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Analyzing E-commerce startups using basic business fundamentals

General Blog, Uncategorized, , ,

Over the last two years, we have seen a large number of startup e-commerce companies shutting shop or downsizing. Many well-known companies like Snapdeal, Pepper Tap, Flipkart, Zomato, Tiny Owl, etc. reported huge losses, shaking confidence of investors and raising serious questions on the credibility of Indian e-commerce opportunity. Many of these were termed as Startup Unicorns, and were valued at over $1 billion. So how could so many companies, backed by some of the smartest investors go so wrong?

Let’s go back to the basics, and reiterate some high school fundamentals in accounting, finance and economics. The basic purpose of all businesses is profit which is a function of revenue and cost. The aim is to maximize revenue and minimize costs. So what is the basic revenue model for ecommerce companies? Most e-commerce companies earn commissions from transactions between buyers and sellers. Revenue forecasts are calculated by considering the average revenue per transaction and the number of expected transactions. Most venture capitalists and private equity funds over valued startups considering the large transaction volume. Going back to the fundamentals of valuation, a company is valued on the revenue, profit or cash flow the business can generate over the next 5-10 years. In case of many of these startups the metric used was Gross Merchandise Value or simply, Total Order Value, but is this revenue for the e-commerce platform? The revenue is merely a commission on this value unless the company is selling the products it is manufacturing. This led to inflated valuations and gave these companies access to funding which has not been used in the most rational manner.

Analyzing the costs, the cost of customer acquisition was very steep due to deep discounts, freebies, high marketing spend, free returns, free shipping etc. Even though a significant number of consumers have switched to online shopping, the actual reason of this switch is not convenience – but the availability of better deals online. So if the discounts are withdrawn, the consumer stickiness is at risk. The marketing ROI is debatable, and there is no easy way to reduce the cost without impacting customer loyalty.

Another significant cost component to consider is the hefty pay packages being offered to employees. Many senior employees were hired from leading technology or consulting companies globally. These companies have gone to the best colleges including IITs , IIMs , ISB to recruit. While it is understandable that having good talent on board is necessary to compete with well-established global giants like Amazon, it seems the rationality of deciding the salary costs was compromised in many cases.

Another factor which has contributed to failure is hasty decisions made by co-founders to make expensive acquisitions, expanding to new business areas or to new geographies without stabilizing existing businesses, spending lofty amounts on rebranding, etc. While the entrepreneurial spirit in the youth is a key driver of growth in these ventures, guidance and control from experienced industry personnel including investors can be a powerful guiding rail for the journey.

Smart India hackathon 2017

Campus Life, Uncategorized

Students of IILM, Gurgaon are regularly participating in “Smart India Hackathon 20117” an initiative by AICTE for promoting inclusive innovation. Live videos are regularly streamed in the campus for students to get awareness about the initiative and also they can post their queries through facebook and twitter.

It all started from 16th December 2016  and since then various sessions on different topics are taken by experts and Office bearers from AICTE  in the month of December 2016 and January 2017.

Tomorrow (23 dec banner_facebook_leadershipTalk_AbhayJ_218/1/17) also we are arranging for live streaming of session by Union Minister Mr. Prakash Javdekar. 23 dec 1 AICTE IMG_20161216_142504

Book Review The Curse of Cash by Kenneth S Rogoff. Princeton University Press Published August 2016.

Faculty, Uncategorized

 

The Curse of Cash        

Kenneth S Rogoff                                                             

Princeton University Press

August 2016.

  • ISBN-10:0691172137
  • ISBN-13:978-0691172132

 

Book Review by Gurpreet Singh Bhatia

Associate Professor, Economics, IILM Institute for Higher Education, New Delhi

Email: gurpreet.bhatia@iilm.edu

 

The author begins with the hypothesis that the time has come for advanced countries to rethink the role of cash in their economies. The author had suggested to the authorities in the US that phasing out high denomination note of $100 would help cull underground economy. The similar idea of phasing out high denomination notes of €500 has been put forward by policy makers to the European Central Bank.

The research provides evidence that in developed countries, the underground economy accounts for majority of cash holding and the economy is characterized by a high demand for small bills for use in retail transactions, but this demand appears to be diminishing over time, due to increased debit card usage.

