Students Corner: Opinions, Experiences and Expressions

An Overload of Emotions

The month of July saw many emotions on the campus, especially for PGP1s – from fears of the first examination at IIMB to the excitement of Vista; from IIMBue to new friendships and lot more.

Participants showcased their talents and creativity at the flagship business fest on campus,Vista. IIMB saw overall participation of 40,000+ during the event. The high level of competition provided the first years with a sneak peek of the upcoming 2 years and a renewed thrust of energy to the PGP2s.

Many IIMB Alums visited the campus as well as IIMBue and conducted sessions, workshops and shared their experiences. A few joyful ones and inquisitive ones are as follows:

1. Nitin Bawankule: He is the Country Director, India for Google Cloud. Mr Nitin walked usthrough Google’s product portfolio and provided a few glimpses of what’s in store next for us.

2. Ashish Goel: Mr Ashish is the co-founder of Urban Ladder. Before launching his venture, he was working with McKinsey & Company. Ashish revealed the differences and similarities of working in a consulting firm and having one’s start-up.

3. Shridhar Venkataraman: Shridhar, who is a budding stand-up comedian showered us with his witty jokes. It’s quite amazing to listen when he can crack a joke on literally anything, He didn’t even spare the 4Ps of Marketing!

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

Thinking on the Box

A few glimpses from the Vista event “Thinking on the Box”, where teams poured in their creativity to design packaging for products. 8 finalists participated in this two-stage event, where they designed the box and pitched their ideas in a nail-biting finish.

The winner of the competition designed a creative tissue box which could be marketed across the globe. The runner up team made a personalized gift box, which could be given to your loved ones.

We congratulate the winning teams and wish them luck with their future endeavors!

( Contributed by Aakash Parikh, a student of PGP 2019-21 batch)

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

Saudi Arabia Through My Eyes

( shared by Sankalp Nandanwar, a student of EPGP 2019-20 batch) 

Sitting on my hotel room couch and sipping a self made black coffee at 2 AM in the morning, I decided to pen down about my 6 months long stay in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah City. 

A lot has already been said and written about the biggest country of the Arabian Peninsula, but today I don’t want to talk about the country’s strict Sharia Law, life of women in the Kingdom, the Wahhabi Islam that is followed in Saudi Arabia or any other controversies and negative opinions associated with this country.   

Today I just want to pen down my experience about this country. Closing the eyes towards the political and economical jargons, the issues and luxuries of the elite and powerful, the mysteries and secrets of the holist place of Islam, I just want to show you this country through the eyes of a 26 year old Non-Muslim commoner.   

Six months back I got official confirmation on the on-boarding for a new onsite project in Saudi Arabia. A new girl was introduced in my current project as my replacement and I was asked to complete the knowledge transfer to her.  Simultaneously with my KT sessions for my replacement, I was also involved in the induction and introductory sessions for my new project.  

Apart from the technical complexities of the project a lot was talked about the cultural sensitivity and restrictions of the country that we were going. Moreover our project manager was a Pakistani Guy and the Data owner of the objects that I was handling was also a Pakistani guy. Because of all the preconceived notions I had, I was just hoping and praying that these guys don’t hate me unnecessarily for just being a Non-Muslim Indian. The recent surgical strikes and the rising tension between the two countries were just adding to my fear. 

Keeping the fear aside I was still very excited and happy about my onsite consignment because I believed in the fact that people will be good to you if you are good to them. 

Read More