KIAMS Taught Me To Give My 100%

My years at KIAMS were the first ever away from home. Though it was initially difficult to adjust to a life of independence and responsibility, the years at KIAMS are amongst the most memorable ones in my life.

KIAMS was where a shy and diffident graduate like me transformed into a confident, charming and ready-to-take-the road belle. The numerous interviews, presentations, exhibitions, etc. helped me gain the much-needed confidence. The spirit of excellence that was constantly and consistently focused upon by our professors was aided through the research works entrusted upon us. Along the way, I learnt how to work in a group, in coordination with others. My peer group at KIAMS was like an extended family. We celebrated birthdays, had fun and pulled each other through. When  I fell ill, they took care of me. When I was homesick, they extended support. When I was down, they helped me get out of it. The campus was also an integral part of my life at KIAMS. Its greenery and serenity always calmed me down.

I did my summer internship at Indilox. My job profile was of encashing fund management, analyzing balance sheets, computing ratios, etc. This was my first individual interaction with the corporate world. The interactions at KIAMS were integral in preparing me for such a job since even though I had mentors guiding me, each thing I did was for myself. Here I learnt that self-dependence is the key to success. You cannot depend on others; you must believe in yourself.

What I would like to advise you is to give your 100% to anything you do. It is important for you to realise that these are the years that will guide you towards a successful life. When you study, focus. When you play, have fun. These are the years that will change your outlook towards life. These are the years you will miss in future. These are the years that I wish to never let go off.

Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies Hires Professor Ashok Patil for Corporate Finance

From a management student to associate professor at the Global Business School, Hubli to an associate professor at KIAMS, it has been a natural progression for Prof. Ashok Patil who joined the KIAMS team last month. Prof. Patil excels in the field of corporate finance, a subject he is teaching at KIAMS.

“Being a management student myself – I am pursuing my PhD as well – I know my subject and also the importance of imparting education the right way,” he says. On being asked how he makes his classes more interesting and engaging, he says: “I involve the students in group discussions in order to bring out new ideas, encourage role-play to practice real-time market scenarios and conduct question-answer sessions wherein I clarify their doubts. All these elements are an integral part of my classroom sessions to help the students pick up things easily.”

To create a better understanding of the various aspects of management, Prof. Patil says he picks up live examples. All the management workshops he has attended, he says, come in handy as he incorporates all those teaching methods in his own sessions.

As far as prerequisites for a good manager are concerned, Prof. Patil says, a manager should be able to analyze a situation appropriately before making any decision. “He must be a quick decision-maker and result-oriented,” he adds. “Managers should be dynamic and keep themselves abreast of the latest in their field,” he says, confident KIAMS will be able to help the students achieve this objective. “They should be up-to-date and should be analytical in decision making.”

Prof. Patil has been an achiever in his own right. His passion for teaching has helped him bag a number of prizes including second prize at the National Conference on Entrepreneurship and Business Development in India. He was also chosen for having the best paper in the technical seminar Track C-101. One of his papers, ‘Role of Trust and Control in Financial Services Outsourcing: An Empirical Study’ has been accepted in a peer reviewed journal. Another paper, ‘A Critical Review of Outsourcing, Off shoring and Offshore Outsourcing of Financial Services’ has been submitted for approval at the Institute of Management Education and Research, Belgium.

KIAMS is happy to welcome Prof. Patil on board and looks forward to this high value addition to the PGDM course.

‘KIAMS Gave Me The Ability To Learn… And Unlearn’: Prashanti Akepati

It’s been nearly eight years since Prashanti Akepati passed-out of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies. Since then, there have been quite a few alumni gatherings, but she’s never gone back to KIAMS.

“Somehow, I feel that KIAMS belongs to the current batch of students. I spent two wonderful years in that campus. The day I appeared for my last exam at KIAMS, my purpose of being there was fulfilled.” 

As a Senior Manager (Operations) with the User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Department at Bajaj Allianz, Prashanti co-ordinates with the user departments and IT and helps make the communication process smooth, so that the system is developed as per the user requirement in the shortest possible time. Prashanti starts her day with a review of the tasks-to-do, followed by assignment of work to her team, coordinating with different departments, discussions regarding implementation of new processes, and finally, taking stock of the targets achieved and the ones that are to be achieved.

“I love being behind the scene… an anonymous force which has a huge impact on all users, pan-India. All changes in the system process go through the UAT, making us central to the smooth running of the system.”  She points out that a reputed B-school like Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies is a great launch-pad that pushes you to a higher rung in the career ladder.

