XLRI Dream Run 2011

XLRI Dream Run

Davos 2011 - Vineet Nayar, HCL Technologies (XLRI Batch 1985)

GliMPse - January Edition

GliMPse - Issue 3

XLRI GMP Students’ Experience With The Chinese

In his book “Making Sense of Chindia”, Environment minister Mr Jairam Ramesh wondered if it would be possible for the two countries (India and China) to begin respecting each other and rise to commanding heights in the comity of nations.

“Well, if our recent experience is any indicator, then it does seem we are getting there” says Prof. Jittu Singh, head of International Relations department at XLRI Jamshedpur. What Prof. Singh is referring to is the recent interactions of XLRI students with Chinese and Taiwanese schools and institutions.

Nikhil Uppal, an MBA student of XLRI Jamshedpur had a “Chinese experience” just a week ago. Nikhil participated in and won “Olympus”, the flagship pan-India business leadership competition at IIMC`s B-School fest - Intaglio-2011. The participants came not only from top Indian schools such as all the IIMs, ISB and MDI but also from schools across Asia Pacific such as “China Europe International Business School” (CEIBS), Shanghai. “I found the Chinese participants very eager to learn about India, our education system and our core values” – says Nikhil when asked about his experiences. It seems Nikhil won not only the event, easily one of the toughest competitions in the b-school landscape, but along with other participants also managed to impress the students from across the Himalayas.

Carlos Conde, a contestant at Olympus and an MBA student from China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), Shanghai, was all praises for the quality of Indian b-schools and their students:

“Although it was my first visit to India I felt the warm welcome of the organizers and competitors. Over the three days we bonded and formed friendship, but especially we had a lot of fun. I am very impressed with the high level demonstrated by Indian students, proving the high caliber of the business education in India".

Cut to Taiwan- China’s richer cousin. Recently, a few XLRI students from the 1 year MBA program – GMP, visited Taiwan’s Fu Jen Catholic University to understand the macroeconomics of one of the most developed cities in Asia. Not only they received grand welcome, but were much sought after not only by the local students, but also by the dignitaries from the industry as well as other institutions. For instance, they were invited by the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE) which was interested in knowing the viewpoints of future business leaders of India. Lawrence Shan, Senior Vice President of TWSE greeted the students warmly and spent an hour discussing about Chinese macroeconomics and stock markets. “They have excellent long term vision. They wish to exchange ideas with our young talent and also attract them as investors in their future growth” says Amit Temurnikar the lead representative of XLRI student contingent in Taiwan.

“XLRI firmly believes in collaboration with top universities around the world and especially looks forward to exchanging management lessons with Chinese universities and their students”, sums up Prof. Singh.

Books Junction: Online Book Rental Library

http://www.booksjunction.co.in/ is a book rental library started by Deepak Agrawal (GMP '09, XLRI Jamshedpur ) in the NCR region

Online Book Rental Library, Fiction Library, Circulating Library - Books Junction run an online book rental library service in Delhi/NCR (Gurgaon, NOIDA, Ghaziabad and Faridabad). You can start reading books from our vast collection by registering with us and becoming a member.

MAXI Fair: XLRI plays brand games - 2-day consumer insight fest

Jamshedpur, Jan. 16 (The Telegraph): All work and no play makes brand survey a dull job.

XLRI’s MAXI Fair, an annual survey for corporate brands and consumer behaviour, goes into gaming mode to ferret out people’s insights of what makes certain brands tick and others don’t.

And in its 32nd edition now, the event, organised by its marketing association, has become a respected brand in itself.

The two-day fair that concluded today, has since last year, bagged the prestigious ISO 9001-2000 certification. And this year, it saw participation from reputed companies across diverse industry verticals such as Castrol, Reckitt Benckiser, IDBI Bank and Nestle.

In addition, it also saw participation from academia. And to draw maximum footfall, and hence, accuracy of results, organisers have decided to conduct the fair on two consecutive days, instead of just Sunday which was the case previously.

“With four companies and academic research, the MAXI fair tried to understand consumer behaviour through interesting gaming open for the public. Participation by visitors in various games helps us understand brand preferences affected by many factors,” said Himanshu Joshi, a senior member of MAXI and a second-year student of personnel management and industrial relations.

Around 120 student volunteers worked tirelessly for months to execute every aspect of the fair, ranging from sponsorships and media to logistics and entertainment.

The fair kicked off on Saturday afternoon, drawing over 500 participants within the first few hours of its opening. The evening was pure entertainment with game stalls, rides for children and a concert by XLRI’s in-house band, Bodhi Tree. Food stalls saw brisk business. In two days, footfall count was around 1,000-plus.

The stall researching for Castrol drew youths who discussed bikes and their maintenance. “At the Castrol stall, we hosted bike-related discussions with people that were captured on video. The company will get to know valuable insights into consumer behaviour from the footage,” said Pathik Krit Basu, of second-year business.

The idea of MAXI fair was conceptualised 32 years ago by marketing professor and visionary Sharad Sarin.

Every year since then, major Indian corporate houses bring their market research problems to students of XLRI, who design elaborate games around them. Hosted on XLRI grounds, the fair is open to people who have a good time apart from winning prizes in games. Students, on the other hand, get useful data on public preferences, which they analyse to solve problems faced by companies.

Stage set for MAXI Fair, XLRI to conduct market research

January 15 (The Pioneer): The Marketing Association of XLRI, popularly known as MAXI, is set to organise its annual MAXI Fair on January 15. Started in 1979, the MAXI Fair is a unique and innovative approach to conduct market research in a fun format.

