Business of Entertainment - Workshop by Tarun Tripathi!

Mr. Tarun Tripathi is the Former Head of Marketing, Yash Raj Films (YRF) and Mr. Tarun Tripathi is the Former Head of Marketing, Yash Raj Films (YRF) and ex-Director, MySpace India. He joined YRF in 2002 and has been responsible for film marketing tie-ups, the most significant being that of ‘Hum Tum’, ‘Dhoom’ and  ‘Bunty Aur Babli’. Following a productive 5-year stint at Yash Raj Films, he joined MySpace.com as Director-Marketing and Content, for its India operations. The social networking site launched its customised Indian beta version under his supervision. Prior to joining YRF, he worked with global advertising agency Grey Worldwide (Mauritius) and KPMG (Mauritius). Mr. Tarun Tripathi currently teaches the course – “Business of Entertainment” at MICA. Tarun is a master of the Entertainment game. Be it the fundamentals of entertainment as defined through cultural entities or creative dimensions in marketing movies, he is IIM Lucknow's undisputed entertainment guru. He held the audience spell bound with his insights on the music industry and the marketing strategies used for Hum Tum. Tarun's most endearing trait is his passion for giving back to IIM Lucknow. The 8 hour workshop which spanned two days took the students through a comprehensive journey of the Culture Industry of which Entertainment Business is a part. The workshop was not the only delight though. Tarun also floated 2 competitions - a Case study contest and a Live Project. The case study contest focussed on emerging trends in social media while the Live Project was floated in association with Star One. Both competitions were of high significance to the student community best indexed by participation by over 160 students from the second year batch alone! On the whole, the workshop offered great insights into an industry that has recruited very few professionals and it opened up channels for new career options to IIM Lucknow's whiz kids. He joined YRF in 2002 and has been responsible for film marketing tie-ups, the most significant being that of ‘Hum Tum’, ‘Dhoom’ & ‘Bunty Aur Babli’. Following a productive 5-year stint at Yash Raj Films, he joined MySpace.com as Director-Marketing and Content, for its India operations. The social networking site launched its customised Indian beta version under his supervision. Prior to joining YRF, he worked with global advertising agency Grey Worldwide (Mauritius) and KPMG (Mauritius). Mr. Tarun Tripathi currently teaches the course – “Business of Entertainment” at MICA. Tarun is a master of the Entertainment game. Be it the fundamentals of entertainment as defined through cultural entities or creative dimensions in marketing movies, he is IIM Lucknow's undisputed entertainment guru. He held the audience spell bound with his insights on the music industry and the marketing strategies used for Hum Tum. Tarun's most endearing trait is his passion for giving back to IIM Lucknow. The 8 hour workshop which spanned two days took the students through a comprehensive journey of the Culture Industry of which Entertainment Business is a part. The workshop was not the only delight though. Tarun also floated 2 competitions - a Case study contest and a Live Project. The case study contest focussed on emerging trends in social media while the Live Project was floated in association with Star One. Both competitions were of high significance to the student community best indexed by participation by over 160 students from the second year batch alone! On the whole, the workshop offered great insights into an industry that has recruited very few professionals and it opened up channels for new career options to IIM Lucknow's whiz kids

Ex. MD Technopak, visits IIM Lucknow for Retail Consulting talk

The Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Lucknow invites industry experts to deliver domain specific talks in the campus under the “Colloquy” talk series.

Mr. Harminder Sahni, MD, Wazir Advisors, Ex MD Technopak visited IIM Lucknow on August 5^th and conducted an interactive session with the students. Mr. Harminder has extensive industry experience in Retail sector business including  launch of new brands, implementation of new projects for clients and for brand licensee and supply partnerships between Indian and international firms. He has consulted for clients in India, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Hong Kong, Europe, North America and South America , including manufacturers, marketers and retailers.

The theme of the session was “Retail Consulting in India – Challenges and Best Practices”.

Mr. Harminder talked about organized and unorganized retail formats and shared his insights on how the micro segmentation of the consumer base  is taking place in Modern retail stores. The absence of talent gunning to enter the industry -- one of the biggest challenges facing the industry -- was also delved upon.

Students were curious to know about the key strategies behind private labels and the same was reflected in the number of questions they posed to the speaker. Current issues in Retail such as failure of Subhiksha and the debt restructuring at Vishal Retail was also discussed.

Overall the session provided an excellent insight into the ground realities of Retail in India. The session made for an excellent learning opportunity for students interested in pursuing a career in retail marketing management.

IIM Lucknow students learn lessons in Bollywood

R. Balakrishnan (Director, Paa and Cheeni Kum)

The IIMs have played host to many a CEO and budding entrepreneur in the past – learning the latest in management trends across the traditional industry verticals. Tuesday evening came as a welcome refresher when IIM Lucknow invited one of the most creative minds of the country - R Balakrishnan, aka R. BalkiAd Film Professional-turned-Film Director par excellence, Balki is the Chairperson and Chief Creative Officer (CCO) of Lowe Lintas and the director of Cheeni Kum and Paa.  for an interactive session with its MBA students.

