Every classroom here has a story to tell. The red brick walls, the semi-circled windows, the smoothly finished desks, have all, over the years, captured even the tiniest emotion of every student. The mix of joy and apprehension when the batch enters for the first time, the faces that radiate focus, deep conversations with classmates, curiosity, debates, lighter moments, games during breaks, anxiety during exams and that final mix of emotions again as you sign out of your last class of the MBA journey.
One of the most memorable classes happened in Term 1 for Business Communication. It was a post-lunch session and since the sessions were mostly activity-based, we always looked forward to the same. The Professor entered the class with a big smile on her lips as usual. “Divide yourself into groups of 7.” She announced. After a bit of hustle and bustle the 70 member class divided itself into 10 groups. She then turned to the board and wrote random words. Tour, Coffee shop, Tooth Brush, Car, Scarf - were few to mention. Then she threw the challenge. Each group had to pick a word. That would be our product/service. We had to assign a name to the product, add a unique product feature and prepare a pitch to sell it to potential customers. Any non-conventional and interesting idea would fetch brownie points. Now this was very interesting! The class soon got busy with the team members deciding which word to pick. We had 1 min to decide.
We had two choices - tour and car. But some other group picked the car before us and so we got a tour. Now came the most interesting part - Developing the pitch. We had ten minutes to prepare and 2 members from each group had to present the 15-second pitch in front of the class. After a bit of brainstorming, we came up with “Star Tour Operators” that ran a tour service to different stars in association with NASA. We wrote down the major points. But the real challenge was to fit all the information in a concise and catchy way to a pitch of 15 seconds.
But of course we did do it and it turned out quite well. The question-answer session was the next challenge as our classmates threw the most insane questions at us regarding the service.
It is almost a year now. But the experience was lasting and above all fun. Our classmates had come up with innovative ideas like humming toothbrush - that would hum till 90% of the teeth were clean, colour changing scarf, car that would float on water and others. We were just into the 3rd week together as a class and we were really impressed by the thought process of our peers. Some of those ideas could actually be sold if worked upon.
One the whole, the session taught us how to make quick decisions, teamwork, identifying USPs, how to best think creatively, about elevator pitch and most importantly how to think on your toes. It was an ideal session of learning by doing and it will remain one of my favourite sessions on this campus ever.
Which ABG Company I would like to work for and why?
Of all the ABG companies, I would like to work for Pantaloons. I am a regular customer and am amazed at the wide variety of design and selections available. I would love to work in the strategy part on deciding how many stores to open, where to open etc. or the brand marketing part. Pantaloons has strong competitors in the target segment and it would be a challenge to top up the strategy and marketing skills over them. The work would also enable learning regarding real life decision making in a competitive environment and short timeframe and also the nuances of brand marketing.
- G Nithya Mohan
