Welcoming the Apaches – PGDM Class of 2019-21

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, was bustling with energy and excitement on 9^th July, 2019, as it welcomed a fresh new batch of PGDM students. The program saw a total of 144 students pouring in from different parts of the country to make this state-of-the-art campus their home for the next two years.

The inaugural ceremony was presided over by dignitaries from Gartner, world’s leading research and advisory company, along with the renowned faculty of Great Lakes Institute of Management.

Dr. Debashis Sanyal, Director, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, addressed the new batch of PGDM students, and applauded them for their well-deserved candidature. He expressed his delight over the growing competition and high-quality of applications that the institute received. After introducing the students to the faculty, he went on to share his wise counsel with the students. He informed the students that this day marks a transition from a structured environment to an unstructured world, where qualities such as flexibility in thinking, benevolent mindset of working in a team, optimism in the face of challenges and failures, and making the most out of time in the campus will help them succeed.

At the commencement, Mr. Arindam Mukhopadhyay, VP and Head, Global Consulting COE, Gartner, delivered the keynote for the orientation of the fresh young minds He congratulated the batch for making it to the premier institute and threw light on what awaits them after they graduate. His presentation drove home the fact that we are living in a dynamic world, where fundamental shifts are occurring across sectors, thus frequent innovation is indispensable to continuous growth. He emphasized on the importance of Industrializing Learning, which refers to developing cognitive thinking in future managers on a wide scale in order to drive constant innovation. He strongly advised students to demonstrate a Champion Mindset. The mindset urges an individual to follow the mantra of “Know it, Own it, Do it, and Persevere” to enhance growth on a community, organization and an individual level.

Furthermore, Mr. Ravi Kumar Anand, Campus Recruitment and Relationship Leader, Gartner, recommended that students research and understand the kind of role they would like to pursue in the future and use this platform to work towards the same by developing the required skillsets for their dream role. He inspired the students to expand their view of possibilities and take charge of their careers by putting sincere and constant efforts.

The commencement event concluded with Dr. Vikas Prakash Singh, Program Director for PGDM at Great Lakes Gurgaon, delivering the vote of thanks and, keeping up with the Great Lakes tradition, announcing the name of the new PGPM batch – The Apaches.

Know it, Own it, Do it, and Persevere.

Compiled by Elim Panda, PGPM “Spartan”, Class of 2020

Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon

Why should an Experienced Professional pursue a One-Year MBA Program?

Many of us are attracted towards the prospect of earning an MBA within one year by pursuing a PGPM (Post Graduate Program in Management), instead of investing two years in a conventional MBA program, commonly known across B-Schools in India as the PGDM (Post Graduate Diploma in Management). There are ample of institutes and universities abroad that offer one-year full time MBA for working professionals, taking in the best of these experienced professionals and training them to take up much higher roles. And you read it right, these programs are full time and are not the same as part-time executive MBA programs. But how is a two-year course delivered in one year and how does it differ from conventional two-year programs? Who is this program more appropriate for? What are the gains and ROI on a one year MBA? Let’s find out.

Where is the sharp contrast when it comes to a one-year MBA?

A one year MBA program, designed for professionals with at least two years of work experience or more depending on the MBA colleges or business schools offering it, leverages the same experience and industry exposure to steer classroom discussions. Yes, discussions, and not lectures. A typical classroom session involves a faculty member guiding the discussion around concepts and students relating to those concepts through their own professional experiences, applying them to historic business cases and developing pragmatic solutions to business problems. A whirlwind of insights and perspectives ensue, questioning conventional wisdom and the status quo itself. This pedagogy eliminates the need to begin from basics and the faculty can get down to business quicker with such a cohort.

Summer internships are not a part of the one-year curriculum as the students already have the industry exposure that they need. Instead, live-projects and experiential learning programs provide an opportunity to work on projects with companies, under the mentorship of a faculty member (and often also an industry mentor) and develop innovative solutions to real-world business problems. This helps a student to be confident as a management professional by the end of the course.

A one year MBA program cuts back on redundancy and gets students to speed by leveraging their own experience. The quality and completeness of the curriculum is maintained to ensure a holistic learning experience, with peer-learning forming a major component of it. People from different educational backgrounds, industries and job profiles come together to share their insights, applying their experiences to concepts and relating them to real-word examples.

How intense does it get?

As stated by most premier business schools conducting such programs, one-year programs are quite rigorous but they do bring out the best in each student. Class hours are longer than those in other programs, followed by assignments, projects, readings and case analysis for the next day. To quote a one-year program alumnus from an Ivy League business school, the first few core terms are in fact a pressure cooker. But that same rigor trains a student to stay charged up and handle tense situations and unpredictable challenges at workplace. And what else does this reward one with? Let’s look at the benefits.

A much lesser opportunity cost:

The longer you stay as a part of a workforce, the harder it gets for you to take a break and live without a steady income while pursuing higher education. This opportunity cost increases with the duration of hiatus. Here the opportunity cost is the income that you forego when you take a break from work and pursue higher education. Existing loans and family responsibilities make it even more difficult to take a break for two long years. A one-year program halves the opportunity cost and lets you get back to your professional and personal life in a year.

A quick leap:

There are those who work hard and wait for the next appraisal, traverse the hierarchy and climb up the corporate ladder. And then there are those who jump a few levels and take up managerial roles by investing their time and efforts in management education. It’s one year in a business school versus years of appraisals and job changes. An investment of money, time and effort in the former saves one all the time and effort that would be spent in the latter.

A step ahead of the rest:

While fresh minds are still in their second year of management education and busy getting placed, the one-year graduates are already awaiting their first appraisal. Who wouldn’t want faster returns on investment?

One year programs are gaining more and more traction every year with some of the best MBA colleges in India, such as the Indian School of Business (ISB), Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai and Gurgaon, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA), SP Jain Institute of Management and Research (SPJIMR), and others offering the One Year MBA in India for experienced professionals, among other MBA courses. Admissions to these programs are conducted through major management entrance exams such as GMAT, CAT and XAT, and follow the same rigorous admission process with Test Score and Profile-Based Shortlisting, Essays or Statements of Purpose, Written Ability Tests, and Personal Interviews. Both types of programs cater to different types of audiences and carry equal credibility. It’s just a question of how appropriate a particular program is for an aspirant based on experience and background.

