An MBA Diary!

Virtues of being a PGSEMer

2012-02-04T23:43:00.001+05:30

What are the best lessons one can get from an MBA? I don't think they are the case discussions or financial modeling you do during your two years at B School. I am not contending that they are of no use. However I believe the real experience is the peer group, hostel life, making friends for life time, the friendly competitions and fights & ego clashes.

Unfortunately a PGSEMer doesn't have the luxury to enjoy the hostel life. However in my opinion, the PGSEMer gets even more interesting experiences; real life examples - be it the professional success or improvement in the quality of life to professional tragedies and family issues. Fortunately I am one of the youngest in my batch. My project group members are at least 4 years senior to me, one even at the extreme - he started his career in the year I joined school! When I reflect back, many interesting experiences come to my mind.

The most recent being - I am writing this blog post while I am waiting for one of my project members to come back to complete an assignment due this week. He left in between our discussion to try to pacify his 3 months old son who was continuously crying! Can it reach another level???

During the past 1.5 years many in my batch got married, got the promotion in personal life, some became a house owner, some got even fired from their job and the experiences continues... These all make me virtuous enough to see what changes I can expect going forward in life :) (for example - a group member suddenly leaves our project discussion because his wife is impatient, another is going through some mental trauma because his father is in ICU, one is is cloud 9 because he became a Program Director, one bought a house in the hope that it will add value in his matrimonial resume :P and the list continues....)

Few of the other interesting experiences, I had in my past 1.5 years are - the level of ego one can attain once you move up the ladder (see I am already an MBA w.r.to using jargon :P ), how typical managers behave and what their thought process is and so on... One thing I learnt is - we have to salute the middle managers - they get f***ed up from upper management and his reportees have no respect irrespective of whatever he tries - poor chap! (I am not generalizing here; a common scenario though...). Its also an interesting learning on how to manage to get work done by people who are senior or much senior - a trait all leaders need to have!!. The of course the much cliched terms for learning from MBA - working in groups, thinking out side the box, thinking from broader context and so on...

Finally, the importance of talking in air ;), an art every MBA must learn. I have seen enough examples during the class discussions where a person who has read minimal material assigned, but grasped the crux and who has mastered this art shining over a person who had slogged hours in preparation; but cannot articulate well....This again is a real life experience and two years in B School gives enough opportunities to hone this skill - a must especially in the fields of Marketing, Sales and Consulting!!!

The Art of Decision Making

2012-02-01T19:31:00.001+05:30

One thing, I have always struggled with is to take decisions - especially when it comes to two equally good/appropriate choices. So here I am in the elective course of Decision Making!! Before I joined, I dreamt that I can take any decisions without any struggle after studying this course. How naive I am still; even after going through an MBA program for 1.5 years.

That doesn't mean the course have no value add. In fact it is one of the good courses co-taught by one of the best professors in IIMB. The course goes in deep about how we think, what are our biases, the importance of intuition, gut feel and so on. It has its own coverage about mathematical notions of decision making using techniques like decision trees, monetary value calculations and applications of game theory.

The interesting thing about this course is that it is co-taught by colonel from Indian Air Force. And the cases are really special which includes, but not limited to Fire at Mann Gulch, Cuban Missile Crisis, Columbia's Final Mission (Multimedia Case), Kargil war, Strategic Innovation Simulation and so on. Overall enjoying the course so far...

Few of the resources I came across regarding this subject are

L inks to Lectures by Daniel Kahneman

A good website about intuition

Some interactive resources on cognitive psychology

Book Review : The Vault Guide to Schmoozing

2012-01-02T08:00:00.000+05:30

A random pick from library during the term break; it was not a bad choice :)

I have found Vault Career Guides always useful and The Vault Guide to Schmoozing was no different! After a series of book reviews related to business and management domain...here is one in 'soft skills' domain :)

What attracted me more to this book was the word - 'schmoozing'. Honestly I had no clue about the word's meaning before reading the contents of the book! When I understood the meaning, the obvious question & I am sure all of you would have a also had - a book on formal flirting? :P

Well, it is not a subject that can be mocked away like that, especially in this world! Interesting part for me was that, as and when I read each chapter, I could very corelate to few of my marketing colleagues. This confirmed the fact that this skill is required more often in a business professional domain, especially like marketing, consulting or business development; compared to say, may be a software programmer!

The chapters of the book are well written and classified. The features I liked the most were interviews and profiles given appropriately in each chapter. Though chapters based on schmoozing on the job, school etc. are so redundant or obvious, overall the book is worth reading! It may look funny/obvious, however this is the crux of the book or rather the core guidelines/steps for schmoozing:

1) Smile making an eye contact; you don't loose in smiling!
2) If you don't feel you have the confidence; fake it! by practice, you will become confident.
3) Feeling uncomfortable in schmoozing; practice!
4) Met with a set back in your try? Forget it and move on!
5) Control your prejudice; Be delibrate in schmoozing and move out of your comfort zone!
6) Do your research; Take an interest; Listen & pay attention; Find similarities between you and your target ;)
7) Do favors; Take favors.
8) Schmooze everyone - from a janitor to your peers to your boss! (I have seen many of my colleagues practicing this especially even if they have no direct relation - like say a boss or peers. It has done many favors for them!)

Three Musketeers Visit Village Schools!

2011-12-31T11:30:00.000+05:30

It was a long pending thing. We had to visit few village schools as part of a course project to study the realty of Government Schools. It was not as bad as we thought. With the help from NGOs, they are improving.

For me it was the first visit to an internal village. If I had not taken this course on Social Entrepreneurship, I may have never gone to a village in the near future. It was an amazing experience; or rather an eye opener!

Wonderful people, some really talented children, very helpful teachers and villagers! that is a short brief about my visit to few villages in Hoskote in Bangalore! For a more detailed narration about our visit...please visit

http://iimbpgsem.blogspot.com/2011/12/different-experience.html

An altogether different experience, different perspective and a different project in the middle of strategic marketing and financial projects...

Book Review : Understanding Digital Marketing by Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones

2011-12-22T08:30:00.000+05:30

If you want to know what information overload is, think about online marketing! There are plenty of blogs, books and resources about digital marketing, online marketing and social media marketing. Daring to write another book is a rare thing. Yet I chose to take the book on Understanding Digital Marketing by Damian Ryan and Calvin Jones from library to learn more about digital marketing :)

If you are a person like me who wants to have all the information under one umbrella, this book is right for you. Also a word of caution - if you are a pro in online marketing, this book may not be for you.

I liked the book and its worth reading!

The book gives a good coverage of all aspects of digital marketing starting from good web design to online PR and interactive media.

One area I felt, the authors could have spent more time was on analytics. For example, it just touches the topics of A/B testing or web optimizer without giving much insight.

The chapter on Email Marketing is really nice; the one on social media needs improvement; considering the information available on social media is too much; I believe its OK :) A nice introductory chapter on affiliate marketing is also provided; however I felt it could have been also much better.

Though the book has its own blah blah gyaan, I felt this is one of the books that give some real insight or at least good knowledge bank for a new comer to the world of digital marketing! worth reading....

Book Review : Effective Proposal Writing by Vasudev Murthy

2011-12-21T11:23:00.000+05:30

One good thing about studying one of the best B Schools is you get the opportunity to hear directly from in horse's mouth in many courses. Elements of Management Consulting is one of those electives I took this quarter and Prof. Vasudev Murthy is the instructor.
Can consulting skills be taught in a class?

NO was the emphatic answer given by the professor on the first day of the course. But few soft skills, best practices and valuable tools can be taught in class rooms. The book Effective Proposal Writing by Vasudev Murthy serves that purpose.

Very lucidly written, the book provides some good insights into written business communication.The most important part I liked in this book were the two example proposals provided. The chapter on 'Organization of a proposal' is also nicely written and worth it!

Some of the other useful things I got from reading this book were the concept of fog index and proposal checklist provided. The internet resources provided in the book are also worth viewing.

Overall a good book for a practitioner.

Can I buy some time???

2011-12-16T17:51:00.000+05:30

One quarter gets over....before the time we submit all my due assignments and projects, the next starts...

I think someone should discover how I can buy some time ;) Q6 is over. It was an interesting quarter with most of the subjects being slightly philosophical! I got the opportunity to visit some village schools(more about that in a later post), work on two industry projects, take some career realted aptitude tests and listen to few social activists like Nikhil Dey, Vasimalai et al. who have shaken this country. I also got the opportunity to listen to our former president, Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam and sit very near to him! The best celebrity I have met in IIM Bangalore so far.
One grade has already come and so far that is my highest ever!(3.91/4). So happy! I have been worrying for sometime since my CGPA had been consistently in a downward slope; in this quarter I am expecting it to stall to a flat level.

Fortunately, it is December, the grant holiday season!. So I believe I will be able to buy some time :) I am not going home and planning to invest time in studies, exploring etc. - see how dedicated I am? :P

I have been reading so many books these days since I am exploring new domains of marketing in office and exploring interest areas for final project....so expect lots of book reviews soon!

Closing this post by sharing with all of you an interesting talk by Daniel Pink on the science of motivation.

Marketing Communications - A Sneak Preview

2011-12-01T09:46:00.000+05:30

This elective opens the door to a plethora of career options. Each topic in this domain is so vast that you can select further individual courses for many of them. My intention here is not to write in detail about the intricacies of this domain.

Irrespective of whether you are in B2B or B2C, marketing communications play a vital - how else it could have become one of the 4Ps! Promotion has taken a very important role that many a times other Ps are forgotten or not given equal importance. On a lighter note, read about similar finding in IBM CMO Study

If you studied Marketing 101 or you are in this field, I am sure you could not have missed the phrase - 'Integrated Marketing Communications'. As I understand, IMC is nothing but utilizing all the marketing channels in a comprehensive, mutually complementing fashion at an optimal cost. Gone are the days when print ads or television ads alone were enough; the channels to reach the end user has exploded so much that not only can one ignore other channels but have to be very vigilant in utilizing them.

Thus it essentially revolves around one P of the 4Ps - Promotion.One may think that IMC is all about promotion. However IMC plays its role in branding and also pave way to managing the challenges like marketing expenses accountability, rapid improvements in technology and other developments like increased importance of database, internet and social media marketing.

Major promotional tools include, but not limited to the following:

Advertising (Good old advertising techniques, role of ad agencies, metrics, media buying etc.)
Direct Marketing (Database marketing, telemarketing, direct ads, collateral etc.)
Interactive Marketing (Internet marketing, mutimedia/interactive media)
Sales Promotions (coupons, discounts, psychology behind influencing buying behavior etc.)
Public Relations (Publicity, role of PR firms - remember Radia tapes, if you are in India ;) )
Personal Selling

In a single MBA level course in Marketing Communications, one will get the opportunity to get a flavor of each one of these. There are few universities that offer Masters level courses in IMC alone which deep dive into each one of these. A look into the detailed curiculum of such courses gives you a better understanding of what MC is all about. A couple of courses I came across:

Northwestern University's Masters Program
West Virginia University's Masters Program
A comprehensive list available @ Grad Schools

Limiting IMC to just to promotion won't be fair. It plays an important role in a firm's marketing strategies, branding and pricing. Communications happen at three levels:

Corporate (The Vision, Mission, Image etc.)
Product/Services Marketing(4 Ps)
Marketing Communications

In a course like Marketing Communications, we learn two aspects - creative strategy(the creative side) and media strategy (the platform for execution)
Few important articels that touchbase important concepts in Marketing Communications:

FCB Grid (Foote, Cone and Belding) [A nice illustration available here]
Elaboration Likelihood Model (details)
Rossiter-Percy Model (details)

Concept of Effective Frequency and Effective Reach
Importance of Word of Mouth (a nice article)

A good article on the role of ad agencies in IMC. Understanding the role of ad agencies and how it works is an important take away from this course.

I know, I was not able to clearly articulate what all you will learn in this subject; but hey! my intention is just to give a sneak preview; it is difficult to capture all that you learn in a 30 hours course or a course where you spend 18 months :)

I hope this post helped.... Please provide your comments!

Book Review: New Venture Creation

2011-11-24T00:00:00.010+05:30

New Venture Creation: Entrepreneurship for the 21st Century by Jeffry Timmons & Stephen Spinelli was the prescribed text for my elective course on Entrepreneurship. Frankly speaking, the case studies, class notes and discussions were more than enough for the course. Since I like reading books, I made sure that I read the book even if it is after the exams :)

To be short, a nice book covering all aspects that one should know with respect to starting one's own company. The most interesting things that I liked in this book were the exercises that help you to understand yourself how much ready are you to start on own. I agree these exercises require at most patience to complete and guidance; but they were worth doing!

More than the chapters, the cases and appendices were more helpful. At times, the book goes well into a theoretical format which is of no use for practical purposes.

Also, I felt the chapters on Financing and Venture Capital could have included more details. For a course, it is a nice book; but can't be a ready reckoner for practical purposes! Also I didn't find a companion site or a web site from which I can download the exercises and templates. If any of you find it, please comment!

I am back!!

2011-11-21T10:27:00.001+05:30

I wonder how time flies....This blog has been dormant for more than 1.5 months now! Blame it on time, pressure, laziness :) When I checked the blog, I stopped on the beginning of quarter 6 and I am here at the end of quarter 6!

This quarter was comparatively easier since in managing time since all the assignments, projects and exams were staggered throughout the quarter. Though submitting one each at least every week was painful; since they were small grading components, it was easier :) I am left with 3 projects to submit; once done I am 60% MBA - Yahoo!

This quarter had its own favorite, interesting and also disgusting moments. I presented to a 500 odd crowd; volunteered in organizing yet another Vista, the annual business festival of IIM Bangalore, had intriguing sessions poking 'what I want to do in life','career aspirations' etc. as part of the Career Management course and presented a business plan for our idea to a VC (or rather the head of NSRCEL @ IIMB) as part of the Entrepreneurship course!

While others are preparing hard for the end terms; here I am chilling out an extra week since I don't have any exams - a benefit of slogging yourself through out the quarter :)

I believe I will get some time to be back active in the blog with some interesting posts for all of you and a self reflection :) so say tuned.....

Quarter 6 - A wonderful beginning!

2011-09-30T18:53:00.000+05:30

Half way through the journey of PGSEM; this quarter I decided to stay completely away from Finance subjects! Once again I took four subjects - 3 of them are taught by celebrated Professors in IIMB.

Time flies just like that; already 1/3rd of the quarter is over. Things are getting heated up with projects, assignments, events etc. etc. I have taken two Entrepreneurship related courses this quarter - New Venture Creation and Social Entrepreneurship. The third one is close to my heart (or rather work ;) ) - B2B Market Management. With learning all these new subjects on Finance, Marketing, Strategy - career dilemma is obvious and so in order to tackle it, I took a course on career management(read because I thought it will be a light-weight course :P)

This quarter is going to be tough with multiple projects in each course and other extra curricular. Its clearly evident in this blog itself with reduced number of posts these days. Meanwhile I take this opportunity to thank all readers of this blog.The blog has reached its viewership of ~11000 views from around 92 countries/territories as per Google Analytics!

Today Vista 2011 has started. It my second edition. Only PGSEMers get the fortune of attending/organizing it for 3 times ;) Visit http://www.iimb-vista.com/index.php for more details

Quarter 5 - A retrospective

2011-09-18T20:44:00.000+05:30

So far the fastest quarter in PGSEM. After a month's break, this quarter started in a very lazy mood; by the time I was active, it got over!

Struggling with four 3 credits course, with two demanding courses and one very demanding Professor, this quarter was a bullet train. The beginning of the quarter witnessed many crisis management, debates and altercations in the context of some events we organized, later a wonderful cultural night organized by the new batch.With this quarter, I am confident that I can read any case and make a presentation within 10 minutes! Irony was for a project in which we spent hour less nights, we got only a fair evaluation; while for a presentation we made within 1/2 hour @ 12AM because of other submissions, we got appreciation unimaginable! Strange world or is it the cliche 'only quality matters; not the quantity" :P

After lots of thoughts, I decided to contest in the elections for Students' Council and I am now the elected Secretary of PGSEM Students' Affairs Council! Its a huge responsibility and I believe it is a good opportunity to organize, plan and implement many of my ideas and improve my leadership skills ;)

Meanwhile results for 2 subjects are already out and the situation in this front are not improving :( Ironically in quarter 6 also I have four subjects!

Book Review : Advertising and Promotion

2011-08-20T23:16:00.000+05:30

Marketing Communications was one of my first elective courses. Advertising and Promotion by George E Belch, Michael A Belch and Keyor Purani was the course textbook.

To be honest, the usage of the text book was very limited since the course reading material and the insights from the Professor was enough. Backed with the new work profile, the textbook looked so theoretical :P

The book contents is very extensive covering all aspects of integrated marketing communications beginning with a strong foundation on IMC. The coverage given in the text book for budgeting is interesting. It also gives a good view about ad agencies and its working and compensation; but I felt a more practical approach could have been even better.

A good coverage is given for creative strategy and media planning. The book also touches upon other topics like supporting media, personal selling and direct selling. The coverage for PR and Corporate Adverting is minimal and the coverage about digital advertising is poor.

The most interesting feature included in the book is the career profile applicable in various chapters :) Also make sure you visit the companion website.

Overallan OK OK book :)

time flies fast!

2011-07-31T10:20:00.000+05:30

Just 3 weeks of classes left for 5th quarter to finish!!

This quarter seem to be the most hectic one among the quarters so far. I guess its because of the RAMBO effect :) I noticed I have slept only for 5 hours in the last 60 hours! Our final project in a course called consumer behavior is over. We were the unfortunate group to have both project and case presentation scheduled back to back. That meant 45%+ marks at stake in just two days!

Fortunately, we didn't get a blast for both the presentations from the Professor. For the first one, he said...."good presentation....in fact I had pushed this group to rework in the last minute; but they came back very vigorously!" LOL and for the second presentation..."excellent...good insights and amount of effort put in!" Overall I felt, the time spent was worth it! It was literally pushing your limits in the last week.

So many more submissions in the next three weeks....I also noticed I have complete gone out of the radar of extra curricular these days! time just flies...

Eximius - The Entrepreneurship Summit of IIM Bangalore is coming. I wish I had participated in some of the competitions; atleast I will attend the talks and workshops...

Book Review : Positioning, the battle for your mind

2011-07-20T17:27:00.001+05:30

A classic!

Positioning The battle for your mind by Al Ries and Jack Trout is a must read for any marketer. The book has been there for 30 year now :)

Positioning is one of the concept that is stressed alot in marketing curiculum these days. This book gives a raw view on what the authors meant when they first conceptualized it. This is a holygrail, the concepts which have been explained, re-explained, built on by many others. Some of the key things that attracted me are below (For a new age student like me, at first glance it may look obvious :)).

Actually, there is no point in writing summary for a book like this!

