Mrs. Monu Jain – A challenger

Mrs. Monu Jain, Vice-President of IndusInd Bank visited our campus (IWSB) today, to discuss about the banking sector in India. The session began with a small introduction of the students, and she was excited to see the diversification of students from various backgrounds and regions across India.

As we moved ahead, the session was about general affairs in banking sector. She beautifully explained, that how banking sector is fulfilling its role in holding up the economy, which is evident from the fact that despite GDP growth rate has decreased, the credit growth rate is still standing tall, which signifies the growth of money that banks are pumping into the economy year after year. We got to know that marketing is a potential part of banking; it was best explained with a example stated as: “Recently IndusInd bank has launched a series of three advertisements hiring Actress Neetu Singh, and other artists as well, and we hired a marketing team for this purpose, as nothing sells without marketing and it plays a prominent part in every business no matter which sector it operates in.”

As she touched upon her personal journey in banking, we came to know that she is an IIM B alumni, got placed in Bank of America through campus placements, and not emitting the characteristic that a average MBA shows she worked with the bank of America for almost 12 years, out casted all her batch mates with such a long time period of working with one particular company. From a well paying job, glamorous lifestyle, travelling different countries and meeting different faces, she shifted to IndusInd bank, the commercial bank which is still unknown to people.

We were amazed at her decision to shift to IndusInd bank; this is where her passion to face challenges unrolls the curtains. She found her lucky enough to join the bank when it was in the stage of reconstruction, and there was a complete change in management, so got a chance to work with new people and potentials, and four years down the line, the bank has transformed from the nascent stage to a challenging commercial bank. Also she gave emphasis on ATTITUDE, the most important aspect which is not learned from books, that is a salient element that people needs to carry while working in an organization, and people with the superlative attitude are the ones who are nimble to move up their career ladder.

Last but not the least, she ended by explaining that hard work is equally important part of success, and it is the most under-rated factor of success. Elegantly she quoted:

“THE HARDER YOU WORK, THE LUCKIER YOU GET!”

Written by: Ishan Garg

(Member, Team Outreach)

RANGMANCH – An eve of Spellbinding Performances

“Dramatica”, the theatre club, organized the most awaited event of the season “Rangmanch” on 23 Feb. where different colours of joy and happiness were thrown over. The evening got an auspicious start with the blessings of the divine god as Ishan Garg and Akash Raj recited ‘Ganesh Aarti’. M.A.K. and Shweta controlled the mic and conducted the whole event. The first performance was given by musical duo: Neeraj (Drummer & Guitarist) and M.A.K. (Singer). There performance instilled the audience with emotions.

We could sense love in the air after M.A.K sang Emptiness. Next song was close to everyone’s heart, “Maa” from “Taare Zameen Par”. All of us had wet eyes while he was singing. We all could relate ourselves to the song as we all are away from home. To get away with the emotional environment and bring it back to the fun filled one, the duo performed the song, “Pichle Saat Dino Mein” from “Rock On!” It seemed like a rock concert where everyone sang and clapped along. At last they both took everyone to the friendship boat by singing “College days”. It was a tribute to the PG12 students. We all pursued the feelings of being in love with our lovers, parents and friends. After the enthralling music there was a drama played by Tarun Juneja and Kirandeep. They took us on a journey from school to college and then to marriage. Most of us would have gone through this beautiful journey some or other time in our lives where we crave for a person, develop a crush and then finally come into a relation with that special one.

Shubhangi sinha was the next performer who sang a beautiful song: “Teri Deewani”. There were no musical instruments, but her deep and soothing voice was enough to do justice with the emotions of the song. Then the poet of PG13 enthralled us with his poems. The first poem “Am I sharp yet?”, left us in a dilemma as we couldn’t make out about what was depicted until the poem came to the end. The next one was in Hindi – “Hum muskurate rahe”. And the final poem “Tu Phir Laut Ja” got him the most accolades from the audience. Then we enjoyed a play, where a poet shares how his mother, girlfriend and a friend consider his passion as obsession. Vipin played the character of the poet, Aakanksha as his mother, Shubhangi as his girlfriend and Gaurav as his friend. Thereafter, Monika recited a poem where she shared about her feelings as that on her last day on earth. Then we had another musical performance – A jugalbandi, by Neeraj (Drummer) and Tarun (Dholi).