“It was at KIAMS that I learnt the art of listening. Very often you will see two people saying the same things, but not agreeing with one another. One has to listen, to be able to deliver what is needed. The most important thing that KIAMS taught me was the ability to learn… and unlearn. The day we think that we know more than others, is the day when our growth ceases in that environment. One has to be open to learning every day to be able to perceive opportunities and grow further.” Intake at Bajaj Allianz for a B-school grad is as a management trainee (MT), but within a year a MT is promoted to Assistant Manager. That’s when the real climb begins.

“Acceptance among peers is hard for MT’s, as they are seen as a privileged lot who are given fancy salaries and titles, without having proven their worth. The peer pressure that a management graduate goes through in the 1st year is immense. I have seen around 4 to 5 batches; every batch faces the same attitudinal issues. Quite a few leave after the first year – year and a half. It is not the solution. I want current batches at KIAMS to be prepared for such conditions.” However, what an ordinary executive learns in 3 years, an average management trainee packs in one year, thanks to B-schools like KIAMS. MT’s have to work twice as hard and smart, perform under pressure, take quick decisions and learn on their feet – stuff we were put through, at KIAMS.”

The trick, says Prashanti, is to understand the organizational perspective. After all, graduates from KIAMS are expected to fill in the shoes of the mid-management. “Passing-out of KIAMS with a good designation and package is just the beginning. With it comes the responsibility and accountability of taking decisions, abiding by the decisions taken, managing the team, and upholding the values of your organization. KIAMS teaches you to be a jack of all trades, but outside, you’ve got to be the master of atleast one. In real life work environment, one is valued for one’s knowledge of the field.”

Prashanti thanks Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies for her confidence and independence, and letting her know the importance of ‘employability’. “Nobody is indispensable. Constantly evaluate your contributions to the organization, and whether they are valued or not. Don’t be complacent; you never know when an organization would like to dispense with you.”

Prashanti Akepati
Senior Manager, Operations
Bajaj Allianz Pvt Co. Ltd. 

Mafoi Next Stop For Drishya Vijayan

Drishya, a management graduate from KIAMS, recently was selected for the position of Account Manager at Mafoi. She got this opportunity through campus placement. “Though I was not very keen on giving interviews to the recruiters who came down for campus placements, my family and friends thought I should give it a shot and I actually made it,” said Drishya.

Asked about her professional journey so far, Drishya said she joined Infosys after her graduation. Working at Infosys gave her good experience, but she soon realized in order to grow professionally she would have to get more education and eventually decided to join a management program at KIAMS.

“Joining KIAMS was a wise decision. I have learned a lot during my two-year stay at the campus,” said Drishya. She said it has been a great experience studying at KIAMS. Drishya spoke at length about how they worked in teams which gave them good exposure to team dynamics. She praised the KIAMS faculty for being supportive and co-operative. “KIAMS teachers are wonderful,” she said.

Asked about her interview rounds and experience with the interview panel at Mafoi, she said students first appeared in a group discussion round and their performance in this round determined who was selected for interviews. In the interview, she was asked questions related to her work experience at Infosys and her experience at KIAMS. Drishya said: “They asked about my experience at Infosys and the add-ons that I got from KIAMS. They basically wanted to understand if I met their expectations”.

Drishya is really thankful to the faculty members and her seniors at KIAMS who helped her learn and grow as an individual and made her confident enough to face the challenges that may arise in her professional career. She said at KIAMS she learned how to strike a balance between her personal and professional life.

Drishya will be joining Mafoi Management Consultants Ltd., Chennai, on April 2 and is really looking forward to assuming the role given to her.

Dr. Pai from KIAMS Lifts Runner Up Trophy In An International Case Writing Competition.

To be a runner up in an international competition, where faculty members of major business schools presented best of their unpublished work, speaks volumes about the excellent analytical work of Dr. V S Pai. 

Students at KIAMS are painting the town red on their professor’s Chak De Phatte kind of success. “We are really not surprised because he has an uncanny ability to explain the most difficult of problems in the easiest possible way,” says PGDM student Drishya.

“What we like the most is that he goes beyond the text books and connects everything with the present scenario and developments. This really kind of hooks students to his class,” says PGDM student Rohit, another die-hard fan of Dr. V S Pai.

