IIMK AIMS to be the best

On the 17th and 18th of November, IIM Kozhikode will host its annual Technology Summit, AIMS.

Every year since its inception in 2003, AIMS has been widely recognized as the place to be to witness how Technology is transforming Business. Over two days of discussions, talks, breakout sessions and networking dinners, attendees have forged partnerships, showcased new products, engaged customers and found inspiration.

The theme for the year is "A Nation Online". The AIMS weekend will see a range of speakers unparalleled in their industry reputation, depth of expertise, and clarity of thought and vision. Visit the Speakers page at the AIMS website for more.

The highlight of AIMS is Brainstorm, the Panel Discussion. This year, Brainstorm features

* Mr. Murugavel Janakiraman, CEO of Bharatmatrimony.com

* Mr. Hitesh Oberoi,Co-promoter and COO of Naukri.com

* Mr. Manoj Gupta, Vice President, Nexus India Capital

The panel discussion will be moderated by Kiruba Shankar, one of the country's finest and most influential bloggers. More on the Brainstorm page.

Cypress Semiconductors and SAP Labs will conduct two workshops on campus, on Strategic Marketing and Careers in ERP respectively. Last year's workshops were sold-out before the event began.

Here's looking forward to the biggest Technology Business Summit getting ever bigger. Write to abakus@iimk.ac.in to register or visit www.aims2007.com.

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!!

Mesmerized!

Pundit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, a recipient of the Padmashree and a Grammy award winner performed on 23 October, 2007 at IIM Kozhikode, in a concert organized by IIMK’s sub-chapter of SPIC MACAY. A renowned Hindustani music exponent and disciple of Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Bhatt is also the inventor of the Mohan Veena – a fretless, 19-stringed instrument played like a slide guitar. He was joined by Pundit Ram Kumar Mishra, renowned for his mastery of the Tabla and a scion of the ‘Benaras Gharana’.

The concert began with a brief introduction of Pt. Bhatt and Pt. Mishra followed by the lighting of the ceremonial lamp by PGP Chairman, Professor Unnikrishnan. Pt. Bhatt started by telling how music is also a science and how a musician needs to divide every second down to fractions, mentally and play to them.What followed was the most mesmerizing performance, many people in the audience had ever witnessed. Pt. Bhatt started out with Raag Poorvi and went on to play a mélange of Raagas, enthralling everyone with the variety and complexity of notes he played while Pt. Mishra, won the hearts of the people with his skills on the Tabla. The timing of the two together was so perfect that the audience often spontaneously broke into applause. ‘Jugalbandi’ and ‘Sawaal-Jawaab’ were kept to the end when both the masters, in a display of perfect coordination and mastery of their arts teased and tantalized the audience, who wanted more and more.

At the request of everyone present to play more, Pt. Bhatt went on to play his composition, ‘A Meeting By the River’, part of an album he made with slide guitarist Ry Cooder which won the Grammy award for ‘Best World Music Album’ in 1994. At the end of the song, the masters were given a befitting standing ovation.

The concert ended with Professor Unnikrishnan presenting the artists with mementos and a vote of thanks on behalf of IIM Kozhikode for an evening so memorable.

Achtung Komrades!

Following is an account of Sandeep Bhattacharjee's tryst with Deutchland, which beckoned him and three other Komrades for Rubicon, an International B-School competition.

Rubicon, for us, kicked off with a mad scramble for the cheapest air tickets to Frankfurt. This occupied us the first couple of days post the mundane August afternoon when the news first came in. Our team “Thought Architects” had crossed the first hurdle to Rubicon 2007; an international BSchool contest. We were destined for a German trip subject of course to Visa clearances. That the clearances almost killed our euphoria is another story!

We finally settled for the Sri Lankan Airlines which took us directly from Kozhikode to Frankfurt with a little halt at Colombo, at 32K a piece. It was a sweet deal given that we had to pay the fares ourselves. Getting the German visa isn’t a headache, at least that’s what I thought. Little did I know that I’d have to make 3 exhausting trips to Chennai to get my passport stamped. To my utter anguish however, all my other three teammates got it done in a single day from Kolkata!

We landed in Frankfurt post a 13 hour jet trip from Colombo but it was our ride in a BMW to our destination at a blinding 180 Km/Hr that truly satisfied our need for speed. This was however after the long hassle with the immigration officer at Calicut airport who refused to see reason behind us flying from Calicut without any permanent residency in Kerela. It took us multiple rounds of been cross-questioned and repeated display of IIMK I-cards before being let through. A really bad experience which left a bitter taste(We found the German & Sri-Lankan immigration dept much friendlier!).

Germany was like a picture postcard! Cologne with all its history and old buildings and Frankfurt, the heart of German capitalism with all its sky-scrapers were worlds apart, each charming in its own way. What connected the two was the serene river Rhine; the beauty of which can’t really be put in words. The European autumn can be particularly beautiful with colored leaves decorating trees and an electrifying chill in the air. Navneet was packed, all the while, in his Jumbo red sweater under a jacket which kept him cozy and smiling all along, while I wasn’t too happy with what felt like a layer of ice on my face! The four of us trotted across the pristine countryside, taking our time through the various cathedrals, looking out for McDonald’s outlets all the while! Alas,Spending too many of those Euros never seemed a good idea...

