Great Lakes Term 5

Most eventful term. There were so many activities + events happened that I got barely anytime to study and even hit my blog. My whole term just went into organizing International Entrepreneurship Conference scheduled on 13th Jan, 2010. But, it was fun to do all that.
Damn, I think I read least in this term. At least I should pass. :P

Great Lakes Term 5 (25th Nov to 15th Jan, 2010)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
FSAV-1	Gerald Lobo, Professor & Arthur Andersen Chair in Accounting Department of Accountancy and Taxation Houston, Texas	Do anything you want. Calm Prof	A major disaster. I could not grab even a single bit. Boring.	There will be no change in voice tone for 3 hours. Monotonous. Change Prof please. Rating; .5/5
Global Financial Strategy	Dr. Krishnan Dandapani	Among few of the good finance/strategy Prof. Lot of energy and very good lectures preparation and informative notes. Good experience. Nice thing is he tells complex concepts in highly simplified manner.	None	Good Prof. Should come for few more subjects.
Pricing Strategy	Dr. Ram Krishnan, Professor of Marketing, University of Miami.	Energetic, Charming with a great sense of humor. Make jokes anytime anywhere and laughs even on him. Nice teacher. Great course with good concepts and lot of practical applications. Must take for all MBAs	None	Loved the Prof. Would like to do Ph.D - Marketing under him
Strategic Cost and Profitability Management	Uncle Bala (‘Padmashri’ Dr. Bala. V. Balachandran Professor Emeritus of Accounting Information & Management, Kellogg School of Management, Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management)	Who else could teach the course better than the Uncle Bala who is among the highest echelon of the Accounting. Touched concepts of most of the business areas.	The lectures were too less to absorb all concepts and get a lot out of the subjects	The energy level of Uncle Bala is just unmatchable. His each and every word motivates you to the core and puts so much confidence in you.
Services Management	Dr. V.S.Mahesh, director of Centre for Service Management at the University of Buckingham, England, which he founded in 1993. Over two decades of corporate experience, at Tata Administrative Service, Board of all Wipro companies as Corporate VP(HR).  A fuller profile is attached.	Good course for MBAs aspiring to go to service sector. Prof is the world renowned for service management research.	Classes are too less and too long.	Lecture on Threshold of motivation was very good. Guess that he can teach Human Resource Management very well.
Strategic marketing	Prof  Xavier, Great Lakes	Great facilitator. Enjoyed his witty comments.  Good classes and great method of mixing students’ presentation with lectures.	Sometime classes got boring.	Good facilitator with a great sense of humor.

Great Lakes Term 4

Very tiring term. Truly, LIP course was the major reason of it but even then this was all worth it. :)

Great Lakes Term 4 (5th Oct to 22nd Nov)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
Business Analytics	Dr Purba Rao	Very sweet and nice prof.  Good documents so that you can always refer later. A good knowledge of her course.	Sometime she starts interacts on one to one basis with students while whole classes of around 130 students are gossiping.	Nice experience to be taught by the Prof.
Consumer Behavior	Dr. Siva K. Balasubramanian Harold L. Stuart Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean Stuart School of Business, Illinois Institute of Technology	Good course. The book which was given is great.	Unable to relate the course material other than book with the course.	The course could be made more vibrant and interesting.
CRM	Prof  Xavier, Great Lakes	Great facilitator. Enjoyed his witty comments.  Good classes and great method of mixing students’ presentation with lectures.	Sometime classes got boring.	Good facilitator with a great sense of humor.
Distribution and Sales Mgmt	Prof VK Murthy	Best lecturer in marketing we ever got. The prof is the best in class. No gyaan, no bakwaas, only practical aspects and realities of sales job. No big assignment and case studies. Case studies and writeup were small but intelligently crafted.  Very professional too.	No delta	Would love to sit for his class anytime.
Investment Banking	Prof Ramanujam	Gives a lot of time to students to interact and resolve their problem.	Could not understand even a single bit about investment banking. Case studies were too large and made no sense to me. Moreover case studies were more about strategy rather than IB. Moreover, the sessions were meant for finance experts not for amateur like us.	Keep less case study and more basics.
Leadership, Influence and Power	Prof Venkat R. Krishnan	Aah…here comes the subject and the Prof I almost rever. The Prof has an amazing method of teaching. Moreover he is best prepared for his lecture. The course is just not about business but about our overall life of us, organization and society. Few concepts were enthralling that you will just keep on thinking for many days about the same.	NONE except that there is a lot of compulsory reading which make you burn mid-night oil whole of the term. But it’s worth it. J	The subject is the best you may get at great lakes. I will recommend this subject to all MBA students. You understand nuances of working into the organization and day to day politics.
Quintessentials of Doing Business in the 'Middle Kingdom	Prof G Venkataraman	Nice Prof. Some stories about china were quiet good.	Was not interested much to learn more about China.	Such subjects could be great if students here have time. We have no time left to enjoy such arts/culture oriented subjects.

