Term 6 Done - 75% MBA

Somehow managed to cross one more :). Did four subjects again this term. Consumer Behaviour (COBE), Customer and Market Performance Management (CMPM), Investing in Private equity (INPE) and Financial Statement Analysis (FSAN) were my subjects this term. It was a good fare with special mention to the faculty for CMPM and INPE. So many things happened this term and as usual it is over even before I realized it started.


Our ELP is almost complete with just some minor documentation left. All ELPs will soon get closed and focus will shift to placement preps next term. Mom left Hyd and is happily enjoying in Atlanta now. Sad news is that my exchange program looks lil doubful with the tension in TAU now. The strike has been going on for 2 months now. If it doesn't happen then I should find something else to do in April and May.


Me taking a 4 day break now. Got to finish some chores in Chennai and may be do some reading too. And to all readers of this post, wish you a very happy, successful and enriching 2008.

Anniversaries

It has been three years since then. For the first time me and S decided that enough was enough and decided to drive to Houston all by ourselves. It was a little more than a 12 hour drive and the interesting aspect was that both of us had never driven on a highway. So I said "One day we have to do it. Why not today". After roughly 7 hours reached Dallas and decided to call up M, my college mate and colleague, to see if we two can spend the night at his place. He was a gracious host. Just after dinner I logged on to read the worst news I have ever read in life. The entire coastlines of Bay of Bengal and nearby seas had experienced the worst TSUNAMI ever a few hours ago. All phone lines to India were jammed and after several hours finally managed reached my uncle to find that everybody we knew were safe. But sadly the damage was done and the situation was really bad. My roomie's brother had escaped by the skin of his teeth and when the videos came it was indeed shocking to see mother nature's fury. Today is the third anniversary of that day but the shock still remains. Well, it is a day for all of us to remember that we are all just tiny little things in this world order.

Today also marks 1 year since I was interviewed for ISB. ISB is quite a life changing experience and one year later, today, I'm looking at 3 more days to become a 75% MBA. At the same time I'm also quite tense about the fact that I have just 3 more months left and the job hunt phase is starting. So many pre-placement talks have happened. And so far nothing has excited me much. It is just the beginning say some but this time around I should not take up any offer just because I need a job. I hope I can hold up and not buckle under any kind of pressure. Thinking of the TSUNAMI is just the right thing now. These are small things after all. I should rather worry about my life goals instead. Ahem!

Solstice 2007

It has been 2 full days of fun at ISB. Probably the first clearly chilled weekend here. As such the mood in the campus keeps changing almost as much as the hyderabad weather. 'Solstice' is ISB's reunion event. Started in 2003 it brings alums from all previous batches back to ISB and everyone celebrates their home coming. This year's Solstice apparently had many firsts. With the placement season coming up in about two months, alum interaction to a good degree is centered around that. This time around our placement committee organized a day full of mock interviews conducted by the alums. Around 140 of got a chance to go for a mock and I was among the lucky ones. Good a fairly good idea about my preparation levels !!!

The highlights of Solstice this year were the new 'Events Lounge' created by our batch and the live performance last night by the 'Indian Ocean' band. Our batch was one studious batch. The average CGPA of students is up by 0.2 and everyone studies like hell. So whenever parties and music was played in any of the student villages there was a big hue and cry. So much so that there were heated discussions and meetings with the Deans etc. etc. After all these problems the Student Life Council (SLC) decided to construct a new 'Events Lounge' away from SV-3 near the nursery. It is a beautiful hangout and probably the best getaway that can be built on campus. Everyone is damn impressed. In fact on friday night I even saw some of the die-hard book afficianados at the lounge (Well, McKinsey shortlists are out and so books can probably rest for a few hours). I'm sure all future batches will be thankful to our batch for coming up with the 'Events Lounge'.

Indian Ocean's performance on saturday night was again too good. I have never listened to them live. Boss...The experience was just awesome. To add the the fun there was free booze too. All in all it was a wonderful night. Back to reality today with assignments and pre-reads. Anyhow, three cheers for an amazing Solstice 2007. As our SLC President rightly put it, Solstice 2007 was one of the most successful events in the history of ISB and by far the biggest Solstice ever. 'Class of 2008' rocks.

Chennai blues - III

Finally the last part of the torturous series is here :)
Part I
Part II

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"Welcome to Starbucks. What can I get for you today?"

"Two tall Cafe Lattes with cream, a croissant and a muffin"

"Can I get anything else for you sir?"

"Please use fat free"

"And the name on the cup, sir"

"Pramod...P R A M O D"

"Thanks have a good day...Next in line please"

As Pramod stepped out of the line he saw a familiar face.

"Hi Pramod. How are you doing?"

It was as if lightning struck him. "Hey I'm alright...How are you?"

Arjun's eyes welled up. "It has been a long time...hope alls well with you..."

"Yeah...pretty good"

"I still feel sorry for that night"

"In some ways its for all of our good"

"Yes...I think...may be"

"Of course...You should meet Radha. Hey Radha, this is Arjun, the one I was talking to you about. Arjun this is my wife Radha"

"Hi Radha...You both make a great pair". Radha knew everything about Arjun and what happened that night.

"You are so lucky. Pramod is truly a treasure"

"Boss...I'm far from that"

"You have so not changed"

"Coffee for PRAM 'ODD" said the lady. Radha reflected. She was indeed lucky to meet Pramod. And ever since she heard that story she had always wanted to meet Arjun. And today her wish came true. It was about 6-7 years ago. That was when Pramod was not really sure if he wanted to be with Susan. There was a palpable tension in the relationship and one day, after a long discussion and argument with Susan, Pramod went to pick up Arjun from the airport.

Arjun was coming back after six months and it was not difficult to notice that something was amiss with Pramod. Notwithstanding his jet-lag, he made Pramod to take the next exit so that he can drive himself. As Pramod took the exit they heard a small thud behind and some squeaks.

“What’s that”

“Donno man. Let’s just get home soon”

The next day was probably the worst in their lives. Apparently Susan had been following their car and when he took the sudden exit, she tried to take a sharp turn too. The thud they heard was actually Susan’s car toppling over. Help reached her several hours later and she did not survive the crash. Pramod was shaken and Arjun had pangs of guilt for having made Pramod take the exit.

Shortly, after Pramod relocated and soon enough decided to go to Chicago GSB for an MBA. Radha was doing liberal arts at Chicago and after knowing each other for a while they decided to get together. Arjun moved around too and was now an associate vice president of a large American firm.

“You should come home for a dinner”

“Sure man. I’ll call you soon”

“Take care dude”

“Bye…Radha you are a very lucky gal”

“Yes…Indeed” thought Radha as a tear went down for Susan.

Why MBA?

This question is rather too late in the day for someone who is a week away from becoming 75% MBA. But before imaginations run wild, lemme clarify that this post is not really one more figment of my self-introspection and neither is it intended to mock at anybody else's perspective. Notwithstanding why I'm doing my MBA, it sometimes is intriguing when I hear the rather wide ranging (some puzzling) answers I get to hear from some of my batch mates and the several b-school aspirants I interact with. I never thought that the MBA meant so many different things to people. Some of the puzzling ones include

i) I wanted to stretch myself
ii) My Dad challenged me to do an MBA
iii) The chicks are too good man
iv) I think I must become an entrepreneur but I don't have a business idea
v) I really missed college life
vi) I knew I needed a change but couldn't figure out what

While these may sound funny at first shot, the individuals actually managed to put them across convincingly. People indeed have different takeaways from this thing called MBA.

'Solstice 2007' will happen this weekend. We are expecting around 150-200 alums on campus. It is gonna be lot of fun and placement gyaan at the same time. Meanwhile, R1 results of the 'Class of 2009' are out. Welcome juniors. Two aspirants I helped in some ways are thru (Several others in Pagalguy did too) and one more is waitlisted, while the one I thought would sail in very easily missed out.

Finally the third part of last story is getting ready and will be out soon enough :) :).

Chennai blues - II

"Surprise, surprise. Just close your eyes and sit here". Pramod sat on the couch wondering what Susan had up her sleeve.

"Ok. Open your eyes now"

"Wow. That is a surprise indeed. Let me try some". Pramod slurped and had a spoonful of the gajar-ka-halwa.

"So. Where did you buy this from?"

"Naughty. I made it for you"

"You are kidding me"

"No. Ever since you mentioned that you miss the halwa your mom makes I was planning on this. I googled up the recipe"

"And where did you get all the ingredients?"

"I went to the Patel store and bought these. The lady was really curious who I was trying to impress"

"And you told her my name?"

