar', 'Hera Pheri', 'The T r i u m p h ' , 'Remember the Titans', 'We are Marshall', and many more such marvellous films of learning.
It is vitally important to understand what is meant by behavioural skills or soft skills. Behaviour is defined as manner of acting or controlling you.
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heart. It has been identified that most of these students write better as they, in a few cases, are reasonably okay with their grammar. The inhibitions are due to their lack of confidence coupled with their lack of practice. The 4Ps refer to: *Present *Probe *Practise *Produce How the 4Ps work? In the following sequence, the 4Ps are explained more clearly.
Identified barrier: English language However, a difficulty that has been observed with some sections of students is that they are not comfortable with the English Language. So, the changes in the styles of communication are presented better if they are given their own choice of language or allowed to exhibit skills in their mother tongue. Effectively, therefore, when a student is asked to present himself assertively, he can do it Hindi or Assamese or Punjabi far better than in English. The reason being the assertiveness in their intonation does not come to them naturally in English. This leads us to the widely spoken problem of communication skills in English Language.
1. (Presentation) The trainer tells the student a small paragraph with sentences like "I am good; I am a girl; I am an honest girl; I am ambitious ..." but "He is good; He is a boy; He is an honest boy; He is ambitious..." However, "They are good; They are boys and girls; They are honest; They are ambitious..." 2. (Probe) Then the trainer probes with questions fetching answers like "I am, you are, He is, She is...." Within a couple of minutes, all students get the target topic as the "Subject - Verb Agreement" 3. (Practice) Now they have a round of practice by questions and answers like "Who are you? I am Tom. Are you hungry? Yes, I am hungry." "What about her? She is hungry too", etc. 4. (Production) In the last part: Production — each participant has to speak using the target topic (subject - verb agreement) for about three minutes in continuity like an extempore.
Methodologies of teaching English language When it comes to speaking the language, students face a steeper difficulty than writing. Keeping that in mind, the methodology mainly followed by some of the best training organisations is called the 4Ps Technique. This particular technique enables participants to learn the language more by themselves through practice than by learning the grammar by
Efficacy of multimedia language lab In the modern age of technology, the role of Multimedia Language Lab (MLL) occupies a significant place and is in resonance with modern pedagogical practices. The other adult-training methodology gaining great attention now is MML. Especially when our topic here is "development of effective communication skills for technocrats", we, the skill trainers cannot possibly miss out to mention this
new and innovative methodology. Communities with low levels of education and literacy added with inadequate infrastructure make it really impossible for them to avail sophisticated communication technology. Though the oral tradition of communication, teaching or training is still the most accepted and trusted mode of learning, the concept of multimedia language lab brought in a cost-effective, user-friendly and 100 per cent digital methodology of learning language at your own time and convenience. As we all know, it's just like a laboratory in which there are computers through which students get connected to language experts. It certainly is a technological breakthrough for imparting skills in the learning of any language. Here, an expert teaches the specified language, through the PC by monitoring the learning process. The state-of-art facilities and features enable unique, effective, efficient and satisfying means of spoken language enhancement. The four basics of language learning — Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing — are taken care of in combination in this methodology. Some doubtless advantages are: *Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing are all handled. *Students hear the lessons allotted to them by the instructor. *Students listen to the material at a level set by the linguist. *Student hears the lesson given by the tutor through their PCs with individual headsets. *Students feel encouraged to talk freely and loose their inhibitions. *Students interact with the teacher without disclosing their names. *Student listens to the programme stimulus individually. *Each individual student's attention is focused on the programme material. *Increases the attention span of the student to listen and analyse the content of the lesson. *Lessons can be customised to levels of students' pace of learning. *Student's progress and attendance are also monitored and conveyed. The benefit and getting our students'
understand They are all correlated. A student improves his command over the language; then, he is more trainable in soft skills as communication skills, interpersonal skills, customer-service skills, telephone etiquette, etc. Honing these skills in turn make them more employable. As students become more aware of the importance of employability skills, they are more likely to emphasise them in interviews for jobs. We, the trainers and teachers with a clear understanding of the benefits, should entice interest, emphasise the benefits and explicitly promote their development. Our biggest success will be to engage our students in seeing the value of employability skills to their future employability. It is vital that our students and participants realise what employers are looking for: they are looking for employees and freshers who have 'employability skills'. SUMMARY nSoft skills have existed for centuries; the awareness and propaganda, however, is new and more recent. nSoft skills refer to life skills that we all need for a smooth-sailing personal and professional life. nSoft skills in contrast to academic or hard skills are the skills that make us more employable. nThey are skills that are trainable through exercises and activities. nOne identified barrier is communication in English language vis-a-vis native language. nEnglish language and its training now involves technologically advanced methodologies, that are being implemented in India and abroad. nOur success is in showing the correct path to our students, telling them what's in it for them.
Employability skills are those that apply across a variety of jobs. The skills employers are looking for are identified through 'employability skills for the future.
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THE POSITIVE SIDE
SELF-MANAGEMENT A KEY TO HAPPINESS In today’s fast-paced world, properly managing ourselves and our time can help us to achieve our goals easily and enable us to enjoy life as well.
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oday’s life is a humdrum of positively to our world. What is Self Management? activities with a too little time Self-Management is the ability to to think, contemplate and introspect. As W. H. Davies puts in manage personal reactions to responsibilities and challenges in his famous poem “Leisure”: “WHAT is this life if, full of care, life. As La Rochefoucauld says: "It is We have no time to stand and not enough to have great qualities; we should also have the managestare?” Life has become a mechanised ment of them." self-management is existence with a set routine from a process that involves setting of which we are not able to break free goals, self-evaluation and self-develeasily. In earlier days, the pace of opment. It is an organised approach life was slow. But today the world involving the use of certain skills around us has become more com- and strategies through which an petitive. In our urge to accomplish individual is able to identify goals our goals, we lose touch with our and make plans to achieve them. The ultimate objective of own selves. Franklin D. the process is self-develRoosevelt, 32nd presiopment. dent of the United States, The Need for Self had stated: "Never before Management have we had so little time Self-management is in which to do so much." the key to success in any Life must have been hecendeavour. It helps in tic at the times of defining and achieving President Roosevelt but if meaningful goals. It he were to see the SANGEETA YADAV enhances self people of today jugworth, improves gling their time in Assistant Professor, Economics, relations with othvarious pursuits, he IILM, Lodhi Road ers and helps in certainly would like his own times better. Life has achieving that elusive peace of become fast-paced and demanding mind. At any station of life; as a stuof our time. The various demands of dent, as an employee, as an entrework, home, and family may seem preneur, self-management is the more than we can handle. And all basic raw material for success. Selfthis leads to stress and requires a management helps a person to adapt sense of balance in life. For achiev- and adjust to the changes taking ing this, we need to exercise self place around him. A similar concept management. If we can learn to to self-management is the concept of intelligence. Wendy manage our finances, why not our practical life? So there is need is to coach Williams (1998), Cornell University ourselves and to learn to react more psychologist, in an article in the The
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Chronicle of Higher Education, says that intelligence as measured by an IQ test is very different from practical intelligence, a term she describes as “an ability essential to success”. According to her, practical intelligence is the major reason of success in any field. Practical intelligence is what people call common sense. It is the ability to adapt, to shape and select everyday environment. Various Aspects of Self Management • Managing oneself • Managing others • Managing one’s environment Managing oneself Managing self is more difficult than managing others. It is an art by itself. One is answerable to one's own conscience and inner voice which many a times we ruthlessly ignore. Greek philosopher Plato has quoted that "The first and best victory is to conquer self." The personality of an individual gets shaped up since infancy. It all starts with managing our schooldays fruitfully towards studies and self-development. Formal education teaches us to improvise on our academic skills in practical situations. This is the stage we are being introduced to value systems and ethical aspects of life. But as elders, how and when do we use it lies in the application of the same, which is being part of understanding self. By the time we learn to listen to our inner voice, it could be too late for us to rectify our lethargic attitudes. Yet the applications of these skills for the better-
ment of self and society needs attention. Motivation, positive introspection and selfcriticism paves the way for healthy development of self. Managing others Henri Frédéric Amielhas stated “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us.” As we live in a society, we interact with different and varied types of individuals. We need to master the art of managing others as we deal with multi-dimensional, individualistic behaviour, different personalities, characters and thought processes. We need to manage our relations with others harmoniously at home, work place, places of public gatherings, etc. All religions of the world teach for oneness of soul. It is important to treat others with respect and love. We live in a diverse world made up of many different cultures, languages, races, and backgrounds. That kind of variety can make all our lives a lot more fun and interesting, but only if we get along with each other. And to do that we have to respect each other. In today's world we forget to respect people of different cultures and religions. Herbert Henry Lehman had said: “I must respect the opinions of others even if I disagree with them.” That is the language of peace. Family is the most basic unit where we learn our values and ethics and so it becomes our prime duty to teach our children the power of love and respect for others. Mother Teresa said: “The greatest science in the world, in heaven, and on earth, is love.” Managing One’s Environment As a person interacts within various places and spaces, he is able to evaluate what properties in different
environments fulfill his various needs. When a place contains components that satisfy a person biologically, socially, psychologically and/or culturally, it creates the environmental part of a person. But it is not the external environment alone that is affecting us, it is our mind which needs to stay calm and focused. We generate our own environment. Our mind is a thought factory manufacturing hundreds and thousands of thoughts every day, hour, minute. It can be good thoughts or stressful thoughts. Yet we keep on thinking. Managing one's thoughts is important for becoming focused and to manage the environment we live in. Today, human beings are
Managing thoughts is important for becoming focused and to manage the environment we live in. It is important to prioritise and give our 100 per cent to whatever we do.
