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!

SPJCM : "Movies for fun ..no more !!!!"

Neha Singh

HR Management

GMBA - Jan 08 Arrey yaar vo Dus kahanaiyan lo na..usme chaapne ko khoob milega ......Oye yaar nahi ..usme vo kya to bhi story hain ..chal apan “Guru” lete hain ..google se tipne ko bhi milega .....abbey pagal hain kya ..OB ki teacher maregee ..aur saare number gaye ..!!! vaise bhi class main sunte nahi hain ..isme kuch to chahiye...

Can anyone think what this conversation was all about .....!#@#@ .No this is not any group of friends discussing about which movie to watch on a coming weekend .Hold your Breath ....This is something which is totally out of the blue . Ok i guess i have built enough curousity regarding what this is all about (if not cant help it either)....So the answer is ....(music in the background..) this is a group of people talking about watching a movie as a Case Study !!!

Well never before in my life i had thought that movie watching can be traumatizing .For me movies were always something for fun , and the only reason movies were being watched was to do total time killing .Sadly though thats not the case any more .Needless to say when we were given the task of writing a case study of a movie we were all baffeled and confused . The only thought going on in our minds was ..Movies Case Study !!.... whats the corelation , wats the cost , wats the Utility ..our economics and acct class was also going on simultaneously so brain was total khichdi .

what had to be done had to be, (30 marks dude ) there was no escaping that . So we all ie my current group of 5 people sat together to brainstorm as to which movie to choose. There were a number of options we thought ..some of the best or most memorable ones were "Aaja Nachle " i know i know it was a horribly horrible movie ...and we didnt want to go through double tourture of watching the movie and analysing it so it was outrightly rejected .Another intersting option was "Honeymoon Travels pvt ltd " .Needless to say again these were all your's truly original patented idea's , which mercilessly got crushed :(To cut the short story more short we finally decided on Aankhen ..AB and 3 blind people . But as fate would have had it we were unable to find any time to watch the movie!!! (there was no time for sleep too ) Is it the same me !!!! On a serious note the movie was real good , its the best original authentic idea one could have come up with and hats off to the director who transported this gujju play into movie .The most important point was grouping with a enirely new set of people all from different backgrounds , sitting with them at odd hours just to make sure that we give this task our best shot .There was so much to learn from each one of them in this short span of time . Now i realise the importance of the case study .The punchline .."Nothing is Impossible " . And surely nothing is.

Thanks Mam for this assignment !!

SPJCM - The Big Picture : Impact of Rising Rupee

About Big Picture

It is an event designed and organized by the students of SPJCM to provide a platform for open discussion. It facilitates free flow of thoughts on a particular topic in an organized manner. It was initiated by Dec 06 batch at a small level and is now maturing into a big event. Let me just tell you how this event is organized. The topic is decided and communicated to the students a week before the date of event. It initially begins with presenters giving their views on the topic, then choosing volunteers who want to be a part of debate and then the discussion is left open to the audience and the debaters. The event is very well managed and controlled by the moderators who facilitate the discussions. The topic is looked from every aspect and a ‘big picture’ analysis or post mortem is done.
Till now 7 topics have been covered and the topic discussed below is the 8th one. As we mature, so does our process. So from now on we have decided to summarize the discussion, which is done during the course of the event. The summary provided below captures the important issues and points made in the event and will be a reference for our future batches.


Issue at Hand: Impact of Rising Rupee on Indian Exports

Indian rupee is on a run. A part of it can be attributed to inflation and another to India’s growth story. In the past six months rupee has appreciated nearly 10% against dollar. At the beginning of the year rupee started at 44.20 and it currently stands at a near-decade high of 40.30 against dollar. On the contrary, inflation hovered at around 6.73% in January end and it now stands at 4.27%. Rupee appreciation has been the sharpest in three decades in the April-June quarter this year and analysts expect the rupee to gain further.

Presenters View point: Our presenters covered the topic in almost every respect and gave a new dimension to it. Some of the points which require a mention are as follows:

Impact of rising rupee

1) For the FY 07-08, the exports expected to go down from $160 billion to $ 145 billion.
2) Revenue of Textile industry has fallen by 3.5%
3) China textile exports increase by 57%
4) Loss of export competitiveness: A string rupee is hurting the profitability of exporters and eroded their competitiveness by losing their orders to competitors such as China, Thailand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Indonesia.
5) Effect on Indian outsourcing- Indian outsourcing industry, which gets its all major contracts or projects from US, is losing on margins.
6) NRI in gulf are losing out substantially on the rupee rise and foreign jobs are looking less attractive.
7) Foreign borrowings have become cheaper and companies have started spending on Hedging risks. Infosys has booked a forward contract of $975 million for 6 months and TCS has booked contract of $2.5 billion for 1 year.
8) Imports have increased Competitive worries
% appreciation of rupee stands at number 2 position just after Brazilian Real. Major competitors in Asia pacific include China, Malaysia, Singapore and Bangladesh. The % appreciation of the currency of these countries is just 1-2% as compared to 8.5% in case of India. Currencies of Hong Kong and Taiwan are depreciating. All this calls for a great cause of concern.