The synchronization they both showed was spellbinding. It went so well with the audience that some of them couldn’t stop themselves from tapping their foot on the dance floor, the likes of Shweta Mittal, Bhavya and M.A.K., to be precise. At last the one of the most awaited performances took place. Kriti and Monika came out to be refined dancers. They both set the stage on fire. From the typical bollywood style to mujra, they made a spectacular performance on a fusion of four songs. In the end, all the students huddled up to dance on the tunes of bollywood songs. And that’s how ended, yet another memorable evening at IWSB.

Written by: Bharti Verma & Manish Bahl

Team Outreach Members

A tribute to IWPL 2012

On a sunny morning, with light dew,

We woke up with a sense of joy.

Teams were charging up as a biker’s crew,

Some thinking of plan, some of ploy.

 

Bats held high, walking with courage,

Batsmen entered the field.

As a performer on the stage,

Bowlers stormed into the field.

Umpires went in the field,

Scorer got ready with her sheet.

Wicketkeeper peek the scorer from the field,

Audience got ready, on their feet.

 

Excited and vigorous were all the players

But Spartans lost to the Noble Bandits.

Red Sharks thrashed Infi Warriors,

But lost the next battle, despite some good hits.

 

Hence emerged a winner, Noble bandits,

And there was joy with rife.

With a package of outstanding dismissals and magnificent hits,

The day has become a new milestone in IWSB’s life.

By: M.A.K. Pathan

(Outreach Team)

LOHRI @ IWSB

A beautiful and cool eve brought a lot of joy and gave us a chance to rejoice our beautiful lives. At IWSB, the whole batch PG-13 (a.k.a. CATCH 22) organized LOHRI celebration with the support of our friend Tarun Juneja (PG-12). Getting wood sticks on its place and arranging snacks for faculties, we started the LOHRI eve. Dholis started banging the dhols and the momentum started to build up. Then reached the DJ too and all the students gathered near the woodsticks heap before someone light it up.

I was given some peanuts and pop corns; I was wondering to eat them before my friend told me to drop them in fire as a ritual. Night started to fold and the fire become stronger with the beats of dholi’s rising up the mood. With DJ on the rocking, students enjoyed the night with a joyful dance. One more memorable night for IWSBians folded up. 

 HAPPY LOHRI !!

by:  M.A.K. Pathan,

(Outreach team member)

Mrigank Tripathi – A radiant personality

Mrigank Tripathi (CEO, Voicetap Technologies Pvt. Ltd.) visited our campus to share his experience. On the first glance, anyone can guess that he is an exuberant and a winsome person. He started his venture Voicetap in 2009, focussing on two key areas – Education and Business development and the company worked closely with leading Telecom operators in India and Africa. He has struggled in his life as every other person does to be recognized, but he is of one of those few who achieve it.  He has devised a special element. No, he has not invented any formula or theorem, but he has simply plotted the Graph of Life. The graph measures happiness & grief and shows the ups and downs of the life giving lot of insights about a person.

Sometimes we keep on running behind the most complex things of life and forget to do the simplest things. As he shared his experience, we came to know about his past, like he was one of the metric toppers of his school and then came the shock as he failed in the very next class, reason being, he started enjoying life to extremity and became a spoiled brat. During his graduation he came to know that he is suffering from some serious illness, which was definitely a u-turn in his life.

Sometimes a tragedy leads to motivation and pervasiveness; that qualities stay forever. As he took us through his life, we came to know that how he was successfully working in US with a top consultancy firm and he left his job to get back to India to establish Voice tap, because he was clear in his vision that he need to do this as his Graph of Life suggested, and that will take his happiness to the next level. So he put every asset with him on stake, to establish and draw the portrait of his dream company.

