The Summers Story

Summer Placements season for PGP-11 ended in grand style, with the participating batch of 193 students, including participants of the Fellow Program in Management (FPM), assured of a rich learning environment at some of the top corporate houses from India and abroad. IIMK’s performance this year outshone last year’s record-breaking placements season comfortably, setting new benchmarks along the way.

Summer Placements 2008 saw participation from 66 top recruiters from India and abroad, with 22 new recruiting partners participated in placements at IIMK for the first time. Some of the new names added to our increasingly impressive roster included: Google, Freudenberg, Accenture Business Consulting, Citibank, Bank of America, KPMG, Coca Cola, PepsiCo and Hewitt Associates, amongst others.

Freudenberg, the diversified German conglomerate that offers its customers technically challenging products and services in a wide variety of businesses ranging from chemicals to IT services, across the world, initiated a relationship with IIMK this year. Freudenberg was one of the most coveted recruiters on campus, and recruited students for positions in Germany and Hong Kong. Freudenberg, as an exclusive recruiter, recruits only from very select business school campuses in India, and its participation at Summer Placements 2008 speaks volumes about IIMK’s perception as the preferred destination for top-drawer managerial talent.

Other prominent names that participated at Summer Placements 2008 included: YES BANK, Johnson & Johnson, HUL, Yahoo!, Edelweiss, HSBC, JP Morgan Chase, Ocwen, American Express, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Boston Analytics, Marico, CHAINalytics, Standard Chartered Bank, Deloitte Consulting, Colgate-Palmolive, ITC, Asian Paints, and Tata Motors, amongst others.

The average stipend on campus zoomed 25% as compared to last year, to be pegged at Rs 25,000 per month. Accenture Business Consulting and Boston Analytics offered the highest domestic stipend at Summer Placements 2008 – Rs 50,000 per month. The offers saw an even distribution across verticals, with 28% of the batch choosing internships in the finance domain, 22% of the batch selecting marketing profiles and 20% of the batch showing their preference for Systems. Consulting internships were chosen by 16% of the batch, while the other 14% was evenly split across Operations, HR and Others.

Accenture Business Consulting extended its relationship with IIMK to summer placements this year, after making the highest number of offers across top campuses at IIMK during Final Placements 2007. Technology giants Google and Yahoo! were amongst the most coveted recruiters on campus; both offered roles in Internet Sales & Marketing that were extremely sought after at Summer Placements 2008.

PepsiCo, AIG, RPG Enterprises, IBM Business Consulting, YES BANK and Reliance Industries Ltd were amongst the many recruiters who made the highest number of offers across business schools at IIMK this year, during Summer Placements 2008. Impressed by the quality of talent, PricewaterhouseCoopers offered roles with the Performance Improvement division for the first time at IIMK. Deloitte Strategy & Operations and Deloitte Financial Advisory Services continued to strengthen their relationship with us; IIMK being the only campus where both Deloitte S&O and Deloitte FAS participate in placements processes.

A distinct trend at Summer Placements 2008 was the wide variety of exclusive roles on offer, even from traditional recruiters. American Express offered risk management profiles in their prestigious WWRIM division. AIG, impressed with the students’ knowledge in the financial domain offered roles in asset management, with the AMC division.

In a statement reflective of IIMK’s rapidly growing stature amongst premier recruiters, Senior Vice President & Regional Head (South) – Corporate and Institutional Banking, YES BANK, Mr. Nakul Beri said, “The response and enthusiasm to YES BANK on campus was terrific, with a professionally organized process. We look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with IIM Kozhikode that spans beyond just placements.”

Students chose to intern with organizations offering some of the most exotic and unique profiles across top business school campuses, thus underlining the diversity that sets us apart. Students were offered roles in Carbon Credit Trading and Environmental Consulting, while TCS offered unique roles in Entrepreneurship Marketing. SET made five offers in the Media Management and Media Marketing roles.

As an institute, we have been growing at a rapid pace. The last two years have seen the student intake increase by no less than 25%. That said, the growth of key placement parameters more than kept pace with the pace of growth of the institute.

Chairperson-Placements, Prof. Kulbhushan Balooni remarked “IIMK’s placements have consistently bettered the records the institute has set for itself. In spite of IIMK setting an aggressive pace of growth, placements performance has consistently exceeded all expectations. This augurs well for the next decade of excellence for IIMK.”

