Reunion of IMT Nagpur

 Some of my fabulous friends are alumni of IMT Nagpur. It feels like family whenever we meet. So families have to have reunions, right? No occasion is needed, just wanting to meet each other. Here's one such.. Anshita, Abhishek with kids, Anurag and Ishita with kid, and the rest without kids.. Anusha and Aashish, plus Gowri and Sreeram made up the family. Great conversations about everything under the Sun including work, bringing up kids, pets, cars owned and leased, Swipe-cards and train engines, what engineers do, other alums, and Nithyananda, of course. Pics (candid and not)-

Promotions For Employers

 Employees and customers make the best ambassadors for any organisation. We have tried making promotional videos before -to be precise, in the year 1999, to promote the MBA program of KIAMS-Kirloskar Institute. Prof. Dhanapal and I did this, with interviews of faculty and students of batch 1 who spoke about a minute each, and we then edited it with shots of the class, computer lab, library and son included. Made a decent one too.

At NMIMS Bangalore, we recently started a series of promotional films for some of our programs. We have a range of programs, from Executive MBA to Undergrad, therefore we have scope to get promos done by alumni as well as current students. I did a couple of videos recently, shot in-house by Safdar, our marketing team member. 

This is a glimpse of one where I talked about our internationally accredited (AMBA) Exec. MBA program. This is offered at Koramangala campus of NMIMS Bangalore, and is now into its 28th cohort. Admissions happen twice a year, in January and June.

Hyderabad and Its Influence

 It's a place I spent a lot of time in, and in my formative years too. Therefore, it's had a lot of influence on my food habits. Particularly the love of biryani made there, and Irani chai, and bun-omelettes consumed regularly along with a variety of other snacks, like the small samosas with onion filling.

But beyond food, an attitude towards life. Just as the Goans have their Sussegaad (and I appreciate it), a Hyderabadi also has a unique attitude that is probably described by this phrase better than any other- "Light lelo yaaro.." Nothing is to be taken seriously beyond a point, because...

I think it particularly comes in useful in adverse circumstances which everybody faces in life at times. Looking at it and taking it lightly helps nullify the severity of whatever it is, and keeps you hopeful and balanced, I think. I am grateful to Hyderabad for this and much more. 

Ganesh Chaturthi

 He is a great example of how one can be imperfect in looks and yet be immensely loved and respected. Ganesh, the God who is remembered each year on this day, I mean. He is pot-bellied, elephant-headed, and gorges on modak- a food item made and eaten on the day. He also rides a mouse, and is supposed to be a good luck charm, and therefore before any major endeavour, people pray to him.

One of the earliest Artis I remember is dedicated to him- Sukhkarta, dukhharta vaarta vighnaachi..are the words.

Hope everyone is safe, and celebrates this day in the spirit of everything that's good about humanity.

Convocations at IMT

 Just remembering various convocations we had at IMT. Mr. Kamal Nath always got top industry leaders to address the students. So we had Sunil Mittal of Airtel for the first independent convocation at Nagpur where I was Director at the time. We were discussing how 3 G would change things in mobile usage, with video streaming becoming possible, with the man himself.

The next year, we had Mukesh Ambani, and he arrived in a chopper of his own. It was a sight, having two choppers land. He was quite humble, and I reminded him of a classmate of mine who worked with him at the time. His P.R. team made sure the event was recorded and streamed later.

Then we had Azim Premji, the most down-to-earth CEO/Promoter that I have seen- not that I have seen many, but.. 

Earlier, at Ghaziabad, we had Vijay Mallya who arrived at a nearby airbase and then came in a Mercedes, I think, to the campus. He was a good speaker, though a bit reserved otherwise.

Meeting NMIMS Bangalore Alums

 Since I joined NMIMS Bangalore during the pandemic, I never met the students properly. Classes were suspended much before I joined. I am also trying to get acquainted with the history of our campus by meeting alumni when possible, with all the distancing protocols, in a one-to-one meeting over coffee or lunch. Some recent meetings with Batch of 2017 and 2015.

Digital marketing- In class Exercises

While teaching Digital Marketing at IIM Indore, for both executives and regular MBA students, I tried many new things. I was also teaching the course for the first time, so I had kept it to 10 sessions, half the usual.

I like to experiment with assignments rather than just use cases- so I tried an assignment on blogging about Digital Marketing topics, a Bidding game that simulated Keyword-based bidding that happens in real life for each platform, and writing of emails addressed to a specific target segment or Persona (to me, sometimes) as some exercises, besides a website design exercise  only the broad structure) in my digital marketing course. Live exercises and projects are good for learning, in my experience. Particularly when accompanied by presentations with Q and A. I can literally "see" the learning in many cases.

When blogs were given as an exercise, the students were also required to promote the blog on their social media pages. A free blogging platform was to be used, such as Blogger or Wordpress. Quite a few interesting presentations resulted, including viewership statistics at the end of 5-6 weeks.

Youtube ads also were simulated through making a small video to advertise a given product or service, as a classroom exercise or assignment.

Of course, we discussed a couple of cases too, but the hands-on exercises were far more useful as learning tools.