HBR on Managing Your Career : A Review

Recently finished this awesome HBR-Managing Your Career. The book contains classic article on how to personally manage your career. The wisdom talks from the career managment experts ask for changing our hard wired mind-set. The book takes completely practical outlook while narrating the real life examples. The books says that individuals themselves should take sole responsibilty to build and manage their career, life and success in them.  T

The topics in the book are:

1. Reawakening Your Passion for Work by Richard Boyatzis, Annie McKee, and Daniel Goleman;

2. Goodbye Career, Hello Success" by Randy Komisar;

3. The Right Way to Be Fired by Laurence J. Stybel and Marianne Peabody;

4. Managing Oneself by Peter Drucker;

5. A Second Career: The Possible Dream by Harry Levinson;

6. Five Strategies of Successful Part-Time Work by Vivien Corwin, Thomas Lawrence, and Peter Frost;

7. Managing Your Boss by John Gabarro and John Kotter; and

8. Managing Yourself: A Survival Guide for Leaders by Ron Heifetz and Marty Linsky.

This collection of articles talks gamut of topic ranging from career challenges, effective time management to part-time arrangements to launching a new career.The book not just preached but also tell you the complete strategy of how to follow them what is said.

Few topic were just a treat to read and will definitley make you to think of changing yourself in the way you see your career. Few topics from the chapter which I loved and influenced my thoughts are:

"Reawakening your passion for work" make you think and reflect that why and what you should be working for.

"Goodbye Career, Hello Success" tells about pursuing passion driven career which is the only way of being successful in life.

"The Right Way to Be Fire" is yet another practical approach which says that you should always be prepared for the turbulent times. So, always remain on toes, be vigilant and keep yourself most sought after.

"Managing Oneself" talks about introspection and finding about yourself before making your moves to the outside world.

"A Second Career" prescribes for keeping alternatives career mainly in your areas on interest and passion, as this could become your primary job after retirement or a feeling of achievement after doing mundane things in your primary job. I loved the concept of realising and writing your Ego-Ideal.

"Managing Your Boss" talks about shining your boss to shine yourself.

The book has something to learn for every professional. A must read for all MBA and other professionals too.

Great Lakes Term 3

A very tiring yet the most memorable and eventful is Term is over.

Great Lakes Term 3 (10th Aug to 25th Sept)
Course Name	Facilitator	Positives	Delta (No negatives)	Any Comments
Human Resource Management	Dr. PVR Murthy,a Product of IIMC (FPM) with close to 30 Years experience in HR- currently CEO, Exclusive Search Recruitment Consultants, Chennai Mr. R Shantaram, XLRI Product with close to 20 Yrs rich HR Experience Ms. S Vijayalakshmi, a product of XLRI, currently with Unilever Ms. Vidhyaa M, a product of XIMB, currently with Orchid Pharma Mr. David Nallathambi, a product of XLRI, currently VP HR with Standard Chartered Mr. V Balaji,Head HR with HCL -BFSI	The course has been experimented first time at Great Lakes in which 7 HR managers/heads from top companies of India were invited to give session on Human Resource Management. The sessions were full of practical knowledge about industry HR practices through the vast experiences of the industry experts. Most of the sessions were like open session - "coffee breaks" where any kind of question was welcome.	Due to many facilitators, the course was not well organized. Lectures were not well connected with each other. Less Student connect due to less time available with each facilitator.	The course was a big time experiment. However, the course was successful to let student take-away the experience of HR experts. I liked the lecture of V. Balaji and Orchestra video showed by him in his class
Investment Analysis	B Venkatesh, Founder of Navera Consulting	Among the best course of the Term 4. The facilitator is just awesome. He doesn’t deliver you the bookish knowledge instead gives you the practical insights about what really happens in the market. His personality, voice, tone and expressions all are in complete alignment of his ideas and thoughts that he deliver.	Bigger class size	Awesome facilitotor. Very professional. The kind of person you would like to be.
Information Technology for Managers	Prof . Sunil Rai (NMIMS)/Prof. Sundar Raj	Didn't get much problem due to my IT background. The presentation system was good to make all 262 participate.	The second half of the course was highly research oriented and theoretical, which made course tiring to study. For non-IT, the course was incomprehensible.	Research studies could have been avoided instead the future of IT in simple term and language could have been introduced.
Market Research	Dr Bharadwaj	Great course and the facilitator. Practical and interesting. Smaller class size	Slept sometimes due to information overflow.	Good course. Lot of information in last few quant lectures.
Organizational Behavior	Prof Jayavelu (IIMK)/Prof Irudayaraj (XLRI)	The course was full of common organization/leadership/team issues and operations. It’s exciting to see that intellectuals have done so much about human and social psychology. What all thought process happens has been penned down by people already.	Prof Jayavelu was not able to establish great rapport with students. Conflicts happened into the class. First half of the course just went without much learning.	Prof Irudayaraj is a great facilitator for the course. This XLRI professor could motivate and mesmerize from is simple yet effective small lecture. Great learning from him. His way of teaching just makes subkect like Org Behavior so interesting. Hope to have complete course by him next year. Feedback has been given.
Strategy	Prof Sriram	Fun to read varied strategies of top business honchos and resolve the complex business issues just by simple but out of the box thoughts. Prof Sriram is a great speaker. All cases what we discussed were on tips.	The cases were too old and did not bring the vision of the future changes and strategies which is about to come. Few strategies are obsolete to follow in current scenario.	Actually my expectation from the course was a lot more. How the strategy are created from scratch? how to select strategy out of many option?
Mandarin (Chinese)	Prof. Devakunjari	Great teacher. Should write a book - "Chinese made easy" from his written hand-outs. Lot of material collected to master Chinese anytime.	The course has become boring due to same pattern of pedagogy from last 2 terms.	Teaching style is too motherly and caring. Highly lovable teacher. The pedagogy should have many flairs like videos, Chinese guests to keep the interest level high among students. Anyways I can proudly say that I know Chinese.

