PR Meet 2011-'12

It was a Sunday afternoon in January 2011, about six weeks after the SNAP exam, when I attended the Annual ‘City meet’ of SIIB. While I was interacting with the speakers and simultaneously analyzing my future prospects for SIIB (which later turned out were actually pretty good) a thought suddenly crossed my mind – “It would have been so cool if I was the speaker addressing this crowd”. Not knowing what fate had in store for me, I made a promise to myself that if I do get admitted to SIIB I will join the PR team.

10 months later, October 2011 another Sunday afternoon I am delivering a similar presentation while addressing a crowd of 100 odd nervous aspirants.

The 10 month journey from being a spectator to be a speaker has been nothing less than spectacular; my first day at college, first interaction round with seniors, Interview for PR team and preparing day and night along my with team mates to make sure that when the day comes we fall short of nothing and deliver the expected.

The PR (Public Relations) team bears all responsibilities related to official communication and visibility of college but the ‘Crack it with SIIB city meets’ is what everyone dearly waits for as it is a completely student driven initiative which gives us an amazing opportunity to meet our potential juniors and share our thoughts and experience with the aspirants. Same is also a wonderful platform for the aspirants to gain some extremely useful tips and insights on SNAP exam and process beyond that (GD’s, PI’s). We try our best to facilitate the journey that aspirants go through; which starts at the preparation stage and ends at the very door of SIIB.

On a personal front, I was eagerly waiting for the meet as it allows one to feel the same adrenaline again as one did a year ago when he/she was one of the Aspirants and also to realize how does it feel to be on the other side of the crowd.

The motive is to conduct the workshop in all major towns on the very same day accessing as much populace as we can across the country. This year we have planned to conduct this workshop in 13 major cities reaching every corner of India.

Invitations have been send, teams have been designated, months of planning & preparation boils down to the week of the city meet when we all embark on a journey to the designated cities to conduct the ‘Crack it with SIIB’ city meets.

For the PR meet scheduled on 20^th Nov, I along with my two colleagues leave for Delhi to make arrangements and to conduct the workshop. We spent the preliminary days making venue arrangements and contacting as much coaching institutes and colleges in city as possible to invite the respective students to the workshop. Last but not the least, we got our suits dry cleaned and we were all set to represent our college.

The day went fine with people turning up in good numbers and two of our distinguished alumni gracing the occasion with their presence. The students seemed satisfied interacting with us and the alumni.

The workshop acted as a platform where aspirants could quench their thirst of knowledge when it comes to MBA program and SNAP exam, hence the session was aimed to provide a firsthand experience of life at a B-School & I think we were pretty successful in doing so. The aspirants seemed to appreciate the value of MBA and how it can act as a catalyst for their career.

Evening, in order to celebrate the success of the event we went out for dinner with both of our alumni and believe you me it turned out to be an enthralling experience, not just because of good food but because of the amazing anecdotes our seniors had in store for us.

As our super seniors were sharing their stories (indeed very interesting) with us we could see them getting a bit nostalgic and sentimental. For us it was a great feeling to see the level of commitment and love they have for their Alma Mater, Indeed a lesson for all of us to learn.

The Event was a huge success all across the county, the response was terrific, we addressed around 1500 people pan India. But the best moment for me was yet to come and it came a couple of days after I reached college.

It was in form of a mail which said “It was indeed a really good presentation and I wish I could do the same when I join SIIB”.

Stepping Out [ from SIIB ] Stepping in [ new world ]

April 2, 2010 - Stepping Out for the batch of 2008-10.
It's a college "formal" farewell. :)


We didn't realize that it was time. Two years were over. We have learned our share of learning’s and now it was time to make them into use.


Gosh!! Time never stops. It never takes a break. These two years have been enriching in all ways.


The first year was tough. With its fair share of internals,externals,AMR presentations and a whole lot of group studies- it was indeed a time when we worked our a** off.


The second year was a bit more relaxed. With core specialization subjects being flown in people now were split up not into Div A and Div B but Mktg / Fin / SCM / HR .


SIC has always been rocking .Where else you would find a "sweety/rangoli" buzzing with people. Life would have been hell had the “Xerox" shop closed down. From laudries to juice bar to our very own cafeteria - SIC had it all.


The hostels were simply superb. Room cleaning was a regular ritual. And what if anything needed a "repair" the register was at your service and "shoot" it was done.


The view from all around, the three campuses always buzzing with activities. It was all so amazing.


