The Optionals Puzzle!

The fourth term has started and we can see the pressure building up. Already, there are number of case studies that need to worked upon and submitted before the start of classes for Corporate Finance -2. It seems the Prof wants us to read the whole course and solve all case studies even before we enter the class! I am left wondering, what I will be doing inside the class. But I guess, I know the answer to this. After having spent more than 6 months here, I know how it is going to be. There are couple of assignments in other subjects as well, but I think they are all doable. Term 4, after I have gone through with all the books and reading material provided, seems to be tougher then term 3. There are 5 subjects in all and all of them are new to us! Term 4 will be the last term as far as compulsory subjects are concerned. Term 5 and term 6 have optionals. Students are free to choose optionals of their choice, but it is easier said then done! Though there are many electives available belonging to different areas of management like Finance, Marketing, Operations, HR, Strategy and Analytics, there is some minimum criteria which needs to be fulfilled before one can really study the chosen subject. The criteria has to do with a minimum number of students opting, the grouping that needs to be formed, as for many subjects there will be simultaneously classes etc etc. It’s a really complicated task and I believe Anupam; our class CR has an extremely tough task in finalising the optional groups and the final plan. I saw the final choices made by the students and the class slots available. The number of permutations and combinations that can come out is un countable. So, I really do not know how he will solve this puzzle without making few unhappy with regards to choice of optionals! My all the best to him!

End of Term Three! Ah!

The third term ended on 20th May 2008! What a relief! I managed to submit all projects and submissions on time. Our OM project went off very well, much better then we expected. Anupam could gather relevant data at the last moment and when we analysed that using quantitative techniques, we found some amazing results. The entire APDRP program where in crores have been pumped in last 5 years in the name of increasing efficiency and productivity at the distribution level in our chosen circle i.e Nagpur Urban circle was sham! There was no correlation between money pumped in and the numbers of efficiency that were provided to those that matter. APDRP is said to be last resort adopted by the Govt Of India in helping state electricity boards improve efficiency and drastically down on power loss. But what we saw as the result of our study, even the last resort is going to nuts! I cannot generalise this for all circles across India but the trends here will be visible elsewhere as well, after all Maharashtra Electricity Board is said to be one of the better managed and one of the most progressive boards in the country.

Our other project was on marketing. We tried to study the competitive landscape of hatch back cars in India, with special reference to Hyundai's "i 10". As part of the project we also did a customer survey , trying to understand the customer's perception when it comes to buying a car for himself in India.This project was not upto our expectations because we could not articulate the objective of the project with clarity at the inception level. Anyways, we did it well so that we may land up a good grade in this project. Some of the highlights of the survey we did was, in India people tend to give more importance to the cost of maintenance, after sales service and surprisingly parking space ! The first two were obvious but parking space has become one of the important criteria was a little bit suprising, not because it was unexpected but because it came very high when it came to customer's priorities.
The next issue of i CANvas is also out. This time around the magazine has come out exceedingly well! Thanks to all the hardwork done by our editor Chandan. The highlights of this issue is the number of industry leaders who have chosen i CANvas as medium to express their thoughts. The distribution has already started and I am pretty sure, we will get rave reviews as before for this issue as well! Three cheers for all those who made this possible, including the entire class of EPGP 2009!

Third Term Part 2

I have just finished off assimilating data for the HRM project. This project require us to do a survey on people's experience of applying for a job using the online application system available on different company's websites. We had to do get at least 20 responses for this survey.I just managed to get the 20th response today morning. Anupam also used his energy in getting as many responses as he could from different sources. Few of my respondents were very prompt, some others replied after a delay and some others, I had to chase them very hard.Few other's responses are still awaited ! There are two really big projects that are lined up. First one is on Operations Management and the other is on Marketing. Anupam has been able to collate lot of data for the OM project, but I really have to start working on that. We really have to do very well in the project, because we have sort of screwed the exam. Just waiting to finish off the HRM, so that I can concentrate on the OM project. In the OM project we are trying to study the effect of "Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme (APDRP)” . This scheme was launched by the Govt in March 2003 . The main objectives of the programme were : a. Reduce Aggregate Technical & Commercial (AT&C) losses b. Bring about commercial viability in the power sector c.Reduce outages and last d. interruptions and Increase consumer satisfaction.
We have chosen the Nagpur circle to study the effect of this scheme. Since, Anupam comes from this line , it was easy for him to get the data for this project.
Next project that is lined up is on Marketing. I really do not know what I have to do on that at the moment.Our project mate Riddhi is working on that currently, but I really do not know where and what stage he has reached. Other project mate Chandan is busy with the next issue of i CANvas, expected to come out by Friday. I really hope to finish off both the HRM and OM project by this weekend, so that we all can concentrate on marketing project.The marketing prof is in class of his own, so naturally his expectations would be very high. Need to work on that project very seriously. The last date for all projects is 20 th May 2008 and there is no history of deadline extension in IIM Indore! Hopefully,we will be able to deliver all projects within time and beyond expected quality! Amen!!