IIM Indore GDPI Experience

Friday the 13^th Feb, A friend (Maroo for those who know him) told me that it is a unlucky combination. The group discussion and Interview was scheduled for 8:30 in the morning.

Slept at 1:30 in night and got up at 6:30.I was feeling a little sleepy the whole time.

Around 20 people were scheduled for the morning period. People divided in two groups of 10 people each. We were taken into a room where there was a rectangular table and we were allotted the seats.

We were handed over the case study with an extra sheet to note down few points that we want to. We were supposed to read the case for 30 minutes and write our analysis on the form that we were going to submit.

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The case was something like this: (This is complete from my memory so I am not sure if I missed something or by mistake added something. I have tried my level best to put here whatever I had read)

Ramcharan was looking into the problems that he was facing. He was reading the resignation letter of Sarah. She was the forth experienced worker who was leaving the job.

His father and his uncle Radheshyam were the ‘Karta’ of the joint family. Ramcharan, Ramdev (not too sure about this name ), Leeladhar were siblings and Radheshyam had just one daughter Radha. They had a big ancestral home and 20 acres of cultivable land on the banks of a small river. Radheshyam was a teacher and traded in agro based products like wheat.

Ramcharan was a fresh graduate from college when Radheshayam had suggested him to go for a career in IT but Ramcharan wanted to start him own cashew processing unit. So without any prior experience in the corporate world he started his own business. He required experienced people and so he hired them at high pay and also arranged for their families to be moved. He started with two varieties of cashew (medium and high end). For the first two years he was able to make good profit and so he was able to procure bank loans to buy new machines. He was thinking of expanding the unit to a cold storage and mango-jelly processing unit.

Recently due to high produce of cashew all types of processed cashew’s value reduced by 20%. The price fell to a level where he was having difficulty in meeting his expenses as well. So he had to cut down on the routine maintenance of the machines. Moreover not-so-reliable supply of electricity from the electricity board was also resulting in loss of productivity. For this the consultants advised to use generators for electricity. There were some high-end Technicians in the company and they were also asking for a raise in pay.

His brother Ramdev had completed his MCA and was getting an admission in one of the top 20 universities in US. He expected the joint family to take care of his educational expenses. Radheshyam was thinking of marrying Radha to an IT consultant who belonged to the same place and was doing well. Also from last two years Radheshyam was not making any profits in his business. At this time he thought that the prices of wheat have reached an all time low and it is the time to invest in wheat and store stocks of wheat.

In her exit interview Sarah told Ramcharan that her son was doing well as an IT engineer and he did not want Sarah to work here anymore. This echoed the same thing even other workers who left the job had said. What should Ramcharan do?

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After the GD we were sent out and then people were called at random. I was the 7-8 one to be called. The interviews were generally short (not more than 15 minutes and an average of 10-12 minutes).

All the people who came out of the interview were pretty relaxed. The two moderators were the interview panel members (P1, P2).

Really cool people. They welcomed me inside and asked me to sit. Then they were going from my form.

They asked me for my certificates and I was taking out my marksheets when P2 asked me for my whole file.

P1: Tell me something about yourself

Me: Told them that I grew up in Calcutta. Balance between academics and extracurricular, Moral Integrity, Grand parents told stories from ramayan and mahabharat. Openness to learn whenever given an opportunity. College activities etc.

P1: What do you think was the main problem in the Satyam fiasco? Integrity or Laws?

Me: Told both. Integrity was obviously not there because of which laws were manipulated. Told them how the shares were mortgaged and then sold by those people. Mr Ramalingaraju used this statement by saying that he and his family did not sell any shares.

P1: What is meaning of google?

Me: No idea sir!

P1: Take a guess:

Me: I would say go-ogle that is to go and look or search something.

At this both of them started smiling and looking at each other.

P1: What is Core-2 duo technology? Why do we use it?

Me: Told about more than one processor to parallelize jobs.

P1: other than speed?

Me: Heat dissipation

P1: Who is chairman of Microsoft?

Me: Previously it was Bill gates now Ballmer.

P1: Why was he in news 2-3 months back?

I looked doubtful so he said that in regard to yahoo.

Me: Oh! That was quite some time back. Microsoft had given a bid to buy Yahoo and Yahoo didn’t reply back for a long time and then Microsoft had taken back its offer.

P1: Why do you think the deal did not convert?

Me: Yahoo was looking at other business options and also in talks with other companies like Google.

P1 to P2: you have questions

P2: You said you have interest in messages from Mahabharat. What messages did you learn.

Me: Quoted a ‘shlok’ and told about learnings.

P2: Who said this shlok?

Me: Shri Krishna

P1: You write poems also, say something you wrote recently!

Me: Recited a poem that I wrote sometime back.

P1: Do you blog also?

Me: Told him that sometimes and that I had posted a Ghazal that I wrote on the blog recently.

P1: (Laughed) You write ghazals also? Can you sing?

Me: Tried my hands a little on that too. Cannot sing at all !!

(they were both smiling )

P1: Who among the contemporary you like the most among ghazal singers?

Me: Recently started reading ghazals and all and liked Faiz Ahmed Faiz a lot. In fact he was the inspiration for my ghazal writing.

P1: What about Firaq Gorukhpuri?

Me: I am not good a judge. Did not read all that much.

P1: Do you have good knowledge of Urdu?

Me: Not much sir, in fact had a lot of problem which reading the ghazals initially but then understood while reading.

P1: Any Indian player of TT ?

Me: Don’t know of any Indian player but told the top player of the world. Don’t follow TT as a sport just play for fun.

P1: Which country is he from?

Me: China.

Both the interviewer exchanged looks and asked anything else to each other and then said ok you can go.

Me: Thank you sir!!

Came out and was talking to the people outside. Then I came to know of my biggest blunder.

I had not written my Name in the form that I had submitted and P2 came running after to ask me to write that. This was really embarrassing. !!

But on the whole it was a good experience . The Profs were really nice and kind.

Let’s see what happens next!!