My NMIMS Years (2020-2022) at Bangalore as Director
This could be the next chapter in my autobiography. This
was a unique adventure that I shall remember for a lot of things. One, meeting
Rajiv Krishnan, a schoolmate who now lives in Bangalore, after I left school in
1977… that makes it 43 years! And he looked almost the same as he did back
then. He’s a H.R. honcho from XLRI, and worked at Korn Ferry. Another
schoolmate, Atul Bhatia who had worked in Cadbury now Mondelez), gave a guest
lecture online to our MBA students. 
The students at NMIMS were missing, because I joined during
COVID times. Late 2020. Since March, the dance of the Corona pandemic was on.
So my interview itself was online, and I joined a position that a former
colleague Vinay, had occupied earlier- he was with me at IIM Lucknow.
I used the time I had to get to know the faculty and
administration guys better, and the students, subsequently. We conducted an
online Convocation- the first to do so in the NMIMS community- sometime in
early 2021. We had to do another one for the 2021 batch later that year, and
only the 2022 Convocation could be done in person. Divya Anand and Sreelekha
helped with the second, and Manuja Seth (who’s from Shivpuri, M.P.), managed
the first online Convo as the M.C. Brilliantly, I should add. Rakshita was one
of the M.C.s for the physical Convo held at Satya Sai hall, next to Forum Mall.
Above- Manuja Seth.
Below- Rakshita is
in the centre. She was in the placement team and was also the M.C. at the
convocation held later.
Faculty were the first to come back, and I found they were
a hard-working lot. We did a couple of FDPs with them, on Research methods and
Teaching Excellence. I also guest lectured in a few MBA classes and BBA and
B.Sc. Analytics/Statistics classes. Found the students to be very bright, and
diverse- they came from all over India through an entrance test. Bangalore was
their second choice, after Mumbai, usually.
I got a taste of centralized decision-making, as many of
the policy decisions were taken out of Mumbai, which cramped my style a bit. I
am a votary of autonomy to the branches. The management had different ideas.
The students, I first met online, and then, in person, with
the exception of the placement team, which was in Bangalore throughout the
pandemic. We also had a party to celebrate the successful closure of the 2021
batch placements! Ekalavya, the placement head, was the brain behind that
happening, and the team really performed!
One of the first students I met online before the
inauguration was Mahek Singhal. 
Later on, we met in person too, including at a Golf session
during inauguration for the next batch. Above and below, in the photos, is
Mahek.
A report-below- on how we oriented students in the first
couple of days, including my session on personal branding and another on Golf!
NMIMS Bengaluru Campus introduces personal branding (and Golf) at the 13th MBA
batch orientation program
Bengaluru, 9 June 2022: SVKM’s
Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (NMIMS) Bengaluru Campus has
introduced a first-of-its-kind session on ‘Personal Branding’ for students at
the Orientation Program organized on the occasion of the 13th batch
MBA course starting here today.
A session was dedicated to ‘Personal Branding’ under the
title of “The Brand Called You” and discussed the ways in which MBAs can build
students’ build their own brands while studying at NMIMS Bengaluru Campus for
use in the job market. Building a brand is a marketing technique to fetch
premiums over other candidates in the professional career. Learning these
techniques will help students showcase their interpersonal skills that not many
students are able to do.
Personal brand building encourages students to develop extra-curricular
activities, participate in competitions, and engage with the concerned faculty in
class and outside. Ms Aditi Ashok is a great example of a big personal brand to
emulate, from another field. She is a Golf player who has represented India at
the Olympics in Golf.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Rajendra Nargundkar, Director, NMIMS,
Bengaluru Campus, said, “Every student needs to gear his personal branding to
the target audience, maybe the first employer after MBA, and subsequently use
these techniques in his career as he grows, adding more features to the brand
image. So, it is important to start on the right footing which will help him
brand for future in whichever field he opts for.”
The Chief Guest on the occasion was Mr Abhijit Sharma, Vice President,
Data Labs, Landmark Group. Mr. Sharma said, “Prioritizing is what you will
learn in the next two years. Be clear with where you want to go-make this your
primary principle of prioritization. The best part of an MBA is having an
opportunity to experience everything together and learn from each other,
helping others in every way you can. Institutes have a certain character that
comes from its stakeholders. One of the most critical pointers to note is the
identity.”
A session on the second day of the Orientation Program will be dedicated
to introducing students to Golf, a game popular amongst corporates and useful
for networking with them.
Meeting Old Alumni
Met a lot of alumni from various institutes, including IIM Indore
(Shatakshi and Varun), KIAMS (Savitha, Nikhil Damle), and IMT (Anshita, Ishita,
Anurag, Gowri, Sreeram, Anusha M. and Aashish, Rupam), IFIM (Chaithu), PES
(Pooja Varun)…
The IMT Nagpur group, courtesy Anshita Abhishek Chetty, met at Orchid
hotel, Koramangala, for lunch one afternoon. The big pic-
The next photograph is of Shatakshi and
Varun, both alums of IIM Indore whom I never taught, but we met online and
became good friends.
Shailaja Gupta Kapoor, who I did teach,
started a big alumni group in Bangalore, that consists of alumni from all IIMs.
I happened to attend the first couple of meets. They started small, but have
expanded since. I met Nupur Prasmit of IIMK there, and happened to attend her
wedding reception later (in 2023) after I moved to Indore!
Of course, one of the first alums I met was
Savitha of batch 1 of KIAMS. She works for a Finnish Telecom firm, but she was
with Deccan Herald when we met first. Also, she used to live right next to the
NMIMS Koramangala campus earlier. We met a few times in my two years there.
Once on the 13th floor on MG Road, and at other times, on lower
floors.
A pic from our first meeting, below.
