Innovative Ideators, platform for B-School students to showcase their Talent!

When I first saw an email stating 'Need Campus Ambassador for Innovative Ideators' in my college's newly created email inbox, I was excited to know what the heck is this 'Innovative Ideators'?

Frankly I always look forward in participating for branding/marketing activities so whenever I see an opportunity to become Campus Ambassador, I jump into it. But this time it was different unlike my previous experience with Microsoft and Naukri.com. 'Innovative Ideators' is not about any product /service but a team of wonderful individuals who have created a platform for B-School students to participate in  management related competitions. Best thing about it is, it's not a one time competition but series of competitions all over the year!

'Innovative Ideators' help students to showcase their talent and at the same time provide amazing and fresh ideas to Corporate Houses. How? Let me give you the idea!
'Innovative Ideators' use a funda called 'Crowdsourcing' well not quite similar to outsourcing but they are similar in some aspects. Consider a Company, 'NeGa Technology' a pune based IT startup who wants to emerge as a Product Based company in near future but they lack in idea generation. They are clueless as in what product they should develop which will help to earn them reputation and revenue! Even being a start up they had angel investors who had faith in the founders, a team of three IT Professionals. So 'NeGa Technology' hired some creative heads to help the founders in developing that 'Unique' product. They launched a website which gives daily information of 'Events happening today in Colleges around Pune'. The website got huge success, NeGa Technology earned reputation as well as revenue but founders were still not satisfied. As they could target only college crowd, they needed something BIG from teenagers to oldies!
One of the founder read an article about 'Crowdsourcing', a new trend in Business World'. They found a money saving way to generate idea for their 'Unique' product!

So the very next day they gave an advertisement in Daily newspaper saying 'Do you have an 'e'-idea but unable to implement it? We'll show you the way! Mail/Call us NOW!'
From very next day, NeGa Technology received hundreds of emails and phone calls. Within a week they had 300 ideas out of which they shortlisted 80 which were unique! All of this with almost no or little money, the only cost was 'Advertisement in Daily'. They finally decided to merge five ideas into one and designed an innovative e-commerce portal. They offered some share of revenue earned in first year with the people whose ideas were used. While rest of the ideas were not scrapped but NeGa Technology informed other start ups that they have some ideas which can be implemented and shared the same to new start ups asking them to give some profit share to the idea generator if his/her idea is implemented. Win - Win situation isn't it?

Now how does 'Innovative Ideators' fit in this example? Well they arrange competitions which are based on the 'Live Case Study' or simply problems faced by the Corporate Houses for which they need help from a common man/consumer/crowd. In 'Innovative Ideators' case the ideas will be generated from talented and creative minds of students studying in prominent B-Schools! If the idea gets selected there are BIG Prizes and wonderful career opportunities that will be offered by the partner companies!

So why to think, just reach out to your 'Innovative Ideators' Campus Ambassador and get the more clear idea about the competitions!
 

How to Set Microsoft Outlook (For SCIT Students)

What do you do when you need urgent access to your old emails and you don't have Internet Connectivity?
Don't you get bored seeing the same Google Email Inbox everyday?

Switch to the Best Email Management Application by Microsoft! It not just manages the email but help you to organize your work. Setting reminders, manage your events/Project Submission deadlines/assignment deadlines with the help of Calender! Don't worry about missing an important email - you get a instant pop up if you get any email! Beautiful integration with other Office applications will actually make your life better :-)

Following are the steps to configure your Outlook with 'associates ID'/ Gmail ID.

1. Open Microsoft Outlook 07/10. You'll see 'Add New Account' Wizard, Select 'Manually configure server settings or additional server types' Click on Next.

2. Select 'Internet E-mail' and Click on Next

3. Fill required details as given below.Tick appropriate option shown it the image.

4. Click on More Settings, do not click on Next! You should see a new Window 'Internet Email Settings',Click on tab - 'Outgoing Server'. Put appropriate tick 

5. Click on Tab - Advanced. Ensure you put only what is shown in image below. Do not tick 'Remove from Server after ---- days' you may loose all your emails, I did it once :-(

 6. Click on Ok, you'll see 'Internet E-mail Settings' Window. Click on Next and you are done!

Congrats you setup your own outlook account, successfully!

Let me know if any issue :-)

Custom Made Laptop - unReal, why?

I always need customized 'things' in my Life let it be food, bikes even I chose my MBA course which is customizable! The only thing that eats my head every time is, Why can't we have 'Complete' Custom Made Laptops? Don't tell me that you consider Dell Online Store, A place for customizable laptop. I hate Dell, because they do not allow you to customize everything in 'your' Laptop!
Consider a 'Subway Melt' sub prepared at Subway outlets, you can customize it right from bread, veggies, sauces anything and everything in the sub.Why can't we have it in Laptops?

