Volume 1 Issue 4

August 2014

From Director’s Desk

From Editorial Board Desk

Reading through the ‘Vantage Point’, I can-

not, but admire the students who have come

up with such a wonderful compilation of

events at Vanguard. More importantly, I see

the contributory articles from students, for

the Newsletter, full of meaningful insights,

helping B School students and aspirants

alike. Vantage Point is fast turning out to be

a must read for students interested in MBA

and more so for people looking at making

Vanguard their next alma-mater.

You are at the right vantage point in coming

out with this edition of “Vantage Point”. I

congratulate and wish the editorial board all

success.

Inside this issue:

From Director Desk 1

From Editorial Board Desk 1

Guest Speakers 2

Campus Diary 5

Students Inscribe 14

Students Achievements 19

Dean’s Message 20

Digital Memories 20

Vantage Point Team

Media Coordinator

Indraneela Yeluri

Editorial Board

Abinandan D

Ankita Chakraborty

Anantha R

Page Layout & Design

Indraneela Yeluri

Page 1

It gives us great pleasure in rolling out the 4th edition of Vantage Point, the college magazine of Vanguard Business

School. The previous months have seen a lot of activities. Starting from the intra collegiate cultural fest ‘Vihaan’,

the management fest ‘Vyuha’ and numerous other memorable events have kept us on our toes. Guest speakers on

campus gave us a glimpse of what we can expect in the future. Club events and a myriad of other workshops that

were hosted by the student community saw a lot of enthusiastic participation. The year ended on an emotional note

with us having to bid goodbye to our beloved seniors. The convocation was followed by a farewell party that the

junior batch hosted for the seniors. Here, the perspiration of the editorial crew supported by the entire batch has

finally shown insignia and we have tried to relive all the excitement of the days gone by at Vanguard Business

School. Thus we present before you a bird’s eye view of all the action that took place on campus in the past few

months.

Mr. Manosh Sengupta had started

his career as Sr. Manager of Tata

Cellular Ltd followed by Vice Presi-

dent of Starcom and went on to be-

come the General Manager –

Marketing (Brand) of IDEA Cellular

Ltd , Vice President - Brand &

MarCom. He is currently the inde-

pendent Brand & Marketing Strate-

gist of Brand @titude

The topic of discussion for the day

was ‘Labour Pain’ - The art of Brand

Parenting .His session basically

made us aware about Branding.

What is branding – it is the estab-

lishment of the name of a company.

Brand is the "name, term, design,

symbol, or any other feature that

identifies one seller's product dis-

tinct from those of other sellers."

Brands are used in business, mar-

keting, and advertising. He empha-

sized the difficulties a company

face to establish the brand

name , moreover once the

brand name is established how

difficult it is to maintain . He also

highlighted the marketing pro-

cesses involved in the establish-

ment of BRAND, often people

associate with a brand so it is

important as well as difficult to

position a brand in front of the

public. As a marketer we need

to understand how to target

people with respect to the prod-

uct and to build brand accord-

ingly. He also spoke on Market

penetration and shared various

techniques to deal with clients.

He put in the picture that it is

important to connect emotional-

ly with clients.

Manosh Sengupta ‘Labour Pain’- The art of brand parenting

Page 2

Mr Vishwas J Shetty is the current Chief General Manager- Sales- Home Mortgage Loans and Property Services at Indiabulls Housing Finance Ltd. He specializes in setting up and creating ground breaking teams in Sales and Collections at Home loans, Mortgages, Business loans, Credit cards, Corpo-rate salary accounts and Insurance He ran us through the difficulties that one will have to face in a sales job. Starting from people not paying atten-tion to you, to the importance of being punctual and always being there for your customers and most important of all is the ability to stay patient and not lose hope. His dedication and hard work has helped him to reach where he is today. He talked in great depth about the kind of work he does. For instance, we were amazed when he said that Indiabulls alone distributes around forty thousand crores of ru-pees for home loans alone.

A firm believer of the saying

“Performance gets rewarded

and Potential gets promoted"

Mr Shetty emphasized that we

should start looking up to cer-

tain people whom we consider

our role models and take cues

from the way they’ve shaped

up their lives and implement it

in all our actions and behav-

iour. He believes that one

should always go with the

team dynamics and celebrate

collective success. An im-

portant takeaway from this ses-

sion of his was that- a passion

to succeed armed with persis-

tence makes leaders out of

ordinary individuals

CORPORATE INTERACTIONS -GUEST SPEAKERS

Vishwas J Shetty - ‘Difficulties one has to face in sales’

Page 3

Mr Pritam Kanti Paul is responsible for product research and devel-

opment as well as solution design and architecture for BRIDGEi2i.

Prior to BRIDGEi2i, he served HP as the Director of marketing, cus-

tomer and e-commerce analytics and led teams focused on risk and

financial analytics at GE. This provided him with a unique analytics

application experience cutting across functions and industries. With

over 12 years of analytics consulting experience using cutting edge

data-mining tools and business research applications, he has worked

in areas as diverse as target marketing, pricing, credit risk, audit an-

alytics, fraud detection, forecasting, spend analytics and market re-

search.

In his session at Vanguard Business School on 19 th feb 2014 he

spoke on the topic - Big Data BUZZ the changes, opportunities, appli-

cation and challenges from a practical Standpoint . He spoke about

what is data & how it is useful in our day to day lives. He mentioned

the different kinds of DATA like structured - Semi structured, Social -

Machine data , Smart grid project data , Big data . He was open to all

sorts of queries, moreover he mentioned the new trends the big com-

panies are following. He also emphasized on the fact that in the com-

ing 5 to 6 years how important data analytics industry is going to be.

