IIT : Indian Institute of Technology

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A lavish Buffet

David Sokol, CEO of Mid American, one of the many firms he has a majority share in, called him the Einstein of Business. He is the second richest man in the world. One share of his company Berkshire Hathway is worth close to $90,000. Yet, he drives his own car. Warren Buffet is an epitome of simplicity.

Gupta School of Management (VGSOM), IIT Kharagpur, visited Omaha, Nebraska to meet the legend himself. Buffet spent half a day interacting with them, during which he talked about his life, its lessons and how he likes to keep it simple.

Whether its deciding on which business to put his money in, or picking stocks to invest in, Buffet goes for only those things that he can easily comprehend and understand (and others can, too). Buffets statement that, I asked my friend Bill Gates that if there was one school he wanted to recruit from which one would it be. And the answer was IIT, was greeted by a loud roar of approval from the IITians, who were present there along with students from the Chicago Business School (CBS).

Buffet is not unfamiliar with IIT. Ajit Jain, one of his most trusted managers, is an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. Vinod Gupta, one of the institutes most distinguished alumni, who made this trip possible, is Buffets old acquaintance. Said Buffet: I would love to have more like Ajit from IIT.

It was about a year ago that Vinod Gupta floated this idea of taking a group of students from the IIT B-school to Omaha. Besides meeting Buffet, the idea was not only to expose them to faculty from global schools like University of Omaha (UNO) but also to top honchos from Fortune 100 companies. According to Vin (as Gupta is called in the US): I wanted to change the lives of a whole bunch of people from the IIT business school. It was an opportunity that students didnt want to miss.

During the eight-day trip, the students attended workshops on international finance, competitive intelligence, strategy, marketing of high tech products, etc. These sessions were also attended by VGSOMs faculty members, who also got the opportunity to interact with some top class global professors. Afternoon sessions were devoted to corporate visits. These sessions were most fulfilling from the students standpoint as they got to interact with corporate bigwigs like Jim Young, CEO, Union Pacific.

Young and his top management spoke at length about the company, its long-term strategy, operational tactics, challenges, and limitations. The openness and clarity with which these companies interacted with the students speaks a lot about the relationship that UNO shares with them and also the respect that American corporations have for IIT, said Deepak Khazanchi, a senior professor at UNO.

Conagra, another top company, delivered a presentation that they normally used for their investors. InfoUSA (Vin Guptas company), the $400-million Org, Gallup and Nebraska Furniture Mart were the other companies that the IITians visited and studied.

Evenings included a visit to the baseball stadium, besides parties and interaction with UNO students from all over the world. Says Probir Gupta, dean VGSOM: This was an opportunity for VGSOM to fuel its growth and I am happy that we have come out this, much stronger.

Source : http://news.moneycontrol.com/

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