Manu Malhotra_BLP036_CFday

A good CF day! Lots of learning....The day started of with a beautiful and informative session with Kanupriya. We delved into the FAQs in interviews. I realized that we need to practice practice and practice these basic questions. What also matters is the answers should be tailor made for particular company and job. The second half was interesting too...we took part and came up with some ideas through which SOILites could show management skills as well. Gearing up for statistics class tomorrow.... we listened to a song on statistics last time around..lets see whats there in store for us this time around!

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_BrandExtension

Interesting session today on Marketing: Brand Extension! How companies have been leveraging on strong equity of brands was revealed to us. The four principles: Relevance, recognition, Credibility & Transferability form the core of the Brand Extension. It was heartening to see my colleagues picking such diverse brands like MDH, RUPA, FASTTRACK & COLGATE. My team chose to work on LUX. We did a fantastic job as a team in identifying which areas to extend our Brand to. I really liked the session overall. It was quite informative and at the same time helped us understand by implementing. hanks to Professor Bhattacharya and guest faculty today!

Prateek Kataria_MLP004_Session on consulting skills

Consulting Session a session which was much awaited.

Guided by Mr. Anil Sachdev

Before coming to the class we all were told to go  through the first chapter From FLAWLESS CONSULTING by Peter block

Initially I was not very much interested in consulting but after i read the book there was a change in my perception and ideology about the subject and found it very interesting.

Day 1:- I was now very much excited to understand the basics of the subject and we started our session by understanding the basic of Consulting.

First, we understood that consulting can be stated as the subject in which a consultant has the influence over an individual , group or an organization but is not authorized to make a change or implement the program.

Second, organization is the bridge between the human potential and Societal need .

Third , we also relaized that  Intangible assest are the most valuable assets of an individual or an organization.

Then we learnt about the KARL ERIK SVEIBY Model according to which a leadership with change management will help an organization balance both strategy and the operations of an organization so that an organization can achieve its Vision.

Next step was to understand the 5 phases of consulting

 

1. Entry and contracting:Agreement between the client and consultant where we consultant understands the problem

2.Data Collection and Diagnosis:-consultant will gaher the data and information 

3.Feedback and Decision Making:-Its the stage where we take decision to act .

4.Implementation:- this stage is also referred to the change .

5.Evaluation and termination:-to check if the objective has been achieved  or not ,how the relationship between the client and consultant is ended ,if done in a healthy manner can lead to getting more business .

The first three phases are the  preliminary stage they precede the main event of implementation

There should be a 50/50 relationship between consultants and clients 

Then we understood the four types of clients

1.Economic buyer :- Is the one who has to take the final decision(ex:- chief executive officer)

2. Technical Buyer:-Is the one who has the authority to say no but does not has the authority to say Yes

3.User buyer:--they are the one who are impacted by the project(ex:- internal stakeholders)

4.coach:-who gives the authentic feedback to the consultant there are very rare possibilities that an economic buyer is a coach.

Second Session:-Then we did a simulation of a case from the industry 

Where in we were made to sit in a group of four and two of us were assigned the role of the head of  the organization  and two us were assigned  the roles of Consultanats (Mr. Anil Sachdev and Mr. Arunav Banarjee)

and  using the Navigation we designed a final agreement between the organization and consultants.

this simulation helped us understand the various aspect of consulting both from clients as well as the consultants view..

Prateek Kataria, MLP004

 

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_GBSwithLilachNachum

Global Business strategy, GBS! Wow what an interesting area or a subject if I may call it! Thank you Lilach Mam, I really owe my interest in this subject to some of the wonderful sessions with you. Lilach Nachum mam,  our GBS teacher has not only taught us but sensitized me on this subject by discussing various case studies! The various factors and forces that come into the picture while designing the Global Business Strategy are really so dynamic and different when we talk about different industries. I was at times amazed at how easily some of the big companies have got it wrong in terms of their strategy to tap international markets. Above all I can now relate to the fact that it is not always good to go global. At times for you it is better to stick to domestic markets whereas at other times it is a smart move to go global. In class we looked at how Indian IT industry is an exception in that it is completely dependent on global markets. Most of what it is
today is because of its international operations, wheras some of the companies like Titan are best at caering to domestic markets. Numerous examples we discussed in class really brought to the fore that Global Business strategy cannot be actually looked at in terms of framework and theories instead it is something which can be learnt by practicing through inductive logic!  Thank you so much Lilach Mam.