We had a great learning that cannot be measured. Self –confidence is the key and prominent element of success, the day we lose it, that day the battle of life is lost, and if you believe in something you will tend to become it someday. Personality like Mrigank have gone down new paths and walked the journey of success with their own vision.

Written by Ishan Garg (Member, Outreach Team)

Mr. Gopikrishnan Rengan – A maverick in his own style

“Never get stuck by a lot of marketing research stuff, get the guts to go with the gut.”  said by:

Mr. Gopalakrishnan Rengan, also known as Gopi, IIMB (1993), Indian School of Business (2007) and Harvard Business School (2009) alumni, is a Sales and Marketing professional with more than 18 years of multi-industry experience. He started his journey at Agro Tech Foods as a Regional Sales Manager in 2004 and is now heading Sales in the company.

It was a pleasure to have such an eminent personality at our institute. “The key is to deliver your goals and be committed to be the best.” This was the initial statement by him. Relating his experience at the time of CAT preparation to corporate life, he highlighted that ‘daily performance evaluation’ is of utter importance to excel and ‘attitude’ is the most important thing when it comes to perform.

In his words:

“In Agrotech, we always think for solutions rather than sitting and talking about problems. Innovation is another important trait that we follow at AgroTech.

“You can either be a maintenance guy or an innovation guy. ‘Think out of the box and try to think away from the flow.’ I used to be a maintenance guy earlier at young age, but I urge you to be innovative at initial stage of your career. Quantum theory evolution and APPLE can be considered as one of the best examples for innovation. You don’t have to be totally creative, rather you have to be innovative to think and decide. Be a problem solver and solution oriented guy.”

Sharing his corporate experience with us he spoke about their oil products:

“When I was regional manager in south region, Sundrop was making Rs. 10,ooo Gross margin per ton. We were happy but reality was something else. Our net profit margin was just 1%. We needed a change to get better results. Most of the times you are not sure about the numbers as you are dependent on the finance dept. for that. And hence, the picture doesn’t become clear.

“Sundrop heart was tested by APPOLO’s research section which proved that it can decrease the level of cholesterol. We didn’t know how to exploit this quality as we were not so concerned due to our Rs. 10,000 gross margin. A new leader came in and led us to invest behind the brand. And things started to change after that. Afterwards we thought of making a benchmark that will be our own brand SUNDROP Superlite and we priced accordingly. We increased the prices of Sundrop heart and we lost some customers but we managed to gain higher gross margin.

“Customers were buying for their benefits. We started to earn from Superlite earlier but with time we started to make money from Subndrop heart too. We know that 92% of the oils are commodified and two brands are playing at the top, ie. SAFFOLA and SUNDROP. We said that we won’t play in commodified market and hence we decided to transform ourselves in to a foods company. Our target was to be a best performing company and most respected one in foods industry. We encouraged our employees to deliver and work to be better in foods sector. Earlier we used to do market research but we realized that it gives us a lot of data that is not too important. Hence we went ahead with gut feelings. No other company walked the life as we did.

“Nestle is a blessed company that gives about 2% margin to a retailer but still the retailer promotes it. They never need to advertise much to sell their products but for us it was a different scenario. We planned to work on SUNDROP heart and ACE 2. ACE 2 was doing well according to us. ‘5 lakhs sold in one month’ used to be a good number for us. New leader said that, ‘let us make different phases that we will reach one by one.’ We said that we will earn and then invest for ACE 2. We needed to decide our target audience to promote it. ACE 2 didn’t have anything specific that can be used as a motivating factor.

“Because of the timings of our ads at summer vacation we didn’t get good response. But then we started with Bengal market and invested 25 lakh, we were able to earn back our 25 lakhs. Then we did the same in East and South regions of India but not in HSM (Hindi speaking markets). By the way, 8% of Indian snacks market is in Delhi, 12 % is in Punjab and 43 % of snack consumption takes place in North India itself.

