The Tata Indicom Maxi Fair 2004-2005 - Curtain Raiser

The 26th edition of the MAXI Fair is being held on the 2nd of January 2005 at XLRI Jamshedpur. The principal sponsor for the event is Tata Indicom , a Tata group company which has just rolled out its telecom services in the Jamshedpur region. The co-sponsor for the event is BPCL, and the associate sponsors are Agrotech , AIDA and Tata Steel.

As an accredited research tool, the role of the MAXI Fair is to conduct research for companies, and some of the big names in this year's edition are Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser , Tata Indicom , BPCL and Cholamandalam Finance. A new entrant is the French fragrance company, Givoudan .

As usual, the MAXI Fair promises to be a day of fun for the Jamshedpur public, with prizes at stake for all the games, and a free gift hamper for all the visitors.

An Insiders' View

The scene at XLRI Jamshedpur :26th December 2004 :

Visitor: Where is the Maxi Fair taking place?
Student: It is being held on the 2nd of January at the XLRI Grounds.
Visitor: I see. It used to be on the last Sunday of the year for the last few years, so I thought I'd check if it was being held today.

This was a conversation that took place between a Jamshedpur resident and a student of XLRI Jamshedpur. Surprising? Not really. The annual Marketing Fair, or simply, the MAXI Fair (MAXI : Marketing Association of XLRI), is older than most of the current students of the institute, but has continued to be an occasion the whole of Jamshedpur looks forward to year after year. The Fair is now over 25 years old, and there are folk who have attended each and every edition of the Fair. Again, not surprising, for the Fair has never failed to entertain the people of Jamshedpur , who turn up in hordes year after year.

The Maxi Fair is different things to different people. To the public, it is an occasion of fun and frolic, of games and prizes. To the participating companies, it is accredited research tool, whose results have played launch pad to some of the best known brands in the country today. To the students, it is more than just a research project - it is an occasion where the seniors and juniors sit down, put their heads together and come up with creative solutions to the marketing conundrums posed to them by the companies and in the process, strengthen the legendary bonding between the students that XLRI is so famous for. To the administration and faculty of the institute, it is a full-credit course in the Marketing area.

The Tata Indicom MAXI Fair '04 -'05 promises to be all this and more. Some of the participating companies in this year's edition are Colgate Palmolive and Reckitt Benckiser , besides Tata Indicom , the principal sponsor. The campus, always bustling with activity, is more alive than ever, as the students work towards meeting two needs - entertaining the visitors, and providing the companies the research they require.

The XLRI grounds is clearly the place to be, on the 2nd of January 2005 .

The 2004 XL Bangalore X'mas bash !

Bangalore Chapter brought in Xmas with the XL Family on 17th December at Cubbon Park



Click For More Details



grax was exchanged by all and sundry...and some snatches ofconversation that Scooperizer was able to catch were:

"So this XLer after making his HR consulting firm one of the biggestin India has chucked it all up and is starting it all over again inSingapore !"

"Seen some great tech startups recently? We'd like to invest some seedcapital.."

"Being a freelance consultant has its ups and downs , but I am enjoying it...."

"I'm thinking of buying a Toyota Camry, the Accent feels small these days.."

"The politics after the merger caused the partners to leave...pure culture clash , y'know"

"How come my competitor gets to be in the top employers of the country with 32% attrition and my organization doesn't make it , with half that rate"...

"I tell you, I joined this organization just to move to Bangalore, andthey have a horrid work/life balance...I can't even go to Styx to chill out on Saturday night!"

"Guess what, slowly and surely our batch has 10 IRs inBangalore...maybe we can have a small batch meet!"

Ahem! I'll stop here before I spill any dangerous beans , but I hope you get the general idea ;-)



Of course, the drinks were flowing (since they were free till 7.30 pm,we had quite a few early birds there !), with yummy snacks like Chicken Tikka, masala peanuts and pineapple, cheese sticks!

The food took the cake (no pun intended!) with some great Mangalorean fish, Chicken Chettinad, Pulav, Rotis, Palak Paneer, Bhindi and Salad!

Yum !



The kids discovered the adjacent park to the party venue and so quitea few XLers had to move there to keep an eye over them as they went berserk on the swings and slides there !

