Sunday, July 22, 2007

Management on the Rocks : The GMP way

GMP Students at XLRI Learn Management Lessons on an Adventure Trip

XLRI Jamshedpur's General Management Program (GMP-1 Year MBA) students recently went on a three-day adventure trip co-ordinated by Tata Adventure Sports Foundation (TASF), Jamshedpur. This is a regular annual event to be taken up by all students.

This program aims to inculcate management lessons among the students the natural way. TASF, a professional body under dynamic leadership of Ms. Bachendri Pal, is engaged in organizing such adventure programs for corporates and institutions all over the country.

The three days trip involved students admiring the hardships of nature as well as actually tasting the same by means of several exciting management games which brought out their mental and physical prowess to the fore. The events included rock-climbing, caving, trenching, abseiling at a place near Jamshedpur and water rafting at Dimna Lake.

Ms. Bachendri Pal, the first Indian women to climb Mt. Everest, gave a pep talk to the students on leadership skills. She was all praise for the enthusiasm and high degree of involvement shown by the students. The trip ended with the event of water rafting at Dimna Lake and the names of the overall group members were announced by a senior TASF official. The trip was ended on a sweet note with recapitulations of learning spread over three days. GMP students were upbeat with the rigor and relevance of this program. Some of the learning's from the program include leadership skills, working in teams, building strategies, making optimal use of available resources, overcoming the fears of unknown, leadership, and introspection skills.

Friday, July 20, 2007

July 21 london XL meet - postponed!

Many thanks for some of you who rsvp'd back..it was appreciated :-)

I have received few confirmations, some more regrets and silence from the rest.

Given above and the weather sounding a bit hesitant for Saturday, we suggest a postponement.

Special note of thanks to Vijay (05), Ganesh (98), Kataria (93) and Ambi (92).

We will hopefully meet another day. Till then take care.

cheers! reena

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Time for Alumni meet in the Tri-state area

Hey XLUSA Folks,

I am back again. Its that time of the year. Time for our Bi-annual jamboree. I am sorry its late kicking it off this time. I changed jobs a few weeks back and thus could not initiate this.

We have been having our Tri-state (NJ, NY, CT) plus all neighboring states (PA, VA, DE, MD) alumni meet in June of 2001, 2003 and 2005. My other co-organizer, LS Srinivas has moved back to India and so I need another couple of volunteers. Lets have a poll first whether we
do want to have this meet this year. I SURE DO....We can have it in the month of August or if lots of folks are vacationing in India we can even plan a weekend in September middle.

Once we decide on date/time, we can then plan the location/activity etc. We could plan something different this year if we can all agree on a specific agenda.

Please do write back or call me

Thanks,

Parag Gupta
BMD Class of 90

Amit Visits Sydney - Meet my place - 28 July 07, 1-3 pm Sat

Hi All

Amit Garg (XL – BM 97) from Upside Learning, India will be here is
Sydney on the weekend of 28 & 29 July 2007. I am planning to have a
BBQ and drinks at my place while he is here . An opportunity to meet
again !

Date: 28 July 2007, Saturday
Location: Jeevan's place
Time: 1 – 3 pm
Grub: I will fire up the BBQ and have some entrees. Please get a dish each plus some booze.

Please RSVP by end of this week

Regards
Jeevan

XL Prof at UN General Assembly



Prof Tata L Raghuram represented XLRI (and Indian B-Schools) at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2007, Geneva on July 5-6, 2007. In his short talk to the UN General Assembly, he introduced XLRI, its activities and and the nature of education imparted by the institute. After the summit, about 40 B-school representatives met to discuss "Socially and Environmentally Responsible Business Education". Prof Raghuram was the lone representative from Indian B-schools.


Monday, July 16, 2007

XLRI - First Impressions after a month

http://srikanththunga.com/2007/xlri-impressions

From the blog of a current "junior"

xlri - impressions

Its been a month in Jamshedpur. Its feels as though I have spent almost 4 months here compared to the pace of life I had in blr/IT industry. I quit my work at i2 on May 11th. I had a month before I would leave for Jamshedpur. I spent that one month meeting people, saying goodbyes, having parties, family get togethers etc… Finally, I boarded the train from yesvantpur to jamshedpur on June 11th.

