Virtual Team

The Virtual Team Revolution – It’s here to stay!

Center for Family Business, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, Center for Teaching Research and Learning, Faculty, , , , ,

With the current pandemic situation across the globe, every organization is affected. But has the work stopped? The answer is – No! For the majority of organizations who have successfully established a strong digital culture, it is ‘Business as Usual’. Virtual teams are no more the future. They are here to stay.

Remote Teams – An Old or New Phenomenon?   

A virtual team is one whose members are geographically scattered in different locations communicating and collaborating through technology. Are geographically scattered remote teams a recent concept? If you think it is a new phenomenon, you are right but only partly. While technological advances, the Internet and the global workforce have created better conditions for remote teams in recent times, but they have been around for centuries. All kings and emperors such as Ashoka and Akbar and many others in the western world whose empires spread over large areas managed geographically dispersed remote teams. They created efficient and effective processes for communication and implementation to manage their empires through these remote teams, however, some teams worked efficiently while others struggled.

‘Work From Home’ (WFH) has become a buzz work in recent times. But the fact is that even the concept of working from home is not new. Historically speaking, for most of the trades, work from home was the common way of working. If we look at traditional occupations such as farmers, bakers, tailors, shoemakers, potters, weavers and blacksmiths etc., – they have always worked from homes.

The first Industrial Revolution extricated workers from their homes and pushed them into factories. With the introduction of electricity and public transport systems in the early 20th century, workers were further separated from their home as they began working in offices equipped with telephones, telegraphs, and the typewriter. But this concept soon faced a reverse wave in the 1970s because of the OPEC oil crisis that resulted in very high fuel costs and made commuting exorbitantly expensive.

People began looking for solutions for work to go on without workers having to commute. Jack Nilles, sometimes called “The Father of Teleworking” conducted the first formal tests of telecommuting and it soon saw rapid growth. In the 1980s, J.C. Penney began hiring home-based call center agents with the Clean Air Act leading many large businesses to offer telecommuting. The National Telecommuting Initiative created in 1996 in the US, soon flowed to other parts of the world.

20th century was the era of great technological advances that resulted in increase in telework and virtual teams. Personal Computers, cellular phones, voicemail, and then the internet explosion were factors that paved the way for the virtual workplace as we understand it today. In the year 2020, when organizations are globally affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, working virtually has come to the rescue of many organizations and businesses because they were able to continue their businesses and curtail losses.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Virtual Teams

Several studies have found that virtual collaboration is more difficult than in a collocated environment. The disadvantages include difficulties in communication and coordination, reduced trust, and an increased inability to establish a common ground. Physical teams, on the other hand, have proximity that promotes frequent communication and the development of closer and more positive interpersonal relationships. Regular physical presence of team members helps in strengthening social ties that helps to reduce conflict while the distance in virtual teams decreases closeness and affinity, which can result in increased incidence of conflict. Some other issues of remote teams spread across different geographical locations can be that they have to negotiate multiple time zones that require them to reorganize their workdays to accommodate others’ schedules which may lead to frustration and confusion, especially if coworkers are regularly unavailable for discussion or clarification of task-related issues.

Do Virtual teams have any advantages? Yes, Virtual teams have many advantages too.   Remote teams are attractive for companies looking to hire for roles that are hard to fill. They can use remote working as a perk to attract applications for “location independent” positions. These organizations have the added advantage of being able to hire from a larger, more diverse pool of applicants. Then there is cost effective in terms of salaries as they ca hire people at lower salaries when compensation is not connected to living in a big, expensive city.

Other positives of remote virtual teams are that they are less career restrictive for employers and employees with many companies adopting remote as part of their company culture with a work from home option.

Uberization of Jobs

With the pandemic situation looming large across the world and in India, many organizations are actively adopting the work-from-home (WFH) model, and it can be predicted that many jobs could go the Uber way. Uberization of work means that employees can decide which hours of the day they will log in. This is more applicable for tasks that are homogeneous, like that of call centre employees where technological developments are making it easier to monitor remotely.

In India, Axis Bank had been preparing for a WFH model even before the pandemic struck, which made it possible to keep 700 of its call centre executives active even after the lockdown was announced. SBI chairman Rajnish Kumar said in a recent interview that the bank was planning to move to a Work-From-Anywhere model rather than just work-from-home. In the early weeks of the lockdown, HDFC Bank MD and CEO Aditya Puri had said that the bank was going to shift permanently to a WFH model for a third of its employees.