Congratulations Shantanu Das - 98 PMIR

Shantanu of the 98 batch has just moved to Shaw Wallace Breweries Limited (an affiliate of SAB Miller) as Head- Corporate HR



Congrats Shantanu.



98/99 xlers will know him as the guy behind the 98 year book.

XL Celeb Watch - Bijou Kurien

Thanks GG for this nugget :



Well on the XL bang X'mas bash one prominent XLer was missed...



The President of the XL Bangalore Alumni Committee , Bijou Kurien was apparently kept busy by his previous commitment to be a keynote speaker at the Deccan Herald conference of Advertising where he was speaking on 18th Dec on "Building a Titan"...



Then next day we saw him in the paper again,... launching Titan's new device called CalTrack ! check here http://inhome.rediff.com/money/2004/dec/18titan.htm

The 2004 Bangalore XLers' X'mas bash !

Thanks to the XL bangalore alumni committee and Nelson Cordeiro, the kids and the not so kids had a great X'mas bash on the 17th !



Fittingly it was Nelson, who sponsored the evening who also got a chance to dress up as Santa and hand over the gifts to the kids.



The settings of the Century Club in Cubbon Park was apt for the XLers and their families who turned up to celebrate the spirit of the holiday season.



Of course, grax was exchanged by all and sundry...and some snatches of conversation that Scooperizer was able to catch were:



"So this XLer after making his HR consulting firm one of the biggest in India has chucked it all up and is starting it all over again in Singapore !"



"Seen some great tech startups recently? We'd like to invest some seed capital.."



"Being a freelance consultant has its ups and downs , but I am enjoying it...."



"I'm thinking of buying a Toyota Camry, the Accent feels small these days.."



"The politics after the merger caused the partners to leave...pure culture clash , y'know"



"How come my competitor gets to be in the top employers of the country with 32% attrition and my organization doesn't make it , with half that rate"...



"I tell you, I joined this organization just to move to Bangalore, and they have a horrid work/life balance...I can't even go to Styx to chill out on Saturday night!"



"Guess what, slowly and surely our batch has 10 IRs in Bangalore...maybe we can have a small batch meet!"



Ahem! I'll stop here before I spill any dangerous beans , but I hope you get the general idea ;-)



Who were there?



Well the who's who of Bangalore, Titto, David, both the Georges (Olapally and Selvam), Kuru, Thomas , Zo, Anuja, Mojo, Surya, Sujitesh, Mervyn, Jabez, Kumar, and even Apprameya of the 2005 batch amongst a lot of others too :-))



Of course, the drinks were flowing (since they were free till 7.30 pm, we had quite a few early birds there !), with yummy snacks like Chicken Tikka, masala peanuts and pineapple, cheese sticks!



The food took the cake (no pun intended!) with some great Mangalorean fish, Chicken Chettinad, Pulav, Rotis, Palak Paneer, Bhindi and Salad !



Yum !



The kids discovered the adjacent park to the party venue and so quite a few XLers had to move there to keep an eye over them as they went beserk on the swings and slides there !



Till next year folks, hope you all have a great holiday season and a rocking start to 2005 !



The Scooperizer,

GG

Vanitha Swaminathan - BMD 90

Thanks KNV for this detail :



On a serious reading of Prof Prithwiraj Nath' article and its references, I did find an interesting article referred therein by Vanitha Swaminathan (BMD90), my esteemed batchmate:

http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol5/issue2/swaminathan.htm



Vanitha's article in turn references Dr Atul PArvatiyar, one of our

Marketing Profs when we studied at XLRI (BMD 1988-90):



"Sheth and Parvatiyar 1995" vide

Sheth, J., N., & Parvatiyar, A. (1995). Relationship marketing in

consumer markets: Antecedents and consequences. Journal of the

Academy of Marketing Science, 23 (Fall), 255-271.

==============================

FYI, Dr Vanitha Swaminathan is now with the Katz School of Business

in U of Pittsburgh. Vanitha can be reached from: http://www.katz.pitt.edu/fac_pages/Swaminathan.htm



Formerly she was the Assistant Professor of Marketing at the

University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research interests focused

on branding strategy and electronic commerce. Prof. Swaminathan has

published in the Journal of Marketing Research, Advances in Consumer

Research and in the proceedings of the American Marketing

Association, Association of Management and Relationship Marketing

conferences.