The train journey: I wasn’t able to get a 3AC ticket on the train and hence had to travel by sleeper coach. I met Bipin who was going to join the IR course on the train. We had met each other during the Bangalore freshers meet(which was really good.. met a lot of seniors and a few super seniors also). The train journey was horrible. There was another train derail because of which my train was delayed by more than 8 hours. Instead of reaching at 7pm on june 12th, I landed up in jamshedpur station at 3am on june 13th. Initially we were thinking of staying back in the station till dawn break as we weren’t sure about getting the room keys at that ungodly hour. We took an auto anyways and came to xlri campus at 330am in the morning. Bahadur, the most famous security guard on campus who can always be seen with a bunch of keys in his hand told us our room numbers. He also told us that our roomies had already taken the keys to our rooms. I land at my room to find a note by my roomie, Souvik saying that he is not in his room and to collect the keys from next door people. To my surprise, I find the next door neighbour, Srinivas playing some game on his computer at 4am. I collect the key from him and settle down.

I stay on the 4th floor of the oldest hostel on campus and I have a pretty good view from my window. The floor is above most of the trees on campus and is very airy. The first shock of the morning was sun rise at 5am!!!! The weather was really horrible for the first couple of days/weeks(from a bangalorean’s perspective. Sometimes, I find Bangalore’s weather horrible.). Its raining these days which is good but sometimes it becomes very humid after that which is horrible again.

Another shock was the lack of good coffee on campus :)

The first day went normally, meeting new people and others whom I had met in bangalore freshers meet etc… There are a lot of people with work ex, but mostly IT work ex. The preparatory classes started. The profs are really good, quite different from my engg experience. The only good place in town is called Bistupur which is more like Gandhi Bazaar of Bangalore. I went into town a couple of times. Its a small decent town. The preparatory classes were good. There weren’t many new things to be learnt other than the basics of accounting. The preparatory part also had films on the history of tatas and jamshedpur.

There are other good initiatives on campus like senior-junior mentorship program where seniors are really helpful in guiding the juniors. There is also a faculty-student mentorship program where any student can approach respective faculty members for any difficulty. Its a good initiative by the administration.

2 weeks breezed by and seniors landed on campus on june 24th. The official classes started for both us on june 25th. Once the seniors came on campus, there were lot of gyan sessions on various things. It used to happen pretty late in the night and for some 2 weeks, we had gyan sessions almost everyday at 10pm. Its part of xl culture and only people who are part of it and who will be part of it will be able to appreciate it. xlers know what I am talking about. future xlers will have to experience it.. :)

The best thing that happened after 25th was the availability of good coffee :) There is a small place called dadu’s behind the campus which is almost like a lifeline to most people on campus. The coffee/tea/horlicks/sandwiches etc.. are his trademark. As someone said, he is best known for his customer service :) There is another night canteen which opens at 10 in the night and stays open till 3-4 in the morning when the campus goes to sleep completely :)

It feels good to be back in college and it also feels a little different after having worked for such a long time. Its very difficult to do arbit CP just for the sake of CP ( a few of them are really good at this. u have to be part of it to know it. :) )

Last week has got to be one of the most memorable weeks here. I had my placecomm interview(a small disaster), probability test stress buster, first probability test, official freshers party(punch nite), first wasp bite, first honey bee hive destruction, first lazy weekend on campus as more than half of my batchmates had gone on a ngo trip or an adventure trip. The most memorable one has to be the stress buster event conducted by the seniors before the first probability test. It absolutely rocked. To put it in context, probability test is considered one of the most difficult tests to pass on xl campus. There are usually atleast 2 people who flunk in that test. The prof is absolutely superb and teaches really well. But as most people know/realise, probability is probability and nothing can be done to it :)

For this week, there are 3 tests lined up and a small marketing competition amongst teams made of juniors, seniors of both bm and ir batches.

