Exam Frenzy!!

Rarely have things been as hectic as in the past two weeks for me - I guess the same could be said of my entire entire batch. Deadlines looming for every subject. We barely finished with our mid-terms and we have already come to the end-terms. GMP has really forced all of us to work on our priorities correctly.There is a plethora of stuff to be done and unless you are focused and sure of what you want you may miss out on many good learning opportunities. To put it in economic terms :- "The Marginal Utility of sleep has become abundantly clear to all of us". A sincere advice to all future GMPians - Sleep as much as you can before you get here .

The professors have been most co-operative but they too have a syllabus to complete. We have been clearly told that academic standards would be very high so the onus is on us to prove ourselves. Also, a lot of emphasis is put on group work and assignments which seems to be working very well!!

I am reminded of following lines from the Bryan Adams song "Summer Of '69'" -
'....Ain't no use in complainin'
When you got a job to do....'

On a happier note we would be 25% MBA in about 2 weeks from now - now that is something :):)

Its time to go - have to hit my books !!!

Celebrating Freedom at XLRI.

In a small but very well managed function, we celerated the 61st Independence Day @ XLRI.
There were short but inspiring speeches by Father James and the Gen Sec. And these were followed by three patroitic songs by XL's popular band "Bodhi Tree".

CEO Forum - Mr. C.D. Kamath, MD, Tata Refractories Limited

The calender read 08-08-2008. This was a date deemed to be auspicious for our neighbours on the other side of the wall. When the whole world was staring at China with abated breath for the opening ceremony of the Olympics Games, XLRI had more than one reason to do the same. And we meant business...

It was on this very day Prof. Sharad Sharin had invited Mr. C.D. Kamath, the MD of Tata Refractories Limited (TRL) to share his experiences of "doing business with China". Mr. Kamath took the opportunity to enthrall the audience with his experiences in delaing with the Chinese. It was interesting to note that TRL is the first TATA Group organization to set a green-field plant in China from scratch and that too in less than a year. The talk revolved on the topic that China and India were almost at par in the early 1950s, however, it have sprinted well ahead of us in the last five decades. They opened up their economy years before the Indians did. But the very fact that 'Economics drive Politics in China and not the other way round' drove the nail on the head. Mr. Kamath touched a variety of subjects like land and labour reforms in China, about how they are so much receptive of FDIs and so on.

The audience was very appreciative of the talk and I am sure we will get many more opportunities to interact with eminent personalities like Mr. Kamath.

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Short Profile of Mr. Kamath: He obtained the Degree of B.Tech. (Metallurgy) from IIT Madras in 1966. Subsequently, he joined Tata Steel as
Graduate Trainee and thereafter moved through various disciplines such as Steel Melting Shop Operations, Refractory
Maintenance and Production Operations, Iron Making and Sinter Operations and Technical Services. He functioned as
the Profit Centre Head for the Rings and Agrico Division of Tata Steel. He initiated the Total Quality Management activities
in Tata Steel. Overall, he worked for Tata Steel for a period of 31 years.

He was the Chairman of Indian Refractory Makers Association (IRMA) for the period 2000-02 and organized IREFCON 2002.

He has also been the recipient of the National Metallurgist Award from Government of India.

XLRI GMP Softskills Development Series - Resume Writing

"Is your resume good?", when this question was posed to a group of GMPians almost everyone nodded. But the response to the question "Is your resume good enough?" received a much muted response.
When asked "How often do you update your resume? ". The answers were to the tune of "...every six months.." or "..as and when I acquire a new skill.." or even "..whenever my assignment is over..". Such answers are not suprising from a bunch of professionals who have served industries for for over five years. Since matter and anti-matter go together, since constructive and destructive forces go hand in hand, we decided to rip some resumes apart. The observations were startling.
The problem was not with the resumes but the way they have been worded. The conclusion was that there is a very thin line between what a candidate has and what the industry expects from him. And GMPians decided to be on the right side of it.

Since there is never a wrong time to do the right thing, we decided to conduct a "resume writing" workshop. And we decided to get expert help in resolving our skills. So, we approached Prof. Jittu Singh and he gladly agreed.

In an hour long interactive talk, we learnt the nuances of a good resume. There were a lot of ideas flowing back and forth and at the end it was a fruitful excercise. As the workshop was coming to a close, I recalled a thought of Alvin Toffler, the great futurist and author of books like The Third Wave, Powershift, Future Shock, etc.He had said "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."

Leaders Speak - Mr. Anshu Gupta, CEO, Goonj, a Delhi based NGO

This was the first time I was listening to a CEO, other than the CEO of the organization I had worked for. Even the latter was a very rare event. But this time, it was different, not only the theme but the mission as well. He was there not to talk about toplines and bottomlines but life-lines.

Today, I got an opportunity to attend to a talk by Mr. Anshu Gupta, founder of Goonj, a Delhi based NGO. This was the first of the series of the CEO talks lined up for the session and I must confess, it was a memorable beginning. When toplines and bottomlines are the only two things that take up most of the time of the CEOs, it was really refreshing to learn that there are people with a vision who are determined to make a difference to the people who are deprived.

We care about donations only after a calamity or a disaster. And I have seen that myself. After floods, famines and tsunamis we always find generous souls donating for the those affected. But, according to Mr. Gupta, the root of the problems lie there. We think of the people who have under previledged or downtrodren only in the wake of a crisis. The other problem is that we all give what we don't require and not what the people needs. Hence, there is always a gap between the problem and the solution. Goonj is trying to bridge this divide.

With Anshu Gupta's talk, we also inaugurated the:


The next CEO lecture is on 8th August. The speaker is Mr. C. D. Kamath, the MD of Tata Refractories Limited. He would be speaking on "Doing Business in China".

More Coverages: The Telegraph , Businessworld ,Sify News/PTI

After a hiatus...

You guys must be desparate to know why there has been such a long silence ever since the last post. Well...the answer is that the GMPians were busy with the books. With almost a month and a half month since we have joined XLRI, it was time that the revered professors test our knowledge. This doesn't mean that we don't get surprise quizzes and assignments. But a mid term is a mid term !! It's like a test match in cricket. No matter how many T20s and one-dayers are played, test matches (read mid and end terms) will keep her charm. These are such occasions when the students are given the opportunity to get as much materials (text books, notes, reference books, printouts from Wikipedia and so on) to the examination hall as possible only to realize to his/her utter dismay that not many things in the question paper are comprehensible and that the treasures he had brought to the examination hall are of no use (We have several open book exams).

"Arre exam to chalta rehta hai...,"remarked a professor the other day. He is absolutely right that we must broaden our outlook, get as much knowledge as possible from the books and outside.

Not all the mid term papers are over. Many are to come in near future...but we will continue to focus on other activities as well.

Contributed By : Prijit Debnath