1. The nostalgia of being here!! Mr. Kartik Raina on Blue Ocean!!
February-
February-2008
Life@Nirma (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum!!)
Har Dhaba Kuch Kahata Hai!! Roll No: 071215,071243,071255
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2. Editor’s Desk!!
Hi folks!!
We are here with last edition of the academic year 2007-2008. We will resume again with
July 2008 edition for the next academic year. The atmosphere in IMNU is quiet nostalgic.
The batch of 20006-08 will complete their course and leave the campus on 14th of March.
In campus we rule over the life but in real world the story is often the other way round. I
hope we will be in touch and will try to maximize the probability of head on collisions so
that the meeting results in a good chemistry.
The year 2007-2008 was year of conclaves, foot-ball and some really good initiative from
IMNU students. Whether being Richter, Perspective, Goalz, CopaNirma, Daily Grill
,Radio or magIMNUopus all were student initiatives met with proper support and
guidance from eminent faculties.
Batch of2006-08 was full of talent and energy and we hope batch of 2008-10 will also
add more feathers to the crown of the institute we call IMNU.
Regards;
Team magIMNUopus
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3. Life@Nirma (Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gum!!)
“Moments to cherish, moments to relish: If I ever remember this chapter of my life, a canvas
of emotions is what I would pen down on a paper”
Entering the gates of this college for the first time; sitting in a NIRMA bus gave me goosebumps
of the times ahead. I should have had a hint that this place would be etched very deeply in my
memories and if I ever write a memoir of the times spent here; those would be the ones that I
would cherish and remember for a long time to come. An engineering fresher just out of college
had nothing to loose I thought as this institution was my best option. My initial days were spent
shuffling between assignments and classes; I gotta used to this mundane routine but the social
animal I was; I was looking out for something that could challenge me and keep me occupied for
the rest of my stay here. I interviewed myself for the Placement committee and was not kind a
surprised that I had made the cut. But I didn’t even have the slightest clue what was in store for
me ahead. The job in itself I believe carried huge expectations and responsibilities as this was
what each one had come here for; an awesome corporate job and a fat salary package. The
placement responsibility was a huge learning experience as it carried the aspirations of the entire
batch. I found immense support and solace at the same time from my batch-mates in helping me
get through this gigantic task of getting them placed for summers initially and then the big daddy
of all; final placements. Academics was never my priority here as I thought I had done it all in
engineering; hence wanted to utilize the time to do all the things that I wished I could do. But
getting good grades is not that bad! This institution offered me so much in terms of fun, frolic,
laughter, we had some of the most awesome gatherings (conclaves, festivals, and birthdays) and
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4. the list would go on. My friends I believe are my biggest strength and if I ever take back
something it would be relationships that I share with each of my 124 batch-mates.
Things would come to an end in a few days and life won’t be the same again; I guess this was to
happen but then this academic institution would be my alma-mater and then the responsibility
lies solely with me of giving something back to this institution.
~ Dinesh Iyengar (Anna)
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5. Experience @ IMI
We have participated in a lot of online events but this time we decided to take part in an offline
one. IMI was holding their annual fest, Krtiva’08. There were screening rounds for most of the
events. One such event was a marketing event called “King Arthur”. For the screening round,
there was a case analysis. The task was to “Formulate a marketing strategy for a competitor to
counter the TATA-Nano juggernaut”.
A few days after the submission, we got a call asking us to pack our bags. All the participants
were kept in the dark about the second round. We were expecting a boring run-of-the-mill
marketing event, but we were in for a pleasant surprise. It was supposed to be a marketing event,
but it turned out to be more of a management marathon. We had an experience that we think is
worth sharing.
Here’s more about the event, our strategies and what we think we did right and what we did
wrong
There were two different games in the event. There were 6 teams for each of the two.
Round 1:
Objective: Wealth Maximization
We have all seen the open floor trading in “GURU”. The first round exactly that. There were 12
teams in all (6 each from 2 different games). We were dealt 7 cards each. And 25 tokens. We had
to pick any suit and form a sequence in that suit. The longer the sequence, the more points we
earned. There were banks that gave us loans at different rates depending on the length of the
sequence we were going to form. We could obtain cards we wanted by buying from the card
banks or by trading or buying from the banks. The cards not in the sequence had no value. Seems
like a simple game. Just plain buying and selling, right? We also thought so until the game
started. There were people rushing everywhere, screaming at the top of their voices, trying to
find the right cards, trying to dispose of the unwanted ones. It was total chaos for the 10 minutes.
Three such trading sessions and the round were over.
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6. We went through the rule sheet a couple of times and had finalized on a strategy, which went for
a toss when we saw our cards. We got evenly distributed cards with no clear sequence possible.