Tech companies, financial services and many other industries are moving towards virtual teams where they will play a large part in the new normal making it imperative for current and aspiring managers and leaders to equip themselves with a  new skill  –  the skill of Managing Virtual Teams. IILM, in step with the current trend, is offering a specially designed course called ‘Managing Virtual Teams’ for its management students and working executives who would like to upgrade their skill. This course discusses how to manage virtual teams so that they can outperform physical or collocated teams. Learning this skill is not an option but a necessity for managers and business leaders today to keep pace with the current world scenario.

To know more about the innovative and industry benchmarked courses, please write to me at atima.mankotia@iilm.edu.

“Kya Result Aaya?” #Boards 2020

Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), General Blog, IILM Institute for Higher Education, IILM University, Uncategorized, , , , , ,

Introduction:

Board results are the quintessential discussion for parents and students which also becomes the most discussed topic amongst family. Unfortunately, it’s marking a child’s future with the percentage for the rest of their lives and not to mention labelling them.

The amount of pressure that board classes bring with them has been accounted in various studies, clearly signifying, inverse correlation of stress and marks in board exams, even though we continue to pressurize students to attain, at times, the impossible.

Expectations (from parents, teachers, peer and self) may crumble the self-esteem, as well as performance in boards and can have devastating effects on students and their career options.

100% Board results-2020

In 2019, as many as 17,693 students scored more than 95% in CBSE XII and the numbers increased to 38,686 students in 2020. Board results 2020 have raised the bar for students, who will be giving exams from here on. To compete with 100% marks can have challenges in plenty. Not to downsize the student who made that effort and actually got those brilliant marks; the discussion is about students who got a distinction (above 75%) and still feel “not good enough”.

This unfortunate inadequacy of “could get better marks” is a dilemma any student scoring marks from 70-90% category feels, especially when the choice of subjects in a prestigious university looks bleak. Not that the ones who make it over 90% waltz through the top universities. They also struggle and at some point “have to compromise” on the course or a college.

Can you accept your marks and not label it as destiny?

My observation while looking at board results- Yes, it is the highlight of your life and will be compared in galore with cousins, friends and any known person who got better marks than you. However, could we stop putting the blame on either teachers, Corona or pressure from known and accept what we scored gracefully?

Can we find jubilance in clearing class XII and being ready for applying in colleges rather than whining of what could happen if we scored better? Acceptance of board results brings inner peace and reduces comparisons which clearly isn’t helpful. I believe board results don’t shape your destiny and that only if you are ready to believe in yourself, can life offer opportunities for you to carve out the best in self.

If we can make a reality check and be honest with oneself, as to what are the strengths and to work on them, we may find our success, even if it feels inadequate to others. The key to convince parents and friends is when you, yourself can accept what you want to do, or reach out for counselling, if unable to make career choices.

Try reducing those mountains of expectation or mirages of “what I should be” to “what I can be” for a better career path and at the same time enjoy the journey of becoming your own person.

Experience the “Joy in Learning at IILM”

With newer opportunities coming up every day like School of Humanities at IILM University, Gurugram, we encourage students from varied fields to open their minds to choose a trending subject and experience the joy in learning. With latest pedagogy in teaching, faculties at IILM strive to help students create a niche for themselves and prepare themselves for better career opportunities.

Conclusion:

Board results could have brought tears of joy or disappointment given what you were expecting and what was received as results. See this as an opportunity to explore and search what and where you want to take your college education. Comparisons and expectations can be hurtful, so try avoiding them by focusing on “what you think you want” than “what you should be”.

 

“Every accomplishment starts with a decision to try”

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Logistics and the E-commerce Revolution

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Logistics, as a Discipline is very much in the news these days. It is the Science of moving products from the point of origin to the point of consumption in most efficient and effective manner. By efficient we normally refer to the cost factor and by effectiveness we refer to how well we have been able to meet customer needs.  Hence, if we deliver a parcel to the customer at the most economic cost we may still not succeed because we may deliver it outside the customer’s definition of delivery time.  Similarly, we may deliver a parcel within the delivery time but we may fail to deliver on the efficiency front if there are cheaper options available.

