Dr. Radhika Madan

Dr. Radhika Madan

Assistant Professor, IILM University. I have over thirteen years of teaching experience. Her teaching areas include Marketing Management and Strategy, Foundations of Marketing, Marketing Communications, Services Marketing, Marketing and Entrepreneurship, Spoken Business Communication and Written Communication. She has a keen interest in doing research in the field of marketing management, consumer behavior, marketing communications, social media marketing and cross cultural management.

The most powerful brand: “YOU”

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It’s a Sunday morning, you wake up and slide your feet into your Crocs slippers, walk up to the washroom to squeeze out a sparkling whitening Colgate toothpaste. You grab your Starbucks coffee mug and wear your Nike shoes…. you are all set to hit the gym in your Honda car!!! Wow….. So many brands in just a few minutes….. Brands, brands and more brands, our life revolves around them. But, if we rewind the scene and go back to the first scene, you see the most powerful brand in the washroom mirror…. “YOU”!!! Yes, you read this right…. YOU are a brand…. clothes, cars, accessories, watches alone do not make you powerful, what makes you powerful is YOU.

You need to ask yourself few questions – Why should someone hire me? Why should someone have lunch with me? Why should someone walk up to me to talk to me? How am I different from others? What are my strengths? Once you have the answers, you have created your own personal brand. Some people are purely lucky; they are at the right place at the right time. For majority of the people, they have to build themselves from the scratch. Technology plays an extremely important role in personal branding. College students need to necessarily build their personal brands if they are looking for job opportunities. Recruiters nowadays depend upon Google searches, specially looking up the Facebook profile of the prospective candidates, LinkedIn profiles and other social media platforms to shortlist and evaluate their prospective candidates. Therefore, one needs to be very careful and particular about the kind of content that is posted on their personal accounts and the kind of comments they write.

Creating your own personal brand cannot happen in a day, just like Rome was not build in a day! It is a process which needs to be nurtured everyday, every moment very carefully. The first step in this process is “self discovery”. You need to find out what your expertise is, what are you good at, what makes you different from others, what makes you stand out in a crowd. Just like brands have their own identity in  the form of logos, you need to find out your identity in this big crowd. The most important and critical aspect of creating your personal brand is to step out of your comfort or I would call it, your “safe zone”.

Are you ready to take this bold step and take a leap of faith to create the most powerful brand, the brand christened “YOU”!!

Social Media: An important part of our life!

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Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn…. imagine waking up one day without these Apps on our phone! For some, this would be a scary thought, for others it may be a sigh of relief!! One thing is certain….. it is a big part of our lives since it helps us to communicate, interact, keeps us updated or even helps us express ourselves better. Let us honestly ask ourselves a question, how many times we pick up our phones to check these apps, to see what others have posted, to check the number of likes we have received on our posts, to read the comments….. I am sure we all know at least one person who is addicted to social media!

Social Media came into existence in 1990s but over these years has gained popularity across the globe and across all segments of the society. Every individual wants to communicate, irrespective of the era they belong to. Communication too underwent drastic changes from pigeons, light signals, postal systems, telegraph, telephone, letters and emails to social media. Social media has in true sense changed the landscape of communication. Nowadays, gestures and body language have got replaced with acronyms and emoticons! Social media has evolved from just being a medium of entertainment and communication to a platform being used by businesses, entrepreneurs and organization that aim to gain recognition and identification at economical prices.

In today’s dynamic environment, people are all the time hard pressed for time. In such a scenario, the advantages of social media cannot be denied. Marketers too are making full use of the power of social media. Videos, blogs, articles provide innovative ideas that capture the attention of the viewers and also keep the customers engaged. Five to seven minutes of reading an article or blog and the customer is all set to clink on the link and make a purchase…. That is the power of Social Media!! From big giants like Apple, Microsoft to your local grocery store around the corner, are all on social media in order to reach out to their customers in the most convenient way. In a nutshell, whether we like it or not, we cannot ignore the power of Social Media and its importance in our day to day life!!

 

IILM University celebrates World AIDS Day

Campus Life

AIDS to No AIDS

 

“The first step towards change is awareness. The second is acceptance.”

-Nathaniel Branden

World AIDS Day was the first ever global health day, designated on 1st December every year since 1988. It is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection. The day allows people to show their support for those living with HIV and to have time to remember those who have died from it.

According to the data of 2017, AIDS has killed 28.9 million to 41.5 million people worldwide, and an estimated 36.7 million people are living with HIV, making it one of the most important global public health issues in recorded history. The world together is fighting against the HIV AIDS today.