The late night walks around the campus, having coffee , people going to 5th & 6th floor to catch all the unused broadband for downloading , calling up D hostel @ 1 am and telling him an order no less than a birthday party.......I am gonna miss all this :(


We did study. And that too well. Spanish was a clincher and only I know how I managed to clear it in the third semester. We almost did our Ph.D's in Spanish. :P


The faculty, the visiting faculties, the GL’s, the events everything has been so special that you can't picture -this is all over.

People cried, hugged like babies when they were leaving. This is what we call as bonding.And believe me; though we are still doing PG's we still have a child in us.

Well as they say "all good things have to end" - so it be.As all of us embark on a new journey we take these good rememberings with us so that at times we can cherish them.

Also,in life at some point when we meet , it actually brings up a smile on our face.


This is SIIB.This is Symbiosis.

PS-The second semester exams are on for the juniors.And after that they move for summers.So ,the blog would be a little less informed.

T-shirt Logo Design ?

The Battery Logo
&

The Simple Logo

Pour in your comments regarding a possible T-shirt design!

THERE’ S A DEVIL WAITING OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR…

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.” ~From the movie Fight Club, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk. These lines, delivered by Brad Pitt are legendary !!

Contemplating a little , one clearly understands the extent to which marketers hold the world at ransom. The Devil of Indulgence , they exort the savings from the poor man who toils day in and day out ,sweating it out so that he can afford the new designer suit from Armani , his son gets the Nike he craves for and his daughter can show off the latest killer jeans , while his wife can boast of her new Louis vuitton hand bag to her friends while gulping down Coke and KFC’s finger licking good munchies.. Man o Man – Feels like Brands have totally taken over !

Ah, so the devil in me will show his face through my profession, wow what a sense of fulfillment! .. feels like having gulped down a keg of German beer at October fest for free!!

The more I think about Demand side economics ,the perverse Keynes model, the more satisfaction I feel about being into marketing .A strange kind of divine feeling ,a feeling that somewhere in the midst of all these economists, who make monetary policies, fight about inflation and unemployment – I am their God.. Oops Devil!!.!! Yeah , I m not exaggerating –alright maybe a little exaggeration – after all I m into marketing! Coming to think of it , the single most important thing that has been sustaining India’s growth at almost 8% in the recent times is CONSUMPTION. About 60% of the GDP is contributed to by Consumption. The economic reasoning is that consumption creates Aggregate demand which in turn causes the invisible hand to work towards generating more output – i.e ,more investments or in Solow’s terms ,more growth. The responsibility of luring people into consumption ,in being the Satan in luring people into indulgence – yeah that’s my job , the devil in me is actually responsible for the recent growths that India has witnessed ,Not that I want to snatch the credits out of RBI ,the numerous economists struggling between Monetary and Fiscal policies, but hey no one can underplay my role.

Not that I want to undermine the blessings bestowed by the 100 million Gods in India , but for now , as they say .. Let us give the devil his due- Credit for propelling the growth.

The Money supply in India has risen dramatically. With more M1 comes more spending power according to the theory that the aggregate demand for money remains constant over time.More spending for consumption means ,that more services to cater to and more needs to serve- It is me who recognizes avenues where you can spend the excess M1 that the growth of output and the central bank keeps showering on us from time to time .It is me who tempts you into reducing the real demand to hold money L(I,Y) , by lowering interest rates citing competition !! (Price lowering strategy!).

Yeah, I channelize money that could otherwise be wasted as savings, into consumption, thus propping up output and hence incomes. I make you put a higher value on the present value of money- and enhance your choices in spending it.

But hey – hold on I m the devil!! Just as I lured poor Adam into eating the apple ,so I lure you into corrupt financial practices as some desperate finance specialists argue-But amazing how much power I wield ,even in terms of accumulating investments for Capital production , that I advertise ,compete and offer lucrative loans at sharp interest rates .Now little did people realize that high returns means high risks. And lo! While I projected growth in the banks business in terms of market shares and profit margins(after all that is what creates sales revenues),and as I kept employing more salesmen to bug you to buy innovative products and showered more credit all over you to get you to indulge into consumption.. the bank kept accumulating toxic loans ,which would soon go bust and take the whole economy with it , gulping the poor finance professionals with it , while I stand tall and argued that advertising spends need to increase now ,because what the economy needs again is higher consumption !!! The devil rules!!

Yeah , maybe I do not possess the power to enrich your souls , But I can certainly lure you into indulgence and materialism and lead to economic growth.

So beware ,cause “ There s a devil waiting outside your door..”- Metallica

Contributed by: S.G.S.Pavan ( Marketing, 2008-10)