FADM

Hello Visitor,

You can listen to Professor Mark Finn's comments about Section C. Audio is not very clear.

Please DO NOT send this link to ANYONE. This is only for ISB Students and Close-Friends. Dont forget to SIZE the window to small.




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Mama's Equilibrium Price for Soma

If you've read the Brave New World by Huxley, then you can skip the next few interesting lines.

In Brave New World, happiness derives from consuming mass-produced goods, sports such as Obstacle Golf and Centrifugal Bumble-puppy, promiscuous sex, "the feelies", and most famously of all, a supposedly perfect pleasure-drug, soma.

Soma is not really a utopian wonderdrug at all. It does make you high. Yet it's more akin to a hangoverless tranquilliser or an opiate - or like Prozac - than a truly life-transforming elixir.

Anyway, so what has ISB or rather the students at ISB got to do with Soma?

Some of it goes like this....

-Find the profit associated with building a plant to produce Soma. Gosh, someone is asking me calculate the profit from illegal trade. What if the answer is "Ek Peti" for a Soma?

-If Soma costs zero to produce (for god's sake, can anyone produce anything at zero cost, except for Advice?), then discuss effect of profitability.

-Consider effects on profits when a firm that sells Soma, backward integrates and acquires the manufacturer. Sounds like one of those "Bhai Log" situations.

So this was all that happened during the last three days. Two individual assignments and one group assignment, all with a Monday deadline, was everything for everyone.
Amidst all this, we had our leadership deveopment program. I'd rather speak a lot about this because soft skills training is something I like. Maybe a few years down the line, I'll do some training of this sort for a lot of people.

The Sunday started off pretty well. We were organised into groups. What I would have wanted is that people from different sections be clubbed for the session rather than having people from the same section. This would have given chance for more diversity and sometimes its really boring to see people form your section for anything and everything. When will we get to know the other people?

Group Discussions are always a bit chaotic. I've been through N number of GD's,also similar programs like this one and I knew what I was looking for.

Effective Communication cannot happen just like that. Even when NASA lost its space shuttle - Challenger, the major problem that was faced by the NASA Authorities, well this came out after a huge investigation that was conducted by famous people like Richard Feynman. It was quoted organizational problems. The fundamental problem was improper communication between the contractors and NASA Engineers.

The situation in our classroom was nothing great. People did have a lot of comm. problems and things werent that much in control. But it was fun. A lot of people actually got back at one another through the feedback, which gave some of us a feeling of being in a war.

Another important event that is worth mentioning is Schumacher's Stunt at the Monaco Grand Prix. Having taken the pole position during saturday's practice, Schumi was quite sure that Alonso who was only a second or less behind would definitely catch up during the last minute and probably get the pole. So, with less than one minute to finish, Schumi parked his car on one of the turns. Though at that point, it seemed as if it was a driver error, the intentions were quite clear. As far as Monaco is concerned, it is a circuit where drivers CANNOT overtake. Pole positions and Pit Stops determine your position in the race. And this is mainly because the Monaco Circuit is on the normal city roads. Isnt that fun. F1 cars zipping past your apartment? So, for that Schumi did on Saturday, Ferrari was penalised and Schumi started from the Pits.

Till now, there has been a party every weekend. I thought that Junta would be studying for the Exams and doing assingments this weekend, but one section had some birthday party with music playing till about half past two. But I am quite sure that this weekend, there will be NO PARTY.

Will someone prove me wrong?

Brand Equity

What is Brand Equity?

Its the name of a supplement in Economic Times.

Its also a Quiz conducted by Derek.

Apart from all that nonsense, it has a very strong meaning. To make us understand this was the purpose of today's class. All sections were invited to the main auditorium today at quarter past eight in the morning for a two hour lecture on Brand Equity and the importance of Brands for various companies.

Infosys has a Brand Value of 20,000 crores. Isnt that amazing.

Well, lets forget what Brand Equity is going to teach you or me. On the lighter side, I must say that a number of people were having a great time in the audi. Most of them were making best use of the time available to sleep. I managed to capture some of those wonderful moments.

