Barcamp Mumbai and Blogcamp Mumbai Style

Barcamp Mumbai (barcampmumbai.org) was a fantastic unconference, as they say. It was really an unconference, i liked the unorganising thing, though it was bit problematic. No issues enjoyed a lot.....................IT was at the IIT school of Management Powai...................For all those

Barcamp Mumbai (bardcampmumbai.org) is different from Barcamp MU3(barcamp.org/barcampmu3). MU3 is the universoty edition of Barcamp. It is where Barcamp is conducted in colleges or universities, and where the target audience is limited..................

Today's Barcamp(barcamp.org) was a Mumbai chapter hence the name Barcamp Mumbai Style(barcampmumbai.org) ........... There where hell lot of topics being discussed today.................

I initially thought that I reached late, as I reached Barcamp Mumbai (bardcampmumbai.org) at around 10:30. But fortunately I was at the Barcamp(bardcampmumbai.org) when the Wiki, or the sessions where just scheduled. ..................

Todays Barcamp Mumbai Style(bardcampmumbai.org) had 4 major heads to be discussed.
1 - Startups : where new startup where demoed etc...
2 - Blogging,Web 2.o : Covering blogging, Web 2.0, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), SMM etc...
3 - Tech : Covering topics on Hacking Nintendo DS, Creating Wordpress application, Facebook Apllications etc...
4 - Other (Misc) : Covering rest of the topics like Sun Startup(Sun where the major sponsors), etc....

I attended all the Pre lunch sessions at the Startup heads which was at the IRC Audi of IIT SJSOM (the venue for Barcamp Mumbai Style).................
Detail on this in the next post..............

Post lunch, i attended SEO(search engine optimization) sessions, hacking Nintendo DS, Sun Startup(http://www.sun.com/emrkt/startupessentials/index.jsp), tagg.in(tagg.in)................

We had very good lunch, coffee, tea, and fast food provided kudos to the UNorganisers.

But some issues i like to highlight are:
1 - Not all sessions planned where executed.
2 - The planning of the wiki really takes time and the breakfast should be kept simultaneously.

But no hard feelings, it happens. All and all a very fruit full day.....

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaait!!! the best part is yet to be told.........

Got many goodies like a
1 - Flex(http://www.adobe.com/products/flex) book from Brajeshwar(brajeshwar.com) himslef, 33
2 - Wikipack(contains the whole Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org) site on a DVD) from Webaroo (webaroo.com) guys, and
3 - a T-shirt :)))

what is an MBA - part 02

As i mentioned earlier MBA is nothing but Re-learning common sense...............
Then different colleges have different rankings.............Many factors are affected when the school is ranked............ Basically its the INPUT and OUTPUT that decides the rank of the college................

Input as in what quality of students come in the school and what transformation is done within them before they are out of the school.....................

Hence we can say that Students by themselves play a very important role than all other factors............ At least most of the students in a batch should have same kind of professional maturity.....

More on the BarCamp Series

Barcamp and Blogcamp the coming...........The veneue is at IIT SJSOM on 29th April..............
The best part it is, this time there are two Barcamps..... It is a combination of Barcamp Mumbai Chapter plus the Blogcamp(Barcamp on Blogging)(http://barcamp.org/BlogCampMumbaiStyle), in the series...... This Blogcamp is the from the organisers of the First Blogcamp conducted at Pune (http://barcamp.org/BlogCampPune)

After the very successful BarCampMU3 chapter, this is a quite huge one..............I think such Blogcamp Mumbai Style amd Barcamp Mumbai are a great medium for socializing, networking, marketing whatever you name it..............At least we come across some like minded people, which after college is hard to find.

Just waiting eagerly to attend it.......................
Dunno will it be possible for me, since we have our college presentations going on Research Papers.

Tuesday : Site of the Week: myDabbawla

A dabbawala (one who carries the box), sometimes spelled dabbawalla , tiffinwalla , tiffinwalla or dabbawallah, is a person in the Indian city of Mumbai whose job is to carry and deliver freshly made food from home in lunch boxes to office workers. Tiffin is an old-fashioned English word for a light lunch, and sometimes for the box it is carried in. Dabbawalas are sometimes called tiffin-wallas.

Though the work sounds simple, dabbawala is actually a highly specialized trade that is over a century old and which has become integral to Mumbai's culture.

The dabbawala originated when a person named Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started the lunch delivery service with about 100 men.Nowadays, Indian businessmen are the main customers for the dabbawalas, and the service often includes cooking as well as delivery.

site : mydabbawala

The Dabbawala Brand - A marketting Channel

“Five thousand Dabbawalas
200,000 Dabbas
Six Sigma Certified
ISO Certified
Most are Illiterate
Lecture MBAs”

This is the welcome message on the home page of the dabbawalas’ website. It is, like the organization, deceptively simple. A “dabba,” in local Indian parlance, is a lunch box or tiffin with home cooked food; the person who delivers it is called the “dabbawala.” The name, however, has long lost its generic connotation and is associated with one of the most innovative organizations worldwide in supply chain management: the dabbawalas. With a fan club that includes Prince Charles and Richard Branson, the dabbawalas are a brand to reckon with. What started as a service during the British colonial rule has evolved into a brand that symbolizes low cost innovation, teamwork, and brilliance in operational efficiency.............


