Reflections from Term 2

So, after two lazy days in which I didn't do anything relevant to coursework, I finished yet another day of 4 classes in Term 8. The first party of term 8 was started by section D. The next party will be during the weekend - that's for HOLI.

People literally aren't bothered about attending classes. They come late to class, never do reading. And some never attend. The MBA life has taken a totally different turn. Its a new world that I am seeing. The strangest of the people are in the recreation center these days. Those who I haven't even seen walking on the side of the center lawns are in the gym for almost an hour!!! Nowadays people spend more time at the REC Center. They swim, then play Frisbee, then workout, play tennis, finally finish with yoga and then reach the dining hall. This is a complete new phenomenon. I have never seen such a thing before. The swimming pool looks like a pond with a new ecosystem.

Competitive Strategy - One course in Term 2 where most of the cases actually gave me the MBA flavor. New frameworks were taught - especially the Porter's Five Forces for industry analysis. Nandini Lahiri took the first half of the class. The second half was handled in the most skillful way by Harbir Singh. Watch out for Prof. Harbir guys. You just can't mess with him. Do your readings properly atleast before his class. If you put up your hand and try to just live by saying something, then you are in for a big joyride. You'll definitely regret that.

Global Economics - The course where you learn about macroeconomic policies, trade between countries, some strange laws formulated by great economists who lived in the industrial era. Prof. Krishnakumar taught the first half of the course where he introduced us to the Asian Financial Crisis, Keynesian models, Commanding Heights (you'll definitely love this movie). Then Ravi Bansal would talk about monetary policy, exchange rates, interest rates, savings, and inflation. Interesting stuff. It keeps you thinking about what the FED and the FM does. Also helps you understand why the RBI changes the rates and its effects.

Optimisation - handled by Sandeep Juneja and Milind Sohoni. Lots of work on Excel modeling problems and making interpretations out of graphs. If you don't listen to what's being told in class, then you can be happy that you'll get a B-Neg. Nothing below that. The Profs are quite reasonable.

Marketing Decision Making - handled by Pradeep Bhardwaj and Jag Raju. Bhardwaj is quite good although you will not spend a lot of time listening to him in class, which I think you should try and avoid. The concepts he talks about in class are quite useful for the exams. Most of the time during Bhardwaj's sessions will be spent making MarkStrat decisions with your group. So, you'll be asked to compete with 4 other groups in an industry, launch products, track expenditures on production, sales and distribution - everything that's part of the whole chain of deciding to make the product and launching the same in the market. Its fun if you get it right and then work out the best way to make more money. Once you start crashing in the revenue graph, then there is no chance of getting back, unless you realize that pretty early on and change your strategy. Don't ask me the best strategy to win. And don't ask anyone else. Its no fun and you'll NEVER LEARN by asking your alums for the right answer. Raju will come during the second half and he'll screw around with your happiness. This course was so bad for so many people on campus. I lost my interest in marketing after his 5 lectures. Anyway, thats about me. There were so many people who loved his class. They can talk for days about him. I'd rather spend less than a minute.

TIPS FOR THE NEXT BATCH

* The Radio Station has been taken. So, maybe you guys can start a TV station. The Radio station has got publicity like its the first radio station in the country. Maybe you guys can do something!
* This year we had 50 participants for the Hyderabad 10K. So, one of you can start a new RUNNING CLUB and have a president and few vice presidents and some directors.
* We had a new Arts and Creativity Club. So, next thing can be a Drama Club, Dance Club.
* Make you sure you know to send out colorful emails to catch the attention of Professors and the Management. Keep thanking them once in a while so that they remember you. It doesn't matter what you did. The publicity you make is the most important criteria.
* There is a lot of value add if you can make movies using flash and windows movie maker. You can keep showing it around and get credits.
* Since the Radio Station is here, we can have a Radio Club too. It can create room for some presidents, directors etc.

I am sure a lot of you can get extremely creative and form more clubs and do more work. But yes, the more you do such kind of things, you can run for all the awards and attention on campus. It doesn't matter whether your club does any work. You can just claim that you did something of great impact and nobody will have time to verify all that.