Curtains down

This Friday, the 14th of December 2007, eMEP-06 had its certificate award and valedictory function. Like other campus visits this day long function was indeed a very well organized one.

The day started with an talk on – ‘Quantum Mechanics, Post Modernism and Management: I, in a new understanding of my confusion’ by one of the finest professor at IIMK, Prof. Unnikrishnan Nair. Needless to say this talk was yet an other classic delivery by the professor.

We had a meeting with the alumni committee, as we would be first batch of eMEP to be inducted into the alumni of IIMK.

Post lunch, we were systematically lined up according to roll number for a group photograph along with the chief guest and faculty members. Then like school kids we walked in a line to the the auditorium and were seated as per roll numbers. The auditorium had four sections, one for the passing out students, one for the faculty members, one for the guests and another one for the staff members. The chief guest, Class Neumann, President of SAP Labs India, distributed the degree certificates to all the 76 students (out of 110 who passed out) who were present. Each of us proudly walked up to the dais to receive our certificates. Udhav Phondba who topped the batch was awarded with a cash prize.

As soon as the function was to end, our friend and TheBusinessLawLecturer requested us to hold back for a few minutes and he distributed prizes to those who did well in his course, Business Law. His enthusiasm as a teacher and professional is truly infectious.

With certificates in our hand, for the one last time, we all clicked away as many photos as possible of the most picturesque campus in the world. It was indeed a very nostalgic moment for those present. For most of us this would be the last formal education in our life. It is indeed an achievement to have gone back to school many years after completion of education, having balanced work and study, having sacrificed more than hundred weekends (many were long weekends in 2006-07) and having completed more than 15 term papers and 23 mini assignments.

With curtains down on eMEP-06, we Sandeep Sekhar ( as adriankatts) and Vivek V (as sigsegv) thank you for reading this blog, which has consistently received more than 50 hits per day (some days peaking up to 100). We hope we were able provide you an overall coverage of eMEP-06 at regular intervals. This post would be the last post in this blog. With this we hand over the baton to the eMEP-07 blog http://emep07.wordpress.com/.

Wishing you all the very best!

Ignited minds

“Education is not the filling of a pail; but the  lighting of a fire.” – William Butler Yeats

 

A few of my classmates have already proved what WB Yeats said. They have combined their entrepreneurial instincts with the skills acquired at IIMK to go on their own. Take a look: http://www.dockko.com/

 

Wishing them the very best in their en devour.

 

PS: Valedictory function for emep-06 is scheduled on 14th December 2007. Will have a detailed blog post for that.

What after eMEP?

After matriculation, for me, the goal was to get into a decent pre-university college. After pre-university, to get into a good university for graduation. After graduation to get into one of your dream companies. After emep, ???? Agreed, it’s an executive program, agreed it lasted just over a year, but still, what next? As long as you have a job in hand answers for what after eMEP would not be easy to arrive at. So is quiting one’s job and starting a fresh is a solution, well that’s not a very sensible idea.  Where is an eMEP or for that matter any partime executive management education program student headed after his/her course?

 

Education is an end in itself some times, not always, unless you are doing exceedingly well in something totally different. Education and iron rusts with passage of time if unused. Opporunity to use what you learnt comes by your way not easily. Couple of things that one can do:

• Try to understand what other departments in your companies are doing and how does that map to whatever you have learnt. For example if you are in an engineerning role, then take a look at your company’s marketing strategies.
• Read & understand balance sheets published
• Increase your professional network beyond your scope of work
• May be ask for a new role you desire as you are now armed with a certified management education from a well known institute

 

If you are reading this post, and have some good ideas, you are welcome to post them as comments.

The Unsung Heroes

The “Gang of five” uploaded the last assignment which was due for eMEP06. What a moment! Things have been hectic, the last 15 months.

The program is now over, bar the valedictory. Personally, I am fully satisfied with the program, as are most of my colleagues.

I wanted to use this day and the opportunity to specifically mention about the “Unsung Heroes of eMEP”. They are none other than our very own  Mr. Murali from IDL office and the administrative assistants who have manned the office round the year. Many a times, these folks do the hardwork and go unacknowleged. I cannot remember any instance when an e-mail, that has been sent to these people, for which a response has not been received. They score high on responsiveness, something that you do not expect from a Govt. funded oragnization.

I guess that is probably one of the reasons why eMEP is a highly successful program.

Three cheers to Mr. Murali and IDL office staff!

What we feel about eMEP

With the curtains almost down on eMEP-06, we went on to ask a few participants of the 2006 batch as to what they feel about the course they have just completed. Here are a few selected responses.

 

“I had seen a quote from Bill Beattie ‘The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think–rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men’ I think eMEP gets full points in this regard” – Sashidhar Shadaksharappa, Business Head (Mobile devices), Subhiksha

 

 

“This programme is for those who aspire to hone their skills and learn the modern management techniques and jargon but cannot devote full time for studies.  As the participating students are from wide spectrum of industry with rich practical experience, the knowledge that is shared on the platform is of immense value which gives different dimension and approach to various issues that are discussed. Most importantly, it needs commitment, well in terms of effort, time and money from the participant. Learning does not happen just like that as you spend years at work” – Rajsekher.N.R, Chief Operating Officer, United Breweries 

 

“It has been a year long journey of learning. Suddenly lazy laidback weekends were hectic hotspots for discussions, quizzes and challenges. While the topics covered were broadbased, the biggest takeaway has been the basic tools and analytic techniques imparted, that will I hope will sustain the learning process that we typically put on the backburner due to the hectic demands corporate and family life.” – Preethi K, Project Manager, Patni

 

 

“eMEP had been the corner stone of my career and could not have a expected a better executive management programme than eMEP. The highlight of the programme had been its rigor, strenuous schedule, comprehensive reading and grueling evaluation mechanism. Passion and approach demonstrated by the IIMK faculty has been worth appreciating and their approach towards the programme has been the same as it has been towards the PGP course and making us and the world realize that distance doesn’t matter when it comes to grooming gen-nex of India.”  – Prem Vijoy, Asst. Consultant (Manufacturing BPO- Business Development), Tata Consultancy Services Limited

 

“Introspecting into my expectations from eMEP, I had clearly defined Tangible and Intangible expectations from the eMEP.

