This exercise something I have never thought I would be doing in a B-school and knowing my reserved nature I knew it was going to be tough day for me. But I kept telling myself that I need to experience new things, push my limits & come out of the comfort zone and see how I react and handle the situation & kept reminding myself that there’s a reason why this exercise is being conducted and I need to give it my 100%.
Once we assembled at the gate I started to look out for a buddy and decided to buddy with Kirti. As soon as Kamath Sir told us to start our exercise we started asking various vehicles passing us by for lifts. An army officer was kind enough to drop me around E-square from where I changed two vehicles to finally reach my destination at 10.35. During this time Kirti with some of our
other batch mates was dropped at the destination by an army truck.I gave myself a pat on the back for being there on time. My celebration was going to be short lived though as it was going to get tougher and tougher.
I was standing right next to the big SGS mall & I thought there must be a lot of shops within the mall where I can get employed for a day. With this thought in my mind I entered the mall and first approached an Adidas showroom, introduced myself, spoke about the task at my hand and asked to be employed. The shop in charge there told me the manager was not there and he could not take a call on employing somebody. I moved on to the Pepe jeans showroom and got the same answer. Then I went to the Nike showroom did the same, the in charge there said the shop was not open as yet but there’s another showroom where I can try and that might be helpful. That showroom was at the MG road. I reached that showroom but got a disappointing answer that they the manager there also is not in yet and will reach the shop by 12. There was no time so I moved on. By this time the urgency to get the job was increasing and I was getting a little desperate, I started approaching any shop that I saw and thought would be able to employ me. After about 10 shops I went to a sweet shop called Karachi Sweet shop. I was speaking to the manager Tarun there but realized that he had already employed 2 of my batch mates and was unwilling to any more. But he was helpful and gave me the address of another Karachi Sweet shop branch on the same road. I was late there again as I saw that another set of my batch mates were already employed. I checked a few other shops unsuccessfully and got back to the first Karachi Sweet Shop. I spoke to Tarun, owner’s son, again, trying to convince him that I’ll be of good help to him. His reply was ‘I’ve spoken to my father and he has strictly asked me to employ no more”. I again tried to reason out with him telling him to take a call on his own. I still don’t know what clicked there as he finally agreed to employ me. I heartily thanked him once and prepared for my new job.
The experience at the sweetshop was very interesting. While purchasing anything from the sweetshops I never gave a thought to what goes on inside a sweet shop on the other side of the counter. How the sweets are packed, what care is taken with regards to hygiene, etc. And here I was trying to understand all these things from the person at the shop. There were 3 shop guys, one girl and us three management students. I wrote down the names & prices of the various items available at the shop. Once I got a little bit of knowledge about the different sweets & namkeens on offer, their prices, I started interacting with the customers which was very interesting. Hemant, an 18 year old boy who was working there for 2 and a half years was very helpful here.
I was standing right next to the big SGS mall & I thought there must be a lot of shops within the mall where I can get employed for a day. With this thought in my mind I entered the mall and first approached an Adidas showroom, introduced myself, spoke about the task at my hand and asked to be employed. The shop in charge there told me the manager was not there and he could not take a call on employing somebody. I moved on to the Pepe jeans showroom and got the same answer. Then I went to the Nike showroom did the same, the in charge there said the shop was not open as yet but there’s another showroom where I can try and that might be helpful. That showroom was at the MG road. I reached that showroom but got a disappointing answer that they the manager there also is not in yet and will reach the shop by 12. There was no time so I moved on. By this time the urgency to get the job was increasing and I was getting a little desperate, I started approaching any shop that I saw and thought would be able to employ me. After about 10 shops I went to a sweet shop called Karachi Sweet shop. I was speaking to the manager Tarun there but realized that he had already employed 2 of my batch mates and was unwilling to any more. But he was helpful and gave me the address of another Karachi Sweet shop branch on the same road. I was late there again as I saw that another set of my batch mates were already employed. I checked a few other shops unsuccessfully and got back to the first Karachi Sweet Shop. I spoke to Tarun, owner’s son, again, trying to convince him that I’ll be of good help to him. His reply was ‘I’ve spoken to my father and he has strictly asked me to employ no more”. I again tried to reason out with him telling him to take a call on his own. I still don’t know what clicked there as he finally agreed to employ me. I heartily thanked him once and prepared for my new job.
The experience at the sweetshop was very interesting. While purchasing anything from the sweetshops I never gave a thought to what goes on inside a sweet shop on the other side of the counter. How the sweets are packed, what care is taken with regards to hygiene, etc. And here I was trying to understand all these things from the person at the shop. There were 3 shop guys, one girl and us three management students. I wrote down the names & prices of the various items available at the shop. Once I got a little bit of knowledge about the different sweets & namkeens on offer, their prices, I started interacting with the customers which was very interesting. Hemant, an 18 year old boy who was working there for 2 and a half years was very helpful here.
Telling me how to go about things. During the day I learnt by practice about how to pack sweets in a packet, how to serve the somosas (which was the favorite among the customers), what questions to ask when a customer asks for a certain item. With every successful packing that I did I grew in confidence & by the end of the day was quite comfortable with the whole process. I also made a few bills when asked by the customers.
There was an interesting incident which happened and made me realize how knowledgeable the shopkeepers are. A person came asking for a 100 rupee change and the man sitting at the counter refused 
him straightaway. The shopkeeper guy who was standing right next to me told me that that person will now buy a 10 rupee item & guess what? That’s exactly what the person did! During the day I interacted with the shop manager and other people working at the sweet shop and tried to gain knowledge about their business. In the late afternoon the shop owner came to the shop and interacted with us and his opinion was clear cut, when the management trainees come to LEARN things at his shop, he should get paid and not the other way round!! Though at the end of the day all three of us got paid Rs 100 for our job. We missed our targets, however, we were happy that we gave our 100 % and tried to learn as much as we could from our experience.
Ravish Bhatt
Roll No: 41
Section : 1/D
him straightaway. The shopkeeper guy who was standing right next to me told me that that person will now buy a 10 rupee item & guess what? That’s exactly what the person did! During the day I interacted with the shop manager and other people working at the sweet shop and tried to gain knowledge about their business. In the late afternoon the shop owner came to the shop and interacted with us and his opinion was clear cut, when the management trainees come to LEARN things at his shop, he should get paid and not the other way round!! Though at the end of the day all three of us got paid Rs 100 for our job. We missed our targets, however, we were happy that we gave our 100 % and tried to learn as much as we could from our experience.Ravish Bhatt
Roll No: 41
Section : 1/D
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