Using the scanner data of US retail transaction, researchers have found that low-income households use small bills for cash purchases in stores. The author enlightens the audience of the fact that in European counties, majority of the people use cash for buying items less than €20, and a very small proportion of population uses cash to buy items that cost more than €1000.

Chapter four begins with the conjecture that even in developed countries in some countries like the US, many poor and low-income individuals rely heavily on cash.

The countries with very low currency to GDP ratio include a mix of countries that have taken action to phase out cash (Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) and high-inflation countries, where holding cash is expensive, because it quickly depreciates in real value. The currency ratios for Canada and the UK are both roughly half that of the US.

Chapter 3 titled “Size and Composition of Global Currency Supplies, and the Share Held Abroad” gives mind boggling facts about currency in circulation around the world, and about the proportion of high denomination currency held by citizens.

The author discusses the size and composition of global currency supplies, and the share held abroad. The author conjectures that if Marco Polo were able to return to China today, one of the few familiar items he would discover would be the paper currency.

The author begins with the historical perspective of currencies, and informs that China was the first country to introduce paper currency. The author says that after WWII, international community gave up the idea of reestablishing gold standard in favor of Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates with the US dollar as the pivotal currency, and the US dollar became the de facto world currency.

The author raises an important point of society´s need to balance an individual’s right to privacy with society’s need to enforce its laws and regulations? For example, shifting from cash economy to digital payment economy exposes citizens to the possibility of being included in the database at the cost of personal privacy.

It is a misperception that the advanced economies are doing away with cash. In fact, the use of cash in advanced economies is increasing. And it is not just the United States that has a gigantic currency supply dominated by big bills. The problem is nearly universal in advanced economies.

In chapter six, the author explains the concept of seigniorage. It occurs when the government prints money and spends it at face value. It makes profits because the cost of printing is only a very small proportion of the face value of currency.

All countries except Sweden have earned from seigniorage. Sweden´s profits from printing of currency is negative because in that country, public’s use of notes and coins has declined since 2007, both as proportion of GDP and also in absolute terms.

The central banks have the privilege to print money and recover their operating costs, but the central banks must exercise considerable amount of discretion on where to draw the fine line between necessary expenditures and non-trivial ones. It is important that central banks maintain independence.

In chapter 7, Rogoff provides the reader with a comprehensive plan on how to phase out paper currency in the US context. The author suggests that the currency be phased out in four steps.

The fourth stage focuses on real time clearing, where the government helps facilitate development of the quick payments.

Chapter eight is on the concept of zero bound constraint where the economies experience lower interest rate coupled with low growth.

In the recent years, the OECD countries have witnessed a near zero interest rate (the interest rates have been even negative in countries like Germany and Japan).

Chapter 9 focuses on inflation targets, GDP and fiscal policy. The author suggests that the central banks raise target inflation rates from an average of 2% to 4%. The reason is that money in neutral in long run. When the central banks lower interest rate, consumers and procurers adjust to prices in the long run and the only way the economy could be kick started is by increasing the target inflation rates.

Rogoff suggest that instead of targeting inflation, a better idea would be to target GDP and enhance it through reducing income tax and increasing value added tax, thereby increasing inflation effective demand, therefore providing stimulus.

The last part of this book deals with digital currency. Rogoff questions the feasibility of replacing paper currency with digital currency in emerging market like India where majority of population is engaged in agriculture in rural areas where the infrastructure fir digital currency is not yet developed. On the positive side, phasing out cash in favor of digital currency in emerging markets would have positive effect by reducing corruption and underground economy.

The author stipulates that cryptocurrency like Bitcoin could be a currency of the future. After all, Bitcoin could function as unit of account and medium of exchange, withe same functions of paper currency.

In conclusion, this is an important and coincidentally, a timely book in context of current demonetization being implemented in Indian economy. It would behoove the policymakers and researchers in India to pay heed to the recommendations provided by Kenneth Rogoff, specifically related to emerging economies.

 

 

Formal Degree and Entrepreneurship: Are they complimentary to each other?

Guest Blog, Uncategorized

Bill Gates(Microsoft), Larry Page (Google), Kunal Shah(Freecharge.in), Gautam Adani (Adani Group) can be considered as an informal list of some billionaire CEOs that dropped out of the high school or University and turn them into self-made billionaires.

