B-School Alumni Dinner on Jun 16th at Sterling Club on Sterling Road - Chennai

Dear friends,

The inter iim-Xlri alumni cricket tournament evening get together has been arranged at Sterling Club ,Sterling Road on Saturday June 16th.

The invitation is extended to the spouse and family members also.

So pls do let me know the number of family members coming with you so that the organisers can plan accordingly.


Thanks
Murali

XL CULTURE VULTURE - courtesy- Praveen Jagwani Class of ‘92

OUR CULTURE VULTURE
 You wake up feeling stoned, dead,
Barely manage to crawl out of bed
Brush you teeth with half closed eyes
And mutter friendly abuses to the other guys

You forget about shaving
And lose all interest in bathing
When under every shower there’s a Rafi singing And outside an Elvis impatiently waiting

The mess clock reads five to nine
You just can’t sit down and dine
There’s bread, butter, jam and tea
Or a boiled egg on the way to Room 3

Glide into a back row seat
Settle down and put up your feet
Questions answered, answers questioned
Love notes in wood are fashioned

Marketing, labour and finance
Leave no time for romance

And that’s how the day drags on…..
But at XL the DUSK is our DAWN
Life begins after dinner
For both the saint and the sinner

A guitar on the JLT
Or a late night at Kwality
Write a letter or receive a call
Or play TT in the Enright Hall

Others play bridge near the ‘serai’
Seeking salvation in a cup of chai
An OMAXI meeting near the TATA Audi
Gives pleasure to both soul and body

Some wind up in the library
For others it’s a place imaginary
They prefer the music room to rewind and unwind With Dylan, chess and a cushion behind

Under the glow of the TISCO slag
Puffing deeply on a borrowed fag
One contemplates about feminine charm
And compare the girl back at home with the one on the arm!

Praveen Jagwani
Class of ‘92

XLRI holds first pan-South India Alumni Meet

From The Pioneer

The XLRI Bangalore Chapter organised the first pan-South India alumni meet of the B-school. The garden city played host to this meet with largest gathering of 475 XLers ever from various cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, Baroda, Mumbai and of course Jamshedpur. 

Amongst the distinguished attendees at the alumni meet were Father E Abraham, an alumnus from the batch of ‘78, and current Director of XLRI, Prof Sharad Sarin, Endowment Fund Chair, Prof Pranabesh Ray, an alumnus from the batch of ‘77, and current Dean, Prof Madhukar Shukla, Prof MG Jomon, Alumni Chair.
The evening kicked off by David D’Costa of ‘76 batch, and president of the XLBang Chapter introducing Sundari Thyagarjan from the ‘55 batch - the first batch of XLRI- and possibly the first lady Management Graduate in India, who was felicitated by Dominic Thomas of ‘59 batch.

As the evening progressed, the batch mates and friends started to mingle with each other and browse the books that XL authors had sent from across the country for the event. Various fun events were also held where winners were awarded with gift hampers. For XLers with kids a lovely room was available for the little kids to play darts, have yummy food.

Father Abe presented to the alumni on the various new initiatives being taken at XLRI. Prof Sarin updated the alumni on the XLRI Endowment Fund.

Prof Madhukar Shukla was felicitated by the XLBang Chapter for his outstanding contribution to the XLRI alumni committee over the last 14 years.

After all these excitement it was time for the festivities, with the band of the evening striking up music to which XLers from across the batches took pleasure in and had a merry time singing, and dancing on XL hits like “XL ki Kudiyan” and “XL meri jaan” and also enjoying Indian and oriental foods.

26 May 2012 - XLRI Summer Meet Delhi 2012

Dear XLers!

Greetings for the day!! We now have less than 31 hours left for the XLRI Delhi Alumni Meet 2012!

We, on behalf of the Alumni committee, would like to invite you to the Annual Alumni Meet of Delhi Chapter as per the following details:

Date: 26th May 2012
Time: 7:30 p.m. onwards
Venue: Oyster Greens, TIVOLI Gardens, Chhatarpur, New Delhi

Full Address of the venue:
TIVOLI GARDEN RESORT HOTEL
Chhattarpur Hills, Mehrauli
New Delhi – 110074

Tel.:+91 11 26301111, 64691111
Fax: 26303093

Landmarks: Chhatarpur Mandir, Chhatarpur Metro Station

Google map link for TIVOLI Gardens:
http://maps.google.co.in/maps?hl=en&q=tivoli+gardens&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1229&bih=794&wrapid=tlif133777891030810&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=4-K8T9ruM8LprQfRxMzVDQ&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=3&ved=0CF4Q_AUoAg

Kindly fill this online form (Click Here). Filling up the mentioned form serves a dual purpose, namely:

1. Ensuring that you don't have to fill up the registration form manually at the event venue, thus ensuring a hassle free and quick entry

2.  In order for us to take the initiative of formation of XLRI Delhi Chapter forward, we need you to update us on your current details.