- Positioning is creating a place in one's mind
- Once it is created, its very difficult to change
- If there is a strong competitior who has already created a differentiated position, its is next to impossible to change it; instead find the gap and fill it
- If your value proposition is unique, it doesn't matter whether you are first to market or not
- Name of the product should align with your positioning
- What worked for the leader may not work for you

and many more...

If you get the old copy of the book, you may not be able to comprehend the examples they are talking about since they are so old. The irony though is many brands they took as good examples are no more in business :)
Try getting the new copy with comments from the authors themselves. They have given comments on what they thought while selecting the brand and how the latest technological or cultural changes are applicable.

Some reviews available on net:

http://www.techiteasy.org/2008/10/29/book-review-positioning-the-battle-for-your-mind-part-3/

http://www.themarketess.com/2011/02/book-review-positioning-the-battle-for-your-mind/

drenched under deep water....

2011-07-11T23:47:00.001+05:30

When I wrote a demotivating post in this blog, I wished I will never write one again. I am afraid that will continue...but hey! who said B School is only about the media hyped encounters and how else can an experience be memorable without having both sorts. So far this quarter has been the most hectic one. When my seniors said it will be suicidal attempt if you are taking Consumer Behavior along with 3 other courses, I took it lightly. Now I am rethinking did I take their advice lightly ;)

Last quarter saw the lowest grades I can get; or more is waiting me....only time will tell! From As to Cs, the transition was very smooth :P And the GPA is continuing its downward slope ;) Fifth quarter is no different with quiz marks starting at pathetic single digits like 1s and 2s....only respite is the topper is getting only 4 and 5 ;)

Is the extra curricular activities to be blamed or is it the office or is it my laziness! Obviously not the last one :P And to aggravate all these, had to face a lot of criticisms for the events in which I was part of the organizing team; the unfortunate part is that those who doesn't have any rights to criticize are on the other side....but again hey! are these the real learning from a B School or for that matter any school! Sometimes, I think should I be part of any of these; should I just go there attend the wisdom of professors and come back to study....sometimes I reinforce my self that that is not the only thing you should care about as I wrote in one of my first posts ;)

By the way, all these have motivated to goto library and take a book by Prof. Srikumar Rao. I will write a review soon .

A number of events are lined up in IIMB like eximius, vista and also we have to plan for some of our own events...not sure how much time will I get to participate in all these...

Till next post....enjoy some of the other blogs of new PGSEMers:

http://anearlystart.blogspot.com/

http://nostalgiawip.posterous.com/

And quarter 5 begins with a bang...

2011-06-20T19:11:00.000+05:30

First year and core courses over! Over to 2nd year with just those subjects that I really like... (really?)
This quarter, I have taken 4 subjects, two marketing, one finance and one slightly technical. Two marketing subjects are more or less focused in B2C segment - consumer behavior and marketing communications. We already had our first quiz in CB. I heard alot about the Prof; but thought, what marketing without learning CB. Lately, coming to understand what this blogger meant when he called the prof Rambo :) Marketing Communications professor is cool; once again we have heavy weight-age to class participation and fixed seating arrangement - once again became an official back bencher! We are already established negotiators :P we changed her mind to make the quizzes announced instead of surprise!

I am not sure why I took a finance subject, I have taken Investments; first two classes were not impressive. My intention was I will become a good trader after this course :P (oh yeah, I struggled alot in CorpFin and got a C!)

Last subject is Telecom Strategy. Back to engineering days; but this time its more economics and strategy of communication. I hope we will spend some time in 2G spectrum saga also ;) The prof is good. Apparently he is also in some of the well know committees that are in the recent news :)

Another very enthusiastic PGSEM batch has joined and we are no more first years...that means my future mba life blog posts will be unique - possibly more inclined towards marketing and strategy. However all other aspects remain unchanged.

We have some issues to sort out that popped out during orientation of new batch :) These are instances where you learn the real crisis management, mold yourself to receive criticisms, some constructive some just demotivating!

Now that we are in 2nd year, we have to drive all the activities which are legacy to PGSEMers. That means increased responsibility, at the same time improved opportunities. Whether I will be an active participant in all the extra curricular activities?....only time will tell!

Book Review : Social Media Metrics By Jim Sterne

2011-06-03T17:18:00.001+05:30

One of the best books I have read on social media!

It doesn't talk about what a blog is or what twitter is or general blah blah on how to tweet, when tweet or blog frequency. Though the book touches on all these aspects, the book takes an altogether different approach of making sense in real value from these. That of course is in terms of increased prospects or sales leads or actual sales!

More or less like AIDA model, the author Jim Sterne talks about following phases for a meaningful success in social media:

1. Getting focused - Identifying the goals
2. Getting Attention - Reaching audience
3. Getting Respect - Identifying influence
                                   4. Getting Emotional - Recognizing sentiment
                                   5. Getting Response - Triggering action
                                   6. Getting Message - Hearing conversation
                                   7. Getting Results - Driving business outcomes
                                   8. Getting Buy-In - Convincing colleagues
                                   9. Getting Ahead - Seeing the future

Some of the topics where he discussed about twitter, the importance of retweets, measurement of blog-personnel-resource were really good. At the same time I felt the author was going into a blah blah mode when he was discussing Convincing colleagues.

The resources given in the appendix are really good. Overall I enjoyed reading the book! Was handy for some of work requirements too....

we are seniors!

2011-05-30T17:00:00.000+05:30

We welcomed the 14th batch of PGSEM on Friday. Once again I got the opportunity to stay in hostel even if it was just for 3 days.

This time, the orientation was scheduled for complete 3 days because of the CSITM workshop. Though I didn't expect to see many new students at 7 AM on Friday, I was proved wrong with atleast 10 people already present before I reached campus! After initial hiccups, we got the hostel keys and asked them to assemble at auditorium. Slightly different from our orientation, we started with very formal presentations introducing them to IIMB, PGSEM and other nuisances of the courses. After some presentations, question & answer sessions and registration processes, we dispersed. Later the day was followed by a session by Prof. Agrawal, Inauguration & an alumni session. The alumni session was really interesting even for us :)

A late night with lots of games; we allowed them to go back to hostel with lot of things to prepare by 12 AM. This was because CSITM workshop organizers wanted us to leave them early so that it will not affect them....hmm

Majority of Saturday was CSITM workshop....later we got hold of the juniors :) Some hours of outbound activities and later some running around the campus :) Again we allowed them to go early back to hostel than what our seniors allowed us!!

A wonderful session on case study was the show-stealer on Sunday with a quick closing function since we started loosing audience exponentially :) Did we make them stretch too much? ;) :p

That marks my first year of MBA complete. Now just electives...will miss the core courses not because of subject content, but more because all 75 of us were together! Now onwards, we will in different classes attending different subjects!

Book Review: Your Marketing Sucks By Mark Stevens

2011-05-23T20:54:00.002+05:30

The title attracted me to pick up this book from the campus library. Even though the title was attractive, the book was not so. Some of the topics he covers are worth reading. I got a feeling that he is just coining a term 'extreme marketing' for effective marketing.

Some of the ideas like 'every dollar spend on marketing should yield more than a dollar in sales' and 'marketers just try to imitate competitors' are stressed in the book. At some points, I felt the book sucks! especially the examples given about IBM, infomercials etc

Overall, just a one time read!

I came across a good summary of the book. I believe reading that is enough!

http://dotconnectorblog.com/favorite-ideas-from-your-marketing-sucks-by-mark-stevens/

Interesting quotes from classrooms - I

2011-05-21T01:47:00.006+05:30

Whether I pay attention to what is being taught in the class or not, I pay attention to all the interesting dialogues from professors and keep a note of it :)

Here are some of them that I noted down over past one year @ IIMB. Some are funny, some need the context to understand, some I still don't understand and some are thought provoking....

Microeconomics Professor: You can bring anything to the exam hall; its an open book test, but those may not have anything to do with the test!

Microeconomics Professor: If you are not good in maths; don't worry. Einstein was also not; If you are good in maths, you are mediocre :p

Microeconomics Professor: I am giving you an empty threat - exam will be tough; what is my payoff?

FINAC Professor, we will learn GAAP completely including Games All Accountants Play

Statistics Professor, "Finally, it's a stat exam. What's the worst that can happen? Your score is a random variable. Have a good time!"

"In India, even if you are a one in a million kind of guy,there are a thousand more just like you!!" - Courtesy: Prof. Shankar Venkatgiri, IIMB

OB Professor, "Contracts are like bikinis; they show all exciting parts, yet cover all critical parts!"

MANAC Professor (after postponing a mid term), "I felt happy to see some of you enjoying the cultural program thoroughly. I felt I would have done a great mistake if I had kept the exam on Sunday. As professors we not only perform through you all, but also enjoy through you all."

Entrepreneurship Professor, "I am not here to hear you intellectual masturbation; give some viable solution!"

Law Professor(mocking cyber wing), Police may even take printer & power cord; you never know where the evidence of a cyber crimer is :p

QM Professor, Visualizing in higher dimensions take years, you can add 1 dimension in 10 years; now I can visualize in 4th dimension!

OB Professor, Our five year plans are masterpieces of fiction!

OB Professor, If you can get into a PSU, even six of you can get into an ambassador :p

OB Professor, why is the AC not working in this class? I thought only Government is bankrupt; has IIM also become bankrupt?

CorpFin Professor, I am a humorless plain person; I guess money make all in this profession so!

CorpFin Professor, At 11:45, the doors will be closed because I have a concentration retention disorder and people coming into class after I start is distracting for me!

CorpFin Professor (recalling an old joke during his IIM days):

   Professor: Good Morning Class
   IIMC Students: Good Morning Sir!
   IIMB Students: Good Morning yaaawn..
   IIMA Students: will write down it in their notebooks :p

OB Professor, For the next 10 weeks, you are stuck with me; I am stuck with you, so lets make the best use of it!

OM Professor (after giving a 'get out!' for using mobile phone), I am sorry; I run my class like a Hitler!

OB Professor, Genes matter
                       Childhood matters
                       Environment matters
                       But ultimately, you matters the most!

40% MBA

2011-05-20T00:24:00.000+05:30

YES!!

First year of PGSEM is over with the submission of last assignment pending. An eventful year, a turning point or whatever you call it; it was wonderful!

Next one month is a break from hectic weekends, classes, assignments and exams :)

Days passes by very fast; A year back this time was also eventful, first with a waiting list, then a long pause with crossed fingers and finally IIMB opening its doors for me.

Looking back, I have learn t 13 subjects, attended or closely worked with 16 professors, wrote 20+ exams, 10+ projects, 20+ quizzes and many heated discussions & simulation games.

Do I remember all that I learn t so far or will I apply whatever learn t so far? A big NO!!

But the knowledge that was imparted to us will be helpful one day or another for sure. A typical example being - I am using some of the concepts that I learn t in marketing & strategy classes in my current role @ office. That is one of the best things one can get. I was unfortunate with that so far since I joined software development, while I learnt for four years about electrical engineering during my under graduate days.

Now with just electives left and having a decent grade to get any elective I want (of course, provided I maintain my grades), I believe I will be able to enjoy more the classes in the coming months!

I worked with 4 set of people so far -

1) those who with the best brains and top in everything

2) those with the best brains and never use it unless they really like to apply it

3) those who never feel dejected and keep trying to be at the top

4) those who doesn't care whatever be the case!

Some of the myths were broken in the first year such as (again it is just my personal opinion):

- The majority are normal guys who works hard even in the best IIMs
- Not all faculty will be the best even in top B Schools
- MBA is not easy; Getting there is only half way, the remaining half is even tougher
- Finance is dry; All go just behind money. Otherwise why didn't all these engineers didn't take B Com or some other finance major for their under graduation
- HR is not that boring as portrayed
- Even though managing corporations effectively and inefficiencies in bureaucracy and hierarchy are taught in these schools, it is still a bureaucratic government organization

Overall a memorable year. I enjoyed the following 3 subjects the most:

- Managing Organizations
- Principles of Marketing
- Strategic Management

Quarter 4: A Retrospective

2011-05-05T13:57:00.000+05:30

I know I have been keeping away from this blog for a very long time. The number of posts had dipped. This quarter was the craziest and I hated it to the highest extend possible. The last week of this quarter is fast approaching.And I am left with 2 case submissions, 2 projects, a quiz and 3 exams!! If fortunate, a surprise quiz too.

My CGPA has started behaving like a sine wave with consistent ups & dips. I am sure this quarter it will be a huge dip like stock market crashes :(

Finally decided to say bye bye to Finance though have taken an elective in next quarter :) I am not sure why I am 'finance' challenged! I studied only corporate finance this quarter so far and I am struggling hell a lot there!

Organizational Behavior has been a free ride so far; I hope it will be the same when it comes to end term also :) I have no idea what Operations Management is, so many theoretical terms and I am sure I will struggle there also irrespective how much ever time I spend there.

In terms of learning, I enjoyed the corporate finance as subject; OB was interesting when some psychology related topics were discussed, but later it became very boring....I enjoyed the simulation games in Operations Management classes :P

Overall, a pathetic quarter. No events in the campus though we had started planning for next batch's orientation.

Waiting eagerly to get the end term exams get over :P and enjoy a month's break :)

Book Review : Principles of Corporate Finance

2011-04-16T22:18:00.004+05:30

A wonderful theoretical book! I really liked the extra things available as part of the book more (CD, the online resources & links) :P
The books really talks in a nice fashion. No doubts why it has been famous for years!

Personally, some of the things I felt lacking are solved problems. Even though there are quizzes with answers for every chapter; I feel a need of more solved problems or at least answers to the Practice Questions. If you can get somehow the solutions; its the best book you can get even for a complete self study.

Make sure you visit all the web resources given in the book & also the CD. They are truly valuable! Overall the book covers every basic concepts of Corporate Finance and well the concept of time value of money and other very basic foundational concepts.

If you are planning a career in finance or are a finance enthusiast, corporate finance is one of the most fundamental subjects and this book is a treasure indeed

one by one leaves fall...

2011-03-27T12:28:00.001+05:30

Its the right time to listen to 'One by One' by Enya. So many adios, so many good byes some we will not see again some we will surely!

"One by one my leaves fall.
One by one my tales are told."

Last couple of weeks have been good bye time in office, campus and where not...
Another batch in graduating on March 31; its happy at the same time sad that a set of seniors who helped us a lot will be leaving us soon; happy in a sense soon we will be the seniors to the next batch :)

Yesterday was the graduation dinner put forth by the batch for professors and families. It was a nice one! In office also it has been good bye team including mine. I will miss a couple of my colleagues for sure. The new team looks to be great, lots of change in work culture, domain & nature of work! I hope this will be a break through in my career :)

Another sad thing happened this week was the sad demise of one our most sought after professors in IIM, Prof.Thiru. I wasn't fortunate enough to sit in his class; he was an authority in Marketing discipline which makes me even sad :(

over to marketing!

2011-03-20T13:37:00.000+05:30

2010 -> 2011
EGL -> Manayata
Engineer -> Manager :P
Coding -> Marketing!

Yes I decided to change my career direction drastically and a couple of managers were kind enough to provide me an opportunity also. I am not sure whether this is the right direction, only time will tell!

I will be working in the goto market team for a segment of products in requirements & quality management domains. So i can write a little bit on that experience also going forward!

By the way, this quarter is pathetic. The OB subject is very vague. I thought I will learn some psychology and coach many people :P But looks like to read that book itself, I need a coach! I have been seriously doubting nowadays I am I that mathematically challenged? I am not liking any of the finance subjects! The professor for corporate finance is good, a person who held high level positions in the industry turned an academician. Operations Management professor is in his world, we are in a level apart :P

This quarter will be interesting with no mid term exams as such, but only with lots of assignment and projects. Soon I guess I will start saying exams are good!

And Quarter 4 starts...

2011-03-13T13:43:00.001+05:30

Last quarter of core courses and 1st year of MBA! After this quarter, I will be 1/2 MBA :p

All the three courses looks interesting. It has always been the case in all quarters. Two very senior professors in IIMB, all three with 10+ years of industry experience in the respective fields before coming to academia. Only looks to be very strict, which reminds me of a professor of quarter 2.

This quarter we have a course from Finance domain - Corporate Finance. One from Operations domain - Operations Management and the final one from HR domain on Managing People and Performance. I believe every professor of any domain has a habit of saying their subject is the deciding factor of all decisions :p
Corp Finance prof says without it no company, HR professor says without people where is the company and the productions prof says without maintaining efficiency you go bankrupt!

So far two subjects were related to Accounting, only in this quarter we are tasting the real finance domain!

This quarter is again going to be hectic with hell a lot of assignments and readings (read no mid terms for two subjects). We also have many extra curricular activities planned. Also we will be bidding adieu to our senior batch of 2008 PGSEMers.

Quarter 3 - A Retrospective

2011-03-10T09:29:00.000+05:30

This quarter was the fastest so far and most hectic!

Four subjects, some of them being very attractive high-fi-turned dullest ones and some other good old ones. Principles of Marketing was one of the most awaited subjects and it didn't dissappoint me at all. The professor was too good with all fun, in-class excercises and case studies. We got the bible of marketing - Kotler :) and the professor was also special in a sense she was a disciple of Kotler during Phd :p

The subject I hated the most in this quarter was Operations Research. I don't know why, the subject seemed to me interesting in the beginning; may be Prof ;) The approach of the professor was very different. He wanted to build the basics, but it went to high mathematical stuffs! So I was completely lost and ended up in a 'C' grade ;)

Another subject from accounting, this time a better one Managerial Accounting. We were able to relate it to old engineering days. All about production, costs, budgeting, so on and so forth...The professor was very senior. I liked hearing from him about his professional experiences rather than the concepts :) With him, already 3 professors who have authored various books that is being followed in B Schools have already taught me!

The last one was Law. I wished I will be a geek in law arguing whatever I can from a legal perspective. But I was disappointed. The professor just opened the door to a never-ending world of laws and legal systems. I got a basic understanding of how our legal system works, the Constitution, so on and so forth. The guest lectures were amazing.

Thats pretty much a gist of what we had in Q4!

crisis management

2011-03-04T20:49:00.000+05:30

It has been days since i have written a post in the blog. Last few weeks were extremely busy ones with lots of work at office, assignments & projects at IIM. Now that 3rd quarter is over, I believe I can spend time in blogging :)

This quarter was hectic with four subjects which included some vague ones. I will write about third quarter in a different post.

So far one of the most important skills in which I improved is crisis management :p
With 5 project submissions, this quarter peaked in testing one's ability to manage time, patience and crisis. The beauty of group projects is that you learn more than in class if you are doing the project sincerely. For each and everything, there will be four opinions, four suggestions and obviously reaching a common ground is tough. There will be free-runners and there will be worker ants. Often, one's role gets switched. And automatically, this will become an issue in the group as you might have guessed rightly!