What comes after an MBA?

GREAT LAKES GUEST LECTURE SERIES – Mr ROHIT KUMAR

CX PRINCIPAL – SALES & MARKETING STRATEGY – INFOSYS

18^th August 2018

The weekends at Great Lakes, Gurgaon, after an end-term exam, aren’t complete without an interactive industry engagement event. This one was particularly more exciting as the PGPM batch of 2019, The Ninjas, gathered around to welcome Mr Rohit Kumar, the CX Principal for Sales and Marketing Strategy at Infosys, for a session on various career options in the IT sector after an MBA. Being an Infoscion myself, I was eagerly looking forward to the session delivered by a fellow Infoscion of a calibre to look up to.

Mr Rohit Kumar: An engineering graduate from G.G.S.I.P. University, who later completed his MBA from the reputed S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Research in 2012. After working for over 3 years as Senior Manager for Engagements at Nagarro, he took the helm at Infosys in heading the Sales and Marketing Strategy for the Oracle CX Cloud practice in 2016. He has more than 13 years of experience in business development, client acquisition, customer relationships & marketing. He has worked with clients across the world, focusing immensely on understanding the pain-points of the customers. Mr Kumar has an in-depth understanding of the IT industry and has varied project experience that gives a unique flavour to his working style. Before his MBA, he has worked with reputed firms such as IBM and SAP.

Mr Kumar set the tone for the session by talking about how the industry is segmented into various Verticals and Horizontals. He emphasized on how having a vertical depth or horizontal experience is the key to success. He also reinforced the importance of MBA graduates re-inventing themselves from time to time, once they enter the corporate realm, and being always able to think on their feet.

What are the options for an MBA graduate?

Mr Kumar walked us through the different types of profiles that an MBA graduate from an IT background can pursue, leveraging all his years of experience before choosing to join a B-School. He explained how a candidate with leadership skills and the ability to work under pressure can look for a role in Project Management. Having sound technical skills, a know-how of various business dimensions and a keen insight into the minds of the costumers make one perfectly suitable for this role. Additional relevant certifications are a bonus.

Consulting is another lucrative career option which is open to management graduates. Explaining the differences and drawing demarcation lines between Strategic and Management Consulting, Business Consulting, and Technical Consulting, Mr Kumar cleared all misconceptions and ambiguity that management students usually have regarding these roles. Sharing insights from his own experience in working with some of the leading service providers in the IT Industry, Mr Kumar shed light on the current scenario in the business world, especially on how the thin line between Business and Technical Consulting is disappearing with each passing day, and on how companies are preparing themselves to have a strong presence in both the domains.

He also spoke about other roles such as Business Analyst, Sales Management, and Pre-Sales Management. While Sales Management requires a candidate to be extremely innovative and creative, pre-sales demands domain expertise and the ability to think about multiple solutions to a given requirement in order to create a variety of offerings for the customer to choose from. A business analyst, on the other hand, is expected to have requirement analysis capabilities coupled with excellent communication skills.

What should be the approach of an MBA student?

Mr Kumar enlightened the students on the right approach towards pursuing the role that would do justice to their experience and skills. Identifying one’s own skills and also identifying the kind of work that would be truly enticing is extremely important for an MBA student. At the same time, it is vital for a student to follow the companies they aspire to be a part of and keep themselves abreast with what the industry experts are talking about. In addition to this, growing one’s network and developing a niche skill holds crucial importance in skyrocketing one’s career growth.

Importance of LinkedIn

LinkedIn, the social network for corporates, has become an important tool for corporate networking and Mr Kumar strongly emphasized on its relevance and how an MBA student can leverage it to improve their future prospects. He inspired the Ninjas to step out of their comfort zones and do what most people hesitate to – add a minimum of 20 influential people to one’s connection every day while sending scheduled emails on one’s professional and academic development every 3-4 months to all connections in order to gain more visibility. This tactic bore fruit for Mr Kumar as he landed 5 offers through LinkedIn alone by the time he graduated as an MBA. LinkedIn is a platform which every professional should use to the extent of its potential and connect with a number of people who would eventually open doors to more gainful opportunities and a fruitful career ahead.

Concluding Thoughts

The session turned out to be an extremely enlightening experience and this was evident by the whirlwind of questions Mr Kumar received from the ever-enthusiastic Great Lakers. To wrap it up, the talk delivered by Mr Kumar will forever be etched in our minds as we prepare ourselves and follow his advice for our placement season and look for the right jobs in the right firms with the right attitude and approach. Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, expresses its deepest gratitude to Mr Rohit Kumar for sharing his extremely valuable insights with the upcoming graduates.

Author: Arpit Gupta

PGPM, Class of 2019, Great Lakes, Gurgaon

S&P Global: An Interactive Industry Engagement Session

May 25, 2018

The PGPM Class of 2019 at Great Lakes Institute of Management Gurgaon welcomed executives from S&P Global – Mr Dushyanth Sekhar, Director – Content Automation Robotics & Extraction (C.A.R.E), Ms Nupur Jain, Talent Acquisition Lead, Gurgaon, Ms Rajni Kataria, Analyst, Talent Acquisition, Gurgaon, and Mr Saransh Arya, Content Systems Analyst, Operations Enablement; to speak on the fourth industrial revolution – Robotics, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, on Friday, May 25th, 2018.

S&P Global has been providing intelligence that is essential for clients to make decisions with conviction for over 150 years. S&P provides data and analytics, research and commentary, benchmarks and credit ratings through the collective strength of its divisions – S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts.

Mr Dushyanth said, “Machines are becoming like humans but still a large part of it is mathematical (cognitive computing).” With a higher degree of innovation, S&P Global seeks to reduce the need of human interventions in tasks which are irksome and mundane otherwise.” He emphasized that he strongly believes in the democratization of technology. Growth in technology has paved way for companies to develop better algorithms and influence their market accordingly. Furthermore, machine learning has changed the definition of traditional programming and in the modern times, the output itself is the program. According to Mr Sekhar, the trick is feeding a data set that will teach the algorithm to decipher the data.

