dekaf iimk newsletter#1

8/6/2019 DeKaf IIMK Newsletter#1

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2/24

IIMK Newsletter 2

Inside this issueArticlesArticles

3| Equity Risk Premium in India

5| Managing and Fostering Corporate Innovation

7| Winning Streek

10| Social Networks and the New Media Paradigm

12| Distributive Manufacturing

14| The New Age Business Focus - The B2E concept

16| Private Equity - Is the picture really as rosy?

18| Strategy Paradox - Commitment vs. Flexibility

Interest GroupsInterest Groups4| Financially Yours (FY)

7| Konsult

9| mPower

9| AbaKus

13| Omega

19| HRiday

Buzz@KBuzz@K20| Upcoming programs

21| Committee news

22| Events

From the Eds DeskFor over 11 years

now, the Indian Institute of

Management Kozhikode has

been shaping the best minds

in the country to become

some of the finest managers

in the world. The transforma-

tion is in the experience and

while we wouldn't even dream

of attempting to fit that into 24

pages of a newsletter, a small

whiff of that experience is

what we have attempted to

capture in DeKaf , published

for the very first time.

DeKaf features arti-

cles from the think tanks of

each of the interest groups, a

brief on the various activities

of committees during the term,

campus buzz at IIM-K and

much more.

We would like to ac-

knowledge the contributions of

all the interest groups and

committees of IIM-K. We

would also like to thank Prof.

Sanjay Jharkaria and the De-

sign Committee for their valu-

able inputs.

Please send in any

feedback or suggestions that

you think may help us improve

DeKaf to [email protected]

Happy Reading!!

IIM-K Editorial Board Team

Front Row (L-R): Angad Keith, Kumar Vivek, Shilpa Lanka

Back Row (L-R): Soheib Ali, Burhan Hussain, Hrishikesh Kelkar


3/24

risk premium for India.

There are several

other serious problems whileusing the historical approach

to risk premium estimation in

the Indian context. Though

the BSE Sensex does go

back till 1979, the index did

not undergo significant revi-

sion till 1996, implying that

by the mid nineties the index

was not representative of the

Indian stock market. Also,

Interest rates in India were

administered till the early

nineties. Varma (2002) esti-

mates the repression of in-

terest rates in India at 3%

pre-deregulation. This distor-

tion has to be taken into ac-

count while choosing the risk

-free rate with respect to

which the risk premium will

be calculated.

Varma and Barua

(2006) overcome these prob-

lems by constructing an al-

ternative index comprising of

the most liquid stocks for the

period 1981-96 and estimat-

ing risk free rates separately

for the pre-reform and post-

reform periods. They con-

clude that the equity risk pre-

mium in India, based on geo-metric mean of annual re-

turns is about 8.75% with no

3 IIMK Newsletter

The equity risk premium is

the aggregate return earned

in the stock market in excessof that earned by default-free

securities. It is a vital compo-

nent in the Capital asset pric-

ing model which states that

the excess return earned by

a stock over the risk free rate

is equal to the equity risk pre-

mium times the riskiness of

the stock as estimated by its

beta. Accurate estimation of

equity risk premium is impor-

tant as it has implications on

asset allocation decisions in

portfolio management and

capital budgeting decisions in

corporate finance.

Estimating the premium

using historical data

The most prevalent method

used to estimate equity riskpremium is by observing the

historical risk premium

earned by the stock market

over long periods of time.

This approach has its limita-

tions especially in emerging

markets where the historical

data is often limited and too

noisy to yield a reliable esti-

mate. Though capital markets

in India have a history of 130

years, the economy has un-

dergone many structural

changes over the period. In-

dia has moved onto a higher

growth path since 1980 ow-

ing to key structural changes

in the economy around that

time (Rodrick and Subrama-

niam, 2004). Hence, we have

to confine ourselves to about25 years of stock market data

while estimating the equity

significant difference be-

tween the pre-reform and

post-reform period.

A Modified Historical Risk

Premium

Because of the problems

associated with the use of

historical data in emerging

economies, Damodaran pre-

fers an alternative mode of

estimation which employs a

base equity premium and

country risk premium.Equity Risk Premium = Base

Premium for a mature Equity

market + Country Premium

Generally the US

risk premium is used as the

base premium for a mature

equity market. The country

risk measure is a function of

the sovereign rating and

volatility of the countrys eq-uity market relative to the

bond market. This approach

estimates Indias equity risk

premium at 9.23%

A Premium for bearing

Risk?

It is evident that the rates of

return on stocks in India

have been significantly

higher than the rates ofreturn on risk free assets.

Equity Risk Premium in India Shrikanth K

Time Pe-

riod

Geometric Mean

Risk free rate Market return Risk Premium

Pre mid 91 12.02% 20.98% 8.96%

Post mid 91 9.47% 18.05% 8.58%

Entire Pe-

riod

10.53% 19.27% 8.74%


4/24

IIMK Newsletter 4

interest income inter-alia.

Views on the ex-ante eq-

uity premium

Can the ex-post historical

estimates of equity risk pre-

mium be considered as fair

estimates of ex-ante equity

premium for the future, say

the next 25 years? There are

good reasons to believe that

expectations of a risk pre-

mium in excess of 8% in fu-

ture are well-founded. As

equity ownership which has

percolated to about 1% of

households, goes up mani-

fold in the coming decades,

we can expect returns on

equity to go up considerably.

Also, as the quantum of for-

eign institutional investment

in Indian markets goes up,

we can expect the Beta of

Indian markets vis--vis

global market indices to in-

crease, resulting in higher

expected equity returns.

Therefore, notwithstanding

the fact that market indices

are currently at all time

highs, expectations of a an

8% risk premium are veryrealistic.

But are stocks so much risk-

ier than bills to merit a pre-

mium as high as 8%?

The charts clearly

indicate that the difference in

risk between risk free instru-

ments and stocks is not as

high as suggested by the ob-

served equity risk premium.

Mehra (2006), estimates that

the excess risk of stocks with

respect to bills does not merit

a risk premium higher than

0.16%, even at very high lev-

els of risk aversion. This

value is an order of magni-

tude lower than the actual

risk premium in the markets.

To account for the observed

discrepancy, we must reex-

amine the assumptions used

in estimating risk-adjusted

returns. While calculating the

theoretical risk premium, we

assumed that the marginal

investor holds the market

portfolio and ignored taxes

and other regulatory con-

straints. By relaxing these

assumptions the excess pre-

mium over the theoretical

premium can be attributed to

diversification costs, different

tax rates on dividend and

Source: The equity risk premium in India, Rajnish Mehra (2006)

Financially Yours (FY),

The finance interest group

of IIMK is one of the most

popular and active interest

groups on campus. Thegroup meets every week to

discuss the recent happen-

ings in the world of business

and finance.

IBOK

Incepted last year, FY runs

the Investment Bank of Koz-

hikode (IBOK). It has 102

students in analyst roles and

45 students in associateroles working in teams

tracking 22 different sectors.

Research teams churn out

reports analyzing the growth

prospects of different indus-

try sectors and the factors

that influence the perform-

ance of various companies.

The sectors tracked include

Pharma, Telecom, Media,Oil and Gas, Banking, Fi-

nancial Services and Insur-

ance, Retail, Transportation,

Power, Metals, Forex and

commodity markets and a

few major sectors in the for-

eign markets as well.

