as I see it: SPJIMR

Showing posts with label SPJIMR. Show all posts

And after a long long time, I am here back again to update my blog so thought of revamping it first. I was bored of the previous look and am not that happy with the current look, but its ok for the time being.

Had something else in mind, that I wanted to write and that too for long, but too many assignments, quizzes and exams kept me lot more busy than I could imagine. Just when I was about to start writing I saw that I hadn't updated my experience of selling Dimdima on Day 3.

I would keep it really short.

It was tiring, we went on door-to-door full on and got all sorts of responses. One of the most interesting responses being

You have exactly 2 minutes, sell me the magazine. Your time starts now !

Seemed much like some entrance interview.

Another instance was when one of our prospective customers, though interested in subscribing, found it difficult to trust us. We had a really tough time convincing her and finally did manage to convert prospective to actual customer.

One instance is from one of my friend's experience who also went door to door and at one door while he was 'playing his record about Dimdima', he heard a familiar voice and to his surprise he saw the actor Om Puri coming out. Yes, he gate crashed Om Puri's house unknowingly. He had a great time, the actor called him in, spoke to him for sometime and finally even bought one subscription.

Getting back to my team's results.

--------------------In a Nutshell---------------------------

Attempt(s) : 1 + 1 + 50+(lost count)= 52+

Places Visited : 4 + 9 + 50+(lost count) = 63+

Success Count : ZERO + 5 + 5 = TEN Subscriptions

So, its a Thursday, officially a holiday for me but still I gave up on my sleep and went on a hunt. Hunt for prospective customers. Went out stood in front of a school and waited for parents to come up to pick their children.

They DID !

Starting with one, two, three, four, five, six....quite a many rejections we saw one INTERESTED candidate and that seemed enough !

Within minutes many more mothers came and started hovering around to see what was going on and we handed over the old issues to each one of them and started with a seemingly recorded message - Mam we are so and so from so and so with so and so magazine, Mam this magazine has Comics, Stories, Puzzles, Activities, Science and Maths related stuff, General Knowledge and Mam its only for this much and Mam if you buy this offer you get this free and if this then you get this, Mam reading abilities of children...Mam personal experience se I am telling you that....Mam it is very important that....Mam it is from the editor of Tinkle...Mam Mam Mam Mam Mam Mam Mam Mam...

And people thought only Shankar Mahadevan could sing Breathless B-)

Phew ! After this Mam Mam Mam convincing attempts we managed to sell ONE subscription and seeing that ANOTHER and few more wanting us to come tomorrow because they were not carrying enough cash and that there would me more parents tomorrow and that they could discuss it in groups and that we might be able to sell more. Sounds Good? Ya, tomorrow is OK and so is more sales but what about now? Thats what was going on in our heads.

"Mam, if you could give us your address then we would drop in there and you can subscribe there itself".

Sounded like WOW to them. Convenience you see :)

So we noted down some 5-7 addresses and continued talking to people and doing the Mam Mam thing again and again and it was just 15 minutes since we started with the process that it was only us left there. Everyone had left so we set on to reaching the addresses we had.

On our way, whosover appeared to be a potential customer, we stopped them and did Mam Mam Sir Sir thing again and again. No success.

We were walking when someone called us from the back saying that some kid from some building is calling us. We went there and it was same kid's house who gave us her address at the school. We sold one more :)

Next address - We sold one more and not only this got clues to 6-7 more prospective customers. Sadly, we could convert only one out of those 7 but then we take it as a bonus ;)

Next, we went to yet another outside-school-address-customer. Annoying. Very annoying.

At first, they give their address, call us at their place, that too in a specified time slot and when we reach there, some 'representative' attends us with a pre-thought dialogue. First few words we hear our 'No, she is not at home and she left a message that she is NOT interested in subscribing'.

One thing that surprised us was 'attitude' of one 4-year old girl whose mother on talking to us gave her a copy to see if she was interested. Her mother said this magazine has this this this and this, see if you will read. GOD! you should have seen the way she was flipping the pages and she then said, 'I don't care, your wish mom'.

Yet, another kid was very interested but his mother said no. One another kid even started crying and howling but his mother said NO.