The questions here are whether to be an entrepreneur you need to attend an Under Graduate degree program? I can’t fit into regular corporate job so what after degree? I need to enter the family business than why to study? Ask around and we will be confused with the conflicting answers. But a deep thought and few logical arguments can help one to reach a decision necessary and fruitful for the career.

Many young minds with fascinating ideas think that a formal training is optional than a necessity or compulsion, a view point that can be costly for both short term profit and long term growth. May be the young entrepreneur consider a degree course to be an expense rather than an investment.  Entrepreneurs do tend to have maverick behavior and their entrepreneurial instinct provoke them to do something different than attending a well-structured degree program in class rooms.

Looking toward Indian scenario, major business houses in India are family businesses and the owners are fairly old, that means many graduated high school long back where instincts are more important than degree. However, if we assess randomly in today’s business arena, it would be interesting to note that entrepreneurs on a whole, tend to have more qualification than others.

Consequently, the idea for the need of formal training in entrepreneurship can be reinforced. Sachin and Binny Bansal (Flipkart), Maanav Garg (Eka Software), Ameera Shah (Metropolis Health care) are some of the well qualified first generation entrepreneurs. Their successes reinforce one’s belief in formal training and its contribution to the entrepreneurial success. Training should be viewed and utilized as capital investment. These formal degree programs may not be result oriented in the beginning but they establish a learning dynamics in would be entrepreneurs’ cognitive system. Along with core business learning, these formal training programs inculcate the learning culture in the candidate. This culture could be further percolated in all the departments of the candidate’s future organization. The learning process shouldn’t be targeted with budget and time related factors. One needs to sit down and assess the class room learning after every trimester or semester to identify the expectations from the course and brainstorm to make the learning outcomes effective and efficient.

It is not always relevant to focus on a handful of mega billionaires success stories and arrive at the conclusion that post-secondary education has no role to play in entrepreneurial success. Education for dome may not be necessary but statistics clearly reveal that there are many more examples of success with education than without it. A college degree is a time which provides an opportunity to grow up and expand the horizon beyond high school and home environment. The vibrant, intellectual and technology driven environment develops a vision required in today’s innovation business growth. Unless you are high school genius or have blessed talent in specific field, without a formal degree you are putting all your cards of success on luck. Hence, it is advisable to understand the role of education than to be fooled by exceptional examples.

The formal UG degree not only imparts subject knowledge and technical skills but it gives a shape to one’s character and enhance the decision making power. It enlightens and logically develops the intuitive capabilities and gives an opportunity to hone the leadership skills.

The class room teaching also explains how to balance work and personal time, meet deadlines and follow through commitments. All these skills are passive but valuable to entrepreneurs. The degree gives not only sense of confidence but also offer a certain sense of credibility when you are about to make deals with the perspective clients, investors and bakers. Without formal education one may be excelling in terms of money measures but what is lacked is the association and network formed during the college days. In future these liaisons and networks could be developed into business ventures. The success mantra for business ventures in today’s world is what you know and who you know.

The new aged leadership institutions impart entrepreneurship training not only based on complex statistical analysis and algorithmic solutions but provide hands on training through case studies, webinars, seminars and business simulations. These state of art institutions have a well-designed overall education in liberal arts which is a super requirement for the entrepreneurs to succeed in this technologically advanced and sensitive 21st century. The courses designed by these new age institutions go to the extent to bring industry into the class rooms. Along with this such institutions arrange several conferences on their campus where young entrepreneurship can meet industry icons, future financers and angel investors.

The world’s top class Universities offering courses at under graduate level offer loan to the students to start their business, thus giving wings to the viable ideas. For example, according to Forbes magazine Babson College, MA, number one ranked college for under graduate entrepreneurship courses offer $3000 to its enterprising students. By the end of the term students are expected to return the loan and also donate any profit they make to charity. Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship University of Houston have started 66 companies and collectively raised more than $7 million as funding. Indian Universities and colleges started understanding their roles in enterprise building are offering exclusive courses on entrepreneurship at under graduate level. They offer Under Graduate degree in Entrepreneurship in collaboration with various established and renowned foreign universities. These colleges not only teach Entrepreneurship but actively engage in creating start-ups by developing incubation cells, offering mentorship and if required provide financial support as well. In the fast changing business games and super competitive environment the formal training imparted by the universities can provide a cutting edge for new era success.

