FOREWORD PRAMEYA is the VOICE of WeSchool and the official students bimonthly newsletter of Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research, Bengaluru. The essence of Management Education lies not only in the classes but also in the activities beyond the four walls of a classroom. In this perspective, WeSchool is an exemplary B-School. Prameya provides the students the platform to showcase their activities, achievements, perspectives and understanding of various business and non-business roles that they need to perform today and in the future. It is truly a magazine for the students by the students. This issue of Prameya has a focus on “PRAGATI” both of our nation and of our B-school. The issue highlights the growth of the Bengaluru campus from 2004 under the dynamic leadership of our Group Director Dr. Uday Salunkhe and our Dean Dr. Anil Rao , both of whom have been instrumental in building our Bengaluru campus. This issue starts with the WeSchool Bengaluru growth story followed by the foundation fortnight batch 2012-14, highlights of the Operations, Finance and IT round tables conducted in the months of July-August 2012. It also covers the Marketing seminar and the We Cafe interview with Mr Pallab Talukdar, CEO Fujitsu. Our alumni connect and students achievements are followed by the Celebrations. The sports sections takes a look at the London Olympics 2012. We have introduced a new section called “Perspectives” for the students and faculty to access information and have fun.
Prameya is now on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. We wish you all a very happy read.......
INDEX Group Director’s Address and Dean’s Address 1 GEM in the WeSchool Crown 2 Pragati: WeSchool Timeline 3 The Foundation Fortnight 6 Round Tables • Operations – The House of Lean 9 • Arthakul – Finance and Risk Management. 10 • Setting Expectations – The IT Round Table. 11 • Sports Marketing Seminar 12 We Café with Mr Pallab Talukdar 13 We Connect: The Alumni Profile 14 INNOWE: Meet the Design Innovators 15 Celebrations • Happy Independence Day 17 • Janmashtami 21 • Onam 22 India at the London 2012 Olympics 23 Welcome Rotararians 25 The Finance Crossword and We Doodle 27
Faculty Editor: Concept & Design: Editor: On-Field Team:
Sonia Mehrotra Ankur Nahata Gautam Swaminathan Prathamesh Acharekar Madhur Natalkar Preethi Ravi Photographer: Akshay Chechani
At Welingkar we believe that management education has the potential to influence the country’s growth and development. But in an era where the emerging unarticulated need seeks newer approaches, being a conventional B-school is not enough. It needs the combined efforts of the various stakeholders of management education. That’s precisely why we decided to renew our values, constantly challenge the convention and collaborate with corporate, NGOs, government bodies etc. Our students are provided with opportunities to develop the Habit of Mind which is a way to bring a structure to an unstructured problem. This is done through various formats of experiential learning as case based teaching, industrial visits, simulation exercises and outbound training programs. Our Innovation Lab ‘Innowe’ has nurtured and incubated several students’ new ideas/projects. This has been possible through integrating the philosophy of design thinking and innovation across all the programs. It is our earnest desire to disseminate our knowledge and experience with not only WeSchool students but to society at large.
Group Director’s Address
I welcome you to the World of Welingkar. Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe Group Director
Dean’s Address
I am delighted to share that WeSchool, Bengaluru, with its presence in the Silicon Valley of India is today a well established Institute in Southern India. The vision and dynamic leadership of our Group Director Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe has nurtured the Bengaluru campus to build on its strengths in curriculum, faculty, students, corporate connect and infrastructure. The four “I’s” of priorities followed at WeSchool are Innovation, Intellectual Ambition, Inclusion and Integration. The Bengaluru campus has been successfully running AICTE approved four full time PGDM programs and contemporary courses in E-business and Business Design. WeSchool provides students the benefits of a learner-centric environment with close interaction between faculty and students.WeSchool enables the Scholars to engage in this study to great depth and breadth with a well equipped learning resources and databases. Prameya – the students’ magazine is yet another initiative that enhances the thinking, reflective and writing abilities of the students. Bringing out the magazine is also an exercise in compiling, editing and the first step towards publishing. I wish the team Prameya the very best in their endeavour. Dr Anil Rao Paila Dean
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GEM IN THE WESCHOOL CROWN Prof. (Dr). Uday Salunkhe, Group Director, WeSchool, felicitated with prestigious Ravi J Matthai Fellowship Award at the 24th AIMS Annual Management Education Conference 2012. AIMS flagship event is its Annual Management Education Convention on the topic of current interest to management institutes, management faculty and students, industry and government. The recent AIMS Convention was held at Hyderabad from 25th to 27th August, 2012. The theme for this Convention was “Innovative Management Education for Sustainable Development”. AIMS Convention is a platform where well-known political leaders, national and international academicians, heads of management education institutes, faculty and students exchange their valuable views, opinions and experiences for the benefit of the audience. During this Covention different categories of awards instituted with the financial and other support of member Institutes are given. Ravi J Matthai National Fellow Award is the prestigious award instituted in the memory of Ravi J Matthai the first full-time director of Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad is also given during the AIMS Annual Convention. This award seeks to recognize the leaders who are teachers and teachers who are leaders – who, thereby, set the standards ‘Excellence in Management Education’. It is presented to management educators and professionals for achieving a high level of distinction in their respective discipline. This year our Group Director Prof. (Dr.) Uday Slaunkhe was the receipient of this award. The other educators to be felicitated with this award were Prof. Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM Calcutta and Fr. E Abraham S.J, Director, XLRI Jamshedpur. Our Prof. (Dr.) Salunkhe was the youngest President of AIMS in 2008, and now in 2012 is the youngest recipient of the Ravi J Mathai Fellowship Award. We are previliged to be under the guidance of his dynamic leadership. Excerpts from his speech : “I feel privileged to be awarded such a prestigious recognition. My team and I feel further humbled to receive an award which bears the great RJ Matthai’s name. To me this name symbolizes the Excellence in management education. Being recognized and appreciated for my efforts, because, of the rare distinction of being bestowed upon this honour at the hands of Padmashri Dr. Pritam Singh, a teacher whom I have always considered as my inspiration and to be sharing this award with two truly great teachers and education institution builders, Dr. Shekhar Chaudhuri and Fr. Abraham. Dr Salunkhe being felicitated This recognition increases our responsibility to at the AIMS Convention continue with greater vigour on our mission to Source: h t t p : / / w w w. i n d i a n m b a . c o m / N e w s f l a s h / reinvent business and management education News699/news699.html on 4 Sept, 12 by making it relevant for tomorrow’s realities.”
