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| YEAR 2006-07 OUCC STUDENTS’ JSCP AT PECS UNIVERSITY, HUNGARY |
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Joint Student Consulting Project (JSCP) is one of the most valuable learning practices in terms of providing cross-cultural experience and international exposure to our students at OUCC. This year, 37 students of Batch 11 went to the University of PECS in Hungary for their JSCP. This four weeks learning and consulting activity began in June 29th ‘07 and continued till July 27th ‘07 at the Department of Economics & Management PECS University. Before getting into the real consulting projects our students underwent one week training to understand the scope of a consulting project and baseline of the cliental organization. The training also involved a real time business plan. Mr. Kevin Aspegren with the help of faculty members from Business and Economics, Pecs University provided this training. For remaining three weeks students, divided in small groups, worked on consulting different projects along with the Hungrian and US students. There were nine consulting projects from various companies and individual entrepreneurs including the companies like RoMedic, G-Pack, Aquaprofit, and FMRI Digonostic Center.
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| Apart from the consulting projects different events organized for the students included visits to Lake Orfu, Extreme Sports Park and Wine factory. Inaugural and closing dinner marked the events. The University of PECS- Faculty of Business and Economics, is the largest and one of the most prominent institutions in Hungary. Throughout the project faculty members of the College of Business, Ohio University, OUCC and Pecs University guided the students. They include Prof. Kevin Aspegren, Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi, Prof. John Keifer, Dr. Nanda Rangan, Prof. Lauren Krewatch, and Prof. Scotwright Dr Amalendu Jyotishi accompanied the group of students from OUCC. Number of students taking interest in JSCP is increasing over the years. This also shows the interest among students in learning through international and cross-cultural exposure. |
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| YEAR 2006-07 US STUDENTS’ JSCP at Indian Companies, BANGALORE |
| This year, 15 students from OHIO University College of Business, OHIO, USA were in Bangalore for their JSCP. This three weeks learning and consulting activity began in June 30th ‘07 and continued till July 15th ‘07. The OHIO University (USA) students teamed up with OHIO University Christ College, India (OUCC) students to do joint consulting for Indian companies. The ratio of the OHIO University, USA and OUCC students for each project was 1:4. The students worked as consultants to the partner Companies such as Witco, Citifinancials, Concorde Motors, Supervalu, Pantaloon Retail, Karuturi Networks, MPA Financials, WITCO and Generation Next. The nature of project included developing business plans, marketing plans, qualitative and quantitative research, designing stores, devising policies, strategies etc |
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The JSCP was broken into three phases: Conceptualization phase, Data collection and gathering phase and data presentation phase. The OHIO University (USA) students worked with the OUCC Indian students only with the Conceptualization phase, where as the OUCC, India students worked on the 2nd and 3rd phase and completed the project.
Dr. Sean T McGann, Assistant Professor, OHIO University has accompanied the students to India. Mr. Girish, Co - ordinator - Special Projects sourced the projects, handled client relationships and ARP (Applied Research Project). Both Dr. Sean and Mr. Girish guided the students throughout the consulting project.
Apart from the consulting projects a visit to Organic Farm in Mysore was organized for the students. |
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| Internships 2007 – Corporate Testimonies |
May 5, 2007: As part of a unique Internship Corporate relationship-building exercise, Faculty and Associates at the Program went out to personally meet Internship Guides of the students who did Internships in the months of March-April with companies all over the country. In all, over 60 companies were visited; Nielsen, Standard Chartered Bank, Tata-AIG, Indiabulls, Travel Guru, 3M India Ltd., Marriott International, Byrraju Foundation, RIL, KVK Energy, TVS Logistics, MPA Financials, Trinethra Retail, BSE India to name a few.
The Internship drive had manifold objectives: - Internship supervision - Meeting with students, understanding their profile in the company, understanding company dynamics, providing feedback/advice to students, taking feedback from respective company Guides.
- Extending relationships - Providing program brief, pitching in with possibilities of further collaborations.
