Prameya - issue 20

NEEV 2020 Issue 20

Foreword Team Prameya is happy to share issue 20, covering events from August 2020 to June 2021. The year 2020 forced us accommodating ourselves to the “new normal” ways of life. At WeSchool, the new batch were welcomed virtually during NEEV – Foundation Fortnight. The theme of NEEV 2020 for batch 2020-2022 was CARE – relevant in the context of COVID-19 Pandemic. NEEV 2020 was a two week long program that consisted various guest sessions, management games, competitions, activity based sessions, grooming sessions and workshops.

Young entrepreneur Mr. Anupam Das talked about how he started his business sailed through several challenges both personally and professionally, recent being COVID-19 Pandemic.

Senior batch students Jagriti and Rajvi put up a well researched article on “Employment Disability” – the issues and challenges faced by differently abled people in our society while trying to kick off a profession.

Career Management Cell (CMC) at Bengaluru campus organized a series of Webinars for the students offering a platform to the future leaders to interact with industry stalwarts and understand industry expectations. Also, a brief report is shared on the Summer Internship Contest organized by CMC for the senior batch students.

The Management Development Center (MDC) successfully conducted various long term and short term training programs in HR Analytics, Sales & Marketing Analytics, Design Thinking, Leadership, Business Management etc.

Glad to share various online events organized by different clubs at our campus - offering much needed industry-academia interface in this strenuous time.

Students shared their experience of NEEV 2020 – The Foundation Fortnight program (conducted online) and Global Citizen Leaders (GCL) program (hybrid mode) that they enthusiastically participated in. The “Talent Corner” showcase students’ prowess in poetry, painting and articles.

In this new normal ways of life WeSchool celebrated Diwali online on November 12th 2020. All the employees and their family members enjoyed participating in a cultural program with performances of dance, shloka recitation, songs, playing musical instruments etc. On June 21st 2021, the Jagatik Yog Din was celebrated online promoting “Yoga for well-being”.

Stay Healthy, Stay Safe!

Happy Reading!!

Signing off till we meet again with the next Issue

Faculty Editorial Team Editor

Ms. Ishani Chakraborty

Magazine Design

Mr. William Dayabaran

Student Contributors Team Student Team

Ms. Anshul Sahni

Assisted by

Mr. Parag Zode Ms. Naina Marwah Ms. Nandini Data Mr. Tanmay Laturkar Mr. Preetam Gaikwad

1

Contents

01

Foreword

03

Group Director and Senior Dean & Director

Message From

Faculty Achievement

Articles

21 22

Student Achievement

04

Institutional Achievement

23

Student Article Neev Experience

05

Foundation Fortnight Neev 2020

24

Global Citizen Leaders : Students' Experience

08

Entrepreneur Speak

09

Employment Disability?

11

Career Management Cell

14

Management Development Centre

- By Mr. Anupam Das

- By Ms. Jagriti Kanungo & Ms. Rajvi Bhatt WeSchool, Bengaluru “Career Café” & “Brunch with Boss” – Webinar series and Summer Internship Contest - By MDC Team WeSchool, Bengaluru

Events 16

2

Achievements

Celebrations 27

Diwali

31

The International Day of Yoga

28

Talent Corner

BD START Inc.

- By Mr. Abhinav Kavuru & Ms. Mili Jain WeSchool, Bengaluru

17

WeNture

18

Arthakul

19

dHRisti - HR Club

20

Prakalp - Consulting Club

— Poems/short stories/photography by students

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”.

- Abraham Lincoln Prof. Dr. UDAY SALUNKHE GROUP DIRECTOR, WeSchool

Preparation is the success mantra for life. If the tool is of poor quality, it is unlikely to get the desired results.

When things fall apart, it’s necessary that we pause, re-look at our resources, take stock of our strengths and weaknesses and then rebound with a greater force. We must prepare ourselves to expect the unexpected and inculcate vital skills to sail through the challenges. At WeSchool we equip students with the right skills to be the future leaders.

Other than academics, there are plenty of live projects, events and other management activities that support students to gain creative abilities to approach real-life problems in an entirely new dimension. WeSchool teaching method put emphasis on “Learning by Doing”. Our “Global Citizen Leaders” pedagogy is built around S-O-S, Self-Organization-Society concept where the first year students undergo hands-on experience on actual challenges as faced by different companies/start ups/ NGOs. Students are also encouraged to participate in various international and national competitions/programs under the guidance of faculty mentors. We prepare our students to be the winners in every aspect of life.

Let’s unleash our passion to earn WeSchool name and fame!

Best wishes Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe Group Director, WeSchool

“The future is uncertain, but this uncertainty is at the very heart of human creativity”.

- Ilya Prigogine

Prof. Dr. ANIL RAO PAILA

SENIOR DEAN & DIRECTOR, WeSchool, Bengaluru Campus

Human mind is inclined to certainty and yet uncertainty is unavoidable. As per Buddhism, happiness lies in the acceptance that life is uncertain. True, that uncertainty brings in disturbance but those disturbances can actually pave way for innovation. We unlearn and then re-learn to discover something new. For instance, the onset of COVID 19 pandemic helped to discover a whole lot of new techniques and methods to run an organization.

Every year, Post Graduate students join us with a fresh set of ideas and possibilities. WeSchool focuses on a learner centric environment to channelize the energy of these youngstars to face uncertainties in life with a certain positive attitude. WeSchool Bengaluru campus has grown significantly under the strategic leadership of our Group Director Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe. Our strength lies in our ability to adopt a balanced approach towards education that encourage innovation, help develop complex thinking skills and focus on future needs of the industry.

Prameya- the campus magazine is a students’ initiative supported by faculty members that captures the details of our events, activities conducted, latest trend in the external environment as well applauds the achievement of both students and faculty members.

I welcome all to read our Prameya issue 20.

Best wishes

Prof. Dr. Anil Rao Paila Senior Dean & Director, WeSchool, Bengaluru Campus

3

Institutional Achievement Under the competent leadership of Dr. Anil Rao Paila (Sr. Dean & Director, WeSchool Bengaluru) and Dr. Madhavi Lokhande (Dean, WeSchool Bengaluru) our institution received distinguished awards and accolades in 2020.

Best Innovation Practice “Grassroots Exploration to Business Creation” WeSchool Bengaluru won the best innovation practice in Academia award for its “Grassroots Exploration to Business Creation” pedagogy at NHRDN Bengaluru Chapter HR Showcase 2020 on 27-28 November. The HR showcase, was conducted virtually in the presence of eminent HR professionals and Senior Management from leading organizations in IT, ITES, Telecom, Healthcare, BFSI along with Multinational, NGOs and entrepreneurs.

The practice was presented in the competition

by Professors Madhavi Lokhande, Sonia Mehrotra and Prakash Unakal

Supported by Mr. William, Ms. Ishani and Mr. Nagaraj

WeSchool was ranked, 3rd in Bengaluru and 14th in Southzone amongst B-Schools by the Business Today magazine.

4

Theme Article-Neev 2020 Care 2020

The theme of the foundation program NEEV 2020 for batch of 2020-2022 was CARE. In given context of pandemic the importance and essence of the word CARE is of great relevance. It was a two week long foundation program and consisted various guest sessions, management games, competitions, activity based sessions, grooming sessions and workshops. Two week long foundation program was very informative at one end and was very interactive on other keeping all participants engrossed and engaged throughout. Students actively participated in various sessions and had lots of takeaways such as business insights, life lessons, importance of soft skills etc.

Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe and Dr. Anil Rao Paila during inaugauration of Neev 2020 There were total 24 sessions in week one out of which 12 were guest sessions and 12 were sessions conducted by internal faculty members of WeSchool Bengaluru Campus. The sessions have offered various valuable insights to students on various aspects of business management and life.

Various guest sessions offered valuable insights. To name few guest sessions scheduled in week one were: Success Essentials: How to make the best ROI of your MBA journey by Mr. Punit Modhgil, Founder- Octane, Mr. Krish Shankar (Group Head HR- Infosys), The Science of Being Happy by Mr. Mike Murali - Chief Fun Officer-Capgemini, Disruption in Corporate Ecosystem by Ajay Kumar-Country HR Head, Continental India by VR Ferose- Senior VP, Head of SAP Academy for Engineering, SAP SE, Creating Next Generation Leaders through Resilient Leadership by Ms. Preeja Sridhar, Mr. Kamal Bali-President & MD Volvo among others. The guest sessions were very interactive.

Mr. Kamal Bali, President & MD Volvo and Mr. Mike Murali - Chief Fun Officer, Capgemini

5

Theme Article-Neev 2020 The detailed session by Ms. Neha Siddavanhalli on sexual harassment was aligned students with the dynamics and redressal mechanism of sexual harassment at workplace. The activity based sessions such as Nityagram by Ms. Surupa Sen and a session on Shadow Imagery in Paper Sculpture conducted by Ms.Neha received huge appreciation and participation from students. Ms. Preeja Sridhar’s session on Creating Next Generation Leaders through Resilient Leadership was well appreciated.

Ms. Surupa Sen Nityagram and Prof. Aparna krishnamoorthy, Assistant Professor/ Economics WeSchool detailed session for students during Neev 2020 Sessions conducted by WeSchool faculty members were aimed to give broader information on various subjects to the new batch. Role of research by Dr. D. N. Murthy, Academic Deliverables cell by Prof. Aparna, The Case For Business Methods by Dr.Sonia Mehrotra, Realm of Finance by Dr. Vijay Kumar N, Importance of Data by Prof.

Ramnath, Data to Sceince by Prof.Sridhar, Industry 4.0 by Dr. Dakshina Murthy - were sessions designed to give students broader ideas on management courses. Sessions delivered by Prof. Anuradha Mahesh on Bunch of Keys offered valuable insights on life skills and motivation, session by Dr. Jairaj on Management beyond your own Meteir was very interactive, importance of consulting was very well delivered by Dr. Jyoti in session titled Consulting is more than giving advice. Varous life and soft skills have been very well explained by Prof. Aparna in session titled Dream Catcher-Dealing with Crossroads and the game based session Jeopardy. Prof. Mohan Chandra explained design of Business and Business Innovation. Prof. Madhumita covered analytics in Business.

Week 2 of NEEV CARE 2020 had total of 22 sessions in which one was a panel discussion on Emertech, moderated by Prof Sridhar. The panelists present were Ms Jayahsree KarFounder & Director- Digit age technologies, V Vasudevan- Director- Digit age technologies.

Panel Discussion on Emertech during Neev 2020

The panel discussion was very enriching, informative and offered in-depth understanding on emerging technologies. All three panelists gave final comments on role and scope of emerging technologies in current era. Week 2 also had a special session called “News Hour” in which internal faculty members such as Dr. Jairaj Nair, Dr. Hema and Dr. Vijay conducted sessions on how to read and understand a business news paper.

The sessions had extensive news coverage and helped students in learning the art of reading a news paper. One of the very useful session was on “How to secure dream job” conducted by Dr. Jessy Christin concentrated on all the exercises that students must do during their MBA course to get the job that they desire for. The students also got to meet their respective program heads through Orientation (Breakout session) which was conducted by Dr. Madhumita, Dr Jairaj , Dr. Savitha and Prof Prakash to the students coming under their program. Mr. Saurabh and Ms. Ashna from Bloomberg conducted a half day session for students which were very informative about the functions available with them and how they can be used effectively. Grooming sessions in the 2nd week made students immerse deeply into the B-school set up and understanding their own personalities in a better way. To name a few of them: ‘Personality development’ by Ms. Kalpana, ‘Discover the little spark in you’ by Mr. Ankit Piplani, ‘Managining self’ by Ms. Anuradha Gunasree.

6

Theme Article-Neev 2020 One of the greatest opportunities that the new batch students had during NEEV 2020 was ‘A virtual case challenge’ competition conducted by Dr. Sonia Mehrotra which was named “Wekalp”.

Students were given various case studies upon which they came up with solutions for the problem statement and were asked to present in front of the panelists. It was a very useful event for students in discovering their talents in solving a real time case.

Grooming Sessions during Neev 2020

Dr Jyothi, conducted a session on ‘Business case for diversity’ which had guest speakers from diversity management departments of MNCs’. ‘Importance of prototyping’ by Prof. Prakash, ‘Innovation and management’ by Dr Pratima, ‘How to build profile’ by Mr. Laxminarayanan were some of the other insightful sessions conducted during the week.

Dr. Anita Pillai through her session on ‘Journey towards tech excellence’ created a platform for the new batch students to interact with the alumni. A workshop ‘Let’s Tag On’, on ‘Connecting with self, Surrounding and society’ was well accepted by the students.

Dr. Sonia Mehrotra during WeKalp Neev 2020

Dr. Jyoti conducting Business case for diversity session

Ms. Uma madan’s session on “You can fly to wherever you want… but”, Mr. Sandeep’s “ Zumba Dance fitness session” and DR Vasanth kiran’s “Performing arts skills for Managerial excellence” received a good response and participation from students. NEEV foundation fortnight ended with a good beginning for the 2020-22 academic years.

Ms. Uma, ‘Let’s Tag On’ during Neev 2020

7

Entrepreneur Speak

Mr. Anupam Das

Founder & Director, Amakan Induction Pvt. Ltd.

I am not sure if I could define myself as an entrepreneur or not, but I would like to share my experience with our young generation who wish to establish themselves as startup founders. Hope they will find a basic concept about startups and drive their energy towards building their path to this journey. I believe this can make them sit, think and revisit their future goals.

Behind every startup there is a background story. Some are inspirational; some comes from innovation and sometimes life drives people taking drastic decisions to overcome negativities, a situation when there is no other way except starting something on your own. Mine is the last one.

My startup story actually starts from my childhood. I was not a very good student in terms of academics. I was good in playing Tabla, and other instruments. Eventually, I chose Science for +2 (Higher Secondary), but from my heart still I wanted to be a Tabla player. I found Higher Secondary was not my cup of tea and started taking shows of Tabla in my locality. At that time I was sure that I am quitting my education. But for a 15-16 years old boy it was very tough to announce the same at home ! So, I thought, ‘Okey, if I pass then its fine and if I fail then Tabla is mine !’ I passed 12th standard and somehow managed 1st division. Then I appeared for joint entrance examination to enroll myself in Engineering but could not make it.

I went to a Tabla Guru to carry on my professional Tabla playing but he insisted that I should aim for higher studies.

