Informal Feedback from HR Head, TCS Lucknow on T&P

I visited the Lucknow offices of my company, Tata Consultancy Services, on July 10th, 2009. Besides taking care of the company business, I made it a point to secure a one hour slot with Mr. Himanshu Kumar, HR Head for TCS Lucknow, in an effort to get a first hand viewpoint about our college based on his interactions and placement related dealings with the college administration.

The overall feedback from Himanshu on the quality of interactions with MMMEC was positive. The calibre of the students hired from MMMEC was also slightly above average in his viewpoint, if not among the top band compared to ~40 other colleges where he does recruiting from. He spoke highly of the hospitality accorded to TCS staff during campus visits and the preferential treatment given to TCS during the campus placement cycle by the college.

However, he did mention couple improvement opportunities - one each for administration and the students. His first advice was for the administration to take a bit more initiative towards a pro-active approach regards continuous engagement with the company and not be just placement focused. He also thought that the T&P cell should become a bit more marketing savvy - in terms of the quality of marketing collateral, aggressiveness of the personnel, etc.

His other advice was for students to seriously work towards their communication skills and assertiveness while in the college. He felt that despite being very sound on the technical fundamentals, our students do not come across as confident and articulate enough to put forward their viewpoint assertively.

I sincerely thanks Himanshu for devoting an hour from his busy schedule and his willingness to provide me with a "non sugar coated" feedback about the college. I hope that the administration and the students both act upon this constructive feedback and improve our performance and perception in the minds of all the prospective employers like Himanshu.

Long Standing demand for an on-campus Cafeteria fulfilled

One of the longest standing demands from the student community at MMMEC has been for a well organized and hygienic cafeteria in the campus. There have been various half-hearted attempts made in the past towards this but none of them sustained for a long time, for various reasons.

However, this wish has finally been fulfilled with active contributions from the Malaviya Alumni Association, both in terms of funding and the sustained pressure to make it happen. The new cafeteria was inaugurated on July 9th, 2009 and is in active operation now. I was able to sample some items first hand during my trip to MMMEC on July 13th.

The cafeteria has been established in a permanent structure (next to the Post Office and in front of the Multi Purpose Hall) and has an indoor capacity of ~80, not counting the standing tables planned to be put in and the outdoor area that is being landscaped and made ready with proper fencing, lighting, umbrellas, etc. to be ready in time for the next academic session. The building is equipped with a fully functional kitchen, air conditioning and separate toilets for ladies and gents.

I believe that this cafeteria is going to become the platform for students to have stimulating intellectual discussions in, besides serving the basic gastronomic and sociological purposes. From my experiences with a few academic campuses, I wish that it becomes the KLS canteen of IIT-Delhi or the Ganga Dhaba of JNU, New Delhi.

PS: The term Cafeteria is misspelled on the doors of the building, administration take note. However, that is not going to change the taste of the food items though.

MMMEC recognized as "Star Performer" by UP Technical University

It was a proud moment for all of us Malaviyans when our college was recognized by the UP Technical University (UPTU) among the group of "Star Performers" based on the Academic Performance in the academic year 2007-2008.

UPTU has instituted an Academic Excellence program to acknowledge the superior academic standards achieved by the top institutes from amongst 300+ government and private engineering colleges affiliated to it. This recognition program is in addition to the VIBGYOR rating that UPTU routinely assigns to the colleges based on the overall academic scores achieved by all the students combined in an academic year. MMMEC has consistently been falling in the Indigo band at #5 or #6 along with all the other "Top 10" colleges in the state. There is no institute in the Violet band.

For the UPTU Academic Excellence Awards this year, AKG Engineering College and Krishna Institute of Engineering & Technology (both private colleges from Ghaziabad) were awarded the first and second awards respectively. A group of next six colleges was identified as "Star Performers", amongst which MMMEC ranked at #2. IET, Lucknow was the only other government engineering college to be acknowledged in this elite group of colleges as Star Performer #6.

I hope that this focus towards academics will continue at the college and will only improve. I, on behalf of all MMMEC alumni, appreciate all the hard work put in by the students and the faculty alike in making it happen and wish all the best for this to continue.

Mumbai teen (Malaviyan's son) fastest from Asia to Gibraltar

Dear Malaviyans,

Please rejoice in the great achievement on the international scene from the son of a fellow Malaviyan. See note below and pass on the congratulations.

***** A MESSAGE FROM UPDESH KUMAR, 1980, MECHANICAL *****

Dear Malviyans,

I would like to share my son's feat with all of you of swimming through the Gibraltar Straits in record time. Please see following links -

http://www.acneg.com/acneg%20ingles/One%20way.html
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/City_teen_fastest_from_Asia_to_Gibraltar/articleshow/3453978.cms http://hindi.webdunia.com/news/news/national/0809/06/1080906065_1.htm

Warm regards,

Updesh Kumar

Dy. General Manager-Engg,

National Aviation Company of India Ltd.

Email Updesh.Kumar@airindia.in

Tel +91-22-2626 3240

+91-22-2626 5555 Ext 3240

Mob +91-9869014012

Fax +91-22-26157051

**********************************************************

MMMEC 5th among 115 engineering colleges in UP

I just made an accidental discovery that our college ranked 5th amongst 115 UPTU colleges based on B. Tech. Theory exam results for the session 2007-08. This is based on a report that UPTU publishes to assess performance for all its constituent colleges. Ranking 5th is no mean feat and I, like any other Malaviyan, feel proud of this performance and sincerely congratulate the students and staff alike for what they are doing right.

However, the topic of my post is not to celebrate this great performance but to lament on the lack of promotion that this feat received. There is no mention of it on our college website, in our admissions brochure, etc. Do we expect all the prospective students, their parents and the prospective recruiters to be dreaming of this? Or should they be going to the AKG College of Engineering website which has published this report prominently on its home page becuase they are also in top 5 and learn from there as to what MMMEC's accomplishment has been (that is how I got this information).

Not having the right credentials to build a strong case in your favor is one thing and probably excusable but not leveraging the strong credentials that you already have to your advantage is utterly unexcusable. I am sure that if I asked this question to a cross section of folks in the college there will be all sorts of finger pointing towards one another. However, the problem is not so much with individuals but in a systemic lack of thinking on these lines and lack of will to make certain intellectual as well as financial investments to affect this.

We have been talking for a lot of time about building awareness about the Malaviya brand but unfortunately have not taken even these simple marketing steps which some fledgling institutes have mastered and are using to their advantage to attract the best talent (students as well as faculty) and the best recruiting companies. It is about time that we wake up to the competitive reality, realize our true potential and grab our rightful place in the pecking order.

We need to be applying some of the marketing principles that we teach our MBA students internally as well.

I have been thinking for a long time to have some sort of a scratchpad for jotting down all the random thoughts that I have around my favorite topic - Malaviya. All sorts of hand written notes. Word documents and Powerpoint documents were not helping much. So, here I am with this blog to record all raw thoughts as they occur. The emphasis will not be on political correctness but on idea generation.

I hope that the like minded community will rally around some of these raw ideas, have an active dialog around these and synthesize game plans to start addressing some of these into actionable steps.

Looking forward to building a storm of ideas on this blog.