Your vote for Director PlaCom

We had a Soap-Box Presentation for the post of Director Placement Committee. I seriously dont know how to judge all the presentations that happened today because I too dont have a clear picture. So, I decided I'd rather spend my time clicking photographs of people in the Auditorium.

What I am really surprised about is that there were hardly 100 people in the Auditorium. PlaComm is THE most important Director position in the whole Graduate Student Board. In fact, its considered to be a much more responsible role than that of the GSB President.

You'd probably give me the reason of having to submit two assignments the next day. And I can also understand your confusion that ten other groups have calculated ten different economic values for the same problem and this is definitely giving you the shivers. But, as the Administration rightly said today, "This is ISB and its like this everyday".

So, for all those who missed an important Soap-Box today, you can participate in my Poll by CLICKING HERE

This is just for fun. My knowledge of Stats is very limited. I will not use this information to predict any pattern because I simply dont know how to do it.

Hopefully, if time permits, then I will write some more posts about the PlaCom and other Directors after reading their manifestos.

Spam Email Deluge

Its too late to write a proper blog. So today's blog content is borrowed from a friend by name Anuj in my section. People sometimes call him Anju.

Okay, the stuff below is a mock on the number of emails that have been flowing into every inbox over the weekend. So, we got this email today from Anuj and I am just sharing it with the rest of the world.

Start of Content

Hey all,

Sorry for the spam but I had to make sure that morons like you know that there is such an extraordinary person roaming among mortals like you and thus why I am the best fit for X post

X post requires unstinted dedication even if it means working 24/7. In my career I have worked for 28 hours a day and they named the new month created as a result after me.

X post requires one with leadership qualities and a vision of the future. For leadership qualities, I led a team that made so much quality improvements that it puts the stuff that bob stine taught in class to shame. As far as vision of the future goes, I regularly visit my soothsayer.

X post should have a person with a heart. I have such a big heart that I am willing to make so much “sacrifice” for you idiots. I am sure my photo will be put next to Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela in the annals of history.

Ohh and by the way I was the Cof (Chief of faff) of my previous company.

I am convinced that my extraordinary god-like qualities have induced you into a sense of inferiority and thus you will vote for me.

Yours Truly
AAA BBB

P.S. I would not have needed to send this mail to you whankers but there was no option as my soothsayer had an accident.

End of Content

Freakonomics ???

It all began at 1500 HRS when the different sections of the question cum answer paper were distributed. Three sections and in each one I had to certify that I will agree to abide by the rules of the Honour Code or whatever.

So, the first thing that struck my mind was why am I writing the same thing three times. Why cant we just write one and staple it to the final bunch? Do we have a fuzzy logic behind writing the basic details on every form? Please illuminate.

The initial test was on our ability to judge whether certain conditions in the economy were believable or not. Its not like the 0 or 1 in the AND or OR gate. Its definitely much more than that.

Section B made me realise that I had better things to do in life than sitting with 50 other people inside a room and trying to figure out what the next step was. My only mantra for Economics was still working. Given any equation anywhere in the question paper, try to multiply that with the Price or Quantity, then differentiate and equate the same to zero. You will ultimately end up with some things that make sense and which might also make sense to the TA who is correcting your paper. So, by some probability you will get grace marks.

Section C was a complete disaster. Only after submitting my paper did I find out that I had to attend only one question out of the two. Why didnt someone say that aloud? How are we supposed to note small changes in typing when we are solving huge problems in a monopoly? And guess what the problem was all about - selling kidneys and calculating the demand for the same. So, in a way, I was estimating the demand for a healthcare mafia gang.

About 25 minutes to go when the TA announces that we have just 10 mins. All of a sudden, Junta got irritated and explained to him that it was a 90 min test. But what the hell guys, there wasnt anything to write in that paper!!!

In the end I was all smiles because this was comparable to the same feeling I used to get from Open Book Tests in BITS. What goes around definitely comes around !!!

So what did Junta have to say about all this? Well, most of them were zonked!!!

What is the degree of monopoly was one question - HIGH was one's answer.

Another question had a series of sub-questions and it said - answer the following if you think that some condition is YES. Well, there are a lot of smart people here. Many of them just wrote NO.

