Introduction

The Aspirant Relations Team (ART) is primarily in-charge of the Admission Process at SIBM

Pune. In addition to this it also deals with enhancing the Brand Image of SIBM Pune through a

series of activities such as AdVent, B-Quizzed @ SIBM Pune, Coffee With SIBM and OnBoard

SIBM Pune.

This document gives a detailed report of all the activities that were carried out under the purview

of the Aspirant Relations Team in the year 2012-2013.

The members of the team were:

Senior Team

Ankit Desai - Coordinator

Arnav Ghatak

H. N. Prathap

Hershita Singh

Savitha Lakshminarayan

Shweta Singh

Interim Team

Aniket Sharma

Dhvanil Raval

Rubaina Chauhan

Srimaitri Yalamarthi

Vaibhav Paharia

Venkataraman Ramachandran

Junior Team

Akhil Narasimhan

Aniket Sharma

Dhvanil Raval

Pooja Lahri

Rubaina Chauhan

Srimaitri Yalamarthi

Vaibhav Paharia

Events

The events that were conducted by Aspirant Relations Team during the Academic year 2012-

2013 are as follows:

OnBoarD SIBM Pune 2013-15

AdVent

B-Quizzed@SIBM

Coffee With SIBM 2012

Admissions 2013

Apart from these events, the following initiatives were also undertaken by ART:

iAspire

Campus Tours

E-Brochure

Buddy Program

Sizzlers & Silhouettes

OnBoarD SIBM Pune 2013-15

Overview

OnBoarD SIBM Pune is the second stage of interaction between the aspirants and the students of

SIBM Pune. This occurs after the final merit list is out.

Objective:

Familiarization of the students scheduled to join SIBM Pune with the systems

and culture

Increase interaction between the new batch and the existing batch in SIBM Pune

Process:

Interactive forums were created on Facebook and Google groups.

OnBoarD included a series of activities and communication which form the building blocks of

this initiative. These include:

Knowledge Portal, Google Groups and Online Communities

The Aspirant Relations Team moderated the Knowledge Portal. Weekly quizzes, cases etc. were

uploaded on the Knowledge Portal along with the Interactive Forum. The technical support for

the Portal was provided by the Information Technology Team.

A Google Group was formed where all selected students interacted among themselves as well as

with the students of SIBM Pune. The purpose was to reach out to all the selected candidates and

facilitate their transition to an SIBM Pune student. The Aspirant Relations Team members

would answer queries of the candidates with regard to life at SIBM Pune as well as what the

candidates should do to prepare for the induction program to be conducted at SIBM Pune.

City Meets

Informal meets were conducted in major cities from which a substantial number of students have

been selected to join SIBM Pune. Assistance was sought from volunteers who were present in

various cities for their summer internships. There were active participants in the meets organized

in major cities across the country such as Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and

Pune.

AdVent

Objective:

To ensure that SIBM Pune attracts the maximum number of applicants

To position SIBM Pune as an ideal destination for all aspiring MBA candidates

to obtain holistic learning

Process:

The Aspirant Relations Team is involved in the branding process of SIBM Pune. One

such activity in this process is coming up with creative write-ups and ideas for the

SIBM Pune advertisement during SIBM Pune’s admission season. AdVent is a platform for

all the students of SIBM Pune to come up with creative ideas and advertisements that

would be forwarded to Director Sir as options which could be used by the institute in all

publications.

Features:

The event was thrown open to all students of SIBM Pune

The advertisements theme revolved around Admissions and SIBM Pune

The students were given a write-up which contained the essential details and framework

around which the advertisement should be created

In all, 14 relevant & correct entries were received by ART

The best advertisements were collated and given to Director Sir of which the winners

were chosen

Timeline:

The event was launched on 2nd of July, 2012

Students were asked to submit their entries on or before 1800 hours on 5th of July, 2012

KRAs:

Number of entries in the competition

The quality of advertisements obtained at the end

Budget:

Particulars Amount

Prizes 6000

Miscellaneous Expenses 1000

Total 7000

Winners:

01. Mr. Vaibhav Paharia – MBA (Operations)

02. Mr. Ninad Khadse – MBA (Finance)

03. Mr. Venkataraman Ramachandran – MBA (Marketing)

B-Quizzed @ SIBM Pune

Overview

"B-Quizzed @ SIBM Pune" is a national level business quiz. Created, conceptualized, planned

and organized by the Aspirant Relations Team, one of the student-centric and student-driven

teams on the campus of SIBM Pune, B-Quizzed is aimed at undergraduate students and

corporate professionals - MBA aspirants – to whom we aim to provide a glimpse of the much-

hyped and lesser known depths of the business world. This event was conducted for the third

time in 2012 after being a grand success the previous year.

