Team Kleos of SPJIMR wins Genesis'09

Team Kleos of SPJIMR, comprising Amitoj Singh, Archit Singhal, Lisa Maria John and Palaniappan N, won the Genesis 2009, an inter-campus contest organized by GE. The contest provided the B-school students with a challenging task, where their imagination, analytical skills and clarity of thought and presentation were tested.



The competing teams were asked to pick one of the following two themes: "India Security – Integrated Building Security/Surveillance Systems" and "Integrated Renewable Energy Solutions for India". Team Kleos decided to pick "Integrated Renewable Energy Solutions for India".

50 teams from the best B-schools in India, including 8 from SPJIMR, reached the
quarter-finals of the contest. Of these, 26 teams, including 4 from SPJIMR, advanced to the semi-finals. The semi-finalists had to present their ideas before an eminent judging panel comprising GE's senior leadership across businesses.

The contest was hosted as part of the GE Day on September 16, 2009 at Hotel Novotel, Hyderabad. GE Day is a business exhibition that showcases GE's innovative products and services, and provides a forum for people to share the ideas and strategic initiatives. The teams were judged on the basis of five criteria: Innovation and Novelty, Depth and Clarity of Thought, Feasibility of the Solution, Compilation and the Quality of Presentation.

In the finals, all the teams put up a great show, enthralling senior business leaders and other employees of GE with a confident and clear pitch. The judges were thrilled with the quality of research and analysis done by all the teams. But, in the end, it was Team Kleos of SPJIMR, which emerged as the winning team, sidelining the runners-up Team Helios of ISB and Team Insight Ventures of FMS.

Launch of Consulting Forum by Consulting Committee’10

With all the hype created around the launch of "The Consulting Forum", the Consulting Committee of PGP’10 lived up to the hype by showcasing a 30-minute video on “How to Master the Art of Problem Solving” by Nido Qubein and following it up with an open house interactive session on everything about the Consulting Forum.

After enlightening the batch on what’s in store for them from the consulting forum, the movie was shown to an audience of size 60. In the movie, through a series of puzzles, Nido Qubein, a Business Consultant, takes his target audience through the seven basic steps in problem solving that is applicable in our day to day problems. The batch was also made to solve the puzzles themselves during the video which in itself helped create enthusiasm in about the video and was reflected in the positive feedback provided by them.

Soon after the video was concluded, the forum was thrown open to questions and it is needless to say that the batch learnt fully about the possible happenings at the consulting forum. After this successful launch, the consulting forum plans to conduct many such activities in future.

High Tea with PGDM 2007-09

ALCOM 2009 organized an interactive session with the PGDM 2007-2009 batch on 12 September 2009. This is first in the series of High Tea sessions ALCOM plans to hold this year. The session was attended by 13 enthusiastic alumni who were invited to share their experiences with an attentive PGDM 2011 batch as the audience.


The session kicked off by the alumni introducing themselves and talking about their job profiles. The batch of 2009 have started their corporate journey few months back and talked in length about their work and the corporate world in general. The 2011 batch got to know about the challenges and the opportunities the Batch 2009 faced as a result of recession post economic meltdown of which the batch had first hand experience.



The alumni were bombarded with queries and questions from the eager audience which were happily answered. The group also shared a lot of memorable incidents from SPJIMR and advised the batch on many issues. The alumni were delighted to hear about the Abhyudaya program and higher representation of girls in the 2011 batch. The informal rounds of discussion continued through the High-Tea session.The batch looks forward to the next Alumni High Tea session and more such fruitful discussions.

Dr. Anitesh Barua of McCombs School of Business at SPJIMR

Dr. Anitesh Barua, the Director of the MBA - Information Management program at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA), visited SPJIMR on 12 September 2009. The objective of the visit was to explore possibilities of academic collaboration between SPJIMR with UTA.

Dr. Barua is the William F. Wright Centennial Professor of Information Technology, Stevens Piper Foundation Professor, Distinguished Teaching Professor, Director of the MBA Information Management program, and Associate Director of the Center for Research in Electronic Commerce at the McCombs School of Business at UTA. He has received many awards for his research and teaching, and about 75 of his research articles has appeared in prestigious academic journals, refereed conference proceedings and edited book chapters.