Every placement season, we set new benchmarks, easily surpassing its past records. Never one to rest on its past laurels, and driven by its motto of ‘Dream. Innovate. Achieve.’ we continue to march ahead, poised to challenge new frontiers in the next decade of its existence.

IIMK storms ahead into BT Acumen finals!

Konquest reports:

It was an amazing performance by IIMK in BT Acumen South Zone finals. Shamanth and Chinmay, both from PGP11, stormed into the all-India finals by winning the South Zone quiz finals very comfortably. They finished on 230 points, while the other finalists (IIMB, TAPMI and BIM) were on 60, 30 and 20 respectively. Quizmaster Harsha Bhogle called it 'the most convincing victory I have seen in years'.

IIMK's debate team(Vikram and Kaustubh) did well too - losing narrowly in the semifinals. Great show guys, you've done K extremely proud. All the very best to Shamanth and Chinmay for the All-India finals!

A tryst with higher mortals

Prof. Sunil Handa visited the IIMK campus last week. Kumar Vivek, PGP 11, reports:

He mesmerizes you the very first time. Sixty minutes – and it’s enough for him to convince a packed IIM Kozhikode classroom that servitude is the worst nightmare which can happen in the career of an IIM graduate.

Sunil Handa, the 53-something pioneer of Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation (LEM) and a visiting faculty across IIMs puts himself at ease with students from the very beginning – communicating in “their” language! Shattering all myths about the “riskiness” of entrepreneurial ventures and “cushiness” of fixed-income jobs, his arguments flawlessly describle the limited growth potential in an employee setup. Coming from a man who has experimented with 7 businesses after graduating from an IIM in 1979, the realities of the corporate world and its ‘job’ nature embed themselves on the minds of every listener. “Each one of you has the capabilities to make it big” – his advice reverberates with numerous live examples of his students in his rich teaching career, spanning a little over one and half decades.

“Be an employer – Be the Superman!” is the theme of a poster he circulates. Augmenting the effect is his “box-theory” – you cannot be contented when you are “contained” – whether its salary growth, career growth, or service to the nation; to be effective requires being on your own.

Discussing the importance of an MBA curriculum, he repeatedly drives his point of how the course structure and case discussions can shape the entire personality of the participants and the students should, well, study! Further, to top everything, his motto is - giving back to the society. Millions of dollars of his personal wealth were contributed to Eklavya, the educational foundation he established. The man, with his uncanny ability to connect, is not only a teacher but an amazing inspiration.

Life is short, “Ab nahin to kab?”!! – If not now, then when?

Prof Sunil Handa also spent 3 days with the senior students, 3 days packed with intense intellectual stimulation and inspiring anecdotes. We hope to see many more visits from you, Sir.


Update: Prof Sunil Handa mailed in the LEM slogan, that he had not discussed so far but planned to bring up in his next visit. In his own words: "It's a bit of funny hindi-english mix, basically says there is no tomorrow, there is no yesterday, there is only HERE and NOW :

not to kab, not to tab, but to ab,

not to kahan, not to wahan, but to yahan!!

Horizons '07 - An invaluable learning experience

Horizons '07 - IIMK's Annual Management Conclave, was held during this weekend, from 5th - 7th October 2007. The overarching theme was 'Bharat - Ek Khoj' with three sub-themes 'Unleashing India Inc.', 'Rediscovering Rural India' and 'Unlocking the Human Potential'. IIMK students benefited greatly from the knowledge and insights that were shared by Horizons' eminent speakers.The Horizons blog has been updated with some of the speakers' speeches. They're definitely worth a read. Looking forward to a bigger and better Horizons next year!

Chakde India!

What could be the best way to start its second term for PGP-11? No prizes for guessing! The obvious answer is Cricket(T-20) world cup final between India and Pakistan. The stage for an amazing rollercoaster ride was set and the only thing in everyone's mind was 5:30 pm.

With herculean efforts, the setup to screen the match in the Audi was completed. The match started with India batting first and PGP guys clapping and shouting with every boundary scored by the team. Though India couldn't stand up to the expectations of its over-enthusiastic fans, it ended up securing a decent total which finally helped it become the world champion. The PGP10/11 students worked equally hard as they kept running from the audi to the mess to counter the interruptions caused due to network issues. The attendance at Audi and Mess surpassed all the previous records at IIMK.