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Pragati: WeSchool Timeline
2008 marked an important milestone in the history of this illustrious institution. The year 2008 marked the birth of WeSchool, with a move to a sprawling eco-friendly campus in Electronic City, under the dynamic leadership of our Group Director Prof Dr. Uday Salunkhe and our charismatic Dean Dr. Anil Rao. Like every successful organization, the faculty members and the support team played an important role in the growth of WeSchool to what it is today. In an exclusive interview with Dr. Anil Rao we got more insights about our school and the six pillars who were significantly responsible for the Pragati over the last 5 years.
Q. We understand, the primary reason for our Pragati has been our
faculty. How would you trace the growth of the WeSchool faculty members from 2008 – present? When we started in 2008, we had about 51 students. It was a small and a close group with few faculty members and students. Our teaching pedagogy was limited to conventional lectures and role plays. Our Group Director wanted the best methodologies to be adopted in the classroom and thus our faculty members were sent to Boston and Italy. For instance Dr. Madhavi Lokhande - Head Academic Development Cell & Finance Specialization went to the International School of Business Management in Milan. Dr. Githa Hedge - Head Marketing specialization and Prof. Anuradha Mahesh - Head Career Management Cell (CMC) went to Harvard Business School for workshops. A very important person who has been instrumental in bringing WeSchool to present day being is Dr. Anand Joshi - Dean Quality Systems.
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He was the driving force behind the AICTE approvals and for us to start the EBiz program in 2008, the PGDM in 2009 and PGDM in Business Design in 2010. The Anna University Centre for Doctoral Research in our campus was also the result of Dr. Joshi’s efforts. Prof. Anuradha Mahesh’s stint as secretary of National Human Resource Development Network (NHRD) from 2009-11, and the network she built with the HR managers across various organizations helped us place the inroads in IT giants like Infosys and Wipro and also others as Deloitte, Fidelity, Airtel etc. Her efforts contributed towards strengthening the ties between NHRD and WeSchool. In fact NHRD had set up their office at our city office in Koramangla.
Q. There was a time when WeSchool Bengaluru was little known, but
all that changed from 2009-2010. Could you elaborate on some of the important contributing factors for this transition? From the 2008 batch onwards, we have worked towards establishing relationships with Apex Bodies as NEN, CII Y, CII, NASSCOM, FKCCI, AIMS, AIMA and others . These associations and our Round tables and We Café have helped us establish an Industry Connect. These activities also established our presence in Electronic city. Our campus has state of the art facilities and is also aesthetically designed. In fact it is the only campus which is handicap friendly with the disability access in-built in its design. I actively participate in various conventions as Associationg of Indian Management Schools (AIMS) and I am also the AIMS Regional Vice President - South for the tenure 2010-13. Our business design students under the leadership of Prof Mohan Chandra - Dean Business Design have been participating in the CII Innovation Summit and had the privilege to be mentored by Prof. Pankaj Chandra, Director IIM B and Prof. Sadagopalan, Director IIT B. DMAGICS and the Infosys Welingkar Innovation competitions are classic examples of student initiatives which have enriched both the students and the college.
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Q. How has WeSchool Bengaluru progressed in terms of corporate tie ups both nationally and internationally?
Our campus being located in the IT hotbed Electronic City we worked towards designing some customized management programs for companies like Infosys and after 9 months of relationship building in 2008 we eventually made a break though, when we signed a MOU with Infosys BPO to run for them Junior Management Leadership Program (JMLP), a Certificate program for their junior managers. This was an important mileage for us and the man behind this success was Prof. AKN Prasad - head Management Development Cell (MDC). Over the course of the last five years, the MDC has done similar short/medium and long term customized management programs for various other companies as ITC, Dell, McDonalds etc. In fact recently we sigmed with BOSCH also for a customized management program. With regard to International tie ups, we have had relations established with reputed institutions like Eller College (Arizona), Pepperdine University (USA), Madeliene University (Sweden) and National Uniersity of Singapore (NUS).
Q. What do you think is the road ahead for WeSchool? Are there any specialized PGDM programs coming up?
WeSchool Bengaluru has been and will be continuously involved in the evolutionary process. This year October 2012 we would kick start two new programs. One is the part-time Executive PGDM of 15 months duration and the second is the part-time Post Graduate Certificate in Management (PGCM) of 12 month duration. Both these programs have been especially designed keeping in mind the needs of working executives and will be headed by Dr. Githa Hegde. Apart from the above programs a Fellowship Program in Management(FPM) is also in the pipeline. This year we instituted a Centre of Excellence for Case Development (CECD) headed by Professor Sonia Mehrotra. The CECD is working towards developing real-time case studies of corporates for the benefit of the student audience and would help in the identification of research gaps between theory and practice. Our Innowe lab is also in progress which would harness the students idea to built the prototypes. Prof. Mohan Chandra and Prof. Prakash Unakal are involved in this project.
