It’s difficult to believe!

That it all began, not just in the last millennium, but in the last-but-one decade of the last millennium.

That participants of this year’s Lyceum were going through their paces in addition (without carry-over) and spelling, when the first batch Lyceumites were getting familiar with conjoint and cluster sampling.

That the venue has moved from a quaint but damp cottage in Lonavla, through seaside villas at Manori, to the air-conditioned comforts of the Taj at Nashik.

That presentation formats have changed from felt pen scripting on acetates, through rigidly permanent Tektronix colour printing on acetates, to the seemingly magical animated PowerPoint files.

We’ve come a long way!

Time was, when people like me joined IMRB and learnt at the feet of the one or two venerable MR gurus in our office. Learnt by watching and listening, by reading and questioning, and of course, by being pulled up for serious misdemeanours like a faulty routing instruction. And, over a period of time, hoped that we ourselves could become gurus.

By and by, the world changed. Clients became more demanding, and budding gurus who had to put on ties and make selling presentations had less time left over to teach or be taught. New arrivals were more up-to-date, and asked more difficult questions. IMRB itself became a more complex and multifaceted agency, and no one or two gurus knew enough of its areas of expertise to train up the newcomers. And newcomers had to become veterans in a far shorter time, in a faster, more demanding environment.

It was time for Lyceum.

Brainchild of our late President Ramesh Thadani, it is a mark of his vision that it has not merely survived, but evolved into an icon of IMRB’s commitment to training and development of its researchers. Much has remained unchanged – it continues to have a mix of talks and demonstrations, of case-based workshopping and encouragement to question, of bonhomie and team building, of circket and dancing. Much has changed too – and not just the kind of dance music or suspected match fixing! New topics come up each year, cases cover exciting new fields, there even are sessions on stress management and meditation!

So what does Lyceum achieve? Quite a lot, each year.

First, just the coming together of new researchers from all the different business units of IMRB itself adds tremendously to a unified IMRB culture, a sense of team spirit and an “I have friends in each office” belief. No small achievement when one realises that there are over 180 researchers across these units – and this in turn leads to a sharing of knowledge and experience which so often can be a cutting edge.

Then, the exposure they get to a number of senior IMRB colleagues, that all of them are widely experienced, but approachable, that there is a lot to learn, and that there are a whole lot of people who can help.

That IMRB cares; that it cares enough about its young staff to set aside the time, and the funds, to ensure that they feel fully at home with the Company and with its business at the earliest.

That IMRB is where working is fun!

H.L. Cadambi