FY Weekly Sessions:

Panel discussion on the

budget 2007-08Introduction to financialmarkets

Financial Derivatives,Time Value of Moneyand its implications

Sessions on importanttopics such as securiti-zation, credit defaultswaps, intangible valua-tion

Preparatory session forthe summer placements


5/24


6/24

IIMK Newsletter 6

ners that bring resources

may share costs of develop-

ment but can create depend-

encies.

Defining the Scope ofInnovation

Defining the scope of its in-

novation activities (known as

the strategic envelope),

ensures that a firms innova-

tion efforts are not wasted on

projects that are highly un-

certain or outside the firms

domain of interest. Strategic

enveloping defines the rangeof acceptable products and

creates firm specific view of

innovation that defines how a

firm can learn from innova-

tion experience even if the

project fails. It also gives a

direction to firms innovation

efforts which helps to sepa-

rate seeds from weeds and

build internal capabilities.

Managing the pace of

Innovation

The project time-line of an

incremental innovation is

short term (six months to two

years) whereas a more radi-

cal innovation is typically

long term (10 years or more).

Radical innovations often

begin with a long period ofexploration , whereas, an

incremental innovation, for

the purpose of exploiting a

window of opportunity, may

use a milestone approach

that is more stringently

driven by goals and dead-

lines. Not all innovation lendsitself to speedy development.

Collaboration with Innova-

tion Partners

Partners can be from:

Other personnel within

the department

Personnel from other

department within the firm

Personnel outside the

firm.

Non-business sources like

research universities and the

government can also contrib-

ute to being innovation part-

ners. Strategic partnering

requires firms to identify their

strengths and weaknesses

and make choices about

which capabilities to leverage

and which capabilities need

further development. In order

to choose the right innova-

tion partner, firms need to

ask a basic question: what

competencies they are look-

ing for and what the partner

will contribute.

Conclusion

Innovation requires a com-

pany-wide commitment be-

cause the results of innova-

tion affect every part of the

organization. To effectively

implement innovation, an

entrepreneurial spirit and skill

set are essential. However,

in order to be successful,

innovation process has to

stay focused on its ultimate

purpose i.e. to introduce new

products and/or deploy new

innovation difficult include

uncertainty about outcomes

and numerous choices in-

volved in innovation proc-

esses. These choices can

present companies with fol-lowing dilemmas while pursu-

ing innovation:

Seeds versus Weeds: Out

of abundant innovative ideas

that a company has, which

ones are likely to be success-

ful i.e. to separate seeds from

weeds.

Experience versus Initia-

tive: Who would lead an in-novation project A senior

manager with experience

who is risk averse or a middle

-level manager who has more

enthusiasm but lacks experi-

ence

Internal versus External

Staffing: People within the

organization may have

greater social capital but itmight inhibit them from think-

ing outside the box whereas

external staffing requires time

& resources for recruiting and

training.

Building capabilities ver-

sus Collaborating: Building

capabilities on your own

would require time and

money but would guaranteeyour independence. How-

ever, collaborating with part-


7/24

7 IIMK Newsletter

Introduction

Tum apni lambi umar ke

liye sign kar doJeete

raho. This is a dialogue from

the recent ICICI Prudential

ad which showcases a

housewife asking her hus-

band to sign on the insur-

ance papers.

In a recent HSBC adver-

tisement a housewife is

shown managing her own

book shop successfully.

A female in a Deutsche

Bank advertisement, says

Someday, I would like to

start a new venture.

In a recent Knorrs soup

advertisement, the house-

wife is successfully able to

cook delicious food, using

Knorrs soups.

Since when have Indianhousewives started taking

financial matters in their own

hands? Wasnt this the so

called mens domain? All

these advertisements show

the increased stature of the

Indian housewife. What has

changed?

Indian housewives: Past

These are some of the

images that come to mind

when one thinks of an Indianhousewife.

This is the stereotypical

image of a housewife.

There has always been a

strong demarcation be-

tween the responsibilities of

the husband and the wife.

There were various reasons

for this:

Joint family structure:

When a girl is married in a

joint family, being the bahu

of the house leaves no time

for her to think beyond. The

Indian culture, which still

doesnt allow a woman to

speak in front of the elder

males of the family, disal-

lowed the females of the

house to voice their opinion

in front of the whole family.

Education: The lack of

education was a reason for

the skewed decision power,

as uneducated women did

not know the ropes well

enough to talk confidently to

their husbands about their

ideas and were left to

household chores. This lack

of confidence went a long

way in deciding the

womans domain. She was

not involved in any big pur-

chase decision, neither in

any of the major decisions

like childrens careers, fi-

nancial matters etc.

Winning Streek Deepika Chhajed

Konsult

The consulting IG of IIMK has

always spearheaded the

cause of consulting activities

on campus. The various ac-

tivities this term include:

Knowledge Bank: A search-

able database of consulting

focused interview preparation

material was setup on theintranet providing students

access to a wealth of informa-

tion on the industry, job- pro-

files, recruitment methodolo-

gies & preparatory material

Case Interviews: Taking a

leaf out of the Live Case-

Interview Workshop held by

McKinsey & Co, Konsult

learnt quickly and set upteams of students for practic-

ing Cases. Live Case Inter-

view simulations were also

held

Industry interaction: Indus-

try captains from leading

Consu l t ing f i rms l i ke

McKinsey & Co, Boston Con-

sulting Group, KPMG and

Deloitte Consulting visited thecampus and addressed stu-

dents on a myriad of issues,

providing them practitioners

perspectives and in turn,

gaining exposure to bright

ideas of the next generation

of leaders.

CV Building workshop: A

workshop on How to build a

top Consulting CV, in asso-ciation with a global leader in

consulting, was organized.

processes that build com-

petitive advantages and

make the company profit-

able.


8/24

IIMK Newsletter 8

outlook of Indian women.

Nuclear family: Nuclear

family is the cement and re-

inforcement. In a nuclear

family the decision makers

are reduced to two. Also, it

increases the pressure on

the husband to perform and

work harder as he is the only

bread winner of the family.

This in turn makes him very

busy and conceding, making

him rather grateful when his

wife is able to manage the

house.

Influence of western culture

and media: It projects the

horizon which they havent

reached, but can.

Mental-make up: They are

seeking a perfect balance

between work and home,

social life and family life.

Power tussle: The power

has always been more on

the mans side. But the

newly educated and empow-ered women now want the

power shifted towards them

by making the more impor-

tant decisions instead of the

low level jobs like regular

household chores.

Jealousy: This was an un-

expected reason which came

up during one of the inter-

views conducted. A financepost graduate recently mar-

ried in a joint family said If

she can do it, why cant I?

Higher confidence levels

and ambition: There is a new

found widespread need for

productivity. All the females

interviewed said that they

wanted to invest their time

doing something which

would make them feel satis-

fied and content at the end of

the day.

Extent of change: It has

been observed mainly in the

women belonging to SEC A

and B. This could be be-

cause the reasons cited for

the change apply only to

these segments of society.

Edcation, modern ideas, me-

dia, technology etc. still

havent reached towns and

villages.

Another factor noticed was

that this empowerment has

still not reached all sections

of the society.

Marketing and advertising

changes

Shift in decision power:

House managers, Chief pur-

chasing officers and family

financial officers

The man makes the

decision for any large pur-

chase whereas the woman is

given a budget to manage

the house days are gone.

This was the traditional

model on which the market

Mental make-up and aspi-

rations: After a lifetime of

household chores, many

women showed little or no

concern for things outside

their domestic circle. The pre-

scribed path for them was

considered a given and they

were comfortable walking

along it.