Pritam Kanti Paul - ‘Big Data Buzz’

Rakesh Godwani - ‘Ambition’ He completed his formative years in great organizations in the

High-Tech space like Wipro, Intel and Qualcomm, doing different

roles in sales, product marketing and business development. He

is currently the head IIM Bangalore Alumni Association and the

development office, an Adjunct Professor of communication at IIM

Bangalore and IIM Trichy. Teaching has been his passion over the

last 16 years. His goal is to create a fun filled learning environment

and create effective communicators and leaders who can per-

suade and motivate people to action.

His session focused mainly on Ambition which is basically of two

types. You have calculated ambitions (based on constraints) and

infinite ambitions. Constraints in our ambition are all things that

we create on our own like inputs from parents, society, financial

constraints, etc. The only person who can help you is YOU! .So

stop looking out for people or moments that wow you. There are

three fundamental elements that set us humans apart. The first is

Intelligence. Intelligence will always drive you to do things and

never sit still. The second is Happiness. We’re all governed by the

feeling of happiness; we would never do anything that makes us

unhappy. And the third is Service. We are all born to serve. You’ll

always end up serving someone either above or below you.

Ambition and life boils down to these three principles.

There should always be a goal of personal happiness in what-

ever you do. When your skill sets match your competitiveness and

you receive approval of it, you tend to continue in such a field. Al-

so, you need a good social balance. And finally, have ambitious

monetary goals.

Director Ulhas Vairagkar Handing

Over the Token Of Appreciation

CORPORATE INTERACTIONS -GUEST SPEAKERS

Mr Santosh Mishra from 24*7 innovation labs spoke to us about the exciting oppor-

tunities available in the field of analytics and big data. A HR Leader for Big Data &

Predictive analytic business an experience of over 14 years in the corporate world

explained to us how companies are using these technologies to their advantage . A

brief introduction to the world of Agile methodology was presented before us and

we were all awestruck when we heard that coders get to see their code go live in a

span of 1 to 2 weeks. For those who were interested in statistics and math, this ses-

sion turned out to be a very useful one as we were exposed to the exciting work

done by 24*7, the kind of technologies that they work with and how they are able to

foresee and predict what’s going to happen a year from now before anyone else

can .

Santosh Mishra - Data Analytics as a Career Option

Page 4 CORPORATE INTERACTIONS-GUEST SPEAKERS

Debesh Chakrabarti - Sales

Hearing from a man, who had spent years doing hard core sales not only eliminated

hesitations and reservations that we had for pursuing a career in sales but was suc-

cessful in generating interest in us . The entire process of starting a career in sales to

leading teams at the district and national level was put forth in an exciting and a lucid

manner. The key takeaways from this talk were that sales is not mere communication

skills, it is more about understanding the needs, the psyche of the people and always

being there for your customers in times of need. He gave us a lot of examples from

the FMCG industry as he had a vast experience in that field. Even minute details like

the ethics and etiquette to be followed before making a sales call was mentioned. He

was open to questions and the queries were answered in an interesting manner.

There are different stages of freedom and bonding in a student’s life. Mov-

ing out of home to a PG or hostel, staying with new found friends in a dif-

ferent city and adjusting to the new lifestyle are part and parcel of college

life. But the most exciting and rewarding experiences is a BATCH TRIP.

One such unforgettable memory for our batch was the trip to COORG. The

267km journey from Bangalore began on 21st December from our second

home VBS campus. The bus ride with loud music, Random Antakshari,

Movie Dumb-Charades, our own vanguard lingo, shared jokes, made the

whole experience larger than life.

We reached at 11pm to our destination ‘Mother’s Bounty’ with an ample lot

of anticipation for the tight packed adventure plan for the next few days

away from the hustle and bustle of the city.

Our trip officially started with the 5km long drive away from town to the

dashing ABBI Falls. Following which we rushed to capture the ethereal

beauty or the Western Ghats from the Kodagu hills. The trekking experi-

ence along majestic landscape to the hill top left us spellbound. At sunset

we were mesmerized with the idyllic Raja Seat located in the town of

Madikeri. Relaxed & enchanted with effect of the Kodava region of Karna-

taka we ended the day with Camp fire, Dance , Ghost stories, teasers , pro-

posals, disposals, hangover till we passed out for the next day. Following

day we visited Cauvery Nisargadhama to enjoy the small 64-acre island ,

deer park and water rafting. We ended our trip with ‘Byle Kuppe’- one of

the largest Tibetan settlements in south India to head back to our resort

and pack our bags.

Finally with tons of group pictures to store and happy memories we head-

ed back to Bangalore. Excellent work and great co-operation from the

batch had made this trip a successful event.

Coorg ‘The trip’

Page 5 Campus Diary

Re-Freshers - Party Exuberance, Excitement and lots of fun are the perfect adjec-

tives to describe our "SREHSERF" Party Perplexed with title Chill

guys its Freshers written in a reverse way It is REVERSE Freshers

Party . Theme of the party was Hawaiian Nights. People came in

dressed in the most casual and outlandish clothes that were per-

fectly in sync with the theme of the party. The party was orga-

nized at The Bak Bak Bar in Kormangala, Bangalore. In true Ha-

waiian style the seniors were welcomed with a garland and a

mock tail. Then we had a lively program song and dance pro-

gram. A few fun activities and games followed. A sumptuous din-

ner was arranged and everyone ate like there was no tomorrow.