With no reduction in work pressure and obligations to family, there is no wonder you will become a great crisis manager!

Next quarter starts on March 11. There are some changes in my role at work also.
So combined, it will be a roller-coaster ride in the next quarter. Meanwhile, behind the scene work has started for 2011 batch orientation has started and also there is going to be a conference on IT during orientation. It also includes a research paper presentation event. For more information visit:

http://www.iimb.ernet.in/centres/software-mgt/upcoming-events

arbit CP

2011-02-16T20:33:00.000+05:30

Well, its a well know acronym in B-Schools - Arbitrary Class Participation. For those who are not familiar, let me give a brief idea about it. Usually in IIMs, case method is followed for teaching. It is definitely the pedagogy for subjects in Strategy and Marketing. In these courses, you will be given a case for each class which you are supposed to read, analyze and put forth your suggestions while it is discussed in the class. This is class participation and it carries some weight age for grading. However, many a times it goes in the opposite direction, with participants discussing for the sake of discussing!

Its a fun thing to hear to peers discussing enthusiastlically about anything and everything that you teach in class :) All these guys seem to be 'a pro' in whatever is taught in the class.

For a back bench-er (I am forced because of my name) like me, the chances of even an arbit CP is bleak let alone the actual participation. But somehow I find chances here and there to make my point during case discussions.

Nowadays, I have even fallen victim of arbit CP :p, the latest one being disagreeing about a movie review discussed during a marketing class. Now you know how arbitrary the 'arbit CP' can go! You are left with no other option if the course caries quarter of its weight-age to class participation; of course it also depends on whether you really want grades or not! But you never know, that 20 marks may be the deciding factor that changes you from a 'C' to 'B' grade.

Below is are two links that talks about 'CP' - one a positive note and another a comical portrayal.

Art of CP, Rashmi Bansal

ArbitCP Cult

Book Review : Plain Truths About Investments By Debashis Basu

2011-02-13T13:46:00.003+05:30

MBAs study about investments @ institutional levels. So you need to learn also about personal investments. A friend of mine thought so :) Hence he presented me this book. It was a light book; so easy to finish fast.

Well, talking about the book, I would recommend only if you don't know anything about investing or you are a youngster who is going to just start thinking about savings and investing.

I felt the first half to be plain truths in blah blah.... The section on Stocks seemed to me to be worth reading. Overall, for the price of the book, I feel its OK to spend. The author covers sections on:

Mutual Funds
Stocks
Fixed Income Instruments
Non-traditional Investments

If you have noticed, I have used an affiliate of flipkart here like Amazon. Nice!
In terms of MBA jargon, they are a cloner, I guess :)

A SME Visit

2011-02-06T11:37:00.002+05:30

Yesterday was a nice day! We visited an SME(Small and Medium Enterprise). We are doing a project on a silk saree manufacturing firm as part of the Managerial Accounting course. After years, I visited a factory. It was amazing to see how a saree in created from raw silk. I felt software coding is easy :)

Its a good experience that we can see all that we learn in production and management accounting classes even if it is at a micro level enterprise. I was astonished when I heard the facts on margins the actual manufactures take and what the so called 'middle men' like whole sales and retailers take. No wonder the middle men are called a necessary evil in the value chain!

We are planning to apply some of the concepts we learnt so far in the Management Accounting classes and hopefully will suggest some useful improvements to the firm :)

Its 100% true that you cannot learn all from texts, you have to experience it! Not only we try to apply the learning in the class, we are understanding a new industry. I never thought making sarees in this process oriented :) or rather I would have never thought in such terms...we just buy...right? ;)

Introduction to Operations Research

2011-01-25T13:08:00.000+05:30

Operations Research is considered to be a foundation subject for Production and Operations Management. Though that is the case the application of OR is wide ranging from Computer Science to Finance to Engineering to ...

As per wikipedia,

operations research, is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations. In contrast, many other science & engineering disciplines focus on technology giving secondary considerations to its use.

Linear Programming, Transportation & Assignment Problems, Network Flows and Non Linear Programming are some of the areas in Operations Research.

I found the subject to be interesting, but little tough and its hard to explain or have some notes in a single post. Hence I am providing some of the links to the most simple, helpful and preservable resources available in the net.

Video Lectures:

Fundamentals of Operations Research By Prof. G. Srinivasan, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras

Advanced Operations Research By Prof. G. Srinivasan, Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras

Lecture Notes:

Practical Optimization: A Gentle Introduction By Prof. John W. Chinneck,
Systems and Computer Engineering, Carleton University

Linear Programming: Foundations and Extensions By Robert J. Vanderbei

Course Notes By Prof. Rudi Pendavingh, Eindhoven University of Technology

If you are inclined more towards geometrical interpretations, following resources will help:

Introduction to Convex Optimization, MIT Openware Course

Video Course on Convex Optimizations:

Convex Optimization I By Professor Stephen Boyd, Stanford University

Convex Optimization II By Professor Stephen Boyd, Stanford University

Reference Books:

An Introduction to Operations Research by Hillier & Lieberman

Operations Research: An Introduction By Hamdy A. Taha

Book Review : An Introduction to Operations Research by Hillier & Lieberman

2011-01-21T20:20:00.001+05:30

A classic book for an introduction to the subject. That is clearly evident from the 40+ years that have passed since this book was published first.

All the concepts are explained very lucidly with good examples. This book covers everything from the basics to the non linear programming and at an introductory level the topics on forecasting and decision making.

The CD is a very valuable resource and the OR tutor is really good. Though a lot of other animations and applets are easily available on the net.

The book covers in depth the simplex method and also introduces other topics like application of PERT, game theory etc. A book that can be used for more than a term!

The CD comes with some extra solved problems. But I expected a lot more considering this book exists for decades! Also this book lacks coverage of any of the geometrical interpretations of linear programming.

Overall, a book that can be preserved for life time!

Don't forget to go through the CD and the Student Resources @
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070600929/student_view0/index.html

Unmaad 2011

2011-01-11T16:04:00.001+05:30

Finally, a cultural festival @ IIMB!!!
Unmaad, the cultural fest of IIMB is happening from Jan 21-23. I am excited to see all the fun and performances ;)

2010: A year that was...

2011-01-01T23:41:00.001+05:30

2010 was one of the important years in my life! It started with lots of frustration in work, fights with managers on various issues and a January that I eagerly waited for a good CAT result. Unfortunately, I didn't get any calls and that was the point when I felt totally helpless!

However, the month of March changed everything with IIMB giving an interview call, though I was still pinched in work. I was happy and the interview went well. But, the final result was again a 'too near, yet too far' with I ending up in the waiting list. The waiting list for PGSEM rarely changes and hence I started preparing again for CAT 2010!! However the good news came in the 3rd week of May(just a week to start the classes) that finally IIMB has opened gates for me!!

8 months have passed by now. I have learn t already 10 subjects, attended a couple of business festivals, helped organizing events and attended lots of so called 'industry talks'. I will be able to grasp some of the aspects in the annual reports of companies, discuss authoritatively on the fiscal & monetary policies :p and strategies of companies and do an industry analysis!

I can forecast roughly anything since everything follows a normal distribution(side effects of the subject on probability & statistics :) ) and mentor managers on the importance of organizational structure, culture & behavior!

Two more years of gyaan on management & business and hopefully by then I will become equipped to become a good business leader :)

I hope you all enjoy reading the posts in this blog. Please provide your valuable comments...

Wish you all a happy new year!

Book Review : Blink by Malcom Gladwell

2010-12-20T13:45:00.001+05:30

This was one of the longest book in terms of time it took for me to read. That doesn't mean anything about the book, it was just because of the time constraints I was facing over the past months.

Now, about the book - it was good read, but I felt lost somewhere on what was the point he was trying to make. First few chapters he talked about the power of decision making at the first sight or the first couple of seconds or minutes or rather intuition. Later, he ascertains his thoughts by giving examples from a wide spectrum. He continues by talking later on the pitfalls that can happen in such decisions. He also discusses how our background and culture can impact our thought processes.

With all the explanations, examples and concepts, he makes his point that we can learn and develop the ability to control the unconscious mind, prejudices and benefit from the power of blink!

This book is worth a read. Many summaries are also availble in the net. Some being:

Wiki Summaries: Blink

Gladwell.com: What is Blink about?

Book Review by Mathew R.Perry

And Quarter 3 starts...

2010-12-17T23:26:00.000+05:30

A week break went on a fly and I am already one week into the third quarter. This time we have four subjects - Marketing, Law, Operations Research and Managerial Accounting. First two is interesting, the remaining two seems to be a struggle. We got "THE" book on Marketing by Kotler.Its like a medical book, with all glossy paper and colorful pictures. Next week itself we have quizzes. We are back in full swing to case methodology in all 4 subjects!

And the seminars and talks continues to happen in the campus. Today, we had a team from Wikimedia including Danese Cooper, Chief Technology Officer and Alolita Sharma, Engineering Program Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation. They talked about the growth statistics, vision & future plans for wikimedia and in general wikipedia. Tomorrow we have a talk on careers in IT consulting.

The IIMB life is back in full swing!

Two Different Encounters!

2010-12-11T00:16:00.000+05:30

Who says B School talks only about business & money. The respectable & responsible institutions of the country always caters to all, may not be directly, but at least indirectly!

We had two events in last weeks, one a workshop for better living based on eastern philosophy and the other a public screening of documentary on Bellary - Iron Ore issue. Both were impressive and eye opening.

Drawn on various un conventional thoughts derived from Indian & Budhist tradition, the workshop on enlightened leadership was conducted by Mr. Sanjeeb Patra, an IIM Calcutta alumnus and Director, HSBC. The session was interesting since, whatever concepts were discussed during the session were backed by his own personal experiences during his 18+ years stint at HSBC. Some of the areas that were discussed during the one day session were:

- Happiness and skillful ways of living life
- Developing mind strength/control and the benefits of meditation
- Motivating others and team members

I am in no way ready to write a excerpt on the workshop, since me my self is trying various areas touched by Mr. Sanjeeb. May be one day I will write a post on motivating others and living a commendable life! Meanwhile, sharing couple of wonderful videos which will help you to improve yourself and keep with you for life time.

Talk by Prof. Srikumar Rao on this topic:

TED Talk by Prof. Dan Gilbert on "Why Are We Happy? Why Aren't Happy?"

The second event was a public screening of a documentary on Bellary Iron Ore Mining issue in Karnataka. Titled, Blood & Iron: A Story of the Convergence of Crime, Business and Politics in Southern India was created by a renowned journalist, Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.

An Introduction to Organizational Theory

2010-12-06T14:15:00.001+05:30

Organizational Theory is the macro level analysis of firms or organizations. It analyzes the firm as a whole. It deals with people at a broader level - how organizations are structured and designed, the motives behind control and coordination mechanisms for communication and day to day activities etc.

In fact, we analyze the organization in all perspectives for its success, thus making its connection with other areas like strategy or operational efficiency or financing. It tries to understand how one designs the appropriate organization structure to help handle interdependence, manage diversity and cope with uncertainty. OT differs from organizational behavior such that, OB takes a micro approach and deals in a root level with the behavior of people.

Organization Theory broadly deals with:

- Structure of a firm

- Design of the firm

- Managing Uncertainties

- Organizational Politics

- Organizational Culture

The organizational failure results from ill-structured forms, high levels of uncertainty which are not managed properly and human factors like bounded rationality or opportunism. The degree of complexity, formalization and centralization of authority/decision making dissipates the Organizational Structure. Organizational Theory deals how we can build world class organizations and maintain it to be one. Mintezberg's Model (http://www.12manage.com/methods_mintzberg_configurations.html) provides the authentic view of the affect of structure in organizations. Another important aspect of the structure of an organization is the linkage mechanisms for effective communication and coordination. It can be:

- Pooled Coupling (pooled resources;each unit works independently; Eg: franchisees or bank branches)

- Sequential Coupling (high interdependence; Eg: Assembly line)

- Reciprocal Coupling (Looping communication reciprocally; Eg: hospitals in which communication channel flows back and forth between doctors to lab to pharmacy to lab to doctors).

Linkage mechanisms (Communication) can be:

1) Vertical Or Horizontal or Diagonal

2) Personal or Impersonal

3) Permanent or Temporary (Committees or Task Forces)

4) Advisory or Authoritative

Organizational Theory also studies about the impact of incentives,whether tangible or intangible in order to keep the employees motivated and positive cooperation among each other. These in turn is affected by the structure of the firm and other complex attributes.

Another area that OT deals with is the linkage and coordination mechanisms to manage interdependence within organizations. They include:

- Markets [Commercial Contract]

- Bureaucracies [Employment Contract]

- Clans (An organic association that resembles a kin network without (in majority) involving blood relations) [Psychological Contract]

Market mechanism is effective when performance ambiguity is low; therefore high levels of goal in-congruence and opportunism can be tolerated. The key here is formalization. Clan organization is most effective and efficient when goal congruence and opportunism are low; therefore high levels of performance ambiguity can be tolerated. The key here is socialization. Bureaucracy is most efficient when all three factors - goal in-congruence, opportunism and performance ambiguity are moderate. The key here is to include both formalization and socialization.

Organizations face four facets of uncertainty:

1) Technology

2) Environment

3) Size

4) Strategy

Technology refers to the work processes, techniques, machines and actions used to transform organizational inputs like materials or information into outputs like products or services(Ref: Perrow's Definition - http://www.provenmodels.com/41).

"Different technologies impose different kinds of demand on individuals and organizations, and those demands had to be met through an appropriate structure" - Joan Woodward (http://www.provenmodels.com/39).

Two themes underlay the uncertainty when we take the organization-environment in perspective: One is the amount of complexity in terms of domain,information and change. Second is the scarcity of resources - raw materials, skill sets or financial resources.

The information and change complexity can be resolved with structural flexibilities. Some optimal suggestions are:

- For Medium Sized - Organic v/s Mechanistic(Bureaucratic) - Latest thought is to combine both to achieve high problem solving skills (organic) and efficiency (mechanistic)

- For Large - Buffer Organizations in which buffer departments will directly take care of the uncertainties from the environment and keep the technical core from any distractions

- For Very large - Loose Couplings to minimize subunit interdependence

The resource uncertainty can be handled with the help of favourable linkages, joint ventures & ownerships, control of environment/domain, associations, lobby group etc.

As mentioned, Strategy is one of the important factors that affect the design of an organization. To get a elaborate view on the role of strategy see the post on Introduction to Strategy.

For a company's success, technology, structure & strategy must be aligned.

Some of the other interesting topics that were discussed in my class were:

Managing employees as volunteers

Detailed analysis of matrix management

Managing learned helplessness (Giving up and quitting because you believe that whatever you do it doesn’t make any difference)

Managing Groupthink

Developing and managing a psychological contract

Developing Organizational Citizenship Behavior (Going above and beyond the call of duty for the sake of the organization and its mission, objectives & vision)

An advisable format of change in the organizational culture is to start as a clan, move towards bureaucracy, later into market mechanism and finally back to clan. Structurally it is advised from simple structure to professional bureaucracy & product focus to adhocracy with clan control.

The most important Managerial Skills required for a manager or a leader are:

- Planning, Organizing, Coordinating & Controlling (Rational actor model based on task oriented roles)

- Negotiating, Team Building, Maintaining & developing personal network (Organizational politics model based on relationship oriented roles)

- Willing to take calculated risks & having a vision

Another aspect, that the organizational theory deals with is the organizational politics. I learned from the class discussions that politics is not always bad and in some cases a requirement. Read more about organizational politics @ http://managementconsultingcourses.com/Lesson30Power&OrganizationalPolitics.pdf

Last but not the least, organizational politics also deals with organizational culture and its impact on a firm's success. Hear from Peter M Senge about Organizational Culture here

"The successful implementation of both TQM and downsizing programs, as well as the resulting effectiveness of the organizations’ performance, depended on having the improvement strategies embedded in a culture change. When TQM and downsizing were implemented independent of a culture change, they were unsuccessful. When the culture of these organizations was an explicit target of change, so that the TQM or downsizing initiatives were embedded in an overall culture change effort, they were successful. Organizational effectiveness increased. Culture change was key." (from Diagnosing & Changing Organizational Culture by Cameron & Quinn

Organizational Theory also deals with Organization design and development which is an action oriented systematic, continuous and ongoing process of planned change through the application of knowledge of a number of discipline, not just limited to behavioral sciences. Peter F. Drucker in his classic article "The Theory of Business" deals in detail how one should go with it. Some excerpts:

A theory of the business has three parts. First, there are assumptions about the environment of the organization: society and its structure, the market, the customer, and technology. Second, there are assumptions about the specific mission of the organization. Third, there are assumptions about the core competencies needed to accomplish the organization's mission. The assumptions about environment define what an organization is paid for. The assumptions about mission define what an organization considers to be meaningful results; in other words, they point to how it envisions itself making a difference in the economy and in the society at large. Finally, the assumptions about core competencies define where an organization must excel in order to maintain leadership.

The specifications of a valid theory of the business are four fold:

1. The assumptions about environment, mission, and core competencies must fit reality.

2. The assumptions in all three areas have to fit one another.

3. The theory of the business must be known and understood throughout the organization.

4. The theory of the business has to be tested constantly.

There are two preventive measures to keep an organization alert and capable of rapidly changing itself and its theory.

1. Abandonment - Do a thorough analysis of your products and processes every couple of years or an optimum number of years and redesign them if required

2. Study the environment and non customers

To diagnose problems early, managers must pay attention to the warning signs. A theory of the business always becomes obsolete when an organization attains its original objectives. Rapid growth is another sure sign of crisis in an organization's theory. Any organization that doubles or triples in size within a fairly short period of time has necessarily outgrown its theory. There are two more clear signals that an organization's theory of the business is no longer valid. One is unexpected success - whether one's own or a competitor's. The other is unexpected failure - again, whether one's own or a competitor's.

Key Seasoning Lessons in Executive Development (from "On breaking the glass ceiling" by Lisa A Mainiero)

Stage 1: Political Naivete

Stage 2: Building Credibility

Stage 3: Refining a style

Stage 4: Shouldering responsibilities

Frameworks:

Snow & Miles' Topology

Competing Values Framework

Herzberg's 2 Factor Theory

Openware/Free Courses:

Lecture Name: 30 - Organization Theory - I by Prof. K.B. Akhilesh, IISc Bangalore

Lecture Name: 31 - Organization Theory - II

Virtual University, Pakistan's course on Organizational Theory & Design

Must Read Articles:

Single Loop and Double Loop Learning, Chris Argyris and Donald Schon

Teaching Smart People How to Learn, Chris Argyris

Diagnosing Organizational Culture, Roger Harrison

The Theory of Business, Peter F Drucker

Reference Books:

1) Organizational Theory, Change and Design, Richard L. Daft

2) Organizational Behavior, Stephen P. Robbins

3) Organizational Behavior, Fred Luthans

What they teach you at B School

2010-12-01T23:42:00.001+05:30

Your learning should be for lifetime and MBA is no different!

