IIM Calcutta Campus

CEMSCEMSCEMS THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

CALCUTTA JOURNAL FALL 2014

CEMS THE GLOBAL ALLIANCE IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION

The CEMS program was initiated as the Community of European Management Schools in the year 1988. ESADE, University of Cologne, HEC Paris and Bocconi University were the founding members. Since then the program has grown significantly and now is spread over 5 continents. 29 B-Schools across the globe are member of the alliance. The CEMS MIM is a joint degree in addition to the masters degree awarded by member schools. It is a pre-experience degree open to students who are enrolled in any one of the 29 member schools. The selection criterion is strict and students come from different background including military as well.

The program has a strong emphasis on responsible citizenship. Students are expected to hold high standards of ethical and social responsibility and professional integrity. The CEMS MIM programme fosters reflective critical thinking through which students become creative, critical and influential thinkers with confident problem solving skills.

The MIM degree promotes internationalism; developing experienced management professionals who are able to make confident, effective decisions in diverse contexts and in an ethical manner. The course content has a global outlook with some courses exclusively offered for CEMS students. While the CEMS MIM is a high-quality academic degree, its unique characteristics lie in the additional focus on practical business skills, language proficiency and early international experience. Students have to learn 2 foreign languages (another Indian language counts towards one foreign language). The program also mandates to carry out an international internship of minimum 10 weeks. All these features help graduates apply their multilingual, multicultural skills in the ever-changing, dynamic international business world.

In addition to being the most reputed international management programme on the market, it is the starting point for lifelong professional and personal networks. The CEMS program has over 60 corporate partners and 4 social partners. Students can avail global career opportunities through different forums across the program period. Even as alumni, the career opportunities are open. IIM Calcutta Campus

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CONTENTS

OVERVIEW OF THE CEMS MIM PROGRAM

CEMS AT IIM CALCUTTA

CEMS CLUB IIM CALCUTTA

BLOCK SEMINAR

CEMS CAREER FORUM

CEMS ANNUAL EVENTS

CEMS CLUB CALCUTTA EVENTS

CEMS EXPERIENCE OF IIM CALCUTTA STUDENTS

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Howrah Bridge, Calcutta

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OVERVIEW OF THE CEMS MIM PROGRAM

The CEMS program is divided into 3 terms as shown below. Some school adjust the dates to match their academic schedule with others. The program aims at imparting an international experience with mix of courses, seminars, live project and internships.

Please note that 5 ECTS is equivalent to 3 IIMC credits.

CEMS AT IIM CALCUTTA

The CEMS Masters in International Management program was introduced at IIM-C in the year 2012. Presently, in the second year since inception, second year students of the PGP program are on their exchange semester all around the globe. The batch size increased considerably from 18 to 26 students. Students’ interest in the program has increased significantly, thanks to media coverage as well. The entry into the CEMS program is highly competitive with just 150 students being eligible to apply out of 460 students.

Academic excellence supported by extracurricular activities and a well-rounded personality are few of the factors taken into consideration. After getting shortlisted

students are interviewed by a faculty panel. Over the next years, IIM-C plans to increase its batch size and have its presence felt almost in every school.

The CEMS program at IIM-C is open only to the PGP students in their first year. Towards the end of their first year students get selected for the program. IIM Calcutta has a trimester system comprising of 6 terms over a 2 period of two years.

IIMC students go on their exchange in Term V (Sep-Dec). IIM-C attracts students from outside in both Term V and Term VI (Dec-March). Last year around 20 students had opted IIM-C as their exchange destination. The same trend continued this year as well.

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CEMS CLUB IIM CALCUTTA

Every CEMS school has an active club which carries out several activities. CEMS is not all about academics. When students from 20+ nationalities meet for a semester, there is enough to learn. The clubs make sure that students have an overall rich experience. Some examples include rotation dinners with corporate partners, social events like international dinner, charity events and alumni interaction.

The club organises several activities for the incoming CEMSies. Some recent ones include welcome party, CEMS Dinner, movie nights, CEMS Breakfast, guest lectures, NGO visits etc. The incoming students take great enthusiasm in the events and some are even organised by them. Recently, the club had its very first t-shirt which further boosted the CEMS spirit. The club is highly active on social media, namely, facebook and twitter.