Q. How have the students been in all these years? And according to you which has been the best batch of WeSchool Bengaluru?
I think each batch is very unique and they all come with their own attributes which are sometimes very difficult to forget. We have been gifted to have such sharp minds in our campus and I personally feel that, each batch has contributed to the school in their own way. For example initiatives like DMagics, We CafĂŠ, ELCIA etc were all started by the students. Each batch of students not only initiated these ideas, but also played a major part in implementing them. The fact that WeSchool Bengaluru has a residential campus gives the students the advantage of spending more time together, bounce their ideas off each other within the campus and hostel and come up with fantastic ideas. The seniors of WeSchool set impeccable benchmarks for the juniors to beat, yet I am sure that the incoming batch will live up to the name of their preceding WeSchoolites.
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Foundation Fortnight:
The deeper the foundation the stronger the fortress We the Game Changers! One sentence that I’m sure all the students of the junior batch are tired of hearing. Most of us still haven’t figured out what the game is, yet we speak of changing the game and innovation. The foundation fortnight program was two weeks of a reality check for almost all the students. It was the formal beginning of the rigorous routine of every MBA student, back to back lectures, the corporate jargons complementing our new look – fully suited up with an Economic Times slotted in our backpack, this truly was the beginning of our journey. Most of us were under the impression that the Foundation Fortnight would be a laid back affair with each of us getting acquainted with our new batch mates and professors and the real education process would begin only after reaching the Bengaluru campus. How wrong were we? From the very first day we had a host of speakers from various fields and sectors, each imparting pearls of wisdom and having a personal interaction with all the students. After this program we really realized how fortunate we are to have been given the opportunity to pursue our higher education at such an esteemed institution. The fact that we got to interact with living legends like Dr R.A Mashelkar was only because of our group director Prof Dr Uday Salunkhe. He personally took the time to interact with the students on more than one occasion and that really solidifies the statement, “The Deeper the Foundation, the stronger the Fortress”. I am convinced that a few years from now when we as students go out into the corporate world as budding managers , we will all be grateful for having such a wonderful foundation fortnight program. The life lessons we learnt in those two weeks will forever help us in both our professional and personal lives.
Dr. R.A Mashelkar during his speech
Although all the speakers who spoke at the foundation fortnight program were nothing short of inspirational, I decided to focus on some of the speakers who really had a positive impact on all the students. I am sure all the students will agree that these sessions were the ones that they enjoyed the most and also learnt the most from, the first of them being Dr R.A Mashelkar. His talk left the entire auditorium awestruck, how a man who is on first name terms with Mr Ratan Tata himself can be so humble and even after achieving so much in his career he is still grounded and acknowledges the importance of education and higher education as the building block towards the success of our country, is something we all can learn from. Speaking of humility how can you not speak about Mr. K Ramkumar, the Executive Director of ICICI Bank. Being the chief recruiting officer at ICICI, Mr Ramkumar shared some of his personal experiences with us and what I especially liked about his talk was how refreshingly honest he was. As a Tamilian Brahmin I can relate to some of the problems he faced, but what really won me over was the amount of respect he had for his PT instructor Mr Ramaswamy and his mother. Having achieved so much at such a young age, today he heads the HR department of one of the largest private sector banks in the country, yet he had no qualms in discussing rather personal matters such as his annual salary and the place where he gets his monthly hair cut.
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Thank you Mr Ram Kumar, your story really changed our outlook towards life and the rat race that we are all running in. He told us that there was a fine line between passion and obsession and that one should never lose sight of the fact that we are doing something not just to win and be the best at it, but we are doing it because we enjoy doing it and are deeply passionate about it. During the second week of our foundation fortnight our seniors briefed us about the following day’s schedule and told us that next session would be a five hour session with a Prof. Boman Moradian and that we should all be prepared to sit for the entire five hours without any complaints. Now needless to say we were all pretty dejected about this news, but after attending sir’s lecture I don’t think anybody in the auditorium would have minded even if he took a ten hour lecture. Easily one of the best speakers to have interacted with us during the foundation fortnight program, Mr Moradian was such a breath of fresh air. Those who have attended his lectures would know about his unconventional yet effective style of teaching, and this session was no different. As an engineer and an MBA graduate from JBIMS, Mr Moradian was the perfect role model for the fresh batch of aspiring MBA’s. There is a sense of grandeur when it comes to Prof Moradian and Prof Moradian addressing the very fact that he has over 4000 facebook friends is a testament the batch to that, most of who added him after attending his session at the foundation fortnight. On behalf of all of us from the current batch at WeSchool Bengaluru, I hope that we are fortunate enough to attend some more of his lectures sooner rather than later. Personally one of the most important speakers of the foundation fortnight programme was Ms Kia Scherr who is the founder of the “One Life Alliance”. Having lost her husband and daughter to the terrorist attacks at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai, she is someone we can all get inspired from. Ms Scherr not only overcame this devastating tragedy but she also had the kindness to forgive the conspirators behind these attacks. Her peace organization, “One Life Alliance”, is against any sort of violence and they have made a massive difference in the lives of many and she continues to promote peace with her latest initiative “The 30 Day Pledge”. I think what Ms Scherr has done is nobility in its truest sense and if we can even dedicate one day of our lives trying to follow her ideals, I think we can go a long way towards achieving global peace. We were lucky to have the US Consul General Mr Peter Haas spend a few hours of his time with us. He threw some light about the relations between the USA and India and how we can make a huge difference in enhancing these political ties through education. What is the point of having CEO’s from every possible sector come and speak to us if we as students are clueless about what an MBA program actually entails? In today’s world, the term cut throat competition has taken a whole new meaning and it was of vital importance that the students got the right kind of counselling from someone who faced the similar challenges a few years ago. That’s where Prof Bodhi Roy’s session was so helpful. The head of Baat Chit Consultants, Prof Roy gave us a three hour career counselling session and he stressed about one point, “Do what you enjoy otherwise you will never enjoy what you do”. Now I know that sounds very cliché, but believe me Prof Roy had hit the hammer on the nail.