Garima Singh_HRLP031_The Serial Questionnaire

Before writing this one there wasn’t any set agenda in my mind but I wanted to write to access the hidden or unclear thoughts.

Day 1: 15^th August 2011, a very well organised event by the student council. There were moments when the tears rolled out, when the emotions were buoyant and when I could watch everyone in the same mirror.

Day   2: The very next day, Anil Sir’s consulting classes and also the quick reminders in my mind regarding Anna’s movement. How could we be so insolent in making decisions about our future? Is only one person going to benefit out of this movement? Are we realistic in the analysis of its penultimate causes? I have no generalist opinion about it and rather not in a position to influence all.

We all are being taught being ethical and compassionate and adding to that given the opportunities to display our learning’s. The idea of execution sounds interesting and fascinating but the real gist lies when you live that moment.

Now after writing too much unexpected, I have still many more hazy pictures to be cleaned.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_SIPvisit_mobilizing

Sorry my dear friends, for I haven't been regularly blogging of late. I was caught up with repeated viral and since then I wasn't blogging. Before that I was quite regular. Nevertheless, now I am back and shall be blogging regularly.

Today was my third SIP visit and boy, it was a phenomenal one. I along with my team mates in Raman, Prasoon and Sahiba did mobilizing and awareness for out NGO Partner Adharshila in areas nearby Kalkaji and Govindpuri. We interacted with people and students from not so privileged section of society and it was a great learning experience. We were literally playing role of sales guy. We interacted with them effectively and intellectually. Some of them were of around 25 years of age, some above 30 years of age and some even around 15 years of age. We learnt the art of convincing them by selling our ideas. We actually were engaging them in what we wanted to tell them and it was tiring but amazing learning experience. It has been second consecutive mobilizing day for our team and we are now planning and hoping to make a shift next time around by implementing some strategies that we have thought of, to come out with some solutions to the problems our NGO partner is facing. I am hoping that in coming visits, more than mobilizing I along with my team would be working on innovative implementation of our strategies. Stay tuned....I have my Global Business Strategy Presentation lined up! Its going to be interesting!

Nidhi Jain HRLP007_Friendship

Ek pyaara rishta hai dosti

na kaho to ek ehsaas hai dosti
na poocho to ek jawaab hai dosti

na batao to ek raaz hai dosti

na dekho to ek khwaab hai dosti

na maano to karaar hai dosti

na chaaho to ikraar hai dosti
na socho to ek khayal hai dosti

na paao to ek sawaal hai dosti

kar lo ek bayaar hai dosti
ho jaaye to ibaadat hai dosti
nibha lo to ek misaal hai dosti

jee lo to bemisaal hai dosti

dosti hai ek pyara nagma
ye na dekhe hindu ya muslma

ye na dekhe jaat ya paat

ye to hai ek saccha saath

Souravi Paul_HRLP016_What life means to me?

What Life means to me?

Life is worth everything. For me, it's not just about having a relationship, companionship, good friends, lucrative job, few farmhouse & penthouses, few Audi A7s & Lamborghini’s, if you are lucky. Some people will settle for things like this because for them, it's by far the best it can get. For me, that's not all you get from this world.

I believe in harps and violin and thunders and lightning. I love watching the stars every night, feeling the breeze touching my face, seeing the meadows both side the street, standing bare foot on the sand and seeing the waves following its own direction. I believe in being in love and not just a mere accord of comfort for two people.

Life is worth so much. Life is more than spending endless hours in the gym and eating gourd juices just to seek approval from others. It is not about basing my everyday existence an eternal word of wisdom of long-dead self proclaimed philosophers and saints. My life is not about living somebody else's dreams and meeting others expectations and beliefs but my own.

Life is so much more than merely pursuing the norms of the society but trying to be a good person in my own accord. It is not about wildly chasing dreams to be superior over others. It's more about long walks down serene green meadows drowned in my own thoughts. It’s more about enjoying every bit moments of the journey called life

Souravi Paul_HRLP016_Second Sip Day

It was again a Wednesday, the second SIP day, 10^TH August. The day started with getting up late  and then rushing to get things in place. Luckily reached my NGO-ICONGO on time (Ahhh!! Get up late, cajole time a little, be smart with it and you are always on time-   my secret principle).  The city was drenched with rain. My stomach urged for a pakora with coffee. Unfortunately I, a Change Leader  on a Sip day working for a cause to make my world a better place could just dream of it.

