XLers Unlimited

Slot 0. Slot 1. Slot 2. Slot 3. Rolling. Internship. PPO. Back to XL. Interviews. Slot 0. Slot 1. Slot 2...

This summer, yet another bunch of students will strap their bags on, leave XL and board trains or flights to reach the HQs/branches of the companies where they will intern for approximately two months. A motley bunch- doctors, engineers, accountants, psychologists - most of them will be long past the initial seven days packed with confusion, uncertainty, swearing and the 'Man, it's so frikkin arbit!' feeling of when they sat for their SIP 2010 interviews. I won't have forgotten, nor will have most seniors- after all, this is our second SIP interview process. Once before, we were in the hot seat, overwhelming Small Auditorium with our suits, questions and hopes, cracking smiles when the last thing we wanted to do was to smile, staring straight ahead when we wanted to avoid an over-friendly sympathizer, politely holding back sheer disbelief when someone whom we felt didn't deserve it got a prize placement offer, peering at the brown board covered with SIP 2009 announcements- some new, some old- and asking our friends in one moment of open anxiety, "Yaar, mera ho jaayega na?", trying to hide a pang of jealousy when a close friend gained a better offer than we did, and celebrating with crazed relief, tired out but so, so happy that we were 'signed out of the process'.

This time, we're the seniors - we served, we controlled, we coordinated, we handled the logistics, we formatted CVs and one bunch of us spent sleepless nights to help place the entire batch. Also, the same people who sat in that auditorium, mostly feeling lost, anxious or confused, stepped in to provide Valuable Advice for the juniors; we offered our Excellent Tips on Company Pecking ("No, no, A is always better than B, yaar, kyunki maine suna hai ki last year X who interned there told Y ki..."); we provided our Critical and Comprehensive CV Reviewing Services ("Dude, why don't you put all your Positions of Responsibility in this format? Max shortlists this way, trust me. And remember, tere saare internship details ko aise aam aadmi language mein HI likhna, otherwise recruiters won't understand, machi!"); we bestowed upon them our Sure Shot Interview Academia Primer ("Boss", with a heavy sigh guaranteed to create mass nervousness in juniors, "sabse pehle, jaake dekh ki Theory X aur Theory Y dono mein se which is what... Yeh sab pakka poochenge, PAKKA. DEFinitely coming in UGJIK company's interview, man."); and to top off the line up of services, we added the finishing touch: Our V V Special Tips To Handle Horror GDs and Ace Intimidating Interviews ("Start and finish evvvvery GD. Make your presence felt. Smile confidently and tell the interviewer if you don't know something - he will be hazaar impressed with your straightforwardness.)

Let's face it - SIP is a bit like life. Heck, it IS life, played over on a considerably smaller stage. The defining theme is randomness, of the highest order. And yet we will continue, batch after batch, to believe in such concepts as perfectly made offer-getting CVs (snort!), the correct answer to a company's subjective questions in its form, advice from 93 people to get the better of the Great Pecking Tamasha and a common set of tips to acing GDs and PIs (don't even get me started on this one). It is ironic if nothing else that we invest some much of time and energy in what process is essentially a function of uncertainty. However, things are remarkably different on the other side of the spectrum, and I know how I will feel, come CRP - so less of the sarcasm from me and more from Ground Zero.

I helped a tiny little bit in coordinating some parts of SIP 2010, and my role being much easier than others, I got the chance to observe the play of events inside the audi. I observed, partly curious, sometimes helpless, and sometimes just proud at how my- our- juniors were, for the most part, handling SIP 2010; after all, they were battling the sharpest force of nature - uncertainty. There were those who stood up to the pressure calmly and shrugged off rejects, though they undoubtedly had their quiet moments of worry; those who broke down only to rise again; those who sat friendless, slightly removed from the clutter of people all around, and celebrated solitary and silently when they were placed; those who sailed through the process on the first day but stayed on to cheer, encourage and support their friends and batch-mates. Moments of heartwarming bonding, and moments that made me shake my head. The public nature of this post prevents me from taking names, but some of you absolutely rock, you guys, your friends won't forget how you stood by them. Hats off.

