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JA India Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 1 |
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| EMPLOYABILITY | Why is this never a problem with doctors? |
February 2009 |
Greetings!
Hi I am Anusha (an IITian), I was among the top of my class in Metallurgy and have actually completed an award winning project on using Simulation techniques to understand grain creation under various conditions. After my engineering, I joined Infosys and in the last 2 years have developed a Timesheet software.
Hi, I am Nitin, my research paper in the final year on Fast construction Technologies was published in leading trade magazine. I joined TCS from campus and now am managing the project on automation of claims processing for a large insurance company.
I have just illustrated two examples, but this was what I had to contend  with, as good candidate after good candidate came in to my interview panel to get an entry into an MBA programme at one of the better known institutes in the country; each of them very good in their own branch of Engineering, but moving towards the IT industry. Throughout the interview period, I was reminded of the song Video killed the Radio star by The Buggles, which laments the demise of a lot of talent required for live performances, the lack of appreciation of this talent, the drastic change in the lives of the people, all due to the technological innovation of the Video. Now, I do understand that a lot were replaced by the video and it was not all bad; sitting in 2009, I can still enjoy a live concert of Alla Rakha.
But the invasion of IT industry is different. At least in case of the Buggles number, there is cause to accept that change is inevitable as the old would replace the new and while it killed a few things it also enhanced a lot more. The trend of students choosing IT over all other industries is, however, different and not to be confused with a fundamental argument of upgradation towards betterment. It is actually betterment of the IT industry (and this is debatable, but that is a subject for a column in itself) at the expense of the other industries.
I spotted this trend way back in 1995 when I chose to join an electrical major over an IT major much to the surprise of a lot of my friends and family, a decision that I cherish to this day. But the trend, I now realize, has had a devastating impact on both the neglected industries as also the individual students themselves.
It is not that working in an IT company is wrong, IT is a lot of fun; but what is disconcerting is the reasoning given by students for taking the decision in favour of the IT sector over their current vocation; a reasoning that is often times erroneous and based on limited knowledge. The reasons (and some are valid at the start of a career) vary from compensation to working in an "office" to cutting edge technology to travel overseas to work atmosphere (it is amazing how much the basketball court of a leading IT major got mentioned in the interview ) to the IT companies coming much before the others. So are the students to blame? Yes, but partly.
The problem with the "Video Killed Radio Star" is that it fundamentally accuses the New Entrant of killing the Incumbent Player but totally condones the Incumbent in its lack of ability to reinvent and remain relevant. So I don't begrudge the IT industry for their ability to create a positive position in the minds of their customers (accomplished students), in fact, I think they have done a phenomenal job of understanding what drives these students in their choice set and have actively created and communicated those positive aspects while striking the right balance between what is appreciated and what makes business sense.
Most of the other industries (Incumbents) have done very little by way of educating the students on what it is to work in their industry and what is different about their organisation and how it fits in with the requirements of the customer (students). They have not been as effective in communicating aspects of their organisation such as the work culture, the content of work, the style of functioning, the career path and the nature of rewards; important information that most Incumbents fail to give resulting in their inability to dispel irrational fears and erroneous assumptions that cloud the judgement of their customers (students). The Incumbents have not been innovative in creating the linkages with the students and capturing their imagination, even in times when the external conditions are in their favour.
The Incumbents have to show that they exist, are relevant and perhaps more attractive. Customers (students) will always make the choice based on perception and their limited knowledge; it is upon the Supplier (Incumbents) to create a position in the mind space of their customers.
The other side of the tale ...
Madhavi is an Electrical and Electronics Engineer from a leading engineering college. As she had no experience we had to go back to discussing her favourite subject, Electrical Machines. What followed was complete mayhem with Madhavi starting to tell us what a DC Motor was to midway realizing that she was actually talking about a transformer, and then confusing a DC with AC and many more goof ups... well you get the picture.
Had the above been an outlier it wouldn't be worth mentioning, and yes, to some extent this IS an outlier, given the sheer magnitude of the goof ups. But what is worth mentioning is the sheer number of candidates who didn't know the basics of what they had learnt in their 4 years of graduation. It was an indication of the lack of interest on the part of the students as also their lack of ability to connect the subject matter to the real life.