Great Lakes Institute of Management also focuses on coupling analytics with business knowledge which gives business graduates of this generation an opportunity to introduce newer concepts to the corporate world. Therefore, this interaction between S&P Global and Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, was a perfect platform for sharing new and innovative ideas in the said fields of Machine Learning, AI and Analytics.

Author: Hita Gupta

PGPM, Class of 2019, Great Lakes, Gurgaon

The Success Mantra for Start-Ups: Great Lakes Guest Lecture Series

GREAT LAKES GUEST LECTURE SERIES – Mr DEEPAK GOEL

CEO – KARMACIRCLES

“Do. Or Do Not. There is no try” – Yoda, Jedi Master

Understanding of the above quote is an important pre-requisite for an entrepreneur to be successful. The path of Entrepreneurship is the one that is filled with utmost uncertainties that one can face compared to the other naturally progressing career options.

Being an aspiring entrepreneur, Great Lakes, offered me ample opportunities to interact and learn directly from the masters of this trade. As the campus is located in the corporate hub of the country, Great Lakes, Gurgaon enables extensive industry engagement with entrepreneurs, CXOs and industry experts as they visit the campus regularly to share their perspectives with the future business leaders of the nation. That’s how our batch (PGDM 2017-19) got to meet Mr Deepak Goel, CEO & Founder Karmacircles.

Mr Deepak Goel’s Guest Lecture at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon was a compilation of his life and thought processes that aimed at providing the students with a more Entrepreneurial viewpoint of life rather than just living in terms of pay packages. An IIT-Delhi educated techie who went on to live the “American Dream” with his job at Microsoft to pursuing his MBA at UC, Berkeley to working at multiple companies from scratch with an entrepreneurial spirit and making them grow to where they are today, he has worn multiple hats because of his multi-faceted skill sets. This is what differentiates him from the other bunch of entrepreneurs, at least in the Indian context. He truly learnt the art of Entrepreneurship in and out, theoretically and practically to be able to follow his life calling of creating Karmacircles.

The lecture was a mix of Startup Organizational Culture, Valuation of Startups, General Principles of Success and quite an insightful bunch of advice to the multiple questions asked by the Students.

At the start of the lecture, he laid a very simple formula for a successful startup involving just four steps. (1) Identify the problem you want to solve, (2) Solve the problem, (3) Monetize the Solution created and then (4) go for more money to scale up the solution. A rather simple algorithm which in reality is really difficult to follow as even developing/handling that one simple product/solution is quite complex. This is what calls for the Product Management Concept. Explaining his understanding and experiences in Product Management, he expressed dissatisfaction of how Product Management is done or pursued by organizations in India as it still remains to be a highly misunderstood concept in the country. Being a seasoned professional in the field, he emphasized how the concept can help in building successful products within a company, going on to creating multiple successful companies within a big company, like Google. Working at Microsoft, he knew much more about Google and its processes than Microsoft which earned him the name of “The Google Guy.” He then shared some insights as to how Google managed its Product Line and has grown from a Search Engine to the huge yet entrepreneurial tech-conglomerate it is today.

He then went on to share his learning experiences under the guidance of Eric Ries of the Lean Startup fame and even Eric Ries’ Guru Steve Blank. The two major concepts he learnt were The Value Hypothesis and Growth Hypothesis. When these philosophies are incorporated in a company in its ideation phase, it significantly enhances its probability of achieving long-term success, thereby, ensuring value and growth creation.

Explaining Value Hypothesis, Mr. Goel talked in detail how companies can create value. Not just in monetary terms, but value that customers can relate to. But for doing so, the companies must have an eagle eye vision of the solution of the problem that they set out to tackle. Giving real examples from the start-up and corporate world, he differentiated how certain companies create value straight away to companies that create value over time.

Constantly comparing his Valley experience to his Indian experience, he stated that Indian start-ups and new-age companies mainly focus only on creating monetary value but not the intangible value and many of those companies go on to create initial momentum, to a great extent monetize it, but keep pushing their goalposts for the value creation. One of the main questions he raised during the lecture was whether these companies will be able to continue the momentum once the cash inflow slows down.

Explaining Growth Hypothesis, he talked about continuously doing what you do best and create personal and home-ground advantage in areas as such to create a true product that can grow sustainably over time.

Commenting on the Indian attitude of approaching jobs, he shared his story further and explained how he took several pay cuts in order to expand his learning curve, something he finds lacking in the Indian scenario. Linking the topic, he shared the factors one should consider while taking up a new job and said that the person you are going to work for, is the most important factor. Not being completely driven by package but rather through the group one is going to work with and the learning outcome one has out of the job as other major factors. He advised students to be ethical and act professionally when it comes to working in organizations.

In the last few minutes of the lecture, he gave a brief glimpse of his passions which include, Social Networks, Mentoring, and creating valuable products that solve problems. Being an aspiring entrepreneur myself, I found this session to be the most illuminating.

Such interactions with industry stalwarts prepare the students for the challenges of the business world and Great Lakes gives utmost importance to these guest lectures as they are the most crucial ingredient for developing business ready managers. The importance of these interactions is evident with the fact that 150 plus industry leaders, entrepreneurs and CXOs have visited Great Lakes last year and shared their valuable insights with the students to prepare them for what’s to come.

Author: S SnehanshN

PGDM, Class of 2019, Great Lakes, Gurgaon

The Great Lakes Approach to Learning Microeconomics

The concepts of microeconomics are the driving force behind the key personal and business financial decisions that we make in our daily lives. Therefore, it is imperative to understand the core fundamentals of microeconomics via experimentation rather than through mere theoretical observation. Coming from a technical background, my concepts of economics were, let’s just say, a bit blurry. But, I and many of my classmates who share the same academic and industry background learnt the entire concept of Microeconomics in a matter of days through experimentation.