Although, with more than two decades of experience under his belt, Dr. V S Pai never took the competition lightly and always knew his work needed to be elaborate and analytical in order to come in the first three. His writing work explained how Tata Teleservices entered into a joint venture with NPC DoCoMo of Japan to improve the performance of their telecom venture.

Management theories and practices are fast evolving in the present business scenario where mergers and acquisitions have long become a norm. Challenges faced by business are myriad and new, requiring managers to think on the feet and develop a truly international perspective. Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies has a reputation to groom future business leaders in the art of not only surviving but also outshining in the competitive world of business.

“We at KIAMS are fortunate to have an experienced and talented faculty member like Dr. Pai, whose international exposure will help students develop international perspective and transform into world class business leaders,” says Dr. Gopal Iyengar, Director of KIAMS.

Dr. Pai has some advice for the students. “There is no short cut to excellence and this holds true for everyone. I keep updating my knowledge and skills, and writing papers is a kind of passion for me” says Dr. V. S. Pai. “Awards and recognition always follow tenacity, so keep your goal in mind and toil hard to achieve it,” advises Dr. Pai to his students. But he warns against being workaholic as it saps one of energy and life. “Work hard and party harder has been my mantra and it has worked very well for me till today,” laughs Dr. Pai.

‘At Kiams Work-ex Is Not Always Aa Advantage: Saurav Ghosh, Dy Manager, JSW Steel, Mumbai

Saurav Ghosh is a testament to the fact that at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, they don’t try and fit square pegs in round holes. Saurav was – and still is – a hard-core Operations man… and is loving it!

“As a Textile Engineer from Bengal, I worked for 3 years for the Bhilwara group, at their Indore Plant before getting through KIAMS. Infact it was in my second attempt that I got through.”

A B-5 passout, Saurav received an on-campus placement at the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, with Jindal Steel Works (JSW), in the year 2004. Believe it or not, in this age of fly-by-night operators, he has never shifted 0rganisations for the last 8 years, and has chosen to grow with JSW.

“It’s been an excellent journey. I’ve been with JSW since I passed out of KIAMS in 2004. Despite many opportunities, I haven’t shifted… simply because I love my job. Any MBA aspirant should choose their Business school not just of its placement profile, but also on how well it prepares you for life. That is very important. A B-school like KIAMS equips you with skills for life. KIAMS might not be ranked among the top 10 B-schools in the country because nobody measures a B-school on this parameter. The process, through which the students at KIAMS are grinded, is far better than the most of the Top B- schools.”

In Mumbai with JSW, Saurav’s job is a typical 9-6 business – Procurement, interaction with the suppliers, PPT’s to the Directors, tying up with Finance – not the ideal one for an adrenaline junkie, but perfect for Saurav.

“You see, KIAMS was the turnaround point in my life. As an Engineer, I was working on the Shop Floor, but after an MBA from KIAMS, my profile changed completely and my salary went up manifolds. My MBA was more of general management. My core subjects were Project Management, Supply Chain Management… but there was a bit of Finance as well, while Marketing was bare minimum.”

For Saurav, there were ample clubbing and sporting opportunities at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies. But he spent most of his time in the KIAMS library. He squarely blames the faculty for getting him ‘hooked’ onto academics!

“Right at the beginning of the first year, the first subject that was taught was ‘Principles of Management’. GI (Professor G. Iyengar) himself took that Class. It was the first of many classes that GI would conduct. He had this ability to make us think at different levels. GI’s Classes were more about Industry Practices rather than theoretical.”

Saurav points out that in the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, ‘work ex’ might not always be advantageous. “In a job, you pick up wrong practices, and you unknowingly carry this baggage to your B-school.

Secondly, the freshers at KIAMS do much better in terms of marks because we had, kind of, lost the habit of studying, while for the freshers it was just an extension of their education… the mugging- up business! However, the flip-side to it was that, freshers had limited understanding due to lack of experience. A work-ex helps you correlate and appreciate your subjects far better. It matters in the long run.”

 Saurav  feels, unless you are through-and-through an Operations man, you must stick to Marketing or Finance at the Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, because of the plethora of opportunities existing in these fields.

“At the end of the day, what matters is knowledge. Not just knowledge as a part of the academics in KIAMS – that is very important – but a 360-degree perspective of your business, be it Marketing, Finance or Operations. That helps during interviews. I was involved in acquiring a lot of business knowledge, which helped me immensely during campus placement at KIAMS.”

