da incorrigible SAZEAL - experiences_at_tapmi

Enterprise Solutions - A Talk with Ms. Pooja Raheja (Infosys)

noreply@blogspirit.com (achilles sans his weak heels) — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 19:00:00 +0900

“If you are flexible, it is not at all difficult to move across domains within the industry. Although you should try and do some coherent domain work, because that is a matter of expertise”, exclaimed Ms. Pooja Raheja, who represented the Enterprise Solutions Unit of Infosys. A senior executive in the Sales and Marketing Department of Enterprise Solutions, she has been associated with Infosys for about 7 years now. The objective of the talk was to clarify all the concepts regarding a management job in the IT industry, especially in the area of Package Consulting.

Beginning with the explanation on what Package Application is all about, she went on to explain how Infosys has successfully worked in the arena to be the largest service provider for Automation requirements of the customers. Separate learning groups are designed for different Services, for eg. Enterprise Solution, which works for providing Package Application Solutions has groups for CRM implementation, ERP implementation, etc. In her words, “Our job is to help customer automate their process with these products and to get them the best possible solution as per his requirement.”

She further dispelled all doubts about how ERP consulting differs from package consulting. She helped the audience understand what the industry is about, which was a revelation to many; she helped them cleared the doubts on what the students, who join as managers, are supposed to do. As new recruits, they are not assigned to projects. Instead, they are assigned to groups according to the talents displayed by the young managers. From here, she took a totally exited audience to her own story on how she started her career as a Chemical Engineering student and Sales and Marketing student (from MDI) to rise to be a top executive in the organization with a techno-functional profile, displaying the hordes of opportunities in the IT sector.

After explaining in detail, how the entire process of Package service offering, Package evauation, Package Implementation, Production Support and Package Application is done, she actually took the audience to the Internal web pages of Enterprise Solutions to show how the whole processs is carried out. The students actually got to see the methodology.

When a question was raised as to whether the organization aligns itself to a particular vendor to provide solutions to customers’ problems, pat came the reply, “That’s against the company’s ethics. It is very important to take care that we do not cling to a vendor, as we are supposed to provide best solution to our end user, who is our customer. Although there are some unbiased affiliations, we follow Vendor Agnostism to the core.” She also went on to explain how standard set of rules have to exist, though the service is customized.

Ms. Raheja, a very charismatic person, actually made the heads turn by her oratory skills. With best wishes and a hope to have a sustained long term liaison of Infosys with TAPMI, and having about 140 students as a very supportive audience glued to their seats throught the session, she successfully brought the event to its closure.

An MBA is also a mere mortal?!!

noreply@blogspirit.com (achilles sans his weak heels) — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 01:25:00 +0900

Peter Robinson, has so rightly christened his famous book "SNAPSHOTS FROM HELL", and has given a detail description of his life in the first year of his education in Business Administration. And funnily, as I read it and looked at my first year of PGDM at "one of the top B-Schools of India" in retrospect, I am convinced that its comparision to an "Inferno" is as close to reality as possible.

No I aint really complaining... am just not that type, you know! I am just describing... THE DOG FIGHT- for academic/scholastic acheivements, for power, for acceptance, for placements, for everything you can think of! The rigours of the Course; the assignments/projects/presentations/submissions that go on perpetually; the amount of stress levied on us (which we get used to midway thru the end of 1st year); so much so that we are capable and ready to take any s**t in our life. By all this, I say that a B-School "prepares" you!!

And all this we go thru, the abilities we inculcate further fills us with air- air of being omnipotent; air of being a part of the elite management fraternity... a sense of importance finds away into our head; we start thinking we are class apart. Of course I am exaggerating a bit... but this is the attitude that generally grows in almost all of us(though more subtly than elaborated here).

But yesterday something happened! This incident blessed me with some insights and revelations... it told me "An MBA is also a normal human being, a mere mortal". The same mortals that we consider others to be. And it was good! The earlier it dawns upon us, the better. What was it that triggered this thought in me, u might wonder...

Well yesterday, I saw someone breakdown in front of me... a person who was the coolest one among all of us; a person with inimtable style and a highly flared up ego, a person who seemed to be one of the smartest people- both mentally and emotionally, a good friend... he called me and he cried... For a moment I was lost, I knew not what to say... somehow I talked him out and we decided that I would accompany him to a psychiatrist. Well, all I can say at this point is that his problem had grown slowly due to this pressure that accumulated in last 9 months...
Yes, this was the person who I thought was was one of the few "invincible creatures" with a like-I-care attitude (a league of which I consider myself a part). But then I realized, "he is also a normal human, and so are all of us, in this world of the mere mortals" and nothing more...

I am trying to imply that, we as MBAs, do have something special in us, as an "elite and educated group", we have some capabilities and power exlusively found in our types... but instead of bloating with that power, ego andstatus; instead of moving away from reality in an attempt tomove to a higher realm of existential survival, we must use these inherent capabilities to do the "right things", good for us, good for people around and good for people at large... no, I am not making any global statements, I feel this atttitude will help us keep our feet firmly based on ground. To understand the social fabric that we are a part of and our roles towards the same.

CRA part 2

noreply@blogspirit.com (achilles sans his weak heels) — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 01:10:00 +0900

I think I undid the effect of the CRA disaster...

Yesterdays presentation of Marketing (Frequency of Advertisement in a Mature Market) went so purrrfect... I am happy again... Got applauds from Prof. and classmates... and my groupies are happy...

all in all, as i said in my previous posts... good and bad things are complimentary to each other and inevitable too... but i am still to understand my own feelings and behaviour of that day

CRA

noreply@blogspirit.com (achilles sans his weak heels) — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 03:15:00 +0900

I dont know how to write what I felt today... I felt something today that is unlike anything I ever felt.

It is about the presentation of CRA (Concurrently Running Assignment) in Marketing... It is one of the very few things I have worked on with all my heart and soul... Well, public speaking and presenting is something I like to do, and they (the audience) say that I am good at it... plus marketing is my area of interest (or so I strongly feel today)... and for this assignment we were so well prepared... it was awork of many sleepless nights and a totally wasted Sunday.. a totally draining exercise

Nilesh and I had worked really hard on this presentation... but Professor Sivakumar called Rajesh on stage for presenting it... and he wasn't prepared... and the presentation was scrwed... most people did not notice and Prof. Sivakumar did not give a negative feedback... but we knew we couldn't do justice to the presentation...

It is not the first time such a goof up has taken place, whether on my personal part or on group's part... it is a part of the game! But surprisingly, my mood got so goddamn spoilt (so did nilesh's) that i could neither talk, nor behave in a normal way... i felt like drawing myself into a coccoon, become invisible somehow (this is the first time I felt something like this), though i was not even in the line of fire... it was a disgusting feeling... and understanding that it wasn't such a big deal... well, it was, in the sense that it weighed 20% on the evaluation in the most important theme, but when have I cared about grades... it was definitely not about the grades, neither it had anything to do with Ego and stuff... i just felt sad

Though I am feeling better now, I am trying to figure out what had happened...

Well, I truly pity the condition of Rajesh at that time... he was cold and totally soaked in perspiration when he got down from the stage... he had gone weak in his knees... he came down and apologized to Nilesh and me, which was not at all required... and in no sense am I blaming him or trying to derate him in this post, its just my feelings I am trying to decode

But I still feel sore...