The Micro-Economics project of Term-I at Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon was very different. As part of this project, the batch of 120 students was divided into groups of six and every group had to start a business inside the college campus. The business could be anything from product manufacturing and home & personal care to food delivery and miscellaneous services. Our investment cap for the business was established at INR 500 and initially it seemed impossible to start a business under that amount. But all the groups then started analyzing the market, needs and demand of their target customers. Everyone did extensive market research before starting the businesses to understand the requirements and needs of their target market. Market research was done through questionnaires, by conducting interviews, taking suggestions etc. Every group collected the primary data about their prospective customers before starting the business. After the research was over, it was time to put it to use and execute the business idea. There were twenty groups and hence, twenty businesses. Some of these were SantaKaBanta (a soda point corner), Fortune Coffee (a small scale coffee house and coffee delivery service), IceExpress, DeliverIt, a Bhelpuri corner etc.

Our group started a business named “Need2Home.” It was a delivery business in which we delivered anything and everything that is required by the students on a daily basis and could be bought from the nearby areas. On day 1 we designed our team’s pamphlet and distributed those among the students and staff members. We then started taking orders. Initially, we didn’t get many orders and most of the orders that we did get were from immediate friends. But, slowly our business started picking pace and after 2-3 days of providing impeccable services, we became quite famous among the students. We enjoyed managing all the important aspects of running a business like marketing, operations and maintaining balance sheets. Although it was a project of Microeconomics, we applied the knowledge of all the subjects that we had learnt in Term-1 of our course.

We had quite a free hand when it came to experimenting with our business. We (i) fluctuated the price of the services depending upon the market conditions (ii) reduced the profit margin (iii) made demand forecasts etc. Initially, we had kept a higher profit margin but due to severe competition from another team, we had to lower our margins. However, due to this, we managed to secure a large number of orders and as a result also managed to increase our sales figures substantially. And yes, we had a competitor in this small business space. We also felt threat from Amazon, Flipkart and other e-commerce entities because, as a small scale business, we did not plan on entering the online marketplace.

The Happy Customers!

Altogether, it felt like having a real business. By the time the project got over we earned more than INR 5000 in revenue. Considering the fact that we invested about 100 bucks in the venture, it was a tremendous achievement.

Finally, we had to prepare a report based on the data collected from our business. We used all the basic concepts such as demand equations, curve, cost function, profit maximization, regression analysis and demand forecasting techniques to prepare the business report.

This project helped us in the following ways: (i) It broadened our vision towards the various business dimensions, (ii) It helped us understand the concepts of Microeconomics, and, (iii) it gave us the ability to realize and overcome the challenges in business world.

It was truly an extensive and amazing learning experience and we enjoyed every bit of it. I believe such projects help a lot in practical understanding of the theoretical concepts and we are extremely grateful to our faculty, Dr V.P Singh Sir, and the college for providing us such wonderful opportunities to learn in a practical manner.

Authors: Akhilesh Tripathi & Shubham Singh

PGPM, Class of 2018, Great Lakes, Gurgaon

Sitting in the Hall of Fame

Even at the age of 80, Dr Bala V. Balachandran, is an inspiration to many and a motivation to many more. His energy, enthusiasm, knowledge and, most importantly, wit are the key traits that make him so loved and respected by all.

Having an opportunity to attend his class was truly a blessing. After interacting with this great gentleman, I often kept wondering what is it like to be successful at the age of 80? What keeps him going?

When asked the same, Uncle Bala said, it’s the enthusiastic students and their never ending thirst of knowledge. Seeing, interacting, teaching and always being surrounded by people in their twenties make him feel twenty at heart and the love and respect that he receives from then is what encourages him to achieve more and do more for them. Well, this is ‘attitude being gratitude’ at its finest and speaks volumes about the character of this phenomenal person. It is in my personal opinion, that it’s not just being successful but doing it the right way is what differentiates the men from the boys.

So, what was it like to attend his class? The aura of the class comprising of the enthusiasm of the students and the respect that he commanded were among the first oblivious things that can be observed. The constant humour, witty one-liners, the command and expertise over the subject (duh! he is the pioneer of the subject) and his constant real-time illustrations are the composition of his class.

The key take away for a student from Uncle Bala’s class are the real life experiences shared, industry specific problems defined and the strategic methods implemented to solve the same which are in correlation with your academic subjects helping you bridge the gap and connect the dots.

In his short stay of 3 days and 10 hours of classes, he has given us much to cherish and the impression that he has left on us students will be everlasting.

Author: Ashwin AN

PGPM, Class of 2018, Great Lakes, Gurgaon

Alumni Speak: “What Great Lakes offered was a holistic learning approach that helped me immensely in my career.”

Abhishek Agarwal graduated from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon, in 2016 and is currently working as the Product Manager at 91Mobiles.com. We recently had a chat with him about his professional life after graduation.

Here are some excerpts from the conversation.

 

Q1. What were you doing professionally before joining Great Lakes?

Before I started with my MBA at Great Lakes, I was working at IBM developing business applications in SAP for FMCG and utility sector projects.

Q2. It sounds like you had an interesting job profile there. So, what pushed you towards pursuing an MBA and why did you choose Great Lakes for your Master’s?

Yes, it sure was an interesting and challenging job profile, but I realised that there are limitations to how much impact one can have on the decision-making without developing business skills and perspective. Once this realisation kicked in, doing an MBA was the fastest route to achieving my goals.

The prime reasons for choosing Great Lakes, Gurgaon, were the one year advantage, world-class curriculum and the location. Also, a lot of hard work and dedication went into getting accepted in this prestigious institute.

Q3. How did the one year at Great Lakes help you transform?

First of all, I’d like to clear the misconception that one-year MBA’s course structure and curriculum is less challenging than its two-year counterpart. If anything, the one year MBA curriculum is more arduous in nature than a two year one, as you learn the same amount of concepts and fundamentals in lesser time. And trust me when I say that the one year at Great Lakes was so hectic and challenging that now I feel I can take any challenge thrown in my way by the corporate world head-on quite comfortably with poise and ease. Also, Great Lakes made me more of a logical and structural thinker, which is extremely important for my current job role.

Q4. Tell me more about your current organisation and job role.

