To start my 1st post I will take responsibility that whatever I will write will be the best of my thinking abilities and rational thinking which I will henceforth term as ‘Rashanality”. Reason for coining above term is that it (rational thinking) is very common and yet so common that people don’t think it worth consideration and don’t even value. Also considering the ‘Arbitraaj’ system of our college where we don’t even know who is in ultimate authority. The Dean, Diro, Placecomm, SAC or NCC? So considering that I am competent enough to place my views I will start with my discussion.
For me DCP people are just as equal as we rest of PGDM people are. Reasons for following are given as:-
1. Consider this situation. I get a mail or I read in newspaper that Harvard Business School is expanding its capacity so that it extends its facilities and expertise to people around the world to become leaders and role models in their respective regions etc. I am allowed to pay a fees of 25 Lakh and there’s some test to get entrance. As I am not as ‘Star Performer’ as the people in HBS, the cutoffs and other criteria are relaxed. It’s the 1st batch so there are not enough competent people to vie for those seats. The low participation can be explained by uncertainty of placement scenario, faculties and cultural/socio/economic problems. My father is rich enough and aspires his son to hold the best of the degrees he can get me. He pays it and I get admitted. Now this situation is purposefully written in 1st person so that it reminds us that each one of us will never fail to grab such an opportunity with both hands. If there’s a facility and we can leverage upon that facility to rise high in life it doesn’t take an MS degree in Rocket Science to make a decision to enjoy it. So replacing HBS by IMT, I by DCP people and ‘Star Performers’ by the PGDM junta the above equation still holds water. Hence Proved.
2. Now let’s get into shoes of IMT Director. As we were ‘Forced Upon’ with DCP people similarly he was too. This decision was taken by administration before his arrival. The move was initiated by BODs of this college and involved Politicians which he has to execute. His hands were as tied as were ours. So no blame game on him.
3. Getting to the administration, asking them to remove their shoes [not to beat them up with their own stuffs] and getting into them I propose my 3rd point. We have a new batch in front of us. The students and the parents are ready to invest in your venture only if you guarantee huge returns in some way or other. We play with words saying the Placements will be at par with IMT PGDM batch. Mark the words. Words ‘same’ and ‘similar’ were not used. We also know the talent factor will come into picture and hence cannot guarantee same. This play of words is subjected to ‘filters’ and ‘distortion’ happened [remember BC1 &2 and barriers to communication]. It is communicated that placements will happen with PGDM batch. This was obviously a point to revolt upon as PGDM students and parents were not communicated that their child will be 1 in 500 instead of 1 in 400. In a situation of ‘Bandh’ and ‘Hartal’ the management had to give some answers to students to get the routine working. Pacifying both sides was also important. Giving hollow promises and post pone stuffs so that a good strategy is formulated to tackle was the obvious card they will play. Art of War was implemented right while we were listening to the ‘Surdie-Art of War’ lecture. With new administration and whatever happened afterwards shows that we were clearly being befooled.
4. Director’s Speech in Kapil Mohan- 1st sentence – ‘Placements is not responsibility of Administration. You draft whatever you feel is right and I will sign on it’. Art of War’s 2nd lesson is ‘Never go to war unless victory is ensured or at least defeat is not possible’. He said ball is in our court. He knew with 100 people not allowing to get cornered out there won’t be any draft which will get all the demands of PGDMs satisfied. With participation of both sides, eventually things will flow in what they were planning to do. Let the students whack their brains on own and come up with what we have already planned. If students agreed that placements are matter of administration then they will have to obey even though if administration would have pitch same companies for both PGDM and DCP. Defeat not possible in this case so let’s get ahead. Very eloquently he said I will take all the blames and let you go with honors. Dude, he is ‘Principal of the school we are studying in’, Baap in every terms. Bhokaal in its truest sense. Respect from the bottom most part of my brains to this guy.
