Dr. G.P.C. NayarChairman, SCMS Group

Vol : 7No : 5August 2011

A Monthly Newsletter of SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, Cochin

Vol : 9No : 5August 2013

A Monthly Newsletter of SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, Cochin

Edited and published by Prof. B. Unnikrishnan for and on behalf of SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, Prathap Nagar,Muttom, Cochin - 683 106 and printed at Maptho Printings, Cochin - 683 104.

www.scmsgroup.org Email: scms@scmsgroup.org

Editorial Advisory Council: Dr. D. Radhakrishnan Nair, Prof. R. Sahadevan

Sciences International Research Journal, Vol 1, Issue 2 (ISSN 2321-3191).

Smt. Megha Mary Michael, Assistant Professor presented a paper titled 'To Shop or Not: Factors Facilitating and Impeding Online Shopping' at the Fourth International Research Symposium in Service Management conducted at Marian International Institute of Management, Kuttikanam, from July 2 to 6.

Smt. Daly Paulose, Smt. S. Stella Mary and Smt. Megha Mary Michael, Assistant Professors, attended a three-day workshop on Research Methodology and Statistical Analysis: New Trends, at Rajagiri Centre for Business Studies, Cochin, from July 16 to 18.

Paper presented

Workshop attended

Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, inaugurating the 13th batch B Tech. From L to R: Dr.Pradeep P.Thevannor, Vice Chairman, Prof.P.C.Pillai, Group Director, Prof.M.Madhavan, Director-SSET, and Prof.S.Sahadevan, HoD-E&CE.

Shri.T.K.Jose IAS, Chairman, Coconut Development Board, speaking after inaugurating the nd22 batch of PGDM at SCMS COCHIN School of Business. Sitting beside L-R: Dr.V.Raman

Nair, Director, SCMS COCHIN School of Business, Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, Shri.Ravi Soman, Senior Group Leader, Visa Inc., USA, and Dr.Filomina P.George, Dean-Academic Administration.

“SCMS is one of the most unique institutions in our country, considering the kind of passion for knowledge and excellence it holds and spreads, and the manner in which the students are groomed to become global professionals,” said

ndBoard while inaugurating the 22 batch of PGDM at SCMS COCHIN Business School, on July 29.

“With the kind of the best facilities provided in this campus it is your responsibility to show that you become the best professionals the country is waiting for,” he advised the fresh students.

“A serious problem the country faces today is the want of enough professional managers to efficiently manage creation of wealth that will

Shri.T.K.Jose IAS, Chairman, Coconut Development

“SCMS, one of the most unique institutions in our country” – Shri T.K.Jose IAS

Contd. on page 2

Contd. from page 3

B Tech batch 13 inauguratedThe 13th batch of B Tech was inaugurated by Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, on July 22. The inaugural function was held in the newly built auditorium with

a capacity to accommodate more than 2000 people.

The chairman briefly touched upon how the self-financing sector is making a signal contribution for the betterment of not only the qualifying students and their families but also for the society and the economy of the state. He also emphasised that no institution can come up without discipline.

Prof.P.C.Pillai, Group Director who presided stated that the knowledge gained in engineering education should enable the students to innovate means to create wealth beneficial to the society. Dr. Pradeep P.Thevannoor, Vice Chairman, drew a picture of the various developmental projects on the anvil. This year onwards more focus would be given to the international research project established in the campus. A twelve-member team of faculty and students are expected to visit Germany soon on a joint project, for the first time in the history of self-

financing engineering colleges in Kerala, he disclosed. Yet another innovative programme, he announced, was the 'earn while you learn' scheme enabling students to work with live industries.

Prof.M.Madhavan, Director, SSET, welcomed the gathering and Prof.R.Sahadevan, HoD-E&CE, proposed vote of thanks.

The Outlook-MDRA All India Survey 2013 to identify India's Best Professional Colleges has ranked SCMS School of Engineering & Technology (SSET) in 63rd position out of the approximately 3600 engineering colleges in the country.

The Week-Hansa Research to identify the best colleges across the country ranked SSET in 99th position in the All India Level.

The technical paper titled 'Obfuscated Malware Analysis' authored by Dr. Vinod P., Associate Professor-CS&E along with Rakesh R. and Alphy George, 2013 batch CSE students, was selected for presentation in the 2nd International Invited Workshop on the Theories and Intricacies of Information Security Problems, to be held at Johannesburg, South Africa, from August 14 to 16. The Extended version of this book chapter will be published in IGI Global Book Chapter.