The atmosphere was so electrifying that everyone spontaneously

rushed to the dance floor. They grooved to the music of the

DJs .Sankalp and Sonal were titled ‘Mr’ and ‘Mrs’ Hawaii. At the

end of party when clock struck 12, students had to be literally

pushed out of the party hall. Most of them left the venue unwill-

ingly because we are still in party mood but the next we had a

class in the morning . This party made our bond with our seniors

more strong.

Batch ’02 & ’03 partying at Re-Fresher's

B03 Students at Coorg

Page 6 Campus Diary

GET VIHAANIFIED!!

A phrase that only a vanguard student will be able to associate with, our very own campus lingo-‘get vihanified’.

This phrase has been formulated from the root word ‘Vihaan’ which means “first ray of the sun” or in Sanskrit “a

new beginning”. It all started when the 1st batch of Vanguard introduced the concept of an intra-college cultural

and sports event. The primary objective was to engage every eager student on campus in sports and cultural ac-

tivities and learn from the whole experience.

The core committee and volunteers did a good job at promoting VIHAAN 2013 and giving the whole campus a

new look - flyer, decorations, info-graphics and a flexi with the official Vihaan logo and taglines. A massive forum

to showcase one’s brilliance in not just academics but in organizing, coordinating, planning, strategizing and ex-

celling in numerous events .The key take-away was group dynamics, smart work and perseverance. On 30th of

November 2013 VIHAAN started with a bang! The inaugural ceremony was thought-provoking with our faculty

(Ajay sir, Arka Sir, Ashish Sir and ARKS sir) pointing out the relevance of such extracurricular events on campus,

to back it up Manali ma’am gave us an insight into the importance of making it a success. It started with a Table

Tennis match between our very own Director versus the Dean of academics, followed by Chess. With a lot of an-

ticipation and excitement the 2nd and the 3rd batch registered and actively participated in the events organized

by the core committee

The 2nd day was the on-field sports day which started at 6:30am with our Seniors battling it out against the juniors

in Cricket & Football followed by Tug of War (Girls/Boys). Furthermore individuals participated in 100meters –

200 meters Race, Badminton, Relay, Throw ball .

The main show stopper for this year was the band performance by the ‘URBAN INTRUDERS’. To set the mood for

party after a long day of athletics this upcoming band jazzed up the evening with some pop and in-house music.

On the last day of Vihaan the semi finals for the massive TT tournament was conducted. A number of indoor

events such as Rangoli, Art Attack, Mehendi-Tattoo, Dumb-Charades and Antakshari showcased hidden talents

and creativity skills in vanguardians. The highlights of this day was the Treasure hunt almost half the college was

engrossed in brain-storming and searching for clues.

This brings us to the grand finale of VIHAAN 2013 with an entertaining singing competition followed by dance

competition and a sensational fashion show. The remarkable part of the fashion show was that participants

dressed up in accordance to two themes – cultural and gothic. It was simply stunning! the crowd was mesmerized

and enjoyed every bit of the show.

Vihaan-13

Inauguration of Vihaan 2013 (B02 &B03 Students)

Page 7 Campus Diary Vihaan-13

GET VIHAANIFIED!!

Inauguration Ceremony Treasure Hunt

Dance Competition

Singing Competition

Group Dance by B03

Cultural Secretary — Solo performance

Sport’s day– Cricket

Vyuha-14

Vyuha 2014, the case-study competition at Vanguard Business School kicked off on the 8th of February, 2014. It was the 2nd

year of Vyuha. All the case-studies were live and were original problems that were either solved or being solved by the ex-

perts. They were shared with us by the corporates who were dealing with the respective problems. Case-studies from differ-

ent field of business management, may it be HR, Finance or Marketing were there to be solved us, the students of Vanguard.

Vyuha officially started off on 8th February, but in reality it had started for the organizers months ahead. Contacting the cor-

porates and compiling the case studies, setting the parameters , re-checking with the experts who had provided us with the

case studies and so on. Each and every member in the organizing team maintained the strict decorum of confidence and con-

fidentiality. With utmost sense of responsibility they silently carried on with their duties. Finally on 8th, their months of hard

work paid off.

Vyuha started off with the HR case study. Gyannesh and Annapurna two HR experts who had themselves provided us with the

material judged the contestants. After judging they praised the contestants for the fine work they had put up as well as the

maturity with which they had approached the case. Hence, Vyuha started of on a very good note.

Following the HR case study was the Strategy case study. It was judge by Mr Pulak Mishra . The Vanguardians flew in with the

best strategies possible and impressed the judge. Similarly the Branding case study judged by Mr Manosh Sengupta, who

had given the case himself was impressed by the marketing ideas of the Vanguardians. According to him the students weren’t

students but they had come up with ideas that were professional in standard. Lastly the entire event ended with finance case-

study. It was judged by Ms Seema of Punjab National Bank. Vyuha , was not only a case study competition. It was an event

that groomed each and every one of us. How to interact with corporates and how to solve corporate problems were the main

essence of Vyuha. We will remember it as the first stepping stone in the corporate world.