Balki is known for his no-nonsense approach to advertising as exemplified in his “Daag Achche Hain” campaign for Surf Excel. His “Jaago Re” ads for Tata Tea and “Walk when you Talk” Idea Cellular campaign have brought in a much needed fresh social voice to advertising. His penchant for exploring different creative avenues led him to Bollywood. He wrote and directed Cheeni Kum, with Amitabh Bachchan and Tabu in the lead. Paa (2009), starring Abhishek Bachchan, Vidya Balan and Amitabh Bachchan was his second directorial venture.

The interactive talk was held on campus as part of ‘Prodigies – the Leadership talk series’ facilitated by the student run Industry Interaction Cell of IIM Lucknow. Based on the theme of ‘Ad & Film Making – Through the Management Lens’, it was very well received by the IIM Lucknow community with a jam-packed auditorium. From the Lalitaji of Surf to the Auro of Paa played by Mr. Bachchan Senior, Balki had the audience floored with his anecdotes. Over the course of an hour and a half, he took the students through his journey of ad making, playing out different ads and explaining their significance, story board and the like.

The session gave the students a flavour of how the Indian advertising industry works in general and how Lowe Lintas, with Mr. Balki at the helm, succeeded in producing top-notch, eye-catching ads. Highlighting the nuances of designing integrated ad-campaigns, he shared his perspective on the changing consumer behaviour in India which throws up new challenges to today’s marketers. The students were particularly amazed about his experiences as a director to some of the most noted actors in Bollywood.

“The advertising world is a business of disparate, different brains”, says Balki. It is ready to play, ready to risk all the challenges and accept new ideas. For instance, Surf Excel, a detergent brand, is celebrating the glory of being dirty! TATA tea puts an awakening thought in your mind each and every day! Havells is ready to experiment with a new idea each time! Marketers have now become more forthcoming in implementing out-of-the-box ideas generated by advertisers – ideas which do not necessarily highlight product benefits but rather make the consumer’s life more interesting.

The greatest challenge for Balki is to take up the most boring brand and making it the most noticeable. He says success comes only to those who step into the discomfort zone. The best advertisements are those that remind you of the brand and not the ad itself. Commenting on the talk, Dheeraj Sarwaiya, a second year student said, “Today’s MBA student is more enterprising and bold than ever before. We have students who choose not to tread the beaten path but simply follow their dreams in unconventional fields. These talks are a good source of inspiration for us to pursue what we truly believe in.”

US firm puts IIM-L students on biz network!

In a first-of-a-kind development, a US-based software consultancy firm approached the Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow (IIM-L) to be a nodal centre for introducing to the market its new software product which essentially happens to be an operating system providing networking platform.

US Tech Solutions, the New Jersey-based company, announced the venture officially much to the cheers of management students who look it as an opportunity to be a part of business enterprise much before they graduate from the coveted institute.

Ian Tomlin, sales director of the product, said that the platform was an improved version of various social networking sites like Facebook and Orkut. The system brings together business entities together while at the same time maintaining the much needed security to the date. In the initial stages, the platform would be opened to business houses, institutes and entrepreneurs.

Vice-president (corporate strategy), Dhiraj Adya said that it would be like an operating system by which one can have a webpage where one can post information — from products to suggestions to e-mails to SMS.

Himself an alumnus of IIM-L, Adya claimed that this is for the first time that a global consultancy is officially launching the software product suite at a B-school.

The company also conducted a case study competition exclusively for IIM Lucknow Students, and Team 'SPAM' emerged as winners.

Colloquy: The Leadership series 2009

The Colloquy leadership series organized by IIC invites thought leaders from various spheres to share their valuable knowledge and experiences with the budding managers of tomorrow. Some of the notable industry stalwarts who visited the campus in 2009 were:


Mr. Chetan Bulsari, Head (Finance), Barclays Wealth
This session was aimed at educating students on the real issues that led to the financial crisis in its present shape and what could be the potential strategies that could be employed by companies to better the situation. In a second session he helped the second year students, majoring in Finance, understand the nuances of Risk Management in a Bank & explained in detail the critical role played by the bank’s Treasury.


Mr.Anuratna, Global Marketing Manager, Citi Private Bank
Primarily focused at the first year students, this talk by Mr. Anuratna Chaddha centered around the credit crisis, its origins and the mechanism of its spread to all economies. Further, Mr. Chaddha shared deep insights highlighting the key steps that financial institutions such as Citi were taking to emerge from the crisis and start their progress towards growth. Drawing from his personal experiences, he also shared with the students his perspective on the prime challenges he encountered while working in diverse geographical locations such as South Africa & Sub Saharan Africa, which was a very important take-away for students.

Anirban Malakar, Business Head, Maxus Global
Mr. Malakar held an engaging talk on "Media Strategy and Media Schedules" for students of IIM Lucknow. He highlighted how advertising companies go about promotional strategies for corporates. He also shed light on the importance of 360 degree campaigns by companies involving various technology components to create bigger impact and increase reach to the consumers. Mr. Malakar talked about how one should go about placing advertisements and campaigns in different media like print, TV, magazines etc. The session was a great learning experience for the students who gained useful insights into the media strategy domain.


Mr. Bijoy Daga, Head Invest Banking group
Mr. Bijoy Daga, a CA with over 14 years of experience in Relationship Management, Asset & Structured Finance, Advisory Services and Project Finance and currently heading the Investment Banking group at IL&FS Financial Services Limited, took a session on Project Finance. This highly-engaging session primarily dealt with examples of live deals in tune with the current market trends in the International and Indian arena.