XLRI Summer Internship 2013; Largest ever batch size of 303 students gets placed in record time

From India Education Diary

Report by India Education bureau, Jamshedpur:

XLRI, India’s premier B-School successfully places its largest ever first year batch in a record time of 3.5 days. 105 companies participated in the process and made 336 offers to 303 students.

The top 5 recruiters on campus in terms of numbers were Vodafone, Microsoft, ITC, TAS and Standard Chartered.

While it continued to remain as one of the top notch destinations for talent in Human Resources and Marketing, the number of offers made in Finance saw a steep rise with 33% of the Business Management students getting offers in this domain. Placements at XLRI is a tremendous team effort with the entire exercise being carried by the student run Placement Committee along with help from other support committees: CRISP, Controls, Services and Logs.

Fr. E Abraham S.J., Director of XLRI commented “We are overwhelmed with the success in summer placements and I congratulate all our first-year students. This is an affirmation of the high academic standards that we pursue that even during an economic slowdown, our students are sought after by firms across industry sectors. The placement process at our campus concluded in a record time of just 3.5 days, with 100% of the batch of 303 students getting meaningful offers for internship from major conglomerates.”

XLRI launches new brand identity

From Business Standard

One of the oldest business schools in the country, XLRI, has changed its brand identity with a new logo, in a bid to change with the times .

The institute, along with Mudra Group’s brand and design consultancy unit Water, has come out with the new logo after a year of consultation. “This is for the first time in 62 years that we are undergoing a complete image makeover. We have spent about Rs 20 lakh for the brand makeover process. The new logo is a modern and stylised representation of the earlier one,” said E Abraham S J, the institute’s director.

Established in 1949, the original logo of XLRI was developed in 1950s, which was modified for the first time in 2004 with the addition of its tag line — “Excellence and Integrity.” The new brand face has a the name of XLRI written in bold with green pointer on alphabet “I” with blue and green as primary colours, while Jamshedpur was omitted from the earlier logo.

“The refined category descriptor Xavier School of Management and a tag line “For the Greater Good” are also the highlights of the new identity,” he said. The shield logo has retained elements from the earlier logo — including the cross, keys and the motto.

Meanwhile, the institute is planning to add 120 more seats in Jamshedpur by 2013, with 60 seats each in business management and human resources management.

“We are also starting one at Delhi NCR region with a batch of 120 students. Moreover, we are launching a first-ever Global MBA Programme, in association with Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western University Cleaveland, USA and School of Economics and Management of Tonji University Shanghai, China.

The two-year residential course will commence from June 2013. The programme will be held in three parts one each in India, China and the USA.

XLRI to open its new campus by 2014-end

From Yahoo News


XLRI, a premier private business school in India, will come out with a new campus in the National Capital Region (NCR) by the end of 2014, an official said here Saturday.

"The construction work for the campus has already been started. Total investment for the new campus would be about Rs.50 crore to Rs.60 crore," E. Abraham S.J., director of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) told mediapersons here Saturday.

The new campus will have 120 seats. The renowned B-school would also increase the number of seats in its Jamshedpur campus to 360 from the existing 240 seats in the next year.

XLRI is also launching a global MBA programme, in partnership with Weatherhead School of Management of Case Western University Cleveland, USA and School of Economics and Management of Tongji University Shanghai, China, Abraham S.J. said.

The new full time two-year residential global MBA programme will commence from June, 2013. XLRI Saturday unveiled a new improvised logo for its new brand identity.

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.

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.

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 honours Narayana Murthy with peace medal

From The Times of India

RANCHI: Chairman emeritus and chief mentor of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy has been chosen for the prestigious Sir Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace 2012 by Xavier Labour Relations Institute. Murthy will receive the award in Jamshedpur on April 4.

H M Nerurkar, chairman, board of governors, XLRI and MD Tata Steel will present the prestigious medal to Murthy during the convocation ceremony at Tata auditorium.

"This year we have decided to honour N R Narayana Murthy with the prestigious award for Social and Industrial Peace," said XLRI director Fr E Abraham.

The award was instituted by XLRI in 1966, in honour of the late Sir Jehangir Ghandy, former chairman of XLRI board of governors.