NOTE: In case you have filled up the form for the XLRI Delhi Chapter formation already, no need to fill in your details again. 

The Registration Charges payable at the venue are as follows:

Individual: INR 1000/- 

Couple: INR 1900/-

Family: INR 950/- per person (Child above 10 years)

XLRI Souvenirs (coffee mugs & T shirts) will be available at a subsidized rate.

We would also like to offer special thanks to all the sponsors of the event:

Delhi Sponsors: Airtel & United Colors of Benetton

Beverage Sponsors: Kingfisher, Pernod Ricard, Redbull & Pepsico India

Please find attached the Snacks and Dinner Menu along with the invite.

Looking forward to meeting you all at the Summer Meet!

XLRI - Delhi Meet - 26 May

Dear XLer's!

Greetings from XLRI Delhi Alumni Meet team!!!

It is the time of the year when XLRI Alumni chapters across the country celebrate the same 'XL Spirit' that glues us all together by organizing alumni summer meets.

In the same endeavour we would like to extend a warm welcome to you to join us at the Annual Delhi Alumni Meet on Saturday, 26th  May 2012 from 7:30 PM onwards at the Tivoli Gardens, Chattarpur, New Delhi. We seek your support in making this event a huge success. 

We are also in the process of revamping the Delhi Alumni Chapter and make it the most happening chapter around. In order for us to take this initiative forward , we need you to update us on your current details .

Kindly fill up your current details by (clicking here)

Please do join the Delhi Chapter Facebook page too at (FB Delhi Alumni Chapter).

Pan South India - XLRI Meet in Bangalore on 19th May

Hey there,


Have you booked your tickets yet? Be sure to be in Bangalore this weekend, for the Big Bang on the 19th of May at ITC, Gardenia.

The summer trainees are working hard to organise a memorable evening under the guidance of the Bangalore XLRI Alumni Committee.

Spot prizes, wet nite nostalgic music, OMAXI style bar, and an assorted menu to boot. Our Beverage Sponsors Pernod Ricard (Seagrams), Pepsi and UB - United Spirits will ensure that inspite of heavy graxing and trying to hold conversations louder than the music, your throats will not run dry.

The Diamond Partners for Bangalore: P4P consulting, Sobha Developers;

Platinum Partners : Wipro and Nokia ;

Gold Partner : PCI and Pylon ;

And ITC with their super subsidized rates are helping us keep the entry charges low

Further Sponsorship (as usual) is always welcome :)

Thanks to Madura garments for the special XL T-shirts and offering of free Loyalty Club membership to all attending Alumni.



Those attending also stand a chance of winning a 2 day (one night) Bed & Breakfast package for 2, from Windflower Resorts & Spa at Wayanad (Kerala).
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Windflower-Spa-and-Resorts/100367822757


Metro has sponsored assorted  gift hampers for some lucky XLers!!


Other than Sponsorship leads and offers, what we would really like from you is to get talking, emailing, calling and motivating other XLers in your office and batch/friend circle to attend. Its Herculean for us to reach out to everyone. email addresses are dynamic and not everyone in Bangalore is signed up on xlbang, we would really appreciate your spreading the word. Please forward this invitation to all your XL based groups.

Sad Demise: Fr John F Guidera, S.J

From: Prof: Madhukar Shukla

I am sad to inform you that Fr John F Guidera, S.J. passed away early this morning [May 16, 2012] in Mercy Hospital.

He had served XLRI in various capacities as Director, Dean [A&F], Administrator and Admissions In-charge. He was also the President of Jamshedpur Jesuit Society.

XLRI Alumni Meet in Pune - 12 May 2012

Hello Xler's!

We are pleased to invite you to the XLRI Pune Alumni Meet on May 12, 2012 going to be held at

Royal Orchid Central,
Marisoft Annexe,
Kalyani Nagar,
Pune-14

Registration Fees -
Individual : Rs.950 only
Couple : Rs.1800 only
Family : Rs. 800 per person

Timing : 7.00 p.m. - 11.00 p.m.