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Prof Bodhi Roy is another one of the professors who will be visiting us shortly in our campus to have a one on one session, and I for one cannot wait to interact with him. A lot of us have more questions than answers regarding our courses and the kind of placements we can expect with our profile and I am sure Prof Roy’s inputs will be invaluable in shaping our careers in the coming two years.
Members of the Management Council from the 2011-2013 batch.
In all the foundation fortnight was a roller coaster experience which we enjoyed every minute of and more than anything it prepared us for the next two very important years of our lives. On behalf of all the students who attended the programme I would like to take this opportunity and thank all our professors of both the Mumbai and Bengaluru campus for imparting such wisdom to us and I would especially like to thank our seniors and all the members of the Management Council
who worked tirelessly in putting together this entire event. They sacrificed more than just their summer break for our benefit and for that we will be eternally grateful. We gave them a rather hard time with our childishness and immaturity at times but I am sure they of all people will understand having been in our shoes exactly a year ago. I cannot begin to thank Dr. Uday Salunkhe, who is the epitome of professionalism, for having spent an entire day with the batch during their outbound trip. It was a day well spent in the heavy rains at Durshet were we learnt many key life lessons like teamwork, leadership, positive attitude etc through a series of challenging yet intriguing tasks. Thanks again to everybody for such a wonderful foundation fortnight program.
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ROUND TABLES Insights into the World of Lean Management
“The largest room in the world is the room for improvement” The 24th of August this year, was a testimony to this quote when the WeSchoolites experienced some fresh and renewed perspectives on the concept of Lean Management. Lean Management, as a principle in the manufacturing sector, is highly renowned and respected world over. But yet as they say in the Lean lingua, continuous improvements is the key to success, so did we discover the world of Lean is ever changing with new improvements and dynamic in nature, going far beyond the possibilities we can imagine. The Round table was attended by eminent industrialists and dignitaries with illustrious careers in their respective fields. The interesting fact was that there were panellists representing the varied sectors of the economy like IT & ITES, manufacturing, telecommunications, pharmaceuticals and services ,to name a few, thus ensuring that we got varied perspectives on how Lean is used effectively in different industries. The panel discussion was moderated by Mr. A.N. Chandramouli, who did an excellent job of ensuring that all the panellists got a chance to voice their opinion. He also shared some interesting anecdotes and some beautiful verses on Lean, which he had compiled himself. Mr. Prateek Srivastava from Nokia shared his views on how Nokia is implementing Lean to get better customer perspectives. It was a completely invigorating perspective, knowing that Lean can be implemented to serve the under privileged school children in India, ensuring that they can perform better at their academics. Mr. Nandanandan Das, from ISKON introduced us to “Akshay Patra” and showed us how Lean was used effectively in reaching the deprived and making a difference. The discussion hovered around some intriguing questions on Lean, like “Can Lean go wrong”, “How does Lean strike a balance in maintaining operational efficiency and customer satisfaction”. The panellists made sure that all these questions were answered with some insightful on-the-job experiences. The key take away of the session was that Lean as a technique can be applied in every field from the most simple to the utterly complicated process. It is something which is incorporated in our daily lives, and indeed is the key to succeeding and sustaining a business. This event was possible solely due to the encouragement from our faculty, Prof. Murli Mohan, our institute staff, and all the volunteers, as the round table was very well received by all the guests and the faculty. Nilesh Kawchale (E-Biz 1 2011-13)
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Arthakul organizes finance Round Table on Risk Management
The panellists with Dr. Anil Rao addressing the students. Arthakul, the Finance Club of WeSchool Bengaluru, was inaugurated on the afternoon of 18th of August 2012 with much pomp. The afternoon also saw students and esteemed financial professionals discuss the different aspects of financial risk management as a part of the round table meet. The program began with an introduction by Prof. Hema D and was followed by an eloquent speech by Dr. Anil Rao, which definitively set the tone for the round table. The presentations of the second year students followed and these presentations highlighted the different aspects that form a part of the risk management process. Post the presentations by the students, the panellists discussed and debated with much enthusiasm about the different points that the students had discussed and also introduced new perspectives in the process. Thereafter there was a question and answer round wherein the students asked the panellists about their insights into the goings-on of the sector. The program ended with a scrumptious high tea for the panellists. Aniket Ghatnekar (PGDM 2011-13)
Email: arthakul@outlook.com www.facebook/arthakul
Team Arthakul after a successful round table on Risk Management.
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The IT Round Table The much anticipated IT Round table was held on 3rd August, 2012. The panellists included dignitaries like Mr. Shaju Nair of Wipro Power & Energy, Dr. Sriram Kothapalli of ITC Infotech, Mr. Sridhar Akshathula of Wipro Technologies, Mr. Nitin Pande of Kulize, Mr. Nizamuddin Khan of IBM and Mr Padhi of Tata Consultancy Services. The session started with a presentation cum stage act by the students. The stage act was set up with an idea to give an insight of the numbers representing the IT industry and its subsequent demand. It also revived the memories of 2008-2009 when the industry saw itself go through the economic recession. The idea was to voice the concerns of their future with regards to IT industry. The act raised a question in everyone’s mind – What are the job opportunities in the IT industry? The session continued with the panellists addressing the students. The key areas covered were the qualities and expectations the industry was looking in its potential employees. Qualities like attitude, flexibility and innovation formed the core values. Besides, the IT industry was also looking for people with business approach along with a technical background. The panellists also spoke on the current industry trends and upcoming technologies like Click stream mapping and analytics. Joel Coelho (PGDM 2012-14)
The panellists getting the round table started.