-------------------

Dr. Atul Parvatiyar is the President of iCRM and is the Robinson

Research Fellow & Associate Professor of Marketing at Georgia State

University; Atul can be reached from:

http://www.parvatiyar.com =============================================



Congrats, and keep it up - Vanitha, and Atul!



KNV

Congrats, Prof Prithwiraj Nath!

the following paper by Prof Prithwiraj Nath, Marketing Area faculty, XLRI

features in the list of Outstanding papers - Management titles

of the Literati Club of Emerald, and got the Award for Excellence 2004



http://miranda.emeraldinsight.com/vl=664118/cl=24/nw=1/rpsv/literaticlub/winners/

International Journal of Bank Marketing

vol. 21 no. 1

"A model of trust in online relationship banking"

Avinandan Mukherjee (Nanyang Technical University, Singapore)

Prithwiraj Nath (Xavier Labour Relations Institute, India)



Congratulations!

Please pray for Dr. E M Rao and his family

Dr Prof EM Rao lost his son, Aditya, in a road accident on 15th night in Pune.



Those passing out after 1999, will know Prof Rao - he was also the previous Dean (Academics) at XL)... Aditya, in his early 20s, was his only son.



One of Aditya's colleagues, Nishant, is the contact person. His mobile is 98500 68192.



For those who want to contact Dr. Rao directly :

His mobile no is: 9431181318

Email : emrao@xlri.ac.in



Please pray for Aditya, that he may rest in a better place. Please pray for Dr. E M Rao and his wife that they may have the strength to withstand their loss and the courage to face each new day.

Move for J Jayaraman 87 batch

J Jayaraman (87PMIR), has recently shifted from Rane to Parryware(Murugappa Group) as the Head of HR at Chennai.



Congratulations on the move ! !

featuring Prash - 99 batch n his music

Musika Originale



Five years after graduating with a specialisation in Marketing, Prashant Vadhyar (99BMD) - or "Prash" as he is known - decided to go full-time into what he enjoys most - Music.



Check out his feature on Madshuk's Blog of Famous XL Alumni

Dr Shukla Co-edits a Book from McMillan India

Dr Madhukar Shukla Co-edits a book on "Developing Leadership for the Global Era: HRD Perspectives and Intitiatives" along with Dr Uma Jain and Dr Udai Pareek (published by McMillan India, 2004).



We know this is his third book, the other two contributions are Understanding Organizations Prentice Hall of India (1996) and Competing Through Knowledge :Building Learning Organization, Response Books(Sage), 1997.



Our hearty congratulations to Dr Shukla!!

Christmas Party at XLBang

It's better than regular parties...It's X'mas !

No Schmoozing - No Networking - No Fist Pumping

It's Christmas time!



This is the time for our friends, families, and especially our kids.That's what this programme is all about. Good fun for the kids and us parents.

Santa Claus, carols, gifts, cake, chocolates, time with the kids, fun, fun, and more fun.

Thanks again to the generous sponsorship from Nelson Cordeiro of iPeople India (Executive Search & Selection - Mob:+91-93428-55611),for making this happen.



Friday, Dec 17, Century Club (Cubbon Park), 7:30 onwards.

Dinner'sincluded.

Please send in your confirmations ASAP with your children'snames and ages for us to buy gifts for them (kuruvilla@gmail.com /98451-41464).

Rates:Families/Couples -250

Singles - 150

Guests - 200

Kid guests - 100

Drinks/Beer - 50 each,

Booze is FREE till 7:30pm.



Answers to your questions:



1. Dinner is included and will be served at appropriate times for thechildren/grownups.

2. Snacks & softdrinks are free

3. The venue is semi-closed so clothe the kids appropriately

4. Yes, you can bring guests at Rs 200 each. If they are kids (Rs100), please send me their details so gifts can be arranged.

5. Century Club is in the middle of Cubbon Park.



Do you need Driving Directions ?

XL a second rung institute ?

