A guest lecture was organized as part for Supply Chain Management which was taken by our alumni, Mr. Anshul Jain. Mr. Jain is an alumni of IILM Lodhi Road campus, batch 1995 – 97 and currently works with Li and Fung India as Divisional Manager. The company is a global sourcing firm, based in Hongkong and operates through three segments : Trading Network, Operations Network and Distribution Network.

The sessions revolved around the supply chain practices of the company and also of other companies related to the industry. All the concepts covered in class such as outsourcing and procurement, logistics, warehousing and inventory management  were explained with practical examples and videos by the speaker who shared his experience of working with a supply chain company.

The session was highly appreciated by the students and the speaker made the session very interactive. He also encouraged the students to take up online courses related to supply chain management in case they were interested in entering this field.

Our Experience as Exchange Students from IILM

As unnerving as the prospect of studying in a different country was, the moment we set foot at the airport in Amsterdam, the four of us knew it was the beginning of a spectacular experience. We were greeted by two extremely helpful and friendly students from Hanze, who were there to receive us, and traveled with us till our accommodation in Groningen, guiding us and acquainting us with the Dutch culture and environment along the way.

We, along with all the other exchange students, were welcomed at Hanze with an introductory lecture elaborating the structure and schedule of the semester. The first week of the semester, self explanatory called ‘Introduction Week’, was dedicated to facilitate interaction between all the foreign students and to encourage team work, through group activities. All the students were divided into four groups. Each team was given a project, which were as follows:
Group 1- Cookbook
Group 2- Yearbook
Group 3- Dutch Calendar (Birthday Calendar)
Group 4- Newspaper

Each group had to prepare, promote and sell as many copies of their respective products, and present the results in front of all the other groups and group coaches by the end of the week.

What ensued was a flurry of activity, with every group clamoring to attain sponsors, planning the design, promotion, pricing etc.
The four of us were split up as well, two being in the Yearbook group, and the other two in the group preparing Dutch calendars. Each group worked in a different way, yet all were working to beat time and competition, in order to sell the maximum number of copies.

All these efforts paid off, as on the day of the presentation, each group emerged successful in making profits out of their sales, and our coaches were pleased with our performances. We all were hence proud recipients of the credits assigned to this project.

Classes at Hanze have only been getting better and more enriching with each passing day ever since. We learn something new every day, not just from our teachers, but also from our classmates, hailing from all over the world, with diverse nationalities and varying cultures.

This has truly been an illuminating experience for us, and we are grateful to IILM Institute for Business and Management for giving us this opportunity of a lifetime.

Most of the aspiring entrepreneurs have an idea that is commercially viable; unfortunately they do not have the necessary funding to take it forward. With the changing market dynamics now budding entrepreneurs have various avenues in the form of venture capitalists, banks and other funding agencies. As such Indian business landscape has always been active with startup formation. While a couple of decades back, such startup activity was led by family business houses, many of the successes in the last ten years have come out of professionals and first-generation entrepreneurs.

On 13^th March 2015, Keeping pace with the changing environment SME JOINUP conducted a Venture Capitalist Roundtable Series 2015, supported by Nasscom 10k Startups. Ignite incubation center at IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon hosted this event.

The VC Round Table came as a profitable chance for Potential Entrepreneurs to do a face time with interested investors, have an interactive session with them and subsequently pitch.

The event had 35 entrepreneurs and 5 investor for VC Round Table. After formal inaugural opening the event took off for a interactive session by Mr. Nitin Agarwal an IIT alumnus and an entrepreneur himself on “How to pitch to investors?”

He also answered queries on fund raising. Thereafter the VC spited in to three different rooms to have face to face interaction with the entrepreneurs.

“Given India’s rich landscape of investment opportunities with its rapidly growing demand for both domestic and export consumption there is huge potential for investors”, says Mr. Vivek Kumar Director SME Networks Pvt Ltd.

Faculty Development Programme on “Creative Assessment”

Creativity is becoming extremely significant for a nation’s economic growth and development. Educators can play a very important role in developing natural creativity amongst students. Keeping this in mind FDP on “Creative Assessment” was conducted by Dr Smitha Girija (Director, IILM Lodhi Road) on 23rd Feb 2015 .The FDP was attended by the faculty members of IILM , Lodhi Road.

The focus of discussion was mainly on two aspects
(a) Understanding the concept of “Creative Assessment”
(b) Various techniques which can be used for making Creative Assessments

FDP was well taken by all the participants. After the FDP, participants did list down different creative assessments which they think can be used for their respective modules. It was a good learning for all the participants !!!

There is huge demand for quality manpower as it is extremely important for companies to remain ahead in competition and sustain in business. The technical proficiency associated with management is taken care through subject related class room training. However there is a gap between what the company expects and what the students as employee can offer. Therefore it is important for students to become industry-ready even before they complete the course. 
Placement week was conducted between 9 February 2015 and 13 February 2015 at Gurgaon campus aiming to prepare the students of 1st year- PGDM both for Summer Internship and from campus placements point of view.
The week started of with an inspiring talk by Mr. Preet Kamal Sodhi from Banking industry who shared his experience on how to be confident and focused in achieving the goal. 
Through the Sneak Peak series some of our Alumni from various industry segments shared their experiences on Summer Internship which helped students understand the journey from Internship to final placement and gave them an insight on choosing the right Summer Internship. 
TEDx videos on “interview skills” and “how to conduct yourself in a confident manner” were shown to students followed by role play on personal interviews.
Students had profiling session to make them realise their passion in life and the area in which they want to pursue the internship.
The most common form of evaluating candidate is screening of resumes. Hence it is important to have quality resume. Considering the above reasons, a single page standard resume format with IILM logo was shared with the students. The students prepared their resume in the standard format which was later reviewed and signed off by respective mentors.
Connecting with other professionals will help students gain more knowledge and build professional network. LinkedIn seems to be the world’s largest professional network. Hence the students were taught how to promote themselves professionally by giving few tips like having a professional profile image, completing the profile and on how to establish the connections in LinkedIn.
Working in teams is part of the corporate culture. Team having proper communication, good listening and trust amongst other aspects will be successful in accomplishing the task. The students therefore had team building activities which was fun learning experience. 
The placement week was a good learning experience and the students are being more coherent now in choosing the functional area for summer internship and getting placed as interns.