In an endeavor to bring an idea about what is taught in a B School, I am thinking of writing and collecting the most useful chunk of every subject I learn in the B School that will be useful for the entire life. And I believe these writings will be useful for all the readers. Please let me know your comments!!

Please note that these collections are based on my understanding of the subjects and those concepts which I think will be always useful in our professional and personal life. Please feel free to add your own resources in the comments which you think will be beneficial for the readers!

Also note neither 20 lectures or case discussions with full of energy, debate & discussions nor a complete subject can be written and understood in a single blog post. Please consider this only as a bird's eye view or a refresher!

Quarter 2 - A retrospective

2010-11-29T01:16:00.001+05:30

Second quarter went like a bullet train. My mind is still fresh with the basics of macroeconomics and probability; but today, a lot have been covered and also I have completed those courses.

This quarter was very hectic with lots of quizzes, extra sessions and assignments. Organizational Theory was the most interesting subject and statistics was the scariest! Another reason, why this quarter was fast because it was eventful with our Business Fest; a conference for Product Mangers; a couple of industry talks and finally the open house for next year admissions.

The subjects in this quarter were more demanding, interesting and two of them the foundation stones for many of the courses to come The classes I enjoyed the most were our OB Professor's with his 18+ years of gyaan and jokes. I believe I will be able to comprehended more the articles in business and financial papers with the Macroeconomics classes. We got a gist of six sigma with the statistics classes and also it application in any field of business irrespective of whether it is marketing or sales or finance or even HR

Another myth that was broken this quarter was HR is always boring. I believe I will take some of the elective course in this are too! Another fact that was once again strengthened was that I may not be fit for finance and I am not good @ mathematics (Yeah! I know I am an Engineer, cracked entrance exam in flying colors and CAT to a decent level : P )

Already a Professor taking next quarter's Marketing class has started her duty with mails :)

Next week is a break from classes and studies which was really due!!

Book Review : Complete Business Statistics

2010-11-24T17:44:00.001+05:30

What can I say about this book? Simply superb!
There are some books which I fell in love with, Complete Business Statistics by Amir Aczel & Jayavel Sounderpandian is one of them. When I started the course, I was totally blank. With the high rigor at the school, this book helped me to reach to some level in understanding the concepts!

It explains well all the concepts of introductory statistics lucidly. The way the authors handled the use of excel is also good. The most important thing which I liked was the templates of the books. It really helps (caution: it may also be counter productive). It also covers the basics of advanced topics like multi variate analysis, chi squared tests and decision making to good extent.

I strongly recommend this book for any introductory level business statistics course. The only cons I was noticing is real life problems. But I am sure in the latest edition, that would also be included.

Don't forget to use well the companion site @ http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0070620164/student_view0/index.html

Book Review : Organizational Theory, Change and Design

2010-11-22T21:45:00.000+05:30

Organizational Theory, Change and Design, Indian Edition by Richard L. Daft was one our prescribed text books for the core course on Managing Organizations. However, this was also one of the typical examples that can happen in a B School were, we rarely bank on a text book since the reading materials and cases provided by the Professor is exhaustive enough for a life time!

However, I had read majority of the text(at least as a novel :) ) and found the book extremely useful and interesting. This book provides a solid theoretical foundation along with real life examples. I liked the way the author started each chapter with a real life case and explain the objectives of the chapter.

However, in many sections, it was written in a very theoretical, philosophical way which looked to me to be in-practical or confusing.

The 4th edition (India Edition) covers briefly all aspects of organizational theory starting with uncertainties to modern topics like aspects of globalization and impact of information technology.

I would consider the companion site of the book to be mediocre considering fabulous additional resources provided with other books.

A caution : Out professor used to mention that the newer editions of the book have drastically changed and many, out of focus. Hence would recommend you to clearly go through your course content before buying it.

Its exam time again!

2010-11-17T20:55:00.000+05:30

Second term at IIMB is nearing an end. Within the next 1.5 weeks, I will go through 3 exams, 2 quizzes and a project submission. This quarter was faster than the first one, with lots of quizzes and reading load! Apart from this, I need to attend an open house organized for the prospective students of 2011 on Sunday.

And I am writing this post while I am in office on a holiday. I expect my grades to drop significantly if I didn't execute some extraordinary strategy in the coming days :) However one subject is just reading, which I like and it is the subject which so far I was able to relate close to my heart! (OB).

Some booklets, I am yet to open; but I am relieved that some are in torn ed condition indicating I am a pro with them :p. Slowly statistics is becoming interesting and macroeconomics is making sense....

Case Interview Resources

2010-11-14T21:35:00.021+05:30

Web Resources

http://caseinterview.com/
http://www.casequestions.com/
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~jgsmcc/the_interview.htm [This link has all the resources you need under one umbrella]
Kellog Consulting Club Resources

Guides:

Vault Guide to Case Interview
Case in Point by Marc P. Cosentino

How to approach a case interview?

Book Review : Macroeconomic Policy Environment

2010-11-06T20:46:00.000+05:30

Macroeconomic Policy Environment - An Analytical Guide for Managers by Prof. Shyamal Roy was one our prescribed textbooks for this Quarter's core course on Macroeconomics. It is in fact written by one of IIMB professor.

This book is predominantly targeted for Indian context and hence I feel a good read for all Indian B School students. At the same time, you will not see any flaw in terms of international contexts. This book is highly recommended for those who like to understand from a real life scenario perspective about Indian economy, concepts that a manger should be aware of and how the various economic factors affect a manager's decisions

The attractive thing about this book is its written in a lucid manner, which even a layman can easily understand. All the concepts are explained in a simple manner with very less equations or mathematical treatment. It covers all aspects of economy starting from GDP calculations to aggregate demand/supply to monetary & fiscal policies to implications to managerial decision making.

A must read for students and managers!

Long Days.........

2010-10-31T23:17:00.002+05:30

Wasn't it a holiday, wasn't it a weekend??

It doesn't matters for us :) lectures, quizzes, exams and industry talks !! this is a typical day here.

And today, irrespective of being a Sunday, I worked for more than 8 hours on an assignment we need to submit this week!!!

It has been quite sometime since I wrote here and I believe, no need of explanation :)
I am planning for a night out - not for studies, but to watch a movie ;)

Closing the post with a brief on the talk by Mr.Subhash Dhar, Senior Vice President, Infosys that we had last Saturday. He is also an IIMB alumnus. The talk was predominantly on the Indian IT services sector and opportunities for MBA graduates in IT/ITES industry. He started his speech with his life as an IIMBian, struggle in start ups and technological firms and finally about his stint @ Infosys.

Some of the interesting facts he stressed on were the consumerization of IT and its impact on the corporates and the way they look at the new trend. He noted that the services are becoming more individualistic. As per industry research reports, individual IT services are way above corporate IT services. Once the services are commoditized, 'catering to many' becomes important. The success of a firm will be predominantly based on two factors:

1) Simple and easy communication to the consumers
2) Accommodating financial structure

The above factors fasten the process of achieving and sustaining success in the fast changing IT services sector. Once the services become consumer-centric, as in any other commodities, differentiation becomes the key factor.

Innovative and effective ways of marketing, financial engineering models and changing incentive models to keep the best brains are required and he stressed that these are what you should and are trying to develop in a B School.

On a lighter note, he also discussed on various career opportunities in technology sector and product management was highly commended on! :)

Book Review : Marketing Secrets by Peter Spalton

2010-10-22T00:07:00.003+05:30

Well, I picked this book since it was small and with a hope that all real life secrets will be available under one umbrella. I had to attend an interview in short notice, so there was no chance to read Kotler and all which I haven't seen yet.

May be because I was expecting too much, to be frank, I was disappointed.

The book is written in a very lucid way explaining from the basics to some tips touching online marketing. I liked the way how he explained some sections like how to develop effective marketing mix ("shoot with a rifle, not a shotgun")

This book serves the purpose of a quick and easy reading to understand some gyaan on marketing; at the same time touching all aspects of marketing. I think, if you are already in the field, this book can be an effective brush up/refresher!

A one time read...

Preparing for India's Future by Arun Shourie

2010-10-04T14:41:00.001+05:30

Mr. Arun Shourie an eminent Indian journalist, author, intellectual and politician was one of the prominent speakers at Vista 2010-11, the premiere business festival of IIM Bangalore. He has been an economist with the World Bank, a consultant to the Planning Commission, India, editor of the Indian Express and Times of India and a minister in the government of India.

Here is a personal excerpt from the speech he delivered on "Preparing for India's Future: Challenges & Opportunities"

The session started of with the Director of IIMB, Prof. Pankaj Chandra reassuring that India is diverse not only in terms of culture or religion, but more in terms of the skills she posses. Indeed, we are doing well economically and socially.

Shourie started his talk by emphasizing that India is in a good position and continuously improving its hold on the world economy. The sad part is that we ourselves are underestimating the capabilities of India. Comparing India with China, he mentioned that the major differences are in the Gross Domestic Savings(China ~40% and India ~25% of GDP) and Gross Domestic Investment(China ~40% and India ~38%); India improving in the latter front. This is a good sign.

We are moving from a services base to a manufacturing base. We are reinventing manufacturing with the help from the bright Indian Entrepreneurs(Eg: Bharat Forge, Tatas) and Shourie expects soon India will be the center of manufacturing factories overtaking China. Within services sector also, we are improving in all the fronts. India is now becoming the hub for product design, tele medicine, legal services and you name it, we are!

Many view India as having so many problems, however in Shourie's opinion problems means equal number of opportunities too. Unless we grow deeply across lines and sustain the same, Indian economy will not prosper and become powerful. In Shourie's words, the two great challenges India is facing now are:

1) Creating a resilient society
2) Scaffolding of states in turmoil

and the important thing is the reforms needs to be designed and coming from the former ones. It has to come from the majority of the population - middle class and educated ones.
Mr. Shourie noted that technology plays an important role in leading our future and innovation. He cited examples like tele medicine(country's best doctors diagnosing patients even in the internals of villages) and education. He pointed out that no nation will now be easily ready to give India high technology for any cost since they see us as competitors. So what is the solution? - INNOVATION

Later, he discussed about how to achieve inclusive growth. He mocked that now this word has become a cliche with some examples. According to him, not all opportunities may be attractive to all; it differs from people to people, place to place. He quoted from a Morgan Stanley report that growth in wealth of a nation incurs from (a) Equity (b) Property ownership and (c) Gold price. In India, only 7% holds equity and only 47% live in pakka houses. Mr Shourie noted that initial endowment matters, but what matters more is a good governance.

In India, organization of the society is broad. Small proportion of labor is highly unionized, some have aristocracy, some do not even have access to designated minimum wages. What results is skewed outcomes! As an example Shourie pointed out that, there are no shortages in the schemes for poor in India, the problem lies in the fact that there are so many of them to handle. According to him, some of the suggestions for inclusive growth are:

1) Instead of schemes, go for direct cash transactions. He mentioned that UID is a very good initiative.
2) Individual must be the unit of state policy and must be done by objective secular culture; must be identified through parameters like income level or education level of parents.
3) Target those inequalities which are impeding access to opportunities like malnutrition and education.
4) Don't kill growth solve inequality. Lift the base.
5) Maximize and distribute growth
6) Attend to extreme adversities (Eg: Farmer suicides; the loan amounts of some of them are ridiculously low)

The key factor that we can make use of in improving the rural infrastructure is technology. He also noted that we its a demanding one to improve the skills of labor. Overall we need to improve the governance. According to him, the present format of constitution is not optimal for a population of more than a billion. We have to change this. Before recruiting even a peon in an organization, we take rounds of interviews, where as 60% of those who are ruling us are illiterate! People who are worthy never get a chance to dirty their hands. This is another difference of India from that in China. Changing this is our biggest challenge. And Mr.Shourie suggested some of his opinions on how we can go about with this:

1) Excel in our profession
2) Lobby for excellence in society
3) Do not compromise on our values and never rationalize our compromises
4) Apart from our profession, take one institution for social issue and be an expert on it
5) Change the nexus that business can manipulate Government and civil servants for its own vice

Mr. Arun Shourie was the first personality to see in person after coming to IIMB (Yeah, I saw already Mr. Harsh Manglik ;) but still...). Overall it was a nice talk, however didn't like some instances where he behaved like a typical politician :)

ps: This is a personal excerpt based on individual understanding of the speech delivered. The opinions mentioned in the post may or may not be the ones the speaker intended to.

Was this my cup of tea?

2010-10-04T00:01:00.002+05:30

ps: this post may be demotivating!

I am really fed up...scared, irritated, and whatever negative thought you can think of...

WHY? You may ask. Unfortunately I am in such a situation...so far 1/3rd of the second term has been over and I have no clues what these subjects are all about? Already two quizes over, another scheduled for this week. Mid terms from Oct 15.

In a B School, there are three things you can look into academics, extra curriculars and sleep. General notion is, you can concentrate on at most 2 out of these three. But for poor souls like us, PGSEMers there is one more to look into - Job; and for more unfortunate souls, a family too to look after. That way, a bachelor like me is a little lucky :)

I am Engineer by degree, by profession, but I hate maths; I don't know why and when I became like this.

Its regrettable, if the Professor who teaches Quant is in a different level from those like me and he expects much more! I never thought, I will be interested in HR; however interestingly, it seems to be attracting me!! - may be because of the Professor or because I can easily relate whatever is discussed in the class; Organizational behavior seems to be a nice area to explore. Unfortunately, I haven't got time (really??; well not in a mood to study at all :p ) to read the text or for that matter even a single reading assigned! Macroeconomics seems to be little better, but it proved the other way to an extent after the last quiz.

In office, the days are getting even worse with an additional responsibility of coordinating a small team. Overall, life is becoming little miserable :(

An interesting FB status from a fellow PGSEMer : "Company claims half...IIMB claims another half...what will happen to me and my better half;) hehe"

My First B School Fest!

2010-10-03T00:53:00.001+05:30

Participating in a b school fest was one of the things I was looking forward to when I joined IIMB.

Where else will you get this chance? pitching your ideas to VCs, fighting for the idea you put forth to the best brains and intellectuals in the country, making strategies for the startup or making financial forecasting for exciting new venture ideas. The two days of IIMB's premiere business fest, Vista 2010-11 went just on a fly. I didn't participate in any competition, was afraid :) however, was still a volunteer :p It was really a good experience and a learning for other events if I am participating!

The second day was more exciting with wonderful participation from the corporates. The second day hosted four corporate events including two business plan competitions and a quiz. The b plan competitions witnessed arduous way up convincing the judges about the strategy plan for the cases given. The classroom witnessed fierce discussions, the finalists trying to convince their ideas to the judges.

The participation in the quiz was marvelous that the elimination round was a tough one to do in the prelims. The quiz master, Thejaswi Udupa did a wonderful job with interesting questions putting his real quizzing skills. The event paved way for some of the best quizzers in the country to meet again and compete.

With all competitions going everywhere, a talk for a change was required; and no one was disappointed. A wonderful, inspirational and informational talk on Challenges in preparing for India's future by Mr. Arun Shourie followed. I will write about this in another post.

IIMB never sleeps, Vista days are no exceptions. A post meridian corporate dinner followed with industry stalwarts joining the student and faculty community of IIMB. It was a good experience with discussion sprawling over industry growth to challenges to academics to family.

The main attraction for the third day was the Media Conclave attracting personalities like Shobhaa De, Gul Panag, Ramanujam Sridhar participating!

Overall the first b school fest experience was a nice one...

How to become a good product manager?

2010-09-28T12:35:00.001+05:30

Last Sunday, I attended India's first ever Product Mangers Conclave. Interestingly it was organized by PGSEM students in collaboration with industry. Some of the sessions were hard core product management stuffs, future challenges and opportunities. For a person like me who is not a product manager and just looking for various areas to look for after MBA, the sessions on careers and product management were of more interest. Here is a personal excerpt from some of the sessions I attended.

Let's start with Who is a Product Manager? The one thing I kept of hearing was Product Managers are the CEOs of their products. The more catchy part was Product Managers have a better chance of becoming the actual CEOs :) Wikipedia defines product manager is the one who investigates, selects, develops, products for an organization, performing the activity of product management.

A person that usually focuses on inbound planning activities to increase a product's perceived value to the customer.

Is Product Manager same as a Project Manager? NO...A Project Manager manages a set of projects. He/She mostly works on managing product development activities.
Whereas a Product Manager manages a set of projects related to product strategy, business model, planning, and other activities throughout the Product Life Cycle. But to an extent, product manager role depends much upon the organization, its size and the industry sector.

What are the roles in the Product Management career path. This link provide a good view on the various levels - http://ask.goodproductmanager.com/2008/08/18/what-is-the-best-product-manager-career-path/

How can one become a good product manager? Some of the tips I heard through out the sessions in the conclave were:

1) Understand the requirements & needs of the customers out there; interpret them and productize the idea. Still customer is @ the center!

2) Thorough market research. Make strategic moves. There may be many problems out there to solve. We should select the right problem that the product manager's team is capable of solving. Facts should rule over intuition

3) Customers are the key to a product manager. However make sure a single customer doesn't rule you

4) Enabling the Sales team, getting their respect at the same time making sure they understand the capabilities and limitations of the product is the KEY. A product manager needs to play the role of an orchestrator for the stakeholders, rather than just another stakeholder

5) Have the courage to say NO irrespective whether it is the key customer or the development lead! (really?)

6) Learn to prioritize and adapt. At the same time no compromise on quality even if you are working for the best brand in the industry! (that is why yours is the best brand :) )

7) Product Manager is the one who have no reportees , even then have to manage everyone in the product team, so learn that skill!

8) Execute like a CEO (Product Manager is the CEO of his/her product)

Some of the success mantras of best product managers:

1) Give the due importance to 4Ps (I have personally witnessed how much time one of the best teams spend time in just picking the right name!)

2) Time the product launch

3) Balance the requirements & features in each version (its not just prioritizing, its the judicious decisions based on facts and domain experience)

4) Always measure how the product is doing (Unbiased and rigorous)

5) Product Managers are the Value Managers!

Below is a good video on how to excel in product marketing and product management career, a panel discussion @ Stanford Graduate School of Business.

ps: The excerpt is based on my understanding of the session. It may or may not be what the speaker intended to. Also I am only a aspiring product manager :)

Vista Corporate Evening

2010-09-24T17:24:00.001+05:30

Every year VISTA organizes events exclusively for the corporate participants. Vista has a fresh dose of energy and excitement this year. Vista 2010-11 is bigger, better and greener than ever!