What we saw was that more than convincing the customer to buy it, whats more difficult is to FIND them and then REACH them.

At times, it feels so weird, all these years the way I react on seeing some salesman approach me, I am seeing it, facing it (but still I never claled anyone at my place and then made someone say that I am not there and that a messages has been left for the salesman that I am not interested)

Anyways, we have identified one more target area and plan to go there sometime soon.

--------------------In a Nutshell---------------------------

Attempt(s) : 1 + 1 = 2

Places Visited : 4 + 9 = 13

Success Count : ZERO + 5 = FIVE Subscriptions

And so from the moment it was announced I was pretty excited.

What was announced?

Well, it was one of the Marketing Field Visits where we had to go out and sell Magazine - Dimdima. Dimdima is a kids magazine that contains Comics, Puzzles, Activities, Stories, Science, Jokes, etc. Personally, when I was first given an issue of the magazine, I found it pretty decent. It is from the author of TINKLE ! Priced at Rs. 20 its printing is also of a very decent quality. We were supposed to sell Yearly and Half-Yearly subscriptions of the magazines.

Day 1 : From the time the field visit was announced (I was prett excited and had a lot of plans in my head) to the actual schduled slot for the field visit (second half of the day when I was already tired and due to lack of time couldn't do a single thing I had in my head the previous day), things were different.

Ah, all this while I forgot to introduce you to my team member Charanya. We both as a team were supposed to sell the magazines.

What I had in mind was and was all the time thinking was how to convince people to buy it? Whom should we target? Kids or parents? What should we say them to convince them?

And ya, another fundamental question, Where do we get hold of people? We thought we would go to a school and talk to parents.

So, we left for our first hands-on sales experience. We had no idea where the schools are and what all schools are in the area alloted to us. Still we managed to find two schools and we visited the first one where we found NO PARENTS. Secondary level had already left at 1PM (it was 2:45 PM when we reached there) and Primary level would leave at 6. We came to a consensus that our Target was the Secondary Level which has already left, so we go to the 'other' school. Moreover, the 'first school had School Buses standing outside, so we doubted if parents would come to pick their child up.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA....It was HOT...So much traffic....Nevertheless, we went to the 'other' school. No one at the gate, we just gate crashed, spoke to someone in the OFFICE and got to know that school timings were same as the 'first' school. I insisted that we talk to HEADMISTRESS of Primary Section.

No interest...they were busy...

What now? Nothing..

Knowing that the next idea is bad wouldn't reap any results, we still went to a mall. After wasting sometime there we came back.

I tried one last time....went to a school...FOUND PARENTS...spoke to few of them...they liked the magazine...were interested inbuying but wanted to consult the SECOND PARENT...few of them took my phone number.

This gave me hope that the reason for our failure today was primarily that we couldn't meet our customer. Convincing comes next. If we meet them, we might sell some.

We will try our luck again tomorrow :)

Some of my friend's managed to sell 'a lot'. I want to at least MEET the customer.

God Damn! Sales is difficult than I thought. If convincing the customer appears to be a difficult task, finding ONE to TALK to is Herculean !

Nevertheless, wish us luck for tomorrow :)

--------------------In a Nutshell---------------------------

Attempt(s) : 1

Places Visited : 4

Success Count : ZERO Subscriptions

Once upon a time there must have been people who would have made the first fire, the first wheel and the first house. Hundreds of years later someone touched the surface of the moon for the first time, someone was the first to scale Everest and someone was the first to gauge the depths of the oceans.

This year is special too as something big is going to happen for the first time.

Shall we take a quick peek into the recent past? Let's!

The first to arrive - from the ledgers of Finance,
Was Khoj, with equity research as its major draw.
Then emerged Shrinkhala, from the shop-floor of Operations,
An eclectic, exciting mix of events, in it we saw.
The third one came from the algorithms of Information Management,
BhavITva promises to use IT to allay industry fears.
And last (but far from the least!), from the taglines of Marketing,
Blossomed BuZZ-aaR, truly the marketing event of the year.

But there's something bigger and better,
Than each of the four jewels mentioned above.
This is the thing which is going to happen for the first time,
This is with what we are all going to fall in love.