Smt. Preetha Chandran, Assistant Professor-E&CE participated in the workshop on 'Electronic Design Tools and Its Applications,' organised by the Division of Electronics Engineering, School of Engineering, CUSAT, under TQIP Phase-II, from May 27 to 31.

The fifth semester E&EE students participated in a campaign for prevention of epidemics in Aluva Municipal area, as part of the activities of the NSS unit and in association with the Aluva Municipal authorities, from June 21 to 28. They visited around 950 houses, created awareness on prevention measures and distributed medicines under the guidance of Smt. Gayathri S. Warrier., Assistant Professor-CS&E. Anand J., Nirmal Chand P., and Haridev K.S. were the student leaders.

Three Mechanical Engineering students of 2013 batch were selected by Sundram Fasteners Ltd.

One Mechanical Engineering student of 2013 batch was selected by Apollo Tyres Ltd.

Four Civil Engineering students of 2013 batch were selected by Prateek Construction Management.

Kaynes Technology conducted their campus recruitment for 2013 batch B Tech students on July 12 and selected one Electrical and Electronics Engineering student.

Two final year M Tech Computer Aided Structural Engineering students of 2013 batch were waitlisted by Mammut Building Systems.

Konfidence conducted two days aptitude training programme for final year Electronic & Communication, Electrical & Electronics students during July 11 and 12.

College Rankings – All India survey reports

Paper presentations

Seminars and workshops

NSS camp

Placement news

Success is often termed as getting what you want. But, truly successful people are those who are able to scale success even when they don't get what they want. Look at what Warren Buffett, the self-made American billionaire, widely considered as the world's most prolific and

thsuccessful investor of the 20 century, has got to say on his own personal experience.

After finishing his degree from University of Nebraska he was very keen on joining Harvard Business School to become a professional value-investor. But, for some reason or another, he was denied admission at Harvard.

However, he was not willing to quit. He was determined to pursue his dream without wasting time and started his research to find out another good business school where he could get the right guidance from a competent faculty. While scrutinising the faculty list of Columbia University he came across the names of two renowned professors whom he used to admire -- Benjamin Graham and David Dodd.

So, he got enrolled at Columbia Business School. “Probably, the luckiest thing ever happened in my life was getting rejected by Harvard,” Buffett recalled later. “Suppose if I had joined Harvard,” he explained, “I would not have gained the opportunity to know Benjamin Graham, who became my teacher, mentor and boss.” His association with Graham turned out to be the most rewarding influence in his life.

The most successful entrepreneur of our times and co-founder of Apple Computers, Steve Jobs, also had expressed a similar opinion reflecting on the incidence of himself getting fired from Apple. “Getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life,” declared the creative genius in his famous speech at Stanford University.

Live life fully

“It was awful-tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it,” confessed the charismatic pioneer of the personal computer revolution. “Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith,” he advised the young generation.

There is very little difference between successes and failures in life as long as one is willing to make one's life a satisfying experience. And, the best way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

I have never come across someone defining success as comfort although there are many who behave as if it were their ultimate goal. Life can be compared to a mountain climb. Fulfillment is achieved by relentless dedication to the ascent, even when the upward journey is slow and sometimes painful. Climbers are lured by the magnificence of the mountain and the sheer challenge it offers.

Adversities are not to be treated as insurmountable barriers. Failure is a failure only when you accept it as failure. Truly speaking, each hardship is a challenge, each challenge an opportunity in disguise to be embraced.

Success, then, can be seen as the degree to which one moves forward and upward in the life-long mission despite all obstacles.

“The negative complains about the wind; The positive waits for the wind to change; The realist adjusts the sails,” and move forward.

Only the realists live life fully with a deep sense of purpose and passion for what they do.

Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, was a member of the delegation of the heads of leading PGDM institutions in India that met Dr.M. Mangapati Pallam Raju, Union Minister of HRD, in his chamber on June 27, requesting for speedy resolution of some of the pressing issues facing the institutions.

Heads of leading PGDM institutions met Union Minister of HRD

Dr.M.Mangapati Pallam Raju, Union Minister of HRD, receiving the memorandum from the delegation of Education Promotion Society of India. Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, is seen second from left.

The Retail Marketing Department of SCMS COCHIN School of Business was commissioned by Decathlon Sports India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the France-based Decathlon Group Chain Sports Retailers, to conduct a feasibility study on customer demography and merchandise preference in Cochin. The study was made preparatory to the opening of a new sports good supermarket by Decathlon at Kalamassery, Cochin, scheduled in December 2013.

About 25 students of SCMS participated in the study held under the guidance of Prof. Sreekumar B.Pillai. The study was completed and report presented to Mr.Thomas de Lizaso, Regional Manager (India) and Mr.Laurent Fernadez, Community Manager, Decathlon.