Presenting KIAMS to The Public is Brand Club’s Goal

Spreading the word about Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) is the aim of the Brand Club. Their goal, said co-ordinators, is “to bring to the world news, events and happenings of KIAMS that have a positive effect on our lives, every day.” There are seven members who co-ordinate the various activities of the Brand Club, which include making sure various events like quizzes, seminars and B-plan competitions are always on the agenda for the benefit of the batch. KIAMS organizes various events throughout the year and the co-ordinators said: “Our club’s work is to publicize these events through various social media networks.” Being involved in the Brand Club serves to enhance the educational experience they are receiving at KIAMS.

“Organizing the various events of KIAMS gives us hands-on experience and gives an opportunity to learn things not taught in books. It makes us street smart,” said the co-ordinators. It also allows them to put textbook theories into practice at the events. “Various theories like the Gantt Chart have been used by us to keep the events running smoothly,” they said. Their work, however, is not without challenges which have to be overcome.

“A common challenge we face every day is the language barrier and we keep good contact with the locals, who help us in the various events like some research work and Pragati-type events.” Choosing to have co-ordinators rather than a leader or president tends to make the task of running the club less demanding. “Having co-ordinators is in fact easier,” they said, “because all of us are equally adept at handling the various activities of the club. The team functions as a whole and things are divided as and when they arise.” While it is a student-run club, faculty member are always on hand to help whenever they are needed.

“Ours is a student club which highlights the various student activities organized by the batch,” said the co-ordinators. “The faculty plays a supervisory role whenever necessary.”

Prof. Jha on Maths in Marketing, Realizing Potential of Brand India and Teaching to Think

While most of the faculty and MBA-grads at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies or KIAMS, find Professor Bidyanand Jha’s mix of Marketing and Mathematics, fascinating, Professor Jha himself doesn’t.

“After my BSc and MSc in Mathematics, I chose to do MBA in Marketing, out of interest. There is a lot of analysis in both. Marketing requires a lot of calculations, lot of formulas are inter-related… number crunching, you know. Happens in Finance also, but Marketing attracted me, because of the different kind of challenges. Actually Finance becomes an office job, while I love travelling, roaming around and talking to people. That was my skill and I found that it could be used in Marketing.”

As a core faculty of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, Prof Jha teaches Sales & Distribution Management, Brand Management and Retail & Franchising Management. He is particularly bullish about career opportunities for branding ‘India’!

“The Government of India is focusing hugely on Tourism, be it sight-seeing or Health Tourism. But we’ve got to brand tourism properly. Infact India is globally branded as the centre of economic growth, and this needs to be brand-managed as well. That’s why at KIAMS, we believe that Brand Management has immense scope, not just for branding a product, but branding a community, a country, or even a system.

Not surprisingly, therefore, Prof Jha finds Franchising Management as the next big thing. The number of foreign companies queuing up to do business in India – but not willing to ‘manage’ it – is on the rise. Such companies are always in search of innovative entrepreneurs willing to promote their product, as well as become a part of their system – an opportunity for which students are prepared at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

But what interests Professor Jha the most, are the teens of India. Infact, both the research projects currently being pursued by Prof Jha at KIAMS – learning style of the teens and purchase decision making of the teens – revolves around them.

“There was a time when decisions were made by elders and passed on to the teens, but now teens are self-dependent. This is the new India, which hasn’t been explored much. What is the Teens’ perception? How do they see the Indian market? How do they perceive a product? How do they make a purchase decision? They are habituated to a certain learning-style in the classrooms and school. What impact does it have on their selection of marketing messages… their interpretation of advertisements – in conventional and in new media? How the perceptions of the advertiser differ from the person watching the advertisement? Teens are the Centre of my research at KIAMS, because tomorrow they will be the main consumers in India, atleast.

With KIAMS for a year now, Prof Bidyanand Jha resides within the campus of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

“I get good sets of students to teach, good peer groups to work for… KIAMS is a motivating factor for me to do better.” He advises the outgoing batches to map the difference between their perception and the reality of the outside world, before they step out of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies.

…And for the incoming batches at KIAMS?

“They should unlearn things they’ve learnt outside and relearn new things. At KIAMS, We ‘teach to think’. We all are different individuals with different caliber of solving problems with success. The Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies doesn’t teach that ‘this is the fundamental process of solving a problem’ and that’ you should handle this problem in this way’. KIAMS grads are taught the process of decision-making that leads to a good decision, when a problem comes their way. The students design their own boundaries.”

Clearly, at Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies, you will have to be creative in solving problems on your own!

