Village goes digital, courtesy XLRI

From The Telegraph

XLRI student Himanshu Singh with village pradhan Manu Singh Sardar on Sunday. (Bhola Prasad)

Seventy-year-old Manu Singh Sardar had a dream for his village Janumdih in Potka block of East Singhbhum. It came true on Sunday for village boys like Rohit Sardar, an eighth grader, with a digital twist.

Manu Singh, who dropped out of school in Class VIII but went on to become a Mundari poet and village pradhan, always wanted a library for Janumdih.

XLRI students and NGO Kalamandir fulfilled the elderly man’s vision with some 21st century extras thrown in.

While Kalamandir constructed the library near its grass-mat training and weaving centre, XLRI students collected the lion’s share of the 500 books in Hindi, English and Bengali. XLRI students also donated a computer with Internet connection and a webcam to the library that Manu Singh inaugurated on Sunday.

So if Rohit and his friends were excited about Aesop’s fables, Champak, Tintin and Tinkle comics as well as textbooks, they were completely in awe of the Internet. “I know about www dot com and Google,” smiled Rohit, pronouncing each word carefully.

His school, Mutkeshwardham High School, Harina, doesn’t even have a library.

The general management programme students of XLRI who did most of the project’s legwork sounded moved with the digital gateway.

“This was a social project for our group of 10 students, a part of the course where we take up a sustainable social project and implement it. Though it is a part of our curriculum, it gives us pleasure to see villagers happy. If they use the Net and read books, they can achieve so much,” said Himanshu Singh, part of Team XLRI.

He and other students — Deepak Suri, Devesh Thakur, Gaurav Sharma, Mayank Gupta, Ravjit Kokardekar, Mandar Buddhikot, Tanveer Anwar and Paul Jacob — went around telling villagers about books and Internet. 

A computer-trained local youth, Satyajit Barui, will maintain the system. Villagers can learn to browse the Net and chat on the web with anybody, even the district administration if needed. “We will convert this hub into a full-fledged computer system and shift the library to a bigger area. We will also appoint a librarian,” said Monica Bhatia, Kalamandir co-ordinator.

The Telegraph asked Rohit what he would search on the Net.

 “America!” he grinned.

XLRI degree day with India Inc.

From The Telegraph

HM Nerurkar (right) presents the Sir Jehangir Medal to NR Narayana Murthy on Wednesday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

XLRI, Jamshedpur, hosted its 56th annual convocation at Tata Auditorium on Wednesday, officially conferring post-graduate diplomas on 257 smiling faces.

Students of business management as well as personnel management and industrial relations — shortened to BM and PM&IR by everyone — numbering 235, three of fellow programmes in management and 19 from the Dubai campus, got certificates as well as business sustainability tips from invited stalwarts. 

Infosys founder and chairman emeritus N.R. Narayana Murthy as well as Standard Chartered Bank group executive director and CEO (Asia) Jaspal Singh Bindra addressed the outgoing batch of cub managers.

Corporate legend Murthy also received the 46th presentation of Sir Jehangir Medal for Industrial and Social Peace. 

“On behalf of about 140,000 Infosians, I receive this honour with much gratitude. I will try to work harder and smarter. In the last three decades, I have learnt many lessons that includes openness to new ideas, meritocracy and excellence in execution. The barrier for success is generally within one’s self, generally between the mind and the mindset,” said Murthy to resounding applause. 

He added that the mind should triumph over mindset, giving birth to new and efficient ways of working.

“Even though your schooling is over, your education continues. From my experience, I have learnt that you have to keep jumping to identify and take the right opportunities in life,” Bindra said in a lively address peppered with many anecdotes from his life. 

“Just work as a leader, don’t work out of fear,” added Bindra.

Also present were Tata Steel managing director and XLRI board of governors chairman H.M. Nerurkar and XLRI director Father E. Abraham, other board and faculty members, students and their parents.

Students also came for their share of the spotlight.

The XLRI medal for best all-rounder went to Deepanjan Deb and best all rounder (woman) went to Neeti Kumar.

In the BM, the first five toppers were Siddhartha Saran, Aadith Raman, Aniruddh Vallabh Kamat, Shambhavi and Sunny Suresh Shahadadpuri.