Starting with the Intangibles, I wanted to have a better perspective of all the functions of an organization rather that specializing into a specific one. Undoubtedly, this course had added a huge lot of value in this regard and exceeded my expectations. I also had the priviledge of comapring eMEP from IIMK to a few other similar cources offered by other IIMs (since a couple of very close friends and colleagues are doing it from other IIM’s)  but the Rigour, Content, Seriousness and Pedagogy of eMEP is simply uncomparable. At the end, I am proud that I choose IIMK.

Coming to tangibles, I was obviously looking at ROI in terms of better Job Profile and a better pay cheque. But to be a little frank and direct, I am not very sure of exceeding my expectations on this parameter.

 I would sum up saying that if you want an IIM tag in your CV in addition to pleanty of learning and hard work, sign up for eMEP from IIMK blindly. But if you are just looking for a decorative certificate, there are many other cources.” – Kaul Yash, Sales Manager – Speciality Business, Boehringer Ingelheim India Pvt Ltd

 

Chak De eMEP-06

We had the last class of eMEP-06 yesterday. Some got a bit nostalgic and some relieved. It is difficult to believe that we would not be spending our Wednesdays, Sundays and Saturdays at the virtual classroom any longer. With exams to go within 2 weeks, all that we can tell is “Chak De eMEP-06”

Tackling group assignments

Group assignments unlike individual assignments have  totally different dynamics. The participants of a group, in the true sense of democracy do not form a new animal with all legs combined! Usually the nature of the participants ranges from everyone being absolutely careless to everyone in the team being overzealous. The former is very dangerous; however the later is no less dangerous as each participant wanting to enforce his view will result in anarchy. Some groups function very harmoniously by each member of the team taking turns to do the next group project; however the very essence of doing a project in a group is lost in this method! As most of the learning happens through assignments, we have successfully followed the following method of tackling group assignments:

1. Choose a leader or one among the group nominates oneself as the leader for that project
2. The leader has the responsibility to come up with an overall theme of the project, the table of content and time lines
3. Send the theme and table of contents to the group for review
4. Group responds with comments by the due date fixed by the leader
5. The leader allots the areas of the assignment to the members of the group based on the expertise/interest of the members
6. The leader organizes brainstorming sessions to elicit ideas
7. The individuals send their contributions to the leader
8. Leader stitches together the project report to maintain the uniform flow and sends it for review to the rest of the group.
9. The group members respond with any final changes needed
10. Leader submits the assignment

Advantages of this method:

1. • Development of leadership capabilities; you are leader of people on whom you have no authority but yet are responsible and hence will have to display true leadership
   • The other members in the team need not wonder as to who will do the final amalgamation of the project; clear allocation of responsibility
   • Every person gets to lead a project or more of his choice
   • Everyone participates in the true sense of group assignment

 

Of course there will angry moments of not getting inputs from group members at times, but that is only a part of the game.

Good Bye Prof.Mac

Communication – would never again be taught at IIM-K like it used to be. Prof. Wilson Mackaden passed away this morning. Prof.Mac (he wanted us to address him as just Mac) taught us “Managerial Communications” and his energy was infectious, considering that he was the senior most faculty of the institute. The last we saw him was on the online platform and he was very impressive even on that.

May his soul rest in peace.

Term three ends

Term three ends and without a break term four starts. Let me summarize.

 

Top three faculties who taught us this term:

 

Adv. Sebastain Tharakan – Business Law

Prof. KK Ramesh – Cost Accountancy

Prof.Saji Gopinath – Supply Chain Management

 

I have a feeling that too many things were packed into this term. So was the learning all that effective? One thing that needs to improve is the web portal for the course. The portal seems to have serious problems for almost 40% of the times hindering timely access to learning materials.

 

After the three terms I have felt that kind of 80-20 rule seems to work on this course also. Almost 90% of learning comes from assignments, which has an evaluation percentage ranging from 20 to 50% depending on the course. How about increasing it to say 70-80%? Then the challenge will be to design assignments in a manner that makes it difficult for students to cheat.

 

Meanwhile time to think as to how exactly we can leverage the learning and the IIMK brand to further our careers.

 

We are busy!

For those who stop by this place for some candid information on eMEP from IIMK, sorry to disappoint you this time around. Nothing much to write as we are a bit too busy with eight 2-credit courses this term (there are 4 terms and 4 exams). Last minute study for the exams is no much fun nor learning. Any serious learning happens only while doing assignments. So why not have some 90% of course evaluation based on assignments? Do I have a say?

Meanwhile, if you are waiting for your management program to start in a few days or weeks, you are strongly recommended to read “The Goal” by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. A must read for aspiring managers and management students to grasp things faster. 

So wish us luck for the forthcoming exams.