A confluence of ideas,
To foster which we took the onus.
We proudly unveil to you,
The New Sensation – OJAS!

SPJIMR is delighted, and proud, to introduce OJAS '09 – The Sparkling Annual Festival of the College – which integrates the four worlds of ceaseless motion – Finance, Marketing, Operations and Information Management – into a unified whole.

The very word 'OJAS' traces its origin to the Vedas – It is a mixture of eclectic elements which gives birth to a perennial fount of vitality, vibrancy and endurance. OJAS is a celebration of the very power which resides in each one of us and manifests itself in forms like diligence, creativity, intellect et al. While you all have already witnessed the launch of the four central attractions – Khoj, BhavITva, Shrinkhla and Buzz-aaR – we thought we'd keep the last one a surprise!

So here it is now! Please welcome Melange – a potpourri of events guaranteed to enthral the participants and challenge them to explore their intellectual and creative potential. This is going to be a magical potion of events which you would never have dreamt of! But we can guarantee one thing – there won't be a single dull moment around when Melange takes the centre stage!

We, at SPJIMR, warmly welcome you all aboard the maiden voyage of OJAS! It promises to be a journey which would require the use of the twin forces of competition and collaboration to foster mutual growth. Come, live with us for three unforgettable, high-octane days and soak in the electricity which the very air around will be charged with.

Looking forward to having you with us!

For further details please visit www.spjimr-ojas.com

Shawty had them Apple Bottom Jeans [Jeans]
Boots with the fur [With the fur]
The whole club was lookin at her
She hit the flo [She hit the flo]
Next thing you know
Shawty got low low low low low low low low

My alarm is buzzing. Phone speakers singing Get Low on top of their voice and what am I doing?
I am busy listening to what my Angel soul and the Devil soul have to say. It used to happen pretty often in the first month of my engineering days when I had to listen to arguments given by both the Angel and the Daemon about if I should wake up or continue sleeping for a while. As Isaid, Daemon beat my Angel soul hollow and maintained his position as a Champion for 4 years thereafter, not considering the occasional walk-overs given in by the Daemon ;)

It was like a routine for me then. No arguments, no noise, nothing at all. It was like an agreement that Daemon is the winner unless and until he decides to give away a match to the Angel to boost the latter's confidence.

But now it has started all over again. Since I can't afford to sleep as much I want to and whenever I want to (though I put in my best to achieve it) the chain of arguments and counter-arguments takes place every time my alarm buzzes. The Angel knows that my schedule is such that I have to wake up and thus, comes in with the 'Angel Allies' army but the Daemon still continues to fight single handedly. One Man Army ! And all the arguments put forward by both Angel and the Daemon make sense and seem to be pretty logical when you are half-asleep.

A snippet from one of the conversations :

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have to go for the class.
D : Don't worry, it is XYZ subject's class. It is nothing that difficult, simple concepts, you can read it some time later and cover it yourself. Continue sleeping.
A : See, you will have a tough time before a quiz or exam as you always do when you listen to the Daemon.

By now, my roommates wake me up so ya it can be said that Angel wins.

But when I am sleeping in the evening and there is no class to attend then,

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have slept a lot. You have a submission to make and you should do some bit of self-study and those pre-reads !
D : You can never sleep 'a lot'. There is no limit. The submission is a Group Submission, which means that someone in the group will do it. Self-study is something you can do before the exams. Pre-read, hmm, do it when the Angel wakes you up tomorrow morning.

And the Daemon wins. It has been happening almost everyday and I have bee losing quite a bit because of this on the academic front.

So now today was the funniest of all arguments. I have a mid-term exam tomorrow and the arguments when my alarm buzzes today in the evening.

A : Wake Up !
D : No need.
A : Wake Up, you have XYZ Mid-Term Exam tomorrow.
D : Relax, as Angel said it is a Mid-Term. Even if you are not able to score, you have finals to comeback.
A : NO ! It carries 25% weightage.
D (seeing match slipping from his hands, with utter innocence on his face) : But Angel tell me, how can the poor soul study if he doesn't have a sound sleep. Even if he manages to then how useful will it be if he sleeps tomorrow during the exam just because you didn't let him sleep now.