"Whatever is wrong with you. I will never get the idea of you secretly dating me"

"Nothing is sure as of now. I don't want the gossip hungry Indian housewives chirp away about us and get the story across all the way back home"

"Are they so bad?". Pramod just finished the halwa and gave back the bowl for a refill.
What does your friend Arjun think about us?"

"Arjun... He will support me in whatever I do. Just that I need to make up my mind"

"Take your time sweetheart". Susan gently kissed Pramod and rested on his shoulders.

Pramod continued his halwa feast. Everything was so sweet about Susan. But for her anguished past, a painful divorce and losing custody of her child. She was too young to have gone through all that. But now that she has found Pramod, life had a new meaning.

Pramod had never experienced so much attention in life. Everything was great about life now. It was all like a dream. But somehow he still knew there was something amiss.

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To be concluded...

Chennai blues - I

"Hey, watch out", screamed Arjun as a Forrester zipped past their small Corolla. "Whatever happened to you. Do you realize this is I70 and not your panagal park main road where there is no lane discipline". Pramod didn't utter a single word. "Take exit 204 and I'm gonna drive after that".

"Susan...I don't know how she is now?"

Arjun set the cruise control and glanced over "Why what happened to her?"

"No da...We had a small misunderstanding"

"What business do you have with American women? You don't even talk to our desi girls"

"I tried to convince her but she would not accept anything"

Arjun took exit 197 and stopped the car in the 'Sonic' parking lot.

"Are you ok? I don't quite understand what you are saying. Whats going on between you and Susan? What doesn't she accept?"

"Boss. She wants to marry me and will not take any amount of reasoning why it cannot work that way"

Six months is indeed a long time. Arjun finished his last project and went back to Chennai to take care of some family stuff and Pramod continued in the same apartment 'coz he was sure of Arjun's return. Bored without company he joined the neighborhood gym and started taking aerobics lessons. Susan had her share of rhythm troubles with step aerobics and so the instructor set up separate times for Pramod and Susan. The typical south Indian good boy he was, he could not help notice that Susan was cute. She was around his age and seemed to be very quiet for the average American. Pramod liked ogling at her but never tried to initiate any conversations until Susan stopped him after class one day and said, "Hey, I'm Susan."

"Hi...I'm Pramod Rangarajan. You can call me Pramod"

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Story...to be continued

Term 5 Done - 62.5% MBA

Yet another term whizzed past or I should rather say bull dozed past us. Contrary to popular alum gyaan term 5 was one of the most hectic terms. May be the choice of courses hurt me but almost the whole batch kept saying this. Did four courses; Marketing Execution, Marketing services, International Finance and Global Strategic management. The less said about academics the better. I would have loved to derive more out of the subjects and what the profs. wanted to convey but somehow the workload was overwhelming enough that I was either under prepared for the classes or was distracted with one thing or the other.

The resume fever really caught up this term. I have been fine tuning my resume all through the term but both my selective applications so far have been dinged (Anyhow I'm too tall to be part of a "short-list"). Did not come as a big surprise considering the spiky strong profiles that got short-listed. More international companies are coming this term and the system of not knowing the final results till February ensures that some of the best in the batch end up getting literally every international offer. I do not know of a way around the complicated issue of accommodating rolling international recruiters without affecting domestic recruiters who come only in Feb. Can't really complain 'coz almost 150 recruiters come around that period.

After exams till this friday, me and team of three others achieved a first of sorts. We won the first place in an RFP contest at IIM Ahmedabad's Confluence 2007. The team sacrificed Diwali celebrations on campus and submitted the prelims proposal 2 weeks ago and lo we entered the finals. After a full nighter on friday we flew in to Ahmedabad on Saturday morning. The IIMA campus was a no-nonsense place and the architecture reminded of my days in CEG. IIMA students were great hosts and everything was organized to perfection. The victory was really sweet and could not have come at a better time. Term 6 starts tomorrow and I'm now staring at two case submissions due by morning. God, please give me the strength to get through two more :) !

I miss you

As I trudge along and squeeze in this post in the midst of the 100000 things I'm into, I seriously miss one person. The one person who never knew how bad the world around was. The one person who did not think any one competes against anybody else. The one person who did not know what jealousy was. The one person who did not read between lines. The one person who had no ego. The one person who did not try to work through personalities and ego's. The one person to whom life was nothing more than waking up and going to sleep and being nice to everyone in between. The one person who was never bothered about the next hour, leave alone tomorrow. The one person who had friends swarming around all the time. The one person who was the darling of everybody. The one person who was happy all the time. I seriously miss you 'My innocent self'. I really do.

Tact

One conversation lead to another and finally led to a discussion about one brilliant guy. I think it is only a small token of appreciation to have a post on this amazing guy(although volumes have been written about him already)

Brief Profile (ISB folks... notice the spikes in the profile!!!)
RAJU NARAYANASWAMY IAS
First Rank in Secondary School Examination
First Rank in Higher Secondary
10th Rank in IIT Entrance Examination
First Rank in IIT B.Tech Computer Science
First Rank in IAS Entrance Examination
First Rank in IAS Training Institute

After 10 years of commendable service in IAS, he was forced to leave the profession and take up a position in UN. Later he came back to service and latest news is that late September he was shunted from Idukki after unearthing a Rs.19 crore scandal. So what exactly is happening here? A man of such unearthly intelligence does not know how to work through the system and tactfully do good? I may be passing value judgements here but is it true that with such extra-ordinary brilliance comes a certain kind of restlessness that will prevent a person from having any tact?

OpenSocial

It is a tooth and nail battle out there. A little over a week ago Microsoft paid $240 million for a 1.5% stake in facebook.com, the no.1 social networking site in the world. After this news I created a facebook account, to add to my Orkut and Myspace accounts, as if the whole world wants to network with me and read my useless profile PJs. But is it really worth so much. What are these guys fighting over? Are these social networks just mines of demograhic data? Are they answers to unmet customer needs? Or are they just high potential advertisement channels?

Making this fight further interesting, Google chose halloween day to announce to the world its new social networks developer platform called OpenSocial. And not just that, Google already has signed up MySpace, LinkedIn and Friendster into this platform. And news has it that some of facebook developers have also signed up. This battle is getting interesting by the day.

As a hapless user, I just want one social networking profile, totally integrated with all my desktop software and my mobile phone. Google/Microsoft - Are you listening?

Look who's come

Two weeks ago, we had our first class of GSMT(Global Strategic Management) and we watched with awe, Thomas Friedman talk about how, when we he was covering the post 9-11 drama in the US, a silent revolution happened in the Infosys' and Satyam's of the world. How in his meeting with Nandan Nilekani, he was told that the global playing field was getting levelled and that the Americans were not ready for it. This was the incident that shaped his thoughts to write 'The world is flat', his New York Times bestseller. I came back that day and watched a few of his interviews in YouTube and was really awe-struck with the way he talked about global issues. I think he is one hell of a speaker packing emotion and conviction.

Little did I realize then that I was going to listen to this great man speak live so soon and that too walking just a couple of hundred metres to Khemka Auditorium. We all got to know of Tom's arrival only in the afternoon. But guess what the 400 seater auditorium brimmed over with people. There were students, alums, faculty, press, AIKYA families etc. and Tom did not disappoint anyone. He spoke about his books 'From Beirut to Jerusalem' onwards to his upcoming work, about the various phases of globalisation with his own wit and charm. This one hour, listening to Tom, was a real silver lining on an otherwise abysmally bad bad day.

Thomas L Friedman
Video Link

Love in the times of Telepathy

It was a Wednesday morning, early march, and was raining heavily. Radha just hung up on a phone call from office and looked at her phone. She just hoped that Shakti would call her and check how she was. She had been waiting for his call since last evening but in vain. She rested herself against the wall clenching the phone and looked up at the ceiling. It was almost a year since she joined this company. Shakthi had joined her project around six months ago but was working on a different module in the same floor. For a long time they never knew each other and Radha being the traditional Indian girl never even exchanged smiles with strangers. One Saturday, late last September, she was waiting for her office cab to drop her home at 1100 PM. Just then Shakthi came by and said “Hi”. She just turned around and did not even acknowledge his smile. As luck would have it the cab broke down mid-way. After more than an hour they finally managed to get a taxi. When she got down Radha said “Thank you” and looked at Shakthi’s eyes for the very first time.