Target Group

B-Quizzed @ SIBM Pune has traditionally been aimed at aspirants, who we see being a part of

the SIBM Pune family next year. The aspirants maybe pursuing their undergraduate degree or

they might already be working in corporates but planning to pursue MBA soon. We plan to

incorporate students preparing for their MBA entrance exams in various coaching centres all

over the country too. Plus, as the event was already established and had had two successful

editions, we raised the bar this time around and made sure that the best people made it here. For

that, we targeted the top 120 engineering and non-engineering colleges in India. We also

targeted seasoned quizzers who were members of various quiz clubs, be it in their respective

colleges or in independent quiz clubs in various cities.

Event Flow

The flow of the event which we went about with this time is:

1. Question of the day.

2. Build up quiz.

3. Online Prelims.

4. Pre-finals.

5. Finals.

Question of the day

Timeline: July 29, 2012

Coordinates: Facebook, Twitter

Participants were given a chance to come up with whacky B-Quiz questions and we gave the

best questions that we encountered during that time handsome rewards.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/B-QuizzedSIBM-Pune/209917622389317

Build up Quiz

Timeline: August 5, 2012

Coordinates: iAspire

The practice ground before the real games began. We uploaded one question a day on our portal.

The teams were supposed to answer it correctly. But it didn’t end there. Speed mattered too. The

first ten teams to answer correctly everyday were listed and the team to answer in the least

possible time got SIBM Pune goodies. The team that answered the most number of Build-up

questions correctly in the shortest possible time, over the whole window got a wild card entry

straight to the pre-finals at Lavale and didn’t have to go through the rigors of the online prelims.

We got as many as 355 entries over the seven days of the Build Up Quiz and the winning team

from Bagalkot, Karnataka, made it directly to the pre-finals as a wild card entry.

The detailed breakup of the Build Quiz -

Date Participation

Day 01 (Sunday, 5th August 2012) 54

Day 02 (Monday, 6th August 2012) 57

Day 03 (Tuesday, 7th August 2012) 53

Day 04 (Wednesday, 8th August 2012) 48

Day 05 (Thursday, 9th August 2012) 35

Day 06 (Friday, 10th August 2012) 44

Day 07 (Saturday, 11th August 2012) 64

Total 355

Online Prelims

Timeline: August 12, 2012

Coordinates: iAspire

Time windows:

Weekdays: 2130 to 2230 hrs.

Weekends: 1100 to 1200 hrs. and 2130 to 2230 hrs.

The online prelims round were a seven day affair. Starting on August 12 up to August 18, the

prelims were held in one hour windows, one on the weekdays and two on the weekends. The

prelims comprised of a 20 business questions paper to be completed in 30 minutes. There were

negative marks for each wrongly answered question. Each registered team was allowed to

appear for the prelims as many times as they wished to, on the day and during the window of

their choice.

The top seven performers in the online prelims were sponsored by SIBM Pune for travel and

stay during the pre-finals. In addition to that, up to 10 more teams qualified to appear without

sponsorship in the pre-final stage. The top 3 teams from the eight sponsored teams got a direct

entry to the main finals event, without having to pass through the pre-final stage.

The number of entries we got over the seven days was huge, equaling 643. The detailed break-

up is as given below:

Date Details Pre-Thought After-Thought

Day Total Day Total

Day 01 (Sunday, 12th August 2012) Prelim 01 11 36

Prelim 02 7 18 44 80

Day 02 (Monday, 13th August

2012) Prelim 03 41 65

Day 03 (Tuesday, 14th August

2012) Prelim 04 31 62

Day 04 (Wednesday, 15th August

2012) Prelim 05 13 53

Prelim 06 22 35 86 139

Day 05 (Thursday, 16th August

2012) Prelim 07 32 73

Day 06 (Friday, 17th August 2012) Prelim 08 29 76

Day 07 (Saturday, 18th August

2012) Prelim 09 15 62

Prelim 10 27 42 86 148

Total 228 643

Finals

On August 26, 2012

Coordinates: SIBM Pune, Symbiosis Knowledge Village, Lavale

The eliminator round saw enthusiastic participation from top colleges like Fergusson College,

College of Engineering Pune, ILS, and several Symbiosis institutes. There was quality corporate

representation as well, including teams from Cognizant, Price Waterhouse Coopers, Infosys, etc.

Coaching centres in Pune had their representation as well. A total of 38 teams registered on the

day, with 8 other teams sponsored to contest the event on basis of their performance in the

Online Prelims.