- Meeting Alumni in each of the visited cities to rekindle relationships.
“It is a unique thing to see MBA Programs getting so involved in their students’ internships. The Faculty visits are both unexpected, encouraging and refreshing”, said Mr. R. Anand, GM Marketing, Reliance Industries Ltd., Hyderabad. As for the feedback on the students, the companies were very positive about the street-smartness, work ethic and discipline of the students. “It is hard to find students who are keen to take initiative and are ready to put in that extra effort. Working hard is mandatory, but working smart is optional. That’s where these students have excelled. They have worked with zeal, made recommendations, and automated some processes. What else could we ask for?”, said Mr. Girish R. Bijoor, Asst. GM, State Bank of India, Bangalore (Rajajinagar Branch). Faculty visited students in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Kolkata, Jamshedpur and Pune over the last month. “It was a move to explore working relationship-building exercises with the Corporate fraternity. The feedback and the reception from different companies has been extremely postive, and gives confidence to us and the students alike”, said Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi, Asst. Director of Special Projects. |
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| Dr. Rajesh P. Narayanan |
| May 2007: Dr. Rajesh P. Narayanan, Associate Professor of Finance at the College of Business in OHIO University, is in Bangalore to teach Managerial Finance to the students of Batch 11. Dr. Narayanan was recently honored as the new JPMorgan Professor of Financial Services. His impressive research and extensive publications in leading financial journals have garnered national acclaim for him, the Finance Department, the College of Business and OHIO University. |
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Dr. Narayanan teaches undergraduates and graduate students and MBAs in the India Program. He modifies and develops courses, conducts research on current financial services issues and provides leadership in corporate recruitment.
Following is a brief profile of Dr. Narayanan:
Dr. Rajesh P. Narayanan is an Associate professor in the Department of Finance in the College of Business at OHIO University. He holds the Gardner Fellowship in Finance. Dr. Narayanan teaches in the areas of corporate finance and financial markets. His current research interests are at the intersection of corporate finance and financial intermediation. He obtained his PhD degree from Florida State University in Tallahassee. Prior to joining OHIO University, he served as an Assistant Professor at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada. Dr. Narayanan has also been a Research Associate at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. |
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| Students complete Project at Titan |
Fri, Apr 20, 2007: Mr. Kumaran, HR Manager, Titan Industries Ltd. and Mr. Keshav Dhotrekar, ASM, Institutional Sales, Tanishq, Titan Industries Ltd., had selected two OHIO-Christ students in November 2006; Salma Raheem and Perin Sholapurwala, for a project, which was a survey on corporate gifting. The students completed their project and presented their findings to the Institutional Sales Head for Titan in Bangalore and South India. The company officials were happy at the outcome and said, "We now have the figures for market which we doubted till now." Providing feedback about OHIO Graduates in general, Mr. Keshav said, "Your students are right on bang. They are of good quality and it is difficult for us to choose out of them. Normally, other students from other schools have to be taught ABC's of Marketing. But with your students, we don't need to do anything."
The project entailed a study on the corporate gifting market in the IT and IT-related Industry in Bangalore. The abstract of the study is as follows:
"A large part of India's success in the software sector is due to the crucial role played by the State of Karnataka in promoting and providing a boost to Information Technology. Karnataka has emerged as the computer capital and center of high-tech industries, especially software. Bangalore has for long been known as India's answer to Silicon Valley, and this is the city where most large software companies have set up shop and operate out of state-of-the-art facilities. The Government of Karnataka has also been extremely positive about the software and services marketplace and has helped create the relevant telecom and policy infrastructure conducive to the growth of this sector.
The City of Bangalore has positioned itself to help market the software industry. This is also why Bangalore has been playing host to international-class conferences, workshops and exhibitions devoted to the software cause. In fact, the "Technopolis" of India will be holding one of the largest IT events this year for the fourth consecutive time -Bangalore IT.com 2001, Conference and Tradeshow.