President

Vice President

Social Events

Social Responsibility

Corporate Relations

Alumni Relations

Student Board Representative

STRUCTURE OF CEMS CLUB CALCUTTA

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BLOCK SEMINAR

Block Seminar is an integral part of the CEMS curriculum. It is an intensive 1 week series of seminars and lectures with evaluation at the end through presentation/exam. The Block Seminar has a weight of 3 ECTS in the CEMS curriculum. This year the Block Seminar at IIM-C was on the theme of Corporate Social Responsibility. The students had interaction and discussion sessions with industry stalwarts and faculty from IIM-C. Guest speakers from ITC, TATA and Fitch Group brought in practical insights. CEMSies had a chance to visit Parivar- A NGO for destitute children. Students of IIM-C performed various cultural activities showcasing the varied culture and diversity of India. Other events which made the Block Seminar a success were visiting the iconic Victoria Memorial and spending a day at ITC.

CEMS CLUB PRESIDENTS’ MEET AT ISTANBUL, TURKEY

Along with the Student Board of CEMS, the Presidents from several CEMS Clubs met at Istanbul to share knowledge, network and have a good time with everyone. The 3-day workshops conducted by the Student Board representatives was a great platform to learn from the best practices of schools as well find solutions to problems faced by schools. The conference was hosted by KOC University, Istanbul. Main highlights of the conference were city tour, boat dinner and lunch with Corporate Partner ABB. The Alumni Relations Manager and people from CEMS Head Office made the event a success. The student board had a week-long meeting to discuss the future plans.

Block Seminar: The other side of presentations and exams

CEMS Club Presidents from one of the groups in a marketing workshop

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CEMS CAREER FORUM

Probably the main highlight of the CEMS events this year would be the Career Forum held at Vienna. Over 1000 students and 50 corporate partners attended the event. Students were interviewed for both internships and full time positions. Prominent companies included McKinsey and A.T. Kearney from the consulting sphere; Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, BNP Paribas, HSBC, Swiss Re from the financial sector; Google, Dropbox and Facebook from marketing domain. Several other European companies marked their presence. 2 PGP students, Saurav Nandi and Pallav Garg were interviewed by ABB and Kone group. The entire event was held in the new campus of WU which is built in the form of a spaceship. Students could walk in to the company stalls, gain information and build networks. The series of interviews were preceded by skill seminar workshops by several corporate partners. The skill seminars are an integral part of the curriculum aimed at improving the soft skills of students.

The event ended with a Masquerade Gala which was attended both by students and corporates in large numbers. The career forum was a unique opportunity for CEMSies to interact with corporates and build networks.

CEMS ANNUAL EVENTS The 26th CEMS Annual Events took place at Brussels, hosted by the Louvain School of M a n a g e m e n t . O v e r 1 0 0 0 + s t u d e n t s graduated. The event was telecasted live all over the world and got significant media coverage. The next CEMS Annual Events is set to be organised by Graduate School of Management, St. Petersburg, Russia. Apart from the graduation ceremony, the program managers and academic directors from all the schools flew in to discuss and track the progress of the CEMS curriculum. Prof. Ashok Banerjee and Ms. Roma Banerjee represented IIM Calcutta.

The CEMS Graduation Ceremony

IIMC Program Manager Roma Banerjee along with Srinivas (Exchange: HEC)

Students interacting with corporatesPage 6

CEMS CLUB CALCUTTA EVENTS

LECTURE SERIES IIM-C invites major dignitaries for guest lectures through courses and Institute lecture Series. Our CEMSies were part of several of them. Be it Dr. Denis Medvedev, Senior Country Economist, World Bank or Mr. Arun Thamizhvanan Manager at LatentView or by Mr. Srikrishna Murthy on Entrepreneurship in NGOs, our CEMSies made it a point to attend them and gain valuable insights.

CRICKET FOR DUMMIES They say cricket unites everyone in India irrespective of religion, gender and status. The incoming CEMSies had their first-hand experience in trying out the most popular sports in India.

Lecture conducted by Mr. Arun Thamizhvanan Manager at LatentView

Lecture conducted by Dr. Denis Medvedev, Senior Country Economist, World Bank Group

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Bringing CEMS Club Calcutta (CCC), in par with the other CEMS Clubs across the world, this time CCC successfully conducted Global Sustainability Week for the first time at IIM Calcutta. The main objectives of this event are to raise the students’ awareness regarding their role as sustainable citizens now and in the future, to provide a  platform for CEMS partners  (both corporate and social) to communicate their accomplishments towards a more sustainable presence in the world and to emphasise the entire alliance's common effort towards sustainability, together. 