Lack of a strong Media

Changes over the years

The Indian women, especially

in cities, have undergone a

sea of change over the lastfew years in terms of attitude,

interest, activities and ambi-

tion. The major reasons are:

Indian landscape: At the

macro level, the Indian soci-

ety is experiencing a gender

role-reversal process. Frag-

mentation of family bonding,

fast paced life, long busy

working hours, increased

pressure to perform and

stress, especially in the met-ros, are the building blocks of

change. The new generation

is more educated, exposed to

western culture and open.

The outlook of the society has

undergone a tremendous

change as they have ac-

cepted bahus in their new

roles.

Education: Education is seenas the biggest enabler in the

360 degree change in the


9/24

9 IIMK Newsletter

mPower

mPower,the Marketing Inter-

est Group at IIMK is driven

by the singular goal of creat-

ing and stimulating market-ing interest on campus.

It holds weekly ses-

sions attended in over-

whelming numbers by the

student community at IIMK.

These sessions work to-

wards ,

Unraveling the latestdevelopments in the

world of marketing.Endeavoring to encour-age interaction amongstlike-minded enthusiasts.

Sharing summer intern-s h i p e x p e r i e n c e samongst peers, juniors.

mPower kicked off

the year by introducing the

new batch to the fascinating

world of marketing, this was

brought about by a CasePresentation focused on the

marketing talismans, 4Ps

and STP

This was followed up

by a session on 'Mischief

Marketing, which was re-

ceived with great enthusiasm

for its take on unconven-

tional methods of marketing,

their successes and the pos-sible pitfalls.

Sessions on Rural

and Retromarketing pro-

vided insights into the hatke

side of marketing

T h e r e i s

much more in the offing for

the academic year, as we

gear up to Marketing. Every-

thing

ing companies used to base

their promotions till date.

From viewing women as im-

plementers of decisions

made by their husbands and

mothers-in-law, advertisers

have now moved to women

who proclaim, "The home is

my territory, I am the boss

here."

Some things never change:

Stereotypical images are still

juxtaposed, giving a very

'mixed' message.

Newly-weds are stillshown worried about the

wicked pimple which will af-

fect their marriage, Ponds

Miracle coming to their help.

The Cinderella fantasy is still

used to lure women. And

then the image of a super

woman still persists.

Future outlook and oppor-

tunitiesIn response to the

question, if in the future,

there is an advertisement

showcasing a housewife

managing the financials of

the house, would you like it?

almost all of the interviewees

replied affirmatively.

Keeping all this in

mind, it would seem sensiblefor brand managers to target

these new generation em-

powered housewives and

come up with Integrated Mar-

keting Communication strate-

gies, which target their new

found needs of productivity

and the desire to prove them-

selves in front of their hus-

bands, family and society at

large.

AbaKus

AbaKus, the Systems Inter-

est Group at IIMK was in-

volved in numerous activities

during last term. Some of themajor activities are,

HCL Case Study Chal-

lenge (July) : The first

event for the batch of

2009, the HCL Case

Study Challenge based

on implementing a pro-

ject for telecom multina-

tional had an 21 teams

participating.

Business Networking

via the Web (Aug) A

session showcasing sev-

eral tools on the Internet

to grow, cultivate and

maintain a network of

contacts, one of the

most valuable yet under-

used assets in an MBA

professional's armory

Thinking in Word 2007

and Excel 2007 (Aug)

In path-breaking series

of sessions, Sanjog Jolly

and Prasanna Bora took

audience through the

philosophies and best

practices of using Word

and Excel 2007 as pro-

fessionals.

Summers Experience

Session (Oct)- A series

of talks by PGP10 par-

ticipants who have

worked in technology

firms. Talks covered

roles, projects, organiza-

tion-specific details and

expected career paths.


10/24

The surge in popularity of

what is popularly known as

social media has put thepower of mass communica-

tion into the hands of the indi-

vidual. Old media, both print

and television, have only just

begun to wake up to this

threat to their hegemony.

This article examines this

phenomenon in some detail

as well as the threat to tradi-

tional media empires before

projecting into the future

what old media should and

should not do to continue to

survive and prosper in the

new ecosystem. The inten-

tion is not so much as to seek

depth as to draw the readers

attention to the evolution of

this new media economy.

What is social media ?

The past dizzying decade

witnessed the obsolescence

of the phone and the simulta-

neous rise of email and in-

stant messaging as the Inter-

net spread its tentacles into

every region of almost every

nation in the world. However,

in the past couple of years

even email has taken a back

seat to a new generation of

communication media, whichresemble a noisy market-

place rather than the hushed,

IIMK Newsletter 10

private conversations of old.

Almost everyone

would have seen social me-dia in action blogs, wikis,

chat forums, social commu-

nities such as the white-hot

Facebook, social bookmark-

ing ala del.icio.us, virtual

worlds of the Second Life

kind, marketplaces pio-

neered by eBay, and col-

laborative tools like Googles

Online Office Suite. All these

are characterized by the no-

tion that each participant

adds value to the product

the more people use it, the

better it gets unlike any

media in the past. Most im-

portantly, the individual can

communicate with an audi-

ence potentially as vast as

the entire Internet.

Why is old media threat-

ened ?

Old media, the traditional

media houses, have long

been able to control the mes-

sage, because they also

owned the channel. This

gave them terrifying power

over peoples opinions and

therefore actions.

New media, unfortu-

nately, disrupts every single

stage of the media supply

chain from production to

programming to publishing to

distribution. It seizes control

of every stage and thrusts it

into the hands of the individ-

ual. The familiar linear one-to

-many model of traditional

media stretches, twists and

under relentless pressure

from the cacophony of a mil-

lion voices, morphs into an

almost chaotic many-to-

many network.

As tools like blogs

turn every opinionated mind

with a keyboard and an inter-

net connection into a publish-

ing house, entry barriers are

being razed to the ground.

For old media the implica-

tions are that public attention

will be drawn to sources over

whom they have no control

and that strikes at the heart

of their revenue stream.

What should old media

do ?

The new media ecosystemthrows open entirely new

business models and yet,

retains some. Old media

needs to realize that control

of content is no longer possi-

ble (or even necessary), that

value lies in ownership of the

platform for production and

publishing of this content.

The most high-profile exam-

ples are News Corps pur-

chase of the networking web-

site, MySpace, in 2005, and

Googles acquisition of You-

Tube in 2006.

Advertising still re-

mains the chief source of

revenue for new media, but

in a more evolved form

highly targeted ads displayed

by tracking individuals be-

havior on the web.

Social Networks and the New Media Paradigm Rahul Gaitonde


11/24

11 IIMK Newsletter

ture of the medium, encour-

aging developers to write

extensions and freeing ac-

cess to users. Perhaps blas-

phemous for traditional me-

dia houses, but this is theonly religion new media

knows.

What should old media not

do ?

Old media cannot

look at new media as an ad-

ditional channel of communi-

cation. It needs to recognize

that new media, far from

complementing traditional

communication, is often in

direct confrontation with it. A

typical knee-jerk reaction is

containment creating so-

called walled gardens, to

control both production and

viewership of content, as

most mobile providers in the

US have done. This is simply

transplanting old business

models into a new economy

and it rarely works. Switching

costs are far lower than in

the old world.

What does the future

hold ?