Initiation of the projects were done on the orientation day, now the tedious part of the work- ‘’PLANNING”. My small piece of brain took some couple of hours to understand the process of the work. Followed by documenting the whole input –output process of the project. I realized how much efficient planning I do, the importance lie in the execution. The projects are big, inputs required are in immense quantity but I doubt my quantity of input for it.  Autonomous work pattern always gives me some extra ounces of determination. For the projects we were given complete freedom to do as we feel convenient. Now Deadlines were set!!

Late afternoon, energy level diminishes, a perfect Punjabi platter rejuvenated and the mishthi dahi was the icing on the cake. Worked till 6.30 in the evening. The energy level was below 0 joules (energy is calculated in joules). A travel of 2hours in hushy bushy metro ended the second Sip day.

Souravi Paul_HRLP016_My First SIP Day

The day was 3^rd August, the orientation day of Social Innovation Program which was also the Mahasamadhi day of Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananada The gang of 4 bonanzas Chetan, Yash, Swetanshu and I have joined ICONGO.

The he day started with a radiance of positivity when I endeavoured to cook uttapam for the first time, on time ready, reached metro station right before time (which rarely happens as I born to procrastinate). Travelled far off to miles to reach our destination with jitters in our stomach as the clock ticked 11o clock and our brain has been accustomed to the 11o’clock break. We met the Executive Founding Director Ms Meenu Chopra and Honorary Director Mr Hunardeep Singh where they both briefed us about the organisation wherein they said-

“I CONGO is the acronym for the "Indian Confederation of NGOs". However they are not just a NGO, charity or just a coalition of NGOs, over the years they have been into PEOPLE SECTOR & CITIZEN ACTION movement. Thus we cited as a CITIZEN UNION to bring people together to address the wrongs that plague our society, nation and world, to sensitize & create awareness amongst people at  large about socio-political issues, to build Individual Social Responsibility and encourage Citizen Action for Social Justice thru the People Sector (i.e. the NGOs).

The belief that every CITIZEN is a “CHANGE LEADER” and has the right and responsibility to "be the change" in a democracy, we pledged to be the one among them and would sensitize as many people possible around us.”

Four hours of long briefing and debriefing on projects. Karmayuga, Icodevgurukul, Idishum … ahhhh!!!! Three projects have been assigned.  And the to-do list went on to enlarging amount.

The day ended with a perfect lunch at Kake da Dhaba (famous for non-veg) at cp. And the dedication to work got increased with the yummy coating of delicious food!!

Shailesh Jain_BLP007_Making life easier

If one can do housekeeping, babysitting, cooking food etc, the work of every house, how much one think that people can earn. Approx 3,000 Rs. In country like India, it will be difficult to sustain for any one. It’s the place where DomesteQ comes into picture. It’s an organization, Social Entrepreneur, who creates maid jobs where one earns min of 5,500 Rs and max goes till 10,000 Rs or more.  It’s an organization which creates jobs and makes the life of people better. It operates in Delhi as well as Gurgaon.

Shawn, the MD of Domesteq, has given us very warm welcome. She described what Domesteq does, how it came into existence and what are their future plans. It was recently opened in Gurgaon and she told how they get people and what difficulties they faced. As they were new they approached different villages to get workforce, and the all maids have to undergo police verification.  They also provide work experience certificates as we people like to get. So all and all, it’s the professional maid job, where they were treat as human being rather than someone who cleans one house, as they are also provided with their rooms and all other basic amenities.

Our team have gone thru different operations which they do and how they manage the client data as well as employee data, what are the contract agreement for both the client as well as the employee. What are the questions/doubts their employees ask? All and all, we have gone thru the various operations of Domesteq.

It was nice experience with some glitches like we are still not aware on what project we will work; staffs were not as good as expected. My experience was 40 to 60, with 40 on positive side and 60 on negative. Hope it will change in coming days.

Ankur Kansal_BLP008_DomesteQ

Domesteq is a social enterprise that was established in 2007 to provide employment, training to domestic workers who will serve the expatriates, NRI to establish them in Delhi and Gurgaon.

We, team of four people went to the Domesteq office in Gurgaon in the morning where we were introduced to Shawn, MD of Domesteq and she asked about us and explained about Domesteq. After 2 hours of briefing, 2 of us asked to visit the Delhi office. It was a big office where whole of the action takes place.