The organization has become symbolic of Mumbai’s culture, and the dabbawalas themselves have structured their own narrative as an indigenous brand that thrives on little technology and basic infrastructure. They claim to be the descendants of soldiers of the legendary Maharashtrian warrior-king Shivaji, and belong to the Malva caste—a legacy that is well in sync with their highly indigenous operations. Donning Gandhi caps and regularly getting together for cultural ceremonies, the dabbawalas both draw upon and contribute to the cultural fabric of Mumbai................


The mainstay of the entire organization is these workers-turned-shareholders. This uneducated workforce of men, with very little exposure to technology, has become the most potent brand ambassadors of the organization, with unflinching standards of teamwork and customer service. There is only one error in every 600,000 deliveries—a service standard which has earned them the Six Sigma Certification for Quality. Such has been their impact that leading business schools like Stanford and the Indian Institutes of Management (the premier Asian B Schools) invite them for lectures and workshops on supply chain management and teamwork...............


Leading brands in India—in an effort to increase their own brands' outreach and goodwill within the local consumer marketplace—have started exploring synergies with the dabbawalas. Microsoft, for example, used the dabbawalas to promote its Windows package for a campaign called “Asli PC,” meaning “Genuine PC.” Microsoft could not have found a better channel in Mumbai for reinforcing the value of authenticity associated with its brand. Media conglomerates and financial and telecom service providers have also used the dabbawalas as agents for direct marketing. Airtel, India’s leading telecom provider, used the network of dabbawalas to deliver and promote handsets, new connections, and pre-paid user cards.

According to the Trust’s President, these campaigns have been successful because “The dabbawalas are a brand that is synonymous with trust and commitment. I believe this is the reason why most reputed organizations like to associate with us.” For instance, in a gesture that underscores the trust and credibility that these workers carry on their shoulders, the Mumbai State owned Corporation Bank appointed the dabbawalas as its brand ambassadors and entrusted them with the task of account opening activities. Furthermore, Reliance, one of India's top most companies, recently used them to promote its Reliance Power IPO. ..............


Article By :


Preeti Chaturvedi is a Delhi University Topper with a Masters Degree in English Literature from Miranda House. A media and marketing enthusiast, she is currently pursuing an Executive Program in Sales and Marketing from IIM Calcutta. As a writer, she has contributed to magazines like Business and Economy, 4Ps: Business and Marketing; online portals like moneycontrol.com, BWonline.com;newspapers like The New Indian Express. She has also contributed an essay on branding to a book being published by ICFAI press. She is currently working on a research project on "Blogging in India". Her areas of special interest are marketing, popular culture and social media.She blogs at http://chaturvedipreeti.wordpress.com. She can be reached at preeti.chaturvedi@gmail.com

Detailed article on : BrandChannel
nk b hejta

What is MBA series

Hi ppl. So its end of first year of my suffering from the MBA syndrome(PUN intended)........
Enough of copy pasting on the blog, its more becoming a info sharing blog than my personal blog...............So i am starting of with posts which is probably subjective to my view point

I will be completing my first(of the 2 year course) year of my post graduate diploma in management. And its a totally different scenario............... Always wondered how it would be, being in a B school......... We always fool ourselves by entering into this wonderland of MBA. This wonderland being created by the news of only the TOP B-SCHOOLS around the world.

Frankly speaking don't know much about the TOP schools rest all are apparently at the same level of cliche.

So what is an MBA, it is nothing but RE-LEARNING common sense, yeah off course analytically and in an organized way.

Will be discussing in details what all factors are affected.

Look out for this space(tags,labels) for more......

Cyborg

Industry Times : Food Processing

New Delhi: The growth of food processing sector has nearly doubled to 13.7 per cent during the last four years, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said here on Wednesday.

"The food processing sector growth has reached the double digit at 13.7 per cent from 7 per cent when I took charge of the ministry (in 2004)," Sahai said at the award distribution function of the National Productivity Council.

Sahai said the ministry has set a target of growing at 20 per cent by 2015. "But to achieve it, there should be an investment of about Rs 1 lakh crore in the sector," he said while exhorting potential investors for making investment.

The minister said state governments should initiate steps for promoting the food processing sector, which caters to almost 70 per cent of the country's population. "The Centre has brought down duties on food packaging and other allied activities to zero level. State governments too should slash duties and taxes (Value Added Tax) to give a further fillip," he said.

According to Sahai, farmers could reap the benefits of industrialisation only if potential investors treated their products as raw material. This, if done, would improve the bargaining capacity of farmers, he added.

Sahai said the food processing sector is in turmoil at present because of the mismatch in agricultural production and processing.

Earlier speaking at the function, food processing secretary, P I Suvrathan said 80 per cent of the ideas envisaged for promotion of the sector "falls by the wayside" and does not fructify in becoming a product.

Source : IBEF