We(PGSEMers) are organizing exclusive corporate events named Vista Corporate Evening on 2nd Oct 2010. Yahoo! India is the sponsor of the Vista Corporate Evening.

I have access to the secret valuation criteria for some of these events. You can contact me if you want :p

Corporate quiz is an exclusive quizzing extravaganza for corporate participants to be conducted on 2nd Oct. Acclaimed quiz master Thejaswi Udupa will be the host this time. With the top corporate teams fighting it out, the winners would have to bring their best game to the table. First prize of ` 30,000 and second prize of `15,000 to be won. And there are attractive prizes to be won by the audience too.

Software Czars is all about finding the new software czar. A strategic business case analysis competition for the Software industry, Software Czars is exclusively designed for IT professionals. It tests the participant’s knowledge of the IT industry and the how-it-works through various instruments including case analysis and role plays. The event is open now and the Round 1 deadline is on 28th September, 2010. The selected participants will get to be finalists and present their case study to an elite panel of industry experts on 2nd Oct. Winners will take home a First prize of ` 20,000 and a Second prize of ` 10,000.

The Next Big Wave will decide who will ride the next telecom wave. It is a brand new business plan competition from IIMB-PGSEM stable to find next big rider in the telecom market. The case has been sponsored by Nokia and winners get to own super swanky mobile phones from Nokia as well as prize money worth ` 15,000 in all. If the ideas generated are worthwhile, the winners will be funded by Nokia to pursue and implement their ideas. The round 1 deadline is on 28th September 2010 and the event is open now.

123 Business & Management Resources

2010-09-15T00:15:00.002+05:30

Here is a compilation of links to 123 useful business and management resources. Please feel free to add in the comments any missing resources that you think will be beneficial for all.

General

001. Harvard Business Review Blog
002. Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
003. MIT Sloan Review
004. Knowledge@Wharton
005. India Knowledge@Wharton
006. Mckinsey Quartely
007. Management Skills Blog
008. Businessblog360
009. The Funnelholic
010. The Personal MBA
011. Alt-MBA
012. Quick MBA
013. TNMG4U
014. Free Management Library
015. Cranky Middle Managers
016. HBR Email Newsletters
017. Sun Tzu's Art of War
018. Business Balls
019. Billy Cox Blog
020. Mind Tools
021. Software Insider's View
022. BNET - The CBS Interactive Business Netowrk
023. CEO Lessons from the Cricket Field
024. Computer Business Reviw
025. Inside MBA
026. Value Based Management
027. MBA Club - India
028. Net MBA
029. India Business Blog
030. Business Gyan
031. Service Co-Creation
032. Business Intelligence Resources
033. Managing the Digital Enterprise
034. California Management Review
035. Management Internet Library
036. The Knowledge management Center

Strategy

037. Vijay Govindarajan's Blog on Strategy & Innovation
038. Sramana Mitra on Strategy
039. IT Strategy Blog
040. Consumer Product Strategy blog from Forrester
041. Strategy + Business
042. Strategic Management Society
043. Blog on Change & Strategic Management
044. M&A Daily
045. Economic Strategy Institute

Leadership

046. The Leadership Hub
047. The Practice of Leadership
048. Motivation Live

Time Management

049. 43 Folders

Sales

050. Sales Journal
051. The Selling Sherpa
052. The Rainmaker Maker
053. The Growth Guy
054. Idea Sellers
055. Heavy Hitter's Sales Blog
056. Garth's World - Life of a Sales Guy
057. Sales Blogcast
058. SOCOM Sales
059. Sales Tips - SalesMarks
060. Sales & Sales Management Blog
061. Inside Sales Experts Blog
062. Selling Power
063. Championship Sales

HR & OB

064. HR Magazine
065. CiteHR
066. HR.com
067. HR Guide
068. Human Metrics
069. HR Links - Nottingham Business School

Marketing

070. Vitamin Integrated Marketing Communications Program
071. Influential Marketing Blog
072. Euromonitor Podcasts
073. Unconventional Marketing Blog
074. Marketing Practice
075. Business Analyst Times
076. Brand Channel
077. Know This
078. Direct Marketing News
079. Clickz
080. FMS Marketing Club's Blog (Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi, India)
081. IIM Shillong's Marketing Magazine

Negotiation

082. Negotiation Tip of the Week
083. Business Negotiation Made Easy

Finance

084. Prof. Jayanth R. Varma's Financial Markets Blog (IIMA Professor)
085. Financial Edge
086. Financial Management Training Center
087. Niveshak - IIM Shillong Finance Magazine
088. CiteFin
089. Barkley's Comprehensive Financial Glossary
090. Numa Financial Web
091. Wachowicz's Web World WEB SITES FOR FINANCE STUDENTS
092. Currency boards & Dollararization
093. Digital Dashboard from WSJ

Product Management

094. Product Management Pulse
095. Ask A Good Product Manager
096. How To Be A Good Product Manager
097. The Accidental Product Manager
098. The Cranky Product Manager
099. Product Management Insights
100. Launch Clinic
101. All About Product Management
102. Software Product Manager
103. On Product Management

Project Management

104. PM Student
105. PM Podcasts
106. PM 411
107. Cutting's Edge Project Management
108. The Project Management Hut
109. Gantt Head
110. Project Reference

Entrepreneurship

111. Startup Nation
112. Your Story - Where Entrepreneurs connect
113. HBS - Entrepreneurship Resources
114. NEN Online
115. Pluggdin
116. Kauffman - The foundation of Entrepreneurship
117. Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Resources
118. 1000 Ventures
119. Zero Million
120. http://www.entrepreneurship.org/
121. International Entrepreneurship
122. StartUp Blog
123. MIT Enterprise Forum

Vista 2010-11

2010-09-12T00:18:00.004+05:30

Participating in a B School event has been my wish for sometime now. I am up with an opportunity now. I think I can participate in any event since none seems to be an easy one or one which I am really good with. :p

Anyway planning to give a try for one or two that have preliminary rounds. A test for the real wit in marketing or finance or strategy or operations. Irrespective of whether we qualify for the next round or not, I am sure it will be a good experience to see as many events as possible during the festival.

If you would like to participate in Vista, Visit Vista 2010-11 for more information.

Quarter 2 begins...

2010-09-12T00:08:00.000+05:30

Literally, quarter 2 started with a bang with a professor sending more than 50% of the class out of the class second day itself. ;)

This quarter we have again three subjects - Organization Theory, Business Statistics and Macroeconomics. One professor is really old, one very tech savvy and the last one young & a US return :)

I think macroeconomics will be interesting - at least I can better understand the newspaper articles on GDP, inflation & RBI actions :)

A side effect that I can expect this quarter is more usage of open source tools especially spreadsheets and statistical packages, though I have Excel 2007 with me :) Our Professor is a an open source enthusiast!

This month is going to be again very busy with parents visiting, a conclave coming next week and a major B School festival in the end. I wish to participate in some events in Vista....lets see.

By the way, I won an election unanimously :p I will be the coordinator for Branding and Communications Cell (BnCC).

India Product Managers Conclave

2010-09-03T22:52:00.013+05:30

With the growing importance of Product Management in the Indian industry context, IIMB invites you to the India’s first ‘Product Managers' Conclave, 2010’. The event aims to leverage the vantage position of IIMB to pitch fork the aspirations of the industry to realizable heights. The event would help Product Managers and Product Marketing managers to discuss, debate, network and work together for common goal of excellence in their fields.
industry

IIMB invites all the stake holders of product management to be a part of the conclave and enrich the event.

Visit www.iimb-pmconclave.com for more information and agenda.

India Product Managers Conclave

Book Summary : The Mckinsey Way by Ethan M. Rasiel

2010-09-01T02:32:00.000+05:30

I believe this is one of the titles, most of the B School students will read. Also, a plethora of summaries, abstracts, tips from this book are already available in the internet. Still here is my notes from the book:

Caution : Don't expect you will think like a Mckinsey Consultant, just by reading this book! I believe no learning will be equal to actually being a Mckinsey Consultant :)

McKinsey & Company was founded in Chicago in 1926 by James O. ("Mac") McKinsey, an accounting professor at the University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, who pioneered budgeting as a management tool.

The three pillars of building a solution @ Mckinsey are:

1. Fact Based
2. Rigidly Structural
3. Hypothesis Driven

The Firm promotes clarity of thought and expression. Every document has to follow the MECE rule: mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.

The consultants try to solve a problem to the highest possible extend at the first meeting itself: Creating an Initial Hypothesis(IH).

To structure your IH, begin by breaking the problem into its components - the KEY Drivers. Next make an actionable recommendation regarding each driver. Later breakdown each topline recommendation into Benefits & Issues.

The above exercise will lead to an issue/solution trace. For testing the IH, recheck all the IH of team members; check for other possibilities.

-> Understanding the 'right' problem is the key.
-> Don't reinvent the wheel. Every problem will be similar to another; but at the same time unique.
-> Don't make facts fit into your solution
-> Make sure the solution fits for your client. ( A wonderful business solution is useless if the company lacks the resources to follow the advice.)
-> Sometimes problems may be unsolvable (suggest alternatives)

Ethan later talks about various rules that can be applied/checked for problem solving like:

- 80/20 Rule
- Don't boil the Ocean (Smarter analysis)
- Find the KEY DRIVERS (that affect your business)
- The Elevator Test (You should be able to explain your solution in 30 seconds)
- Seize every small opportunities while solving a problem (these will boost the morale and your credibility among the clients)
- Always think of the big picture
- Learn to say "I don't know"
- Don't accept "I have no idea" (Challenge it irrespective of whether it comes from others or from you yourself!)

The second part of the book talks on 'The Mckinsey way of working to solve problems" i.e how Mckinsey implements the model in a day to day basis by going through a real life like case.

Ethan argues that the right way to sell a service or a product is not to barge into your customer with samples and glossy pictures of benefits; but to be there at the right time and make sure the right people know who you are. Mckinsey never sells or advertises, it markets by very valuable insights and publications.

Set definite milestones which you can achieve. Don't give false impressions.

Later he talks about how important teams are in Mckinsey. The success of team is in forming the rightly skilled members. Also he talks about how teams are kept in harmony. However these seemed to be just general gyaan on team building :)

An interesting advice is "The first rule of success in a hierarchy is: make your boss look good. To please your boss, do your job well. Keep your boss informed, but not overloaded with information."

Later, Ethan talks about how a consultant takes the interviews with the clients. Prepare well with checklist before the interview and start the interview with general easier ones before moving to specific and sensitive ones. 7 tips for successful interviews:

Have interviewee's boss set up the meeting
interview in team/pairs
listen carefully
pharaphrase - analyze a subject's answers thoroughly
use indirect approach to get to a topic
don't have long interviews
use columbo tactic

All work done, but without presenting it well, there is no use!

The final parts of the book talks about how to survive @ Mckinsey and Life after Mckinsey...

A good read indeed!

Quarter 1 - A retrospective

2010-08-30T23:46:00.002+05:30

3 months passed by as a B Schooler. Days were flying; still can't believe one quarter out of ten is over. Sometimes I feel happy there are nine more to go; sometimes I frown, only one is over; nine more to go :)

It is a memorable time and will be for at least for awhile. I met and made new friends, some of same age group, some old some of same wavelength some out range league :) Studied and applied (really? ;) ) applied three subjects, which I felt were interesting at least in the beginning and I am sure will benefit me some time in life.

I learn t to read an annual report, understood some Games All Accountants Play (GAPP :p ), understood something about pricing, OPEC & cartels, some gyaan on Strategy, price wars and so on. Among the three subjects, I enjoyed Strategy, though I didn't participate much in the class discussion. The interesting part was when the Professor finally agreed that strategy is 50% luck!

After years, did some academic projects, debated a lot during them, and spend some night-outs. So far 6 exams, 5 assignments, 3 subjects and a quiz over. So far interesting.... :)

Was part of organizing an event, attended another B School event and going to contest for an election!

Quarter 2 starts on September 10. A tough mathematics subject awaiting... :(

4 Principles for Effective Requirements Lifecycle Management

2010-08-18T23:05:00.001+05:30

IBM Innovate 2010 happened in Bangalore on August 17 & 18. I attended an interesting session on "Ensuring Project Success: Four Principles for Effective Requirements Life cycle Management" by the IBM Rational Expert Dr. Keith Collyer. A small excerpt from the talk:

ps: The excerpt is based on my understanding of the session. It may or may not be what the speaker intended to.

Since this was an IBM Rational Product/Development Conference, his thrust in the beginning itself was on the use of tools for effective requirements management, which I also agree to an extend. The software and the systems are becoming more complex than ever day by day. So is the time frame of projects. Effective requirements management is as important as the effective development or testing or project management. The four principles that Dr Keith stressed on were:

1. Recognize the needs of all stakeholders
2. Use structure to manage complexity
3. Encourage collaboration across the life cycle
4. Promote the use of a consistent process

How can we identify what all are the needs of the entire stakeholder community? - Usually a very lengthy, complex essay format explaining the requirements in a short will not help to identify the requirements properly. An exercise in clear and concise descriptive writing is the key.

Whether we are working on the problem or the solution we have to analyze the gist of:

The best ways to identify the answers is to explore & use the various approaches. Requirements understanding is not merely technical, but its more about understanding people. We have to understand the problem as much as we do the solution.

Recognizing the stakeholders need starts with understanding, whether we are working on the problem ( state what stake holder's want to be able to do - capabilities) or the solution (state what the system must do - function) . The three things to be aware of are:

1. Defining the problem - What are we trying to do? (WHY?)
2. Defining the solution - What our solution will/can be for this? (WHAT?)
3. Designing the solution - How are going to do it? (HOW?)

A proper structure for requirements helps us to:

1. Understand context
2. Assess completeness
3. Identify repetitiveness / conflict
4. Navigate / Search requirements

Creating templates is the next level which can include document structure, boiler plate text, requirements template & project templates.

Another useful way of improving the identification/usefulness/navigation of requirements is using attributes. Some of the examples are identifiers, types, priority, status, performance etc

The underlying idea behind the principle of using structure to manage complexity is to use abstraction levels. Define the problem at different levels - we should first discuss in the stakeholder's language rather than developer's language. The general rule of thumb is to provide as much information as needed - but not more & avoid design at early stages. We have to ask, why you want to do this until we reach the root of the problem.

How can we move from one level into another - decompose the requirements according to the level. The decomposition can be into for example, high level requirement, system requirement, design requirement, components requirement and so on. Efficient use of UML diagrams and use cases can be used in complement. Next is the allocation of various sub system of requirements to high level system requirements. This will help us to understand the questions we asked, why are we building this -> where is it implemented? -> how do I test this component? This traceability is important to show the answers to the management/governing body.

The next principle, encourage collaboration across life cycle is essentially requirements management across the enterprise : Starting with the Board - setting the vision to the Developers - Using the lowest level requirements & tools. The next important thing is requirements definition & management should be integrated into the product life cycle.

The final principle - promote the use of consistent process is essentially, automate the requirements process. The key is that we should be able to measure the requirement process. A typical benefit the traceability can be easily achieved using a tool. Also, many of the quality standards & processes like CMMI requires measurement. Effective requirements realizes quantifiable savings and with a tool you are able to measure it. Using a requirements tool, the whole flow is possible - document structure, attributes, filter to focus, view related information & view historical background information

Thus the benefits of effective requirements life cycle management are:

1. Greater Confidence (For all stakeholders)
2. Ability to manage change
3. Improved customer / supplier relations
4. Visibility of progress / status
5. Improved cost / benefit decisions

Project Week

2010-08-17T20:52:00.000+05:30

I am writing this post in disguise of searching for data for our Strategy Project :P

As the first Quarter is coming to an end, we have to submit three projects, the first to be submitted on this Saturday. The interesting part is this is project which is in a bad state. One person rarely participates in the meeting :) Finally today, we are seeing some respite with the project shaping up a better position. Even though this project is in a mess, we are all confident that we have learned a lot about the industry we are working on!!

We are half way through for the second project and the third one, we haven't even started!

Classes wise, we have only 2 more days; 1/10 MBA over :p

Entrepreneurship Workshop by Prof. Sunil Handa

2010-08-15T00:26:00.005+05:30

Yesterday I bunked a class of a top IIMB professor to attend a session by a top IIMA professor :p

However I was not disappointed. It was some of the first best sessions, I had till now @ IIMB. It was the Entrepreneurship workshop organized as part of the event Eximius, the Entrepreneurship Summit at IIM Bangalore.

How more motivating can a session be more than this! At the same time not with just only motivational gyaan! but also the hard facts and some cruel, real life things that can be expected from an entrepreneurial career.

Prof Sunil Handa started the session informally with an intriguing question "Why are you here? " After some intersteing answers from audience like "I have floated a company now; would like to get some tips on how to move forward", "to understand how it is like to be an entrepreneur from your experiences", "always wanted to attend a live session of the famous Sunil Handa" and so on... he started talking about our well know phrase:

"Oh Man!, again today I have to see the **** boss; I want to quit the job today!"
"I should not be working like a slave like this! I should do something different!!"

The thought provoking question he was continuously asking was "What is stopping you from doing these??"

The typical answers were:

1. Lack of competency & network
2. Social Obligations (barriers from kins)
3. Lack of investment power

He counter argued for each of these by mentioning his views which were truly thought provoking. Some of the excerpts:

Working in a company for 2-3 years will not help you to build a core competence or a influential network. Even if you are an MBA from IIM, you will just be placed as an employee, say as Marketing in charge for a product in a region for a country in the firm with many products, above which many groups & hierarchy. You will not gain much by working in the profile even for 5 years to start a firm; better you can start it straightaway. If you are adamant that you will start only after a couple of years of working, go for a challenging job; a self example he explained of taking up the CEO post after graduating from IIMA of a firm which was seized by bank because of bankruptcy.

I liked the way he kept on saying, "what are you? A Management Trainee! ; I am the chief executive; even if its a bankrupt company!!". The point he was trying to make was, even though he spent less than 2 years there, the experience he got was more than even if you work for 20 years! because you will have to deal with every aspect of the business; make the decisions & trade offs.

Some of the other aspects he discussed were on the number of partners, one should look for:

- If you are saying my partners are like minded; you will fail! What you require is those who complement each other. We need a visionary & an executor, a missionary!
- One person starting alone a company is not advisable since you will be just stretching yourself a lot. With regard to this, a person asked whether hiring all the best people out there and put to work will help? Professor's answer was NO: If that is the case World XI would have always won against any country; Coco cola would have been the best software company today; Infosys would have entered steel market today. The point he was trying to make is always not the investment alone matters; it is the core competency!
- 2-3 Partners is the optimum; More than that is like too many cooks spoiling the soup!