Confused, I decided to continue my study in Physics. While studying Physics I started liking Electronics. So I decided to take Electronics in my Masters. I noticed that all good electronic items are made in Japan. So I enrolled myself for a Japanese language course in my 2nd year of Graduation to enrich my Curriculum Vitae! After a Masters Degree in Science, people usually choose to be a teacher or move towards Research, but I wanted to join industry which was tough since I was not an Engineer. So, I planned ahead. I did some additional industrial courses such as Engineering Designing and Industrial Automation during my Graduation and Masters.

After my Masters I did some industrial projects and then worked in 2 companies which were very small. I remember in my first company my job was winding transformer wire and in second company my job was to develop automation software. While working in my second organization I got an offer from a leading Induction Furnace manufacturing company in India which was located in Kolkata. I joined there as a Design Engineer. That job I got through the network I built up at the time of learning Japanese and undergoing industrial training. I believe building network is very much important in both personal and professional life.

I worked there for more than 5 years (from 2011 to 2016) and I learned a lot! Because of my job profile I visited a couple of other countries – Middle East and Bangladesh. Everything was going fine but after 3-4 years I felt that it was a bottleneck with no further growth. At that situation when I started searching job again, everybody was asking for Engineering degree which I didn’t have. So I decided to do my own and that was the start!!

I took around Rs.10 lakhs as personal loan where EMI was around 32K per month. At that time I even didn’t know about CIBIL and all such staff. With that money I put a small shed behind my home by cutting some trees and arranged 3 people from my office factory who would work for me after our office time secretly. I started manufacturing small parts of furnace and tried to sell. When I saw that I can sell my products, though in small quantity, I resigned. I was giving EMI and 3 employee’s salary from my savings and I took only around Rs. 3000/- for fill in my bike. My family supported me a lot at the time.

My major liabilities were EMI and employee’s salary so we took each and every small offer even if that meant a repairing job only. 6 months passed like this and I realized that if I have to make it big I have to hire experienced business partner as I was rather a rookie in business. I approached 2 experienced people who were working with my previous employer. They instantly agreed to join. Nonetheless, there were several challenges such as we were newbie, didn’t have proper machineries, didn’t have enough money to execute a job as most of the money we already spent to build the workshop and to purchase basic tools. At that time as I already left my job, my savings was reducing. Also, since we were new entity and did not have much credential, it was difficult to get large orders. Nonetheless, I visited customers regularly and tried to convince them so that they could at least try us by giving order for small spare parts. Like this our journey continued. We took a small office in city and shifted factory from my home to a small rented premises.

Though we are still struggling, but now we become a Rs. 3cr turnover company. We are now manufacturing full furnace along with existing spare manufacturing unit. In this pandemic situation, like any other small scale businesses we are also suffering, but hopefully it will be over soon.

8

Student Article : Employment Disability?

EMPLOYMENT DISABILITY? It’s all in the MIND….

One in 10 persons experience disability in one way or the other. Being disabled means that one has fundamental difficulty in doing or achieving things that others find easy. Disabilities can be physical, sensory, cognitive, behavioural or even emotional in nature. One may have it since birth, or may obtain disability due to illness, accident or a man-made tragedy like violence or terror attack - may be a physical confrontation, a natural disaster.

Hence, disability is a reality and it is not as rare as it often seems.

We don't see a lot of disabled people around us, primarily because they have a large number of obstacles that keep them away. Only 34 lakh of the about 1.34 crore people with disabilities (PwD) in the employable age have a job in India, according to Equiv.in, a recruitment platform that cited government data for the numbers. That is an unemployment rate of more than 70%. Employment offers the chance to earn money, build social connections and status and this is important for PwD as well.

Knowing that it is of utmost importance for disabled people to work and be independent in life, this disadvantaged group still faces high barriers to employment. Previous research shows that disabled people suffer job challenges, primarily because others do not understand disability and this leads to employers having a negative approach towards them as well as a narrow mindset which does not let them include or retain people with disability in an organisation.

Some individuals may do extremely well for a company if they are given a favourable setting. Disabled individuals are also competent and keen to work to become financially stable and enjoy a better quality of life both personally and professionally. It’s important to make a workplace accessible to people with disability for: It is an injustice to remove a large proportion of the population simply when just a few structural systematic alterations can enable them to be a productive and beneficial part of your business and environment.

The law demands it. The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act (the RPWD Act), 2016 mandates equality and non-discrimination. This will occur only if individuals with special needs are not excluded because of the barriers of structures and attitudes.

Over the years, few organisations have added disability in their inclusion agenda but transition and success has been minimal. The biggest hurdle, especially in India, is not really the disability; it is the attitudinal barriers that people with disability face.

Challenges faced by PwD: SAAI Superstations and unconscious bias: There are people who ascribes some superstations for the impairment. For instance, this is a curse that his/her mother received when she was expecting the baby etc. Sometimes the parents are also not supportive and feel ashamed of their children. At workplace, the managers also have some biases while allocating a project like whether he/she will be able to do it. Back of the mind they doubt their skills and capabilities.

9

Student Article : Employment Disability?

Awareness: There is lack of awareness about the people with disability like the challenges they face and how can that be addressed. Unknowingly they may end up offending these people because of lack of awareness. It’s not just enough to know that disability discrimination is unlawful, showcasing empathy is equally important.

Accessibility: Accessibility is a term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environ ment is available to as many people as possible. There is also lack of accessibility of instruments that can support the impaired persons. In name of accessible instruments they only have wheel chairs in public places.

And even if they have instruments then they are not in adequate number to be accessible to large group.

Inclusion: One of the biggest challenges they face is - inclusion, they feel that they are always left out. So the challenge is what can be done to bring the inclusion?

So, what can be done to minimise these barriers and make Pwd feel more involved within their work environment?

Allocate a buddy when the person with disability is onboarded, this will ensure that he/she is comfortable while working Accessibility of various instruments so that people with disability can work without any obstacles. Ensure participation of PwD in the meetings, gatherings and fun and don’t make them feel left out When setting meeting/presentations, check the accessibility. Amenities like washrooms and water coolers should be accessible to everyone.

Treat with empathy along with sympathy. Try to understand their situation and ensure that they are not left out in any activity or meetings – both formal and informal Sensitize and train other staff By involving the people with disability in the meetings and presentations aided with technology and empathy can bring inclusion Understand that everyone wants to be independent in life. Barriers to employment should be the last thing one has to deal with The best and the most appropriate way to overcome attitude barriers is to get people with and without disabilities into one another as colleagues, partners and social friends. If we give it some time, most of the attitudes will allow for warmth, acceptance and friendship. To achieve this, the organizations need to focus on open team bonding activities for all employees. Ensure that communications at team gatherings are provided in formats which can be used by people of varying abilities. Lastly, select places for fun gatherings or leisure activities which are physically accessible for everyone. These gatherings could be any casual meetings or grand office parties.

After keeping all the points in mind it is also important to understand that if a person doesn’t have a diverse or broad mindset, he would always notice the differences between people, which will affect the way he handles relationships at his workplace. Make those people a minority and not those people with disability.