Kudos to Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan who both played beautifully and brought India back everytime it was under pressure. Some of the PGP guys are waiting for Sreesanth to come back to Kerala to honour him for his breathtaking bowling during the final overs. :-)

As the last Pakistani wicket fell, the scene at the IIMK mess suddenly started resembling a festival. People went wild congratulating each other and many of them went live on their mobiles sharing the excitement with their distant loved ones. Hats off to the men in blue who thrashed the attacks of big names like Australia, South Africa, Pakistan and England even without their top three batsmen. With this historic win, we have once again proved that we are second to none in the cricketing world.

The end of a killer term... and a killer on campus?

The pall on Kampus has lifted. The specter of the end terms now well and truly vanquished, it’s time for PGP11 to kick back and enjoy some quiet time before they return for the massacre that is Term 2. As goodbyes are waved, bags packed and books gladly shoved away (after what seems like years), the atmosphere here positively reeks of joy or something stronger. Loud Punjabi songs and rock anthems jostle in a weird jugalbandi as PGP11 finds a musical outlet for its pent-up frustration.

But has the realization that they have now finished 1/6^th of their time here finally sunk in? Or are they just glad that the term from hell has finally ended? Now that the End-Terms have given way to the term’s end, the K-files talked to a few PGP11-ites to find out their thoughts on their first term at K.

“I finally understand what Einstein meant when he said time is relative” says Chaitanya. “Time at K can crawl as slow as it can fly fast. A minute in normal time might seem like an eon when you are waiting for the results of a Markstrat session and a day of sessions and movies of Dr. Mathew might seem to be over before you can blink. Sometimes it seems like it was ages ago when I entered the campus dumbfounded at its awesome beauty and sometimes it seems like the term just flew by. The experience however only got better, getting to know all the awesome people here, joining committees and getting through the 8-exams-in-4-days ordeal. One thing that I'll take home is a sense of belonging which will bring me back here, term after term with more zeal and enthusiasm than before.”

Perky Punekar, Aniket Kute, agrees with Chaitanya, “The entire process of volunteering for various committees and finally being chosen was a great feeling. The camaraderie developed while preparing for Roobaroo was a highlight of the term. But undoubtedly”, he said, “Markstrat had to be the best 2 days we spent on campus. When else would you find people waking up voluntarily at 7.30 in the morning and discussing marketing and distribution budgets?”

Stringy Srinivasan or Gokul as he’s better known had this to say, “Term 1 was a blur. Too many things were happening around me and I wanted to be a part of everything! I guess the enthusiasm in our batch is infectious. And the best course of the term was STI - no doubts on that front and I am sure the whole batch has a similar take on it. But somewhere down the line, there was discontent brewing within us... of having been deprived of girls. With the academic load increasing, frustration set in; people became homesick; but slowly, we have been brought into the folds of the K culture and we’re enjoying every minute of it – be it the long hours of BCing at the NC or the mad frenzy of messages on IP - the initiation into the Kult. We’ve become a part of K.”

Gokul wasn’t the only one who felt that term 1 had sped away. As Puneet Nagi puts it “Like a 10 minute quiz, it ended before it started. But it sure was good fun while it lasted! In this of state of being overwhelmed by the feeling that it's over, I can’t really recall any of the cool things that happened. Perhaps there were just too many of them! All I can think of at the moment, is putting the closing entries on my burgeoning sleep debt account. Debit sleep, credit sleep debt. Or whatever. Accounts sucks!”

Rishi Tandon wrapped it all up nicely saying, “A blink of the eye, and already we are 1/6 MBAs. The term started deceptively slowly, with a starry eyed moi walking wonderstruck into this hilltop paradise. Welcomed by a score of activities, and a happy reconnection with the academic life, I've lived life to the fullest this one term- courses, parties, assignments, field visits, crazy deadlines, infinite all night gyan sessions with a bevy of new friends. This is just how I'd imagined being at an IIM to be. The term break is welcome and I leave for home feeling that all this it’s over all too quickly. I know that I'm returning soon, rejuvenated and wanting more of the IIMK life.”

One down. Five to go.

