Interview of Prof. Hemant Anand(Ex-CEO,Vantage International)

Q.You are the visiting faulty of many institutes. So can you please share your experience and what is the advice you would like to give to our students?

A.I have been coming here since 2006 and i have seen a definite improvement here in almost every field, the campus, the brilliance level of students and I have also seen improving the ranking of this institute.  My only advice would be that they should attend their classes regularly.

Q.You were the CEO of VANTAGE International...so could you share your experience?

A.Yes, I was Industry man ... I came to pedagogy out of choice. I find corporate world is more result oriented than academics. I'm happy with what I'm doing.

Q.But sir you regret that you have to leave corporate sector?

A.I regret only because remuneration were much higher than Academics, but somewhere one has to stop thinking of monetary benefits. It’s always good to interact with students. You learn many things from these youngsters.

Q.So Sir are you are enjoying this profession?

A.Yes, I enjoy interacting with youngsters and I learn a lot from them. Their requirements are every time different than I used to have as a youngster...they are much more brilliant than I was at their age... so interacting with them always gives me pleasure.

Q.May I know how your views changed from earlier life as compared to now?

A.See there's nothing called changing the views... you are living in a different era and I lived in a different era... your requirements are many a times different than mine. You have many facilities that weren't existing during my times...so the pattern of living has changed.. I used to travel a lot.. i never had connecting  flights that time... you have projector in your classroom, we had that black and white OHP projector. Many Management books weren't available that time.  So you are a new generation. Your requirements are different.  So things have changed.

Q.What are your views on top managerial institutes, and what changes we should incorporate to compete with the international ones?

A.Basically an institute is made a top institute by students only; no one else has any contribution to that. The disciplinary committee,   director or faculty can only establish systems. For example some top institutes have minimum attendance required that is hundred percent, you may laugh at it  but they follow it. So these things make an institute a top institute. It is students who make or break an institute. All students are given the same input in the classroom; some endure to perform better, so it is the student’s job or students activities, which makes a institute great. Everyone wishes to go to IIM’s , everyone puts in effort to keep its name and rankings .So you also  do that , make a conscious effort , make sure you  come regularly to class . When you do that, your institute can get a good ranking, if it has a good ranking it will further go up and help students in better placements.

Q.You have done BSc in chemistry, masters in organic, but PhD in marketing. So sir what was the reason behind changing your stream.

A. First of all PhD degree increases your horizon. You have to put research in practice, and then it is a mandatory requirement, if you have to go to teaching. As a faculty you have to handle various research projects today, so if you yourself have not done it then how will you handle those projects. In our time it was like, more students from science stream will go on to do MBA.

Q.Sir we being students of information technology what advice would you like to give to us to develop our managerial skills.

A.See efficiency and effectiveness are the two parameters that differentiate management from other professions. So be efficient and effective in whatever  you do.

Q.Sir, what is the tag line that you would like to give to our institute?

A.Work hard and see the miracle.

Reported By-Vishakha Gupta & Chinmay D Rane

Interview of Mr Sameer Seth(Head Human Resources at Monndelez)

Q. First of all, how does it feel to be in our campus and how do you like the hospitality?

A. The experience is really awesome. Recently I was in the Gwalior convention part. I have been many times to this place. The campus is beautiful, the food is delicious and your director is a dynamic person and he has created a legacy so that other people follow the same.

Q. What are the attributes a person is expected if he wants to be an HR in your company?

A.First thing is be a human being as you are not going to work with machines. Apart from HR which should be your main stream, you should have good analytical skills. The third requirement is to have good communication skills. The last but not the least is innovative skills.

Q. What are your views on the demonetisation plan of Mr. Modi and what is its effect on your business?

A.It’s good for overall development when long term period is considered. No doubt, it’s affecting the business for a short term.But in future it will be of more value, will create more transparency, new financial systems like cash-less transactions will be in use.

