Guest Lecture by Mr.M.F.Lokhandwala:

Mr.M.F.Lokhandwala, Director – HR, Nucon Products visited IMDR for a guest lecture on 11/10/12 & spoke on the topic “the gap between requirements of company and employee expectations”. He said that, as he had worked from both the sides of the table i.e. as a placement officer and now as a recruiter, he had considerable knowledge of the feelings of both.
He   mentioned the importance of a correct attitude, and the distribution of credits among attitudes, skills and knowledge. He emphasized that attitude is priceless, it cannot be measured. The person with the correct attitude pays people and hires them. Attitude reflects from our behavior.
He told that companies look for the knowledge in the following way:

1. Fundamentals
2. Ability to relate their learning to problems in day-to-day life
3. Logical & critical reasoning related to the subjects
4. They don’t look for memorized formulae used, without understanding their interpretation.

Companies look for attitudes and other features like:

1. Winning attitude
2. Hardworking ability
3. Flexibility in thinking and action
4. Enthusiasm and energy

He also enlightened with the things that companies avoid. They are:

1. Cribbers or people who complain
2. Passive people who are only recipients
3. People who are looking for ‘jobs’ and not ‘work’
4. Work shirkers

He suggested some ways to improve the chances for getting a good job as:

1. Create a good academic record
2. Create a record of co-curricular activities by participating in industrial visits, guest lectures, etc.
3. Participate in extra-curricular activities like sports, quiz, etc.
4. Charge yourself with enthusiasm

Lastly, he briefed how one has the potential in oneself and he/she can succeed if they do something which will distinguish them from the rest crowd. Also, the quality of knowledge, skills and the overall attitude matters than the infrastructure.

Mukta Karandikar from the batch of2002, spoke on “Interview Preparation and Resume Writing Tips” in a guest lecture organized by PGDM2. She is currently working as Associate Vice President, Citibank, Mumbai. In the lecture, sheexplained howto make an impressive resume.

Crafting an effective resume requires stepping back, making objective assessments of oneself, being organized, and writing well. She laid emphasis on A-C-A Approach (Action-Complexity-Achievement) i.e. what has to be done (ACTION); what is the challenge (COMPLEXITY); and finally what is being achieved (ACHIEVEMENT). She also gave valuable tips on how to present oneself for Interviews, the dos and don’ts. She explained ways to manage an interview and present oneself in the best possible manner. She shared her experience and imparted her knowledge about facing interviews. Mock interviews were also held to enable students their strengths and weaknesses. The session indeed turned out to be fruitful for the students.

Guest Lecture on Enterprise Resource Planning and Business Process Reengineering

Mr. Dilip Joshi, Sr. Consultant, KPIT Cummins delivered a guest lecture in IMDR on 15th Sept 2012. He is an alumnus of IMDR Pune (batch 1987-89). The topic of the lecture was ERP (Enterprise Resources Planning) and BPR (Business Process Reengineering). He shared his experience about developing an ERP system for different organizations. He said that domain knowledge is a must to develop an efficient ERP system. Programmers are not aware of the business processes. So the onus is on the business analyst to provide the accurate information of the business processes to the service provider.   At the same time the client must provide all the details of their business processes. Therefore a perfect coordination is required between the client and the service provider to develop an efficient ERP system. He discussed the sales process for an organization with the help of a flow chart. Students of PGDM I & II attended the guest lecture.

Report on PMPML survey and presentation

From left Prof Shivane, Mr.Velankar, Mr.Pardeshi

IMDR has conducted a quick survey on PMPML bus drivers’ working conditions; traffic in the city and bus driving in the Pune city. This survey was conducted by 36 students from PGDM I batch 2011-12 in November 2011 and a report was prepared accordingly. This report was presented by Malkesh Patel and Kishore Panda   (PGDM I students) on 4th Feb 2012 in the auditorium, IMDR Pune. Mr. Deepak Pardeshi, Labour and Public Relations Officer, PMPML was the Chief Guest for the program. Mr. Vivek Velankar, Social activist was also present as Guest for the program. Dr. Kandalgaonkar delivered the introductory speech and Prof Shivane expressed the vote of Thanks. Mr. Pardeshi conducted an interactive session with students and Mr. Vivek Velankar shared his views regarding functioning of PMPML organization

Guest lectures by Alumni in November and December

Gurucharan Singh Gandhi from the batch of 2000 spoke on ‘Career Planning’.  He is currently Vice President and Head of Training with Bharti AXA Life Insurance.  Gurucharan is an avid reader and blogger and a runner of marathons! (www.mondaymusingsbyguru.blogspot.com). 
Gurucharan had the audience riveted with the ‘story’ of his education and career that spanned his graduation days, entry and time spent at IMDR and thereafter.  Gurucharan made a career switch from Sales and Marketing to Training and spoke about how he made this switch.  While freely admitting that he was no ‘guru’ with any formulae or mantras for career success he suggested that students should first identify what they enjoy doing and pursue it even if it does not fall in the ambit of their current job.  Citing his own example he spoke about how he used to teach at a prominent coaching class for MBA aspirants in Mumbai because he enjoyed teaching.  For this he had to work on weekends and travel a considerable distance in the wee hours of the morning.  However it opened doors for a career in Training for him.  Gurucharan endorsed a major tenet of IMDR’s learning processes: SDLS or Self Driven Learning System.  He sheepishly admitted that he never realized the relevance of SDLS while on campus but has since realized its value!  He emphasised the importance of students setting their own learning objectives and a plan to achieve these. 

Rakesh Mishra from the batch of 2009 spoke on ‘Careers in Finance’.  Rakesh did his PGDM (Finance) from IMDR and went on to work with Credit Suisse and Credit Capital Investments, a US based hedge fund.  His work profile includes Financial Modelling and M&A.  Rakesh is on the cusp of a new career as an entrepreneur!  His venture Fin Destination launched in collaboration with batchmate Jai Bhagchandani will focus on Financial training and solutions.
Rakesh started his talk by outlining the different types of career options in Finance especially in the area of investment banking.  He spoke at some length about the day to day activities performed by people in these profiles and made the roles more concrete in the minds of students.  Rakesh displayed the depth of his understanding of the financial sector when he was able to explain complex events like the sub-prime crisis and the eurozone crisis in an easy conversational manner that was almost like a story and therefore easy to understand.  This led to a barrage of questions and comments from an appreciative and interested audience!