Jagriti Kanungo, PGDM, 2019-21

10

Rajvi Bhatt, PGDM, 2019-21

Career Management Cell “Career Café” & “Brunch with Boss” – Webinar series

“Career Cafe”, a series of webinars with the industry stalwarts – a novel initiative of CMC Bangalore was a proposed solution to the Industry expectation. It was introduced with the focus on improving students’ readiness and step up his/her competence. The industry leaders shared their valuable insights with students on various aspects such as changing industry scenarios, global perspective on career, capability building at individual level, skills and attitude for global managers. In Career Cafe – Pathbreakers series, the junior students were able to connect with elite Alumni panel of WeSchool who shared their success stories and growth path.

Another initiative – “Brunch with Boss” was introduced with the focus on inculcating soft skills. This series helped in enhancing: Students preparedness for the upcoming placement season Knowledge of the latest changes happening in the various sectors Ways to build and sustain relationship with the organizations Valuable insights on the skill sets required for placement and performance thereafter Domain specific insights

Posters for “Career Café” webinar series

11

Career Management Cell “Career Café” & “Brunch with Boss” – Webinar series Career Café Speaker

Designation

Company

Topic

Rahul Koul

Founder

Zensciences

Marketing in a Black Swan Event

Beena Patil

VP HR

Indegene

Life science domain - A decade and way forward''

Masood Hameed

Head Marketing Analytics

IBM

Data driven Marketing : future of Digital Marketing and Analytics

Jagannath PSK

General Manager

Aditya Birla Retail

New Retail Mantra - Brick and Mortar + Online

K Vaitheeswaran

Co Founder

Again Drinks

Career Thoughts in a Post Covid world

Sannesh Prabhu

Head Demand Solutions

Thoughtworks

DFinTech Chronicles...

Salil Ravindran

Head Digital Banking

MEDICI

FinTechb in India - Trends and Opportunities

Career Café - Path Breakers Speaker

Speaker

Company

Designation

Karan Rawat

Karan Rawat

Assymetric

Co Founder

Priyanka Kulkarni

Priyanka Kulkarni

DXC

SPHR

Krishanu Jha

Krishanu Jha

Dell

National Account Manager

Apoorv Mathur

Apoorv Mathur

IBM

Marketing Strategist

Krunal Desai

Krunal Desai

Deloitte

Lead Solution Advisor

Brunch with Boss Speaker

Designation

Company

Topic

Deepesh Grover

Head TA

Compass Group

VUCA and WGLL

Veena Wadhwa

Senior Manager

Kantar

Spectrum of opportunities in Market Research for Management Graduates

Mr Laxminarayanan G

Associate Director

Deloitte

AI - Creating a new paradigm shift

Murali M.S

Chief Fun Officer

Capgemini

Why FROWN during the LOCKDOWN! "3 compelling stories from the lockdown'

Debargha Deb

HR East

Dabur India Ltd

New Age Skills for New Age Professions

Posters for “Brunch with Boss”

12

Career Management Cell: Summer Internship Contest, 30 September, 2020 Summer Internship is an important career stepping stone. It can be a career deciding factor in a student’s professional life. It provides students with confidence and experience in working in the real world. The feedback from the corporate, where a student completes his summer internships is often used as an input for curriculum upgrades. We-School has a special focus on regular interaction of our students with the Industry through projects, seminars and competitions.

In this pursuit, every year WeSchool organizes “Summer Internship Contest” for our Post Graduate Management Students (from all specializations) to develop excellence and competitive spirit among the students. This year, the number of students were 183 who were placed in diverse industries such as advertising and media, analytics, automotive, BFSI, consulting, e-commerce, FMCG, healthcare, IT, manufacturing, power, retail etc.

In the first three of the competition, internal faculty members and specialization heads shared their feedback to the projects and in the final round the corporate panelists evaluated student presentations. In this year the preliminary rounds were conducted in virtual mode over two days. There were other new initiatives such as: Preliminary Round was conducted virtually over 2 days Address by 2 Alumni who had won the contest in previous years Digital Polling and live streaming for the Most Popular Presentation Award Single platform judgment to eliminate any subjectivity and biases Panelists from different verticals and domain Specialization

THE ACHIEVERS : Winner 1st Runner Up 2nd Runner Up Best PPT Best Content Best Methodology Best Clarity Most Popular PPT

: : : : : : : :

Lovely Nagar PGDM Marketing (Siemens) Abhay Yadav (Felidae Electric) (PGDM E Business Marketing) Aditi Agarwal (TVRLS) (PGDM HR) Lovely Nagar (Siemens) (PGDM Marketing) Abhay Yadav (Felidae Electric) (PGDM E Business Marketing) Aditi Agarwal (TVRLS) (PGDM HR) Somya Saraswat (Haier) (PGDM Marketing) Ankit Singh (STANPLUS) (PGDM EBusiness Operations)

Summer Internship Contest in Virtual Mode

13

Management Development Centre Programs

HR Analytics Program HR Analytics is revolutionizing the way Human Resource functions. Understanding the need for training in this field, the management development cell (MDC) of WeSchool Bengaluru started 2-day training workshops in HR Analytics for professionals. During the challenging times of COVID Pandemic MDC conducted 4 online workshops in HR Analytics in the months of May, June, August and September in 2020 and March and April 2021.

Online Workshops in HR Analytics conducted by MDC, WeSchool Bengaluru

Design Thinking Program In the world of globalization, Design Thinking & Innovation is becoming the fundamental part of any business product development and an integral part of strategy making process. Concept designs, product innovations and much more are developed using Design Thinking. The two day interactive workshop on Design Thinking conducted by WeSchool MDC put emphasis on critical thinking. In October 2020, MDC conducted two online Design Thinking Program workshops on 3rd-4th and 10th -11th October. The participants involved in:

Design Thinking session by Prof. Prakash Unakal • Exploring innovative processes, tools and techniques in design thinking.

• Realizing that Design Thinking can be applied in various workplace functions such as product or service design, process design, customer experience and organizational change.

• Establishing a framework for building an environment that fosters creativity.

• Developing new ways to collaborate across all functions of the organization.

• Assimilate concepts of Design Thinking to drive innovation, organizational transformation and address customer centricity in day-to-day work situations

14

Management Development Centre Programs

Sales & Marketing Analytics Analytics is revolutionizing the way Sales & Marketing functions, and this development has created a huge opportunity for professionals to learn the nuances of this field. WeSchool offers online weekend program in sales & marketing analytics that provides an hands – on experience on data exploration techniques and analytic tools & modelling techniques in the Sales & Marketing domain.

Participants with WeSchool faculty member during Sales & Marketing Analytics program

Global Leadership Practices Program – 2020 The Global Leadership Practices program conducted by WeSchool MDC in November 2020, enabled participants to broaden personal and professional horizons and foster a deeper understanding of leadership practices. Through this program, the participants learned about Indian culture. Till date, WeSchool Bengaluru successfully conducted 6 versions of this consultancy assignment.

Participants @Global Leadership Practices Program

Junior Management Leadership Program (JMLP) Last but not the least to share is that WeSchool Bengaluru MDC team successfully completed the 15th Batch of JMLP training to the Junior managers @Infosys BPO and the 16th & 17th batches are ongoing.

15

Event | BD START Inc.

BD START Inc. 2020

WE School is well known for conducting various, unique, innovative, interesting and interactive competitions and events to give students the needed exposure and confidence and help in enhancement of intellectual skills and interpersonal skills.

