In the midst of nothing!

The happenings in campus are almost nil, for the first time in hell. Actually its the first time that I can virtually see the seconds on my watch pass by. Reflecting back at the last 17 odd months, (although this may not be the right time to reflect back, better would be to prepare for the up coming placements otherwise only "reflecting back" would be left with me :D) it has been a long journey in the sense that time travels at such variable pace here; remember the last 5 minutes during exams when it is at its fastest and the same 5 minutes take an eternity to get over when its an afternoon class (although I think classes at other times are equally painful). I have learned so many things in those passing months that its difficult to sum those up in a small blog post. The significant learnings/take-aways/achievements are summarized below:
1. Giving presentations (read "speaking in English for more than 2 sentences", although I am at the "giving presentations" stage only and there's a long way to go to be able to "sail though ppts").
2. Being finally able to win some competitions.
3. Appreciating the essence of team work- its in the way you gel together that is important and not how "equally" the work was divided and done.
4. "Excelling" :D, one of the most critical tool for managers. (Excelling- its "the 'art' of converting simple situations into complex MS Excel spreadsheet so that the same simple things appear more complex and more importantly, more MBA like).
5. Completed "24", "Scrubs" and "HIMYM"-all seasons and currently up to date with "Heroes", lost track of "Prison Break". Rest all sitcoms are not of my liking.
6. Finishing-off projects and yes, I have done many of those.
7. Made great friends for life; but the list is still completely biased towards only one gender :( and I am happy with it (no! no! I am not ga#)
8. Got to know that IIM grads are also human, speak hindi, and "don't" earn in crores (or even lakhs).
9. Also got to know that logic is still the scarce commodity and common sense still scores heavily.
10. "Networking" drives the whole corporate world, but still I don't care a paisa about it (readers are encouraged to use their own preferred word instead of the bold one)
11. My belief got stronger, "Sachin is still the GOD".
12. On the topic of GOD; Hell has now two Gods- Shantanu Parmar joined Sharad Dagar recently by becoming the ICON-"young business leader" at FMS's management fest. (Those who don't know why Sharad Dagar is God are advised to please find time from their busy schedule (of classes, (useless) committee activity, batch mails) for campus activities.

The length of this post is exceeding my average and hence its better to end it; so that the regular customers don't get irritated.
PS: Watch out for the most awaited post of the year (next post)-"The Branding Bubble".

The World of One Dimensional Performance Measures

I think the topic needs a little bit of explanation. I feel most of us tend to rate people based on a single character attribute- students based on grade/CG, professional based on salaries, neighbors based on "acres of land",friendship based on favors done and so on and so forth. You can pick any profession and you will find that there's one dominating characteristic that draws all the attention. This is a good way of assessment and makes the life of the analyser a lot more easier. Since not every one is an expert in every field so it becomes handy to have a single performance measure, so that people from unrelated fields can easily build their rankings. A perfect example can be GDP growth rate being taken as a proxy for a nation's economic development. So it becomes easy for general people to gauge performance of nations without going into the depth of economics. But then a healthy GDP growth does not always translate into healthy economic development. There may be cases when the economy grows only on account of rich getting richer and poor not touched at all and hence economic disparity increasing. And economists have created indices to capture all of this, but then it becomes hard for non-economists to understand these indices.

But then what is the problem?

The problem is this-People (generally) try to extrapolate that one characteristic into other dimensions (attributes) and try to create a holistic picture out of single characteristic."

So you can see what is the problem. People try to draw the complete charactristic profile of an individual based merely on a single charactersitic. Examples are numerous-

-Kids being characterised as bright and dull on the basis of a single number- "percentage" (does TAARE ZAMEEN PAR rings a bell?)

-Professionals on the basis of "salary" earned and "growth" (in salary) achieved;

Although it is very essential to meaure performance and these single characteristics are very handy to take decisions; but those decisions should be taken and that's where it should end rather then extrapolating that single measure into other attributes and charateristics.

