Sexy Happenings

After a long time, new seeds have been sown in the classroom and emotions have started germinating.

People have suddenly started getting worried about the late-comers. Some have also raised issues about asking questions in class after the 2 hr limit that tends to extend the class as such. In fact, for some classes, it so happens that the professor has to wait for atleast 5 more mins to start the class.

Again, and by again i mean it that way, because, this issue has been discussed already by a concerned few and nothing happened. it just got discounted like those cash flows. but now, the verbose nature of the views from various people are a perfect blend of management theories. some have started quoting time and money, then civil protocol, cognitive response etc.

at the outset, its very interesting to read all this. as a silent spectator, its absolutely funny.

this brings us also to another juncture. the importance of attendance. if asked frankly, a number of people wouldnt want to attend a class and they probably are coming in late because they feel they are being forced to come to class. so why not just keep the attendance optional?
if people like attending a particular lecture, then i am quite sure that they will not miss a single minute of the 2 hrs. and i have seen this happening with many courses and many profs. i think, at this point, where most people in the class are 25 or so, it doesnt make any sense to impose rules like attendance. i havent had attendance in undergrad and that was 1997-2001!!! why wud i want to comply with compulsory attendance rules.

again, all this is personal opinion. and i seriously dont have time to argue with anyone about this. i have 100 other things to think about.

the first round of admissions

with the deadline for the first round of admission round the corner, applications are just pouring in.

some of us, oh no, how can i say that. atleast 200 of us have volunteered to be a part of the admissions task force. well, that means that we will help the admissions team in evaluating applications and whatever comes with that. (by help, i mean it literally. we will just give them our idea of what the application means to us and then based on our feedback, the core team of admissions will decide on sending out interview calls)

so, right now we have been given access to the system and many people have already started the process.

i still havent accessed the system myself. looking at the level of enthu that this has created right now, i think by the time i login, all applications would have been evaluated.

Luther, for example

Finally, Manu managed to get a picture. Thats me getting dunked into the swimming pool on Tuesday night. It was the last birthday in section-C, officially.
close to 20 people got dunked yesterday and it was great fun.

And there goes my clue for today. Keep guessing.

The last one was very obvious - YETI. the abominable snowman.

Yet, somehow I meet the abominable snowman

Today we had our mid-term exam for Investment Analysis. It wasnt that great. Well for obvious reasons that its finance and I hate finance, but then exam wasnt worth anyone's effort. So, the TA sends a document guide for our preparation and that document tells in detail about the chapters that have to be referred to. It was quite comprehensive, in the sense that, nowhere in the course had the prof mentioned that the book would be required. But this email from the TA with the chapter numbers did create a bit of a volcanic erruption and people went crazy xeroxing chapters at the library, sitting day and night with the book. The prep guide also mentioned about the cases we had submitted during the last two weeks. So one had to revise that too.

Considering all this, junta put enuff effort to prepare. And then you know what happens. The prof gives questions similar to the ones from the assignments he had given before to everyone. In fact, for one of the problems, even the numbers and notations werent changed. It was just copied from the assignment soft copy and put into the question paper. I was totally irritated when I saw that. Cant you copy stuff properly and change what is required. It was absolutely ridiculous. I never expected such a question paper. For all the effort we put yesterday staying up late till 2.30 in the night, it would just been good if I had MUGGED up the assignments and gone to the exam hall. I neednt have tried to understand any formulae or the few ne concepts that were taught in class. Not that I perfectly understood everything.

In total, this has been a waste. If this is how things are going to be, I mean, a few exams in the last few terms were also like this. But, what can I say. Is this the inefficiency of the prof or the system? Some of these profs, they are good, no doubt about it. But then asking questions that were asked before, with same numbers - and then asking theory questions like describe this and that, is nowhere close to MBA type.

I really like those exams - one case study, three hours, do whatever you want, talk to anyone, but just write it and submit it.

The subject line is my new test for creativity. Its a Hindu crossword clue. Do comment if you figure it out.

Mahabharata and Entrepreneurship

We all know about the Chakravyuham(The Circular Maze, we can say), a military strategy that was formed by the Kauravas to eliminate the Pandavas. In the Mahabharata epic, the maze was a very critical part of the war. It was actually putting tremendous pressure over the Pandavas. When all this was happening and there was enough chaos, Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, decides to enter the maze. Well, he knows how to enter the maze but does not know how to get out of it. Only Arjuna knows both strategies. Without seeking the permission from Arjuna, Abhimanyu enters the maze and you know what would have happened next. He loses and dies. We clearly see a management relation here.