Page 8 Campus Diary

Intra-College Case Study Competition ‘Vyuha-14’

HR Case Study participants with the Jury—Mr. Gyanesh and Mrs. Annapurna

Mr. Manosh Sengupta with Winners of Marketing

Case Study Event Mr Pulak Mishra and winner of Strategy

Case Study Event

Page 9 Campus Diary

HR Conclave The first ever HR Conclave for Vanguard Business School

was held on 9th November at Hotel Capitol, Raj Bhavan

Road. It was conceptualized by our Vyasa Club Secretary

Snigdha Saha and Ex-President Gurucharan Rao for under-

standing the changes required in the education system to

align the graduating students to become successful and ca-

pable frontline managers. The theme of the Conclave was -

Bridging Management Education with the Industry Require-

ments.

There was two panels with seven members each, out of

these 7, 6 are Senior Corporate Heads from companies

such as Capgemini, Essilor, TCS, Citrix Systems, SAP, etc

and the other one Academician (Management Education ).

Following are the topics of discussion for the two panels

that had been revolving around the Conclave theme.

Panel Topic 1- What skills and competency are missing in

MBA graduates - An Industry Perspective?

Panel Topic 2- What Industry can do to change/assist

Management Education Curriculum?

With the combined presence of the chief guest Mr Ravi

Sreedharan the Head of Education Leadership & Manage-

ment Azim Premji Foundation and the elite panellist, VBS

was able to determine the corporate requirements and the

gaps in the prevailing education system. The eminent

speakers have mentioned Vanguard as an Emerging B-

School while delivering their thoughts on the conclave

theme numerous times. All the guest were exhilarated by

the hospitality showered by the students of Vanguard Busi-

ness School, we have made our very presence among the

leading companies in public and private sectors, also in

other B - schools in Bangalore.

Senior Corporate Heads-HR Conclave

Vote of Thanks by Mr. ARKS Srinivas

(Director of Vanguard Business School) .

Organizing Team for the HR Conclave

Page 10 Campus Diary Convocation B02

Convocation for our senior batch of B02 was a grand suc-

cess. Held at Hotel Atria on Palace road, the whole ceremo-

ny was anchored by our Ed-Board member Ankita. We host-

ed the ceremony for the students and their family members.

The ceremony was presided by Shri Santhanam B, the

Founding Managing Director , Saint-Gobain Glass India Ltd

and also Chairman, CII Southern Region 2014, who was the

chief guest along with the directors of our college and the

faculty members.

The ceremony was kicked off by our Dean of Academics

Mr.Arka Bhattacharya. The dais was the handed over to the

chairman of VBS, Mr. Ulhas Vairagkar He pointed out that

from now on grades will cease to matter. What will count is

the performance in real life's. The Chief Guest Shri Santha-

nam B then took the podium. He emphasized that grades

and real life performance have low correlation. He was glad

that VBS has been run on the philosophy of developing

frontline managers. He choose to talk on two aspects, firstly

changing business context and secondly kind of leadership

to be followed. He handed us the concept of I to the power

10. The 10 I’s he spoke about are as follows- Intelligence on

analytical abilities and on social & emotional abilities, In-

formation, Insight on Information, Imagination Intensity and

passion, Influence, Impact, Integrity, Independence of

thought. He motivated our students to become the instru-

ment of change for the society.

Post this, Mr. Arka concluded the ceremony with vote of

thanks. We then proceeded with the prize distribution cere-

mony. There were 11 prizes in 9 areas. They are as follows

Marketing Discipline Topper – Amit Upamanyu Finance Discipline Topper – Sudarshan IT Discipline Topper – Gurucharan & Arvindh HR Discipline Topper – Sonal Singh Rana Operations Discipline Topper – Ujjaini Roy Silver medal for Academics - Sudarshan Gold medal for Academics - Rajarajan Beat All-rounder – Snigdha Saha

Gold Medalist of Academics B02

RAJARAJAN. M

Graduating Batch Of 2014

The Directors and Faculty members of

Vanguard Business School with Chief guest

Mr. Santhanam.B

Page 11 Campus Diary

Pongal and Saraswati Puja were celebrated with great fervour in the campus. . Here we saw people from differ-

ent states get together and celebrate these festivals with great gusto. It was observed in our college that both

seniors and juniors students took great trouble to cook the conventional ‘bhog/prasad’ dish and it was relished

by everyone in the vanguard i.e. Students, Residing Faculty and administration . Being a campus where we

have students from all over the country, everyone brought in their own variety to the festivals. There were cer-

tain elements of Bihar, Assam, Karnataka, Andhra and Bengal added to the festival which again showed why

Vanguard Business School stands for unity in diversity

Pongal & Saraswati Puja

Festivals On Campus

Farewell Bash For Batch ‘02 at Tilt

Farewell The small college atmosphere and the close knit community has

made Vanguard Business school a home away from home and the

first set of people who welcomed us in to this home were our sen-

iors. Most of us still remember the first week of our college where

our seniors took charge of mentoring and guiding us. Though, most

of us were of the opinion that they were bullying us and taking our

trip, at the end of the day it only made us get to know each other

better. From then on we’ve bonded .

The farewell given us to our seniors was a way of expressing our

love and respect towards them one last time. We knew that we

could still stay in touch over calls and messages but that wouldn’t be

the same as meeting them face to face. The farewell was organized

at the Tilt pub in Kormanagala. The theme for the party was super

heroes. Everyone came dressed in their favourite super hero

dresses and super heroes they were in every sense of the world.

The fun and the games followed. We danced like there was no to-

morrow. We relived all the fun moments we had right from organiz-

ing fests to going on day trips, movie outings and the sports events.