Their PM&IR counterparts were Kakunuri Bhargavi, Meenakshi Narayanan, Manan Deepak Shah, Sameer Kumar Agrawal and Prateek Rungta.

XLRI gets SAQS Accreditation

XLRI became the 5th Instt in India, and 6th in South Asia, to receive the SAQS Accreditation.... the whole process took around 4 years!! SAQS is among the 4 global accreditations (EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA). Last year, XLRI was given membership to AACSB, which is but a first step in its goal of AACSB Accreditation....

Social Entrepreneurship Conference@XLRI - Day1 pics

Pictures and more details about the conference here:

http://social-entrepreneurship-at-xlri.blogspot.com/2009/01/social-entrepreneurship-conference-day.html

and here:
http://xlri.blogspot.com/2009/02/coverage-1st-national-social.html


Coverage in Financial Express

Coverage in The Telegraph

AACSB accepts XLRI's Membership

The US-Based international accreditation agency The Association of Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has accepted XLRI as a Member Institution.

The membership is the first step towards the accreditation process.

555 institutes have been accredited by AACSB worldwide. No Indian business-school has been awarded accreditation so far.

XLRI invites social organisations & startups in placement

From The Economic Times

JAMSHEDPUR: XLRI School of Business and Human Resources here will invite Social Organisations and Startups to participate in the placement process titled "Initiative for Social and Entrepreneurial Leadership" (ISEL) from next year.

ISEL is being implemented jointly by XLRI's placement committee. "The Social Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance" (SIGMA)- a committee which works with the social sector- and CRESCENT (committee for research, strategy, consulting and entrepreneurship - a committee devoted to promoting entrepreneurship.

Appreciating the latest initiative by the students as a commendable one, the director of XLRI, E. Abraham said ISEL is a process that aims to give interested students the opportunity to apply their managerial skills in the social sector and in freshly started organisations.

The students were willing to opt for creation of jobs and wealth for the country rather than working for a company, he said while extending XLRI's support for the initiative.

Abraham expressed confidence that ISEL will give the students the opportunity to contribute to society in a meaningful way as well as help them apply their classroom knowledge in the social context as well in an entrepreneurial venture.

ISEL is set to happen as a separate process one week before the regular placements with only students who are willing to sacrifice a more glamorous and better-paying internship in the corporate sector taking part in the process, he said.

International Experts on XLRI Board

From The Telegraph

Jamshedpur, Sept. 7: In keeping with its global ambitions, XLRI has decided to include experts from international institutions in its board of governors.

In the initial phase of the move, a first among B-schools in India, XLRI has received two confirmations: Francis Estrada, president, Asian Institute of Management, Manila, and Abol Jalilvand, dean and professor of Finance, School of Business Administration, Loyola University, Chicago, have agreed to be a part of the 21-member board of governors.

“The mantra for success of any institution is to think beyond India. All the universities I have got in touch with have responded positively. There could have been no better time than this because this is the time when the foreign market wants to tap the potential in India because of the economic boom,” said XLRI director Father E. Abraham about the move.

Estrada and Jalilvand would be inducted into the board after a meeting on November 15.

XLRI will be the first B-school in India to include foreign experts into its board.

Although the IIMs — Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Indore, Lucknow — and the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, have visiting faculties from foreign universities, none has foreign members contributing in the decision-making process of the institutes.

XLRI, too, has been collaborating with around 15 international institutes and universities for faculty and students exchange programmes.

Talks are on with a few more universities in the US and Europe, but the B-school doesn’t want to divulge details just yet.

“The talks are at a primary stage. But, we will try our best to tie up with more foreign universities in order to lend our faculty and students better international exposure,” said Abraham.

As of now, he is naturally excited about XLRI’s board going international. This, coupled with the existing tie-ups, the director believed, would encourage more foreign students to come and study at XLRI.

“I hope once XLRI is fully established as a global business school, foreign students will get attracted to our campus. As it is education is cheaper in India. Therefore, we can get a better response from students of other countries,” hoped Abraham.

With two international experts having confirmed their participation, XLRI is now looking for more experts like deans, principals and directors from European countries, including France and Spain.

3rd Batch of Defence Batch Graduates

From The Telegraph

XLRI director E. Abraham awards a student. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, June 26: The third defence officers’ batch of the executive management programme at XLRI graduated today at a function held on the B-school campus.