Shakthi was a very charming man, the youngest Senior Manager in the company and unmarried. After that night they started bumping into each other more and before they realized they were spending a lot of time together. Radha was not in the same league and came from a middle-class background. Her father retired last year and was keen on getting Radha and her younger sister married. Radha and Shakthi were getting closer and their philosophical discussions and sweet nothings kept them enamored all the time. It became customary for her to give Shakthi wake up calls every day and last month he took her to his house. She met everyone in his family and they were all really nice. Everything was on a roll.

Yesterday, she came back from work quite early and to her surprise her uncle, Parthasarathy mama, and her aunty were at home. They were her closest relatives and have been by their side through thick and thin. Mama said “Radha, take a day off tomorrow. My best friend Rangachari is coming with his son to see you. His son is a Senior Design Engineer in Motorola, Hyderabad”. A shiver ran through her spine. She knew that her father was trying to find a match for her but this was a total shocker. She immediately called up Shakthi and told him about the new development. Shakthi responded with utter silence. He said no words of reassurance, not even a “It will all be ok”. Radha finally hung up. The Rangachari’s came to see her and immediately wanted the engagement within two days. She could not understand what was going on with her life. Nobody really seemed to care what she thought about the whole thing. She kept calling Shakthi and sent him several messages but of no vain. Tomorrow it was her engagement and she wanted to know what really went through Shakthi’s mind. Did he really like her? Why did he get into a sudden silence? Why is he not responding to her calls and messages? She wondered why she was not living in the era where “Love happened through Telepathy”.
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My first attempt at a small story. My dear friend AS gave me the title and asked me to write whatever I can think about it.

In the Rankings

If I remember right, this is the very first time that ISB has participated in b-school rankings. The Business India 2007 rankings rate ISB at #4 in India behind the top three IIMs A,B & C. Pretty good show by ISB, I would say, as we wait for the FT rankings which will be out in a few months. Cheers ISB.

See the article here

Mumbai Express

Term 5 started today after a slightly longish break. I spent the better part of the term break in Bombay with my ELP client, a construction major. This was my first real trip to Bombay, discounting all the transit trips I have done in the past. Having heard a lot about the city I was at my critical best. First things first, the Bombay airport is really amazing, very spacious and truly international standards. The idea of PPP(Public private partnership) really got into my head, in form and spirit. This phenomenon is truly powerful. Over the course of the week as my understanding of the construction business improved, I realized that PPP is one sure way of meeting our insatiable infrastructure needs. Next comes traffic, quite expectedly it was heavy even during the weekend. Can't really complain considering the population and the amount of activity that happens in Bombay everyday. Our team stayed closer to Powai, so quite outside the hustle, bustle(shd I say that). Checked out Hiranandani, Cafe Mocha, KFC and Aura bar, all very good places. Speaking of highs and lows of the trip, the high definitely was the visit to the Bandra-Worli sea link project. Our ELP client is working on this prestigious project and once completed it will be one of a kind in India and will definitely become the pride of Bombay. The low of course was with the local. With superior predictive skills and due to the fact that I was carrying luggageI purchased a first class ticket from Vikhroli to Ambernath and later found that there is no crowd difference in any compartment. Thank God I had experience in the Chennai local, I could weather the journey in spite of a few gali exchanges here and there. The final icing was flying back in Kingfisher, before the truckload of pre-reads hit me on my face again.

(In the pic...A model of the Bandra-Worli sea link)

Term 4 done - 50% MBA

Six months in and four terms down, we all are 50% MBAs. The fourth term just whizzed past. I did not particularly enjoy this term academically. Somehow got a feeling that the intent was right but the content was not. We had four subjects, Strategic Analysis of IT, Management of Organizations, Government,Society & business and Investment Analysis. May be my background was such that I could not appreciate all that was going on. Ramana Sonti for investments was good fun even though he used zip thru stuff. He was the typical geeky, self-deprecating and weirdly funny prof., the type you meet so often in engineering college. But this was one subject I enjoyed this term.

As woe be it, the three other subjects in spite of having pretty good teachers had exams that were pedantic and very much memory based. I really felt I was so over the hill for such stuff. Some of my friends won't agree with me 'coz they gape at the fact that I wrote about 'bow-tie' networks in the MGTO exam and have now started treating me like an alien ;-). The term lasted barely 5 weeks and now we have a nice 10 day break. My team is going to bombay for our ELP next week. So should be a good break away from campus and some progress in our project too. And may be do some work on FHC also ;-). Elective terms start from 15th. I think the all equations on campus are going to change. There will be so many sections and people studying various combinations of courses. I'm doing 2 marketing and 2 finance courses in term 5. Last night had a marathon booze session with my core term study group. Really enjoyed the philosophical discussions and the rantings. We were an amazing group, typical housewifey types. With morning classes we slept everyday in the afternoon and when we met we loved to bitch about ppl. Girls will envy the proposition of being in our group...LOL. Here's one to my amazing core term study group and to the 50% MBA.

Sections dissolved

Today was the last day of core term classes. After the thursday/friday exams we all will be 50% MBAs. My section, Section D, was a curious mix. Although very poor on parties, people generally were pretty cool. I have made tons of friends here. We had all extremes you ever wanna meet. As Johnny Cash sings, we had whackos & weirdos and dingbats & dodos, arbit CP queen(s) & einstein CP king(s), PJ artistes, beautiful babes, lost children, desperate IITian(s), chupa rustums, know-it-alls, chatterboxes, sleeping beauties and secret cohorts.

Our group had the privilege of doing the last group presentation of our section for the GSB course. The topic was "Child labor" and we tried to keep it as boring as we possibly could ;-). After class we all stayed back to autograph our section T-shirts. It was not particularly emotional or anything, but when I walked back home it was a strange feeling 'coz once again I was reminded of the pace at which things are happening here. I have already started thinking about life beyond ISB (placements of course) and it feels very strange. I now wish I did a 2-year program. My T-shirt peppered with all autographs is my prized possession now.

So true

Readers may find this post silly and crackpotish. If this post doesn't make sense, I think I have achieved the purpose.

Mercurials are the fastest thinkers on the planet. Their mental acuity makes them extremely perceptive and very observant. They tend to be hyperactive, nervous, and irritable and have rapid mood shifts. The high metabolic rates of the mercurials make them prone to insomnia and sleep disturbances, and this makes them wake very easily. They suffer from real or imagined aches and strange maladies that have no symptoms. In the inner world of the mercurial she has a complicated labyrinth of doubt and insecurity. She has a constant feeling that you are always looking for an advantage you can take over her. The mercurial moves from person to person and has brief periods of intense friendships but has trouble believing that people really like her. Every scowl or raised eyebrow is taken personally and makes her wonder if her friend is really a friend.

Saturns on the other hand are very paternal and responsible in nature. Their chief feature is dominance. Saturns feel qualified not only to determine the best course of action for themselves but also for those around them. This makes them behave like a psychological weight. They are better off keeping this feature of dominance from becoming oppressive. Generally saturns have difficulties with martial, mercurial or solar types when their dominance evokes power. Saturns are prone to thoroughness of thought process and have a tendency to sit back, analyze and deliberate about thoughts and actions. Whether important or unimportant they invest the same solemn deliberation for every undertaking. The nailing was this one, “Saturns like to study psychology and become therapists or psychoanalysts”.

LOL. I think I’m doomed. One day all my human type analysis efforts are gonna make me mad!!!

Human Types - IV - Classic Venusian

After a really really long break I'm trying to revive this series. Hope some of you had some success spotting personality types. The next type I'm going to discuss here is the Venusian type, obviously influenced by the planet Venus. Venusians are passive and positive and the earthiest of types(Venus is close to the earth). As usual, I'll broadly split the description into two parts, characteristics(the mindset/behavioral aspect) and physiology(the body).


Characteristics
Venusians are born followers. It is not that they cannot think, it is just that they always think what the people around them think. If you wanna watch a movie, the venusian wants go watch the movie. If you wanna go trekking, the venusian wants to go too. Basically the venusian blends in and doesn't create a ripple. The venusian loves to live through others and are excellent listeners, always willing to listen to other's problems. Consequently they make good therapists, nurses and paramedics. Venusian mothers are a family's delight. They pack excellent lunches, sew the kids clothes and bake excellent cakes/cookies. Venusians are natural foodies and most often the left overs in the refrigerator will do fine. Many a time they appear careless of their appearance and attract gravy spots on their shirts and blouses.

Venusians are the most dependable characters on earth. If you have a venusian in your life you are really really blessed. You have the warmest friend and the most die-hard supporter you will ever find.

