Achievers Edition

IBS Hyderabad

From The Editors Desk

Neha Sharma
Inside the Issue: 1. Trade Mogul (Futures First) Abhishek Khosla 2. Tata Parth 3. AmulPuneet Kapoor 4. Ogilvy and MatherAbhinav Kanagat 5. Matrix Laboratories Ltd.Krati Gupta 6. NISM (SEBI) - Ritesh Marwah 7. D. E. ShawDeepak Khurana 8. Ernst & YoungGautam Mehta 9. ITCYamini Mishra
Warm Regards, Neha Sharma Editorial Head
2 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

Hi, In the hustle and bustle of academics and the daily grind, the only force that keeps driving us is the fact that we need to stand out, make a mark and achieve our goals. So great is the need that were willing to go the extra mile, be proactive and deliver nothing but the best. Same is the case when it comes to deciding on Summer Internships and Events. However, no more shooting in the dark as we, Club Ecobizz have done all the ground work for you! In this issue we have compiled in depth interviews of peers who have made a mark in the company they interned in to a National level trading competition. Demystify the path to success as you read through this issue. Wishing you all the very best for the Summer & Final Placement Season!

Consultancy Services

IBS Hyderabad

Trade Mogul (Futures First)

Abhishek Khosla Winner - M.B.A Batch of 20102012

Before the event what where your expectations? I was not playing this game for the first time, had played it last year also. In 2010 it was a 23 hours window game while this year it was a 12 hours window and no delivery was allowed unlike last year. The participants could trade in 4 items which included the all favorite items of Gold and Crude oil. My overall and basic expectation was to better my last years result and more importantly keep two emotions, greed and fear, in check. Any special preparations required for the event? I did no such special preparation and moreover I feel trading is an ongoing learning process. No book can teach you how to trade effectively. I know all this because I have a 5 year experience in trading. Initially I started trading by taking delivery and soon progressed into intraday trading, margin based trading and etc. What preparations should newcomers undertake? Charts should be respected from the start as knowing the trend is very important and ,

eventually, it facilitates our decision making process during the game. There are many good sites available over the net for charts like zingle.com Why did you participate in this event? Basically to check how good I am in trading and to prove to myself that I could do much better than the previous year. Also, quite importantly, the winning amount (rupees 1 lakh) was a huge incentive and morale booster. What about the Learning Experience from the game? Even though there is a notional account in the game but it clearly depicts that on a real time account a lot is at stake. Hence you have to be very careful. In the trade mogul game the rates used are of the real time, so theres no chance of taking decisions earlier. The game platform was almost identical to the one used in real life, hence one can lear n a lot about how to operate it in the most appropriate manner. On this I would clearly like to mention that in trading no one is YOUR FRIEND.

3 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad

What about the level of competition and what about information sharing ? The level was quite high and I firmly believe that with more number of people participating, the sharing and discussion of information can be done in a more efficient manner. Also with more number of people participating from our college information sharing comes in handy as the game is of 12 hours window and with classes going on, its almost impossible to check for each and every update. During the competition I would take my laptop to the class and tell the teachers that I am trading, hence I need to keep con-

stantly checking for updates!!! What was your strategy while playing the game? As the game was an intra day game I essentially concentrated on charts and 3 day moving averages. I checked 15 minutes interval charts for trading while 30 minute charts to confirm the trend which would help me in decision making. Apart from these technical aspects, I firmly believe that a trader should not be afraid of losing money. Like in the 3rd week of the game I was holding a rank of 5000 with a loss of Rs 45000. Then at the end of the 3rd week I managed to hold a profit of
4

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
Rs 45000 and subsequently my rank came down to 66. From the 4th week I had 16 lots to trade too and soon my rank came down to 33rd position. Also, I had adopted a strategy of trading in little volumes despite the presence of upward trend. This I did so as to nullify the effect of any fluctuations if they arose. In which of the items did you trade the most? I did my trade mostly in Gold and crude oil, while the S&P 500 was quiet difficult as it was news driven. With the window being of 12 hours and with our class running in a fullfledged manner it was quite tough for me to follow each and every news pertaining to it. Thus I traded mostly in gold and crude oil. How would you advice newcomers in terms of controlling their emotions while trading ? Its quiet simple, when you are making money dont be happy and when you are incurring a loss dont be sad, just be confident . Apart from that I believe each and every trader has his own unique technique. A perfect example would be that on the last day of the game I traded and suffered a loss of Rs 70000 which greatly threatened my 1 st position, which I was holding on to since the start of the day. I held on to my ground and by the end of the day curtailed my losses, which was pivotal in making me the eventual winner. What about the value addition from this game?
5 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

One major thing I learned is that we should not trade under some compulsion, trade only when the trade is in our favor, or else just leave it. For example on the last day I was holding a considerable profit over the person coming second but as we had to trade, I did. In normal scenario I wouldnt have done it. Also we should try to maintain the profit to loss ratio which I believe should be 2 :1 . Advice for budding traders? As a second source of income its good but as a career or as a source of income, I feel its quite risky and should not be undertaken. Apart from this the game had a lot of young budding investors who did quite well, like the person who came third was a student from Shri Guru Gobind Singh college. Also budding traders can participate in similar trading simulation games like SMART INVESTOR where they can gain experience but the biggest and best teacher is the REAL MARKET. A final question, if a student is not from finance background can he trade effectively? Absolutely yes. The FM 1 and 2 concepts taught in our MBA curriculum has no such relevance here. Anyone who can understand a chart and can analyze the price trends from it can do trading. This is a very practical concept with theory having very less prominence.