Regards

Priyanka Shanbhag
XLRI-HRM (2011-13)
7276368709

Abhinay Jain
XLRI-BM (2011-13)
9604694305

XLRI-XITE coaching initiative for SC/ST students to enable admission without reservation

From PagalGuy.com

First batch of XITE’s MBA coaching program

Neha Badrai (22), currently pursuing a Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA) from Xavier Institute of Tribal Education (XITE), had never considered doing an MBA. Originally from West Singhbhum in Jharkhand, this Scheduled Caste (SC) student decided to give it a try since her institute in collaboration with XLRI School of Business and Human Resources, Jamshedpur started a new SC/ST MBA coaching class last September. For Neha’s batchmate, Anupama Soreng, on the other hand, the new course was like a dream come true since she always wanted to do an MBA. Born into a family of farmers, Anupama is keen to break the mould and take on a corporate life. Both the girls are eagerly awaiting a chance to do well in the ensuing MBA entrance exams.

Neha Badrai, Final Year BBA student at XITE

The primary idea of these classes was to secure SC/ST students entry into MBA institutes sans the ‘reservation’ route. According to Father E Abraham SJ, Director, XLRI, and one of the pioneers behind the idea, the idea is to help SC/ST students achieve dreams on their own. “Jharkand has a huge number of SC/ST students who do not have the best of opportunities in life. Though the government has provided them  reservation in government b-schools, as an educational centre, it is our duty to help these students to do well in life on their own terms.”

Towards this end, XLRI has given XITE a grant of Rs 1 crore to be used over a time-frame of 5 years. These funds have been allocated to set up the infrastructure for running the coaching classes, building a computer centre, and towards creating publicity through advertisements. The actual coaching is carried out by a set of enthusiastic PGDM students of XLRI, in a bid to give back something to society.

Having finalised the plans for these classes during the second half of 2011, the authorities had  little time to advertise or promote the course amongst students of the state. Thus, the first batch of 24 students, were those pursuing their third year in BBA from XITE itself and are now in the final year of their course. In addition, the coaching classes began in September 2011, which gave the candidates little time to prepare for the entrance exams. Yet, the students took the exams but none of them fared too well.

According to Father EA Augustine SJ, Director for Xavier Institute of Tribal Education, the idea this time is to expand the advertising range of the course not only to heavily-tribal infested places like Ranchi, Hazaribagh, Chaibasa and Dumka in Jharkhand but also other states like Bihar and Odhisha.

Praising the efforts made by XLRI students in lending a hand towards training of the SC/ST students, Father Augustine said, “The XLRI students put in a lot of work towards this project.  While a couple of teachers from XITE had been asked to look in on the classes, everything from the course structure, to the teaching sessions as well as individual mentorship had been provided by the XLRI students.”

The concerned XLRI group of students are as enthusiastic about the coaching classes as the SC/ST students are.  One such, Chandrani Bhattacherjee,  said that the proposal to start such a project was received well among the students. “We sent in a group mail about the project to the batch and were overwhelmed with the number of students willing to work on it,” Chandrani told PaGaLGuY.

Initially, a few XLRI students interacted with SC/ST students to understand their requirements. “While most of them seemed comfortable with Quantitative Aptitude, English seemed to be the weak point for many,” Chandrani said. She added that once a rough idea had been formulated about the requirements of the students, a core group of about 20 students was formed to handle the coaching classes in its entirety, including deciding a formal course structure.

Sneha Joshi, another XLRI student connected with the project said that the core group drew upon their own coaching lessons while preparing for MBA to form the course schedule. “We asked for regular feedback from the students and altered our teaching methods accordingly,” Sneha said. She added that each one of the SC/ST students in the coaching classes had been provided with a personal mentor from amongst the XLRI student community.

XLRI has also approached a number of coaching institutes to help with the mock test papers for this year’s classes. “We have finalised a deal with one of the coaching institutes. It will provide us the mock test papers at a fee. However, staff members at XITE will be in-charge of conducting the mock tests,” Father Augustine said.

In the first stint, classes were held five times a week and students travelled from XITE to XLRI and back by a bus specially arranged for them. A similar schedule will be put in place this year too. As yet, the coaching provided was free of coast but the idea is now to levy a minimal fee of  Rs 1000-1200 per month. “If we do not charge a fee,  students will not take the classes seriously,” said Father Augustine. He also specified that while the  coaching provided to students will be XAT-specific, they are free to appear for the other MBA entrance exams too.

