Work Travels in Delhi and Maharashtra

 We had a rather hectic week, first at an admission fair in Pragati Maidan, Delhi. We met a few prospective students and counseled them to apply to Prestige University, for an MBA or 5 year IMP. That's a BBA plus MBA.

Then, we met a few corporates, among whom was Ms. Silky Mittal of Nestle, who is on our advisory board. 

That's her, in the pic above. She's a Category Head in Foods. Was in charge of Digital Marketing/E commerce earlier. An alum of IIM Calcutta. We also met some alums of Jaipuria, NOIDA, where my Dean worked earlier and Prof. JD Singh had been the founding director. JD Singh was our Marketing prof. at IIMB. Pic below with Vasundhara and Gaurav Tripathi, at BN group, which is into Agri-products.

We then moved to Pune, and met Barclays HR team at Kharadi, and visited a couple of Agricultural colleges in Nagar and Nashik. More on these later.

Some Meetings are Just Too Good

 Ok, one such meetup happened yesterday, with old friends, Prachi Jain and Pratishtha Batra, of IIM Indore fame. There was a new member too in the party, new to me- Mayank. And it was a memorable evening, with all the right ingredients, from different parts of the world-will not mention all of them, lest I make you jealous.

The conversation ranged from Pratishtha's intro to Japanese refreshments (including their Single Malts), and Chinese colleagues, while she worked at the U.N. in Manhattan, no less. Her trysts with snowy work-days too. I countered with stories of my adventures at midnight on 42nd Street, and coming out unmugged. From long ago, of course.

We also remembered funny incidents, not all of which can be quoted here, from their life at Indore as Doctoral students. Seems to have been a fun life, including some special experiences of the faculty there. Reminded me of my MBA days, when we used to draw cartoons about some of our classes and profs.

We also dissected the 'Delhi boys,' and the guys who eat things that grow over the ground- you can draw your own conclusions. The missing team members- Akansh, Neeti Ingole, Geeti, and Vartika and hubby were fondly remembered. Had just met a few of them at Indore at their coming out party..coming out of IIM Indore, I mean..

XLRI Doctoral Colloquium 2024

 Pics from a well-organised event. 

With TAS Vijayaraghavan, my classmate and XLRI prof., and Dr. Prashant, host.

My talk on Building Academic Careers-above- and Soumya, a part of the hosting team, below

With Dr. Patro, the Dean, above and below.

Groups in sessions, and after..

Getting and Giving Compliments

 I got a few this last week or two. From different people, the common thing being that they were doctoral students, and faculty. One was a total stranger, Ananya Ghosh, and I had met her for the first time at a Doctoral Consortium-Colloquium- at XLRI. Anyway, the point is it felt good. 

Some of the actors involved- Prachi Jain, Akansh Khandelwal and Vartika Varyani with hubby in the second pic

At XLRI, Anjana Dharmani, who exchanged some compliments with me- she's a Ph.D. student in Marketing-above, second from right. 

Below, Ananya Ghosh, from St. Xavier's university Kolkata.

Giving compliments is an art, I think. Not everyone can do it. I try, and succeed at times in getting the message across. I enjoy giving them too. Usually brings a smile to the face of the recipient, and I like smiling faces much better than grumpy ones. That was my major complaint against denizens of Kerala when I lived there. They seemed unnecessarily grumpy! No idea why. Not so the Mallus I know from all my places of work, though. Many had a great smile too! I remember Sandhya Sajeev and Pooja Daniel from KIAMS, Harihar, for example.

Meeting with Doctors of Management

 Those are the doctors I like to meet. Have met Payal Kapoor and a couple of others at MDI recently too. But these were a fresh crop from IIM Indore, and we have been meeting regularly over the last year or more. Prachi and Akansh also made it to a karaoke party at home earlier. The biggest meet was at Pind Balluchi, before some of them were formally 'doctored.' Now, having worn that graduation cap, two of them were in a euphoric state, and though we missed a couple of regulars, one was represented by her parents-Pratishtha. Neeti had just spoken on the phone, and was going off to Amritsar- maybe our (IIM's) fifth contribution. So I told her her future boss was a cool guy, and she replied, " But not as cool as you." That was like a breath of fresh air! Anyway, I don't want to sound too narcissistic-we decided it was somebody else's domain. However, I have to prove we had fun, so here's social proof-

These two, and sweets are inseparable. Vartika and Prachi demonstrate how sweet they can be!