Along with the Global Sustainability Week, A No Impact Week was conducted on 4 themes: Consumption, Transportation, Food and Energy. Students came up with innovative ideas on reducing the impact on environment. A major highlight of the No Impact Week was the Indian Bucket Challenge through which several schools were challenged to try bathing Indian style! The Student Board organised a competition on facebook page and students nominated their friends for some challenges, thereby spreading awareness.

A glimpse of Global Sustainability Week Theme: Reduce Water Consumption

GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY WEEK

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CULTURAL FESTIVALS One whole term in India and you don’t witness a festival, it’s impossible. During CEMS Term 1, incoming students witnessed two most important festivals in India – Durga Puja and Diwali. Durga Puja is a festival that is celebrated majorly in West Bengal, while Diwali is a festival that is celebrated across India.

Diwali is known as the festival of lights and is an important festival among Hindus. This festival is spread across 5 days. It starts with Dhanteras, followed by Naraka Chaturdis. Third day is called Diwali. Forth day is Diwali Padva, which is dedicated to husband-wife relationship and the final day is called Bhaubeej, which is dedicated brother-sister bond.

Durga Puja is a festival that celebrates worship of Hindu goddess Durga. It refers to all the six days observed as Mahalaya, Shashthi, Maha Saptami, Mahas Ashtami, Maha Namadi and Vijayadashami. This is actually the best time to be in Kolkata as this festival is celebrated on a large scale in West Bengal. This week also coincides with the famous adventure trek. Every year students from IIM Calcutta go to this trek. The trek is organized by Armageddon, the Adventure at IIM Calcutta. The club will take care of making all the arrangements right from booking the tickets to booking the hotels or hostels.

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Academically SSE is similar to IIM-C, and the student community is the same as at any other international business school, however the single digit hours of sunlight in a month and super cold weather are not to be underestimated. However, what made it so much easier to adjust to a foreign country, curriculum and culture was the brilliant support extended by the CEMS club and community at SSE. The club is quite active, and makes a persistent effort in order to provide the incoming exchange students with all that one needs from everyday assistance and career support to much needed entertainment events and a good time.

CEMS MIM program has given me the opportunity to network with a diverse set of students sharing the common ambition of pursuing an international career. The diversity that CEMS students bring to the table, whether it is in terms of cultural diversity or life experiences is incredible, owing to that fact that these students have undergone a severe selection procedure in order to be a part of this program. The quality of courses approved by CEMS and the faculty at SSE surpasses expectations. The course content was very well structured and the faculty maintained a very informal relationship with their students. The professors go out of the way to ensure that learning is given top priority and were easily approachable plus strongly encouraged students to participate and add

to each classroom session.

SSE does not directly assist students secure the mandatory internship for completing their CEMS degree requirements, however there are plenty of corporate events planned and executed by the school which students can choose to attend in order to network with corporate professionals. Post interaction, students are expected to assume the responsibility of applying to the companies that they are interested and proceed with the processes in order to secure an internship.

The Career forum at Vienna, also served the same purpose and additionally also helped some students get a pre scheduled preliminary interview with companies that they might be interested to work with out of the CEMS corporate partners participating in the Career Forum.

My CEMS term at SSE has been a memorable experience and one that has resulted in a few interesting friendships and countless days of fun plus learning in Europe.

“What made it so much easier to adjust to a foreign country, curriculum and culture was the brilliant support extended by the CEMS c lub and community at SSE”

“It is an experience I would highly

recommend to students who wish to gain an

effective international exposure plus enjoy

being challenged beyond their comfort zone”

ANKITA BALYAN EXCHANGE SCHOOL : STOCKHOLM SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS, SWEDEN

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MUKUL MATHUR EXCHANGE SCHOOL : ESADE, SPAIN

CEMS MIM course is in essence very different from the PGDM course at IIMC. The focus is on International Management and so everything that we study has an international context to it. Be it sustainable strategies, entrepreneurial ventures or financial decision making, everything is studied with the view of a global environment. We even have a course on philosophy (where wizened old men with huge grey beards come to teach …. just kidding!). The focus is more on practical problems and issues at hand, studied through creative assignments, group-works or presentations, something which is a rarity to find back at IIMC.. It’s really an enriching experience!