being bombarded with information like never before, the speed with which things can be done or achieved has reduced drastically. It thus becomes important to prioritise and give our 100 per cent to whatever we do. Swami Vivekanand says, “The less passion there is, the better we work. The calmer we are, the better for us, and the more amount of work we do. When we let loose our feelings, we waste so much of energy, shatter our nerves, disturb our minds and accomplish very little work. It is only when the mind is calm and collected that the whole of this energy is spent in doing good work.” So we need to focus and at the same time remain flexible because life is moving: we grow, we age, we learn, we make mistakes and we adjust. Thus do not fight with these changes in the environment, accept them gracefully. Benefits of Self-Management The benefits of self-management are many. • Time management: Better ability to set goals and to achieve them. Many individuals are not self-disciplined to reach goals and waste their most productive years of life. • Improved relationships with family, friends and society. • Better organisation skills: Organisation and discipline go together. • Positive thoughts: A positive outlook. Those who have learned to manage their life and decided on the purpose of life do not dwell on negativities. They have the urge to look at possibilities and not the stumbling blocks of life. • Increased energy and better health by living an active and disciplined life. So manage your life and enjoy it. The
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EYE ON INDIA
THE WAR FOR EMERGING TALENT IN INDIA
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s companies from around the world continue to set up operations and invest more in India, the competition for the best talent is proving to be one of the major issues that will force new human resources practices. The reason for this is the relative youth of the Indian workforce. There is a premium on the most experienced Indian executives who have both the credentials and the capacity to find opportunity and increase performance in markets that are constantly growing larger. Companies and especially their human resources departments will have to focus increasingly on their practices, such that they not only acquire great talent, but should also be able to retain and develop it. This will prove to set up a variety of new challenges that India needs to be able to deal with, if we want to continue with our growth. There are eight business dynamics that organisations need to keep in mind if they are to create and adjust their talent management practices in India with bottom-line results in mind: Unprecedented business growth: With the growing economy, companies in India have never seen such staggering growth rates both domestically as well as internationally. To keep pace with this growth, all companies need the right talent. Increased competition: More and more companies in every industry are now threatened by old and new players as the economy opens itself to give all players a level playing field. Only the most efficient will survive. Emerging markets: Companies that are rapidly expanding their footprints into new markets will The
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As the economy is growing, the demand for the pool of skilled youth is rising as well.
TRIPTI DESAI Professor, Organisation Behaviour and Human Resource Management IILM, Lodhi Road
face all kinds of challenges they have never encountered before. Those that are ready to learn and adapt will win. Talent which is ready to adapt and face these challenges will be the differentiators. Developing and launching new products and services: With the ever-increasing buying power of domestic consumers and the changing competitive scenario, companies will have to innovate and bring new products and services faster and more efficiently to markets than ever before. Those that do not have the skills to develop new products and services will lose. Discarding obsolete products or services: Due to the same increasing buying power and new competitive threats as well as rapid advances in technology and the ever-growing consumer desire for the "newest & latest," companies will have to deal with quickly decreasing demand for obsolete products and services. Those that recognise this and take decisive
action will come out on top. Changing global demographics:As workforces in some countries get older and those in countries like India grow younger, companies will need to work out methods of integrating their globally and generationally diverse workforces. This could be the defining difference between the success and failure of globalisation ambitions. Cost pressures: As competition increases, the never-ending pressure to reduce costs in all aspects of the business will impact talent management strategies. As the competition for talent heats up, innovative compensation costs could prove the difference between winners and losers. Global mergers and acquisitions: As more and more Indian companies look at inorganic growth through mergers and acquisitions, integrating workforces of culturally and geographically diverse companies will pose its own critical challenges. Looking to the future, in India the war for talent will only intensify as more and more companies recognise how a rapidly growing market and a huge middle-class combine signal a major opportunity. This will require long-term strategies for talent management that address not only workforce monetary needs but also their career and personal development, performance-linked rewards, work-family balance and lifestyle improvement needs. It is those companies that are able to successfully find, attract, engage and retain talent when and where they need those human assets that will win this war for talent and thereby benefit most from these opportunities.
BOOKMARK
An essential reading for managers who struggle to uphold dharma
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he Difficulty of Being Good on the Subtle Art of Dharma by Gurcharan Das is an interesting addition to growing number of books that try to explain the present with the help of great literary works. In this book, Mr Das dips into one of India's greatest epic ever — The Mahabharata. Gurcharan Das wears several hats. He graduated from Harvard in Philosophy and Sanskrit. He is exCEO of Proctor and Gamble India, so he knows the corporate world rather intimately . He is a columnist with The Times of India and several other prestigious newspapers and journals and keeps track of what is happening around us and tries to explain and simplify current events for his readers. In his book India Unbound, he has tracked the growth and progress of India after economic reforms of 1991. With this background he started reading Sanskrit classics during an "academic holiday" and wrote this book. The Difficulty of Being Good - on the Subtle Art of Dharma raises profound questions and dilemmas every person faces. To come up with a relevant and right answer and action remain an eternal challenge. The book is woven around The Mahabharata. It also explores the broader Indian idea of dharma and its subtle nature in the modern context. Life does not provide problems and answers in neat categories and with definitive ends. Likewise, The Mahabharata is about our incomplete lives, about good people acting badly, about how difficult it is to be good. The mahabharata is about the way we deceive ourselves, how we are false to others, how we oppress fellow humans and how deeply unjust we are in our day-to-day lives. Das picks up important charac-
BOOK REVIEW RAHUL K. MISHRA Head, Industry Engagement, IILM, Gurgaon
Title: THE DIFFICULTY OF BEING GOOD ON THE SUBTLE ART OF DHARMA Author: Gurcharan Das Publisher: Pengiun Allen Lane Pages: 434, Price: Rs. 699
ters of The Mahabharata and their life-long dilemma and then links them to the present context of business and political questions and sees similarities. Sometimes, he stretches that too far. The chapters are Duryodhana's envy, Draupadi's courage, Yudhishtira's duty, Arjuna's despair, Bhishma's selflesness, Karna's status anxiety, Krishna's guile, Ashwattama's revenge and Yudhisthira's remorse and Mahabharata's dharma. These emotions and actions are known to us. But analysing the motivation of the great characters of the great epic and linking it to the present context is what makes this book a kind of the modern guide of the Indian way of dealing with dilemmas of our times. Das looks at the Satyam scandal
and seeks insight from The Mahabharata — Why did B. Ramalinga Raju , the founder of the highly successful software company Satyam, commit one of the greatest corporate frauds of all time? According to Das, his moral failing was not greed as everyone believed. Nor was it a Duryodhyana-like hubris, which made Raju believe, like investment bankers on Wall Street, that he was a "master of the universe". Raju has two sons and a sense of filial duty drove him, perhaps, to create companies in real estate and infrastructure. Since the revenues from the the new companies were far away, Raju dipped into Satyam's funds. It might have worked if the price of real estate had continued to rise. But no one counted on a downturn and a liquidity crisis. Desperately, Raju tried to restore the stolen assets to Satyam by merging it with his son's companies but that did not work. Raju was ruined by his Dhritrastra-like weakness for his sons. The Mahabharata seems to be saying that one ought to nurture one's children, but one does not have to indulge them by crossing the line of Dharma. It takes moral courage to resist the sentiment of partiality towards one's family. Yudhisthira challenges the old seva-dharma of family and caste in the epic. Several of these examples make this book an essential reading for managers who struggle with the issue of upholding dharma in the modern context. Das could have explored more such examples from politics, society and business. May I expect in the updated edition, he looks at the IPL saga and how the fine line of public good and personal greed got blurred. When that happens, it results in disorder in society. The
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STUDENTS’ CORNER TRENDS IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY TUHINA BHATTACHARYA, PGP-09-11
he hospitality sector in India has been influenced by a variety of factors in the past one decade and will continue to do so in the coming years. To gain a total insight into some of the major factors that have been affecting and would continue to affect the growth of the hospitality industry, the following points have been made:
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oped its image itself as a safe, secure and friendly destination — a tourists' haven.