IBS Hyderabad

TCS Hyderabad (Finance)

Parth SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How to choose an SIP profile? Brand Name is very important, because it definitely adds to your C.V. As a fresher I would suggest that you should not be very choosy with the organization because you are at the threshold of entering the corporate world. SIP is the first step that will give you the glimpse of the business world, and you have to accept the fact that you cant mould the organization to suit your needs. So its up to individuals to trade off between the brand name and the kind of profile they want to work in. Apart from academics, what groundwork is required to get the desired SIP profile? You have to keep yourself up to date and aware of everything that is currently happening in the world especially related to your domain or the area. Groundwork I would say needs to be done in terms of finding out about the kind of profile the organization is offering. What are the parameters on the basis of which you differentiate between profiles? Usually the profiles are differentiated only

on the basis of specialization, for example companies say they are offering Marketing or Finance or HR Profile, but then all these specializations have so many sub domains, that distinguishing within them is important. For that it is very important to attend the company presentations and get the clarity on the profile. Students can also consult the concerned faculties and the seniors who had previously done there SIP with the organization to get a clarity on the profile. What advice would you give to the students who are still in a dilemma when it comes to choosing the area of interest? I would say that dont take impulsive decisions because SIP is the most important aspect of your M.B.A Curriculum, this is where you would get an opportunity to understand the business world and see the implementation part of whatever you have learnt in your M.B.A. Your interest in the field should be the only deciding factor when it comes to choosing your area of interest. Dont take decisions based on what your friends are going for or the stipend the organization is offering. Like I had said
6

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
before, consulting faculties or the seniors who had initially done their SIP in different domains will be beneficial to get an understanding about the kind of work that you are supposed to do in that particular domain. What were your expectations before the commencement of the internship and to what extent were they met? Being a fresher my expectations were very realistic, I wanted to get a glimpse of the corporate culture and learn how do companies operate and the way they function. Also I expected that I would be given the freedom to work in my area of interest and all the support from my company mentor. I would say that yes all these expectations were met by the company and I had a great learning experience during my SIP. What kind of projects did you work on? My project topic was Analysis of the BASEL-3 Norms. I was supposed to analyze the impact of the BASEL norms on the Indian Banking Industry. My company guide suggested this project, because Banking and Financial Services is the main source of revenue for TCS, and BASEL-3 is yet to be implemented in India. I had to analyze the impact of implementing the BASEL-3 norms on the banking industry with respect to the following three parameters: 1. Minimum Capital Requirement of
7 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

the Banks 2. Liquidity Position of the Banks 3. Capital Structure of the Banks Did you work on one task primarily or was their any type of rotation involved? My work at TCS was divided into two categories. The first part was as the organization calls it is the Core Work which was basically for the organization in the department called Business Domain Academy. In this again I worked on two sub categories namely Asset Review- where I was supposed to review the existing 18 types of certification courses for the Insurance Department employees and Asset Development here the entire team was asked to develop certification courses for the business analysts. A total of 6 Modules with 75 questions per Module were developed by the team as a whole. The Second Part of my SIP was my Project on the topic Analysis of BASEL Norms What challenges did you face while undergoing your SIP? I had two company guides, one for the Core work in the Business Domain Academy department and the other for my Project. The Most challenging part for me was to strike a balance between both these works and meet the deadlines set by both the Guides. In terms of completing my Project it was a

IBS Hyderabad
very challenging task as I had absolutely no idea of the banking Sector and the BASEL norms, so there was a lot of self study involved on my part in understanding the terminology involved and how does the banking sector work. In this respect I got a lot of help and guidance from both my Company guide and the Faculty guide. Also taking the risk of going ahead with the project on BASEL-3 Norms knowing that there is no quantifiable data available on BASEL-3 was a huge challenge in itself for me. What was the level of support during your What value addition has the SIP done for you? As a fresher, for me it was a great learning experience and I got great exposure to the corporate life ahead and the culture. The depth of knowledge that I gained working on my project was tremendous and is a huge value addition for me as an individual. Also SIP gave me an opportunity to make industry contacts and interact with people from different departments and with experience in varied field and learn from their experience in the industry. I would just advice all the students going for their SIPs in a few more months to come to make the most of this time and learn and gain as much knowledge as possible as it is the most important part of your M.B.A curriculum.
8 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

Were you treated as an intern or a full time employee? I was treated as an intern. There were a few restricted areas where we could not go that was due to the fact that TCS deals with highly sensitive information for its clients so not everyone is allowed to access the highly sensitive information. However I was allowed to access all the facilities like TCS Library, gym and cafeteria like any other normal employee.

SIP? I got full support from my Company guide in completing my project. The inputs provided by him were extremely beneficial for me. I would say that he did a full justice to his role of being a mentor, and I am thankful to him for all his support without which it would have not been possible for me to accomplish such a challenging project. In finance was their any analytical work involved or was it the usual data entry work? My entire SIP involve only and only analytical part, there was no data entry worked involved.