Subir Nag posted :



"Unfaithful" IIM recruits force SBI to tap B-schools

Poornima Mohandas / Mumbai December 14, 2004



The State Bank of India (SBI) has decided to change its campus

recruitment turf from the Indian Institute of Managements (IIMs) to second-rung business schools as more than half of its IIM recruits have quit within the first year of working with the bank.



"This year we have decided to concentrate on the second-rung B-schools such as S P Jain, ICFAI, Jamnalal Bajaj, SCMHRD, K J Somaiya, MDI and XLRI. With what we pay to get the bottom layer of students from the IIMs, we can get the cream from these B-schools," said a bank official.



The country's largest commercial bank offers packages varying from anything between Rs 2.75 lakh and Rs 5 lakh. "Out of the 20 MBAs we recruited last year from the IIMs, 11 have already left. They gain experience from SBI, and seek new challenges, more money and move to multinational companies and banks. Attracting talent and maintaining it is increasingly becoming a difficult task," he pointed out.



This year SBI has already inducted 10 MBAs from ICFAI&5, specialised in banking and finance, from the National Institute of Bank Management. The bank, with a work force of over 2 lakh employees, has plans to recruit about 40-50 management trainees in the current year, which is more than double that of last year.



The bank, typically, places management trainees in the departments of treasury, project finance, corporate accounts group, information technology, marketing and personal business.



The compensation packages of MBAs are structured differently from that of the regular 59,700-strong officer cadre.



The management trainees get a better take home salary but do not get benefits such as residential accommodation, which the officers enjoy.

In addition to recruitments, the bank also takes in trainees for

summer internships.



The bank has taken 30 plus students during the months of October, November and December for a stipend of Rs 8,000 per month.







Madhukar said :

first of all, thanks to Subir Nag for posting this - it kept the jobless junta on grax group occupied throughout the day, drew some out from the woodwork on xl94, and even managed to stir - even if only for a brief minute - that sleeping behomoth, The "xl_amchimumbai" group;0)



secondly, I think that there is a BIG opportunity for Recruitment Consultancy in SBI - obviously, an organisation which clubs all the mentioned b-schools in this news item into one category needs some help from professionals;0)



For general gyan of junta, SBI caps has been picking up people last few years, and to my knowledge/memory SBI never came/recruited from the campus - till last year, when SBI did come to the campus - wanted to pick-up people by truck-load, but got only one (I am not sure if Kaushik is still there, or if he also joined his "unfaithful" brethrens from IIMs;)



just as a side info, it is somewhat ironical that the Chairman of SBI, Mr AK Purwar, happens to be on the Board of Governers of this "second-rung" (!!!?) b-school to which all of us belong... along with some others, like Yogi Deveshwar (ITC), Arun Maira (BCG), Burkhardt Stumpf (Timken), Rajive Kaul (Nicco), Sanjiv Lamba (BOC), etc...



... since this info, obviously, will float in XL, I guess SBI - even if they don;t get the cream - has got "creamed" in the CRP ;0)





Sudip Malik suggested :

I've recently seen this from another angle.



Many tutorial companies in the MBA entrance exam prepration business also club IIMs (ABCLIK) all at the top rung.



I guess we all individually need to do a little 'funda clearing' of those students, recruiters, etc. who may not be very fortunate to know who's the best. One idea is to meet with students of Career Launcher, TIME, IMS, Professional Tutorials, etc around the time that the XAT registrations are on. Now this is where the Alumni Associations can pitch in.



What say ?!



Sudip Mallik

BMD '87

Band Baaja for Pooja Agarwal 2001batch

Pooja Arora of the 2001 batch is getting married on 29th December in Delhi to Rahul Aggarwal.



All the best to Pooja & Rahul. Wish you a very happy Married life.

xmas stories

If u r interested in the origin of some of the standard symbols associated with xmas, visit my Muser Blog

KAIZEN ::: 7 bands to rock Jamshedpur ::: at XLRI's Tata Audi

Most of you must remember Manasi (Bitti), Mad Shuks daughter from campus days. Well she has grown since you left campus and is now in the 12th standard. But she is doing something, all of us can learn something from. She has taken major responsibility in organising "Kaizen" to raise funds for a literacy program. She has worked hard on all fronts, securing location, getting bands to play, organising sponsorship among others.



