It was time to know what the ultimate essence of leadership was. And considering the kind of jobs we were going to get into in the next few months, it was important that we heard it from someone who had been there and done that because we'd probably never do such things in this lifetime.
It was time to meet Capt. Raghu Ram who was working with Mahindra. He was in the army for 11 years and he was on campus to talk to us about "leadership lessons from siachen". A thought provoking speech for one hour. At the end of it, I felt that I was fortunate to do what I was doing. Nothing could get better.
So, what do soldiers give their lives for? Answers from the student body said - will, love for country, awards, fighting spirit, sense of duty etc. But we were all wrong. The only reason was the superior officer. Soldiers never want to be there and do that. They are there only because someone has inspired them to be there. Thats the dedication a leader brings at that level.
Most of us didn't even know where Siachen exactly was. After looking at some of the pictures that he had shown us, I was horrified. A place where you can't return until you have completed the allotted duration of stay, which could range from 3 months to a year. The glacier is famous for more than 50% not returning back home. The temperatures are close to -35 degrees Celsius and your bofy metabolism drops to 20%. There is a good chance of loss of life. Avalanches are very common. You eat very less and answer the nature's call once in 2 days. Sometimes people have to wear warm clothing that just weighs 17 kilos. But you have to live and bear it. Sometimes even letters from home with unhappy messages are not given. Letters following that unhappy letter never get through too. All letters are screened so that people don't lose their spirit and concentration.
At the glacier its all about guarding your post and keeping it. It the Pakistani military captures a post, then the next time Indians have to get it. There is enough exchange of ammunition everyday. But thats the life there.
If you remember the movie Vertical Limit, where in the climax, the guy cuts off the rope to save the woman from falling into the crevasse. I cant imagine such things. But all this is bound to happen in Siachen and that incredible amount of leadership is required to make such decisions. It is a matter of life and death. But as a captain, you are responsible for the lives of your team. So, you also decide whether they are going to be with you or not. There have been situations when a comrade has been dead and you have to keep the dead-body till the next copter arrives to pick it up and that might be even 3 months. Its total trauma and everyday is a nightmare.
Imagine being there and making such decisions. Imagine a team of yours is not responding to you at night and you need to make a call whether you have to send another team to search. In fact, the lost team would just be less than 100 mtrs from your camp, but you still cant locate them due to harsh weather conditions. The enemy is watching you always. They can open fire anytime. Even your team cannot distinguish anyone at night. So, there is sufficient probability of your team killing you too.
Towards the end, I could never imagine myself making such decisions in my life. I can't do it at all. Being responsible for a person's life is not a joke. The cries of the family members after that message reaches them. Its you who's got to tell them too. At every point, you need that extra courage and balance of mind to do that. And they say - Trauma Transforms.
Showing posts with label campus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label campus. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Monday, March 12, 2007
Reflections from Term 4
We are working on the yearbook. I definitely need to write more on that. Reserve that for the next post as Term 4 is very important considering the fact that the next batch will be here in a month. Term 4 was the one that most of us wanted to be scrapped out of the ISB MBA program and perhaps convert it into a one month internship. This would have helped in getting more finance jobs on campus. The ELP wasn't doing any good at all. And moreover, Term 4 was adding zero value to the MBA.
Government Society and Business - taught by Mudit Kapoor and Shivakumar(one of the few profs in ISB who has a wikipedia page dedicated to him). Anyway, Shiva is one great person who is part of the National Advisory Council and works closely with the Prime Minister and people like Sonia Gandhi. So the insights he brought during the second half of the course were pretty good. He touched upon the realities quite well and gave us the clean picture. Not like the cliched bottom of the pyramid crap. He talked about harsh realities, the way forward for the country and its poor people. The first half of the course was total gas. We talked about taliban, china and just wasted time.
Investment Analysis - the last finance course you are forced to take up. Taken by Tom Nohel. It was his first time on campus and he really didn't know what to do. He was teaching us the same stuff that we had done in corporate finance for almost 5 classes. Then he shifted gears and talked about something that I don't even remember vaguely. That was my interest in the class. I was also sitting in the last row this term. So my enthu to listen to the prof was zero and all of us in the last row had our laptops open. We didn't bother.
Management of Organizations - totally intoxicated with management gas. Taken by Mary Watson, all we did during this course was filling out survey questionnaires for the professor. And this happened in every class. Mega time pass. The only thing I remember about this course is an article about "Selection Bias". The second half was taken by our Negotiation Prof Dishan Kamdar. He was quite good and lenient too. The exam was horrible. All theory and total nonsense.