If current trends con-tinue, total personalization of

every form of existing media

For advertisers, it

means a better conversion

rate and higher return on in-

vestment; for the platform

owner, it means higher vol-

umes and (in spite of lower

margins) larger revenues. An

example is YouTubes recent

move to overlay ads on its

hosted videos.

In its foray into the

Brave New World, old media

needs to understand this de-

coupling of the operational

model and revenue model. In

the old online economy,

money was spent on the pro-

duction of content, and

money was made through its

sale. With new media, con-

tent is free. Money needs to

be made indirectly, though

ads or by charging for more

rights to the platform (the Ya-

hoo!-owned photo sharing

website Flickr charging for

additional hosting space and

bandwidth, for instance), or

otherwise.

Finally, in a complete

turnaround of the old produc-

tion model, companies need

to encourage greater external

involvement in their medium -

by opening up the architec-

seems likely text (news,

opinions, documents, email,

Instant Messaging, book-

marks etc.), video (custom

channels and playlists) and

audio (from chat transcriptsto music); maps and location

-specific information, com-

merce (purchase, auction)

and an almost infinite num-

ber of ways to merge media

(a book recommendation by

a friend via email, a video of

an interview with the author,

several reviews and a map of

bookstores with the best

deals for that book).

Debates on network

neutrality will resurface,

gather more steam as ISPs

and carriers gain more clout.

Is a video service, for in-

stance, allowed to strike a

deal with an ISP for preferen-

tial treatment of traffic origi-

nating from its website? Will

old media be allowed to own

both the message and the

channel?

It is early days yet;

for most of the worlds con-

sumers, new media is a blip

on their attention horizon.

Yet, the sheer potential size

of the market means that old

media empires cannot afford

to ignore it for most of that

market will be at the expense

of their existing streams of

revenue. We are at the cusp

of a historic shift in the bal-

ance of power in global me-

dia. The winner, to para-

phrase Darwins incredibly

enduring tenet, will not be

the largest or the strongest,

but the most adaptable.


12/24

IIMK Newsletter 12

store the kits that are made

in the main manufacturing

unit. The size of the ware-

house terminal depends

upon the projected demand

on the particular region.

AssemblyPlant: This facility

is used to assemble the kits

for the final product as per

the demand of the custom-

ers. It is a sub-manufacturing

system, wherein the last

stage of manufacturing is

carried out. This concept of

bringing the last stage near

the customers site is the

distinguishing feature of dis-

tributed manufacturing.

Sales Office: This is the

products interface with thecustomers. Vendors keep

only a few cars/products at

the sales office. The actual

demand data is processed

and only then is the final de-

livery made to the sales of-

fice.

Distributed manufacturing

seeks a proactive role of the

vendors, making them part-ners in the manufacturing

process. Hence it also in-

volves an investment from

the vendors, which far ex-

ceeds that involved in tradi-

tional manufacturing.

Cost distribution

The concept of distrib-

uted manufacturing is visual-

ized by Tata Motors in India.Hence the cost distribution is

analyzed from Tata Motors

viewpoint and an empirical

structure is sought.

Empirically, in distributed

manufacturing the cost is

shared by all the partners inthe supply chain.

How it works

Distinct from the concept of

mass manufacturing at a sin-

gle location, distributivemanufacturing aims to drive

the concept of mass entre-

preneurship. Here, the main

manufacturer builds the kits

of the vehicle at the main

manufacturing facility; these

kits are transported to differ-

ent vendor locations which

require assembling facilities.

Thus as soon as the cus-

tomer places an order with

the vendor, a kit is assem-

bled at the warehouse. Thismodel resembles the furni-

ture business model, where

small packages of home fur-

nishings can be assembled at

home with little help from the

main manufacturer.

Requirement from vendors

The vendors in the distribu-

tive manufacturing system

need to maintain 3 facilities

Warehouse: This is used to

Distributive Manufacturing Salil Sreen, Deepak Chaudhary


13/24

13 IIMK Newsletter

in the project, the timely

availability of the compo-

nents to the main manufac-

turing sites is a challenge.

Distribution of kits to the

vendors: This logistics of

distribution has been out-

sourced. The logistics pro-

vider has to make invest-

ments in buying adequate

number of trucks to transport

a million kits a year to differ-

ent locations in the country.

Estimating the demand of

each region: Demand from

each region of the country

has to be estimated to mini-

mize the costs of transporta-

tion

Information flow from ven-

dors: Vendors being near

the customer sites can pro-

vide the most valuable infor-

mation about the demand

trends and the quality as-

pects of the car.

Intra-vendor transship-

ment of kits: This issue has

to be addressed about the

intra-vendor transshipment

of kits if the demand in a par-

ticular region peaks.

Quality issues: These need

to be addressed at the ven-

dor sites. Vendors, who are

new to the manufacturing

process have to be trained

over the process require-

ments and the quality as-

pects required thereof. This

may require certain control

structures to be put in place

wherein the parent company

can enforce the desired qual-

ity from the vendors.

Conclusion

Distributive Manufacturing is

The share of the suppliers

and logistics provider in-

creases drastically to almost

one-third of the investment

made by the main manufac-

turer. Distributed manufactur-

ing is a volume game and

seeks profitability from the

base of the pyramid. For this

to be successful, long term

investments and tie ups with

the partners are essential.

This is achieved by making

the suppliers and vendors

key stakeholders in the very

concept.

Vendors become

remote entrepreneurs, man-

aging their customers and

channelizing the manufactur-

ing themselves. The concept

of distributed manufacturing

takes jobs to all such sub

assemblies located near the

client sites.

Supply Chain Challenges

The concept of a low cost

car/product is successful

through low margins per car/

product and high volumes

sold. These high volumes

pose unique challenges to

the supply chain managers.

Some of the challenges in the

supply chain of the distrib-

uted manufacturing that TataMotors will likely face are

Forecasting of the actual

demand: Tata Motors has

estimated a sales of one mil-

lion cars every year. Errors

and deviations in this forecast

can lead to the whole venture

becoming unprofitable.

Supply of components:

With more than hundred

component suppliers locked

Omega

Omega, the Operations In-

terest Group at IIMK, is re-

sponsible for conducting

weekly sessions related to

Operations. Sessions con-

ducted so far are,

Career opportunities in

Operations with particu-

lar focus on the consult-ing domain

Basics of Supply Chain

Management concepts

such as Bullwhip Effect

etc

Summer Internship ex-

perience sharing by the

second year batch who

interned in operations

area

a further refinement of the

mass manufacturing concept

with the same standardized

product being made at multi-

ple locations near the clients

site. Whereas in mass manu-facturing the product/car is

manufactured at a particular

site and then transported to

different vendors, distributive

manufacturing seeks to

make kits of the product/car

at a central location and

these kits are transported to

the vendors. This requires

estimation of demand at dif-

ferent regions, a characteris-

tic of the car industry and

adequate training of vendors

to assemble the product at

their sites. Quality issues are

to be resolved again through

some controls over the final

product made by the ven-

dors.


14/24

IIMK Newsletter 14

portal is not to be mistaken

with the organizations intra-

net. They might look similar

on the face value but

whereas an intranet focuses

on the whole organization,

B2E focuses on a single indi-

vidual. The B2E portal will

provide an individual all infor-

mation that he would need

as part of that organization

or all information that the

intranet was providing him.

But along with that, it would

also include any personal

information that the em-

ployee might seek like stockinformation or even games.

B2E is like a company intra-

net customized for every em-

ployee. The intention is to

increase not only efficiency,

but also employee satisfac-

tion and a sense of belong-

ingness to the organization.