Out of these one such competition which stands out and holds a special place for the Business Design batch students is the “BD start INC”.

The reason why every student looks forward to participate in this event is because they become an entrepreneur throughout the course of the event. The format for the event is – Students of the junior batch organize the event for the seniors to participate. From planning till execution of the event, organising the date and venue everything is handled by the juniors.

The Event The event commences with introduction speech and inauguration of the event. This year, because of Covid-19 the event was on online platform. Each team displayed and explained their innovative business model & prototypes to the esteemed guests, who then enriched the students with their thoughts and inputs; experience and know how.

Student Start up Ideas There were 5 startup ideas presented by students of business design and innovation batch 2019-2021: Vehi Care: The idea is to build an application to solve the problem of abrupt automobile breakdown. By using the app, people can search the nearest garage and ask for required help.

The CREAATR inc.: The idea is to create real time experiences above all the rest for businesses like real estate and retail sector. It is a B2B platform, from a background of design thinking, providing virtual reality content.

Just Gruhani: It is an idea to transform housewives into successful businesswomen without stepping out of their house. It provides a virtual bidding platform to them with plethora of project from employers to choose according to their capabilities.

Agrisure: using vegetables like tomatoes, onions, garlic and converting then into sun dried product to increase the shelf life and bypass the price fluctuation.

Urban Farmers: The idea aims at bringing plant nurseries to customers doorstep at click of a button. This is an online platform that proposes to work with the plant nurseries across Bangalore. This will give the nursery owner an opportunity to show their products to customer virtually.

BD Start Inc. event provides great learning opportunity for the students where they develop interpersonal skills as well as intellectual skills with a lot of fun in working together as a team and representing the college in front of the market (entrepreneurs and industrialist mentors of the event). This not only shows the zeal that our WE school students possess, but also a symbol of torch that passes on from one batch to the next and keep the fire of learning ignited.

Abhinav Kavuru & Mili Jain BD&I. Batch 2020-22 Start up Logos

16

Event | WeNture

“All dreams can come true if you have courage to pursue them” -Walt Disney

Entrepreneurs, they are the people who dream & work tirelessly towards bringing it to life. Fostering this entrepreneur’s aspiration is at core of our WeNture club at Welingkar Institute of Management & Research Bangalore.

Welingkar institute being at forefront of academic revolution, innovation & has introduced creative curriculum throughout its lifespan & will be doing so in future as well. WeNture club has big responsibility of living up to expectation of such legacy. In WeNture students are responsible for its activities & progress, they are mentored & guided by the institutes esteemed faculty. WeNture strives to instigate entrepreneurial spirit in students through various means.

Many times an idea which has potential to change human life never see being implemented due to lack of knowledge, guidance, mentorship & resources availability. Our E-cell, WeNture attempts to answer this through knowledge expansion & constructing edge by providing platforms which exposes them to real world problems & their solution through competitions, events, seminar/webinars of noted entrepreneurs & investors, alumni interactions.

Wenture works through its four divisions: Incubation - it attempts to bring budding startups onboard & provide them with resources to initiate their journey PR - which connect with various industry veterans & seek their guidance & knowledge for students.

Social media team connects with various groups of students, alumni etc.

Event team which overlooks the various events, competition to be conducted under Wenture club.

This all present opportunity to members of the club & other students’ to understand & inculcate skills & knowledge to be future entrepreneurs.

16

17

Event | Arthakul Alumni Session on Treasury and its functionalities Arthakul -Finance club of Weschool, Bangalore organised Alumni session with Mr. Vaibhav Maniar who is currently working at Aditya Birla Housing Finance Ltd. as an Assistant Manager Treasury on 26th September 2020 (Saturday) from 7pm to 8.30pm.The event was organized through an online platform (Cisco WebEx).

Topics covered in the session: • • • • • • • •

Introduction to Treasury and its functionalities Explained about the money market instruments and the importance of it in the economy Structure of a Treasury Department (Front, Middle and Back Office) in an organization.

Explained about Cash Flow Management (Sub function of Treasury) through the flow chart where multiple roles have been involved to keep track of daily cash flows and maintain adequate liquidity Few questions were asked on the money market instrument, functioning of Treasury in NBFC, Role of Treasury Manager in back office etc. and was clearly explained by Vaibhav Maniar Integration of Digital Technologies in Treasury Certifications required to gain knowledge in the field of Treasury Management Career Advancement & Placement Opportunities in the field of Treasury

Alumni session by Mr. Vaibhav Maniar was informative and enlightening for all of us. He also shared his corporate experience as a Treasury Manager by giving us valuable inputs for one to start his career in Treasury domain, what one's supposed to do in this job profile and also gave us placement suggestions for internships and Final Placements.

Alumni session on Treasury and its Functionalities

by Mr. Vaibhav Maniar

Post Budget Session 2020: Panel Discussion Arthakul - Finance club of Weschool, Bangalore organized Panel Discussion on Post Budget session 2020 with the following Panel members: Mr. Vivek Mallya who worked as an independent director in ONGC for 3-years, proprietor of Vivek mallya and Co, specializes in International Tax, Foreign Exchange matters. His field of interest lies in Aerospace and defense sectors by following all the updates related to it.

Vishaka Pai who is a founding partner in Inconf Consulting LLP and also she is a consultant in Vivek mallya and co.

Mr. Lokesh Venkataswamy who worked in Larsen and Toubro as a Management officer, and now he is a CEO and Managing director of Innomantra consulting Private Limited. Innomantra is India’s leading Digital, Innovation and Intellectual property consulting and services firm. They help organizations to design and achieve their digital, innovation and Intellectual property goals to scale.

Mr. Dinesh J Ranka is a practicing Chartered Accountant and Director of Pozitiv partners a consulting company which provides growth and advisory services to its clients. His Approach has always been to understand the mindset of the business drivers and provide insights based on where they currently are and not in isolation.

Panelists, WeSchool Faculty members and student-members of Arthakul club

18

Event | dHRishti – the HR club

“I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people and not on strategies.”

- Lawrence Bossidy.

So, imagine how important the people who deal with human resources are, within an organization.

What Weschool Bengaluru have for these HR aspirants is an amazing students club named “dHRishti”.

During the early days of online MBA, I joined this whatsapp group of HR aspirants. Amidst of all the assignments and online sessions, our seniors used to conduct interactive sessions where we could discuss about everything and nothing. They used to give us activities for which you could go totally out of the box and creative. The club later extended its family on Linkedin and all our creative artworks were posted on the same platform.

After few such sessions, we were asked to choose a team for which we are interested to work for. The options were - competitions team (looking into inter and intra college competitions), social media team (putting up the activities on social media for more outreach and recognition), technical team (taking responsibility for all technical barriers that could be faced for activities) and creative team (coming up with content that goes online as well as for official work purposes of the club).

The seniors of the club conducted two rounds of selection process based on our choice of team– interview & a presentation round. After this filtration, the core dHRishti club was created and we have been able to share articles, conduct competitions and other interesting activities at inter and intra college level We are now a team of 25 people sharing same ambitions and interests, also looking forward to welcome the juniors who have an inclination towards HR domain, just like us!

