Contents

Mu Sigma Times December 2012

Editors Note: Dear Mu Sigmans,

As we approach the end of 2012 and get ready to begin a new year, let us take stock of all the happenings and achievements in the year 2012. It is in this spirit that this De-cember edition of Mu Sigma Times recounts the highlights from 2012 and thoughts for the road ahead in 2013.

In the life of a company like Mu Sigma, every year has been crucial in taking us forward towards our purpose and dreams. We started 2012 with a dream of making our eco-system more connected and made quite a few strides in that direction. The Nandi Hills sessions, the annual Expos event that happened simultaneously in India and US, the 4th Annual Customer Summit, Mu Talk events that included customers, and several other initiatives enriched and connected our eco-system. We added close to 30 new clients, entered new re-gions including Australia and South America and expanded our cross-industry client base to include Energy and Gaming companies. We gained wider media coverage and were recog-nized by Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing private com-panies in the US for a third year in a row. We launched inter-nal systems such as muMoments, the new PM tool, the new Mu Sigma Information Centre, etc. and made progress in the adoption of our innovation assets and products. We pio-neered new frameworks in the analytics industry such as muPDNA, muKyun, muSense and muFIRE. To strengthen our ecosystem, we welcomed close to 1000 new people into the Mu Sigma family. In addition, we launched two hugely suc-cessful campus events - MuPhoria, targeting all engineering students in India and mureka, targeting all management stu-dents of IIMs - both of which saw tremendous response. The year was filled with the collective expression, aspiration and achievements of each one of us. Let us rejoice, retrospect and continue to learn. Happy New Year 2013 and happy reading! Editor, Mu Sigma Times

Tel: +91 80 4054 9100 Fax: +91 80 4054 9300 E-mail: musigma.times@mu-sigma.com

India Mu Sigma Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Level 4 & 5, Kalyani Platina, Opp. Tata Motors Showroom, Kundalahalli Village, Brookefield, Whitefield Bangalore 560066 US Mu Sigma Inc. 3400 Dundee Rd, Suite 160 Northbrook, IL 60062

1 Mu Sigmas media presence in 2012 Page 3

2 Mu Sigma Customer Summit 2012A Report Page 4

3 Mu Sigma Thought LeadershipTop Trends in

2013 Page 6

4 Rhythmic Reflections - Poems Page 8

5 Best BlogsBy Goutham Ekollu Page 9

6 Offsite @ Nandi HillsBy Uday Shankar Page 10

7 Interview Excerpts from our Experts Page 12

8 Holding Hands, Building Bridges Page 13

9 After HoursA refreshing twist to a typical Friday Page 14

10 AnimatopoeiaBy Pavan Palety and

Neeraj Hirani Page 16

11 Expos 2012A report Page 18

12 Company UpdatesInternal and external updates Page 22

Home

Mu Sigma has been identified as a category defining company

Mu Sigmas media presence in 2012 Home

Mu Sigma hosted its Fourth Annual Cus-

tomer Summit at the grand Ritz Carlton in

Half Moon Bay, California on 26th and

27th February, 2012. This was the first

time the Customer Summit had been held

outside Mu Sigma's home city of Chicago,

and the picturesque coastal town did not

disappoint.

Mu Sigma's 2012 Customer Summit broke

all attendance records: more than 150

clients and over 50 Mu Sigma representa-

tives travelled to Half Moon Bay for the

event. Business cards were not the only

things exchanged these business leaders

and analytics practitioners shared ideas,

thoughts, perspectives, trends, challenges

and solutions during this two day event. It

was, as one attendee described it, "an

incredible brain trust" of analytics pros.

The event kicked off on Sunday, 26th Feb-

ruary, with an informal seaside cocktail

hour. This was followed by a pre-dinner

reception during which Dhiraj Rajaram,

the founder, chairman and ceo of Mu Sig-

ma, hosted a fireside chat with Alfred Lin

of Sequoia Capital. During the interactive

session, Lin touched upon the three main

factors he looks for when evaluating a

potential investment: a unique value

proposition, an untapped market with

tremendous future potential, and a man-

agement team with a passion for the busi-

ness. The dinner that followed allowed

attendees a chance

to network with peers.

Day two began with a keynote by William

Coughran, a seasoned computer scientist

(and former Google executive) who has

helped many firms build

successful analytics centric organizations.

Coughran spoke about the impact of Big

Data on companies, and also provided

advice on how to attract and retain ana-

lytics talent. A key takeaway from his

presentation was to ensure that we give

our analytics staff the time and opportuni-

ty to pursue discovery-driven analytics

projects, not just problem-driven initia-

tives.

The keynote address was followed by cli-

ents taking center stage, providing their

points of view on the most notable sub-

jects in the analytics space.

Representatives from one of our leading

Bio-Pharma client shared how its analytics

group was restructured to better support

a global delivery model for decision scienc-

es, and how important governance was for

ensuring the success of this model.

Another client, a leading retailer, dis-

cussed their mantra for the success of

decision sciences: gather data, create ac-

tionable insights, infuse insights into busi-

ness processes and act on the derived

knowledge.

A panel discussion led by representatives

from leading clients in technology, retail

and auto insurance industries ensued.

They discussed how analytically proactive

organizations have a culture of experimen-

tation, innovation and Fail Fast and

Learn. These organizations are also

known to invest heavily in emerging, game

changing technologies to ensure they re-

main ahead of the curve.

Mu Sigma Customer Summit 2012 Report courtesy Adarsh Kumar | Edited by Priyanga Ashok

Home

Leveraging Analytics

Executives from one of the leading tech-

nology clients presented their journey

from simple BI dashboards to the develop-

ment of a robust framework for measuring

marketing ROI. They connected the im-

portance of building data and analytical

infrastructure in incremental steps and

selecting relevant analytics techniques;

thereby ensuring that ROI measurement

incorporates both quantitative and qualita-

tive inputs that can increase accuracy in

the process.

One of the representatives of a leading

operator of convenience stores, discussed

how the company is using analytical ap-

proaches such as Flow and Network Opti-

mization to rationalize product assortment

in each network, drive lower costs, opti-

mize distribution channel mix and maxim-

ize distribution efficiency.

Leading technology clients and a U.S.

based specialty retailer led discussed how

social media proliferation has enabled cus-

tomers make a more informed choice be-

fore purchase (Zero Moment of Truth) and

a more vocal one after (Infinite Moment of

Truth). They also pointed out the need for

integrated marketing that can nurture the

customer through the purchase process.

Data

Data, the foundation of decision sciences,

was thoroughly deliberated up on. Andre-

as Weigend, a leading researcher and pro-

fessor in social data and consumer interac-

tions at the Stanford University led a panel

discussion on Big Data, with participation

from leading telecom companies and an

online C-2-C trading corporation. The panel

touched up on applications, hurdles, in-

sights and learnings in the analytical jour-

ney from Dataset to Toolset, Skillset, and

Mindset.

Representatives from leading companies in

the areas of financial services company,

technology, auto insurance company and

social networking, led another panel dis-

cussion on the topic: Should the lack of

data to solve a business problem be viewed

as a hurdle or a springboard? The panelists

presented a new discovery-driven frame-

work which advocates creation of agenda-

less data, which does not necessarily start

with an existing business problem. Panel-

ists agreed that such wide-scan approach-

es to analytics will give organizations a

better chance of identifying game-

changing opportunities.

