Bringing down the curtains

Madhumita Patil-CEO of Chetana Institute of Management(left),
Radio city member(middle) and Aparna Rao-Faculty(right)

A month long initiative by the students of the Chetana Institute of Management and Research and Research in spreading Gandhian philosophy has been accomplished with learnings that helped excavate the underlying bedrock of management fundas has finally come to an end. Jagruti 2012 has been featured across the city in Asian Age, Mumbai Mirror, Loksatta, Gavkari, Divya bashkar and even on Radio City. This is indeed is a remarkable feat!

There are still many more stories which I haven't been able to capture in this blog however You can catch all the action on http://www.facebook.com/groups/291696214230474/. I suggest you encourage students for the good work, It'll sure stir up their motivation levels.

Well I'll use this final blog to also introduce my self to you and share my experience to you. My name is Anita David (student) and It has been an immense privilege to cover Jagruti 2012 through this blog. What I've learnt through my writings are "Never procrastinate", "Now is the Time to do, not tomorrow". Pilling up work for tomorrow is a big No-No. I've also learned from my classmates' experiences which helped me keep track on the progress and enthusiasm around the campus. Moreover, the fact that I featured so many students on this blog, gave them visibility and recognition of which they were proud about!

It's my appeal to all educational institutions to take up such an activity which will certainly give your students a glimpse of the corporate world and bridges the gap between classroom study & practical field work.Well the event has come to an end and it's time to bring down the curtains!

All the way from Mumbai to Ahemdabad

Priti Srivastava (student) went on a vacation to meet her family back in Ahemdabad. She's one of those few who took up work even while she was on a holiday. It's rare to see people take work on a holiday unless it's a paid job. Well, Pritii's passion was the driving force!

She carried with her 40 books all the way from Mumbai to Ahemdabad, all determined to let her home town know what Chetana Institute of Management inculcates in students and spurs them to action to taste what field work has to offer towards better learning & development. She visited a corporate named TATA Steel to sell Gandhiji's books on His autobiography(My experiments with Truth), Gandhi-the CEO and Gandhijian Management. She first spoke to the Mr. Harishinder Garg, Head Officer of Marketing who was initially hesitant to take the books however after Priti convinced him about the book, he took a copy of Gandhiji's autobiography saying,"I'm not sure how Gandhiji's philosopy would be applicable, I'll neverthless read the autobiography; If I find this book interesting, I'll try other books you are selling." Guess what! Next day Mr.Garg calls Priti up saying that he is keen to purchase other books too.

Another employee who was a new joinee and had been just 2 months in the organisation said,"I'm buying this book because I've just starting my career and I would want to learn management fundas from this book to soar up the ladder in my company."



Priti says," I had never done such a selling activity before but it was truly an enriching experience! Her paramount learning from Jagruti 2012 is that just as she gave Mr.Garg a sample of the book, he was later convinced to take other books. She states,"Providing a relatively low priced offering as a sample can instigate the customer to go for an expensive offering after having built the confidence of the customer."

Something that you and I can take back is that People Management acts like a carrier of your activities in business or job; In this case she used it to her advantage for her selling activity, thus achieving targets at one go. Now this is what we all should emulate.

Learning it prima facie

Kedar Danait (student) shares with us his sales experience in Jagruti where he says, "It is a fantastic experience! The best part about selling is that I actually learnt so many things viz. how to deal with different types of people, how to maintain a pleasant stance irrespective of how difficult the customer might be and how to be creative while pitching to different people with different mindsets." Kedar adds on saying,"The best lesson I learned in this on-field process is to go by your gut-feeling. And that became prominent when I would slot people who were to be my prospective customers. I also learned that when you are passionate about something(in this case, the Jagruti cause), confidence easily shines through in your approach to you work!"

Even the faculty members have been encouraging the students and giving them feedback time and again. Aparna Rao(facultuy) says, " It's all about breaking free of the resistance and fear of approaching strangers, selling and building relationships. Attitudes show not through words but through deeds or lack of deeds...'I did' is better than 'I wish I had'; 'I tried and failed' is better than 'I never tried at all'...."

Nandkishor R Bhor(student) narrates his experience of selling a book to a bus conductor who himself approached the students looking at their enthusiasm. This photograph was taken from the conductor's own mobile where the conductor says, "I'll keep this pic for my remembrance, each time I read this book." You see, it's evident that passion is contagious!"