The tribute continues 3…

 

Note: Hey guys, this is not to hurt anyone.. but something i felt I should do. I love doing it .. please don’t take me the wrong way. From here, things will get real personal.

Roll No:21 and Roll No: 22 Not sure if they exist in college..and if they do, I’ll edit this one..

Roll No:23 Nirandhari She is math genius who loves to play with numbers.. She is more an engineer than a MBA. I feel that she lacks the confidence in her. She is rather very sweet if you get to know her personally. She is mostly influenced by people who are close to her. She is prone to get angry fast without any reason. BTW, she is the roommate of the before mentioned “PRIYANKA” in this post. They are real good friends who like to be with each other. People feel that those two are inseparable but I'm damn sure that they will go on their own ways once the course is over. Guys wanna bet??

Roll No: 24 Praveen Chandar : (with a tear in my eye) He is one the best friend who will do anything for a friend. You must have seen all my “Missing my friend” poems and post on this particular person. He was a Gem of a friend. People used to envy our friendship until something something…Personally, it was my fault about what had happened. I was such an idiot to lose such a wonderful friend who wanted to my friend eternally. My dear Praveen is the sweetest of all the guys in class. He is a good friend, a funny and caring guy. I just hope that everything I said doesn’t happen and he lives happily ever after without seeing me after college days.

PS: To Praveen, I’m not as bad as you think I am. What I did was wrong but I just hated to see you cry. You are like my little bro so you mean a lot to me now and forever!!! :) and never hesitate to come back to me, because I’m waiting to be with you again. Love you lots and missing you very badly.

Roll No:25 Nishanth The margazhi dog. Lol. Just kidding. He is the silent killer. The master blaster of our class. Exceptionally talented and intelligent to the core. Main aim in life: to get married to a girl with all the riches. Well, and he sort of achieved it also by going on with my class” TRISHA” (lol) Akila. Quite a businessman and also known to steal ideas from others. Not a hard worker, but a smart one. He knows what he wants in life and he also knows how to get it the smart way. I am very honoured and proud to have such a beloved friend, who stands up for friendship. I really like his guts and I also know a little secret about you which is never mentioned in public. Guys, Wanna know??? Ask him yourself.

Roll No: 26 Winya I present to you the “BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL” Winya. She is hot some times and not so hot the other times. Lol. The greatest person in class who knows how to handle things the right way. Winya is a real fashion freak who loves clothes, footwear and other accessories. One of the boldest girls in class and stands up for right things only. She is awesome and sweet. Gets teased by all the guys in class for various reasons which have least effected her in anyways. Good Public Speaker and has a lot of common sense with which she oozes us all. I hate the way she speaks Tamil even though she is from down south herself.

To be continued…

PS: Guys, I have my exams starting from the fourth of November. I’ll try to read up the posts and keep you updated about my first blogovesary.

The tribute continues..

Roll No:7 Fadil: Referred as fidil or lots of others things which I dont want to mention. Thats because I said no bias. lol. Fadil is a great guy!! He is quite and sweet. He is sort of like a loner in class. Nobody pays attention to him but that guy has some serious thought process and knows what he does. He gets irritated by most of my classmates but don’t really care about it. The attitude I like in him. I think he should be more attentive and more punctual in class( who talking about that!!)
Roll No 8 and 9 have also left class and joined the other section.
Roll No: 10 Hariharan Nothing much to write.. I don't know what to say...
Roll No:11 left the building. Its stupid this college doesn’t remove them and replace the roll numbers below…
Roll No:12 Jagdev Small boy. hardly seen in class or college. appears once in a while like the rains in Chennai. Nothing much to say but he has a lot of talent at that very young age..
Roll No:13 Jayesh According to me, he is the only one who is and acts like an MBA in class. Jayesh is well composed and good in things that he does. He is like this only intelligent guy in class who asks sensible questions which are accepted by the faculty. He is a hard core banker and atleast knows where he wants to be in his life( unlike like others with no sense of responsibility). Good guy, easy-going and I love your smile. So keep smiling which is the best thing about you!! :)
Roll no:14: left the building!!
Roll No: 15 Mukesh : He never attends class except for test so nothing much about him from my side, may be the guys would know something!!!