Officials of MAXI informed that this year, several companies are taking part in the MAXI Fair. While some wants to understand consumer behavior and preferences their categories others plan to understand the tastes of the consumers.

The idea was conceptualised 31 years ago, much ahead of its time, by Sharad Sarin, Professor of Marketing at XLRI and a visionary. Year after year since then, major Indian corporate houses bring their market research problems to the students of XLRI, who design elaborate games around them.

These games are hosted in the XLRI grounds, and are open to public who visit the fair and have a good time apart from winning prizes. The students, on the other hand, get useful data about public preferences, which they then analyse to solve the problems faced by the companies. This makes the task of conducting the otherwise boring and mundane research easier and interesting.

“This year we planning to make it more academic oriented than fun and fair. We have made special arrangements for the event this year where the students will carry research work,” said a member of the organising team.

It may be mentioned that Brooke Bond tasted success to the tune of `100 crore with the idea of newly packaged tea. Pepsi in 2006 decided to give a new design to its packaging. ITC decided to venture into the biscuit market. These are some of the few success stories of brands which were once just ideas of XLRI students.

XLRI’s National Platform for Youth

Jamshedpur, Jan. 14 (The Telegraph): Social entrepreneurship is high on XLRI’s radar this month.

After the success of its previous two national conferences related to the social sector, the top B-school is hoping for a hat-trick with its 3rd National Conference on Social Entrepreneurship, to be held from January 28 to 30. The theme this year is Youth, Development and Social Entrepreneurship.



The three-day event will bring around 25 prominent experts on a common platform. Padmashree and Magsasay award winner Deep Joshi will give the inaugural address.

“The conference aims to provide a common space to development sector professionals. There will be discussion on what could be improved in various types of social sectors. This year, the conference will focus on the involvement of youth in the social sector,” said Madhukar Shukla, event co-ordinator.

The conference will have three broad categories — challenges, opportunities and getting started — with diverse topics such as involving youths to volunteer, creating markets for marginal producers, promoting livelihood and employment, leveraging technology for social development, options for funding and investments and supporting the eco-system for social entrepreneurs, among others.

“Each session will be addressed by three or four practising social entrepreneurs and development professionals. The participants will also be able to interact with the speakers in a free-wheeling interface,” said Shukla.

The event is open to all. Corporate organisations, NGOs and students will have to pay a registration fee of Rs 8,000, Rs 4,000 and Rs 800, respectively.

Those who want to attend the event can also log in at seconference(at)xlri.ac.in
Details at:
http://3rd-se-conference-at-xlri.blogspot.com/

GMP Student – Nikhil Uppal wins “Olympus” at IIMC!

  It gives us great pride to break the news that Nikhil Uppal, a GMP student, has won the finals of the Olympus, the flagship pan-India business leadership competition at IIMC`s bschool fest - Intaglio-2011.

The competition lasted 3 hectic days and saw the battle of 10 participants from all the IIMs, ISB and CEIBS, Shanghai.  Nikhil had contested from the "non IIMs" bucket as the wild card entrant and went on to defeat all the other participants. This indeed is a great achievement for XLRI and for GMP!

The link is : Intaglio Olympus

Kudos Nikhil !

Youtube Channel for XLRI GMP

New Youtube channel for XLRI GMP is live now.

This channel would feature many vidoes that we took during various occasions as GMP parties, International Immersion, Internships, Bithdays, Music, Group Hungamas and lot more.

Be connected with GMP youtube channel - GMPTube http://www.youtube.com/xlrigmp1011

GMPian Interview - SRIHARI Adventure Trip and Learnings

GMPian Interview - Lisa on Sports

CVL Srinivas joins Starcom MediaVest Group

Srinivas shall head the organization as MD, LiquidThread APAC, and chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, India.

Starcom MediaVest Group has appointed media veteran CVL Srinivas as managing director, LiquidThread - APAC and chairman, Starcom MediaVest Group, India. Srinivas will report to Andrew Swinand, president, global operations, SMG and Brian Terkelsen, president and managing director, LiquidThread, SMG. He will work closely with Srikant Sastri, country chair, VivaKi India and will be a member of the SMG Global Management Group.

The post of chairman at Starcom is a new one; given the growing importance of India, SMG has created the position of chairman to oversee the India operation. A dedicated CEO for SMG India will be appointed soon, and this person shall take over from Ravi Kiran who had announced his decision to move on from the group in September, 2010.

On his new role, CVL Srinivas says in an official communiqué, "SMG's promise to be the Human Experience Company is fascinating and future-focused. I look forward to working closely with the teams at LiquidThread and SMG to translate this vision into tangible value for our clients". Srinivas will take charge with effect from January 5, 2011 and will be based in New Delhi.

For the record, LiquidThread represents the next stage of audience aggregation and content development for SMG. In line with the network's digital, open source approach, LiquidThread will increase the scale and innovation of SMG's content creation, moving beyond branded entertainment to create communities, conversations and advocates for brand properties. LiquidThread was launched in the US in April 2010 and will now be rolled out across the Asia-Pacific region.

CVL Srinivas has a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani and a Masters in Business Administration from XLRI Jamshedpur. He has previously worked at Maxus and Madison in leadership positions and was part of the start-up team at Fulcrum (now Mindshare Fulcrum) on the Unilever business. His latest assignment was at The Times Group as director, Private Treaties.

For more info :
http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=29253_CVL+Srinivas+joins+Starcom+MediaVest+Group

GMPian Sanjeev Batra's Daugther - Siya Birthday

Last few hours of 2010 @ XL