Sweetness multiplied! Akansh joins in.

And Pratishtha's parents too.. 

The one-year-old honeymooners, above. 

Old pals, one a doc and one wannabe, below.

Prachi tries her hand at photography, not trusting Bhanwarilal.

And the gang minus one-he was behind the camera.

Cause and Effect

 Usually, an effect is the result of many causes, acting independently. But we simplify matters by attributing a single cause to an effect. The world is generally multivariate, or has multiple forces acting simultaneously.

Sometimes, two or more things have to happen simultaneously to produce an effect that we notice. As an example from films, Hindi films, the fact that Rajesh Khanna acted out songs sung by Kishore Kumar in a film called Aradhana (composer SD Burman) benefited both immensely, and each became a superstar in his domain. Both had some success individually, more so Kishore Kumar when he sang for Dev Anand earlier in the sixties, but the success multiplied manifold when he teamed up with Rajesh Khanna in a string of superhit songs. Dev Anand had equal success with songs sung by Mohammad Rafi and Kishore Kumar over his lifetime in films. Sometimes, like in Guide, both sang for him.

Rishi Kapoor initially had Shailendra Singh singing for him in his debut and a few subsequent films, but the songs he performed in films where Kishore Kumar sang for him (Khel Khel Mein, Hum Kisise Kam Nahi, Karz, were some) took him to dizzying heights of popularity. The music in this case was by RD Burman for the first two and Laxmikant Pyarelal for the third-they also played a role.

Just a couple of examples to show that many variables -acting together (interaction effect) or independently-may result in a particular effect.

Learnings Over 40 Years

 The first step after my MBA in 1984 was into advertising, and then into Marketing Research. Followed by a trip to the U.S. that lasted 5 years, including a Ph.D. and a lot of teaching experience. And driving too, on beautiful 4 lane roads and 2 lane country roads. A couple of pics, from Niagara Falls and Bryce Canyon, below-

Then, my academic journey started in India with XIMB, followed by VJIM, KIAMS Harihar, IIM Lucknow, IIM Kozhikode, PES Bangalore, IFIM, IMT Nagpur and Ghaziabad, IIM Indore, NMIMS Bangalore and now, Prestige University Indore.

My learnings are not easy to summarise, but let me try-

1. Learning never ends, whether you are a student or a teacher. Unless you close your mind.
2. People are generally nice, except for a toxic minority. If unchecked, the toxic ones spoil the environment for others. 
3. Productivity is hard to measure, and so is success. Sales figures can also deceive, because quality of customers matters.
4. Advertising is losing its credibility, but over a long period, brands can achieve credibility through good performance as per customer expectations.
5. Hard work does help, in various phases of a long career.
6. Conceptual skills and problem-formulation skills separate a leader from others.
7. People skills too, sometimes. 
8. Most employees are confused by contradictions in the workplace. Advice? If you have control over things, be consistent.
9. How to succeed? Have multiple goals, and achieve as many as you can. If you cannot achieve some, it may not matter. Refer to No. 3 above.
10. Chill, have a hobby, travel, meet friends. This always works, no matter your situation.

Conquering Gwalior

 Forts are meant to be conquered, and this one changed hands many times, from Qutbuddin Aibak to the Mughals, British and Marathas. Gwalior, I am talking about. Now it houses many precious artefacts that give us a glimpse of that history. 

Madgaon Express- Film Review

 This film reminded me of a caper called "A Fish Called Wanda" that I saw in the late 80s in the U.S. John Cleese, Kevin Kline and Jamie Lee Curtis were the main actors in that.