EDF website is UP!!

I am excited to tell you that a great mile-stone has been achieved.

The long awaited EDF website (beta phase J) has marked its entry on Web. (Please open the attached link)

The website is Great piece of Innovation as it uses only free Internet applications/technology.

Few features of the website are:

1.       Maintenance is just free of cost.

2.       The website is based on Web 2.0 technology.

3.       Any number of people can contribute to the website at the same time.

Next steps:

1.       Inauguration of the website: Mark the right date and call esteemed guest, once all below things are done.

2.       Content for the Website: I have kept few old content in website. Please contribute. I will give admin rights to the people who wants to contribute.

3.       Linking with www.greatlakes.edu.in :   Already in contact with Web com. It will be done after all things are proper.

4.       Products: T-shirts procurement for EDF eShop. Ayush is working upon it.

5.       EDF logo and Brand name for EDF: I have kept an old logo for EDF for the time-being.

Few brand name which I thought for “brand EDF” are:

a.       “Enspire”: the name is made of “En” from Entrepreneurship and “spire” from Inspire. Basically it conveys the inspiration for Entrepreneurship which is probably the goal of EDF.

b.      “Seed”: A seed gradually becomes a big tree.

EDF - eShop

Started with eShop initiative at Great Lakes through Entrepreneurship Development Forum (EDF, I am the member of the committee). Just read on. :)

------------------------------------------------------------

“The best reason to start an organization is to make meaning - to create a product or service to make the world a better place” - Guy Kawasaki

Do you wish for a “fundoo” Great Lakes T-shirt which showcase your EGO-ideal OR do you wish to gift your loved ones a nice Great Lakes gift?

Your wait ends here. EDF has started an exciting new initiative eShop. eShop will assist you in every way to shop anything a Great Laker vie for. All you need to do is inform EDF about your requirements and we will help to get things done for you at any cost.

So what are you waiting for, start buying things you always wanted to.

CLICK HERE TO ORDER or AUCTION from EDF website (beta phase).

Please mail to edf2010@greatlakes.edu.in for any special product or bulk order you want and we will get back to you asap.

FAQs:

1.       What are the objectives of EDF eShop?

Answer: To encourage entrepreneurship among Great Lakers as well as outside Great Lakes and encourage all Great Lakers to participate in the EDF initiatives. It will be a great learning for Great Lakers involved in eShop.

2.       Are you taking any extra charges for so much of a help?

Answer: EDF is doing this all on NO PROFIT basis for every Great Laker. However, the idea is to commercialize the same outside Great Lakes.  Any profit made there will be used on EDF operations and Karma yoga’s Social Entrepreneurship activities.

3.       How will I be benefitted from buying goodies from eShop?

Answer: We are trying to use sales on volume model for standard items. Also, we will form strong continued relationship with various vendors which will help us in getting value for money. However, if you think the price is more than the cost, kindly inform us about it.

4.       So, what are main things you are planning to keep in eShop?

Answer: Few of the things are:

a)      For Great Lakes: T-shirts (for sports, committee, competitions), Mugs, Bags, Wallets, Bottles, Diary, Caps

b)      Social Entrepreneurship/Karma yoga – Helping villagers to make goodies: Paper/Jute bags,  Toys, Handicrafts, Agarbattis etc

c)       Great Lakers auction: Used items like calculators, bi-cycles etc

d)      EDF Advisory Services

e)      Sports goods: Cricket bat, Shuttle-cock, Rackets, football etc

5.       Who are your potential customers?

Answer: Our main customers are:

-          Great Lakers (including Alumni)

-          Committee members

-          Admin/Academic department to gift the guests/visiting faculty

-          Other B-school students coming to Great Lakes for participation

-          B-school aspirants(especially Great Lakes aspirants)

-          On success à Scale-up eShop to OUTSIDE WORLD

6.       Sounds Great!! What are the future plans of EDF eShop?

Answer: We are planning to make it BIG. Few of the future plans are:

-          Take the eShop outside Great Lakes

-          Vertical Integration - Increase the varieties of goodies

-          Online shopping cart

-          Customizing goodies on orders quantity and timely basis

-          Partnership with firms

-          Encourage to buy more through emails and newsletter

7.       All this looks interesting to me. Can I become part of it in anyway?

Answer: Sure, eShop is looking for new members who are passionate about the eShop idea and would like to make future plans a reality. Mail at edf2101@greatlakes.edu.in in case you are

interested to join us.

Happy Shopping,

EDF Team