My Idea about Laptop Customization -
It should start from Laptop's outer body - some people like Laptops to be slim like MacBook Air while some likes it Sturdy like Lenovo Thinkpad.
Another best part is keypad - i prefer a keypad with num keys/pad on right side just like the keyboards that we use for PCs.
Most importantly battery - I have a Gateway ID58 Laptop, it earlier had 6 Cell battery but now as I make heavy use of my Laptop I wanted to go for 9 Cell battery. I asked Acer's Vendor (after sales in India for Gateway) but he said my Laptop doesn't support it.
I have seen some of my female friends who rejected some nice Laptops just because they didn't like the color of the panel, too much huh? But I would say, yes they can demand for it and they should!

Why don't we have a Laptop Vendor who can help us in getting an assembled laptop just like we have it for PCs? I understand it's not easy for a Supply Chain to establish in order to procure different things for a single laptop which can vary a lot from one order to second. But if you see the idea has a lot of potential in it. People would definitely buy a 'Custom' made Laptop which may be or mostly will be 'Heavy on Pocket', but they will buy it, just because they get exactly what they want!

I agree it wouldn't be possible for a Vendor like Dell to allow people choose whatever they want and make their laptop ready for use. But entrepreneurs they can definitely think over it, as I really feel that this unnoticed area can really get you 'Real Money'! And the idea - first of it's kind :-)

Do Let me know your views and opinions about my idea! 

Play Safe with Disgruntled Employees

'Information Security' this word has got a lot of power in it! In my MBA Curriculum (Information Security) at Symbiosis Institute, I often heard terminologies like Threats, Risks, Vulnerabilities and many more.

One of the Threat, i would say the most interesting one is - Disgruntled Employees. The reason i call it as interesting because I wonder how can one predict the intention of a Disgruntled Employee. Definitely it could be a risk for an organization but how can you control them? Just by disabling their access rights and controls? Do you think this would be enough?

Disabling/Revoking the access rights of a Disgruntled Employee can be one of the control measure but according to me the most critical and beyond an organization's control is something different - The Knowledge/insights learn by a Disgruntled Employee during his tenure at the organization. 

Let me take an example: Ajay, a recent college graduate from a Well Known Technical Institute joined Fysat Technology Ltd. a small scale (50-80 employees) IT company into Services. Ajay was interested into Java Development, he also had sound knowledge of Java. But like every other IT Company, he was put into a Support project. Ajay was disheartened but he took interest and started learning things, he was a quick learner so soon he became one of the best knowledgeable resource of his team. But some senior members of the team couldn't digest the fact, they started troubling the newbie. The poor soul couldn't fight back and he fall prey to dirty office politics. 
Time came when the Management announced Yearly Increment, Ajay received least increment, hardly 2%. Reason - His performance was degraded very much, due to some dirty tricks of his seniors Clients escalated many issues about Ajay to Fysat's Management.
Ajay got frustrated within a year though he had good knowledge and technical insights about the work but he couldn't understand and handle managerial things which comes by Experience. 
Finally the day came, one fine morning Ajay put his resignation to his manager. Unaware of the facts manager simply accepted it as he thought Ajay is not worthy resource as he was portrayed by his Seniors to the manager. Even his exit interview was not done properly as the HR felt that this a case of inefficient resource getting kicked out of the company.
Ajay was disheartened, frustrated and angry. But his talent and knowledge that he had gain while working at Fysat helped him to get a decent job at Fysat's competitor Eryat IT Solutions.
Eryat is working into same market where Fysat is operating - South East Asia. Eryat is a market leader but since last few months due to a product launched by Fysat, Eryat was feeling the heat. Fortunately for Eryat, Ajay was the guy who worked extensively in supporting the product for some Big Clients of Fysat.

Now what do you think, by just disabling Ajay's accesses on Client Servers/DBs Fysat will get rid of their 'Disgruntled Employee' ? Can Ajay's knowledge and anger about Fysat help Eryat to beat Fysat?

I feel it's responsibility of Ajay's Manager at Fysat to understand the issues faced by Ajay instead of relying on opinions/view given by senior members of Ajay's team. At least HR should had identified the problems faced by the trainee and if possible change his mind to retain him. But as the person was just a year old at Fysat, HR didn't bother about it.
(I have seen IT industry not much but at least for two years such things happen at many of the IT Companies all over the globe)

For Eryat, Ajay might not prove to be the expert to beat Fysat's special product but his knowledge will definitely be used by Eryat to develop something better than Fysat, something which lacks in Fysat's product.

Disgruntled Employee can potentially impact a lot on the companies, I feel there has to be done something more than just worrying about the Access Control of the Disgruntled Employees. 
What do you think should be done to prevent such losses which may impact organizations terribly!  Do comment to respond :-)

[NOTE: Company names and character name in the above post is fictitious.]