XLRI launched the certificate programme in business management for the defence personnel on January 14, 2007, and 59 officers graduated from the present batch.

The programme for defence officers was launched on the request of central ministry of human resource development, which perceived the need for resettlement of officers.

The batch comprises engineers, doctors and air traffic controllers, mountaineers, naval aviators and submariners with experience ranging from five to 30 years of service.

Professor Pranabesh Ray, the course in-charge, said: “The executive management programme has been designed keeping in mind the needs of the business world with the aspirations of the service officers. This programme has been structured to focus on the theoretical formulation and is designed to augment and adapt the officers’ varied experience to disciplines and functional areas relevant to management of business.”

The programme equipped the students with basic skills of all functional areas of management thereby enabling them to find a second career in the corporate world.

Bhushan Raina, the managing director of the Tinplate Company of India Limited, was the chief guest at the graduation ceremony.

Addressing students he said: “From defence officers to management personnel — it’s a huge transition. All the officers are already efficient managers as in their previous career they always had some uncertainty to deal with.”

Based on their academic excellence Captain Kavita M., Colonel Krishna Dev Singh and Captain Esha were awarded the first, second and third ranks, respectively.

New XLRI curriculum on the cards

From The Financial Express

Jamshedpur, Jun 23
XLRI is gearing up to introduce a new curriculum for its two flagship courses from the next academic year (2009).

The B-School faculty has already discussed the new curriculum, which has a more "hands on" element to it than the existing one. Prof Sharad Sarin, professor (marketing area) has been responsible for the changes suggested in the business management (BM) course.

Speaking to FE on Monday, XLRI director Father E Abraham said, "We have a faculty council meeting coming up next month where we may finalise the report."

The committee on curriculum revamping spent several months studying contemporary managerial needs, interacting with several B-Schools, understanding industry needs and has even entertained feedback from several of its alumni in trying to assess the gaps in its present course format.

In the process, while some electives have been updated, some new ones have been added to both the PM&IR and the BM courses.

Citing an example, prof Madhukar Shukla, who teaches OB & strategic management, said while 'personnel management' has been revised, a new elective on 'socio-political change' has been introduced.

XLRI feels understanding the political power shifts and the implications of developments like Companies in the Middle East buying properties in the US will help the students. According to Shukla, "There should be some kind of integration across the board, from concept to practice."

Citing an example again, he said a student will be taking up an elective subject, which integrates other subjects and has to be studied over three terms.

Though XLRI had originally desired to introduce the new curriculum strictly in the academic year beginning 2009, some subjects will be some more time to be introduced.

The B-School had last carried out a major curriculum review exercise in 2002.

XLRI trains specialised batch for ICICI Pru, looks for more

From The Financial Express

Jamshedpur, Jun 14
XLRI, the premier business school, on Saturday produced its first batch of students trained specifically for ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co in coordination with the insurance major.

Following the successful training of 56 students in the one-year management programme, XLRI said it is now looking for more such company/industry-specific tie-ups for meeting their human resource (HR) needs.

While the initial MoU had been only for two batches, it is expected that the two institutions would, after a review, agree to continue with the programme.

"According to Prof TAS Vijaya Raghavan, XLRI's associate dean for international & corporate programmes, the next course for around 55-60 students, which takes off in mid-August, would be catering to an insurance company's "higher managerial grade needs".

Eligible candidates for the course are screened by talent acquisition Companies hired by ICICI Prudential, short-listed, and sent to XLRI for the final selection to be done by the B-School.

With the insurance industry in India witnessing unprecedented growth, both XLRI and ICICI Prudential perceived the need for such a programme.

XLRI is in talks with the HCL group as well as with Sterlite Industries for running a one-year programme on human capital management.

"We are looking at our internal resources and have still not committed; subject to the director's and the Companies' approval we may consider that," added Raghavan.

The emphasis of the ICICI Prudential programme is both on general management concepts as well as on intensive training in the insurance and finance domain.

The module in general management covers marketing, statistics and economics, organizational behaviour and personality development, business communication, business strategy as well as legal aspects in business and information technology.