Regionals: A normal B-Quiz round (consisting of 20 questions) was conducted to churn out the

best teams from all the regional teams that have registered from in and around Pune. The 6 top

teams from the ones participating advanced to the pre-finals stage to meet the sponsored pre-

finalists.

Pre-finals: The format for the Pre-Finals was the same but the level of difficulty of questions

was more. A closely contested pre-final was to follow, with the top 4 teams joining the top 4

online prelims teams. The 8 teams on stage for the Finals were Google, Price Waterhouse

Coopers, Cognizant, Symbiosis Institute of Technology, Endeavour Careers, Institute of

Chartered Accountants Bangalore, ICICI Bank and HDFC Mumbai.

Mains:

On August 26, 2012

Coordinates: SIBM Pune, Symbiosis Knowledge Village, Lavale

There were 4 rounds – a normal round with no negative marks, a second round with negative

marks for wrong answers, the third round being an Infinite Bounce round and the final frontier

being a rapid fire round. There was active participation from the MBA-I audience as well, for

questions that were passed on from the stage. Goodies were given for correct answers from the

audience. A nerve-wrecking final round ensued, with ICICI and HDFC ending up with same

points, calling for a tie breaker round. In the end, it was ICICI that held its nerve to become

champions of B-Quizzed 2012, with HDFC ending up first runners up and Cognizant as second

runners up. The chief guest for the evening, Mr. Kaushik Mukherjee distributed the prizes and

certificates for winners. The participants lauded B-Quizzed as one of the toughest and high

standard business quiz organized across the country.

Portal: www.sibmpune.edu.in/iaspire

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/B-QuizzedSIBM-Pune/209917622389317

Timeline

Details Date

Question of the Day 28th July to 17th August 2012

Build-up Quiz 6th to 12th August 2012 (Mon – Sun)

Online Prelims Window 12th to 17th August 2012 (Sun – Sat)

Finals Round 26th August 2012 (Sunday)

Publicity

Publicity was done in two phases: offline and online.

Offline Publicity

Posters : two rounds of posters were sent: round one to national level colleges and coaching centres

and the other round to regional colleges and coaching centres.

National level: 634 posters were sent

Regional level: 286 posters were sent.

Multiple posters were put up on notice boards of the following colleges and students were met.

Calls were made to 200 colleges and 350 coaching centres.

Personal communication was done with student representatives and Dean of student affairs. Also,

we interacted with college Principals and faculty when possible.

Online Publicity

Online publicity was done in various phases and using different means. They were:

Teaser Posters.

Teaser Video.

Final Poster.

Final Video.

Regional Posters.

Question of the Day.

Build Up Quiz.

Gyan of the Day.

Memes.

Memes

Analysis

Total likes: 880

Direct reach: 33,326

Indirect reach: 3,65,021

Budget

Sr No Description Qty Price/ Unit Amount

1 Travelling Expenses 18 3,135 56,426

2 Prize Money 1 68,500 68,500

3 Posters 1550 13 20,150

4 Courier Charges 625 35 21,875

5 Refreshments 1 6,900 6,900

6 Stationery Kit for Participants 350 35 12,250

7 T-shirts 60 250 15,000

8 Banners 4 500 2,000

9 Graffiti Sheets 2 250 500

10 Venue 1 29,000 29,000

11 Certificates 45 25 1,125

12 Participation Certificates 450 8 3,600

13 Transport 1 9,600 9,600

14 Misc 1 8,000 8,000

15 Badges 150 30 4,500

16 Accommodation 6 2,500 15,000

TOTAL 2,74,426

Creatives

Mugs.

T-Shirts.

Badges.

Coffee With SIBM 2012

Overview

Coffee With SIBM is an informal interactive event wherein the Aspirant Relations Team of

SIBM Pune organizes seminars which are conducted by students themselves. Currently in its 5th

year, Coffee With SIBM is conducted on a national level. It provides a platform for aspirants to

interact with the students and ask any queries they may have.

The driving points of this seminar are

To dispel any and every doubt that students have regarding SNAP and SIBM Pune

in specific and also other MBA related queries

To give a feel of SNAP by conducting a mock SNAP during the session

To give some more mock papers and help the aspirants with their preparation

Last year, Coffee with SIBM was conducted in 23 cities. This year we organised this event

across 22 cities in 24 venues which received an overwhelming response and was attended by

over 6000 aspirants. This enabled us to help more students take an informed decision regarding

MBA. This event also allowed the candidates to shelve all their inhibitions and ask any

questions they would like answered directly by the students of one of the premier B-Schools of

India, who were in the same place last year as the aspirants are now.