Physiology
Venusians are earthy and usually fleshy and carry their weight in their hips and thighs usually beneath a relatively high waistline. Their faces are pleasingly proportional and many of the women, and some men too, are sensuous and have seductive curves and soft pillowy flesh. Most venusians have bad teeth, due to over indulgence in sweets and due to hyperactive parathyroid. Sometimes venusians have a gap between their upper front teeth.

Happy analyzing and as I have mentioned before, a careful analysis of the physical traits is a good starting point always.

ISB Term 1 Video

I need to preserve this nice video to my blogosphere memorablia :)

Why?

Recently, I came through a news article that said that private hospitals all over India have started doing a basic test to check for HIV virus in every patient's blood and immediately several groups have started protesting against this saying that the hospitals are violating the fundamental right 'to consent' to be a subject of the test. What crap? I mean, in my opinion, these hospitals have taken an incredible step. When the HIV demon is proliferating at such a rate in India and can stand as one of the country's biggest challenges in the years to come, this kind of screening of blood is of paramount importance. When social groups should start appreciating this move and make the government make this mandatory everywhere, they are actually protesting against this !! I donno what kind of bloody motivation is there behind these protests.

On the other hand, the Ram setu controversy is reaching its crescendo. Haven't we already done enough damage to our country by playing with the religion card. I'm sure we can use scientific evidence to prove all mythology wrong. But here we are talking about emotions and sentiments. When we can be sentimental about a pen or a piece of jewellery, why not appreciate the fact that some people are sentimental about the Adam's bridge. I really can't understand "Why?" !!!

Helicopter Man comes to ISB

On Saturday, the Entrepreneurship club at ISB played host to the 'no-frills' hero, Capt.G.R.Gopinath, the pioneer of the low cost airline concept in India. It was the most stylish entry by anyone who has come to ISB so far. Capt. flew in his own chopper from Bangalore and spoke to us about his village upbringing in Karnataka, his stint with the army, his return back to his village farming, his sericulture business, his helicoptering ventures and finally the saga called 'Air Deccan'. It was truly inspiring to hear his story because he attributes all his success till date to just one thing 'perseverance'. He was truly a 'no-frills' man and we were privileged to listen to Chevalier de la legion d’Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour from the French Government)

I don't know

I don't know why we still know each other only by name, although you strangely knew mine before I got yours. I don't know why I never try to barge in, although you hang around with guys I know very well. I don't know why I can't try and find out if you are already committed. I don't know why I didn't get into the habit of saying "hi" to you. I don't know why my heart skips one beat every time I see you. I don't know why my tongue almost went into a double knot, the one or two times I talked to you. I don't know why I hesitate to add you on to my Orkut friend's list. I don't know why I haven't gotten over some of my bitter past. I don't know why I still get nervous. I don't know why I like you, although you are quite short for me. I don't know how I will feel when you leave for your exchange program. I don't know if I will come up and tell "you look brighter" after your next facial. I don't know if it is really sensible to pursue you. I don't know why I'm blogging about you. I don't know if you will ever read this and post a comment. I don't know if I will ever get any further.
-Prequel to the formation of the Flippant hearts club@ISB

Onam@ISB

Last week we had Onam celebrations (albeit a bit late) on campus. Me, SP and SR organized the tug-of-war, Pookalam competition(floral rangoli) and had Sarovar serve an Onam sadhya. The ISB students and spouses unleashed their creative best and came out with incredible patterns.

See the winning entry from Section B



And here is Section D's creation(Our section got the second place)

An Intellectual Orgasm

Term 3 introduced many of us here to the world of Corporate Finance. Although I had heard of some of this jargon before, I was never aware of a discipline called Corporate Finance. A major aspect of teaching is the way a subject matter is delivered. Although many of my batchmates with a financial background will disagree with me, Prof.Bhagwan Chowdhry, UCLA, exposed us to CFIN in a truly unparalleled style. While he had to skim over a few really deep topics, I got to understand that the subject was really profound. While I'm not going to delve into all topics that he taught, I want to record some of the wittiest moments in my blog. Some call his jokes playboy stuff but everyone surely enjoyed his wit in class.

On the adverse selection problem...To a girl in my class(TL), Do you agree that guys at ISB range from sleazeballs to nice guys. She said yes. So on an average guys at ISB are jerks. She said yes again. So 'coz you consider the average guy to be a jerk, you don't get the guys above the average jerk(the nice ones) and you are stuck with the sleazeballs. She couldn't do anything but nod in approval.

On Arbitrage opportunity, Situation in a party. You are a guy, like many around, who has never had any luck with women. And all of a sudden, a beautiful young lady walks up to you and says, "Mein tumhare bachey ki ma banna chahti hoon - I wanna become the mother of your child". Can you believe it?...The catch is there is no free lunch.

On private valuation, I'm reading a book and my wife calls me to do the dishes. I ask her if she knows my billing rate. But she says that I'm just reading a book and not consulting right now. But the reason I'm reading the book is because I value the book more than consulting. But I still ended up doing the dishes 'coz she threatened no sex tonight.

Talking about benefits of going public he says, Human beings fornicate and read newspapers.

And talking about the costs of going public, Good or bad somebody will sue you

On signaling, he said something to this effect, I have my head tonsured to signal that I'm macho :-)

On underpricing in an IPO, The common investor gets too many lemons and too few peaches. Underpricing is the sweetener

On VCs, Venture capitalists are like your father-in-law

Finally his advice to us, Even though I look very young, I'm actually old enough to give advice :-). Use the GEO principle to decide who to work for or who to recruit. GEO is Generous, enthusiastic and optimistic.

This guy is truly a gem. Given a chance I would do CFIN again from the start and I think most of my classmates will agree too.

Term 3 done - 37.5% MBA

A little over four months ago 422 young and old kids enrolled into this cute and fancy little program. They were all dreamy eyed, energetic and were ready to conquer the world. Today the dreamy eyes have given place to eyes that long for sleep, the energy levels are barely enough to withstand the battles at the testing arena. But one thing, they all still want to conquer the world. And they all took one more step closer towards this goal. At the end of another term of wizening, they are heaving a big sigh of relief, because as per past survivors the worst is now behind them. This term, of course, was the hardener 'coz they learnt some real serious stuff like Corporate Finance, Operations Management, Managerial Accounting and Entrepreneurship. As usual the learnings were immense but they were also daunted by the biggest roadblock in life called time. The day unfortunately had only 24 hours and the body would not always co-operate. But still they trudged along. Some managed to sprint in some phases and helped the others come up and some others did it when these guys stuttered. Everyone had some fun, some enlightenment, some realizations and some reassurances thrown in at them. And guess what they all managed to survive once more.

As much as they are all looking for the real challenges like ELPs, PAEV's and international placements, which are round the corner, they all are looking forward to this 5 day break. Cheers once again !

From War zone

Two weeks and no post. These two weeks have possibly been the most hectic period at ISB so far. I have averaged 4-5 hrs sleep everyday due to the innumerable assignments and case studies that were pending. Tomorrow is once again exam time. Feeling much more relaxed compared to earlier terms even though I still have a long way to go tonight. One major update is me and KS have finally managed to launch a new social club called 'Vistas and August house' club. We are primarily focussed at literary events, soft-skills workshops and epicurean pursuits. In two days I'll be home in Chennai and I get 5 full days off. Yahoo!
International placements start next term and I donno which companies I want to apply to. Hopefully the economy stays up for one more year of rocking placements.

Jeffrey Sachs on India

6:30 PM, August 8th, 2007: The Indian School of Business played host to the greatest economist of this generation, Mr. Jeffrey Sachs, Director, Earth Institute, Columbia University. Jeffrey needs no introduction to the ISB students. Prof. Krishnakumar from Rand Corporation taught us Global Economics in term 2 and he extensively used videos featuring Jeffrey solving hyper-inflation and extreme poverty in third world countries. After a raunching introduction by Rajat Gupta, Jeffrey walked up the stage to talk about 'Climate change and Sustained development in India'. He started out talking about the three major phases of economic development in India since independence, the 1947 to mid 1960s perios when essential PSUs were set up, the mid 1960s to 1980s when Green Revolution and infrastructure development happened and finally the 1990s onwards opening up of the economy and the rapid growth. Prof. Sachs feels that any country has to do two three things(in that order) to achieve sustainable growth.

i) End extreme poverty
ii) Achieve rapid growth
iii) Create a framework for sustained growth

And all of these have to be done consistent with our environment. Sadly, India has achieved the second step, achieving rapid growth, but has failed very badly on the first and third step. The high incidence of stunted growth in children(malnutrition), maternal and infant mortality is proof for that. In spite of great advances in the technology & infrastructure sectors the spending on primary health is among the least in the word (Some thing like $10 per head compared to $3000 in US). To add to this India is a coal based energy producer which contributes to a lot of carbon addition, a major greenhouse gas. The need of the day is to have public-private partnerships to uplift the poorest of poor in India and improve the primary health care system. he particularly lauded the efforts of the Satyam group which was setting up mobile public health clinics using a public-private partnership model. Prof. Sachs likes the fact that anything if decided happens very fast in India and he wants our country to target achieving this by 2015. After conquering this major challenge starts the gargantuan task of achieving sustained growth in an environmentally friendly way. He strongly encouraged carbon sequestering and use of nuclear and solar energy to a greater extent. Then followed audience questions. He stunned everybody with his knowledege about India. I felt that he was not just an economist. He is a technologist, environmental activist, public planner and visionary all packed into one wiry body. It was indeed a privilege to listen to such a great legend from such close quarters. Three cheers to ISB.