Students of IILM University took an initiative to spread awareness on World AIDS Day! The theme was “AIDS to No AIDS”, where the students had displayed a big Red Ribbon which signifies “AIDS”. The red ribbon is the universal symbol of awareness and support for people living with HIV. Students placed a box full of small white ribbons along with red ribbon. The objective was to spread awareness and a message to the society. It was an opportunity to unite the students, faculties, and our entire IILM family towards this noble cause.

By the end of the day, it was overwhelming to see the red ribbon getting transformed into a white ribbon which signified that every individual is working towards eradicating AIDS by spreading awareness and information. World AIDS Day has already given us an initiative to change which we all need to accept.

Stay aware, stay blessed!

Dr. Radhika Madan & Arti Kumari MBA (Batch 2018 – 2020)

Placement week organized by IILM

Career Development (Placement),
As part of the placement week organized by IILM, Mr. Rupesh Kumar Chaturvedi (batch 2010 – 12) who is currently working with SAAVAN as Senior Executive – Ad Operations took the first session. Mr. Rupesh, prior to working with SAAVAN has a work experience of more than two years with Exponential.

The session started with a detailed discussion.

He had a detailed discussion with the students on Digital Media Marketing and gave them insights from the industry perspective. The objective of the session was to give guidance to the students on how to crack an SIP interview and what mistakes they should avoid.

Alumni Chapter Reunion @ IILM Gurgaon

Alumni Chapter Reunion @ IILM Gurgaon

Alumni

Alumni of batch 2005 – 07 visited IILM Gurgaon campus on 24th December 2016 to celebrate Christmas Eve with the faculty members and students. The alumni came back to their alma mater after a decade.

It was an emotional evening as they went back memory lane and shared their journey of success with the current students. I would like to take this opportunity to thank each one of you who could come for the reunion from various parts of India.

The evening started with a welcome speech by Dr. Sujata Shahi, Senior Director IILM. She spoke about how the Institute has evolved in the past one decade talking about the change in the teaching pedagogy. Prof. Ruchi Shah spoke about companies that come to campus now along with the packages and profiles these companies are offering. She also discussed the experiential courses offered by IILM for the students.

The IILM band performed for the alumni and made them dance and sing in the cafeteria. It was a great platform for networking as we had alumni working in top companies at high positions such as HDFC, Citibank, Hyatt Regency, Hurix Systems, Capital IQ, Capgemini, Colliers International to name a few. The PGDM students had a great time interacting with them and hearing their success stories.

 

IILM Celebrating the 21st Convocation of the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Program

Events

IILM has been a pioneer in offering management courses for both the undergraduate and post graduate programs. Established in 1993, IILM offers the AICTE approved Post Graduate Diploma in Management at its three well-located campuses in the National Capital. The curriculum at IILM imbibes the best aspects of courses offered at top business schools around the world. The modules are inspired by the Wharton Business School, the Harvard Business School, the Yale School of Management and the IIMs. They aim at combining theory with practical training so that students are capable of turning concepts into understanding, knowledge into action and ideas into innovation. With over 20 years’ experience in training future entrepreneurs and managers, IILM is proud to have 9000+ well placed alumni in top companies in India and abroad.

IILM offers a wide range of Executive Education Programmes on various platforms. IILM has organized Training programmes for IAS and IPS officers for over 10 years. IILM has also been conducting customized Training programme for leading PSUs like NTPC, NBCC, BHEL, and EIL. IILM also offers specialized programmes for Defence Ministry’s Directorate General of Resettlement for defence officers. IILM has recently partnered with Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs to jointly conduct programmes for Government officers and executives of PSUs and corporates. IILM Startup Labs has been launched to support and bolster a start-up company’s creation and activity in the early stages before it becomes self-sustainable. Through the incubation initiative, IILM aims to provide an environment where students and entrepreneurs get full IILM support to set up new ventures.

IILM has partnered with the Dortmund University of Applied Science and Arts, Germany for the Masters in International Business – Managing Diverse Markets Programme. The MDM programme has been a great learning for our students in terms of an international educational experience, exposure and adapting to and managing cross-cultural differences.

According to the EdUniversal rankings of best business schools in India, IILM has been ranked 11 (3 Palmes of Excellence category) for 2015. Headquartered in Paris, EdUniversal is a global ranking and rating agency specializing in higher education.

21st Annual Convocation – 2016

The 21st Convocation of IILM for the Class of 2016 was held on May 4th, 2016 at its Lodhi Road, New Delhi campus. The ceremony started with the lighting of the lamp by Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson The Bharat Hotels Limited and Mrs. Malvika Rai, Chairperson, IILM. One hundred and sixty-seven students completed their post-graduate studies at IILM in 2016 and received their diplomas at the Convocation.