5. Let’s apply something we learnt in 1st trimester. Demand-supply gap and market adjusting to it. Correct me if I am wrong. Approximately 4-5 years back there was a sudden boom in engineering colleges. Every tom-dick-harry completing 12th had a dream to be a computer, electronics or mechanical engineer. Considering that M.Tech. seats haven’t grown in similar proportion [even if they would have grown e.g. 1 M.Tech. for 2 B.Tech changed to 50 M.Tech. for 100 B.Tech, still we have 50 B.Techs unemployed instead for 1] and also not sporadic employment opportunities growth [these B.Tech obb won’t apply for NREGA ] and obviously America and other countries won’t give too many Visas just because there are too many Indians ready to come there. It creates an opportunity to have a growth in MBA colleges. And as I said there has been a rapid growth in MBA colleges in India in last 1-2 years. New IIMs are being opened and other universities are opening up different campuses and colleges are increasing the intake capacity. So supply has to catch up with the demand side. Obviously this rise won’t be as pronounced as 4-5 years rise in engineering colleges but still there is. So if ‘IMT k karta-dharta’ thinks that they need to tap in this market potential I think it won’t be a hard decision to take to increase the capacity and create a niche and be good there and leverage that in future. Obviously they can’t overtake IIPM which is 1st in Global Exposure.
6. Faculty and APO also doesn’t have a say as they are independent bodies working under the direct orders of directors. They have to make classes and student groups as they are ordered to. Electives are a problem as I also support that people from PGDM should not have to sacrifice their electives just because DCP people are also here to attend the classes. The reason given by director that the faculty can’t take pressure of extra students is too lame to accept.[Seriously not expected out of guy I just gave respect to]. It’s his responsibility to get new and competent people to teach us and increased population.
7. Please don’t say that you are more than DCP. And don’t even say we have come here by merit. ‘Pauwa’ is the word I learnt here and I won’t stress more on the subject. Also I did very good in many exams like CAT, Symbiosis and others. In XAT however I got 60%ile. I screwed up badly 1 day. That’s all. Had it been a case where seats would have been offered in XLRI and I could get HR specialization there with just 3-4 lacks extra to pay and with my father’s capacity to spend that much (its not) [I took loan…hence desperate for jobs..DCP people reading this kindly refer me to your contacts if you like it :P] I would have gone there and faced similar wrath from people there.
So after the 7 point agenda I would like to say what was done was the reality not to be resisted but to accept and swallow just like a sour pill. Also I would like to sum up more things which I may not have covered in these agendas. I was in BITS-Goa. Ours was the 3rd batch from that institute and we saw it growing just like us. Our previous batch was the unlucky batch of recession era. I have been a part of the Aandolan for convincing BITS authorities to make our placements on the same page as that of Pilani’s. Obviously BITS has purely merit culture and we all were as competent enough as them. But seeing the hard reality that we didn’t had as good resources and faculty as they enjoyed we knew that we may not be as good as them. But on the contrary we emerged from such a challenging background that there was more than curriculum in our knowledge bank. This somehow worked wonders in our placements. With hardly any support from Pilani authorities we finally decided to state BITS-Goa as a different entity from them. From the perspective of management I can empathize that it was not possible for them to give same placements to us as Pilani guys. It’s not that feasible to pitch differently to same companies for different batch and ask them to come again and again at different campuses while we take so much pain to give them good hospitality Why I was actively involved in this movement was the reasons of different placements as it was possible in this case and the 2nd reason being that of electives and final degree awarded to us and them. I think they both have been answered.
So what’s the reason to tell you this story even if I could have concluded it brilliantly after 7 point agenda? Reason is some things we have to accept and move on. This is one of those. With so many loopholes in our own ‘Hartal’ we can’t blame authorities for their short comings. Accept it and let’s concentrate on what we have forwards. We can’t ride our car while looking in rear view mirror and expect it dent free from front. Final point if you think you have more talent than them no one can stop you to get into what you want. But concentrate on what you want not on competition and obstacles in front of you to achieve it. Refer to secret and power documentaries I mentioned in previous posts. Intention Attention Manifestation. Think Big, Think Fast, Think Ahead. Ideas are no One’s Monoply. So Chill Macha…
