Manu Malhotra_BLP036_Consulting_03Jan’12

As always I woke up early in the morning saying to myself – ‘I choose to make this the happiest day of my life’. Thank you Nithya Shanti for this beautiful thought that I chant daily once I get up in the morning.

The day was special and big in many ways. Mercer Interview was lined up, consulting skills class was on the calendar and the big fish – ‘Mckinsey preliminary interview’ was scheduled in the evening. It was all in all, an action packed day.

Morning circle kicked off at 9:00 am sharp. We had two special guests- an international student from MIP Italy named Faustino and the team from Mercer. Consulting skills class began and the very first topic of discussion gave me insight about the - Overriding question! What is it that we first intend to do as we meet the client? We define the context! Simple isn’t it. But handful of us actually figured it out. But at least all of us now know! I learnt that we define the context. We define the state of departure, the state of arrival and how we assess the movement from the point of departure to point of arrival. How would we measure that we have achieved what we were set out to achieve.

I moved out of the class in some time to appear for the Mercer interview with Mr. Muninder Anand. It was a five minute interview. The three questions that I was supposed to answer, I had them very well prepared. It is hard to actually figure out the learning from that interaction as it was more of one way communication. One definite take-away that I can draw is, it is extremely important to be good at 1 minute/2 minute interesting small talks. They help in engaging the client and in that process the more effective you are, the better impression you leave. Interview was followed up by a Group activity. The basic learning form it was, we should be quick to think on our feet and generate out of box ideas. Moreover, building a rapport within the team within no time is also of utmost importance.

The second half of the day was pretty interesting. Financial plan of Soil for new campus was given to us and we had to analyse the case. One key learning from it was, it is equally important to understand the practical applications & implications of the concepts of accounts and corporate finance that I have studied. I have already started working on it. I thank Anil sir, my classmates and Gaurav sir for making me realise it. I will leave no stone unturned to become a role model in accounts & corporate finance.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_About_Myself_Oct'11

On a typical day if you were to ask me, who am I? I would simply say I am Manu! ‘Manu’ actually symbolizes initiation of life on earth. And to be honest I love initiating things and with my perseverance I take the initiatives to their course.

I am deeply committed to my values in life because I strongly believe unshakeable self-confidence only comes from unshakeable commitment to values. I love helping and genuinely appreciating others. Bringing back pride to India in my own unique ways is my dream. Some words that define me are passionate, self-motivated, innovative, persevering, courageous & trustworthy. At times I ask myself - Why do I work hard? Why do I always stretch myself? The answer to this question has a lot to do with my grooming and teachings imparted to me by my parents. Well, the answer is simple and complex in many ways.  Simply putting - I work hard to add value to myself. And, in that process I tell myself - be patient, enjoy the journey and be HAPPY! Because that is what actually counts! Being HAPPY is not a choice but an only option which I must take. Learning and exploring new avenues is what Manu in me enjoys day in and day out.

But where will this, take me to? Where am I going? What is it that I am trying to achieve? I have some very simple goals and commitments on four fronts - family, health, career, financial and spiritual, in that order of preference. I keep them close to myself. Unequivocally, I am chasing them big time. And not to forget, I keep telling myself - Manu be happy while you take big leaps, be patient when you have to walk and enjoy this ride of self contentment. “No moment that has just gone by will ever come back again” has been my one key learning in life. Thus, I truly believe in living and cherishing little moments of togetherness.

But, does it really matter? And if it does, why is it so important? Yes, it is extremely important because it gives me and my loved ones immense happiness. The stakes are really high, I have expectations from myself and I am competing with none else but myself. By living this promise I will stand tall in my own eyes.

And then there are social commitments as well that I wish to fulfil.

Now the very last question, how can I leverage who I am to reach where I am going? The answer is uncomplicated - By believing in my abilities, being patient and by acknowledging & appreciating the very fact that I am honestly striving to make it happen. My mom always says – “keep working hard, whatever you are destined to get, no one else can take it away from you. Thou shall get it!” Hence the key is keeping stretching, keep working hard and love yourself.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_Consultingskills_Session3&4

A nice case study simulation in which few of us stepped into the shoes of consultants while other four played clients helped me understand what exactly Contract Meeting is and what should one look up to? I understood that in the contract meeting it is all about understanding the problem thoroughly by

