Some After thoughts after MBA from IIM, Lucknow (Noida)

We all may agree that the Working Manager Program - MBA - classroom based course was an immense learning. Though it cannot be captured in words but it definitely would stay imbibed in all of us for the life to come. Some may utilize the learning now, some later, but it is certainly going to be a great asset for us. 

Some thoughts on the learning:

• Networking is the key
•   - Make friends
•   - Meet often
•   - Share Problems
•   - Play/Eat/Celebrate together
• Doing Project work is the real learning, it gives immense confidence. It teaches us the practical aspect of learning and builds those concepts for ready later use.
• Attend as many classes as possible, it builds our concepts - Conceptual Learning is the key. (For me the choice of subjects preferably was decided based on Professor feedback.)
• Become an entrepreneur while doing the course - that would utilize your MBA skills the most!

When we finally master a tough job, we make it look easy!! But this time I would have to mince words and say that completing WMP wasn't easy at all. The toil for two and half years 'continuously' has made us strong and 'stretchable'. We have become better time managers and know our priorities better. The whole experience has made us more confident.!

Lastly, if I were the CEO of a company and were to hire - I would certainly consider the WMP-ites from IIM Lucknow, Noida for sure!

IX Semester

I couldn't wait to post the last semester (i.e. IX Sem) experience :-)

What to say, It is a mixed feeling this time: one is that we are free again from the current 9-day work week and the other being our regular meeting with friends and classroom learning would become infrequent. But whatever the concoction is: its net result is still +ve.

The mix of subjects this time provided high powered immense learning that would go a long way in shaping us as great(!) managers:
Strategic Management in Technological Innovation (SMTI)
Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A)
Internet Marketing (Internet Marketing)
Service Marketing (Serv.Mktg.)

SMTI was a must-take. Prof. Jain was extremely fascinating - the concepts he taught had a great impact on us. This time we had the honor of doing 7 assignments in a single subject but they roused the interest in the subject. The fact that he started the class with Saraswati Vandana was astonishing! (He had an impeccable style with which he carried himself with and the hat was very distinguishable too). Thanks to his inquisitiveness in our innovations Adobe LeanPrint too was discussed in our SMTI class w.r.t the utility framework.

M&A again was interested enough with the mix of national and international cases and discussions. Prof Ashutosh did give his best try with managing 2 sections The guest lectures were extremely good too. Nishant Saxena of Elements Akademia on P&G Gillette acquisition and Avimukt Dar on the “Legal Aspects of M&A”

Internet Marketing gave us the insights of the various aspects of marketing on the Internet and the rising importance of analytics and social media. All learnings were implemented in a project that we did on promoting bdaromatics.com

Service Marketing went into the nitty-gritties of designing and marketing a service. The importance of each and every step detailing in a service was the greatest takeaway from the subject. Dhobilite.com laundry service was taken up as a project.

I was searching for words to describe the feeling that I 'have' while (writing this blog) passing out from IIML and suddenly I got an email from one of my colleague Manu Chauhan that helped me in saving some time, the snippet of it goes like this- (feeling is similar:)

"..I am still trying to convince me by saying that the things are over now AT LAST, and now I have much more time for my family and job. But in back on my mind, I know that a gap has been created that will take some time to fill in. And on a more serious note, we are exposed to the world that we are an MBA now, and we are expected to perform like an IIM post-grad :)
But I am sure we will take this course on a new high by showing our actions in our own course of time. I congratulate all my batch mates for this achievement and wish you all the best things to come your way.
Let's all realize our dreams!!!.."

Last session - Internet Marketing (Dr. Maity in center)

Events:
Freshers welcome WMP8 batch
Great Guest lectures
Diesel hike
FDI Approval in retail, aviation

Links for Photos:
Link1: ClassRoom
Link2: The Presentations day

Second Summer Break

It was an intense summer this time (2012), I personally have never seen it so hot! Office demanded a lot of time, and the entire holidays we devoted for the same :)

The only adventures I could manage were:

• A foodie trip to old Delhi

1.  Lotan kulche
2.  Tarachand kachodi
3.  Poori Sabzi / Nagori Halwa / Lassi at Shyam Sweets

• Few movies (MIB, Prometheus)
• Essex farms

And ya, I could manage to upload the paid version of the android application (Block Spam SMS +) that I had made in the last summer break (Block Spam SMS) and earned a few $ from it. :)

Looking forward to coming back from the break for the final semester, yippie!