The key point here is that this situation could've been avoided had the students got more exposure and had they thought of their interests upfront. It seemed that a lot more could've been achieved had their minds been energized in areas that interested them.
I am happy to present the first issue in Voume 2 series of JA India's newsletters. I would like to specifically draw your attention to THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE -- JA India's new platform for connecting students, educators and industry professionals. Commnecing with this issue, we have included a new column PERSPECTIVES. Perspectives would bring to you past, current and forward looking thoughts/views on education and related topics. We welcome and encourage you to share your views with many more students, educators and industry professionals through THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE, PERSPECTIVES and TURF TALK.
Ramesh Krishnamurthy
Region Head (West), JA India |
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Our Sponsors
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Founders Board
Updates
Ganesh Ayyar, CEO, MphasiS an EDS Company, joins JA India Founders Board. 
About Ganesh
Ganesh joined HP in 1989 and has held several roles across its diverse business groups across geographies. In 1999, Ganesh was appointed the president of HP India and was instrumental in strengthening HP's position in India. From 2004 to 2008, Ganesh was vice president of outsourcing services business unit for Asia-Pacific and Japan. |
 JA Volunteering
ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil employees commenced volunteering for JA India classrooms  with their first calssroom sessions for Class IX students of RTI Vidyapeeth, Bajghera, Gurgaon.
RTI Vidyapeeth is supported by the Literacy India Mission.
Prior to conducting the classroom sessions, ExxonMobil employees  attended detailed debrief sessions and training/orientation sessions. Paul Kleijnen, CEO, ExxonMobil India and member of JA India Founders Board was personally present for the employee debrief sessions.
Mr Subhas Guha and Mr Sameer Kumar commenced classroom volunteering. |
 JA Volunteering
Cognizant
Cognizant in Chennai continues to be a strong volunteering support for JA programs. Taking this partnership to the next level, Cognizant (actively supported by Mr. Mathivanan Elangovan) is helping expand JA India programs to Madurai. JA India would like to thank Mr. Balakrishnan Shanmugham (Global Workforce Management Team, Cognizant), Mr. Mathivanan Elangovan and the entire Cognizant Chennai volunteering team for their support in helping students benefit through the classroom programs. |
Joining forces | Partnering for better impact
Working together with non-profits
One of the founding principles of JA India is to create capability by giving preference to partnerships and avoid re-inventing the wheel. We are happy to be working with passionate individuals who have been reaching underserved students through their respective non-profit institutions.
In Bangalore, JA India's More than Money program now reaches students of DREAM SCHOOL FOUNDATION. In Delhi, JA India programs could reach RTI Vidyapeeth with the support of Capt. Indraani Singh and Mr. Joy Jain.
We hope to be working with several more partner non-profits in the near future. We believe partnerships equally enable us and welcome every such opportunity. |
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 Program Partnerships
Update | HSBC Global Signature Program | JA More than Money
The initiative is part of a larger three-year, $3.4 million partnership between HSBC Holdings plc and JA WorldwideŽ to teach basic financial skills to
school children. JA More than Money was put through initial trials in Mumbai (~50 students | Grade VII) and Chennai (30 students | Grade V). The program was received well by educators, students and volunteers. Since the pilot, the program has been expanded to few more schools in Mumbai (~200 students) and Chennai (~60 students). A pilot program was conducted in Bangalore (for ~100 students). The program concept has found interest from other non-profits engaged in skill development for women from underserved communities.
HSBC Volunteers conducting JA More than Money program at Sri Sayee Vivekananda Vidyalaya Matriculation School, Chennai
If you know of any school, educator or a non-profit who might be looking for a similar program, please do connect them to us.
About JA More than Money program
The program aims to teach students from Grades V through VII about earning, spending, sharing and saving money. Students are encouraged to use innovative thinking to learn money-management skills that support positive attitudes as they explore and enhance their career aspirations. Students also develop a better understanding of the relationship between what they learn at school and their successful participation in the economy. |
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Student Industry Interaction | KPMG Visit
Vivek High School (Chandigarh) students visit KPMG Gurgaon
In our Dec 2008 issue, we talked about InsPIRATED Inc. Setup, managed and operated by class XI students, this company is now busy closing the books for their current year operations. Click link to know more about InsPIRATED. These students who were running their own 'real' company, were keen to understand what commerce professionals do in 'the real' companies. KPMG hosted 26 students of Vivek High School for day long insight into the working world. Read more about what the students felt about their KPMG experience.