Learning Phases

I remember when my dad used to tell me, how his friend's son can mug up everything, remembers everything and off course better than me! Since my childhood I'm fan of selective learning ;-) I used to hate to mug up the things but thanks to our Traditional Indian Education System which teaches us - more the marks, better you are! I always used to like practical things - science, never got attracted towards mathematics because I never met a teacher who could taught me why the hell do i need to learn it, how I will be able to use it in my life.I used to hate mathematics because it was more of a mechanical thing for me - you remember the formula fill in the values and get the answer.I never liked it and I still don't like it, thanks to my Statistics Professor at B-School - he make sure only people who 'know' statistics only those will be able to learn the subject which he teaches, rest of us - we just look at the whiteboard!

When I was in Higher Secondary School, I used to love Biology, IT and Chemistry. I used to hate physics too, because it belongs to the same family that of Mathematics! Biology because I used to actually see the things (Botany+Zoology), understand them and used to relate them with day to day life. IT because I used to write HTML, VB code and get something meaningful. Chemistry because I used to enjoy the Lab practicals of mixing different things in each other and get something out of it, it was fun! :)

Somehow I couldn't go for medical studies as I performed worst in my Higher Secondary School Exams.Then came the 'Actual' College life - Graduation period.I had decided that I will either dissect human bodies by doing medical studies or I would go for computer studies, and finally I choose computers rather I had to choose Computers :)

In my graduation, I realized that apart from technology I am good at interacting with people. Thanks to Microsoft Student Partner Program that I got the opportunity to mix both People + Technology and I started evangelize Microsoft's Technologies within students communities. Got appreciation from many people, it boosted my confidence. In my graduation college I never had to explicitly study because I choose something which I loved to do - playing with Technology.

Then came the professional life, where in I explored myself more! I knew that I'll enjoy working in IT industry but I wanted to be on the business side - where in I can gel up with business yet work on technical aspects of it.After spending two years in amdocs, I choose to join the Business Administration program with specialization in IT Business Management.This was the phase when I realized that I actually want to Learn something, not for the sake of earning money but for a better life, new goals and completely new responsibilities!

I feel the change in myself, I was completely different earlier - relaxed, care free (not careless!), had limited aspirations and short term goals. But then came a phase where I realized that I need something bigger and better, I need to attain new professional and personal heights! In my MBA I won't and I don't study for getting good grades, I'm studying for understanding things in different aspects. I'm more focused about learning than grading. I still enjoy subjects like Information Security, ERP than Statistics & Accounts ;) I want to be a Techno managerial IT Professional and not a manager who will sit in his Air Conditioned cabin playing with excels. I want to be a manager who will understand how it works at grass root level than worrying about how to climb the professional ladder fast!

I feel good that I can think about all these things at the age of 23 and I'm sure at the end of two years - once I'm done with my MBA, I'll be completely new person with quality knowledge & new ideas, innovations to implement in the IT industry!

At this moment, I'm clueless of what I have written because I scribbled whatever was there on my mind :)

Start of a new Journey - MBA

I never ever went to any premier school/college, I always had this weird feeling. A guy with average academics and so called 'Non Engineering Graduate' but never wanted to follow a traditional path.

A traditional Indian Educational Path according to me - Pass school with bad or average or descent marks, get into a College with Science stream get done with it then irrespective of whether you like it or not, whether you have that caliber or not Straight away get into an Engineering College - spend time over there and join the labor force!

I hated it, literally!

The company called amdocs, changed my life literally. Almost two years of stint in amdocs -India, taught me many lessons Worst/Bad/Good/Best everything! Met many talented people, saw tiffs between people, received appreciations - more from Clients than my very own manager, learned how to handle different situations/people. In due course I was still facing sarcasm of being a Non Engineering Graduate - but I was in the best phase of my life, I was with amdocs!

I had earlier decided to learn the technicality in IT Industry for couple of years and then go back to B-School to learn management. I was always attracted to Symbiosis International University -Pune, right from my graduation - I applied for their graduation course of Computer Application but got rejected (back in 2007)! So after 5 years I tried again, but this time for something bigger - MBA. Things worked out and I got a call from Symbiosis Center for Information Technology, Pune to join their 2 year long residential course of MBA - IT Business Management. A wonderfully crafted syllabus with a right blend of IT + Management.

Though I was doing well in my job at amdocs but I knew that some or the other day I'll have to quit and join B-School. So left the wonderful company in June 2012, with a hope and a belief to return back with better and bigger responsibility :)

Symbiosis Center for Information Technology - a premier IT Business School, my next two years in this place is definitely going to change me, my perspective of looking at things. I call it a new beginning - where I'll be getting two long years to study, learn, innovate and enjoy!

Laptop Requirement for SCIT Batch 2012-14

Hi friends, please fill the below form, let's hope to get the best and affordable deal :-)