Good Morning.
While writing this article, I am enjoying weather and hospitality of Bhubaneswar.
You may find few of my posts and articles sarcastic as I am a strong protester of the sect of who believe that only MBA and only tier 1 MBA school can produce good professionals. What worries me most is, most of the B school and students are of herd mentality and they are not producing the young professional required for business beyond excel sheets and presentations.
I have been very sceptical about private universities in India and their racket of money minting through various degrees and malpractices. You may go through few of my articles in the past.
When Ashish Gakrey (founder, HR Shapers) introduced me to KISS and KIIT last year, it opened a new world for me- that there is an institute who truly work in the field of education and provide free education to almost 25000 tribal children from primary to doctoral level. Please read following article for more details
This year, I have been invited to mentor 10 MBA students (from second year) of Kalinga School Of Management (KSOM) and I could not refuse. I would have regretted if I would have missed this opportunity of collaborative and mutual learning.
How it started?
Almost 16 HR professionals from Mumbai, Pune and Kolkata were invited to mentor students. Each mentor were assigned 10-12 students of MBA 2nd year of different specialisation. First, the mentors were briefed about overall process of extensive 2 days programme. They were assigned their respective teams and it started with Group Discussion followed by mock PI.
Institute's role
There was no canvassing and there was no sweet talk. The Director as well as Sanjay Muthal (who was responsible for driving the whole process along with Mr. Aniruddha Khekale, Group Director, Human Resource, India, Emerson) were very clear. Go ruthless on students, show no mercy and tell us where they are lacking. How many B schools open themselves like this in front of the corporate to tell what their B school is, where is the gap? The intention was to fill the gap and not to canvas it.
The process
Each mentor spent 2 days in Group Discussion and Personal Interview of the students. They analysed the gap and in the closing meeting briefed the students the students with overall/individual Development Plans.
What was the outcome?
The overall student quality is as at par with the many B schools who are graded above than KIIT SOM and all the mentors were happy. Overall result was almost same and all the mentors along with a faculty mentor from the institute assigned the task to fill the gap.
What about students
Students were amazing. I had a group of 10 students from marketing, finance, operation and HR. If given opportunity, I could immediately hire 2 of them. They were very good in terms of communication, presentation, knowledge, their leadership, team handling ability (judged through personal interview, GD and DISC). They were open for feedback. They were not arguing at all. We (the faculty mentor and I) planned IDP (Individual Development Plan) for them. Amazingly, few students added additional task based on the feedback given and that was really surprising. They are in the second year, already burdened with their work, yet, ready to go extra miles to fill the gap. I am sure any HR friend reading this blog will not regret if they hire from KIIT campus. One of the students, Sudeepta surprised me in many ways. Before the first meeting, she scanned my LinkedIn profile and asked several intelligent question including my different activities, initial career change and so one. That was really surprising. I had never been asked such a quality question, not even in Mumbai. Talent is everywhere. You need to identify.
What about the faculty?
Faculty were not defensive at all. To be very frank, without their support and open for criticism, the KonfidanT 2016 would not have been possible. Each professor was assigned to one industry mentors and these great gurus are: Prof. Braja Ballav Kar, Prof. Satya Narayan Mishra,Prof. Manvinder Singh, Prof. Buddhaditya Padhi, Prof. Jitendra Mohanty, Prof. Biswajit Pattnaik, Prof. Joydeep Biswas, Prof. Sradha Padhi, Prof. Manoj Kumar Jena, Prof. Abhishek Kumar, Prof. Subhra Patnaik , Prof. Arun Patra, Prof. Indirah Indibara, Prof. Arvind Tripathy, Prof. C. V. Kamesh, Prof. Bandana Dash, Prof. Jogendra Behera, Prof. Sumita Mishra, Prof. Saroj Routray, Prof. Surya Narayan mishra, Prof. Suva Kanta Mohanty, Prof. Joydeep Biswas, Prof. Ipsita Nayak, Prof. Ashok Kumar Sar and Prof. Sugato Tripathy. My co mentor was Professor Arvind Tripathy. He was such a great help. Wherever I was exceeding allotted time while interviewing, he managed to help me. Wherever I was not able to clear my expectation with students, he came to my rescue. All the professors are from diverse backgrounds, from institutes like IIM and XLRI and most importantly, they come with corporate experiences. They are passionate, they are visionaries and they are leaders.
What is next?
All the students have their individual development plan for next year and I am sure, in the next year most of them will be ready enough to get their dream job. KSOM has seen rough patches and good time with ever increasing placement and its reputation. I am sure this will emerge as a leader in business school not only in east India, but also at a national level.
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and here is Mr. SanjayMuthal who took the charge and is responsible for bringing all of us together. An excellent orator and a person with passion and commitment.
Should you participate in this mentorship programme - KonfidanT?
Every HR should participate in this kind of programmes due to various reason. or alternatively (Here are few reasons why no HR professional should miss the chance of being part of such kind of programmes) As an HR, we barely know the candidate beyond the CV. What we know is, through the resume and performance during the interview. That can be faked up easily. As a mentor, when you spend time with these beautiful minds you actually get to know about their strengths and weakness. You know their true quality and value. You can mould them, you can shape them and you can hire a right candidate and can bring right people to your organisation.
Most of all I count on the satisfaction of sculpting the clay & make a beautiful idol out of it.
If you are interested to participate, please write to Rajan at kiitcr.dj@kiit.ac.in or Professor Manoj at manoj@ksom.ac.in
Here is some of the memorable pic:
We, the mentors with super mentor Dr. Achyuta Samanta founder of KIIT University and KISS. It was a privilege to be with him.
Professor Arvind Tripathy and I with my fabulous team, my mentees Abhishek, Answesha, Jyotirmoy, Sudipta, Dilip, Aleeva, Saswat, Sumit, Suraj and Sonalika Mohanty.
Aniruddha Khekale, Group Director HR- India, Emerson with his team of mentee. (I am also his mentee, but missing from the picture :) ) They are lucky to have him as a mentor.
and here is SanjayMuthal who took the charge and responsible for bringing all of us together. An excellent orator and a person with passion and commitment.
Should you participate in this mentorship programme - KonfidanT?
Every HR should participate in this prograame due to various reason. As an HR, we barely know the candidate. What we know is, through the resume and performance during the interview. That can be faked up easily. As a mentor, when you spend time with these beautiful mind, you actually know their strength and weakness. you know their true quality and value. You can mould them, you can shape them and you can hire a right candidate and can bring right people to your organisation. If you are interested to participate, please write to Rajan at kiitcr.dj@kiit.ac.in or Professor Manoj at manoj@ksom.ac.in
Govind
Bhubaneswar
July 25, 2016