Its been a little hectic, but its been total fun till now. MBA is something that everyone has to do in their lifetime (or atleast the first month of MBA :D )

First impressions about the campus : The campus is small but very green and neat. I have seen the IIMB campus and I must say that the greenery beats the IIMB campus. The sports facilities are pretty good. There is a tennis court, proper football, basketball and volley ball courts. I played tennis after a long long time and found out that I have lost complete touch of it. I am planning to pick it up when I come to blr for the term break. The library has quite a few good books.

I have talked about a lot of things other than the main classes. More about this later.

Because of my irregularity in blogging, I am sure I have omitted a lot of other good things. I will try to take each individual threads(hostel life, campus life) of my life in xlri and try to write a blog post on each one of them.

Prof Fenn in Bombay on 5th eve.

From: Dr. Mathai Baker Fenn

Hi,

I am in Bombay Aug 3-5 for a program I am doing. http://www.training.thetalkshop.in. If you are available in Bombay,
lets meet up on 5th Evening? If you are available please send an email to mohit kishore with your name, and mobile number?

There have been two suggestions, one is to make it a "Learning Evening" where I can share with you some of my current interests as we used to do in the class. The second is to make it more informal, meet up, maybe a drink, maybe dinner. Either way we need to organize things a bit. I am fine with either. Please send an email to Mohit along with your preference and details.

Mathai

PS. If you have read my blogs you will know I am in Armenia at the moment and am coming in only on 3rd from Armenia to Bombay.

Feel free to email me, but remember to update the list with MOHIT!

Sunday, July 15, 2007

Jharkhand handicrafts lure Belgian students

Jharkhand handicrafts lure Belgian students

By Girija Shankar Ojha

Jamshedpur, (Jharkhand), July 14: Impressed by the rising demand for Indian handicrafts in the international market, a group of Belgian research scholars recently visited some tribal villages in Jharkhand to assess the scope of marketing tribal handicraft internationally.

Sixteen Belgian students undertook a 15-day research tour under the supervision of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) in Jamshedpur. They claimed that handicraft items, especially Indian handicraft items, were in great demand abroad, and if marketed properly, tribals could earn substantially.

"In Western countries, if something is manufactured in machinery, it is not as valuable as what is handcrafted by people. So, the value of these tribal artefacts is really more than what comes out of the factory," claimed Sarven, a student.

The Belgians students were particularity impressed with the beautiful baskets, bags and other bamboo and jute products.

Martin, another student, said that these products could be exported but emphasised on the biologically-friendly items.

The students visited tribal villages around Jamshedpur under the aegis of a voluntary organisation, Sheeds, which is working on ways to uplift tribals in the region.

"They came to XLRI to do a research on global market, which is limited to corporate and industry. But they wanted to know if traditional handicrafts made in the villages have a global market," said Subara, the Convener of Sheeds.

According to a Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts (EPCH) report, the market for Indian handicrafts in Europe is tremendous.

Indian exports of handicrafts registered a little over ten per cent (about 299 million dollars) in 2005-06.

In 2006, Orissa, Jharkhand, Uttaranchal, Chhattisharh, Jammu and Kashmir and the North-Eastern region were the focus areas, as they have abundant growth prospects in the handicraft sector.

Indian handicraft is expected to triple its export turnover to Rs. 39,000 crore (excluding carpets) by 2009-10, which will also create around 20 lakh new jobs.


Copyright Dailyindia.com/ANI

Thursday, July 12, 2007

XL Celeb watch : Satish Venkatchaiah - PMIR 94

Times Ascent informs us that Satish Venkatchaiah - PMIR 94, and head of
HR at SAP is going to chair a session when Dr. Dave Ulrich comes down to
Mumbai in August ! How cool is that !

While on Times Ascent, did you know that Mohinish Sinha PMIR '91, MD of
iDiscoveri (ex- HR Consulting head PwC), is writing a column on
Leadership? Check his latest article here

http://tinyurl.com/2a76wy

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Annual XL Canada Summer Picnic is Around the Corner !!! (July 7,2007)

Dear All,

The picnic is now nearly upon us. This year we have also put a rolling Ticker Ad in ATN for our meet on Saturday, many thanks to Manu Varma for the suggestion. Hoping to attract a few long lost Xlers to the Picnic.