I am currently working as a Product Manager at 91Mobiles, which is a Gurgaon based startup that helps people find the right gadget at the right price. My job role encompasses everything from product conceptualization to its final implementation.

Q5. Mention the key highlights of your GL experience.

1. Enlightening guest lectures, unparalleled practical exposure via industry interaction and great faculty
2. Learning and fun always went hand in hand.
3. And most importantly, I don’t think I slept for more than 4 hours per day on an average, during my one year at Great Lakes.

Q6. How would you describe the peer learning experience in and beyond the classroom at Great Lakes?

It was, without a doubt, a great experience meeting and learning from the people of my batch who came from diverse professional backgrounds. It made me understand the corporate world from so many different points of views. There is just so much that you can learn in a classroom, but what Great Lakes offered was a chance to learn even from my batch-mates and it is this type of holistic learning approach that helped me immensely in my career.

Q7. What advice would you like to give to the future Great Lakers?

I would just like to tell them to make the most of their time here at Great Lakes as it will prepare them for the corporate world. You can learn a lot from the faculty and your peers, so keep your eyes and ears open all the time and learn as much as you can. Also, build a solid network as you never know when and where that scrawny kid or the school jock would be able to get you out of a mess or help you crack a deal. Always remember Uncle Bala’s (Great Lakes’ Dean Padmashri Dr. Bala V Balachndran) words, “Your network is your net worth.”

UPI and its Impact on the Mobile Wallet Industry

What is a UPI? How is it different from mobile wallets? Does it have the potential to eat away the market share of mobile wallets?

UPI (Unified Payments Interface) is an advanced version of IMPS (Immediate Payments System) which do bank to bank money transfer, just by using a Virtual Id/ Virtual Payments Address.

UPI or Unified Payment Interface is a payment architecture with a set of standard app APIs by the Reserve Bank of India in order to facilitate the next generation online immediate payments leveraging trends like increased smartphone adoption, increased app downloads and universal access to data and internet.

Any smartphone user having a savings or current account with a UPI-partnered bank can download the app to make P2P (peer to peer) and P2M (peer-to-merchant) payments with the use of VPA (Virtual Payment Address).

Thus, in this case, the customer doesn’t need to disclose any sensitive information like bank account number or IFSC code for completing a financial transaction. It eliminates the requirement of entering one’s card details like number, CVV code, expiry date or OTP.

Virtual Payment Address is just like an Email ID, something of the form yourname@xyzbank, like sonal@sbi or rashmi@citi. No more hassle of entering the account number, IFSC and other beneficiary/payee details. On entering just this VPA and authenticating the transaction with your MPIN, one will be able to complete the transaction successfully in less than 10 seconds.

 

UPI’s two-factor authentication makes it safe and only shares the Virtual Payment Address. It doesn’t provide any other sensitive information.

How can we download the UPI app?

Steps to download the UPI App are as follows:

• Download the UPI app from 19 participating banks on the below link

https://play.google.com/store/search?q=upi&c=apps&docType=1&sp=CAFiBQoDdXBpegUYAMABAooBAggB%3AS%3AANO1ljJBaXc

 

• Let’s say we are using Axis Bank’s UPI app. Here’s the welcome screen. SMS will be sent for authentication

• Add bank account: you’ll just need to select your Bank & your A/c will show up automatically (based on your mobile number linked with your bank a/c)

 

• Create a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) which can be sonal@pnb or 123@ubi or pkc@icici or any other name. The suffix will be based on the app you are using. You can create different VPA with different banks pointing to the same account i.e sonal@axis, sonal@ubi or sonal@vijaya can point to one bank a/c, say from PNB

• You can even collect money by requesting it from the other person’s VPA

UPI v/s Mobile Wallets

Currently, there are more than 25 mobile wallets available in market today.

• Mobile wallets cannot access the UPI Technology on their own because UPI is a cross banking transfer medium and hence can only be accessed by the banks themselves. For mobile wallets to access UPI Technology, they need to partner with some or the other bank. So, in a way for banks which were suffering from the onslaught of mobile wallets, UPI has come as a boon to them that has turned the tables in favour of the banks.

Now, let’s discuss whether UPI has the potential to make mobile wallets redundant in India. Below are some of the characteristics on which UPI and mobile wallets can be compared.

Characteristics	UPI	Mobile Wallets	Conclusion
Transfer Limit	Rs 1,00,000/Transaction	Rs 10,000 for non-KYC   Note: It can be increased upto Rs 1,00,000 post doing a KYC, which very few customers do	UPI will be more advantageous in this case
Transfer to individual and companies	Definitely yes	In case of wallets, not all wallets can do transfer but yes the major ones like Paytm, Mobikwik, Oxigen etc. allow the transfer to individuals and companies	Majorly, both score well in it
Payment at physical stores	Any physical store can make arrangements for accepting UPI Transactions	In case of the wallet industry, they have to do a personal tie-up with those physical stores like Paytm has done tie-ups with Pizza Hut, KFC and payments via Paytm wallet is accepted at their outlets. Similarly, Mobikwik has exclusive tie- ups with Big-Bazaar and CCD	UPI can easily capture this market
Online Payments	UPI Can do very well in this	Mobile wallets showed their excellence in online payments	No Clear Winner here
Cash Back/ Discounts	UPI cannot provide any cash back or discounts	In case of Mobile wallets, since they have merchant specific tie-ups, they do provide a lot of cash backs and merchant specific discounts	Mobile wallets definitely have a great advantage here
Request for payment	In UPI, one can ask for money from any person who is registered on UPI network	In mobile wallets, few companies are asking allowing request for payment or asking for payment but in their own network	UPI has bit of an advantage here
Transaction Cost	There is charge of 0.45 paisa on each transaction through UPI	No charge is there on transaction in case of mobile wallets	Mobile Wallets are the clear winners here
Outreach	Possible outreach is larger due to GoI’s Digital India support. Awareness programs and implementation, if executed well, will encourage cashless transactions even in rural and remote places depending on the government initiatives	Restricited to marketing and branding strategy of the mobile wallet company and customer segments made aware. However if Mobile wallets work with UPI network they can use it to their advantage. Usually reaching rural places is more difficult for private businesses as it does not make commercial sense	UPI has more advantage here