The enrollment process for the classes will begin around the second week of May. The new session of the coaching classes is scheduled to begin from 2 July, 2012.

Vineet Nayar talks about Fr McGrath as his inspiration

From The Economic Times

Almost 30 years ago, in 1983, the new batch at XLRI-Jamshedpur had just settled in for its first day in class when 50 adivasis stormed in and ransacked the classroom before vanishing into thin air. None of the students were hurt, but the professor, Father Edward McGrath, lay in a pool of blood.

Even as the dazed students were trying to make sense of what had just transpired, Father McGrath rose to his feet and said it was a staged show. "I want you'll to sit down and write what you have just seen," said the Irishman.

As it turned out, each student's version of the events was different. The exercise left an indelible impression on the 21-year-old Vineet Nayar, now the Vice Chairman and CEO of HCL Technologies, who still carries his learnings from the experience. "If you want to say something, say it in the Father Mc-Grath way so that people never forget about it, or don't say it at all," he says.

Such a dramatic approach today forms the cornerstone of Nayar's communication philosophy. Be it the 88,000-odd employees of HCL Technologies, customers, vendors or the public at large, Nayar makes it a point to get his message across with energy and elan.

At Directions, the annual employee event at HCL outlining the vision for the next fiscal, such Father McGrath-style theatrics gain fruition with an impromptu gig by Nayar - "to break the ice" with co-workers. In the 2010 edition of the event, for instance, he shook a leg to the Bollywood number Tera Hi Jalwa with coworkers before running the numbers.

At times, such energy may be expressed on the official intranet, Meme, to gather ideas from fellow workers around a theme on which he spoke at the World Economic Forum at Dalian, China, last year. Nayar can even use that energy to help mould opinions through his video blog, vineetnayar.com, either on women leaders or New Year's resolutions or recession, or what have you.

Of course, there is also Twitter, Facebook, the traditional in-house redressal platform U&I and a host of other external and internal tools Nayar uses to channelise his energy.

"About 30% of my time goes into communication," says the bespectacled tech honcho in a meeting room adjacent to his corner office at HCL Technologies' Noida headquarters. Does that make Nayar the AG Lafley of India?

The iconic CEO of Proctor & Gamble turned the once insular FMCG behemoth into one of the most collaborative and innovative institutions through the much publicised 'talk therapy' sessions with his people before hanging up his boots in 2008.

Lafley egged on his employees with a four-word phrase that was sacrosanct for his staff: 'The consumer is boss'. Nayar, on the other hand, has come out with a book called Employees First, Customers Second.
Surely, there has to be something to Nayar's commitment to communicate. Though he admires the "people-orientation" of Rahul Bajaj, the "grandeur" of JRD Tata, the "clarity" of Jack Welch and the "audaciousness" of Steve Jobs, he has an unlikely candidate for the "CEO of the year". Nayar considers Sampat Pal Devi of the not-for-profit Gulabi Gang as his mentor.

"That woman has a team of one lakh women, more than mine, whom she doesn't pay. She works for autonomy of women as they listen to her message and work for her. That makes her my key motivator." It is this contrarian approach that has stood him in good stead as the boss of HCL Tech since 2005. Nayar is still a man of the old school, who prefers the traditional face-toface interactions over a plethora of social media and electronic engagement because "at least they can see my intention, my intensity, my honesty".

Naturally, open houses, with 5,000 people in attendance, set the tone for interactivity. Nayar has also instituted a system of 'Weekend Thoughts', which he emails to all employees only on weekends he has a brainwave to share. Once an employee told him how his Weekend Thoughts motivated him since he knew Nayar wrote them personally. So the CEO asked him what gave him the impression that he wrote them and not his communication team. "Because of the number of spelling errors and grammatical mistakes in your message," was the quick quip.

At times, such blunt and casual banter also has its pitfalls as Kavita Khushalani, GM, HCL Technologies found out the hard way. She recalls an incident when Nayar sent out an internal mail saying he would be out on tour. "Instead, he wrote he was 'leaving', creating utter chaos in the process," she says.

For Nayar, however, all that takes a backseat if the basic idea is to stir people to action. An ace debater at school, Nayar used to mug up his debate speeches until right in the middle of such a debate when his team was in the finals, he drew a blank. His team lost and he took home a lesson.