Strategic Analysis of IT - The only IT course in the core terms handled by Rajiv Banker and Sandra Slaughter. This course was also a bit on the waste course category. We could have still managed without doing this course. Almost half the batch is from the IT industry and all this course talks about is outsourcing, off shoring, in sourcing and multi sourcing. So, for a non IT guy, this course is a nightmare because he'll find that the IT guys have their hands up all the time to talk in class. The in-class quiz is good fun. It accounts for 40% of the grade I guess. This course also had an end-term quiz, but then in our batch, we had to go through the major fiasco of getting the exam postponed and things like that. It was fun.
Government Society and Business - taught by Mudit Kapoor and Shivakumar(one of the few profs in ISB who has a wikipedia page dedicated to him). Anyway, Shiva is one great person who is part of the National Advisory Council and works closely with the Prime Minister and people like Sonia Gandhi. So the insights he brought during the second half of the course were pretty good. He touched upon the realities quite well and gave us the clean picture. Not like the cliched bottom of the pyramid crap. He talked about harsh realities, the way forward for the country and its poor people. The first half of the course was total gas. We talked about taliban, china and just wasted time.
Investment Analysis - the last finance course you are forced to take up. Taken by Tom Nohel. It was his first time on campus and he really didn't know what to do. He was teaching us the same stuff that we had done in corporate finance for almost 5 classes. Then he shifted gears and talked about something that I don't even remember vaguely. That was my interest in the class. I was also sitting in the last row this term. So my enthu to listen to the prof was zero and all of us in the last row had our laptops open. We didn't bother.
Management of Organizations - totally intoxicated with management gas. Taken by Mary Watson, all we did during this course was filling out survey questionnaires for the professor. And this happened in every class. Mega time pass. The only thing I remember about this course is an article about "Selection Bias". The second half was taken by our Negotiation Prof Dishan Kamdar. He was quite good and lenient too. The exam was horrible. All theory and total nonsense.
Strategic Analysis of IT - The only IT course in the core terms handled by Rajiv Banker and Sandra Slaughter. This course was also a bit on the waste course category. We could have still managed without doing this course. Almost half the batch is from the IT industry and all this course talks about is outsourcing, off shoring, in sourcing and multi sourcing. So, for a non IT guy, this course is a nightmare because he'll find that the IT guys have their hands up all the time to talk in class. The in-class quiz is good fun. It accounts for 40% of the grade I guess. This course also had an end-term quiz, but then in our batch, we had to go through the major fiasco of getting the exam postponed and things like that. It was fun.
Monday, March 05, 2007
Reflections from Term 3
The weekend was very tiring. I think this would happen in every ISB student's life. He or she would have the best Holi party ever, only on campus. It was awesome. Six glasses of Bhang and in about four hours I was floating. It was an amazing feeling. I just loved the whole day. A riot of colors followed since 9.30am in the morning. Towards the end people started tearing the t-shirts of the men. You can see my Flickr Tab for some photos that I have borrowed from Doc.
By Term 3, you are almost done with your studies. I mean, the people who wanted to catch the best of the grades would have done that by now and from now on, for them, its just keep sailing the right way and stay on the good side of the tide. For the others, this term is to catch up for all that was left behind in the last two terms.
Corporate Finance - taught by Bhagwan Chowdhry for three sections. The rest have another prof. One Prof, who will let you know clearly as to what he would expect from you in the exam and what you need to study. Although I wasn't too keen about knowing stuff in finance, his classes were interesting. I vaguely remember Black Scholes, Modigliani Miller, WACC and CAPM. He always drew parallels to his family and the students in general, so you wouldn't really fall asleep. His exams were purely multiple choice. Make sure that you read, I'd rather say mug up, all the sample question papers and the answers. You will get around 30% questions from that stuff. Also read some extra stuff available from the textbook's webpage. That might be useful too.
Managerial Accounting - Two accounting disasters in one term. Thats something you can avoid this term. Its definitely a pain if you had assignments to submit for both. The other sections had assignments every day for Corp Fin. Thank god, we had none. But we had some horrible case studies where we had to crunch numbers. My group mates were my saviors for accounting assignments. Prof Sri Sridharan was the ManAcc prof for us. Before him, Prof. Khalid Nainar took the first 5 classes and introduced us to the course. Once Sridharan was in-charge, the assignments started pouring in. This was the term where we had something like three or four assignments due the next day, all due at the same time. I remember the night-out I put for a silly case in ManAcc. It was called Kota Fibres and I still don't have a clue of what that case was all about. Sridharan is a very nice person to talk to. You must try and catch him during breakfast and engage him for a nice conversation. If you are a CA, then be prepared for some questions about Indian Accounting. That's a forewarning.