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Sports Marketing Seminar with Mr. Akhil Ranade Cricket Category Manager, PUMA
The winners of the Sports Marketing Seminar being facilitated MPOWER, the Marketing Club of WeSchool Bengaluru, was inaugurated on 18th August. It was their first marketing event of the academic year 2012. Mr. Akhil Ranade was invited as the speaker. The seminar started with the question “WHAT IS MARKETING”? Views were shared regarding the marketing strategies and new ideas for marketing. Examples of advertisements through sports personalities like Sachin Tendulkar, Ronaldo and Messi are being used for marketing of certain sports brands were illustrated. A brief illustration of how channels like Doordarshan still make profit amidst today’s strong competition was also given. The statistics given by Mr. Akhil showed an analysis that television is the best form of media to advertise and Cricket is the game through which various brands are getting advertised. During the entire session, the audience had a great one on one interaction with Mr. Akhil Ranade. The session concluded with a small game for which teams were made and each team had to make a new advertisement on a product given to them on the spot. Vyankatesh Wakle (BD 2012-14)
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We Café with Mr Pallab Talukdar, CEO Fujitsu The event We Café is an industry – student community interface where an expert from leading companies across different verticals will be invited for a rendezvous with the students and faculty of WeSchool. This time around we had the good fortune of having with us one of the stalwarts of the IT sector Mr.Pallab Talukdar, CEO Fujitsu (India) as the guest of honour for a one on one interaction with the students. Usually a We Café session is divided into two parts, one being a formal presentation given by the guest speaker comprising of a topic/sector of his choice and the other half being an interactive session with the speaker and the audience. The main aim of this event is for the students to understand the guest’s human side and try and find out about some of his experiences over the course of his professional career. Mr.Talukdar got us underway with a brief history about the formation of Fujitsu, their evolution from a small copper mining company to being the leading provider in the IT sector in Japan and the third largest in the world. What many people wouldn’t know was the fact that Fujitsu were the original inventors of the tablet, however they sold their idea to Apple and the rest as they say is history. Like all Japanese organizations, a meticulous and organized work ethic was something that was evident in Mr Talukdar, he stressed about the importance of having a good boss and how the boss’ attitude will have a direct impact on the future of both the individual and the organization. A selection of about fifty students were hand-picked as the audience and they were very pleased with the kind of interaction they had with Mr Talukdar. No matter which sector or field you are working in, stress is something that each and every manager has to deal with in this day and age and sir stressed on the importance of spending more time with your family and friends as a way of coping with this kind of stress. What the students especially liked about this interaction was the simplicity of the speaker, he preferred to address the masses with less technical and fewer IT jargons, whereby the audience had a better connect with the speaker throughout the event. We thank the students involved in organizing such a successful event and we are now eagerly awaiting our next WE Café session with Mr. Vijay Ratna Parke, MD, Bosch which is happening at our campus on the 5th of September, 2012.
Weschool.prameya
The entire We Café interview is available on Youtube.
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WE CONNECT This is a column dedicated entirely Interacting with the them is an the students as the students get them, whilst the alumni gets a
for the illustrious alumni of WeSchool Bengaluru. enriching experience both for the alumni and a first hand perspective of what lies ahead for chance to reminisce about their college days.
This month we got in touch with Abhishek Upadhyay from the E-Biz batch of 2008-10. He completed his engineering specialising in Computer Science and joined WeSchool Bengaluru for his MBA. He had a stint at Feedback Business Consulting Services Pvt Ltd before becoming a co-founder of his own business venture “Creative Publications and Communications.
Q. Describe your journey into the corporate world and how have the core values
nurtured at WeSchool Bengaluru been helpful in easing this transition? Do you have any particular mentor(s) that you would like to thank? Since I had work experience prior to joining WeSchool, re-entry in the corporate world was not troublesome. But definitely the expectation of Corporate World from an MBA is high. At workplace people around you assume that you are already expert in work that you have been assigned to. The discussions and debates in the classroom with our peers helped a lot. It helped me to present my views to my clients and customers in very effective manner. The work of organizing the events and seminars during MBA days trained me to multi task and handle work related stress. I learned professionalism from Prof AKN Prasad and learned from him how to ignore trivial things and concentrate on the bigger picture while dealing with people. Teachings of Prof Pavan Soni and Prof Nandini Vaidyanathan taught me how to think differently and be creative and innovative at work.
Q. Any particular advice that you would like to give to the students of the current
batch on how to become industry ready and what they should expect in the next two years of their lives? Reading newspapers daily is a must. People well aware with current affairs always stay ahead of the competition. I encourage everybody to participate in as many college events and competitions as possible. It is a great team building and self enriching experience. As important as the lectures are, it is vitally important that you participate actively in cultural events and maintain a good rapport with your peers and classmates. Do not worry about the kind of placements you may be getting, just go out and enjoy what are going to be the two best years of your life.