In the 5 minutes we had to give our call, we formulated a new strategy-that of making the
smallest permissible sequence of 1 and earning only from selling the other cards. We even
bought cards from the banks and sold them at a high price when people needed them. We had a
good 2 sessions but our luck ran out and we had a mediocre 3rd session.
After such an exciting start, all the participants were hoping that the remaining rounds would be
equally exciting, and we were not disappointed.
Round 2:
When the 6 teams assembled for the 2nd round, we were in for a surprise. We were asked to
deposit all our belongings - our wallets, mobiles and everything other than our clothes. We were
then huddled into vehicles and headed towards Lajpat nagar. There were a lot of speculations as
we headed towards our destination. We all thought that we would probably be given something
to sell. But we were in for another surprise when we were told the rules for this round.
40 minutes, Lajpat nagar central market, and nothing else. We had to earn as much as we could.
And of course, no begging or harassing people. There was one volunteer with each team who
was supposed to be a silent observer as long as we stayed within the rules and the designated
area.
The first few minutes were spent in shock. We went around the market once, just looking at
things, and then started thinking. We thought that the best way to earn something would be to
offer our services to some business get in some customers for them and get some commission.
Again, it seemed easy until we tried. We talked to store keepers, CD vendors, hotels, restaurants,
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7. corn sellers, chat stalls, fruit vendors but in vain. Finally after 20 minutes, we convinced a fruit
vendor to let us sell strawberries for him. He agreed saying he that anything above Rs. 25 per
box was ours. Well, we spent the next 20 minutes trying to sell strawberries and actually
managed to sell 2 boxes- revenue of Rs.10. Actually, not too bad compared to the other teams.
One team outdid all others in this round with revenue of Rs. 60 All others were within the range
of Rs.5 to Rs. 12
Round 3:
As we headed back to IMI, we were all thinking about the rounds to come. There was one more
left for this day. The organizers promised us that the 3rd round would be equally exciting but
thankfully not as taxing. We reached IMI soon and after a short break, assembled in a room for
the 3rd round. We were joined by the other 6 teams from the other event. Having designed Ad
campaigns while we were away at Lajpat nagar, these teams were designated as the Ad-agencies.
The third round consisted of bidding.
We were allotted Rs. 2000 + 10 * amount earned at Lajpat nagar. That left different teams with
different amounts with which to bid. The bidding would be for different thing that would be used
in the 4th round. We first had to bid for one of the ad-agencies. We would then team up with our
ad-agency for the rest of the bidding and the 4th round.
For the 4th round they were going to bring in about 40-50 class 5th students from a Hindi medium
municipal school. They would be given tokens to spend. We were asked to set up game stalls for
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8. these kids. The bidding was to be for game items and prizes. Each item was fiercely fought for
with all teams trying to get their hands on the best games and prizes.
Round 4:
The 4th round started the next day. We were given an hour to decorate the stall and prepare the
games.
And then we met our target audience……
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9. And the next 45 minutes were spent in attracting, cajoling, requesting the kids to came and play
at our stall. There was energy and enthusiasm everywhere and the pictures speak for
themselves….
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10. After 45 minutes, the organizers had a surprise for us. They setup their own stall. They had a
stage, they had music, they had mikes and most important of all, they had no pressure to earn
more. The entry of the state owned competition made things tough for us. Yet we managed to
perform better than the in first phase.
We had managed to get the best games, good prizes and even managed to attract the most kids.
But we made a few small mistakes. In the first phase, we had kept the prices too low thinking
that the kids might not come if the prices is too high. What we did not realize is that the kids
were given tokens by the organizers; it was plastic money which was easily obtained. The kids
had no reservations about shelling out any number of tokens once they had decided to play any
particular game. We also failed to lock-in our customers. The tokens were taken only while the
actual game was played. Due to this many kids left the line and went to other games. We realized
these mistakes in the second half but it was a bit too late.
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11. Round 5:
After the innovative outdoor rounds, it was time to wrap it all up with a traditional round. Round
5 was a debate on “Blue ocean strategies in marketing are not sustainable in today’s competitive
world”. One team member had to speak in favor of the topic and the other against it followed by
questioning by the judge.
This was followed by a presentation by the judge, Mr. Kartik Raina, who has been associated
with leading brands such as P&G (Vicks), Dr. Morpen, GSK (Iodex), Dabur, etc. He gave us
valuable inputs on Blue ocean strategies and numerous examples that he had either seen or
himself implemented.
That brought us to the end of a really exciting two days at IMI. There were teams from NMIMS,
IMI, SJMSOM (IIT-B), NITIE and MDI in our event. We only managed 4th position (but just 10
points behind 2nd placed team) but in the intensely fought event, gained a lot of experience and a
few friends from the top B-schools of India.