1.        Asking probing questions,

2.       Showing genuine appreciation

3.       Striving for a WIN-WIN

4.       Demonstrating commitments

5.       And Presenting recent credentials

I also learnt how to build rapport when interacting with the client for the first time. One must do a thorough study regarding the professional journey and major achievements of the client you are going to meet. I forgot my MBTI which I should not have so again I learnt what all things should always be with you.  A lot of tables made mistake of providing solutions to the problems right in the contract meeting. The flow diagram explained how one should start from Personal acknowledgement. Commitment and understanding of problem is of utmost importance which takes you to the next step of exploring and bringing clarity about the client wants and offers. Once this is done it might lead you to agreement or else you might be stuck! When stuck think reassess and design new wants and offers. Role reversal comes really handy in situations where you are stuck big time! Hopefully this leads to agreement followed by inquiry regarding concerns about control and commitment.  Probing questions such as - What will make us win your trust? And what has been your best experience with a consultant?, really help a great deal.

Moreover, I also learnt that many a times client himself/herself knows symptoms but does not know the actual problem. In our class we briefly touched upon Kano’s model also. I understood that it is as important to understand the unspoken needs as it is to understand spoken needs. Moving on Anil sir revealed the 5 most important questions for a consultant.

1.       What are we trying to do?

2.       How will we know that we are successful?

3.       What could go wrong?

4.       What counter measures, do we take responsibility for with respect to 3 question?

5.       Who, how often, when and where is the review process?

We delved deeper into the questions which are the actual issues like-Do you really care about your client?, Do you understand the complexity of your client’s situation?, Can you see things through your client’s eyes? What is the problem you are going to work on? Does your client expect magic? How much control does your client want? Do you feel entitled to express your own wants? Are we really in agreement or just acting that way?

Finding answers to these questions by digging out the goal behind them and action to support them gave me a good understanding from ‘personal acknowledgement’, ‘communicating understanding of the problem’, ‘clients wants and offers’, ‘consultant wants and offers’ to’ giving support’.

Also, when a consultant starts praising a client it has to be done carefully so that it does not seem as if you are doing it for the sake of pleasing!

Most important – beware of the magi expectations! Be realistic and practical

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_ConsultingSkills

After the first two sessions on consulting skills with Anil sir, upon reflecting as to what are the things I have learnt, I interestingly thought of questions that I can answer now. So in an unusual blog I would like to confess that I am a proud owner of answers to these following questions!

• How do you influence without authority?
• Is it the consultant who brings in the transformation in an organization?
• Can consultants empower organizations and clients?
• Why do consultants need to develop deep commitment for clients?
• Is consultancy only required and done when an organization is in trouble?
• Is it equally important to understand what is going on right in the company while analyzing what is going on wrong?
• How do you establish rapport with the client?
• What to do when you understand the problem, you know what these people in front of you require but they aren’t just listening to you?
• How important are the technical & functional skills as compared to the communication skills?
• Are communication skills only about how well you speak?
• How to arrive at a good contract?
• How to be an authentic leader?
• What is it that people remember about you, long after you have worked with them?
• How important is passion in the life of a consultant?
• Can we call any person providing support a consultant?
• How do you prepare yourself for the first contract meeting with the clients?
• Who are economic buyer, technical buyer, user buyer and Coach? What is their importance in getting the deal closed?
• What is the importance of hot buttons and how important is it to know the hot buttons of stake holders to the success of getting the deal home?

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_SIP8thVisit

This SIP visit as always gave me ample things to learn. How to be assertive and still influence people without being authoritative? I along with my team members carried forward the work of designing the test papers for students at Kalkaji centre of Adharshila trust. I also took up the task of registering Adharshila to Mahatma Gandhi peace walk in US on 2^nd October 2011. Moreover, I also promoted the cancer awareness program of adharshila trust on social media.

I can’t just imagine the kind of learning this SIP work is providing to me. But, I would also like to mention that it is also challenging at times. In this SIP framework, one can put his Consultancy skills, negotiation skills and communications skills to good use and through practice you can harness them!

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_SelfLeadership_Sep'11

I really find writing this blog difficult because of two reasons. One, it is hard to quantify and put down in words the immense knowledge that Anil sir shares. Second, I happened to miss second Self Leadership class, my bad and my mistake!

But I will definitely make a sincere effort to do justice to the learning I had from the first self leadership class and all that I gathered from my friends who attended second self leadership class. I will also include the key take away from the Immunity e-book shared by Anil sir.

I chose to set myself off to an interesting and promising voyage with SOIL on 23^rd May 2011. A couple of days hence, I happened to attend this workshop class by Anil sir on Self Leadership. I was revealed to hidden treasure - the 6 layers of self.