The Future of Analytics

Dhiraj said decision sciences could be

compared to a traditional supply chain,

where data is the source, analysis/results/

insights are the produce, recommenda-

tions/communication of actions is the dis-

tribution and actions/success is the con-

sumption. He also presented a futuristic

view of how organizations will collaborate

on insights across traditional firewalls to

gain competitive advantage.

Big Data

The 2012 Mu Sigma Customer Summit con-

cluded with an interactive workshop on Big

Data Applications conducted by Andreas

Wiegend and Zubin Dowlaty, Head of In-

novation & Development (Mu Sigma).

The duo discussed at length on the techno-

logical innovations that promise data

crunching companies the power of distrib-

uted computing and faster processors for

data processing. This discussion set the

tone for participants to brainstorm on new

problems that should be addressed to un-

derstand customers and the marketplace

better, using newer and potentially richer

sources of information. Teams repre-

senting different industry verticals came up

with innovative ideas on how they can so-

licit information from consumers to serve

them better. Participants of the Mu Sigma

Customer Summit 2012 duly recognized

the importance and criticality of embracing

the complete decision sciences supply

chain and accepted it as an accelerator for

competitive advantage.

As the organizer of this event we should be

proud that our platform was able to con-

verge ideas from industry thought leaders,

across verticals. It is certainly a step to-

wards our long-term goal of institutionali-

zation of analytics and decision sciences in

more and more enterprises.

Home

Insight-crawlers will be born: Web crawlers that swarm the World Wide Web to index

data will become a thing of the past. Crawlers with a mandate to look for insights will be created. One of the focus areas for most of the search engines is contextual search. It is just another way of saying customers are looking for insights not data.

For instance, if you search for most trending word today on Google you will get 84.6M search results. But for your perspective you know you are looking for one answer. Imag-ine web-crawlers with specific focus to identify the answer to this question. Now imagine mil-lions of such crawlers each with a specific focus question. I predict this will happen in 2013.

The average consumer will start to become much more savvy about his/her own data and identi-ty in the digital world. Usage of Personal data vaults to store and protect the digital data that each individ-ual generates will become common. Think about the amount and varied interactions that happen online today from managing your finances to shopping to keeping track of your health (with personal devices such as the Nike fuel bands) to interacting with your friends and family. As individuals have got more and more comfortable with living their life online, the growing worry about ons online identity being com-promised apart from just the sheet complications in keeping track of several different usernames, pass-words and preferences calls for a solution.

The past few years has seen the emergence of startup companies that provide consumers a way to take control of their data. Services such as Personal, Reputation.com, and Singly offer to store and protect the data loaning it only to Internet companies and advertisers that the consumer trusts and approves of. Even better, the services allow users to potentially offer their data in exchange for something, such as rebates or discounts thus placing more power in the hands of the consumer and allowing them to mone-tize their data assets. I dont envision all of this chang-ing in 2013, but this is certainly a trend I see taking shape in the not too distant future.

What does this mean for someone like Mu Sigma as consumers take more control of their own data, companies can get access to richer, and more focused information about their customers but with less control. Companies will have to get smarter about how they get access to this information and how this can be mined as the rules of the game are changed and the power of information shifts to the consumer. We can play a huge role in defining how companies access and use the data in this changing environment.

Building Intelligent Systems and the Rise of the Intelligent Machine

This trend will materialize much more boldly in 2013, especially with announcements from major corporations on the idea of the industrial Internet. This trend can be distilled into integrating data and analytics capability into a machine to optimize its usage patterns. Creating machines that are more intelligent is the next big idea! Machines are producing very large data sets however real-time insights, optimization and predictive capability need to be delivered. Advanced Data Visualization and Analytics Tools that Busi-ness People Can Use:

Most analytical shops need to migrate beyond the traditional business intelligence dashboard view and move to a cockpit metaphor to gain an edge. Also, businesses today need to introduce more analytics tools that ordinary business people can use. One by-product of the data scientist shortage is the absence of analytics tools that can be used by mar-keting, sales and others. Look for this void to be filled in 2013, as vendors work to craft new solutions that take the mystery out of data analysis like a data scientist in a box. The Hadoop Trend Continues to Amaze:

Hadoop 2.0s flexible and modular architecture for parallel processing frameworks will be positioned towards an operating system for data. Hadoop being the de-facto oper-ating system for parallel processing frameworks such as Map Reduce and MPI, two very distinct flavors of parallel computa-tion required in the Big Data toolbox.

Zubin Dowlaty Head, I&D

Goutham Ekollu Cross Industry

Unit Head

Mukund Raghunath Geography Head

East & Mid-west, US

Mu Sigma Thought Leadership Top Trends i

n 2013 Home

Trend: IT and Analytics departments collaborating in new and powerful ways

Not long ago, Analytics departments in many large cor-porations received little, if any, support from their IT counter-parts. Advanced analytics deployments usually meant imple-menting a Business Intelligence platform like Business Objects or Microstrategy so that business users could pull reports on their own from data warehouses. Predictive models, if they were built at all, were rarely applied at scale. IT departments did not un-derstand how to implement these models and their environ-ments were not setup to support these types of use cases.

Over the last year, as Big Data has gained prominence in the business world and budgets for analytics have exploded, IT groups have taken notice. Today, CIOs are working quickly to understand how their groups need to evolve to support ana-lytics. As Analytics and IT teams start to work more closely to-gether, both groups are struggling to adapt.

In 2013, the most successful organizations will figure out how to develop a stronger working relationship between IT and their Analytics teams. During this evolutionary period, the lines between IT and Analytics groups will blur. Traditional IT functions like ETL may be handled by Analytics teams and some IT groups will play a strong role in defining how Analytics will deployed throughout the organization. As new analytics technol-ogies are deployed, there will be a gap in the skills required on both the IT and Analytics teams. This presents a unique oppor-tunity for companies like Mu Sigma which can bridge this gap and talk effectively about how busi-ness, math and technology needs to be used to-gether to solve the business problems our clients face today.

Trend: Quantifying our world Nike is using the GPS in cell phones to allow people to

track how far they run. If you dont have a smartphone you can buy a sensor for your shoe. Nest launched a thermostat which allows consumers to monitor their home heating and cooling usage via their smartphones. Discover credit card cus-tomers have ready access to reports which tell them how they are spending their money. Withings sells a blood pressure monitor that consumers can plug in to the iPhone.

What do all of these things have in common? They are allowing us to better track and analyze key aspects of our lives including our health, our finances and our impact on the planet. These products are just the beginning. In 2013, sen-sors will be embedded in more products and new companies will also use this technology to revolutionize how we monitor our daily lives.

In the business world, companies like GE believe these technologies are critical enablers that can allow us to improve productivity and address global challenges. GE is focused on using this data to improve transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and other industrials through intel-ligent machines and the Industrial Internet which connects the worlds machines, facilities, fleets and networks with ad-vanced sensors, controls and software applications.

Sensors and machine data are key drivers of the ex-plosion of data which is doubling every 18 months. For Mu

Sigma, the opportunities are clear. Consumers and our clients will need help analyzing this data and identifying insights that can lead to better profitability and a better consumer experience. For each of us, it presents a unique opportunity to truly measure where we spend our time, talent and treasure.