Q. What really motivated you to take up a software company?
the role of an entrepreneur moving out of
While working in the software company I realized there is no scope for being creative. It was also my long term dream to work in the Publication and Event Management segment. So one fine day I decided to quit and start my own company and I havent looked back since. We would like to thank Abhishek for agreeing to give his some of his time for a short interview and we wish him all the very best in his future endeavours. 14
INNOWE
MEET THE DESIGN INNOVATORS Innowe is a place where, students are encouraged to voice the weirdest of their ideas with the assurance that these will be allowed to germinate, cross-pollinate and get fertilized. It is the hub of ideas for business concepts of the future. The business design program attempts to inculcate this learning into the future business managers and leaders by integrating “Design Thinking” and “Innovation Design” into the mainstream management subjects. The Innowe lab at the Bengaluru campus which will be up and running in about a month’s time is mainly the brainchild of Prof V. Mohan Chandra, Dean Business Design, Prof Prakash Unakal, Senior Associate Dean Business Design and Prof Deepu Chandran, Assistant Prof Business Design. The students of the BD batch of 2011-13 have played a massive part into turning this idea into a reality, each of whom have worked tirelessly along with the professors to give the students of WeSchool Bengaluru their very own Innowe lab. This lab truly epitomizes the term “Business Design” which is a merger of the intuitive approach of a designer and the analytical approach of a business manager. To further understand this concept, we caught up with the Design Innovators themselves and here’s what they had to say about their latest project:
“ The
main aim of Innowe is to create an environment where all the students of WeSchool, not just the Business Design students, can express themselves in whatever way they are comfortable. ”
“ Key emphasis will be given to
Neerav Mandaviya BD (2011-13)
INNOVATION DESIGN, as that seems to be a trait that is widely sort after in a manager today. ” Ritesh Haryan BD (2011-13)
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One of the ideas that have been initiated through the Innowe program and have already been implemented is the Design Innovators Project. Each week, the students chose a particular sector of their choice and prepare a presentation of the same. This presentation can include print outs, pictures, designs, quotes etc. The aim of this exercise is to get all the batches involved and collate all the data to form a brochure or booklet comprising of the various “INNOVATION DESIGNS” of the various sectors. This will be displayed across the college from week to week and the entire compilation will be on display in the Innowe Lab. The first week of this project is dedicated to the Automobile sector, and designs for the same have already been put up. We, the students should actively contribute towards this project so as that enhance the quality of our Innowe lab. The students of WeSchool represented our college in the Eighth CII India Innovation Summit and they had a pleasant interaction with all the dignitaries present. Their hope is to invite such esteemed professionals to our college for workshops and seminars in the Innowe lab. The theme for the eight India Innovation Summit, chaired by Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Executive CoChairman, Infosys Limited and President Designate, CII, was “India Innovates for the World”. The changing landscape of innovation in India can be seen from an industry vertical viewpoint or from life stages of the company perspective. Major focus was given to the fact that India is aptly called a “Startup Nation”. The summit explored the vibrant business environments in terms of oppurtunities and challenges and took a closer look at the emergence of India innovating for the world.
The Business Design students at the India Innovation Summit 2012
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Our first cultural event of the new academic year was Independence Day and all the students, especially the junior batch were very excited about it. All the council members wanted to make a good first impression and put on a great show on the occasion of our country’s 66th year of independence. The students decided to celebrate the entire week as “Independence Week” with the theme being “PRAGATI”. Special credit must be given to all the members of the wallpaper Dr Rao with the Chief Guests during the flag hoisting. council who had worked tirelessly in decorating our entire campus in the tri-coloured theme. There was a real sense of patriotism reverberating all around the campus that morning and for that we have only the wallpaper council and their team to thank. Special thanks to Mr. Babu Rangaswamy, Director Hewlett Packard and Ms. Rama N.S, CEO ELCIA for formally addressing the students and presiding over the flag hoisting ceremony. They have made an invaluable contribution towards the development of Electronic City and on behalf of Dr Anil Rao and everybody associated with WeSchool, we would like to thank them for taking the time out of their busy schedules to attend our event. Celebrating Independence Day with great panache has always been part of the WeSchool tradition and it was very nice to see the juniors continuing that tradition. Both the seniors and juniors showed up in great numbers, the guys looking impeccable in their traditional kurta’s whilst the girls were looking elegant in their traditional Indian attire. The festivities got underway with a wonderful song by the seniors, after which it was the turn of the junior’s batch to go out and put on a show for the audience. Having been part of the skit and having seen my batch mates rehearse tirelessly, I think each and every one from the 2012-14 batch deserves a huge pat on the back. The performers didn’t necessarily have the talent of a professional singer/dancer but they more than made up for it with their sheer enthusiasm on stage. The dancers especially worked very hard and they had to choreograph their own steps and that was very commendable. What the students decided to convey through their skit was in line with the theme of the event, Pragati.
A lovely duet by the seniors to flag off the event.
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A wonderful rendition of a skit, which had dances and a separate singing act as part of it, took us through the timeline of our nation, right from the time of Jahangir’s Mughal rule and the invasion of the British East India Company, to the freedom struggle leading up to Pandit Nehru’s speech at the stroke of midnight on 15th August 1947, all the way up to the industrialization phase in the late 80’s & 90’s with the likes of the Tata’s, Birla’s & Ambani’s coming into the picture. Most of the students performed double, even triple roles for this particular skit and I think overall it went
Gandhiji during his Satyagraha and Dandi March
off really well. Absolutely top notch work from the technical team who ensured that the entire skit went ahead without any glitches, special thanks to the Cultural council who came up with this entire concept in little less than a week, the compeer’s for really captivating the audience with their wonderful dialogue delivery and most importantly our Management Council, who orchestrated the entire event and co-ordinated with all the other councils and managed the event really well. It was their acid test and they passed with flying colours and if the students work together like the way they did for this event, I am sure we can expect many more wonderful events from them. The members of the Cultural council would especially like to thank Ms Anita Pillai who was their one point contact for all queries related to this event and she worked just as hard as the students did in making sure that this event was a grand success. Once again the real secret of success for this skit was the enthusiasm of all the students involved and it is really a testament to their character to conceptualize, rehearse and perform this entire show within the period of just one week, along with having to attend lectures and keep up with the assignments in college. A great team effort guys, well done! The faculty all geared up for the Independence Day festivities
Having been part of the skit and having seen my batch mates rehearse tirelessly, I think each and every one from the 2012-14 batch deserves a huge pat on the back. The performers didn’t necessarily have the talent of a professional singer/dancer but they more than made up for it with their sheer enthusiasm on stage. The dancers especially worked very hard and they had to choreograph their own steps and that was very commendable. What the students decided to convey through their skit was in line with the theme of the event, Pragati.