Q. What are your tactics the fight the daily competitions you face from your rivals?

A.Tactics are very short termed solutions. There are two things one is tactic and the other is strategy. We are more focussed on making good strategies for the future. For example Samsung thinks of becoming the no. 1 company they will strategise a plan which everybody will follow for a considerable period of time. And that’s what we do. We make long term plans to improve our business as a whole and yes sometimes I use tactics to solve small, daily life obstacles.

Q. What are your future goals and where do you see your company after 10 years?

A.Innovation in products and ensuring that our products reaches to distant, rural places are two basic goals we want to achieve in the next decade. Our products are already available in metros and towns. But, places which lack electricity, we cannot serve these places. The reach is poor in villages and distant towns as our product require cooling facility. Also the spending power of the villages is poor and largely dependent on agriculture. And that’s why innovation is required for producing cheaper products. Moreover a good infra structure is required to reach the bottom of the pyramids that is the villages.

Q. In the January we are organising a fest called Mind over Matter (MOM). We have chosen the theme “Technology for Clean India”. Share your views on this theme?

A.In India there is only one problem with the people that they are not self disciplined. In my opinion, self discipline is the solution to many problems. We blame our government for not cleaning India. At home you need your mother to keep the house clean and in society you need someone else why. If everybody starts taking initiative of cleaning themselves, their house and their locality whole India can be kept clean. I think it’s a wonderful theme and you should create awareness of being self-disciplined.

Reported by-Rishabh Patel & Chinmay D Rane

Photographer-Shubham Bhattacharya

                   US Elections And Trump Policy

                                       

                                    

                                                                                                                                                              

The 2016 US elections were a widely anticipated event this time, not the least because of the stark contrast between the views of the two nominees. This was also the first presidential election wherein a woman candidate was the representative of a major political party, which, needless to say should have tilted the scales in her favor. The world waited with bated breath for the results, as it is common knowledge that the outcome would not only affect the future of the United States of America but in a sense of the whole world, what with the country being a superpower. Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by a margin of 2% which was in keeping with the world view of America being a liberal and non- conservative country. Donald Trump had made his intentions and views crystal clear during the campaigns itself. He associates terrorism with the Muslim religion, and has a known history of misogyny, which certainly did not make him well-liked among the masses.

Shock and uncertainty reigned across the world when the elections finally culminated into him being elected as the president. The elections polls showed that he had won by a margin of 77 seats. Such was the backlash, that protests broke out in various places in USA, as well as in other countries like UK, Israel, France, etc. to name a few. There were a variety of reactions from the world leaders. Mr. Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, expressed his desire to restore ties with the USA following Mr. Trump’s victory. Both the countries have been involved in a cold war for a very long time. President Hassan Rouhani said that this would not impact any of Iran’s policies. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia told the media that she was extremely saddened by the news. The antipathy between the former president Mr. Barack Obama and Mr. Trump was ill concealed as the transition took place. The inauguration of Donald Trump as the president took place on January 20,2017.He wasted no time in bringing into effect his narrow minded views by signing an executive order that suspended admission of refugees for 120 days and denied entry to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days, citing terrorism as the motivation.Most of his policies are focused on making the US self reliant and favoring the US native citizens over all others. His energy policy advocates domestic industrial support to rein in the reliance on the Middle East. He is also in favor of capital punishment including water boarding .The major issue that has sparked uncertainty amongst the Indian diaspora is his stance on H1B visa-the main work visa Indian companies use, to send hundreds of IT workers for high skilled technology work to the US. Drastic changes in these policies would cause a huge dent of as much as 10% in the revenues of Indian companies.Another decision which has caused a great furor, is his plan to build a wall on the US-Mexican border in order to curb immigration from Mexico. Considering, his economic policies, he favors increased spending on US military and backs decreased spending on NATO and in the Pacific region. Reflecting on all this, it is apparent that the new leadership is very unlike the previous ones, but India is certainly in a position to reach out and proactively shape the new administration’s policies.

Written By : Ritika Agarwal             

                        IPG-2016-085