Our trip to KPMG...
The name Vivek has now become synonymous with compassion caring  and service. True to the spirit of our school, on 23rd January 2009, the students of class XI; those belonging to the Company Programme visited KPMG, the reputed, highly renowned and one of the top four Auditing firms in the world. We arrived at KPMG in the morning all geared up to assimilate as much
knowledge as possible. To our delight, the staff had organised a day filled with interactive and informative sessions. Miss Priyanka Sahai, Assistant Manager at KPMG, escorted everyone to the video-conferencing room and told us about the history of KPMG.
Mr. Ravi took on by giving a lecture about tax. We were surprised at how  little we knew about this essential expense. Auditing was something we were all curious about. Adhir and Mansi did justice to our curiosity when they introduced us to the world of auditing. It was interesting to find out that auditing is one of the few departments that barely gets affected by the ongoing recession. One of the most interesting parts of the day was the mock interview conducted by Mr. Rory, Mr. Hemu and Miss Mansi. Kunwarbir Singh, V.P Finance of InsPIRATED was kind enough to volunteer. We were given tips like how your first walk into the room can decide the course of your interview. We learnt how to conduct ourselves and how we must respond towards our surrounding environment, during the interview.
Our knowledge was further enhanced with the lecture on Corporate Etiquettes. We were given information on how to handle ourselves when confronted with situations like, surprise interview calls, leaving messages on voice mail, sending business emails etc. Corporate Citizenship was a field we were completely alien to; Mr. Rory Wilson gently guided us into this world, explaining that business should not only concentrate on profit but also should give back to the society. Well, they never said earning goodwill was easy! The last, but definitely not the least was the greatest interactive session we ever heard, most efficiently delivered by Mr. Ashish and Mr. Hemu about financial services. It was interactive and we learned through application of self. To test whether our visit had been a fruitful one, we were given a task to perform; a case study of our company. We are proud to say that we delivered and left them impressed.
Mr. Rupendra Singh, Non-executive Chairman, KPMG addressing students during their visit to KPMG's Gurgaon office.
All in all, it was the most enlightening experience for us students, as well as teachers. The KPMG staff was extremely accommodating, friendly and down to earth. And lastly, for people who said that learning couldn't be fun, can just rethink!
Harsimar Singh and Aarushi Ahluwalia
Class XI (Vivek High School, Chandigarh) |
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JA India Lecture Series
A more convenient and compact platform to meaningfully connect Industry and graduating students
JA programs have been appreciated by students, educators and industry professionals. While substantial program focus across several JA member countries is towards K-12 space, JA India developed the JA Inside Industry program for graduating students from non-technical streams. The program certainly makes it easy for the volunteers to structure and communicate their messages to the students. Yet the real differentiator is the professional work experience that volunteers bring to the classroom. Relating to graduating studens raises the bar on volunteer ability which in turn narrows the options for selecting volunteers. More often than not, it is difficult to mobilize the requisite number of able volunteers (for a full 12-14 hour program) as they usually are senior and hard pressed for time.
'NO' is not an answer at JA India. If something does not work, it only means a different solution needs to be found and IMPLEMENTED. JA India lecture series is one such platform created to enable direct interaction between senior industry professionals and graduating students. The choice of topics are mutually agreed between the speakers and students. These are standalone lectures and typically of 2 hours duration each. We commenced this initiative, as a pilot, in Bangalore. The experience has been good and we would strive to scale up. We would also expand this initiative into Chennai now and into New Delhi next.
With THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE (see last block on this newsletter) going live, this platform's BLOGs and FORUMs are expected to offer two more platforms for direct and continuous interaction between students and industry professionals. |
Student Workshops
JACareers with a Purpose single day student workshop
Experimenting with alternate program delivery formats is a continuous initiative at JA India. This time it was testing the JA Careers with a Purpose program in a single day format with a mixed (from multiple schools) batch of students.
Bob Chapman, Managing Partner, Deloitte U.S. in India and member of JA India Founders Board interacting with students at the workshop
 Class XI students from Oakridge, Bhavans and Swaminarayana Gurukul participated in a day long workshop conducted at Deloitte's Hyderabad Campus. The workshop was anchored by Venkat Matoory (JA India) and Sita R (Deloitte); supported by Deloitte volunteers.