Logistics has a big role to play in e-commerce. However, till a long time, the emphasis used to be on working of the effectiveness part. Hence, e-commerce players used the services of Blue Dart and Fed Ex for their deliveries. These logistics partners were also integrated to the e-commerce players like Flipkart through APIs. The API integration allowed the complete visibility of the package once it left the seller and till the time it got received by the customer. However, this approach got into problems when e-commerce players tried to scale up (Example – Flipkart Big Billion Day debacle) where capacity constraints prevented Flipkart from being effective. Along with this, the mindset of the e-commerce sector also changed. A sector which used to talk of GMV (Gross Merchandise Value) earlier, suddenly had to talk of profits or more appropriately, look at their costs.

Hence, the next trend in the e-commerce sector was towards building own Logistics capability. Flipkart for example, delivers 55% of parcels through its own Logistics arm : e-kart. This is a big achievement if one considers the scale of India (20,000 plus pin codes) and the fact that most of the orders come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Along with this came the emergence of private logistics players like Delhivery and E-Com Express. These private players were focused on the needs of the e-commerce players (niche operators). They offered specialized services like Warehousing and managing of Reverse Logistics, which is basically the management of Logistics of products that are returned by customers. These new players in the Logistics sector were also favorably inclined towards technology. Besides API integration, they also had investments in Warehousing technology and Last Mile Logistics (from the Destination Warehouse to the Customer).

The result of all these developments was that the e-commerce sector was able to move up on the efficiency frontier. The efficiency frontier is basically a trade-off between Customer Service Level and the Cost of delivering the service (another word for Logistics Cost). This basically means that if an e-commerce player wants to increase its service level to customers, it can do so only by increasing the logistics cost. However, the growth of the logistics sector especially in-house logistics and 3PL partiipation has allowed the Industry to do both – increase customer service and also bring down the cost of logistics. As a result, we also have many innovations like Same Day Delivery and Instant Payments to customers who return. This is made possible by the great level of integration that has been achieved in the e-commerce supply chain.

The Future of Financial Analytics

Alumni, IILM Graduate School of Management, , ,

The industry has become so competitive; newfound ventures are posing a challenge to the old giants. Time duration has shortened to achieve targets of becoming a billion-dollar company. It took years for Tata, Birla and Mahindra to join the billion-dollar club whereas Flipkart became a $15.5 Billion company in just 13 years. Innovations in computer and IT fields have changed the way we see a business in the last few decades. The Internet is generating data in Gigabytes every day. Financial analysts explore the financial data and use financial ratios to generate meaningful reports for the company and the competitors. In a VUCA, world businesses want to make the strategy for tomorrow with more accuracy. Analytics answers these business queries. A combination of statistical models and computer software with financial analysis can add cherries in the financial reports. Note that, I am not denying or minimizing the relevance of financial ratios or financial analysis.

Top business schools now not just focus on teaching financial analysis and financial analytics because the later one facilitates predictive modelling. In short, it tells us, what is going to be the next?

Financial analytics is a forward approach. It focuses on identifying the business problem first and provides solutions. Financial analytics is a great tool in the field of risk management and investment. Being In the domain of financial analytics, your concerns are not just finance but all the business operations.

Let us see the few aspects of financial analytics-

#1 News Analytics- Stock prices and investor’s sentiments are highly correlated. News is a powerful tool that affects an investor’s sentiments. For instance, analysts commented on the press conferences of President Trump making an upward move in the US stock market. An analyst needs to create a model that can infer the effect of the news. A business school or MBA program students looking for a career in financial analytics must have an insight into the effect of the news on the stock price.

#2  Credit Risk Analytics- Default of receivables affects the liquidity of the organisation. This branch is very useful for banks and NBFCs. It analyses and predicts the future chances of default and the possible clients that may become defaulter in the future. Lending institutions can take preventive actions for such clients.

#3  Revenue and Pricing Analytics– Pricing covers everything whatever an organization does. A small change in the pricing of the product can create drastic changes in the revenue. While changing the price you need to check how you can increase value to the consumer. And the price must be acceptable to the consumer. MBA in Delhi NCR and PGDM colleges are offering dual specialization. Students with dual degrees in finance and marketing can get good opportunities if they are also interested in playing with numbers in statistics.

#4 Cash Management Analytics- This is a proactive approach to forecasting the liquidity and working capital requirement. It is also helpful in inspecting the blockage of smooth flows of payment. It further optimizes and rationalizes the cash management process efficiently. Some management graduates don’t like to go in the field of the stock market and prefer to be in the area of accounting so they can join this field.

