What a week!

Life at GREAT LAKES is always eventful. Notice how I didn’t say interesting or exciting. But, in all fairness, it is eventful- there is something to look forward to everyday. But the week I am going to write about is one that definitely deserves special mention.

So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to my latest post. I know it’s been long overdue and I shall not dwell into the reasons. Well, the saying goes-‘it’s better late than never…’

The week started with a lecture from Dr. Eli Goldratt- if the name sounds familiar and you can’t place him- he’s the man behind the theory of constraints and the author of many bestsellers including ‘goal’. The sheer energy and passion that Dr. Goldratt brought to the class was unparallel. He is on a mission to make management a hard science like physics or chemistry. He urged us to question everything and take nothing for granted. To quote him “You know your mother loves you. But don’t trust your instincts- question it” This Israeli management consultant spoke with a sense of conviction that got us nothing short of inspired. Speaking of conviction, two recent guest lecturers that I was especially impressed with were Ms. Kiran Bedi (IPS) and Dr. Subramanya Swamy (Janata Party). As diverse as these speakers may seem, there is an underlying commonality- the conviction to cause.

Well, not all guest lectures are interesting. We do come across some speakers that, for lack of a better word, are simply boring. But all it takes is one lecture to get inspired. And in my opinion that is the true vision of our Uncle Bala.

Later in the week, we hosted our flagship event ‘L’attitude 13° 05’. I was lucky enough to MC for the event and we had a whole host of power talks. It started with Dr.YV Reddy (Governor, RBI), Mr. Sailesh Rao (Country Head, Google), Prof. Tom Anderson (Associate Dean, IIT-Chicago). Followed by a special address from Dr. Sam Pitroda and the icing on the cake was none other that Mr. Narayana Murthy (Chief Mentor, Infosys)

We also had tamil movie director Vasanth add some variety to the evening as well as a talk from Mr. Rajiv Rai. On top of all this we had many management related competitions for b-schools and corporates. Power-packed would be an understatement

Kudos to L’attitude Factory! Great show guys!!

Well, we also released our bi-annual magazine GRAVITY. The theme was “celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship” and it who better to launch this than one of the greatest business leaders of all time- NRN. The magazine has some great articles from all the various dimensions of entrepreneurship and was well received by one and all. Needless to say, Team Gravity has done it again!

We hosted the NASMEI International Marketing Conference with professors from many of the ‘ivy league’ universities from the US. And last but not the least, the second annual Yale-Great Lakes International Research Seminar took place today.

Are you dazzled by the plethora of star-studded speakers and events we’ve had?

Don’t be…it was just another week at GREAT LAKES.

As usual, thanks for reading!

Cheers!

Floods in Chennai!!

Make no mistake -that really is what I chose to title my second and much delayed blog. I’m sure that many of you must be wondering what on earth I was thinking to come up with a word like ‘flood’ in the midst of this heat wave in our beloved Chennai.

20 missed calls is what my phone reported when I looked into it after my marketing class. Obviously, someone was desperately trying to get in touch with me. Then I get an SMS saying that ‘dude, our house is flooding! Hurry n get there’. It sounded like a prank; nevertheless, I went to my apartment only to find that it was true. After a little inspection, I found the culprit-the newly installed tap in our kitchen, it had given way and the entire flat had a thick carpet of water! Thankfully, our neighbors had turned the water supply off (wasting this amount of water would entitle capital punishment in Chennai!) The disaster management cell immediately rushed to our maid’s house and got her to come and help us clean up! The damage was minimal; all electric equipment was still functional.

I guess I needed an incident like this to make me write! I have wanted to update this blog, but our college schedule is not very conducive to blogging, or any other non-academic work for that matter!

The last few weeks have been completely draining; I am feeling the real pressure that b-schools are infamous for! From 6 hour lectures, to case study reports, Great Lakes has been very judicious with leaving us neck deep with work. But I got to give them a little credit, the faculty they have lined up has been nothing short of brilliant. So, life here is not as bad as I make it sound!

The first of our eight semesters will soon be over. Great Lakes requires one to take all the core subjects which are common for the first four semesters. After this, which one can specialize with a major and a minor coupled with industry-specific verticals. The subjects that we had to take this semester were:

• Marketing Management (Dr.Paul Prabhakar-IIT, Chicago): Brilliant! I thoroughly enjoyed his classes. To give you an idea how popular his classes are, getting seats in the front rows of class are as difficult as getting front row seats in a rock concert. I was in a little dilemma as to what my major should be, but after Dr. Prabakar’s class- I’m left with no doubt- Marketing it is!!
  His grading system, a marketing project that required us to use the various marketing tools that we were introduced to, on a company-real time. This helped us check our understanding of the tools and its practical usability. We chose Titan Industries for the project (I used to work with titan, Bangalore before my course and all my contacts there were very helpful in helping us with the data for the analysis) Still waiting for our grades! I think my group did a great job with the presentation!
• Financial Accounts (Dr. Suryasekar-Miami, Florida): Another great class! His practical approach with real examples to highlight the functions of accounting are a treat to those who were averse to finance and accounting! As most of the class consists of people with an engineering background-he really takes time to make the concepts clear and has been unbelievably patient with one and all!
• Eastern Philosophy (Dr. Venkat Krishnan): Initially, I couldn’t digest the fact that we had to study stuff like this in an MBA course But, with passage of time, I have found a liking and a sense of pride in our Indian Vedas, Upanishads and the other works. Dr. Venkat, arguably the most popular faculty here, has been amazing-but the pre-readings for his class had to be battled with heavy eyelids! The ‘karma-yoga’ project -we have to bring out a positive change in a specific set of underprivileged individuals. Our team works with a training institute for the youth called i-lead. The experience is very satisfying and I like the fact that Great Lakes is trying to promote ‘giving’ as a part of its culture.
• Chinese (Prof. Devakunjari): Hahaha! With all due respect to the Chinese folks! This language is hilarious! Can’t wait to speak it…its going to be fun. Our professor lived in China for a few years, so her insight into the Chinese culture adds to the take-away from class!
• Statistics (Prof PKV): Unparallel knowledge of the subject, actually not just this subject, PKV’s knowledge in English literature, carnatic music, economics, quality management and other subjects have been mind boggling! His antics in class add humor to an otherwise dry subject. He loves to throw his ‘googly’ at us for exams. I just hope, ‘mota-moti’ we all pass! Haha.
• Principles of Management (Prof. Ravi Nagarajan) An industry insider who adds value using his experience as the senior management of various companies. The students are divided into groups and we present the various chapters in POM. It’s a great experience as all of us have worked before and can relate various aspects from work-life to this course and its principles.

To top all this, we all are required to do an empirical study (original research) for the Yale-Great Lakes centre for learning. We have to find faculty guides and define the variables for the research which we have to publish this at the end of this year! Thinking of doing something on customer loyalty and wallet share…got to write a formal synopsis in a week!

The 165 strange faces have now become more familiar. In between all this work, we managed to go out clubbing to Speed and Dublin. Chennai night-life is nice-I’d actually underestimated it!

I’m now trying my culinary skills. My room-mates and I are pretty great cooks! For lack of a good restaurant near the college- over-cooked, salty and sometimes burnt food helps feed us! Btw…my roti’s rock-perfect circles!

I have already witnessed some of those 18-20 hour days, and college has just started! To sum it up, the past one month has been hectic yet fun-filled. Here, time stops for nobody.

Ooooops almost forgot! I’d like to thank all of you for the very kind comments on my first blog. Much obliged.

Thanks for reading!

Cheers!!