At IILM, placement is on high priority. In order to achieve this objective, IILM has introduced four placement weeks throughout the year. The Career Development team conducts continuous workshops to get the best internships. IILM acknowledged the summer internship projects of the students and awarded them with certificates. The best three summer internship projects from all three campuses were selected on the basis of the quality of training in job, passion, persistence and sincerity towards SIP.

Dr. Smitha Girija, Director, IILM welcomed the Chief Guest, Dr. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson and Managing Director of Bharat Hotels Limited that runs the luxury hotels chain “THE LALIT” under the Lalit Suri Hospitality Group. In the past few years the Group has won a number of awards for its outstanding performance. Dr. Jyotsna Suri was President of FICCI for the year 2015-16. She has been listed amongst the Top 50 Business Power Women in Asia by the Forbes Asia and amongst the Top 20 Most Powerful Woman in Indian Business by the Business Today. She is the only Indian member on the International Executive Committee of the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). She has also received an Honorary Degree of “Doctor of Laws” from the University of Warwick, UK for her contribution to tourism industry.

Dr. Jyotsna Suri’s speech:

Faculty members, proud parents and graduating students. I am truly privileged to be here for 21st convocation of IILM. Thank you all for inviting me for this very special occasion. IILM is one of the leading business schools in India offering Undergraduate and Post Graduate programs in Management. I believe the focus is to develop students as globally aware members of society who are also responsible business leaders. The initiative to encourage student from Jammu & Kashmir and North East by offering them 25% scholarship and 10% scholarship to every woman student is highly commendable. I am also delighted to know that there are 71 girls out of 167 students that are graduating this year.  My complements to the founders and of course the current promoters and management of IILM. Please keep the good work as you are doing. Heartiest Congratulations to you all.

Young ladies and gentlemen, in the depressed global scenario India stands out as a bright spot. The Indian economy is growing at 7.6% and will continue to do so in the future. Historically, India is one of the oldest cultures but demographically it is the youngest nation. About 60% are below the age of 30. India with its 29 states and 7 union territories has both the demand and supply therefore its economy will continue to grow. The services sector is doing fairly well. The governments imitative of ”Make in India” is giving a boost to India’s sluggish manufacturing sector.

The Prime Minister’s call of starts up INDIA is aimed at you and he is also providing his favorite platform to all the new young entrepreneurs like yourselves to come forward. As you graduate, therefore there is a huge opportunity waiting for you. Some of you may join established or establishing firms. Some may add value to existing family businesses and some may become entrepreneurs who will not only sustain themselves but also offer employment to others.

So young ladies and gentlemen while it is extremely important to generate success and wealth, we must not forget the core value of humanity. Let me give you a fistful of values

  • Honesty and Integrity
  • Respect for individuals
  • Responsible communication
  • Devotion to duty
  • Minimize wastage

As you move on in your life, please keep the honesty and integrity alive in you. You must respect all the individuals, their faith, their beliefs, their backgrounds- each one has to be respected. Your communication to each other, to the outside world must always be responsible. And as you move on, whatever you may do, whichever genre you may fit yourself in, whichever company you may join always have the devotion to duty and minimize wastage. Wastage of natural recourses, wastage of water, wastage of food but most importantly wastage of time. Don’t waste your time on activities which are not going to bear any positive results.

 Remember the moment gone by is never going to come back so make the most of the time you have. Now with that fist, which is very powerful, along with it I offer you my good wishes. As you step out into the world to establish yourself, do your parents, your country, your planet proud. Good luck to you. Namaskar.
Dr. Smitha Girija, also welcomed Mr. Kapil Chanana, IILM’s alumni from the first batch, batch of 1996. Mrs. Malvika Rai presented an award to Mr. Kapil Chanana, General Manager, Activation, Coca Cola India Private Ltd. The Chief Guest, Dr. Jyotsna Suri and IILM Chairperson, Mrs. Malvika Rai then presented Gold and Silver Medals to the toppers of the three campuses.

IILM honoured six faculty members with the “Excellence in Teaching” Award. The six faculty members who received this award are: Prof. Vinay Chirania, Prof. Ruchi Shah, Dr. Shivani Khurana, Prof. Raju Majumdar, Prof. Shweta Sharma, and Dr. Preethi Srinivas.

The convocation concluded with the National Anthem.