After a sumptuous dinner, it was our time to bid them a final good-

bye. Photos were clicked, hugs were exchanged and we promised

them that we would remain in touch with them. We owe these guys

a lot more than a mere thank you.

First version of the much awaited Magnate Club Event “

The Ultimate Entrepreneur “ was conducted on 18th of Jan-

uary ,2014 at 4:30 pm by Magnate club secretary. The

competition began with much excitement as it was chal-

lenge among all the participants to prove their capabili-

ties . It was a tough war between 15 teams each of 2 mem-

bers .Suhas and Ayushi bagged the winning seat while An-

kita and Ramya were declared as runner-up of the evening.

The presiding judge for this competition was our very own

marketing professor Mr. Ajay Nayar.

Club Activities

Unleash La Creativite

The college Edboard was proud to present its first ever event

on campus to Show off your creative skills, out of the box think-

ing and wittiness in the event Unleash La Creativite. All partici-

pants had to do was - to wear their thinking caps and have fun !

This Event was conducted on 18th January 2014 3:00 pm. Each

Team consisted of 2 members either from the same batch or a

mixture of Senior -Junior batch mates The event was hosted in

three successive rounds and the final judge for the finale was our

Dean of Academics Mr. Arka Bhattacharya.e handed over the

prizes to the Winners of the event Ankita chakraborty and Anan-

tha R and the Runner ups - Ramya & Vivek M .

British Mock Parliament Competition :

The grand debate competition was organized by the Vyasa

club on 27th February, 2014 at 6:00 pm .After receiving a

good number of applications for the competition the partici-

pants were shortlisted into teams of 2. There was a very tough

fight between all the final participants till the end. There were

3 rounds that was designed for the event. Hari Thirumal S

and Sudipta Paul won the competition while Bidisha and

Wasim were declared as the runners up of the event The

presiding judge for the debate competition was our Dean of

Academics Mr. Arka Bhattacharya who handed over the cer-

tificates

Debate Competition

Page 12 Campus Diary

The Ultimate Entrepreneur

Winners of the event—Suhas Jayprakash and Ayushi Tiwari

Winners of Debate Competition—Sudipta Paul and

Hari Thirumal

Page 13

Money Mania’ 03

The much awaited Flagship event organized by Fintelligent (Finance

Club at VBS ) was Money Mania ‘03. It was conducted on 9th of Jan-

uary ,2014 at 5:00 pm. It was Organized by the finance club secre-

tary and fintellegent members. There was a surge in the number of

participating teams compared to last year which stood to 20 this

year. Dayanand ,Ramya and Abinandan bagged the winning

prize while Anantha, Nagakarthik and Subha were declared as

the runners up of the evening. This event was judged by our Finance

professor Mr Ashish Didwania who finally handed over the prize

money.

Brand Quiz

The first version of the marketing club event Brand Quiz was

successfully held on 6th of February , 2014 at 6:00pm by Street

Smart Club . There was an overwhelming response for participa-

tion from the students because everyone want to prove their

knowledge on Brands. In the first round of the contest a total of 20

teams qualified for the event. Post which it was a cut throat com-

petition among the 6 finalist teams. Finally Team Avengers -Naga

karthik, Ankita and Gurucharan won the winning slot of the

event. The prizes were given away by our Dean Mr. Arka

Bhattacharya to the winners and runners up of the evening.

As a part of the personality development program and grooming

session our ex-President Gurucharan Rao organised a Team build-

ing workshop on campus with 40 participants. This competition

had 5 teams with 8 members each , it was conducted in 3 rounds

primarily to test team-work and coordination. The student council

were the judge for this event. The final champions of this event

were a team of 8 surviving members Indu ,Bidisha, Sayantan, So-

ham, Yashas, Girish, Wasim, Vivek A.

Team Building Workshop

Campus Diary

Page 14

There’s no denying that technology has changed the way that global citizens receive, interpret and react to information. With

the proliferation of the internet at the turn of the twenty-first century, and the rapid evolution of devices that allow quick and

easy access to its millions of portals, consumers are finding new ways to interact with companies and with products. Given these

new forms of buyer seller interactions, many professionals and individuals alike now believe that the information age, facilitat-

ed by evolving technologies, has redefined the role of marketing. But is this belief valid? Sure the role of marketing has histori-

cally changed with time. In Kotler’s Defining Marketing for the Twenty-First Century we are walked through marketing’s evolu-

tion from being a production and product based concept in the early 1900’s, to being selling focused in the 1920’s. In the same

text, we are enlightened to the way in which marketing’s role post World War II, well into the 2000’s, changed from selling

products to embracing the marketing concept of providing customer needs. What Kotler and others have gone onto emphasize,

is how marketing’s role further changed in the 2000’s. Instead of merely concerning itself with providing products that meet the

needs and wants of consumers, marketing’s role shifted to developing and managing customer relationships. Today, more than

decade after this new role was adopted, marketers are still engaged in building these relationships.

So the question begs, “If the role of marketing hasn’t changed with technology in the last ten years, then what has?”

The answer to the above is simple. Though the role of marketing has not changed due to technology, the power dynamic in buy-

er seller relationships, corporate attitudes toward the marketing function and marketing approaches have all been inextricably

altered by the rapid evolution of technology Lets look at fundamental shift of the same and underlying catalysts, which have

propagated the new face of marketing experienced by today’s marketers.

