The Group 6 and MBA Coffee

This is the story of 3 long years in 2 minutes. The story of a six people armed with an MBA gun and a dream to succeed frequented the fisheries building. People with little bit of ambition and a life much larger than an MBA. As any other campus monument, the story also has a silent witness, the coffee shop down the fisheries building which overheard their achievements, frustrations, tragedies and comedies of Ignou MBA venture.

It was at the end of first semester at ignou that the group started evolving. All those great informal groups, innovative ideas and creative brains are discovered over the coffee/ tea. So it was their quest for this great refreshment and zeal for a group that took them to our famous coffee shop. In the beginning , the early birds of the semester occupy empty class rooms before the “counselor shows” at 6:30 PM .Then they had to see otherwise sober Mr.Amjad changing his colours or the counselors from neighboring classes driving them out, on which they had no control over. The fact is that, they used to be the regular noise makers and heart of heart they loved the freedom of being a student once again. Never mind the resultant public nagging. A student is a student regardless of his status, color, creed and of course the age.

It was Mr. Manoj; the senior most male member of the group invited the ladies to the coffee shop. He paid a heavy price for his courtesy, by always getting the privilege to pay for the rest of the group. So the famous coffee shop lets us call it as MBA coffee shop does not need an introduction. It is one among those typical Kuwait restaurants that could sell Indian, Pakistani, Chinese, Srilankan and Arabic food, all at the same time with the best rates available. It had the right ingredient of a meeting place, being close to ignou office, so far away from counselllors, a right sneak peek from those jealous husbands, wives, girlfriends and protective fathers.

The great MBA coffee shop marked the beginning of group 6 formations. With their suit, boot, style and white color complex, the group had the absolute of anonymity, among the workers who frequented the coffee shop. The group 6 consisted of the group entrepreneur Gurpreet, Group all rounder Govind, Math brain Ranjini, group DHL Robin, Management expert Manoj, the group advisor Jainy, and of course some occasional guest visitors (the regularly irregular lot).

One of the constructive discussions of the group was grading the counselors. “Who is the dictator? Who is sarcastic? Who is friendly, who is sincere? And who all are outstanding? And of course, who all can be replaced by ay one of the team members (No offenses please, these were the simple thoughts of some seniors)”. The shop also witnessed the groups’ management strategies of how to extend/ beat the assignment dead lines and how to negotiate the extension of fees schedules. Group always had a consensus on these two issues. The coffee shop had also witnessed generosity and great group sharing philosophies. Some of the core assignments were shared, copied and articulately reproduced by the team members (Author is also no exception).

It is the place where the group leader gave great lessons of how to write the best of the assignments, exams and projects and finally got over scored by his favorite disciple. And CPMs, Hypothesis, Chi square, the never to be tallied balance sheets, Drucker and Kotler etc got boiled over the tea (always after the exam). Those brilliant lads who had done well had the jubilation and those desperate ladies who failed to write well had the free consolations/counseling from the rest of the team. “Do not worry about the grades yar, we are here to pass the exam and take a MBA”, yet they worried about their grades and their neighbors grades. After all, we are all human beings and we call this jealousy in modern words as healthy competition.

Another significant experience from the coffee shop is that invariably, on all days, the future of management got chased out by the shop owner on the grounds noise pollution. An average MBA student brings 200 fills (usual menu tea and samosas) worth business at the expense of 45 minutes of noise pollution. (Thanks to the whole hearted laughter of some of the team members).Whereas, an ordinary worker brings at least 500 fills sales within 15 minutes. What a great management theory!!! Nevertheless, the MBA coffee shop had the courtesy to forget the previous day and the group had the tolerance to have the samosas again despite the repeated stomach cramps it gave.

Well the stories can go on…Today there is an Ignou management forum and some formal entities. However, the group 6 was the predecessor of current MBA forum, and the driving force behind some of the adult members like the author. In its own right, the MBA coffee shop and the 100 fills coffee will be the souvenirs of Group 6’s MBA experience.