10 Years of IIMB

Somehow, unknown to me, a life event passed by, silently, without much fanfare I associate with such dates. Sometime back it was the 10^th anniversary of a fresh graduate stepping into the strange world of management education. The call was to study for two more years. The call was also to postpone the inevitable employment for two more years. But what IIMB did to me was more than just that.

Don Bosco and Calcutta had given me my moral fibre and the very foundation of who I am - with my idiosyncrasies, my mannerisms, my accent and maybe even my ideologies. BITS Pilani took all of that, took me as a person and threw me into a cultural cauldron, something I had never witnessed before. I embraced it and before I knew it, it made me ready for the world outside.

But IIMB? IIMB was different. IIMB made me find my love. And like all true love, it did not come easy. I spent a year searching for what made me happy, till one day, while attending a lecture I knew I had found it. I really believe in the “Conspiracy of Universe” Theory and therefore what happened in the second year at IIMB would not be any less exciting than a fairy tale. While Year 1 was about surviving with the help of phone calls from Pilani and Bangalore, year 2 was all about taking the devil by its horns and facing it.

And the only thing I took away from college? Never stop learning. It sounds grandiose but it’s true. The biggest bane of anyone in the marketing industry is the curse of the “know-it-all”. I call it at times the “been there done that” syndrome. It essentially attacks as you grow older, when you believe that you have seen it all! The tragedy is that situations repeat and yet they are never the same. It’s critical therefore to ensure that you know your basics and never forget them.

If I have been invited to a college to speak, I cringe when I hear wrong definitions of basic marketing terms. I feign ignorance when asked to decide between two decidedly wrong theories. I apparently fainted when evaluating case studies recently submitted in a competition. But then they are still better than the consultant friend who calls whenever he has a client with a marketing challenge. “Dude. Still selling soap? Ha Ha Ha. Listen have a marketing query. I am recommending XYZ. Should I call it a line extension or a brand extension? You marketing guys. Love to make things complicated. Ha ha ha”

Whenever caught in any of these situations, the only things that keep running in my mind is either “Schiffman Kanuk, Schiffman Kanuk”, or “Kumar Kumar Kumar”. It’s like performing an exorcism on myself to defend against the demons of incomplete knowledge. And then I go home and read a bit.

You may call me weird but I have often found a hard bound copy of Aaker to be more therapeutic than banging my head against my desk.

Anyway, you might have got the gist. I love my job. I love creating stories. I get angry when someone makes better stories than me. And then I applaud and get down to work even harder. That’s what IIMB gave me. I think often people in my situation get the creation bug. And they become entrepreneurs. In the last 8 years or so, I have created three stories. While the credit for that is not just IIMB but my organization (SNDU in case you have forgotten – Sabun, Nakhun and Datun Unlimited) too, the genesis has to be IIMB.

2017 would be my 10^th employment anniversary and also the 10^th anniversary of the Class of 2007. It would be a good time to pause and reflect. Today I can just be thankful for the opportunity.

“Schiffman, Kanuk, Kumar. Om Shantih Shantih Shantih”

An Anniversary

Around three months back there was an anniversary of sorts. Now those of you who know me, I have no capability of remembering any dates. I don’t remember birthdays or anniversaries of friends or family. Not that I am proud of it, it’s just that I don’t remember. Now some people have issues with numbers, some with faces, I have the same with dates. The last dates I remembered were of course the history dates you had to remember for ICSE. I remember deadlines and have nightmares about them but thankfully I don’t have yearly repeated deadlines, at least not yet. :)

Anyway, a friend suddenly reminded me today that I had completed a year of working as a professional three months back. Well, he was surprised and so was I. Imagine surviving all those doomsday predictions and actually going through one whole year. I guess I love what I do to get the bread on the table. And that has been the only trick so far. In loving my work I guess I have been luckier than most. I just hope it remains the same. I have met some amazing people, have worked with a variety of bosses and have had a roller coaster of a time. It’s not that I do not have my frustrations. The bigger an organization gets the higher levels of bureaucracy comes in. Escalation becomes the key to getting any job done. There are processes and formats to follow. A manufacturer in some shady workshop churns out products at half your cost as your legal requirements ensure that consumer safety is not compromised.