Reasons for Appreciation
1) FDI investments have increased to around $16 billion, which is 3 times the previous year.
2) External commercial borrowings for funding domestic projects has increased at a rate of 33% which has lead to the rupee appreciation
3) Raising money through ADRs and GDRs has also contributed to this rise in rupee. Inflows from ADRs and GDRs have increased by 48% year on year.
4) Remittances from huge number of Indians working overseas have also lead to rupee appreciation. Increase has been recorded at 35% from the previous year.

Why RBI is not intervening?
Inflation has long been a concern for the government and in order to control the rising inflation RBI sucked rupee from the market by increasing the CRR hikes which in turn lead to increase of interest rates. RBI wanted to suck liquidity from the market and control the rising prices.


The Bigger Picture: Debate

· Is Rupee rising or dollar falling?
If dollar is falling then there is very little we can do but if rupee is rising then some actions can be taken to balance out things. I think it’s both ways ie rising rupee as well as falling dollar. Dollar has also fallen against euro and other currencies. The aftermaths of US subprime lending market can be seen in terms of falling dollar and the ‘India’s shinning’ growth story can be looked in terms of rupee appreciating.

· Relative rise of rupee and our competitive strength: With the world getting flatter each day, one has to be on his shoes to look around for the changes that has happened or changes that can change the course of action। Our competitive strength lies in providing low cost products to other countries। Be it textiles, pharma or IT related products; we have been competing with the big giants like China and Russia। Now with the rupee rising Indian exports will lose their margins and if they increased the cost of goods in order to improve their margin, they will lose out the competitive edge to other countries. A survey conducted by the commerce ministry between March and June has predicted massive retrenchment and a potential financial loss of nearly Rs 1,00,000 crore due to a loss in value and competitiveness.
This is one side of the story. Looking at the other side ie imports make us feel strong and better. India’s imports exceed its exports. So with rupee rising, our imports are becoming relatively cheaper. The major import commodity is oil and its prices are touching record high every day. Currently as of July 20th the oil is trading at $76-77 per barrel. With rupee appreciating India is unaffected by rising oil prices.

· Efficiency is it a wakeup call: Infosys Chairman Mr। Narayan Murthy said that rupee appreciation was a macro economic issue and it called upon corporates to become more efficient, productive and reduce costs. In order to maintain our grounds of competitiveness, we need to think on measures to improve productivity and efficiency rather than focusing on depreciating rupee. This has to happen someday or the other and the trend as predicted can move rupee further. What needs to be looked here is efficiency, innovation and productivity. IT companies are now thinking to increase the working hours of software professionals and thereby increase productivity. Like China, we need to be efficient enough and devise new strategies to counter this rising rupee effect. Innovation is the key for sustained growth and development of any economy. Govt need to spend more on research institutes and we need to come up with some very innovative ideas and product that will help in keeping us way ahead of other countries.
· Political angle ->Jan prices 6.69% inflation oil at all time high and then UP elections: Over this period, RBI has not intervened in controlling the rupee rise. It is not that FDI inflow has increased too much. Earlier also we used to see huge FDI inflows but those were taken care by RBI intervention. RBI used to suck dollar from the market in exchange of rupee. This increase of rupee balanced its demand against the dollar and controlled the rupee/dollar price. RBI stopped sucking dollar from the market and has let the market forces to decide the price of rupee. This is because the UPA government was keen on reducing the inflation which stood at 6.67% in Jan end. Also, with the UP government elections approaching government didn’t want to lose their control because of rising inflation. Despite of governments/RBI’s effort to curb inflation the UPA govt lost badly in elections. The CRR hike by RBI followed by increase in interest rates by banks has controlled the inflation to a considerable extent. As of July inflation stands at 4.27% levels.