I woke up ! C'mon its 25% and the Angel is right ! And now I think its high time I start studying and don't let go the Angel's victory in a hard-fough battle over a tough opponent. Trust me, Daemon is the toughest to beat when it comes to my Sleep Battlefield, just like Nadal and his Clay court :)

[Note: The post may not have 100% accurate information and most of the data given may be fictitious. Why? What why ! C'mon it is my blog !]

So, what am I doing and what keeps me busy ?

Not long ago I get to know that this blogger with alias Guttu has posted a review of my blog on his blog (http://www.thinknonsense.com/bb/2008/08/03/as-i-see-it/#more-294). Before I go any further, I would like to thank him for doing it. Next, about the points he gave to my blog, there was this head titled 'frequency' in which I got the lowest and that is 5/10. Of what all he says I agree that I should post more often but then one needs time. There are times when you do have some free time but then often at such times I go blank and don't force myself into posting.

So, again the question, What keeps me busy ?

Basically, I am a student doing my MBA and I guess that somewhat tells about why I got a 5 under the 'frequency' head.

Talking about the past, engineering days, I had ample time but then there were many other things that I was more interested in.

One more thing, I feel that if one tries writing when he doesn't really feel like then what essentially comes out is his work, the jargon he uses all day, in a very peculiar form.

Believe me I am trying hard not to use all jargon - terms like demand, supply, consumer surplus when I very well can relate it to Guttu suggesting me to post more often - which I often tend to do almost everywhere.

I don't think one can help it. Your brain and ears are so used to these terms (plus this is what you are going to listen every now and then) that you tend to apply them in every scenario.

In a post I posted long back regarding my Design Project, I did mention the OpenGL fever me and Aatish fell prey to. glutFcChalein(), glDinner(), etc.

Just that now its moved from technology to a different stream.

When I go out and buy anything (even a melody), then just before paying, the first thing that comes to my (others as well, and we even say it at times) mind is to say "Why should I pay? You add it to your Assets (Accounts Receivables) and I will add it to my Liabilities (Accounts Payable) and its done". Horrendous ! right ?

I remember myself explaining the demand supply curve and how to tap consumer surplus to the canteen fellow with DIAGRAMS ! It happened when we asked for Bhindi and he said it is not available because there is huge demand for it. Now whether he got it or not, I tried my best to explain him concepts I know !

Ok, so I see the 'Low Battery' notification and I don't have my charger here with me, so here I press 'Publish Post'.

PS : Forgive me for the extra dose of lameness towards the end and I know your facial expression is something like :S but then its my normal self. Isn't it ?

Say What ! and I say 'So what' :P

So its been more or less 40 days and 40 nights in my new (B) School and to start with has been a nice chapter. I started off with one of my very special birthdays here which was special because of the reception I got here. Soon after, as expected, had to make books my friends and more importantly had to start getting up at 7:00 AM.

Gradually books were put up on shelf and I started off with the bakk sessions with people here. The 7:00 AM alarm has now been changed to 7:55AM. I celebrate my weekend when it is mid-week for everyone outside my college. I have Thursdays off.

I think I now know why the place where food is served is called 'Mess'. All nearby eating joints follow the policy of Sugar FREE. Exaggerating a bit makes me say that even Rotis are sweet here. Perhaps, they mix sugar in flour. Sambhar, Dal, Paneer and even Chicken have that extra tinge of Sugar in it. Perhaps, they feed sugar to the hens as well. And, they don't charge you extra for all this extra 'sweetness' so it literally is Sugar FREE.

Moving out of the 'nearby' circle makes you change your opinion about the sweet food. Many decent food joints serving quality food can be found easily. Plus you get to see a gelato store as often as an ICICI bank ATM. But then not all are as good as gelato Italiano !

Then there is this Dosa shop outside NMIMS and Mithibai that has all weird kinds of Dosas and equally weird stuffings. E.g. Spicy Chilli Paneer Dosa, American Choupsey with Capsicum Dosa, Tangy Chesse Onion Dosa or a Paw Bhaji Dosa. This special mention was because all these varieties of dosas indeed taste good :)

Some more info about Mumbai and then we head to Lonavala.