Next for the social obligations/barriers, his views were again thought provoking:

If you cannot convince your parents, kins; how are you planning to convince the customers, the employees, the Govt: .... You should learn the art of being cruel or professional or rude or adamant or whatever you call it! You should believe in your instincts. The couple of things I liked the most in regard to this discussion were:

1) Don't always try to please everybody. You will have to make some calls. Also don't sugar coat in your discussions thinking, "what the others will think about me!". Put what you want cut and straight. Also, learn to draw a line - make the other person understand couple of times, third time, literally kill him, if the person is not coming into your terms or find another way! to get what you intend to.

2) What your parents really mean, when they say "Son, business in not your cup of tea; why take risk". They say this because the way their minds are tuned because of their 9-6 jobs. However, you should understand that, they aren't really against business, they just want to see you as:
(a) A happy person
(b) Financial sound to some extend
(c) A respected person & one who bring pride to them

So, as long as you can convince them that these are all possible by being an entrepreneur too, then what else you need!

With regard to the last point, that its tough for a middle class person to raise capital, he argued that, at the present condition, raising even 20 L is not a tough thing; If courage is there, anything is possible! He explained about his own journey and the Renuka Sugars' journey.

Some of the other aspects he touched were:

- Any market is infinite in a country like India. He touched the examples of sugar industry, the IV bottles & his company etc. It doesn't matters whether the industry is profitable or not; what matters is whether you are profitable or not in it.

Generally he advised, too much of calculations is not needed; some craziness and illogical thinking are required for entrepreneurs :)

Finally, he talked about women entrepreneurs, which he mentioned is even tougher. He advised either be solely concentrating on career or think something once the family is settled!

Even though the session was mesmerizing, I am not sure how far a middle class person can still take the huge risk, given a decent paying job out there.....

Some other posts on his talks/sessions:

http://abhitaneja.blogspot.com/2007/10/enlightenment-by-prof-sunil-handa.html

http://lifeplanet-i.blogspot.com/2009/03/entrepreneurship-prof-sunil-handa.html

http://yourstory.in/news/2441-laboratory-in-entrepreneurial-motivation-prof-sunil-handa

ps: All the views/excerpts in this post are my interpretations/opinions only. It may vary for others!

Eximius 2010 - The Annual entrepreneurship summit of IIM Bangalore

2010-08-09T20:54:00.001+05:30

The Entrepreneurship and Innovation Cell of IIM Bangalore proudly presents
In collaboration with Reid and Taylor

Eximius ’10 – The Entrepreneurship Summit of IIM Bangalore

On August 14th& 15th, 2010

After the success of EXIMIUS 2008 and 2009, the third edition of EXIMIUS will be bigger with more events and exciting speakers!

India is at the cusp of innovation! EXIMIUS 2010 is a tribute to our spirit of entrepreneurship, which we celebrate at our two-day summit at IIM Bangalore.

EXIMIUS is a prime opportunity for participants to interact with the thinkers and doers of the entrepreneurial world! It also provides budding entrepreneurs with a much-needed platform to showcase their ideas and analyze their plans before taking the plunge! With a business plan contest, Venture Capital workshops, speaker series and engaging panel discussions, we cordially invite you to Eximius'10 . Our flagship event is:

GENESIS - THE VC SPEED DATE!

Genesis provides a platform for all budding entrepreneurs and enthusiasts to pitch their business ideas to venture capitalists, in a one-on-one session. It's an excellent opportunity to get real time feedback from multiple VCs. In these sessions, participants simulate real-life situations, test their ability to think on their feet, convince the panel and make their business a true success.

PLEASE NOTE: SUBMISSIONS ARE DUE BY AUGUST 10, 2010.

Other events at Eximius '10 include INGEN-The Business Plan contest, a panel discussion on "The Next Billion Dollar Idea," a showcase on Innovation in Start-ups, and a Speaker Series on themes like Green Technology.

All this and much more await you at EXIMIUS 2010. Be amidst happening people, innovative ideas and a world of opportunities. For more details and updates visit

http://www.eximius-iimb.com

Pehel 2010

2010-08-08T15:11:00.009+05:30

July 30 - Isn't the Pehel tomorrow? - Noway!
July 31 - Shall we postpone it to next quarter?
               Or Shall we have it on August 7/14?
               Finally, Director - its confirmed; we have to conduct Pehel on August 7
               WhatTTTT?

Though all behind the scene works were about to be finished; we were not really sure of how prepared we are to conduct our first ever program in a week's time.

However, today I can write - it was a grand success!!! The way people chipped in when the need aroused was simply superb!

Started with some very nice fun games for kids and couples, pull in for the crowd was easier. I am sure all should have enjoyed the old balloon shooting, tattoo, caricature & the pyramid games.

The formal event started with the Director & Chair person's speech, and later from our always present Professor Singh. I am sure, many of us will be interested in his elective :) Later the DML awardees were given the certificates. It was nice to see some one receiving the same with their children on the stage.

The star events of the evening started after these with a traditional start - a Kannada solo song. Later the event really spiced up with dances & songs. Finally closing the event with a cultural parade showcasing the diversity of IIMpur... I forgot one thing, it was indeed a family event with performance even from the extended family members of PGSEM!!

This was one of the best Pehel in the near past. This was the unanimous opinion from the senior batches.

" we had a lot of fun and the event was one of the better ones we see at PGSEM...."
" Fantastic job guys... well planned - well executed!"

PGSEM 2010 rocks!!

It was indeed a wonderful experience for me too.

contributed to posters,invitation,buzz mails
spammed a lot!
talked to 'THE' Director of IIMB & Chairperson of PGSEM couple of times
did a little stage coordination
invited faculty & met the professors who selected me for PGSEM @ IIMB :D
participated in a cultural fashion parade :P
worked closely with some of the new friends, whom I am sure will be having long lasting relations

What more can one expect from the first event @ a B School!!!

Pehel 2010 in Pics...

chaos!

2010-08-03T02:18:00.000+05:30

Another hectic weekend; though still interesting :)

Got the Microeconomics mid term paper - good score ;) 4 more weeks in Quarter 1. Have to submit two projects in 3 weeks. In one group, we haven't yet come to a conclusion on which is the topic we are concentrating on :P (One looses temper explaining his/her view; other looses patience; another is trying to resolve the issue and i am keeping myself as a silent spectator :). ) For the second project, the Professor is still teaching the area on which we have to concentrate as part of the project, so can leave it for the time being! . For the third project each one of the group is banking on the remaining seven :P

And finally, the date for Pehel is fixed. The date was back & forth changing and finally it will happen on August 7th. So many problems & back offs :(. We were in the campus printing the invites, putting it in the notice boards, inviting faculty & informing seniors till night. I am relieved some 6-8 guys are there who are ready to somewhat run behind things. And I am back now creating some spam :) and in parallel writing this post(Sunday 2:19AM)...Its really hard to keep every stakeholders in mind while organizing an event :( I wish & pray the event becomes a grant success.

Book Review : Financial Accounting A Managerial Perspective by R Narayanaswamy

2010-08-02T20:43:00.002+05:30

Financial Accounting: A Managerial Perspective by R Narayanaswamy covers well the basics of accounting starting from the basic accounting equation. One attractive thing about this book is that it has lots of problems in every chapter :) If you have time and ready to do, you are with the right book. The book also have a good amount of business cases, though with no analysis.

One thing I liked the most was the tool that is provide in the student's resources (http://phindia.com/narayanaswamy/student_resources1.php) .

The book covers all the basics theoretically from basic accounting equation to cash flow statement analysis. A good read for getting acquainted with the subject!

Book Review : Microeconomics by Pindyck, Rubinfeld & Prem L. Mehta

2010-08-01T23:23:00.001+05:30

Microeconomics by Robert S. Pindyck, Daniel L. Rubinfeld and Prem L. Mehta was the recommended text book for us.

I have to say wonderful book! Less mathematical treatment with emphasis on real life cases and just required mathematical treatment. I never expected this subject will be interesting - not sure was it because of the textbook or the professor :) The book covers at a intermediate / introductory level from the basic of microeconomics like supply & demand to game theory & asymmetrical information scenarios.

I really liked the example cases explained in the textbook. It covers most of the topics in introductory microeconomics. If you can get the solutions to the problems, this is the best book even for a self study :)

The students resources are not so impressive; However as I mentioned earlier, if you can get the solutions to the exercises; its good enough.

Economics - Blogs & e Resources

2010-07-30T23:17:00.000+05:30

AmosWEB - An extensive collection of resources

All About Economics on the Web

Moody's Economy.com

Library of Economics & Liberty

Resources for Economics Students

The Indian Economy Blog

Top 10 Economics Blogs You're Not Visiting (But Should Be)

The 10 *Really* Best Economics Blogs

Institutional Economics

Greg Mankiw's Blog on economic observations

The Knowledge Problem - Commentary on Economics, Information and Human Action

More links welcome.....

Book Summary : Time Power by Brian Tracy

2010-07-28T00:15:00.010+05:30

Last week, I took the first book from IIMB Library. I have no time even to read the text books issued; so didn't plan to take any text books. I saw relevant book for all like me -

Time Power by Brian Tracy. Here is my summary:

Brian starts the book with usual motivational stuff to attract to the book & time management in general. He talks about the 3 myths or barriers to time management everyone may face:

1. It affects the naturalness and spontaneity (You will lead a mechanical life!)
2. Negative Mental Programming (I am like this by birth :) )
3. Self Limiting Beliefs (I don't have the ability!)

Brain continues the book by explaining some of the techniques you can use to be more effective and improve your performance like:

1. Use positive self talk
2. Visualize yourself as highly efficient
3. Act the part
4. Benchmark against the best (Have a role model)
5. Become a Teacher
6. Be a role model to others.

I liked the three Self Esteem Builders :

1. Determining Your Values
2. Striving for Mastery
3. Knowing What you Want

This book is full of good tips & tricks like:

Twelve Proven Principles for Peak Performance
The Seven Practices of Time Power

new habit pattern formation takes about 21 days of practice and repetition

Some of the tips that Brian Tracy explains in this book are:

- "Your ability to clearly and systematically create goals, and plans for their accomplishment, will help you more to achieve success and happiness than any other skill you could develop."

- How to achieve your goals faster & remove the obstacles.

I liked the four ideas for personal organization:

1. Neatness Is a Key Habit
2. Stand Back and Evaluate Yourself
3. Refuse to Make Excuses
4. Work from a Clean Desk

Further, Brian explains in detail how to set the priorities. Nice to see he also mentions the Pareto's Principle

Four Steps to High Productivity:

1. Set clear written goals & objectives
2. Develop detailed plan of action for aceiveing your goal
3. Set clear priorities
4. Concentrate single mindedly on important thing you can do to achieve your set goal

When you accept complete responsibility for achieving your goal, people will emerge to help you and guide you along the path to your success. But when you make excuses, blame others, and expect them to help you, they will ignore you and avoid you. When you look to yourself first, you are far more likely not only to be more successful, but to attract into your life the support of the people you need. If you look to other people to help you achieve your goals, you will almost always be disappointed.

to be continued....

A good week...

2010-07-25T21:38:00.000+05:30

Last week was a good one for me. We got the FINAC mid term paper. To my surprise, it was not as bad as I thought, and was average in the class. One thing which was interesting was even in this level, people were fighting for 1/2 and 1 mark. The microeconomics professor came with a smiling professor since his latest book was released last week & was happily mentioning about it. Then he moved his topic of discussion and said, you may have come out of the exam hall with all smiling faces; but there was a tricky question, for which most of you didn't answer properly!!

The Strategic Management class was also good with case discussions on Indian Airline Industry and Walmart. I participated in both the discussions which had become a rare one for days now. It is interesting to see how we can establish that a firm is 100% successful; at the same time it is full of controversies in reality!

Last Saturday, we finally saw lots of participation from the class for Pehel. We have now formed lots of sub groups and assigned tasks for each. The SAC Senior members were furious on the way we were handling the organizing since we haven't got the green signal from Director so far :P So finally, we decided to postpone the event to August 8, Sunday.

We have started slowly the projects. We have to submit two by August 21 and another by September 4. Lets see how sincerely we can do them ;)

1st experience of organizing an event @ IIMB

2010-07-25T00:10:00.000+05:30

Pehel 2010

The first event to be organized by the incoming batch.

Hey! wait, you are already there; you might ask...OK let Pehel is the first event to be organized by the first PGSEM :P It was supposed to happen in the 1st week or 2n week of July. But unfortunately, it has been postponed till 1st week of August. By then, we would have almost completed our 1st quarter :)

This time, I volunteered for those activities in which I have been not so active during college days - communications & stage coordination. So far, the communications part has been good. I believe I was able to contribute individually something. Let's see what happen for the stage coordination.

@ IIMB, anything is possible. I learned (well, a crash course with just minimal tricks) about photoshop, publisher, printing...

As usual, I was able to see people strong & sincere in logistics, program coordination, innovative ideas and also those who are there in the group for namesake :D

After around 4 years, have been participating in organizing a college event. As usual lots of roadblocks, challenges; but budget seem to be not a constraint here.

Encircling the Seamless - A book by our Professor

2010-07-24T19:25:00.002+05:30

Today, Our Microeconomics Professor, Prof. Damodaran started the class with a joke and later informed us about the release of his new book from Oxford University Press titled

Encircling the Seamless: India, Climate Change, and the Global Commons

It was released on July 21 by Hon’ble Vice President of India, Shri M. Hamid Ansari.
Professor mentioned that PGSEM and the interaction with PGSEM students was one of the motivating and underlying theme of the book. ;)
More information @

http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/sp210710.htm
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/1984

Book Review : Competitive Strategy by Michael E. Porter

2010-07-23T22:20:00.005+05:30

Should I write a review for this???

Not at all!

The mother of all startegy books. Though written teo decades agao, this is still a valuable book for all learning strategy. What else you want, then to read directly what Porter has written.

In 16 chapters, Porter covered everything from the five forces to generic strategies to competitor analysis to signaling to analysis within industries to all types of industries. The book also explains on vertical integration and perspectives from a new entrant.

I don't think a single introductory course in strategy can cover all the topics in the book. However, it is a book worth collecting for life time.

A good amount of the book can be read @ Google books @

1st set of mid terms over

2010-07-18T11:39:00.003+05:30

Things happen so far. I am not able to see how days fly. Still remember the orientation days....ah! already the first set of mid terms is over.

Yesterday, there were two exams. One on Microeconomics - which was easy (may be the Professor knew we are poor souls; but the funny thing is he was scaring us too much and also forced us to attend many tute sessions by his Associate) and the second one was on Strategy which was a case on Apple, 3 hours - nice part was the Professor even arranged a tea for us during the exam :) Our Strategy Professor used to say there are no right & wrong strategy - I would like to extend it by saying there are no right or wrong analysis in the strategy exam also ;) Only GOD knows how much marks will I get!

I thought, since the exams are over, its a relief at least for the next one month. I opened my mail - boom! an assignment in FINAC to be submitted by Thursday! And we have barely a month to give the final projects for two subjects..So the tough time is not over; the sad part is its not for the next 2.5 years at the least :)

Seniors have consistently started mocking, whether we are conducting the Pehel - cultural festival this time or not. Unfortunately, I am also a member of the organizing committee we formed :) I would like to confirm YES! here it comes again....on July 31

With the Pehel work + assignments + office + house shifting...I will go crazy this week!!

weekends are getting more hectic!

2010-07-10T21:08:00.002+05:30

6:30 AM - 7:30 AM Travel (to IIM)
8:00 AM - 1:30 PM Classes
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM Exam
4:00 PM - 6:00 PM Again Classes
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM Travel (back to home)

And today is Saturday!! To add more, have classes again from 8AM tomorrow. Weekends are getting more hectic compared to weekdays. And today's exam...pathetic, seriously!! I never thought I will degrade to this level! I thought Financial Accounting was the subject, I understood & liked the most among the three subjects; but I was proved wrong today. May be, saying 'if you like an area most, you may not score/do well; also, if you score in an area, you may not be so good at it' is true

Next week, we have 2 mid term exams & 2 cases to analyze. Text book wise , both cover 6 chapters :O And the Microeconomics Professor had mocked us today saying, it will either be tougher or more tougher irrespective of whether it is an open book or closed book exam. And also advised to score as much as possible in mid term, since it will be very difficult to do in end term :D

For strategic management - 6 chapters + 5 cases + 3-4 HBR readings :O . At least, I hope to complete the HBR readings. Again the test is supposed to be a case.

Tomorrow's session is on problems. I don't even know the theory; hence I don't think it will be beneficial to attend it, so will bunk it. First bunking @ IIM, though its an unofficial session by a Teaching Associate :)

quizes, mid term, projects.....

2010-07-04T22:06:00.001+05:30

Week by week, its getting worse, at the same time interesting.

We had our first surprise quiz yesterday. It was funny. I don't want to talk about it ;)
I liked this week's strategic management classes, because there weren't much case discussion and chaos. Back to the world of microeconomics. The professor talked about consumer behavior, pricing. I always wanted to know how companies do pricing, if I were to launch a product what price level, can I set etc. The professor touched some of these topics, but was more theoretical. I guess, we will learn those in some marketing papers.

Our mid terms start next week with Financial Accounting. Its a closed book exam. The professor was mocking us saying this will be a closed book exam so that you can gauge yourself where you stand and later for the end term we can have an open book. The other two exams are scheduled a week later, I guess :) Both will be open book.

I had the first personal discussion with a professor @ IIM. We, as a group had to discuss and finalize about the project for Strategic Management. He seems to be a good person; only thing is I am finding it difficult to digest the subject. He was very interested in our project and mentioned it will be very interesting to do an analysis of this industry (Lighting Controls; more on this when we progress to some extend)

Pehel meetings are progressing; We have decided on the theme & now we have dive into implementation :)

Tomorrow is a nation wide strike. Hence, would like to spend some time studying Financial Accounting & Strategy, lets see how it goes....

In the wonderland of case studies

2010-06-27T23:13:00.004+05:30

"Vijay, Is SouthWest Airlines successful?"

Our Professor for Strategic Management started the actual class with the question. Luckily, I had read the case to some extend. However, before I started my opinion, the CP Guys (Class Participation) started posting their opinions. The professor had to cut short them to hear from me :)
My answer was acceptable in the first day of a case study based class. But, it may not have been the case, if the class was somewhere in the middle of the term. Anyway, the class continued with lots of heated debates, questions and theory.

Ah! what pedagogy is this?

After the end of the class, I was not able to understand, is SWA truly successful, is their strategy correct; however, as the Professor mentioned, no strategy is correct or wrong; it can be good or bad, given the context. The next case was on Colas and a wonderful introduction to Porter's Five forces.
I have to read about it at least couple of more times to understand its power. As of now, everything seems to me to be just common sense. But I feel hard to substantiate the analysis.

Hmm...have to read the case quite diligently.

Meanwhile, came across some of the good videos on these...

