THE BUSINESS SABBATICAL
The 25th of June 2008 happened to have been one of the most exciting and challenging days of the 20 yrs of my life.
Having joined a great B-school, Symbiosis Institute Of Management Studies (SIMS) just a week ago, here I was standing on this eventful day, being put to an acid test. All starry dreams of being a corporate honcho two years from now were being put to rest as ground reality was staring at me in the face.
We had a “business exercise” under the dutiful guidance of Mr. Manohar Kamath and Mr. Aditya Athalye. We were assigned the area of Aundh and Baner road near our college where we were supposed to go and find ourselves a “job” and here was the catch-
· We don’t tell them where we come from
· Don’t mention the fact that we come from a prestigious college like SIMS, (which so would have made our job easier)
· And to top it all, ask them to pay us atleast Rs. 150 for whatever we ended up doing.
So , we started with a small pep talk from Kamath sir who divided us into groups of two, a guy and a girl, and were to follow what was termed as the “buddy system” and were to work as a team with our particular “buddy”
Seen off from the gates of SIMS with no money in our, hands just us, our confidence, our attitude and most importantly our persasion skills, which today had to be brought to the forefront to survive.
ACID TEST 1
The hitch-hike to Aundh
Our first battle was reaching the place itself, with no money in hand the only option was to pray that we bump into some extremely empathetic individuals who drop us till there, and as luck would have it we did, within 15 minutes we were able to get a lift in a Ford Ikon and were dropped at Parihar Chowk and so began the ordeal.
With strict instructions not to disclose our identity, what explanation to give was a major cause of concern amogst all of us.
ACID TEST 2
Finding the job
After mustering enough courage, We started from one side of D.P. Road entering shops and establishments asking for a job for a day. Several kilometers long walk and even more rejections later our spirits were dampened a little, but the fire was still burning, we were out there to prove ourselves, future CEO’s who never said no and never gave up.
So more we walked and more we asked, and here is where the competiton came in, half the shops we went to had already been visited by our batch mates, all rejected. Tempers were definitely running high with some of the shopkeepers.
Finally, after almost an hour we found a hardware and electrical shop on D.P. Road called “Haute Monde”
ACID TEST 3
THE WORK
The point was outright clear-“what work were we going to do in a hardware electrical store?”
And to top it all the proprietor told us that he did not have any real work for us, and may not even be able to “pay us”.
Not wanting to lose this opportunity, we convinced him and negotiated and made him see some fruitful work for us- clutter cleaning.
The store was in a state of disarray, with things lying out of order in cabinets, which we then took charge of.
From arranging bulbs according to their wattages to putting handle bars according to their sizes and designs, we did it all.
Labour of four and a half hours fetched us however just Rs. 100 each, did disappoint us but first salary nevertheless.
THE RIDE TO THE MEETING POINT
Getting to the meeting point for my class held the same rule-“no using your resources”. It was hitchhike time again, this time a generous old man in his Maruti 800 drove us down till Indiabulls Megamart on Senapati Bapat Road where we met up with the entire batch and discussed our small adventures with each other and Kamath sir gave us our last feedbacks and assignments for the day.
DISPERSAL AND THE FINAL RIDE(s) BACK
We all dispersed with our respective works and amazing, exuberant memories which we all shall fondly remember, throw in the two rides we had to take back home( yes two as we were getting dropped at various spots which were on the way for people) it was the best thing I have done so far.
Coming back to ground reality was a welcome change from our otherwise mundane routines, a reality check for us MBA aspirants, and I finally got to learn what the different wattages of the bulbs were, now who would mind that.
The 25th of June 2008 happened to have been one of the most exciting and challenging days of the 20 yrs of my life.
Having joined a great B-school, Symbiosis Institute Of Management Studies (SIMS) just a week ago, here I was standing on this eventful day, being put to an acid test. All starry dreams of being a corporate honcho two years from now were being put to rest as ground reality was staring at me in the face.
We had a “business exercise” under the dutiful guidance of Mr. Manohar Kamath and Mr. Aditya Athalye. We were assigned the area of Aundh and Baner road near our college where we were supposed to go and find ourselves a “job” and here was the catch-
· We don’t tell them where we come from
· Don’t mention the fact that we come from a prestigious college like SIMS, (which so would have made our job easier)
· And to top it all, ask them to pay us atleast Rs. 150 for whatever we ended up doing.
So , we started with a small pep talk from Kamath sir who divided us into groups of two, a guy and a girl, and were to follow what was termed as the “buddy system” and were to work as a team with our particular “buddy”
Seen off from the gates of SIMS with no money in our, hands just us, our confidence, our attitude and most importantly our persasion skills, which today had to be brought to the forefront to survive.
ACID TEST 1
The hitch-hike to Aundh
Our first battle was reaching the place itself, with no money in hand the only option was to pray that we bump into some extremely empathetic individuals who drop us till there, and as luck would have it we did, within 15 minutes we were able to get a lift in a Ford Ikon and were dropped at Parihar Chowk and so began the ordeal.
With strict instructions not to disclose our identity, what explanation to give was a major cause of concern amogst all of us.
ACID TEST 2
Finding the job
After mustering enough courage, We started from one side of D.P. Road entering shops and establishments asking for a job for a day. Several kilometers long walk and even more rejections later our spirits were dampened a little, but the fire was still burning, we were out there to prove ourselves, future CEO’s who never said no and never gave up.
So more we walked and more we asked, and here is where the competiton came in, half the shops we went to had already been visited by our batch mates, all rejected. Tempers were definitely running high with some of the shopkeepers.
Finally, after almost an hour we found a hardware and electrical shop on D.P. Road called “Haute Monde”
ACID TEST 3
THE WORK
The point was outright clear-“what work were we going to do in a hardware electrical store?”
And to top it all the proprietor told us that he did not have any real work for us, and may not even be able to “pay us”.
Not wanting to lose this opportunity, we convinced him and negotiated and made him see some fruitful work for us- clutter cleaning.
The store was in a state of disarray, with things lying out of order in cabinets, which we then took charge of.
From arranging bulbs according to their wattages to putting handle bars according to their sizes and designs, we did it all.
Labour of four and a half hours fetched us however just Rs. 100 each, did disappoint us but first salary nevertheless.
THE RIDE TO THE MEETING POINT
Getting to the meeting point for my class held the same rule-“no using your resources”. It was hitchhike time again, this time a generous old man in his Maruti 800 drove us down till Indiabulls Megamart on Senapati Bapat Road where we met up with the entire batch and discussed our small adventures with each other and Kamath sir gave us our last feedbacks and assignments for the day.
DISPERSAL AND THE FINAL RIDE(s) BACK
We all dispersed with our respective works and amazing, exuberant memories which we all shall fondly remember, throw in the two rides we had to take back home( yes two as we were getting dropped at various spots which were on the way for people) it was the best thing I have done so far.
Coming back to ground reality was a welcome change from our otherwise mundane routines, a reality check for us MBA aspirants, and I finally got to learn what the different wattages of the bulbs were, now who would mind that.
1 comment:
hmm....that was some experience, huh. i can see this is something you'll never ever forget. keep up the good work, girl. and in 100 bucks. you can eat 5 mc donalds' chicken mcgrill. he he. muah!! miss you like anything. and cute pictures too.:P
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