The project was entrusted as a forerunner of a long term association with Decathlon in which PGDM retailing specialisation students of SCMS will become beneficiaries of the partnership.

Feasibility study for Decathlon Sports India

FDP with a difference

The Faculty Development Programme which began on July 2 by conducting a series of class room sessions on diverse topics by in-house faculty continued during the month. Dr. V.Raman Nair, Director, set the ball rolling by reminding the faculty the acute need for innovations in our pedagogy. He advised how FDP 2013 should culminate into tangible and pragmatic ideas that could be incorporated into the course delivery. He reiterated the shift in focus to entrepreneurship this academic year onwards as the true backbone of any economic growth lies in the hands of entrepreneurs.

There were 35 sessions in all spread over two weeks starting with an insightful session by Prof.K.J.Paulose, Dean-Management Studies, on Inventory Control. The sessions those followed were: Dr.C.Sengottuvelu, Professor and Head-Consultancy on Impact of Budget on SCM; Prof. (Dr.) Suresh Mallya on WTO; Prof. V. Rajagopal on Managing in a World of Change; Dr.Filomina P.George, Dean-Academic Administration on Outcome Assessment; Dr.M.Appala Raju, HoD-Finance on Buffett's Investment Philosophy Value Creation; Shri. Dennis Thomas, Assistant Professor on International Finance & European Crisis; Shri. Melwin Jose, Assistant Professor on Tax Saving Avenues for Individual Assessees; Prof.

Mariakutty Varkey, HoD-Systems and Operations on Requirements Management for Systems; Shri. Justin Joy, Assistant Professor on Open Source Insights; Shri. Ansted Iype Joseph, Assistant Professor on Gamification in Management Education; Smt. Jisha J., Assistant Professor on Big Data Basis; Prof. B. Unnikrishnan, HoD-Communication on The Foundation of All Communications; Shri. S. Jayakrishnan, Assistant Professor on Designing Marketing Systems for Resilience; Shri. A.V.Jose, Associate Professor on Fish; Prof. R. T. R. Varma, HoD-Marketing on Strategising in Marketing; Smt. Devi Pisharody, Assistant Professor on CRM and its Implementation Issue; Dr. Andez George, Assistant Professor on Global Pricing Objectives and Strategies Prof. Santhosh S. on Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling; Lt. Cdr. Shalini Nandwani, Associate Professor on Learning and Evaluation through Gamification; Dr. C. K. Rajan, Professor and Chair for Climate Change and Environmental Changes on Water and Energy Crisis; Dr. Ajith Sundaram, Assistant Professor on Use of Social Networking by Students and Staff in Higher Education; Smt. Stella Mary, Assistant Professor on Investment: the Quest for Value; Smt.Joby Joy, Assistant Professor on Measurement and Scaling: Fundamentals and Theory; Dr. K. R. Nisha, Assistant Professor on Scaling in Questionnaire Design; Smt. Megha Mary Michael, Assistant Professor on Innovation from Outside: Art of Crowd Source; Smt. Anjali A., Assistant Professor on Computer Aided Language Learning; Smt. Bindu K. Nambiar, Assistant Professor on the Quest for El-Dorado; Prof.George K.Mathew on Multi Marketing through Anand Pattern Cooperatives; Prof. Sreekumar B. Pillai on Time to Change Marketing Techniques – a Reality Check; Shri. Sudheer Sudhakaran, Associate Professor on Competency-based Training; Prof. (Dr.) I. Jayasri, Associate Professor on Defense Mechanism and Shri. Srinivasan V., Associate Professor on Depository Services for Retail Investors.

Finally, Dr. V. Raman Nair concluded the FDP with a closing speech stating how each and every session presented with a difference in content and delivery had contributed to the objective of the programme and expressed that it was the appropriate beginning for a fruitful academic year.

Smt.Bindu K.Nambiar, Assistant Professor, engaging the session

Workshop attended

Papers presented

Prof.V.Rajagopal and Prof. Sreekumar B. Pillai, attended a 'Workshop to Sensitise the Managements and Teachers of Technical Institutions to Tackle the

Menace of Sexual Crime Against Women,' organised by All India Council for Technical Education under instruction from Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, at Trivandrum on July 1.

Dr.C.Sengottuvelu, Professor and Head-Consultancy, presented a paper titled 'Implementation of Electronic Procurement System by an Aerospace Company,' at the national conference on Value Creation in Services: Issues and Challenges, held at Federal Institute of Science and Technology, Angamaly, on July 18 and 19.