The medal was instituted in gratitude for his yeoman service to the institution and the society at large. One of the oldest medals instituted by a higher education institution, the medal is awarded during XLRI's annual convocation ceremony to recognize outstanding contributions in the field of industrial and social peace in the country.

So far, 43 distinguished people have received the award including Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who was conferred the prestigious award in 2011. Industrialists JRD Tata, Ratan Tata, B L Munjal and politicians P A Sangma, Jyoti Basu among others are the popular names, who have already received the list.

XLRI Jamshedpur wraps up final placements with a record 284 offers and top salary of $125,000

From: The Economic Times

KOLKATA: The economic downturn notwithstanding, XLRI School of Business & Human Resources has wrapped up its final placement process 2012 in less than four days, with 98% of the batch getting placed within the first three days. Some 73 companies participated this year in the final placement process with a record 284 offers made to a batch of 235 students.

The highest domestic salary offered was Rs 40lakh and the highest international offer made stood in excess of $125,000. The average domestic salary for the final placement this year was Rs. 16.48 lakh. The median domestic salary was Rs. 15.5 lakh.

In the finance sector, top recruiter Goldman Sachs made 12 offers for its asset management and investment research roles. Other recruiters within the banking and finance sector included Standard Chartered, NM Rothschild, Citibank, Nomura, Bloomberg, Edelweiss, Rabobank, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, L&T Finance, SBI Capital Markets and DBS Bank. Additionally, corporate finance roles were offered by Airtel, Cairn India Energy and Reliance Industries.

On the consulting front, a large number of established and boutique consulting firms recruited students for international and domestic strategy roles. Multiple offers were made by Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey and Co. Deloitte Consulting recruited for India as well as US roles. First-timer Gallup Consulting offered multiple roles across divisions. Accenture Management Consulting made offers for its India and Global practices.

KPMG, Ernst and Young, IBM Consulting, Hay Group, Tata Strategic Management Group, Mercer, AonHewitt, Nielsen, PriceWaterhouse Coopers, PeopleStrong, Wipro Consulting, Cognizant Business Consulting, Capgemini Consulting, Infosys Consulting and HCL were among the other recruiters. Vector Consulting, a leading operations consulting firm, also recruited from XLRI for the first time.

From the marketing space, Unilever, P&G, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Nestle, PepsiCo, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Asian Paints, Marico, Castrol, Britannia, ITC, Kraft Cadbury, Lenovo and Airtel were among the top names on campus. Airtel was among the largest recruiters with a total of 12 offers on campus.

In general management, TAS, Cairn India Energy, Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra, Hinduja Group, Lodha Group, Reliance Industries, RPG, Coromandel and Olam International were among the top names recruiting.

Technology companies including names such as Facebook, Amazon, Flipkart and Redbus, made their presence felt as did other companies like Michael Page, Suzlon, HPCL-Arcelor Mittal Energy Limited, Tata Motors and Raymond.

Shining Business schools of India - XLRI

CNN IBN has a special series where they show the options of pursuing a career in business management. XLRI was covered in the last episode.

http://ibnlive.in.com/videos/218993/shining-business-schools-of-india.html

XLRI eyes sporty career

From The Telegraph

XLRI campus in Jamshedpur. (Bhola Prasad)

No, it’s not all play, but taking up sports marketing management as a career can seem like it. Especially when you get paid for a job that involves professionally managing the careers of idols, ranging from a Sachin to a Saina. 

Sports marketing management is on XLRI’s radar. The premier B-school in Jamshedpur is focussing on the scope of careers related to marketing methodologies in sport before launching a full-fledged course on the subject.

Globally, the sector worth around US$ 38 billion, involves innovative commercial plugging of a particular discipline as well as personalities associated with each.

Marketing Association of XLRI, popularly called MAXI, which is one of the societies of XLRI, will host “Dimensions of Sports Marketing” a symposium, which will be a part of the annual MAXI Mindscapes.

The symposium will comprise well-known sports and business personalities.

This is a much-needed warm-up to XLRI’s plans of launching a course in sports marketing management, as experts thrash out the pros and cons of the up and coming career option.

“Though the field is expanding rapidly, it is still relatively an uncharted territory. The meet will thus deliberate on what exactly the field is, what are its strengths and weaknesses. The symposium will also discuss marketing of any sport through various media,” said Sanjeev Varshney, faculty member of marketing and consumer behaviour, XLRI.