The XL band "Bodhi tree" will also be playing.



Quick xl fact u may not have known : The band of the juniors is called "Bodhi Sapling" What was the band called in your stay on campus ? Add comments...



The concert has also been covered in the rock street Journal. Read More

Navision To Set Up Excellence Centre At XLRI

Navision To Set Up Excellence Centre At XLRI

ARINDAM SINHA

Posted online: Tuesday, December 09, 2003 at 0000 hours IST



JAMSHEDPUR: Navision India, the exclusive distributor for Microsoft Business Solutions in the country, is planning to set up a ‘centre for excellence’ at the XLRI campus here.



According to XLRI External Linkages Cell executive member S Sindhuja, Navision announced the opening of the ‘centre for excellence’ at the recently-concluded National IT Seminar at the XLRI.



Scheduled to commence from the third week of January 2004, the centre would start a course on ‘integrated business solutions’, which would become a part of the XLRI curriculum.



On Navision India providing an educational licence to the B-school allowing it to incorporate the course in the curriculum, students of marketing, operations, finance & HR streams of the institute would be able to take ‘integrated business solutions’ during their summer projects.



The move is basically to ensure that young managers graduating from the institute are tech-savvy and are exposed to business solutions and the role of IT in an organisation.



According to Navision India managing director Yash Nagpal, “An understanding of integrated business solutions, particularly from the stable of Microsoft, should start at the grassroots level and not at a late stage in a professional’s life.”



Worldwide, over 2,70,000 customers are currently said to be using Microsoft Business Solutions.

B-school take on tourism

Jamshedpur, Nov. 29:

The 14th annual JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics, held at the Tata Auditorium this evening, was an enriching experience for the students and faculty of the Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI).



The discussions held in due course of the evening provided them with tips on how tourism can be used as an effective tool to promoting business ethics.



Father James J. Spillane, a professor of Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia, who delivered a speech on “Tourism in developing countries: Neocolonialism or nation builder”, said the tourism industry employs about 240 million people and earns a revenue of 3.4 million dollar across the world.



(From left) James Spillane, professor of the Sanata Dharma University, Indonesia, Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman and director of XLRI Fr Casimir Raj at the 14th annual XLRI Dr JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics. Picture by Bhola Prasad



Full Story

Did you know this about XL ?

About Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI)



Xavier Labour Relations Institute, widely known as XLRI was born out of the vision of a Jesuit Priest, Father Quinn Enright.





It was founded in 1949 in the Steel city of Jamshedpur, Bihar. Since then the Jamshedpur Jesuit Society has nurtured the growth of XLRI in keeping with its commitment to "Magis" (excellence in everything).





Over the last few decades, XLRI Jamshedpur has contributed its best to the professional growth and management of innumerable institutions that serve the public, especially organized industry, labour, service agencies engaged in rural development, education, health and other public systems.





Besides the focus on developing managerial competence among the pupils through acquisition of specialized knowledge and skills, the Institute emphasizes the importance of developing a sense of social justice with right attitudes and values of discipline, dedication and commitment among all its members.



Over the years, XLRI has developed its own unique culture. "XL is thy name"! The culture of XLRI is such that it accelerates the members' passion for achieving excellence in everything they do. While informality, flexibility, humaneness, and espirit de corps are the hallmarks, growth and development of the whole person with integrity and ingenuity are the 'summum bonum' of the culture in XLRI.

Chennai Chapter Get-together on 27th November

Heard there were 35 XLers ranging from 68 to 2003 batch who attended.



Anyone willing to give more details ?

Nils finds her special Nagporewalla

Niloufer Irani of the Batch of '99 pm&ir (currently working in HR dept at KPMG Mumbai) is getting married on 17th december



to Yezdi Nagporewalla (grax has it that he's a partner at KPMG;-) )



at Seth Jeejeebhoy Dadabhoy Agairy, Afghan Church Road, Mumbai

The need for a good work-life balance - WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL

The need for a good work-life balance - WHAT THEY DON`T TEACH YOU AT B-SCHOOL



By Ronald C Sequeira, from Business Standard, November 23, 2004



If you ever want to see several happy people in one place, visit any leading B-school campus just after the placement season is over. What a sybaritic feeling. A business school stamp behind your name and a dream job ahead of you. The B-school grad has learnt all that is there to learn. Could it get any better?