Athira. A BD&I, 2020-22

19

Event | Consulting Club: Prakalp Prakalp the consulting club of Weschool Bengaluru was established in November 2020 to explore and enhance the student community’s interests in doing live projects, while helping clients solve their business problems or identify opportunities for improvement and growth at the same time Mission: We collaborate with the corporate to bring to the campus, exciting opportunities of live projects, thus enabling the students gain a first-hand experience at different domains.

Vision: "Where do we want to go in the future?"

Create and maintain long-term corporate relationships with organizations, make available all resources necessary to build content and competency on campus.

A live project is an application of theory into practicality. It’s a good opportunity to nurture students’ conceptual, analytical, oral communication, interpersonal skills, experience, leadership and knowledge in real time environment.

Prakalp has bridged the gap between the companies and students as well as helped the latter to explore their area of expertise. As Steve Jobs rightly said : ‘The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.’’

With a keen focus on professional standard live projects, the club also organized several events, We have successfully conducted virtual events with an audience of 130+ participants where we had industry experts speak on ‘What Industry wants from students’. We had the opportunity to interact with Ankita Banerjee (Randstad), Dev Vig (De space) and Chetana Koulagi (Lets tag on) and take key takeaways on how Industries work & learning different gigs of your interest to sharpen your skills, how to face failures and always have the zeal to re-learn.

Proud to have collaborated with our esteemed clients

Team Prakalp: Shreeya Chopra, Arpan Agarwal, Mandar Naik, Preetam Gaikwad, Siddhi Dalvi (Batch 2020-2022)

Inauguration of Prakalp: The Consulting Club

20

Faculty Achievement

Dr. Madhavi Lokhande

Dean, WeSchool, Bengaluru was elected as the President - Bangalore Chapter, Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), US. IMA is the worldwide association of accountants and financial professionals in business. Reach in150 countries, and more than 350 chapters across the globe.

Dr. Sonia Mehrotra

Professor - Centre of Excellence for Case Development & Case Studies was awarded “Abhinandana Women Achivers Award” conferred by Bangalore Education Trust.

Dr. Ruchi Singh

Assistant Professor, Research

was elected as editorial board member in charge of sub-continent and surrounding region of a Scopus-indexed international journal "Remittances Review" published by TPL London since March 2018.

21

Student Achievement

Sr.No

22

Name of the students

Batch

Date

Competition

Award/Accolade

1.

Sarah Mansi Taluja Maddi Sai Rohith Muhammad Siyad

PGDM Batch 2020-2022

December-2020

Pravaran- HR event of Nisadya, NIT Trichy

Second Runners up in the event out of 978 finalists

2.

Nikhil Nayak

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

January-2021

Clock speed 1.0” organized by XLRI on “Bus Scheduling” (2021)

Winner

3.

Nikhil Nayak

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

January-2021

The Medici Effect Quiz#Xavier School of Management (XLRI), Jamshedpur

Winner

4.

Sameer Shaikh

PGDM Batch 2020-22

12th January-2021

Article Writing Competition at IIM Udaipur- Zeitgeist-Solaris 21

Winner

5.

Sameer Shaikh

PGDM Batch 2020-22

January-2021

Operations Management Quiz at Punjab University

Winner

6.

Nikhil Nayak Eva Maheshwari Vishal Shewale

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

March-2021

Opstra - Operations case study ompetition -Supply chain and operations club (SCOPE) Symbiosis Centre for Management and Human Resource Development

National Runners Up Task: Design warehouse layout and operations design for a footwear retail business.

7.

Deepak Kumar Baranwal

BD&I 2020-22

1st March-2021

Crossword Competition Organised

by NMIMS

Winner

8.

Vanshika Choudhary

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

29th December 2020

HR Quiz, Learnous

Second Runners Up

9.

Vanshika Choudhary Vishnu MK

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

5th January-2021

Article Writing, IIM Shillong

Published in the magazine and got a cash prize.

10.

Sameer Shaikh

PGDM Batch 2020-22

February 2021

HRM/OB Quiz Series - “Radiance” at IIM Rohtak

Winner

11.

Sameer Shaikh

PGDM Batch 2020-22

January-2021

Marketing Article Writing Competition - “Binge 6.0” at SIBM, Pune

Winner

12.

Kartik Maheshwari Prachi Kakade Anusha Hirwani

PGDM Batch 2020-22

September 2020

NEEV 2020 Virtual Case Challange

Winner

13.

Maddi Sai Rohith

PGDM Batch 2020-22

November-2020

60 Day Challenge in Z-Connect, Zerodha

Winner

14.

Priti Shahi

PGDM Batch 2020-22

August 2020

Campus Ambassador in Model Socialis

Winner

15.

Muhammad Siyad

PGDM 2020-22

December-2020

Campus Ambassador in NIT TRICHY “NISDYA 2020”

Runners up

Student Article Neev Experience

NEEV 2020

Anshul Sahni

PGDM RBA 2020-22

What a troublesome year it was – Dear situations in 2020, please don’t come back ever again! From being locked at their homes to working from their homes, people never imagined that they would be trapped because of such a horrific pandemic. Some giving different interviews via a virtual mode and students attending online classes – everyone got surrounded by technology, which has eventually become a savior for humankind.

Continuing education was possible only because of the Hero of Kaliyuga – TECHNOLOGY. Thanks to this medium, WeSchool could organize a Virtual Industry Immersion Program, NEEV, so that the batch of 2020-22 could get an orientation and a promising welcome even when they had to sit at their homes. This immersion program was dignified by many eminent speakers from different global companies who talked about different topics such as brand building, designing and new opportunities in the global market. With the motto of, “Reboot, Reinvent and Rebound”, this one-week program started and the main insights that were stated are; the importance of analytical skills in today’s corporate world, how advantageous is the path of ethics and morale, significance of risk-taking abilities in the business world and the value of being an empathetic manager in every domain.

Mr. Krish Shankar, Group Head HR, INFOSYS, talked about his industry experience via simple and wise words. V.R. Ferose, Senior VP, SAP Academy for Engineering, unfolded his journey of success. A very insightful session about “building professional profile in 2 years of college life” was given by Mr. Laxminarayan G, Associate Director, DELOITTE. Dr. J. Jessy Christin, VP-HR & Operations, CONVATE, created an environment of relaxation by talking about the ways through which aspiring students could secure their dream jobs in the turbulent Covid times. Mr. Kamal Bali, President & MD, VOLVO and Mr. Aditya Bhat, Head, JIO STUDIOS also shared their industry experiences and their visions about the current business world. Along with so many information about different sectors, Mr. Punit Modhgil, Co-founder, OCTANE RESEARCH, talked about the fact that why has MBA become so important in this modern, competitive and innovative world. He said that, MBA is one suchkey that opens the door that includes different tools and those tools if are used wisely, would provide opportunities for lifetime learning. He also explained that MBA teaches one to be a team player as it is a collaborative program and not an individualistic platform.

Besides renowned speakers, the talented and experienced professors of WeSchool also gave certain understandings.

Professor Mohan Chandra talked about “Design of Business and the Business of Innovation”, Dr.Vijay Kumar N gave his vision on the topic, “Realm of finance – much ado about something”, Dr. Madhumita Guha Majamdar spoke about “the importance of analytics in Business”, Professor Sridhar T S highlighted “the importance of Data Science in making innovative business decisions”, Professor Preeja Sridhar gave a talk on “Creating next generation leaders through resilient leadership” and Dr. Dakshina Murthy explained about industrial revolution and the concept of Industry 4.0. Some fun activities were also conducted by Ms. Neha Mehta and Professor Aparna Krishnamoorthy which helped students to connect with each other.