Investors are always interested in the best of business ventures that you showcase for them to invest. But, they also need to know something called an exit strategy. no investor wants to stay committed to the business for life. You know what happens in that case. so a business plan must always quote an exit strategy. that completes the plan in the eyes of the investor. an investor is not looking for a lifetime relationship with you. either he wants to make an IPO out of your venture, or buy it out completely or sell it to a third party. and provisions for these are truly essential.

Another story. In the same Mahabharata, Yudhishtra and Duryodhana, they are both rivals but still cousins. They go to meet Krishna. Lord Krishna is taking rest. Yudhishtra sits by the feet and Duryodhana sits by the head of the Lord. Actually Duryodhana has come first. When the Lord wakes up, he sees Y first and then later sees D. So he gives Y, the preference to ask first whatever he came to meet the Lord for. D feels that this is unfair and he complains. Then the Lord gives two options. Well both of them have come for help before the war. The two options - either keep me on your side and I wont lift a single weapon OR keep my army of soldiers. Duryodhana immediately asks for the army and Yudhishtra happily asks for the Lord.

Another lesson. Given an oppurtunity, its very important for each and every entrepreneur to choose a particular person as his mentor. Proper guidance will always help you win the race whatever it may be. A sound advisor and mentor will be the guy who will be the charioteer like the Lord did during the war and will take you to that path of glory.

The way forward

Today's networking event at the BasketBall court was perhaps the best event we have attended in ISB so far. Right after the panel discussion on taking India forward, we headed towards the Rec-Centre to meet all the entrepreneurs, VC's and many others. It was very interesting to listen to their experience and understand how they were encouraging entrepreneurs.

The panel discussion was very interesting. We had people like ChandraShekhar from Lok Paritran, Jayaprakash Narayan from Lok Satta, Senthil Chengalvarayan from CNBC(the moderator), Rajeev Gowda, Ramalinga Raju of Satyam and Gopichand - the badminton player. After a round of views about what the political system meant to the people in India, the topic started getting very hot. Though we didnt get enough time to discuss, the way Senthil structured the whole event should be well appreciated. In the end, though the people did touch upon my viewpoint of political parties coming to b-schools to recruit, I still feel that there is a huge gap. Sometimes, the situation is such that we take more pleasure in talking about this than trying to make a concrete plan of action.

They say that it takes only about 5 crores to win a seat in the assembly. Then why dont few corporates take up this cause and work towards it. This was also suggested today. That cant happen. Its not that easy. The Indian political system has to change and that has to happen on its own. It seems the corruption level has come down. Well, if it has, because I really dont know. Then god save the country.

Today Lok Paritran has just 5 members. Educated people are not ready to join such a party. Why - because what will they do when they dont have a salary. Will anyone do that. Well, for high spirits sake you can say that you will. Being an over enthusiastic guy that I am and I generally tend to jump into anything without a second thought and I would definitely take a step back and think about this. At the end of the day, Lok Paritran had just 10000 votes and the next time they'd probably get a chance is another 4 yrs atleast.

Rajeev Gowda himself has joined this race after being in the US for 16 yrs. People have to make a decision to reform this country, but when they do it, they have to make an informed decision. The IAS and the IPS not help this country. With the kind of reservation policies that we have, these posts will only be filled by people who speak rotten english and who have the shitty attitude of just making money through some means.

This is indeed a huge debate and being just one sided, I am quite sure I can write another 2000 words. Let me just stop it here. I hope God sends a mercenary to just kill all these good for nothing politicians.

Section C - Class Participation

Continuing with Rhapsoder's post about the Class partcipation (CP), I thought I must without fail, mention about how class participation works in Section-C. In fact, we can definitely say that Class Participation is quite unique in each class. Even though, the probability of finding a person from Infosys in any class is perhaps 100%, there is still enough diversity to influence the Class Participation of a student.

So, here we go with the CP's characteristics of Section-C

Desperate CP - these people HAVE to say something and they are so finicky about whatever they say, even though it doesnt make sense.

Slow CP / Bond CP - CP is very slow and extremely long that puts everyone to sleep or confuses most people at the end of the CP. Also while raising hands, the fingers form the shape like a gun.