Big names who are expected to discuss the dimensions of sports marketing include CNN-IBN sports editor Gaurav Kalra, Athletics Federation of India president Adil Sumariwalla, World Sport Group senior vice-president (South Asia) Harish Krishnamachar, Innocean Worldwide group director (sports marketing and events) Tarun Chaudhry, and PipalMajik chief executive officer Chandradeep Mitra.

“We are seriously planning a course in sports marketing for students, but nothing has been finalised as of now. I hope this discussion helps us take a stand on the matter,” added Varshney.

The symposium will thus be a good opportunity for marketing students to search avenues in the emergent area, discover what management studies refer to as the SWOT — strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — of any particular enterprise.

The discussions will also enrich XLRI’s faculty members, who can assess the potential of the field before taking the formal plunge.

In India at present, IIM-Calcutta and Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, known as MICA, run courses in sports marketing.

XLRI to map speedster minds

From The Telegraph

Sanjeev Varshney, a marketing faculty member of XLRI, at the behavioural marketing research lab in Jamshedpur on Monday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

For XLRI, thrills on wheels for teenagers are all in the mind, which needs some urgent and hi-tech probing.

Young drivers swerving through busy roads, speeding and honking incessantly and cutting through fellow motorists are attitude problems.

Changing them will prevent accidents, hope the experts. Close on the heels of the tragic death of Mohammad Ayazuddin, former Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin’s son, who speed-crashed on an imported bike and more than a month after two teenagers were crushed to death in Ranchi, XLRI decided to map the brain of youngsters to understand the deadly thrills of speed.

The research lab of the premier B-school of the country, inaugurated on September 17, will undertake the study on drivers between the ages of 16 and 25 years to try and find a comprehensive solution that can be later used for social campaigns.

“We hope that the study brings about a change in teen attitudes with respect to behavioural and emotional aspects when they take to the wheel,” said Sanjeev Varshney, an XLRI marketing department faculty member.

He added there had been a surge of the number of road mishaps — most involving youngsters — in the recent past.

“We are very interested in trying to find out the lure of speed as far as schoolchildren and teenagers, who are most prone to rash driving, are concerned,” Varshney said.

Varshney, also the brains behind behavioural marketing research lab, expressed hope that research would help reduce the number of accidents.

“Youths need to change mindsets in order to undergo behavioural change. Thus, armed with the research results, we will definitely create social campaigns against speed,” Varshney said.

According to initial plans, the group of students selected for research will have to undergo a written test to help researchers peep into driving attitudes.

The respondents will participate in a group discussion in front of cameras. To know cognitive and emotional responses better, the target group will also play video games, wherein their behaviour will be measured directly by a direct response time machine. XLRI also plans to collaborate with the district administration to make the research a joint effort between the B-school and East Singhbhum traffic department.

Welcoming the move, traffic DSP J.N. Singh said the administration would support any research XLRI undertook to help curb mishap casualty.

Divine season with joy of giving at XLRI

From The Telegraph

Durga Puja in the steel city will be celebrated with a touch of B-school philanthropy this year.

Organised by XLRI, Joyfest or the Joy of Giving Week will start on October 2. This year, the campaign will have new initiatives, which aims to promote acts of kindness like giving one’s time, money and skills freely to the needy.

The festive holidays will not be a barrier for volunteers from B-school, NGOs and corporate firms who will be taking part in the campaign.

Apart from Vastra Samman, a clothes collection drive, which will be held in collaboration with New Delhi-based NGO Goonj and giving dry ration to the needy, the campaign will also host an eye donation camp through XLRI and Roshni, a city-based NGO.

Another NGO, Cause for Change, has come up with the idea of collecting usable medicines and donating them to those who need them.

“There are many who have unused medicines at home. Most of the time we throw them away even if they have not crossed their expiry date. We will first collect medicines, segregate them and then donate it to primary health centres where they actually need it,” said Joydip Paul, one of the partners with the NGO.

A group of XLRI’s entrepreneurship students have decided to recycle used A-4 sheets into notebooks, which will be distributed to city and rural schools for the underprivileged.

Management students will also train village women in business development skills.

Kalamandir, another Jamshedpur-based NGO, will distribute mosquito nets in the villages of Dumaria and Potka blocks.