Hotel Brand Growth in India With the changing trends of the hospitality sector, there has also been a major increase in the competition between brands. Thus, there has been an increase in the entry of most major international brands in India. This in turn has changed the perception of Indian markets as a lucrative opportunity among International brands. The Indian Economy A major growth of the Indian middle-class First and foremost, the Indian demographics are such that they have always achieved the has also increased the consumer base of more right fit for global business audiences. To add to than 1 billion people. Moreover, today the Indian population is well it, India’s exponential FDI growth is likely to continue consistently in the coming years. educated and well exposed to the international Moreover, an additional continued growth of market,and therefore they are likely to accept global brands wholeheartedly. the projected GDP, (expected to grow at This has also given way to another more than 7% in the coming years) With segment in the hospitality industry has also given way to a resilient the increasing wherein there has been an economy that has been only emergence of branded budget marginally affected by the modernisation of and economy hotels. This are global financial crisis. India to make a mark increasingly giving competiThus, there has been an globally, secondary tion to the luxury segment exponential service sector and tertiary cities hotels, as these budget and growth, with the emerhave merged. To economy hotels are constantgence of BPOs, telecommuadd to it, the micro-marly striving to meet internationnication and other related kets too have al standards at much lower sectors. These have thus totalemerged. prices. ly boosted the Indian economy's ability to invest more in the hospiHospitality Marketing Trends tality industry. The broadening of the playing field with the entry of many domestic and international hotel Maturing of Indian Hotel Markets With the increasing modernisation of India to chains has helped in the evolution of the hotel make a mark globally, secondary and tertiary brands from a one-way communication stream cities have merged. To add to it, the micro-mar- to a two-way one that accommodates customer needs and experiences, therefore ensuring conkets too have emerged. This in turn has triggered a continuous sistent delivery of brand promises and customer improvement of infrastructure in Indian cities experiences. This has also been efficiently and towns and has aided in the development clubbed with the marketing equations changing and marketing of niche tourism such as medical in favour of the customer with online channels tourism, religious circuits, adventure tourism, such as Web 2.0 and social networking that have become the need of the hour of the etc. India has also taken a step towards market- increasing number of well educated, travelled ing the country as a “Brand India". Dubai too and experienced customer base. The above mentioned factors have changed had taken a similar initiative to market its “Brand Dubai" and is probably the best hospital- the face of the Indian hospitality segment in a drastic manner. Moreover, these are the recent ity market in the world. This has been further aided by the leniency trends and have helped the industry to grow and ease at which tourists can obtain Indian rapidly not only for Indian brands but also for Visas. Thus, “Brand India" has successfully devel- international brands.
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SCHOOL’S OUT FOR SUMMER author. Another dimension of responsibility for a PR executive is to update the corporate webhe months of April and May tend to site regularly with fresh releases and make sure become exceptional for the students of customers have easy access to all the informaIILM, not because of examinations but tion they want about the book. One of the because these months are followed by June most pivotal learning that I’ve attained during and July —the official period of summer intern- my summer internship is how to deal with peoship. There is a sudden change in the air, not ple. Not just the press, as a PR executive, I was only among students but also across the facul- asked to talk to regular customers, corporate ty. And as the first working day of our intern- clients and even well-known authors. A relishing moment that I can remember was ship closes by, everyone feels a sense of anxiety and zest. Like everyone, I too had high hopes when I had a word with the well-known author from my summer internship. Helping us to take Shobha De. The agenda of the conversation our first step into the corporate world, intern- was to gain insight as to why fiction writing ship poses a unique opportunity to learn and continues to be the top genre for books. acquire professional requisites in a systematic However, I was pleasantly surprised when the and planned manner, without the usual worri- author asked how I ended up at Roli even though I was pursuing my masters in marketment of having a fixed and rigid job. ing. Also, I did take the opportunity of By using internships, we are providasking her questions that any readed with experience that will make er might just ask after reading us stronger in the business secI can remember her titles. I asked her why she tor. In addition to this, our when I had a word wrote mostly about the highwork ethics increase and we with well-known author er class of society. She become confident in our Shobha De. The agenda of thought for a moment and abilities. Roli books, a the conversation was to replied by saying that she leading Indian publishing gain insight as to why didn’t have many options. firm for fiction and nonThese topics were liked by fiction titles, was generous fiction writing continues the upper class of society, enough to offer me a muchto be the top genre especially the fairer sex. coveted internship opportunifor books Therefore, she resorted to churn ty as their company’s public out issues of their interest. She also relations officer. At the first day talked about her most-acclaimed show itself, I knew my job wasn’t going to be a bed of roses. Being the PR officer of any brand ‘Swabhimaan’, which was an instant success means you put yourself in the brand’s shoes and on television back in the 90’s. All this helped me to get rid of my inhibitions can speak on behalf of the brand. And when you’re handling the public relations while talking to strangers and I became more of a publishing firm, the job gets even more open to professional communication. Some challenging because you deal with the press on companies do pay their interns, but some an everyday basis. It isn’t about creating sensa- providers are realistic enough to add a carrot or so to the gig. That's a form of painkiller, as tionalism. We just deal with the press because we need well as an incentive, so all that time an intern our book reviews. By and large, whenever we spends with the brand does have some tangicome out with a new title, the review copies ble rewards. Internships, in a career-oriented have to be sent to all the leading newspapers society, are invaluable as a reality check. The internship at Roli Books not only helped and magazines for a book review. It becomes the responsibility of the PR officer to ensure all me to sharpen my writing and oral skills but the review copies are sent positively in a fixed also gave a cherished opportunity to apply duration of time across the right address. Along classroom theory on to real work situations. It with the review copies, an ASI sheet also has to helped me to investigate organisational cultures and make new contacts to gain future be enclosed individually. This sheet is a summary of the book showcas- employment. All in all, it’s one experience that ing its USPs and a short introduction about the is a must-have for every professional student. VARUN PRAKASH DHANDA, PGP 2009-11
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IILM at EFMD Conference Sapna Popli, Director & Executive Dean, IILM Institute for Higher Education, was an invited panelist for the 2010 MBA conference held from March 28-30 at Barcelona, Spain. The theme for the conference was “The MBA - Developing the Responsible Leader”. As a panelist in the session "Best Practice Example Cases: Creating the Link to Society", Sapna discussed
"IILM's model for integrating Community & NGO Initiatives in curriculum'. The conference was hosted by EAE Business School. She also represented IILM at the EFMD Annual Conference 2010 from June 6-8 at Oestrich- Winkel (Wiesbaden), Germany. The Theme for the Conference was, “Is Management a Profession?” The conference was hosted by European Business School (EBS).
Understanding global practices Asia Regional Conference 23-25 May 2010, was organized by The Association to Advance CollegiateSchools of Business AACSB in Singapore. The conference explored global best practices and AACSB accreditaion in the Asian context as well as the biggest issues shaping business in Asia and worldwide, and their impacts on management education. It also featured essential information on the process of AACSB accreditation and the value in its achievement. Dr. Anjali Malik and Dr. Meena Bhatia from IILM attended this conference. The conference started with a plenary session on Challenges to Business Education. The near collapse of the global financial system and worst recession since World War 2 has raised fundamental questions about how global business is conducted. At the heart of the debate was the role of business education in not just skills-training of future business leaders, but in providing the value systems-positive or negative - which guide business decisions. Mr Ho Kwon Ping, The
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who is the Chairman of Singapore Management University as well as a globally recognized business leader, discussed these important issues. This was followed by a session on Business Education for the new Economy which identified fundamental shortcomings in management education and
Meena Bhatia at the Asia Regional Conference
practice, and explored ways that business schools internationally are addressing these shortcomings. Arun Naira, member Planning Commission, Government of India analyzed the global forces that are fundamentally re-shaping the context in which governments and business corporations must function, and the implications of these for the architectures of institutions. With these forces, underlying 'theorities-inuse' about good management and about the role of business in societies must change. Therefore the hardcore content of management education must change too. In the last session AACSB's chief knowledge officer combined data and information from a variety of sources and more then a decade of experience to bring Asian business schools in to perspective. He examined the structure and challenges of business schools both within the region and in relation to the rest of the world..
