Just a few days back, I thought it was almost over. I was almost free but then they again proved me wrong!

I do not know in detail about a lot of companies but I feel there are not many companies as poorly managed as Lenovo India – a company where people at senior levels back off their words without any signs of shame – where ethics is just another fancy word to be used in some of the company meetings for junior staff – where the idea of selling is just to get the client hooked once and then he may regret that for years. Now I am writing all this based on my experience with the company. The company may object to this content on grounds of defaming them but this is all what I can say after having seen their attitude in last few days/weeks.

The laptop delivery (for IIM Bulk deal) scheduled in third week of June has not yet been made and there are hardly any signs suggesting that to happen in next few days. Regarding the status of shipment, one could draw an analogy to Indian Railways. Every day it got delayed by further two days and the current date I have been informed is still six days away. Mind you the original mutually agreed date of delivery has passed 12 days back! Also to note that the order was placed 40 days (~6weeks back)

I dont remember having been in so much pressure and tension in a while. Although last few days at summer internship were also trying but still these few days have been much more pain. And the worst part is that there is nothing much I can do!

Anyways this post has helped me vent out some of that frustration and hopefully I can manage to read the case for tomorrow’s class now.

Before I start – This post is NOT about the song from the movie “Jaane tu ya jaane na”
I would classify this post as a very strange and stupid post.
Stupid – for I am making a fool of myself by making this public
Strange – coz I am doing it knowingly

Anyways who the hell cares! [:)]

The post is about my stupidity and related to the fact that you have already guessed by now – I do not know how to dance [:-P]. It was the Freshers party at the campus and I was dancing to the tunes of JBS (making full use of crowd to remain unnoticed). Just happened to get into a girls group. They knew me and I knew them so no issues as such but then I cant dance properly. I can dance only when there is enough crowd to make my stupid dance go unnoticed. Anyways we started to dance and the girl was feeling kind of embarrassed (Predictable!). It was not difficult to make that out by looking at her face. I commented, “I do not know how to dance” and the response was prompt, “Yeah you really dont know that” [:D]. Her friend (who was dancing with her earlier) came and asked me to stop hitting on her [:O] Now that was strange as I had no intentions like that at all [:)]. Anyways I parted from the group but could not resist laughing at it and mentioning it over here. It has already been a week since then but I just cant let this incident go off my mind. [:P]
(This is just an excerpt from the incident but enough to make fun of myself [:-P])

BTW on a serious note…was I hitting on her? [:D] No way! I cannot spare(or rather waste) either of the two things a girl would demand – Time and money.
O man! that incident was so much fun.

No offensive replies plz. Offensive comments would be deleted [;)]
Name of both the girls not disclosed knowingly as they might not feel comfortable with that. People to keep that in mind before writing comments, if any.
And yeah! sorry for so many smileys but that incident was so much fun that could not resist adding smileys to it. Sometimes some situations could get so funny [:)]

Hearty congratulations to all those who made it to IIMs this time.

Looking forward to meet IIM Cal Junta soon.

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Well before the placements started, I was on back foot.
I missed out on uploading my CV for 13 firms, most of them Slot 1 and most of them non-fin. That’s a huge number but did not really bother in the end.

So starting from the start:
I was fortunate enough to have figured what I wanted to do in my life and was sure that it was not i-banking. I was clear that I did not want to pursue a career in Finance and hence was out of the blind rat race(as it seems to me @ IIM-Cal) for slot 0. No offense meant to finance guys – I respect them as well. It is just that I did not find much interest in the field. In fact, quite surprising for people who know me as before getting admit into IIM-C, I always wanted to get into IIM-C just for it being the best B-school wrt Finance. Anyways, priorities and preferences do change and I grew anti-fin.

So for an anti-fin person, it had to be a consulting job or a marketing job or a systems job and the preference was clear: 1. Consult 2. Marketing 3&4. Toss between fin and systems. Consulting profiles with non-big4 doesn’t make much of a difference and hence to be precise it was 1. Big4 consulting firms 2. Consulting /Marketing 3. Fin/Systems.
Obviously big4 is something most of the people strive for and with an IT background with 1 year work experience and not much extra-currics, it definitely asks to set the expectations straight. More importantly, leaving out i-banks and big4 consults, there is nothing like slot 0 existing for you. No problems anyways. Slot 1 again looks the same except countable marketing and consulting firms. A bad day and no success there as well.