·Our Conclusion

One of principles of economics states “Society faces a short run tradeoff between inflation and unemployment”. If we have to control inflation then we will lose our competitive edge over exports and this will lead to unemployment. And if we try to control the unemployment then wages will increase and thereby liquidity and this will lead to rise of inflation. So we need to balance this inflation unemployment dilemma. What happens in the forex markets in weeks and months to come is still not certain. But the government and India Inc will definitely be watching the currency dilemma very closely. With the economy booming, inflation has to rise. There is very little that we can do about it. What needs to be looked at is striking the right balance between the two. Just like there is a balance of trade between imports and exports, there also has to be a balance between inflation, growth and unemployment.
I would like to end this note by saying that we have to strike this balance by being more innovative, productive and efficient. We should not think of getting business from US but we should strive hard to become another US.
By: Nitin Goyal (Batch of June 07 - 08 , IB - SPJCM )

Life @ SPJCM

This is a video capturing some treasured moments of the Singapore stint of the batch of Dec '07.

It was made by Sourabh Agarwal and Jaydeep Hingne of the December '07 batch to welcome the batch of Jun '08 and to give them a flavour of the times to come.

Entrepreneurship at SPJCM

Chandrika Kanwar

GMBA - Dec 06

An exciting part of my first semester was going through the Entrepreneurship course which ran for a whole 3 months as classes for it were scheduled only on Sundays. We had a number of interesting activities that formed a part of it. A versatile and enterprising Mr. Koh Seng Choon, a successful Singaporean entrepreneur took us through it and I must say it was most delightful to interact with him. We not only got a flavour of the Chinese ways but also about their perspective of working with Indians. On the very first day of class, he brought along with him a rattan ball and a marker. He told us that he wanted all of our names to be on the ball by the end of the course. The condition to write on it was to ask him a question in class. He would answer and promptly throw the ball to the person who asked the question. At the end of the course, one lucky person was to get the ball for keeps. This was almost like an election campaign and there was quite a frenzy associated with the event. The one with the maximum number of votes was presented with it by Dr. Vijay Sethi, our Dean. Mr. Seng Choon really put his heart and soul into making the course enjoyable and we all developed a unique bond with him. He also helped some of us get projects with companies for our SGPs. One of the activities that we all did was the “I as the Business” where we each were given a topic and were asked to speak to an audience of investors asking them to invest in our business idea. The focus on brevity was important as he highlighted that in real life, we sometimes get just a minute to convince someone to grant us an appointment.
The next exercise we undertook was called “I as the Investor”. As part of this, we were all given prospectuses of a company. We were to write a one page analysis of whether or not we would invest in it and the reasons for the same. Drafting a covering letter to the management, informing them of our decision, also formed a part of this exercise. We swore not to look up details about the company on the internet or in business papers, so that we would form an independent and unbiased judgement.
The third and most important exercise was to write a business plan – we chose subjects we were passionate about and many of our latent dreams were actually penned down in detail in the form of these business plans. There were restaurants, launderettes, sports parlours and a plethora of interesting business plans. Some of us chose to do it in groups with others having similar interests. I chose to do it alone, and although it was a lot of work to do single-handedly, it was a great learning experience. Again the written plan was accompanied by a 1 min PowerPoint presentation convincing investors to buy our business idea. Mr. Seng Choon went through them in detail and gave us valuable feedback. He liked my concept and I felt satisfied that my hard work had paid off.
As part of the course, we went for two field trips – one to SATS (Singapore Airlines Terminal Services) which is the leading provider of integrated ground handling and in-flight catering services at Singapore Changi Airport and the other to an Indian restaurant in Singapore. Both experiences were enriching.
As I look back now, I realize that the course certainly helped us imbibe an entrepreneurial spirit and mindset. Becoming an entrepreneur involves great discipline and self-belief. One has to be prepared to deal with uncertainty and often, one has to undertake multiple roles.
An MBA isn’t only about getting students ready for the corporate world and to lead in established organizations but also to equip them sufficiently to be able to undertake their own ventures, be effective managers and business persons and to make a success of them.
Surely, some of us from our batch will undertake such challenges in the future and when we do, we’ll reminisce about our SPJCM days.

“The Economies of the Middle East” From boom to bust, and back”

Joydeb Mukherjee

GMBA - Dec 06

As a part of the ongoing ‘Guest Lecture’ series, wherein some of the most prominent and respected names of the industry encompassing several domains, are invited to the campus to share their valuable experience, knowledge and vision with the students. On 17th of July, SPJCM Dubai was graced with the presence of Dr. Tarik Yousef, a noted economist of the modern times. Our speaker, Dr. Tarik Yousef is currently the Dean of the Dubai School of Government. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University and specializes in development economics and economic history with a particular focus on the Middle East. His research and policy experience includes working as an economist at the Middle East Department of the IMF, Visiting Professor in the Office of the Chief Economist in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank and Senior Adviser for the Millennium Project at the United Nations.