~ Inputs from team Vibhushan.
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12. Grill, Drill & Chill!
January 2004
Mahip was counting last few months in his final year of Computer Engineering at IET DAAV
Indore. He had been an avid quizzer all along his schooling and engineering days. Adheer was
his regular quizzing partner in college and they both had won many quizzes at National and
State level. One fine day, an idea struck their mind and they thought about starting a Quiz Club
in the college so that the legacy of quizzing remained in the college after they leave. Hence was
born - quot;The Daily Grillquot;. A Yahoo Group was started with the same name and students from all
years were asked to subscribe to it. Daily quizzes were mailed to the mailing list and it was a
tremendous hit among students. Around 200 students were part of the mailing list. One of the
active members of this mailing list was Raghav, who was a third year student in the Electronics
& Instrumentation Branch. But as the hectic presentations of final year took over their
schedules, this quot;daily grillquot; phased out of the memory and slowly died. Mahip and Adheer
cleared their engineering in flying colors and moved on with their career. Mahip went on to join
TCS Mumbai and Adheer joined IIT Delhi MBA class of 2006.
July 2004-June 2007
Mahip continued his quizzing in the corporate world and managed to win many more prizes. He
was a founder member of the TCS Mumbai Quizzing Club where weekly online quiz was held
for all employees in TCS Mumbai. Adheer also won many quizzes in his MBA inter B school
events and as well as his class surprise quizzes. He completed his MBA in 2006 and joined
Infosys. Raghav passed his engineering in May 2005 and joined i-Flex Solutions Mumbai. He
also maintained his quizzing hobby and participated in corporate quizzes. Mahip and Raghav
both got admission in IMNU for the MBA class of 2009 and this gave them a great chance to
keep their quizzing hobby alive.
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13. June 2007-January 2008
Mahip and Raghav together formed a strong quiz team and started participating in various inter
B school quiz events. And the results were fruitful with both of them winning many accolades
in a very short span of time. Then on another fine day, the idea of starting a Quizzing Club in
the college struck them again.
Feb 2008
This was the time when quot;The Daily Grillquot; was relaunched in form of a blog. Everyday 5
questions are asked and folks were requested to answer the same. This quiz was now open for
the whole world and the participants belonged not only to IMNU but to institutes and
companies like IIMK, NITIE, FMS, IIMI, IT-BHU, Oracle, TCS, Infosys, etc. The blog had a
huge 2700+ visitors in the month of Feb itself. So here was a chance for students of IMNU to
take on the world and test their IQ. We hope that all of us can be part of this larger knowledge
sharing exercise and also have fun on the way!
March 2008 onwards
... And the quizzing continues on the blog! Be part of it.
Check it out at http://thedailygrill.blogspot.com/
~ Mahip Vyas – MBA FT I - IMNU
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14. What is blue ocean strategy?
Rather than competing within the confines of the existing industry or trying to steal customers
from rivals (Red Ocean Strategy) W. Chan Kim and Renee Mouborgne are suggesting Blue
Ocean Strategy: developing uncontested market space that makes the competition irrelevant.
According to Kim and Maubornge in the HBR of October 2004, competing in the overcrowded
industries is no way to sustain high performance. The real opportunity is: to create blue ocean of
uncontested market space.
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15. Competitive advantage critique
Of course competition is important .But focusing on competition and competitive advantages we
have ignored two very important –and for more lucrative –aspects of strategy:
• To find and develop blue oceans ,and
• To exploit and protect blue oceans. These challenges are very different from those to
which strategist have devoted most of their attention.
In the blue oceans the demand is created, rather than fought over. There is ample opportunity for
growth that is both profitable and rapid.
Two ways to create blue oceans:
• To launch completely new industries, as eBay did with online auctions.
• It is more common for a blue ocean to be created from within a red ocean when a
company expands the boundaries of an existing industry.
Critique of Blue Ocean strategy call it is a gimmick. They name it as an old wine in a new bottle
and doubt whether blue ocean strategy is sustainable in this competitive world. But we should
not forget that nothing is permanent in this world except change. Creating a blue ocean is not a
one time process. Every blue ocean is bound to become a red one. We need to keep moving our
blue ocean away from the competition. It is not escapism; rather it is an evolution by innovation.
~ Compiled by team magIMNUopus
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16. Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are of Tankoo baba and we have tried to put it as
it is.
TANKOO BABA KA GYAN!!
Marketing@Dhaba
Tankoo baba runs a dhaba near IIFT-Delhi. He is a very popular personality in Kutub
Institutional Area. Such is his clout that CEO’s of major companies visit his dhaba to eat and to
drink Milo. The ratio between natives and foreigners is 1:3 @Tankoo’s. We were in Delhi to
attend a B-school event and got a rare chance to learn from a world-wise figure like Tankoo
baba. We have brought some of the very interesting part of our conversation with the great road
side marketer.