The Fundamental Shift

By far the most compelling change of the approach to the marketing function since the turn of the century has been the shift

from Outbound Marketing to Inbound Marketing. Building from the experiences learned from doing business in the new Web

2.0 era, businesses have come to recognize the overwhelming advantages of pulling customers toward their product, rather

than pushing their products toward their customers. Outbound Marketing, defined by its insistence on bombarding consumers

with messages through print, radio and television advertisements, as well as those annoying telemarketing and spam email

messages, are not only costly, but are simply no longer effective.

The realization of the inability of traditional marketing to cut it on its own has given way to the pull marketing phenomena. This

new strategy provides tremendous benefits to businesses. Inbound Marketing pulls customers toward a brand by supplying

value laden content, such as white papers, eBooks, info graphics and more that allow marketers to earn their way into customers

inner circles. From here marketers can massage the needs of their customers and gain privileged, personal information that

they can use to redefine and specify their market segments, determine valuable leads and create personalized messages and

products. As content is fed through sites like Twitter, Facebook and news aggregators, such as Reddit.com and Digg.com, its

reach can multiply making its message viral. With search engines being the go to tool for consumers seeking to clarify or gath-

er information, marketing is also charged with the responsibility of ensuring that their content is not only customer focused, but

search engine optimized by its use of specific ad words. Through social media and the internet, marketing’s attitude toward the

development of advertisements and promotions has also changed. Before the change in approach, marketing departments de-

pended on inside creativity and intellect, or that of outsourced hires, to help conceptualize advertising campaigns. With crowd

sourcing, companies can continue strengthening their customer relationships and achieve winning advertisements at a cheaper

rates.

Unlike traditional Outbound Marketing, Inbound Marketing, because of its use of digital technologies that allow for greater

reach and specificity, offers greater, quantifiable returns, at cheaper costs. The use of business intelligence, predictive analyt-

ics, and Customer Relationship Management systems and other software applications and programs are all inherent in this new

marketing approach. These technologies allow companies to quickly sort, analyse and translate the variety of data they access

from the increasing touch points with their customers. Together with the evolution of the internet and digital devices that allow

quick reliable access to its portals, the marketing approach, not its role, will continue to evolve.

STUDENTS INSCRIBE

How Technology Changed Role of Marketing:

Past, Present and Future

Page 15

What Happens Next

In the next five years, it won’t be strange to see marketing’s function becoming more diluted with information technology,

giving birth to marketing-tech teams. CMOs and CIOs will collaborate on greater projects, with the former dropping more

budget bucks on information technology than the latter. Why will this happen? Mankind’s fascination with mobile technol-

ogies, configured with GPS, 4G and Wi-Fi capabilities, combined with their thirst for information on-the-go will channel

attention away from traditional media outlets to handheld devices. With the need to be where the customer is, marketing

will be charged with the responsibility of not only creating content, but formatting it to meet the mobile platform. This

however, will not mean the death of traditional Outbound Marketing and thus the historical function of marketing. Because

there will always be differentiated customers; because old systems can be repurposed. I believe marketing’s function will

be split, whether evenly or unevenly, amongst the two approaches. Whatever happens, one thing is certain: Marketing’s

role of developing quality customer relationships will force its function to positively correlate with the changing behav-

iours of its customers. Their behaviours and habits whether driven by technology, globalization, or other trends, will direct

the continuous evolution of the marketing function.

This article encapsulates a story of a small entrepreneur and its analogy in the technological space. There was a small

entrepreneur named Popeye running a Bakery business. He was having ten retail outlets across the city and the supply

was from the main outlet to the rest of the nine outlets. The sales of his business tend to vary with the seasonal cues. Pop-

eye wanted to optimize the operational activities of his business especially to reduce the cost incurred by the supply chain

so as to increase the marginal profit. He had two plans as follows.

Plan A

Popeye wanted to buy a truck which could carry the Bakery items to be supplied for all the retail outlets. But, the problem

was that the quantity of the items being carried by the truck always tends to change with respect to the season. If the sea-

son is festive, then the truck will be completely loaded. But, in normal days, there was a lot space left unloaded. So, he

could not able to optimize it since he was doubtful on the size of the truck to be bought. He also had a plan of expanding

his business to few more cities in the offing. In that case, he had to buy more trucks to supply the items to various outlets at

other cities. Same seasonal issue would come to picture in the scenario too. But, he had to invest on few more trucks to

keep his business alive in all the cities which would cost him a lot. There was no option left to relinquish the investment on

buying the trucks.

Plan B

For the same motive of supplying the baked items to all the outlets across all the cities, he wanted to hire a truck from a

Truck service provider based on his business requirement. During festive seasons, he hired bigger and more number of

trucks so as to deliver more quantity to the outlets and the smaller and lesser during normal days. He wanted to adopt a

pay per use practice for his supply chain operations rather investing on the ownership of the trucks.

By carefully analysing both the plans, he had realized that Plan A was conventional and cost exponential. On the other

hand, Plan B was not only cost effective but also eased his operational activities. So, undoubtedly he adopted plan B and

pursued smarter bakery business. The story of Popeye ends now. Sorry for the disappointment for not involving Bluto and

Olive in the story.

Apropos, the analogical trend existing in the global market is nothing but Cloud computing. It has indeed become a revo-

lution in the field of technology. CIOs of the world have realized just like Popeye that “pay per use” concept in the cloud

technology is saving a huge chunk of their investment on Information systems.