Dr. Yousef enthralled the audience and captivated the students’ think tank as he took them through the evolution, the stagnation, the development (economic) and finally the growth policy in Arab countries in the last 30 years! He started of by detailing the scenario the Arab world witnessed during the 1950s and era following it, which boasted the transition from the closed protective mindsets of authoritarian government to a more liberal outlook which slowly became instrumental in putting the Middle East economy where it is today.
Post 1950s, the economy saw the emergence of a very specific development marvel, a model centered to redistribution, invention and massive deregulation, which was consolidated over a 30-40 year period. Some reasons for the spread-out growth model may be attributed to the consistent interventions in the form of coups and espionages. Strong dictators and military dictators at that emerged, providing a sense of safety that countered an external threat, which was again over exaggerated. Another factor, more than anything else which affected the ME, Saudi Arabia and the gulf, was OIL. The availability of oil wells in the 50s – 70s catalyzed he massive flow of funds, money that one didn’t have to work for. Hence the single monarchies ran the show and won the support by delivering free healthcare, free food, medical services, infrastructure, education and taking away taxation. As the countries became more prosperous, the political gurus thought the model is delivering and no need to open up a space. On the other hand, in exchange of welfare with the other nations, they had to give up their political rights and the dictators would become more powerful, legitimate in the eyes of the population. No right to vote, no political party but people seemed quite satisfied saying “I have a job, a career, a car, my kids go to school, and I don’t have anything to worry about”.
As goes the age old saying, all good things come to an end and nothing of the bonanza of the 70s n 80s could last. Please welcome ‘1997 – The East Asian Financial Crisis’. The Middle East went from a boom to a bust. They were doing really well till now, but post 1985 till the early 21st century they not only touched the lowest trench of all times in history, they even faired worse than all countries, except from Sub Saharan Africa. Reason – OIL PRICES! Suddenly all the welfare programs become very expensive! What was needed was a recalibration of the development model. The resistance to new liberal policies was coming from the fact that this model created a lot of vested interests associated.

Just like Nehru capitalized on the strength of personality and a wide acceptance of the intellect; he also clearly defined that the country needed ‘States’. The idea came from EU and NA to develop economic prosperity and the Arab world is a by product of this intellectual potential. The 1990s – the era of private sector development, trade liberalization, economic deregulation, this in turn gave way to a new phenomena – Globalization!
But nationals in UAE don’t think of the private sector as their first job. Not because they don’t want to work, not because they’ve been programmed but because they have created societies and education systems that did nothing but employed public sector workers for a very long time! Public sector offers job security, benefits and wage increments more competitive than the private sector for all UAE nationals and complemented to this, the degree they get is a perfect for a public sector job and only that! This isn’t a religion, but the way the societies have been created and engineered if one doesn’t have an open political system and allow people to voice concerns, practice constraints and if one doesn’t have such a political process, the reform process is going to be very difficult. Unfortunately many failed to embark on the reforms as because the existing political system didn’t help any space as they thought they would become illegitimate in the eyes of their population. THIS is the story of Dubai!!

Dr. Yousef also drew upon the shifts in economic thinking right from the neo classical era to Keynesian economics when he recited the famous quote of Keynes “In the long run we are all dead.” From where we have come right from the State Controlled era where even the prices of bread that we bought was determined by the state, to the free market economy where the forces of invisible hands interact to form a price-demand-supply mechanism. Finally Dr. Yousef mentioned that the way for the future would be Knowledge Economies. Knowledge driven societies would emerge as the new parlance and would lead the crowd further into the era of globalization. The move in that direction can be witnessed with Dubai placing a strong emphasis on education, a result of which is the Knowledge Village and the Academic City. Thus we ended with the opening question that was posted to us “Dubai, from boom to bust and back?” still unanswered as only time and the macro forces would be able to tell.

It was actually an honor to be a part of this seminar, especially when an issue of such immense gravity was dealt with an equally lucid clarity and an easy transparency, such that all of us could relate to it effortlessly. Dr. Yousef’s intellect, his vision and his critic captivated the audience for over an hour. Dr. Tarikh addressed the questions and the doubts, which the students came up with at the end of his session. Here are some concluding words from and food for thought, enough to keep us ticking for quite some time now…

“The ultimate lesson form the East Asian crisis is the knowledge that a crisis would happen. The real lesson was the speed with which the countries recovered and the path of sustained prosperity that they took. That is the challenge facing Dubai; in order for Dubai to keep propelling upwards, those with skilled degrees, with high value added talent, more voice and more stakes in the system will have to exist and sustain. The key to moving ahead is through research and development and nurturing advancements and innovations across all domains. The battle for talent in Asia is intense and skilled people are going to be in high demand Not only in this part of Asia, but everywhere. Give it more space.”

