International Immersion..and a vacation

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The 3 weeks that were at McGill University in Montreal were as exhilarating as it was educating. It was a welcome break for all of us who would otherwise be buried in our books at the hostel @ Noida Campus. Our batch covered two courses Managing Innovations (Strategy) and Global Capital Markets (Finance) during our stint at the McGill, not to forget the non-credit courses that were offered to us such as Sustained Development Model, Global Economics, Corporate Governance etc which were quite enlightening since these are niche areas right now in the business world.

The courses were handled by the some of the finest faculty members of the Desautels School of Business with resumes worth killing for.. The pedagogy was a mix of class discussions and case studies with more emphasis on the former. In between our schedule Prof Gregory Vit who handled 'Managing Innovations' surprised us by managing to get the famous 'Dr Henry Mintzberg' to give us a lecture on entire gamut of topics from Org structure, Intuitive Decision Making etc etc. Dr Henry Mentzberg has authored over 60 books, some of his works were part of our own curriculum and has an illustrious career in the World of Academia that makes him the most sought after person by the corporate world at Desautels.

If I had to pick one course of all that had the maximum impact on my learning was Global Economics handled by Dr Francesca at Desautels. This course introduced me to the world of Economics teaching everything from the role of central banks, world trade to current problems that are plaguing the world Economy. I was convinced that if I ever studied further I would do a Phd in Economics. Now that is quite an impact in just 4 sessions of Economics. :)

Now coming to how we spent our time when we weren't studying, we had an absolutely terrific time in Montreal. The classic Victorian buildings,old basilica of Notredam remind us of how old Montreal was in a pre-industrialized era. And then there is the other half of the city that buzzes with activity all through day and night that beckons you to party hard. Summer in Montreal plays host to a whole suite of activities, sports, carnivals, music concerts. There is always something going on every day of Summer. I could not believe I got a chance to watch the finals of the ATP Masters tourney at Rogers Cup,Montreal.

A truly international experience

The word "international" is often abused nowadays with even the local nursery school/workshop using the term. However the word international in the name IPMX is worth every letter in it. As if the global cases, lessons, discussions were not enough IIM L went a step further and included a module for the entire batch in another world renowned university.
The experience here at McGill has been enriching and wow from the beginning. The course is as dense as IIM L's and the content the best in category. McGill has a name in Innovation, Global Finance, Thought Leadership and Sustainable development in the world and these were the very topics we enjoyed learning (yes you read it right... enjoyed!!). The content and the discussion is refreshing in the way that there were no absolutes, but a view of the opposite side, the side that we shun and call illogical, intuitive or un MBA. The faculty is world known with the likes of Henry Mintzberg, Sergei Sarkissian, Gregory Vit and Sandra Cha to name a few, taking the sessions. The learning has been tremendous and the experience enriching.

As a city too Montreal is fun with its French influence and university setting. Our weekends were more packed than the week with projects and citi exploration packed in to them.
Chetan

IPMX students meet members from Indo-Canadian Chamber of commerce

29th July, 2009 became one of the special days in my life when we, the IPMX students, were invited by the Indo-Canadian chamber of commerce for a meet with the some of the leading business man and senior management from corporate world. These included professionals from Rintinto-Alcan, Canadian centre architecture, Balcorp, Deloitte Canada, ICICI Canada, legal firms, infrastructure firms, government officials and professors from Mcgill university.

Although I have attended many corporate events before this but this one was special. This was one of my first event where I felt myself as being a part of business delegation who was in Montreal to build business relationships. It was clearly a different feeling altogether since most of my past events normally had people from same business background i.e IT services. So most of the discussions focussed around new technologies and emerging market trends in IT industry. But here was my chance of meeting people from different industries, different cultural background and people who truly meant business.

The session started with IPMX students talking about growth opportunities in retail, shipping and insurance industry in India. This was followed by an address by some business people from Canada like Dr. Sunny Handa, a partner at Blake, Cassels and Graydon LLP, Mr. Alexis Cornin from Canadian centre architecture and others.

Other than speeches and the cocktail, the most interesting part of the event was the networking opportunity that everybody got by meeting people from the Canadian industry. It actually helped us in perceiving the opportunities that lie ahead in terms of fruitful Indo-Canadian business relationships and understanding the Canadian perception of work aspects when doing business in India.

Above all, I believe it was one of the most memorable event on our trip to Canada.

Unconventional..............

>Unconventional (here in after referred as U) - the word I came across several times today

The latest tryst was while skimming through some dailies of Montreal. I had picked up this yellow paper to wile away sometime between two sessions on Strategies for Sustainable Development. The other trysts were in the class, where every other perspective in discussion talked about being U. This all started with narration by each class member's experience in their past roles with sustainable solutions. And ideas ranged from ships ballast water handling to green buildings to Lufthansa efficiency project.....covering water, land and air.

On reflecting back on past four months experience in IPMX, I collate below some more conspicuous Us.

The IPMX course started, in its very first session, in a U set-up of classroom. The classroom where we started our course was a big open hall with no furnishings inside. The next 2 hours brought my first tee-a-tee with outside classroom learning touted by most B-school. We started with an unconventional approach and tempo stands till date.

The delivery of most course are U and conspicuously different than most of other places I have compared with. There have been courses on integrating Indus civilisation with present day globalisation issues, Satyam fiasco with typical entrepreneurial organisation structure, CAT's back-hoe market challenges to APM and many more.

A course on legal environment was unconventional in its entire delivery based on day-to-day examples from Bollywood to Pharmaceuticals. The class discussions regularly picked up latest news from newspaper to analyse on possible business solution within legal constraints.

We had a discussion session with Sir Henry Mintzberg yesterday at McGill University on his unconventional approach to management practices. And today we are looking forward to a session with a leading legal firms CEO on his recent entry experience into Asian markets.

And here comes the unconventional abrupt end.