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The students take on Politics in India today
RANG DE BASANTI !!!!!!
A wonderful song by the students
After such a wonderful performance from the juniors it was the turn of the seniors to wow the audience, and boy did they do that. The seniors really stole the show leaving everybody in the amphitheatre speechless. They showed us all how Management students handled things. While the juniors went for an extravagant performance with three dances and an entire skit, the seniors kept it simple, they decided to depict the current scenario in the politics of our country through a witty and humorous skit which included the likes of Aloo Prasad Yadav, MaunMohan Singh and even a wacky Suniel Shetty look alike. By the audience response, I think Aloo Yadav was the clear favourite with his impromptu style of acting and his amazing mimicry skills. The seniors also captivated the audience with a rather unorthodox, but an important speech about the life of a student in WeSchool, which really tickled the funny bone of the students and faculty alike. What the audience especially liked about the seniors’ performance was the emphasis given on humour; they really enjoyed the witty anecdotes and one liners and the sheer ease in which they performed. Thier dance was very well co-ordinated and the event was capped off with a wonderful song from the junior’s batch and a formal candle lighting ceremony in honour of all the freedom fighters who lost their lives for our country. At the end even our faculty got involved with the festivities thanks to a few surprises from Mr Rao and after some amazing solo performances from our teachers, we wrapped up the proceedings with a rather colloquial dance session and lunch.
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The batch of 2011-13
The batch of 2012-14
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Kumar Gaurav (BD 2012-14)
The students showing their buccaneering spirit at the college’s Janmashtami celebrations, as they successfully broke the Dahi Handi. Even though it meant staying back college after a hectic day of lectures, the students showed up in large numbers and celebrated the occasion of Lord Krishna’s birthday in style.
JAI SHRI KRISHNA!!!!
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ONAM CELEBRATIONS WITH KING MAHABALI
Everybody wants a picture with King Mahabali!!!! Our final festival for the month of August was Onam, one that was celebrated with great vigour and vitality. The students left no stone unturned when it came to decorating the college, with the highlight being the customary floral rangoli at the entrance of the college. Full marks to the Wallpaper council for making sure that every minute detail regarding the decorations was correct. The cultural council had planned this event from start to finish keeping in mind the various traditions involved in a typical Onam celebration. The students showed up in large numbers, especially for the Tug-of-War event, the first real competition between the four batches, so everybody was motivated for it as bragging rights were at stake. The light rain didn’t dampen their spirits one bit as the PGDM batch of 2012-14 steam rolled their way past all the challengers to win the Tug-of-War event. Even the faculty got involved in this event, spearheaded by none other than our Dean Dr. Anil Rao, as they played out a sporting draw. This was followed by the “Matka-Thod” event where almost everybody effortlessly completed the task with their blindfolds. The evening was capped off with some delicious Payassam and Banana Wafers for one and all at the college canteen.
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India at the London 2012
Sushil Kumar shines yet again, as the Blue Billion bemoans a lost chance of glory.
“India’s Olympic fans resort to cheering wildly for bronze medals, as athletes’ high hopes are dashed at London 2012”, “India feels frustration of great nation with small returns”, “Our mediocrity is there for all to see”, these were some of the headlines in the local newspapers after the dramatic closing ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Hopes were high when the 83-strong India team landed at Heathrow this time last month. “Watch out! India is ready to make its mark in London” yelled the cover of The Week, there was a genuine belief that this year would be our best performance in our Olympic history, and although we did better than our total of the previous few years, a lot of Indians felt that we missed out on probably our best shot of true Olympic glory with the possibility of having at least one gold medal.
Expectation was sky high at the Indian camp. Saina Nehwal was at the peak of her game, coming into this tournament with a 3rd Indonesian Open title under her belt. Magnificent Mary Kom was all set to go for the gold and cement her status as the World No.1 in flyweight 51 kgs category for women, our archers were looking hungry for Olympic glory led ably by teenage sensation Deepika Kumari, another World No.1 looking to justify her ranking. And the men weren’t far behind. Sushil Kumar and the rest of the wrestlers were arguably our best bet for medals amongst the men. Yet on some level, we as a nation just didn’t have enough Olympians participating and on hindsight that’s what led us to a commendable total of six medals, two silvers and four bronze. Even Grenada (population 110,000) managed a gold. At one point the 27-year-old Michael Phelps had won more Olympic gold medals in his short career than India had in more than 100 years of participation. To make matters worse, China, India’s great rival in the race to become a future superpower, finished in the top two in the medal table. How many of us actually know the various events of the Olympics? Did you know that our country had only one swimmer at London 2012, Adaveeshaiah Gagan Ullalmath who had an absolute shocker in the 1500m, finishing more than 40 seconds slower than his nearest rival. Despite a lack lustre preparation he still made it to London, how many cyclists does India boast? Despite Delhi building a state-of-the-art £17m velodrome for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, its doors have been closed ever since. After all the hype, the Indian archers returned home empty handed, and like most losing participants they cited the fact that the team had not gotten enough support and the services of a psychologist and a physiotherapist to enhance their confidence as well as mental toughness to face the level of competition in Olympics before such a grand event. India is the largest democracy in the free world, yet our nation chooses to follow only one sport – cricket. Will a Gagan Narang ever scale the heights of a Mahendra Singh Dhoni? Well not in the coming years at least. It will take a super human effort to displace cricket from the top spot, but what we can do is promote other ‘lesser known’ sports like fencing, rowing, gymnastics, swimming etc. India has the potential to be up there with the likes of a China or USA, but we lack the drive and ambition from our leaders.