Overall, it was great fun I would say. From world prices, kidney demand, book selling and some N other effin things, we had a taste of blood.

This is just the beginning. Perhaps, the beginning of the end.

New Benchmarks

ISB has broken all records it seems. In terms of the number of people who have been admitted this year, scores, the gmat the diversity, the number of women and a host of other factors.

I did read that people have rejected B-Schools like Yale, CMU, Purdue, Columbia, Stanford GSB, UCLA and Insead, which is a big surprise because if I had got any of these, I would have definitely gone there. Let me tell you - I didnt apply to any of these schools. This is just my personal opinion. No offence to anyone.

I hope that the people who have rejected these schools have one main reason as COST. This has to be a reason because ISB is the only Indian School that brings faculty from the best US Schools to teach courses to students at afoordable cost. Going to Kellogg (that's after you manage to get the admit) and spending close to 50 lacs INR on education is a tough decision, provided the fact that banks here hesitate to give you loans for such enormous amounts. In that way, this place is great because every course has an International Faculty involvement. So, we dont miss the american experience to some extent.

Apart from this I would accept another reason being one's choice to live and work in India as the country's economy is just expanding and developing so rapidly. Which is also okay because there is no point in you going all the way to Yale and then get back to Asian Paints for a job. You'll spend the rest of your life repaying your loans.

As such, the MBA is an American Concept. So studying in an American School would make a lot of sense - in terms of getting maximum exposure and internationalism.
Then the other thing being building an international network, which is very self-explanatory.

So, again, in my personal opinion (I would like to reiterate this a number of times because I dont want people to come back to me with arguments), schools like Insead or Columbia or Stanford GSB definitely score over ISB in a lot of factors. People who have chosen ISB against these schools have their own reasons for the same. We are not here to debate that.

ISB still has a long way to go to reach that level. The US B-Schools actually stand for the right definition of Educational Institutions because they have evolved through so many years of research.

We are very new to the world. We have done the right thing till today and we will continue to excel. Very soon, we will get into that Top 50 B-Schools in the World list produced by Financial Times. And now that I am here, I will give all my enthu in the efforts to bring ISB to the international play-ground.

Ice-cream for Thought

Well, when I read about the term LION'S SHARE, I imagined how it would be if I could visualise the same.

And Aho!! I have a dear friend who is contributing to my imagination.

Men of Honor

It was the day of the Soap-Box. I had major plans for the day. I thought I will be the traditional politician - wear a dhoti, white shirt and black glasses. Just for the fun part of it. But plans changed due to lack of time. Maybe some other day.

I was a bit late to the Presentation. So, I missed the introduction - when the whole stage was being set and the rules were being laid out.

Each candidate was given 10 minutes to present what they had in mind and then there will be a rapid fire question round.

When one candidate was delivering his speech, the others were expected to stay out of the Auditorium because rapid fire questions had to be repeated for each one of them.

Mr.Personality was the first one to begin. Starting off in a very calm and composed manner, he made himself clear on a number of issues. For a moment I thought that there were too many things on his agenda and I almost ruled out that he was going to ask for excess time. But things ironed out a bit and came to good finish.

Rapid fire questions were about favorite political leader, business leader, non-political or business and things like that.

Next came Mr.Consultant. Consultant was not happy about the fact that there were just two candidates before he decided to be the third one. His views were that the Student Body was not being fully represented by just these other two candidates. Fair Enough - only to an extent. His presentation was more or less to the same effect of the previous candidate. I felt that the focus was more towards academic issues, which is also good.

Last person to present his case was Mr.Passion. The way the whole thing started off with Mr.Passion was very good. It took me time to understand that he was actually conveying his views on a variety of issues in the form of a story. But, as time passed, people got restless and also the story began to drag. It felt like someone was spinning a yarn.

Anyway, all of us appreciate that the three people who came on stage had the courage to do so. Hence, a big salute to all your efforts.

All of us were surprised that the three of them chose the same non-political/business leader.