Last but not the least, there was an interestingly interactive session with some of the talented artists of our country.

Supriya Pathak, Radhika Madan and Shantanu Maheshwari shared their life journeys and how they arrived at the point of success by being empathetic at every step of their lives, by taking the roads that were less travelled by, thus, by taking risks.

Although, the batch of 2020-22 missed their orientation program but the virtual orientation was equally responsive and interactive and this could only happen because everyone in WeSchool worked together as a TEAM to make a promising welcome to the students who were encompassed by virtual modes in their houses and thus a successful global exposure was possible.

23

Global Citizen Leaders : Students' Experience

Muskan Agarwal

PGDM - Business Design & Innovation, 2020-2022

CHAPTER 18- SHLOKA- 5 of Shrimad Bhagwad Gita says that the tasks which involve work of sacrifice, gift-giving and self-improvement should never be abandoned and should always be performed. I consider these acts, O Arjuna, to be those of purification and all those who are wise realize this fact.

And I can easily connect myself with this Shloka and GCL 2K21 because during these days GCL taught me that being a powerful leader means you should never stop yourself from self- improvement, empathy, sacrifices for your team and yourself because today in the competitive era one who always add up skills to their personality always win the battle of life. Adding to it one should always see the things from different perspective with wider view as one of the activities name ORANGE taught me that in our daily life we see orange as a fruit or a color but due to this activity in which teams came together and discussed what else can orange do which broaden the perspective of everyone so one should keep their eyes and ears open while observing different things.

Moreover my takeaways from the project assigned to me that being different from the crowd is what world needs as the company IMMUNOBITES want their customers to have nutritious and preservative free ladoos which will boost their immunity system as we can see today’s market where business houses just want to sell without caring about their customers health so this company stand apart from the crowd and brought such a marvelous initiative and lesson for all us.

Naina Marwah PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

Our GCL journey started on 20th March, 2021 in this VUCA world, this time Global Citizen Leadership program was a bit different as it was conducted both on virtual and offline mode. Luckily, I was one of those who took it in offline mode from our campus. The day started with our honourable group director, Prof. Dr. Uday Salukhe’s induction session for both the campuses via a virtual meet. The excitement and the enthusiasm were superlative in all of us on both days. Day one focused on self-awareness; the pedagogy was considerate. We did certain activities to understand the concept of self-awareness and social awareness. The main learnings from the first iteration were to be an empathetic, agile learner, observant, to have a mental growth and ‘hero’ mindset.

We attended the second iteration on virtual mode but we all were working as it is and were in different parts of India but still on the same page due to the team charter, we had made in the first iteration, our goals and purpose were still the same, to take maximum learnings from our mentors, guest speakers and the learnings while doing our GCL project. After the insightful and informative sessions with the industry experts and mentors our perspective has changed a lot. Now we believe in the ability to take initiatives, to work courageously and collaboratively. The program is providing us with leadership, innovation knowledge along with the opportunity to learn and practice skills in real-life situations.

I am looking forward to more such learnings that will transform us to be good leaders who can take on complex and boundary-spanning challenges.

24

Global Citizen Leaders : Students' Experience

Nandini Data

PGDM E-Business 2020-2022

Our college's GCL journey began in late March and was conducted in a hybrid mode - both online and offline.

Just a few students, including myself, were able to attend the inaugural ceremony in person. Prof. Dr. Uday Salunkhe, our honourable Group Director, began the journey through online mode with a few golden words. I was eager to learn something new, and because I was attending offline, which was great for interaction, my chances of exposure increased.

Our first day started with workshops which had emphasis on personality, empathy, teamwork and social awareness. These workshops were conducted by faculty members, guest speakers and our mentors. In the second half of the day, we were split into groups and group mentors were assigned and with this the exciting part had begun as we were given activities to complete which were educational as well as enjoyable. And by the end of the day each group was assigned a project which is supposed to be submitted by the end of the semester and making it more interesting, each group was paired with an industry mentor. Second day started with same kind of protocols – sessions that provided some important learning. And my biggest takeaways from the first phase of GCL were how observation skills and self-consciousness play a significant role in shaping one's life.

But as this offline journey just began, COVID-19 hit AGAIN. Everything was shifted to online mode all of a sudden. So, with online mode we began with holding virtual meetings with our industrial mentor/(s). Online mode affected the exposure and my plans to work offline were shattered. But I owe a debt of gratitude to my mentor and my entire team for making this process so easy. It's been a roller coaster ride so far, but it was quite a learning and there have been many instances from which I've benefited a lot. However, the journey is still on....

Srivatsan S.V PGDM -2020-2022

Company allotted: AssisTech Foundation Company Head: Pratheek Madhav They organized India's First Assistive Conclave in 2019. India's First Assistive Technology Innovation Ecosystem for helping people from disability was from AssisTech Foundation. They are startup accelerators where they help in accelerating the growth of startups. They help in awarding good startups, help people having good startup ideas. Due to unavoidable circumstances like Covid-19 we couldn’t interact physically. We had online interaction where our Mentor introduced us to Mr. Pratheek Madhav (Pratheek ) and his subordinate Mr. Mayank.

Pratheek addressed through online, explained about the company and they had devised various job roles assigned to us and to whom we had to report to. He also clearly mentioned not to call him "Sir" as he was not comfortable. This showed us how open he was and didn’t want to see any differentiation. My job role was assigned as to work under Pratheek. I was assigned to prepare a Pitch for startups to raise fund. I had to research a lot, read many books, read many blogs, watched many youtube videos to prepare my pitch. Pratheek seemed pleased with it. My observations of Pratheek and Mayank is that they are friendly, open for all questions, ready to help anytime, with good knowledge of their domains.

25

Global Citizen Leaders : Students' Experience

Parag Zode

PGDM- RBA 2020-2022

Global Citizen Leadership, commonly known as GCL, is a flagship project program offered by WeSchool since 2014. This program normally lasts for 6 months. However due to COVID-19 pandemic in 2021, this has reduced to a 8-week program and has become virtual to say the least!

In this program, groups are made randomly as well as projects are being offered - both research as well as business development ones on a random basis. This is done so as to make students flexible and familiar to the requirements of the corporate world.

There have been challenges in conducting the program virtually as opposed to the traditional practical approached program. Newer ways to keep the group engaged have been found. For ex: In iteration sessions, GCL groups were asked to do storytelling using platforms like MURAL. This ensured that students became familiar to the online coordination process as well as give a glimpse of how to interact with those real time clients (national or international based) who can’t be met face to face and have to deal only virtually.

Interaction with the company stakeholders has been on virtual mode and the students were given projects mostly on research due to limitations of interacting offline. Students are asked to research on given projects and give valuable inputs via presentation/ online discussion with the stakeholders.

I found this program and setup quite interesting as it made me elevate my communication skills with random people about whom I didn’t have any idea. GCL also introduced me to business jargons which normally corporates use in their communication to make the process more specific and meet targets before deadline. It is a work in progress but I’m sure along with us- students, it will also benefit the companies which are allotted to us.