Entrepreneurship - taught by S Venkataraman and Rama Velamuri. Awesome course. They say that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in a classroom. Yes, that is definitely true. But this course exposes you to some of the best entrepreneurs, rather entr-based case studies in different industries such that you get a very deep understanding of the whole idea of entrepreneurship. Lots to read and we had 40% class participation. A very well organized class, handled extremely well by both professors. Prof. Venkat, being a BITSian, gave us some of his insights about the field and his BITS days. Imagine learning from a person who wrote the initial business plan for the Wipro Information Technology. This Darden Prof had done work in WIPRO that was worth 7 yrs in less than 2.5 years. If you prepare well for this class, then you will rock.
Operations Management - taught by Prof Sridhar Seshadri and Prof Sudhakar Deshkmukh. Prof Seshadri is perhaps the best prof i have listened to for operations related stuff. He is amazing. The insights he brings into the OPS case studies are awesome. He deals with a few simple case studies but the way he handles the case is just enough to throw your thought process off-guard. It helps to prepare yourself for his class. You can get a few CP marks because not too many people would study to make a CP in OPS. Prof Deshmukh, the Danny Devito of the ISB, is a great man. His book is the recommended reading for the course. His concepts on supply chain management will totally bombard you. He'd always play this music on his laptop when you go for a break. When the music ends, he will start the class, no matter what. Each Prof has his own way to handle his students.
By Term 3, you are almost done with your studies. I mean, the people who wanted to catch the best of the grades would have done that by now and from now on, for them, its just keep sailing the right way and stay on the good side of the tide. For the others, this term is to catch up for all that was left behind in the last two terms.
Corporate Finance - taught by Bhagwan Chowdhry for three sections. The rest have another prof. One Prof, who will let you know clearly as to what he would expect from you in the exam and what you need to study. Although I wasn't too keen about knowing stuff in finance, his classes were interesting. I vaguely remember Black Scholes, Modigliani Miller, WACC and CAPM. He always drew parallels to his family and the students in general, so you wouldn't really fall asleep. His exams were purely multiple choice. Make sure that you read, I'd rather say mug up, all the sample question papers and the answers. You will get around 30% questions from that stuff. Also read some extra stuff available from the textbook's webpage. That might be useful too.
Managerial Accounting - Two accounting disasters in one term. Thats something you can avoid this term. Its definitely a pain if you had assignments to submit for both. The other sections had assignments every day for Corp Fin. Thank god, we had none. But we had some horrible case studies where we had to crunch numbers. My group mates were my saviors for accounting assignments. Prof Sri Sridharan was the ManAcc prof for us. Before him, Prof. Khalid Nainar took the first 5 classes and introduced us to the course. Once Sridharan was in-charge, the assignments started pouring in. This was the term where we had something like three or four assignments due the next day, all due at the same time. I remember the night-out I put for a silly case in ManAcc. It was called Kota Fibres and I still don't have a clue of what that case was all about. Sridharan is a very nice person to talk to. You must try and catch him during breakfast and engage him for a nice conversation. If you are a CA, then be prepared for some questions about Indian Accounting. That's a forewarning.
Entrepreneurship - taught by S Venkataraman and Rama Velamuri. Awesome course. They say that entrepreneurship cannot be taught in a classroom. Yes, that is definitely true. But this course exposes you to some of the best entrepreneurs, rather entr-based case studies in different industries such that you get a very deep understanding of the whole idea of entrepreneurship. Lots to read and we had 40% class participation. A very well organized class, handled extremely well by both professors. Prof. Venkat, being a BITSian, gave us some of his insights about the field and his BITS days. Imagine learning from a person who wrote the initial business plan for the Wipro Information Technology. This Darden Prof had done work in WIPRO that was worth 7 yrs in less than 2.5 years. If you prepare well for this class, then you will rock.
Operations Management - taught by Prof Sridhar Seshadri and Prof Sudhakar Deshkmukh. Prof Seshadri is perhaps the best prof i have listened to for operations related stuff. He is amazing. The insights he brings into the OPS case studies are awesome. He deals with a few simple case studies but the way he handles the case is just enough to throw your thought process off-guard. It helps to prepare yourself for his class. You can get a few CP marks because not too many people would study to make a CP in OPS. Prof Deshmukh, the Danny Devito of the ISB, is a great man. His book is the recommended reading for the course. His concepts on supply chain management will totally bombard you. He'd always play this music on his laptop when you go for a break. When the music ends, he will start the class, no matter what. Each Prof has his own way to handle his students.
Thursday, March 01, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, February 26, 2007
Reflections from Term 1
I am bored and I don't have any class for the next two days. My first attempt at attending 4 classes in a row was quite successful. I slept for about 10 minutes during the last class. Couldn't resist that. I suddenly realized that I hadn't written much about the professors and the courses I had done. Given the fact that I would definitely forget all of this when I walk out of this place, I might as well write something. And yeah, this would definitely help the class of 2008 in some way.