Student Involvement The Aim of KIAMS Sport Committee

The goal of Kirloskar Institute of Advanced Management Studies (KIAMS) Sports Committee Ashwamedha is to integrate all the students into different sporting activities which help them to learn teamwork and to co-ordinate – but it isn’t easy.

 “Like in every organization there is a hierarchy to go through, convince and get an approval from,” said the co-ordinatiors, “similarly every event has to be clearly permitted by our senior management and given a no-objection certificate. Students at KIAMS come from different parts of the country and have a different mindset. Making them get on the same platform has been a challenge.”

The committee itself consists of three senior representatives and three junior representatives, a mixture of male and female, and selected by senior sports representatives based on their physical capability and their understanding of how to manage and co-ordinate sporting activities for the current batches.

They chose co-ordinators to lead the club, rather than have a designated leader or a president.

“A president is someone who enforces a system where a co-ordinator is one who has power and power simply means the ability to influence. This is the factor we co-ordinators utilize to make things happen in the world”.

Organizing KIAMS Premier League (KPL) (inspired by the Indian Premier League) it also conducts Ashwamedha which consists of different sport tournaments between senior and junior batches.

The club has also introduced a Frisbee game with some innovative ideas and also is also playing outside the campus for KIAMS, currently with Grasim Industries.

Co-ordinating the club has been a learning experience which complements their studies at KIAMS.

The co-ordinators say the experience has taught them how a simple idea can be built into a big event.

“It has taught us how to bring people together and make an event happen. Every event we have conducted at KIAMS has been a project – a learning project that has its goals, objectives, milestones and limitations.”

By serving as co-ordinators, the group has learned how to put theories learned in the classroom into practice.

“In our classroom we are taught principles, ethics, system and boundary conditions,” they said. “These things have been implemented by us in conducting every event. We have understood the importance of a sporting activity.”

The role KIAMS faculty plays in the sports club is one of encouraging maximum participation by students, whether in an active or passive role.

“Our faculty encourages us, or rather demands from us, that we create events which do not only engage the students taking part, but also encourages the students to join in as spectators and supporters,” said the co-ordinators.

Their words of advice for future co-ordinators? “Work is to be done – not avoided.”

KIAMS Marketing Club Aims to Provide a Competitive Edge in The Business World

Learning more about marketing to gain a competitive edge in that area of the business world is the aim of Kirloskar Institute of Management Studies’s (KIAMS) Marketing Club.

Along with two coordinators, the senior club consists of around 15 active members and among the juniors, there are three coordinators and 20 active members.

The purpose of the club is to improve students’ knowledge of the world of marketing and it plans all activities accordingly. The club has organized events such as visits by guests or alumni to share their experiences and visits to different alumni offices to see how things are done.

It plans to have the students work on different real-time scenarios and give their analysis of the situation – one such analysis of the FDI situation has already been printed in Chanakya (KIAMS Newsletter) – and aims to do weekly sector-wise organizational marketing strategies analysis and to be displayed on a social networking page and notice board to grab everyone’s attention.

Some of the events the club conducts are: Marketing Quiz, Ad-Mad Competition, case studies, article analysis and presentations.

Organizing such activities itself is a learning experience for club members, as they take the concepts learnt during classroom sessions and apply them to real-life examples of marketing. The activities of the club also give members experience in managing people and tasks and in meeting requirements,  expanding their outlook and broadening perspectives.

Club members discuss contemporary case studies or issues in the marketing world and try to analyse them using related theories and to get practical exposure. In events such as the Ad-Mad competition, before doing concept designing for ads, members first look at them from all perspectives derived from theoretical knowledge.

The biggest challenge in running such a club is to keep students motivated enough to attend meetings on a regular basis. To meet that challenge topics of discussion for each meeting are decided by group consensus. Because club activities are a student initiative, not an individual effort, instead of having a president, the club has coordinators whose job is to communicate with members and decide on meeting times and schedules. The coordinators, along with the rest of the members, decide on topics for meeting discussions or decide on future activities.

Again, the club being a student initiative, faculty are usually not involved, but act as guides whenever any difficulty arises in understanding or accessing any resources. At times, the club invites them as judges for competitions.

Since assuming their responsibilities, today’s club coordinators have learnt a lot and to future coordinators, they say this responsibility requires a lot of patience and effort. At times, students may not agree with what you think and at such times, the objectives of the club have to be given paramount importance. Their advice to those who will fill their shoes: Be practical and realistic in your approach. Make sure you have your fundamentals in place before moving further.