Have to read 2 more cases for the next week and lots of reading material.
Ledger, Journal, Trial Balance..... in Financial Accounting.....
Elasticity, Consumer Behavior etc in Microeconomics....

& have a critical release @ office....24 hours is not enough for me :P

A Nimble Look into Internet Marketing

2010-06-24T10:47:00.001+05:30

Note: I prepared this when I was preparing for the IIMB interview :) The article is more like a notes from various sources mainly:

1) Wikipedia
2) http://digitalenterprise.org/index.html

Internet marketing

Internet marketing, also referred to as i-marketing, web-marketing, online-marketing, Search Engine Marketing (SEM) or e-Marketing, is the marketing of products or services over the Internet. The Internet has brought media to a global audience. The interactive nature of Internet marketing in terms of providing instant response and eliciting responses is a unique quality of the medium. Internet marketing is sometimes considered to have a broader scope because it not only refers to the Internet, e-mail, and wireless media, but it includes management of digital customer data and electronic customer relationship management (ECRM) systems. Internet marketing ties together creative and technical aspects of the Internet, including: design, development, advertising, and sales.
Internet marketing also refers to the placement of media along different stages of the customer engagement cycle through search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), banner ads on specific websites, e-mail marketing, and Web 2.0 strategies.

Business Models

In the most basic sense, a business model is the method of doing business by which a company can sustain itself -- that is, generate revenue. The business model spells-out how a company makes money by specifying where it is positioned in the value chain (Value Chain: The value chain, also known as value chain analysis, is a concept popularized by Michael Porter in his 1985 best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. A value chain is a chain of activities for a firm operating in a specific industry. The business unit is the appropriate level for construction of a value chain, not the divisional level or corporate level. Products pass through all activities of the chain in order, and at each activity the product gains some value. The chain of activities gives the products more added value than the sum of added values of all activities. It is important not to mix the concept of the value chain with the costs occurring throughout the activities. A diamond cutter can be used as an example of the difference. The cutting activity may have a low cost, but the activity adds much of the value to the end product, since a rough diamond is significantly less valuable than a cut diamond. Typically, the described value chain and the documentation of processes, assessment and auditing of adherence to the process routines are at the core of the quality certification of the business, e.g. ISO 9001.)

1. Brokerage
2. Advertising
3. Infomediary
4. Merchant
5. Manufacturer (Direct)
6. Affiliate
7. Community
8. Subscription
9. Utility

[Michael Rappa explains in detail about the models @ http://digitalenterprise.org/models/models.html]
Social media marketing is a term that describes use of social networks, online communities, blogs, wikis or any other online collaborative media for marketing, sales, public relations and customer service. Common social media marketing tools include Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Flickr, Wikipedia, Orkut and YouTube.
In the context of internet marketing, social media refers to a collective group of web properties whose content is primarily published by users, not direct employees of the property (e.g., the vast majority of video on YouTube is published by non-YouTube employees).

Social media marketing has three important aspects:

1. Creating buzz or newsworthy events, videos, tweets, or blog entries that attract attention, and become viral in nature. Buzz is what makes social media marketing work. It replicates a message through user to user contact, rather than the traditional method of purchasing of an ad or promoting a press release. The message does not necessarily have to be about the product. Many successful viral campaigns have gathered steam through an amusing or compelling message, with the company logo or tagline included incidentally.
2. Building ways that enable fans of a brand or company to promote a message themselves in multiple online social media venues. Fan pages in Twitter, MySpace of Facebook follow this model.
3. It is based around online conversations. Social media marketing is not controlled by the organization. Instead it encourages user participation and dialogue. A badly designed social media marketing campaign can potentially backfire on the organization that created it. To be successful SMM campaigns must fully engage and respect the users.

According to Lloyd Salmons, first chairman of the Internet Advertising Bureau social media council "Social media isn't just about big networks like Facebook and MySpace, it's about brands having conversations."
Social network marketing or social level marketing is an advertising method that makes use of social network service and to increase their web presence. This ranges from simply advertising directly on social networking sites, viral marketing that spreads throughout the web, email, and word of mouth or providing niche social networking sites focused around the item being advertised.
Many sites include features where companies can create profiles. For example, on Facebook companies can create "pages" where users can become fans of this company, product, service, individual, etc. Many companies create MySpace pages for themselves.
Companies sometimes invest in internet presence management (the process of controlling the Web presence, or Internet-based channels of an organization or company, with the goal of increasing that entity's operational efficiency.), which can include social network marketing.

Web 2.0 (2004–present) is commonly associated with web applications that facilitate interactive information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Examples of Web 2.0 include web-based communities, hosted services, web applications, social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, blogs, mashups, and folksonomies. A Web 2.0 site allows its users to interact with other users or to change website content, in contrast to non-interactive websites where users are limited to the passive viewing of information that is provided to them.

Definitions of Web 3.0 vary greatly. Amit Agarwal states that Web 3.0 is, among other things, about the Semantic Web (The Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information and services on the web is defined, making it possible for the web to "understand" and satisfy the requests of people and machines to use the web content [Eg: XML]) and personalization. Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur, considers the Semantic Web an "unrealisable abstraction" and sees Web 3.0 as the return of experts and authorities to the Web. For example, he points to Bertelsman's deal with the German Wikipedia to produce an edited print version of that encyclopedia. Others still such as Manoj Sharma, an organization strategist, propose that Web 3.0 will be a completely integrated world, cradle-to-grave experience of being plugged into a dynamic brave new world. CNN Money's Jessi Hempel expects Web 3.0 to emerge from new and innovative Web 2.0 services with a profitable business model.

Search engine marketing (SEM), is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of search engine optimization, paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. In 2008, North American advertisers spent US$13.5 billion on search engine marketing. The largest SEM vendors are Google AdWords, Yahoo! Search Marketing and Microsoft adCenter.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site or a web page (such as a blog) from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. The theory is that the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search and industry-specific vertical search engines. This gives a web site web presence. Optimizing a website primarily involves editing its content and HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of search engines.

Search engine optimization methods include getting indexed, cross linking, keyword stuffing, URL normalization, other simple methods like comments, social media etc
Gray hat SEO - neither really white nor black hat. Examples include purchasing links, creating multiple 'micro-sites' which he controls for the sole purpose of cross linking to the target site.

1st Week Over, Lots to read, already 3 projects

2010-06-21T09:37:00.000+05:30

Ah!

So the exciting journey has begun & the first week is over. Two more months to end first quarter. So far, I just know, we have to study

Microeconomics
Financial Accounting
Strategic Management

One project in each subject. Mid term exams by July 10; Final exams on August 27-28. :o

Prof.Jose who takes Strategic Management has given two volumes of cases and readings for the course and we have to read 2 cases for the next week + reading material = at least 250 pages
An assignment in Financial Accounting on balance sheets and have to completely see what was taught in four sessions of Microeconomics.

My team lead in office has already sent couple of mails asking for updates and work on some critical issues. Its going to be really fun; for sure will learn time management & prioritization.

We have elected our class reps; we have 3 :D .

Also, have to work for Pehel 2010. Let's see whether I will get time for the same....

First Day Blues...

2010-06-20T23:27:00.000+05:30

The 2.5 journey began with Microeconomics by Prof.Damodaran. He started with a short introduction, then straight away jumping to the exam patterns and a detailed information on the project we have to do. Its a group assignment to be submitted at the end of the course on innovation & IP. The trick is we have to apply microeconomics as much as we can.

He continued the class with the agenda, then straightaway jumping into Demand & Supply. It was interesting to hear from one of the best professors in the domain; it became more interesting with lots of participation & questions from the students aka class participation.
For every concept the Professor introduced, there were questions from us; finally the Professor saying, "all you are saying will be taken into account; but not in the first class of microeconomics; I am just introducing the basics" :)

The session was followed by the next one on Financial Accounting by Prof.Jayadev. He seemed to me to be very jovial, smiling always and in the first few minutes itself, emphasising everything draws down to money :) In this class also, there was no crunch for class participation; once again making the Professor to slip the assignment he intended to give in the first day. We rock!!

Again followed by a session on Microeconomics; I felt it was too much for the day, but some of the participants in the class didn't seemed to be so. I felt like, I know little.

The typical first day blues.....

IIM Bangalore obtains EQUIS accreditation

2010-06-18T00:33:00.016+05:30

IIMB Director Prof. Pankaj Chandra send us a congratulations mail informing that IIMB is accredited by EQUIS

IIM Ahmedabad & IIM Bangalore are the only B Schools in India to be accredited by EQUIS. Its a great achievement that the effort put by our seniors, faculty & staffs of IIM Bangalore became fruitful.

More on this @

http://www.iimb.ernet.in/node/1944

http://www.pagalguy.com/2010/06/iim-bangalore-gets-equis-accreditaiton/

A day left for THE Journey to start...

2010-06-16T20:45:00.001+05:30

Finally, the day is coming. Our classes start from June 18. Already the professors have given the schedule & reading list. I haven't even opened the text books they gave :) The courses for this quarter are Strategic Management, Managerial Economics & Financial Accounting. I hope to make the learning very interesting since many will be of practical use and Marketing & Strategy is what I am looking forward to learn in detail...

Last week, I visited IIMB just to see how much time it will take to reach the campus from Domlur. I guess I will have to leave my house by 5:30 AM to reach right on time. My laptop is ready for IIMB wifi. Also installed some other softwares, which was mentioned in SPIDI; surely will become helpful one day.

We have to also organize Pehel 2010. It is a opening festival completely conducted by PGSEM freshers. I want to participate as part of the organizing committee because it will be hard for me to participate in the cultural events. Let's see how competitive my peers are! I have heard that PGP freshers are always very competitive and its hard to get a place in committees or clubs like this. But I guess I will have to face that much competition here. Also, seniors had announced that interviews/elections for this years club members/coordinators will be happening this week or next. I wish to be part of a club, especially if possible Branding & Communication Committee or Forum for Industry/Alumni interaction. Let's see whether I land up in any of these.

My work @ company is getting tight day by day. Moreover, I am becoming more & more bored with the work and more & more excited with management :)

Eagerly waiting to attend the class...wow, how studious I have become ;) but I am sure, this will not last even weeks....
However, the status updates in social networks are done vehemently :) Today's update:

"have to devise some contemporary strategic techniques to do micro economical analyses in financial accounting ;) .......curtain raiser to the classes @ IIMB on June 18 :)"

Book Summary : How to Sell Yourself by Joe Girard

2010-06-15T21:18:00.003+05:30

I thought it will be beneficial for the reader to have more than the MBA experience. Hence I thought of sharing some interesting inputs I get from reading books. So here I start with my first review...

How to sell yourself is a wonderful motivational book written by Joe Girard with Robert Casemore. Joe Girard is acclaimed as "The World's Greatest Salesman" by the Guinness book of World Records for selling 1425 new cars in a single year. More than a motivational book, this portrays how we can put ourselves so that anybody will buy us or what ever we are selling. Thus it is also a good self help book.In this book, he talks about the various strategies, one can take to make oneself appeal able to others, how to develop the basic skills and winning character traits. It also reveals some of the best "selling strategies".

In the first chapters, he basically talks about some of the tips that can be used to boost our self confidence. Some of the tips are trivial like:

- Write in a good paper "I Am the Number One". Take copies of it and put it in where ever you visit often in a day - be it near your study table or bathroom

- Repeat the statement 10 times after to you wake up and before you go to bed - "I Am the Number One". I would suggest "I Am capable of achieving anything in this world! I Am the best"

- Associate with only those people who are self confident or for that matter a bit over confident and Winners. Never with losers

- Dress properly and be neat & appealing

- Understand this - If you don't a confidence in yourself, how can you expect others to have confidence in you

Further in the book, he talks about how we can develop positive attitudes. Some very effective tips:

- Think yourself, every day as successful, loving, attractive, friendly, helpful, generous, courageous, and optimistic & having peace of mind

- Widen your outlook by looking at all sides of a question
- Toss out your prejudices no matter how deeply you may have clung to them in the past

Then he goes on explaining how we can exercise enthusiasm and inject a positive energy within ourselves and those around us.

Some of the other tips I liked are:

1. Care about something deeply - Set a goal & always be enthused about it. Let's say you want to reach IIT. Visualize yourself that you are studying in IIT. This will imbibe a positive energy in yourself & once you achieve your goal, your joys will know no bounds. In the case of long term goals, split it smaller goals and follow the above principle. Once you achieve a smaller goal, it will act as a boost to acieve the next goal, there by finally realizing your dream.

2. Get excited out loud - Boost your excitation with some incentive. Say if you complete your studies today, you will go out for a movie

3. Use a battery charger - Be a self charger. Always keep in mind never to loose that enthusiasm

4. When you smile at some one, you are likely to get a smile back. They will remember it in the next meeting.

5. If you are ready to say a couple of words like, your name sounds sweet or nice dress, it will probably spark a similar comment in return.

6. When you are introducing yourself, after the first introduction of names, ask again:

"What is your good name again, please? I want to be sure to remember it". And when you are told, repeat it aloud. The other person will love to hear it played back. I think this will definitely work in many cases.

Joe Girard, then talks about how we should use the "buyer's language" and managing our memory. In the later chapters, he talks on various things like the importance of telling truth, keeping the promises etc.

In this book, he devotes a chapter for you people alone, in which he discusses how the young people can come forward successfully ASAP without considering the lack of experience as hindarance. In an another that devoted for old/experienced people, he discusses some tips that they can follow instead of feeling they have become old.

In the last few chapters, he discusses about the various selling strategies for products and services. Finally the authors move to real selling!

I would recommend all of you to read the book, its worth reading & having a copy!

Going home; break for 2 weeks

2010-06-02T12:57:00.004+05:30

I am going home today with lots of wonderful memories about the orientation and expectations for the coming days. Classes start from June 18. So have some more time to enjoy :)

I haven't even taken out the books from the bag, they gave. Thats the spirit! ;)

So the blog will be inactive for some days...to be back with lots of posts about the IIMB life..

Orientation - Day 3

2010-05-30T20:52:00.005+05:30

After sleeping for 3.5 hours, I woke up again at around 7 AM; because I had to complete the assignment that Prof. Agrawal gave. After finishing the breakfast, we went to the P11 lecture hall for the session on introduction to case study method of learning by Prof. Jose. To our surprise, the Robin Hood case was really given by the professor and not entirely a mock(however, PPT was not intended by the professor, I guess). It was a nice discussion. Again going like fish market discussion at times. The session finished with the professor explaining about how is classes will be, how to do well with case analysis etc. Till now, I haven't spoken in the class. I guess, I have to change it ASAP since a decent percentage of the marks is for class participation. This was followed by a session on positive psychology and meditation by Mr. Sandeep, who is with HSBC for the past 18 years. He was mainly talking about how to find the happiness, importance of meditation etc. Again the topic was too subjective, and I was not able to agree with him in certain occasions. The class was again very active.

Before lunch, we had another short session on the learning resources available at IIMB by Naufal, SAC member. The results for the events happening over the last 3 days were announced. We won the first place for blogs. However, there was tight competition among the teams. So SAC members announced there will be another event - Mad Ads after lunch.
We were asked to assemble by 2PM & the product that our group had to market was imported potatoes at the rate of Rs 200/Kg. I guess, we were the most creative group. We grabbed the first place ending overall at second place.

That brought to the conclusion of the 3 day orientation of PGSEM 2010 batch.

It was really a nice experience - the enthusiasm & efforts put by our seniors, peers, the stay at the hostel....

We are lucky to have a break for two weeks; and the classes officially start from June 18.

Orientation - Day 2

2010-05-30T19:55:00.011+05:30

whoo! was awake till 3-3:30 AM, writing the experience, preparing for the skits etc. Actually, we had divided ourselves into two groups, one covering the skit discussions & the other covering blogging. After completing my blog post, visited the computer centre with the group leader, Prateep. Had a nice chat, and we departed for the day. We were asked to be at the lecture hall L1, sharp by the SAC members. So kept an alarm for 7 AM - virtually a sleep of around 3 hours.

I got up at around 6:30 AM itself, and took a quick batch. Our group had decided to assemble near the mess at 7:30 AM to discuss about the blogs & other events of the day. But only 7 out of the 19 turned up. After a small discussion, we went to the MDC(Management Development Centre) for breakfast. We reached the lecture hall by only 8:05 AM; and the hall was already closed. We were told a surprise quiz is going on and we will not be allowed to take it. After a while, a mid 30's looking like gentle man came out of the lecture hall (we were seeing him for the first time), and said - he will allow us to take the test with 5 minutes less the allotted time. We were puzzled, that whether he is a real professor.

The quiz was a horrible experience with lots of questions from Microeconomics & Finance(which are two of the three subjects for us). We were given only 10 minutes; but it was enough since most of the questions were un answerable and guessing is not allowed (negative marking was there). But fortunately, later we came to know that it is another mock from our seniors :) ; just to give the actual feel of how the surprise quizzes will be and the importance of punctuality even to the extend of 1 minute.

By 9 AM, Prof. Agrawal came to the lecture hall to take his session on "What I want to learn @ IIM-B". He started with some gyaan on what we can expect @ IIMB and what all inputs are required from our side. He stressed on the effort, commitment & enthusiasm, we need to put since, we will be in campus only for 2-3 days. Then he started picking some from the class, asking them to talk on their expectations. Then he stressed on having a vision, clear mind on what you want to achieve and keep asking yourself, what I am learning? Then he moved to very abstract topics like Concept of Ba & the The Fifth Discipline (by Peter M. Senge). I didn't understand properly what he was trying to teach and started getting bored. But it didn't seem to be the case for my peers. The discussion went on & on. After awhile, we were given an assignment, in which we have to analyse the problems, one's organization is facing and come up with suggestions to tackle it; both from a person point of view and organization point of view. The discussion went on for long that, it became kind of boring for many and also for the professor. He had to hard stop with another assignment he wanted to discuss in the class pending. So he asked us to submit it the next day by 9:30 AM.