The nightmarish case studies about organizational behaviour comes alive almost everyday. I guess it’s in human nature to pass the buck. In an interesting example in The Tipping Point, Gladwell had described that we are much more prone to help others if we know we are the only ones who can help. If there are more than one of us, we tend to pass the buck, hoping someone else will take the responsibility. The pattern changes if you are the boss though. Then the fight happens as to who can be the fastest in getting the information on the table. And then there’s the ‘cc’ culture. You begin to ‘cc’ everyone on the mail, starting from the sales team to the scientist in the R&D lab, from an insignificant cog like me to the CEO of the organization. It’s so irritating. And finally there’s the ‘why’ gang. If I ever become a professor, I will fail anyone who does not ask ‘why’ in my class. But thank God, I am a docile creation of his. If I had an anger quotient even 10% of Dharam Paji or Sunny Paji, I would have been in dire trouble for sitting on people who ask ‘why’ as the first attempt at sliming out of a request. It’s not that I am against why. I ask why every 2 minutes. It’s just that I don’t ask why when people ask me to pass on a napkin at the lunch table.

If you have been reading my blog, you’d have perhaps noticed that I never mention what I do for a living except for passing references. This blog is a universe away from my day to day work and I intend to keep it that way. Every day my life is full of excel sheets, presentations, videos of consumer interviews and such ‘uninteresting’ stuff. Now even in my spare time, I have to write about the same issues, the remaining sanity in my head will bid adieu. But since this is an anniversary post, I must say something. Well, in very unromantic terms I am a salesman. I sell everything from soaps to soups. Now how does it matter if I work for SNDU (Sabun, Nakhun and Datun Unlimited) or for some better known FMCG or Consumer Durables Firm? However, if I were to write a romantic ballad on my work, I would perhaps say my entire work is dedicated to understanding one person – you.

I guess I stand somewhere between the two extremes.

One year back when I had made this decision to join the firm I am with presently, I was amongst the minority in my business school in terms of my choice of career. But then, egged on by friends who stood by me, making the right decisions of following one’s heart never seemed difficult. Well, it wasn’t a cakewalk either and it felt bad when friends ended up on the opposite side of the fencing match. To be frank, few of us who were closest to each other are most relieved even after one year that we are not experiencing a face off in the market, at least for now. And if one day, I have to fight some of my best friends in the market, I know we will all do it and fight tooth and nail, but fight like honourable men and women. Yeah, I am proud of the batch I graduated with. The Marketing fanatics of IIMB 2007 have been one of the best lots of people I have ever met in my life.

Last one year has taken away a lot of things. I do not speak as often to people who matter to me. I do not seem to find time to just sit and do nothing. On a Sunday like today, I’d rather wake up late than go cold calling to people’s homes. My once enviable music collection has now stagnated with a year old expiry date. I miss the intellectual, theoretical debates late into the night in Athicas which often turned theatrical if you were too sleepy. I miss staying in a house or at least a hostel. Sometimes guest houses and hotels seem to be upsetting. (In a completely unconnected aside, my latest caretaker was the caretaker in the house of my ex-CEO. Though he is a thorough professional, I am sure he considers it a demotion to come to our guest house.)

Somewhere down the line, I realized that I was living weekend to weekend. But then soon I understood that you are what you make yourself to be. It was a conscious decision to never touch the internet on weekends after I left Bihar. And I have tried to stay true to that. Monday mornings are a nightmare but then you gain some you lose some. For example, instead of going and listening to Ranbindrasangeet today morning in Mumbai (which I missed due to miscommunication), I celebrated this post working on a presentation, watching India win and to top it all of, finally watch Prabhuji’s son debut in Bollywood as Jimmy.

And so come inflation or not continue to buy soaps and soups and I might just be able to survive for another year. Thinking beyond that is too long term :)

But I'm sad to say, I'm on my way
Won't be back for many a day
My heart is down, my head is turning around
I had to leave a little girl in Kingston town

Pretty much the mood now. I have always loved the haunting chorus of Jamaica Farewell.

Almost 3:00 am in the morning. Sitting now at the CC with most of my tasks done. Wish I had this song playing by me right now.

All my bags are packed
Im ready to go
Im standin here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breakin
Its early morn
The taxis waitin
Hes blowin his horn
Already Im so lonesome
I could die

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Theres so many times Ive let you down
So many times Ive played around
I tell you now, they dont mean a thing
Evry place I go, Ill think of you
Evry song I sing, Ill sing for you
When I come back, Ill bring your wedding ring

So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

Now the time has come to leave you
One more time
Let me kiss you
Then close your eyes
Ill be on my way
Dream about the days to come
When I wont have to leave alone
About the times, I wont have to say

Oh, kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that youll wait for me
Hold me like youll never let me go
cause Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

But, Im leavin on a jet plane
Dont know when Ill be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

32nd Annual Convocation - IIM Bangalore

Post Graduate Diploma in Management... And that's about it. The last L^2 as a student of this institute is underway. I still remember my first L^2 vividly. And the change I've undergone in the time that passed between them have been unbelievable.

Perhaps I shall write more later. For now...

The end of a road is just the signal for a new beginning. Don't cry because it's over. Smile, because it happened.