A B2E portal has three dis-

tinguishing characteristics

Customization to suit theneeds of individual em-

ployees

A single point of entry

Components defined byboth the employer andthe organization

Corporations maydevelop their own portals or

they may rely on the services

of any of the large and grow-

ing number of B2E portal

developers. For instance, HP

consulting provides a five

step design to implement a

B2E portal. They follow a

process in phases where

they start from requirements

specifications and a business

case development, followed

by design and construction of

the portal and finally they

deploy it. Their last phase

consists of providing support

and operational help for the

portal.

The B2E portal has

various advantages to both

the employer and the em-

ployee.

Businesses in the past have

either focused on the con-

sumer or other businesses.

The former was called B2C,

the latter, B2B. The concept

of B2E began to emerge

when organizations started to

realize that their people were

their biggest strength. Simply

put, it is Business-to-

Employee, an approach in

which the focus of business

is the employee. This ap-

proach gained importancebecause of a decrease in the

talent pool across industries

especially knowledge based.

The employers recognized

the importance of attracting

and retaining talent in a

highly competitive market

with a skewed supply and

demand of talent. Organiza-

tions today employ varioustactics to attract this talent,

such as aggressive recruit-

ing, offering plenty of bene-

fits, education opportunities,

flexible working hours, bo-

nuses and employee empow-

erment strategies. All these

activities together constitute

B2E.

More specifically, theterm B2E is frequently used

to refer to the B2E portal

(sometimes called the peo-

ples portal), which is a cus-

tomized home page or desk-

top for everyone within an

organization. B2E portals or e

-HR systems are becoming

the de-facto standard in order

to streamline and optimize

the human resource functions

of the organizations. The B2E

The New Age Business Focus - The B2E concept Japneet Sachdeva


15/24

15 IIMK Newsletter

ductivity by providing key

stakeholders a single Web-

enabled interface for con-

ducting business, no matter

where they reside. The portal

combines in one place leg-acy data sources and proce-

dures with other data and

services from the organiza-

tions Intranet and the Inter-

net, thus empowering the

employees, customers, and

partners with the self-service

access to the information

needed to significantly im-

prove process efficiency

while lowering operational

costs.

B2E also builds a

better relationship between

the organization and the em-

ployees. It is quite unlikely

that an employee will only

work while in office. There is

a lot more than just surfing

the internet that is done

while in the office. Rather

than putting a stop on it, a

B2E portal addresses all the

needs of the employees. So

an employee who is thinking

about home when he is at

work has answers right there

in the office.

There are certain

challenges in designing and

implementing an effective

B2E portal. Firstly, it should

have considered the needs

of the employees. There isnt

any point in designing a web

application that the employ-

ees dont find much use of.

Secondly, generating the

interest of the employees to

visit the portal is also a chal-

lenge. Sufficient publicity is

required to encourage the

employees to try it for the

first time. A very well made

portal would obviously be an

asset, so that the employees

like it and visit frequently on

their own. Room for changesin the portal as time passes

must be kept in mind. With

changing times, the needs of

the employees are likely to

change and the portal

should be ready to address

them. One thing to be kept in

mind is that employees may

feel they are not a part of the

portal and that it has been

designed by the manage-

ment and IT and merely

transferred to them. To offset

this, it must be ensured that

the designing of the portal

must be made a participative

process. In the need assess-

ment stage, the employees

opinions must be sought and

they must be made to feel

like they are a part of the

process.

With time, there is a

rise in the B2E web portals.

There are several organiza-

tions who have already im-

plemented it. A large number

of consultants are already

providing B2E solutions to

organizations. With IT and

people as buzzwords, B2E or

people portals are sure to

grow in the near future too.

It acts as a new

means of integrating and

consolidating business infor-

mation and making it avail-

able to employees, custom-

ers and business partners.

Ease of availability of infor-

mation to employees, cus-

tomers and other stake-

holders results in enhanced

trust between them and in-

creased loyalty towards the

organization. It also enables

the organization to move to-

wards technology based so-

lutions. An internet enabledorganization has undoubtedly

faster and more efficient

processes. Portal technology

enables corporations to

transform business proc-

esses, eliminating redundan-

cies and making them more

efficient and less costly. This

dramatically increases pro-


16/24

The last decade and a half

has seen India reap the

benefits of its policy of liber-

alization and a progressive

opening up of the economy.

With the economy growing at

8-9% , India saw Foreign Di-

rect Investment (FDI) touch-

ing a record high of an esti-

mated US$ 16 billion in 2006-

07.

One of the prominent

sources of foreign investment

into India is the private equity

investments. The initial flow

of foreign private equity was

focused on Indias IT and

outsourcing industry but now

significant investments are

being made in manufacturing,

financial services, real estate,

telecom, media, engineering

and construction. PE activityhas increased not only in

terms of number of deals, but

also in terms of the average

deal size.

Factors leading to the PE

boom

Some of the significant fac-

tors contributing to the boom

are summarized in the table.

Advantages of PE

Professional manage-

ment :The participation of

private equity in a company

results in an improvement in

the quality of management

owing to an automatic dis-

tancing of management from

promoters and traditional

ownership.

Transparency: Private eq-

uity requires companies to

IIMK Newsletter 16

reveal a lot of information in

order to enable a PE fund to

conduct its due diligence.

Financial discipline: A

management with PE partici-

pation is believed to bring

cash discipline into the func-

tioning of an organization

and helps in making the

company more robust and

thus enhances value to the

stakeholders.

International resources:

Companies which obtain PE

participation can also lever-

age the resources of the par-

ent fund in terms of access

to resources, distribution net-

works, managerial and tech-

nical skills etc.

Speedier fund-raising: Of-

ten, promoters wait for the

right time to tap the IPO mar-

ket and in this wait projects

have to be kept on hold,

sometimes for years to-

gether. The option now is to

involve a PE fund and get a

fair (negotiated) valuation

and also shorten the gesta-

tion period. The issuancetime is also shortened com-

pared to the IPO route.

It has been seen that

PE and VC backed compa-

nies grow faster when com-

pared to the non-PE backed

peers and even more than

the benchmark indices like

the NSE Nifty. Sales of listed

PE backed companies grewat 22.9% as compared to

10% for non-PE backed

Private EquityIs the picture really as rosy? Shayonima Ghosh

Shreyan Sarkar

FACTORS SYMPTOMS

High Economic

Growth

Annual growth rates of 8-9%

Mature Finan-

cial Markets

Liquid and transparent secondary

market resulting creating an envi-

ronment for large number of exits

through IPOs

Domestic corporate turning into

strategic buyers

Commodity markets developing at

an increasing pace

Large and

Growing Do-

mestic Markets

Spurt in consumerism triggered by

a young demographic profile

Sustained government expenditure

driving consumption in certain

verticals

Culture of En-

trepreneurship

Large number of local entrepre-

neurs seeking national scale

Established Law

and Regulation

High level of regulation and

maintenance of transparency by

SEBI, the Finance Ministry and the

RBI


17/24

17 IIMK Newsletter

firms make offers at the up-

per end of their limit to avoid

a full-blown auction, further

raising prices. It is reported

that there were multiple bids

for 29% of the private equitybuyouts in 2006 as com-

pared to just 4% in 2005. In

the first six weeks of 2007

this figure has risen sharply,

with 70% of announced pri-

vate equity buyouts having

multiple bids.