Disconnected CP - well, this is not connected to disco, but a total disconnect from whats happening in the class.

Historic CP - one delves deep into the problem and tries to get a story out, even when there is nothing.

Psenti CP - gets very sensitive when he does a CP

Rural CP - all the CPs are connected to the agrarian economy

Brand CP - every CP is associated with an FMCG brand somehow, even if it was about selling fodder for cattle.

Accented CP - these are CPs from people who have been to the US for a while and still cant get out of the American air.

Quantitative CP - all CP's are strongly supported by numbers,no "faff, as we call qualitative stuff in ISB

Spiritual CP - these CPs are associated with life and love, being closer to heart etc.

Maruti CP - all the CP's are in one way or the other connected to Maruti

Manufacturing CP - these are very good CPs but finally end up being totally about manufacturing industries and connected stuff

Silent CP - these CP's happen in the mind. they never get expressed in class, but still they have a valid point that nobody can hear

PDF CP - these CP's are connected to vectors, coding and creativity in any context of discussion

Ford CP - this kind of CP is like expressing an oxymoron - for example American Heritage!!

Communist CP - this CP is totally of communist attitude. its volume oriented and targets at maximum airtime, whenever possible.

Legal CP - this kind of CP always looks at providing law points, rules and policies. usually starts by saying - 2 things

The Tie ISB Inaug - Live from the Auditorium

More than 300 Business Plans. It was just 60 last year. A totally exciting day it is today. I am just writing this as its happening right in front of me at the Auditorium in ISB. Its the Inaugral Function of the TiE-ISB. The Chief Minister of AP, The Defence Minister for State, Consul General of the US Consulate, Ramalinga Raju of Satyam - they are all here.

The media is here. I can see that there is enough chaos. The Minister's security staff is here. They are using all their powers to control the media's funny activities. For me, its very exciting because I am seeing all this after a very long time.

The Dean is giving a quick speech about the school. By far, the best pitch I have heard about the school. In a place where the best of the minds of various industries converge for three days, I think its essential that the ISB makes the best out this forum.

The Defence minister of State holds an MBA from the Temple University. He belongs to that elite list of educated politicians. I am also quite surprised with his diction. Its quite awesome for a politician of Indian origin. The minister and his team are very enthusiastic about this event happening again at ISB. The prepared speech reminds me of a few things that we came across in global economics and what we've been discussing in a course this term about human development.

The mementos were given by the Chief Minister to all the panelists and track leaders.

The Chief Minister is on to speak next. The CM was a medical officer in the navy. He was here last year and this event has been very close to his heart - in terms of developing entrepreneurs in 9 different sectors for Andhra Pradesh.

The buzz is partly over and that's mainly because the CM has left.

Visitors on Campus

Over the last few days, we've had a good number of speakers on campus. Here is a quick summary.

Joe Liemandt, President & Chief Executive Officer of Trilogy was here to talk to us about his experience as an entrepreneur and the work culture in Trilogy. He also touched upon the entrepreneurial spirit of the organization as a whole. Courtesy: Business Technology and Entrepreneurship Club

Shailendra Tyagi - the Head of Rural Marketing and Retailing Businesses of the International Business Division was here too. I did not attend this session, so I cannot comment on this. Courtesy: Marketing Club

Akshay Kapadia, Managing Director (Dendrite International Inc., India) was here to talk about pharma companies in emerging markets, sales and marketing challenges, dendrite's solutions to meet pharma company requirements etc. Courtesy: Marketing and HealthCare Club

Anju Poddar - art aficionado, eminent art collector and author, conducted a workshop that explored the art of contemporary Indian artists like Amrita Sher-Gil, Raja Ravi Verma, M.F Hussain, Tyeb Mehta, Anjolie Ela Menon and many more. It was slated to cover the mood of the period, the relevance of art at the time, and its evolution over the years. Courtesy: Art and Creativity Club

Mr Ratan Jalan,CEO,Apollo lifestyle was here for a talk on the unique aspects of marketing in the healthcare sector. Courtesy: Healthcare Club

Mr.Natarajan, Head - BFSI Vertical of Cognizant was here to talk to us about Outsourcing Trends. Courtesy: Business Technology Club

PodCasts

ISB is out with the podcast. Perhaps, the first indian b-school to do something like this, when its running on top gear for the admissions process. I am proud.

After much effort, this has finally become true for some people who were running around to get this working. Lets not worry who.

