2017
INDIAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS & FINANCE NEW DELHI
JUNE
Vol 1, Issue 1
the the INQUIRER INQUIRER When Wall Street suffered the worst points fall in its history in October, 2008, there were 499 fallers in the Standard & Poor's 500 index. There was only one climber – the world's biggest soup manufacturer. Campbell's Soup stood ever taller while all around fell.
So, is it really true that people slurp more soup in moments of economic hardship?
The Inquirer is about perspective. It could, at the cost of a seeming overclaim, change your life in many ways. You could be a student, a parent, an instructor, an advisor, a counselor, an employer or even one of our treasured alumni. We wager that The Inquirer has the power to encourage you to think critically and creatively and increase your understanding of how and why modern societies, institutions and economic systems function in the way they do. The London School of Economics and Political Science, which designs, curates and evaluates the EMFSS (Economics, Management, Finance and Social Sciences) undergraduate programme at the Indian School of Business and Finance (ISBF) believes religiously in its motto ‘rerum cognoscere causas’: to understand the causes of things. You can only find out the causes of things by asking questions. The Inquirer will help you think about why things are the way they are. Potentially engaging and intellectually rewarding, The Inquirer requires YOU, dear reader. It is meant to trigger dialogue. We, at ISBF do not believe in monologues. The only way in which this will be meaningful is if you suggest ideas. Let them be disruptive, counter-intuitive. That’s what we relish! You can expect The Inquirer in your inboxes mid-month, once every two months. This, our Pilot Issue, or if you like, our catch-up edition, demonstrates how our pedagogy encompasses the gamut of student or faculty driven activities here (Page 2). It also gives you a sneak peek into the latest academic and co-curricular happenings at ISBF (Page 3). And asks you a few (not-so-serious) questions of its own (Page 4). So, let’s do a quick check. Ask yourself these questions. Do I want to develop a questioning outlook and be critical of my own work? Do I want to link ideas from various disciplines to create new ways of thinking
about issues in the real world?
IN THIS ISSUE ISBF Speaks on Pedagogy Achievements
Do I want the challenge of developing more than one way of thinking about
the social, economic, business and political world(s)? Do I want to work co-operatively with others to share my ideas and learn how
to develop this important skill for the world of work?
Events
If you have a yearning to answer ‘YES’ to the above, then you are certainly someone who is the rightful reader of The Inquirer.
Alumni Spotlight
We look forward to interacting with you.
Quiz
May your wits be with you!
ISBF Speaks on Pedagogy Annual Teachers’ Symposium Indian School of Business & Finance (ISBF), New Delhi, hosted its 2nd Annual Teachers’ Symposium at the India International Centre in New Delhi. Counselors, principals and teachers from over 40 schools attended the event, the Chief Guest for which was Dr. James Abdey, Professor of Statistics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Dr. Jitin Chadha, Director of ISBF, inaugurated the event with an address in which he welcomed the delegates from schools across the country, as well as Dr. Abdey. There were two sessions by Dr. Abdey, a session by Mr. Chiraag Mehta, followed by an interactive open house session.
The Power of Why in action For those among you who attended the Annual Teachers’ Symposium organized by ISBF, The Power of Why is the lovechild of that labour. Who?-ISBF Faculty Members have curated a series of learnings and activities to acquaint you with "The Power of Why",which lies at the heart of all learning and discovery. What?-Our focus is on learnings and activities broadly concerned with Economics, Management, Finance and the Social Sciences. The series traverse a range of issues and methods of delivery that you can apply seamlessly to enrich your pedagogy, and make the journey of learning fun for yourself or your students. Why?- We, at ISBF, believe that the more engaging instruction is, the more rewarding education promises to be. So, we break down assumptions and question fundamentals in our bid to make you rethink your socio-economic world. But we try to make it fun, or so we hope.