A two-month internship at the end of the course came in as a good "hands-on" experience for the 56 students who received the post-graduate certificate in management and insurance here today.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company has assured the students employment as executive trainees in the company offering MBA-equivalent compensation.

Foreign Students from 4 Countries

From The Telegraph


Jamshedpur, May 27: Students from four countries, including France, Sweden, Philippines and Germany, would come to XLRI as part of an international students exchange programme.

Officials of the B-school said that for the first time students from so many countries would be on the campus as part of the exchange programme.

“Except Germany, all other countries have confirmed the students’ participation at the exchange programme to begin in September. The students from abroad would stay at the B-school for four months,” said Shivapada Ray, the in-charge of students’ exchange programme at XLRI.

The management schools, which have confirmed participation, include Asian Institute of Management (Manila), EM Lyon and IESEG School of Management (both based in France) and Malardalen University (Sweden).

About 15 students from the four management schools abroad would be part of the students exchange programme.

...As a part of the exchange programme, students from XLRI would also visit he B-schools in Philippines, France, Sweden and Germany.

...In fact, XLRI has signed memoranda of understanding with about 15 management schools in the US, Belgium, the UK, Manila, Hong Kong, France and Sweden for students’ exchange programme.

XLRI Finance Seminar '08

XLRI Jamshedpur in association with The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India organized the ‘XLRI Finance Seminar 08’. Conducted and arranged by FINAX, the Finance association at XLRI, the seminar provided an insight to management students about different aspects of Risk Management, a topic of utmost relevance in the present day business scenario.

Various dignitaries came together on a common stage and enriched the discussions with their vast experience and vision. The dignitaries included Dr. A.K. Sarkar , Director (Finance) - Central Coalfields Limited, N. K. Mishra, Group Head (Mergers & Acquisitions), Tata Steel, Mr. Robin Roy, Associate Director- PriceWaterhouse Coopers, Mr. C.E.S.Azariah, CEO-FIMMDA, Shri D Ravishankar, Ex. Director, Investment & Risk Management-CRISIL, Dr Venkatachalam, Ex Director-Bangalore Stock Exchange. Delegates from Tata Steel, ICWAI and students from ICWAI also attended the seminar.
“This seminar exposed the management students and other participants present, about the various specialized activities related to risk management,” said Dr. Gourav Vallabh, an eminent XLRI faculty from the finance area.

The inaugural address was given by the guest of honour Mr. Chandra Wadhwa, President ICWAI while Dr. A.K Sarkar,Director (Finance) CCL, the chief guest for the seminar delivered the keynote address.

Dr. D Ravishankar, Ex. Director, Investment & Risk Management-CRISIL, enlightened the gathering on the topic of Risk Management in Banking Industry. He explained the various types of risks faced in banking industry and then also spoke about Basel II and the risk management architecture and framework.

A session on Interest and Foreign Exchange Risks and was taken by Mr. C.E.S.Azariah, CEO-FIMMDA. He explained the 10 year G-Sec yield movements and also went on to demonstrate the change in the behavior of banks with the change in interest rate trends.

A panel discussion on Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) was one of the key events of the seminar. The panelists discussed on how corporate restructuring strategies are an important aspect of the corporate finance world and can dictate the fortunes of the companies involved for years to come. As industry structure moves towards more consolidation it becomes imperative for upcoming managers in India to understand the process of due deliberation and its importance in working out a deal.

Mr. Robin Roy, Associate Director, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, in his session on ‘Enterprise Wide Risk Management’ discussed about enterprise risk systems and their relevance in today’s global economy.

The participation level and discussion with students and faculty alike at the seminar re-established the strength and expertise of XLRI in the area of finance. The seminar was sponsored by ICWAI and co-sponsored by Tata Steel, Larsen &Toubro Ltd., Taxmann Publications and Karvy Stock Broking Ltd.

XLRI Alumni Pitch for Social Entrepreneurship

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/XLRI-alumni-pitch-for-social-entrepreneurship/255864/

Jamshedpur: (Financial Express, Sunday 30,2007): Entrepreneurship opportunities for young MBAs coming out of institutions like XLRI have never been so good, feels a majority of the 35 XLRI alumni, who gathered on their Silver Jubilee ‘Homecoming’ visit here on Thursday. Howvever, the alumni felt there was strong need for B-schools to encourage social entrepreneurship.