Rains in Mumbai seem to be controlled with a regulator just like a fan is. Someone switches it on and it starts pouring at level 5. Then someone comes in and switches it off so it goes off all of a sudden. At times that 'someone' uses the regulator so he/she rotates it anti-clockwise or clockwise, just for fun. You get ready to go out and the switch is turned ON and you are all wet. You go back to your room to change and notice that the switch has been turned OFF. You change and move out and the switch is turned ON again. Water-soaked you decide to move on just to see that the person coming from the other side waving at you is all dry and it seems that the cloud above is the only cloud around and is serving you with utmost dedication. I carry a umbrella in my backpack all the time and many others keep it in their pockets as well. Amazing ! I don't even remember when did I use an umbrella last before coming to Mumbai :O

Next piece of info is something you must have heard time and again and it is about vadapav being the staple diet of people here.

Long Long ago when I first came to Bombay I noticed that the traffic is all well-organized. People follow lanes. Not anymore. Moreover, the auto rickshaw drivers are just too good. They go by METER (I am from Delhi so it is surprising for me). The fare is a function of Time * Distance. They have huge speakers installed which from outside sound 'Dhik-chik Dhik-chik'. They can take all steep turns and drive as if it was some NFS Carbon simulation.

This post is getting bigger but I am enjoying writing so I will continue :)

A movie ticket costs 200 bucks so you really curse yourself if you go for Kismat Konnection. And not many would be aware (at least I was not) that before every movie show the National Anthem video is played (the one featuring Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, AR Rahman and others) and people stand and some do sing it along. Nice. I liked it !

Moving on I'll write in something about Lonawala where I went for my Personal Growth (PG) Lab. It is beautiful. Everything around is just great. We went for trekking to this place famous as Duke's Nose (a cliff about 800 feet high that looked like a Nose to Mr.Duke). Then there was another place where we went for a small trek yet again and saw a waterfall, sat by it, drank the purest form of water. It was drizzling almost everyday when we went out and walking though the clouds with water droplets refreshing you was just awesome. Clean, Green, Serene !

You move out and head towards a market and every 2nd shop has this huge board outside it that reads 'maganlal Chikki' in same font and colour. So basically every shop sells chikki, chocolate walnut fudge (nothing like chocolate except the colour), etc. I tried to re picture the market and want to make a slight modification in stats I gave above. It was like out of every 5 shops 3 were 'maganlal Chikki', 1 'A-1 Chikki' and the remaining 1 could be either 'maganlal' or 'A-1' with 0.5 probability each.

And thats it! The last night was the 40th night and since I had no class today I was up till late doing nothing, woke up late today just like yesterday and it reminded me off the last sem @ DAIICT :)

[Note : The sequence of events mentioned may not be cent per cent accurate and the questions discussed are all Memory-Based :P]

Probably the first post where I will bnot blabber much and just give in the details of my interview experience at SPJIMR.

The process started with the verification of documents - HSC and SSC marksheets, Graduation score, CAT and XAT Admit Cards. A group of 6 (in some cases it was 7) was formed and was sent for the first round of interview. The group formation was random with candidates from different streams (M, F, O and IM).

I was a bit nervous and tensed but the panel (2 members) asked us to sit and then introduce d themselves and somehow I managed to relax and was qute comfortable. We were asked to introduce ourselves and the questions thereafter were mainly related to what one said in his/her introduction or related to some keywords that catch one's eye when the profile sheet is scanned through.

The first question for me was 'How is Gujarat (I study in Gujarat) different from Delhi or Mumbai ?'

This was followed by my take on the current Chief Minister of Gujarat.

We were then asked about our views on the change in consumer behaviour from 90s to now. E.g. given was that in recent past many people fly because of low cost airlines so there has been a drastic change in the Aviation Industry.

It was mentioned beforehand that "This is not a GD and everyone would be given a chance to speak."

Next question for me was "Why did you choose Marketing ?". One of the other candidates was asked the same question and he said he found it very interesting on which he was asked what subjects does he expect to be taught at SPJIMR and did he do any research on Marketing, since he found it interesting.

Another candidate was asked to relate her stream of graduation to the present job profile and to the stream opted for pursuing MBA.

Two other questions that everyone was asked were

* Did you take any coaching for MBA entrance and the interview process ?
Everyone replied honestly and named the coaching centres.