Hi-tech market research facility at XLRI from Sept. 17

From: The Telegraph

The TMDC building where the new lab will come up. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Students of XLRI will soon be armed with hands-on market research skills, thanks to an advanced laboratory on campus that will allow them to delve into the mind of prospective consumers.

The behavioural marketing research lab, which will be inaugurated on September 17, is the brainchild of Marketing Association of XLRI, popularly known as MAXI.

Conceptualised last year, the ambitious lab is aimed at providing students and teachers with cutting-edge research tools designed to peer into the unconscious mind — said to influence consumer choices — and study behavioural trends.

The lab aims to explore market solutions, as crores of rupees ride on launch of products while a majority fails to impress consumers.

According to surveys, nearly 60 to 70 per cent of products flop despite intense pre-launch marketing research. Besides quality of products, political choices, social behaviour and economic patterns will also be studied in the XLRI lab. The basement of TMDC auditorium on XLRI campus has been chosen for the laboratory.

“We are setting up the lab at the basement of TMDC auditorium. We will soon complete work and inaugurate the lab on September 17. Hi-tech gadgets in the lab will introduce advanced research facilities on campus,” Sanjeev Varshney, a faculty member of the B-school’s consumer behaviour department, told The Telegraph. He added: “The lab will not only study marketing but also organisational behaviour and related areas.”

The lab will have a camera set-up to record people’s responses at an interview room. It will include a direct response machine, which displays through multiple monitors a subject’s reaction to the advertisement of a product. It will also have a video-mixing equipment and a conference room.

To set the stage for the best possible dress rehearsal for students before they enter the corporate arena, XLRI is also planning to team up with Apollo Hospitals Pvt Ltd and All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, to further enhance the upcoming lab with medical tools.

The B-school will also maintain a pool of 3,000 respondents, drawn from urban and rural areas, to help carry out surveys at any given time.

Say Hello to social change

From The Telegraph

Father E. Abraham, the director of Xavier’s Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur, is an authority on human resource (HR) education. He has authored several research papers and books on HR practices in Indian industries. Under his leadership, XLRI has turned into one of the top management institutes in the country. His insistence on ethics and social responsibility in the B-school curriculum has become even more relevant in an environment of corruption in both the government and private sector in India. In an interview with PRASUN CHAUDHURI, he reveals how B-schools can bridge the rural-urban divide and groom future leaders with a conscience and empathy for the underprivileged. The Village Exposure programme is XLRI’s way of making future managers socially responsible.

Why did you introduce the Village Exposure programme?

You must be aware that XLRI is quite different from other management institutes. We emphasise a lot on students being socially responsible and sensitise them to the hard realities of rural India. Villages in India have not benefited in an equitable manner from the country’s high economic growth in the last two decades. So it’s imperative for management students — future leaders and managers — to bridge the yawning gap between rural and urban India. The three-day Village Exposure programme seeks to play the role of a catalyst in ensuring there is all-round, inclusive growth across India by exposing future leaders to rural life. It is an elementary effort towards sensitisation of students who come from a predominantly urban background and have limited exposure to village life.

Do you think one can understand rural India in three days?

lNo, it is not enough. That is why I say this is an elementary effort. We’ve been organising village visits since 2006 but now we are making this programme more formal. Now students go for it in the initial stage before they start their one-year or two-year courses. This is meant to orient them to the situation in rural India from the very beginning. And, actually it’s more than exposure — they have to stay there, live with the villagers and eat with them. For most of them it is a rude shock. From this year we are taking the process a notch higher by getting students to apply organisational behaviour studies to real-life situation. For instance, when they visited a farmer’s market they analysed the supply chain and tried to diagnose the problems. Then they found out ways to solve these problems so that farmers can earn better and get fair returns on their hard work.

In other words, students are now taking up bottom-of-the pyramid projects [The phrase is used in reference to the development of new models of business that target the poorest socioeconomic group, often using new technology] whereby they can contribute towards solving day-to-day challenges of villages located in and around the campus. This is how many of the students voluntarily stay in touch with the villages for several months. Some of them keep visiting on weekends till the end of the term. In a few cases, they maintain the link even after they have passed out.

Do you think most MBA graduates nowadays have tunnel vision as they are groomed to maximise profit for business houses rather than protect local communities or the environment?