 

There are some Pros and Cons of UPI and Mobile Wallets which have been discussed below:

	UPI	Mobile Wallets
Pros	·         Easier to set up and lesser time to execute the transaction.   ·         No waiting for OTP   ·         Device independent and form independent. One can use any bank’s app to transfer money in any other bank   ·         Money gets transferred directly from bank account. We do not required to recharge any wallet or card in UPI   ·         Marketing might of cash rich banks	·         Wallet companies are technology companies     ·         Wallet companies are experts in user interface ·         Strategic tie-ups are increasing day by day and many of them are part of big- ecommerce companies, such as Freecharge is a part of Snapdeal. These help them in extra benefits which they pass on to customers in a way of cash backs, loyalty points etc.   ·         Other benefits- mobile recharge, Bill Split, micro credit facilities etc which may not be possible for UPI to provide.
Cons	·         Lack of technology prowess ·         No Strategic tie-ups	·         Company dependent ·         Extra KYC for higher transactions ·         Fraud Concerns ·         Too much competition

UPI certainly has more advantages over Mobile wallets but as per the current scenario in India, it doesn’t mean that mobile wallets will become redundant.

In India, which is majorly a cash run economy both can co-exist as of for now. Mobile wallets have to do some tweaking in their business model and they are in a process of doing it. Some examples are listed below:

• Paytm will soon get their own Payment Bank license through which they can enter in the main stream of UPI and can launch a UPI based Paytm app
• Free Charge has tied –up with Axis Bank and will provide UPI based transaction on their platform
• Phone Pe, which is owned by Flipkart, has launched a new app in collaboration with Yes Bank where both the UPI transactions and wallet benefits are there
• ICICI pockets, which was a wallet by ICICI Bank but wasn’t doing well, has now been integrated with UPI. So, one can have the benefits of both in their Pockets app

We can have these apps integrated with the benefits of both UPI and Mobile Wallets.

 

Author : Sonal Gupta

PGDM Class of 2018, Great Lakes

5 hours and 247 pages: The Seven Day Weekend

 

Last night I opened a book and 5 hours and 247 pages later, the book had broadened my thinking. That book was titled – “The Seven Day Weekend”, authored by Mr. Ricardo Semler.

The best part of reading a good book is that the horizons of the reader’s mind get broadened and he becomes wiser than he was before opening the book. What I realised post this mini-readathon was – 1) I was ready for the scheduled book review session. 2) I got something to read which was insightful not just in terms of business perspective, but also helped me to focus on what I actually want from my professional life and 3) the approach I have had with me actually does exist in the business world and firms do exist and make good profit by implementing the same approach.

The primary reason as to why this piece of work is admirable and inspirational is that the author talks of having chosen employee happiness and satisfaction as the driving force of his business, unlike the more bottom-line obsessed business workplaces.

The author shares his experience of working at Semco (the company headquartered at Sao Paulo, Brazil), where he wants not just him (the CEO), but also his employees, customers, suppliers and community to be happy. The real motivation or the driving force behind a successful company is not growth, not profits, not power, not status, but Happiness.

Along the way, he asked himself, “If the workweek is going to slop over into the weekend, then why can’t the weekend, with its precious restorative moments of playtime, my time, and our time, spill over into the workweek?” The author then provides a roadmap to achieve personal and professional success.

The stressful and many a times overloaded workweek robs us of our passion and pleasure, it destroys family and community stability, and sets up businesses to fail once they have burned out their employees and burned through ever more manipulative and oppressive strategies.

The book describes how managers can turn the repetition, boredom and aggravation of the usual workweek into an environment that is filled with joy, inspiration and freedom.

I do believe that the old way of doing business is sprinting towards its deathbed, and the time has come to re-invent and re-engineer the way of doing business which could be more or less like the Semco’s way, aimed at fulfilling the central purpose of business. Thus, a satisfactory and rewarding life can be made possible for the entire workforce for their hard work. In order to achieve that, it is important to treat co-workers like intelligent mature adults by allowing them to manage themselves. This, as a business model, has worked like a charm for Semco and could possibly be put to use at any organization, anywhere in the so business world that wants to move beyond traditional thinking to a more democratic realm.

While highlighting how flexibility in work time and self-management by employees can work wonders to improve a company’s bottom line, it also narrates how self-organized employee groups can harness extra potential to bring about change in productivity just by eliminating time lags. The book supports encouraging employees to rely on their own intuition and use it in the workplace with a combination of reasoning and experience to reach a decision.

The book is full of stories from Semco’s everyday existence and is a joy to read. Time and again these stories illustrate that one must not opt for the easy way out.

On one hand, it is a thought-provoking guidebook that reveals how freedom and happiness can lead a business to success. On the other, it is an easy, fun to read book as it shares the day to day experiences at the workplace. Also, it is 100% free of MBA-jargons.

Author : Kinshuk Chaturvedi

PGPM Class of 2017, Great Lakes

B2B Marketing – Changing the framework

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business-to-Business Marketing (B2B Marketing) directly involves the sale of a product/services from a company to another company.

B2B marketing techniques rely on the same fundamentals as consumer marketing, the difference lies in the execution of strategies and techniques. In consumer markets, the decision to purchase a product/service lays not just on the price, but also on its popularity, status and/or any other emotional trigger. While in the case of B2B, purchase decisions are made primarily on the basis of price and profit potential.

Core fundamentals of B2B marketing revolve around building relationships that guarantee lasting customers, which is the primary goal (other than having a larger customer base) for any company irrespective of its size of operations. It is a domain which is less focused upon but is the frontier for any business to grow and sustain in any industry. It has been the focus of many organizations, where the sharpest of business minds had the untapped potential which could be brought to use not just to generate revenues, but for making enormous profits from their business activities.

A lot of focus has been directed and emphasis has been laid upon different horizons surrounding the B2B marketing that ranges from market structures and drivers to growth, customer categorization and buyer types to decision aspects, etc.