#5 Trade and Supply Chain Finance Analytics- MBA, PGDM or BBA students looking to work not in a specific domain but for a business as a whole can be a part of this field. Trade analytics is all about finding new territories and customers for the products. In marketing language, it is about finding a niche market. However, supply chain finance is related to logistics and financing of the supply chain. Businesses want to minimize the cost that results in a minimum price. An analyst in supply chain looks for the possibilities to minimize the cost of transportation.

We have just scratched the crust of financial analytics. There are several possibilities available for students for job opportunities and businesses to minimize the cost and maximize the profitability. Students facing phobia of mathematics and its related branches must understand that mathematics and its interdisciplinary branches will rule the world in industry 4.0.

In the coming times some people will be either making mathematical or statistical models while others might be implementing these models and take major decisions based on them. Keeping this in view, students looking for Business schools or MBA in Delhi NCR must prepare themselves for Financial Analytics as a career option. All they need to do is work hard and exercise effort while pursuing an MBA / PGDM program to gain expertise in financial analytics.

There is a lot to explore in this area, for more information on Financial Analytics & related readings follow my blogs on IILM Blog site https://blog.iilm.edu or write to me at ashutosh.singh@iilmgsm.ac.in. We look forward to students creating a difference.

 

 

 

 

 

This shall too pass…till then let’s try Meraki!

This shall too pass…till then let’s try Meraki!

Alumni, General Blog, Guest Blog

I know those frowning faces with irksome stretched online classes or work from home, as they say it’s the new normal or ordinaire. What’s normal or what’s not, I am not here to infer that. Neither am I here to draw conclusions about who played the bad-boy and ignited our 2020 with full of remorseful endeavours. Neither shall I salt the wound of families who have been affected by the pandemic. We all know about it. And we all are waiting to surface our sorrows and joys above it; float above the virus massacre of 2020.

Then what must our dialogue entail…time to ponder!

Have you guys ever thought about why all of a sudden, it’s us? Us in the brink of an utmost apathy by our creators–the nature, the water, the air, the sky and above all the earth? Maybe yes some of us have, through fathomless research, readings; and maybe not! But my implication is not soul-searching but rather to pull our lives back exactly to the years gone by and re-think to relive it differently. Now how’s that possible? As we all are judicious beings, we believe in tangibility mostly. Money is time’s new definition and more the time, let’s pour some more money…isn’t it? Don’t worry, we all have our minds clocked and locked on our wellbeing… we create and think to create more often. In the midst of only creation of means to wellbeing, we lose most of it by the time we realize it.

Hence, let’s come back to my fundamental ask—Can we re-think or re-live our lives backwards? Scientifically we can’t as time is a factor that is linear…even if somebody builds or secretively has a time machine- we can’t redo our lives—as physicists might argue about paradoxes! On possessing a very unscientific, illogical mind, I’ll offer you my consolation of not being able to solve that paradox. But my dear smarties, we can certainly re-live our lives- in moments of our passions that we enjoy the most while executing- Meraki.

Meraki will guide you and your work (be it studies/profession/job/hobbies) in a time where everyone is busy tabulating the viral count across the globe. Somebody asked me if Meraki is a replicated version of Tiktok or yet another type of a PS4, I smiled back to them stating, ‘It’s my bad!’ So, if you guys are unsure of Meraki, I have already smirked at you all too. Since, I believe that I have induced in the right vocab in your dictionary now.

Now let’s see how this Meraki can help you evolve from this situation that is going to persist for some more months.

  • Whenever you wake up- put Meraki into thankfulness for still being alive! Hurrah!
  • While preparing morning tea/breakfast/helping your house-mate-involve meraki
  • While relaxing, add observational task as your meraki
  • While petting your bird or dog, look at them and pet them enough to utter meraki
  • While cleaning your house-meraki can do a better job than most trained house helps
  • While taking up your online courses, meraki might help you achieve an A plus
  • While reading a book, it can turn you into an online book reviewer
  • Just wondering if while reading this article, your meraki can make you like it 😉

There are too many mundane yet necessary tasks/activities that we do undesirably with great complaints. However, using the miracles of meraki, we can change our lives, we can relive ourselves in small yet ordinary tasks… what used to be a complaining, boring and uncool and unproductive hours of our lives yesterday could be our elated freedom in times of today.

Meraki is the spice we need to blend in our activities of today so as to relive those mundane moments. As the crisis has proven to us that life and its associated echoes are not old-fashioned—what’s uncool is the regular whines, the complaints and ultimately no life at all!