Visitors can experience Bangalore's hi-tech climate. The city has the highest number of engineering colleges in the world, almost 50 percent of the world's SEI CMM Level 5 companies; COPC/ISO recognized Customer Interaction Centers, and over 103 R&D Institutions.
It is, in fact, home to GE's biggest R&D Center outside the U.S.-the Jack Welch Technology Center, which hires over 200 PhDs/scientists every month! To top it all, Bangalore has just been ranked the fourth best "Global hub of technological innovation" by none other than the United Nations. In the year 2001, Bangalore saw a cumulative investment of around US $1.3 billion in the software industry.
About 146 new software industries during 2001 and about 110 during 2002 have been established and the total number of software professionals is over 80,000. During 2002-03 about 116 new Software Technology Park Units were established
Bangalore is home to a significant number of SEI-CMM Level 5 companies. Worldwide there are 52 companies; in India there are 43 companies; and in Bangalore there are 20 companies with the SEI-CMM Level 5 status. The year 2000-01 saw a growth rate of 69.99% in software exports and the year 2001-02 experienced a growth rate of 33%. The year 2002-03 saw a growth rate of 25%.
In the last ten years the IT industry has grown from 5.6 crores to Rs. 12350 crores. The IT boom has succeeded in heralding India and specifically Bangalore into economic development in terms if rate of GDP.
Attrition is one of the greatest problems faced by this industry. Several companies are trying to address this issue in various ways. One such way is to gift employees. From our study we find that corporate gifts are usually given to motivate and recognize the efforts of employees. Gifts are given on festivals, for excellent performance (team and individual) and at annual award functions hosted by the organization. The gifting budget for the eight companies we interviewed is Rs. 2,192,606,625. The average annual spend per employee is Rs. 23000." |
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| Dr. Amalendu participates in a National Seminar |
Mar 30, 2007: Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi participates in a National Seminar on "Development, Civil Society, And Third Sector: The Emerging Perspectives" held at Mangalore University, Mangalagangotri, on March 27-28, 2007.
"He has also published a paper on the ‘Role of Third Sector in Development of Drought Prone Region: Insights from Kachchh, Gujarat'. The paper was co-authored by Dr. Deepika M.G.".
Following is an abstract of the paper:
Interaction between ‘ecological systems' and ‘livelihood systems' has generated debate among the social scientists as well as ecological and biological scientists, since long. In recent years, degeneration of the ecosystem has been a major concern worldwide. It is also known that such degeneration has severe implications on the poor and marginalized group of people who largely depend on these ecosystem services for their livelihood. However, in the interface of causality between ‘ecosystem functions' and ‘livelihood parameters', a large number of institutions governing both, need a deeper and meaningful understanding. In this context, the role of third sector assumes importance.
The multiple, geo-physical, socio-cultural and agro-economic diversities of Kachchh pose a complex mix of opportunities and challenges in determining a livelihood base for the people in Kachchh. The opportunities refer to a diverse resource base consisting of large land mass, mineral and long coast line besides an enterprising community and strong social capital built through generations of migratory links outside the region. Some of the major challenges facing the region, however, are frequent drought, severe scarcity of water along with increasing salinity; inappropriate management, aggravating the initial disadvantages with respect to natural resources; and physical remoteness.
Third sector assumed importance in Kachchh after the devastating earthquake that shook the entire Gujarat, Kachchh being the epicenter. NGOs, Civil society groups, religious institutions, community organizations played a very crucial role in the rehabilitation process. Keeping that momentum going, many NGOs shifted their focus to livelihood, education, health and basic infrastructure issues in Kachchh afterwards. Oxfam (GB) being one such funding agency, focused on livelihood issues with the help of various grass-root NGOs.