I believe there are "as many number of attributes/qualities as there are people in the world" and hence everyone has that one dimension of superiority over others; or in short everyone is special. But the hard fact is life has been modeled around just a few attributes; and mostly people try to move on those lines without trying to convince themselves of their inherent attribute. This herd mentality does not get properly scrutinized till the time it becomes extremely essential; when the question is slammed across the face (for instance 1-Why MBA?, 2-Why this job?...the only ones which I can think of and relate to at this point of time)

And this herd mentality gets ingrained even before we start to think about ourselves. The Kids are virtually forced to attend coaching classes to get into the elite engg. colleges and they get into some branch of engg. based on their rank. [mostly] It is never asked as to what a kid's aspirations are and never do parents try to find out what's the "core competency" of their child is. Kids get into engg. college, find out everything being taught is useless, try to find out more fruitful avenues. Some find MBA much brighter (moneyer) than engg. and start preparing for MBA entrances even in 2nd year of their engg.; before they even get to know what their stream of engg. is all about. To a great extent the fault lies with the (false) branding being done by most of the top MBA colleges. And then this mentality drives most of the MBAites to streams with wealthier job avenues.

So what is the solution?

Its simple! make friends on the basis of friendship attributes (not because someone is a rank-1, hey! but that does not mean leaving out the rank-1 compulsorily); rate people on the basis of the interaction that you have (rather than what their bank balance suggests!).....

As always there was more of problem searching and less of solutions; but then its more important to identify the problem. Everyone is wise enough to find the solutions, or should I say solutions are better left for individuals to be found as those are to be implemented by themselves.

Of "Advanced" Oral Communication, My analytics account and 3 lettered acronyms

Attached is a screen shot from my google analytics page (the site which keeps count of the visits to my blogspace) and it says in plain language "pathetic". And I believe thats the purpose of me signing up for analytics, at least I can have a feedback.
Oh WAIT! Where am I going? This one's about AOC- "Advanced" Oral Communication. Theres something about MBA courses that I am yet to figure out- Why this fascination for three lettered acronyms? CFM,SFM, MFS, SOM, CBM, CRM, SCM and so on. You can create any permutation of three letters from the alphabet, ending or starting with M and lo! you will end up with a MBA course name.
So whats AOC? This one is the only non-finance/operations course in my elective list for second year (apart from one Econometrics Methods). That is to say this is the only so called "soft" course in my list. Its exactly what the name suggests- an advanced level oral communication course; aimed at improving one's already acquired communication skills (from the previous two compulsory courses on communication in first year). My motive to take up this course was to get engaged in numerous presentations and thus get ample "net-practice" before the final placements.
So far two sessions have gone by and the course has already gained pace. The prof. has conducted these sessions mainly to gauge the level of skills already present so as to organise the rest of the sessions accordingly. The primary tool was 1-2 minutes Impromptus on general topics- "Leadership boils down to character", "The tale depends on who tells it", "I was born intelligent but education ruined me" and something on "two skills most needed in present job market". Overall it has been a nice experience and I hope to get some improvement in the level of my oral communication skills [written part is already on the right path :)].
The other two courses that I have in this term are International Finance (an apt name could have been Global Financial Management, so as to fit the 3 lettered acronym condition and to have the most prised word of business language, "Global") and Operation Strategy (lo! another exception to the 3 lettered acronym rule but strategy saves the day for OS and gives it the perfect feeling for a MBA course).

Ethical and Nonethical: Why only two options?

