Jab They Met Prof. Raghuram in Japan!

The Director of IIMB, Prof. G Raghuram travelled to Tokyo on Friday,30 June 2017 for an Alumni Meet in Japan. 

“IIMB is just not an institution, it’s a brand. Being associated with such a brand always makes us proud. As am alum of IIMB we feel blessed to be connected to this great institution. Alumni meet is not a new topic for IIMB, but when such meet happens 6500 KM away from campus, in presence of respected IIMB Director then it really becomes Special”- says one of the alums during the Japan Alumni Meet 2017.

This time it was in beautiful city and capital of Japan (日本), Tokyo. The Kanji meaning of japan is “the origin of the sun”. We know Japan is a strong economy and a close business    partner of India. Best part of Japan is that they are doing so well economically in spite of many challenges like having more than 70% of Japan consists of mountains (including more than 200 volcanoes). On average, Japan gets 1500 earthquakes every year( still there is no solution of radioactive water disposal from Tsunami) and so on.

The nature of the Japanese people is that, they build business by constructing relationships which basically takes time. Trust then becomes the pre-requisite. Due to certain stark differences between Indian and Japanese work culture and behavioural patterns, it then gets difficult to inspire trust with the latter community in the early stages. The Japanese people attend meetings early, understanding traffic conditions and other possible delays and thereby account for them whereas Indians tend to be inspired by stars and strong leaders.

In the absence of an established IIMB Alumni in Japan and with the input from IIMB some alums were communicated residing in Tokyo and around for this Alum Meet to be successful.

“With small planning of date, time, venue etc., the pleasant moment came when we had face to face meeting with IIMB Director Prof. G. Raghuram over dinner in a quite popular Indian restaurant in Tokyo Down town named “Dakshin”. Dakshin was a great choice of venue for such a meeting (recommended by Nagaraj) as the ambience and nice aroma of the delicious South Indian dishes gave us a feeling of seating in a typical restaurant in heart of Bangalore”- said Mantosh Kumar, one of the alums of IIMB.

“India was busy in discussing on GST but same time here in this small group, we were touching multiple topics (Indo-Japan relationship, Current Indian politics, GST, Farmers issue in India and so on). Interesting part of this meeting was members experience into this beautiful country along with the experience of Prof. G. Raghuram during his multiple visits to Japan. Overall it was a great opportunity for all of us to spend some quality time with Prof Raghuram. We ended the day with the commitment that we will work to make Japan Alum stronger.”

Just as we say Arigato GozaiMasta, meaning thank you very much in Japanese, we  expressed our sincere thanks to Mr. Raghuram for this great opportunity and in return he promised us to meet again next time in Tokyo.

Some sneak peeks :