End of the day, Dabur, a slot 2 firm initiates the process. Calls me for interview and, with reasonable assumption, willing to give an offer. What to do now? A lot of firms still to come and a not so attractive offer. At that point of time, I wanted to give Microsoft a try coz with a profile like mine I was almost sure of getting through Microsoft. (I have 1 year prior experience in mobile solutions development for Windows-mobile based devices and Microsoft was looking for people to manage and market Office-mobile based projects.) But that doesn’t really matter as I was not even shortlisted for the interview. Happens!
Anyways life moves on!
Arrives Slot 2. Not many wait for so long to be placed and this time as well, just 65 left to be placed. The number doesn’t really matter. I knew this was much for my choice. With marketing being my preferred field and marketing firms lined up on Day 0 of Slot 2, I had no issues at all with being amongst last 65.
So the day starts with test of Futures First and I decided not to appear for that. While most of the people focused on getting a job, I had my priorities clear. Trading in Futures First was equivalent to working with some firm in rolling(Unplaced students work with some firm through off-campus). So the day started at around 8 o’clock for me and while I was still having the breakfast, I was called for the interview by Johnson n Johnson Consumer Products, which conducted GD the previous night and had shortlisted 12 students for interviews. I was called first. I went to the venue and there was no Covol there, only Company representatives standing there waiting for process to start. So as soon as I reached there, they kind of started the process. And obviously when Covol came, he was still waiting for me to report.
The interview started very casually and then picked up gradually. I was always very excited about everything and even got to hear the comments like “Your life seems to have been really interesting” [:)]. As expected, it was based on personals and a bit on marketing fundae. I was caught on wrong foot once for not having attended the Pre-Placement Talk conducted by the firm but they did not mind it much.
And guess what! I was given a spot offer.
I did not know really what to do. Should I accept? reject? Which firms are better than JnJ and which are at par? Should I go for Coke, which is paying handsome amount? Is Cadbury’s or Nestle a better brand than JnJ? How does it affect future prospects if I join JnJ now?….blah blah…
Now this is what they call network. I called up 5 of my friends and asked them to get back to me with regards to all above concerns withing 5 minutes. They called up their friends and in some cases further chain. And within 10 minutes, I got feedback from more than 10 persons who had fair enough answers for above concerns. The bottomline everyone talked was same. JnJ is good and a few of others are comparable but difficult to say better. It made sense to accept the offer and I did.

Not to mention, I was the first person to get an offer on the day. So Topper of the Slot in that sense [:P].
However the process did not end for me with that. I was required to go for all the interviews scheduled for me and it was a good experience “Tank”ing them all. [;)] I had already ‘tanked’ 7 by the time they decided to let me go. I really thank them for that as I was supposed to go for atleast 6-7 more companies. [:)]
Anyways, overall it was a happy story for me and I never really had moments of stress during those 5 days. And that is precisely why I said myself fortunate.(Refer start of the post)

Looking forward to exciting summers this time. [:)]

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PS: I dint write it but really liked this creative piece of work. By putting it on my blog, I do not intend to claim any ownerships, hurt any feelings. Please to inform if anyone considers it to be breaching IPR in any sense.

________________________________________________________________________________

C. V. Manoranjan J. (007/99)
stud_iimc@hotmale.com

Academic

• Wrote mid term, end term and two class tests, qualified for the 75% attendance requirement to take the end term in H.R.M class
• 90% attendance record in Finacc tutes (for two tutors)
• Consistent academic performance in 3rd, 5th and 7th std (half-yearly)
• Second highest grade in the ProdMan re-exam
• Bid for a course under one of the leading profs in Asia
• Appeared for IIT-JEE, CET etc
• Top ranked in the lower third of my branch in Engineering
• IEPH mid-term section topper

Other achievements

• Recruited by Goldman Sachs during the Placement Con
• Received conduct cert of “fair” after high school
• Won paper dance (solo) contest in Intaglio’2001, 1st prize in Govinda party