Storytelling using Mural

Team Charter using Mural

Storyboard Prototype by Students

26

CELEBRATIONS: Online Diwali Celebration @2020

Happy Diwali The year 2020 brought with it very hard and trying times for the entire world. The whole world and its systems were brought to their knees. It was the same for us at WeSchool.

Every year Diwali is celebrated institute-wide in a grand scale, but like other festivals and occasions in 2020, Diwali celebration at campus was not seeming to be possible because of the Covid situation. Few proposed the idea of online celebration and then from there it became a full-blown plan, keeping in mind the challenges and situation everywhere; keeping the morale high of our WeSchool family was of outmost importance. Thus, came into motion the plan for celebrating Diwali – The festival of triumph of good over evil; the festival of lights and hope: WeTarang The program was held on November 12th 2020, 5:30 pm onwards using online platform which enabled us to connect with entire We Family and their family members. The program started with our Group Director’s address and was followed by Devotional songs sung by few colleagues. Next came up the most entertaining and vibrant performances by tiny tots; children and grandchildren of employees. This was undoubtedly the most enjoyed part of the whole day.

These tiny power houses of talent bedazzled everyone with their performances of dance, shloka recitation, songs, musical instrument and what not !!

This was followed by employee performances, and hereafter came the most awaited part of the day, Antakshari !! who doesn’t love this game? Teams were assigned and rules were set for online antakshari and the game was ON !!

It was truly an enjoyable time for the next 40 minutes. Game ended, winners were declared, and the spirit of festivity this brought in, would stay with everyone for a long time.

The program closed hereafter with short video messages of employees wishing everyone for the festival season.

In addition, the Bangalore campus kept few competitions like, Rangoli done at home, diya decorated at home and other handmade Diwali decorations, to encourage all to stay at home but still have the colourful and bright Diwali, like all the other years.

Here’s hoping that we see better days soon!!

- by Ms. Arpita Mukherjee, Deputy Manager - HR

27

Talent Corner

Women Entrepreneurship Beyonce said it best when she sang, “Who runs the world? Girls”. Gone are the days when women were supposed to do pre-defined jobs under the pressure of a patriarchal community. Women have started to realize their power and their passion. In recent years, world has experienced a great rise in the number of women entrepreneurs.

Poems Access to quality education and presence of inspiring role models have helped in increasing this number. This has not been an easy ride for women. Although the growth rate is growing steadily, family responsibilities and maintaining work life balance is what becoming a hurdle for some, but as Indira Nooyi once said, “The more we break the rule, the better off we’re going to be.” Desire and passion to contribute to the society is what has helped women become fearless and aim for their goals.

Social dynamics has played a great role in helping women accomplish their goals by promoting the culture to sharing responsibilities at home and also the supportive maternity policies at work. For example, Microsoft gives 20 paid weeks off to their women employees after they have a baby. Employees are also provided discounts on childcare and the company also help them with preparing their children for the college application processes. Through these kind of flexible policies, women are now empowered to pursue their professional goals and ambitions unlike earlier days.

The number of female founders shining in this modern adaptive society will only rise and we couldn’t be prouder of that. Concluding this, without any doubt, it could be stated that “The Future is Female”.

By - Bhavi Tank RBA 2020-22

Expecto Patronum- I await a protector Some obsessions of childhood remain with us and one such thing that still stays with me is Harry potter. It mentions about a spell called “Expecto Patronum” which is used by the wizards to protect them from dementors, creatures who feed on our happiness, hope and the desire to live. They suck it out, leaving the victim completely hollow within.

The only known way to protect ourselves from them is this spell. The spell works when we think of our happiest memory and bring out a patronus charm, an animal which will be different for everyone. The light from the patronus is what drives them away. Also, the more joyful the memory is, the more powerful the patronus would be. It might sound completely childish to the majority of you and no, I won’t blame you. After all it’s just fiction.

But guess what, it is something that I believe actually works in this human world.

There are days when we are down feeling hopeless, worthless and what not. And most of us actually succeed to become even more depressed by feeding into more sad thoughts. I repeat, thoughts. The spell comes from within us and not from an external. Also the patronus is different for all and the same goes with what makes us happy.

There is at least one unique memory that each of us have that still makes us smile. There is a good chance that it might be with a person whom you are not in touch with right now or someone you can’t be with like before.

But as the saying goes, “Don’t be sad that it’s over; be happy that it has happened.”

Moments pass and some memories stay with you. You just have to find the right ones out and live through that again. It’s not like everything is going to be okay after that but it can act as a shield for you against your inner demons. It gives you the will to go on and believe that good things can happen and sometimes that’s all the magic you need.

By - Meenakshi T J PGDM 2020-2022

28

Talent Corner

Will She…?

The Life Beyond

Dreams of being a free spirit, Hopes of being, an on-the-loose soul.

Not defined by any boundaries, Not trapped by the chains of society.

Is it too much to ask for, To be herself?

In this not so kind world, Will she ever find her truth?

Or, Will she be keep dreaming about it?

Will she be a lost star or a found diamond?

After a while, When the world calms; After a while, When the honking starts; After a while, When the roads come alive; After a while, When we again start to strive; After a while, When the birds stop chirping so loud; After a while, When we start seeing the disappearing cloud; After a while, When the children are back on the playground; After a while, When all the lost voices are found; After a while, When we stop spending time with our families; After a while, When we resume to save our economies; After a while, When the saviors sleep; After a while, When the survivors take a breath deep; After a while, When we overcome our fear; After a while, When we succumb to our sphere; Remember!

Remember, what happened; Remember, what was lost; Remember, what was learnt; Remember, what stayed; Remember, what it meant.

By - Anshul Sahni RBA 2020-22

By - Harvansh Bagga Pgdm E-Buisness 2020-22

Poems By - Tanuj Rathi PGDM

29

Talent Corner

Hackathon 2016

Baratam Manisha - PGDM

Aniket Mall - RBA 20-22

Eva Maheshwari - Ebiz2

Srivatsan - PGDM

Rashmi Rajgure - RBA 20-22

Nikhil Nigania - RBA 20-22

Paintings 30

Rashi - Ebiz 1

International Yog Din

The International Day of Yoga - Jagatik Yog Din Since 2015, the world is celebrating The International Day of Yoga on 21st June, following its inception in the United Nations General Assembly a year before. This year, amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic, the message of Yoga in promoting both the physical and mental well-being of humanity was even more relevant. Besides its physical impact, the Pandemic Beyond its immediate impact on physical health, the COVID-19 pandemic has also aggravate mental health problems such as depression and anxiety, mostly because of the pandemic-related restrictions in various forms. Yoga offers a holistic approach towards human well being. Recognizing this important role of Yoga, this year’s celebration focused on “Yoga for well being”.

Recognizing this important role of Yoga, this year’s commemoration of the International Day of Yoga focuses on “Yoga for well-being” - how the practice of Yoga can promote the holistic health of every individual.

31

'we' @ WeSchool : A New Beginning

Aniket Mall - RBA 20-22

S. P. MANDALI’S

Prin. L. N. Welingkar Institute Of Management Development & Research, Bengaluru Plot No 102 & 103, Electronics City Phase 1, Hosur Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka - 560 100 Phone : +91-80-42678300, 28521066 / 67, 28520480 / 817

www.welingkar.org