Nothing excites me more these days than writing an obituary for something connected to IIMB (Please Note: students are excluded for NOW). When it comes to this place nothing matters: everything that we learned about in trend and seasonality analysis can be laid back to rest in coffin till we find the optimum way of utilizing the same in our lives. I will try to do justice to all the subjects that were part of second term but the readers always have the luxury of colorful feedback forms to fall back on.
Coffin
The most interesting subject that I have come across in my life. Why did it interest me? Because everyone in the batch knew that coffin was a very tough (understatement due to lack of adequate literary skills at finding a more suitable word) subject. Yet they studied it day in and day out. If that was not foolish enough, they also expected to answer some of the end term questions. Die hard optimists I must say.
The best thing about coffin was that if the respected authors said that “Factor X doesn’t affect the value of the firm” in chapter 16 then they would have written the subsequent chapter explaining how factor X does matter in finding out the value of a firm. So if you were one of those lucky ones who did not get time to study due to pressing engagements (read: date, sleep and sports in the order specified), there is nothing to crib about.
And those who managed to add all these pressing engagements to their ever expanding “to do” list, I sincerely hope that they quickly learn not to repeat the same mistakes in Term 3 (Is anyone listening, I suppose not or else I wouldn’t be hearing a lot of “No” these days).
Quantitative Methods II
This subject had the potential to become the most interesting subject in term 3 but thanks to the enthusiastic instructor it met the same fate as other potential interesting subjects. She had the exceptional talent of delivering each and every lecture in the same monotonous pitch & tone and with the same facial expressions. I doubt even if she were to detect a live bomb in the class room any of her expressions is going to change.
Marketing
Fact 1: I detest marketing.
Fact 2: Yet it was the most interesting subject in term 2 by miles (can also be attributed to the book by Kotler which had lot of pictures and if it were not for the sheer weight it could have qualified as a nursery picture book).
Deduction: Other subjects were….(yeah you can deduce the rest, remember CAT was not that long ago).
At the end of the 20 sessions even though I was not comfortable using terms in marketing, I had internalized the HMV-T series case, Pepsi-Coke case and the “Hamara Bajaj” campaign by Bajaj. Each must have been discussed in the class at least six times. One moment of glory that refuses to go away from my mind is the lecture when we were analyzing the Santoor advertisements. After seeing six different ads of Santoor in which the most beautiful lady (remember Einstein’s theory of relativity) in the commercial ends up being the mom of an omnipresent child, someone had the audacity to ask for a replay as he had missed something important. Even the creators of the ad would have felt honored had they been present there.
One last line from our dear rotund professor “Marketing is all about perception. It has nothing to do with reality.” It is left for readers to interpret the statement (of course at their own risk).
Operations Management
“The lecture will begin sharp at 1145 hrs and most probably will extend beyond the stipulated one and half hours”. That is my first note in the OM notebook (duly encircled and highlighted). Students had qualms about missing the chicken dishes in the mess if they did not reach the mess on time for lunch. But these mere worldly desires couldn’t deter the enthusiasm in our professor. Ask him anything and the first two words in his reply will always (fill rate of 100 %) be “In Ahmadabad…”.
Err...Excuse me sir. Can I know your name?
"In Ahmadabad, they used to call me…” (Readers are requested to complete the sentence).
Managing People and Performance in Organization
This paper is not for the faint hearted because you are expected to get everything by heart that is written in the book and the two voluminous reading materials that had been supplied for reference (read exercise, yes the physical one) purpose. If your resume (verified one of course) doesn’t mention that you are the national level mugging champion then you can very well forget about doing well in this course. Even all the motivation theories (we read about ten different breeds of them) could not do anything to make Maniwala rise even once from his heavenly chair.
Management Communication 2
If you are one of those restless souls (like me) who are intelligent enough to figure out that they have screwed up all the above papers and there is absolutely no way that this trend is likely to reverse in the coming semesters, then you need to take Management Communication 3 as an elective (i.e. if the academic council ever decides to offer it). It is not because you will do well in the subject but because it will teach you how to package and sell those horrible grades in the final placements (or maybe I am expecting too much from dear AK).
