Monday, December 05, 2005

XL Homecoming-----Pradeep's (72 batch) EXPERIENCE

Hi,

had a very nice time at the XL Homecoming. I was going there after 12 years. The no. of buildings at XL has mush-roomed, and, it seems quite a grand edifice from the basically 2 buildings we had – Admin block and Hostel. Sadly, the playing field has had to make way for the main Teaching block, however the field has been moved some distance away.

At Howrah station itself for the Steel Express the re-introductions started. There were Mel Pinto (BM 71), D.P. Ghosh (BM 73) who now teaches at XL, Sandeep Ganguly (BM 73), Anand Nayak & wife (IR 73), Harriet Vidyasagar (IR 73), John A. Diaz (BM73), Chintamani Rao (BM74), photographer Vivek Das, Indira Basu (IR 73) and some more seniors of IR some as early as ’66 ! The oldest alumni was of IR ’59, who was felicitated at the concluding function at the Beldih Club.

Everyone was accommodated in the MDP block which has nice guestrooms for staying. In fact Mel Pinto and me were accommodated in the Tisco Guest House for the first night, which we thought was a privilege for seniority, till we discovered that the MDP accommodation was even better !

The next morning 19th was the official presentation on ‘What has changed in XL and what is constant’. The Director is Fr Casimeer Raj, an old Loyola Chennai hand. Fr Mcgrath was there, all of 84 yrs in age. There was an intense debate on whether the XL brand needs to be changed from the BM & IR of yesteryear to ‘XL School of Management’ with many views for and against. Us old timers pitched in with our bit. Madhukar Shukla who is the OB prof and good old Jitu Singh, together with prominent alumini Rana Sinha MD of TELCON, and, Bhushen Raina MD of Tinplate, were the main persons orchestrating the event.

In the evening was a panel discussion at the grand Tata auditorium in XL premises where TISCO MD Muthuraman and Subodh Bhargava were part of the keynote panelists. Muthuraman hosted dinner in his palatial house that night. Next morning was a golf session and breakfast at the Golf course which I missed. Closing session was a lunch at Beldih Club, tho’ Bhushen Raina added a bonus with a grand dinner at his superb house to those who remained, as many had left J’pur by then.

From our batch I met only Manjeet ‘nee Dhanjal’ Kaur (IR 72). Met elder sister of the Kastuar sisters IR 72 (Ranjana is in the US and Anjana is a housewife in Bhopal, Shoeb Ahmed BM 73 is ED Mktg SAIL, Sandeep Ganguly BM 73 is a big gun with Hyatt Hotels, Ajay Kaul BM 89 is CEO Domino’s Pizza, Chintamani Rao is CEO ITV, Bijou Kurien BM 89 is CEO Titan, of course Anad Nayak is HR chiefof ITC Limited. Ajit Roy BM 72 tho’ a localite did not attend as he was not well.

Had a look around the facilities – the lecture halls were out of this world – a/c and everything else. Our classrooms in the old building is the present Director’s office. The Library is as extensive as a football field and well-stocked. There is a huge computer centre with over 50 brand new machines. Every task is done on line on computors and all the students have their own computers in their rooms. The hostel rooms look pretty much the same tho’ !

All in all a very enjoyable occasion. Homecoming ’04 had 42 outstation alumni whereas this year it was over a 100. I believe next year it should be more as they are coordinating with the Washington and Singapore alumni for an international event. Hope we meet there again.

Bye,
Pradeep

XLRI gets new brand & badge

XLRI gets new brand & badge
- B-school includes ‘School of Management’ in its name
PINAKI MAJUMDAR

Jamshedpur, Nov. 28: What’s in a name? Well, almost everything. At least that is what the premier B-school Xavier Labour Relations Institute
(XLRI) believes.

Though a late realisation, the B-school authorities believe that the old name is not in sync with what the school is all about. Therefore, it has decided to incorporate “school of management” into its name, which is XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Management.

The logo of the institute is also undergoing changes. Replacing “Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur” with “Excellence and Integrity, 1949”, the B-school authorities are contemplating to add the word “relationship” in the logo.

“We started off with a curriculum on labour relations. But, since about four decades we are imparting various business management courses, which are not getting reflected in XLRI’s brand name. Keeping this in view, we have incorporated school of management in the new name. The school of management tag, along with the XLRI badge, will give equal importance to all functional areas of management as well as industrial relations,” said Sanjay Patro, a senior professor of marketing and head of values and brands at XLRI.