The happening place

This is an incredible week at ISB in terms of what hogs the calendar. On Monday we had Prof. Raghuram Rajan(Ex IMF chief economist) address the students on 'Liquidity Glut' (It is a different story that a good part of the advanced finance talk went over my head). Today we have Prof. Jeffrey Sachs talking to us on 'Climate change and sustainable development in India'. We are all so looking forward to litsen to Jeff talk in person, after seeing him in so many videos in the "Global economics" series. Tomorrow we have the chairman of the ISB board, Rajat Gupta having an interactive with the students. And once again every student wants to see the man who conceptualized ISB. To keep things in perspective we also have the mid-terms on friday :-). As if this was not enough a group of us had a one to one with our dean, Prof. Rammohan Rao. Had a really free flowing 1 hr of discussion with him and in the process got to know from him that ISB will be in the FT world rankings to be released in Jan/Feb 2008. Man this is really a happening place.

Turning 60

Its hardly a week away. Yes come August 15th, it is going to be 60 years of free India. It is a day to commemorate our victory over colonial forces, to pay our respect to the sacrifices of the millions of freedom fighters and the thousands of soldiers who fight to safeguard independent India. At ISB we are going to have one of the major events of the Net Impact Club called ‘Bandhan’ - an event for the underprivileged kids of 5-15 years age group from 6 NGO run schools of Hyderabad. In association with Sports Club, Arts and Creativity Club, SFA Club and the Dramatics Club several recreational and creative events on this occasion will be held to make it a memorable day for these kids. The club is short on funds but students are contributing generously(in spite of shrinking wallets) to make this event a success. Yesterday the Spouses and Family Association(SFA) organized an event called Drizzle and put up fun-stalls and food joints to raise money. It was good entertainment and hopefully a good amount of money was collected.

Just doing a simple calculation. If each of the 422 students contribute Rs.25 per month we can collect Rs.10,550 per month. But how to go about doing that? Direct debit can be one option but not all students have a direct debit account. If we had a mandatory smart card system we could have implemented a keep the change system to collect trickles of change. Blokes, if you can think of some interesting ideas to raise funds in a campus type environment please do let me know. Talking about student fundraising this funny video captures elements of bad fundraising by students. Enjoy !



BTW news is out and my last assignment at work has turned out to be a success( see deal) and an official press release came out a couple of days ago. So its time to feel proud :-) !

Whats happening

A tumultuous week and a half it has been, since the term break started. India barely escaped with a draw in the first test. Dr.Hanif's case reached a crescendo but finally he has been released and is flying back home. The Tatas are leading in the race to buy Jaguar. Danone and Wipro are trying to buy Bisleri. The sensex is experiencing major corrections. Prathiba Patil has been elected to become India's next president. Looks like Najma Heptulla will make it two women at the top and the Harry Potter series had yet another round of success with both the book and movie doing really well so far.
And things have not remained so far behind at ISB. Two leadership development sessions, one on people skills and another on presentation skills happened and Term-3 kicked off last Monday with loads of pre-reads and an assignment to complete before the day-break on day 1 of the term. Prof. Bhagwan Chowdhry from UCLA is teaching Corporate Finance for us and his classes are really awesome. Prof. Atul Nerkar teaches the Entrepreneurship course and has really charmed the whole batch. The very first class included a case analysis of a worldwide private equity venture and our section debated the case in and out with Atul. When we had 15 minutes left finally, Atul introduces Jay Dehejia, one of the partners in the venture and one who we read about in the case. The whole class roared into a thunderous applause and we were all spellbound to see a person from the case come up and talk to us. Even though most of term-2 results are out and assignments & AIKYA(A hyderbadi family is adopting my study group) beckon ISB students this weekend, we didn't forget to party. I'm just back after the 'Pirates' party and it was sheer fun. The enthusiasm was electric and the booze was really free flowing.

Term 2 Done - 25% MBA

Time for the next term completion post. After five weeks of great learning and a bizzare two days of exams term 2 has finally come to an end. This break I'm staying back in campus. This will certainly help me catch some breath before we get into one more term of berserk activity. The major highlights of this term were MARKSTRAT(the marketing simulation game), macroeconomics and decision modeling. Ziv Katalan's flamboyance, Jagmohan Raju's wit, Krishnakumar's dedication, Milind Sohoni's passion and Harbir Singh's lethal execution will remain etched in mind for a very long time. Except for the finals which I hated once again the learning was immense. Got two good friends, CD and SP in this term and we three with AB are going to be doing a marketing strategy assignment with a large Indian corporate over the next few terms. So alls well that ends well and successfully the class of 2008 becomes 25% MBA.



Pic: A popular one around the campus on the Decision modeling course. The subject is my personal favorite but I still loved this strip.

At wits end

Term 2 is drawing to a close very soon and looking back at the last two terms I can see that there has been so much of an evolution in the student community. When we all first met a couple of months ago there was an all pervasive spirit of developing our knowledge repository and only pursuits that helped add knowledge seemed to be the right thing to do. But after three months of roasting, asses are on fire and pursuits and perspectives have generally gone for a toss. There is so much of cramming happening everywhere and quite a lot of this makes me feel totally uncomfortable. I'm so out of the stage where I will try to eat something that I dont like 'coz it is socially acceptable to eat that particular something. The 1 year MBA is certainly an experience that tries and tests your psyche, patience, wit's end and hopefully I will end up with better perspectives. News is out that, amidst this mad pressure, two of my batchmates traveled to SPJain this weekend and won two case analysis contests hands down. These ISBians certainly have their perspectives right. On a side note I have succesfully bid for a whacky exchange program to an exotic mediterranean b-school and if alls well I'll finish my MBA with supposedly the most intelligent race on earth.

Dipak Jain on campus

The really great are the one's who can have a light head in spite of great achievements. Today I found that Dipak Jain(Dean of the Kellogg School of Management) is one of that kind and not just that. He is the first Indian to become the dean of a top US B-school and is a truly inspirational speaker. His address to the ISB student body was titled "Global Macro trends" and he touched upon a few major trends

i) Demographics - The western world is aging. The number of centurions in Japan is increasing every year. The proportion of old people in western countries is going to increase dramatically over the coming years. In this context India has a unique advantage 'coz we have 70% of the population less than 30 years of age. This effect is totally gonna polarize the world with the majority of the workforce from India. Prof. Jain calls it the 'Browing of the global workforce'

ii) Hypercompetition - The next trend Prof. Jain emphasized is the way competition is looked at. According to him the competition to the airline industry is not essentially between airlines. Rather it is video conferencing. Bulk of the air travel is business travel and if video conferencing reaches a certain level business travel will reduce as much as 80%. So the strategic angle for airline industry has to be perceived in a totally different way.

iii) Innovation - While we learn a lot about first mover advantage and market share and how great it is to have these advantages Prof. Jain talked about how Google enters after Yahoo/Microsoft and captures everything. The way the company innovated was the key. The customers of Google are not really the people who use the search engine. It is rather the website that receives the click. Google realized the fact and this innovation was the key to it's success. He notes several Indian students in a Mexican business school trying to learn Spanish(with a Mexican accent). They are all going back to India to set up BPOs to cater to the burgeoning spanish speaking American population(mostly migrated from Mexico). These are ways to innovatively forge ahead.

Prof. Jain's humble beginnings, his meteoric rise and true Indian spirit was totally inspiring. I felt really enthused after the speech. Well, anyhow I should have guessed that you cannot go wrong with a name like that.