Dr. Barua kindly agreed to take some time out between his meetings with the SPJIMR management and faculty, and made a presentation to the participants on a very contemporary topic, which also happens to be his current area of research: “Deconstructing or Destroying Your Value Chain through Outsourcing”.

In a jam-packed auditorium, Dr. Barua explained how the focus of Information Technology outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO) has evolved from pure cost savings to diverse strategic objectives. He discussed the impact of externalizing these activities on the long-term value of the firm, which surfaces as a key issue for senior management. He opined that strategic outsourcing, which is characterized by higher levels of business uncertainty and complex coordination requirements, involves greater contractual risks, when compared to the transaction outsourcing. The major reasons for the failure of such outsourcing deals include the unclear expectations of the clients and the misaligned interests of the stakeholders involved.



Dr. Barua also talked about how the capital markets may not be privy to such information when an outsourcing decision is announced, and hence respond with a delay, after the consequences of the initial choices become public knowledge. Thus, there may be long-term abnormal returns from such outsourcing decisions. Dr. Barua and his associates have compiled the data on the 100 largest outsourcing deals between 1996 and 2006, and their research shows that while transactional deals experienced positive long-term abnormal returns, complex arrangements witnessed significant long-term value destruction. The results suggest that client firms are generally unprepared for the management challenges of strategic outsourcing.



Dr. Barua concluded that the one-size-fits-all type of outsourcing deals don’t work, and to make an outsourcing relationship successful, the firms need to understand the governance choices available to them, and customize them keeping in mind the complexity, independence and the strategic importance of the tasks to be outsourced.

SPJIMR and Standard Chartered Bank – Volunteerism for a Cause

DOCC Committee and HIV Champions organized the Living with Aids Program, in association with Standard Chartered Bank. The occasion marked the forging of a new alliance between SPJIMR and Standard Chartered Bank; a first in India. Our Honourable Dean and David Thomas, HR Head Asia, Standard Chartered, signed a pledge to further the spread of HIV/AIDS awareness among the youth.

Affecting over 33 million people the world over, HIV/AIDS remains a global killer, with no cure or vaccine. 6,800 new infections are reported each day, with 15-24 year-olds accounting for 45% of all new HIV infections. India is highly vulnerable to this threat.

Keeping the magnitude of the problem in mind, the HIV Champions aim to create awareness among 8000 students in and around Bhavan’s Campus. For this initiative, they intend to involve volunteers from SPJIMR, BCIDS, Bhavan’s College, SPIT and SPCE.

Working closely with the Clinton Global Foundation, Standard Chartered Bank aims to educate over a million people on the topic by 2010. They have already educated half a million people. Globally, Standard Chartered Bank has two key partners – AIESEC and Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria. Additionally to take the commitment forward, the Bank has signed on 23 partners across the globe, whose target is to educate over 375,000 people.

SP Jain Institute of Management and Research is the Bank’s 24th partnership and India’s first partnership. They will train a number of students - HIV Champions – on HIV/AIDS. These HIV Champions will create awareness as peer educators through face to face education session. The training and material will be provided by the Bank and time required for conducting sessions is just 16 hours. This contribution would be a part of the commitment made by Standard Chartered Bank to Clinton Global Initiative to educate one million people on HIV/Aids by 2010. A large number of students have already volunteered and signed up as HIV Champions.

Teachers' Day Celebrations at SPJIMR

5th of September 2009 will always be a remembered as a special day for the teachers of SPJIMR for its wonderful teachers’ day celebrations. The event was made special by students of PGDM 09-11 by special performances and was spiced up by some solo performances by the teachers themselves.
The celebrations kicked off with a skit which focused on the importance of a teacher in the life of a student. The skit showcased some very famous teachers from history along with their students and the essence of the relationship between them. It conveyed that a good teacher would always be able to reach out to his student regardless of the barriers and influence him in a positive manner.
The skit was followed by dance performances on famous songs from the yesteryears which had the teachers turn nostalgic. However, the best part was the excellent solo performances from the faculty members ranging from songs to poems to playing the mouth organ.
The event was wrapped up by a game of Chinese Dumb Charades for the teachers, with the teachers trying to guess the answer which provided for some hilarious entertainment. On the whole it was a very enjoyable day for both the students and the teachers, and strengthened the bond between them.