Across the world, including India, most organisations in their quest for profit maximisation have often overlooked the short and long-term damage to the silent stakeholders and the environment. However, in the last few years, many forward-thinking organisations have embarked on a “triple bottomline approach” in which due importance is being given to embedding sustainable practices across various aspects, including economic performance, environmental issues and social dimension (labour practices, human rights, society and product responsibility). Yet, a lot more needs to be done and organisations across all sectors have to keep pushing to embed sustainable practices across their respective industry and organisational value chains. It is possible for organisations to “do well by doing good”.

Can unethical practice among business leaders — vis-a-vis 2G spectrum or the Satyam scam — be stemmed at the root if B-schools insist on teaching ethics?

Yes. If management institutes instill a sense of ethics in students, MBA graduates will certainly think twice before undertaking wrong business practice. Their conscience will remind them that if they go to jail, the corporation’s reputation will suffer in the long run. However, undertaking short-cuts or unethical practices to gain market share or increase profitability is fundamentally wrong irrespective of whether one gets caught or not. Our primary intent in making “business ethics and corporate citizenship” a compulsory course for all students is to shape responsible business leaders for tomorrow. But, I also believe that such a course in a management institute can only work if a sense of ethics and empathy is inculcated in students at home and school from early childhood.

XLRI ushers in job creators, batch 2

From The Telegraph

Father E Abraham and MJ Xavier in Jamshedpur on Wednesday. (Bhola Prasad)

Jamshedpur, June 1: XLRI today inducted another group of aspiring entrepreneurs into its fold.

The premier B-school’s entrepreneurship development centre (EDC) on XLRI campus inaugurated its second batch of postgraduate programme for certificate in entrepreneurship management (PGP-CEM), with 53 students, three up from the first batch. 

The inductees also got a chance to interact with M.J. Xavier, director, IIM-Ranchi, who was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony.

Also present were XLRI director Father E. Abraham, dean (academics) Pranabesh Ray, dean (administration and finance) Father C.L. George, and EDC chairperson Prabal K. Sen.

This year, the entrepreneurship course has two new subjects — advertising and market research — based on feedback from the first batch. Many students had said these were a crucial part of any 21st century enterprise.

“Advertising is vital for an entrepreneur. A good advertising strategy means that a company has an edge over the others in the same segment. Market research, on the other hand, helps one to find the opportunities that need to be tapped and how,” said Sen.

Unlike last year, projects will be formulated only under the guidance of a faculty member instead of an organisation.

The new students, chosen out of 300 applicants, have come from across the country. They have diverse backgrounds such as management, law and others, but a single aim of being job creators instead of seekers.

It’s for them that the B-school started the entrepreneurship course.

“The programme will help nurture young and dynamic job creators,” said Father Abraham.

And going by the performance of the first batch, a fair start has been made. Around 60 per cent of the students already have their own start-ups.

Sen added that the state government had given a Rs 2-crore grant to develop EDC infrastructure. Hopefully by next year, the PGP-CEM will be a residential programme, if a dedicated building comes up on XITE (Xavier Institute of Technical Education) campus, Gamharia.

Classes will start from tomorrow.

Interestingly, 16 of the new entrants are already self-employed. 

But as Xavier said: “Students enrolled in the PGP-CEM course must feel lucky because as soon as you enter the XLRI campus, your market value increases.”

XLRI Courses Go Green

From Edu Leaders

XLRI Jamshedpur, a premier B-school, has revamped its syllabus to make business professionals more sensitive towards environmental and social issues.

The issues have been integrated in the syllabus for students pursuing post graduation in management, personnel management and industrial relationship.

The institute has roped in its Associate Professor Tata L. Raghu Ram and US Fulbright scholar Gerard F. Farias to teach lessons on environment and social relationship under in its new course – Sustainable development to corporate strategies.

The course, Ram said, will help students evolve strategies for social concerns like environmental degeneration and also earn profit for business.

The syllabus also focuses on teaching students design for high performance organisations, application of complexity theory to organisation sciences and the role of business in sustainable development.

This season record pay's on offer for non-IIM graduates too

From The Economic Times

KOLKATA: It’s not just the IIMs who are expected to hog the limelight during this year’s student placements. The country’s second-tier B-schools, who started the placement process a few days ahead of the IIMs, have already begun setting pay package records.