Behavioral Sciences in Decision Sciences The Next Big Trend One of the key innovations in Decision Sciences in the coming few years will be the wide-spread integration of the effects of social, cognitive and emotional factors on the decision making process. Businesses will try to capture the behavioral elements and integrate that data with other market information to make more in-formed decisions finally recognizing that it is not rational agents but human beings that are participating in the marketplace. While the Behavioral Sciences discipline is not a recent phenomenon, the recent advances

in computing are increasingly opening up the possibilities for implementing some of these concepts. For instance, the traditional rational consumer behavior models do not completely factor the interaction effects in the marketplace. Of late, it is becoming possible to develop agent-based models for simulating the actions and interactions of autonomous agents and their effects on the system as a whole. These allow for a much richer description of real-life situations like the impact of a specific pricing decision on the mar-

ket share, the cannibalization effects of a new product launch, to name a few. Trend: Leveraging Machine Data

Companies will try to mine the vast pools of data generated by machines to glean useful insights that can help them better understand their customers and use the insights to better service them. For instance, the mobile carrier may be able to deliver localized contextual search results to their customers; the software company could study the actual customer usage to identify the actual usage of features, which in turn could help them plan new features better or repli-cate bugs.

In the years to come, the Decision Sciences industry will play a key role in helping companies in building the Big Data infrastructure and deploy applications to separate out the signals from the noise and convert these signals into meaningful business insights, which can then be used to make more informed decisions.

Krishna R Cross Industry

Unit Head

Home

Sometimes, youre not what youre made out to be;

You pretend because others depend, Your strength mistaken as your self

Sometimes, you just cant cry; Your tears confused and misunderstood,

And deep within they must dry Sometimes, you cannot show;

Waylaid by the gentle smile, How it truly gnaws your mind

Sometimes, it remains contained; No one can and no one will,

The pain, only you realize Sometimes, you must brace yourself

Alone with no one at your side, Face rough seas, pierce through the storm

Crimson Red, Blood, Soft petalled curled within like a baby in mother's womb, with an aura and fragrance so divine, waiting to unravel itself into the world. Thick, pointed, sharp like a sharpened pencil amidst its thorns ,smiled the rubicund ROSE. The tiny eyes-the seeds peeked above; and was awestruck at mother nature's magnanimity; Blue, the sky gave a feeling of warmth in the colourless cold breeze; Unaware of the times so green which moved to and fro when the wind passed by. Blossom and bloom, its infinite dream; The Rose rose up to reveal itself. Beauty unbounded with a trail of fragrance. The small seed eyes gazed at the beings which ushered on its petals flapping their wings; with colours so bright and those symmetrical spots, and creatures unknown which hummed and whined like a dunce cap. Tired and enervated the day seemed to end when the sky looked black in a tranquility of white; the peeping moon. The rose dilated its petals to adore the beauty of the dark and rejoiced at the music of the night. The world awakes covered in a golden carpet, the sky; clear blue, the leaves; green grieved in silence for The Rose-which was Red; Crimson Red, Petalled; soft curled within like a baby in a mother's womb; with a trail of fragrance, Kissed the mud and slept undisturbed.

SOMETIMES By Abhinav Tandon

THE ROSE By Priyanka K

My eyes are dazzled, blinded momentarily by the bright sunlight when I raise my eyes to the sky. Fascinated, I look on... wondering what lies ahead. The vastness entices me, beckons my thirsty soul with a promise of a brighter tomorrow. And I almost spread my arms that I mistake for wings as if to soar into the blue horizons, wanting the winds to effortlessly guide me on. But that dream, I know is a distant one. Almost like a dying refrain of a song in an alien tongue, that had once perhaps twanged my heartstrings but has long faded into nothingness. Perhaps, I've gazed at that dream too long to realize that it exists no more. All that remains in its place is an afterglow, a numbness. And when the dust settles at my feet in the gathering twilight, There is a fistful of earth where I must grow my roots.

A fistful of earth... - By Indira Priyadarshini

Rhythmic Refle

ctions Home

Muddy-Fuzzy-Clear: Life stages of a business problem

Business problems evolve. When a business encounters a problem for the first time, very little about the problem is under-

stood. Details about the nature of the problem, scope, approach, solution etc. are all muddy. With time, as we start address-

ing the problem using heuristics/experience it starts getting a little clearer. We gain a better understanding of the finer details

of the problem, but the right solution is still fuzzy. Eventually, after multiple iterations of solving the same business problem,

the right approach/solution becomes clearer. Every business problem evolves through the muddy-fuzzy-clear life stages. For

example, how to monetize Facebook data was a muddy problem a couple of years ago. Today it is a fuzzy problem.

However, once a problem becomes clear, it doesnt stay that way. The muddy-fuzzy-clear phases are cyclical in nature. A dis-

ruptive innovation in technology or a new piece of information (data) can make a clear problem muddy again. The rate at

which this evolution is happening has accelerated in the last decade. As a result, problems are spending less time in the

clear state and a lot more time in the muddy and fuzzy states. Clear problems can have clear solutions. But muddy and

fuzzy problems cant be solved using black box approaches. It requires a different mindset to see a problem through its vari-

ous life stages

In order to support our growth and mentor our entry level analytics professionals (we think of them as analytics soldiers), it is

imperative for us to build a strong team of analytics managers (we think of them as captains). However, the challenges that

exist in hiring entry-level analytics professionals also exist when it comes to hiring analytics captains as well there is a seri-

ous dearth of such talent. Only recently, some of the top business schools in the US started formalizing analytics courses in

their curriculum. While the Montessori style of developing analytics soldiers has helped us attract the right talent from top

colleges and groom them into good analytics professionals, it is not particularly suited to attracting and developing manager

talent. To ensure we are hiring the right kind of managers, Mu Sigma has adopted a differentiated hiring program.

Our interview process doesnt look for analytics experience. We look for professionals from different industries with a good

pedigree, an appetite for problem solving and an interest in working with leading businesses from multiple industries.

Our interview process starts with a case study, which is mailed to the prospective candidates. They are expected to solve the

business case in 72 hours. Candidates are evaluated on their resourcefulness and ability to solve the problem from an indus-

try that they are not necessarily familiar with in the stipulated time. The shortlisted candidates are then flown to our offices

for one whole day of grueling interview process that includes several individual and group activities. During the course of the

day, they are tested for their design thinking concepts, ability to work in teams, synthesize and present results and leadership

skills. The process ends with a few rounds of personal interviews.

Creating Analytics Captains: How to identify analytics managers?

Best Blogs By Goutham Ekollu

Home

The Off-site outing. It happened weeks

ago and the memory is still fresh in my

mind. Thats because of a lot of reasons:

1. The Fun

Playing volleyball after nearly 8 years with

some 15 people on each side of the court

was surprisingly a lot more fun for some-

one who used to take the sport seriously in

school.

2. The Bus ride to and fro, mostly fro

Identifying apt bollywood songs for situa-

tions we face every day is not as easy as it

sounds. Aye ganpat! (new BA in the team)

Chal daru la!

3. The Food

The joy of finding out that we at Mu Sigma

have finally found a caterer who can cook

something enjoyable and not just edible is

inexplicable.

4. The Pain

Manu with his App, making anyone who

ate a morsel more than what was declared

as "the right amount" regretful, lest they

should be struck by a lightning bolt from

Steve Jobs himself. (Jobs would've replaced

Zeus by now, don't you think?)

5. The Effort

The precision with which the leadership

team carried out CIA style targeted drone

attacks to drive home their point. Opera-

tion Youre Gonna Understand What

Were Saying.

6. (and most importantly) The learning.

Yeah. Learning.

