USP of IMT - Hats off to Students!

As expected, Students came out on top. A strangely mischievous strength of 420 X 2. Add to them the Executive students, and you get a thousand plus managers waiting to explode and drive the world.

This year, around 85% students have at least 12 months of prior work experience. Most of them are from IT background. The fact that they have risked their job to study for 2 years in this serene environment, surely raises motivation levels. Students make it obvious to follow all subjects closely, actively participating in class discussions and events. Many of them enter clubs and communities to get a taste of the power bestowed on them. They learn how to manage logistics, approach corporates, make their work count. The fact that all of them can't be accommodated, leaves room for innovative adventures.

Many would be astound to hear such glorious words about themselves. I wanted to take it optimistically, but there are always two sides of a coin. A general perception rules that having tasted the work culture, a U turn to college life is tedious. Add to it cash crunch and you visit a novel situation. But IMT culture expedites the familiarity process.

A new view of Management is to chill out during two years. Learn something you missed out on all previous years. See how you can manage stress and be happy. Understand and pick the right opportunities and follow your heart closely, in whatever you do.

Passion 2009

The theme of Passion - 2009 was 'Phoenix - rising from the ashes'. It was aimed at influencing motivation in the minds which had been captured by the recessionary times. It was a serendipitous accident that America reported growth in GDP just at the right time. Two days before Passion.

Passion -an annual fest of my college which is better known for Marketing programme, aims to entertain audience by its innovative contests and out-of-the-box on site inventions in games.

There are events in different verticals - namely Finance, Marketing, Consultancy, Systems, Cultural, HR, International Business et al. Apart from the standard contests, we have certain events drawing large participation like Eat-o-holic, Masala Cricket etc. The unique offering is the stress on standing up to support social causes and spreading the word through social advertising. There will be an event conducted by the Social Responsibility cell in this regard.

For people who are 'wondering' about Finance, get a taste of how stocks trade at the Trading Floor. If you have heard enough of G-8 or G-20, see how you can change the world by taking the baton of developed nations in F-8 Summit. Know more about the college in Treasure Hunt. People vying to nourish their own brain child, get a taste of challenges faced by Entrepreneurs at Entrepreneurship events.

All in all, get a crash course on all the aspects of management at Passion 2009.

Cricketing gapshap !!

In a shocking mix-up that's sure to have major implications on cricket, the ICC has totally misunderstood Ricky Ponting's views on dead-rubber ODIs and have introduced the world's first dead-rubber international world cup.
According to the new tournament rules, eight of the world's top cricketing nations will play each other in a league stage consisting entirely of meaningless dead-rubber matches. The four best teams will then play the two semi-finals and the final, which will also be dead rubbers. The tournament winner will then be decided by a draw of lots.
In another exciting development, India, which recently fired Venkatesh Prasad and Robin Singh as bowling and fielding coach respectively, has given Singh back his job, albeit in a different role. Singh and former India team-mate Ajay Jadeja will be the new "futile 50-partnership in a losing cause" coaches for the Indian team.
"When your team is down four wickets for 25, chasing a 300-plus total, you need batsmen who can buckle down and put on a dull, pointless 50-run partnership, raise false hope, and then trigger a collapse by needlessly getting run out or holing out to long-on. Robin and I were past masters at this crucial skill, and we're extremely excited to have an opportunity to pass on our knowledge to youngsters," said Jadeja, with Singh nodding his approval.
"It's a skill that has pretty much disappeared from the Indian side, though Praveen Kumar and Harbhajan Singh showed some glimpses of promise in that game against Australia. Still, it was far too exciting to be a true classic in the Jadeja-Robin Singh tradition," said BCCI President Shashank Manohar. "By hiring the former greats as coaches, we hope to bring this aspect of the team back to where it once was," he added, causing a sharp rise in the blood-pressure levels of Indian cricket fans worldwide.
And finally, to save enormous amounts of time and money, New Zealand Cricket has decided to consolidate all their national cricketing awards for bowling, batting, fielding and coaching into a single award called the "Daniel Vettori of the Year".