“There are impulse products and consumption products which are different. Salesman is there with impulse product delivery but he is not there with consumption products. You have to behave according to the response, as your customers (shopkeepers) start to believe in you and your product, you should make them sell it. We used to be a best demonstrator; we made a salesman to stand outside the retail outlet and helped consumers to taste the fresh prepared product. Consequently with awareness, the sale went up. ACE 2 sales went up from 5 lakh sales a month to 40 lakh sales per month over the time after various initiatives including innovative advertising.

“Generally speaking, the distribution channels are fundamental factors of FMCG retail industry. 6,40,000 villages contributes 70 % of  markets in India and wholesalers are the medium to reach them all. As you go deeper in rural market the cost increases very high and hence wholesalers are the key medium. The wholesaler does the job of bringing bulk and retailer picks his products as per his benefits. There is a bond between them that generated loyalty. Unless you are far and wide distributor, you can’t get more number of customers in FMCG industry.

Then one of the students tried to give an appetite to his curious mind by asking a question that: “Do you consider FDI as a threat or an opportunity? What can be the effect of Wal-mart on the company?” And Gopi answered: “We consider that, it would be a blessing for us and as we have very good relationship with Wal-mart hence that can’t be a threat at all, instead it would be complimentary.”

At the end, he shared about a practice that the company follows. It has employed about 25 % mute merchandisers in North India. These people can’t hear and can’t speak but they are very good at learning and presenting a thing with just their sign language and gestures. With a good note and wishes for bright future, Mr. Gopi sealed the session.

written by M.A.K. Pathan (Member, Outreach Team)

From Rasoi to Corporate : A workshop by HR Club

These days role of women is not restricted to their kitchens. They have come a long way as successful professionals. Life in the workplace has become much more diversified as an increased number of women have made their presence felt in many industries and professions. Even numbers support this argument. In US, 46.8 % of the workforce now consists of women, and in India number is as high as 20.5% (and increasing).

HR Club of IWSB organized an on campus event, its first Open House Discussion on the topic ‘From Rasoi to Corporate’ where people from industry talked about how the trends are changing and brought a closer insight as to what it actually takes for women to enter and sustain in the Corporate World.

The panelists for this event were: Isha Jain (Talent Manager, Career Launcher), Shruti Jolly (Marketing Head, Career Launcher), Ruchika Goel (Senior Manager) and Shradha (Engagement Manager, Elements Akademia Team).
Session started with an introduction of panelists and then stage was handed over to them. Young ladies seemed to be excited about the session and PGP students and faculty were there to listen and interact with them.

Ms. Isha Jain stated ‘graph of women career is growing extensively and women are playing the role of leaders in outside world. Now they are not only restricted to their kitchens, homes, families and children. Women empowerment has come into picture in recent scenario. They are not only attaining high position in the corporate world but are also working in micro sector as entrepreneurs like in cottage industry and other small-scale industries’.

Shruti Jolly shared her views like ‘it’s amazing about girls and women who are now well-educated and fortunate that they are allowed to earn their own livelihood. There has been a tremendous growth in women participation. They are multitasked, good managers and have sense of ownership. Number of women holding positions in top management is quite less. But there have been many examples of women entrepreneurs who are from villages, small cities, towns and have started venture from their home itself. They support their families by making key decisions in consumption and are empathetic. Women are best at customer management role in marketing and sales job and are also preferred in banking sector as they are patient and the way they deal with day-to-day issues’. She mentioned the names of eminent personalities like Indira Nooyi and Chanda Kochar, who have proved to be the best in corporate world.

Shradha discussed ‘out of 240 big companies, 11% have women in their top management positions. Out of 500 fortune companies only 3% have women positioned as CEO. Women not only manage their professional lives but also work as micro manager in rasoi and home. It is rightly said that if man is educated an individual is educated, but if woman is educated whole family is educated’. She finds herself very fortunate both in rasoi and corporate.
Discussion was further carried forward amongst students and faculties with panelists, which is as follows…
Government has helped a lot in women empowerment. There are a lot of rebates available for women like in education, jobs etc. There are NGO which help women to flourish their personalities and educate them. The government has also financed many micro-finance and small enterprises run by women. Still there is a lot of help required from the society to encourage women empowerment.