MEENA BHATIA Associate Professor (Finance & Accounting) Dean Undergraduate Programme
Paper presentation at Harvard The International Journal of Arts and Sciences Conference was held at Harvard University, USA, from May 31 to June 3, 2010. This is an academic conference primarily for research presentations. Over 300 delegates from all over the world attended the conference. The paper I presented was "Measuring the Effectiveness of Marketing in Indian Organisations: An Exploratory Study". The presentation was scheduled on Day 1 of the conference. It was very well attended, primarily for the following two reasons: 1. Since it was on the first day of the conference, the delegates were enthused about attending all presentations. 2. Marketing productivity and effectiveness is receiving a great deal of attention in all the major corporations globally. Hence, this presentation evoked a great deal of curiosity among the visiting delegates to understand how Indian organisations approach this issue. Also, India as a potential market is under a great deal of scrutiny
among marketers worldwide. The discussion that followed the presentation was long and intensive, with a lot of questions directed at the methodology, relevance of statistical tools used and the scope of further study. There was a proposal to do a comparative study with organisations operating in another country to gain a wider perspective. Informal interactions with the delegates led to discussion on the state of management education in India today and the role that IILM
plays in that field. A most common topic of discussion was student community and their attitude and behaviour. Quite unexpectedly, there was a high level of consensus among all the academicians gathered there regarding this aspect. A conference of this nature presents enormous possibilities to academicians worldwide to meet, share ideas and collaborate on topics of common interest to produce work of very high standards.
SUJATA KHANDAI Assistant Professor, Marketing
NEW CAFE AT IILM
To enhance the student experience at IILM a new cafe has come up. Built on the roof top, it offers a variety of cuisines to the students and faculty. The
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Curriculum Conference at IILM
Ms Sapna Popli, Director & Executive Dean, IILM, welcoming the Industry Representatives
With the aim of integrating the insights of industry experts with the academic excellence of our faculty, a Curriculum Conference was held at IILM’s Lodhi Road campus. The conference was organised by IILM’s placement department to incorporate industry feedback into the course curriculum of the Post Graduate Programme. Rahul Mishra and Leena Hans briefed industry representatives regarding the courses the institute is currently offering. Dr Irfan Rizvi then took feedback from eminent industry experts about the students they have hired from IILM's various campuses. Thereafter, he took suggestions as to how the institute can improve upon the course curriculum for the betterment of students and ensure that placement opportunities are enhanced. Some of the suggestions in the area of sales and marketing were The
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that students should be clear about the profile that they are looking for in an organisation. Marketing and Sales are two sides of the same coin. Taking up sales as a start up in their career would prove beneficial in the long term. According to Harinder Singh of Vigneshwara Developers, students
Mr Manmeet Singh giving suggestions on how to integrate the course curriculum with the industry demands
should be trained to handle pressure and understand corporate dynamics as it is one of the key skills required in the marketing and sales profession. Adding to this, Ms. Gayatri Florence, HeadHR, Saraya Group, said that organisations nowadays want to hire people who are innovative, have networking skills and are open minded. Hence management students must have these key essentials in order to climb the corporate ladder. Subodh Saluja, Business Development Manager, Manpower Services, further pointed out that students should possess the hunger for knowledge. Subhashish Bhattacharya, ED, Vriksh Consulting felt that students must be encouraged to take up live projects as it will provide them with a lot of practical exposure and will also help them in better understanding of the theoretical concepts
Ms Gayatri Florence, Head HR, Saraya Group , making a point on what qualities the HR professionals look for while hiring MBA graduates
Suggestions in the area of Finance were as follows: Knowledge of financial instruments needs to be really strong if students want to make a career in finance. Nishul Garg, Manager-HR, Standard Chartered Capital Markets, appreciated the inclusion of MS@ Excel in the business finance course curriculum. He emphasised that MS Excel was the one of the major tools being used by the organisations nowadays. Hence, students must compulsorily attend Excel in business finance classes provided by the institute. Arun Babbar-Manager-HR, Yes
Ms Divya Joshi, Head HR Fenesta, sharing her journey in the Corporate world. To her right is Mr. Mohit Bansal (Alumni), Global Business Strategy, American Express
Bank, further added that training on Pinnacle and knowledge of bills receivables, bills payable, etc, would add to their practical knowledge. Regular reading of business newspapers such as Economic Times, Business Standard, etc, should be made mandatory for students willing to take up assignments in finance as it would familiarise them with the financial markets worldwide. Suggestions in the area of OB/HR were as follows: Students should focus on all areas which would help them to have a better understanding of people dynamics. D. Banerjee, Manager
L to R - Mr Subodh Saluja (Business Development Manager Manpower Services) , Mr D Banerjee (Manager Operations & CRM, Vhire4U), Mr Sorab Bali (Manpower Services), Mr Manmeet Singh (Manpower Services)
Operations & CRM, VHire4U, said that management graduates should master the basics of HR. Understanding job description, competency mapping, etc, means designing the same helps in hiring the best suitable candidate for a particular profile. Good communication skills are mandatory for students and they should be made aware of the business communication etiquettes to be followed in the corporate world. Manmeet Singh from Manpower emphasised that students should be aware of new concepts and terminologies such as Balance Score Card and 360 Degree Appraisals, so that they can implement there concepts in their respective organisations in a better and innovative manner. This, he said, would help in improving the performance of the employees and enrich the organisation’s culture. The suggestions given by industry representatives proved to be very useful for developing the course curriculum for the current as well as future batches. The conference provided a good platform for discussing the industry’s demands and hence will definitely help in bridging the gap between what industry wants and the skills of IILM students.
VINI KIRTANI Academic Associate, IILM, Lodhi Road The
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At Grenoble learning was pure fun
Parul Khanna at Ecole De Management
Welcome area at Grenoble Ecole De Management
courses focused on international streets of Amsterdam; you name Varun Pahuja, Ketan Sardana examples and cultural pursuits the city and the following weekand I had the privilege to go to of international relationship end was assured to be spent Grenoble Ecole de Management, building. With professors and there. If you were lucky enough, Grenoble under a student highly qualified lecturers from the Cannes film festival could be exchange programme. Oxford, Italy, Switzerland, in the list. At a distance of two hours from London and various other parts Extra curriculars have always Paris, a small city located in the of Europe, this was an internabeen an essential for GEM stusoutheast of France that hosted tional experience. dents and I too had the opportuthe Olympics in 1968, was our Outbound professors came to nity to participate in the Annual destination. What could be better share their knowledge than a New Year celebraand experiences and the tion in the ski city, clad with block teaching methodolosnow, away from home, gy was followed, wherein, marking the beginning of a on a weekly basis, pornew chapter in life. tions of particular courses On January 7, we were were taught the seminar introduced to "advanced way. This form of teaching global management". The had us attuned to one word "global" itself made subject of concern for the it very interesting. Over 30 entire week. This gave us students from across the ample time to understand globe belonging to differand analyse various hapent nationalities and penings across Europe cultures made this Parul Khanna with students from other countries at Grenoble and other parts of the world. GALA event of GEM, with the term of five months an This culture was a dream lived theme of cruising around differinteresting one. in. The end of our European acaent countries and tasting their At Grenoble Ecole de demic and non-academic cruise artistic side. Nonetheless, our Management, the three-storeyed was the beginning of something Bollywood act had the campus is always alive with acawe call — TAF, Trans Atlantic Europeans' breath taken away. demic and non-academic activiFriendship. Its great to know that 2010 at ties, with the popular vote going Merci Beaucoup IILM for this GEM had 9 students on exchange to traveling within Europe. wonderful venture to France. from India and over 50 Indians Students got the opportunity to as permanent students. visit the Milan Fashion Week or PARUL KHANNA Moving on to academics, the touring the ever-happening Academic Associate, IILM, Lodhi Road The
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Students’ visit to Sona Koyo Students of stage one and two of the undergraduate programme were taken on an industrial visit to Sona Koyo Steering System Limited, accompanied by Rohini Rode and Dr. Bhawna Agarwal. For starters, P. K. Jain, head of quality department, gave a presentation about the company's history, background, collaborations, awards, manufacturing unit, quality initiatives, policy deployment, strategies and marketing. Mr. Jain then spoke about their quality improving techniques such as Kaizen, Pokayoke, 3Ms, and 5S. At Sona Steering, the manufacture steering for manual and power steering cars and their research and development team has made changes in the technology, thanks to technical collaboration with Koyo. The company's quality policy is commitment to defect prevention and continuous improvement while meeting or exceeding customers’ requirements at all times. Students have to do a coursework that entails designing a marketing leaflet for a product or service that they create. The students identify the target audience.