Sports

• Head, Gaali team Creative Verbalization and Support squad, XL-IIMCmeet 2001
• Scored the solitary goal basket, in the WH vs NH basketball match duringWW
• Co-passenger with Steve Waugh on Jet 2W409, 20th May 1996

Dramatics

• Supporting artist in NH skit for WW parade. Selected from among 100 students to play a prominent mythological character.
• Part of the laugh track for Hum Paanch
• Have been part of shows like Movers & Shakers
• Featured twice in a row on MTV Bakra

Music

• Lead tambourine player, Baro-C & JBS
• Member, organizing team, badla party
• Second prize, solo singing, Informalz
• Lead singer, anthem, Baro-C nite

Publications

• Largest number of entries in paper contests
• Authored numerous articles on BlueBoard, Courseweb and IPMSG
• Provided key creative inputs for the oath for Stats tutor Sec C
• Have had my letters published in agony aunt columns on Cosmo, Femina and Grihashobha

Leadership initiatives

• Coordinator, east wing dunking squad, mahamishti
• Contested elections for Wing-rep
• Chief fetcher for Lehman Brothers and Murugappa Group, Final Placements2002
• Chief client, LANsquad
• Associate under secretary, FOSLA, W400s IIMC chapter

Interests

• Reading habits: Telegraph etc, India today last page
• Musical tastes: classic rock n’ roll such as Jimmy Hendricks, Bob Dillon etc.
• Skiing, whitewater rafting, mountaineering and skinny dipping

Consultancy experience

• Provided ad hoc management consultancy to a leading retailer on the Joka campus
• All other projects under contracts of non-disclosure

Prof. Sunil Handa(SH) from IIM-Ahmedabad visited IIM-Calcutta recently and I had an opportunity to attend one of his sessions. Considering the fact that I am myself a bit oriented to start something of my own, I liked the session. One may argue that most of the points these people (entrepreneurs) talk about are just the same .. hmm.. may be.. but there is a lot to make a difference. One good point may change your outlook drastically and something similar happened to me after this session.

On Exit options:
The session started with example of one of his student from IIM-Ahmedabad who had started a company of his own but had recently decided to sell it off!! Prof. claimed that this guy sold his soul.
As per SH, there is no exit option for an entrepreneur and he outrightly rejected the idea of selling a venture after say 5 years of establishing it. I had been fascinated by the idea of creating and selling off a business before restructuring period (I believe after some 5-6 years, processes etc. in a business need to be restructured coz by this time others also find it worthy to get into it..so selling off at this point would mean avoiding the restructuring cost and efforts, which can be further used in setting up something else, plus you get a healthy deal for current business at such a time). Although SH was of different opinion and he commented that
1.) One tends to get an emotional bonding with the current business,
2.) Rarely do people start a second venture as they get too old by the time they plan to sell off first one
3.) Even is one gets past the emotional bonding and timing factor, one tends to lose good people. You may plan to switch over your business (coz that is your business) but the employees may not be ready to take that risk and would be resistant to change.

This made me think of the establish-and-sell philosophy again, especially the third point which is most crucial as what i think. Anyways, I need to evaluate that well.

On VCs:
“So, what would you do once you sell off your venture?”
“I would start a new one” is a typical answer. How many do you think do that? Hardly anyone, SH claimed. The factors include the social pressures and the family responsibilities. Add to it reduced appetite for risk as you grow old.
“If you quit your own child(company), you will end up being only an uncle(Venture Capitalist), where you will just guide and help and wish other’s children(ventures you fund) do well. Most of their(VC’s) days go in praying for other’s ventures to get successful”

On Diluting Equity:
“If you wish to start a business, do you need a lot of money or you may as well get it from Venture Capitalists?”
If you think you may start a business by borrowing money from VCs, you probably need to relook at the mathematics of doing so. If you succeed, you will end up paying hefty premiums and if you fail, you may still end up paying more than the Principal amount!! Then how does it make any economic sense..
Those who still might be thinking of it being useful, I suggest reading the post on session by Mahesh Murthy.