My focus is more on your well-being, your pustimarga and Meraki is the way forward.

Reach out to thank me! 😉

Note: Meraki is a Greek terminology that believes in putting your heart & soul into whatever task/work you do. I hope that helps! ☺

Nidra Naik
Novelist & Poet
Accenture
PGDM Batch 2004-06, IILM Lodhi Road

Email: nidranaik@gmail.com
www.nidranaik.com

Innovation

Innovation – An imperative for survival of organizations!

Center for Family Business, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation, , , , , ,

There is a famous quote – ‘The only thing predictable about life is its unpredictability’. The Covid 19 impact is the most interesting and relevant example of the same. Even the best of minds cannot claim to have planned for the same. Especially from the point of view of the businesses and economy!
As per the Deloitte article (https://www2.deloitte.com/in/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/following-up-on-the-immediat-economic-response.html) the rampant spread of COVID-19 across borders and geographies has severely impacted almost the whole world and triggered significant downside risks to the overall global economic outlook. Due to the lockdown announced by the Indian Government, the Indian economy has also slowed over the last few months. For most businesses, the slowdown has been in the form of supply disruptions, a fall in consumption demand, and increased stress on the banking and financial sectors. However, like the Great Depression (1929), the dot-com bubble bust (1997- 2000), and the 2008 financial crash did in the past, the Covid-19 is changing the way the world works.

Many businesses are changing gears fast and can sustain and survive better than others. They are using innovation and design thinking to adapt to unprecedented times. Organizations, especially in the e-commerce, digital education and related, entertainment, wellness, FMCG industries have adapted to the customer need, the market environment, and its challenges, and have found little green shoots.

As per the Financial Express article dated 19th May 2020, the e-commerce firms that are doing well, are those that found innovative process solutions to the disruption of supply chain due to prohibitions in terms of deliveries across various regions. Amazon and other e-commerce majors tied-up with local kiranas or neighbourhood mom-and-pop stores to fulfil the market demand. Recently launched online store JioMart by Reliance Industries, which went live on WhatsApp in select locations in Mumbai and other locations claims to have tied up with millions of kirana stores. Paytm Mall, meanwhile, announced tie-ups with over 10,000 neighbourhood stores to scale up its grocery delivery services around the country. (reference article dated 6th June in TOI). Similarly, an organization like HUL which has been operating in Indian markets for over 80 years with over 35 successful brands, chose to re-plan their innovations, adapt to the “emerging demand patterns in the short term and prepare for any lasting changes in consumer behaviour.”

New age organizations were faster to innovate due to the sheer nature of their inception and culture. For example- Cultfit, owned by the founder of Myntra, Mukesh Bansal adapted fast to the market realities. They used the market conditions to increase trials of their digital platform of Curefit, further monetizing it to create relevant revenue streams. Lenskart integrated store inventory with Google to ensure that consumers could access products even before they come to the store by just searching on Google or could fix appointments to minimize out of home time. Useful innovations provided solutions to many challenges faced by different organizations during these hard times.

Historically too, it has been observed that the changing economic environment, socio-cultural changes, technological changes, digitalization, caused a profound effect on organizations’ growth. Many world-famous companies like Yahoo, Nokia , Kodak , Xerox, and many others are a patch of what they were earlier, revenues and market share, while some companies no longer exist. Legendary companies like American Motors and AT&T, which were part of the Fortune 500 list have been replaced. In India too, many large corporate organizations have lost their market shares due to the inability to adapt and grab opportunities thrown by the changing markets. A case for example in India would be Meru Cabs. While they were one of the first companies that entered early in the organized Indian Cab Markets, entry of Ola and Uber in the cab market displaced their market share and revenue. Similarly, brands like Airtel, Hyundai, who were strong market leaders in the late nineties and early twenties are now trying to adapt to the dynamic nature of the market to sustain and grow. On the other hand, new companies like Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, Google are prominent in the list of Fortune 500 companies. India has also seen young companies becoming Unicorns – Ola, Quikr, Snapdeal, Nykaa, and 30 others in the last 10 years. A particularly important contributor to these organizations’ reasons for the growth has been their culture of innovation. All these organizations have systematically created an environment to ensure innovation – in product and processes …. Thereby equipping them to perform better even during the trough periods in the economy.

