SJMSoM welcomes Class of 2012

With dreams of aspiring new heights in their careers and loads of expectations the SoM 12’ batch walked through the gates of IIT Bombay. The students started pouring in from all nook & corners of the country from 14th July itself and kept on coming till next day afternoon. The hostels allotted to the new batch were bustling with activity with all the new students trying to settle into them. The batch mates who were already acquainted with each other through Google and Facebook groups met each other face to face for the first time. Finally everybody settled in and waited in anticipation for the inaugural orientation session at SJMSoM.

This session was co-ordinated by the seniors with SJMSoM General Secretary Sanjoe as the host. The primary intent of this session was to welcome the new batch to SoM and also to have a student-faculty interaction. The SoM 12’ batch was very fortunate as Dr. Shailesh J Mehta who is a distinguished alumnus of IIT Bombay and a venture capitalist based in US, could take out time from his hectic schedule to grace the occasion. He has served on the boards of many multinational companies like Providian Financial Corporation, MasterCard Inc etc. He has also been supporting SJMSoM for almost 10 years now.

The session started with the address of department HOD Prof. Karuna Jain. She apprised the new students about the basic vision behind the creation of the institute. She told the students how the curriculum of the institute has been evolving since its inception .Also there has been a review of the curriculum recently by a review committee and some modifications and additions of new themes have been proposed to the curriculum. The new changes would be applied from the next term. She also discussed about the high pedestals that SoM occupies in most B-school rankings. Despite being a young B-school with a relatively smaller faculty and student size compared to other B-schools, SJMSoM has carved a niche for itself and the credit goes to the faculty, alumni and the students of the institute. She concluded by wishing good luck to the batch for the 2 year journey at SJMSoM. With this the dais was handed over to Dr. Shailesh J Mehta .He spoke at length about the role of technology and soft skills in today’s corporate environment. He started by giving a new definition to the word ‘technology ‘ itself, as something which was invented after we were born. He exemplified by saying that, when calculators were not invented students used slide rules to do calculations. For them calculator was a great technology but today’s generation won’t consider calculator as a technology. He further talked about the importance of eco-friendly processes to be imbibed in the industry today. The new age managers should always keep preservation of the resources of mother earth in their mind. Nowadays many companies are entering the field of carbon trading etc. and it looks as a hot property in future. He also thinks that in future most companies would add a designation of Chief Sustainability Officer.

He further spoke about the importance of soft skills in the corporate world. Most engineers who pass out from the Ivy League institutes of the country are really good at technical skills but lack the basic soft skills. This prevents them from rising up the corporate ladder at a faster pace. The soft skills that the batch will develop in the 2 years spent at SJMSoM will help them excel in their professional life. He also discussed some business ideas which came to him for finance. The lecture was really captivating and there could not have been a better start for the SoM 12’ batch.

Next speaker was Sanjeev Chachondia who was a SJMSoM class of 1995 alumni. He was the Ex-CEO of Loop mobile and presently is working as an operating partner in New Silk route advisors Ltd. He discussed about how the knowledge in technology management acquired at SJMSoM helped him when he was the CEO of Loop mobile. He also told the batch that the faculty at SJMSoM are an ocean of knowledge and they should tap as much as they can in the 2 years of their stay. Next up were the faculty of the institute who gave their introduction and also discussed about the subjects which they are going to teach.

After the faculty Introduction finished, the whole batch was asked to give their introduction. The batch consisted of people with wide variety of profiles in different domains. There was the usual IT clan, people from public sectors like ISRO, a person who had served 2 years in army and many more. The work experience of the batch ranged from a few months to 11 years. As soon as the introduction got over the students were given their Sony Vaio laptops from college .Finally the session got over and the students headed to their respective hostels.

All in all it was a very knowledgeable and interactive session and was a good kick start for the SoM 12 batch. This session marked the beginning of many more such induction sessions planned by the seniors to help out the freshers to settle in, at the institute until the actual academic rigour begins.

written by,

Aditya Kaul,

SJMSoM’12