Students at Sona Koyo during the presentation
PK Jain, head of quality department, making a presentation
Students at the Sona Koyo plant
They also have to decide what the reader is going to do after reading the leaflet, i.e watch a demo, buy, test or taste. Interestingly, Mr. Goel of the marketing department suggested that the students adopt
an American practice called quality function deployment where they have to capture the voice of the customer. He suggested that the students identify a product and take feedback from users about the changes they would want to see in the product. They then incorporate the changes and then take feedback again. This would help the students in their coursework. During the Q & A session, Sunny Sachdeva was curious to know about how they handle competition from China to which Mr. Goel said that in the automotive components segment, the dragon is no competition to India. Sangeeta raised the issue of the company's corporate social responsibility. Mr. Goel elaborated that they have a waste management unit and also 18 water harvesting units. All their products are hazardous free. Anubha Jain wanted to know more about Kaizen. Mr. Goel explained that it is constant improvement in every process undertaken in the factory or elsewhere in an office.
ROHINI RODE
Lecturer, Business Communication
& BHAWNA AGARWAL
Assistant Professor (QT & OR)
Mr Jain speaking about manual and power steering The
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Eager students at the orientation day
IILM welcomes PGP batch 2010-12 A cheerful and lively campus, excited and overwhelmed students and nervous parents — this was the general mood on June 7, 2010, when IILM welcomed its new post graduate (2010-2012) batch. The first day of college was exactly what we might have always dreamed of. As the new students entered the campus, questions of uncertainty boggled their minds. They started exploring the campus with a desire to establish connections with their peers. Though there was a lot of excitement, the fear of being in a completely new environment was palpable. The students registered themselves at the registration desk and were escorted to their respected classrooms for the inception of the bridge course. The bridge course is a one-week introductory course which all the students have to study before the start of the PG Programme. After the successful completion of the bridge course, Sapna Popli, Director and Executive Dean, IILM, officially welcomed the students on Orientation Day. The day was held on June 11 & 12, 2010, at the Gurgaon and Lodhi Road campuses, respectively. She held an interactive session with the The
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new batch and sought to know their expectations. Ms. Popli oriented the students to the academic structure of the two-year PGP Programme. She motivated them to bring on board positive energy with new ideas and learn to widen their horizons and be updated with what is happening around them. Employability skills is an area, she focused on, that would help students bring innovative ideas to the work place and create talent leaders.
Sapna Popli, Director and Executive Dean welcoming the students
Prof. Sujit Sengupta, Area Chair, Marketing giving five tips to succeed
"Enriching student experience is our main focus" said Ms. Popli to which Professor Yavar Ehasan further elaborated, "Most of us realise the difference between a person traveling in an unreserved compartment of a train and one traveling in First Class AC. Similarly, there are a variety of things a person can relate to during their two years at a college or educational institute which can leave a positive or negative impression. At IILM, we would like that the student experience should mean that students are proud to be members of the IILM community of learning and when they move on in life, they are proud to be IILM alumni. The experience should be such that our students can remember IILM positively for the rest of their lives". Further, he encouraged students to participate in various Clubs and Societies and give their feedback so that any short coming in the system can be rectified. Sujit Sengupta, area head sales, was the next speaker. Before introducing the course to the students, he gave them five tips to succeed — to practice some discipline, arrive in class on time and stick to the lunch hour; to dress appropriately;
Monisha Batra posing a question on the orientation day
to mind their manners; to stick to deadlines and last but not the least not to pretend to know things when you don't. He also introduced students to the sales electives and explained the difference between sales and marketing. Next, Dr. Shuchi Agrawal, introduced the OB & HR areas and highlighted the importance of this area in the current era of globalisation. She also threw some light on the opportunities at IILM to study abroad by way of student exchange programmes. She highlighted the academic, personal and career advantages which the students would gain through these international exchange opportunities and also shared the experiences of IILM students who had gone to study at foreign universities. Further, Dr. Agrawal informed the students about IILM's pedagogical approach to management education and also told the students that for academic and non academic needs, they would be allotted a mentor, who would be their friend, philosopher and guide at IILM. Ms Vandana Srivastava, assistant professor and area chair IT, threw some light on the IT Area. According to her, "organisations today cannot survive without information technology. IT plays the critical role of streamlining
IILM faculty on the orientation day
and integrating all business functions in an organisation. Over the past several years, the IT area at IILM has expanded its research, course development, and course offerings to encompass new issues in information technology and meet the requirements of industry". The electives offered by IT area cover contemporary applications areas such as enterprise resource planning, e-business strategy, business intelligence, database management systems and telecommunication management. After the IT introduction, Ms. Neeti Sanan took over to orient
Vandana Srivastava, Area Chair, IT talking about the subject
the students about the area of finance. She talked about the relevance of finance vis a vis placements at IILM. She highlighted the three best job profiles -— financial research analyst by Capital IQ, senior research analyst by Copal Partners and financial research analyst by Grail Research. Lastly, she introduced the finance faculty at IILM to the students and briefed them about the course and curriculum. Then came the most important aspect which the students were the most excited and curious to know about, that is, placements at IILM. The session began with the introduction of the placements managers with their respective sectors which continued with the power point presentation given by Rajesh Sokhal, head-sales, Brightpoint India Ltd and Aayushman Gupta, ex-CEO of VeeTee Foods Ac, on corporate expectations. The students were given tips on how to get a job: set realistic targets, focus on personal discipline, assess what you are, focus on learning, be market savvy, participate in as many leadership and team work activities as possible and work hard during summer internship.
ROHINI RODE, Lecturer, Business Communications
Rakhi Singh, Asst Professor, Economics
INPUTS FROM ANSHU ARORA, Assistant Manager
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MDP on finance skills for non-finance professionals Dr. P.Malarvizhi & Ms.Neeti Sanan, faculties of Accounting & Finance, IILM Lodhi Road, conducted a one-day MDP on “Finance Skills for Non-Finance Professionals" at PHDCCI - New Delhi, on May 7. This programme registered a good number of participants from varied sectors of industry who are in middle and senior-level positions. There were Vice Presidents, Chief Managers, Directors, Associate Directors, General Managers, Senior Deputy General Managers, IT Managers, Finance Executives and Corporate Secretaries among the few senior-
level participants in addition to middle-level managers, Assistant Managers and Corporate Managers. Participants from both public and private sector organisations, including health sector like Apollo Hospitals, Fortis, etc, took part, Dr. Sangeeta Yadav, faculty of Economics, Lodhi Road campus, conducted a 15-minute session on the need for firm level sustainability reporting. At the end of this one-day MDP, participants shared their feedback with us, in a formal platform facilitated by PHDCCI, which were as follows:
■ Participants are interested in two-day-long MDPs on this topic as against the current one-day programme. ■ Found the discussion topics on cost analysis, financial management and accounting to be of more relevance in their day-today operations. ■ Participants highly appreciated the corporate environmental reporting & IFRS as an eye opener and corporate governance as a theme of comtemporary relevance for them.
P. MALARVIZHI Professor & Area Chair- Department of Accounting & Finance, IILM, Lodhi Road
School counselors’ meet at IILM As part of IILM's constant endeavour to liaise with the academic community and promote knowledge and excellence for the holistic development of a student in addition to academic teaching, a school counselors’ meet was organised earlier this year. This was a fullday event where a workshop was conducted by Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, Program Director of 'Expressions India' and Sr. Consultant Pyschiatrist at Moolchand Medcity, New Delhi. It was facilitated by Ms. Geetanjali Kumar, school counselor for HRMS. The topic for the workshop was school-based counseling services — emerging needs, concerns and practices. The workshop was attended and represented by counselors of 11 prestigious schools such as British School, Delhi Public School, St. Columba's, GHPS, Montfort School, etc. With the changing social climate and educational system, there is an The
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urgent need for linking academic delivery with the overall personality development of a student in order to provide quality education. This is where the school counselors come in. Dr Nagpal stressed the importance of school-based counselors and through case studies. Group work, situational analysis and presentations laid the charter for the need and role and of a school-based counselor and their responsibilities. He stressed the fact that the school counselors are an integral part of the whole school community working to help children, teachers and other school personnel and parents. School counselors help children face challenges, tough classes, peer pressure, friendship problems, depression and all that can be roadblocks to future success. The participants accepted the absence of relevant school-based counselors in today's schools and the low importance
the educational sector places on them. They felt most programmes designed to improve schooling fail because they do not adequately address the developmental needs of children. They concluded with recommendations in the form of a proposal that would be presented before the education board as an outcome of this workshop. Some of the vital recommendations were forming a school counselors’ association, introducing psychometric testing labs in schools and incorporating the role of school-based counselors in the current educational system. Overall as the feedback suggests, it was a very fruitful day packed with ideas, discussions and food for thought drawing attention on fulfilling the psychological needs of the students through effective school based counseling services.