The main attraction of B2B marketing lies in the evolution of its framework, i.e. from product oriented approach to a solution based model. The product oriented model is well known as 4Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Promotion and Place) and it has been used by marketers for decades. With the ever evolving technologies and the presence of web services has made the classic principles appear archaic as modern buyers learn almost everything about the business, the 4Ps of marketing are increasingly at odds with the imperative to how B2B marketing functions in this modern age. Hence, retooling the 4Ps has become a necessity for today’s B2B reality.

It is not that the 4Ps have become irrelevant, but there is a dire need to reinterpret them to serve B2B markets. The model shifts the emphasis from Product to Solution, Place to Access, Price to Value and Promotion to Education/Educate, i.e. SAVE.

SAVE

Solution: Instead of marketing the products, the focus needs to be shifted to a solution based approach. Basically, it means selling of benefits instead of just features.

Access: The idea here is not to disseminate the base location, but to create a cross-channel presence that considers a customer’s entire purchasing cycle/process and not just the place to seal the deal.

Customers want the business to be accessible and available as per their time of requirement, suitability, and a mutual assurance that you (the business) have their backs if something goes wrong.

Value: Compelling and convincing communication about the benefits rather than features is something that helps businesses gain pricing power. Thus, value based pricing holds a distinct advantage and has a better approach over competitive pricing.

Education: Educating prospects as to what the solution is and how it meets their unforeseen needs/requirements by interacting with the customers and evaluating their needs. Thus, providing information and advice to create a sense of familiarity and trust even before the purchase is made. In other words, educating prospects about the business solution attracts more than just promoting the product or service.

In a nutshell, the organizations that continue to embrace the fading model of 4Ps, run the potential risk of involving their business into a repetitive and increasingly unproductive competition.

As the customer has more say in the business-customer relation, embracing a framework that would reflect the actual concerns of the customers should possibly help marketers create and provide better value for the people and meet their needs.

Author : Kinshuk Chaturvedi

PGPM Class of 2017, Great Lakes

Faculty Speak: Prof. Umashankar Venkatesh, Director, PGPM Gurgaon

PURNA CHOUDHARY INTERVIEWED PROF. UMASHANKAR VENKATESH, DIRECTOR – PGPM AND PROFESSOR. PROF. UMA HAS A RICH EXPERIENCE OF OVER 26 YEARS. HE IS AN EXPERT IN THE FIELD OF MARKETING.

Please brief us about your educational and work experience prior to joining GLIM, Gurgaon.

PROF. UMA: To start with, I was an agricultural sciences student and earned a graduate qualification in agricultural economics before joining an MBA program. After my MBA, I worked in the FMCG industry for a while before reverting back to academics. Started my career as a faculty member in a state university and went on to a series of business schools in India, wherein in many, I was a founding member. In between, I completed a doctorate in management in the specific area of consumer behaviour. I have been deeply immersed in academic administration; entrepreneurship and quality management since my Lectureship days, which continues till date. Prior to joining Great Lakes, I was Professor and Area Chair – Marketing, at the International Management Institute, New Delhi. My research and publication focus largely around issues in consumer behaviour and marketing of services. My recent published work is in the area of internet shopper segmentation and use of social media in tourism. Two of my co-authored cases are published by Richard Ivey and are listed in the Harvard Business School Publication’s Case Inventory. I also conduct MDPs and other training programs in industry and academia mainly for banks, civil services, PSUs, hospitality companies etc.

What interested you most towards the field of marketing?

PROF. UMA: Always fascinated by aspects of consumer behaviour and trying to understand why people manifest a particular kind of buying behaviour. The underlying thought process and value system that individuals approach purchase situation with, is something that is of enormous importance for anyone wanting to be a marketing professional. I cut my teeth in marketing as a practitioner first and that too in the cutting edge area of sales management. The FMCG selling process is something that gave my first hand exposure to the dynamics of consumer buying behaviour and since then I have been learning new things about this every day.

Please guide us with the various career prospects in the domain of marketing.

PROF. UMA: Obviously, the digital space is the happening space and you should look at aligning your learning and skill building endeavours with this domain. Internet and mobile based businesses are ramping up at an astronomical pace and will remain a fertile area for future entrepreneurial and employment opportunities. Marketing analytics is another emerging area that will grow rapidly in times to come. You have the option of getting skilled in this area and leverage the same to create opportunities for yourself. Another thought that comes to mind is that we must readily lend ourselves equally to sales and sales management oriented roles within marketing along with other marketing roles such as – product/brand management; research; customer care etc. This will really enhance your possibilities and increase the scope of growth areas and roles that you may be able to land.

If you are not teaching, what else do you like to do?

PROF. UMA: I travel frequently to the hills whenever I find some time and find solace in reading stuff that I do not get the chance and time to read, which is fiction and poetry.

Humour is an integral part of your lectures. How much of it would you attribute to your being a follower of Russel Peters?

PROF. UMA: Well, I pre-date the gent so named hence he should be asked this question…!! On a more serious note, I do believe that this is an effective way to impart understanding as otherwise some topics and subjects can become a bit too dry and pedestrian to impart to a set of (impatient) learners.

– PURNA CHOUDHARY

Samurais, PGPM Gurgaon Class of 2016

A Terrible Affair

Last time when I had this feeling I was in eighth standard and I shouted in the hollow halls of my mind, “et tu Newton”. I had seen his pictures sitting under a tree with an apple and thought of him as a nice lad; little did I know that he would turn out to be one of my tormentors later. His three laws were like three Japanese anime women, very innocent and pretty upfront but as you live with them and dig deeper they reveal their nastiness. Anyhow, with false self-confidence I wasted my few years trying to master it.

They say “history repeats itself”, never expected my history cycle to be so short. Coming back to the present, last week I had a blind date with this old forgotten feeling. “Et tu Lintner and Sharpe”, I cried yet again in misery. The two noble men as in Nobel winning men one fine day decided that it was up to them to give this world a standard method for measuring risky investments and expected returns. The length of the previous sentence is too short to justify the complexity of the method and too long considering my answers in the exam sheet. After a lot of work and toil they named it after their favourite after-high snacks as CAPM. Capital Asset Pricing Method.