"From that day, I have never prepared for any of my speeches, I don't use slides or hand-outs because if you have to say something, the thoughts are already in your mind and all you need is a structure. I need to talk not about the company's performance, but what I'm expecting of my employees. I need to talk about the environment and competitive threats," he recalls.

For Nayar, his control over the channel mix of communication keeps his pack glued to the line he takes: "You have to segment the employee base and then communicate on Twitter to some, on Meme to others, by email to some and through video blogs to others.

Some employees ignore internal communications and so I maintain external blogs." Nayar believes Gen Y will adopt of his message first and then transform the rest of the community. "They are far more adoptive to non-traditional communication, bolder messages, non-conformist moves," he says.

Perhaps that explains why in the 'Power of One' initiative, where every single employee has to spend at least a day in social service on a working day at HCL bringing about change in a community, Nayar has inverted the pyramid by making the youngest member of the team the leader of the initiative. "Their enthusiasm is seen to be believed. The velocity at which Gen Y drives change is far higher than the velocity with which I can," he says.


Maybe, that explains why Nayar agreed to a tweet-up, or meet up with Twitter followers from office, last year. Hiranya Bharadwaj, Strategic Partnership Manager, along with 24 others from HCL, sent him an invite to meet at the company's SEZ campus in Greater Noida. When he attended the gathering, he spoke about the power of ideas and a cake was cut and photograph taken.

At 50, Nayar goes all out to know people half his age, saying "If you take communication as your strategic differentiator compared to the competition, it is the effective way you can get execution to go faster by aligning everybody towards similar action."

That Nayar puts in a conscious effort to communicate with his employees is evident by his reading of the market and environment. He believes the stranglehold of the stock market over CEOs is such that it increases the distance between employees and CEOs.

"Earlier, there were balanced organisations but the big became bigger, and therefore, the stock performance started dictating the organisational culture. As financials became the prime focus of companies, the basic cultural aspects got lost," says Nayar.

Over 2,300 years ago, Aristotle observed ethos (ethics), pathos (emotions) and logos (logic) as key to the success of any communication. Though all three are evident in Nayar's art of engagement, he has his own troika of elements to conjure up a discussion.

"The first step of any communication has to be your true intention since people can see through that, and if the intention is correct and consistent, even if you don't communicate, people listen, hear, align," he says.

The second part of his communication strategy is what he calls diverging vectors, converging action. This is about trying to bring people on to the same page.

"When people communicate, they believe their views should be consistent and so they miss the point because we are a heterogeneous society. But if you focus on convergence of actions, your communication will be focused on the spirit of what you want to do rather than a todo checklist," he says, "My parents were clear that their orders were followed and so they were focused on communication, but we keep telling our children that they are our friends and so we are focused on action."

The third element of communication is execution and here, Nayar takes recourse to the Father McGrath variety of drama."If you put a lot of communication at the beginning, your execution is faster and if you put it towards the end of your communication, it is that much slower." When all three are taken into account, communication becomes the centerpiece of what any manager needs to do, "even higher than strategy".

That communication has to have the good old Aristotelian logical ring to it is borne from the interaction Kavita Khushalani had with Nayar in 2010 when she suggested community marketing to him at the in-house ideas bank called MAD LTD (make a difference, lead the difference). At first go, he didn't buy into the idea, based on talent acquisition.


Says Khushalani: "We realised it was our mistake since we failed to show any direct linkage to hiring and so we again forwarded our suggestion saying we would be able to show it in two years, and only then did he acknowledge," At Directions 2009, Bhargavi Swadia, DGM-Delivery of the company's Healthcare vertical found herself among 17 members of a taskforce to look into the company's MIS. "We came up with 230 suggestions to make it more robust and each of them were incorporated," she says.

In front of 50,000 employees, Nayar said he was instituting a taskforce for the purpose. Nayar says: "At Directions, during my open house, I only tell my people to tell me what is broken about the company during the first hour. We celebrate our weakness and the power of communication in terms of acceptance."

In his blog, Nayar freely imbibes and localises from global thought leaders. He's currently fascinated by American entrepreneur and author Seth Godin's The Power Of No. "We need to create a world that has more 'yes' and less 'no'.

And so when I look at HCL, I see a problem," he says, already planning to write a post on the issue over the company intranet Meme, which may even crop up as an organisational initiative in six months. After all, "the focus is to change, not just to communicate." It's as if Father McGrath is still maintaining a constant vigil on him.