RABIYA SOOD Lecturer-Economics and Strategy, IILM Lodhi Road
Faculty members get expert views on case design and teaching An FDP on “Case Design and Case Teaching” was conducted at IILM by Prof. R.L. Raina and Prof Afbar of IIM, Lukcnow. The success of the FDP lies in the fact that faculty itself mooted the idea of mentoring IILM faculty in the field of case writing by the two professors of eminence. After the initial introduction and welcome speech, the first morning session was taken by Prof. R. L. Raina. He opened the first session focusing on the topic, “whys and hows of case writing”. He also discussed in detail research for content preparation, organisation, and dissemination. Prof. Raina emphasised the need for using reliable databases for accessing information while taking up case writing assignments. He suggested a set of five most reliable databases that are considered as “must use while writing a case or doing research”. Besides, he gave a broad framework of issues and parameters to be kept in mind while organising/ sourcing information for case writing. He dealt at length the holistic issues pertaining to initial stages of case writing.@
IILM faculty in the news
Prof Akbar took up the basics elements of case design, including the points like (i)What should I write about?; (ii) What information do I need to collect?; (iii) Critical points in designing a case study; (iv) Where should I keep the focus point ?; (v) What should be the length of a case? He also explained the usefulness of linking case teaching to case writing at the time of designing so as to make it acceptable for the user. Prof. Akbar also described the intricate points of case teaching to be used as ingredients for the purpose of case writing. He enumerated how the same case can be used for addressing the issues concerned with versatile domains. He cited the case of “Flex Engineering” written by him and discussed at length the various dimensions of case handling in the class. He also discussed other cases out of his own experience and stressed how the faculty can use the cases in order to ensure a lively discussion in the class.
S. DAS Professor (Strategic Management) IILM Institute for Higher Education, Gurgaon
(Front Row) MJ Akbar and RL Raina of IIM Lucknow with S Das and faculty of IILM
IILM faculty who conducted MDPs at PHD Chamber
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Social networking gets an official edge
In today's world, there is one thing that has become a most important aspect of our life and that is the way we connect with others over the Internet. Social networking sites are the best medium for connectivity with others in our domain as well as outside our domain. In order to increase our connectivity with others so that they can remain abreast with what is happening in our domain, IILM has started 3 new initiatives in the social networking space. The first among these initiatives is an official page of IILM on the social networking site Facebook. This page will comprise all the latest news and activities taking place at IILM across all its campuses. Apart from this it will The
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also comprise pictures of all the events along with Youtube videos. There is also a Twitter tab for all those who just want to read the headlines posted on
Twitter without logging into the latter. Currently, the page has 335 members. IILM's second initiative is again a page on Facebook but is separate from the page mentioned
earlier. The name of this page is "IILM Knowledge Centre": This will comprise all the information relating to case studies, FDPs, MDPs etc. For example, all the case studies integrated in the courses at IILM are currently mentioned on this page. Anyone can read the abstract of these case studies and for a full copy of the same, they can contact the Knowledge Centre. The third initiative is an official account of IILM on Twitter. This is in keeping with the trend that most people don’t want to read much but just want headlines. The Twitter account will contain headlines regarding all the activities taking place at IILM.
ABDUL KHAN Assistant Professor, IT
IILM integrates Basecamp into learning system
the software after the invitation, Today, most of the companies are they cannot do anything unless moving towards cloud computing they have been assigned the coursand the concept of SaaS (Software es taught by them. The big chalas a Service). As IILM is one of lenge was to make courses and those institutes that keeps pace assigning the same to students and with the latest technology, it has faculty — by sending them invirecently implemented a softtations. Courses material ware, Basecamp, from can be uploaded by the the company 37 There are many faculty on Basecamp Signals, based on advantages of this and adequate trainthe cloud computsoftware. There is no ing has been ing technology more dependence on an imparted to them. and SaaS. internal server. Also, no Also, they have The software manpower is required to been given a Basecamp is handle installation and handbook that basically a project maintainence of the explains how to use management softsoftware on the Basecamp step by ware used by many step. server. companies the world The benefits of this softover. IILM has integrated ware are many but some worth Basecamp into its system as an E mentioning are that there is no Learning and Management System more dependence on an internal (LMS). server. Also, no manpower is The software did not require any required to handle installation and installation as it is based on the maintainence of the software on model of cloud computing. It now the server. contains all the courses across all All course activities across all the IILM campuses. The software has a campuses are visible to the authorgood security mechanism whereby ities concerned at a single place. no one can use the software withLastly, the software can be out an invitation. Once an invitation accessed from any place within or is sent to anyone, that person can outside the campus. make a username and select a password of their choice. ABDUL KHAN Even if one has registered into Assistant Professor, IT
Empowering office boys The objective for a training session for office boys was to interact and identify their needs, and give them some tips on basic grooming, etiquette and hospitality like serving food and beverages. The methodology adopted was basically brainstorming, interaction and learning from each other by sharing experiences. The participants were asked to pen down three things that they did at work: One thing they liked about their work and one thing they did not like as much. Participants were brainstormed on to how they can do their day-to-day tasks in a better manner. They were given tips on the correct method of serving tea, coffee, food and beverages. They were asked about their expectations from the management so as to make them more efficient and happy workers. The feedback for the training session was highly encouraging. participants said it was a good initiative to start a training programme for office boys. They liked the dos and don'ts of grooming and etiquettes. What could have done better? The participants want to meet at least once a month to interact and have more training sessions. They want finer details of basics of hospitality like serving tea, coffee and food with proper demonstration in the next training session. They also want learn more from each other so that hey can enhance their skills and move on to better designations.
SAUMYA SHIRINA Lecturer, Communication IILM Lodhi Road
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Ceremonial lamp being lit Mrs. Malvika Rai & Mr.Uday Dandavate
Mr. Uday Dandavate in his convocation speech focused on facilitating innovation through co-creation
CONVOCATION — IILM SCHOOL OF DESIGN The first Convocation Ceremony of IILM School of Design for the batch of 2008 and 2009 was held earlier this year. Twenty-one students were awarded the Graduate Diploma in Design by Uday Dandavate, founder and CEO of SonicRim, a US-based global design research company engaged in studying people, cultures, and trends around the world. On this occasion, the Dean of the Design School spoke about the journey of the institute from its inception, laying emphasis on the bridges that have been built between the industry and institutions that has resulted in tremendous opportunities for students. The Dean spoke of the vision of the Design School to provide good education that meets the aspirations of all those who want to become professional designers but do not have the opportunity. The students of design from IILM stand on a par with their The
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21 students awarded the Graduate Diploma in Design by Uday Dandawate, CEO of SonicRim counterparts from premium design institutes and are contributing to make a significant impact in the profession. Many of the projects done by the students in advertising agencies, industrial houses, design studios and research departments have been successfully implemented in the market. To support the development of such thoroughbred professionals, the school is supported by faculty members, who themselves are graduates from premier design institutes and are competent professionals in their own fields. Along with this, the School of Design has formal and informal tie-ups with institutions across the country. The jury sys-
tem of evaluation practised here helps in giving qualitative feedback to students. Apart from this, real-life assignments give students the confidence they need to face the challenges of the professional world. The students were awarded their diplomas on the basis of final diploma projects. The diploma project is the cumulation of all that one learns at the School. Graduates have been absorbed in well-paid jobs and are doing interesting work. Arun Chauhan's design of a table is now available online. Abhishek is developing medical products in Pune. Shashank Yadav has been named in the team that designed a solar lantern that won the international SPARK award. Rakesh Jha's ad film for SONY Bravia has been seen by all of us on TV. Anuradha Jain designs the web version of HT Mint, Shekhar Kumar works for Lintas, while Vipul heads the design vertical in an innovation
Abhishek Kulkarni being awarded for the best Diploma Project in Product Design by Mr. Uday Dandavate
company in Ahmedabad. Charu designs kiosks for Smt Sheila Dixit's office, while Komal designs websites and exhibitions. Alisha, Divya and Saakshi designed IILM's Banyan Tree library in Lodhi Road and have moved on to newer interior projects in Delhi and beyond. Manveen and Akriti worked for Excitement among the students after receiving the diplomas.
Saakshi Jaggi, student of interior Design recieving the award for Best Diploma Project
ibibo.com and have moved on to newer areas like publication design. Deepam is developing mobile hospitals for use in rural India, and Ravi is developing a robot. Nishant is working with the Centre for Knowledge Societies on a project on Bihar's health concerns. Aditya's project on waste management is being tested by Maruti, Vence is into developing
furniture and craft products. We even have Chaitanya, who is the first graduate who is doing his Masters in Milan. All these pitterpatter drops of small achievements actually add up to a huge victory. It also reinforces the confidence in the programme delivery and helps the School of Design raise the bar even further. The best diploma project awards were given to Saakshi Jaggi in the area of interior design and to Abhishek Kulkarni in the area of product design. Saakshi worked at Ashu Paul & Associates, for designing a multicuisine restaurant in a given area of 1212sq ft, located on the outskirts of Delhi. Abhishek completed his project with M/s Neodes. His project is a re-design of a milking machine for rural applications. The need was to adapt the the machine according to rural needs, primarily focusing on the cost and working efficiency of the machine.
