Management Guest Inspire Series Experts share with our students – What it takes to succeed in the corporate world

Bengal Institute of BusinessStudies witnessed another engaging episode of Management Guest Inspired Series unfold when some of the brightest minds from the leading corporate houses met at Birla Academy of Art & Culture.  Building a strong corporate academic interface has always been an endeavour at BIBS and MGIS is the reflection of this initiative. This time, the session focused on ‘what it takes to succeed in corporate world’.

The panellists included some of the noted names of India Inc such as Mr. Arnab Kumar De Sarkar, Assistant Vice president,  Kotak Securities  and Mr. Arnab Kumar Basu , Senior Manager H.R. , Reliance Industries Limited (Apparel).

Mr. Vidur Kapoor, chairperson, BIBS was the moderator of the session. This event provided an opportunity to the students to derive first hand information on what it takes to sustain and establish a stable career in the highly competitive corporate environment.

The session opened with Mr. Arnab Kumar De Sarkar “follow your passion and rest of things will fall in place. Failures are inevitable but the attitude of not giving up is the vital key to success”. Mr. Arnab Kumar Basu said,”what others consider to be your weakness might be the strength for you”. Throughout the event, several questions were asked by the students to the eminent guests and they answered each of them carefully.

Undoubtedly, knowledge, skills and attitude are the key things that drive our growth in an organization. But both the dignitaries agreed that while knowledge and skills can be acquired moving along, attitude is something that is ingrained within us and hard to be worked upon. With the proper training and right attitude, an individual can create wonders and on the other hand, a negative attitude can call for undesired consequences.

While most of us have a perception that attrition rate in companies dealing with financial products and services is high, Mr. Arnab Kumar De Sarkar has spent about a decade with Kotak Securities and that actually proves the perception wrong. He citing his own example said “culture, loyalty, agreement of trust & understanding of the organisation are his secrets to being in an organisation for such a long time”.

Changing jobs is not a wrong thing fundamentally, but he insisted that one should be careful in doing so. It needs to be ensured that the new job will be an upward movement in learning curve. The monetary benefit shouldn’t be the sole deciding factor.

Both the guests stressed on the importance of reading newspaper and shared with us that knowing about the world around you is as important as knowing yourself.

“The session was a learning experience for all of us. Being students, most of our time is spent inside classrooms learning lot of concepts and theories. Such sessions provide the link between theories and their applications” – (Sreya Ghosh, MBA Marketing) .

“India is the country having the highest attrition rate however, this session has rather made me develop an optimistic view towards the statistic. I would try to keep all the points in mind, discussed during this session so as to drive employee commitment in my organisation when I start working.” – (Sneha Kundu, MBA HR) .

Think different to be Creative

The students of BIBS created a video on the glimpses of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam’s life

Making a video on Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam is a learning experience of lifetime for us. We were making a video about him, so we began to study about him. While studying about him, we came to know about the various aspects of his life. 

The feeling of meeting the former president, and a distinguished scientist, lifted the spirits of all the BIBS students to a different level, which showed its impact on the quality of work we presented.

While doing the research we came across a huge gamut of projects that he had been associated with which deserves mention in the video. It was a challenge for us to short list the work he has done and his contribution for the country in just 5 to 10 minutes’ video. To make our work easier and to use the limited time efficiently, we divided the work among ourselves.

Selecting a song which has an emotional appeal and which synchronises itself with the video, and keeps the audience glued to their seats was another challenge for us. It took us around 20 hours to complete the video. The support from our faculty members at BIBS made us confident about the work.

The most important thing that we learnt while making this video was time management. Working under pressure to manage time under stressful situations is important. Works of Dr. Kalam’s life motivated us to think differently.            

                                                                        Presented By-

                                                         Supath Bhakat

                                                                     Aushotosh Singh

                                                                       Umang Beriwal

                                                                                                                                                                                          Shashank Shaw

Management, Life and Learning

“Great dreams of great dreamers are always transcended” – Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

 Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is a name that needs no introduction, a scientist and leader, the man has played multifaceted roles while being a crucial architect of modern India. With his unique ideologies and leadership skills, he has connected with the young India in a way that no one else could do. 

Needless to say, it will be a unique opportunity for management students to interact with a personality of such stature. Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam will address the students of Bengal Institute of Business Studies on 17^th of January 2013 at Indian Museum Auditorium. Students from reputed colleges across Kolkata are expected to join the event. The young management aspirants of the city will, hence, get a chance to listen to the missile man of India. Dr. Kalam, is a man who not only inspires, but also aspires to succeed . After all, MBA is not just about the degree one gains, but also the values that an individual takes home.

As a visionary, he once said, “if you salute your work, you do not have to salute anybody. However, if you pollute your work, you have to salute everybody”.

After the main speech, students will be allowed to interact with Dr. Kalam, which will be a rare opportunity for them.

BIBS GOT TALENT…countdown begins!

The calendar has been marked & the countdown has begun. All eyes, now, will be at Birla Academy,as the final event of Bibs Got Talent is about to unfold in the month of November. The BGT fever has already gripped the campus. Besides the student community, faculty members too are equally excited about the event.

If you walk up the stairs of BIBS now, you’llfind the practice sessions being held after class hours. SnehaKundu, first year MBA student says, “sinceeveryone is extremely talented here, the level of competition is going to be very high. Naturally, there is no other way than to start practicing early”. Echoing her feelings, another first year MBA student, KomalAgarwalla pointed out that there will be a lot of fun, music and dance, andno doubt, the level of competition would be escalated either. 

A different but relevant view point came across from a first year I-MBA student, AnkitaSarkar, who said, “yes I am indeed enthusiastic about BGT as it will be an immense platform to express ourselves, however, this will also be an occasion to bring all the students of BIBS, across courses and specializations, closer. Thus, the internal network will be further strengthened”.

The unique aspect about Bibs Got Talent is unlike most other talent hunt shows. BGT will encompass a plethora of events. Starting from laugh it out to just dance, there are number of events in which students will get an opportunity toshowcase their talents. If rumors are anything to go by, besides individual performances, clubs too are anticipated to come out with their forte on the D-Day.

Bibs Got Talent is a much coveted title and so reaching up there will not be a cakewalk either. There will be two rounds of auditions and the selected ones will, only, get the opportunity to be up on the stage on the final day. As everyone is gearing up for the auditions, all we can say is may the best wins!