Not many of the attendees had an idea of

what the outing was about. When I say,

that upon seeing a white board, some of us

jumped with joy assuming it was Pictionary

time, I think I make my point. After a

round of introduction on the bus ride to

the location, a nice little breakfast with

Puri-sabzi, Upma / Kara-bath (as you pre-

fer) and a cup of coffee (the only disap-

pointment in the entire day) that was

strongly contending our machine coffee in

sucking, (that's right I'm a south-Indian

filter coffee purist) we got down to busi-

ness - discussing about what works at Mu

Sigma.

Now really, what works at Mu Sigma? Free-

dom of taking up more than you can bite,

freedom of approaching anyone in the eco-

system, confidence that the ecosystem will

help you at the time of need, variety of

work, the people and a lot more. I look

back on this list of things (actually, Im look-

ing at a mail from Sarah with the meeting

notes) and one thing stands out for me.

People. To me, everything else is just a

function of people.

If you think about it, its just that, we have

the kind of people who are willing to bite

more than they can chew. And we have the

kind of people who dont look at your expe-

rience and age when you ask for more, but

take the risk of allowing young folks to take

up challenging responsibilities. We have

people who are not afraid of making mis-

takes and are eager to step ahead, fearless.

We have people who are passionate about

building the company and also playing pok-

er on weekends. We have a leadership

team thats been spending almost every

weekend at this off-site with a group of 30

-35 folks and not complaining about it (At

least out in the open :P). We have some

fantastic people at Mu Sigma and thats

what works for us.

Offsite @ Nandi Hills By Uday Shankar

Home

If this indeed is true, why do we have so

much of discontent? (Its for you to decide

how much is so much. Confidence Inter-

vals anyone?) Why do we find people

complaining about long work hours, about

their onsite resources, about their manag-

ers, the Reporting nature of their work?

Questions that have been on my mind,

just as everyone elses for a while. I didnt

know I would start looking for answers

right that afternoon.

But before we could get there, there was a

best of three volleyball game in which

Manu main toh bus AC chalata hoon

Raman showed Goutham Atom Bomb

Ekollu what he brings to the volleyball

table. Heres a fact Ambiga plays great

volleyball. Sarah, plays fantastic duck-and-

run-if-anyone-hits-it-in-your-direction-ball.

After a crushing defeat for Gouthams

team, (which yours truly was a part of)

came the lunch. Lunch was not as good as

the breakfast but it again brought with it

the Debate of the Calories when Gau-

tam found out there was no point of run-

ning if he wanted to lose weight

(According to Krishna, you lose roughly

the same amount of kilocalories as your

weight in kilograms when you run for an

hour) while Sayan announced he was

ready to help anyone lose weight by al-

lowing them to carry him while they run.

Refreshed with a nice meal which includ-

ed ice cream and gulab jamun for dessert,

the team started the afternoon with a

problem solving session. We divided our-

selves into two teams and each was sup-

posed to come up with a problem that we

face at Mu Sigma while the other provided

a possible solution. When Goutham start-

ed off saying I want to find a solution to

the chair menace, little did the invitees

know of what this problem solving session

would turn into. The session soon became

what it was intended to, (targeted killings)

with questions about tardiness for

meetings, in-time, onsite-offshore con-

flicts, discontent within teams.

The solution for all the problems soon

turned out to be what the leadership had

been talking for a while. Its quite inter-

esting that the solution is also quite a sim-

ple, not so elegant one. Talk.

How many of us knew that Prashanth Ra-

jasekhar gets close to a hundred chairs

repaired every weekend by checking each

and every chair he can? Now that I know

Prashanth has to go through so much

trouble, I am little more careful when I sit

in my chair. Not just that, I will let him

know if a particular chair is malfunction-

ing. Just the fact that Prashanth managed

to communicate the trouble he faces

changed things for me and the few people

who were there that day.

For folks who like it meta (years of

twitter habit. Sorry.) the leadership team

was communicating to us about the lack of

good internal communication in the organ-

ization and urging us to be a part of the

solution. The conclusion drawn from our

extensive discussion was: Lets change

things around. Lets all work towards one

of our companys goals improving inter-

nal communication. (You do know the rest

of your companys goals, dont you? If you

have not heard of BVS, be assured the

internal communication needs improve-

ment) Lets talk about everything and any-

thing, about good and bad, about what

makes Mu Sigma work for us and the

things wed like to change, to make Mu

Sigma a better ecosystem.

Home

MST: Any message youd like to share with Mu Sigmans?

David Zakkam: We tend to complain about a lot of things, most of the

time. Sometimes, we should pause and appreciate the things we have -

an atmosphere of openness , great learning

opportunities and an energetic environment

which is always abuzz with activity.

MST: Is there any message youd

like to share with Mu Sigmans?

Harsha Rao: Mu Sigma provides a great platform for someone to grow

in multiple dimensions. I think everybody coming into Mu Sigma should

appreciate the opportunities and work harder, because they are given

to them way earlier than they should be. They should embrace it and

not feel challenged by it. The perspective I want people to have is not

think of it as a challenge instead an opportunity and they would be so

MST: What is your ideology on molding tal-

ent? How do you feel the fresh graduates

should be trained?

Sachin Jog: In terms of molding talent, my

emphasis would be on just two things that

need to be absolutely right. 1). Select right,

and 2). Train hard. If these two things are

imbibed in any organization be it the Armed

Forces, Mu Sigma or any other company,

then you have no hesitation in putting them

on any project. Additionally, the third most

important element for talent management is

to provide the right kind of mentoring. So

when we talk of nurturing talent, you need to

look at that individual in terms of whether

he/she is willing to take up a challenge, what

is the level or degree of difficulty he/she

wants to be engaged

with at a personal

level, what are the

other issues which

concern him/her in

terms of individual

capability.

MST: Youve worked with quite a few corporate organizations. What are the USPs of Mu Sigma?

What is the takeaway for employees who are part of this category defining company?

TK: Mu Sigma is exceptionally well organized. Its egalitarianism and friendly ambience

make it an excellent place to work. The company gives due importance to maintaining

delivery schedules and training young talent. Folks here have opportunities for continu-

ous learning and growth within the company.

Interview Excerpts from our Experts

Home

The months of May and June keep the

Talent Management team particularly

busy. On one hand, they prepare to

welcome fresh batches of graduates

recruited from reputed schools of

engineering. On the other hand, they bid

farewell to the Mu Sigmans headed to

premier schools of management.

The leadership in Mu Sigma supports

those intending to pursue academic goals.

Tapan, Head of Client Services, is known to

conduct weekend workshops to help B-

schools aspirants prepare well for the

interview phase. Dhiraj applauds those

who secure admissions to top institutes.

Isnt the associated attrition a matter of

concern for Mu Sigma? For Ambiga, Head

of Delivery, far from being a concern, this

is something to feel positive about. After

all, says Ambiga, Mu Sigmas network in

the B-school circuit expands as more and

more of our data scientists qualify for such

institutes. For Tapan, its about fulfilling

the MBA promise made during campus

recruitment drives. Folks studying in top

management institutes can well be

thought of as Mu Sigmas future clients,

Tapan states pragmatically, and to have

prior acquaintance with future clients is a

good notion for any company.

When asked what motivates him to

squeeze time out for mentoring sessions,

Tapans response is both interesting and

unusual. Its like being willing to impart

sex education to your children. When you

are sure they will come to know

eventually, isnt it better to help them get

correct information? A majority of Mu

Sigmas recruits are engineering graduates

fresh out of college, many of who want to

get into a MBA program after working for

a year or two. I feel I might as well

facilitate the process by mentoring them.