From SIP, last year and this one, I have some observations. Some you may know, others you may recognize, and even disagree with some. One, SIP is and will always be unpredictable, so the hype can be reduced. The Hype is the worst part- nothing creates pressure like the talk. Two, there will always be people who will take it in their stride and people who will break, and the unexpected often occurs. Some build respect for the calm with which they handle the entire process. It's called maturity. No amount of mock anythings will help the breakers and none are needed for the steady rocks, but the majority lies somewhere in between and wholehearted support from a senior batch helps. (Incidentally, I had a wonderful senior student coordinator last year called Meetesh Jha - he kept me from pressing my ever-ready panic button. Trust me, It Helps.) Three, there is life beyond SIP, which it is very easy to forget those seven days. Those who remember and put things in perspective make life easier for themselves.

A good number of people in this junior batch did keep things in perspective. Today, they're all placed for summers. And so next summer, they'll strap their bags on, and leave XL and board trains or flights to reach the HQs/branches of the companies where they will intern for approximately two months. A motley bunch- who started out not knowing where they'd end up, but all of whom made the cut, in the tradition of every batch before them.

Congratulations, Class of '11. Nice work. Rock your summers! :-)

Prash as he is popularly known and his band have created a poignant song and music video in response to the terror attacks in Mumbai.

It has already been aired on Channel [v], MTV, CNN-IBN, Aaj-Tak, News 24, Zee-music, IBN-7, E-24

If you didn't catch it on TV, you can watch it here:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ9LRrxMw-M



If you really like the video and the message that it conveys, you can join the fan group on Facebook

BP Rao asked the question on the Linkedin XLRI group:

In 2009, XLRI completes 60 glorious years.What have you gained from XL? .

If we develop adequate data, this could be good feedback to the present leaders/students at XL.

Here's what I have gained:

* Deep insight into the power of people relationships. Thanks to Fr. McGrath.

* A collaborative rather than confrontation approach to issues

* The value of superior communication skills..this one is for Fr. Tome

* Simplicity and non-hierarchical way of managing.

* Friendships that have lasted for keeps:)

Some of the answers were:

My professional identity.

The desire to do good in the world was further cemented courtesy the selfless work by a lot of intellectuals at XLRI. I definitely learnt how to prioritise my time and work, a quality which I feel is critical to achieve material success. Remember that the monk first had to earn the Ferrari :-) .

The most important take-away I have had is that what we learn is most applied about 5 years into your work career. all those pieces of puzzle come together when you are problem solving and decision making. When your wrok content begins to have a diversity of challenges, that is when your investment in XL kicks in

This seems to be rhetoric question! I completely agree with Udayan - indeed my professional identity and a lot of friends! In addition to the list - I would lke to add humility, patience, optimism, crisis management, resource mobilization, 'jugaad', cost cutting, bon-homie, understanding (not from the classroom) of the tennets of credit, risk-management and financial planning, weight loss, gyan, tolerance, appreciation, achnowledgement, great times, culture, time-management, 'critical-minimum-effort' theory, 'manging' as opposed to 'management', compassion, sensitivity, community living, independence, fraternity feeling, street smartness - well the list is endless. And of course to all the professors and faculty who showed how to - and some who showed how not to!! 

Multitasking, preparing for deadlines, working with groups, peers, social responsibility, healthy lifestyle, with enough room for entertainment and letting one's hair down.

Importance of Upward Management, dealing with "bad bosses (read profs)", networking, art of politics, dramatics. Very useful for professional life.

What I learnt at XL was probably not as useful anytime in the first two years of my career, as it has now started. It has helped me put my thoughts in the most organised format and has given a weight to my words while talking amongst equals. Piggy-backing on what my seniors had created as a brand name for the college is definitely a given. However, I have already started learning the art of managing people breaking all barriers of hierarchy.

I'm sure I have got a long way to go, and what I have learnt in the college is going to push me along all through...

Well BP we are the luckier ones who had both Fr Tome and Fr McGrath so I will not repeat what you said.

I think XL gave me a world view. And maybe social skills of a corporate kind. The beauty of XL is that we learnt from each other too.

For the 100th post on this site we have this great creative video on the XL Dream Run

Two Projects supported by XLRI Social Entrepreneurship Trust (*), Parichay andSwavalamban were judged 1st and 2nd respectively in the IIM Indore's Social Business Plan contest "Kalpavriksha" - a forum for self sustainable business plans with the potential to make a difference to society.

The two projects were selected from among 103 entries from across the B-Schools, and were judged by executives from Aavishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, IndianNGO.com and India Development Gateway

Besides the prize money, along with other finalists they will also receive mentorship by executives from IndianNGO.com and India Development Gateway, a capital market place for social ventures in India. They will also be able to put up their ideas on India Development Gateway.