But not to forget, along with a college degree to succeed as an entrepreneur, drive, determination and true passion are the key ingredients. To be cautious, never enter the University for wrong reasons or under any kind of pressure and never present half-baked ideas.

 

Inter School English Debate – organized by Banyan Tree School

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As part of the ‘Gender Sensitivity’ Week at Banyan Tree School, Lodhi Road, New Delhi an Inter-School English Debate (IX-XII) for schools in Delhi and NCR was organized on Saturday, the 19th of December, 2015 from 9:00 a.m. onward. A total of eight schools participated in the competition.  Each team consisted of two participants. The first speaker spoke for the motion. The second speaker spoke against the motion. Each team was accompanied by 4 students to cheer him/her and one teacher. The team from Tagore International School, East of Kailash bagged the first position. The team from the Pinnacle School, Panchsheel Enclave was declared the first runner-up. The Best Speaker-for the motion was also from The Pinnacle School. The Best Speaker-against the motion was from Gurukul The School, Ghaziabad. The event was sponsored by IILM, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.

The jury comprised of eminent academicians like Dr.Ajanta Dutt, Ms. Nandini Guha, Dr.Mridula Anand Tandon and Mr.Rahul Mishra. Dr Ajanta Dutt received her doctorate from Rutgers, the state university of New Jersey, USA where she studied the novels of 20th Century Indian English writers. She taught for a while in Rutgers and wrote a book called Landscapes and Languages for the writing programme of the university. After her return to India, she wrote a book on Tagore’s novel, ‘Home and the World’ and an annotated textbook on the poems of Pablo Neruda, Derek Walcott and Margaret Atwood which are taught in the English honours programme of Delhi University. Dr. Dutt teaches English at Deshbandhu College, Delhi University. She is also on the editorial board of a bilingual magazine, Hindol which is published every quarter from Delhi.  Ms. Nandini Guha is an Associate Professor of English at Delhi University, with over 25 years of teaching experience. She is an Alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi and Carmel Convent School. She is also an award winning translator from Bangla to English. Her translations have been published by Katha  ,Zubaan,Harvard University Press, Social Science Press etc. Dr. Mridula Anand Tandon  received her MBBS degree from the University of Pune. She has worked for Poverty Alleviation through Girl Child Upliftment and Women’s Empowerment for over twenty years. She has initiated numerous other programmes for the cause of women. Dr. Tandon is also a long-time worker in gender-based social issues,helping organizations prevent sexual harassment and most recently, addressing women’s safety in communities through the “Avaaz Uthao” project with the Government of Delhi. She also personally sponsors the education of girl children from low-income families. Saakshi an NGO, is ably helmed by Dr.Tandon. Mr. Rahul K. Mishra has 18 years of work experience in teaching ,training ,academic and corporate administration. He did his Masters in International Business from the University of Delhi. He teaches courses on International Business  Strategy and Entrepreneurship. He is currently the Director, Executive Education at IILM Institute and has conducted training with Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, Engineers India Limited, National Building Construction Corporation and Concentrix Corporation for senior and top management.

The Judges at the rebuttal round

The Judges at the rebuttal round

The topics for contention were:

  • Worshipping the ‘Devi’ (female deity) and killing the baby
  • Gender equality must become a way of life
  • Equity vs. Equality, a gender discourse
  • Women are the real architects of the society

Each participant was given 3 minutes to speak. There were a total of 16 participants. Each team consisted of two participants. The first speaker spoke for the motion. The second speaker spoke against the motion. Before beginning to speak, each speaker from each team picked a chit to select a judge for the rebuttal round. The duration of the rebuttal round per participant was 3 minutes. During the rebuttal, the judge whose name was written on the chit picked by the speaker asked only one question. Banyan Tree School participated in the event but did not compete.

