XLers Unlimited

BP Rao's blog hits it big :-)

I am delighted to find that the Most Popular Outgoing Link and the 2nd Most Popular Outgoing Link in Enewss, today are my posts on Indra Nooyi ( September 16) and Connecting India ( September 25) respectively.

XLRI to roll out new courses for managers:

"XLRI Jamshedpur, the school of business and human resources, plans to offer a number of courses this fiscal for senior and middle-level managers.

The B-school, for instance, has designed a course for executives and owners of large- and medium-sized enterprises that are in the process of expanding their operations overseas. According to XLRI officials, there are many instances that led to the designing of the course - the recent ones being the takeovers of Arcelor and Corus by Mittal and Tata Steel, respectively."

XLRI Documentary - Reminiscence 2007



NDTV profit interviews XLRI students for India GenNext



and part 2

Abhijit Bhaduri (PMIR 84) Head of HR at PepsiCo lets us know:

I have played a small role in the film Apna Asmaan. I play Ravi's (played by Irrfan) boss in the office. The film stars Shobhna, Irrfan, Anupam Kher and Rajat Kapur (Bheja Fry fame). The film is about how each one of us has our own little piece of the sky to touch and paint. A heartwarming film. It has won the gold at the International Festival in Stuttgart and now entering the film fest in Argentina. The film is currently playing in theatres. Hope your town has it too.

Have any of you seen it? It is such a strange feeling to see oneself on screen.

Dear XLers

I have pleasure in enclosing a cordial invitation to attend the first Anniversary of our Ma Foi Foundation (MFF) in Chennai on the 26^th Sept 2007.

We presently have adopted 1130 poor children from the Sivakasi and Chennai areas from 46 schools – they get scholarship, mentorship and career education from 5^th standard to college completion ( Rs 1200 pa upto 10^th std, Rs 1500 pa during higher secondary and Rs 5000 pa during college). All our Corporate Social Responsibility efforts have been integrated under MFF since last Sept. We run a School for the underprivileged in Chennai with about 650 children. We have taken micro-finance to about 8000 women through Self-Help Group and fostered about 450 tiny enterprises. We also run a network of about 172 NGO’s under the CIOSA (Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy) banner. We have also recognized 10 Young Achievers (unmined gems) every year during this function. You can get more details about this in www.themafoifoundation.org

The function will start at 6.30 pm and will see a creative expression by some of our Disha Scholars, recognition of achievements, performance by young artists led by Abhaswaram Ramji/Venky (Venky Monkey fame) and networking. I look forward to your support and wishes,

Regards,

K Pandiarajan (84BMD)

Leena Nair
37/ Executive Director (HR), Hindustan Unilever
Education: BE Electronics and MBA from XLRI
Work Experience: 15 years
Career High: First woman ED at HUL
Hobbies: Bollywood movies, reading, outdoor sports and travelling
Success Mantra: Look for a win-win in every situation

It's a hat trick, in some sense. Leena Nair isn't just the first woman to make it to Hindustan Unilever's Management Committee (mc), but also the youngest Executive Director (ED) and that too one in charge of not a profit centre, but human resources. As the HR boss, Nair heads a team of 250 people who look into the well-being of about 15,000 employees across 70 different locations in the country, including 45 factories and four regional offices.

The 37-year-old Nair joined Hindustan Lever (as it was known until recently) straight out of XLRI, Jamshedpur, 15 years ago, and has risen quickly through the ranks. From being a factory personnel manager to management development planning manager to hr manager for the detergents business, Nair has been there, done that. But how does it feel to become the youngest and only woman Executive Director on the mc in HUL's history? "It is definitely a big honour for me because HUL is not just a big organisation with a great history and heritage, but (my elevation is) also a testimony to how much hr is valued here," says the tall and trim Nair.

She could say that again. Until recently, in most organisations, hr didn't get a seat at the high table. For one, hr wasn't seen as a profit centre and, for another, it was not considered strategic enough. But with talent becoming scarce and the only real differentiator at most companies, boards are waking up to the strategic importance of human resources. No wonder, Nair says her challenge is straightforward. "We have to do well and excel to make a difference to the organisation. My team must also make a difference to excellence in hr in the company and in the country," she says.

On staying put at the FMCG giant, Nair says, "When your job is interesting and you are feeling stretched and challenged, and when you have great bosses and you are working with talented people, you don't want to leave." HUL must be hoping that she can spread the same kind of enthusiasm around the organisation.

For all XLers who are on Facebook, here's where you need to join in.

Hope Orkut junkies are already on the Orkut XL community there.

Nihal blogs about recent happenings:

A closely guarded secret before the event each year was the T shirt slogan that was to be used by the players. Given the amount of underutilized grey matter on either side there was always an interesting pun involved. So while XL used slogans like “Only XLence matters the rest is IIMmaterial” IIM-C would go with slogans like “Always a size bigger than XL”

After a series of particularly explosive events over the last 2 years (one involving an IIMCian dropping his pants in full public view) the event has been suspended. From this year onwards IIM Calcutta is experimenting with the feasibility of running a similar event with IIM Bangalore.

The Interesting thing is that IIM C has decided to stay with the T Shirt tradition. Here is a quote that came off an XL Yahoogroup.

Trust the jokArs (IIMCians) to come up with something like this....!!!The IIMC tshirt for the " B Versus C" (IIM-B vs IIM-C) meet this year had following slogan:"And we thought there could B no one worse than XL....",And just below that it was written :"IIM Calcutta". ;-)

From MBAUniverse

Finance Chairperson and faculty at XLRI Jamshedpur Prof. Pitabas Mohanty has joined the big league of finance thinkers.

According to XLRI, he will be the new co-authored of finance classic Principles of Corporate Finance along with Brealey, Myers and Allen. This text book is considered a Bible in the world of corporate finance, and used by leading institutions all over the world. Its three other authors are Richard A Brealey of London Business School, Stewart C Myers of MIT and Franklin Allen of University of Pennsylvania.

Says XLRI, "It is indeed a matter of great honour to have one of our professors to co-author such an illustrious book."

Prof. Pitabas Mohanty is a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. A Gold Medallist in MA (Applied Economics), he is also a Chartered Financial Analyst and a cost accountant.

Prof Mohanty has also co-authored another prestigious book Investments along with Bodie, Kane and Marcus. Prof Mohanty has won the Best Young Teacher Award from AIMS in 2002. He has also won the first prize for two consecutive years in the Capital Markets Conference organized by the UTI Institute of Capital Markets. He has also got the prestigious Citibank Research Excellence Award in IIM Bangalore.

Principles of Corporate Finance, a leading text book in the corporate finance area, was first published in 1983. It is known for its intuitive, conversational style and for being able to tie together many of the important ideas in corporate finance.

From MBA Universe

Outlook B-School Survey 2007: IIM-A, XLRI, FMS and IRMA top league tables

You can see what's going on here

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