The structure of PE

funds, demands that PE fund

managers need to generate

around 30% returns on an

annual basis to justify the

high management fees they

charge. Industry observers

reckon that PE funds charge

around 1-1.5% of the asset

size as management fee andan extra 20% on investment

gains. A study showed that

on deducting huge manage-

ment fees, PE fund returns

are actually lower than that

of the benchmark S&P 500

index, raising concerns

about the extent to which

these funds will go to meet

these targets. PE funds maysee companies going under

when the companies are

faced with asset stripping,

high interest debt and its

payout in their quest for such

high returns.

Another issue is the

lack of clarity in the currentregulatory structure to pro-

vide comprehensive guide-

lines to deal with an evolving

private equity driven sce-

nario. This event has accen-

tuated the need for the regu-

lators to come up with more

detailed guidelines to ad-

dress private equity related

transactions.

Historically, it has

been seen that the deal sizes

and valuations rise towards

the end of the bull-run cycle.

There is a fear that PE funds,

both globally and in India

may just be approaching that

stage. The real test is when

the PE companies try and

take these companies public

again or try and sell for cash-

ing out. But if all companies

try and sell out or take com-

panies to the public market,

the downward pressure may

kill the market.

listed firms. PE backed firms

also added more jobs to the

economy and even the

wages at listed PE financed

firms grew at around 32% as

compared to 6% for non-PE-backed firms.

Au Contraire!

The recent splurge in PE

deals has raised certain con-

cerns about the implications

of the unchecked growth of

PE in India. The RBI has ex-

pressed concern over the

impact of higher leveraging

by PEs on long term sustain-

ability.

A major concern is

the disproportionate rise in

the valuations of PE deals.

Conservatively, a deal at

EBITDA of 5-6.5 is consid-

ered modest with anything

above 7 considered high.

This is indicative of a broad

payback period of 5-6 years

through operating profits.

However, the race for acqui-

sitions has seen this number

comfortably exceed 7. In

other words, PE companies

have increased the number

of years to achieve payback

from current operations. Thus

with valuation parameters

climbing, the need to gener-ate profits, that too in a

shorter time frame, in-

creases. This may also lead

to PE funds taking drastic

actions to increase profitabil-

ity.

The increase in

valuations is also, in part, due

to selling companies taking

advantage of a competitivescenario and encouraging

multiple bids. The buyout


18/24

IIMK Newsletter 18

Perhaps leaders

could borrow a few tricks

from their friends in high fi-

nance and apply the conceptof a financial portfolio to a

strategic portfolio. What it

would entail would be a bou-

quet of strategies with uncor-

related returns, thereby re-

ducing the overall risk. But it

is very likely that investors

would view this very nega-

tively. Questions would be

asked about the indecisive

nature of the visionless

leader who is just not sure

about what to commit and

where to commit it to. He

might also be taught a few

basic lessons in finance thatinvestors can manage the

risk better than the company

itself and therefore they

should be allowed to man-

age it by probably investing

in a competitor who might be

following a diagonally oppo-

site strategy and hence re-

ducing their own overall risk!

Until now, the dis-cussion pertained to the ex-

ternal environment, but com-

mitment to a vision also

plays with the minds of the

employees. While the leader

may be having sleeplessnights about the strategic

options he sees and appre-

hensions about those he

does not, his employees

need to have a strong com-

mitment to the product or

service they are working on,

believing it to be THEfuture.

This looks strikingly

similar to another financial

market running within a com-

pany, where the leader be-

comes the investor who can

and should manage risk bet-

ter than the companies in the

market viz. the various busi-

ness units within the com-

pany. This is what Michael

Raynor, the distinguished

research fellow with Deloitte

Consulting LLP calls the

Separation of Management

of uncertainty and the Man-

agement of Commitment

whereby the leader manages

uncertainty by strategichedging while the managerial

Most people, pre-

dominantly students of strat-

egy who are exposed to or-

ganizational success and

failure stories galore, wonder

why failures were always a

result of bad strategy and

successes a result of good

strategy. The author attempts

to clarify this in the context of

a term known as post-facto

rationalization.

What does un-

matched strategic success

the aim of running a virtual

monopoly - require? It is a

virtual monopoly which surely

means that its position is

hard to replicate. Reaching

this position requires relent-

less pursuit, a bold vision,

conviction from the leader-

ship and of course, un-

matched commitment. Applehas exhibited this well with

the iPod. An elegant high-

performing product built

around the proprietary archi-

tecture of software-hardware

integration, effective strategy

at its best. Or is it? But then,

wasnt the Macintosh based

on a similar model - proprie-

tary hardware-software inte-gration? Both of these were

hard to replicate, although

people did not want to repli-

cate the latter.

The author wants to

emphasize that high return

strategies involve high risk as

well. The road less travelled

may lead to glory as well as

ruin. The only trouble is thatthe probabilities of the two

cant be computed as easily.

Strategy ParadoxCommitment vs. Flexibility Vaibhav Bhardwaj


19/24

19 IIMK Newsletter

maintain strategic flexibility.

This might include breaking

a strategy into much smaller

pieces and trying to incorpo-

rate the financial aspects of

systematic and unsystematicrisk. For instance, the Word

and Excel programs written

for Apple had a company-

risk involved there were

concerns that Apples OS

might not be popular enough

to generate a sustainable

stream of revenue for the

programs Microsoft would be

writing for the platform.

There was an industry-

specific risk involved which

could be related to potential

market not developing for the

programs themselves. By

breaking these risk compo-

nents Microsoft was able to

reduce the marginal costs of

starting afresh and develop-

ing these programs for an

OS that did later catch thefancies of the market the

Windows platform.

All said and done,

the business world still

awaits some tool which can

help predict the future with

necessary precision, better

than its competitors and fast

enough for it to be still called

a strategy and not a tactic.Till then one grapples with

the paradox of going for

glory while risking complete

annihilation and becoming a

case for bad strategies

whereas all he did wrong

was to make a strong com-

mitment to a seemingly cor-

rect strategy.

cadre ensures commitment to

the tasks assigned to them.

A suitable example to

describe this would be the

Microsoft of the early 1980s

pursuing highly uncorrelated

strategies while maintaining

divisional commitment within

the workforce. Although MS-

DOS was its staple product, it

was collaborating with IBM

on the OS/2 GUI even as its

very own Windows operating

system was being developed.

It was also exploring a ver-

sion of UNIX aimed at pene-trating commercial markets

besides writing Word and

Excel programs for the Apple

OS. When pursuing these

types of strategies, it must be

kept in mind that some of the

ventures would necessarily

have to be abandoned before

they materialized and these

are aimed at hedging the riskrather than giving assured

returns. So, while in those

early days projects like the

Word and Excel programs for

Apple OS fell flat on their

face, their complementarities

with the Windows OS be-

came the very material that

built the Microsoft success

story, leading to decades of

industry dominance and the

elusive virtual monopoly all

organizations dream of.

D iscoun t ing the

benefits of hindsight which

makes one feel that Bill

Gates was an astute leader

with an impeccable sense of

judgment, an unbiased analy-

sis of the situation would re-

veal that, to a great extent,

he had forgone a strategic

commitment to be able to

HRiday

HRiday, the HR Interest

Group at IIMK uses every

opportunity to interact with

industry experts and acade-

mia. Here are some of the

major activities conducted

during previous term,

A panel discussion with

industry experts like Mr.

Kashinath

Ramachandran, an ex

VP-HR at Ramco sys-

tems. The central ideas

behind the discussion

were tackling attrition,

role of HR in organiza-

tions and ways to moti-

vate and satisfy em-

ployee needs.