The judges expressed their views about the competition for over 15 minutes thereafter they were felicitated by Mr.Sanjay Srivastava, Dean, IILM.  This was followed by the prize distribution ceremony. The team from Tagore International School, East of Kailash bagged the first position. The speakers were Siaa Girotra and Rohini Sharma. They got Rs.7000 each, plaques and certificates. The team from the Pinnacle School, Panchsheel Enclave was declared the first runner-up. The speakers were Yashika Choudhary and Cheena Taneja. They got Rs.5000 each, plaques and certificates. The Best Speaker-for the motion, was Yashika Choudhary from The Pinnacle School. The Best Speaker-against the motion was Navya Dhir from Gurukul School, Ghaziabad. They both got Rs.5000 each, plaques and certificates. Banyan Tree School was represented by Anugrah Singh and Bhumitra Sharma. They got the highest points but being the host school, they didn’t compete. The debate concluded with a ‘Vote of Thanks’ by Ms.Chetna Saini, followed by the school song and National Anthem.

_MG_1165The Winning team – Tagore International School, East of Kailash  _MG_1168

After this, the Volunteer Felicitation ceremony took place. Over 33 volunteers from classes IX, X and XI and 8 members of the choir were felicitated. These devoted students had been working tirelessly for weeks, preparing for this debate. They executed the duties assigned to them, diligently.  Their sincere efforts were applauded by all.

-Written by Ms. Supriya Prathapan , TGT English , Banyan Tree School

Company Visit to Starbucks

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An excited group of undergraduate students from stage1 visited Starbucks Coffee outlet at DLF Promenade as part of their company visit module. Starbucks is a familiar name for even the Indian consumers and the students were keen to understand how an all American brand would be faring in India and to know how they were differentiating themselves from the other players who were in the market before them.

The store was located at one end of the mall on the first floor close to the escalators which gives it a certain location advantage. The café was done up in brown and copper tones, its staff in green and white uniforms with the welcoming and pervasive smell of coffee.  The students observed that the café was fairly full and quite a few of the customers were school students.

The store manager along with some of the staff held a coffee tasting session for the students where they learnt about the different aspects of how coffee is categorized and graded as per its strength and flavour. Each of the staff wore aprons which not only had their names written across them, but the name of their favourite coffee blend as well. The students learnt about the coffee journey starting with the discovery of coffee beans in Ethiopia and how the beans made the journey across the world ending up in almost all corners of the world. The students saw the coffee “passport” which each staff member carried that had the details of the various coffee growing regions with space for the comments and observations of the staff. The staff would write down their observations about a particular brew from time to time.

The brewed coffee was poured into cups and passed to the students for tasting. The next step resulted in a lot of laughs since the best way to drink coffee is to slurp it. The slurping action has two benefits. One, it causes the coffee to coat a larger part of the mouth resulting in more flavor and two it cools sufficiently so as not to burn the mouth. The students came up with different adjectives to describe the flavour of the coffee ranging from woody, to smoky to burnt. The café also provided a serving of mango custard to go along with the coffee, and the pairing of the sweet creamy mango with the strong dark coffee enhanced flavours of both the coffee and custard.

The students realized that a cup of coffee is not just a cup of coffee but has a history and tradition of its own, and how different café outlets are creating new and unique experiences around coffee to promote their brands and satisfy customers.

Observation Study at Zara H&M Retail Outlets

Observation Study at Zara & H&M Retail Outlets

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Our students had visited the retail outlets of H&M and Zara at Select City Walk Mall, Saket. The students had a different experience by visiting these stores not merely as a customer but as an observer.

We all know that Five years behind Zara, the Swedish high-street giant has opened its first store in India. The Zara comparison has got everyone talking. After five years in the country and with 16 stores now open, this July, Zara became the first apparel brand to cross the $100 million sales mark in India. When the H&M store opened at the end of last month, Indian newspaper Business Standard contrasted the queues at H&M with photos of relatively quiet Zara and Gap stores.

Thus, the purpose of the visit was to conduct an observation study on following parameters and further make a comparative analysis of both the retail stores on the same parameters.

– Store Overview
Store Size (single floor or multiple floors)
Location in the mall
Display
Current Ambience / Theme in terms of colour scheme, music, spacing and type of lighting
Convenience Shopping for customers (multiple billing desk, spacing, trail rooms, in store lifts / elevators and availability of shopping bags)

– Product Mix
Apparels – Men, Women and Kids
Accessories
Beauty and Personal Care

– Customer Observation
Footfall
Gender
Age group

– Brand Marketing
Demonstrations
Banners, Posters, Digital Display
Promotional Offers
Packaging ( Signature Covers )

– Pricing
– Apparel Colour Scheme and Pattern Study
– Signature Colour / Patter, if any

When two worlds meet !