Going on air

This was a first of a sorts for me. I officially went on air yesterday as the newest RJ in the ISB Radio. I play a show called "Play something country" and the musical variety I dish out is pure american mid-western country music. It was a little bit of struggle to do the recording initially even though MnM told me how to go about it. But JR stayed back with me and eventually I thought the show came out well. It was a nice feeling overall. Thanks to SS and MK from class of 2007, the ISB Radio was started last year and today non-descript fellas like me get a chance to become RJ's. BTW this was the promo that I used for the show.

Human types - III - Classic Lunar

As we venture into this world of understanding and identifying "Human Types" I want to re-iterate the fact that personality that a person acquires by virtue of grooming does not essentially mean the essence(the engine that operates inside). Under these circumstances, a careful observation of physical traits would really be an ideal starting point here. Today I'll start with the classic Lunar type. As the name says people of this type are influenced by the moon and are the only passive and negative type. I'll broadly split the description into two parts, characteristics(the mindset/behavioral aspect) and physiology(the body)

Characteristics
- Silent and secretive, Lunars prefer solitude and do not like to attend parties. If in a crowd they end up sitting in a corner or standing by a wall. They are basically low adrenaline types
- Like the moon they have a side that they do not show to the outside world.
- They are passive, so they perceive the world as a something that acts on them(something on which they have no control) and so they tend to be defensive
- A lunar is persuaded, goaded, begged, reasoned or bribed to do a thing. You cannot take a snap decision and take your Lunar friend to the mall. If anything she has to change her mind herself and should never be forced
- They remain cool and calm in emergencies and usually end up as heroes during crisis
- They are really successful as part of medical teams in emergency rooms or in bomb squads
- Lunars have great attention for detail and like work that involves minimum interaction with people. They sometimes tend to lose the big picture.
- The brilliant lunars are the world's scholars, inventors and mathematicians and some have a tendency towards monasticism
- Sometimes they tend to be timid and cynical and their biggest weakness is 'willfulness'. They are the ones that can say 'No' for the longest amount of time
- The lunar attracts maximum to the 'Saturn' type which we'll discuss in an upcoming post
- Lunars are the most loyal friends one can ever get

Physiology
- Mostly short and rounded, they are young looking, frail and have an unfinished look(under baked)
- Like to stoop/hunch and wear neutral colors, all to avoid attention
- Have eyes that look away and don't make eye contact
- Have dim eyesight and prefer dim lighting
- Have weak chins and very thin and patchy facial hair(males)
- Have generally low body hair and suffer from frequent digestive problems

This is one of the hardest types to accept oneself to be but nevertheless one of the most easily recognizable types. Happy analyzing and as usual bouquets and brickbats welcome.

Web 2.0 ...

As the rage with Web 2.0(the evolved web) is hotting this video by a K-State prof. captures the beauty of this metamorphosis. As has been told by millions before, the possibilities are endless and the potential is mind boggling. Enjoy the video !

Human types - II - Primer

Ok...Time to start the series of the Classical types. Some ground rules before I start. Applying the techniques discussed here would require prolonged and persistent observation of self or the target person. The reason is every person's personality is malleable and what one displays to the world is not essentially the true essence of the psychology underneath. But a big positive in this method is we can start with the physical attributes of a person. While that is not conclusive, it can help you clearly eliminate some of the types. Most of the types have names associated with celestial bodies. What it means is that the particular essence type has some characteristics similar to the celestial body. Example, the lunar type, like the moon has rounded faces and like the moon shows only one side to the world. There is another side that is usually never revealed. Finally, most people circulate between two classical types. So look out of two types that more or less describes your essence.

A little bit of encouragement in this series would definitely motivate me to do the work of reading up my stuff and illustrating the essences better. So, do post your comments and keep reading 'coz very soon I'm going to expose what your essence is.

A sad demise

I think I'm pretty late to latch on to this news. But it was really really sad to learn about the murder of Koushambi Layek, a 24-year old software professional who used to work for TCS. It particularly haunts because she was killed by her boyfriend from Orkut. Apparently the relationship started in a train journey and matured through orkut scraps. It is very unfortunate that well educated girls fall into the trap drawn by such psychopath's. Only this morning I was so happy that I had an orkut account 'coz I'm keeping myself upto date about my school, college and office friends and lo I read this news item. There is no doubt that orkut is a fabulous medium but a request to all my lady friends reading this blog, is to better avoid the unknown guys. It is true that there are a lot of nice and interesting guys you can possibly meet in Orkut but a safer way to use orkut is to keep in touch with all your old friends who you can't meet on a day to day basis. Poor Kaushambi, may her soul rest in peace.
The story
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Human types - I

Have you ever wondered what makes you behave the way you do? What makes you think the way you do? What is it that sometimes makes you bring out top drawer stuff and what is it that makes you suck so much in certain things? If you have ever wondered, then continue reading, else call it quits and get to something better. So you are reading further and you think I have an answer to all your questions. Will you believe me that I have all the answers? If you say "yes", I'm going to open the door of realization and help you know what you are and what exactly you are made up of. And I'm not going to stop there. I'm going to tell you secret ways that will help you learn who the guy next to you is and what makes him work the way he does. What i'm gonna tell you are not concepts that I have theorized. They are actually stuff that so many people have worked on and refined over time. It is all based on the fourth way system and the "Enneagram model" which explains everything you do based on your essence. As I kick start this I realize that it is not easy because I'm thinking this will probably have to be a series with atleast 8 more parts to follow. So as usual keep watching this space. You are in for some slam dang self-introspection :-) !!!

Identity Crisis

In the almost three years that I spent outside India, I thought a lot about immigration (to the USA of course). I have close friends in the bodyshopping business pestering me all the time and there were times when I almost decided that I was going the green card route. But there was something deep inside me that was totally against this. It was this thought about losing my identity and being culturally fit in a foreign land. In fact I was the only desi around who had a good number of videsi friends and I used to hang out a hell lot with them. To add to these, the country line dancing at electric cowboy got me a number of Italian and mexican friends too. After a lot of quality time spent with them I realized why I my mind was so fixated against immigration. In a multi-cultural group, while being sensitive and appreciative of each other's values, I held a strange pride about my cultural identity and uniquness. I realized that this is the one thing I did not want to forego. I realized that as long as I do not immigrate I get to retain all of that. I'm sure there are people who would not completely agree to my views that those who immigrate lose their identity. But I'm happy that I was not smitten by the bug and eventually decided to get back to school.

But what about those who took the plunge and are faced with the bigger challenge of dealing with the situation. The journey starts a whole identity crisis thingy. Particularly the first generation immigrants go through a hell lot of trouble. They tend to fake accents, some long to come back and others want their children to retain Indian values. A lot of them end up raising thier children with confused values. But in the middle of all commotion, I think a few people have found an answer to this too. And the best way to handle the indentity crisis is to actually laugh at the situation. Yes, humor is the magic potion here. A couple of these confused kids have done this exceptionally well. One is Russel Peters, the Indo-Canadian comedian and the other is Maz Jobrani, the Iranian American bloke. These guys have given the culture fit issue a different perspective. While they are essentially comedians, the comedy manages to spark a lot of profound thinking. They convey this beautiful fact that while the world (or economy, if you will) is shrinking at such a pace it does not essentially mean dilution of identities. Infact it is the retention of these uniquenesses(excuse me) that makes the stage called the world such an interesting proposition. You can read my banter but if you watch some their stage acts you are definitely going to be enthralled. And yes, these guys make me admit that my way is not the only way to think through these issues.

Videos I loved : Russel Peters

Videos I loved : Maz Jobrani

Term 1 done - 12.5% MBA

Phew. At last the term 1 exams are all over. There was a disconcerting quiet in the campus during the last 4-5 days. On sunday evening I went for a stroll, and walked two rounds around the campus. In 20 minutes I crossed just one person, an exchange student from Germany. I was taken aback by the extent to which activity comes to a stop during the exam time.

Just about an hour ago the marketing exam got over. I invoked all my creative juices and poured out some trash in the paper. Basically, I sucked in all the other papers too. So overall I have come to know that I'm way beyond my academic best. But I like the way tests are conducted here. In 3 out of 4 subjects you don't have to rely on memory. You can carry books, notes, cheat sheets etc. I particularly like the way Bruce Allen put instructions in the economics paper. It said something like, you may refer to your books, notes, calculators. But you may not refer to anybody else's 8.5 X 11 answer sheet or calculators. He was another great teacher we had this term. He was a showman and was extremely funny. The way he explained risk aversion with the example of "teeny-weeny" kids asking for milk was the highlight. Alls well that ends well. I will have fond memories of this term(even though the grades may dampen them a bit) where I was introduced to the ISB way of life.

