Zensar Center for Business Innovation June | 2008

Chasing Rainbows

A colourful Journey

L colours.
ife at ZCBI is an amalgamation of

cultures,
It’s a prefect blend of

beliefs diversities. and

“The journey is the reward” we Chasing Rainbow is the newsletter

believe in this saying. Like birds showcasing life at ZCBI and which
we have taken a flight and our will give us the inside of this
wings are powered by ZCBI’s journey. As the first edition, this
learning, knowledge and values. will give a brief insight about what
We are ready to stretch has happened so far @ ZCBI.
ourselves beyond the obvious.
We have coined this journey as
“Chasing Rainbows” because we
have chosen to live in colors.
The Takeoff The Flight
21st April 2008, was the takeoff day for the first
ever batch of ZCBI. The first day started with
the distribution of admission kits, followed by
the Welcome session by Dr. Nikhil Agarwal,
Dr. Meena Kumari & Wg Cdr (retd) Ajit Sane but
mind you the first day didn’t end there. To our
surprise we had “Business statistics” lecture
lined up for the same day, the lecture was
power packed and too heavy for the first day, it
went on for 4-5 hours. Later in the after noon
we had an inauguration ceremony, tea break
and finally the day was called.
From the next day “Business statistics” lecture
began right from the point where it was left the
first day. From the very second day it became
clear to all of us that life for next 365 days will
be rigorous and hard.
So we who all are aiming to become future
managers started finding opportunities. With in
few days we got accustomed to the schedules
set by the ZCBI Management. We started
enjoying lectures, quizzes, assignments and
presentations. And the flight took off well….

What’s Unique?
Zensar Center for Business Innovation

In management the term “unique” is very

important and is the real differentiator. There
are two unique aspects about this course. First,
the course itself is unique as its tenure is of one
year, which makes its more challenging and
arduous. Second, we as the batch are unique
because batches will come and go even after our
farewell but being the first batch we will always
be remembered. We will leave some legacies
and trends to be followed for years.
 The Gurus
Be it a pre-term or the core-term life at
ZCBI is equally tough. For the pre-term we
had Professors from all over India.

The Event: Dr. Ashok Panjwani

Outbound training (Professor, MDI Gurgaon)
@ Karla Dr Ashok Panjwani took our first ever lecture
at ZCBI. He taught us Business Statistics.
Soon after the
He was well versed with the subject and he
completion of pre-
term, we had an made us understand Business Statistics very
outing for three quickly and effectively.
days at Karla
caves. The event
was taken care by Dr. Sunil Rai
a group called
“Elements”, which
(Joint Director, SPJain Mumbai)
is a pioneer group Dr. Sunil Rai is a diversified man. He started
in outbound his career from Army then he did MBA and
training run by later he became an academician. He shared
Mr. Rahoul Joshii. few wonderful insights on Quantitative
As from the day techniques and other related areas with us.
one we were so
involved in
lectures,
assignments at Dr. Pankaj Gupta
ZCBI that we (Professor, IIM Kozhikode)
hardly got any Dr. Pankaj Gupta came to teach us
chance to interact accounts. Accountancy that sounded so Zensar Center for Business Innovation
with our
terrifying was made much simpler and easier
classmates, but
this outbound by Dr. Gupta
activity brought
us together and
close enough to
understand each
one of us. We
went to the
outbound program
as individuals but
we came back as a
“team”.
In the sky After the perfect take-off, we are already in high
spirits, talking to wind and challenging the sky
each day. At present we are in making of our
core and this is done with the due guidance of
few navigators which come as time and when to
fine tune us.
The Event:
Prof. D P Uniyal Risk Management
(Professor, MICA Ahmedabad) seminar @ ITC
Grand Maratha
Starting his career from salesman, Prof. Uniyal Mumbai
knows marketing from kith and kin. He is full of
energy. He taught us “Marketing Strategies for
Developing Economies” not from books but from Seminar on “Risk
his own life’s experiences and knowledge. Management” was
organized
collectively by
Dr. M Radhakrishna ZCBI & NHRD.
(Research Scientist) The seminar was
Dr. Radhakrishna has tones of knowledge on inaugurated by
Information Technology, data communication Dr. Ganesh
networks. He explained us the Information Natarajan.
technology’s impact on Business and how it can
The eminent
be used to increase productivity. speaker Dr. Barry
Stein (President,
Dr. Meena Kumari Goodmeasure Inc)
(Professor) said that change
She is taking Management Information System is inevitable and
people resist
sessions at ZCBI. She has put our minds on test
change only when
by asking us to solve real business problems
Zensar Center for Business Innovation