IBS Hyderabad

Amul (Marketing)
Puneet Kapoor SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

Lets start with where you did your SIP and how did you get there? Initially for the second semester I wasnt here as I had gone to Adelaide for the scholarship program, and due to that I could not apply to a single company that was coming to the campus. All my friends kept telling me about the companies that kept coming to campus and that built a lot of frustration in me. Hence, when I came back, very few companies were left to visit the campus. Amon gst the choices that I had, I said yes to Amul i.e. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketin g Federation, and the location was Hydera bad. How do you think one should choose an SIP profile? I feel the first thing is that one should be sure whether he/she wants to go for marketing or finance. As far as my experience goes, wh en th e second semester was about to get over, I was still not sure. Now what are the consequences of not being sure? The consequences are that in th e final interview of your placements, the interviewer may ask you that you have done your SIP say in a trading company, but the major electives you have selected are say, operations or marketing. So one should be sure of what he/she will major in. Secondly, one should be very patien t as there are a lot of companies that come for SIP so on e shouldnt jump into a profile just to freeze their

position. Get in as soon as there is a profile that is desired. Thirdly, one shouldnt worry about th e stipend that theyll get. Many companies ma y not get you a stipend. For me the criterion of a stipend was a strict no-no and I wasnt very fussy about it. Be patien t and when the work is good, go for it. Apart from your academics, what groundwork did you do to get you SIP? See, the interview may ask you about not just academic related questions, but also practical implications and current affairs. Therefore, reading a lot of magazines, apart from courser materials, help. Apart form that, the morning ghost that come i.e. the newspaper for which you need to become a ghost buster, in a humorous note. So two basic things - read a lot of magazines, right from India Today to Time to Fortune 500, we have it all in the library, and you just have to find time and go there to read, and the newspaper. For marketing students, there is a supplemen t of Brand Equity in ET that h elps a lot. In addition , for finance students, it is important to keep track of the Sensex. As such basic questions will be asked. The interviewer may not get into th e details of a topic but th e basic questions will be asked like say, wh y is th e market falling, wh y is the rupee appreciating etc. Hence, it is important to be aware of your surroundings.
9

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
What are the parameters on which you differentiated between profiles? Ill give you an example here; say there is a company that has come with a marketing profile. Now which profile its giving is important. It ma y say that it is a marketin g research profile and students embrace it; however eventually it ma y be only data entry in disguise. Interns from Tier1 colleges ma y be recruited by them to use th e actual tools and do the research. In such a situation, the student should ask the interviewer directly whether you will be using the tools for research or not. This will make the profile clear. Secondly, in case you dont want sales be very clear and try to get that information because once in the internship you may get frustrated in case you are not interested in such a profile. There are many ca veats that are attached and therefore it is very important to be alert and know them beforehand. Being marketing major, I a m not aware of the finance aspects; however many of my friends had to ex perience situations in which they thought the profile included makin g models and doing research wh ereas they ended up selling financial products. So yes, it is very important to get as much information at the initial stage as there maybe companies with disguised profiles. And that is how I differentiated profiles. What advise will you give to students who are still in a dilemma in choosing their area of interest? I am a student with a CGPA of 9.71. Now th e major perception that people have is that you have a CGPA of above 9 so you should take up finance. Do not believe in such myths. I have always loved marketing. I enjoy talking to people and sell my ideas. And this is the reason why I took up marketing. If you are in a dilemma about what to choose, there are some necessary person ality traits needed in each area. For instance it is important for a person in marketing to be an ex trovert who loves talking to people and knows how to sell his ideas well to people. Similarly for someon e in finance, number crunching ability is a necessary trait. Also the knowledge of various financial models and th e trends are important. Such characteristics will tell you that you will be good in finance. Apart from these personality traits, there is this gut feeling which comes. When we enter the college in the first year, we really dont know whether we will end up taking finance, marketing, operations, etc. But subsequently as time goes by, at around th e end of the firs t year, you develop a gut feeling that tells you that you are good in an area, say, marketing. So do what your gut says, rather than listening to people around you. Thirdly, please dont listen to anybody. Do not listen to your peers who themselves are not very sure. Listen to those who are confident about their subjects and choices and can guide you well. Also, there are many experienced faculty at IBS who are more than willing to guide students in dilemma. Th ey give you th e right opinion without any preconceived notion. Finally, analyze what you want to do, in case if everyone tells you that you are good with numbers take finance but you want to take up marketing, go with marketing.
10 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
What were your expectations before the com mencement of the SIP and how far were the y met? My expectation from my SIP was that I should get a very challenging job or task to do. People had told me that there will be companies which will directly tell you that we have interns from tier 1 colleges and you will be assisting them in the project by doing data entry, data correction and reporting. My expectation was that I will not be this person doing this particular job only. I a m not saying that this work is menial or anything. These steps are a vital part of the whole end-toend process. But in addition to this work, I also wanted to do the analysis part of the project. So I took up a project with my tea m members, both were from IBS, and be were solely responsible for the entire end-to-end process of the project. We made sure that will prepare our reports without any participation of interns from other colleges. We made sure that our three member team was self competent. For this we were con stantly in touch with our faculty guide, as a company like Amul, which works more in sales, ma y not have people who can take time out to explain various SPSS tools to us. Overall my expectation was that I will not let anyone do the analysis of the data while I run around and collect that data. And it did get fulfilled as we, as a tea m built a firewall and did not allow anyone from other colleges to get involved and in case we dont have the required skills, we will develop it and that is what we did. What was the project that you worked on? My project was about the study of consumption of Amul products, specific to modern format stores in Hyderabad and Secunderabad region. It required segmentation, targeting and positioning What were the challenges faced by you during the SIP?
11 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

(STP). It was a completely research based project. The techniques used were for segmentation we used cluster analysis, for targeting we used probability analysis and for positioning we used multi -dimen siona l s ca lin g. Th e multi dimensional scaling technique will be taught to the first year students in th e subsequent semes ters in subjects like Marketin g Research. The project also had a sales angle to it. We were told that in case while gettin g our questionnaires filled we come across someone who is interested in opening an APO (Amul Preferred Outlet), and we can generate such leads, we have to give that information to the company. In our project we did get a lead through which we opened up an APO. The outlet is generatin g around 20 lacs revenue as per the correspon dence between me and my company guide. So in all, it was both research and sales because I a m sure no company will expect you to do the in ternship without generating some form of revenue for them. Did you work on one task primarily or was it a rotational based? It was a rotational project. Say in the first day we are at a store like Spencers getting our question naires filled, the next da y we would be on th e field talkin g to prospective clients and generatin g leads for the opening of APO as men tioned earlier. The company gave us around 7-8 leads and we needed to call them, if they are interested meet them in person, know the exact terms of trade and con vince them that opening the APO would be profitable for them. So basically it was a day-to-day, task changing internship.