Freshers' Party

Avishek Kumar

GMBA - Jun 07

13th July, 2007- The date should go into the history of the SPJCM- Singapore. The day saw an exciting Fresher’s Party for the junior’s given by our revered “So-Called seniors” as they modestly called themselves. The day was anything but cool for both the juniors and the seniors as the classes in the morning were running one after the other with very small intermediate breaks.
There was an “Entrepreneurship” class starting at 11 am for the juniors. Also, a special lecture was going on in some corner of the campus of which few were not even aware!! Then, all of a sudden an announcement was made in the class that a representative of a software firm-3I has come for short listing the students for the SGP. The students were absolutely not sure of what they wanted to attend or not. Also, the seniors had the regular lectures. On top of that even they had some unscheduled lectures and some campus recruitment interviews.
The life of SPJCM never fails to rock inspite of such busy schedules. Rather, the students take them in very high spirits and enjoy every bit of it. I firmly believe in what i just said and so will all the other SPJCM-ites because after all that happened, the most hectic moment was still to come namely- Fresher’s Party.
Some background about the party is required at this point of time. The fresher’s party was initially postponed for some reason (blame the ultra busy schedule here!!). Conventionally, fresher’s party should have been arranged (in a week or so) just after the juniors arrive at the college campus. But, things at SPJCM happen differently. The fresher’s had arrived before the seniors in the college awaiting for the humble and royal seniors to arrive and throw a welcome party. It happened and so the meet; but it was all restricted to “Specialization Group” meets. But Then—some noble soul came up with the brilliant idea of the fresher’s Party. And Man!! What an idea it was!! The time and venue was mailed to all of us as the day finally came.
All decked up in the party wear—some very bold and some casual, but mostly formals. The events were announced. Some had very funny but creative names. They started with an audio/video of the time they had spent in Dubai with the message as in what should be done and what not inside the campus at Dubai-SPJCM. Following which, the juniors were invited on stage for the various regions of India for performing some Skit. The groups were given some items, which they had to use in the skit. The show was absolutely fabulous!! Next came the event of “Mr/Miss SPJCM”! The people in our batch are so shy that the seniors had to pick for themselves. Few were chosen on spot by demand. This event was a very long one as it had a number of stages to go through. Each stage was very meticulously planned. There was screening in every stage and the judgement was fair enough!! In between, few performances were going on simultaneously like mimicry, dancing, singing, etc. Few of the talents were known just that day, who used to be so silent in the class. Hardly people recognised them. Even if they knew them, it was limited to only few of the friend circle. The events were not only absorbing but trying as well. There was so much of energy dissipation in the form of hue and cry. People from the back were commenting constantly on the gals and the guys making a huge effort in the process to form “Genuine Pairs”. The energy was losing fast as ever as people were shouting at the top of their voices. Somebody from the back prayed for the Dinner...as it was gracefully accepted by our seniors. The food was mind-blowing as well!! It simple showed that the seniors had taken a lot of effort to organise the most important need of life and make their juniors feel more energised for the active participation in the events. After, we resumed from the break with our belly satisfied and placid, the results of the short listed candidates were announced. There were few Challenges made to the judges, which was rightly rejected by the Company (remember the Hypothesis sum in QT??) This event went far more serious when the contestants were asked to speak for a minute on very weird topic given to them on the spot. Finally, there was a Q&A round, which would decide for beholder of the prestigious award. The decision was very fair and simple at the end and was unanimously accepted y all of us. The winner deserved that!! After all the events were over, the stage was made open for the DJ dance Party....All the guys and gals were right up there making all sorts of movements(good or bad, i leave it to the dancers), which even the best of the dancers would think of doing it!! One of our batch mates presented an audio/visual clip for our seniors as a tribute to their awesome performance!
Everybody made merry and departed to their rooms full of praise for ours seniors. We all talked about the unity among the batch mates of our seniors, which was vividly evident in the show. Back in their rooms, people discussed and compared with our batch of students. We were all inspired and fired up to do something similar, if not better for our juniors. Once again three cheers for our seniors...HIP HIP, HURRREEEYYYY , HIP HIP, HURRREEEYYYY, HIP HIP, HURRREEEYYYY!!