Ulter Bakwaas : By Ravi

Prior to taking admission at B.Tech., I was languishing at my home. I had had two operations in as many years. None was life threatening but they percolated through my psyche. That free spirit was a thing of the past. I had already wasted one year after XIIth. For this year pre-engineering preparations, my focus was divided. I had altered my lifestyle, modified my eating habits. I did a lot of thinking to gather self-confidence, took decisions on my own. I had to desert my friends, because they were driving my decisions till then. In my efforts to become the best in all aspects, I suffered in competitive exams. My mother had started taunting me. She ideated a business proposition for me, which was a nightmare in my wildest dreams. Somehow, I got admission into an average college.

Taking this chance as the only option to redeem pride, I silently pledged to push myself despite any circumstances. I devised a disciplined study plan for myself. With a caring and competitive room partner like Varun, I had a convenient atmosphere for studies. In the initial days, seniors indulged in mild ragging. Having good relations with one of the seniors certainly helped. But guys in the adjacent rooms were boozers and chain-smokers. Living in the open lobby subjected us to inhale diffusing smoke from cigarettes. We witnessed some extra-ordinary drama by our flat mates in the influence of alcohol. I enjoyed it, though my roomie mustered courage ( rather foolishness ) to instigate the guys and offer doses of laughter induced by conversations.

I mingled with my flat mates well. They considered me as an easy going fellow. I used to avoid chaotic situations, often compromising with others. I had the ultimate goal in my mind and I considered confrontations as hindrances on my path. My lone efforts earned me admirers but no friends. Some of them approached when they required help to complete assignments. I offered them to guide, but they needed my work. I felt insecure as I had to involve in analysis, search and implementation of every task. They could now do it with copy & paste only. Initially refusing them outright, I backtracked to offer my help later. I had realized that I could prepare some sizeable support for coming years in graduation.

Her name was Mahek. I liked her, not because she was beautiful, but she was so different. She used to compete in Athletics Meet, talk loudly to guys. She had more boy friends than girl friends. She used to conquer the class, answering defiantly to the teachers’ questions. Even if she was wrong, the teacher used to feel complex, subsided by her authoritative voice.

I was trying hard to be recognized as a topper in my class, but my ingenuous nature swayed me from realizations of such desires. I stressed on improving my concepts and buildling up the knowledge, disseminating it to my friends with intentions on clarifying my own understandings. My friends were too happy to receive such a help. They would do anything to escape reading text books. Getting an idea initially on the topic would speedup the things. All students in the class knew that I could be consulted to clarify any technical doubts. But more than that, pupils were interested to know whether a person is measurably beneficial to them. I used to complete assignments before time and it was up for distribution among friends. A chain reaction would confirm that the work is finished by all and sundry. Citing the consequences of any wrong answers, it was imperative for me to adequately research for the correct answers. I did it gladly.

Somehow unable to transform my exceptional performance in the class to the mediocre results in the exams, I used to wonder everytime what went wrong. I had a habit of writing concise answers, which the evaluators treated with disdain. My friends used to laugh on me, I would laugh it off. I had an inherent confidence that my understanding of the subjects was better than the most of them. But, as the world demands figures to showcase the claim, I was unable to convince. I had an alternative in taking competitive exams like GATE ( Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering ), in which I scored good marks. They came to know and congratulated me. But the score was a mere spectatory stunt as it has no significance for my future. Being already offered a job, I was inclined to earn money. Only a chance to study in prestigious institution like an IIT or an IIM could have altered my decision.

Mahek was also offered a good IT job. Rarely she noticed me, never without a formal reason. On the whole, she wasn’t my friend. But her friend, Esha, became an admirer of our group. By our group, I mean - Ankush, Gurinder, Naveen and me. We were proactively working on our final year project. The task was innovative and intriguing. Our methodical approach and Ankush’s laptop had all anxious to know about our work. But, being the leader of the team, I asked them not to divulge any details prematurely.

My avid interest in electronics forced me to spend my leisure time in libraries. Self-study was required as the teachers were meting out the tonic like material to successfully pass the exams. They did a lot of retrospection and analysis to predict the question papers. It’s a good thing to do but not, if it’s the only thing to do. Majority including almost all toppers, used to like this deplorable ‘teaching’ method. Aware of the ‘unity’ in class, I did not express my mind. In the first year, I had witnessed the after effects of doing things my way. Majority of the students were on the verge of boycotting me. In time, I relented, thinking to make my stay easier.