With more and more companies focusing on their core business, there would be a surfeit of opportunities for young MBAs to get into entrepreneurship roles, said R Ramakrishnan, who was with Asian Paints for 18 years before moving over to Bajaj Electricals seven years ago and is currently its executive director.

Ramakrishnan, urged his alma mater to find ways ‘so that more of us’ could get into social entrepreneurship as the country was faced with huge challenges in the ‘‘health, education and development with social equity’’. He the next 15 years would throw up enough opportunities for the current batches of MBAs to become entrepreneurs.

The interaction between the 35-strong batch of 1982 and current students threw up interesting observations.

Ramachandran Kannan, who is with Careers India, observed that moving from their era 25 years ago of specialisation in marketing, HR, finance, systems, etc., today there was need for a lot of free enterprise. Even though there were ‘‘employment opportunities galore’’ there were a whole lot of self-employment opportunities, particularly in the space of innovation, technology, etc, he added.

Batch members suggested that there was need for a more structured method of grooming entrepreneurial talent at the B-School. ‘‘There are a lot of challenges with respect to the environment, governmental factors, competition, globalisation, etc., and, therefore, the need to develop the soft skills and the mindset for entrepreneurship,’’ said Kannan.

Members of the 1982 batch also deliberated on whether the structured course on entrepreneurship being developed by the B-School could be extended to social entrepreneurship.

One among the batch who lamented working for a corporate rather than running his own business, as this could have given him a lot of satisfaction, sought his alma mater's intervention in developing soft entrepreneurial skills in future students. ‘‘Being an entrepreneur is a totally different ball game than working for a corporate,’’ he said.

Cushrow J Jassawala, COO, Thomson Press, thought industry, companies and business in general would in the future be increasingly taking risks. Therefore, growth opportunities for young MBAs would be ‘enormous’. One would have to think differently and not accept the situation and fall in line, as growth and opportunities lay on the path less traversed, said Jassawala, who had been with Voltas, a Tata enterprise, for a long time.

HSBC Intelligensia '08

From http://xlri.blogspot.com/2008/01/hsbc-intelligensia-08.html

On 12 Jan, at XLRI Jamshedpur, SAPPHIRE (Student’s Association for Promotion of Personnel Management, Human Resources and Industrial Relations) organised an event named INTELLIGENSTIA ’08 in association with HSBC bank. The event comprised of two competitions – Antithesis (a debate) and Minerva (a quiz). The topic for the debate was whether “vintage is losing ground in today’s competency driven workplace”, and it was a hotly contested motion. Minerva consisted of three gruelling rounds of quizzing, which had diverse questions from the field of HR as well as general management.

The chief guest at the event was Mr Mohit Seth, Senior VP, Talent Management, HSBC. Accompanying him was Ms Nidhima Malhotra, who is a member of HSBC’s Campus Awareness Team and an XLRI alumnus. Mr Seth gave away prizes worth Rs 60,000 to the winners and later delivered a talk on talent management. With Nike T-shirts on stake as audience prizes, the event saw huge participation from XLRI students and was a grand success. The chief guest expressed his appreciation for the smooth organisation of the event and hoped for more collaborative efforts between SAPPHIRE and HSBC in the future, thus further cementing the relationship XLRI has with corporate organizations.

GMP students return from the International exposure module

Students of General Management Program (GMP) (2007-08) went to Graduate School of Business, RMIT Australia, for 3 weeks International exposure programme, launched in partnership with RMIT University, Australia.

The program involved two parts, the first being an overview of Australian business climate and industrial scenario.

The second part of the program involved internship in an Australian organization. The work placement was designed to enhance understanding of local business operations and provide Australian companies with an opportunity to gain valuable insights into doing business in India.

Renowned companies from a range of industry segments, like KPMG, Wackett Aerospace Center, CSIRO, Yoober and others participated in the process.

Commenting on the internship experience with XLRI students, Neil T Faulkner, Partner KPMG, said "The General Management Program students who spent time in our organisation in Melbourne were marvellous ambassadors for the program, XLRI, their previous employers, their Country and themselves. They demonstrated exceptional skill, commitment, knowledge, teamwork and global industry awareness."