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Olympics
Corrupt office reputation but Games fiasco win any gold
bearers are also was an medals
of the government are not only destroying any chance of true Olympic embarrassment for the entire nation in the London 2012 games, there
degrading our country’s glory. The Commonwealth and although we didn’t is much sign for hope.
Six medals is an improvement from Beijing 2008, and congratulations to all the Indian medal winners. Boxer Mary Kom won a bronze by default after being beaten by Nicola Adams from Britain in the semi-final, but the mother of five-year-old twins was still “Magnificent Mary” to all of us back home.
India’s lack of ambition is a national tragedy. It was almost comical to see the country erupt into celebration when Saina Nehwal got her badminton bronze, while the rest of the world gunned for gold, we almost seemed happy to settle for the lowest step on the podium. Saina defeated China’s Xing Wang who retired from the match after an injury, but take nothing away from Saina, she deserves her bronze medal and has created history by becoming the first Indian sportsperson to ever win an Olympic medal in Badminton. As always Saina has done India proud and I am sure she will scale far greater heights in the coming years. A special mention to Gagan Narang for winning his first ever Olympic bronze in the Men’s 10m air rifle shooting competion. Our national sport took yet another beating, as our hockey team lost every single match in the London 2012 games, which makes you wonder why wasn’t the team better prepared for such a prestigious event. 11 of the 22 medals won by India at the Olympics have been in hockey, yet this was by far the worst showing of Team India since 1920. Elsewhere at the Olympics, Yogeshkumar Dutt had lost to the Russian B Kudukhov 1-0, 2-0 and was knocked out from the pre-quarterfinal round. He got a chance to contest in the repechage rounds as Kudukhov reached the finals of the event. He beat his North Korean opponent to clinch the bronze medal (0-1, 1-0, 6-0). He was exceptional in the last round, and clinched it in just 1:02 minutes. Sushil Kumar who was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony, and rightly so did us all proud by going one better than the Beijing Olympics, by winning the silver medal in the 66kg freestyle wrestling category. He became the first Indian to win an individual medal in back to back Olympics. We had all but given up hope on another medal, but Sushil Kumar soldiered on until the last day and lost in the final of the wrestling event to Tatsuhiro Yonemitsu of Japan. India’s second silver medal at the London 2012 Olympics came thanks to the efforts of Vijay Kumar who won the silver medal in the 25 m rapid fire pistol event at London 2012.
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Welcome ROTARARIANS!! The first stone was laid on Aug 2011 when our team’s official induction took place in WeSchool Bengaluru. This was the first time I had associated myself with Rotaract, with no prior experience in any social community organization. It took time for me to understand what was expected of me, but as I started meeting rotaractors from different clubs, attending meetings and founding other clubs, I realised that it was more than mere community service. To my pleasant surprise I found the activities fun-meeting people from diverse backgrounds, creating change in the society etc. Being the President it was necessary for me to inculcate a positive thought process in my team. Thankfully I had a very good team and we did many projects (this space is insufficient to discuss them all!). One project that was very close to my heart was RYLA 25000. Approximately 50 people from our club went to different government schools in Bengaluru on a decided day and spent time with those children with a motive to make them realise that they are winners. Frankly, after spending time with those kids it was the team members who started feeling like winners! We also won a few awards during the year, namely the Change Maker award, Best Supporting Club in the district,and of course, the award for teaching more than 1200 students in RLYA 25000. Though the awards goes to Rtn Dr Anil were possible due him wholeheartedly
were seemingly won under my leadership, the main credit Rao. He epitomizes simplicity at its best. Our achievements to his presence as the driving force. I wish to thank on behalf of the entire team for his support and time.
“I hope the new
team does better work than we did and brings home laurels. Till then, HAPPY ROTARACTING.
”
Outgoing Rotaract President, Anant Singh Sikarwar
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“I
am honored to be a part of such an amazing, passionate and committed team. I wish all the Rotaractor’s a fun filled and amazing year ahead. Rotaract President, Alakshyendra Pratap Tiwari
”
The Rotaract Club of Welingkar Bengaluru The Rotaract Team of 2012-13 is an amazing mix of people who are willing to contribute to Rotaract and take the team to new heights and raise the benchmark further. They are led by their president Alakshyendra , ably supported by the Secretary of the Rotaract Club of Bengaluru, Neha Kandpal and Vice-President Ankita Banerjee. The prestigious post of Seargent in Arms is filled by the charismatic Varun Sehgal. The other team members include Swapnil Tanksale, Geeta Golani, Vedang Shah (PR), Vyankatesh Wakle (Treasurer), Richa Dave (Joint Secretary), Swati Upreti (Prof Services), Jaya Madwani (Community Director), Jagannath (Intl’ Director) and Eshan Palit (Club Services), Radhika Jodhani (Editor) and Prerna Katta (Youth Services). We wish all the Rotararians the best of luck in planning the coming year’s events and we look forward to some good activities during the year.
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The winners will be chosen via a lucky draw and they will recieve a goodie bag from Prameya. 27
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