The simple but highly impactful exercise of offering our guilt and negative energy to fire amongst a group of five friends really changed me as a person. I felt lighter and far more assertive. Appreciative enquiry work out was an enriching experience. I learned to appreciate the goodness which is there in every human being; we just need to have those eyes and attitude to see it. Voila, I spoke of eyes! Yes, leadership of eyes was something that really caught my attention and probably is the first thing that I have tried to implement in my life. This session on ‘leadership of eyes’ was a replica of my childhood halcyon days, when I tried to look into eyes of my parents and loved ones to understand their feelings because I did not know the language. This ability to gauge and understand others by looking into their eyes really makes a big difference. It helps you to understand unsaid feelings which most of the times are of utmost importance. Ignoring these can have devastating consequences for sure. Moving on, Leadership of ears was again phenomenal experience. The sheer genuine enthusiasm and interest that you show when people talk to you, can raise the bar and that is something that I realised from this exercise. Suddenly, people say, hey, this guy is genuinely interested in listening to my concerns and that is how you build relationships. With genuine interest comes genuine trust which goes into making of a great relationship.

The day was short and time was running by, I really wanted clock to tick a bit slower for I was enjoying every moment of this self leadership workshop. Little did I know, that I was about to witness a beautiful role-play. A simple and beautiful role-play that Anil sir made two students do, to make us understand the difference between empathy and sympathy was of high impact. It will be with my life forever. Empathy is a great asset on balance sheet of any Inspired Leader!

Now I move on to more challenging part of writing on something that I picked from my friends which they learned from second self leadership class with Anil sir. The highlight of this session was - why is it so difficult to change? What is it that comes in the way of implementing that change. That change which we believe can make us a better person, a better friend, a better human being or a better manager. This whole process mentioned in the immunity e-book has four stages. First and foremost comes the identification phase where in an individual figures out what he wants to achieve in life keeping the focus on a purpose. In the second stage an individual recognizes the deterrents that are keeping the individual away from achieving his goals. An individual then moves on to a stage where he challenges the status quo and determines reason behind him not being able to change. Finally, the individual realizes that it has been some assumptions that have kept him at a distance from achieving what he actually set out for. Hence the take-away is we need to explore and challenge our strengths to overcome these assumptions.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_6thSIPvisit

It was indeed a good day in terms of learning. Mobilising as always was challenging for Spoken English Test to be held on 8.09.2011 at the Hauz Rani centre of Adharshila. In the first half we travelled to nearby under privileged sections to create awareness about the test and its benefits. I talked to people about how this course can provide you certificate from British Council and which can help them in longer run. I did become circumspect once I got the news of Bomb blast in Delhi outside the high court. However I completed the task of covering one region and created awareness about this test. I along with Prasoon covered the target region in the first half. Then we travelled down to the Kalkaji centre of Adharshila trust in the post lunch session. I sat there and designed English class papers for class five from their text books. It was indeed an enriching experience. I am looking forward to contributing more and more. It really gives great inner peace when you contribute to the society we live in.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_First_meet_with_Mentor

After all the hit and trials, finally today me and my mentor decided to meet at 5:45pm in Cyber City office of Serco. Mr. Arsh Maini is Director of Serco for ASEAA region. I had met him in Mentor-Mentee workshop in SOIL campus. I really liked the way he asked the students to be precise and direct in their approach. The more important underlying fact is, you can be direct in precise in your approach only if you have clarity in mind. So, today post the classes I got ready and hired an auto to Cyber City. With the kind of traffic that prevails in Gurgaon, it took little more time. However, I reached in time, in fact I waited for around 35 minutes by the time Mr. Arsh Maini finished with his meeting. The moment I met him, I felt he was very direct and precise in his approach. We interacted for around 10 minutes and done! Whatever he said in 10 minutes was high impact. He gave me some to-dos that I have to do and let me assure you the to-dos on myself are not easy by any means. I have my task cut out guys...cant write more...take care bye..&..yeah would like to add the learning of the day: be precise and be direct. Less means More! Less means High Impact! Be precise. Be clear

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_SEBIsession

The Team from SEBI visited the campus today. I was not clear as to what all to expect from the team and what would be there in it. However, I was sure of the fact that there would be something for me to learn out of it. Little did I know that I would end up appreciating the fact that SEBI is really taking the ownership of building a community of intelligent investors?