Evolution of Marketing-----Marketing class continues...

 I think Marketing lesson are very useful for both the consumers and as well as the sellers or producers. It will make both the parties understand each others mind i.e. Consumers can understand what products are produced, for what purpose and how it can be useful for them or  also get the bad side by seeing whether it does have a use or are they just to induce people to buy it.

Producers or the marketers who market their products should also understand the needs of the consumers and try to satisfy it accordingly. They should understand that people buy things for a purpose and not because they like the product. For eg : The sole purpose of Pespi or Coca Cola's existence is : To Quench Thirst which can also be done by water or lemon juice but how you make them change their views about what to drink. So accordingly, they have to understand this to penetrate into the minds of the consumers and which will also help them succeed.

So here I'm to tell you all that I know about marketing from both the point of view or just a common view:
To understand marketing, we have to know how it evolved, lets understand that.


Evolution of Marketing Concepts:
1. Production Concept:
          This happened in the world after the industrial revolution, wherein goods were just produced and they were just induced the customers to buy without any purpose.

2. Product Concept:
           This was when all the industries started facing a challenge called as competition wherein they had to compete against each other for survival. So thats when they at least tried to bring about the needs of the customers.
3. Selling Concept:
           It is said that this was when people started dreading the salesmen and marketers who tried to give products because they had too much competition. They were treated as fraud and cheaters because all they did was sell whether it was needed or not.
4. Marketing Concept:
          Somewhere after the selling concept, they realized that it was never gonna work unless they try to satisfy the customers(finally). So they tried to identify the needs of their customers and developed a product accordingly.
5. Customer Concept:
         This is when the first phase of customization took place wherein the customers were treated as kings and they also identified that every potential customer had a different need to be satisfied with the same product.
6. Societal Marketing Concept:
          This phase if when all that Go Green and other Eco- Friendly products were produced as they realized the ill effects of global warming and other harm to the environment. This was just a recent development as we all know.
7. Holistic Marketing Concept:
          This is like the concept of saying that the whole company has to work upon just one factor: Satisfy the customer's need. Be it the Finance or HR or Admin or any other department which had to follow this thumb rule. ' The customer is king.' 
8. Strategic Marketing Concept:
           This is the latest one, which has been added lately. At this stage, it is said the whole world has become an experience economy. For eg: When we buy a phone, we want to touch, feel and use it before it sinks into our minds that this what we need. Why this has evolved over this time is because, we have so much information available so the customers know more than what we as marketers know.

Likewise, these concepts can get an addition any day because the time keeps changing so does markets.

PS: This is my 200th post. I'm so overwhelmed by your support. Thank you friends.

Pichavaram- Chidambaram

Last week, my friend and classmate, Akila invited us for her sister's marriage in Chidambaram. There were about 12 of us who wanted to go for this wedding. We were all set. Last Saturday about 8pm, the journey started. There were about 10 guys and two girls(me and viji). The guys, as usual, wanted to booze. Even with a lot of opposition from our side(the non-drinkers), they had their share for fun. I never realized that these people drinking would give us our share of fun which we never expected to get. They were full tight and they were all talking non sense. Of course, none of them went over limits. But the fun began when we asked them to talk about their inner most darkest secrets. You should have heard their English. The Britishers would have killed themselves for having such a language. Just one example," You Ace Hole( American accent), Don't talk in running in the van." Hilarious(ROT FL). The tone, which they spoke was unbelievable. We also recorded these things and had a wonderful trip to Chidambaram. Since we went late @ the night, my friend akila had to wake her dad up to get the rooms arranged for us. Till that time, these guys were sleeping on the road with beggars besides them. It was super-dooper fun @ 3am. These people are some of the richest guys in Chennai and they did not know what was happening around them.