Going back to my own first day on campus, we were told by the legendary Father McGrath, “XLRI is not a place but an experience and an opportunity.” Now we had been through the experience and were on the threshold of seeking opportunities to apply all the teachings that a business degree offers.



As we waited with our packed bags in the foyer of the institute to say our last goodbyes, Father Maggie (as we referred to McGrath) in a soft tone said to me “Ronnie, I hope and pray that all of you get a very good first boss.” At that time one did not fully comprehend the meaning of that message.



Read the Full Story







Ronald C Sequeira is vice president and head, human resources, Tata Power Company Limited. He graduated from the Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, in 1984

X-Factor Rejuvenated

The X-factor, is a monthly e-newsletter for both alumni and current students of XLRI.



The X-factor aims to address a long felt need for sharing and disseminating news/views across the XLRI community - alumni, students and faculty.



We would love to have your feedback, suggestions and contributions for the forthcoming issues. Please write back to us at:

editor.xfactor@gmail.com



Happy Reading!

and Kudos to - Mohit, Surya, Allen, Deepti, Kushgara, and Sheshank - the X-factor Team!!!





You can download the X-factor - from:



http://xlalumni.blogspot.com/

[warning it is 377kb pdf format]

XLRI Student Exchange Programmes

The student committee POISE (Program for International Student Exchange, XLRI), is pleased to announce the signing of MoUs for Student Exchange programmes with the following universities:



* Malardalen University, Sweden

* Asian Institute of Management, Philippines



Malardalen University is a rapidly expanding university with 15000 students undergoing more than 50 degree programmes in its twin campuses. AIM has been ranked in the Top 3 BSchools in Asia consistently by various organisations, including Financial Times and Asiaweek.



The programmes shall commence with the batch of 2004-06. Details of both programmes including financial are being worked out and will be made available soon.



We would like to extend our gratitude to our Director Fr. N Casimir Raj, Dean (acads) Prof. Venugopal and Prof. ISF Irudayaraj (Faculty coordinator, POISE) for helping us at every crucial step in the process.



Heartfelt gratitude also to our erstwhile Director, Fr. P D Thomas, and Dean (acads) Prof. EM Rao, Anubhuti Sharma (XLer working in Delhi) who were extremely encouraging and helpful in our efforts. Lastly, thanks also to the POISE members from 2002-04 batch especially Nakul Gupta (secy).



And what else is POISE doing?

* Planning an online management competition with participation from foreign business schools in an effort to increase the awareness of XLRI on campuses abroad

* Tying up with another couple of colleges for exchange programmes (in the pipeline...)

* Trying to make it easier for the students to avail of the programme by way of loans/scholarships



Any help/suggestions/questions are welcome from all.



Thanks and Regards

Vikram P. Dhunta (Secy, BM 2005)

On behalf of POISE:

Arun Vijayragavan (BM 2006)

Puneet Sandhu (BM 2006)

Gayatri Raman Iyer (PM&IR 2006)

Anonna Barua (PM&IR 2006)

Elizabeth John (PM&IR 2005)

Aditya Singh (BM 2005)

poise@xlri.ac.in

Until the Cops Arrive

Until the Cops Arrive



The usual, but with a pinch of Bombay Masala



Check out my pal Sharky's blog. Its a hilariuos comment on life in Mumbai.

prof madhukar's sketches

Check ou the bearded professors sketches at

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/madhukar_shukla/album?.dir=/671d&.src=ph

Sarwar Ahuja wins Z cine star

Thanks everyone for voting for Nitin Bajaj's cousin Sarwar. He is the final winner of the Zee cine star contest.

MVS Badge of Honour

MVS is pretty clued on to "point", that matters! :0)... and more than "engaged" in discussion, he is actually walking the plank... er... sorry, getting married day after (3rd) in Varanasi



Mayank Vir Saxena is also the person to contact for more details regarding the MVS Badge of Honour.



Anyone from the 2003 batch care to comment on that here.