According to Patro, school of management is a broader term and gives a real perspective. The institute has started collecting feedback from students and faculty on its decision to amend the name and logo, he said. In fact, during the recently concluded “Home Coming-2005”, the XLRI alumni members brainstormed on the issue of name change with the faculty members and the director, Father N. Casimir Raj.

Sharad Sharin, a senior professor, said the new tag wouldgive an extra dimension. “Everybody looks at labour relations when they refer to XLRI. But, the new addition in the name will definitely help them in looking at the institute in a wider perspective,” he explained.

CRISIL Young Thought Leader Award for XL

WINNERS FOR THE CRISIL YOUNG THOUGHT LEADER 2005

Congratulations to all the winners. We shall inform the details of the Award ceremony to be held in January shortly. The award for the maximum number of CYTL winners from an Institute for 2005 is shared between IIM Lucknow, XLRI Jamshedpur and Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi.

XLRI was represented by:

1. Suraj Chatrath (Dissertation on "Risk based pricing - Are India's credit markets moving towards this paradigm?" )

2.Rahul Bhargava (Dissertation on "How can India achieve 8 % plus growth? What is the recipe?" )

The award ceremony shall be held in January, 2006.
(Last year this award was won by Sonia Chawla of 05BMD, XLRI)

XLRI ties up with Accenture

Jamshedpur, Nov. 25: The Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) has entered into a collaboration with Accenture, the international consultancy firm for setting up a human resources (HR) academy.

The HR academy, the authorities claim, shall be the first of its kind in the country. It will provide training on human resource exclusively for those employed in the IT and the BPO sectors. .

Sources in XLRI informed that a memorandum of understanding was signed between both the authorities earlier this week.

The director of XLRI, Father N. Casimir Raj, confirmed this and said the nitty-gritty of the training schedule and course curriculum is being worked out so that training may begin at the earliest.

“The objective of establishing the academy is to improve the HR skills of IT and BPO employees. These sectors are fastest emerging sectors in the country,” he said.

The academy will provide a two-year certificate course on the subject, which will cover various facets of human resources including organisational behaviour, rewards and compensation as well as outsourcing. The certificates on HR management will be jointly issued by the XLRI and Accenture.

Sources in XLRI informed that a senior professor of organisational behaviour and strategic management, Madhukar Shukla, will be coordinating the affairs of the academy.

In the first phase, a training programme will be undertaken for about 34 employees of Accenture. Significantly, XLRI is known for its world- class faculty in personnel management and industrial relations (PMIR). PMIR faculty members will assist in the academy training .

Meanwhile, keeping with its tradition, XLRI is all set to organise its 15th annual JRD Tata Oration on business ethics at the Tata Auditorium tomorrow.

The theme for this year's oration is “Corporate ethics and the bottom line: why fighting corruption matters for business.”

The oration on business ethics, which is one of the sought after event on the XLRI calendar, will be delivered by Peter Eileen, founder and chairman of Transparency International (Germany).

The event will be graced by Sarosh J. Ghandy, professor, of the JRD Tata ethics chair. Last year, the oration on business ethics was delivered by James J. Spillane the professor of economics at Sanatan Dharma University, Indonesia.

XLers (1st Year) Bag Award

A team of 3 of our 1st Year BMD students (Aravind.R.N, Arunabh Chaudhuri, and Vaibhav Saini) participated in the MasterPlan business plan contest organized by
IIM Ahmedabad and won the second prize of ($3,000). More than 350 teams from international and indian b-schools participated in the event, and the final round was judged by Mr.Mukesh Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Industries. They were the only 1st year team to reach the final round of 6, and their interview was telecasted on CNBC last week.

The following is the news published in Financial Express

URL: http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=109840

IIM AHMEDABAD- CONFLUENCE 2005
B school grads bag top honours
Jyotsna Bhatnagar Ahmedabad, Nov 26

They held Reliance Industries Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani spellbound with their business plans. The IIMA team walked away with top honours in the MasterPlan contest and a booty of US$ 6,000.

The brief of evolving a business plan with $5 billion forced the participating teams to “think big”.

The IIMA team, evolved an entire plan on ‘fruits and vegetables completing the supply chain’ using the model of cold chain management to source fresh farm produce directly from farmers and retailing it thereby eliminating middlemen.

The second award winning team was from XLRI Jamshedpur, which walked away with a prize of $3,000 with their entry ‘Skyjet’. Essentially a model of public transport combining the mass rapid transport system with the personal rapid transport system, the model seeks to evolve a magnetic levitation model for Bangalore.

The third award winning entry was from the IIM Indore team, whose plan seeks to electrify rural India starting with an energy generation of 4,000 MW using energy crops, which will be converted into energy plantations.

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