There we had a talk with the staff people of Domesteq about their process in terms of how they work, how many client they have, how many people they have placed so far and other information about Domesteq.

After taking all that information, we came to know that they are involved in interviewing, training, curriculum designing, etc for the domestic workers and all the information are maintained both in hard copy as well as soft copy. So, we asked them why they are maintaining their data in 2 places because as the organisation grows, their size of records becomes large and it becomes very difficult to maintain. So we asked them if they are facing any problem in their process or they want to improve something, they simply said no and refused to talk on that and that was something we were not expecting.

Overall, the experience was good and looking forward for a more exciting journey.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_FirstSIPday

SIP day is Social Innovation Program day. The day lived upto its expectations. 3rd of August is Mahasamadhi day of Poojya Gurudev Swami Chinmayananada. Today was the day of prayer & service and we began our Social innovation program with Adharshila Trust. We named our team as SAMARPAN. The name says it all. Thanks to our sweet team member and a dear friend, Prasoon Malviya. Hurray! We reached in time and met Neena and Geeta mam. On the way we had fun, however, we missed our Morning Circle badly. So we thought let’s do it along with Neena and Geeta mam at HO of Adharshila Trust in Greater Kailash. We did our morning circle there. We shared our feelings and each one of us also shared why we chose to join hands with Adharshila Trust and what is it that  we bring to the table.  

One thing that we realized quickly was, Neena and Geeta mam are beautiful human beings. Post the initial discussions, Neena and Geeta mam briefed us more about why how and when did they came up with an idea of having a full fledged NGO. They also shared how they formed a directory of NGO's back in 2004 and faced a lot of challenges. At present, Adharshila is running two centres, one at Kalkaji and other at Hauz Rani. By the lunch time we had gathered a lot of basic information about Adharshila. We struggled to find out a good place to have lunch and finally we had lunch at a place which was quite extraordinary. Post lunch we visited the centre at Kalkaji. What an experience! I was running through viral fever, but hardly could I think of it. As soon as we reached there, we were in a different world. We had a elongated discussion with Sunil ji who is an extra ordinary person. He coordinates and takes care of operations at Kalkaji centre. We met with children in computer centre and in classes. Some of the kids recited poems, sang songs and played carrom with us. The larger objective behind this visit to Kalkaji centre of Adharshila was to understand Adharshila better. We discussed a lot of challenges and areas that need attention. We have made a note of things that we can contribute on.  Hopefully by this week we will prepare our first Plan of Action and will submit it to Adharshila. 

Thank you Kanu and thank you SOIL for giving us this wonderful opportunity.

Jassu_2012HRLP015_My Day1 Experience @ CANSUPPORT

What a day to begin with, I was full of energy, excited and inquisitive. As two days before, I was not sure whether I will be able to work with the NGO of my choice, but stars turned in our favor.

On 3^rd August 2011 also a very special day for us - it is commemorated as Sadhana day in reverence for our founder Swami Chinmayananda who attained Maha Samadhi this very day. My SOIL dedicated this day for community service, a unique way paying tribute to the Guru.

Our team started a bit late from Gurgaon, but managed to reach CanSupport, R. K. Puram before time. We were warmly received by Ms. Krishna Vatsa, Head -Supportive Care Services at CanSupport and were taken to the training room for initial orientation and some paper formalities. We were briefed about the Mission and Vision of CanSupport and it didn’t take much of a time for us to align ourselves with CanSupport’s Mission and Vision. In Chorus all of said “We will give our best, kindly make the maximum out us”.  Later during the day, Ms. Ranjeeta Ghosh Manager – Events took us through the upcoming events scheduled during the month. They immediately asked us for our support for their approaching event, which was to celebrate Friendship Day at Select City Walk Mall, New Delhi from Aug 5 to 7^th . The aim of this event was to associate people with the cause. We without any hesitation volunteered ourselves to be present on 7^th August.

Post lunch, we were fortunate enough to have introduced to Ms. Harmala Gupta, Cancer Survior and a founder of CanSupport. At a glance and the great positive body language witnesses her sincerity and genuineness to the cause. Finally the day came to an end and we departed to meet again …………..What wonderful day of life this has been……

Aparna Chowdhry_BLP040_The Mentoring Program

"Mentoring is a brain to pick, an ear to listen, and a push in the right direction."