Women are experts in building relationships hence they are able to understand the people and the organization culture better than men. We can see the women handling all the departments of an organization the same way they handle their kitchen and families. They are the best relationship managers, marketers (excellent in bargaining) and manager finance (handling the monthly household budget). For her the customers are her family and she makes the best use of the available resources to make her family happy.

There is a myth and stereotype mindset of people that women are good in HR services only and that’s the best job for them. Actually that’s a myopic view. In Kuala Lampur, all the security guards at the shopping malls and airports are women. Women can work up to this level. They are second to none. People have been saying that women should leave offices by 5 or 6 in the evening because of their family responsibilities. But there are women who manage their families at the same time able to work late nights as well.

There are so many talented women in our country but there is career push and household pull which refrains them from working. To make them relaxed organizations have provided various services because they don’t want to lose good performers. Services like online groceries, bill payments, flexi –hours, day care centres and many more have helped women to fully focus on their work without any stress. In Accenture , around 75% of the women work from home. MNCs have launched many more services to retain and recruit more women employees.

Discussion ended on a note that ‘women are best both in rasoi as well as in corporate’. Vote of thanks was given to panelists along with declaring PGP12 student ‘Shilpa Chadha’ as a best speaker amongst the audience.

Compiled by Bharti Verma and Amanpreet Kaur Uppal ( Members,Team Outreach)

My Journey with Shelly Singh, Co-Founder & VP at PeopleStrong

IWSB’s dais was addressed by Ms. Shelly Singh, one of the co-founders of PeopleStrong, who incepted the company along with Mr. Pankaj Bansal, in January 2006. It was not only a great opportunity for the students for an industry interaction, but, also to know the nuances of a unique sector such as an HR consultancy.

The session commenced with an introduction to the company and how it began its journey. The founders of the company realized that there was no professional player recognized as a Public Trading company in the market. Also, the inspiration came from the U.S. market at large. The ideation had to be taken to the next level and they did so, by preparing a Business paper plan. The journey for them was not easy and the wait for their first investors was a part of it. Then finally came their Angel investors but the wait for them gave Shelly and their team their first lesson- “to Hold on!”

Their earliest challenge was to fall at the temptation of taking up an HR consulting project. However, the team was highly motivated and they waited and chased rigorously till they got their first client as Nokia. Not choosing the easy way out saw fruition this way and since then it has not been looking back for them. The business has expanded from a one location to five different-locations business. They were always focused on being India’s own HRO and position themselves as India to India business.

Being an HR expert, the major emphasis of the whole talk by Ms. Shelly was on the importance of the ‘culture at PeopleStrong’. She mentioned that they lay a very strong emphasis on the cultural thread in their organization. Their goal was to make a complete board of people who believed in their idea. Twenty-five out of their thirty initial employees are still with them, and, that is their strongest testimony she believes.

Practices like, sharing the 25% of the stocks with the employees, publishing an unedited year book on culture by employees, morning-prayer at all the five locations, no recognition plan or guarantee awards but celebration among the working family, has helped maintain the environment and also the euphoria in the employees. According to her, in the ‘Lehman’s era’, where organizations are falling due to wrong cultural practices it is very important to curb corporate greed and also establish and then maintain the right practices. She mentioned that they strive to not only excel in providing HR solutions but in creating a ‘happy organization’!

Throughout the session, Ms. Singh kept sharing the idea of being an entrepreneur and also her understanding of the concept throughout Peoplestrong’s journey. Some of the requisites of entrepreneurship as per that are: excitement, patience, creation (of scalable models) and most importantly, fearlessness. She shared her inspiring thoughts on being ‘secure’ in what we do. Any amount of insecurity leads to the incapability of doing complex tasks and also compromising of integrity. For this, there is an integral need to be honest to self and to the organization.