Good news is that I'm starting to Chennai in couple of hours. I have to be back by friday because the LDP classes are scheduled over the weekend. So its a short trip to check the progress of my new apartment which is under construction. I will also get to meet my dear buddies 'Laka laka' and 'J' after almost 2 months. So it will be a 3 day break from studies and obviously blogging too.




The pics : One is the best dunk of term 1 and this one is Section-D with Prof. Waterman.

Taking Charge

As of today term 1 classes are over. It is so sad that Mark Finn and Bruce Allen won't be teaching us anymore, but the gratifying thing is that I'm almost gonna be 1/8 MBA (assuming I'll pass all subjects). Exams are on monday/tuesday and as expected the batch is slogging again. My mixed results in the mid-terms make me believe that "I'll remain as cool as I can again".

An interesting incident happened in campus this week. As part of the student body(GSB) elections we had soap boxes for all the candidates who were contesting for the GSB core positions. One very influential post had the least number of aspirants ( 3 to be precise) and with the end-terms approaching only 40 odd of us attended the soap-box. The people who came up and contested for that position were really sure about what they were going to do and had clear roadmaps to achieve what they said they will. Apparently a small lobby were not satisfied with any of the candidates. So they went up and started a signature campaign to re-open nominations. Now what do we call this act? Initiative?? Naaah..It is closer to something called shame. It is a fact that you are among the creamiest of cream in the country. So that doesn't mean that you can slack off and expect the best to happen. People who they think can be better candidates lacked the initiative in the first place to take up the challenge. So what is the guarantee that these guys will do well if the nominations are re-opened. So if people are not satisfied they are only paying the price for their own callous attitude. This is exactly what prof.Rangnekar said on the first day. "Take charge". If you want something, do it yourself and don't expect someone to do it for you. I do not want to blame it on lack of experience(A lot of youngsters are very mature indeed), but the fact remains that with experience you realize that the world is not always a fair place. Don't expect the world to change for you. You have to be the change.

Finally, common sense prevailed, nominations were not opened, and elections happened the way it should have and the best possible outcome came out. I wouldn't have expected this from ISB students but as someone rightly pointed out, "Individuals are intelligent but people are dumb". Anyhow, the tension is catching up and now I'm off to take a deep dig into the world of statistics, accounting, marketing and economics.

Wear Sunscreen

Well its time for a video in my blog and I start with what is the best advice that can be given to an incoming batch of students (A lot of it will apply to life in general also).
For people who wanna know more the script is by Mary Schmich and the video is by Baz Luhrmann.



Wiki this

Presidential Elections

After holding office for five years it looks like it is time for Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to relinquish office. Dr.Kalam is a great leader and used his first citizen role exceptionally to motivate the Indian youth. I have been particularly impressed with some of his speeches in the president's website http://presidentofindia.nic.in/. I was seriously expecting him to get a second term but our political parties have vested interests to take care of and so the nation will soon be getting a new president. A few names are doing the rounds, including the Chief Mentor of my ex-company. But my gut is that political appeasement will be the criteria this time.

Meanwhile at school, we just had our Graduate student body president elections. MG won it in what ppl say was a close race. We had an impressive set of candidates in the fray and I think MG's early initiatives forging a wide ranging partnership between the school and his ex-company did the trick. The scale of the initiative is really great(should run into several millions) ranging from research to ELPs to recruitments. Doing all these before people even got time to settle down is really commendable. But at the same time this raises the bar up for him. He has quite a handful to take care and I wish him good luck there. I thought some of the other candidates were very good too, particualrly AP, VR and PS. ISB will offer more opportunities for all these guys and the so far dormant leaders over the next year. So here is one for all the leaders at ISB. Cheers !

Fun with Statistics - Prof. Stine

What does it take to make a subject like statistics really enjoyable for a literature major. Is it real life examples, actual business situations from fortune majors or HBR cases? You can get more functional answers than these anywhere else. But ask the ISB class of 2008. The one answer would be "witty one-liners". Professor Bob Stine descended from Wharton and spent three weeks with this batch teaching the first half of the statistics course. In this really short time he has created a lifetime impact with his treatment of the subject and his wit. While i enjoy statistics normally, this time I enjoyed the wit more. I made a note of a good number his one-liners in class. here we go

"We are now comparing apples to donuts"

"This thing is spreading like wild flowers"

"Assume we are holding a stock for as long as a day"

"Don't put all your mangoes in one basket"

"I hope we are appropriately dubious about this assumption"

"SAIL is the puke green line on the chart"

"Ok. I'm done JMPing around here"

"'coz I don't have any kind of life here I played with excel solver"

"I'm extrapolating way outside my experience"

"Linear models terribly don't make much sense in global sense, and lot of times they don't make much sense in the local sense too"

"Average is not good. Like the guy who drowned in a river that was on average 4 feet deep"

"Don't call me Bobbie, 'coz I'll think you are my wife"

"People don't take square roots everyday" - Bob quoting his wife

"These are the god-forbidden log-scale values"

"You call demand as D and do you use P for price or something else perverse"

"9 times out of 8 people appreciate the effort you take to present things"

"You are not going to BS your way thru the exams as they are multiple choice"

"Some people remember some things, others remember other things, but I want you to remember something!"

"Normality is more of a prayer than a necessity"

"It's a hammer in search of a nail"

So that ends the fun and after my not so good show in the mid-terms, this blog about Prof. Stine makes me feel lil better. The weekend has officially started and unlike previous weeks we have one day less and one assignment more :-) !!!

Exam Fever

After a really really long time I will be taking up a college exam. The last one was in April 2001 and if I remember right the paper was Bio-medical instrumentation. A little over 6 years later I'm looking at taking up two mid-term papers tomorrow. In these six years while I gained loads of valuable experience my academic strengths have really diminished. So this time around I have carved for myself a really wonderful excuse "I'm so very tired of being the really studious guy, which I have been all my life". When I say this to myself it feels so nice and makes me feel that life is so easy.

I'm sure quite a number of my batchmates will resonate with me. At the sametime I also see folks with 10+ exp prepping like they were in class X and this mid-term is the board exam. I only wish that I don't score more than them and make life complicated. Anyhow the exam fever has really caught up here and I wish the batch of 2008 all the very best for the first set of tests this year.

Miles to go

Five hours of sleep is a premium these days. Assignments and morbid discussions on how the demand curve and supply curves shift totally drain you. In the end you realize that you are just four days away from the mid-term test. In spite of best efforts you are lagging in the pre-reads and now you are playing catch-up. After poring over pages of material and quite a lot of problems you feel that your confidence level has increased marginally. You look up and see it is 2 AM and it is time for the library to close. You come back and slog it out for an hour more resulting in no further increase in confidence levels.
Not surprisingly, it is so easy to fall asleep. You just need to lie on the bed and very soon it is 8 AM and the alarm buzzes to start another day of learning. To top all this salsa lessons start tomorrow and the spanish language classes will also be starting soon. I stopped to think if I'm trying to bite more than I can chew. But then I thought, this is the year for learning and there shall be no stopping me. Once again today I have "miles to go" before I can sleep again.

Study group in action

As I promised last time, this post is about my study group. The ISB folks have put great efforts to create study groups with people from diverse backgrounds. My group has five members and we have just gone through one weekend of assignments. I'm still quite far away from being able to classify them in an enneagram chart but I have got a fair idea of the team's working styles and group dynamics already.

First in the team is AP. He is a commerce graduate from Calcutta and has an equity research background. All through my life numbers have been just measures of quantity. I have been involved in lot of data interpretation when managing projects but this guy has dazzled me by generating mind boggling inferences looking at data. May be it is equity research background but my engineering mind, even though comfortable with numbers, needs helluva lot of training from this guy to get to this level.

Next comes AB. Well..well..He has no connections with the AB's from bollywood. But he easily brings the greatest amount of diversity in the group. A second generation entrepreneur, he started and ran his own polymer based doors business. Even though he cashed in on Mumbai's real-estate boom, this guy felt that in the long run he must trust structured business analysis skills more than gut feel and instinct. He is the practical guy and has an uncanny sense of humor. Girls have already branded him the "whacky" guy of our batch.

Along comes SI. A kind of journalism/writing back ground. He has been content developer for travel related websites. A fantastic team player, an idealist(Capricorn's usually are) and a down to earth demeanour would explain him succinctly. He brings out the most genuine and earthy ideas on to the table and acts a beautiful moderator whenever our marketing plan discussions become really heated.