Dr. D P Sinha, former

group head, HR at

Zuari group facilitated

the next session on

balanced scorecards

and their uses. The

session provided in-

sights in view of deter-

mining the success of

CEOs and organiza-

tions.

Mr. Vishnu Mohan of

NTPC shared his ideas

and views on the prob-

lem of attrition andbringing it down to envi-

able levels. He empha-

sized the importance of

HR in boosting em-

ployee satisfaction.

Student driven ses-

sions on email eti-

quettes, delivering ef-

fective presentations,

selecting the right per-son for a job and recent

trends in HR.


20/24

IIMK Newsletter 20

FDP programs:

FDP on Advances inManufacturing Planning

& Control (Oct. 08 - 13,2007)

Workshop on Green-stone Digital LibrarySoftware (Nov. 26- Dec.01, 2007)

FDP on Advances inMarketing (Dec. 03-08,2007)

Executive Education Pro-

grams

IIMK conducts Executive

Education Programs to help

practicing executives through

the Interactive Distance

Learning (IDL) mode. The

Executive Management Edu-

cation Program (eMEP) is

the first of its kind to be of-

fered under IDL Platform in

the Asia Pacific region.

Two new programs

under IDL Platform have

been announced to start

from the 2007-08 session.

They are:

Executive EducationProgram in Finance(eEPF)

Executive EducationProgrammed in Strategic

Management (eEPSM)

Upcoming Seminars and

Workshops

Conference on Marketing to

Rural Consumers Under-

standing and tapping the

rural market potential-(03,

04, 05 April 2008)

The conference explores the

emergence of rural markets

and attempts to find innova-

tive approaches to under-

stand and tap the potential of

these markets. The confer-

ence offers an opportunity forexchange of research and

practical insights related to

marketing to rural consumers

and disseminate the knowl-

edge generated.

International Conference on

Statistics and its Applications

in Management-(01, 02, 03

May 2008)

The aim of the conference is

to provide a forum for the

presentation of recent devel-

opments in statistical meth-

odology and its novel appli-

cations in management.

Centre of Excellence (CEx)

The centre of excellence is

being incubated by IIMK withthe support from the SC/ST

department of the Govt. of

Kerala. CEx undertakes a

wide range of activities which

leads to increased equity and

excellence in higher educa-

tion and enables the under-

privileged to study in premier

institutions providing them

better access to economicexcellence and infrastruc-

ture.

The Centre carries

out a wide range of programs

including Certificate Course

for Professional Develop-

ment (CCPD), Management

Development Program

(MDP) and other research

projects.

Upcoming Programs

Management Development

Programs (MDP)MDP programs at IIMK are

primarily aimed at building

capability and competence

among individual managers

that could in turn lead to

greater organizational effi-

ciency and effectiveness.

The varieties of programs

encompass all management

fields catering to the require-ments of corporate sector

and government.

MDP programs:

Effective Sales Mgmt forBFIS Professionals (Oct.04-06, 2007)

Effective IT sales Man-agement (Oct. 11-13,2007)

Marketing ResearchMethods (Oct 15-17,2007)

Marketing of EducationalServices (Oct. 29-31,2007)

Competitive Marketing(Nov. 05-07, 2007)

Effective Sales Manage-ment for Insurance Sec-tor (Nov. 12-14, 2007)

Services OperationsStrategy (Nov. 29-Dec.01, 2007)

Business Intelligence(December 03-05, 2007)

Spread Sheet Modelingfor Business Decisions(Dec. 06-08, 2007)

Faculty Development Pro-

grams (FDP)

IIMK conducts custom de-

signed FDPs for the benefitsof faculty from other aca-

demic institutions.

BUZZ @ K An in-depth coverage of all the recent events and programs at IIMK


21/24

21 IIMK Newsletter

great enthusiasm from stu-

dents of both batches.

True to its tradition, the

Backwaters committee is

also responsible for organiz-

ing all celebrations on Kam-

pus including Janamashtami,

Diwali, Holi, Navratrietc.

Entrepreneurship Cell

The eCell at IIM Kozhikode

has been fairly active this

year, after a long hiatus.

There have been two events

conducted till date, with 3

more in the immediate pipe-line.

The eCell kicked off

the year by organizing a

seminar by an IIMK alumnus,

Mr. Nagesh Banchhor - foun-

der director of ProC Educa-

tion. He spoke about the

challenges involved in start-

ing a new venture and vari-

ous steps to make sure thatone remained focused on

ones goals.

This was followed by

a workshop on Preparing a

Business Plan by another

alumnus, Mr. Mohit Malik of

Anoova Consulting. Mr.Malik

gave students insights on

different elements of making

a proper business plan. He

was accompanied by Mr.

Rishi Das of Careernet Con-

sulting, who, among other

things, also spoke about the

people issues involved in a

growing company.

The eCell is hosting

an internal Business plan

competition for the students

of IIMK which would be

judged by distinguished in-

dustrial leaders. eCell has

also organized a formal non-

credit course on entrepre-

neurship for second year

students. The course was

taken by Prof. Sunil Handa

Professor of Entrepreneur-

ship, IIM Ahmedabad.

SPIC MACAY

SPIC MACAY aims at intro-

ducing traditional Indian cul-

ture to the youth of this

country with a hope that the

beauty, grace and wisdom

embodied in it will become

an integral part of their lives.

The SPIC MACAY

Sub chapter at IIM Kozhi-

kode has been an active

member of this wonderful

initiative and has played host

to a number of events. Some

of the eminent artists who

have left an indelible impres-

sion among the students in

the past include Padmab-

hushan Smt. N Rajam, Sri

Kadri Gopalnath, Smt.

Aswini Bhide Deshpande,

Shri Shashank, Dr. L Subra-

maniam, Smt. Sujatha

Mishra etc.

The targets set for

this year include continuing

the recently launched news-

letter TW2, organizing cele-

brations during festivals with

the help of the Backwaters

committee. These would

include Ganesh Chaturthi,

Navratri and Diwali. The

SPIC MACAY Sub Chapter

at IIMK also plans to hold

four concerts for this aca-

demic year in addition to two

programs from artists within

the IIMK community.

Alumni Committee

The Alumni Committee man-

ages the widespread alumni

network of the Indian Institute

of Management, Kozhikode.

This past summer witnessed

Sangam07, the annual

alumni-freshers meet, which

was held across the six cities

of Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta,

Chennai, Bangalore and Hy-

derabad. With the best loca-

tions and a great turnout from

the alumni, Sangam'07 ex-ceeded all expectations.

January would bring in Nostal-

gia'08, the annual alumni

meet, held on the campus in

Kozhikode. This meet would

truly be nostalgic, with the

alumni coming back to cam-

pus, meeting the faculty and

getting a taste of Kerala

again. Clubbing it with Back-waters would increase student

-alumni interaction, as well as

allow the alumni to relive the

moments from the cultural

festival of IIMK.

Backwaters Committee

Apart from Backwaters, the

committee also conducted two

other major events on campus

to kick-start the year, namelyRoobaroo an induction

programme held for the jun-

iors at the start of the aca-

demic year and Konnect

the inter-hostel cultural com-

petition. Roobaroo 2007,

organized around the theme

Greek Mythology was an

immediate success and a

great start to the year. Thiswas soon followed by

Konnect which garnered

Committee News


22/24

IIMK Newsletter 22

Media Cell

The Media cell takes care of

media coverage of on-

campus events and simulta-

neous brand building efforts

of the institute. Driving on its

legacy, the group continued

fostering relationships and

interfacing with both the print

and the online media. Gener-

ating media publicity for

seminars, festivals, place-

ments and other campus

events along with getting

articles published by the stu-

dent community has been

the primary objective of the

committee.