Different organizations have adopted different corporate entrepreneurship models to ensure they invigorate their growth, through innovation. There are organizations like Google, which encourages all employees to have an interest in innovation and motivate them to create new ideas and products to grow business. Employees in Google are allowed to use 20% of the time to think of new ideas, sell their ideas internally to get more team members to work on the idea, to fine-tune their concept and reach till the development of a prototype (i.e a sample model of the final product/concept to be built, created with the objective of testing the idea in the market). Employees, teams can also approach the management for funding the idea. Further, these employee/teams get financially rewarded if the innovation reaches the market and gets acceptance from the customers. At any point in time, Google supports approx. 100 projects with 70% of the projects supporting Google’s core business, 20% representing emerging businesses, and 10% focusing on experimental ideas. (Google case study – Source – MIT Sloan Business Review). This ensures a consistent flow of disruptive innovation.

On the other hand, there are organizations like Samsung, Cargill, and ITC that follow a focused approach to corporate entrepreneurship and ensure innovations continue to grow and expand the markets. For example, the ITC Research and Development Centre has played a crucial role in sustaining a competitive advantage for the company. Its mandate is to go beyond supporting its existing products and services and create innovations that not only meet but anticipate consumer needs. Many Indian Information Technology firms like TCS, Wipro, and Infosys as well as pharma companies follow this model of the innovation to create products and services that are ahead of the markets.
Each organization identifies and adopts its own model of innovation depending on the type of innovation it is targeting – be it a routine innovation versus radical innovation versus disruptive innovation versus architectural innovation. However, to be successful in its endeavour to invigorate or re-invigorate, each organization needs to build its strategy, internal systems, and the right kind of culture for innovation.

To summarize, as the speed of change and uncertainty in the business environment increases, no organization can afford to be complacent on innovation. And the words of Peter Drucker ‘Innovate or Die’ hold even truer today.

Do share any other interesting examples of process or product innovations that have been adopted recently

MBA program

IILM’s Commitment to Inclusive Education

Faculty, IILM University, podcast, ,

Dear Students and Parents

Hope you all are keeping safe and exercising the mandated precautions.

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For over 2 decades IILM has focused on education which is Global, Responsible & Inclusive; we are delighted to welcome everyone who applies and gets selected to study the “well-known” & “industry-endorsed” MBA.

We believe that ‘Learning has no Lockdown’ & we are focusing on a ‘growth mindset’. IILM is planning to begin online academic activities and interaction with students from June 15. For our new students, we have planned pre-term and bridge courses that will help students connect with their peers and help them forge friendships. The education will have a strong blended learning direction, with a strong focus on the jobs of the future.

We also observe that students are facing many challenges such as uncertainty about their exams and results, admission processes, entrance exams for institutes of their choice, reopening of campuses and the pandemic is having a significant impact on their education and career, planning.

These are issues everyone is aware of and everyone is discussing in many forums but there is one issue that is not being highlighted enough and that is the impact of the economic downturn due to Covid-19 on the students.

The process of deciding on higher education is an important decision and there is a possibility, financial hardships are prevalent across many families, at IILM we understand these are difficult times, with a lot of uncertainty and disruption in daily lives.

So to enable education for all

  • IILM has decided to reduce the total fee payable for the MBA program for intake 2020
  • For the 1st year, we have waived off the program fee and we will be charging only the tuition fee

Even for the hostels, since the students might not be able to avail the facility immediately, the hostel fee is waived off. Only whenever a student decides to avail the hostel (boarding, lodging facilities) they shall pay only pro-rata (of the annual charges) calculated from the month they avail the facility.

Also for any student who is facing financial hardship and is constrained for the fees, we are evaluating & addressing, all such cases with a proactive solution, where student education is not hampered and remains continuous.

Hopefully, these measures will be helpful to our students and their families.

We are with you, stay safe and healthy.

Psychology and psychologists

Decoding Careers in Psychology

Career Development (Placement), Faculty, podcast, , ,

This Podcast is for all the people who aspire to be psychologists and want to create a difference in people’s life. Curiosity is an intrinsic part of human nature. Many of you have grown up asking one basic question why? And as adults, we continue to question and ponder at things.

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Psychology and psychologists tend to apply the same universal curiosity to observe and examine the relationship between our environment and our behaviour. This has motivated many people to choose a career in psychology.

Today I will try to decode a few career options rooting out of this vast subject i.e. Psychology. Be it schools, colleges, hospitals or organizations everyone needs a psychologist Today. But before that let’s clear our minds with the role of a psychologist. What do psychologists do? Tomorrow when I am a psychologist what is that I’m supposed to do? Once your vision is clear following the path becomes easy.