In this context, the present study attempts to identify the role of third sector in addressing some of the above-mentioned issues. Analysis of the study is based on a baseline survey of about 2600 households conducted in twenty-six villages of Kachchh district. Our finding suggests that the trade off between ecosystem requirements and livelihood requirements is very high. Therefore, any intervention by third sector needs to be sensitive where a higher premium is put on to livelihood issues. |
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| Sandeep Goni – A Winner all the way! |
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Mar 10, 2007: Hard work certainly pays. Sadeep Goni of Batch 11 has brought accolades to the school by bagging the first place in a national paper presentation held in Mumbai. His paper was based on his observational research as the Forum Mall in Bangalore. 10 top B-Schools all over India participated in the "Management Effectiveness Conclave 2007" held at S.P. Jain Institute for Management & Research in Mumbai. The presentations went on for the whole day with colleges like IIM-B, Amity School of Business, IIPM-Delhi, XIME Bangalore, etc.
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Sandeep feels indebted to Dr. Felicia N. Morgan of OHIO University, who had taught him Marketing in November, and who was the driving factor behind his accomplishment. Elated by Sandeep's accomplishment, Dr. Morgan said, "We, as OU faculty, go teach in India, and try to plant the seeds of ideas... and voila! - students such as Sandeep run with them! This encourages us to work in some other student accomplishments, as well."
Following are excerpts from an e-mail written by Sandeep Goni to the OHIO-Christ Academy after winning the prize:
"Dr. Felicia N. Morgan from OHIO University sowed the seed of the idea of ‘Forum Mall Observational Research' in my head during her visit to Bangalore in the month of November 2006, when she had come to teach us Marketing. The next step was to make a beginning, which later on was pitched in to the whole Batch 11 as an out-of-class research activity.
I started working on this research in the last week of November. Initially, I just observed the movement of visitors in and out of the Forum Mall from the two entries and prepared a report of 3 pages and also did a presentation in front of both the sections ‘A' and ‘B' as directed by Dr. Morgan. Dr. Morgan then wanted to extend the project and go in depth with some more aspects of observational research such as shadowing, etc.
I wanted to extend this research further, but didn't know how to proceed. Then finally with the guidance of Dr. Morgan on doing a customer survey as to "what kind of holdings or advertisements attract them the most in the mall", I decided to again start the research. I did a customer feedback survey considering a sample size of 200 customer per day for three days at the Forum Mall and analyzed the data and prepared the report.
In the month on January, I registered my name online for the paper presentation in S.P. Jain Institute for Management & Research but unfortunately, did not receive any mail from them for 1 month! Then, out of the blue, I got a reply from them stating that my paper had been selected for the national level conclave. I again extended the details adding on more information about the infrastructure of the mall, the total built up area, total number of shops inside the mall and categories of shops.
All this would not have been possible without the help from Dr. Morgan as well as Mr. Girish, who helped me by giving a letter from college to approach the Forum HR Manager to collect vital details about the mall. This helped me to get some important details from the HR team of Forum and include it in my report. It was a restless period of 6 weeks..."
We at OHIO-Christ hope that students like Sandeep will have many more hectic and fruitful weeks!
"My sincere thanks to Dr. Felicia Morgan. Without her support and constant encouragement, it wouldn't have been possible for me to achieve this milestone in my educational career. My dream is to get this paper published in some international journal and I once again ask Dr. Morgan and also the staff of our college to support me to make my dream come true", hopes Sandeep. |
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| Dr. Robert H.S. Sarikas “Zeke” – A favorite among students; both past and present |
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Mon, Feb 26, 2007: "There is no end to his energy levels, be it in the class or outside of it. I thought Accounting was a dry subject, until Dr. Sarikas started teaching", says Prateek Sharma, a student of Batch 11 at OHIO-Christ Academy.
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Dr. Robert Sarikas "Zeke" is in India for the seventh time to teach Accounting. Needless to say, he just loves India. His overseas teaching assignments also include China, England, Russia, and Vietnam. In India, he has taught as many as six graduating batches. He has also kept in touch with many alumni and holds them close to his heart. He even traveled all the way to Delhi to attend the wedding ceremony of an alumnus, and he also attended another wedding of an alumnus the following day in Bangalore! In an effort to rekindle his bond with the alumni, Dr. Sarikas is inviting alumni personally for a high tea on Saturday, March 3rd, 2007. "It will be an opportunity for me to meet my students again, and a good opportunity for the students to fell one with their Alma Mater", says Dr. Sarikas. "I am so looking forward to meet Dr. Zeke again", quips Rahul, an alumnus who is now with Technopak in Hyderabad.