The session was then concluded by a ritualistic Q&A round, where the students had a volley of questions about the company, their practices as well as the industry. When asked about the USP of the company, she mentioned that it’s not just hiring or recruitment but, it lies in the entire process of recruitment and selection consisting of all the 28 decisions. The team at PeopleStrong strives to maintain the quality of hire at the company which is a function of loyalty and the time period o service.

Such a close encounter with the expert gave the students a vivid understanding of the industry requirements and also an organization’s integral needs. The biggest take away of the session being that ‘culture’ is not a mere part but, the backbone of any organization.

Written By: Shubhangi Pandey,(Member,Outreach Team)

IWPL ( Indus World Premier League)

The most succinct way to summarize the IWPL would be “Veni Vidi Vici”. Indeed, “it came” as a much awaited event, “it saw” teams playing their hearts out and “it conquered” the hearts of IWSBians.

After a sensational series of initial matches, came the much awaited Grand Finale of IWPL. The initial matches recorded a win and a loss on the scorecard of each team. This added feathers of avidity on cap of IWPL finale. There were two semi finals (11 Over/Inning) slated for the day between Spartans vs. Red Sharks and Noble Bandits vs. Infi-Warriors, along with Final.

The early morning hours witnessed IWSBians readying the ground for the D-day. As the sun grew brighter, the audience made their stride to the ground to escalate the zeal of players. As the ground got ready for the match, the toss marked the commencement of first match between Spartans and Red Sharks.

Match 1
Red Sharks vs. Spartans

Red Sharks won the toss and decided to bat leaving Spartans with ball. Raghav and Rakesh started off well with Rakesh playing like a professional batsman. Manish tactfully got him caught by wicket keeper at 41. Amit at 45 not out followed the suit. Manish took 2 wickets accompanied by economical overs by MAK with a crucial run out of main batsman Vipin. Spartans were handed over target of 134.

Vipash and Rishab gave a phenomenal start to the inning and ended the whole game in their own style. Vipash made 38 until bowled by Raghav. The performance of Rishab vexed the Red Sharks who were at 68 not out. Hence Spartans took over Red Sharks and won the match by 9wickets. Rishab once again proved his all rounder streak by grabbing the man of the match award.

Match 2
Noble bandits vs. Infi warriors

The second match was flavoured with remarkable performance of Shweta and Shephali of Infi Warriors. The duo with a robust conviction scored 12 runs in first over. Then Vicky and Sameer took up the charge in which Vicky scored a spectacular unbeaten 91 runs. After departure of Sameer at 27, Gaurav Uppal took the charge and scored 30 to slap a huge target of 190 to the opponents.

A mammoth pressure surfaced on the determination of Noble Bandits. One didn’t require supernatural receptors to sense the monkey on their back. After trying painstakingly they managed to score 105 and then surrendered themselves to Infi Warriors’ bowlers. Anil Kamani, Sanket, Vicky and Sameer wiped off Noble bandits in their own fashion. Vicky of Infi Warriors was declared man of the match without giving any second thought to it.

Final Match
Spartans vs. Infi Warriors
The alacrity of the audiences rallied to a new height as the enthralling finale (16 Over/Inning) took its start. Spartans won the toss and chose to field first. At first Infi Warriors lost their two wickets early to Sumeet Sharma. Gaurav Uppal and Rahul Sikka tried to stabilize the innings till MAK got Uppal at 37. After that Vicky took the charge and tried to turn around the deteriorating might of Infi warriors. His seamless efforts too went in vain when MAK showed him the way to pavilion. The expectations came on the aura of Rahul Sikka and Varun. Then came the series departure of Varun, Rahul Bhatia and Pankaj by MAK (the fierce knight) and then Rahul Sikka was knocked off by Manish. At the end Infi Warriors managed to get a scribble 132 on scoreboard.

In reply Spartans started well but lost Rishab and then Vipash and Manish took off the innings from there. Manish got away after an impressive cameo by scoring 34. With departure of Manish and MAK following the suit, the cacophony broke out in Spartans camp. Vipash emerged out as the silver lining for the dark cloud hovering over Spartans who took control of the innings and scored unbeaten 69. At the end of the inning, Spartans got enough reasons to stand with their head held high. They recorded a victory over Infi Warriors by 7 wickets.