Vinayak Sapru, who left Mu Sigma on May

31st to join IIM Ahmedabad, said that

Tapans sessions, conducted during

weekends, helped him frame adequate

responses to the questions asked

frequently during personal interviews.

Also, having served on the interview

panels of IIM Bangalore and IIM Calcutta,

Tapan was able to give the attendees a

perspective on what works well with the

interviewers. During a group discussion,

there is no need to act the knight in

shining armor for the relatively quiet

female participant thinking it would win

the hearts of panelists, Tapan warns,

The right move is to remark on a fair

point stated by another participant as it

indicates one was listening. Vardan

Nagar, who left the

company on May 18th

and would soon be

joining IIM Calcutta,

agrees with Vinayak,

Those sessions taught

me to so pitch the

business model of Mu

Sigma as to make the

advantage of analytics

obvious to the

interviewer. I learned

to differentiate Mu

Sigma from the

competition. I also had

my mock interviews

taken by IIM alumni

David and Teja, which

helped me

prepare better.

According to Ambiga, while individual

schedules in Mu Sigma may be hectic,

such an environment is effective in

keeping one energized and helps develop

a muscle for multi-tasking. On the subject

of how employees can fare better in B-

school interviews, Ambiga ventures that

Mu Sigmans should develop a

comprehensive perspective towards their

work, so that they may respond

distinctively to the questions regarding

Mu Sigmas business. To this end,

companys internal communication

must be strengthened, she concludes.

MST wishes luck to all Mu Sigmans who

have scripted academic success stories

this year.

Holding Hands, Building Bridges

Home

October 5th was not a usual just

waiting for the day to end Friday. One of

our team members, Hemant, had planned a

trip to Walmart Visitor Center to educate us

about the origins of Walmart. For the team,

it was kind of an informal get together and

more importantly a chance to spend some

time outside the office on a foggy, yet

beautiful Friday afternoon. So, after

successfully and quickly tackling all the

client deliverables, a ten-membered team

from Mu Sigma gathered in front of

Walmart Visitor Center, one of the major

attractions in Bentonville. The story of Sam

Waltons life and the history of his

brainchild Walmart, come

alive vividly at the Walmart

Visitor Center.

A visit to the Walmart

Visitor Center, which is housed

in the original Sam Waltons

5&Dime store on Bentonville

Square, is like stepping back in

time. As soon as we entered

the center, we experienced a

piece of Walmarts past in a

real, functional storefront

setting. Some of us couldnt stop ourselves

from grabbing all the memorabilia we could

set our eyes on. As usual, the store

associate was humble and kind enough to

share with us stories about the initial days of

Walmart. The size of the shop made us think

and admire the fact that Sam Walton built

the largest retail chain in the world with

such a humble beginning.

After spending some time in Walton

5&Dime, we moved inside to a mini

amphitheater where we were shown a short

video about Sam Walton and the origin of

Walmart focusing mainly on the company

culture. We learnt about the inception of

the Everyday Low Prices (EDLP) concept and

how the commitment and enthusiasm of

Sam Walton spread like wildfire among the

store associates, with whom he interacted

with immense humility. The video also

showcased Sam Waltons openness to new

ideas and how that helped build a great

culture. Prashant, a big movie buff

commented thus on the video Add some

more drama to it, and we could be looking

at the script of an inspiring movie here!

After watching the video of

Walmarts history, we then moved onto

exhibit gallery. Sanjay made the whole

gallery experience playful and thought-

provoking by pre-arranging a treasure hunt

game with the center staff. The objective

was to find the answers from the gallery in

the least possible time. It was fun to watch

Anurag and Nikhil shoving each other, in

order to complete the quiz first. But in the

midst of it all, Sundar took the lead and

finished the quiz first!

The Walmart team chills out at Walmart Visitor Centre and shares its experience

A Refreshing Twist to A Typical Friday

Do you know the origin of Walmart Cheers?

When Sam once visited Korea, he came across the idea of a team cheer in one of the companies there and got impressed. He felt that this would go a long way in motivating his employees and fueling their enthusiasm. He incorporated it in Walmart as soon he came back to the US.

Interesting Facts

After Hours Home

Here are some of the fun facts which surfaced from the gallery

After spending almost two hours in Walmart Visitor Center, we ended our team building activity with a delectable lunch at Table

Mesa. To sum up, it was an enjoyable experience. That was one Friday when the party started way too early.

From Left to Right:

Arun, Sanjay, KV, He-

mant, Sundar, Akash,

Vineeta, Nikhil and

Anurag; Photographer

Prashant Sahu

By: Arun S. & KV

Sam Waltons office retained in the exact same state he left it in 1992

After college, Sam Walton worked with JC Penney for 2 years earning $75 per month

An outdoor thermometer was returned to a Walmart store with a reason that it never showed the correct time

According to a defective merchandise slip, a pencil sharpener was returned back because it doesnt sharpen any ink pens

Sam Walton drove a 1979 Ford F150 pick-up truck, which represents the humility and frugality he embraced all his life

A 360 degree Panorama view of the Visitor Center

Home

Once upon a time, in a forest far far away, amidst a thick

growth of parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, all the inhabit-

ants had gathered for their quarterly team outing. It was a joy-

ous occasion and everyone was in high spirits except Mowgli.

So the rest asked him - en magaa en problemu?

I am in love said Mowgli

Thats great! Why the scowl? enquired the wizened Owl

Ignoring the owl, the HR immediately divided the team into

two parties to discuss this matter of grave importance - for and

against

Awesome said the over-enthusiastic possum thumping the

air (a stern look from the HR calmed him down)

No. Love is drab said the crab

Without love, life would be so dull, disagreed the sea gull

(looking at its mate)

Love to me is like being snug in a rug, said the bug

It is a risky endeavor, frowned the cowardly beaver

Which always ends in suffering, cried the experienced herring

Love is something very profound, said the hound, you would not

understand (with a growl aimed at the team in front of them)

Bombat! whopped the big bat, enjoying the heated discussion

It is a sweet feeling that only multiplies when you share said the

khan-e-shere

Keep eating and even sweet turns sour, said the cynical dinosaur

Robarooo started singing the kangaroo

ooh la la ooh la la followed up the koala

Shut up bub! roared the lion cub

Love is such a sham! declared the ram

It is the greatest journey you will ever embark said the lark

and the greatest test you will ever flunk countered the skunk

Love is not for the craven!!, challenged the raven

You are a dolt! said the young colt, whinnying

With that both the parties came to blows....

What is this hullabaloo interrupted Baloo. We are here to help

Mowgli. The animals looked at Mowgli in sympathy and he looked

away into the distance. The animals were all sad and were just

about leave the matter to rest when.....

Animatopoeia By Pavan Palety with inspiration from Neeraj Hirani

Home

There is a girl he liketh a loth, said the sloth (with a lisp, how

unfortunate!)

There was a collective sigh of relief from the crowd. The discus-

sion was not over after all...they were determined to help

Mowgli this time.