IBS Hyderabad
One of th e challenges was transportation and th e commuting from the company to places and college. Another was that at times there may be con trasting expectations from the company guide and the faculty guide. In such a scenario, you have to be a perfect bridge between both . When you are mailing any content to the faculty guide, keep the company guide in the loop and mark a copy to him as well, and vice versa. This is to ensure that none of them feel that you are keeping any information from them. Also a bigger challenge was that we had not learnt techniques like multi-dimensional scaling in the first year and this technique was the high light of my project. So to learn the tool I had to study it from the scratch from n number of books. What value addition has the SIP done to you? The best SIP award was one of the achievemen ts. Apart from that I have now learnt to write good reports. I was completely grilled by my guide. My report was sent back to me for changes 10-12 times. I had aimed at the SIP award and my guide knew that I was very much involved with it so she made sure that she grills me to the core. So now I am good at report writing. Another thing is team work. Having had prior work experience it was reinforced to me that in dividually you can not achieve a lot and you will require people with you to help you out. So be good to the people around, help them, get h elp because you cannot know everything. In addition to this, the whole process required a lot of pres entations that had to be given th e initial presentation, convincing your guide that what you are doing is correct. So that improved the communication skills. These were the person ality related as well as academic value additions. Any other information that you would like to tell to the students to help them get insights into the process of SIP? One thing is that please do not copy your project report from anywhere. On e may get motivated to do something like that but we have experienced that faculty members can catch such practices. Also, to be very hon est, most of us in India are not concerned about plagiarism; however in countries like US, UK and Australia there are laws which prohibit plagiarism. Of course, now even we also have them. But please do not plagiarize your work. Y ou can read from th e internet and reference it properly.
12 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

Were you treated as an intern or a full-time employee at the company? At one point of time, I actually started behaving like a full-time employee because my company guide did have a lot of faith in me and I assisted him in visiting modern format stores. In some cases he actually gave me the responsibility of directly interacting with the store managers on behalf of the company, and get the real issues on the floor. And many relevant issues were brough t up in these discussions. So, in general if you do the work the company will let you take direct responsibility. What was the level of support for you during the SIP? I think the best support throughout the SIP was my faculty guide, who was very knowledgeable in terms of the tools that had to be us ed and th e methodology. Other than that my team both from IBS, especially in situations when I was not well or my bike broke down . I think a mong all the people I worked with, my teacher faculty guide was very helpful.

IBS Hyderabad

Ogilvy & Mather (Marketing)

- Abhinav Kanagat SIP Award Winner - MBA Batch of 20102012

How to choose an SIP Profile? I think one should be pretty clear about what one wants; one should be well versed with his short-term and long-term goals. As in my case, I am clear of taking up brand manager profile in the upcoming future. And O&M proved to be a stepping stone to my future profile. And if you are confused with various sub industry, then you need to merge & prioritize your skills & interest. So Key is to know your strength before choosing your SIP. Apart from academics what groundwork is required to get the desired SIP Profile? One should be well-read and well-aware of industries and current trends of the industry. You cant be a good manager if you dont know what is happening currently. So reading magazines is like a daily dose for you. Once, VP of O&M said that MBA is only a degree on paper; people are designed to throw jargons. But in reality one needs to use his/her analytical skills. The Case pedagogy does help students to brainstorm across domains and understand companys situations. One develops various viewpoints by the time he/she steps in as an intern. You need to be dynamic to keep things moving. On the basis of which parameters do you differentiate an SIP Profile? As per the placement scenario, if you go by the

term Corporate Sales, it incorporates a lot of profiles - selling insurance, product etc. and it is your team that has to meet the target. But generally, what happens is you get different preconceived notions. A sale profile is not only selling, it means meeting targets, communicating. One needs to understand that first. Do SWOT Analysis and you can be through with the field. What advice would you give to students who are still confused about their area of interest ? One should always go by his/her interest and skill combination. Never ever go by peoples opinion. If youre passionate about marketing grab it, but dont go by what is currently in trend if youre not interested. And that youll probably be clear with after your 2 nd Semester ends. What were your expectations before the Internship and to what extent were they met? I expected to work in client servicing. I was exposed to every department. I had to report to VP, Management head. I wanted to work for the company, so I proactively took initiatives and asked for work which other interns never even bothered to do. This kept me separate from all other interns working at O&M. What kind of projects did you work on?
13