And two of them did not know Reena Lamba!!! If someone wanted to make a one-minute decision as to whom to vote, then they should consider the candicate whose answer to this question was right. I think one did not know the person and the other one made a guess that this Lamba was one of those Archer Lamba's.

Common issues that were addressed by all candidates was the way academics worked.

I wonder why no one proposed that they would work with the Institute to make the ISB MBA a two-year program. That would have been revolutionary.

Suggestions like e-learning, more international stuff were key points.

Everyone talked about food. But what the hell is wrong with the food? The only problem with the food is the strange names that we have for the same items. Thats the fun part. The serious problem I have seen is the way the logistics is being handled. That might be a place to improve. But the food is definitely good. A bit of oil can be reduced. Otherwise, changing prices for meals or cutting down stuff, allowing students to change plans as and when required is definitely a bad idea. First of all, its not cost effective. And Sarovar is not a charity organisation to provide food at subsidized rates.

Ideally, the loan each person has taken should factor in the food too. We call ourselves part of an International Business School and we are not prepared to spend even one dollar per meal?

And imagine yourself running Sarovar. If we implemented all what the students wanted, then I will guarantee you that you will freak out within a month and call it quits.

Extra coffee machines and maybe an ALL NIGHT CANTEEN will benefit a lot of people.

I can also agree to the fact that the Convenience Store is totally inconvenient. This point was made by one of the candidates and this issue can be looked at more seriously.

Health - yes. One thing ISB should do is write a small paragraph about Chicken Pox in the Admissions Letter so that people will be prepared for it when they land up here. This shouldnt be a total surprise.

So thats pretty much what happened today evening. The audience had a lot of questions. Though the answers werent too convincing (I should also mention the fact that some of the candidates actually did not understand the question and were totally deviating), the three of them managed a good show.

Cant miss this!!

So, our section is discussing about planning a trip to some tourist spot in Hyd and the person who shared this idea also shared the fact that she was in no mood to study and was in sheer need of external motivation or a challenge for that matter.

So, our man, actually my batchmate from engg college, and one of the very few on campus who share the privilege of being called CLEAN SHAVEN in the true sense, sends out an email. And here's it.

" Design a sample to test whether we will reach Husain Sagar Lake by 8:30 PM. Will you use hypothesis testing or confidence interval? Explain. Use break-even study too. (We shouldn’t reach too late that we miss the boating – that will be a total waste. Try to quantify the cost of missing the boating thingy.). "

I am definitely sure that I will not be able to answer this question even if it comes up in the Stats paper with the relevant information. But, I can now imagine to what extent courses can influence people's minds that they come up with some of the weirdest questions.

For God's sake, someone wanted to arrange for a Picnic !!!

Famous or Infa....

The Election fever was getting into everyone.

Dont know what Rapper was thinking. But then, he organised for a message to be sent out to his friends expressing his desire to get a drive ino people's minds with respect to the elections.

Someone in his group of so-called trusted lot decided to think otherwise. Since, we dont know his name, we will call him Hollow Man. So, Hollow Man sends the same private email to someone else who doesnt qualify to read this email. Now, this is the third person and we will call him Mr.Four.

Mr.Four sends the same to his group of friends and also decides to give a flavor of humor to the message, but doesnt manage to achieve that effectively.

Amidst all this, either Hollow Man or Mr.Four had sent Rapper's initial email to other people in the Student Community, who took things to their full advantage and started abusing (not really abusing, but making the best of someone's worst situation).

Ms.Brown had to take the initiative of bringing out a reasonable answer to what had happened all this while, but things got out of control and the backfire started.

In less than 10 mins after all this had started, Mr.Bore displayed his writing skills. And then, the mails kept pouring in for a while until the Rapper acknowledged for what had happened all this while.

The two days that went by

This weekend has been really crazy. The Eco Assignment started off at a good pace. Definitely not for me!!! I was zonked looking at the questions. I kept seeing stars. For a moment, it was Total Over Head Transmission.

We call it simply OHT in BITS. OHT is a very common phenomenon in BITS. It happens once in 2 days for almost 90% of the Junta on campus during one class or the other. Few courses to remember from the first two years - Mechanics and Optics, Mechanics of Solids, Complex Numbers etc.