Barry Salzberg (CEO, Deloitte LLP) and Bob Chapman (Managing Partner, Deloitte U.S. in India and member of JA India Founders Board) also joined the workshop and engaged the students on specific program concepts and general discussions for 45 minutes.
Barry Salzberg, CEO, Deloitte LLP interacting with the students at the workshop |
Perspectives
J Krishnamurti on EDUCATION
Article extract: 'Krishnamurti felt each person needs to explore and reveal themselves to themselves rather than be shaped into something by others. The function of education, then, is to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody...
...Each person also has a unique vocation that needs to be discovered; what he/she really loves to do has to be found and pursued...The discovery of the natural vocation for an individual student and the student's understanding what he really loves to do may not fit into the plans of the parents or society, but it is an important part of understanding oneself and, consequently, of education.
Modern education does very little towards helping us to find our individual  vocation. To find out what you really love to do is one of the most difficult things. That is part of education. Right education is to help you to find out for yourself what you really, with all your heart, love to do. It does not matter what it is, whether it is to cook, or to be a gardener.... 'Detailed article available at this LINK |
Turf Talk
The Employability of DOCTORS in India by Venkat Matoory
'The private sector cannot sort out the skill crisis alone. We should not attempt to substitute for the state but complement it...'
'Individuals have multiple intelligences; students should be encouraged to discover their own potential rather than mindlessly competing in a straight jacketed way. There is an over reliance on developing analytical skills...'
'India's relatively inflexible and time consuming educational system has not changed since it was designed to provide civil servants for a colonial power. Our institutions are misaligned with demand.'
'Most mechanical engineers can't recognize a turbine!'
Incase the headline of this newsletter intrigued you enough to search for the detail to it, then you have finally reached the right place! Sorry for making you navigate right to the end. You would have developed your view on our marketing acument by now? You would have also concluded that we are taking of Employability.
Wondering who made these statements? Are the less obvious comments about Doctors? These are statements made by leading industry professionals; NOT about Doctors but about every profession other than that of doctors. Indian industry is concerned (perhaps a bit less now in recession time) about unemployed graduates and the dysfunctional literates. There is concern about the lack of entrepreneurial attitude in our young gradautes, their aversion to risk, that they know 'what to do' but do not know 'how to do', that they lack exposure to visualize the broad picture and too restricted to the details. This concern further extends to the quality of teaching staff and the absence of serious interaction between industry and campus.
Of late I have been meeting Doctors (not necessarily for pleasant reasons) and several observations caught my attention. The best way I could communicate these to you are through a series of questions:
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Why do we never hear about unemployable doctors?
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Irrespective of which grade of college they come from, why do doctors always know how to treat which patient for what ailment? Every doctor may not be the best at the job but they know 'what' as well as 'how' to do.
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The doctor as an 'individual' is ambitious and has aspirations yet what makes them fully realize that the only way to achieve success is to develop professional experience and reputation? That it can be build through sustained efforts over a long term and that there are no short cuts?
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How does a doctor develop the people skills to make a pauper and a prince equally comfortable? How does the doctor develop the ability to communicate to individuals at the either end of the spectrum?
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Why do so many medical colleges have hospitals attached to them? Why do we not have engineering institutes attached to manufacturing units?
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Why do doctors (irrespective of their academic performance) do not seek a 'job' but more often than not are looking for the first opportunity to set up their own clinic? In short, what makes them entrepreneurial and that too early on in their career when they really do not have a major saving to support a 'bad business trend'?
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How is it that every doctor, irrespective of whether they are in a hamlet or in 'Hampshire' know about the most recent drugs, drug delivery systems and medical procedures?
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What makes the pharmaceutical industry invest in an entire army of medical representatives who constantly keep the medical fraternity updated on every new discovery and trend?
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How is it that leading practicing doctors take their most recent experiences to the classrooms during their teaching assignments? In short, atleast some of the upcoming doctors are receiving the most recent inputs -- directly from the field!
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Why is that even leading practicing doctors, even when working with the most accomplished hospitals, do not complain about revenue sharing basis of compensation? In short, they are usually on 100% variable income? Have we ever heard of a CEO who is on 100% variable compensation?