CEMS as a program has numerous advantages over STEP – a) This is a double degree program, where you get a CEMS MIM degree from your abroad school and the PGDM degree from IIM Calcutta, which is not the case with STEP; b) Lectures in most schools have mandatory attendances so you just don’t spend your time backpacking Europe but also get to enjoy the foreign B-School experience!; c) CEMS has a very strong alumni base which can help you in getting internships/jobs at any stage of your professional life;

d) It is an immensely respected degree in the entire EU though it’s not so much in India as of now.

In terms of guest lectures, I’ve really lost count of the numbers. We’ve had company executives from top European companies like L’Oreal Paris or Siemens Electric come over for guest lectures during our Block Seminar. To add to that, two of my courses have guest lecturers invited over to class every week! These are highly successful entrepreneurs, venture capitalists or very creative/innovative people coming to the ESADE campus weekly, just to interact with CEMSies!

My major takeaways from the CEMS term abroad is the huge international exposure that I’ve received while studying in Barcelona. Not only have I been exposed to a very different culture (of Europe) altogether, but I’ve come across so many different ways of thinking and a very holistic view on topics that I’ve studied. I’ve enjoyed every moment with the CEMSies in Barcelona. It has been a journey to remember.

“I interact with students from more than 10

nationalities on a regular basis helps me

understand businesses in a global context”

“My major takeaways from the CEMS term abroad is the huge international exposure that I’ve received while studying in Barcelona”

Page 11Barcelona, Spain

PALLAV GARG EXCHANGE SCHOOL : ESADE, SPAIN

Having chosen ESADE, Barcelona as my exchange school and having done research about Barcelona, I was so eager to get to Barcelona and believe me it wasn’t disappointing. Right from the first day, it was an awesome experience to live in the city.

CEMS journey was a thrilling one. Shuffling between academics, student life and travelling wasn’t easy but it was part of the experience. We started with language course (not the CEMS language course) which even though was not compulsory but enabled us to manage our way around in daily life in Barcelona, at shops, restaurants and more importantly at clubs. Then after a weeklong Block Seminar, the main highlights of which were the interactions, which we used to have amongst all the CEMS students at the lunch and dinner times.

Courses offered at ESADE are very different from the mainstream courses on the lines of corporate sustainability, philosophy and innovation. Professors made an attempt to diversify the sources of learning by getting Guest Speakers, doing classes at different places in the city, and even going to extent of getting musicians and dancers to the classroom to teach in a very non-conventional way. On one hand, one of the courses on international entrepreneurship had entrepreneurs from different industries coming in every session to share their experiences and offer tips for us going forward and

on the other hand, a course innovation had people from different backgrounds coming in every session and sharing how we can borrow ideas and skills from fields like music, dance, social service in business and management studies.

There was a Career Forum at ESADE in the last week of October, wherein a number of corporate partners were present for interactions and further possibilities. I didn’t attend the Career Forum at ESADE as I had planned of attending the CEMS Career Forum at Vienna (considering the fact that I had got three interviews and was actively searching for internship). Although almost all corporate partners were present in Vienna and were interviewing students for full-time positions and internships, the number of final offers they gave was a small percentage of total number of shortlisted candidates. Career Forum is a good opportunity to network with various companies and then pursue independently. Do remember, an interview with a firm during Career Forum is a first step to secure an internship or a full time position for that matter. One thing that I realized after attending the Career Forum is that the CEMS name as a brand is very big. I mean I have interacted with many of these companies before but now with the CEMS name on my resume, they were so much more willing to listen to me and consider my candidature.

In nutshell, I have had a wonderful experience here at ESADE, Barcelona for my CEMS exchange term and having been exposed to the wonderful network of CEMS students, professors and corporate partners, I believe it’s a very good program, unlike the normal student exchange program. Having experienced a wonderful time here, I would highly recommend CEMS and CEMS at ESADE to all those seeking a global program with the best of everything at offer.

“Courses offered at ESADE are very different from the mainstream courses on the lines of corporate sustainability, philosophy and innovation”

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CEMS CLUB CALCUTTA