The girls were given separate rooms near the mandapam. We rested for 3 hrs and then went for the wedding. Stayed there for about an hour or so and left for temple. The temple was a good place to be for peace and quite. Then it was time we left for Pichavaram. It was beautiful place. Full of water... It was something like backwaters of kerala.. I hope you guys would get a change to visit it. It comes in my list of 1000 places to visit before you die. Then it was time for us to go to Murugesh's house for lunch. Good people and village  food. My dear Brahmin friend Prasanna ate chicken as much as possible, as if there was never a tomorrow. Murugesh's family was a joint one which is hardly possible to be seen in Chennai. Me, being lived in one, dint
want to leave that house because I just loved his sisters and their hospitality. I wish I was married to such good family. Then, finally we had to leave chidambaram as we had to head back to Chennai for Monday's classes in college.It was one of the most memorable trip which I had in my college times and will always treasure it. Here are some more pictures from my memories.

Budding Entrepreneur

At college, we had this huge event on Entrepreneurship which was actually a part of our syllabus. Each class(Finance 1, Finance 2 and HR) were suppose to divide ourselves into groups of 3. As usual, it was Praveen, Arun and me. We took up an existing business and wanted to expand on that. We did get help from Jananie who was a friend of Praveen. She helped us prepare the project report and get our financials right. So we had 14 groups from my class. Out of which, we got selected as the 2nd place. Our class had some of the funniest projects. One was bike taxi. ( what are you saying?? Bike la taxi ah.. how is that possible?) Well, some genius in my class did come out with it and they grabbed the first place. Ours was the Decor services called " OCCASIONS". We had one-of-a-kind report and presentation so we were 2nd. Then came the best one. BIO-BEER. Obviously from drunkards of my class had come up with this and was an instant hit even among the girls.( We loved the idea).

After this happened, the following day, we selected the 9 teams which were going to the finals. The finals had 3 groups each from one class. This was a big event as we had VENTURE CAPITALISTS coming to judge the competition. Mind you, it was a very tight competition. My fear of public speaking creeps inside me from the very second we received the 2nd plan. My business partner, Praveen, is such a pessimistic. He said we weren't going to do it. We should never entered in the first place and kept blah blah blah.. This was pulling my confidence down. In the last minute, the guys who were doing BIO BEER forfeit the competition and this opportunity was readily taken by the fourth team in HR as they were the next in terms of evaluation. I knew they were definitely competition for us. So on the eve of this big "Event", we planned to make the place special for us and we hired professional decor services to do this work which is what we called as Outsourcing.(LOL).

This overwhelmed the judges because as they entered the auditorium, they were definitely dumbstruck, because I was myself speechless. This was a huge plus point for us as we had the best promotional activity. So now the final part was to WOO the judges with the speech. As I am pretty confident and have a great flair for talking in public, I was given the introduction(ASUSUAL). So the order in which the event was happening was taken by the lot system. We got the 2nd turn to do it. First, I could see Arun and Praveen shivering next to me. I just held their hands and said, " We have made it all the way till here, which is definitely a big thing. and I'm definitely sure I'm going to make it in the top three. If not, we are happy that we atleast tried and learnt a lot." They were still shivering. My turn to start.

Here is how my Intro goes:
" Welcome to the world of Occasions,( I have a loud and sweet voice which will grab the attention of the people around me) You name it, we do it. (tag line). I'm sure you must be dumbstruck by the decor services for this event but what you see is just a sample.(silence and then a good round of applause)

Then I started with my slide show presentation. By this time, I'm sure the judges were impressed by the project and at last I concluded by saying," Now the marketing strategies will be given by my business partner, Praveen" My team members also did a good job of explaining all the strategies and financials. After every team finishes, the judges would throw questions on us. Our turn started, yet again, with another applause. This time, it was for me again. This was because one of the judges said that I had the passion for my project as well as called my team member as BUSINESS PARTNER. He also mentioned that this is the type of passion a person should possess to excel in any business. Then the questions were asked and answered. End of the presentation. We were very sure that we had a chance to grab one prize. This was not just the prize that mattered because the judges were also willing to fund for the best three projects. So in the end, we were given the 3rd place( not bad). The Venture capitalist are thrilled to fund us and we are happy for that. The first two places were given to people who had innovation and creativity even though they did not have their financials right.