I’ll be honest; I was quite apprehensive about the entire process when I started with the mentoring session. The thoughts that kept creeping in my head were – What questions will I ask a person with more than 4 times my work experience? What are intelligent questions and what constitute dumb questions? Would the outcome be something implementable or be some more “general gyan”?

2 sessions past, I now believe that THIS is one of the best features about the entire 1 year Leadership program at SOIL.

I have learned some of the fundamental and essential traits of management (personal and professional) during my mentoring meet – and from a person who epitomizes simplicity & humility, is down to earth, considerate and clearheaded.

It is said that, “An Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.” I have realized the truth of this statement in the last one month. Some of the takeaways from my last mentoring session were –


* A manager can either assume that a person in the team will not do work because he is just not interested and hence not give that person anything to do or the manager could ask himself “what can I do to help this person be a better contributor."  It is important that we create an environment that helps people do their job, that makes people see value in what they are doing and feel motivated 

* While managing people a leader needs to realize that each person is different and unique, so the factors that motivate him/her would be different as well. Each person needs to be treated differently


*  How we react to situations, what we are today can all be linked back to our past. We need to figure what those experiences/incidents were (root cause analysis), get the ghost out of the closet and bid it goodbye


* We can change the way we are, just need to understand why we are that way and make a genuine effort to change


* Any good Action plan starts with identifying the areas of improvement, root cause analysis of the developmental areas and then coming up with the steps to bridge the gap between the desired and the present state


* Communication is the most important asset and a key to successful negotiations, building strong relationships, motivating teams and a lot more. And this is my focus area for the next one month. I have started with reading the book, “I wish I’d said that!” and trying to identify if I have a Noble, Socratic or a Reflective communication style.


While coming back from the meeting I remembered something my boss had told me once --  A few things in the world are much more powerful than a positive push - A smile, a word of optimism and hope and a "you can do it". I think this is what good mentors do! 

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_CapstoneDay

Capstone Simulation! Boy I had a tough day. No, not because of capstone simulation session today, but because of the fever and Viral effects. I thank SOIL from the bottom of my heart for providing this wonderful opportunity to have hands on practice on Capstone. The speaker/trainer was just awesome. He not only had command over the concepts, he had excellent communication skills. Though I had fever, I pushed myself throughout the day to make most of the opportunity. Working on Capstone simulation in the second half of the day along with my team mates: Souvik, Deepmala, Bala, Chinmay and Ashutosh was a fantastic experience. We created our vision, finalized the products we are going to focus in our very first year, formulated the R&D strategy, discussed the marketing strategy and carved out the production plan. In the end we did wonderfully well, stood second in the race. Great Day! Thank you so much SOIL.

MANU MALHOTRA_BLP036_OPMGMNT

A wonderful session by CEO of SCI, Mr. S. Hajara and a very exciting operation Management class by Mr. Ashutosh Mishra. I learnt what Operations is and what Operations is not. It was interesting to see how good operations can give a firm competitive advantage and can help the company in ruling the market pie. Mr. Ashutosh Mishra brought with him huge amount of experience and was very lively in the class. He also highlighted the key decision areas in Operations viz Process, Quality, Capacities & Inventory. All in all a good day though I had fever.

Jassu_2012HRLP015_Session on courage by Anil Sir

It was a powerful session on “COURAGE” by Sir Anil Sachdeva on 26th July'2011, provided lots of insights. That session really helped me know the hand-brakes of my life which are preventing me to achieve objectives of my life. I would like to share the responses, which I scribbled that day. 

Question 1: What is courage for me? 

Ans. Intense love, standalone for justice and absence of all fears.

Question 2: What are my fears? 

Ans. Security of my family and pain of my friends. 

Question 3: What is my world (dream)? 

Ans. I want to see India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as one country INDIA before I die. 

Question 4: What is my Vision? 

Ans. Peaceful and Boundryless world.

Question 5: Incase of a disaster, what will happen to your vision? 

Ans. If at all nuclear war takes place, the universe will experience "NOTHINGNESS, NIL", as there is no life other than earth.

Question 6: What are your values? 

Ans. I can not see myself falling in my own eyes. Cannot compromise on my family's respect and my self- respect.

Question 7: What is the gift you have been given by God? 

Ans. If I am clear about my goal and vision, I execute it extremely fast ( High Achievement drive) and with sincerity.