ISBF’s Playnomics Workshops ISBF has created a series of workshops aimed at high-school students who are looking to gain an understanding of the basic concepts of economics, management and finance through role-play games, under the banner of Playnomics. As an alternative to traditional classroom instruction, this approach involves students as active participants in the learning process. Not only is the process intellectually charged and to quote some of the participants across a multitude of metros “frenetic and electrifying”, students get to relate abstract theoretical concepts to real-world scenarios. The overwhelming response from students of leading CBSE, ICSE, IB, A-Levels schools in Hyderabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Dehradun, Jaipur, Pilani, to name a few, has pushed the participating schools to go on to proactively reserve dates in the second half of the academic year to expose more of their students to the ISBF Playnomics Workshops. If you want our Faculty Members to hold such workshops at your school, please contact us at the earliest at: uol@isbf.edu.in
Achievements
Events
A Great Reward for Great Efforts: LSE Summer School Scholarship
Teaching visit by Dr. James Abdey, LSE, December 2016.
What else could be better than spending your summer at a world-class institution! Courses taught during the Summer School are based on regular LSE undergraduate courses, and taught to the same standards by leading LSE faculty. ISBF is immensely proud of the two students, Gunisha Arora and Sanket Bansal, who have been awarded scholarships by LSE for summer school. ISBF appreciates their achievement and wishes them the very best for an even brighter future.
In December 2016, Dr. James Abdey, Assistant Professorial Lecturer, Department of Statistics, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), visited ISBF. He spent two days here, during which he delivered a lecture to 1st year students in Statistics, conducted a faculty training workshop and also graciously spent some time answering student and faculty questions.
Gunisha Arora
Sanket Bansal
Beginning a New Phase
Xenia 2017
ISBF's Career Services Division (CSD) has worked, and networked, incessantly over the past academic session to secure for our graduates some coveted corporate placements. Almost all undergraduate and graduate diploma students who were desirous of working after their degree programme have been placed. Besides, a large number of students in first and second year are already working as interns across a host of reputed firms, in interesting and challenging roles.
Xenia is ISBF’s annual cultural festival which is a student driven initiative spearheaded by the Student Council. It is a prestigious platform for creative enthusiasts and has grown from being a small scale affair to a significant event in Delhi’s cultural calendar. The 2017 theme- “In the age of technology” was the unanimous choice to bring in ever evolving technology into the picture. The whole set of events was as diverse as it could be- beginning with Talkathon, the debate competition and concluding with Triwizard, there was something for everyone- quizzes, dance, music, art, strategy and what not. Xenia has been scaling ever greater heights with every passing year.
For undergraduates, roles range from consulting, strategy, business development, human resource and operations. And employers include NirSan Connect, Hindustan Times, Cians Analytics and MCube Financials, to name a few. And those yet to graduate are interning with organizations like the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Ernst & Young, Birla Sun Life and IDBI Federal, among others. School-leaving students of the Graduate Diploma programmes have been selected for a variety of roles, such as investment banking research, business research analysis, business development, conflict analysis and human resource, at firms like Ernst & Young, Moody’s Analytics, Naukri.com, Ameriprise and Urban Clap.
Congratulations to all ISBF students who successfully completed the University of London Examinations!
Alumni Spotlight Nithin Geereddy Nithin Geereddy completed his schooling from Woodstock School, Mussoorie in 2007 and joined the Madras Institute of Technology to pursue the B.Tech programme. Two years down the line, he realised this was not where his academic interest lay, and switched streams to join the BSc. Economics and Management course at ISBF. After successfully graduating from ISBF, Nithin went on to pursue his Masters in Finance from the Harvard Graduate School of Science, United States. He has worked with Axxera and Hitachi Consulting in the past. Nithin recently started working as Management Consultant with Infosys Consulting, in New York.
Quiz
Can you identify these logos?
What's in a name?
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Some companies have decided "not a whole lot," at least when it comes to their logos. Nike and Apple, for example, both forgo the company name in their products' design. Starbucks also recently decided to nix its name in the logo's redesign, expecting people to recognize the mermaid sans the name. The advantage is that non-English speakers will have the same information about the brand as everyone else. This quiz tests whether brand recall exists without a brand's defining characteristic—its name. It poses an interesting question for marketers, too: Is your brand identity so strong that people can identify it merely from the trade dress, without seeing the name?
Answers will be in the next issue!