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
In the initial 2 weeks I was given all kind of work. But later, they gave me a specific task to come up with a solution. The task was to find why Ramco ERP is not popular enough despite an economic solution. I researched online about the company, its competitors, ads and various brands, what O&M did for Ramco, the stringent policies. I designed a strategy for Ramco ERP and I came up with the course of action for O&M. The Statistics about ERP-cloud revealed that 70% are confused about the product as they mix up the product with the brand and 90% dont know the product. So I presented the indepth coverage of my knowledge to the O&M managers to which they were convinced. The most probable challenge that I faced during my research was fixing and scheduling an appointment with the client. What challenges did you face during your SIP? In the 1st week when you meet people as an intern you will find different people with varied attitudes. Some will be very helpful, as most of them know that you are there for only 3 months. So understand the workplace, learn to communicate effectively, understand the structure. As soon as you will get work from various departments learn to prioritize. Finishing the work on time is the greatest challenge you learn when working under pressure. While working in Chennai the biggest barrier with me in field was the language, also fixing appointments and talking to CEOs and MD, to keep them engaged in your talk is also one of the major challenges. I learnt when not to disclose details to them, how to talk, what to ask when. After my 6th client I actually learnt to portray myself in the best possible manner. One more thing is documenting every 2hr interview, where you have to pick up only the relevant points and that requires skill. What ValueAddition has the SIP done for you? I learnt how to write a 3 months work report in 5 pages crisply. I learnt when to talk, what to talk so this gave me an immense experience as well. Were you treated as an Intern or a Full-Time Employee? I was treated as a Full time employee during my SIP at O&M. It depends from person to person, as I was putting in extra efforts and working hours they respected that willingness to learn. And so the treatment was fair to my expectations. What was the level of Support during your SIP? I was given help whenever needed. No monetary support was given during my research work.

In Marketing was your profile confined to Sales or was it diversified? I was given a profile of Client servicing during my Summer Internship program at O&M. Any Further advice for the potential interns? During the SIP program, you will learn only if you put in effort , so its up to you. Its an opportunity to understand the corporate culture, time management and learn a lot of things.

14 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad

Matrix Laboratories Ltd. (Marketing)

-Krati Gupta SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How does u choose a SIP profile when it comes to marketing? It is very important to have Focus. Focus on what is the most important skill you want to learn about. Whether it is about sales& Distribution or whether face to face interaction with the client is what you are looking at. I had taken Business development as my project. This profile was very comprehensive. It encompassed everything what I wanted to learn. While choosing SIP you need to think where you want to go. A serious suggestion from my side would be to please look for the company name and next important thing is the profile which they are offering. My profile had no direct contact with the client as client were governments, foreign nationals etc.

pany side would be the understanding of basic marketing concepts. Your concepts should be concrete.

On what basis you differentiate between profiles? As I have said before the first one would be of course the Company name and then the profile offered. Established company gives you the chance to do the actual work and not any random work at some random morning. For fresher, SIP is very important .It gives you the leverage in your placement. It provides you with some relevant background. So company name and the Project is very cardinal to talk about in your placement.

What you learnt about marketing or anything else you want to tell us? In my profile there was every sort of analysissituational analysis, competitors analysis, then forecasting .I learnt how to take decisions and then to give a comprehensive potential basket that I think that they should offer and how they should go for it. Also I can say that now I know and understand my company. I have used my concepts and put it
15

Apart from academic what is the ground work needed, to get the desired profile? You need to know the gist of the company and the field/area they are working in. One should have some knowledge of facts and figures to support their ideas. If you dont know then say it, admit it. It will show your confidence. Obvious demand from the com-

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
into practice. I got to know about many rules and regulations which one must need to adhere to. about? What are its objectives and what would be the complication in which you can get in? Also it helps to check your own potential and you get to know how you fit in an How you decided about your area of interest and what advice you would like to give to juniors about how to go about it? Frankly I would tell you that I was a hard core finance person. Im good at analytical concept. Im very strong in accounts and law. I have very good background in finance. My decision of choosing core marketing came as a surprise to my teachers. Confusion will always be there. But I would like to share that my about experience what has taught me that-its not you are good at but its about what you enjoy doing at. I was always better in finance but then it was work for me. I liked and enjoyed doing marketing.SIP is that place where you can still decide what to take. I tried my hand at marketing and it worked for me. This is the juncture where you can still dabble to decide correctly. Your project was very compreh en sive but was it like that u had to work for more than one project/target? No. I had no backgr ound knowled ge about the phar maceutical. Im a B. Com student. I chose Business Development as my project in phar maceuticals. On the very first day I was directed to learn about the industry and how it works as a whole in a weeks time. I had to make a presentation about my learnings in the second week. After approval they handed me a sheet which had a detailed explanation and What was your expectation before S IP stared and to what extent it got fulfilled? As Im a fresher I had no expectation. All I wanted was to just learn. What is a team all step by step procedure about what and how am I supposed to do with enough freedom to build my own decision. I had a very structured approach, I can say.
16 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

organization? There is a time when you feel the hierarchical difference and at times you will feel that there is no hierarchy. In the company I used to talk to everyone except my boss as I thought that it could be taken as creating bias. This was pointed out one day. So you need to know how things get different in different ways in different times.

IBS Hyderabad
will just not go. What challenges did you face while doing your SIP? I had zero knowledge about the pharmaceutical and I had to do many comparative analyses. It forced me to have the know-how of required technical jargons. It was also required to know what other person is talking about as their sentences were bombarded with these jargons. I had gone there through Contacts and I was working in t he subsidiary branch. So those people who knew about this treated me with very kind and helpful nature but others were indifferent. You should know what type of conversation you need to make in an office and with whom. You also need to know where to cut shot your statements. A person seriously learns how to handle people when they venture in an organization. What was the level of support from your faculty guide? I was blessed. My mentor was Romina Mathew. She is the most comfortable person to work around with. The average age at work place was 35-40 yrs, so I was considered as a Kid over there. There was a joke that they have adopted me. She used to discuss about what I have said, what I have done, what I have not said and what I have not done. All these small hints were very helpful. If I had done SWOT analysis then she would ask how this is different if I would have asked you to do it in class and if you are now doing in a company. She would direct me to make it more practical by involving and interacting with other employees and departments. My PowerPoint Presentation skill has What value addition did SIP bring? You need to maintain a relationship with everyone but then you have to define its boundaries. Work does talk but its not the only thing. Communication plays a major role. Another most important thing for a marketing person is PowerPoint Presentation. You can do fabulous work but if your final presentation is not good then it will not work but vice-versa can happen. During your presentation you need to give emphasis on how to stand, whom to address first, whom all to address, whom all not to address. Also you need to keep in mind that you are not an individual over there. You represent a company as a whole. Any mistake on my part
17 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