As Psychologists we investigate human behaviour, how people think, learn, develop emotionally and socially. Not only this they help people build their confidence and self-esteem. Your job as a practitioner is not only to help people suffering from trauma, mental disorders and substance abuse related problems but also to bring about positive change in the society and environment.

A Psychologist’s role is to connect with people, nurture relationships, and help people build a strong sense of understanding with others and their inner self. Working with individual client’s psychologists can transform lives; understand the root cause of the problem and offer treatment contributing majorly to the well being of our society. This involves the major role and responsibility towards the profession.

You can work in universities and government agencies as well. Depending on your career goals you may opt to move into a speciality area that fires your imagination and promises fulfilling work.

One can begin with a Bachelors degree in Psychology which gives you exposure to various subjects like abnormal psychology, positive psychology; youth gender identity, emotional intelligence, organizational behaviour and many more. Once u develop an interest you can gradually peruse specialization in counselling, clinical, organizational, or child psychology which will open doors in almost every discipline be it hospitals as a therapist or schools as a counsellor or in organizations as a life coach.

The choices are so vast that you can choose to be a military Psychologist consumer, aviation or Forensic Psychologist. The fields are endless. You name a disciple and there is a need for a responsible psychologist everywhere. Rightly said this profession is interesting to pursue but one has to deal with utmost responsibility towards one’s clients.

Internships are an important aspect of a Psychologist’s career building. With continuous internships programs in hospitals and Ngo’s many students have mastered the art of psychotherapy and are practising making a difference in the lives of many people. You could be one. Get introduced to the subject and discover more about the Psychology behind a Beautiful Mind.

creative disruption

CEO — Now Needs to be Disruptive, a Transformer

Faculty, IILM University, , , ,

– to Reengineer by Creative Destruction

In a post COVID world, the CEO has to revisit the past, reengineer the present, crystal gaze into the future and possibly relook at what to keep and what to let go.

As everyone grapples with COVID which will not go away soon, the business model has to be “Unlocked”. The unlocking will take different dimensions, with different sectors, different regions-countries, and opening up in different ways and at a differing pace. The virus resurgence will likely bring about renewed restrictions.

In situations such as the Great Depression in 1920, the World War II, the Financial Crisis of the 90’s a CEO had to be adept at the P&L, productivity metrics & number crunching, spending time to decide on launches and reenergizing the PLC.

However today these factors are hygiene and the need is the ability to have an extremely high EQ and a personality to integrate with the teams as they get more result oriented, ready to experiment and more tech-savvy.

Integration is required across teams, which now meet on cloud meetings viz — ZOOM, across time-zones, departments with the absence of geographical boundaries. A CEO and an aspirant needs to be ready to disrupt, be tech savvy and highly EQ enabled to manage the emotional upheaval people will go through as everything around them changes — have the intellect to identify trends, be courageous to plan on what to keep and what to let go and be able to handle diversity of thought.

Mckinsey in its article, The Toughest Leadership Test avers “The pressures can seem daunting. Coping with the sudden shutdown of the global economy was hard enough; figuring out how to restart in such an uncertain environment is, if anything, even harder, many told us. CEOs are expected to show “deliberate calm” and “bounded optimism.” Everyone wants them to demonstrate empathy — and, at the same time, be highly engaged and fact based in their actions. They are expected to make a positive difference in people’s lives with their leadership and wield both telescope and microscope adroitly”

It is said that a crisis brings about the best & the worst in people and separates the men from the boys.

The moment of truth for the CEO is to- Reimagine the Business, to Reengineer and maybe destroy the “old way of working” and adapt to the NOW, and also manage the family at home and keep smiling.

As a CEO are you ready?

communicate

Winning through the Art of Communication

Campus Life, Career Development (Placement), IILM University, , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

‘Words are, of course, the most powerful drug used by mankind.’  – Rudyard Kipling

 Communication is central to the very existence of humans. Man has been communicating since time immemorial. Communication is the lifeblood of our whole being. In every age of man’s existence on earth, communication has acted as an agent of facilitation, social life, and development. Cavemen developed their own lingua franca to make meanings out of things and send meaningful messages. They also communicated through art. As the importance of communication is second only to oxygen for humans, the importance never lost its sheen throughout homo sapiens journey in the historical chapters of planet earth. In the modern ages or in other words, the competitive world, which is, even more, a world of survival of the fittest, every day demands constant steadfastness in the face of challenges and opportunities, both in personal and professional arenas. Nobody wants to lose the opportunity to fair well or make better of it. 