it is not properly
with the help of IT. Apart from this she gave us communicated. He
some valuable inputs including “How to do demonstrated the
Harvard style Referencing”. change
management
toolkit to the
Prof. Shekar Prabhakar
discussion panel.
(Marketing Professor, ZCBI) All in all the
A die hard marketer and this passion is backed seminar was a
by a engineering degree from IIT, Madras, an huge success.
MBA from IIM, Calcutta and 22 years industry
experience in marketing and sales of IT products
and services in India & abroad .He is in-house
professor for Marketing. His sessions are full of
knowledge and are not only interesting but tell
us about corporate Intelligence and latest
happenings in industry as well.
 Prof. Nahum Goldmann
(President, ARRAY Development, is a leading
expert and a renowned lecturer on building and
securing e-banking and ecommerce,
procurement, financial and governance
solutions, as well as regulatory and government
The Event: policy issues)
Dale Carnegie (DC) He took sessions on “Global Competitive
Generation.Next Strategy for Technology based Organization” at
Training ZCBI. His age was not a barrier for him, his
energy level was incomparable. He taught us
Dale Carnegie’s
the concept of “Elevators pitch”, which aims at
Generation.Next
training is meant describing an idea effectively in 3 minutes of
for Young Adults. presentation. During his lectures, at first we use
DC is a world make presentations in 10-15 minutes but due to
renowned writer his valuable feedbacks and corrections the time
and is famous for was reduced to 2.5-3.00 minutes.
his book called
“How to Win
Friends and
Influence People”. Prof. Edwin Jacob
Generation.Next (Lawyer at Monard-D'Hulst Brussels
training has few Associate Researcher at ICRI - Interdisciplinary
objectives like Centre for Law and IT - KU Leuven)
Building greater self
This was his first ever visit to India and ZCBI,
confidence,
Strengthen people but after interacting with him it appeared as if
skills, Enhance he is a regular faculty with ZCBI. He was
communication thorough with the subject called “Government
skills, Develop and legal Environment of Business”. He
leadership skills, expressed his joy of being in India and meeting
Control worry &
stress. These points
us at ZCBI. Zensar Center for Business Innovation
seem to be
mandatory for
young managers Prof. D N Pandey
that’s why DC (Professor, Dubai)
training has been He is a wonderful professor, the one whom you
made a mandatory
can listen to for hours. He has a unique way of
part of core term @
ZCBI. teaching, he says learning should be enjoyable
and stress free. He made Managerial economics
so simple and interesting that one feels, his
lecture should go on and on and on.
The Wings The Mentors
Lectures are better at ZCBI but the industry
interaction is the best. So far we @ ZCBI have met
best of the best cooperates in our guest lectures.

Mr. S Bala The Event:

“Ehsaas” A Social
(Chief Finance officer, Zensar Technologies)
Initiative by ZCBI
First ever guest lecture @ ZCBI was given by Mr.
Bala. Other then being a CFO, he is a true crowd We at ZCBI, not
puller. Before the guest lecture, we all thought it’s only aim at
going to be a usual power packed session on becoming
Financial Fundamentals, but to our surprises he managers but we
aim at becoming
never uttered a single word on Finance. He spoke
socially aware and
on something that otherwise no one could have responsible
ever imagined. He made us understand the real individuals too
mean of “Being a Manager” by asking us to define and this fact is
“What is Love?” Class jumped in to participate in advocated by the
the discussion and gave hundred definitions for social initiative
taken by us, it is
love but Mr. Bala didn’t agree to any one. He said
called “Ehsaas”.
like we can’t give a precise definition to love, in the This initiative was
similar way we can’t define “A manager”. He said inaugurated by
manager can be defined in thousand ways but not Lead India Finalist
one. He beautifully summarized by saying “A true Mr. Ranjit Gadgil.
manager is the one who performs the most We all were
amazed to know
daunting tasks with limited available resources and
that Mr. Ranjit
most importantly without complaining”. He also Gadgil who was
Zensar Center for Business Innovation

