IIMB- GD TOPICS "TV is making us watcher and not doer". “Should GD and PI be removed as a selection criterion for management schools”. “Population of India is not a problem but an opportunity”. "Use of animals in medical research is immoral and should be banned ". "Are exams an accurate indicator of a student's capability". “In developing countries, it is economics that wins over politics”. “Indian Youth are motivated more by compensation and salary than by the need to learn and grow”. “Should businesses fund elections for political parties”? “India should not participate in the Olympics if there is no hope of winning”. "Grades always reflect the capability of a person". “In democracies people get the leaders they deserve”. A young accountant is directed by one of the directors of the company to cut a cheque of Rs 25 lacs for a charitable trust, without any approvals. This high amount is not justified considering the company's financial performance. What should the accountant do ? A very bright student Gyani, performs exceptionally well at Satya Institute of Management, he is going to get gold medal in a few days. Classmates accuse him of cheating but professors are not ready to accept it. Just before the day Gyani was going to receive a gold medal, he was caught cheating in a job exam for a software company. Professors decide not to support Gyani in college placements. Also, classmates demand not to give gold medal to him. As a Chairman of the college, what will you do? A company wants to market its milk product. Youth is the target audience. Company is apprehensive about marketing it as a 'cool' product or as a 'healthy' product. How should the company place its product? "Art of Refusal" GD about Robert Scott and Ernest Shackelton and their Antarctic voyage, how one persists and the whole team dies, or one comes back and saves the team, what would you advice.. Sunita’s fiance pesters her to marry early, but Sunita is career oriented woman. One day she fixes up a date with Rakesh (fiance) but some other employee, Radha, has some prior family commitments so Radha leaves early for the day. Boss asks Sunita to complete the pending work, which means that she cannot go out for a date. What should Sunita do? A teacher in a Delhi private school who repeatedly beats up students and no action has been taken against her in spite of repeated complaints to the authorities. The teacher has been associated with the school for a long time and her husband is one of the trustees of the school. Two students decide to instigate her, secretly filmed this from a mobile and posted the video on youtube. As a board of members of the school, discuss the short term course of action about the teacher and the two students, and long term steps to prevent such incidents in future. Sriram has to visit his ailing grandmother but he is unable to get a ticket (waitlist for next two days). It is an emergency situation, what should he do? Some parents complain against a maths professor, who is a genius and a lot of improvements have come after he joined the college, on his sexual misconduct with students in a special class. As a principal what actions would you take so that the parents can be taken into confidence and the career of the professor is also not spoilt. Mr. X C.M. Tech. Pradesh introduced midday meal concept which became a big success. Now, in order to ensure better health, he sought for introduction of chicken in the meal which draws flak from NGOs as well as allies. Now what to do.. A survey was conducted by 6 people. Each person was sent to a different area to collect the data and the information was entered into a computer except the anonymous names .The names were discussed when there were monthly meetings. One of the persons from the group, Rajat, happens to go to an area which was surveyed by a colleague, Sumeet, and met a person, Agarwal, who was interviewed by Sumeet. Agarwal does not remember Sumeet conducting any survey. Is Agarwal lying? Did Sumeet conduct the survey? What should Rajat do? A group of students were asked to submit an assignment, demonstrating original thinking. But they copied it verbatim from the net. The group had a girl with proven academic credentials. As a professor what would you do?

