“Sir, please take this written quiz.” The boy clad in formals kept after the hesitant visitor with a questionnaire on financial issues. “You win a prize if you answered correctly,” he went on. It became an embarrassing situation for the visitor, a faculty member of The American College. Though the associate professor was initially reluctant he finally agreed. The boy smiled brightly at his achievement.
There were many more like him roaming around to accomplish their assigned jobs at The American Street, a marketing simulation event organised by the Department of Management Studies of The American College.
“It is an attempt to provide a feel of a retail market to our students,” said S. Raju, Director of Department of Management Studies. “Such an event helps them to understand the planning that is done to market a product. Generally, we send our students to big corporate offices for a hands-on training but through this programme we have made our students to learn the society at their work place.”
The two-day fair involved MBA students specialising in finance, marketing and human resources. While the students of marketing were in charge of meeting retailers and convincing them to participate in the event, the HR boys organised student personnel and assigned work. The finance students took care of the accounts.
“This fair is open only to our students and not to public,” said Davamani Christober, Principal and Secretary, The American College. “We are doing this event as a pilot study. If this is found to be useful for the students, then we will try to extend this programme for public also.”
“Such programmes give students invisible training skill and knowledge,” said C. Muthuraja, Associate Professor, Department of Economics.
There were stalls exclusively for photography and issuing PAN cards. There were also a couple of textile stalls selling designer kurtis and party wear. Quite noticeable was the elaborate spread at the food court.
“This event was a good learning ground for us,” said Vishnu Prasanna, II MBA (Human Resources). “As a HR student and the one in charge of planning, I had to delegate work force to monitor stalls and also for the smooth conduct of the event. I applied what I have learnt in the class and saw how it worked. It is an experience for us.”
There were more than 10 committees to take care of the event, including the games, hospitality, invitation and reception. There was also a committee to help the sponsors and presspersons.