Cloud computing is basically a technology used to maintain data and applications of the enterprises & the consumers over

internet without any installation. They have been given an access which would allow them to use their data & applications

from any computer system. It centralizes the data storage, processing and the bandwidth. The concept of cloud is broken

into three segments viz. data, storage and connectivity. Each segment has its own purpose and its products based on the

consumer requirements. It can be provided as an Infrastructure, a platform or a software as its service. The only hindering

concern for them was the security which was also completely resolved with the advancement in the utility of the cloud

technology. They can either invest on private or public cloud based on their requirement.

This practice is almost similar to the utility of electricity, LPG or any other pay per use service. So, the CIOs across the in-

dustries are becoming Popeyes of this era with the birth of a Spinach box called “Cloud Computing”. The rapid wide-

spread adoption of this technology from the recent past has a major economic influence in the growth rate of various in-

dustries across the planet.

Already its Cloudy everywhere. Snatch you Spinach soon !

STUDENTS INSCRIBE

Its Cloudy Everywhere! Snatch your Spinach

-Dheeraj Pulavarthy (B02)

- Gurucharan R (B02)

Career –Not by Chance but by Choice Parents always ask a child about the future aspirations and dreams. Usual answer will be a doctor or an engineer. As time flies by

circumstances change and not many would be able to pursue their passion. In teens, you will be ignited with various ideas and

the career takes a curve like a river stream. You will be in college either applauding your decision (mostly by arts and Science

grads) or repenting (normally engineers) for choosing such a course. Students will land up in services industry especially IT,

work for a couple of years and then awakens to pursue higher studies. They will join some coaching institutes to prepare for the

entrance exams such as CAT, GMAT, GATE, etc. The spirit to score top will be like a spark initially and eventually wanes as days

grow. As a result many will land in a tier2 B-school, apologetic for not preparing well during the entrance exam days. Some

might even think of re appearing next year for the exams even after joining the course of PGPM.

Everything said above happened to me as well. I was feeling remorseful after getting my CAT results and decided to join

“some” B-school to get a PGPM degree. Nevertheless, I was inspired by the team of Vanguard, while I happened to meet them at

a seminar in Chennai. Although a little risk factor was involved as I quit the job for higher studies, I took a unanimous decision of

joining Vanguard. Like others I too dreamt of a campus with trees and acres of land. To my surprise, it was a single building with 4

floors but with the best interiors. Soonest I realised that, it is not the bricks and mortar that takes you to higher heights, but the

amount of knowledge that you gain within them.

The team is strong consisting of IIM and XLRI alumni. Being too much stressed out in the IT industry, the first lesson at

VBS was stress management through Ice breaker sessions. Eventually I got adapted to the culture of early classes and learnt to

manage the most precious thing available to all “the Time.” The amount of exposure that I gained through the guest lectures is

mammoth. Every activity of VBS was articulated in such a way to teach a new trait that a future manager should possess.

We the students of VBS run the show of taking our alma mater to a greater horizon. We make mistakes, learn from it and

carve ourselves to the best. The Vanguard Faculty team, mentors and guest faculties have helped us tremendously in each step

we take. Tier 1 colleges that are being ranked now were once in Tier2 as per the saying a journey of a thousand miles begins

with a single step.

We believe that one day we will stand ahead of others and make ourselves different from pupils of other institutes. We

are proud to be Vanguardians! Last but not the least, I thank my mentors/ faculties to make us confident enough to face the world

of challenges and equip us for the battle!

“I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well – Alexander the Great.”

THE TYRANNICAL NATURE OF GOVERNMENT Most of us are “educated” to believe that government is either a good institution or, at worst, a necessary evil. We believe that

without a government, the world would be overrun by chaos and lawlessness. That “democracy” is the best form of a Government

and the United States of America is the “idol” of the same. A closer look to the fresh catastrophes all over the world regarding the

enigmatic surveillance programs being carried out by the “democratic” countries puts up a question mark to the entire arrange-

ment. The National Security Agency’s sweeping surveillance obtained access to the central servers of major U.S. Internet compa-

nies as part of a secret program that involves the monitoring of emails, file transfers, photos, videos, chats, and even live surveil-

lance of search terms.

According to the Washington Post disclosed, it had obtained classified PowerPoint slides detailing the program, code-named

PRISM, from a career intelligence officer who felt “horror” over its privacy-invading capabilities. “They quite literally can watch

your ideas form as you type,” the source told the newspaper. Participating in the PRISM program, according to a selection of the

leaked slides, are Internet titans including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, AOL, Skype, YouTube, and Apple. It was estab-

lished in 2007 and is used by NSA analysts to spy on Internet communications as part of the agency’s foreign intelligence-

gathering work. India has acted differently. It is going a step ahead with a ruthless program that will let it monitor any one of its

900 million telecom subscribers and 120 million internet users. The Centralised Monitoring System (CMS), has planned to give 9

Indian government agencies—including the tax department—the power to access, in real-time, phone conversations, video con-

ferences, text messages, emails, and even internet search data and social media activity, and will work without any independent

oversight, Reuters reports; the agencies have a green signal to begin observing targets without the authorization of the courts or

the parliament. According to the Hindu newspaper, the system will have dedicated servers and extensive data-mining capabili-

ties that can be used for surveillance.