Entry-level salaries at leading campuses like XLRI, IMT Ghaziabad, TA Pai Management Institute (TAPMI), Xavier Institute of Management Bhubaneshwar (XIMB), Jamnalal Bajaj, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), International Management Institute (IMI) and Welingkar, have gone up by 12-20 %, including a significant jump in both the lowest and the 10 lakh-plus pay packets.

The institutes are also seeing IIM regulars — I-banks, consultancy firms and top MNCs — visit them for the first time this year. All in all, the campuses claim 2011 has been one of their best placement season ever.

“After a lull in 2009 and 2010, placements this year have seen a complete rebound to the pre-recession days,” says IMT Ghaziabad head (corporate relation) Prakash Pathak. “In fact, they are even better.” IMT was visited, for the first time, by recruiters like Goldman Sachs and P&G.

Average salaries, too, have shot up by 12%, to 9.3 lakh. At Mumbai’s Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS), there has been a substantial rise in the number of global consulting firms visiting this year, with McKinsey, Citibank, and Nomura being the major recruiters.

HUL, ITC and P&G also visited the campus. At XLRI Jamshedpur, Swiss pharma biggie Novartis AG topped its last year’s highest package of $1,10,000 to $1,20,000 this year, for the role of HR leadership development at its global headquarters.

Around 15 new recruiters thronged XLRI this year, with average salaries shooting up from 14.2 lakh in 2010 to 15.8 lakh this year. XIMB saw almost 30 new recruiters coming in this year. “The economy is booming, and that translates into more offers and higher salary offers,” says Diwakar Kaushik, secretary, external linkages, at XLRI.

A total of 109 companies made 317 offers to the 240-strong batch at XLRI. Experts say a rebound by IT and ITeS firms, the bullish growth of FMCG companies and the strong performance of banks and financial institutions have rubbed off on placements.

“India Inc is back on its feet. Sectors like IT, ITeS and finance are getting a lot of international business, which is creating opportunities for students,” said Welingkar Institute of Management director Uday Salunke.

Some of the top recruiters confirmed that this year, they took a fresh look at their placement plans to widen their reach beyond the IIMs — but stuck to offering IIM-type salaries. Deloitte India rejigged its campus positioning this year to include other B-schools.

“We are offering a 10-15 % higher salary this year. Everyone is hiring in larger numbers, and recruitment frenzy has touched the pre-slowdown levels,” says Deloitte India’s HR head Dhananjay Bansod. Aditya Birla and RPG Groups have reviewed their campus recruitment plans.

“The idea is to recruit more from all the campuses and not just top ones,” says RPG Group president (corporate HR) VC Agarwal. However, HR heads are confident that changes in campus recruitment strategy by some of the companies will not impact IIM placements.

In fact, the IIMs are expected to make bigger placement records this year, including more number of the 1 crore-plus packages. Madhvi Lall, regional head of HR (India and South Asia) at Standard Chartered said they plan to hire 38 graduates from the premier campuses this year, up from last year’s 26. “We usually target the top 10 B-schools, which includes some of the IIMs as well as institutes like XLRI and FMS. Typically, we look at picking up at least 2-3 students from each campus,” she said.

XLRI social entrepreneurship conference roundup

From Samhita.org

Last week of January each year XLRI, Jamshedpur sets the stage for a series of dialogues propagating social development. National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship is an annual feature at XLRI to provide a common platform for stakeholders from the social sector to share, learn and interact.
"We wanted to play an active role in the growth of the social entrepreneurial sector. Conference was one way to facilitate this growth," said Prof. Madhukar Shukla. 

Professor Shukla has been the primary architect of this initiative and is also a social sector evangelist. 

The objective of such a conference is to serve two purposes - to showcase innovative social models and to provide a common platform for all stakeholders in the social sector to interact.

"We realised that there were some very remarkable models and solutions to India's developmental problems, which were practiced by the social entrepreneurs. It is ironical that many of these solutions are not known in the mainstream," said Prof. Shukla.

Correspondingly, the conference has showcased such innovative examples like Goonj's work in recycling clothes, CRD's "Rickshaw Bank", Mann Deshi's bank which is run by illiterate rural women, or Pratham's Read India campaign etc and has helped reach these ideas to a wider audience.