Features of Coffee With SIBM 2012

Pan India event, conducted across 22 cities in 24 venues, in two phases

The entire event was handled by the Aspirant Relations Team with the help of volunteers

from MBA I

Phase I was conducted on the 1st and 2nd of December 2012. It was done in 11 cities.

Phase II was conducted on the 8th and 9th of December 2012. It was done in 11 cities.

The volunteers were given a volunteer kit to assist them while they answered queries. The

Volunteer kit contained the following items:

FAQ Document

iAspire Presentation

Admission Process Presentation

Strategies Presentation

The schedule for the event for all the cities was as follows -

Publicity For Coffee With SIBM 2012

The publicity for Coffee With SIBM can be broadly divided into 3 parts:

Online Marketing:

o Pagalguy advertisement

o Our publicity involved creation of events and webpages in Facebook and all SNAP

aspirants of the respective cities were invited to attend these events. The coffee with

SIBM blog was started which had experiences of past volunteers and team members.

The twitter website of coffee with SIBM was used to send periodic updates about the

event.

Newspaper Advertising: Advertisement in leading newspapers in different cities were

published, which informed the respective venue, date and timings of the event in their cities.

Direct Marketing: The posters of all the events were sent to respective cities. Emails,

Messages and Phone calls were used to inform the students. Furthermore we also sent

specific mails to various centres which were forwarded to their students. The following

is the breakup of the number of posters that was sent to each city.

City No. of Posters

Ahmedabad 66

Bangalore 123

Bhopal 28

Bhubaneswar 36

Chandigarh 50

Chennai 92

Delhi 158

Hyderabad 109

Indore 28

Jaipur 38

Kanpur 52

Kochi 52

Kolkata 44

Lucknow 48

Mumbai 164

Nagpur 40

Patna 22

Pune 102

Raipur 28

Noida 40

Vishakhapatnam 38

Vadodra 38

Total Count 1396

Budget

Particulars Cost

Venue + LCD 346,100

Advertising 103,900

Promotions 300,000

Snacks 48,000

Stationary 176,275

SMS Package 15,000

Daily Allowance 32,000

Local Transport Allowance 8,000

Travelling 173,772

Others (Miscellaneous) 10,000

Grand Total 12,13,047

Statistics

Phase I

City Turnout

Bhubaneshwar 183

Vishakhapatnam 225

Chandigarh 177

Noida 114

Nagpur 197

Raipur 63

Bhopal 168

Indore 170

Vashi 162

Mumbai 413

Kanpur 215

Lucknow 190

Phase II

City Turnout

Pune 750

Thane 325

Hyderabad 407

Chennai 340

Bangalore 443

Kochi 145

Patna 80

Kolkata 356

Ahmedabad 260

Vadodara 190

Jaipur 203

Delhi 390

Merchandise

Poster

Graffiti Sheet

T-Shirt

Admissions 2013

Overview

The GEPI Process is the second phase of the Admission Process to Symbiosis Institute of

Business Management (SIBM) Pune. The first phase is the SNAP Test which was conducted on

16th December 2012. SNAP Test is a common entrance test for short-listing candidates for the

GEPI Processes of all institutes under the Symbiosis International University. For this phase of

the GEPI process, every institute under SIU was given the liberty to choose any four evaluation

exercises – Two group exercises and two individual exercises. At SIBM Pune, we chose the

following activities:

Group Assessment

o Group Discussion

o Picture GD

Individual Assessment

o Personal Interview

o Extempore

This is an overview of the GEPI Process at SIBM Pune for selecting the candidates for the two

year full-time residential MBA Program beginning from June 2013. It contains details of all the

aspects that were covered for planning and conducting the process on the SIBM Pune campus.

Total number of seats 180

Sr. No. Category Seats Number of seats

A Reservations within Intake

I Open 74.5% 135

Ii SC 15% 27

Iii ST 7.5% 13

Iv DA 3% 5

Total 180

B Reservations above Intake

V KM 1% 2

Vi International 15% 27

Total 209

Table 1 shows the distribution of seats for the MBA Program.

The GEPI Process addressed the requirements for selecting candidates under the categories i, ii,

iii, i v and v. The admissions under category iv are held separately and do not come under the

purview of the Aspirant Relations Team.

The GE-PI Process was conducted on the Lavale campus of Symbiosis Institute of Business

Management Pune for a period of six days from 2nd February 2013 to 7th February 2013. The

short listing of the candidates for the GEPI Process was done based on their performance in the

SNAP Test. The result of the SNAP Test was declared on the 11th of January 2013 and the

shortlist for GDPI Process for SIBM Pune was declared on the 17th of January 2013.