* If you were in our seat then which 3 of the 6 would you select ? (NO reasons were allowed to be given)

The first round then ended and the names of the candidates who move on to the next round were announced. Four out of six in our group made it to the next round (there was no elimination thereafter on that day) which was a 7-minute Behaviour Test. There were 24 rows containing 4 adjectives each. We were supposed to mark 'M' against the adjective that described us most and 'L' against the one that described us least in each of the rows.

E.g. gentle humble presuasive original

The options were quite close and each row had some or the other adjective that was close to one mentioned earlier and there was a very high probability that you may contradict yourself on one point or the other.

Next was a second round of interview and this time I like others had different group members (not the same as in Round 1) but even this time they were all from different streams.

The panel this time had 3 members and one of the members was a first year student studying at SPJIMR.

Tension on the faces of the candidates could be clearly seen but periodic jokes and light laughter spells made the atmosphere comfortable.

We were told that only 1 out of the 6 would be selected.

This round was similar to the first as it began with the introduction of the candidates (we were given exactly 60 seconds to do so, extra time taken was just mentioned but we were not forced to cut short or interrupted in between).

Again questions were related to whatever was said in the introduction. I was asked who was my favourite footballer to which I replied C.Ronaldo. Why is he my favourite was the next question. I somewhere mentioned the tricks he does on field and so was asked how is it that he is able to perform them and not a majority of other footballers ?

Another question that I was asked was "Is blogging good or bad ?" (I mentioned that I like blogging in my introduction).

I would like to mention a few questions that were thrown at the other candidates.

* Defend yourself when I say you are serious and boring.
* Defend yourself when I say you are careless.
* Describe the SDLC of the project you mentioned you are working on.
* What is |x| if x>0 ?(for a candidate who said loved maths)
* What is |x| if x<0 ?(Incorrect response to the previous question lead to this)
An incorrect response again lead to the question been thrown open to other candidates.

Two of the candidates who said they liked Maths were given an Arithmetic Series each and were asked to find the next term. They tried hard and came up with a solution as well but to everyone's surprise the series didn't have any logic except the fact that the terms given to them were the PERCENTAGE MARKS obtained by them at school and college.

Like in the first round we got a topic "After the recent fluctuaion in the SENSEX it is said that the growth in economy will be hampered and that our growth is not ___ some 9.3% ___ (I don't remember the exact figures).

We were asked to repeat after the panel "This is not a GD"

Everyone gave there views on the topic.

Before leaving we were asked if this was what we expected the interview will be like. I was asked if this would go up on my blog ?

After this second round of interview we took a 55 minutes psychometric test which had 3 sections. The first (30 minutes time) had questions like

* Values dear to me _____
* I like _____
* I dislike _____
* I don't trust people who _____
* Factors that have hampered my progress are _____
* Good human beings are good citizens because _____
* In case of an emergency I will _____
* If I am in a difficulty _____
* My friends listen to me because _____
* My frineds enjoy my company because _____
* My hobbies are _____
* My weakness _____
* I respect people who are _____
* My role model (hero) _____
* I dont like people who _____
* For my development I need _____
* If I am given a difficult task to complete _____
* Honesty, courage and *something* in a person is appreciated by his/her colleagues because _____
* I want to achieve _____
* I respect my seniors who are _____

The second section (15 minutes) was " Self Appraisal" and had questions like

* What do my elders think of me ?
* What do my colloeagues think of me ?
* What do my seniors think about me ?
* What do I think about myself ?
* What will I do about my shotcomings (weaknesses) ?
* How committed am I towards my goals and how do I plan to achieve them ?

In the last section we were supposd to give our personal details like

* Name
* Father's name
* Percentage marks in 10th, 12th, Graduation, etc.
* Academic Achievements
* Extra-curricular Activities
* Games/Sports and the level to which one has represented the team (class, school, college, university), the period when it was done
* Anything else we would like to tell about ourselves.

Phew !! I guess its the longest post on my blog. Anywayz the entire process was good, I enjoyed it. It was not at all like I had imagined and was nervous about. Lets see what happens, I am waiting for the results. Fingers Crossed !!

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