improved due to my company guide (Dheeraj Gupta). My Project was very comprehensive but then also I made ppt in 15slides which included- forecasting, Tuberculosis, what disease is all about, options, patents, entry strategy, heading and title page and then Conclusion. He also direct me about different directions needed. He used to tell that krati I know you are happy working with this person but chill out. Listen more while you are conversing then you will gain many things.

IBS Hyderabad

National Institute Of Security Markets (SEBI, Mumbai) Ritesh Marwah

SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How to choose an SIP profile? The two most important things are: Brand Name: A stronger brand na me will always give you an edge over oth ers when it comes to interviews for placements and will definitely help add weight to your C.V. Profile: Choose th e profile in which you are able to apply your basic theoretical knowledge and are able to learn the implemen tation part of the concepts. Also from th e perspective of placements, even if you are not able to properly explain your project the essence of your project gets lost in the interview, a bigger brand name always helps, as most of the interviewers are already aware of the kind of products the company is dealing with. Ultimately there has to be a trade off between both of them to strike a balance. Apart from academics, what groundwork is re quired to get the desired SIP profile? The most important thing is the C.G.P.A, Because the company in NISM (SEBI) where I did my SIP shortlisted the initial candidates based on their C.G.P.A. Apart from CGPA Brushing up the con cepts that you have learnt in FM-I & II and MM I & II is again important as most of the companies conduct written tests based on which they again shortlist the candidates for th e final round of in -

terviews. For Finance students, I would suggest that having certifications like C.F.A are an added advantage. Apart from this finding out the information about the company in terms of its offerings, profile and the domain in which the organization is offering the SIP is equally important because that will ultimately help you to decide wh ether you really want to go for it or not. I would also suggest that the students talk to their seniors or th e faculty members to gain a better understanding of th e profiles. What are the parameters on the basis of which you differentiate between profiles? Frankly speaking I would say that its a little difficult to judge the profile based on the description given by the organization and also there is a vast difference between what the organizations say in their profile when making a presentations and what the student is actually supposed to do. The company migh t say that the profile is of Risk Management but then its the responsibility of the student to clarify where exactly th e company is putting up the intern. What advice would you give to the students who are still in a dilemma when it comes to choosing the area of interest? One simple advice that I would give to all the
18

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
students will be go for your area of interes t. By the end of th e second semester most of us are clear about which subject interests us th e most. Or in plain simple words I would say If you can read a subject book, without getting bored, you know that is wh ere your interest lies Also I would advice the students not to take up Finance or marketing just because of the package it will fetch you and not just because you have a good CGPA, its ultimately the flair for the subject based on which you should decide where to go and where do you want to head. What were your expectations before the com mencement of the internship and to what extent were they met? Actually It was the other way round, because I had heard from the seniors and other faculty members that its a very good organization to do your SIP with and that I would get to learn a lot so in fact I was little worried whether I would be able to meet the expectations of the organization or not. Also for the last four years who ever did their SIP at NISM, have won the best SIP Award, and I wanted to carry on the tradition. All these factors just made me focus on what was expected out of me instead of focusing on my expecta tions from the company. What kind of projects did you work on? My project was on Algorith m to Detect Insider Trading but after sometime I had to change my SIP project was a true res earch and after a period of around 20 days I reached a dead end, and there was no way for me to proceed further with the project, So after consulting with both th e company and the faculty guide I changed my Project to Information On Insider Trading For Did you work on one task primarily or was their any type of rotation involved? I basically concentrated only on my project. There was no rotation in the work involved. What challenges did you face while undergoing your SIP? The most challenging task for me, during my SIP was to learn coding. Being a biotech graduate I had absolutely no knowledge of coding the programs that were required to gen erate the algorithms. But then I started to learn by reading e books, and taking h elp from my SIP mentor, and the hard work ultimately paid off. Also Even before my SIP began, I was given books and publications on SAS, Econometrics and research papers which I had to study before joining the organization, so reading and understanding those concepts on your own was a huge task in itself. Another challenge was to live up to the high expectations of the company guide. The workin g hours were hectic as well; there were times when I had to work for 15-16 hours straight to complete the coding. Also I was working on a true research, in which neither th ere is any pre-defined path nor any guarantee of th e outcome of the research, so at every stage of my project there was a huge challenge on how to proceed with the work, which ultimately will shape your project.
19 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

this project we used softwares like SAS, R. This project was based on the concept of Shadow Portfolio, where I try to mimic the insiders trading activities, and then see whether or not th e person is making abnormal returns. I also worked on the Econometric Time series Analysis for my project.

IBS Hyderabad
allowance. What value addition has the SIP done for you? The most important value addition for me was the knowledge that I gained during my SIP. I would say that till now whatever kn owledge I have gained 90% is what I have learnt during my SIP. Also undergoing such rigorous training helps you get a glimpse of corporate life and mentally prepares you for the placements and ultimately the corporate life. Another addition ing my imdurSIP portant value What was the level of support during your SIP? I would say that my company guide helped me in every possible way. Th ere was 100% commitment from my company guide to help me with the suggestions on how to proceed with my project. He got me a prowess license to work upon , there were times when I could not download certa in net, and files he from th e interwould do it.