So it started well and end well. The idea of decorating the auditorium was given by Sriram and Murugesh. I would like to make a special note to thank them for helping us win this. At last, I'm recognized as somebody who can do anything if you have the will power. My college has also recognized me as a good student(At last)... So I was very happy. Celebrated the day with friends and parents. Thanks to my parents who were supportive to send me to college even though we had very important guests at home. Most of all, the most important thing was, we enjoyed what we did and we went for a go. At the end of the day, that mattered a lot to me.

Way too much work!!

Studying MBA can be very hectic... We have class from morning 9.30am to 8pm with an half hour break. Classwork, homework, assignments, presentation, projects, paper work, case studies, JAM s, Quizzes after all this comes time for us to relax and do nothing but SLEEP. We hardly have time for yourselves leave alone for friends and family. My mom keeps scolding left and right.. "College ku thana pora, oru vela seiya matura." and I say, " Basic ah naan konjam sombari." Anyways, my favorite blogging kuda panna mudiyala.. I just can't take it anymore. Iyyo enala mudiyala.. Save me GOD. All I can say is this is called AOG--ACT OF GOD.

Missing Marketing class...

Satheesh Krishnamurthy...
My Marketing hero..
Mentor in marketing, branding and advertising....
I  miss his class... one class which you can find full attendance every single class. He knows what to teach and how to teach... gets the attention of everybody just like that. He smiles rarely unlike this one.. Timing and behavioural attitude of this person makes us all admire him so much. Satheesh sir, Hats off to you to make me miss your class because I never sit in class for the sake of listening unless its worth it... and to impress me it has taken only you to do it...

"The Road Not Taken"

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth

Then took the other as just as fair
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear
Though as for that, the passing there
Had worn them really about the same

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet, knowing how way leads onto way
I doubted if I should ever come back

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence
Two roads diverged in a wood
And I took the one less traveled by
And that has made all the difference

by
Robert Frost

Now, you might ask?? Why have you written this poetry?
This poem is dedicated to my fellow classmates in MBA. I want to tell them that this poem was related to me when I was in the dilemma to choose my specialization. I asked my dad for a suggestion and guess what he told me? This poem... Road Less Traveled by Robert frost..
I have read this poem during my school times. I was made to memorize it by heart. I used to crib about it, but it was time for me to realize that it works.... Everything which was learnt before does have some use at some point of time. Doesn't it???

CAT ON THE WALL...

I think every MBA student would go through this phase at some point or the other.

Now what would that be??? Choosing between HR or Finance. Well ,as far as for us, at this point of time when we have the recession and with a lot of people losing jobs it has been a very difficult decision. When I was in the first week of classes, I had about 50% of my class opting for HR. Now if you see, I can hardly find 10 people for HR. Why is this confusion? I mean some people would lose their interests just because there is no job out there. I mean come on. Don't you have faith in yourself? Do you think you cannot make it to the world ??

For a second, I had such thoughts too. After all, we have our moments. But I was stern in my decision. I took MBA because I am a people person and I came here to work with people for the people. Money is always a concern when taking the right decision because when we have our fathers sweat and work hard like dogs to pay for us. It is definitely not small amount of money. Paying 8+ lacs in not a small thing. I know but still is everything about money. If you still think, like me, that you could do anything only if you have both your heart and soul into it.

A lot of my friends are taking up Finance just because we have a lot of opportunities there. Don't you know that whatever goes up has to come down some day and vice versa, like the US economic crisis. All my friends persuade me to take up the same but my mind just dint give up on my favorite. Still every time, my friends call up, the first thing they ask me," HR or Finance" and I promptly say HR. This whole internship thing had given us a lot of time as well as frustation to think about our choices. Some people just went there because you get a lot of money when you start your career as a assistant finance manager. And believe me, they are soooo wrong. Nobody is going to give away money for nothing.
I believe, to know and work for a company you would have to start from scratch. I found this out when I was working before. Some guys joined Finance because they wouldn't be able to see this really cute girl in our class. Rouges!!! Some times, I wish I could use certain four letter words on these people.

So as far as I am concern, I am happy that I was stern in my decision and never changed my mind for what I was here for. And I am damn proud about myself. I also want to tell these people that I am definitely going to be more successfull than others who left for no reason at all. And I also wish them best of luck in their new born interests.

Last but not the least, Don't be the cat on the wall...