As the winner of the event, Parichay will get a direct semi-final entry into theGlobal Social Entrepreneurship Competition (GSEC) to be held at Foster School of Business in Seattle, USA (Feb 23-27, 2009)

The team of three — Abhilash Somen, Ankur Saboo and Anand Raghvendra — all business management students, has developed an animal powered prime mover (generator) where mechanical energy can be converted to electrical energy will the help of oxen.

The students today invited eight NGOs of Jamshedpur to present the idea before them.

The concept of the project was born when the students visited some villages last year as part of their curriculum.

"When we visited the villages last year, we thought of doing something constructive. We began our research that time. The technical specification is not completed as yet. The project would benefit the villagers as it is low on cost compared to solar energy," said Ankur.

The generator consists of a shaft, a bearing, a battery and CFL lamps. The shaft attached with the generator has to be rotated by an oxen to charge the battery connected to it, generating electricity.

A generator is connected to a battery of 44 lamps that can light up four houses. A single generator can also be connected to three generators or more. Electricity will be generated depending upon the power of the batteries.

The students have presented their project before Tata Motors and will be working in a village near Rakha Mines.

Popular blogger Rashmi Bansal who is consulting editor of career news show Cracking Careers on UTVi interviews Abhijit Bhaduri, PMIR '84, HR Head of Microsoft India, blogger and author on 14th June 2008 at 3.30 pm and at 6 pm.

The show will be repeated again on 15th June at 12 noon and 5 pm

Some Alumni Achievements (2007-08)

· PL Barua (70PMIR) assumed charge as the Executive Director of the Indian Oil Corporation Limited (Assam Oil Division).

· RS Thakur (72BMD) took over as Executive Director of TACO, the Tata auto-component company.

· Jagdish Dore (73BMD) was appointed the CEO & Managing Director of Matrix Laboratories Ltd. (of Mylan Group).

· Madhukar Kamath (76BMD) Managing Director & CEO of the Mudra Group, was elected as the President of Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI).

· S Nandkumar (76BMD) was elected the President of Institute of Management Consultants of India (Hyderabad chapter)

· Bipin Lal (78BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director, Nitrex Chemicals India.

· Prakash Puram (78BMD), President & CEO, iXmatch Inc., was invited to join the Advisory Council on Small Business & Labour of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis.

· N Krishnakumar (80BMD) took over as the CEO & Managing Director of Mindtree Consulting.

· Prabhakar Jain (81BMD) joined as the Chairman and Managing Director, Goodyear India Ltd.

· Aneeta Madhok (81PMIR) joined as the Dean, Center for Human Resources (Dubai & Singapore), SP Jain Center of Management.

· NS Rajan (83BMD), Partner (Human Capital), Ernst & Young, was chosen as Global Leader-HR Advisory of Ernst & Young. He was also elected the President (Northern Region), National HRD Network.

· Jaspal Bindra (84BMD) took over as the Head-Asia Region, Standard Chartered Bank.

· K Pandiarajan (84PMIR), Founder-CEO of MaFoi Consulting, was inducted into the Board of Madras Stock Exchange Limited as one of its Directors.

· K Shankar (84PMIR) joined Airtel as the Director (HR).

· Radha Krishnan Nair (84PMIR) joined as the Chief HR Officer of Tata Steel. He was also inducted into the Board of Governors of XLRI.

· Vineet Nayar (85BMD) took over as the CEO, HCL Technologies Ltd from its founder, Shiv Nadar.

· Mahesh Nair (86BMD) published his book of photographs Let There Be Light: Exploring Nature Through Light (Roli Books).

· Sandra (Sequeira) Mahadwar (86PMIR), Sr Director (HR) with KLA-Tencor Corp., was selected to receive the 2008 YWCA’s Silicon Valley Tribute to Women Award, for Executive Leadership.

· Arjun Trivedi (87BMD) was appointed the Head of Nokia Siemens Network, Indonesia.

· Srinivas Duvvari (87BM-Eve) took over as the Managing Director of Rolls-Royce India Ltd.

· Ernst Louise (87PMIR) was appointed as the Global Head (HR) for Essel Propack Ltd.

· Ronald Mark D’Souza (87PMIR) took over as the Vice President (HR), Alcatel-Lucent (India).

· Anurag Parashar (88BMD) took over as the Chief Officer, Customer Management Systems and Shared Infrastructure for all telecom businesses of Bharti Airtel Ltd.

· M Shankar Prasad (88BMD) joined Tata Communications Ltd (formerly VSNL) as President, Broadband.

· Amar Babu (89BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director of Lenova India.

