MESS COMMITTEE

IIM KASHIPUR
Induction Task
The Students Mess of IIM Kashipur is responsible for providing hygienic, healthy and
nutritious food to the IIM Kashipur fraternity. The mess is an independent, not for profit
organization, run and managed completely by the students which caters to the need of 650
plus students and various other stakeholders such as faculty, officials, academic associates,
MDP programs and administrative staff throughout the year. We ensure that students are
served nutritious meals to help them cope with the rigor of academics and extra-curricular
activities in the campus. As we are running the college mess we can not turn down any request
made by the administration and have to accommodate last moment guests or functions in
our daily mess schedule.
The mess is run by students who get an all-round exposure of running an organization on full
scale for 2 years. Each and every activity, right from procurement of menu items to deciding
menu on to managing staff, collecting mess charges to giving salaries is handled by the
student members. The mess operates in a dynamic and ever-changing environment, requiring
proactivity and taking spontaneous decisions. With tasks such as in-house inventory
management, negotiations, procurement (supply-demand cycle), sourcing, budgeting,
financing and HR management, the team becomes competent of handling an actual business.
All these activities are crucial for meeting the target of timely operation every day, every meal,
all-round the year.
Keeping in mind all the aspects of the working of the mess, management takes the prime role
for all kinds of activities. It is a real-time and hands-on job which requires patience and critical
thinking.
As you being prospective managers, and our Director Mr. Kulbhushan Balooni, who personally
visits mess and loves to sit, interact and eat with students inside the mess, we ask you to plan
the end-to-end operations of the mess.

Expected outcomes:
Prepare a power point presentation of maximum 6 slides (excluding introduction and thank
you slide) describing how your group will handle the functioning of Students’ Mess.
Following points can also be taken into account to structure the idea:
1. Finance:
a) Use Cost Accounting concept and prepare a full day’s menu (which consists of
breakfast, lunch, snacks & dinner) and scale it up for a week and a month.
b) Calculate the mess charges to be taken for one student for one day (Show
division for every meal, i.e. breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner).
Disclaimer: The case is prepared for induction purpose only. All the ideas described in this case may or may not belong to the people
mentioned in it.
Do not copy. Property of Mess Committee-IIM Kashipur
©2020 Mess Committee-IIM Kashipur
 Calculate the mess fees charged for each student per trimester. Using this,
calculate the approximate revenue of the mess for one year.

2. Operations:
a. Create a Strategy for Supplier relationship management. What kind of
distribution channel would you prefer in selecting the mess vendors (concept
of Sales & Distribution)?
b. Inventory Management: Suggest how to track the inventory on daily basis and
scheduling next orders on this basis as the inventory storage area is limited.

3. General Management & Human Resource Management:

Design the Mess employee hierarchy structure (In how many verticals it will be
divided?). Also, suggest a strategy for how to handle the mess staff and their salary
structure.

4. New initiatives that you will take to improve the overall operations of the mess.
a. Measures to reduce cost/expenses and to ensure transparency & proper
utilization of funds.
b. Steps & Strategy on how to reduce waste and manage waste generated by the
students?

Please Note:

We completely understand that due to current situation, you haven’t been able to see the
campus as well as mess facilities of IIM Kashipur yet. So, we would like you to keep note of
the following points while going through the task.

1. Make relevant assumptions wherever required and state them clearly. Make sure your
guesses and assumptions are logical and reasonable.
2. Maximum number of slides to be limited to 6 (excluding first and last slides). We expect
the slides to be self-explanatory.
3. CALCULATIONS (IF ANY) TO BE DONE IN EXCEL AND ATTACHED IN THE
PRESENTATION FOR BETTER CLARITY.
4. The document is self-explanatory and hence do not require any further clarification
from any of the Insite Team members. Also, you are not allowed to ask for key details
from any other student or student bodies. However, you can use internet to research
about how mess operations are done at IIM Kashipur and other management
colleges. PLAGIARISM IS STRICTLY NOT ACCEPTABLE.
5. DEFAULTERS WILL BE DEALT WITH SERIOUSLY.

This is some food for thought from our side to kick-start your thought
process, but don’t restrict yourself to these points only. Let your ideas flow!
Disclaimer: The case is prepared for induction purpose only. All the ideas described in this case may or may not belong to the people
mentioned in it.
Do not copy. Property of Mess Committee-IIM Kashipur
©2020 Mess Committee-IIM Kashipur