The German delicacies aren’t particularly appealing to Indian taste buds as we discovered at the various formal and informal dinner parties that were held during the week. I barely survived, on bland tasteless sandwiches most of the time, while substituting juice, coke, beer and wine for drinking water. I’ve never enjoyed the mess food back at K as I did for a whole week after my return!

It was surely “Crossing the Rubicon” in every sense, for us. It began with a nice ‘free’ accommodation at a beach resort for half a day at Colombo and ended on that chilly night at the Frankfurt station, with a heck of a time in between. However it was probably Soubhagya who had more than his fair share of memorable moments making the rest of us go a trifle green!;)

Parisian Tales

Bonjour dear Komrades,

Its been more than a month at the ESCP-EAP Paris and it's been great. The city is beautiful with its boulevards, cafes, bistros and most importantly, the fashion conscious Parisians. The 35 hour work week ensures that Parisians have time for everything art, music and the numerous museums the city is so famous for. People truly enjoy life and can hardly be seen running around, they do things at their own sweet pace.

The French education system ( well, we had a 2 hour session on it) is highly competitive and only the best can make it to the elite Schools of excellence called the Grand Ecoles (ESCP-EAP is one of the better known Grand Ecoles). And successful people in every sphere are from Grand Ecoles System. To get into even the least famous Grand Ecole is more prestigious than getting into the best university. And we've had firsthand experience of the respect people give you after knowing that you are a student of a Grand Ecole!

The International exchange programme attracts about 150 students from 21 countries including Members of EU, US, Mexico, Russia, Israel, Argentina, China, Japan amongst others and this really makes it a International Exchange programme. It is quite an experience to just listen to different accents of English.

The professors are also on international exchange or so it would seem. We have French, Irish, American, British Professors. These professors do a lot of consulting for corporates and have a rich working experience which adds a very practical dimension to their teaching. Another interesting thing is that most of the professors think very highly about Indian students and attribute computer-like mathematical abilities to Indian brains. Guess we need to thank our seniors for that but it surely is a very, very positive image to live up to.

For the exchange students, courses offered in both English and French. Although, Indian students have taken courses in English. We initially had a course that place of France in European and world affairs. Most of us have taken regular courses while a few have taken some very exotic courses like Working of the Human Mind and Evolution of the American Cinema. The lectures are usually of 3 hours with a fifteen minute break after a 1.5 hours and as usual, there's some intelligent CP and some crappy CP. People walk in and out as they feel. Students are treated as equals. Professors encourage students to go in for research and are always ready for writing papers with their students.

Elections are a funny affair here - there are Campus parties and these parties nominate candidates to contest against each other. These candidates distribute cakes, chocolates, candies and juices early in the morning. There are parties to get votes with free alcohol and food, not to mention dancers from famous bars, quite unimaginable in IIMK! All these affairs are sponsored by corporates. In fact there was such a party last night sponsored by some energy drink company (of course everyone was more interested in the alcohol than the energy drink!) It's been quite an experience so far... c'mon junies, work hard; then come and party in Europe! J

That was Aruna Nayak reporting from Paris. The others too sent in their two bits:

Gopi told us how he was 3 hours late for a presentation at school due to the transportation strike that has now hit France. The bike service (that allows you to pick up and drop bikes at stations), was the main means of transport while some Parisians hit the streets with roller-skates and skateboards!

Sheetal's been finding the language and pronounciations very funny, because the French turn rs into h sounds and the frequently used 'pardon' turns into 'pah-do' (with a soft d) that when translated into Hindi, makes it a strange thing to say to someone you meet in the street :D Having Moroccans and Sri Lankans in their neighbourhood has also led to some interesting experiences for these guys.

Ananya wrote on her blog, "The first look at the Seine and a cruise on it is something that I dare not attempt to describe in words, I have neither the prowess nor the imagination to convey to the reader the beauty of the experience. The only guarantee is that it lifts your spirits and gives you a high that not the strongest alcohol can".

She also lists some 'Highlights' from the early days of their stay -

1.Tushar being asked by a fellow Indian student - 'Excuse Me! Which country are you from?'

2. Our unsuccessful attempts at using the Euro Latino telephone calling card.

3. Tomato Puree being misunderstood for Tomato Ketchup (Yeah! Yeah! We can't read French).

4. The daily effort at comprehending the food items in the Mess.

5. The shower system (You need to keep pressing a button to keep the water flowing).

6. Gopi asking a man on the station for directions in Tamil.(And actually getting the answers)

All of them have been having a very frustrating time with the French calling card system which explains Venky's gestures in the picture below.

The picture below should tell us why the guys just don't want to come back :)

(Photo credits: Gopi)

Raas-dandiya!!

What happens when hot jalebis and gujju music come together? A great evening! Spicmacay and messcom came together to organize the mother of all festivals, as navrathri was celebrated joyously at IIMK with the Dandiya Nite. The event witnessed a record turnout as students postponed all their other priorities to come and participate in the spectacle.




And to make sure that no one was caught on the wrong foot, Neha Solanki of PGP-10 took a special class for all the dandiya enthusiasts, the day before the event. Dressed in ethnic wear and quick to learn (as always), the students glid and danced to the music effortlessly. The foodies also had a nice time as hot jalebis, chats and other food items kept them entertained. All in all, it was a night to remember as the dance party extended to the early hours of the morning.