Why dont you ask her out?, advised the trout

It might ease your mind from the load, piped in the toad

But how would the girl adopt to our culture?, wondered the

vulture (philosi-vulture)

Our concepts of living are somewhat difficult to grasp, agreed

the wasp

Women these days are extremely demanding, are you sure

that is a weight you want to lug?, questioned the slug

True! They always expect something out of the box, quipped

in the fox

It will ruin your sukoon, said the rowdy raccoon

But all is worth for that one woman exquisito, said the Span-

ish mosquito

What if she says no? asked Mowgli quieting everyone down

No she wont! It will all work out, said the mink with a wink

It might not or it might said the philosi-termite (it looked at

the vulture for approval and both shook their heads gravely)

Look Mowgli, the only way to find out is to approach, said the

cockroach entering the conversation for the first time

It may be an easier battle, said the cattle, than you think

You got to tell her how you feel, urged the seal

Just dont make her uncomfortable ,keep it loose, said the

nonchalant moose cutting the goose

Big deal if she says no. Dont stick to one, cast a bigger net,

said the casanova hornet

Not bigger, but wider, corrected the grammarian spider

I am scared, Id rather be a dish on some one's stove than ever

profess my love, said the overwhelmed dove to few quiet ap-

provals from the crowd

The animals soon saw it was pointless to try and convince

Mowgli and that he had to make up his own damn mind. So

they sought to escape this forced GD and move on with the

rest of the nights entertainments.

Idhella nanige gothilla, said the sly kannada gorilla, getting up

I am a simple fellow, added the buffalo, following the gorilla

Gimme a break said the bold snake

Enough with this faff!, said the towering giraffe

Too much said the magarmach (saying See you later to a

near-by alligator and In a while to fellow crocodile, it left the

gathering)

I am outta here, said the deer

Anyone got a light? asked the kite

I got a zippo, answered the hippo

Its a bad habit, glowered the rabbit at the kite and the hippo

Whether things work out or they dont, just dont forget us,

said the walrus with a teary eye and a runny nose

We are all your well-wishers, crooned the flock of kingfishers

Que sera sera, what will be will be ... prayed the spiritual

bee, ending the discussion

No I have many more, said the boar finally, waiting to be

heard

Its wish was granted and a hunter came along and chopped its

head off and that is how the story of the great boar ended.

Moral(s) of the story

1. Speak only when spoken to

2. Leave the meeting room on time

Get back to work now.

(No animals were physically hurt in the making of this

whatchamacallit. If I have left out your favorite animal my

apologies)

What do you like in this edition of MST? What could have been better? Send in your contributions, comments, feedback and suggestions to

musigma.times@mu-sigma.com

Home

In our India offices, as a build up to the D-day and to generate organization wide interest, we saw flash-mob, standees, danglers, weekly quizzes, ambush pictionary, video streaming, and weekly mailers making the rounds. Meetings were set up with managers to ensure maximum participation from their teams. Employees who had joined in the month of August and were undergoing training in MSU were also oriented on the upcoming event. Branded goodies were in the offing for the on-floor event winners.

As for the main events, there were Kaun Banega Intrapreneur (KBI), Crimanalytics, FaceBook App, VisualizeR, Quiz and Booth Camp which saw great deal of participation from across the floors. Out of the 32 nominations for KBI, there were 3 finalists while Facebook App attracted 16 entries, of which 2 reached final stage. Out of the 33 nominations received for VisualizeR , 1 team made it to the finals. Criminalytics had 35 groups as initial entries out of which 3 teams were selected for the D-day. Boothcamp saw maximum participation where 39 teams expressed interest to showcase their ideas.

On D-day, employees both old, new, and campus-offered began streaming

in to the venue from 8:30 AM to participate in the infotainment. Following breakfast at 9:30 AM, employees thronged the air-conditioned auditorium to witness the first event of the day KBI. The ideas that were presented were original in concept and coherent in approach. This was followed by an interactive session co-presented by Dhiraj and Deepinder aimed at incorporating among the employees, a sense of pride about the organization what we stand for and where we are headed as a pioneer in the field of Decision Sciences that has come to become an industry in itself. Being informative and humorous, it was well received by the audience. The Keynote address by Prof. Rajeeva L Karandikar, Director of Chennai

mathematical Institute was about his experiences in conducting and analyzing nationwide opinion polls for the Indian Parliamentary Election as well as various state assemblies during the period 1998 2007 on behalf of several media companies. In our India offices, as a build up to the D-day and to generate organization wide interest, we saw flash-mob, standees, danglers, weekly quizzes, ambush pictionary, video streaming, and weekly mailers making the rounds. Meetings were set up with managers to ensure maximum participation from their teams. Employees who had joined in the month of August and were undergoing training in MSU were also oriented on the upcoming event. Branded goodies were in the offing for the on-floor event winners.

Expos 2012

A showcase of talent | An exhibition of teamwork | A celebration of Analytics

It was truly a celebration of analytics, a showcase of our talent and an exhibition of teamwork. The 5th Mu Sigma Expos celebration on 3rd

September at the MLR Convention Centre witnessed unprecedented participation and successfully brought out the creative streak of our

employees. The first-ever out-of-office all-day event was a culmination of a month-long preparation to the finale as teams vied for the

best idea, the rarest innovation and top slots. All aspects of the event starting from its conceptualization, to the various build-up events

held throughout the month of August, to the event itself were well organized and much appreciated all around. The most important factor

that made this years Expos special is that for the first time it was organized at a global scale and was extended to include our bases in

the US as well.

Home

As for the main events, there were Kaun Banega Intrapreneur (KBI), Crimanalytics, FaceBook App, VisualizeR, Quiz and Booth Camp which saw great deal of participation from across the floors. Out

of the 32 nominations for KBI, there were 3 finalists while Facebook App attracted 16 entries, of which 2 reached final stage. Out of the 33 nominations received for VisualizeR , 1 team made it to the finals. Criminalytics had 35 groups as initial entries out of which 3 teams were selected for the D-day. Boothcamp saw maximum participation where 39 teams expressed interest to showcase their ideas.

On D-day, employees both old, new, and campus-offered began streaming in to the venue from 8:30 AM to participate in the infotainment. Following breakfast at 9:30 AM, employees thronged the air-conditioned auditorium to witness the first event of the day KBI. The ideas that were presented were original in concept and coherent in approach. This was followed by an interactive session co-presented by Dhiraj and Deepinder aimed at incorporating among the employees, a

sense of pride about the organization what we stand for and where we are headed as a pioneer in the field of Decision Sciences that has come to become an industry in itself. Being informative and humorous, it was well received by the audience.

The Keynote address by Prof. Rajeeva L Karandikar, Director of Chennai mathematical Institute was about his experiences in conducting and analyzing nationwide opinion polls for the Indian Parliamentary Election as well as various state assemblies during the period 1998 2007 on behalf of several media companies. His insights were received with much applause from the audience.

Lunch followed in concurrence with the Booth Camp. A total of 39 booths were set up by various teams to showcase their work in a vibrant and innovative manner. The booths were festively decorated and a number of games were arranged. There was a lot of good-humored hawking as booth owners came up with novel ways to grab the attention of the onlookers. Chocolates, gift coupons and a number of goodies were handed out to participants as prizes. Post lunch, the rest of the programmes such as Quiz, Facebook App, Criminalytics and VisualizeR followed. Many new ideas that had germinated in young minds were showcased with style and well received by the audience. Innovation was surely the order of the moment.

With all the major events wrapped up, everyone geared up for the much awaited prize distribution. Cultural events lined up towards the end got all

the youngsters to their feet. Play, dance and band took center stage as the environment reverberated to the sound of music and the rhythm of the beats. The final dance performance by our troupe opened up

the stage to DJ night calling in all the happy feet to shake their legs. The boundless energy and passion of Mu Sigmans were palpable.