The very fact that SEBI is even targeting school students starting from 9th standard implies that SEBI really cares for the society and community as a whole. SEBI is reaching out to young minds so that by the time they start earning, they have wise heads over the shoulders to invest and grow their money rather than just saving money. I truly appreciate the effort for the awareness carried out by SEBI. And yes, the power of compounding is huge!

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_ExcelinExcel

I will now excel in excel. That’s how I would like to put it. All thanks to Aakash for the wonderful learning and knowledge transfer sessions. Over last two days, I have practiced and learnt some very basic short cuts & better way of doing things efficiently and quickly in excel. HRM class with Snehal Mam was as interactive and full of energy as ever. The Role play to understand the importance of the very first step in System Approach to Training was really exceptionally good. I also realized that this very first step of Need assessment is of utmost importance and at times is not given due importance which results in problems. I also picked up how and when Training and Development actually converges to Learning. The day followed up with a GD. It was really nice to see all of us getting together for something that helps all of us improve our speaking skills and helps us to accommodate each other views. Good day!

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_JaiHind

Workshop on Courage! Wow, was the word I said to myself! 

 

The beautiful workshop which I witnessed today was all about introspecting. I asked myself what does Courage means to me? What do I understand by the term 'fear'? What is my ultimate Dream? What would the world look like, if my Dream comes true? And, on the contrary what would the world look like, if what I fear the most actually happens? What are my strengths? And how can I use the power of my gifts to make my vision come true? I delved into the deep waters of my inner self and found a lot of peace and Joy there. I could sense the basic urge in me to realize and see my planet greener, I could visualize what would the world look like, if the word 'under-privileged' gets demolished from world me and my friends live in. Post sincere introspection, when I discussed it with my colleagues, Prasoon, Sahiba, Anand and Anurag I felt that somewhere deep down in our hearts, we all share a dream, where whole eco system is balanced. A world in which we take ownership of our responsibilities & can spread happiness all around. A world known for compassionate people and a world where people get equal opportunities to dream and work on those dreams to make them a reality. On this auspicious day I salute each and every Jawan on Sarhad and in us who is fighting for his dream. Jai Hind!

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_CFday

The day unfolded beautifully! CF day as expected was a much awaited day. We all were looking forward to information as well as guidance to do well in the forthcoming placement season 5 months down the line. We were very curious and thanks to Rohit Gandhi, he catered to each and every question very patiently and openly. Post lunch session was amazing. I picked up finer points regarding what should a smart interviewee prepare on, before entering the interview room. Things such as proper company research, role research, product and services research beforehand instils confidence and helps a great deal. Mr. Prabhakar Tiwari shared with us that no matter how qualified one is, but still one has to prove his ability in the interview. He shared his own life experiences. The most beautiful part was that he emphasised on defining the basic things in life that matter for us, like Career. He made us think what is the definition of career, what career we should pursue and how each one of us is unique and thus needs to find out his own career path. He made me realize that at times in life, we get opportunities and our priorities change. He cited examples like Harsha Bhogle, Imran Khan and Steve Jobs. He shared a lot of insights into how one should prepare well beforehand on the typical interview questions. He also emphasised that interpersonal skills is one area one should really work on because it really matters at the work place. Last but not the least he made us think on the feet about some brands that we believe are under marketed and asked us to quickly frame up the Marketing plan for it. All in all a superb learning day. Thank you SOIL for providing me yet another day of immense learning and thank you Mr. Prabhakar Tiwari for coming to SOIL and sharing such interesting insights to build a successful career.

Manu Malhotra_BLP036_ZNMDa

Hey! I am no movie buff! But I completely agree with Garima and I really liked the movie. The concept was touching. It’s about friends, who after many hiccups finally put together a trip to Spain. Hritik, Abhay and Farhan have played roles of three friends who were very close friends once but because of some issues, were not seeing each other of late. Farhan Akhtar has done an awesome job. And so have Hritik and Abhay. The friendship has been portrayed beautifully and the way it comes through in the end brings emotional quotient into play.
Farhan has done great justice to the character he has played. He was too good with subtle comedy at some times while connecting to emotional quotient at other times. Overall the movie was engaging except at a few places I felt Zoya Akhtar could have done better!
The collections have been really good despite the bomb blasts. Katrina too has acted decently. The film can be said as a family entertainer. And yes, many youngsters are excited as Hritik & Karina have teamed up for the first time. The movie is definitely a once watch-kind. Hritik as usual has looked good. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is definitely a gentle kind of film with a fresh touch to it.
For those of my friends who haven't watched it yet,go and do watch! Who knows you might want to watch it Dobara!