SASI MENON Dean, School of Design School of Design, Gurgaon
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Life at IILM through the eyes of Shutterbugs: The Photographic Society In the weeks building up to Confluence 2010, Shutterbugs were given a theme to capture the various dimensions of "Life at IILM" from their lenses. Needless to say, it was a tough theme with their subjects limited to the campus and various moods of the students they saw around them. But what resulted was a culmination of some very beautiful pictures which proves photography is all about how you "see" things around you no matter what the subject is. All of their work resulted in a display of over 70 pictures, mugs, cushions, keychains and mousepads which was sold out at Confluence 2010. Pictures speak better than words and so you can see for yourself!
RABIYA SOOD Lecturer, Economics and Strategy
The
Varun Bansal PGP
Udit Jain UBS
Ritika Bindal UBS
Ankit Kulshrestha PGP
Saurabh Khetrapal PGP
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ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENTS PROF. KAILASH TULI OB & HRM, IILM Lodhi Road
Ankit Kulshrestha PGP
Abhay Agrahari PGP
Himanshu Gupta UBS
Presented paper entitled, "Humiliation in the Indian Context: Effectiveness of Zeitgeist to Inculcate Human Dignity" at BOGAZICI University, Istanbul, Turkey, from 28th to 30th April 2010, before the 15th Annual Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies Conference, which was on the theme of, "Peace at Home, Peace in the World". ❚❘❘ Gave one workshop and one guest lecture on Positive Thought Power to 30 teacher participants of PACZion, (A government Health Care Organization of Prague) on 5th and 6th May at TREBON, Czech Republic on the theme of Health Psychology, and Stress Management. Topic was "Management of Stress through Gestalt and Yoga approach for Mental Health and Therapy." ❚❘❘ Two presentations were made before The 10th Biennial Conference of The Association for the Advancement of Gestalt Therapy (AAGT), on the theme of"Continuity and Change: Gestalt Therapy Now", during 1st to 6th June 2010, at Philadelphia, USA. TITLES OF PRESENTATIONS were; 1) Eastern Wisdom can Empower Western PsychoTherapies (Individual paper cum workshop presentation), and 2) "Gestalt Sustainability of Our Global Environment (Invited panel Presentation and Discussion). Dr. Tuli was awarded scholarship of $ 850 for his participations by The AAGT.
NEETI SANAN Associate Professor – Finance IILM Lodhi Road
Presented a paper titled " Financial Disclosure and Corporate Governance : An Empirical Study of Select Large and Medium Listed companies in India at the 8th International Himanshu Gupta UBS
Conference on Corporate Governance held at the Birmingham Business School University of Birmingham, UK , June 23 -24 2010.
Dr. SANGEETA YADAV Assistant Professor, Economics, IILM Lodhi Road
Published a research paper titled "Corporate Environmental Disclosures on the Internet: An Empirical Analysis of Indian Companies" in the EBSCO Business Source Complete/premier listed International Journal of Issues in Social and Environmental Accounting" Vol 2, No.2, Dec 2008/Jan 2009, pp. 211-232.
KAKOLI SEN Assistant Professor, OB & HR, IILM Gurgaon
Paper on “ Employee Engagement – The only way ahead”, Vigyan Jyoti Journal of Management, Vol.1(1), July-Dec 2009, pp 46-54 ❚❘❘ Chapter titled “Social Entrepreneurship in India - A case of Lijjat Papad” for Global Book Project, “Women, Technology and Entrepreneurship”, Reference Press, Delhi (2009) ❚❘❘ “TechTel Company” in Mirza S.Saiyadain, J.Sodhi & Rama J. Joshi (editor), Cases in Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill, 2009, p 78-81. (Awarded 3rd prize in National Case Competition)“
Dr. SURABHI GOYAL Associate Professor, Marketing, IILM Lodhi Road
Conducted an MDP on Winning and Retaining of Customers at PHD Chamber of Commerce on 18th June 2010, jointly with Prof SenGupta.
Dr. BHAWNA AGARWAL Assistant Professor (QT & OR), IILM, Lodhi Road
Published a Paper Entitled “Effect of Staff Communication Skills in Hospitals on Patients to Revisit” in “Management & Change” of IILM, India, Vol.13, No.2 (2009).
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The Banyan Tree School, New Delhi
Chief Minister of Delhi Shrimati Sheila Dixit presenting the PVR Moser Baer Film it award to Akshara Mishra of the Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road
The vision of creating lifelong learners finds ground in the activity-oriented curriculum design and transaction. The emphasis is on holistic development of the learner where his scholastic and co-scholastic aptitudes and abilities are crafted into a positive attitude, defining his creative outlook. Students are not just recipients of rote knowledge. They, along with the teachers, play a proactive role in the process of transaction of knowledge. The students' critical think-
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ing skills and creativity comes to the fore during the different environment sustainability/conservation campaigns, NAVRANG, the interhouse dance festival, SPECTRUM, a collection of creative and artistic activities conducted on the Founder's Day and FILMIT, a platform for young and budding film makers. The thematic teaching module is one of the many exemplary methods propounding integrated learning and learning with a purpose.
The Banyan Tree School, Chandigarh
Learning in natural environment and making it a joyful journey
The Banyan Tree School stands regal and proud against the skyline of Corbusier's Chandigarh. Established in 2003 and still young, the school embodies all the vigour, vitality, originality and innovation of youth. The first two batches of class X have already appeared for CBSE examinations. The results of both years have been excellent. The first batch of class XII will appear in March 2011. The Olympiad Foundation New Delhi brought heady success to the school, with the first four positions in mathematics and some of the top achievements in science being from this school. The list of academic achievements at the Banyan Tree School is, in fact, formidable. Yet a school is much more than just bland statistics; it is a vision of and about education, and the Banyan Tree School has a holistic, progressive and unique vision that puts the cognitive in conversation with the creative.
At the Banyan Tree School, we not only ensure students' continued success according to conventional academic indicators but also expand their horizons through international best practices in education that emphasise creativity, critical thinking, and transdisciplinary applied learning. From alterna-
Students invoking the almighty God before the commencement of school programme.
tive pedagogical strategies and simulated classroom exercises designed to sharpen students' minds and help them think 'on their feet', to British Library book weeks and Scholastic India storytelling sessions with well-known writers at the rock garden to enhance students' language, expression and literary interpretation skills, to the professional use of theatre, drama and poetry to cultivate their interest in pertinent social and to develop the sterner qualities through games and sports and outdoor activities, we have it all. At the Banyan Tree School, we believe in imparting all comprehensive education, in the deepest and most dynamic sense of the word. In the future as in the present, the Banyan Tree School enlightens.
RATNA DHAR Principal, The Banyan Tree School, Chandigarh The
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The Banyan Tree School, Jagdishpur The Banyan Tree School at Jagdishpur was established by the Ram Krishan & Sons Charitable Trust in March, 2008 to provide quality education to the economically weaker sections of rural Uttar Pradesh. Spread over 19,625 square metres, the school is wellequipped with educational aids and accessories for ensuring modern education at affordable cost. Facilities such as the electrically operated toy-train, swings, see-saws, swimming pool etc., are even better than in most of the public schools in Lucknow. A fullfledged computer lab with audiovisual and power-point presentation facilities, a modern library, music and dance facilities supplement class-room teachings, this urban school in a rural set-up has captured the imagination and aspirations of Jagdishpur's villagers. In a short span of two years, the student strength has crossed
Teachers and students celebrating together the winning moments
600. The Banyan Tree school possesses well-qualified, trained and experienced teachers who continuously hone their skills through workshops and seminars organised in the school premises itself. Personal and social
manners and etiquette are also taught in the school. To cater to villagers who have no access to transportation, facility, the school has organised a fleet of vehicles to transport school students.