He also helped me in understanding the coding part of the progra m. I would I say was very such a that rea lly had

was the certifications I got. The first one was Summer Sch ool rics, of which Econo met was a 12 day workshop conducted NISM by itself.

lucky to have great mentor.

The best part was that I being an intern did not have to pa y any certification course for the same. In all during my SIP I earn ed myself 5 Certifications and that too free of cost. Were you treated as an intern or a full time employee? I worked as a full time employee, where I had access of all the additional benefits a normal employee of the company would get. Although th e company didnt pay me any stipend, they provided me accommodation, and transportation
20 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

In finance, was the ir any analytical work involved or was it the usual da ta entry work? Like I said before my entire project was totally analytical based. The da ta I used to work on my project was available in CDs which were provided to me by NISM.

IBS Hyderabad

D. E Shaw(Finance)
Deepak Khurana SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How to choose an SIP profile? It depends upon the inclination and area of interest. My inclination was always towards finance. I wanted investment banking(IB) as my profile but had other options in kind as well so when I dint get IB in JPMC I switched to D.E. Shaw which was offering financial - operations profile. Apart from academics, what groundwork is re quired to get the desired SIP profile? Watch movies and read books which are related to your area of interest. Warren Buffet is my idol and I make sure that I followed him all the time. One should be updated with the current scenario. I feel presence of mind is very important and one should learn from practical examples. What are the parameters on the basis of which you differentiate between profiles? One needs to be very clear about his/her area of interest. I loved numbers which created my interest in finance. One should look for a profile which gives them scope to implement past knowledge and skills (Graduation Knowledge). Most importantly one should analyze themselves and focus on what they want to become 5 -10 yrs down the line. What advice would you give to the students who are still in a dilemma when it comes to

choosing the area of interest? I would suggest such students to analyze themselves, read a lot about their area of interest to identify best suitable area for them. What were your expectations before the com mencement of the internship and to what extent were they met? I kept minimum expectations and kept my mind open. I wanted to accept things the way they come and therefore I wasnt disappointed with my work. The take away was much more then what I expected. What kind of projects did you work on? I was not given any project by the company. They had asked me to choose one for myself. Hedging risk was the topic of my project. It in volved current client transaction; maintaining minimum balance and other risk related affairs. It revolved around the risk which on e faces while investing in oil shares in three economies i.e. US, China and India. From where did you get the required information for your project? I referred to various books. I also gathered some information from th e company data. Lastly Google helped me a lot.

21 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
What was the level of support during your SIP? My mentor was Jojo sir. He was strict about guidelines but very cooperative. He visited th e company when ever required and helped us throughout. Did you work on one task primarily or was their any type of rotation involved? The work and the project I was working on were entirely different. Since my project was not given by company the two things had no connection . So as far as my project goes I was working on one area while my real time working in volved rotation. What challenges did you face while undergoing your SIP? First challenge was choosing a project because in my case company did not give one. Second very important thing is scheduling and prioritizing. You will have deadlines both for college submissions and towards the company therefore, it is essential to schedule yourself. What value addition has the SIP done for you? I was exposed to things which are industry specific. Exclusive training was given on few topics. I got fair idea of subjects like FR M and IB which were to be taught in my upcoming semesters so there was an academic learning. I was exposed to international working. Most importantly I specialized in a sector across 3 countries which became my point of differentiation . It made me confident for my placements Were you treated as an intern or a full time em22 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

ployee? I was treated like a full time employee. Was added on th e company mailing list, had access to data. Things like this depend on your manager. You need to follow certain guidelines mentioned by the company and you are treated as a part of the company. In finance, was their any analytical work involved or was it the usual da ta entry work? First half of my project was more of reading and gathering information second half was completely analysis. And as far as my work is concerned it was mixture of data gathering and analysis. How did you get the PPO? There are two reasons: Firstly I was in Finance & Ops section and in Deshaw this sector has more requirements. Secondly I fulfilled managers expectations. In volved myself in daily operations and helped them reduced time to complete tasks. Any T ips for juniors? Juniors should not become very choosy about th e profile and the location. They should not worry about stipend at all. Be clear with concepts. Be updated with the currents activities about th e industry. Take initiative once you are in the company .Last but not the least try specialization in one-two sectors

IBS Hyderabad

Ernst & Young (Finance)

Gautam Mehta SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How to choose an SIP profile? Initial research has to be done about th e company Based on the field in which one wants to work, the short listing of the companies has to be made Through the company website, get to know everything about the company and the different services which the company offers to its customers Then apply to the company in which you want to work through contacts Apart from academics, what groundwork is required to get the desired SIP profile? Good con tacts Person should be careful in terms of applying for the desired profile Do the required research well What are the parameters on the basis of which you differentiate between profiles? What do you really want to do in future How well you can make good network Does the company has a good brand name in the market Bigger the company, bigger are the con tacts What advice would you give to the students who are still in a dilemma when it comes to choosing the area of interest.

