Bedhu’s Blog

Today it was a holiday for Sony and hence I decided to go visit the city of Salzburg. Had a good breakfast, took suggestions from Lucie and off I go. It was raining but I had the umbrella, thanks to Lucie. I took an Autobus to Salzburg(2.5 Euro), which dropped me at Autobahn. Actually, I intended to get down at Mirabellgarten, but couldnt see the stop correctly and got down at train station. I walked back to Mirabell garden which was not too far off. I saw a ayurvedic store and felt happy for the Indian presence in Salzburg.

I went by walk to Mirabell garten and then found the office of panorama tours. They told me that they have a tour called “Sound of Music” which was very popular. Since I had to wait 4 more hours, I said I will come back and started walking again. I then walked into a park that is opposite that place and took time to study the tour details. I understood that most of it was about the movie which is a namesake of the tour. I didnt understand the kind of places because I couldnt relate to the movie. I then studied the maps and found out that some of the places are very near to where I am standing. Then I chalked out a plan and started walking. Unfortunately most of the places like Mozart Museum were closed because it was a holiday. Nevertheless, I didnt have too much interest in them. I was walking around enjoying the weather and looking at people. I found a group of people on walking tour and just followed them on instinct. They took me to the garden and then a couple of museums, which had some art collection. I roamed around, took some good photographs. Actually, all the visitable places were nearby. I went into a souvenir store bought a porcelain doll for my daughter and couple of other souvenirs. Then I visited an asian market where I met a man who spoke in Hindi. He was nice enough to show me some pickles from Patak’s. I bought them and while returning visited a christmas market where small beautiful things were sold at exorbitant prices. I refrained from buying anything there.  I saw the Mozarteum, crossed over the river and entered the old town. It had narrower lanes and close by shops. I saw the Mozart’s birth place, though I couldnt relate a lot. I saw shops here have english placards and signs. I even found a Indian restaurant Hina’s Rasoi, which was a little expensive.

I walked back to the bus station and luckily, there was a bus in next two minutes. I boarded and was home in like 10 minutes. That ends my Salzburg saga. Sincerely, I liked riding bicycle in Anif than going around in Salzburg. I get to see lot of cities and like but not a place like Anif where I can wander around aimlessly in the lap of nature and stare appreciatively at the snow capped pimples of mother earth (I mean Alps), which makes her look even so beautiful. People around here are complaining that there is too much less snow, but what junk, you keep driving your gas guzzlers and contribute to the global warming. How can you expect that ice keeps forming as it was 25 years back.

Next half of the day was cooking, watching a movie called “staten island”, which was junk  though I liked parts of it and then watching another movie called “Nothing”, which got nothing to say about it.

Deepthi came online for a little bit and we talked and I ended the day but not before cooking and eating a little again.

Good presentation on capabilities of Opensource CRM

Reading through what this ICICI PO program is, I found the following article which sounded great. My interest was more towards the thought that has gone into “branding” of this program and how ICICI thought differently about the talent pool than other people. This again drives a point home that we need to look for what we need rather than just following the herd. Let me explain. They found out that they need talented people who are ready to work in tier II and tier III cities where ICICI bank is growing and needs talent. Their resourcing was done totally from an MBA college more probably located in an Urban area. Also, these candidates were tested on an assumption that english language skill is more important. Their data showed other wise. People from urban areas dont readily work in rural areas. Also, 80% of their customers interact in local language, not english. With the myth broken, they focused on a great strategy of recruiting talented people limited by “opportunity” and honing their skills rigorously so that they achieve FDFH material(productive from First Day First Hour). Then remained the question of, how would we motivate the rural/ semi-urban guys to apply to the program. The branding exercise of calling the program “Probationary Officer” program instead of a “Management trainee” program, broke down some psychological barriers (or so does ICICI think).

Business Line – December 25, 2007

Turning out officers and gentlemen, bankers & ladies

ICICI Bank’s new ‘probationary officers’ training programme

The bank has modelled it on the lines of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) as well as the SBI probationary officers’ programme.

N.S. Vageesh

Chennai, Dec 24 Starting in about a month from now, a new experiment in tapping human resources will get under way at ICICI Bank. A one-year training programme will turn out about 1,000 probationary officers for the bank. That number is slated to increase to 5,000 in three years’ time, which will meet about a third of the bank’s annual requirements at that point of time.
Mr K. Ramkumar, ICICI Bank’s Group Head of Human Resources, who is driving this initiative, says the bank has modelled it on the lines of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) as well as the SBI probationary officers’ programme.