IILM Student Exchange Program_Experience of an International Student

Campus Life, Global Study, IILM Stories

My IILM experience – Yvonne Küper, ISM Dortmund, Germany (January 2016 to April 2016)

Going abroad is always a great experience and by choosing India and especially IILM for my semester abroad was definitely the best choice for many different reasons.

One thing that I appreciate most about the Indian culture is the hospitality, which I never experienced before in this way in any other country. As long as it is possible for them they help, advise, and guide you through all kinds of situation. This goes in particular to IILM, its faculty, staff and its students.

I was able to stay at the girls hostel here on the campus for the last three month and it was really comfortable and fun, since you get in touch with so many different girls and it was really nice to have some late night girls talks or just watching a movie.

When the semester started I first had to get used to only having two or three classes a day, since in Germany I basically spend most of my day sitting in lectures, but it was really nice as you could totally focus on the classes of the day and therefore put more effort in each of it. During this semester I did not only learned more theories and skills, but what I enjoyed most was the active group discussions and experiencing the different points of view and therefore also more of the Indian culture, as they perceive some things different than us Europeans. Another great thing about the educational part at IILM is the continuous feedback that you give but also receive in terms of the lectures, rough drafts of coursework, and discussions. Also the teachers really care about their students, as you are always welcome to go to their cabin or to e-mail them in order to ask questions.

Besides my studies I was also able to enjoy my free time over here and one of my favorite memories so far was visiting the Taj Mahal, as it is truly majestic and the atmosphere around there, even though it is a very crowded place, is truly breath taking.

I really enjoyed my time here at IILM and in India and therefore I look forward to come back to visit some time, as there are still a lot more things to experience.

 

 

 

Alumni Engagement – Guest session by an alumni in the HR panel discussion

Alumni, Campus Life, Guest Blog, IILM Stories

A HR Panel Discussion was held at IILM Gurgaon Campus on the topic “Working Agile – Understanding Workplace Changes and Adapting to them” on 11th March, 2016.

The speakers for the event were Mr. Shailesh Sigh, Business Head, People Strong HR Services and Ms.Vijaya Singh, Analyst, Gerson Lehrman Group; an alumni of IILM Gurgaon campus, batch 2011 – 13

The speakers shared their views on agile/flexible workplace strategy, resistance for change and solutions, how to adapt to changes at the workplace.

Our alumni, Ms. Vijaya Singh shared her experience as she progressed from college life to corporate life and how she managed this transition. She discussed how “agile working” is not new, but it is a “new way of working”. It can certainly be included under the umbrella term “smart working”, which is about utilizing the benefits gained from changing work practices, deploying new technologies and creating new working environments.

She also shared that one of the reasons agile working is difficult to pin down is that it’s not prescriptive – there is no one size that fits all – it has common themes but is essentially individual and involves choice in the how, what, where and when of working. The session was very interactive and was a great learning for the students. The students have asked for more such discussions from industry experts

Ms. Vijaya, prior to working with GLG has worked with Towers Watson for almost two years as Research Associate and has done her internship at Colliers –International and Dawn & Delight in the HR domain

She was very happy to come back to campus and share her experience with the post graduate students and is willing to come back for more such sessions and discussions and help in preparing the students for internships. She will also help us connect with Towers Watson for SIP and final placement

Start Up India : Entrepreneurship Conference @ IILM

Conferences, Events

IILM hosted its second Entrepreneurship Conference on December 4, 2015. The main focus of the conference was on the theme “Start Up India.” It’s a known fact that India, today, is an emerging economy that is destined to achieve milestones, on various fronts, in the near future. However, for India, to acquire the status of a “developed” nation, it needs to create 100 million jobs, statistics point out! Experts confirm, in an Endeavour to achieve this mark, tapping the potential of the unemployed and exploring opportunities in the employment market, so that each and every person plays a crucial role in contributing towards the development. The education system in the country should highlight the importance of entrepreneurship and also prepare students to start their own enterprises to generate wealth,.

The session started with the talk of the first speaker Dr. Ritesh Malik, Founder – Innov8 Creatives, Alive App and Mr. Sandeep Oberoi, General Manager, Philips Healthcare. Dr. Ritesh Malik highlighted that Entrepreneurship is about passion and perseverance and encouraged them never to give up even if the start up fails in the few initial attempts. Mr. Sandeep Oberoi stressed that it’s not just innovative ideas that bring success to an entrepreneur but also the commercial packaging of the ideas. He mentioned that entrepreneurial skills are inbuilt in a person and with proper support and initiative, one can become a successful entrepreneur.