After lunch, we were asked to assemble at the auditorium to continue with the sports and cultural events. Also the task was assigned to the group captains to form the teams for various sports events. Our seniors scheduled the events in such a way that many events will go in parallel, forcing everyone in the groups to participate in some event or the other. Brilliant! ; but this was a herculean task for us :(

Already we were last in the rankings; so we devised a strategy (wow, I have started using buzzwords ;) ) in such a way that we can have strong teams for some events at the least. It turned out to be the right strategy, we coming first in the volley ball, second in cricket & third in most of the other events like general quiz, logo quiz, basket ball, badminton etc. Sports events ended by around 6:30 and we were asked to assemble immediately at the auditorium to start the skit/talent show. Our script writer, Alok were one of the best among the bunch. Our skit became a wonderful entertainment for the audience with a dance from Rakshmi & a song from Prateep; eventually, we grabbing yet another first place. It was dinner time and, we were again asked to assemble at the auditorium by 9:30PM for treasure hunt and to pass over some information about a case study that we have to submit. Again a twist was there - the details about the case study will be given only after completing the treasure hunt. Since we have a session on case study analysis; the next day somewhere in the dilemma that whether its a seniors' activity or a real assignment. Some left for the day, remaining assembled for the treasure hunt at around 9:45PM(I think we missed again the aspect of punctuality :) ). We had to find 21 clues which can any be where in the campus(which sprawls acres). We decided to go in groups of four and Prateep coordinated the hunt through calls. Our seniors had in put in lot of efforts to make the hunt maximum fun, at the same time tough. An interesting thing happened during the hunt for my sub group. There was a clue "Welcome to HELL". After running to various places, we thought it might be somewhere in the main reception area, and started searching everywhere there, even the foot mats (Welcome is written in bold in these). Suddenly the security came to us and said, "How many people will come here and change these and search here; I have to put it back in the right position all the times :) ). Finally we were called back, since the time was only upto 11:30PM. Many clues couldn't be found by any one. However once again, we grabbed the second place.

Then the case study was given to us. It was about the problems faced by Robin Hood to maintain his quest. We were asked to analyze the case and submit a PPT with 12 slides. Since it was a Robin Hood case study, many of us thought, its again a seniors' activity only. The deadline was to submit it by next day, 8AM. We formed sub groups among us of 4 - Alok, Abhisek, Prashanth & Me. We started the discussion and went till 2:30AM, when we finally finished the PPT. I came to understand the importance of group brainstorming for a case. I slept once again at around 3:30 AM....

hmm...this is B School life...

Orientation - Day 1

2010-05-29T00:17:00.004+05:30

Though, we were supposed to report only at 12 noon in the hostel blocks; since I got a lift, I reached here by 11:45 AM. As expected, none were there, and even the security was not sure, why I am here. After explaining to him about my intention of entering the campus with a suit case and a laptop backpack; I was directed to the hostel block. After walking for sometime in lush green campus, I reached the hostel blocks. I was embarrassed to contact the hostel office since it was just after 12’O clock; so I just roamed around the hostel blocks. This was like another dream coming true.

After sometime, I decided to get the keys from the hostel office and got the first room - J201. Once I entered the room, I understood why Laxmi indicated to bring whatever you might need. Though, I have never stayed in the hostels till now; I was not completely surprised by the dusty floor, spider webs here and there. After cleaning them, I decided to roam in the floor; but couldn’t meet any one. It was just 12:30PM. I saw some guys in the third floor; but from the way they talked, I understood they should be PGP2/FPM guys; didn’t go to meet them (thought, why to get myself into trouble J ragging)

Finally, I met a guy, Sachin from Qualcomm who was also in my floor. From first sight, I thought he should be some less experienced guy like me; but later found out that he has around 9 years of experience. Then we decided to find the Amrutha Kalash. We roamed around for 15 minutes passing by it at the least once without knowing it. Then we started seeing one by one guys, checking in. We met more than 10 guys within 15 minutes and had a nice chat for half an hour. We went later for the lunch, where I met a very senior guy from my college (10 years senior) who was fortunate enough of attending two orientations in this week (PGSEM & his kid’s J ). By the way, I belong to Group C - Condors which also boasts of two entrepreneurs. After lunch, we went to the auditorium, where we were greeted with 3 books - Financial Accounting, Contemporary Strategic Management & Microeconomics.

Later we were asked to fill the information form & was followed by photo sessions. Our seniors concluded the session by little gyaan and asked us to assemble back in the auditorium by 4PM in formals. Since Laxmi had sent couple of mails asking us to be in business formals, I borrowed the suit from my cousin. I was excited to wear them, since it was my first time in life. I wore the full suit and went back to the auditorium right on time putting me in yet another embarrassing situation with very minimal people in business formals. From 4PM onwards, the gyaan & presentations started from our senior SAC members explaining about the various committees, course rigor etc. Before coming to campus itself, I wanted to join some committee; so was keenly listening to them. There are roughly around 6 sub committees within SAC- each having a secretary, coordinator & volunteers. I guess, I will try for branding & communication committee or forum for industry/alumni interaction. The session continued for long that our seniors had to hard stop & ask us to go for snacks. We didn’t leave them during the snacks; attacked them with lot more questions and concerns. By this time, I understood the batch profile; it ranged from 2.5 years to 15 years (later, I found there is a person with around 20 years of experience; I cannot believe it, and still don’t; have to meet him). The cautions that were given by the seniors and interaction with some of the peers put me again for a short time in a dilemma, whether this program is really suitable for a guy like me with less than 3 years of experience. My worries got a little augmented, when a guy with a similar profile was also in dilemma, and said I may have to rethink; but I changed my mind immediately and have decided to go with this whole heartedly and make use of IIMB to my level best because I don’t want to miss IIMB.

The inauguration ceremonies started at around 6:45 PM, with Prof Agrawal inviting even some of the new PGSEMers to light and participate in the inauguration ceremony. This was followed by the inaugural address from Prof. Agrawal welcoming officially to the program. During the speech, he mentioned 843 students have so far graduated from IIMB in PGSEM. This was followed by a very inspirational talk by Mr. Harsh Manglik, chairman, NASSCOM & also the CEO of Accenture, India. He talked on various areas starting from IT to health sector to CSR activities that are needed to make a better India. He mentioned that NASSCOM expects IT industry to be worth $175 billion. He continued his speech, covering leadership, elimination of poverty, making the under privileged with the help of CSR activities and the role of IT in it. One of the key that attracted everyone was the five points that he asked to keep in mind for success - 1) Dream & nurture it 2) Courage (without courage, you cannot make your dreams come true) 3) Apply the thoughts 4) Empathy & 5) Integrity. This was followed by a speech from the IIMB Director Prof. Chandra who again welcomed us & promised whatever help he can do to make our stay @ IIMB better & interesting. Then Agrawal Sir invited Prof. Singh who gave a very interesting talk which kept us laughing & attracted to him. I guess he will be teaching us some social sciences related courses.

During dinner, I met some more peers; though could not remember all names. After dinner, we were asked to assemble near auditorium for the fun events. It started with anthakshari, which we won easily. This was followed by Dumb-C, which we couldn’t do well; leaving us last. But we hope to bounce back tomorrow. We have been asked to write about our experience so far and also plan our skit for tomorrow night. Also we have to be at the auditorium at 8 AM sharp for remaining activities. Overall, very good experience so far, impressive organization and helping mentality from the seniors present. Tomorrow is going to be the real start, with Prof. Agrawal talking about what we want to learn at IIMB and the house cup from afternoon onwards.

Team Condors; Here We Come....

2010-05-26T17:23:00.000+05:30

Only orientation is starting this Friday; however the team work have already started.
We have finalized our team name, leader & war cry. I am also fortunate to be part of the group having two entrepreneurs.

Wow! I am very excited

Group Name - Condors
Group Leader - Prateep Kumar Sarkar
War Cry - Halla Bol!!

First Mail from PGSEM Office

2010-05-25T23:11:00.003+05:30

I got the first mail from PGSEM Office today. It was about the inauguration & orientation schedule. It also exposed the mail ids of PGSEMers. Hence I started spamming also :)

The inauguration is by Mr. Harsh Manglik, Chairman, NASSCOM. He is one of my first dignitaries, I have seen so far. To be exact, 3rd or 4th. Others include IBM India head Mr Shanker Anna Swamy, Grady Booch, Sanjay Nayak, CEO - Tejas Networks etc.

The mail from PGSEM office was followed by a mail from Laxmi (I guess a SAC Member), explaining about the dress code and later about the groups that we have been divided into. I am in Group C. In my group 18 members are there. We have to find a leader, team name, caption & form sub groups of 3.

Wow!

So far the response from the group is less; But I guess by tomorrow, we will decide on all fronts.

Inauguration Schedule - Post Graduate Program in Software Enterprise Management 2010 Batch

My Expectations from PGSEM

2010-05-25T09:31:00.001+05:30

Well having said in my previous posts, whatever be the negative comments, I got for this course; I am going forward with it. I believe if I plan accordingly and give me best, I should be able to draw maximum out of this course.

Most of the ones, to whom I discussed with, advised me to take the course with a caution & pinch of salt. So I have rather lowered my expectations. All that I am hoping to get from this course is:

- Interaction with some of the best faculty in management education in the world
- Interaction & build some life long relations with my peers
- Make use to the maximum whatever, IIM provides a PGSEMer
- Be part of some committees and do some very good work
- Win, or at the least participate in some B School competitions
- Study well (It seems very hard, with my project becoming more tighter) and try to get an exchange program (I guess, again hard for a PGSEMer); So these two are on kinda lower priority :)
- Try my level best to consider this opportunity as a "Earn while you learn" rather than "Learn while you earn" :) (Hope, my managers are not reading this post...)

My intention is to gain maximum as I can from the learning front, try to position myself during the course itself and try for various profiles that I am interested in. But GOD only knows, if I will also become just another Dev/Test manager if the work schedule is tight for me to even plan.
But I tend to believe in positive, because I am a pessimist by nature and I don't want to screw my IIMB journey....

PGSEM v/s Other MBAs

2010-05-24T10:29:00.001+05:30

PGSEM v/s Other MBAs

Paid Fees; All Set!

2010-05-23T01:00:00.000+05:30

Yesterday, I gave the DD at PGP admission office. Though no acknowledgment was given they mentioned it will be sent soon. I also met a future classmate, Suresh; guess he is also from Kerala :) , though not confirmed yet. Also joined in a couple of groups including PGP :)
Got a blazer from my cousin for the time being...
Whooo! I am all set for the inauguration & orientation program for the Friday!!

Book Review : IBM RUP Reference & Certification Guide

2010-05-22T17:06:00.001+05:30

IBM Rational Unified Process Reference and Certification Guide: Solution Designer (RUP) by Ahmad K. Shuja & Jochen Krebs

If you are banking on this book just for the certification, I have to say there is not much of dump set kind of question sets as the title may suggest. But from the understanding of RUP, this book serves the purpose.

If you are new to RUP; this is a good introductory book. If you are already a practitioner, I would say its not worth! however still for the certification purpose, you can glance through...
However, the book covers in detail the UMA, various phases & disciplines in RUP.

The book have some good sections on tailoring RUP & Rational Method Composer. The sample examination is a good one.

Joker in the pack

2010-05-21T20:21:00.000+05:30

I was very excited, when my waiting list got converted. In fact I was praying like no one else in world for a week, to get the WL converted. I will be God fearing ever :)
As soon as I got the convert letter, I started informing others with at most enthusiasm. Predominantly, the response was very postive, inspiring & accolades. But then, I started getting mixed reactions. A sample

Me : Hey dude, I got into IIMB for its part time program, PGSEM
X   : wow! great man. Congrats!
Me : Thank you..
X   : its a 3 year course...conducted during weekends...right?
Me: Yeah, 2.5 years; Fridays & Saturdays.
X   : hmm...part time may not be that good; why don't you try for a full time again?...its much better option.
Me: Yeah, but iam fed up of writing CAT; and i don't want to miss IIMB
X : hmm, how much is the fees?
Me: 9L
X : Oh man! does your company sponsor you?
Me: No
X : Oh! will IIM provide placement support?
Me: No
X : awful! are you crazy to opt this?

These dialogues didn't hurt me much since they were more 3rd parties, and I continued to believe PGSEM is my choice! But that slowly changed, when I met 3-4 guys who already did it recently. To my surprise, the opinion was negative from the ROI perspective. But all agreed with the amount & quality of learning you will get. Some even mentioned, some companies will even not consider you at all :(

A awful dilemma!!!

It has always been my case throughout my life :) I am person, who goes behind brands. Not getting into IIT/NIT was my worry during college days. Fortunately, that changed, when I got into one of the best product development teams in world. I don't want to repeat that again (I am not sure, whether I will even reach near IIMs if I write CAT again). Moreover, my dream is to learn from some of the best faculty, participate in exciting discussions, be part of wonderful infrastructures :) So my heart always said to go ahead with this offer. Only things that was worrying me was the huge amount invested and the negative opinion about its acceptance in the industry. But I have decided to go ahead with the offer. I believe any sort of investement for an education will not go in vain, and that too in a world class, renowned institute like IIM Bangalore.

IIM Bangalore, Thank You for accepting me :) Here I come...

I have decided to be a joker in the pack! (title of the book about Life@IIMB by Ritesh Shram & neeraj Pahlajani)

Finally, IIMB welcomes me!

2010-05-21T09:38:00.001+05:30

May 18 (Tuesday)

Is it a miracle? or is it my destiny?
My waiting list got converted!!!! (even WL1 didn't get converted for the last 2years)
I got a mail from PGSEM office that, I am selected for the PGSEM session 2010. My joy knew no bounds :)
Yes, finally a dream come true.. I will be part of IIM B ( at the least on a part time basis)

Thanks to all who supported, helped & motivated me!

PGSEM Interview

2010-05-20T00:42:00.000+05:30

The interview was after one month on April 25 (Sunday)
My Slot was 9AM

Essay - Challenges faced by Indian IT industry to maintain the growth in the next decade

Wrote some good points. But later noticed that, my concentration was more on the challeges faced by an firm, rather than the industry as a whole. Guess, that was ok :)

Interview - 2nd one to be called
Panel - 2 Young guys (1 working in Yahoo; other may be a faculty)

1. Tell us something about yourself?
2. What do you blog on? (I mentioned blogging in introduction; A long discussions on blogs)
3. Oh!, you blog about online marketing, can you compare text & video marketing?
4. What is your take on video marketing?
5. Who is the market leader in video marketing? (Said Google; corrected me saying, for you information, its Yahoo)
6. What do you think is the rigor of PGSEM?
7. What are the adjustments and preparation one may need to take for this course?
8. How many hours will you think will be needed for this course preparation?
9. Why PGSEM and not PGP?
10. What do you expect to gain from this course? (guess, made some mistake in the middle, one panelist kept on asking more and more)
11. Which area are you interested in?
12. Can you explain your job profile?
13. Do you have client interaction?
14. What are the challenges you face when interacting with the customers?
15. Why product management?
16. What is the difference between services marketing and product marketing? (Long discussion, finally they mentioned, "No, you are contradicting the two; you seems to be not clear on the exact difference between the two?" :D )
17. What are the challenges of a senior manager, say having 10 years of experience?
18. What do you think are the necessary qualities of him? (Mentioned 4-5)
19. That’s all, only four qualities?, what about presentation skills? :D
20. What are your hobbies?
21. Which CSR activities of the IBM do you participate in?
22. In the SOP, you mentioned that every one tends to put the blame on system or Government for social issues, what differently do you do? (They grilled me on this :) )
23. What all individual contributions can be done to resolve child labor?
24. no, no...but that didn't the issue you are taking about (i was talking about child labor)
25. some ethical questions (finally they said, what ever you are saying will help only to lessen the guilt feelings, not the actual problem)
26. We don't have any more questions, do you want to ask something to us?

PGSEM Test

2010-05-19T00:20:00.000+05:30

The PGSEM test was comparatively an easier one - A test which tested more speed, rather than concentrating on tougher problems.

As soon as I came out of the exam hall, I felt relieved, since I had done well in the exam. But as soon as I met some friends & colleagues, that relief went away - everyone felt the same :)

The results came on March 12. It was mentioned that the shortlisted candidates will be emailed. I checked only my emails again & again (hos pessimistic!) and thought I am not shortlisted. But on Monday (March 15), I just thought of visiting IIMB site and to my surprise, my application number 14849 was there... Yahoo!

SOP for PGSEM

2010-05-18T00:20:00.000+05:30

Even though the questions were not changed this year, it was a daunting task for me to write the answers for all five questions - in some cases, 150 words becoming not enough & in some other, way too high.
With the help from friends especially Rad and Aditya, I managed to complete a good SOP.

The questions were:

1. How do you see the PGSEM helping you in your goals? (150 words)
2. How would the PGSEM classroom benefit by your presence? (150 words)
3. What are two major achievements in your career? (150 words)
4. What is a major shortcoming you wish to discuss? What have you learned from it? (150 words)
5. What is one issue dear to you? How do you see it resolved? (200 words)

Preface

2010-05-17T02:02:00.000+05:30

Well, I will start with a little about me....

I am basically from Trivandrum (Thiruvananthapuram), the Capital City of God’s Own Country, Yeah Kerala!! I know, as soon as you hear Kerala; Mallu, Communism, Hartals & Strikes will be the first things coming to your mind. But hey! Kerala is also famous for ISRO,Technopark,TCS,Backwaters, Sancturies,NIT,IIMK,…

OK. Enough about Kerala :)

Iam basically an Electrical & Electronics Engineer from the prestigious college of Kerala - College of Engineering Thiruvananthapuram[CET] by degree & a Software Engineer by profession. I graduated in 2007 landing up with two software job offers from two MNCs….chose IBM, since it was a better option with a flaky offer in India Software Labs.

Coming to the MBA Preparation journey……

I can say I am a CAT veteran, but more a failed one. Well, the journey began roughly in April-May 2005, when me & my friends started thinking about What next?? . We were just sophomores, not even learned 25% of Electrical Engineering. But somehow, me and couple of my friends like Venki & Vignesh thought, Electrical is not our cup of tea. So what else? Is it Computer Science? Is it Electronics? Is it something else?

One fine morning in the month of April, Venki called me and said his brother’s friend got into Citigroup. Though I had heard a lot about Citi Bank, it was the first time I heard about it as Citigroup. I decided to learn more about it & did a google search. I got the answer -"International financial conglomerate with operations in consumer, corporate, and investment banking and insurance”. I spent half a day reading about citi.

Next day, at college there was a talk on how to crack CAT & get into IIMs. It was organized by ISTE & a senior was talking about the topic. He himself had cracked CAT with 99+ percentile & got into IIM-C. It was at 4:30 PM after the classes. During the lunch time, though the discussion among us started with girls, movies, it slowly moved to the talk that is going to happen & about the guy :) . That was when I first heard about CAT[Common Admission Test] & IIMs[Indian Institute of Managements]. The second thing, I heard was its the toughest exam in the world to crack & its easier to get into Harvard compared to IIM-A

The talk was a nice one, with the guy explaining how he prepared, his interview experience and all. That night, my main thought was how about trying for MBA? Is it for me?

An introvert by nature, the most daunting thought was , is MBA all about speak, speak & speak?. Is it only for those who are good in adzaps & Best manager contests?

I got the answer to these questions within a couple of google search. Its partially YES & NO.

Then I did some research on various specializations one can take during the course. I came to know about pagayguy.com , the paradise for MBA preparation. But I decided to take it & started preparing fro CAT. The journey continued for three CATs, 2006,2008 & 2009; all ending up less than 95%ile

By CAT 2009, I almost lost my self confidence; but decided to write IIMB-PGSEM test for the session starting 2010......

To be continued.....