This years Expos, which had been organized for the first time in non-India locations, was pulled off with lan, drawing enthusiastic participation from our onsite employees as well as our client partners. In Seattle, there were a number of infotainment games like hidden word puzzles, Fantasy Soccer Analytics and Simulation, Temple Run, How to Map-Reduce a bunch of Skittles, Name the Logo, Blackjack and Corporate Sustainability which drew crowds. Our employees in Chicago presented KBI, Quiz and Story-

telling contest to explain concepts such as crowdsourcing and Explaining Mu Sigma to a layman in an informal and witty way. Imaginative narration, creative presentation and convincing ideation were the high points of this event. In the Northeastern front at New Jersey, we had KBI, Debate contest, MPDNA contest, Best practices and fun events like Jeopardy and Tambola which depicted a fine fusion of fun and information.

We have always believed in the principles of autonomy, purpose and mastery. Expos 2012 was an event designed to define and highlight this higher purpose. Innovation needs no caste, creed, nationality or gender this platform surely proved it beyond a doubt. Lets continue to fuse the lines of algorithm and heurism to create and celebrate a new industry called Decision Sciences now and always.

Home

Home

Home

Kite Festival| Jan 13 Mu Sigma celebrated Makar Sankranti by organizing its very first Kite Flying event on Jan 13th, 2012. The 4th and 5th floor doorways were serenaded with sugarcanes and banana plantain. Later in the day, packets of Ellu (a mixture of sesame seeds, coco-nuts, sugar blocks) were distributed among the employees. Around 4pm, folks made their way to the parking lot to relive their childhood memories of kite flying.

Blood Donation Drive | Jan 19 On Jan 19th, Prayaas, Mu Sigmas CSR arm, partnered with Rotary-Bangalore TTK Blood Bank to organize a blood donation camp at the Bangalore facility. A total of 196 donors from Mu Sigma participated in the camp, making it a huge success.

Health Camp | Mar 20-22

For the second year in row, a health camp was organized for all the employ-ees in Mu Sigma, Bangalore. Held be-tween March 20th - 22nd and then ex-tended for a day on March 27th, the camp involved a comprehensive medi-cal check-up which included biochemis-try test, ECG, dental and eye checkup.

Get Together Party | March 29th

To mark the last week of all the off-shore delivery teams working out of the same facility, a get together party was thrown in the cafeteria of Kalyani Plati-na facility, on the afternoon of March 29th. Members of the MuSig band (Shivang and Vinayak) breathed life into the party by playing some groovy num-bers.

Mu Sigmas drama club Nau-tanki staged The Cut. An inter-house jingle competition was also organized.

Clothes Collection Drive | March 26th - April 6th

Goonj, a Delhi based NGO tied up with Prayaas to organize a two-week long collection drive during which clothes, stationery, old toys and newspapers etc. were collected. Close to 160 Kg of cloth-ing were collected during the drive. On April 12th, close on the heels of the clothes collection drive, Goonj set up a stall of goods made of processed urban waste, in the Kalyani Platina facility.

INFORMS

California, U.S. | April 16th & 17th Puneet Piplani and Bharath Upadhya represented Mu Sigma at a conference held in INFORMS (Institute for Opera-tions Research and the Management Sciences) on April 16th and 17th. The conference took place in Huntington, California and was a success in terms of brand building. A poster on Constraint Integer Programming compiled by Hrishikesh Ganu generated a lot of inter-est.

Predictive Analytics Innovation London, U.K. | April 18th & 19th

Dhiraj attended the Predictive Analytics Innovation conference that took place in London, U.K. on April 18th and 19th. He spoke on the topic Data Hurdle or Springboard? How to leverage data to transform your business?.

Sapling Plantation Drive| April 22nd Members of Prayaas and Enriching-life-at-work together organized a sapling

Company Updates

A still from the play The Cut

plantation drive to mark the Earth day (April 22nd). 25 saplings were planted in a fertile patch of land near Mu Sigmas Kal-yani Platina facility. On the same occasion, a car-pooling initiative was launched by Enriching-life-at-work team.

Milaap | May 2-4 Milaap, a social enterprise that enables people around the world to give a loan to the working poor in India, had set up a stall at our facility.

Chess Club | May 4 Chess club was launched with about 40 people being a part of the club. Lessons about different moves and best strategies to play the game were part of the Gyan sessions.

Sports Fest 2012 | May 5-6 Mu Sigma mens football team bagged the runners up award in the 6th corporate day and night sports fest 2012 football tour-nament.

Platinum Cup | May 12-13 Mu Sigma football team won the runners up award in One Dream Platinum cup tour-nament. Ankur Surolia was star of the match in the finals.

DAA Atlanta, US | May 17

Mu Sigma participated in the Digital Ana-lytics Association event. The panel discus-sion that took place on 17 May revolved around the topic Finding and Growing Great Analytics Talent. Anup Lakare repre-sented Mu Sigma at the event.

An amalgamation of internal and external events that brought Mu Sigma to the lime light.

Home

The symposium attracted over 300 people from brands such as GE, Google, AT&T, Fed-Ex, UPS, Home Depot, etc.

PMSA Anaheim, California | May 20-23

The Pharmaceutical Management Science Association 2012 Annual Conference took place in Anaheim, California in May (20-23). Mu Sigma was invited to co-present with one of our leading Pharma clients. Our CEO

Dhiraj Rajaram and the client exec-utive spoke on the topic Real Time Physi-cian Intelligence (RTPI). The presentation was well received and the client had great feedback for Mu Sigma. We were also silver sponsors for the event.

Volleyball Tournament | May 21

Volleyball tournament was organized at ITPB facility. The event saw a lot of partici-pation from different teams. Abbott won the tournament beating Gilt in the finals.

Photography Contest Photography contest was organized and 20 entries were received. The themes for the contest were all in a days work, summer heat and shopping malls. Mayank Sharan won the contest. His Photograph was titled The cry of thirst in the category summer heat.

Kids Day | May 25 Kids day was organized at our facility. Em-ployees had brought their kids to spend a day filled with fun activities like magic show, caricature, tattooing, games, movie and painting.

MPL | May 27 June 10 Mu Sigma tennis ball cricket tournament under the name of MPL (Mu Sigma Premi-ere League) started with 12 enthusiastic teams participating. Day 1 of the tourna-ment saw Challengers 1 and Discoverers 2 winning their respective matches. The matches are being played at ITPB cricket ground.

Spelling Bee | June 6

Kshira Saagar won the first place and Go-vind Paliath came second in the spelling bee contest held at the Mu Sigma office.

DAIS (Digital Analytics India Symposium)

Bangalore | June 8 Digital Analytics Association in partnership with Cognizant had organized the DAIS event for the first time in India. Deepinder Dhingra, Head of Product and Strategy at Mu Sigma was part of a panel discussion on the topic What is the secret sauce to suc-cessful Cross-Channel Analytics.

Use R Nashville, Tennesse | June 12-15

The 8th International R User Conference saw the participation of Mu Sigma in the form of Zubin Dowlaty as a speaker. He spoke on the topic Building Distributed Intelligent Systems for the Enterprise with R.

Book Exhibition | June 13 & 14 A Book exhibition cum sale was organized at both the facilities by Strand book store. Books on management, fiction, kids, compe-tition etc. were put up on display and were available at a discounted price.

Documentary Screening | June 14 & 15 The Mu Sigma Chess club had organized a documentary screening on Bobby Fischers life. Around 60 people from both KTPL and ITPB attended the screening.

Back to school | June 15 Children of Santhosh Charity saw a fresh beginning-a fresh start to a new academic year. There was an overwhelming contri-bution of Rs. 99850 from our employees. Some of the items purchased included uniforms, bottles, bags etc. The Prayaas team, along with a few employees, visited the orphanage and spent quality time with the children.

