A real life MBA case study - Dubai World

Pavan Shinde
Global Human Resources Management
GMBA - April'09


The fall of Dubai World

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With the Sheikhs of Abu Dhabhi allowing Dubai to slip and Emirates Airlines on the line, one can only guesstimate what the repercussions will be on the GCC. To some extent, I think the property debacle was imminent. Not only because Dubai’s property market has been built on sand and dry oil wells, but also because of the sentiments in the world markets. While Dubai was looking up at the 200 storeys of Burj Dubai (the tallest man-made structure ever built ), the man-made wonders of the Palm Jumeirah and the Dubai Waterfront; the world was looking at Dubai in silent speculation. I think sentiments are like self-fulfilling prophecies; if you think that the market will collapse, it most certainly does! Personally, it’s untimely as it might affect my prospects of finding myself a suitable job opportunity when I graduate in March. Nonetheless, I’m staying optimistic, hoping that sentiments can indeed turn the world around!

Strategic Philanthropy: The new mantra

Arun Sharma

Investment Banking and Wealth Management

GMBA - April 09

On one side where strategy is usually understood as a plan of action to achieve specific goals, philanthropy essentially is a symbol of giving, possibly to charity. But these days, there is a buzz in the corporate world, besides Copenhagen. And the new buzzword is Strategic Philanthropy. While Milton Friedman insisted decades ago that the only purpose of existence of the companies is to generate profits for its shareholders, the socially conscious global citizens of 21st century are ready to turn that statement up on its head. In the present times, the shareholders are considered nothing but gamblers in the market whose expectations, if turned into corporate strategy, will translate into Only Profit, Full Stop. But it is good to see that the social awareness is increasingly becoming popular in the corporate sector.

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Confessions of a wandering mind

Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09

The wall clock in our class displays 7:10 pm. I look around the classroom and notice at least 10 hands popping up in the air – students eagerly trying to put forth their points of view or ask questions on the topic being discussed in class. Today we are discussing the online strategies of Skype and SPH – South East Asia’s leading media brand. This was supposed to be a 3-hour session and should have come to an end by 5:30 pm. The class has been going on for almost 5 hours now!!!

Is this the same class where students often complain having to sit through just the stipulated duration of the classes? No one in the class (including me) seems to be in a mood to end the session. I’m amazed at the interest and the enthusiasm displayed by the students today.

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iCradle - Connecting the Dots

'iCradle' - is a business plan presented by us, in the e-Business course of our GMBA program. The idea came from what we see around and from our own experiences. In a country like India, there are a huge number of aspiring entrepreuners who do not have the opportunity to implement their innovative ideas and build new business ventures. Our idea of 'iCradle' aims to address this problem by bringing entrepreuners closer to venture capitalists and corporates who can fund their ideas.

iCradle - Connecting The Dots

View more documents from S.P. Jain center of Management.

Blood Donation Camp @ SPJCM, Singapore

Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09

The Leadership club of SPJCM has done it once again – organized a very successful blood donation camp in our Singapore campus on 02 Dec, 2009. The Leadership club under the guidance of Mr. Thaneer Lakshmanan, our academic manager has done an excellent job of canvassing for the event among the students. They sent repeated mailers, put up posters in prominent places, conducted explanatory sessions on blood donations encouraging people to come forward and donate blood. The students responded by turning out in great numbers. The target for the day was to collect 40 units of blood. We ended up collecting 56 units of blood despite many people being rejected due to failure to meet criteria like expected hemoglobin count etc.

We thank Mr. Thanneer and the leadership club for taking the initiative to organize such an event and help us take part in a noble cause. We are looking forward to many more events like this in future.

Videos by:
Vijay Vaidyanathan & Manu Iyer
GMBA - April 09

Photos by
Hrishikesh Keskar
GMBA - Nov 09

Every Drop of Blood...

Gopal Rathnam

Information Technology Management

GMBA - April 09

At SP Jain, life is always on the fast track. You could find us on the wash room brushing our teeth rigorously ten minutes before the start of the first session at 9 O’clock in the morning, or you could find us running in the lobby thirty seconds before the start of the class. At the end of the session, we would take a quick lunch and get ready in time for the next two sessions of the day.

At the end of seemingly endless lectures, it was time to prepare for the next day. On any given day, or night, you could find all of us hanging out together, in the library, to complete the assignments, or prepare for the ‘surprise quiz’ or complete the pre-reading exercise. This would go on and on until sunrays hit the peak of the small hill on the Kent ridge park, near our campus. So, in short, SP Jain never sleeps!

Even though, our lives are always on the fast track day after day after day, today was special. We were still brushing in a hurry and were still running on the lobby in a hurry. But, this time, it was not to attend the classes on time. But, this time, we were up early for a noble cause. Donating blood!

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Dream Jobs… Here we come

Vijay Vaidyanathan
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09

This is a cartoon by the famous cartoonist R.K.Laxman. There was once a time this was almost true. The years after the Dot Com bubble were a boom time across the world when economies and organizations were growing at a rapid pace. Companies went on huge recruitment sprees to satisfy the seemingly ever growing demand for talent. Any student entering college was virtually assured of a job and students from top colleges bagged mind boggling offers from employers.

But sometime last year, everything came crashing down. The real estate bubble in the US burst triggering a disastrous chain reaction, plunging the world economy into a deep recession. The honeymoon in the job market came to an end. Millions were laid off. The campus recruitment dreams of students vanished into thin air.

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Maple Leaves V1.0

Chetan Shetty
Information Technology Management
GMBA - April 09

My friend Vijay has been asking me to write about my experiences in Toronto. I guess that’s because there is a smile on the face of every “Maple Leaf” (a term coined by Dr. Barnes for everyone going to Toronto) when he/she is asked the question – “How was Toronto?” This article is my answer to that question.

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