A. K. SAXENA Principal, The Banyan Tree School, Jagdishpur
Members of The Banyan Tree School jointly taking part in Grand Finale of the 2nd Annual Function of the School. The
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My Debut in Life
Students celebrating together the winning moments
T
he ecstasy of qualifying for The Times of India internship graduated to one of the most memorable experiences that I will cherish through out my life. The joy and challenge of working with the ‘best of the best’ teenage minds from Delhi and NCR, under the able guidance of the renowned film critic Ms. Nikhat Kazmi and her team of fellow journalists, has not only been didactic but also an enriching and inspirational experience. The two-week-long internship opened new vistas of learning, introducing us to the variegated nuances of journalism, and we , the eager-beavers, lapped it all up. Each day brought with it new conceptual learning, vis a vis reporting, sub-editing, interviewing, critiquing, page designing, layout and more. The most memorable souvenir
of the internship is the newspaper we created right from the scratch. This testimonial of our handiwork has been the co-operative effort and the labour of love of 39 internees who represent the face of youth today. Decision making, out-of-the-box thinking, editing, formulating the layout – there was much on our platter. Moreover, great emphasis was laid on authenticity of the report, detailing and the use of simple but effective language to ensure mass appeal. This not only helped us to work cohesively as a team but also inculcated in us a sense of respect and appreciation for each other’s skills and knowledge. Undoubtedly, cooperative learning is the ideal approach to creative learning. Besides gaining an in-depth insight into the process of compiling and producing , we were also
given the task of preparing a questionnaire to get a feedback on public response to student newspapers. The result, I must say was heartening . Our last day at The Times of India was a visit to the printing press at Ghaziabad. It was truly remarkable to see machines as tall as a building, printing 150,000 newspapers per hour. To sum up, I would like to mention that learning, evolving and growing has now taken a different hue, and I most positively draw inspiration from the following lines penned by Robert Frost: “The woods are lovely dark and deep And I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep And miles to go before I sleep.”
ARCHITA KHANNA Class XII, The Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road The
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IILM ALUMNI NEWS SAURABH SHARMA PGP
"It was a great pleasure for me to pursue the management course from IILM Gurgaon, I got a good platform to build up my career. I got a campus placement in ICICI Securities through IILM and I had spend more than tow years in ICICI. I have utilized all my management skills in ICICI and created a good image in my organization which I got from my management course. Recently I have moved to Kotak Mahindra Bank as a Deputy Manager."
DR. ANUJ GUPTA, (MBA/01-03 ) and Vice President IILM-AHL Jaipur Alumni Association, married to Shipra on May 15th 2010. The IILM family wishes the couple a very happy married life.
MUKESH LOHAR (MBA Batch2001-03)
channel sales manager, Tata Communications Limited received global Blue Ribbon award from the president of Tata Communications for business excellence
INTERACTION WITH ALUMNI IILM UBS organised an informal interaction on July 22, 2010, for its students where invitations were extended to the alumni, current students and to the students who have taken admission in the current academic year. The venue for the interaction was our newly renovated cafeteria on the terrace. A college cafeteria is always the hub of student activities and it is the same here at IILM. Our renovated IILM Terrace Cafe now wears a completely new and contemporary look. We wanted our students to share and enjoy with us this new addition. The invitations were accepted with a great deal of alacrity from most of the students and the rejections came with a lot of regret. The alumni, current students and the new admissions joined us for a funfilled afternoon. After the round of introductions, the students involved themselves with a newspaper activity which is actually a team building exercise. The students, divided into groups, had to construct a sturdy bridge (which could actually hold a laptop), with a sheaf of newspapers. The task seemed pretty impossible, but to our surprise and amazement, the groups did come up with fairly strong bridges which could actually hold a laptop! Over beverages and refreshment, thereafter, the students informally interacted and got to know each other. The alumni found it the perfect opportunity to bond with their faculty and were happy to offer pearls of wisdom to the incoming batch. The afternoon was all about a warm homecoming for the alumni and a refreshing interaction for the incoming batch with the current students and faculty.
SUJATA KHANDAI Assistant Professor, Marketing, IILM, Lodhi Road
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IILM ALUMNI SPEAK
Prepaid Phone Cards Give Hope to Struggling Telecom Industry NIHAR GUPTA (MBA 07-09),
Area Manager (Prepaid Sales), Vodafone Essar Digilink Limited, has submitted a research paper titled "Prepaid Phone Cards Give Hope to Struggling Telecom Industry" to Avneet Puri, marketing head, Vodafone Rajasthan.
T
he Telecom Industry is undergoing a historic sea change. The current sales of prepaid phone cards are rapidly increasing at double-digit rates. Prepaid calling cards are being purchased now by low-income households and small businesses. Rising prices of commodities and instability of the economy are few of the reasons to make the use of prepaid phone cards a practical choice by almost everybody. Even wealthy families and big corpora-
tions have been washed away by the current trend and cannot help join the bandwagon. The prepaid phone card started with the goal of satisfying the demand for cheaper call rates at the height of increasing costs of telephone subscriptions. The industry targeted families in lowincome brackets and also starting businesses who do not have regular phone service or find it hard to shoulder expensive telephone services. Prepaid calling cards can be
Photo: VARUN BANSAL PGP 2008-10
purchased not only in convenience stores but also in the Web. Its increasing sales and popularity have been said to be the only light in the struggling telecom industry. With the expanding prepaid calling card market, there had been increasing competition between key players and infant prepaid calling card companies. This competition led to the decreasing calling rates, which have fallen dramatically to mere pennies per minute. Prepaid phone cards have been hailed as big moneymakers, even during its infancy. Experts say that these cards continue to be the most profitable segments of the dwindling telecom industry. According to this report, almost 55 percent of the highest income households have utilised prepaid calling cards, as well as 50 percent of the lowest income households. Various technological advancements in telecom industry have also made possible the entry of small businesses in the prepaid industry. Instead of building their own networks, smaller companies can just lease lines from big telecom companies at a low cost. The moral of the story is that organisations and sales people who have a 100 per cent commitment to do whatever it takes to elevate their sales to a whole new level are the ones most likely to succeed. Trying to operate a sales organisation without total commitment is like trying to drive a car without fuel. Every organisation has the potential to harness the power of their sales people just as surely as oxygen pumps life into the human body. The
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
I keep receiving the IILM Magazine ‘The Edge’ on a regular basis. I deeply appreciate the sincere efforts and dedication put in by you and your team in bringing out this wonderful piece of work. I am sure, under your guidance and visionary leadership, IILM will continue its endeavour to provide quality education and exposure to its students and prepare them appropriately for the future. Wishing you all the best for your future endeavors. With warm regards,.
Brijmohan Lall Chairman, Hero Honda Motors Ltd.
Thank you very much for regularly keeping me abreast with the happenings at IILM through your in-house magazine Edge. Let me take this opportunity to commend you and your entire team for the consistency with which you are able to maintain the quality of the publication, both in terms of content and presentation. IILM has, in more ways than one, refined the Kulwant Rai Group set up by your father. My compliments and very good wishes to both of you in all your endeavors. Yours sincerely,
Salil Bhandari, Sr. Vice President PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry
I am writing to compliment you on the wonderful publication featuring lectures from the IILM Founder’s Day. It is an excellent idea to create a publication and to share with the world outside IILM. This initiative truly captures the spirit of creating, not only education, but also wisdom. Please accept my congratulations and best wishes. Regards,
Rahul Baswani, Licensed Facilitator, COACHING CLINIC at Corporate Coach U
SPORTS ARENA MOTIVATES EVERYBODY
H
uman beings are marvelous creatures and so are their capabilities. Nature has provided them with immense flexibility and agility. Since childhood, sports have always been an integral facet of our personality. Not only does it improve our health considerably, but also fosters a general sense of camaraderie in our psyche. It also boosts self-esteem and most importantly, teaches one to accept defeat with grace. Athletes, while playing, are truly engaged in their pursuits. But the best impact is on viewers who get enthralled, charged up and push themselves to a more positive and
exciting frame of mind. Watching sports is indeed a mood elevator, energising and brings in cheerfulness and is a highly motivating life-line for human beings anywhere on this globe. One can see the excitement that is always emotionally relished by masses at any geographical location. The Commonwealth Games are our country’s latest offering to those who relish the idea of sport. Needless to say, it will be a grand affair. To honour and celebrate this event, the following compilations of quotations can be found appropriate to ponder upon.
“Both in sports and in life, you can win only if you try your level best and never lose hope.” P T Usha,
“Sports is the best gift your body can give you. Cherish it till we can make it last.” Sania Mirza,
India’s best known women athlete wining 101 international awards.
an award winning Indian tennis player.
“You do feel on top of the world when you play for your country and win.”
“Don’t look back. Something might be gaining on you.”
Kapil Dev,
Satchel Paige, an American Basketball player elected in the coveted Basketball Hall of Fame.
“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”
a celebrated former Indian cricket player.
“To me, the high standard of excellence and the high standard of giving your best motivates me the most.”
Michael Jordon,
Leander Paes,
a former professional American basketball player.
a national award winning Indian tennis player.
‘The most important think you need as a sportsman is to be clear on what you’r actually doing.’ Brett Lee, one of the fastest cricket bowlers in the world.
Conceptualised and compiled by Kailash Tuli, Professor, Organizational Behavior Varun Prakash Dhanda, PGP 2009-11
Institute for Higher Education