Hello, SPJIMR!
At C4E, one of the key ethos that we live by is to never stop learning. And while the best way to learn is by doing, we think that learning by spending time with students is not bad either.
And why is that? Because when you are a student, you are not bound by deadlines and boundaries sketched by clients. And you have all the time in the world to explore. Assuming you want to.
So, this November, while the world was busy penning novels and not shaving and making other sorts of merry, we got a few students from SP Jain to work with us. Each of these students was given a specific problem to tackle. Problems that we are sort of stuck with. Problems that we needed a fresh set of brains to work on. Problems that are important to solve if C4E has to reach a billion people and billion dollars.
Here’s welcoming them to the gang!
a. Saicharan Pulletikurthi
In his words, “Saicharan is an electrical engineer who fiddled with aerospace products for three years before he joined SPJIMR, Mumbai. His dream is to lead a tech organization. He is a passionate photographer, relentless runner and coffee-cholic.”
Though we’ve known Sai for sometime now, at least SG still has a hard time pronouncing his last name. Or the first. He just takes the easy way out by calling him Sai. P.S.: How would you pronounce Chaminda Vaas’ full name?
Oh the group photo you see? Sai took like 15 minutes to find out the right lights and locations and positions before we were allowed to click the pic!
b. Shreya Khandelwal
She says, “Shreya is a 22-year old chirpy and enthusiastic girl! She is a management graduate from Shaheed Sukhdev College of Business Studies, Delhi University, before she started with MBA at SPJIMR, Mumbai. A true delhite, momos lover and a snapchat freak. You’ll often find her dancing to bollywood music, taking the stage to express her views and leading the group. She is on her way to become a consultant and plans to have her own bakery at some point in life!”
When we met Shreya, she stood out from all the 20-odd students we met. Why? Because she could not stop talking! And she spoke sense. When was the last time you met someone who was 23 and could speak sense for 20 minutes?
Sai and Shreya are helping us figure out how to plan for continuity at C4E business. Thing is, we are still small and still trying to find our footing. Now thats a good thing and a bad. Good, because it keeps us on the toes. Bad, because we are busy with rigmarole and we dont have our sights on the future. Shreya and Sai are helping us do exactly that!
c. Varun Sharma
In his words, “Before being bitten by the MBA bug, Varun graduated in engineering from The City University of New York. Having sandwiched over two years in the Consulting industry in between, he is now exploring a plethora of uncharted avenues at SPJIMR. With his diversified experiences and analytical acumen, he is quick to understand sophisticated business demands and oh, analyze a cricket game on the go!”
What struck us about Varun was his enthusiasm for sports and writing. Two things that C4E HAS to work on.
d. Himanshi Wadhwani
“Himanshi is pursuing MBA in Marketing at SPJIMR, Mumbai. She is a computer science engineer and have previously worked in Web Development Domain at Cognizant. She is full of energy, ideas and expressions and loves dancing, playing basketball and swimming.”
When we met her, she had just finished a game of basketball (or was it volleyball) and she had lost that game. -1 to her for that. +100 for keeping the spirits high though.
Varun and Himanshi are helping us on our speakers network (an online platform that aggregates speakers and other talent for events industry) and put together a set of ideas that we could seed. Idea is that we want to remain in business for perpetuity and unless we plant seeds today, we will get obsolete fast.
To us, both pieces are important. Thing is, we are not your regular events agency that aggregates stage, light, sound, AV etc. We are in this for the long run and we believe in paying it forward. Varun and Himanshi are doing exactly that.
e. Puneet Jaroli
In his words, “Puneet is pursuing operations and supply chain management at SPJIMR. He is a ceramic engineer from IIT(BHU) with three years of work experience in Steel Industry. He loves to travel and recently went for a 7000-Km road trip experience from Bhuj to Bhutan. Also loves cooking and reading in the free time. He is currently trying his hands at ukulele.”
Puneet came to us with an idea that made immediate sense. To the point that in the interview we told him that he could quit the MBA and chase that idea! To much of our dismay he chose to disregard the advice and continue with his studies. And football matches at the campus.
Here’s a contest. Get Puneet to speak for five minutes, capture it on video and I will buy you a book of your choice.
f. Rahul Gupta
Rahul says about himself, “Rahul is a pursuing his PGDM in operations and supply chain management from SPJIMR. He is a metallurgical engineer from IIT(BHU), Varanasi and has worked with IOCL for three years. He calls himself abnormal and likes to try different things. He is wetting his hands in juggling and is passionate about playing flute.”
Rahul and Puneet came up as a team and what Puneet did not want to speak, Rahul did. And it was probably the most effective teamwork we had seen in a long time. We had to pick them to work with us.
They are helping us benchmark ourselves against other people that we compete with. Now, while we are a corporate events agency for the time being (and we do those events really well!), we believe that we compete with any business that takes money from you to entertain you. People like PVR, Diamond Comics, Standup Comedians, Disney, even Imagica. We compete with them all. And we have to benchmark ourselves against those. And learn from their best practices.
Welcome aboard guys. Like we said last time we met, its not a 6-week project you guys are on. This is the beginning of a life-long friendship. Here’s to a partnership.
We are so glad to have you with us! Lets kick some butt!