· Satish Nambisan (89PMIR) published his book The Global Brain: Your Roadmap for Innovating Faster & Smarter in a Networked World (Wharton School Publishing).

· Sutapa Banerjee (89PMIR), Head of Private Banking at ABN Amro Bank, was nominated among 20 most successful, rising wealth managers in the world by leading international business magazine, The Institutional Investor.

· Amitabh Jaipuria (89BMD) joined as the Managing Director of Monsanto India Ltd.

· Ajay Bagga (90BMD), CEO of Lotus India Asset Management Co Pvt. Ltd., was elected the Vice Chairman of Financial Planning Standards Board of India.

· Ashish Khera (90BMD) took over as the CFO of Microsoft India

· VS Sridhar (90BMD) was appointed the Chief Operating Officer of the VSNL Global Services.

· R Chandrasekar (90PMIR) took over as the Group Head (HR) of the Noor Islamic Bank (Dubai Investment Group), Dubai.

· Sudip Mall (91BMD) joined as Country Manager (Philippines), Kraft Asia.

· V Chandramouli (91BMD) was appointed as the Director (HR) of Cadbury India

· Jayaram Philkana (91PMIR) took over as the Director (HR) of Cargill Inc.’s Health & Nutrition business at MN, USA.

· NT Arunkumar (91PMIR) took over as CEO of Dun & Bradstreet.

· Ramesh Soundarajan (91PMIR) joined as the Vice President (HR) of Trianz India.

· Ravi Parmeshwar (91PMIR) joined Cargill India as their Director (HR).

· Lokesh Jindal (92BMD) returned from USA to take over as Sr Vice President & General Manager of Computer Associate’s India Technology Center.

· Leena Nair (92PMIR) took over as the Executive Director (HR) of Hindustan Unilever Ltd., thus becoming the youngest and the first woman director in HUL’s Board. She was also featured in the Business Today’s “25 Most Powerful Women in Indian Business List”.

· Sabyasachi Nag (92PMIR) published his first book of poems Bloodlines with Writers' Workshop.

· Salil Raghavan (92PMIR) took over as the Head (HR) of Great Eastern Shipping.

· Sadashiv Nayak (93BDM) joined the Pantaloon Retail India Ltd, as the CEO, Food Bazaar.

· Sharat Dhall (93BMD) was appointed as the Managing Director (India) of the travel portal Expedia.com.

· NV Krishna (93BMD) joined EXL Holding Inc. (NY, USA), as the Vice President and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

· Amitabh Hajela (93PMIR) joined as the Vice President and Global Head of Human Resources of the ExlService Holdings, Inc, USA.

· Uday Shankar Sinha (94BMD) took over as Executive Director of PepsiCo India.

· Biplob Banerjee (94PMIR) joined Nokia Siemens Networks as Director (HR – Global Services, India).

· Raj Ambekar (94PMIR) moved to the shipping & logistics company, Maersk, as the Head (HR) for South Asia.

· Naveen Kumar (94PMIR) took over as the Vice President (HR) of Lehman Brothers, India.

· V Satish (94PMIR) took over as Sr Vice President (Global HR & Recruiting) at AztecSoft.

· Ramki Sundaram (95BMD) was appointed the CEO of Air Deccan.

· Suman Bose (95BMD) joined Dassault Systemes (part of French Dassault Group) as the Country Head – India.

· Brajesh Bajpai (96BMD) moved into an enlarged role as the Head of Middle East and North Africa Region of Marico’s International Business.

· Ketan Awalegaonkar (98BMD) joined McKinsey & Co. as Associate Principle & Leader for North American Operations Practice, USA.

· Indraneel Roy (98PMIR) took over as the Global Head of Hewitt Leadership Consulting.

· Gaurav Lahiri (00PMIR) was elected as the Partner, Hay Group. He also co-authored the book The Indian CEO: Portrait of Excellence (Sage Books).

· Kulshaan Singh (01PMIR) took over as the Country Manager (Singapore), Hewitt Associates.

· Tanmay Prusty (06BMD), Sales Manager with ITC, won the south zone BusinessToday ACUMEN 2007, and was the runner-up in the national finals.

· Jishnu Dasgupta (06BMD), Sales Manager with ITC, and joined as bass guitarist and backing vocals with the Hindi Band “Swarathma”, which won the Best Band prize in All India City Radio Finals.

In his email he writes:

After almost 5 years of being with SAP Labs today is my last day.

In march I will be joining Aztecsoft in Bangalore as SVP – Global HR and Recruiting. I am looking forward to new challenges of leading the HR function globally.