The final verdict decorated the crown on Spartans’s head.

Be it the captive dhol beats at every shot, teams players with flags of their teams dancing in air, photography sessions to woo comments rather compliments on FB profile, the sangfroid in myriads forms among IWSBians could be easily experienced from every vantage point.

The man of the match was accorded to MAK Pathan with Vipash rewarded as Man of the Series. Khusboo, who relentlessly recorded the scores bagged award for the same with Amit Kumar Mehta, getting possession of best wicket keeping award. Navneet Sir, who had been instrumental in the success of IWPL, was accorded with token of thanks. Infi warriors, the runner ups were being awarded a gold medal each. A Reebok watch to each Spartan complemented their regal golden trophy. One more event witnessed the IWSBians on cloud nine and the valedictory remark reads a cliché phrase “Sky is the Limit”.

Written By: MAK and Avinash(Members,Team Outreach)

A KALEIDOSCOPE OF MEMORIES

Yet another Eminent Guest Adorns the stage of IWSB.

It was an honor to receive Prof.Vishal K.Gupta, Assistant Professor of Strategy, School of Management, Binghamton University, NY and Prof Mortal,The Associate Professor of Finance,University of Memphis (who is also affiliated with The Securities and Exchange Commission, USA) at IWSB Campus in Greater Noida in the last week of July.
The interaction was kick-started by Mr. Vishal who initially gave a brief about his personal life. He shared that he has a family business of machine tools in Delhi, and completed his engineering from Bhatinda.
After returning from Bhatinda he joined his business in Delhi and sold machine tools primarily to public department. He then went to US for further studies.
After lot of research, he completed his PhD and then started teaching a course in strategic management.
In the US he also takes an entrepreneurial course named Entrepreneurial Foundations, meeting young students to start up a business of their own.

Vishal made the interaction quite interesting with humor. Later, he explained the model that, parents usually want their children to join a good company and are not in favor of starting up their own business. So, he pointed out that in US health insurance is a big factor, and one needs to be working with some good company earning huge bucks to get access to health insurance, thus help in health issues which are rather more preferable over anything else.

Q1: Rahul: What are the unethical practices adopted by you, in the course of your business?
Ans1: Vishal: “Whenever a government invites for a bid, there is always a specific reason when it is not in your favor, so the smart work is to get to know, what other companies are quoting which can only be done by paying the bribe and making the lowest price”.
At the same time Vishal pointed out that- “even in US procurement department it works the same way, I never engaged in not dealing fairly with the suppliers or such practices of treating employees unfairly.”
The reason behind is that, it is our ethical responsibility to be ethical in our behavior to employees and never let a cheque bounce intentionally.
An important aspect for a business is to grow from one point to another towards success. The point was well explained by him with an example of Lovely Professional University. Vishal threw light on how the university’s founder gained grounds while venturing from one business to another, from a sweet shop to an educational university. Vishal talks about change that has to be brought in the system while up gradation, where the entire workforce have to be taken altogether while moving up in the ladder. He says if you talk about negotiations in business its all about how you discuss and figure out the costs and prices with the suppliers. This also involves how make decision regarding volume that whether you need to increase/ decrease the volume.
In business “you need to put a SYSTEM in place”

Q2: Raghav: There is a clutter in the market that Indian Real Estate market will crash, What is your take on that?
Ans2: Vishal: People in abroad are saying that a lot of land is bought on cash and not credit, investing in real estate is a good move in India, so one has to be careful.
DCM group of companies made hell lot of money, sold spare land and made crores out of it.

Q3: Niharika: What are the certain challenges that a budding entrepreneur faces?
Ans3: Vishal:
• When one enters as young in the market there is an element of getting fooled in the market.
• One should know what resources one has.
“First step should always be a baby step” , there should not be any hush to reach the top as it spoils the whole preparation.