"When we started in 2009, there weren't any forums which brought the stakeholders in the sector - the social entrepreneurs, development sector professionals, government agencies, academics and interested students - together. Our purpose was also to provide a common platform for them to come together, exchange views and experiences, and to build partnerships," added Prof. Shukla.

The theme for this year's conference was ‘Youth, Development & Social Entrepreneurship.' The three day conference started on the 28^th of January saw an active participation from social entrepreneurs, potential entrepreneurs, stakeholders, experts and practitioners alike.

The uniqueness of the conference was its interactive and informal nature. The idea behind this initiative is not to have an annual event but to facilitate development of a community of like-minded people in the sector. A community can be built up only if the design allows for two-way interactions, discovering common grounds and forming partnerships.

This is why not only the design of the sessions, but also the entire event was geared to facilitate interactions and conversations. For instance, the speakers/ resource persons and participants stayed in the same residential complex, had longer tea and lunch breaks, had evening forums for interactions, etc. - all these were conscious part of the design.

"While we invited some developmental/social sector professionals as the speakers and resource persons, even among the participants, we had professionals with long and rich experience in the sector. By making the conference more interactive, we also tried that their experience also becomes a part of the collective learning of the community," said Prof. Shukla.
 
Speakers at the conference included successful social entrepreneurs and practitioners (list of speakers). Participation from the youth was very high and in sync with the objective to make the youth aware of their social responsibilities.  

"Youth is not mere a drop in the ocean; youth is the ocean in a drop - what we at Pravah do is to help young people discover that ocean in the drop," said Ashraf Patel, Founder, Pravah.

Thought provoking speeches by the likes of Anshu Gupta, Founder, GOONJ, Mujib Khan, Founder, Bhumi and Vishal Talreja, Founder, Dream a Dream inspired many young minds in the audience. 

"When we talk of being the change we want to see in the world, it is not just "the world out there"; we are also talking about the corruption which is in there ourselves. Social change needs to start from personal transformation." - Mujeeb Khan.

The three day conference was also an eye opener to aspiring social entrepreneurs for the challenges of starting up. Solomon Jaya Prakash, Country Director, Ashoka: Innovators for the Public, Manisha Gupta, Director, Start Up! And Vijay Shukla, Partner, Setu Ventures explained the strategies of starting a social enterprise.
"A Business Plan is not something which you write to get funding from others. It is like the layout of the house you would like to build and live in. Your B-plan should work along with your other operational plans," said Manisha Gupta.

For many young people and the "novice" to the sector, this was their first exposure to this sector. For them, the stories and solutions which the social entrepreneurs shared themselves were the major learning from the conference - in the sense of knowing that not only such solutions existed, but are also possible.  
For many others, meeting other co-professionals the conference provided a meeting ground to learn from each others' experiences. They also explored the areas of collaboration and partnership.

Status quo for XAT, ATMA; XLRI GDPI in Feb-March: XLRI Director

From MBAUniverse.com

Status quo for XAT, ATMA; XLRI GDPI in Feb-March: XLRI Director

Reacting to the AICTE notification of December 28, 2010 or the question of the existence of XAT in the upcoming years, the Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, Dr. E Abrabaham said that the AICTE notification does not have any impact on XAT.

The recent AICTE notification which was issued on December 28, 2010 gave out eight points for regulating the PGDM courses in India. This gave rise to huge confusion in the minds of the management fraternity pertaining to the fact that XAT, the MBA entrance exam conducted by XLRI Jamshedpur would be scrapped off.

Reacting to the notification or the question of the existence of XAT in the upcoming years, the Director of XLRI Jamshedpur, Dr. E Abrabaham said that the AICTE notification does not have any impact on XAT. “AICTE Notification is ambiguous. But it doesn’t have an impact on XAT. XAT is recognized a national management exam, and will continue to function as it is,” Dr. Abraham said.

The XAT exam for this year has already been conducted and the admission will start soon. “XAT 2011 is already over. Next XAT will also be conducted as per regular schedule,” Dr. Abraham informed. XAT is conducted every year in the first Sunday of January.

XAT 2011 results have been declared on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. XLRI is moving forward with its admission process. “Next round is the GD PI. The process will be held from the third week of February to Match for XLRI,” Dr. Abraham informed.