This has Chhaya Kadam and Upendra Limaye as the loveable, inept gangsters, and three friends - a la Dil Chahta Hai- who plan a disastrous but adventurous Goa trip where nothing goes right.

A fun ride, with a lot of twists and turns, and crazy comedy with some glamour thrown in by way of Nora Fatehi. Easy on the brain, and a nice way to forget the serious stuff. 

Just for fun, go watch!

Classrooms and Learning

 My experience tells me that learning happens better when both teachers and

students get creative. A conventional classroom has limits, and combined with

traditional methods of evaluation of students, it results in short-term learning at best,

mostly meant to pass exams or excel at exams.

If learning with impact is the goal, as it should be, a lot of unconventional approaches

to learning are needed. My view is that some kind of action-based-learning works

best, and can be combined with some presentation or other means of feedback from

the facilitator/teacher.

I have experimented with role-plays involving case studies/situations, projects with

some data collection and analysis, simulation based on a computer program, and

making of video content or writing blogs and trying to get readership. Of course, a

few more types of exercises such as writing an email trying to persuade people to

buy something and competitive bidding exercises.

Laapata Ladies- Film Review

 According to me, it's a must-watch and a mast (Hindi) watch. It reminded me of Basu Chatterjee films like Rajnigandha. 

A simple story, great acting by newcomers to this genre-particularly the female leads, lovely build-up of the rural milieu that reminded me of Peepli Live (the film).

This is how a film should be, though I have nothing against well-made masala films as well. That's a different kind of entertainment altogether.

Go watch it, for Ravi Kishan, Chhaya Kadam (the veterans) but even more for the relative newcomers- Pratibha Ranta and Nitanshi Goel. Sparsh Shrivastava is also good. 

No spoilers. There is a bit of suspense to but it is a delightful film. Good writing, editing and direction (by Kiran Rao).

Comedians as Heads of State

 Seriously (!), it's not such a bad idea. We already have the Ukrainian Prez., the Punjab C.M. and in the past, Trump and Bush (OK, not officially comics, but you know what I mean).. and a bunch of dictators all over the world, who were extremely funny when they weren't executing people randomly. Let's be rational, and list down the benefits of having a funnyman/woman in the top job.

Humour is in short supply, with all the WhatsApp wars going on about your favourite politician, cricketer, or Football player (nod to American football too). 

Most governmental decisions are funny, to the discerning eye. 

The Happiness Quotient of a nation is something to preserve and expand.

Comedians in Hindi films are extinct - with all the special effects, and superheroes, who has the time to think of a comedy track like the guy who says 'Khamba ukhaad ke,' the sidekick to Gunmaster G 9 (Mithun C.) played by Jagdeep?

The bureaucrats run the show anyway, regardless of the party in power (as Yes, Minister proved so well), so might as well have fun with a funny guy/gal up there.

No, I am not contesting.. not funny enough for the job.

IDA Revisited

 IDA is a think-tank that again invited me this year to a meeting of Higher Ed leaders to discuss policy issues in higher education in India. There were many VCs from universities across the country. 

Had a few interesting conversations on the sidelights. This time it was at Le Meridian, Delhi. A pic with one of the organisers, Meekshi Dagar-

and one with the group. I am in it somewhere...

Meeting Nikita and Ananya

 We have been meeting for more than a few years now, after we both left IMT Nagpur-she as a student, and I as the Director.

First met in Pune when she had just joined her job and was a trainee, around 10 years ago. Then in Hyderabad, with her friend and colleague, Ritika. After that at Gurgaon, along with Shruti and Aditya. That was pre-COVID. Managed to meet up once more, after a couple of hits and misses, in March 2024.

Always a pleasure chatting with her about everything in life. She's a great conversationalist, and a sales professional par excellence. Proof that we met. 😉😉

Also met Ananya Nandi de, a dynamic alum of the same institute. She's with BT in global sourcing. Also loves music, and we are a member of a music group on fb too. Pics with her-