commented upon the qualities that a manager once a successful

should posses. He said the key quality that a software
manager should have is “the patience”, other then consultant living
that control over emotions, conquering prejudice in US, left
everything and
and knowledge of Indian economy are must for a
came back to
manager. Next thing we talked about was “the India for a social
money”. He made us understand the meaning and cause. He
importance of money in our lives by an example of explained us how
a cup of tea and amount of sugar added in it to a NGO works by
sweeten it. He said too less and too much of sugar giving example of
his own NGO
in a cup of tea can spoil the taste and same can be
initiative known
said for amount of money required in life as well. as “JANWANI”.
He concluded by saying that money should not be
the primary motivating factor in the life. Last but
not the least he said the guru mantra of success
lies in being “Humble” to others.
 The Real Learning
Guest lectures @ ZCBI are so lively and
knowledgeable that from the starting till the end
point you will feel yourself involved through out.
During such lecture we get to know about real
challenges and difficulties faced by real managers
in their professional lives and the way they
survived these business issues.
The Event:
ZCBI’s Campus on Mr. Ravi Ramanathan
Second Life (Marketing Head, GOS, Zensar)
He entered in the class at 9:30 am sharp with a
A team of students business case study in hand which was called
is creating the
“Growth Pangs”
ZCBI’s campus on
Second Life. Business cases this is what we do day in day out,
Second Life® is a so how this lecture would be different then any of
3-D virtual world our regular lectures? , this was the exact question
created by its running in our minds just before the lecture
Residents. Since started but once he took the charge and started
opening to the
speaking to us, he got the whole class involved in
public in 2003, it
has grown his speech. This gentleman who was very formally
explosively and dressed and was highly talented can do whatever
today is inhabited he wants to do. Don’t be surprised if he enacts like
by millions of a cowboy or a musketeer. This is the way he is, a
Residents from true entertainer. He is full of fun and energy but
around the globe.
well efficient to communicate his ideas and
ZCBI is not only
making its thoughts. He asked us to go through the case,
presence felt in which had two parties (IMI and KenTech) and
real world but revert with the suggestions that how can KenTech
virtual world too. regain its strategic account (IMI)? The whole class

Zensar Center for Business Innovation

was divided into ten groups and we were given 30
minutes to discuss the case. Every group jotted
done their suggestions on a chart paper and
presented in front of the class. He heard each
group very patiently and gave his valuable
feedback to each group. He respected our ideas by
stating that everyone and everybody is unique.
Surprisingly, he did the same case with 45 CEOs
and found that the way we thought was more
diversified and out of the box. He summarized the
session by saying “Best technology need not to be
the best solution for every business”.
An Inspiration Chasing Rainbows is a monthly newsletter
showcasing the articles written by students,
professors and giving an insight of latest
happenings at ZCBI. As clear from its tagline “A
colourful journey” it aims at exploring the journey
made by us in order to reach our goals. We know
that goals are important and should not be missed
but we equally respect the journey and want to
make this journey a memorable experience.

My inspirations for writing this newsletter are the

entire batch of ZCBI, Dr. Nikhil Agarwal and
Prof. Shekar Prabhakar. As the first batch I think
no one amongst us will ever forget these days. We
are the base of ZCBI and we are the future. I
would like to thank Dr. Nikhil Agarwal for making
our journey really comfortable and enjoyable. I
truly admire his managerial skills; for learning
management styles and fundamentals we don’t
have go far, as Dr. Nikhil Agarwal is a live example
of it. Managing 82 mischievous students with
handful number of resources is really appreciable.
Each day he aims at adding value. Due to his
vision ZCBI has gone places in just few days,
today we are every where be it a social awareness
initiative, be it cyber space, be it Second Life or
Linkedin, world has started feeling our presence.
We must learn from him that perfection can’t be
Zensar Center for Business Innovation

achieved in a single day, it’s a gradual process. I

would also like to thank Prof. Shekar Prabhakar for
his simplicity, modesty and tones of knowledge
that he has. His suggestions, feedbacks are
invaluable. Once while talking to him, he told me
that write whatever you feel like writing, as this is
required and is mandatory trait for every manager.
He really inspired me to write this newsletter.
I would like to summarize this edition with few lines:

A new breed is born,

A little is proved and a lot to be shown.

We have spread our wings,

We are the new queens and the kings.

Our existence is not very

very old,
But we
we are ready as we are young and bold.
bold

Be it conventional or unconventional,
Dreams, innovations and ideas at ZCBI are intentional.

Thanks and Regards

Rajan Saini
(Editor /Designer – Chasing Rainbows
Rainbows)

Please contribute for the next edition of “Chasing Rainbows”

Till then happy reading and writing!!!