Financial Accounting in Decision Making - Mark Finn was our professor. If you are lucky, then you'll get him. Otherwise you will definitely regret doing this course with another professor. Section C was perhaps the most lucky section in the whole batch. In some course or the other, all other sections got one not-so-excellent prof, but we just got the best always. Finn would take you by surprise. You wouldn't realize that he is going so fast and very soon you'd be calculating deferred taxes, which even the CAs wouldn't have done in detail.
Managerial Economics or rather microeconomics taught by Amit Bubna and Rakesh Vohra. I wouldn't be surprised if you mistook Amit to be an MBA student. He'll just be like the guys you'll meet on campus. But yes, he'll expect you to understand a lot of stuff on your own. You'll realize some things after the mid-term and perhaps you'll start cursing and swearing. Rakesh was the best Term 1 Prof I would say. His lecture on game theory was amazing. He used same two OHP sheets for all the 5 classes. Again, his exam would drive you nuts. But then, economics is always like that. If anybody could understand it easily, then there wouldn't be any worry about competition and pricing.
Marketing Management or Marketing 101 as they popularly call it in the US was taught by Asim Ansari and Jagmohan Raju. I heard from a few people that Ansari wouldn't be here this term. Anyway, you wouldn't miss him much. He makes some good jokes on the students. And the first half of marketing isn't anything that you really wouldn't know. Raju is an excellent Prof. But he has high expectations from the students. He expects us to know KOTLER in and out. That's outrageous. Whenever he asks a question in class, he will put up a photo of a student and ask him/her to answer. And that's how you earn class participation. He will make you feel embarrassed about your decision to do an MBA. I frankly think that he should not be invited to teach the MBA students, but I don't think that ISB has an alternative. So, he'll be around to trouble you guys in Term 1 and 2. Unless you perform extremely well in marketing, you'll regret his presence for sure.
Statistical Methods for Decision Making taught by Bob Stine and Richard Waterman. Both profs are just amazing. They'll bring an extra dimension for statistics. Bob is is this highly energetic prof in class. He is extremely animated and his comments will keep you totally interested in the class. Waterman, with his awesome British accent would just throw some new stat tests into you. You probably wouldn't understand a word of it during the class. But you better read the stuff. Our exam was a multiple choice paper. So you either get it or you don't.
Happy reading and I'll be back with Term 2 in a day or two.
PS: Term 1 and 2 are the terms you have to study really really hard, especially at the ISB. So be prepared.
Financial Accounting in Decision Making - Mark Finn was our professor. If you are lucky, then you'll get him. Otherwise you will definitely regret doing this course with another professor. Section C was perhaps the most lucky section in the whole batch. In some course or the other, all other sections got one not-so-excellent prof, but we just got the best always. Finn would take you by surprise. You wouldn't realize that he is going so fast and very soon you'd be calculating deferred taxes, which even the CAs wouldn't have done in detail.
Managerial Economics or rather microeconomics taught by Amit Bubna and Rakesh Vohra. I wouldn't be surprised if you mistook Amit to be an MBA student. He'll just be like the guys you'll meet on campus. But yes, he'll expect you to understand a lot of stuff on your own. You'll realize some things after the mid-term and perhaps you'll start cursing and swearing. Rakesh was the best Term 1 Prof I would say. His lecture on game theory was amazing. He used same two OHP sheets for all the 5 classes. Again, his exam would drive you nuts. But then, economics is always like that. If anybody could understand it easily, then there wouldn't be any worry about competition and pricing.
Marketing Management or Marketing 101 as they popularly call it in the US was taught by Asim Ansari and Jagmohan Raju. I heard from a few people that Ansari wouldn't be here this term. Anyway, you wouldn't miss him much. He makes some good jokes on the students. And the first half of marketing isn't anything that you really wouldn't know. Raju is an excellent Prof. But he has high expectations from the students. He expects us to know KOTLER in and out. That's outrageous. Whenever he asks a question in class, he will put up a photo of a student and ask him/her to answer. And that's how you earn class participation. He will make you feel embarrassed about your decision to do an MBA. I frankly think that he should not be invited to teach the MBA students, but I don't think that ISB has an alternative. So, he'll be around to trouble you guys in Term 1 and 2. Unless you perform extremely well in marketing, you'll regret his presence for sure.
Statistical Methods for Decision Making taught by Bob Stine and Richard Waterman. Both profs are just amazing. They'll bring an extra dimension for statistics. Bob is is this highly energetic prof in class. He is extremely animated and his comments will keep you totally interested in the class. Waterman, with his awesome British accent would just throw some new stat tests into you. You probably wouldn't understand a word of it during the class. But you better read the stuff. Our exam was a multiple choice paper. So you either get it or you don't.
Happy reading and I'll be back with Term 2 in a day or two.
PS: Term 1 and 2 are the terms you have to study really really hard, especially at the ISB. So be prepared.
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