SIMS BUSINESS EXERCISE EXPERIENCE

“come with an open mind and be prepared to get surprises..!!”
this is what seniors kept telling us when whole of the junior batch kept on asking about life at SIMS…but we never knew that surprises were going to be so pleasant ones….

This is my 3rd day at SIMS. and I have started getting to learn and do things that I never did in my life till now..!!

Today we had something called “Business Exercise”. I was really curious to know what it was going to be about… I am sharing the whole task along with how I performed it and my experience with this innovative task..

Morning, our section, section A was told to assemble at 8.30 am. Then, Prof. Kamath arrived. he explained the task to us and the purpose behind it..

The task was…we were asked to get into pairs, then we were supposed to reach the camp area, M.G. Road. There , we were supposed to do any kind of legal, ethical and unoffensive work and earn minimum of 200 bucks, i.e., 100 bucks each. The rule said that both the people in each pair had to work at the same place and no two pairs could work at the same place. Also, we were not allowed to carry any money with us. That meant, taking lift and reaching the place..!!! and, not to disclose the name of our college..we were also asked to click pics of places we worked.

The purpose of whole of this task was to know our own worth, and to learn the basics getting right down on the floor.

The task seemed easy on the face of it, but it was damn tiring..although the whole experience was interesting and challenging.

Me and my team mate took approximately half an hour to reach the place, taking lift from 2 people….this was the 1st time I took lift from any one..and got to know that people are really helpful out here. Once we reached there, we started hopping from 1 shop to the other, without considering the size of the shop. We were actually ready to do any kind of work at any kind of place..be it accounting work, filing, clerical work, selling things out, cleaning, working as a waiter, any, any kind of work…

After moving in and out of some 4 or 5 places, the 2 of us landed at The Raymond Shop. The owner was a damn sweet man, he asked us to do the work, which included arranging of shirts, trousers, ties and cufflinks according to the brands and sizes, and then cheking inventory, stock counting…all this for ‘a fairly reasonable pay’. Within a span of about 2 hours, the whole work was done. The shop didn’t actually had any other work for us. So, after having our tea, we were given our pay…the 1st pay of both of our lives. We were curious to know how much would he pay us. We expected it to 200 bucks..but then we got a total of 300 Rs. That felt awesome.this was our hard earned money, literally.

We still had about 2 and a half hours for our deadline..we thought to find work at some other place. finding a second job was abit difficult as most of the shops on that lane had already been visited by our batchmates. But finally, we landed up at Westside. we were not expecting any work from that place, as by the time we reached there, we hardly had an hour left to make money. But then, the store manager, Mr. Mandar, gave us work to do for an hour, after a discussion with some 2 or 3 people at his store.

The work we were given was to promote their current discount scheme. The scheme went as ..a 7.5 % discount just for the IT Professionals, at both the Westside Pune stores, just for a month. What we were asked to do was, to get the contact numbers of all the IT companies in Pune, have a word with their HR managers about the offer, and get their mail ids, so that we could mail the offer to all HR Managers who could then forward the same to all of their employees. In a span of about 45 minutes, we got numbers of some 15 companies, called each of them, but could get the concerned person from just 8 of them…5 among those 15 numbers being inoperational..!!

Finally it was time for us to leave, so we asked the store manager for the same. He was a very generous fellow. As far as the pay was concerned, he just asked us how much did it cost us to reach that place, and he said he would give us the conveyance charges, to and fro, that place. eventually, he paid us a total of 200 bucks. And also asked as well as suggested what all could be done to promote this particular offer. We discussed some 3 effective plans.

Then, we reached the designated place, almost at the time. From there, we reached our college, again taking lift..

Overall, the whole experience taught a lot. we actually got down on the floor to work and learn how the thing work. the work at raymonds made me realise that sales people who do that work day in and day out, have such a monotonous, boring and a tiring job. still, many people earn their living that way.

Also, the importance of team work and co-ordination, ordering and following orders to and of my buddy, talking politely, convincing people over the phone to let us have a word with the HR Manager was being learnt.And then ofcourse, we got to learn and value money. And the pics we clicked, they will definitely be with me for the rest of my life, and remind me the lessons learnt.

a challenging, tiring, interesting, but a fun to have exercise.... really an innovative way to tech student managers the lessons for life....