So, at ISB, a lot of Eco Stuff was OHT at the speed of light. But my group has figured out a lot of stuff about the assignment and during our kick-off meeting, they gave valuable inputs to arrive at the right solution.

Taking half of that in my mind and the rest in my notebook, I began an interesting journey towards Economic(s) Enlightenment.

Under the shadow of the CLOUD and a few strong branches, I started seeing marginal benefits.

Soon, there was a wind. The branches got tangled and by the time the arguments were resolved, my brain had reached the ShutDown Point.

So, thats the story of my hands with Economics.

Every Vote Counts!!!

The Schedule for the elections is out. The Graduate Student's Board will be elected during the course of next week.

During our orientation and pre-terms, there was a LITTLE GIRL who was walking around in the Dining Hall carrying a sheet of paper asking for signatures. We figured out that she was fighting for the cause of having a mirror in everyone's room. And now, I heard she is preparing to stand for the post of the GSB President!!!

Another guy took his time and effort to talk to the Sarovar Guys to see if something could be done to change the way the lunch and dinner system worked. Also to see if anything else could be implemented that would be beneficial to the Students. But yes, Sarovar gave diplomatic answers and played it safe to their benefit. And guess, what - I heard that guy is also standing for the post of GSB President.

A third person made sure that he was the first on the "Highest Number of Mails sent to Students07 by a single person" List - Communicated a lot of stuff to the batch as much as he could. Also arranged a party for the batch. I still haven't seen this guy on campus. I wonder who this Mystery Man is. And this time, you are definitely right! He is also standing for the post of GSB President.

So, why not we get an amazing guy who did not do all of this or any of this in the last few weeks, but who has the personality to be called as President (even in physical aspects - not too short or emaciated), one who can represent the batch in its true sense.

And then get him to make these above-mentioned three people to work for him?? After all, work gets done right? And someone needs to make their hands dirty. So, if three people have already done that, then why not make use of them in the future?

We have a hope and I believe we can make this happen.

I have always felt that a representative of the Students should be someone who every other person in the batch can look up to and feel proud of, for having elected such a person.

Visit to Microsoft

Yesterday's dinner was at Microsoft. Awesome Place!!! The whole atmosphere is truly International. Some of the guys told me that Infy Campus in Mysore and Bangalore is very similar. i-flex certainly doesn't have a campus and even if they did, it would never be any close to what I experienced yesterday.

What you'll look like in the future

Accenture have just officially unveiled their "Persuasive Mirror" today, the idea being that instead of being a true mirror, a camera picks up your image and after some processing, shows you how you will look in the future.

Now, if that isn't terrifying enough, a small army of cameras in your home will have been picking up your eating, sleeping, smoking, sunbathing and exercising habits. The information gathered from these cameras will then influence how your future-face is processed, i.e. more wrinkles due to too much sun, yellow teeth from smoking, etc. A virtuous week of course should be rewarded by a more flattering middle-aged you.

For more details Click Here.

37 Point 5

37.5 is the latest buzzword on campus.

What's all this? Well, 37.5 is the average score of all Groups that have submitted the last week's Economics Assignment.

So, what is the maximum one could have got? Surprisingly, the maximum marks available to score was 38.

The picture shows a few of my friends eagerly checking whether they got the highest possible score or not.

On that note, we come to an end of today's events.

The Marketing case was discussed today in three classes, if I am not wrong. Apparently, groups had to choose one of the three marketing options that were available to a particular paint company and justify the same with relevant facts and figures.

In the first section, 40% of people chose Option A and the rest chose Option B.
In the next one, 100% chose option B and finally in our section, 7% chose Option A and another 7% chose Option C. The rest were hands-down for Option B. Atleast, I can say that we had a better diversity compared to the other sections, which also led to exciting discussions.

Our GodMother: My Inspiration

CHENNAI: World Federation of Tamil Youth (WFTY) on Tuesday said it has nominated Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for the Nobel Peace Prize, 2006.