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Dr.Gupta , president of IDA, approves a medical device inspite of it not being tested properly and a stiff resistance from scientists. He did so because, there was huge pressure from patients and the advisory committee also recommended it. Now it is found that the device had side effects and hence Dr. Gupta should be suspended. What would you do as a member of the board? There is difference in telecom subscriber density in urban and rural areas. Telecom players are reluctant to go rural for so low cash. Govt. has tried taxing the urbanites to get cash for rural people, but then poor urbanites are suffering. Finance ministry is also unable to help with subsidy and all. What to do? Mr. and Mrs. Sen, both Indian citizens, living and working in US are Green card holders. They have 2 kids (10 and 8 yr old) both born in US and hence US citizens. They have come to India for a month on a vacation. But when they reach India, at the immigration check, they find that they have forgotten to bring the Indian Visas of their 2 kids. So the immigration officers don’t allow the kids to enter the country but allow the parents to enter. Mr. Sen says that since he holds a valid Indian passport, so his kids should be given a concession. Further they say although they had got the Indian visas, they forgot to pick that up and they admit to their fault, but also say as nobody at their source i.e. Boston check the Indian visas of the kids, they never realized that they have missed some thing. Eventually when the immigration officers do not agree, Mr. Sen and family return back to US. After reaching back to US, Mr Sen makes a complaint to the External Affairs Ministry, stating that he should have been given at least a humanitarian treatment. Since the senior officials were not even present at the airport, there was no one to hear him and he had to undergo a lot of trauma. The Ministry officials are looking at the case and want you to advice on the actions that can be taken against the immigration officers. Venkat went to US for a three month project. Now he has only 3 days to go and he is just going to attend his farewell party when he stops in the way at a Wal-Mart store to buy some essential goodies, for Bangalore. There he meets a pretty lady on a wheelchair who starts a conversation with him and comments that all the Indians which she has met till date have been very smart people. Now Venkat notices the lady surreptiously stealing some cosmetics which she puts in her purse while Venkat and lady were standing in line at the checkout counter .Venkat thinks that if he reports, he might get held up,also the lady might be sympathised with by the staff.His being a 'foreigner ' might also add oil to the fire. He can be held up as a witness if a police case is registered. What should Venkat do? Should he turn the blind eye? Ramakanth is an MBA from an institute in US and is working in a publishing company now. He had done a market study and had realized over a period of time that there is a market for print edition of encyclopaedia of Indian mythology. His boss is not so convinced about the idea so, it is shelved. But there is a person Mr. Giri Murthy who is interested in Ramakanth's idea. Suddenly, the boss leaves the company and Mr. Giri takes over the mantle. Mr. Giri is all in for the idea and decides to go ahead with the print edition. But now Mr.Ramakanth has other ideas. He thinks that there is more market for an online edition of the encyclopaedia. Mr.Giri is doesn’t approve of this idea and now Ramakanth's promotion hangs in the balance. What should he do? Coach of Indian Hockey team is in dilemma. Flamboyant forward has attitude problems and fights with referees. World Cup is coming ahead and team doesn't want him, but he can turn a match on his its head. What to do? An engineer working at an automotive plant in his thirties has been doing the same work for a number of years. Engineer was initially slow in picking up his work so his supervisor had to mentor him. Now engineer is proficient, still his supervisor keeps a check and he is not making progress. Engineer does not wish to confront his boss because his boss has mentored/helped him. So what should engineer do? Case study - A new truck advertised and to bAmar Singh manufactures aqua purifier; his brand is reputed and depends on personal marketing. A journal of US finds that it might contain some carcinogens but the correlation is low (.25), in the next issue of journal it comes out that the method for the study is not authentic and hence results might not be correct. Should Amar Singh disclose these facts to his customers? A company has designed a truck with a capacity of 15 tonnes fitted with an axle that can take a load of 18 tonnes. However just one day before the launch, the company's VP comes to know that Indian drivers invariably overload, even up to 22 tonnes, the trucks. What should the company do? Should the trucks be launched, delayed and made sturdier? Murali, Ashish, Kunal and Amit are studying in Pragya Management School. They have a report to be submitted at 5 Pm on the same day it was assigned. Murali is good student and has collected all the data, tables, charts for report – only typing and the presentation is left. At 2 PM, Kunal calls and informs that he won’t be able to come for report work. Ashish & Amit are border line cases, a bad grade in report would mean 'bye-bye' for both Ashish and Amit from the B School. All of them are dependent on Murali now. Murali hates the fact he has to work with this team (he didn’t want to but was forced by his faculty). He has spreadsheet modelling quiz next day and he wants to prepare for it and for him a bad mark in this report means nothing. What should Murali do ? Bob Smith is a Senior VP at a Financial Services firm. Ravi is the Director for Indian Operations. Ravi has performed extremely well in the past and has been successful in generating huge profits for the company. Looking at his performance in the past he has been asked to head the UK and Germany operations as well. So, he shuttles between the two continents. Some managers in the European offices have problems with Ravi's style of working. As a VP of the company how would you resolve the crises that have arisen because of the different management cultures prevalent in Asia and Europe? A Pump manufacturing company is not doing well as compared with foreign competitors. The GM Sales needs to convince the vendor to get raw materials. Should he hide actual facts and figures? Joey and Ross are pass outs from Ivy League University. Assignment is given to the entire class which requires group work but Joey's group doesn’t move a finger and throws the onus at Joey to complete it. Ross lets Joey have a glance at their report which Joey copies without telling Ross and submits to the prof. Later caught by the prof and found guilty. Joey takes full responsibility and asks for penalty but faculty recommends that Ross be penalised as well. You are the Prof and have to decide your stand on the issue...

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CPU Softwares is a Multi National Company located in Chennai. It has to deliver software to another MNC located in California in few days. The overseas project manager suggested some changes in the software keeping customer’s needs in mind. The Indian project manager feels that the changes may lead to bugs and possibly jeopardize the whole development process. But the Indian project manager is hesitant to say so because he fears that the professional relations might worsen. What should he do? 3 professors in a management institute follow different approaches towards taking exams. A trusts the students so, no invigilator should be present during the exam; B trusts, but keeps different sets of papers (like most competitive exams) to prevent cheating; C doesn't trust the students so, strict invigilation is practised. Once 6 studs were caught cheating, 4 of them were caught cheating in A's paper, 2 in B's, and 2 in C’s (one of them cheated in all three, another common to b & c). What decision would you take as a Dean of the college? "India should follow the american model of presidential rule" Government should introduce censorship in advertising'. Rohit is an MBA in Finance, working in consulting firm. While auditing the manufacturing firm's (x) books, he discovers that the loan was taken against the Pension Gratuity Reserve as a security and reports it to one of the director of the firm. The firm was under heavy losses already because of which the security might sink, leaving employees without pension. The director threatens to ruin Rohit's consulting career or he should burn that vital loan-paper. Rohit's senior consulting partner is overseas. What should Rohit do?

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