Looking forward to seeing all of you on Saturday (with families please) . Please make sure you read the directions for our Picnic Area below (in case this is your first time)

In case of any questions/last minute doubts , please give a call to:
Siddharth Thakur
Bala Loganathan

I have also added the Mapquest Location for Sunnybrook Park incase anybody needs it.


Annual XL Picnic Saturday July 7th

Planning to have the 6th Annual XL Picnic on Sat July ..., 2007. RAIN or SHINE (2005 was a Rain Event.... 2006 Sun , and both were great so we will be there!!)

Where : "Sunnybrook Park",North York,Toronto

Time : From 11.30 am onwards

Location : Sunnybrook Park is on Leslie South of Eglington Avenue.

Directions: Take 401 and exit Leslie South
You will see the sign for Sunnybrook Park on your right just before Eglington.
Turn into Sunnybrook Park, and then turn left at the fork (Sign for Earnest Thompson Seton Park)
After you turn left, park on the right at the 2nd picnic area.
If any one needs a ride please do let me know and we arrange for it

Format : Xlers and their families

Pot Luch Lunch - Each family brings a dish/snack to share in a pot luck format

Please bring our own soft drinks, styrofoam plates / cups/ napkins/spoons/forks etc. Please bring lawn chairs, Duree/sheets.
If you have a Stove, pls bring that along to to heat up the food if required. If someone has a digital camera, please bring that along so that we can e-mail the pictures to XLRI at Jamshedpur for their hosting in their web. (will being mine but having more choice of pictures is always better!!)

Do check the weather forecast and dress accordingly. The picnic will be held rain or shine.

Those whose parents/in-laws are in Toronto, please bring them too and am sure they will have a good time. They are all invited as part of our families.

We could also have games for the kids and play some cricket - and Fred has a cricket set so we can play some tennis ball cricket. Those who have Frisbees/Balls, or any other sport items, please bring them along too.

Fred will be bringing a small stove and will make 'Chai' for all of us.

See you ALL! Let’s make this a resounding success.

PS: if you are aware of any new Xlers that have moved to Toronto, please circulate to them and also let me have their contact details so I can update the Contact List.

http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?address=1132%20Leslie%20Street&city=Toronto&state=ON&zipcode=M3C&country=CA&title=%3cb%20class%3d%22fn%20org%22%3e1132%20Leslie%20Street%3c%2fb%3e%3cbr%20%2f%3e%20%3cspan%20style%3d%22display%3ainline%3bmargin%2dbottom%3a0px%3b%22%20class%3d%22locality%22%3eToronto%3c%2fspan%3e%2c%20%3cspan%20style%3d%22display%3ainline%3bmargin%2dbottom%3a0px%3b%22%20class%3d%22region%22%3eON%3c%2fspan%3e%20%3cspan%20style%3d%22display%3ainline%3bmargin%2dbottom%3a0px%3b%22%20class%3d%22postal%2dcode%22%3eM3C%3c%2fspan%3e%2c%20%20%3cspan%20style%3d%22display%3ainline%3bmargin%2dbottom%3a0px%3b%22%20class%3d%22country%2dname%22%3eCA%3c%2fspan%3e%3c%2fspan%3e&cid=lfmaplink2&name=&dtype=s

Regards,
Siddharth & Bala

Friday, July 06, 2007

Prof Sudas Roy in town tomorrow and the day after

Folks
If anyone is interested in meeting up with Prof Roy, who taught marketing at XL in the 1970's before going to IIMC where he now teaches, either tomorrow or the day after, please email or call Kuru.
Regards
George J Ollapally

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Dr Salman Kureishy

I found Salman's contacts from the www.canada411.com website. It is as simple as that to trace anyone in Canada ( for the US the website is www.anywho.com ).

Dr Kureishy completed his FPM from XLRI in HR, this was conducted jointly by XLRI and Academy of HR in India. He had completed an MS in Industrial Eng and Systems before that from San Jose State Univ in the US in the early 80s.

Dr Kureishy is currently the Program Manager at Ryerson for the new Program in Finance and Accounting whose goal is to help international professionals integrate with the Canadian Finance and Accounting space in terms of getting the Canadian CA qualificaton etc.

KNV

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