There is a common tendency among people to move everything or to adjust everything (and everyone) towards the mean (or is it the central tendency?). What it means is that people on the superior half do not get appreciated as they should be in an absolute manner and people on the other (inferior) half get unnecessary sympathy.
The point that i m trying to make is in reaction to some of the questions that i have confronted recently. The quality that i m talking about is the morals and ethics being practiced by people.
Qualities/attributes/performance are generally measured in a relative sense, a person's wealth (rich and poor), knowledge ("he is more knowledgeable than me"), class performance (ranks) and so on and so forth. But when it comes to ethics and moral values people generally tend to make judgment in a more absolute sense rather than relatively. Not even Lord Ram was sparred in this regard (yes, i m talking about the "agni-parikhsa" of Maa Sita).
So, why this bias? The answer to me lies in the same old central tendency and even more in the tendency of human beings to "pull" or downplay others' qualities so as to justify one's inability to stick to the right path.
When it has been generally agreed upon that attaining 100% in any measurement is close to impossible (one of my learnings from MBA) then why do we try to impose 100% compliance in ethical behavior. People generally try to find out that one-off incident/instance to totally negate a certain person's otherwise "morally/ethically" commendable behavior. But why this discrete function of ones and zeros, we are humans not machines! Can't we assign a percentage rating to the level of ethical soundness.
[THIS POST NEEDS SERIOUS REVIEW AND I'LL BE BACK WITH A MORE THOROUGH AND ELABORATE POST]

PS: Comment is a scarce commodity here, so every kind of it is welcome :)

I m back!

My google analytics shows that the weekly trend of no. of visitors is on a declining spree recently (after showing strong positive trend for quite some time- although the visitor count never exceeded 9/week). And so it requires some drastic measures to be put in place. So, here I am back to the writing board.
Things have changed way to steeply that even "change" does not aptly explain the happenings. I-banking lost its existence, markets went hay wire, I got 7.8 in IV term [is thr a negative correlation between economic growth and my CG? :)], I lost my wallet, Jumbo and Dada retired, Aby came second for the first time in IIM L and ...
To start off with cricket, the retirement of Dada was really sad and even though it was time for Jumbo, the way he had to bid adieu was unfortunate. The story of these two great contributors was kind of compressed in their final appearances; while Jumbo held onto his final wicket as a C&B with stitched fingers (which speaks of the commitment that this man has showed over and over again), Dada's final test was an equally apt summary of how "Bollywoodish" has been his journey- he missed out on a hundred in the first innings (that 85 will still be remembered as his final reply to critics) and the first ball duck in the second innings which happened around a loud applause from within and outside the ground.
The "Dadagiri" which changed the whole mindset of Indian cricket will forever be remembered as the most crucial mile stone in Indian cricket and had I not witnessed Sachin I would have ranked Dada as the best Indian player ever. And when I say, "best player", I look at the whole package that this man brought to the game. He was instrumental in Indians becoming fearless abroad and more importantly becoming the ones who look straight into the the eyes of the opposition rather being stared at.

Blogger's Block

Its been almost 2 months since my last post and that is why this post. Although many blogs are in the pipeline [typical MBA jargon :)] but it will take time to come up with the next blog (or is the wait over?). Just to commit myself to the posts and to accelerate the process of pipeline to blogspace, i thought of putting up a list of up coming blogs. Although not in order but here's a tentative list of what I am supposed to come in next one month or so:
1. The Theory and Practise of "Nightouts": An Empirical Observation
2. The World of One Dimensional Performance Measures
3. The Blogger's Block
4. The BIG picture
5. Term IV review- What have we learned?
6. Valuation- How subjective can you be?
7. EXECUTION- The need of the hour!

Wait and watch!

The BIG Picture

I knew this would happen. But I am happy that it continued for a while and now I am back. The thing I am talking about is the string of posts that I could manage (a total of 10 posts in 3 months); and I did a great job going by my historical trend.

So, where's this post headaing. I want to focus it on the "big picture" concept; but excuse me for if I wander a bit [or may be 10-20 bits :)]

So what's this funda of BIG picture. Its one of the mangement/intellectual jargon of looking at things/processes/systems/business/organizations from a high enough point so that the whole of it is clearly visible. Or in other words simply- "looking at the big picture".

But why? The point is to have every aspect of a particular system in mind before making any decision or understanding the whole system; and not merely looking at the tit-bits. For example: if you have to understand MBA; merely falling for the huge salary(and that too is an well articulated illusion) would not give a complete picture. There are a whole lot of more important things that one must consider before making up an opinion about MBA.

I think that one went out of the "BIG picture" arena and into the why MBA debate.

Anyways coming back to the big picture idea; its important to incorporate such vision into your outlook and I feel it is valid for all aspects of life and not just management.