Fixing the hurdle

Conceiving this idea, based on a conviction that talent scarcity in India is a myth, Mr Ramkumar and his team asked themselves how to locate it? After a number of internal debates, they zeroed in on the single biggest hurdle – all hiring efforts had hitherto focussed on urban India and equating English education with talent.
As Mr Ramkumar puts it, “Once we break from this model or urban-dependent sourcing of good quality people, there won’t be any crunch. We found that 80 per cent of our customers engage with our staff in their local language. So why were we fixated on English? Once we removed that filter, the gates were wide open.”
As evidenced by the 80,000 applications from graduates they got for about 1,000 seats. About 23,000 were considered good even by ICICI Bank’s standards and about 4,000 got through a test that was equivalent to an IIM entrance exam.

Finishing school

But the raw talent still needed to be fine-tuned and honed. That would require a finishing school that ICICI Bank decided to start itself, roping in Manipal Academy for Banking and Insurance to provide infrastructure and technical support. This programme will teach them English, etiquette, banking, management, et al.
But why use the term ‘probationary officer’, something that you associate more readily with a public sector bank? Mr Ramkumar explains, “Suppose I use the word Management Trainee – many of the small town boys and girls might have got intimidated. They’ll presume they won’t be taken and may not even apply. So what brand do they understand? All of them would know of the SBI probationary officer – who came as a branch manager to their town and was God there.”
Acknowledging without any reservation the role played by the officers of SBI since the 1960s and 70s, Mr Ramkumar says ICICI had to learn from others who had done these things well. He said the senior management agreed that despite objections it was important to retain the probationary officer tag and connect with the target audience.
These probationers have been picked from various towns in India. The programme, which would cost about Rs 2.5 lakh per head, is fully paid for by the bank.
The probationers would get all facilities and amenities, including a stipend of Rs 2,500 per month. In keeping with the lifestyle followed by cadets at such training institutions, probationers will have to wear uniform and go through a 10-hour schedule every day.
That’s good preparation for the life ahead.

My IITK soulmate, Shailendra left me a scrap on Orkut. I felt so nice that I could write the following in Hindi. Shailendra himself is a hindi literature enthusiast and he liked it. So, sharing with everybody to hear what you think…

aagaye us mod pe, re sathi hum
aage dekhe to pata nahin kitna hein dum
peeche dekhe to lag ta hein kisi aur ka kadam
rah gaye us mod pe bas hum hi hum

aate rahe, judte bichadte, saathi kaee
na kisi ke the, na rahenge hum kabhi
idhar udhar yaadon ke cheete pade, koi baarish nahin
bas rah gaye us mod pe hum hi hum

agar hum yaad kabhi aaye to itna karna
saath biti palon ka phir ikraar karna
par karke waqt ki paheli, chale aana
us mod pe jahan hein hum hi hum

I found this link very useful, where it explains how to Create Pareto Charts with Microsoft Excel 2007, very descriptively.

http://www.brighthub.com/office/project-management/articles/8708.aspx

Hope you find that useful as well.

I found this interesting slide share about Oracle Performance Management. Do watch it.

It was real fun with Jungle Lodges @ Bannerghattaaaaaaaaaaaah. A nice vacation after a long time.

Booked my cottage from Jungle Lodges Resorts on Thursday for a Nights stay in the park. Charged 3000 Rs for two for a cottage and the transaction was smooth, online, on their website http://www.junglelodges.com/.

We started at 9:30 AM from home and reached the biological park by 11 AM. It was a good drive, though traffic was bad on Bannerghatta road stretch. We called the resorts guy from parking area and he came collected us. They are very friendly. We parked our car and joined them in a jeep. It was a short drive through the jungle to reach the resort. Manogna was excited to see the Gisselles and Deers on the way. We settled at the cottage, lazed around for 2 hours and then went for lunch. It was a good spread and the quality of food was great. Manu enjoyed the environment a lot, playing with the deer and observing monkeys from the cottage. We started at around 2 PM for safari and went through bear, lion and tiger safaris. We could see the animals on the roads and near them so it felt good. Manu was excited to see all of them. I took some nice photographs(View Gallery Below).

We went to the butterfly park and it was beautiful. Returned back, played shuttle, carroms etc at the cottage after tea and had fun. Had a good sleep that night. Some of the campers went for a trek in herbivore park the next morning but we opted to sleep longer. We got ready at about 10, had some breakfast and started back to the zoo. Zoo was small but wonderful. Manu learnt a lot of stuff about animals. All in all, well spent 2 days.