Dr.Ron Harper, Director GSB, RMIT, who led this engagement with XLRI, said "The exercise is regarded by RMIT as an important grassroots engagement of Australian industry with the new economic superpower that is India."

The sponsored candidates from Tata Steel were sent for a similar stint to Corus, UK.

GMP is a one year full-time business management program for executives, who have had a prior work experience of five years or above.

Madhukar Kamath Visits XLRI

Creative juices got flowing in XLRI on Thursday, and the man responsible was none other than Mr. Madhukar Kamath, MD and CEO of Mudra Communications and also President of the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI). He is also a 1976 alumnus of XLRI. He was in XLRI as part of the b-school's CEO Forum in which CEO’s of different companies visit the college campus to share their insights and experiences with the students. He spoke about the importance and effectiveness of creativity in building a business brand.

He started off his interaction with a few personal reflections about the time he spent in XLRI as a student. On the advertising industry he said that while the previous decade had been a period of excitement and growth, he believed that the next decade would be a decade of heightened competition and international exposure, where only people who with passion and youthfulness would survive. He explained to the students that advertising was not the simple 10 to 30 second ad that we see on television but involved a total brand building exercise across different media. He spoke about the challenges faced by the advertising industry. He said that due to the high diversity of the target segments, companies were looking at innovative media other than the traditional television, radio and print media to reach them.

In the next part, he spoke about the creative brand building campaigns that had brought about turnarounds in the fortunes of companies, with varied examples from across the world. These campaigns mainly focused on the integration of technology with products we never tend to associate technology with. He gave examples of a jeans company starting its own radio station, a monopoly board game company which built its brand around a virtual reality game and a shoe company tying up with an iPod company to market its product!

He contrasted this with Indian campaigns, which were equally innovative but cheaper. He gave examples of a paint company which designed a campaign using the Pushkar Mela as its theme at a cost of less than thousand rupees, whereas another sari company designed its campaign around the marriage of a famous Tamil actress! The students were left dumbfounded and were amazed by the creativity of the campaigns; the importance of using creativity to improve business was wedged into their minds.

He then had an informal interaction with the audience where he addressed various queries ranging from brand equity and surrogate advertising to celebrity endorsements and corporate branding. The event culminated with the audience spellbound by the examples of creative branding and more aware of the need to think out of the box to build a successful enterprise.

Posted by External Linkages Cell, XLRI Jamshedpur at 7:49 AM

MAXI Fair - A Resounding Success

Born of the vision of XLRI’s eminent professor Dr Sharad Sarin in 1979, the Marketing Fair, then a novel concept, is today an accredited marketing research tool. Conducted by the Marketing Association of XLRI, this brilliant and innovative method goes beyond the blind testing concept and uses a “mela” or carnival milieu to conduct meaningful consumer behavior research. The underlying concept involves designing games and events as surrogates to actual research questions, in order to elicit unbiased and accurate information from customers regarding their preferences and perceptions. Tales from the Mahabharat, a Bhool Bhulaiya, even the legendary Vikram aur Betaal served as themes for the stalls, and helped in eliciting the unbiased responses of more than 4000 visitors during the MAXI Fair held on Sunday, 25^th of November at XLRI Grounds.

The 29^th edition of MAXI fair was inaugurated by the District Magistrate cum Deputy Commissioner of East Singhbhum District, Jharkhand, Dr Nitin M. Kulkarni. Dr Kulkarni lit the ceremonial lamp and went around the fair visiting the various game stalls set up by the students.

With corporate support well established over the years, the fair associates itself with top brands in all categories across sectors. This year saw an entire gamut of research problems from the top manufacturing and FMCG companies and from the fast growing retail industriy. With the Steel City now among the top 10 richest cities in India (according to a survey by Delhi-based Indicus Analytics, one of India’s leading economic research firms), the companies can expect higher research quality from the fair than ever before.

Besides this, there was also the 2^nd edition of Rural MAXI Fair conducted on 24^th November at Swaspur, a village near Rakha Mines. The research problems for Rural Fair were given by top corporates, Tata Steel and Aditya Birla Group, which wanted to find out more about the vast, untapped customer base made famous by C.K Prahlad. Committed to social causes, this initiative saw the students take a small step to help the society at grassroots levels. The entire setup was done keeping the rural population in mind, with lucid games which could be easily understood by the villagers; it attracted nearly 500 people from the villages to experience the fair.