We went to Tankoo to drink Milo after our meal .He asked with affection, “MBA karte ho kya?”
I reluctantly agreed, thinking what’s more to come. To my biggest surprise he asked, “Marketing
wale lagte ho.”
After the surprise it was time for a shock .Tankoo started preaching marketing in his trade-
marked English. He told, “Actually MBA is a porn job in which marketing is a blow job”.
I just nodded, not prepared for such enlightenment.
He continued as if there was nothing unusual in what he had just said. “Actually, Kotlerwa only
talk about 4-P’s.He doesn’t bother to tell about the fifth and most important “P” and that is
Police. You use 4P to bring a customer and saala yeh panchava P hamesha danda kerta hai.”
We were spellbound and ordered one more cup of Milo. Tankoo put some Milo powder in cup
and poured some milk. Stirring the yummy drink with spoon he told, “Yahan hotel ka business
main saala 3-C hota hai, Convince, confuse and cheat”.
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17. Someone asked, “Tankoo aap ke yahan to Murali Kartik aaya than na?” He laughed and told ,
“yeh sabb to aate rahten hain kabhi Sachinwa aaye apni bibi ke sath to koi baat ho.”
When a customer pays Tankoo he smiles and say “Man you rock!”
Well! If u ask me, “Tankoo, you rock!!.
While returning I thought:
“The difference between school and life is, in school, you are taught a lesson and then given a
test. In life, you are given a test that teaches you lesson.”
~ Compiled by team magIMNUopus
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18. “MAIN AUR MERI TANHAIYAAN” Phir bhi surakhshit rakh saki
This poem won first prize in Cha , IIM-A Hoon, swayam ko sahej ke.
Main ragini hoon, raag se Dhoondh na sakoge mujhe
Mera Ghana sambandh hai. Apni hi parchai me,
Tanhai ki hai baat bhi, Rahasya si main chal rahi hoon,
Isliye laybadh hai. Bheed me, tanhai me.
Maine suna hai, kalpana Aankhen samandar si nahi,
Tanha hriday me aati hai. Balki gehri khai hai.
Taar shabdon me piro kar, Mere charon aur nahi,
Geet aur ghazal ban jati hai Hriday me tanhai hai,
Phir kyon akelepan se yun, Sahastra mirto se ghiri hoon,
Bhaybhit ho kar bhagti hoon? Phir bhi khud me jhaank loon.
Swapn me tanha hoon to, Akelepan ka aur tanhai ka
Phir cheekh kar kyon jaagti hoon? Fark aank loon.
Nahi! Yeh tanhai ki Koi paas aaye to
Paribhasha hi nirarth hai. Usme samahit ho sakoon.
Tanhai akelapan nahi, Sansaar ke sang beh ke bhi
Yeh tulna jaise vyarth hai. Akeli pravahit ho sakoon.
Phir se anweshak bani Is Punj me ban jati hai
Anchui parten kholti hoon. Har din nahyi rubaaiyaan
Samajh saki tanhai ka jo arth Maine saheji bhed me bhi
Wah bolti hoon. Unchooi tanhaiyaan.
Main aur meri tanhaiyaan.
Main janti hoon bhagna,
Sansar se bhi tez se. ~ Akanksha Bumb
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19. • Thejaswi and Chandrashekhar came third in the regional round of the Tata Crucible
Quiz.
• Akanksha Bumb won first prize in Creative writing at Chaos,IIM-A and
Synapse,DA-IICT.
• Manu Solanki, Pallavi Nautiyal and Garima Dayal won consolation in rangoli at
Chaos, IIM-A
• Maitree won 1st prize in Solo Dance at Chaos, IIM-A
• Mahip & Raghav stood first in Inter college quiz at NIFT
• Mahip & Raghav were finalists in Inter college quiz at DAIICT
• Vinaytosh & Bhushan (team Vibhushan) came 4th in marketing game at Kritva’08,
IMI (Read more about it in Experience @ IMI).
• Vinaytosh, Mahip and Raghav won the second prize at the AD MAD contest at
Horizons 2008 by Rotaract Club of Nirma Institutes.
• Bhushan along with Mahip and Raghav won the IFMR Online Treasure Hunt.
• Nikhil Agarwal has also won a prize in one of the levels of the treasure hunt.
• Raghav came second in the IFMR online quiz.
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20. TEAM MAGIMNUOPUS FOR FEBRUARY EDITION
• Vinaytosh Mishra
• Mahip Vyas
• Bhushan Phadnis
• Raghav Rastogi
• Akanksha Bumb
• ALL NIRMITES
Note: You can send your suggestions and letters to magimnuopus@gmail.com
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