Then comes SK. This guys comes with loads of business development experience in the financial products space and already has an executive MBA under his belt. A go-getter he is easily the most aggressive member of our team. Has a really sharp wit and the ability to make people listen to him. He played excellent host over the weekend arranging a luncheon for our study group.

Finally yours truly comes as the IT pro next door eager to learn from all these guys. This idea of group work is really fantastic. Taking it a step further, I think ISB can also shuffle study groups after every term. I think this will serve in making people better prepared to work in different teams and will also foster networking within the batch.

Classes begin

The class of 2008 is two days into term 1 and the whole atmosphere in the campus has changed. Four hours of classes per day and almost double of that time spent on pre-reads makes it a 12 hr work schedule every day. Add to it time spent to catch up with batch mates, read the newspaper, hitting the gym etc, one hardly has any time to sleep. I think the art will be to assimilate information fast. One should learn the art of skimming thru information and grasping the gist of it. I have been up until 2 AM the last two days. Not that I cannot sustain this, I feel I shd. improve my productivity so that I can participate in other things also.

Talking about the teaching faculty, succinctly put they are really good. I guess I had no reason to think that they will be ordinary considering the fact they all have associations with the Wharton's and Kellogg's of the world. Class participation(CP) is another new concept that is throwing tantrums during lectures. With CP given 20% weightage in marketing there is a mad rush of people wanting to say something or the other. I'm sure the initial enthu will die down after sometime when the student's mind's reach an equilibrium state. Two more days of classes this week and then my study group will hit on two assignments this weekend. My study group is a really curious mix of ppl. I think I will write my next blog about my study group.

Pre-Terms done

As I blog after one of the better parties at ISB organized by Liquids(these bars come to ISB to conduct promotional events) some of us are also rejoicing the fact that pre-term courses are over and we are ready to get into Term 1. The pre-term experience was overall pretty good. I had enrolled myself for all three pre-terms of which I would say that quantitative methods was not really necessary. As a matter of fact I learnt new things only in the Accounting classes. The QM guy was actually good. He was touching a lot on philosophy and mathematics and it was quite an interesting fare. The stats guy made himself popular with the 'Boy meets Girl' problem, one that was well received by all the students. The accounts teacher taught us a lot of new concepts. I now know how to balance assets with liabilities and equity. Wow I have already started learning business. Core term 1 starts on monday and I have lots of pre-reading to do before class starts. I will start something productive tomorrow.

IIM results are out. AFAIK two from ISB have made it to IIMs also. One guy has decided to leave ISB and another has decided to stick on. Well personal requirements matter a lot here. My personal take is that if you have less than 3 years exp. go to IIM else stick to ISB.

The Three Islands

'The Three Islands' is a nice little game that was part of the 'Bind Unwind' team building exercise we had last week. The concept of the game was simple. A group of 30 odd people were split into three teams and were made to move to circles that were drawn on three ends of a small grassy area. Apparently as part of the game these circles were designated as islands and out of which two were sinking. The rest of the ground was supposed to be water. The three teams were then deliberately deprived some essential physical faculties. One team was totally blind folded, my team was deprived of any chance to speak (the dumb team) and the third team's members had their legs tied. Now the blind team was given small pieces of sponge which were the props that can be used to cross over to the island that will not sink. The blind team and our team(the dumb team) were secretly told that our islands were sinking. The lame team was only told that two islands were sinking, so they were not sure if their island was sinking. The whole group was then given one hour to get ourselves transported to the island that is not sinking. Sounds simple right. But what happened over the next one hour unraveled some really striking management fundae. Actually the fact that I was part of the dumb team helped me observe things much better. Ok, so here is what happened.

As would any logical team do, the lame team shouted out to the blind team and asked them if their island was sinking. The blinds said yes and we the dumbos were listening. Then the lames turned over and asked the dumbos if their island was sinking and the dumbos nodded "Yes". But the interesting thing is the blind guys could not see this and so they were not sure which other island was sinking. So now the lame team knew that they were in safe harbor and realized that only they can help the whole group achieve the team goal of getting rescued from sinking. So they called out the blind team to get one of them come over to the lame island placing the props sequentially and get saved. Then one of the lames can limp over to the dumb island and then the dumbos will get the rest of the blind guys saved.

Here is when an interesting twist happened. The blind team got a feeling that the lame guys were probably trying to deceive them. They started asking why the lame team wanted to help them when their own island was not sinking !!! What the heck can the lame guys answer for this??? The seeds of distrust were sown and the blind guys decided to come to the dumb island which was an impossible task based on the arrangement of the islands. We dumbers were totally at loss as we could not do anything to make the situation better. The one hour elapsed and the blind guys could manage nothing and essentially the entire group lost the game.

Thinking back on the game I could relate it precisely to any organisational set up. The blind guys were like the top management. They had what it needs to save the entire group(the props) but they were blinded from reality and had distrust running in their blood. The dumb team (which I was part of) was like the worker class. They have no voice and can do nothing to change the world. The lame team meanwhile is like the middle management of an organisation. They can see what is happening and can advise the top management what to do but they still are tied to their feet and can't really drive the change. They want to save the organisation but don't have the power to do. What a sad situation...

I was really amazed at how a simple game like this can teach such profound lessons. I'm really thankful to the alums and the external org. that helped in this team building session. Way to go ISB !

Career Options and self discovery

One of the better events that happened during the orientation week at ISB was the career perspectives forum. The forum was conducted in a panel discussion model and there were five panelists, all alums from ISB. The backgrounds of the panelists and the order in which they spoke are

1. Management Consultant
2. Investment Banker
3. IT Strategist
4. Marketing Professional
5. Entrepreneur.

The forum basically had two parts to it. First the speakers came up and talked about their profession which was followed by a moderated Q&A session. The first speaker was the management consultant. Due to the fact that he makes his living out of powerpoint presentations he decided to buck the trend and instead talk without a PPT to support. Management consulting in his words is the job of dealing with CXO level problems. Typical assignments range from 4 weeks up to 5-6 months. The diversity of the assignments and thrill of working with the top-management of clients obviously gives the career highs in this industry. On the flip side there is a heck lot of travel. Our speaker for instance flies out every monday morning to a client site and stays there till friday evening. After 5 years in the industry he dreads the sight of an aircraft and always keeps an air-sickness bag handy. To put in a nut-shell consulting is a thrilling career for one who wants the broader perspective, loves to solve other's problems and for one who is either not very family oriented or has a very supportive family which understands his career aspirations.

Next came the investment banker. True to his profession he looked very much emaciated. He called on to the finance honchos in our batch and beckoned them to investment banking. I-banking, as it is popularly known, is among the highest paying sectors and salaries to the tune of $200,000 are more the rule than the exception. Investment bankers probably handle much higher stress than consultants and usually have 65 hr work weeks. But the job is really rewarding with the large bonuses and the high profile work style. A key learning was the fact that career shifts into investment banking by engineers/IT pros are rare and very difficult in 1 year MBA programs.

The IT strategist was up next and the first thing he asked for was a show of hands from all who had an IT background. This year's student directory claims that our batch has only 28% students with technology background but the show of hands indicated something much bigger. This instantly thrilled him and he said that the IT industry needs all of us to come back and is also ready to welcome students from other backgrounds. He was commenting on the multitude of middle management opportunities in IT and the way the outsourcing wave was booming. In his words, the industry has still got a long way to mature and opportunities are galore for ISB grads in IT. It was really gratifying to listen to him as career advancement in IT is exactly what I'm looking at accomplishing.

On came the marketing lady. She talked a lot about how every consumer decision is influenced by marketing and she also talked a lot about branding. As is expected out of any management discipline hectic schedules, excessive travel and high targets are to be expected in this role. The auditorium had a good number of marketing enthusiasts and her presentation struck a great chord with them. She also alluded to the marketing side of IT and it rung a few bells in my head too.

The stage was finally set for the entrepreneur to come in and walk away after winning all the hearts. He started by saying that as an entrepreneur you can be a consultant, i-banker, marketing pro and a lot more single handedly. He took a dig at every profession and also drove home the point of personal satisfaction that he derives out of being an entrepreneur. He also talked about the mental strength and risk appetite that one needs to have to set out on his/her own. This guy was really amazing 'coz he had his venture running even when he was studying at ISB and he used to travel every weekend to take care of stuff. It was absolutely fantastic listening to him and I'm certain that his speech inspired entrepreneurial ambitions inside the minds of a good number of people.

After this the experts clarified a lot of questions from the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed this session and gained a lot of insight about what each of these professions meant. Hearing about more and more options can confuse you a bit but it also lays a path to self discovery. For now I know that I need to tread this path soon enough !