Q4: Rustam: What should be an objective when I am thinking of writing a B-Plan.
Ans4: Vishal: “the key is not in crunching good numbers, we need to tell why the concept will work”.
For a young person one should think:
• Problems in the idea
• How to implement it
A good idea is one that is implemented. New business ideas are not supported by VC’s and they invest only in portrayed, rather demonstrated success.

Q5: Shubhangi Pandey: How can we measure the operational efficiency of a PR agency?
Ans5: Vishal: “It is a highly human capital intensive industry, here the balance between the input and output must match. Input being the human capital, competence of the people, no. of people hired, and, output being the results, clients, projects achieved by a PR agency/firm.

Q6: Uns: What is the difference between Indian Entrepreneur and American Entrepreneur?
Ans6: Vishal: India has a larger population running own business, but the parents always instruct their kids to join a company rather starting up and taking a risk in one’s own business venture, and the reason behind is that it wasn’t their first choice to be in business.
Second difference is: We lack global orientation, for example: Business like FB did not come up in India, even though people are globally aware. We as Indians do not have a mindset to compete globally.
Why is it, that IIM’s which are considered top B-school in India doesn’t have a standing in global hemisphere.
Even Chinese companies are taking US on top their head so why can’t India do it.
Doing right is “networking” and “it is never too late to start”.
The second half of the interaction was taken over by Ms. Mortel who is born in Africa, moved to Portugeuese did her MBA in US, became research assistant to a professor and finally did her Phd. With her knowledge and gratitude she explained as well as attended the queries of students who were interested in going abroad for further studies.

Q.7 Lovely University also made huge money out of Real Estate Business before they started the LPU.
Ans:It is something in which they went after a long period of time. LU started with the business of sweets then automobiles and then professional university. Its just that they wanted to do something interesting and go diverse.
LPU was in sweet business for 30 years. Systems in all business were almost same. But over the years found that there was jostle in sweet business. All other business was doing good.
•India is a market of Real estate. It may stabilize but cannot be crashed.
•India is fuelled by underground economy.
•In India we buy land or property in cash not on credit
•Going into real estate is a good move in Indian context and it’s a great business to invest, its just that you need to be careful and go into a valid contracts.

Q.8 What you would like to say about unethical practices in business world in India?
Ans: Always do ethical.
•Documents are not clean- ownership is not clear.
•There is a criticality in a way these things work, dealer plays with the numbers in case of amounts.
•It is always flaw in the system, if you need to get into a contract you cant do it without bribe. That is only way to get business.
•If we talk about bribery in government sector so we cant deny the fact that it is the biggest customer and you can make as much as money by going in business with it.
•Opportunity is more if you get the quotations against tender and it is very much in practice, which is again something unethical.
•You always need to move through the system no matter how noble you are. System can be influenced by you only when you acquire a reputed position.

Q.9 If someone has to enter in E-commerce industry, so in order to compete with large chunk of existing great players what all strategies need to be adopted to earn the ROI and attract people to visit the website?
Ans: A lot of time you think about this business 1st thing comes in mind is competition. Credibility is not there and financial investment depends upon the quality and standard what is delivered. For an instance Amazon.com has already tapped the market all over world and advertisement need a lot of money.
•Facebook started very small and now it’s a billion dollar business.
•Key is how we need to implement the idea.

Some of the statements made by Prof. Gupta

•NETWORKING and CONNECTIONS should be very active, will surely help.
•There is always NO EARLY. Never its early to start.
•Mind is always overflowing with ideas.
•Focus on one particular thing
•Always start at a very small level. Take BABY STEPS
•Efficiently and effectively utilize the resources you have.
•Once you BET to go into a business and you have an IDEA, PICK 1 CHOOSE 1 FOCUS on 1 particular thing you are sure about betting everything you have.

The latter half was taken over and winded up by Mr. Sreenivasan Ramakrishnan, co-founder Career Launcher and Admissions Director, IWSB.
We thank Mr. Vishal K.Gupta and Ms. Mortel who gave students a practical knowledge, while sharing their experiences and vigor.

Compiled by: Niharika Walia, AmanPreet Kaur Uppal and Members Outreach Team