Aim of the Program / Why young professionals need Mentors?
Mentor and Young Professional GUidance cum Review Unit for Knowledge-sharing, Overall Orientation and Learning. Welcome to the MY GURUKOOL Program
Students and young working professionals need as much information as possible to make good career decisions. The ‘MY GURUKOOL’ Program aims to provide an opportunity for them to spend time with a professional working in his/her career area of interest. The Program strives to help them gain insight into the work involved and the kind of skills and knowledge that are required in the workplace.
Each mentorship group consists of a senior industry expert (with greater than 10 years of experience) and a young professional (recent graduate to 2-3 years experience). This will give students a unique perspective from both career ends (entry level and senior experienced)
Overall, the program envisions to help increase the students’ understanding of how their academic theory and knowledge is/can be applied in the industry thereby having an important effect on their career and perhaps even life!
For YP's: Why we do this
The purpose of these mentorship sessions are for students and yooung professionals to ask mentors anything under the sun. They are supply chain career coaches who will be there with you to share their experiences. They are general career coaches who will help you step by step in your journey. They are life coaches- people to advise you how to live a fruitful and comfortable life. Typical set of queries that students can pose with the mentor are
- Where will supply chain, operations and logistics take me
- What do you find most rewarding/most difficult about your work?
- Please describe your career path and help me with mine
- How did you make connections in a new city?
- How does a job relate to what I studied at University X
- What can I do to prepare better for interviews
- What are the typical daily responsibilities in X role and job?
- How do I climb to an executive level role?
- And many more.....................
Team Speak : Meet Rama- Program Manager, SCNext MY GURUKOOL initiative
Mr Ramaswamy Venkatarajan or Rama as he is affectionately known is the SCNext India Leadership Council member and champion of the global program. Here is what he has to say...
"I've always felt the need for guidance in supply chain at a very early stage of my career. Supply Chain & Logistics, unlike finance or marketing is a sunrise field ripe with opportunities but unfortunately, in the Indian Industry many people are unaware of the role Supply Chain plays in a business and how it leads to amazing white collar jobs comparable to finance and marketing. When I started out as a student, I was surprised to find out how little people knew about the opportunities in this field and what careers this can lead to. I was lucky to be a part of XLRI, where there was a heavy focus on Operations and Supply Chain which changed my life. I am pretty sure students all around the world in different countries face similar problems in terms of guidance and career decisions. SCNext has been a tremendous eye opener for me and now that I have graduated and working in supply chain, I am excited to lead this mentorship initiative started by SCNext. I am so psyched about helping all the students globally who are taking up a career in supply chain- so that they have the resources they need to move up in their career and their countries' get an abundance of quality young talent in the sunrise sector of Supply Chain, Operations and Logistics. If you have any questions about the MY GURUKOOL program, feel free to drop me a mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Logistics :
SCNext India members can choose from selected mentors/young professionals who have volunteered for the program. Each mentorship group consists of a senior industry expert (with greater than 10 years of experience) and a young professional (recent graduate to 2-3 years experience). This will give students a unique perspective from both career ends (entry level and senior experienced). Each Mentor group consists of a max of 5 students. This is essential as we want to create a private one on one interaction and hence keep the size restricted. Students who submit interest will be allocated on a first come first serve basis. When the target is reached, the group will close and mentorship sessions begin. These can be online/offline (say at a local coffee shop in your city) or a combination of both
Online Sessions:
- Meets online at a pre-decided time as indicated in your group and based on mentor availability
- Meets 3-6 times a year, so on average 1 every 2 months
- Group consists of 1 Mentor (greater than 15 years of industry experience), 1 Young professional (recent graduate with 1-3 years of experience) and 5 knowledge hungry students
Offline Sessions:
- Meets at a local coffee shop or any other place in the mentors and young professional's city/town. Students who select this option have to be located in the city of the mentor so that they can travel.
- Meets 3-6 times a year, so on average 1 every 2 months
- Group consists of 1 Mentor (greater than 15 years of industry experience), 1 Young professional (recent graduate with 1-3 years of experience) and 5 knowledge hungry students
Step 1- Mentor and Young professional selection
Select the mentors from our available pool
Each mentor's location, frequency of meet, area of interests, online or offline or both and profile are included.
Students should select the right mentor who he/she thinks will be the right fit
Step 2- Register for the right group
Once you select the appropriate mentor, submit your interest by clicking on the Sign Up button. Note: Some groups will already be full and hence you will see a Closed sign. In this case, you will not see the SignUp button and will not be able to join the group
Fill in the details on the form showing up. You will need your SCNext 4 digit membership ID No. that can be found in your profile
Submit the form
Step 3- Wait and Watch
Once you have submitted your interest, our committee will review your information and send you a confirmation of if you were admitted to the grup or not. If not, reasons will be provided and alternative suggestions will be given
Step 4- Enjoy the benefits
Once group gets full (5 students), you will be assigned a closed forum group on the SCNext website where you will be able to communicate with your group members and also with the mentor and yong professional
The YP will help co-ordinate your sessions online and offline on locations/times etc. and will guide you further. In addition you can use the online forum for any interesting discussions
Now you will be in touch with everyone and enjoy the full benefits of the GURUKOOL program. Do ensure you have your burning questions ready before each of our sessions
Group Alpha
Location: Bangalore, India
Session type: Offline/Local at city
Session Frequency: Meets 6 times a year (once every 2 months)
Name: Alvis Lazarus
Title: Founder & CEO, Hesol Consulting; previously India Head- DC operations at Flipkart
Click here to explore profile
Group Beta
Location: Chennai, India
Session type: Offline/Local at city
Session Frequency: Meets 3 times a year (once every 4 months)
Group Gamma
Location: Online (Via Skype, Google Hangouts)
Session type: Online
Session Frequency: Meets 3 times a year (once every 4 months)
Name: Manohar Dansingani
Title: Professor ICAI, IBS, Gokhale, BSE, NISM
Click here to explore profile
Group Delta
Location: Pune, India
Session type: Offline/Local at city
Session Frequency: Meets 6 times a year (once every 2 months)
Name: Madhav Apte
Title: Manager Customs brokerage, Nippon Express India Pvt Ltd.
Click here to explore profile
Group Epsilon
Location: Hyderabad, India and Online
Session type: Online (Via Skype, Google Hangouts) and Offline
Session Frequency: Meets 3 times a year online and 3 times a year offline (once every 2 months)
We need the support of our industry mentors and young professionals to make this happen.
You will appreciate that SCNext as a part of International Supply Chain Education Alliance is very proactive in making students industry-ready and you can share your professional view points for the wannabe students looking at Operations and Supply chain as a career option.
You will certainly agree that we logistics professionals owe it to the industry as need for skilled, trained managers in India is on the rise with ramp up in volumes, containerization, warehousing, 3PL, outsourcing, GST roll-out and better infra. We need to attract talent in this sunrise sector.
We need your ideas, guidance and network to assist in this noble cause. Your strategic vision & outlook as an industry thought leader on Logistics – Supply Chain in India on this knowledge sharing platform will be welcome.
If you are interested to get involved, please contact our Program Manager - Rama at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.