This was written some time during 2006 when I was working as a Faculty at ICFAI National College, a post-graduate management institute, now renamed Adam Smith Institute of Management.
The SIP 2006 now during the month of June is at its half way stage. 185 odd students from the entire region comprising Maharashtra and Gujarat have assembled in Mumbai for their “beyond the class room experience” in the industry for 4 months.
I am the Faculty Guide of 26 such students stationed in 6 companies. And my experience happens to be a mix of mostly good and a few bad. Let me recount some of the better performers. Those whom I would like to remember for a long time.
Most of the OJTs (on the job training) this year are in marketing. Right from recruiting Insurance Advisors of a life insurance company and clients for a courier company to selling demat Accounts of a broker. Among these students are a few who will give their right hand for an exposure in finance, but now out on the field 10 to 6 sourcing clients. And in the first couple of weeks they were facing the wrath of their company guides for being utter misfits in their jobs. I have seen many of them coming to the SIP centre located at INC, Thane, with long and depressed faces. They were very uncomfortable with the idea of selling.
Finance being my domain it was very easy to understand what was happening to them. Some thing needs to be done fast for them I felt. I remembered one of my earlier sessions when I started teaching Financial Management in Semester 2. I went through that presentation and decided to take a class at the SIP Centre to try to help students like these bolster their confidence.
The session was on why a student should take interest in a subject not marked out for specialization in the ensuing 2 semesters. For example, why study Financial Management when there is no intention of becoming a Finance Manager. What is the need to understand Financial Management? Or for that matter, Marketing Management when the word, “sell” does not find a place in the student’s agenda in the near or distant future.
I explained that it was to prepare them for their workplace and their climb up the corporate ladder. Jobs are being clubbed and are cutting across all layers of the corporate pyramid. With more responsibilities the successful manager has to be a team player who moves both vertically and horizontally within the organization. A mastery of basic financial management and marketing skills are the key ingredients they will require for success at their workplace.
I explained to the students the relationship between Marketing & Finance. Like the Marketing Manager taking important decisions affecting the profitability of the company like determining the credit period given to the Debtors and Inventory management. And many more things where the two functions work hand in hand for the company to grow. And most importantly I told them that it is much more beneficial for a Finance specialist to do the OJT and the Project in Marketing. As at the time of interview and final placement this will stand out to prove what a Finance student can do in Marketing. And given a choice of recruiting one Finance Manager between 2 short listed candidates the company will definitely give enough weightage to the achievements of this student in SIP first and foremost.
My words in this session seemed to work like magic. I very well remember a girl who was grumbling like most finance people do (no offence intended to the more experienced and more learned in my domain) when they are asked to talk about selling, leave alone doing the actual thing in reality. They instantly react as if they are being told to do the most unholy of things. She was not at all happy, being asked to scout for clients for Skypak, a courier company, in one of the most competitive business locations of Mumbai all day long. From the very next week after my session she forgot all her problems and started to work so hard I just could not believe myself. Even after being reminded that I would like to sort out her problem and would talk to the Company Guide and our Centre Head, if necessary, she feigned ignorance of her problem which I thought if at all existed in her. The other four students in this company are also doing reasonable well in their Marketing, HR and IT Project and OJTs. And it makes me all the happier.
Life is really full of so many pleasant surprises one after the other. Some of the 10 students working in Share Khan, a Broker company, are doing so well I thought why not join a company like theirs for a change! Broking never seemed so good. Most of the students in Share Khan have proved to be very good performers. They have all been appreciated by their 2 Company Guides in their OJTs and would be doing well in their Projects too.
Not forgetting one more performer working in Deloitte Hoskins and Sells, one of the Big-4. She has been appreciated by her Company Guide and she is already on her way in writing a thesis in VAT and its implementation nationally.
This leaves me with a few experiences I would like to forget fast with some of the remaining students. They have been told exactly where they are going wrong and the dos and don’ts of the project and OJT have been suitably explained all over again. Since we are still half way through I believe there is time left for them to do the repair job so that they do not become forgotten chapters in SIP 2006. I am hopeful they will have a better ending to their experience.
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