Shri.Justin Joy, Assistant Professor and Prof.Mariakutty Varkey, HoD-Systems and Operations, together presented a paper titled 'Enterprise Resource Planning in Management Education Institutions: The Next Level of IT Implementation in the Education Sector in Kerala,' at the above conference.

Smt.Bindu K.Nambiar, Assistant Professor, Shri.Ansted Iype Joseph, Assistant Professor, and Dr.V.Raman Nair, Director, also jointly presented a paper titled 'Adoption of Information and Communication Technology in the Banking Sector: Services Augmentation of the ATM Marketplace as a Customer Channel in Kerala,' at the conference.

SSTMSalver

enable us to improve the economy,” Shri.Jose continued, “since only through the efforts of dedicated and committed professionals we will be able to achieve our objective.” “While we plan our growth till the next elections, a country like Singapore is preparing their plan for the next 60 years and the budget of the government is professionally prepared by the experts in their National University. That is the kind of contribution an institution of higher learning can make available to the government and the society,” he elaborated. He also urged the students to think of creating global corporations in India instead of preferring to go and work for multinationals to create wealth for themselves.

Dr.G.P.C.Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group, called upon the newcomers to be prepared to shed all their inhibitions of the past in order to become true professional managers capable of facing the challenges ahead. Shri.Ravi Soman, Senior Group Leader, Visa Inc., USA, the guest of honour, reminded the students that while trying to make a difference in their own lives they should also try to make a difference in the society around. Dr.V.Raman Nair, Director, SCMS COCHIN School of Business, welcomed the gathering and Dr.Filomina P.George, Dean-Academic Administration, proposed the vote of thanks.

Contd. from page 1

The delegation consisting of 15 members under the auspices of the Education Promotion Society of India discussed some of the key issues like: (1) transforming the AICTE for making it into an enabling regulator, (2) making India a Hub of Management Education, (3) enhancing the quality of management education, and (4) improving the visibility of Indian B-schools in International Conferences and Forums of Deans and Directors.

The delegation. Dr. G.P.C. Nayar, Chairman, SCMS Group is seen fourth from right.

(Letter addressed to Dr. G.P.C. Nayar)

Your article (May 2013) was quite impressive and thought - provoking. I have given a copy of this article to our MBA students for reading.

It is truly a fact that many of us get stuck at the camel stage. It is the case with many of our MBA graduates in our country. In industry we see the scarcity for middle and senior level managers. Many of our MBA graduates start well, but don't convert themselves to higher levels and remain in lower level (camel stage) for a long time. There is scope for an action research on this issue to find out how many of our MBA graduates reach top level within a stipulated period and what stop them from reaching top.

The story of workshop by Mr. Masai was also interesting. Apart from the message you have given to this story, I feel that 'workshop' is one of the most effective teaching tools for MBA students. A one day workshop on a particular topic would be much more effective than 60 lecture hours. I usually conduct 'two day workshop' on the topic 'International Business' mainly based on my practical international business experience. All my students were of the opinion that this was much more effective than usual lecture methods. MBA students should have more opportunity to get the practical wisdom from industry practitioners along with theoretical knowledge. A balanced blend can really take them forward.

Looking forward for many such inspiring articles,

Dr. Saji Kuriakose, Professor & Head, Department of Management StudiesMES College of Engineering, Kuttipuram.

B Com (Taxation) batch 2 inaugurated

Articles published

B Com (Taxation) batch 2 was inaugurated at SSTM South Kalamassery campus by Prof. P.C. Pillai, Group Director, on

July 11. Dr.Radha Thevannoor, Group Director, presided. Dr.C.Mohankumar, Director, SIBB and Dr.Mathew Varghese, HoD-B Com, offered felicitations.

Prof.P.C.Pillai, Group Director, inaugurating B Com (Taxation) batch 2 at SSTM South Kalamassery campus on July 11.

Shri. Ajith Sundaram, Assistant Professor, published a paper on 'The changing face of engineering education in Kerala - An empirical study at engineering colleges in Kerala' in February 2013 issue of International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology.

An article on 'Asset Quality of Indian Banks' by Shri. A. V. Jose, Associate Professor, has been published in Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Management Review Vol.2, NO. 6 (June 2013) (ISSN ONLINE: 2319-2836).

A paper by Dr. Andez George, Assistant Professor, titled 'Social Media: Technology for Relationship Marketing' was published in Business

Others in the picture are L to R: Dr.C.Mohankumar, Director-SIBB, Dr.Radha Thevannoor, Group Director and Dr.Mathew Varghese, HoD-B Com.

Contd. on page 4

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