The second session was about Innovation and Creation. Innovation and Creation are keys to successful organization. Creativity is the capability or act of conceiving something original or unusual. Innovation is the implementation of something new. Invention is the creation of something that has never been made before and is recognized as the product of some unique insight.This session  also focused on Disruptive Innovation as a key to create new markets and stressed the point that Internet is assisting the culture of entrepreneurship as it reduces the entry barriers to the process.  Ms. Sukhmani Bedi expressed that it’s more recycling of thoughts and ideas in India.

The third Session on “The Investor’s perspective to a startup, The speakers highlighted India at present being on the forefront on entrepreneurial roadmap. The panel members discussed the factors that are most important before making a decision to invest in a startup. They also shared their own experiences in starting their own enterprises. what problem they faced and also encourage the budding entrepreneur to take advantage of the various investment opportunities.

The last session was “The Startup’s Failure – A Roadmap to Success!”. This was the most interesting session it focused on the reasons responsible for startups failure and how devising a good strategy can be helpful in sustaining and scaling growth. Deliberations among the panelists focused on the reasons of failure and the resilience needed from entrepreneurs to sustain. Analyzing and implementing the correct strategy is the important  task.

At last my learning from this conference was that the talks gave me clear insight about what entrepreneurship is and how can one go with it,what strategy should one .It is not at all a rocket science it just about being INNOVATIVE & CREATIVE, In Today’s era every organization need to be innovative and creative otherwise its survival in the market is very difficult. Our PM Mr. Narender Modi has also focused upon the startups in India. In his Independence Day speech, Modi had announced a new campaign ‘Startup India; Stand up India’ to promote bank financing for startups and offer incentives to boost entrepreneurship and job creation in the country.

 

SONAM YADAV

IILM PGDM Student

Batch 2015 – 17

IILM Global Study Program, EM Normandy, France

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It is exactly two weeks since the Normandy Fall Programme has started by Ecole De Management De Normandie. Our stay has been organized in the campus hostel itself in Caen which is the prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of Basse-Normandie region. The city has about 113,249 inhabitants while its urban area has 420000, making Caen the largest city in Lower Normandy. Caen is known for its historical buildings built during the reign of William the Conqueror (who was buried here) and also for the battle for Caen – heavy fighting during the Battle of Normandy in 1944, destroying much of then city.

Our tour is a perfect blend of study, industrial visits and happy weekends. I mentioned weekends to be “happy weekends” because it’s the time when we actually get to explore Europe.

From Monday to Friday , our pragramme is scheduled with the classes in which 4 days we have class room learning and 1 day we have industrial visits. It’s really a good experience to study here in France as we get to interact with people belonging to diverse cultures. Here, class room leaning includes knowledge with exact facts, historical backup, practical views ,showing of videos related to the ongoing topic , interactive sessions , presentation of views at the end of every sessions in groups and much more in each session

The modules which we are studying are also perfectly blended and supported by the related industrial visits which transforms the classroom learning to practical learning and hence helps in visualizing the intangible knowledge. Following are the modules which we are studying:

Supply Chain Management

In this module, how the functioning of a company/firm/industry happens in terms of appropriate inventory, logistics ,resources ,workforce and successful supply of product happens. To support this module , we had a visit to Le Havre Port which is one of the biggest port in France which defines a perfect management of receiving & dispatching shipping goods .

Doing Business in France

This module helped us to understand the market conditions of France. We studied that what all it took companies to be in France and what all are they doing. As part of the assessment we were told to do an imaginary merger of a French company with any Indian company which could be profitable to both.

Digital Marketing

By only producing goods, is not a guarantee to a successful business. If we are talking about doing business, profit making is the main objective and in order to make profit a product needs to be sold and for that its important that it should be properly marketed. Now a days, being digitally active and promoting digitally is the need of time and through this module we are trying to get the same.

Business Project

This was the best part of the programme as we were divided in groups with people we don’t know and this project helped us to interact with other people as well. In this project we were given one company and for that we had to report regarding all the marketing strategies adopted by that company and what all did it take for that company to operate and establish itself.

We also experienced 2 industrial visits as of now in which we went to Abeey factory and SS Utensils factory which was experience at the best. We were lucky enough to witness each and every fascinating process and got to see how the factory manufactures its products and what are the steps involved, right from the processing of raw materials till supplying the actual finished products to the end users or the customers.

Finally, when it comes to weekends, exploring Europe is what no one wants to miss. Visiting the city of love “Paris”, Belgium, Amsterdam & Switzerland was such a nice cross culture experience as this was the time when we had the opportunity to visit these places and also we met different people, got to know their lifestyles , their cultural values which is drastically different from India.