But then what's the point. If its important then let it be; why this post???

There you go! You learn the most when you don't do it right. And having learned it the the hard way....(unfinished)

Mid Term Review Continued...

Commercial Bank Management that is! Quite interesting as the course started off. Its mid term time now and feels like nothing has been learned till now. This seems to be the problem in every course; all seems well and fine (understanding seems to be settling in) until there's no examination and every learning seems to pass bye during the time the same is required the most.
The course is basically about the banking industry. We learn about the organizations taking a general framework so why there's this need to dedicate a full course on a single industry and more importantly why is this course oversubscribed. The answer to the first question lies in the inherent nature of banking sector which makes its quite unique as compared to most of the other industries.

• There is too much of debt
• We compare performance through ROA
• Since debt is a part of operations hence too much of it is there, and thats why strict regulations for capital ratios are there to check exccesive leverage (risk of  bankruptcy)

Service Operations Management-This post is meant for academic purpose only and thereby don't expect it to be interesting unless you really are interested in the subject.
To cut the story short it is my mid term exam day (SOM exam i mean) and hence this post to elaborate my understanding.
I would take "education" as an example of service to explain the concepts learned.
Definition
"Any act of creating an intangible output through and interaction between the customer and servers"
So education is-
"A service where the customers (students) interact with the servers (professors) to undergo a n experiential transformation (gain knowledge)"


Role
As per the book there are some classifications of services-VAS, Manufacturing, Personal and so on. By those classification, education fits into Government Service, but then what about private institutes and even non funded national institutes (IIMs). I can't find any fitting classifier for these.

Mid Term Review I (Strategy Management)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~DISCLAIMER~~~~~~~~~~~~

THIS CHAIN OF POSTS CONTAINS POTENTIALLY HARMFUL MATERIAL AS THE POSTS ARE HIGHLY ACADEMIC IN NATURE AND MAY IMPART SERIOUS INJURY TO THE INTELLECTUAL HEALTH OF THE READERS. THE WRITER WILL NOT BE RESPONSIBLE FOR AN SUCH CASUALTIES.
So mid term exams are here again. I will try to pen down my learnings from the various subjects till now. The first one in line is SM as it is the first in the exam schedule. As is clear from the course name this one is about learning strategy as being formulated and practiced by corporates. The course structure has been designed around a number of case studies. The discussions basically build around the case facts and to identify strategic elements from the way a particular organizations reacted or pro acted in various periods during a period of time.
Although it is always a good exercise to extract learnings out of "success stories"; which is mostly the content of all the cases but I feel it would be handy to look at the "grand failures".sfs

Learnings from cases:

Arvind Mills

This case highlighted one of the most important aspect of strategic planning-"settings objectives with specific time frames". The company realized the need for structuring its business strategy in wake of unfavorable environment for the industry and set time based objectives.

The approach taken by the company can be understood through the Abell's model of business. The company first extended its product line (customer functions) and ventured into Denim manufacturing realizing its favorable resource capabilities. Then it gradually extended its target market (customer groups). The company also identified and incorporated new technology for manufacturing to improve quality.



Walmart
The case highlighted the operational aspects of strategy particular to retail sector. The company's CA was cost leadership. It employed numerous measures to ensure highly competitve pricing and yet maintained relatively high margins. Moving along the value chain firstly it enjoyed high bargaining power with suppliers mainly because of rationalization and development of supplier network. Then it created high operational efficiency through standardization of merchandise, computerized inventory control, efficient distribution system. It ensured employee participation/contribution to business motive by pegging bonuses with profits and also discouraged luxurious spending by top management. The other end of value chain was taken care through ploys like local pricing and higher display area in stores.

Service Operations Management

There is a quiz tomorrow in Service Operations Management (SOM) and i thought it would be nice to write within this realm. This course is primarily structured to develop an understanding (rather an appreciation) about operational aspects in services. The course seems very similar to most of the ops courses where we talk about quality, 2X2 matrices, ....
The course has been divided into two sections with each section being taken by a different faculty. The difference between the two sections is quite visible in the topics being covered; the initial section is about a broad outline about services and role of operations in services while the latter part is more about the application of operations tools in solving problems related to services (supposedly).