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Finally, why is it that the same Indian education system is able to achieve all that the industry ever wants in its doctors but is not able to achieve the very same with its engineers, commerce, finance professionals etc?
Does it not surprise us therefore that we hear much less about demotivated doctors who are bored about their 'profession' and therefore are looking for the next job with a 20% salary jump? Are there practices from the medical world that can be taken to other streams of education?
By the way, surprisingly doctors seem to also have great analytical capabilities -- at times better than the management grads! | |
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Please remember to visit THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE and register your profile. Encourage students, educators, colleagues and friends to register too. Should you like to share this newsletter with friends, use the FORWARD EMAIL feature in the signature box instead of forwarding the mail from your mail application.
With gratitude: The JA India Team
Afroz Khan, Kamal Kiran | (Bangalore)
Fredrick Amalraj, Mohan Raj (Chennai)
Junita Paul and Sucharita Selot (India) | (NCR)
Neelima D'silva, Ramlath Kavil and Ramesh Krishnamurthy (India) | (Mumbai)
Venkat Matoory | (India)
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JA India Business Challenge
2009 |
JA India Business Challenge 2009
With more than 60 teams registering from 15 towns/cities, ROUND I of the competition ended on 26 Feb 2009. Round I saw participating teams taking business decisions on Price, Capacity, Production, R&D investment, marketing spends for 8 business quarters. 24 of these teams move to ROUND II.
Round II starts on 3 March 2009 and closes on 27 March 2009. The top 8 teams from Round II qualify for the finals. JA India Business Challenge is about intelligence and also about endurance. |
| For more information, please visit JA Titan challenge page
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HP Global Business Challenge
2009 |
HP Global Business Challenge (HPGBC) 2009
Top 2 winners of the Hyderabad and Bangalore round of JA Titan business challenge, conducted in 2008, competed for two sponsored slots to the HP Global Business Challenge 2009. These two teams are now competing with more than 300 teams from 25 countries through a 4-month, 24-round competition. The top 8 finalists from these rounds would then compete in a face-to-face competition to be held in Brazil in August 2009.
The two India teams, DayDreamers Inc and Krack Inc, consist of undergrad students from CBIT, Hyderabad. They have survived 6 decision cycles of the competition.
THE TEAM MEMBERS
DayDreamers Inc : Vikram Chander | Shwetha Gupta | Vamshi Reddy | Anwesha Jalan Krack Inc: Vivek Kodicherla | Praveen Sridhar | Mannar Karyampudi | Swapna Potluri Both the teams are from Chaitanya Bharathi Institute Of Technology (CBIT), Hyderabad. We wish both teams the very best and hope they win the Global Challenge. |
| For more information, please visit Hewlett Packard Global Business Challenge 2009 |
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THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE |
'THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE' -- The platform to bring students, educators, industry professionals and volunteers together towards meaningful engagement.
We request all students, volunteers and individuals passionate about education to register with the portal and join us in our endeavour to reach out many more young lives. THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE has several capabilities including Forums, Blogs, Discussions, Groups, Events with tighter security and access controls (towards better safeguards). You can invite your friends and other like-minded individuals to the site.
WHAT's in it for you?
For STUDENTS: Interact with industry professionals through FORUMS and BLOGs, interact with peers from other cities/towns on chosen discussion topics, interact with educators across the country on chosen discussion topics, place requests for on campus lecture series and/or JA programs
For EDUACTORS: Interact with industry professionals through FORUMS and BLOGs, interact with educators across the country on chosen discussion topics, place requests for on campus lecture series and/or JA programs
For INDUSTRY PROFESSIONALs and VOLUNTEERs: Interact with professionals, volunteers, students and teachers through FORUMs, BLOG on topics with stakeholders on topics that engage you and your audience
JA INDIA CHANNEL: THE FIRST ACQUAINTANCE also provides access to the JA INDIA CHANNEL. The channel would be developed into a repository of industry specific, organization specific, profession specific video content. This repository would be grown through compilations from public domain and through contributions from individuals and industry. You could contribute your own videos on topics that you feel passionately about. You could refer video content that you believe can benefit students, educators and fellow professionals/volunteers. If you are an organization, you could contribute industry specific or organization specific content.
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