To interact with the seniors The student should know what he/she is best at, in which profile does he/she want to work in future Do not get influenced by what the seniors are saying, the student should have their own opinion from the advice of the seniors Try and get to know what profiles come to campus Also by interacting with faculty members, the studen t will get a very good input What were your expectations before the com mencement of the internship and to wha t extent were they met? The main expectation was to work in on e particular project and get to learn as much as possible. Most of the expectations were met in those 3 months. What kind of projects did you work on? Renewable energy projects M&A valuation I was into Transaction Advisory Services (TAS) division of E&Y I was into making a business model for renewable energy projects It involved estimations related to how quickly and consistently the revenues are earned, amoun t and timin g of the cash inflows to the firm
23

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad

The template developed was used for all the oth er renewable energy projects Did you work on one task primarily or was their any type of rotation involved? Rotation was involved and I used to work on multiple projects in one day (2-3 projects) What challenges did you face while undergoing your SIP? The biggest challenge was how to operate MS Excel. I just had the basic idea but a fter working there my knowledge of MS Excel has improved a lot. The other major challenge was to revive some of the accounting concepts which were left at my graduation level. What value addition has the SIP done for you? Gives you a result oriented approach and You will get to know how to create a given project from the scratch. It will give a good direction towards career and I Got to know

that any thing can be learnt by struggling Were you treated as an intern or a full time employee? I was treated more than a full time employee. But it was fun working there. I got to learn a lot. What was the level of support during your SIP? The main issue which I faced during my internship was coordination. It used to be very difficult to coordinate with differen t teams to finish of the project on hand. But the support which I got from my company guide was awesome. He helped me in successful completion of my project. Difficult to coordinate In finance, was there any analytical work involved or was it the usual data entry work? It was both analytical and data entry work. Always be with a mindset to be ready to do any kind of job.
24

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad

ITC Mumbai (Marketing-Sales)

Yamini Mishra SIP Award Winner- M.B.A Batch of 2010-2012

How to choose an SIP profile? According to my personal experience I would say that its the brand name that matters. But then there is no surety if you could get a great project in a big organization. Its entirely upto a students personal choice to decide the trade off between the Brand Name and the Profile.

very clear I would advice them to keep an open mind and do not restrict themselves to just one domain. There is a possibility that once you start your SIP you might start liking the kind of work that you are involved and ultimately develop interest in one particular area. What were you r expectations before the

Apart from academics, what groundwork is required to get the desired SIP profile? The students need to study about the organization and should try to find out what exactly is the work involved in the profile. What are the parameters on the basis of which you differentiate between profiles? Apart from the Brand name, the kind of exposure that you will get while working in the organization is an important differentiating factor while deciding on the profile to go for. What advice would you give to the students who are still in a dilemma when it comes to choosing the area of interest? See, by the end of second semester most of us have a clear understanding of what our areas of interest are, but for those who are not

commencement of the internship and to what extent were they met? My only expectation was that I should get a good project where I will get an opportunity to apply my theoretical knowledge into practice. And I was lucky that both my expectations got fulfilled. What kind of projects did you work on? My Project Title was Study the Grocery, Bakery and ISS channels with respect to their consumer profile, Category and Method of Service empowerment and recommend the service pack for ITC covering both Sell-in and Sell out Aids. This basically involved visiting the retailers and collecting the data from them based on the questionnaire, and then mapping the data
25

Achievers Edition

The Ecobizz Newsletter

IBS Hyderabad
collected against the data already available with the company, with he help of which the loopholes in the delivery system could be analyzed. The recommendations made after the analysis were then put to pilot testing with ITCs largest distributer in Mumbai, and it was found out that the time taken in the recommended model was actually less than the current model being used, but due t the space and transportation constrains in Mumbai, the model could not be adopted for the city. Did you work on one task primarily or was their any type of rotation involved? I worked only for my project, but lots of groundwork for the project were involved for which I had to work within the organizations day to day activity. What challenges did you face while undergoing your SIP? The first and the foremost challenge for me was the profile itself which was Sales. I was not at all inclined towards it, but I had to go ahead with it as it was the demand of my project. Another major challenge for me was to visit the retailers all over Mumbai and get the information from them in terms of filling up the questionnaire, not all of them were cooperative and I seriously had a tough time dealing with them. Also convincing the delivery people to adopt a new model of delivery for the pilot run of
26 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter

the recommendation made was another huge challenge for me. What value addition has the SIP done for you? I would say that SIP helped me understand the gap between the theoretical knowledge and the practical aspect of the implementation of the concepts. Also SIP gave me a chance to get a better understanding and exposure on how do organization work. I would say it was a great learning experience for me. Were you treated as an intern or a full time employee? I was treated as an Intern. What was the level of support during your SIP? I would say that I owe my Best SIP Award to my company guide. It was my company guide who suggested me the project and helped me at every stage of my project. I was not very confident if I would be able to meet the objectives by this project, but it was his faith in me that gave me the confidence to go ahead with the project. In marketing was their any analytical work involved or was it the usual data entry work? My project was more about collecting the data, and analyzing it. There was no data entry work as such.

IBS Hyderabad

For Readers

Dear Readers,

I believe you appreciate the transformation of The Focus. Your praise and encouragement has always been a source of motivation for us. Therefore, in case you have any comments or suggestions for improvement please leave them in the COMMENTS section our website www.ecobizz.weebly.com or Stu-z. We at Ecobizz will be more than happy to incorporate your suggestions.

Further, those of us with a flair for writing and are seeking an opportunity to see their thoughts in print. Here is your chance to let your dreams to turn into reality. We publish articles from our readers; you could be from any walk of life within or outside of IBS, Hyderabad, a student, a faculty, a professional, a homemaker or a self employed entrepreneur. We believe that every individual must get an opportunity to express oneself. The article should be of around 1,000 words concerning economics, politics, social issues, management or business. You can e mail your contribution to club.ecobizz@gmail.com.

Regards, Team Ecobizz

27 Achievers Edition The Ecobizz Newsletter