Please note: This is the personal view of the author and the author is not liable for any decision that you make based on the above narration. Incidents narrated above are part of a bad dream and any relation with someone living or dead is purely coincidental. Standard disclaimers apply.
Coffin
The most interesting subject that I have come across in my life. Why did it interest me? Because everyone in the batch knew that coffin was a very tough (understatement due to lack of adequate literary skills at finding a more suitable word) subject. Yet they studied it day in and day out. If that was not foolish enough, they also expected to answer some of the end term questions. Die hard optimists I must say.
The best thing about coffin was that if the respected authors said that “Factor X doesn’t affect the value of the firm” in chapter 16 then they would have written the subsequent chapter explaining how factor X does matter in finding out the value of a firm. So if you were one of those lucky ones who did not get time to study due to pressing engagements (read: date, sleep and sports in the order specified), there is nothing to crib about.
And those who managed to add all these pressing engagements to their ever expanding “to do” list, I sincerely hope that they quickly learn not to repeat the same mistakes in Term 3 (Is anyone listening, I suppose not or else I wouldn’t be hearing a lot of “No” these days).
Quantitative Methods II
This subject had the potential to become the most interesting subject in term 3 but thanks to the enthusiastic instructor it met the same fate as other potential interesting subjects. She had the exceptional talent of delivering each and every lecture in the same monotonous pitch & tone and with the same facial expressions. I doubt even if she were to detect a live bomb in the class room any of her expressions is going to change.
Marketing
Fact 1: I detest marketing.
Fact 2: Yet it was the most interesting subject in term 2 by miles (can also be attributed to the book by Kotler which had lot of pictures and if it were not for the sheer weight it could have qualified as a nursery picture book).
Deduction: Other subjects were….(yeah you can deduce the rest, remember CAT was not that long ago).
At the end of the 20 sessions even though I was not comfortable using terms in marketing, I had internalized the HMV-T series case, Pepsi-Coke case and the “Hamara Bajaj” campaign by Bajaj. Each must have been discussed in the class at least six times. One moment of glory that refuses to go away from my mind is the lecture when we were analyzing the Santoor advertisements. After seeing six different ads of Santoor in which the most beautiful lady (remember Einstein’s theory of relativity) in the commercial ends up being the mom of an omnipresent child, someone had the audacity to ask for a replay as he had missed something important. Even the creators of the ad would have felt honored had they been present there.
One last line from our dear rotund professor “Marketing is all about perception. It has nothing to do with reality.” It is left for readers to interpret the statement (of course at their own risk).
Operations Management
“The lecture will begin sharp at 1145 hrs and most probably will extend beyond the stipulated one and half hours”. That is my first note in the OM notebook (duly encircled and highlighted). Students had qualms about missing the chicken dishes in the mess if they did not reach the mess on time for lunch. But these mere worldly desires couldn’t deter the enthusiasm in our professor. Ask him anything and the first two words in his reply will always (fill rate of 100 %) be “In Ahmadabad…”.
Err...Excuse me sir. Can I know your name?
"In Ahmadabad, they used to call me…” (Readers are requested to complete the sentence).
Managing People and Performance in Organization
This paper is not for the faint hearted because you are expected to get everything by heart that is written in the book and the two voluminous reading materials that had been supplied for reference (read exercise, yes the physical one) purpose. If your resume (verified one of course) doesn’t mention that you are the national level mugging champion then you can very well forget about doing well in this course. Even all the motivation theories (we read about ten different breeds of them) could not do anything to make Maniwala rise even once from his heavenly chair.
Management Communication 2
If you are one of those restless souls (like me) who are intelligent enough to figure out that they have screwed up all the above papers and there is absolutely no way that this trend is likely to reverse in the coming semesters, then you need to take Management Communication 3 as an elective (i.e. if the academic council ever decides to offer it). It is not because you will do well in the subject but because it will teach you how to package and sell those horrible grades in the final placements (or maybe I am expecting too much from dear AK).
Please note: This is the personal view of the author and the author is not liable for any decision that you make based on the above narration. Incidents narrated above are part of a bad dream and any relation with someone living or dead is purely coincidental. Standard disclaimers apply.
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