Now, the official podcasts are out. I dont know how you can subscribe to them, I got an email with some details. But it didnt make much sense. Or its probably obecause I am the last person who would want to listen to a podcast. So, I wasnt to keen on exploring. But yes, I managed to pick up the audio file that was recorded and you can listen to it here.


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The first time I listened to this, I was like - Oh my gawd. Whats wrong with this? I guess, even if I listen to it again, I wud tell the same thing. All things said and done, some of us still have this PUT ON AMERICAN ACCENT. For god's sake, why cant we just be ourselves. Cant we get the message out by speaking normally? Obviously, you have to overcome the difficulties of having a Tamil influence over your English or any other Indian Language for that matter. But, why do we need to put on the Yanky Accent? Grow up people!!!

Best CP Ever, Ever!!!

Today we had Prof.Tom Nohel's last class on Investment Analysis. We discussed the case we had submitted today morning for the first hour and then we moved on to discussing Earnings Multiples and Book Value Multiples. Deep into the lecture, Tom posed a question about Toyota and Ford. He asked why firms like Toyota and Ford differ in their multiples even though they are in the same industry or whatever. I really dont remember the correct question.

The best part was the answer. My dear friend Anuradha, who is also in my group, suddenly woke up from her sleep (She'd put in a lot of work for the assignment yesterday - in fact, she also met up with the Prof, late that evening, to clarify her questions).



So, to continue the legacy of having impressed the Prof with the questions yesterday, she decided to make a better impact by giving an answer for a class that had NO POINTS for class participation.

And she goes - "The multiple maybe different because Ford is European". Till then, most of the whole class was doing everything but listen to the Prof and when the words Ford and European was heard, the class went "AW" and the next moment the whole class is laughing loud and banging on the desk. The Prof couldnt control his laughter too. He went on to acknowledge the statement and made a big joke out of it.

Dunk Me If You Can???

Today was perhaps the best day in ISB and credit goes to people like Ashraf from my Section and a host of other people from Section A and F who were celebrating birthdays today.

It all began at around 11.50pm, when the people started dunking the birthday boys and girls into the swimming pool. Soon, the study groups to which they belonged to got dunked. This never stopped. Section F was supposedly having their last section dunk today. So, they decided to get another twenty people into the Pool. As for Section A and my section, did they need any reason to dunk anyone. Section C usually dunks atleast 10 people for every birthday. And today was the pinnacle. People got dunked by the minute. In less than 30 mins, atleast 50 students got dunked. People geared up a lot of enthu and just started pushing people in. At some point in time, there were fewer people outside the pool. In instances where the guy was too heavy to be dunked, people started splashing water with a bucket. On top of this, there were a number of people who got dunked multiple times in those 30 mins. Utter chaos it was, people didnt know what was happening. There was water everywhere.

And guess, what - people didnt even bother about the birthday cakes. Usually, we run out of cake. But today, given the intensity with which the dunking was happening, people were hardly bothered about having a bite. In fact, even birthday songs were ignored because people found the sight at the swimming pool much more interesting.

This day is definitely an awesome day in the history of the CLASS of 2007. Photos will be up on my Flickr soon.

The much awaited Aikya Meet

To just give you regular visitors a feel of the whole meet that happened today with the Aikya Family - this is the car I drove today from my Aikya's parents' home to Taj Krishna. Not exactly THIS one, but yes, same model, same color.



And the details are yet to come. Keep visiting.

Ok, I gotta continue this. This Monday around 6.30pm, we took a cab to reach Taj Krishna from where our Aikya Mom took us to her place. I am quite sure I dont know where her house is because the route we took was too. But the place is so awesome. Amazing choice of artwork on display - both contemporary and modern paintings. It just added to the beauty of the house. We helped ourselves with a few drinks and snacks. Some of the guys enjoyed the Blue Label on the house, while I stuck to my beer.

Very soon, our Aikya Dad was there to join us. Atleast 6 and a half ft tall, he appeared to us as a great person with a high energy and passion. We started a round of introduction and while talking to every person in our group, he could relate to a business that he was currently running or an idea that he wanted to pursue in the coming years. Definitely a true entepreneur. In fact, I could relate his chat with us to a lot of what our Professors had talked during the Entrepreneurship Course. Not the theory behind entrepreneurship, but certain qualities that truly define an entrepreneurial mindset. It was just there within him and it was just great to hear to him.