From the XLRI blog:

With domestic stipends reaching astronomical heights of Rs. 5 Lakhs (Lehman Brothers), the process resulted in the batch of 2009 being placed in exclusive roles with the best companies in the industry, both from India and abroad. Lehman Brothers, J P Morgan Chase, Hay and Microsoft offered stipends of more than a lakh (for domestic offers), while Novartis, HUL, ABG, P&G, Transworld, Asian Paints and ICICI made foreign offers. HSBC, Ernst & Young, ABG, Edelweiss, Deloitte Consulting, IBM and Nokia were the largest recruiters this year with the highest number of accepted offers. Other premier recruiters include Carlyle, Accenture Business Consulting, KPMG, TAS, Yahoo etc.

• Highest Domestic Stipend of Rs 5 Lakhs by Lehman Investment Banking
• Highest International Stipend of Rs 1.75 Lakhs by Novartis
• Around 10 overseas offers were made from Novartis, HUL, ABG, P&G, Transworld, Asian Paints and ICICI
• 2/3^rd of the batch placed in Slot 1 in less than 36 hours
• First time recruiters in the Financial sector include Lehman Investment Banking, 8 Capital Hedge Fund, Indea Capital, Lotus Asset Management etc
• 20 companies took part in the process for the First time
• 60+ companies made internship offers to the batch

Who says budding managers are not creative and poetic people. Check the sample of writings that the following folks from the 08 and 09 batch cooked up as part of Oktoberfest in XLRI. Seems like good fun was had by all. Writings are hosted on the Dracula blog...which is not so much an ode to the Prince of Transylvania but the Dramatics and Cultural Association of XLRI ;-)


Seniors

Kailash
Seema Narera/Bharath Rao
Shivani Nigam
Sonali Ahuja (2nd Place!)
Swati Jena

Juniors

Tushar Kataria
Ramakrishna
Kartheek Kanumuru
Srinivas
Krishna Bhaskar
Ankur Sawhney (1st Place!)
Ankur Sawhney
Mukund Madhav

The Times of India group has started a competition for selecting a national political leader for India who would be eventually trained in the John F. Kennedy School of Political Leadership. Post-training he/she would be provided with seed funding/media support to contest Lok Sabha
elections in India. Two XLers have reached the regional finals who would eventually go through to the National finals –

• Mr. Sandeep Agarwal
• Ms. Aparna Banerjee

This rounds winners would be determined on the basis of votes received by the candidates through online or SMS voting. You can vote for them by clicking here: http://lead.timesofindia.com/voteing_Kolkata.asp or sending in a SMS. To know more about the contest and selection process, please click here: http://lead.timesofindia.com/selection_process.asp

Nisha Millet (the national swimming champ) in Bangalore list is the daughter of Aubrey Millet, XLer of 72 batch.

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 Documentary - Reminiscence 2007



NDTV profit interviews XLRI students for India GenNext



and part 2

Abhilasha and Udayan have very similar beginning to their posts !

Maybe its just got to do with how we XLers love to drink and converse and reflect all at the same time !

Sapphire's 'Human Resource In Practice' kicked off with a bang on pre independence eve with Mr. Sunit Sinha, Principal Consultant , M&A, of Mercer HR delivered a talk on 'Careers in Consulting'. The session was attend by around 100 students comprising of GMP, BM and PMIR students.

Sunit talked about the typical lifestyle of consultant, myths about consultancy and what students need to look before choosing consultancy as a career. He stressed consultancy is more of a career and not a job which demands self belief, abiltiy to think on feet, presentation of thoughts and resilience.

He also enlightened the prospective managers who are wannabe consultants about what consultants look for in a prospective employee. He also brought forward the fact that more and more women are now joining consultancy and are climbing to success.

There are various online hangouts of XLers...

There's email based groups like Grax and PJAXI

A lot of XLers have profiles on Ryze, check Madhukar's page for a comprehensive listing of XLers there.

Quite a lot are on Linkedin. In fact Kim ensured that we have a XL Alumni group on Linkedin too.

And there are lots of XLers on Orkut, the social networking site. Some XL-related communities on Orkut are XLRI, XLRI (smaller group), Fraxers, MadFaxi, VLAXI, PFAXI. The last three are Prof fans associations !

This blog plans to be a collablog (a collaborative blog).

So, XLers who want to contribute to this blog, by becoming co-authors, please drop me an email !

The id is ggxl99 [at] gmail.com