As a new initiative

this year, Media cell kick-

started 'The K Files' which

shall henceforth act as an

IIMK life blog (http://the-k-

files.blogspot.com). The blog

intends to serve the brand

building for the institute

along with keeping a memo-

rable track record of the vari-

ous PGP batches.

Social Services Group

(SSG)

The SSG aims at strengthen-

ing networks and linkages

between and among stu-

dents, the community, so-

cially responsible corporates,

NGOs and other formal and

informal institutions that can

influence the impact of de-

velopment initiatives. It

strives to provide local self

help groups and other grass-

roots community initiatives

with critical financial, organ-

izational and managerial as-

sistance.

Some of the activities al-

ready underway this year

include:

Education kits for de-

serving and needy stu-dents

Working with NGOs for

community development

project

A few initiatives planned for

this year are:

Internal education drive

for IIMK community

members (securi ty,

housekeeping staff)

Blood donation camp

Partnering corporates in

their CSR activities

The SSG annual fund

raising event - the SSG

Fete

Apart from this, SSG also

launched a meal a month

initiative within the campus,

wherein students voluntarily

donated an equivalent of a

days meal worth towards

society.

Mess Committee

The mess committee has

been one of the most dy-

namic and innovative com-

mittees on campus. Simpleinitiatives like ensuring the

night canteen is operational

throughout the night and re-

ducing the waiting time for

meals have made it

amongst the most appreci-

ated committees at IIMK.

The committee also

plans to hold a dining eti-

quettes workshop for stu-dents.

Sports Committee

The sports committee has

been striving towards ensur-

ing state-of-the-art sports

infrastructure at IIMK and

organizing numerous sports

events within the campus and

competitions amongst differ-

ent campuses.

This academic year

started with Face Off, an

inter-batch sports tournament

where the incoming batch

was Baptized with Fire. As

of now, the score-line reads 4

-2 with the senior batch hav-

ing won Table Tennis (men &

women), Chess and Bridge,

while the juniors made their

presence felt with victories in

football and carrom. Other

events including basketball,

volleyball, throw-ball and

badminton are on the cards.

Face-off would be

followed by Vae Victus, the

inter-hostel sports meet

where all hostels vie for the

coveted general champion-

ship. Vae Victus would pave

way for the War of the

Worlds, the IIM Kozhikode-

NIT Calicut sports meet

which is being held for the

first time this year to provide

a healthy interaction between

the two campuses.

The pinnacle of all

sports activities at IIM Kozhi-

kode is Sangram - The IIMK

IIMB sports meet. In its short

history, Sangram has

achieved iconic status.

Scheduled to be held at IIM B

this year, Sangram promises

to be a humdinger.


23/24

23 IIMK Newsletter

IIMKLIVE : The Students

Portal of IIMK

The Students Council has

launched a new website:http://iimklive.com, the Stu-

dents Portal of IIMK which

will be entirely maintained by

the student community itself.

Based on latest

OpenSource Web 2.0 based

technology, the site is ex-

tremely dynamic and sup-

ports collaborative content

writing.

The aim of the site is

to showcase the vibrant stu-

dent life at IIMK popularly

known as Gods Own Cam-

pusand the academic excel-

lence of IIMK as reflected in

its student community.

IIMKLIVE is a fea-

ture rich website which inte-

grates a content manage-

ment system with a blog, a

forum and a photo gallery.

Also integrated with the site

is Google Apps EducationEdition Service which allows

registered users to utilize the

power and functionality of

Google Apps to collaborate

as an online community and

network with the alumni.

The mission of

IIMKLIVE is to become the

most popular B-School stu-

dent website in the country.

Concert by Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt

The evening of 23rd October saw a full house at the

auditorium as members of the faculty, staff and students

thronged to listen to a Mohan Veena recital by Padmashree

Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, organized by SPICMACAY, IIMKozhikode.

Creator of this unique instrument and winner of theGrammy award, Pt. Vishwa Mohan Bhatt held the audience

spellbound with his rendering of the raag Purvi, followed by a

mesmerizing piece from his Grammy award winning album,

'A Meeting by the River. He was joined by Pundit Ram

Kumar Mishra, renowned for his mastery of the Tabla and a

scion of the Benaras Gharana.

AIMS 2007

The technology conclave of IIMK, every year AIMS

identifies a topic that is of immediate interest to the Technol-

ogy industry and proceeds to dissect it over two days of in-

tense discussion. Its fifth edition this year, AIMS 2007 is shift-

ing its focus to an Industry wide Technology Summit and the

theme this year is "The New Frontiers of Technology: Con-

sumer Internet, Wireless and Mobile".

A panel discussion, the highlight of the first day, will

focus on "A Nation Online - How the Internet is changing our

Everyday Lives". In addition to attracting participants from

over 40 B-schools and Tech colleges, AIMS broadens itsscope by inviting top 10 IT companies as well.
http://iimklive.com/http://iimklive.com/http://iimklive.com/


24/24

24 IIMK Newsletter

Bharat Ek Khoj - Horizons 2007

Horizons, the Annual Management Conclave of IIMK was held from the 5th to 7th of October

2007. The overarching theme for this year was Bharat Ek Khoj with sub themes of

Rediscovering Rural India, Unleashing India Inc. and Unlocking the Human Potential.

Inaugurated by Dr. AJayathilak, the District Collector of

Kozhikode, the conclave saw a host

of eminent speakers from corporate

India grace the occasion. Mr. Pa-

resh Chaudhry, Head of Corporate

Communications, HUL; Mr. P K Ke-

savan, Director - Ministry of Pancha-

yati Raj; Mr. Harish Bijoor, CEO of

Harish Bijoor Consults Inc. and Mr.

Sunil Chainani, Director of FabIndiaOverseas Pvt. Ltd. all spoke in great

depth on the topic of Rural India and its untapped potential.

Mr. Abheek Singhi, Partner and Director of BCG, emphasized the key drivers of Indias

growth while the CEO of Maricos Consumer Products, Mr. Saugata Gupta gave a talk on how

to become winning managers.

The conclave ended with an HR Summit in which eminent HR Managers like Mr. Nara-

yanan Nair, VP-HR of Mphasis EDS and Mr. Sheen Sunny Akkara, Director of Resource Man-

agement of Deloitte Consulting participated. In addition to this, a B-Plan Guidance workshop

was also held in which Mr. Gururaj Potnis, CEO of Manthan Services gave key pointers to bud-

ding entrepreneurs.

A Prelude to Backwaters 2008

Backwaters the annual management-cum-cultural festival of IIMKis back and this time its

bigger than ever! If BW 07 will be remembered for launching White Knight and for the pulsating

performance by Euphoria then BW 08 promises to surpass all the milestones it has reached

before.

Six weeks of online events, three

days of intense competition and

three nights of unrelenting fun.The best brains across B-schools

will spend sleepless nights out-

thinking the competition to be pro-

claimed the White Knight in our

flagship event. Its raining events

in BW 08 with challenging compe-

titions across verticals -from HR to

strategy, marketing to operations

and finance to systems. Simula-

tion games, case studies, paperpresentations, B-plans: you name it, well have it!

dekaf iimk newsletter#1

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