Day-3

After having 3 great days at home I came back to IIMA dorm last night. One thing I would like to mention about IIM campus is that it is so huge that you would definitely get lost in the initial one or two days. However at night you would hardly see people moving around the campus after 9 pm. Most of the students prefer to stay in their individual rooms and study. The place becomes a bit dull at night. So I and nirav roamed around the silent campus for a while and then went out to have tea around midnight. The good thing here is that you can get tea just outside the campus for almost 24 hrs. This is the starbucks for people like us at IIMA :-). Also there is a canteen inside IIMA campus where you can order food till 4 am. So people are quite happy here with regards to food.

I had just one class today which was Internet Marketing and E-commerce. It was the first session and we have two renowned faculties taking the subject here. The case was about Marshall Industries who was the 4th largest distributor of Electronic Components in the US. However due to the industry trend moving towards consolidation and margins being under pressure Marshall Industries decided to move from a sales oriented organisation to service oriented organisation. Previously the incentives were heavily based on sales target and as most of the employees were related to sales they were more focused on closing sales rather than creating solutions for the customers. This led the CEO Robert Rodin to change the incentive system to be based on customer satisfaction, customer relationship and knowledge of the product. Rodin also realized that with the electronics industry becoming more complex and the product cycle shortening suppliers would be interested more on its core competencies i.e designing while outsourcing the distribution, inventory management etc. to the firms like Marshall. This led to Marshal industries becoming the first distributor to go virtual. It made very convenient for the customers to search for and order parts on-line. Visitors to the company's website can hunt for parts by its number, by a description of specifications, or by its manufacturer. They could place an order for parts, pay for them electronically, track the status of previous orders and even speed delivery time by connecting directly from Marshall industries Web site to the shipping company's site. It also provided 24hrs call center facilities to the customers. The customers could chat online with its engineers in case they have some problems choosing the product or some other difficulties. This is what made Marshall increase its revenues each year and not lose the markets to the biggies in the industry like Arrow and Avnet.

After the class I and Nirav went for TT where the score was 6-0(I wont say who was 6 and who was 0, that's for you guys to infer from the past). We hit the gym after TT. Its high time for me to spare some time on my health as well......... I hope to be in shape (both in terms of my mind and my body) after the end of my term here at IIMA. Guys I need motivation so keep coming up with comments and feedback on the blogs...............