It was dinner time. Dinner was very simple and perhaps the best. We had the usual South Indian Cuisine, but food was home-made and it was just great. Towards the end, we had chocolate dessert with apricot pudding. Wow, this was heavenly. And then, our mom also offered to give the whole bowl of chocolate cake to Anu.

It was time to leave, and then the best part of the day just began. The BMW was right there and Anu was so thrilled to see it. Dad said - here are the keys, wanna drive us till the Taj. Anu was just shocked. She couldnt react. It was a massive car and Anu looked like a child lost in a fairground. She was a bit uncomfortable and then she decided not to take a risk. And then, we turned back to see the Merc. Dad told me - Do you want to drive that to the Taj? And I just replied without thinking for a second - Oh yes!! Why not. Soon, the convertible's hood was up and I got excited sitting at the wheel of an automatic car. After figuring out the basic stuff behind the controls, I drove the classic machine till the Taj.

Took a few photographs with the Merc and bid goodbye to our Mom and Dad. Another unforgettable day during this one year at ISB.

Onam Celebrations at ISB

We had Onam Celebrations today at ISB. To kick-start this, our captain Nidhin sent us an invitation email to participate in the celebrations. This was done a few days back to set the mood. Then we met up yesterday to do the flower arrangement. This task went on for about 4 hrs. The girls did a great job in making the whole design of the floral arrangement.

Today afternoon we had the Onam Sadhya - traditional kerala food rich with the taste of coconut. And then banana chips.



I still remember the Onam Celebration that Kairali - the mallu club, used to conduct in BITS. It was just awesome. As part of Onam, we used to organize the traditional Mallu Dinner on campus. Dinner coupons were sold to students and everytime we conducted the dinner, we ran out of coupons. The whole thing was so much in demand. Kairali members exhibited so much enthu that they used to land up right from the afternoon in the dining hall to help the cook in cutting vegetables, making the floral arrangement and also moving the huge marble tables and chairs to make a different set-up. I can definitely say that most guys on campus attended the Kairali dinner to see the mallu girls dressed in nice silk sarees or traditional mallu sarees. Food was served by the club members to the student body. It was just too good. It was an awesome event and I can never forget the fun we had when we did this about 7 times during my 4 yrs in Pilani.

Habits never die

Our only course for this term with a class participation weightage of 25% started today - Management of Organizations.

Today's class was very interesting. We did a couple of surveys and turned in the results to the Professor. And we were told that we might be asked to some more in the classes to come.

As usual, there was extensive participation from a lot of people. One of our professors in the earlier term had pointed out that in my class there were few people who acted like politicians. In the sense that, when the professor asked a question and picked a person to answer through show of hands, the question is never answered. The person who raised his hand still goes on to say what he wanted to say, which is most often totally opposite in connection to what the professor had asked.

Bottomline: The person wants his air-time and nothing else.

Well, something like this was displayed today by a few people. And yes, they always say - Some habits never never die. What if this is the fourth term and we've seen enough courses like this before. We still want our air-time. We dont want to answer questions that will make us think on the fly. What if it doesnt get us CP points??

Government, Business and ROTW

Today's first class started with a discussion about institutions and their influence in business decisions. The topic was very vague and I didnt know where the whole lecture was being driven at. But, this is the first lecture. Information asymmetry, agency costs, risk etc were some of the topics touched upon today. All this was quantitatively analysed and verified in Corporate Finance. Now, this is a different perspective.

Our evaluation for this course is a written paper based on any government policy and its influence on industry decisions, or something in those lines. Key points to note for while writing the paper:

"Please make sure that there are no spelling mistakes. Especially, when you talk about public goods, dont miss out the L."

By the way, ROTW stands for Rest Of The World

Rapid Fire Fourth Term

Term 4 begins tomorrow. 4 courses again. But the time frame is not the same. By, this time next month, we are done with the term and the godforsaken exams. This term we have - Government, Society and Business; Management of Organizations; Strategic Analysis of IT; and Investment Analysis.

Apart from this we have to get ahead with researching on our business plan. That is going to be taxing as well.

Then, our experiential learning project, which also involves extensive work with amazing deadlines.

McKinsey will be coming to campus for a training programme - sometime during this weekend.

Entrepreneurs will keep coming to give us gyaan.

there will be assignments, numerous meetings to decide the next meeting, events, parties. its hell again.