When
IBA, Bengaluru found its Maverick Managers through PaGaLGuY
By KVJ Subrahmanyam
Published: October 12, 2006
PaGaLGuY.com
visited Indian Business Academy (IBA) – Bengaluru
in July, 2006 to give out the first ever PaGaLGuY.com
scholarships to the class of 2008 students of IBA. The
scholarships were given in three different categories
– Maverick Manager for Entrepreneurship, Maverick
Manager for Innovative Marketing and Maverick Manager
for General Management. Scholarships were given after
a two-stage elimination process for each category.
For all three categories, students were given caselets
(for general management and for innovative marketing)
and rules for building their idea (for entrepreneurship)
in advance and the students emailed their responses
to the PaGaLGuY.com team.
Indeed,
it was heartening to see the number of responses that
the event generated amongst the enthusiastic students
of IBA, in spite of the short notice that the students
got. The fact that these students were just a week into
the courses spoke volumes of how they have structured
their thought processes in tackling business issues.
The
day started off with the visiting trio giving a brief
overview of PaGaLGuY.com to all the MBAs-in-making and
how the community has grown over the years. Due to the
paucity of time, next on agenda was round 1 of the process
where each student that had submitted an entry was to
be interviewed by one of the PG team. The team from
PG then divided the entrants into three distinct groups
based on the categories that the students participated
in. The general management category saw the most participation
from the IBA students. More than a few enterprising
students also took the opportunity to submit their entries
just before the start of the round 1 of elimination.
The
shortlisted candidates
The
team from PG was definitely impressed by some of the
entries which clearly gave away the depth of thought
and innovation in implementing workarounds to what the
students saw as common pain points. The round 1 stretched
well into the afternoon and by the time, the interviewing
of all students was done, it was well past 2pm. The
team from PG then went on to have a lunch at the in-house
canteen of IBA. During lunch, the interactions with
the IBA students clearly showed how some of the students
have their reasons for MBA all right and how they were
taking advantage of what IBA had to offer, in terms
of opportunities.
Rohit
Awasthi and KVJ Subrahmanyam, PaGaLGuY panelists
From
round 1, 4-5 students for each category were short listed
and were informed prior lunch that they were to get
prepared for further questioning on their submission
in round 2. To avoid any perceptual bias, it was decided
that round 2 will be a group interview of the candidate
and his/her submission by all the three members from
PG. It was interesting to see how some of the students
were clearly meticulous in their planning and preparation
in presenting their case to the interviewing panel.
At the end of round 2, it was indeed turning out to
be the proverbial tough decision in deciding the winners
of the scholarship. This was more so the case with the
entrepreneurship category where the team from PG felt
that two candidates had very good and implementable
ideas. After a lot of deliberations, and discussions
with PGHQ as well as IBA management, it was finally
decided that in the interest of fairness, the award
amount be split between the two participants. Finally,
at the end of a long day, the four recipients of the
PaGaLGuY.com Maverick Manager were decided.
General
Management - Prerna Duhan
Innovative Marketing - V Ganesh
Entrepreneurship - Shiv Kumar Pandey and Ganesh Iyer
Scholarship winner Prerna Duhan with PaGaLGuY
panelist Kunal Nagar
Ravin K, one of the students interviewed for the scholarship
said, “I came to know about the scholarship through
Pagalguy. The three people from Pagalguy who came to
interview us for the scholarships gave us a great learning
experience by making us think on touch and on-depth
questions. My business plan was about opening a tiffin
business in Ahmedabad on the lines of Mumbai. Despite
having spent five months in the hospitality industry,
the panelists’ questions showed me that I had
overlooked many things in my plan.”
“The
Maverick Manager Scholarship was constituted by IBA
to identify and nurture talented students. The new entrants
were not aware that they would be participating in such
a contest even before they had adjusted to their new
environment. Hardly a fortnight at IBA, and they were
enthusiastic to participate in a contest that was to
identify the latent entrepreneurial and managerial abilities
in them,” said Mr Rakesh Bhaskar of IBA on the
exercise.
“However,
at the final round of presentations and interviews,
it was evident that the best candidates in each category
had been identified. These students were at their competitive
best, fighting with their wits yet in a spirit of camaraderie.
It was obviously the place to identify the hidden talents
in many of these bright youngsters,” he added.
“The
presentations were well done – realistic and well
thought out. There were strong elements of strategic
thinking coupled with a holistic approach. These could
be made into viable business propositions with help
and guidance. This was indeed a good start to their
2 year program at IBA where they would learn to further
hone these innate skills. We wish these motivated and
talented students a very bright future, who will do
themselves and IBA proud. I am happy to be with the
Pagalguy forum and explore more avenues for the students’
cause.” he mused.
The
team from PaGaLGuY thoroughly enjoyed the interaction
with the aspiring MBA students and took away memorable
thoughts with the promise of returning next year with
a Maverick Manager Scholarship that is more encompassing
in its scope and more rigorous in its selection. |