Enterprise 2.0 Boston | June 18-21

Zubin represented Mu Sigma at Enterprise 2.0 conference. He spoke on the topic Social Data Analytics and Visualization Concepts to Address the Big Data Phenom-enon.

Quiz | June 21 & 27 An Inter-House quiz competition was orga-nized by the Mostly Harmless Quizzers in Mu Sigma. The preliminary round saw a participation of 36 employees from KTPL and ITPB. Scholars won the final round while Discoverers won the second place.

ACE quiz | June 23 Govind Paliath and Devajyoti Ghosh repre-sented Mu Sigma and won the runners-up award at the ACE Corporate Quiz held at ISB Hyderabad.

PAW

Chicago | June 25-26 Mu Sigmas Mike Feldner and Microsofts Jeff Ahlquist co-presented on the topic Combining customer behavior & atti-tudes newer ways to gather data, lever-age analytics and take smarter product and marketing decisions.

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Fifth Elephant Bangalore | June 27-28

Deepinder Dhingra and SMS Chauhan represented Mu Sigma in a Bangalore based tech event titled The Fifth Elephant. The 2 day conference organized by management firm HasGeek, focused on the big data ecosystem in India.

Inter Corporate Chess Tournament | June 30-July 1

Mu Sigma Team participated in Checkmate - 28th Edition, an inter-corporate chess tournament on 30 June and 1 July, 2012. Our team bagged the 8th place and won a trophy while Anjanaa Sowjanya won a special prize for her performance.

Photography Exhibition | July 16-20

Mu Sigma photography club organized photography exhibition at both KTPL & ITPB facilities.

12th Annual Shopper Insights in Action Retail Conference 2012

Chicago | July 18-20 Mu Sigma was a key sponsor and a speaker at this conference held in Chicago. Mike Feldner, Regional Head of Mu Sigma spoke on the topic - ROI & Measurement: "Improving Conversion Using Member Insights".

Gen- X Soccer League | July 21 & 28

Mu Sigmas football team took part in an inter-corporate football tournament

organized by Gen-X. The team won both their matches against Safran Engineering and Thomson Reuters (score 6-4 and 3-1 respectively). The tournament, held in Bangalore, had its inaugural matches in July.

Gift stall | July 26

Mu Sigma in association with Archies celebrated Friendship day and Rakshabandhan at the facility. The stall set up by Archies had lot of gift items like mugs, friendship bands, cards, rakhee etc. that were put on sale.

Painting Competition | Sept 19 On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Mu Sigma organized a painting competition themed around Lord Ganesha. Employees were asked to display their creativity using MS-Paint. Indira Priyadarshini was awarded the first place and the second place was bagged by Avijit Chinnara.

Inter house Mu Sigma Table-Tennis League (MTTL) | Nov 5-8

Mu Sigma TT Club organized the Inter house MTTL from Nov 5 to Nov 8. There were singles as well as team events for both men and women. The womens singles winner was Anila Rao of MSU and runners up was Harshada Deepak Pujari from Implementers. Mens single was won by Adhokshaj Katarni of Discoverers while Sasidhar Saraswatula of Implementers was the runners up. In the doubles tournament, the Kavish/Saptarishi duo came out with flying colours and the

reverse singles saw a winner in Kavish Agarwal. In the MTTL Team event, Explorers were the winners and Discoverers were the runners up.

Exhibition-and-sale | Nov 8 Mu Sigma organized an Exhibition-and-sale in association with The Lions Club of C V Raman Nagar at KTPL and ITPB on Nov 8, 2012. Numerous Diwali decoratives, chocolates, winter collections and apparel were put on sale.

Diwali celebrations | Nov 9 As a part of Diwali celebrations, Mu Sigma celebrated Nov 9, 2012 as Ethnic day. At both KTPL and ITPB offices, employees were dressed in festive traditional wear and competed for best dressed male and female awards. Bay decoration competition and Antakshari finals were also conducted. In the KTPL office, the best-dressed male and female awards were given to Kumar TN and Rashmi Poovaiah respectively. Sudha Rani and Team of Best Buy & Whirlpool accounts won the award for Bay decoration. In the ITPB office, Chethan Gowda KS and Aakanksha Sunil Pevekar bagged the best-dressed male and female awards respectively while the best Bay Decoration award was given to Rashmi Rajashekhar & Team of Abbott- Specialty team. The finale of Antakshari competition was organized at KTPL office where first prize was given to Abhinaya Ananthakrishnan, Sankalp Hulsurkar and Pratik Shah while Nanditha Sivashankar, Nikhil Sobti and Nikhil Dubey were awarded the second place. At ITPB office, there was also a get-together where minute to win it games were arranged for the employees.

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Inter-corporate quiz competition |Nov 9 An Inter-corporate quiz competition on Brand Equity was conducted on Nov 9, 2012 in which Govind Paliath and Ajay Parasuraman participated from Mu Sigma.

Childrens day celebration |Nov 14 Childrens day was organized by Prayaas on Nov 14 at KTPL office cafeteria. 34 Children from Santosh Charitable Trust attended the event as guests and participated in the various team building activities organized for them. The children also performed dances, songs and made a presentation about their homes. Prakash Sheshadri delivered a message to the children and gifts were distributed among the children.

Debate competition finals |Nov 16 The final round inter-house parliamentary debate competition was organized on Nov 16 at ITPB office. The winners were Dhananjai Singh Mankotia and Arijit Paladhi of MSU while Aniket Deshpande and Tauseef Ahmed of Challengers bagged the runners up.

Team outings |Nov 28-Dec 20 As a part of employee engagement, team outings were arranged for all the employ-ees. A total of 10 team outings were or-ganized at Counter Culture in Whitefield. There were various team building activi-ties organized, followed by DJ and dinner.

MBL |Dec 1 & 2 The Mu Sigma Badminton League was held on 1st and 2nd of Dec and saw good participation. The Open Mens Singles was won by Abhimanyu Nehra and the runners up was bagged by Tanmay Narul-kar. Ruhani Singh was the winner of the Open Womens Singles and Shruthi Prab-hu was the runners up. The Open Mixed Doubles was won by Ashish Kumar & Ruhani Singh while Tanmay Narulkar & Richa Mahato were runners up. The Open Mens Doubles saw a winner in Tanmay Narulkar & Kolli Balaji while Sourabh Pandey & Abhimanyu Nehra were the runners up in the event. The winners of the Open Womens Doubles were Ruhani Singh & Richa Mahato while the runners up were Babita DCosta & Harshada Pujari. In the Team Event, Dis-coverers bagged the winning slot while the Implementers were runners Up.

Prayaas - Im a Santa Drive | Dec Prayaas had organized the Im a Santa drive to buy certain items on the wish-list of HIV infected kids of Sneha Care Home. Employees generously donated money amounting to Rs 95,000 for various items such as clothes, watches, caps, shoes, etc which were then distributed to the chil-dren on Dec 21. In addition, Laptop bags were distributed to Government schools at Siddhapur and Ramgondanahalli.

5 year tenure awards |Dec 19 and 20 Tenure Awards were given away on Dec 19 at ITPB and on Dec 20 at KTPL to a total of 29 employees who had complet-ed 5 years with Mu Sigma. Dhiraj present-ed the awards to the recipients.

Christmas Celebrations | Dec 20

Keeping up with the spirit of Christmas, Carol singing was held on Dec 20 at ITPB and KTPL offices.

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