The federation has nominated Jayalalithaa's name from India, Sharjah and the US, for her "dedicated efforts in ushering Peace, Performance, Progressiveness, Productivity, Partnership and Prosperity for the people of the state during the last five years," its president Dr Vijay G Prabhakar said.

"We would also be celebrating April 14, the Tamil New Year as 'Selvi J Jayalalithaa day' in 15 countries, highlighting the progress of Tamil Nadu under her leadership," he said.

The federation's India chapter president Dr R Mylvaganan presented a DVD titled "J Governance" produced by the organisation.

Jasmine Tea from China

A semi-fermented tea, gently touched with Jasmine blossoms picked at the peak of their bloom. Makes a sweet brew with an exotically fragrant aroma.

Picture taken at my friend's place in London where I had this Tea.

Monopolistic Economies

Laziness and general sickness takes up whatever time is remaining from the time that is spent on discussions and proof reading of assignments.

So, I decided that today I should definitely blog.

Today's class on economics was about Monopoly. The only Monopoly knew was the game that we used to play in BITS during my last semester. Placement season and people had absolutely nothing to do other than attending PPT's, giving tests and interviews. Courses were taken for the sake of getting a few credits, otherwise people were vela in life.

And then Monopoly came into our lives. A great strategy game, wherein we bought cities all over the country, built houses, established businesses and managed portfolios. No, this wasnt that simple. It was based on masterplans, joint ventures between favorable opponents and a number of other factors. In fact, I would say that it needed a lot of business acumen. And the whole thing ran into few days too. People would break for lunch or dinner and continue various business transactions.

At ISB, Monopoly was a bit different.

When it came to a discussion, we were asked to imagine a scenario where there is just one firm in the market. Immediately, our doctor sahib contributes to the class participation by telling - SAROVAR at ISB. Junta is impressed and starts the usual applause.

(the rest of the world please note that Sarovar is a hotel chain - associated with Carlson Hospitality Worldwide)

Further on, we ar talking about SUNK COSTS (incurred but not recoverable) and then from the back of the class -

"Wedding expenses are sunk costs". A big round of applause.

The Prof immediately replied - "So, it should not affect your decision going forward".

The idea was that Sunk Costs should not affect economic decisions.

Assignments, Parties and More

What a long day it was. I guess its been like this for quite a while now.
For once, I thought that the Four Day Class pattern would make life a bit comfortable, but I was totally wrong. Atleast it never works that way here.

Four days of classes have actually made way for more work at during the weekend.

Thursday evening called for an ice-breaker. So, atleast a 100 of us headed out to Taj Krishna to party.

Friday and Saturday turned out to be more of a drill for the mind. Three Assignments - Economics, Marketing and Finance.

Finance was actually cool because it was more or less like a combined effort. 15% of the total marks is for weekend quizzes and the rule was anyone can discuss with anyone.

Economics truly tested our understanding of the course from what was taught in the last two classes. And the funny part is writing all the differentiation symbols on microsoft word. Here, I should definitely mention that some of the IT guys have put in serious effort to develop macros that can drop symbols like for limits instantly.

Finally, Marketing. Funny case I would say. Numbers thrown all over the case between lines and words. Each one interpreting the case a different way. More than being funny, I guess its actually started dragging a bit. With final results yet to be released, right now it looks a bit weird.

And here we are past midnight - another party still going wild behind my apartment. music, dance and booze all over the place.

for once, some of us thought about what the security guys and the other people working on campus might be thinking about us, if they did so. Guys pay almost 15 lacs and then spend more on food, party and booze. When the hell will they study? Will they ever? Crazy World, ain't it?

Void Mage

The picture should say "I am a ..."





find your element
at mutedfaith.com.

The Case of the Jewellery Market

Whats wrong with men tending to like jewellery.

When the whole country can turn to the west!!!

David Beckham sports a pony tail, wears stylish ear-rings and makes sure he polishes nails with attractive colors.

When all this can happen, why cant men turn into delicate, fashionable and office-wear type jewellery?

Its definitely not a gay thing. I am referring to people like Kanye West, Usher etc. If you know the people I am talking about, then you would agree to my views.

So, with all supporting information, my view that the jewellery market can be segmented based on the gender holds very good.