My MBA was going great, I made ardent notes in the classes of Organizational behaviour and applied all my intellect learnt while preparing for IITs in the HRM lectures. The customer decision journeys were way easier than my own and I could relate to the trinity point (it was impossible to keep all three women happy at the same time). To foolishly extend the point as a habit, I would say that I even conquered the Bernaullis and the Poissons, it was tough but I did it and I was all Alexander till I met the Financial Management of Managementshire.

I was told that it was a thin stream of fresh water which will provide me with fresh perspective and widen my horizon like never before. That tiny stream turned out to be a salt water lake shored up by quick sand and had crocodiles as its natural habitat. I faced it bravely for the first couple of lectures but sadly in the growing perpetual pain I had to sit up without discounting the hazards of failing end term. I clenched the rope when I heard that only two lectures were left, and I was smiling all too happily. Then someone in his usual tone shouted, “guys!, guys! …we have our midterm in the next class and after the two left classes we will be having the end term, and Oh yes, you will have to submit the projects by the end of month.” Undeniably it gave me fresh perspective and it did widen up my horizons.

It was during the midterm that I realized that I had a very peculiar disease called SETD(specifically exam time dyslexic). I had my first stroke while giving the financial management midterm and my God that was horrible. I could not even construct the words and read them because of which I could not perform my level best otherwise I was well prepared. I still think it was my competitors’ plan; they must have brushed my exam paper with LSD powder. That time I thanked God that the exam paper had alternatives and we had to tick mark.

After that amazingly horrific experience I just waited for the course to get over and then…I met my blind date. Her name was ‘Beta’ and it represented the risk sensitivity. True to its name, it played a major role in the end term. While I was ball dancing with CAPM, Modigliani and Miller played the Music in the background trying their best to make my life hell. Finally, the course was over with Mr. Miller who ended party with a toast to the Unlisted firms and bankruptcy, and I said to myself, “what an Irony?”

The end term is over now and I am yet to calculate the cost of capital involved here, but I have learnt one law (nature’s or otherwise) that “higher the risk, higher the gain” so let us see, the risk is definitely on the higher side, I expect the returns to follow too.

– Animesh Bajpai

PGPM Class of 2015

My Summer Internship Experience

Summer Internship, I was told, was one of the most important part of my MBA as I would get a chance to apply the knowledge gathered and get a reality check on my progress over the first year. So, naturally, I was all excited to start my internship at Feedback Infra Services Pvt. Ltd. – a Consulting firm in Gurgaon, which provides services in varied domains extending from Energy, Transport and Hospitals to Real estate.

I am doing internship in the Energy Domain, specifically in Transmission & Distribution under able guidance of my company Guide and would like to share my first month’s experience. On the very first day, a project on “”Detailed Analysis of Privatization of Transmission & Distribution” was allotted to me. The scope of project was to carry out a detailed study of the Power Transmission & Distribution sector from the very beginning – i.e., the inception of the first Electricity Act 1910. I happen to have worked in Transmission & Distribution for almost 4 years in Reliance Power Transmission Ltd. and was expecting to work on something new during my internship. Nonetheless, I was kicked about it as I saw this as an opportunity to delve deeper into the history of one of the greatest discovery of all times – Electricity.

I was determined to prove my mettle with this study and to improve my prospects at getting better projects in the future. This was one of the numerous life lessons I learnt from my professors during my first year at Great Lakes – that in order to get something, you must first deserve it. So I worked and worked and worked hard for it. And it paid off too, as my next was a live project on “Market Assessment of EPC Companies in Transmission & Distribution” for a foreign investor.

It has been little over a month since I joined and I have got the opportunity to work and be a part of about 10 different projects out of which, two were specially assigned to me by the Associate Director of Feedback Infra. Some of the projects are tough as no data or information is readily available for analysis but that’s what has made work fun – especially making reports after analyzing different upcoming/projected programs in the power sector.

My first month here at Feedback Infra, was very challenging to say the least but there was also a lot to learn and I would like to thank my mentors at Great Lakes for providing me such a wonderful opportunity.

Vipul Tiwari

Member, Student Council
Ojas, PGPM (Energy) Class of 2014
Great Lakes Institute of Management, Gurgaon

Uncle Bala in College

It was an (un)usual Thursday afternoon when Uncle Bala flew down to Gurgaon to meet the students at GLIEMR.  Excitement to see him pervaded the jam packed auditorium while the ‘V-day’ excitement had already taken a back seat. But Uncle Bala was welcomed with applause as he started off by wishing us a Happy Valentine’s Day!

While addressing the two PGPM (Energy) batches, he talked at length about his experience in Abu Dhabi and what got him interested in the field of Energy.  His anecdotes about the King Khalifa, Emirates Palace Hotel and the gloom and doom fate of the black gold in the gulf countries kept us riveted. He also spoke about the lesser known technology of Liquefied Shale and how it can bail out the ‘gas-guzzling’ US, whose 70% of the oil needs is met by imports. And guess what, the country with the largest reserves of shale gas in the world, (only second to the US) is India!

His speech was a great encouragement to the Energy batches.  According to him the world is heralding an “Energy Revolution” and the time is ripe to enter the domain of Energy and transform “Managers into Leaders”.  He also spoke about his associations with the Global Energy Management Institute (GEMI).

Talking about the college, academics and jobs, he persuaded us to learn more on our own (“I can take you to the pond, but it’s you who has to drink”). Uncle Bala laid a lot of emphasis on self learning and exemplified it by hinting on Googling articles on energy and going through the MIT courseware, their amazing guest lectures, class assignments, all of which are available online for free. He said that the “world is changing, and you have to be extraordinary in whatever you do” and gave an example of the girl from Great Lakes, Chennai who skyrocketed in eight months to land up in Microsoft at a very attractive package.

I simply cannot help but quote Uncle Bala before I wrap up.  Some of his words like “Be Distinct or Become Extinct”, “Your Network is your Networth”, “Execute, Execute or be executed” have got etched into our minds. Signing off, he promised to bring more Thought Leaders here and will be back in July/August.