The Best We Have...

This post is dedicated to two professors who moved everybody here. Almost everyone who comes to SPJCM to teach is top-class, but there are some faculties who are just one of their class or may be they are just a class-apart altogether.

The 2 professors I want to dedicate this post to are Prof. Ram Kumar for Marketing Management and Prof Harkant Mankad for Macro Economics

Prof Ram Kumar

What do I write about him, I wonder, he is simply beyond introduction. A sea of knowledge on marketing. It seems that whatever someone does in any part of the world which is in some way special and unique, sends a letter to Prof Kumar. This was just a feeble attempt at humor, but the point is he knows so much that we are left wondering why did not we know this! He speaks at the speed of thought and you only cannot not concentrate if you want to learn anything. He is blunt and to the point, he will not let you not participate because you never know when your turn is coming! I can add more sentences and add exclamation marks at the end of every sentence as he is a perennial surprise and you can not help but respect and admire him for the great personality and wonderful prof that he is. Today, our marketing-2 got over and he said good bye to us. We will miss you, Sir.

Prof Harkant Mankad

Macro economics cannot be taught by many people in the intriguing and thought provoking manner that Prof Mankad does. He would stand in front of you, generally with his hands in his pocket and charm you with facts and stories on the world economy. If the world has changed, he will tell you how and why and what are the likely repercussions. We have developed a craze for the subject because he teaches us and he is definitely one of the world's best, I am sure.

It is an absolute pleasure and delight to listen to him as he keeps on unfolding chapter after chapter on the Indian and World economy from John Keynes to US hegemony to sub-prime crisis. You are glued on to him, it's difficult to move anywhere. Thank you Sir.

Well, there are many reasons which make us feel that we are one of the best business schools and people like Prof Mankad and Prof Ram Kumar only add to our confidence and spirits. They have always charmed their audiences and they will continue to do so wherever they go.

The Leadership Forum

We started the Leadership Forum in Jan08 batch at Singapore, the idea has trickled down from the respected Dean of SPJCM GMBA program.

The purpose of the Leadership Forum is to expose the students to great leaders who have made a mark in their lives and use audio-visuals to really make a connect. We take up the life of a leader preferably a corporate personality and share his past, present and future and then use videos where the personality is speaking so the audience can identify and learn from him.

The 2 personalities we have shared so far are Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group and Motivator Anthony Robbins. The forum has generated positive insights and inspired people to learn from these personalities.

This is an initiative by the students like the Big Picture and we will continue these initiatives to foster a sense of holistic learning so that by the end of the year we emerge as balanced and mature professionals.

An insider's view of life in campus

Hello to the readers of the SPJCM blog, I am the latest addition to the contributors to this blog and my official name is Amarjeet Singh, though they call me all sorts of things.

Anyways, I want to tell you as a start about life once you are a legitimate student at SPJCM-Dubai/Singapore. I will not tell you what happens, but rather what is happening...

It is precisely 5 minutes past 4 in the morning and I and most of my classmates have not slept, sounds interesting, hun? We have a quiz in the afternoon and a marketing presentation in the first class. I am just telling you, how you interpret is entirely up to you, do not blame me.

Well, yes, this is how it works. That you are hard working is a pre-requisite and does not really give you an edge over the others because almost everyone is working as hard as you are. This is the difference I have faced and you will face if you are a student in SPJCM. Everyone is better than you in one way or the other. You can either choose to be deterred by them or learn from them, the choice is yours, as most of the times in life.

Our marketing professor would say- "one year Jimba yaaar", who chose it? And you know you have no answers. If you come here, you do not bother about sleeping and you will hear this over and over again.

So, how do I feel about being here? Well, it is a wonderful place to be at. The twin city model is beautiful because you get to explore something much more than the academics. You get to meet people from these cities, you get to talk to them, understand them, do projects which help you understand the business environment and the list goes on.

Eventually, your take-aways from the program will be different from what somebody else feels but then that is how you make your decisions to learn and do what is more important to you.

I am sitting near outside the canteen to write this and the sounds of many categories of insects is entering my ears, the world outside is quite and I know I am awake and savoring every bit of this experience.

After all, I am a services marketing student and it is all about the experience and mark my words, I will not trade this experience for anything else.

SPJCM - Mission Accomplished: From Engineer to MBA!

Avishek Kumar

Retail Management

GMBA - Jun 07

This blog is perhaps long awaited. Something about the twin city model of SPJCM is kind of a mandate in this space! It is rather a dream to come to S.P.Jain and so was mine and finally, it did happen (all by the grace of God and my well-wishers) and the entire journey of MBA went on very smoothly. Though few credit courses are still left, it would be over in no time; hence I am totally qualified and justified in putting my thoughts across.

S.P.Jain, Singapore: S. P. Jain gave us the opportunity to see and understand the great city, Singapore (which is one of the twin cities of the model) - a city which can be stated as a perfect example of a city rising from rags to riches. Whosoever has visited the National Museum of Singapore would surely be able to appreciate the fact more than others. What more, we were also fortunate to be a part of their mega independent day celebration (9th August). There was a lot of learning from a great city like that, which inspires one to be like what one wants to be! When you look around the city – the HBD, MRTs, SMRTs, tall buildings, glaring lightings, shopping malls, etc., you would know what exactly a government should be doing to make their people happy. The landscape, infrastructure of world class standards, education (NUS, SMU, and INSEAD) and laws of the land is absolutely amazing! There is no denying fact that India is great (looking at the mere size, diversity and the recent accelerating GDP growth) but so is Singapore! Of course, it’s always easier said than done and there is no way that we could compare Singapore directly with India, but we should take the best practices from a great country and try to implement it slowly and gradually. At the end of the day, I look at it the way a consumer (be it their own countrymen or foreigners) is made happy by providing them the ease and the value for the price that he/she pays. In fact, it’s often said that the Singapore government is more like an Entrepreneur than the kind of government we have known in India. With as little a data as I mentioned above, I hope to have given the bird’s eye view of Singapore.

S.P. Jain, Dubai: Dubai is the 2nd city of the twin city model of S.P.Jain Global MBA program. Dubai is strikingly different from Singapore. Just as Singapore is like “rising from rags to riches”, Dubai is known for building castles in air. Indeed, it is!! Having looked at Dubai, I always wondered how a desert could look so beautiful and modern. If a deserted place like this can be so amazing, this only adds to the conviction that “Nothing is Impossible”. This is how this city is truly inspiring and drives an individual to achieve the incredible. Though the whole city is under construction phase now, the infrastructure that it already has is mind boggling. Dubai is trying to give a true picture of being truly cosmopolitan and everything is just in place to beat the best in the world. The government is constantly encouraging the other economies of the world to come to Dubai for further enhancing their growth. The public transport is bit of a problem here, but the measures have been taken by the government in this regard and the city is undergoing a metamorphic change. The Singapore market is already mature, but Dubai is still growing and has a lot more to offer. Keep a close watch on the city for 5-10 years from now and I am sure Dubai would show what it has in store for the people of the world.

This lifetime amazing exposure is what S.P.Jain has provided to their students and each one of us is proud to have it. This is what we will be carrying with us to provide to the organisations (wherever we have joined) besides the normal bookish knowledge and the rigour what it takes to be a true MBA!