The GE-PI Process was conducted in the Academic Block (comprising the X, Y and Z Blocks,

MDP wing and the Assembly Hall 2) and the Convention Centre in the Lavale campus of SIBM

Pune. The Assembly Hall 2 was utilized as Waiting Hall for the candidates whose process is

going on. The Convention Centre was used for presentations to the candidates and for screening

of the video for Audio-Visual Exercise. The registration and document verification of the

students also took place inside the Convention Centre itself. IT Lab 1 was booked for use by

parents/friends/guardians as a waiting area. Panellist briefing was held at the conference room in

the MDP wing.

Short listing for the GEPI Process

Candidates were shortlisted for the GE-PI process based on their performance in the SNAP Test.

Shortlisted candidates were required to attend the second round of the admission process. The

number of candidates to be shortlisted is determined by a number known as the call ratio. The

call ratio followed this year is 1: 7.5. This means, if 100 students are to be finally selected for

admissions, then 750 students need to be called to participate in the GEPI Process. The same call

ratio is maintained across all the categories under the purview of this GEPI Process. The number

of calls given is shown in the table 2.

Table 2

Category No of seats Call Ratio No of candidates shortlisted

Open 107 1:7.5 822

Scheduled Caste 27 1:7.5 206

Scheduled Tribe 14 1:7.5 106

Differently Abled 5 1:7.5 38

Kashmiri 2 1:7.5 16

Total 155 1188*

Buddy Program

Each shortlisted candidate was assigned a Buddy as soon as they were shortlisted. A Buddy is a

student in the current first year. The Buddy acted as a Single Point of Contact with the

shortlisted candidates. The main intention of the Buddy Program was to clarify all doubts in the

minds of aspirants and clear their apprehensions before the GEPI Process. Buddies kept sending

timely mails and reminders on process deadlines to the short listed candidates. They also

facilitated faster communication between the shortlisted candidates and the Aspirant Relations

Team.

This year, a total of 119 students from MBA I volunteered for the Buddy Program. All

shortlisted candidates were assigned a Buddy. Around 17 Buddies were assigned to each Junior

Aspirant Relations Team member. Each Buddy was assigned 10 shortlisted candidates.

New e-mail ids were created for the Buddies in order to enable them communicate with the

shortlisted candidates. The e-mail ids were created in a standardized format so that it was easier

for the Aspirant Relations Team to monitor the activity. Buddies were advised not to change the

default password that was allotted.

The Buddies were intimated about their roles and responsibilities in a Buddy Address. A ready

reckoner was given to them which contained a set of FAQs which would aid them in answering

to the queries of the candidates. Guidelines were also given to the Buddies on information to be

shared with the candidates and also certain information which was not supposed to be shared.

The Buddies were also informed to check their mails periodically and ensure that all the mails

from candidates were replied to within 24 hours. They were also requested to mark a copy to the

corresponding Aspirant Relations Team members whenever they sent out a reply to the

candidates.

In addition to these, the Aspirant Relations Team members also used to randomly visit the e-

mail accounts of the Buddies every day to make sure that none of the queries are left

unanswered. For any queries that the Buddies were not able to answer on their own, they were

required to get in touch with their corresponding Aspirant Relations Team members

immediately, and the query was looked into. “Sizzlers & Silhouettes”, e-zines depicting the

campus life and the students‟ profile were also sent to the candidates on a weekly basis.

iAspire

iAspire is an initiative by the Aspirant Relations Team which is aimed at aspirants appearing for

their MBA entrance exams. This website has been conceptualised by Aspirant Relations Team

to reach out to MBA aspirants and dispel any doubts that they may have about doing an MBA.

Overview

The aim was to position SIBM Pune as a centre for student mentoring and to guide MBA

aspirants at every stage of the selection process. iAspire, a one of a kind online portal, is

managed by the Aspirant Relations Team along with the Information Technology Team. The

website is updated on a weekly basis with topics such as General Knowledge, Business Quiz,

Basic Math, Brain Teasers and Word Power.

iAspire was used as a repository of questions in Quantitative Aptitude, Data

Interpretation, Logical Reasoning and General Knowledge. These questions were

updated on a weekly basis.

Post SNAP 2012 the forum on iAspire was used to conduct regular group discussions

among the shortlisted candidates. These group discussions were moderated by the

students of the Aspirant Relations Team. Furthermore articles on GD topics, GE/PI

experiences and other relevant topics shall be hosted on the website

iAspire was used to conduct the online prelims of B-Quizzed @ SIBM Pune. These

online prelims were conducted over 7 days where the questions were posted on the

website during a fixed time frame. The answers to these questions were submitted on a

form provided on iAspire.