PS: It wasn’t just PGP11 that was running free on Thursday afternoon. Joining them was this little cobra that for a brief while became the star of the most downloaded video on campus. Think twice before sitting on your bike the next time! Our mallu protectors though did a magnificent job of catching it and here it is in all its innocent glory. Here is a video capturing the same, with MessCom Rohit Arya's commentary.

All's well that ends well!

There’s a strange hush over the campus these days. The NC’s empty and the library full. Harried faces hurry along lugging huge books. Hushed discussions, barely concealed distress and palpable tension seem to be the norm of the day. So what has turned the PGP-11ites (who love to party and watch movies in entertaining modules masquerading as courses) into bewildered zombies? Ah… it’s endterm time -the time for the final knockout after the ever increasing load of quizzes and assignments. The printers in the CC protest wearily under the scramble for last minute printouts. Chips and biscuit packets fly off the NC shelves as students stock up for long nightouts ahead. With three more days to go, before the blessed comfort of term-break, we wish PGP-11 all the best for their end terms. May there be many Venkys and Jaidevs in your batch. And for the less ambitious, may your gradesheets never be marred by Ds, Is or Fs.

Ciao Professore!

Yesterday, PGP-11 bid goodbye to one of its most beloved professors - Dr. Mathew, when the course "Social Transformation of India" was wrapped up with the screening of the Italian film, "Ciao Professore!" (translates to Goodbye Professor) The film - a light hearted comedy, highlights the social situation prevailing in Southern Italy in the early '90s. Sounds like serious stuff, but throw in a dozen 8-year olds who swear imaginatively and yet retain their innocence, and an honest North Italian Professor and voila! you've an entertaining fare on your hands. Everything said and done, this movie was a befitting finale to a string of foreign movies that were shown as part of the course curriculum.

Before the screening of the movie began, StudCon members felicitated Dr. Mathew for having enlightened us during the course by raising a lot of questions, most of them very uncomfortable and probing ones. After the students gave him a standing ovation, he took over the mike and spoke about how he was skeptical before coming here about the way the course would be received by the students. In a speech peppered with Mathewisms, he added that he was very happy to have had a chance to teach us and hoped to come back to teach at IIMK. We'd love to meet you again, Sir. Ciao!

The list of movies that were shown during the course:

Colors of Paradise (Iranian)
Two women (Iranian)
Grave of the fireflies (Japanese)
All About My Mother (Spanish)

In the name of the father (English)
Central Station (Brazilian)
Ciao Professore! (Italian)

PGP11 works hard and parties harder!!

They were 69. And all of them had one single responsibility for the evening: Bring out the party animal in PGP 11. The PGP11 bash, thrown for the batch by all the committee members, started as soon as the first bus left for the venue at 6 in the evening. The thirty kilometers to Kadavu resort, our venue for the evening, were spent singing, dancing to and enjoying some of the best Tamil and Malayalam songs (that the bus driver had). Excitement was in the air as our bus rolled into the resort.

Set quaintly along a river, Kadavu is quite a beautiful place. The vast expanse of space and beautiful traditional architecture didn’t really have the calming effect that it normally would. The junies were raring to swing and even the fruit punch (which looked unbelievably like Absinthe!) and toothsome starters couldn’t stop them from getting onto the floor. [The place was too big to qualify as a dance floor, it was ‘a lot of floor’ where you could dance, walk, eat or run a half marathon...]













With D (Deepak Oram for the uninitiated) taking over as the DJ, the music went popular, the lights went off, the crowd went crazy, and the entire floor went dance. Our big little family resort was now neither family, nor resort. The heady mix of amazing music, Saturday night relief and green fruit punch resulted in some remarkable performances on the floor. Some of these have been caught on camera but some others are etched in time.













Dinner followed the dance extravaganza, and it was pan-Indian and yummy. The music and the green fruit punch kept flowing in the meanwhile.

The crowd started to dwindle at about 10:30 in the evening as the first set of buses drove off back to the campus. As the night progressed, a ‘deep thought and philosophy’ group began to emerge – true to traditions of occasions such as this. Deep contemplation and debate went on till midnight, when it was time for the last bus, and culminated with some Bappi-da numbers from the golden 80’s.

It certainly wasn’t the first party of the season, the Mess party took that honour, but it was certainly an extremely memorable one - Something that the batch of 2009 won’t forget in a hurry.