Economics for Managers

Economics is a very interesting subject. Is it?

Well, I don't really understand why the price of rice or the demand for oil should decide my grades!!!

For that matter, tea being a substitute for coffee.

So that's how things are at present.

For the humor part, we had this interesting dialogue in class. I managed to get most parts of it, though cant guarantee its complete authenticity.

" WHEN ELASTICITY CHANGES FROM ELASTIC TO INELASTIC, YOU ARE NO LONGER ON THE ELASTIC SIDE "

The World is Ours !!!

Welcome to a world of business, party and champagne.

Class Participation

I have been postponing this for a while now. Better late than never.

Class Participation or CP is where people contribute to what is being discussed in the class. And for some courses, there are marks for CP.

Right from Pre-Terms, people started practising for CP.

So, here is a list of CP's from the last week.

Statistics Class - " we can calculate the median of a sample without sorting the numbers by using a function in microsoft excel "

Accounting Class - when there was a talk about depreciation and bad debts - "just because you want to balance the balance sheet, how can you do this madam? "

" How can a Truck be a fixed asset when it can move? "

And now for the latest one. This happened in the Economics class where the discussion was about marginal cost and revenue. The mathematical equation that was used was a single integral. And during the questions session, one guy goes -

" That is a function of a cubic equation "

Recipe of the Year - BEERAMISU

1 pound mascarpone cheese
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 eggs beaten (hs note: leave these out if you are worried about eating raw eggs, it's still tasty)
1 tablespoon vanilla
3/4 cup heavy cream, whipped
48 ladyfinger cookies (hs note: I used less, one 7 ounce package)
6 ounces (3/4 cup) Porter beer
1/2 cup brewed coffee, the stronger the better
1/2 cup cocoa

In a large bowl mix together the mascarpone, sugar, beaten eggs and vanilla. Fold in the whipped cream. Set this mixture aside.

In a shallow dish stir together the Porter beer and the brewed coffee, Dip the ladyfingers cookies into the coffee mixture (hs note: if you are using regular non-Italian ladyfingers make it a quick dunk). Don't let the ladyfingers get soggy. Arrange them in a single layer in a glass casserole dish (hs note: 8x8 is prob. fine). Spread 1/2-inch layer of mascarpone mixture on top of the ladyfingers. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup cocoa. Repeat this for the second layer. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours before serving.

Serves 12

The Term Begins

I can understand how much effort was put into the Fedex Case by the whole batch. Everyday, there was a Group Meeting. People used to have meetings over lunch and dinner. The Atrium was full of jargons and words from the case. Some of the IT guys were putting fundaes on Postal Service Software projects they had worked on. Some of them were giving gyan about what they Googled. It was fun. Go anywhere, and there was someone discussing the case.

During my analysis of the case, I came across a good book on Innovation Strategy - done by Fedex over the last two decades or so. It was an interesting book, though it did not actually provide insights to the case.

So, the first day was quite interesting. We had a finance class to begin with. Our Prof was from Kellogg. Before I forget - the best aspect of the finance course was that, no class participation was required. The Prof started off with a brief outline about the course and its demanding nature - 10 weeks of normal course that is actually crushed to 5 weeks to suit the ISB pattern. Following up various aspects of the Accounting Principles and Statements with examples from real life situations, he got the whole class involved.

When it came to Balance Sheets, we had about 20 mins to go. Then the cold calls started. It was me first. Luckily, I had an easy transaction to start off with. And with about 2 mins to spare we finished the problem.

It was surprising to see that whatever was covered in the pre-term accounting class was completed in less than 20 mins and the whole class had no problem whatsoever.

The next class was Marketing. Prof from Columbia. Isnt that sexy!! So, the Fedex case was open to discussion. Puzzling, there wasnt even a single arbid CP. All points were relevant to the case. But yes, after a while, people started beating around the bush. Once we got down to analyzing the numbers was when a lot of us actually understood certain specifics about the case. It was informative compared to what I felt when I was doing my pre-read.

Its evening now and post dinner I have a ToastMasters meeting. Lots to read in Stats and Economics.

Its really a Wild Wild World.