When Dr. Sarikas is not teaching Accounting Analysis (MBAM 605) to Batch 11, he can be seen attending the Aero India Show, reading books on the Berlin Wall, trying out Indian cuisine (samosas, Chicken Tikka, Alu Jeera and spicy Pizzas being the prominent ones) and taking exercise walks. We wish him a happy reunion with the alumni!
Dr. Robert Sarikas "Zeke" is an Associate Professor of Accountancy at OHIO University. He did his PhD in Accountancy and Taxation in 1992 from University of Illinois. He is also MAS from University of Illinois and MPA from University of Texas. His research interests are in the fields of International Accounting, Taxation and Business. He is a Certified Public Accountant with experience as a tax professional working for Arthur Andersen & Co. in Houston, Texas and an oil and gas specialty accounting firm (Thomas Leger & Co.) in Houston, Texas. Dr. Sarikas was a visiting Professor at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Boise State University, the University of Texas and Loyola University of Chicago. His overseas teaching assignments include China, England, India, Russia, and Vietnam. Apart from that, he has had consulting assignments in financial accounting, management accounting, and taxation in Russia, the United States and Vietnam. He also served as an Air Force Officer in an ICBM unit of the Strategic Air Command.
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| Gearing up for Internships |
Feb 2007: The students of Batch 11 are all set for their Internship experience starting March 12th, 2007. The students would be doing a 2-week desk-research before that and that will follow the 6-week stint at a company, analyzing the structure and functions of their organizations.
Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi and Girish M. will be in-charge of the process. Already, the students have been placed for their Internships both internationally and in India, and the college has roped in companies and institutions like Videocon International, HDFC Bank, Management Next, DTZ International, Infosys, HCL Infinet, Travel Guru, MPA Financial Services, Mafoi, Trinethra Retail, The Byrraju Foundation, ISEC, 3M India Ltd., Indo Nissin Foods, Indiabulls and Tata AIG. |
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| Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi’s Paper gets published in EPW |
Feb 2007: Dr. Amalendu Jyotishi, Faculty of Economics and Finance and Asst. Director of Special Projects published his paper on ‘The TAWA Reservoir Fisheries Management: Experiences and Options' in the prestigious Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 42, No.5, February 03, 2007. The paper was co-authored by Prof. R. Parthasarathy.
Following is the abstract of the published paper:
In developing economies, open water inland fisheries not only plays an important role in the nutrition for the poor, but also provide livelihood for many people engaged in fisheries. Reservoir fisheries assume importance to understand the CPR nature of the resources and requires analytical framework to describe the management of them toward an equitable, efficient and sustainable end. A system, which delivers or ensures these, becomes a reliable response to the institutional requirements in CPR type of resources in general and reservoir fisheries in particular. In the case of reservoir fisheries we identify various types of institutional regimes. Each regime has its advantages and disadvantages in terms of allocation of rights, appropriation of the fish resource and distribution of income. In India, these institutions can be broadly framed into three categories, namely, state, private and cooperative managed regimes. TAWA reservoir in Madhya Pradesh is a classic case that underwent various management regimes in the last three decades; these include the fisheries department of the state, MPFDC (Madhya Pradesh Fisheries Development Corporation), private contractor and cooperatives. Therefore, the case of TAWA provides an ideal opportunity to comprehend the performance of these regimes and their implications on productivity (efficiency criterion), wages and employment (equity criteria) and fingerlings stocking and technology use (resource sustainability criteria) across different regimes. Further, the paper details the management practices under the TAWA Matsya Sangh (TMS) and emphasizes that management practices should be integrated with the understanding of resource base. |
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| Copyright 2008 OHIO University - Christ College Academy for Management Education. All rights reserved. |
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