Page 16 STUDENTS INSCRIBE

-Ramya V (B03)

Page 18

The fates of Edward Snowden (whistle-blower of the PRISM slide leaks of NSA) , Julian Assange (editor-in-chief and founder of

Wiki leaks) and not to forget the arrest of the Gurgaon techie for making “derogatory” comments against Mrs. Gandhi are no

different from the Nazi accomplishments and propaganda back in the 1930s. The Reichstag fire decree and enabling act where

the decree was used as the legal basis of imprisonment of anyone considered to be opponents of the Nazis, and to suppress

publications not considered “friendly” to the Nazi cause. If the Nazi propaganda seemed to be “Notorious” and “Totalitarian”,

we are in no better state.

If freedom is negotiated or compromised under any circumstances, the system of a “democratic country” is dubious. It seems to

be far healthier without a government to edict. In the entire history of rulers, termed as anarchy, Monarchy or Democracy, there

has not been a very successful era of justice. The reason is simple: Any form of “regulated” or “manipulated” economy cannot

serve the interests of many but only a few. The solution is not in having an Aam Aadmi Party who is supposed to serve in every-

body’s concern which again is not logical with the access to avenues of earning easy money. The solution is to not have any rul-

ing body but to have a Free Market Economy suggested in Laissez Faire Capitalism. Laissez-faire is an economic environment

in which transactions between private parties are free from government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies, with only enough

regulations to protect property rights. The phrase laissez-faire is French and literally means “let [them] do”, but it broadly im-

plies “let it be,” “let them do as they will,” or “leave it alone”.

Only after the 18thbusiness cycle of Austrian Economic theory has put light into this system, where the Market (comprising of all

people) will automatically adjust the demand and supply and the world will be a much better and peaceful place to live in. Just

as an example, consider the value of the British pound with its classical definition and the international market value of the same

today. The reason for the drop in value is simply the “manipulations” of different rates of the banks disturbing the market. The

infuriated Anonymous group (on the YouTube) on ill measures by the government, seems to be absolutely justified.

I end this article with a lot of thoughts to ponder and a beautiful quote by.

Auberon Herbert: “How, then, can the rights of three men exceed the rights of two men? In what possible way can the rights of

three men absorb the rights of two men, and make them as if they had never existed. Both propositions are absurd from a rea-

sonable point of view. If being a slave and owning a slave are both wrong relations, then what difference does it make whether

there is one slave and a million slave owners or one slave owner and a million slaves? Do robbery and murder cease to be what

they are if they are followed by 99% of the population?”

- -Sankalp Banerjee(PGPB-02)

STUDENTS INSCRIBE

Gurucharan R (B02) Dheeraj Pulavarthy (B02) Sankalpa Banerjee(B02) Ramya V(B03)

Page 19

Prashant Edramimath -

PGPB02

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENTS

Kranti Kumar –PGPB03 Sudarshan S - PGPB02

Ujwal - PGPB02 Gurucharan - PGPB02

Abishek A Jain - PGPB02

Sudarshan S and Abishek Jain secured first place in the event Arya Vitta (Finance event) in the Management Fest Orga-

nized by IFIM, Bangalore.

Prashant Edramimath : for achieving another fabulous milestone of being the Runner up in the ICICI Direct Stock minds

Event held at National level. His performance topped all the competitors from Prestigious institutes across the country which

paints the colour of pride to Vanguard Business School. He also won Best finance manager award at KIAMS Business School ,

Harihar

Gurucharan Rao & Kranti Kumar secured 2nd place in the marketing event LAUNCH IT :

Thiyagarajar School of Management in Madurai ‘Yukthi 2014’. Gurucharan also received first prize on Paper Presentation

event held at LIBA

Narendra Kulkarni & Aravindh Kumar secured the 1st prize at the event ‘BEST ENTRPRENEUR’ held at KIAMS Business

School.

Sudharshan. S has displayed outstanding performance in the last two year , he has secured 1st prize in numerous occasions

by participating in the following competitions - ‘Best finance manager’ at SDMIMD, Mysore; Best finance manager at IIFT,

Bangalore , Best finance manager at KEC, Erode ; Best finance manager at KIAMS, Harihar. He also received the 1st prize for

‘Best Portfolio manager’ & ‘Best Manager’ held at IPE Hyderabad.

Abhirami R & Ujwal Shah secured the 2nd position at the marketing Event held at IFIM Bangalore

Harin Shah received the 1st prize at KEC, Erode and at SDMIMD , Mysore for the event ‘Best Finance manager’. He also

secured the 2nd place at IPE Hyderabad in the event ‘best portfolio manager’.

Abirami - PGPB02 Harin Shah - PGPB02

As the name suggest a Vantage Point is a place or position that affords a good view of

something. True to its name, the fourth edition of Vanguard Business School’s in house

magazine offers a wonderful insider’s perspective on what life here at VBS is like.

From Guest Speakers to Competitions, From Classes and Training Sessions to Place-

ment Cycles, the entire gamut of activities has been represented in here along with of

course the creative juices of our students who have also contributed their writings and

musings that capture the essence of what it means to be a part of the Vanguard Fami-

ly. I laud the efforts of the editorial team in taking out time from a reasonably packed

schedule to put together this magazine and hope that all readers will really enjoy this

edition of Vantage Point.

From Dean’s Desk Page 20

Digital Memories

ICICI Stockmind ‘Runner-Up’ Prashant B02 VBS @ UNMAAD

Holi Celebrations @ Campus Valentines Day

Farewell Party !! VIHAAN prize distribution ceremony

3/A, Hyland Industrial Estate,

Bommanahalli, Hosur main Road,

Bangalore - 560068

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