Present times are fraught with people battling stress. Resultant of the busy competitive world we live in, stress eats away on our happiness and well-being like a termite which is evident in high divorce rates, dysfunctional parenting, on-job burnout, boss-conflicts at the workplace, joblessness, violence, depression, increasing suicide rates, etc.  There is a continuous nag that ‘nothing is ever going to be enough’ constantly nudges at you. Communication helps to combat stress as we learn to express ourselves, thereby clearing doubts and confusion, and building valuable connections. But communication must be effective so as to be of any use in delivering the right message, to the right audience at the right time and make a fruitful impact. ‘Effective communication’, remains the no.1 skill to lead and manage a successful life.

The Communication Gap

Today the world is impatient, does not wait for anybody. Everyone wants to grab that chance to a better life, job, or income. This demands us to constantly up-skilling ourselves, and being in the right circles, aka, effective networking. But, even here, to be successful, we need an empathetic human to human connection. Communication gaps can hinder relationships between boss-employee, teacher-student, parent-child, siblings, and friends. Married couples ought to work on their marriage by constantly enhancing communication and listening.

Effective communication can act as a glue and heals discord, builds bridges, which is good both for business and personal life. While everyone starts their professional life equipped with in-demand degrees or skill certifications it is the skill of effective communication that decides who will sustain in the race and be the best or among the best, to succeed, to grow, and to enjoy the journey that life presents.

Tools for Effective Communication

Good communication is a crowd puller. Imagine a leader without the art of communication. As simple as it may seem, communication to be effective is still a challenge for many. The ways of what is good in oral communication differ from what makes an impression in written form. Also, styles and techniques of communication differ from person to person, situation to situation, and medium of communication.

Oral Communication: When it comes to improvement in oral communication to become good public speakers, orators or impress in meetings and interviews, skills can be honed by listening to good speakers, study their body language and use of vocabulary as much as possible. It is very important to understand aspects of the speech like tone, fluency, eye contact, pauses, use of space, gestures, etc. Using anecdotes, emotional stories, poetry, couplets, and humor enhances oral communication by helping build connections with the audience. The only thing to be kept in mind is to not over-do these tools and use them appropriately. Regular practice and proper planning help sharpening the oration skills immensely.

Written Communication: Written communication is very important from documentation and legality perspective. Academic teaching and learning, business transactions, print media, legal issues, emailing, etc. depend on written communication. It is very important for a writer to write and convey their thoughts clearly. The inability to write what one wants to express will be an impediment to one’s success. Tools like using the right approach, style, and words help in creating powerful, meaningful messages for the readers. practicing the use of correct grammar and spelling (Grammarly app is one such tool) and setting the right tone in the writing is very important. If not drafted well, written communication can fail or backfire due to misunderstanding, as it does not have the advantage of being face-to-face.

Visual Communication: Pictures, graphs, charts, and all kinds of imagery are part of visual communication. Pictures/images speak a thousand words, have the power to set the tone of communication, leave an impact, and project the intended message without hours of speech or pages and pages of writings. The presenter must have the skill to navigate the mind and eyes of the audience to create an impactful visual presentation with the right captions, slogans, etc. Learning visual arts professionally or with practice and guidance can tremendously help a communicator.

Overall, for effective communication, it is very important to know the mind of the audience and shape the message accordingly by appropriate use of communication tools.

Communication Skills in Education 

A good communication course or certification is an added advantage but not enough to become a real good communicator. Life experiences and good education teach us that indispensable skill. Not many organizations especially educational institutions, present an education rigor that makes one an effective communicator. But there are some which do.  World-class educational institutions like IILM in the Delhi NCR region, have a brilliant history of producing positive minded and competent professionals with excellent communication skills. Such institutions are known to lay stress on creating a learning ethos with communication skill development at its core. Students hone their oral and written communication through impactful and professionally designed study programs including active and participatory classwork, club activities, dissertation, outreach projects, competitions, events, etc. Every student comes out of their shell, gains the confidence to stand up in face of an audience, learns skills to lead, collaborate and connect through good verbal and non-verbal skills and shun negativity from their life.

For students, as college years are formative years of their personality and crucial years for building their career base, IILM is a great investment for those years and emerges confident and competent.