I had an unusual surrounding around myself. I spoke very limited, often to boys. Some girls tried to befriend me, but I was more bothered about the lesson notes and lab practicals. I tried to focus on my studies unyieldingly, but could not help occasional deviations of mind. One day, after returning from the Lab practicals towards the staircase, I stared at Mahek. The look wasn’t furtive and it wasn’t eye contact either. I thought it might have given her wrong impressions about me. But, that chancy encounter instead made her believe that I was in love with her. Next day, due to non-availability of spare seats, I had to sit adjacent to her bench. Her close friend(he was a boy) observed my reactions and judgmentally told her, “Ravi loves you”. This sentence was loud enough for me to hear. I didn’t react, thinking it would be disadvantageous. I wasn’t convinced that my attraction for her was devoid of lust. She expected me to say something. But everytime we met, I talked about studies. At times, she came too close to me. I think she might have some feelings for me.

Her attitude invited frowns from many guys. I was also somewhat influenced by them. But deep inside, I knew that I like her. I transformed myself into a proactive participant in the class, to get her attention. But she, like some fellow toppers, started bunking the college to study at home. I tried not to fall in love and diversified my interests. My roomie, Nitin, was an IAS aspirant. He would study the ‘THE HINDU’ newspaper like textbooks and vice-versa. Still, he was adept at scoring good marks. He inspired me not to get complacent and prepare for my better future prospects. Although he coaxed me to shun the job and join coaching for the IAS, I did not have the courage to risk more years in the oblivion. Moreover, I never had that zealous feeling.

Note: All characters are fictitious. Any relation to any person living or dead is coincidence.

Lean Production

It aims to combine the flexibility and quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production .Lean production is the name given to a group of highly efficient manufacturing techniques developed (mainly by large Japanese companies) in the 1980s and early 1990s. Lean production was seen as the third step in an historical progression, which took industry from the age of the craftsman through the methods of mass production and into an era that combined the best of both. It has been described as “the most fundamental change to occur since mass production was brought to full development by Henry Ford early in the 20th century”.

The methods of lean production aim to combine the flexibility and quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production. In lean-production systems a manufacturer’s employees are organised in teams. Within each team a worker is expected to be able to do all the tasks required of the team. These tasks are less narrowly specialised than those demanded of the worker in a mass-production system, and this variety enables the worker to escape from the soul-destroying repetition of the pure assembly line.
With lean production, components are delivered to each team’s work station just-in-time, and every worker is encouraged to stop production when a fault is discovered. This is a critical distinction from the classic assembly-line process, where stoppages are expensive and to be avoided at all costs. Faulty products are put to one side to be dealt with later, and a large stock of spares is kept on hand so faulty components can be replaced immediately without causing hold-ups. With such a system, workers on the assembly line learn nothing and the faults persist.
When a lean-production system is first introduced, stoppages generally increase while problems are ironed out. Gradually, however, there are fewer stoppages and fewer problems. In the end, a mature lean-production line stops much less frequently than a mature mass-production assembly line.
Lean production gains in another way too. In typical assembly-line operations, design is farmed out to specialist outsiders or to a separate team of insiders. Gaining feedback from both the production-line workers and the component suppliers is a long and awkward process. With lean production, designers work hand-in-hand with production workers and suppliers. There is a continuous two-way interchange. Snags can be ironed out immediately and machine tools adapted on the hoof. With the assembly-line model, the communication is linear.
Lean-production methods have been introduced by many companies without sacrificing economies of scale. Japanese car manufacturers have achieved unit costs of production well below those of more traditionally organised European and American manufacturers with twice their volume. These same Japanese companies have also been leaders in the speed and efficiency of new product design, a crucial skill in a world where time to market is an important competitive lever.
According to Michael Cusumano, who wrote a book on the Japanese car industry, the high productivity achieved by the lean-production methods of Japan’s car manufacturers depends not as some have maintained on a peculiarity of Japanese culture or of Japanese workers, but on technology and management. He wrote:
The methods challenged fundamental assumptions about mass production. These consisted of revisions in American and European equipment, production techniques, and labour and supplier policies introduced primarily in the 1950s and 1960s when total Japanese manufacturing volumes and volumes per model were extremely low by US or European standards.
Criticism of the idea has centred on the feeling that it is possible to be too lean. Beyond a certain point, a sort of corporate anorexia sets in. The total absence of surplus stock or labour can become a serious liability when there is even the slightest disturbance in normal processes or procedures.