VIII Semester

The I week I could manage Shirdi and Nashik trip just at the start of the semester without any loss of classes because of the week off given by WMP Chair (thanks very much!). It was indeed a great break but we in turn had to compensate with many-many sundays. The frustration grew till the end when we had no weekends for almost half the semester. As a friend said: "WMPians are having a 9 day week  :)" (thu/fri evening included)

Sem 8 was a seemingly pleasant as the 1-month holidays were nearby and our completion of the course was just not-too-far. I had chosen 3 credits for this sem:

• IM (Investment Management)
• PBM (product and brand management)
• QMSS (Quality Management and Six Sigma)

IM was a wonderful subject that taught us the basics of the investment and portfolio management. Prof. Alok Dixit was a wonderful, down-to-earth teacher who had put in amazing effort to teach us stuff  maximum possible. This was a subject that required real hard work right from the start and one felt like putting in effort in it.

Prof. Anita Goyal took the PBM with great dedication - she even took the pains of bringing various packaging to the class to teach us various levels of packaging. For some the course was a repeat of various concepts of marketing but it was a light and interesting one for me.

Qmss looked to be a fiasco at the start when Prof Tapan Bagchi (reputed name in Quality management) couldn't come to deliver the course as promised. Instead the course was delivered half an half by Prof. Sushil Kumar and Prof. Omi Prakash Vaidya and guest lecture by Prof K Maduletty. The course was done justice by them especially the six sigma processes.

Main Building - IIML Noida Campus

View from the Main Building

Friends "waving"

Highlights:
The main canteen started offering multiple new products in competition to the Cup-Shup cafe
Parking disrupted badly due to the construction work in campus
WMP brochure finalized after multiple rounds of work by the committee/volunteers.

VII Semester

Seventh semester certainly had very interesting mix of electives. It was a difficult choice for many. And I too managed 4 credits with one being a investment banking! My electives:
SDM (Sales & Distribution Mgmt.),
IBFS (Investment Banking & Financial Services),
BSCM (Business Sustainability & Carbon Markets)
& ATSC (Applied Theory in Strategy & Competition)
All 4 credits were satisfying (atleast for me:), as I attended almost all classes of these class-based learning courses & there was a good learning in each class!

IBFS was an insightful subject but was as tough as it could be. It taught us the concepts of rights, IPOs, LBOs, debt financing etc that we found very intriguing in our lives. Prof. Mishra had a great control over his delivery topics & was upto speed from the first class itself. His two classes together were real exhausting, I ate an extra samosa in the break every time!

BSCM as a subject really moved us, shook us & got us thinking in the direction of sustainability. I could never have taken the topic so seriously had it not been a credit course! Prof. Sushil was amazing (infact the best Prof I had studied from), he taught us from the heart! Some great concepts of sustainable development that would go a long way in shaping us.

The various closes & spins were mastered in SDM, now we know what techniques the salespersons use on us. Prof. Kumra was at his best with his real life experiences of teaching us the sales techniques.

WMP Class 13

"WMP" Class 13

We devoted a Saturday for our profile & class photos. Our whole WMP13 batch was in formals, in our dashing blacks. The class photo was fun as it was the first one to be clicked and people kept joining in till the last click! And this photo "WMP" took an hour to be clicked, we, managers, had little sense of creating artistic patterns but hats off to the photographer who held on!

Our exam timings finally got reinstated to the evening timing that was the unanimous choice of our batch, thanks to the WMP Chair for the same!!


Some other highlights of the semester:

• IIML Manfest 11 - a mega annual event held @ lucknow
• IIML International marketing conference - biggest marketing conference of IIML - till date all thanks to Prof S B Dash
• The placement of electronic IIML hoarding (thanks to the conference)
• Farewell to the senior batch 
• Prof. Anadi Pande's wonderful guest lecture for ATSC