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Experience @IILM

One day someone said, “”Change your mind, keep your principles; change your experiences, keep intact your root” (Hugo, V). Life is dynamic and is the man who decides what to keep, what to accept, reject, and let it go. My name is Erika Reátiga R, Colombian. Modern Languages student. Ending my career I asked to myself what I wanted to do next I knew that I was very young and that I had and still have gaps to fill, experiences to live and learn,  people to meet, cultures to understand, stories to share and listen… so I decided to do my internship in India.

ERIKA

 I think that from the first day I arrived, I already had more than two anecdotes to tell. Feel the scorching heat of India, listen the loud horns of the cars, the smells, the colors of the streets and costumes, the music, the dances, the ceremonies and festivals, the food, all of that was just the beginning of a big change in my habits, thoughts, and undoubtedly the discovery to a new life style.

Although the cultural differences I think, that in one way or another, all cultures reflect common human needs. I strongly believe that this set of differences should not us separate; these are only challenges and opportunities to listen, learn,  share and create ideas by aligning all the different thoughts toward a common goal, developing the ability of teamwork.   

There is something more that goes beyond such differences; it is the sense of understanding and respect for others. I understood that in India the sense of unity is not limited to family or friends, it is extended to support and guide to anyone who may need it.

IMG-20151016-WA0013

Come to IILM as an intern, was like to come to an institute that open the doors to anyone. IILM creates spaces for the multiculturalism, it accepts respects and tolerates the difference, and it involves different parties for the achievement of common goals. The support and accompaniment provided by each of the members of the Institute has been always unconditional the quality of people and the quality in the performance of its work is impressive, the process of learning is constant, learn from mistakes, facing new challenges are daily aspects having always there opportunities to learn something new. The culture of discipline, teamwork and excellence is more than evident in their achievements.

IMG-20151016-WA0015

IILM not only seeks to promote the academic training of the student, but also cultural, creating spaces for leisure and entertainment, eager to learn and share more days of life and learning experiences with you. I am looking forward to the Dandiya night celebrations on Tuesday !

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.

 

 

Placement Week at IILM Institute

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IILM observed the “Placements Week” from the 24th to 27th of August 2015 for the post graduate students from all three campuses. Various companies from across sectors were invited to deliver their Pre Placement talks and share their interview processes along with the job profiles available. The exercise was intended for the companies to be able to interact with the students and the students to gain greater insights about these companies, the job profiles on offer and their respective selection process. The event was fruitful for both the students and the companies.

The week saw companies like Samsung, Vodafone, Blackrock, Cargill, J K Cement, Ernst and Young, Capital IQ, Deloitte, Adglobal 360, Publicis Group etc. deliver their presentations. Many start up companies like Urban Clap, V Resorts, SmartWords, Flexipass and Finalytics came on campus. This helped the students gain a holistic view of all the sectors in a concentrated form, so that they could identify and sort companies in order to make themselves better prepared for the upcoming placement interviews.

This year, apart from the existing recruiters, the focus was on reaching out to the Alumni based in various companies. Around 8 Alumni Members had participated in the Placement Week. They also offered to interact with the students who were interested in a follow up sessions. The placement team has been able to reach out to many new companies through references from our Alumni base. We intend to keep enhancing the interaction and involvement of our Alumni base in placement related activities.

The eminent delegates from the respective organizations who all visited and briefed the students were:

  • Mr Rahul Sachdev (University Alliance program Manager) from SAP
  • Mr Sagar Gupta (Account Manager), and Ms Garima Sareen (Account Manager), from Ad Global 360
  • Mr Raghu Raj Rathore and Mr Rahul Arora (Entrepreneur) from Smarstward
  • Mr Rajender Birla (Managing Director) from Finalytics Consultancy
  • Mr Atul Singh (Assistant Manager-CE-Biz) from Samsung
  • Mr Pankaj Gupta (Founder and MD) from Flexipass
  • Ms Arti Chopra (Sr Manager-HR) from Zenith Optimedia
  • Mr Abhay Tamaria (Co-Founder) from Red Carpet