Assertiveness, Struggle, No shy factor:
“When I used to travel in Public roadways buses, I used to end up traveling most of the times standing. Then I realised this is not how it gonna work and I learnt the art of finding and making space to sit. I started asking people to shift even if there was no place and most of the times ended up getting some place to sit.- That was my first lesson into entrepreneurship” I learned to be assertive. I struggled and I was no longer shy of asking for place.
This is what is required to establish a business. If you think everything will just go right, it wont.. you need to make it right.

Impact of Contacts in Initial Phase:
Another way of getting initial success is a shortcut- to use your contacts. But as soon as you use contacts to get any favour, you lose the race. Nothing comes for free in this world!! If you ask for a favour today, you’ll be asked to repay in some form or other tomorrow and it wont end there. Since you got a favour in initial days of struggle, you would feel indebted for long and you would have to make compromises at some point due to these favours/contacts/people/..

Struggle in Initial Phase:
So the alternate way is to struggle!! People, if given option, would love to skip this part but this is most important phase one goes through and this is the phase that basically lays the foundation for rest of the career.
There was a bird, which was trying to come out of the egg-shell. She was fluttering her wings and trying desperately to break the shell. A man walking beside saw this and out of his genuine concern and care, broke the egg-shell with a knife. The man was happy as he thought he had done a good job, helping the bird out of the shell. The bird, on the other hand, could never fly in her life coz her wings were just not strong enough to fly.
It is not difficult to understand why the bird could never fly!! So you decide by yourself whether you want to break the shell yourself or do you want an external support!!

Upto-date Info of Related and Unrelated streams:
It is not uncommon in people to stop reading/analysing once they get success. However, SH suggested that one should always keep the habit of reading and be knowledgeable about things related directly or indirectly or not even related to his/her business. This is helpful when one needs to adopt methodologies/techniques/benefits from outside the business. He took an example of his own venture which in no way related to plastic industry, and he could make a benefit of a few lakhs using that. I dont remember the example exactly and it would not be appropriate to quote it wrong but it was something on the lines that huge amount of excise and tax could be saved by purchasing a machinery in parts due to differential tax rates for plastic and other material.
The essence of the point was that one must keep himself up-to date on different topics, regardless of whether they are directly influencing your business or not. Who knows when they come handy!!

On Consultants:
To keep it short, I just quote his words,”Consultants are people who wont tell you anything unless asked, even if they know something is going wrong!!”
Without having any first hand knowledge of this, I think it is difficult for me to make up any perception based on this point.

On Ethics:
Everyone claims ethics in business are very important but no one spells it so clearly!! Everyone talks of setting an example in front of juniors but no one says how exactly it makes a difference. He took example of a manufacturer trying to save some tax amount by manipulating accounts and stealthily selling some of the goods. The same person ends up pursuing his employees so that the news is not leaked publicly and in case that happens..Brand Image tarnishes!!
Precisely why people do not feel proud in saying that they work in Reliance!!

Skills One must Learn at IIMs:
Leadership skills
Negotiating skills
Delegating skills

On Partnership:
Reiterating what MM said, SH also said it is better to have partners for the moral and support and better to start in smaller teams. A larger team is bound to fail. Although, he discarded that the two partners need to be good friends from college days and things like that. According to him, a better team would have people with only some understanding of each other. More understanding may result in you taking other for granted, which might not be the case always. But still, more the understanding between partners the better it is.
Idea or partner?
An idea is worth nothing unless implemented, said MM.
Unless you have a good partner, it is difficult to succeed in a venture, said SH.
Clearly both of them had an emphasis of a good partner first, someone who is equally, if not more, passionate about the venture.
Moreover, SH made a claim that no one would be working on their first idea for long, no matter how attractive it may seem to them in starting. It is only the third or fourth idea that people end up doing!

Not to forget,
Irrespective of what you may think, the partnership doesnt last forever and which sometimes may be an emotionally testing times but that is how it is!!

To end with a globe statement, you need ‘Midas touch‘ to succeed in a business more than anything else.

“To get an extraordinary person is difficult but to make ordinary people extraordinary is simple.“: Some great philosopher.