Also conducted under the umbrella of the Marketing Fair was Shilp Mela, in association with SIGMA (Social Initiative Group for Managerial Assistance of XLRI). The Shilp Mela acts as a platform for local artisans to market their handicrafts and agriculture products, thus enabling XLRI to translate its mission of social responsibility into reality.

The biggest compliment to the efforts of the marketing community of XLRI has been the popularity of the event among the localities. With footfalls increasing year on year, the fair has captured a place in the hearts of people and has now becoming a part of the history of Jamshedpur. It is a platform for the management students to interact with the community of their residence, and is an annual event which children and adults of Jamshedpur look forward to.

Not only are the Marketing issues being addressed through an innovative manner, the students are also able to practice what they have learnt in the classrooms, design research games and events and implement them in the running of the “mela”. This year MAXI took a step further and collaborated with IMRB International (part of the WPP group), the leading market research company, as its Knowledge Partner to ensure an enhanced quality of study. The sponsors for the event included Tata Steel and Aditya Birla Group as Associate Sponsors, BIG 92.7 FM and also Pepsi as beverage partner.

Posted by External Linkages Cell, XLRI Jamshedpur at 6:22 PM

Maxi Fair (Nov 25, 07)

Maxi Fair (Nov 25, 07) Pics @ Picasaweb

http://picasaweb.google.com/madhukar.shukla/07MaxiFair/

Insights into Strategic Transformation and Change by Dr John Papatheohari (Partner, IBM - India) at XLRI

Dr John Papatheohari, Partner and Global Delivery Leader (Strategy & Change) - IBM India, addressed the students and faculty of XLRI as part of the Institute’s CEO interaction forum. The forum is a regular platform for XLers to interact with Industry leaders. Dr John elaborated on the importance of Strategic Transformation and Change in the current Business context and also highlighted the structure, operations and growth of IBM’s Strategy and Change group in India. The forum culminated with a Q&A session wherein queries on Strategy and Change in general and IBM’s operation in particular were addressed. Subsequently, Dr John also took time to interact with the GMP students (GMP is XLRI’s one year full time executive Management program for professionals with more than 5 years of experience) and highlighted the varied scope of opportunities available in the Strategy and Change group for management students with work experience.

Want to halt attrition? Go to XLRI

From Business Standard

XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business and Human Resources, has drawn up a number of courses this financial year for companies to help combat attrition rate across industries.

These are expected to help managers and senior-level executives, especially HR personnel and team-leaders, to understand ways to retain employees and manage teams effectively.

Beginning November this year, a series of courses at XLRI will train managers in manpower planning, recruitment and selection, performance, career and succession management, managing and coping with the trauma associated with mergers and acquisitions, technological change, training, development and redeployment problems, retention and motivation strategies, empowerment and team-building, redundancy and downsising.

According to XLRI officials, the success of managerial efforts largely depend on the executives’ ability to develop and sustain team-spirit among the people under his or her care, both as a team member as well as a team leader.

The interpersonal skills for building and working in teams, and for managing conflicts, become essential prerequisites for managers as team leaders.

The new courses are therefore designed to help participants learn how to manage their own styles and orientations, while influencing others as leaders in their teams.

The courses will also help to understand the dynamics of peoples’ interaction within team members and to develop skills for working with others and leading teams.

Moreover, with the rapid growth of information technology , information systems has evolved to become the core of many organisations’ competitive strategies.

According to XLRI, the Human Resource Information Systems (HRIS) capitalises on the synergy between the two precious assets, human resources and IT.

So, specialists and generalists in the area of human resources are required to develop and improve their information system competencies in order to add strategic value to their organisations.

The new set of courses are also designed to improve the participant’s understanding of technology and tools, the people who work with it, and their role in organisational performance.

The courses will impart training in evaluating, selecting and planning an appropriate human resources information system, re-engineering human resources for HRIS, the human resources processes of SAP HR, emerging trends in HRIS that involve networking, the internet, the intranet, as well as internet recruiting, privacy, security and employee self-service.

The courses will cost between Rs 15,000 and Rs 30,000. The duration of these programmes will range from two days to one month, depending upon the variety, magnitude and complexity of the topics covered.