The CP phobia

Its 6:30 in the morning and there seems nothing interesting to study. Past few days have been really lazy with average sleep time peaking again.
So CP phobia. This is the fear of being asked to put some "valuable insights" during a case discussion in class. This fear generally aggravates in courses with a higher proportion of theoretical/mandatory globe (obviously the "observed/practical globe" is much more and thereby it does not differentiate between courses). There is a predetermined weightage of CP in these type of courses.
So, that was the general description and background about CP. Now coming to the practical aspects and the mechanism of CP and its phobia. Lets take some course to illustrate the mechanism and what would be more fitting than Strategic Management (my favorite for intellectual sarcasm). We are required to read a case for each class (a different one each time!) . Cases, typically, elaborate the golden or stoney (phew!...i mean opposite of golden, the internet tells me curst and unpropitious as close antonyms) history of some global organization. The discussion starts with some aspect of the organizations action being discussed and we are supposed to score on the CP front by telling the professor some points about the aspect. It basically turns out an exercise of "summary preparation in group".
And then comes the all important part. Now those who haven't pitched in are randomly "caught" and asked to comment in some way or the other. But the problem is that now most of the discussion points have been exhausted and the person has to rely on his/her ability to put in a "random speech" with some valuable insights so that it is as close to the topic being discussed as possible. To illustrate this situation of "forcibly asked for useless talk" I have one personal example :)
The case for the day was on Apple Inc. It was basically about the numerous turnarounds that Apple had gone through with CEOs being replaced like national football coaches. Our group was one of the three to come prepared with the presentation and we were the unlucky ones. The presentation went for about half an hour with me mutely nodding my head through the whole of it (just to appear as if I also contributed in the ppt preparation). Post ppt, the professor put in his precious insights and it was about time for the class to end. But with just ten minutes remaining the prof wanted us to rate the various CEOs that Apple had seen over the years. And that was it. Although I had read the case but wasn't in a position to comment which one of the CEO did a good job and which one didn't. The prof paused for a while and then looked around for the members of the group who presented the case and I was the obvious target as I was the least vocal during the ppt (least= nil). And there I was, stumped while defending the ball. But then you have this liberty in MBA to talk uselessly for as much as you like and still manage appreciation. I described the characteristics of the CEOs and concluded that each one did his best based on his competency and I am not sure which was the best. No appreciations for that, but at least I passed on the ball. The prof reacted saying "He got away telling the story".

The Phobia Unleashed
This was the story as it went. But then where's the phobia. The phobia arises when you do not have this expertise to gather a random collection of sentences based on the case facts and to present them as if you have discovered/resolved the mystery behind the black holes.
This phobia is directly proportional to:

• Lack of GK
  
• yes GK! So that you can play around with some coll facts to support your theory of "black holes"
• Ability to think logically
• thus the more logical you are the more you are prone to this phobia
• Understanding of the fundamentals
• there's no point in the useless talk that happens if the fundamentals are clear.

That's it for now. May be will add to this one sometime latter.

Summers

This post dedicated to my co-interns at SEBI- Ayush, Anjan, Aniruddha, Gopesh, Piyush, Shankar and Rohit.
It was the summer of 2008 and we arrived at humid Mumbai for our internship at SEBI. We were put up in a SEBI guest house at Malad. The apartment was semi-furnished and we were allotted two flats, each comprising of two rooms, a kitchen, a dinning hall and two bathrooms. The office was in Bandra Kurla Complex, some 25 kms away. There was an employee-managed bus service that helped us out for easy conveyance. A typical day started with getting up at around 7:15 am and getting ready to start off with the bus waiting near our apartment. The bus used to battle its way through the Mumbai traffic for around one hour to leave us at SEBI office in BKC. Then it was time for morning "paid" breakfast in the office canteen. Then we moved to our desks and get involved in our core activity, surfing the net. The "free" lunch timing was from 12:45 pm to 2 pm; and we used to be the first ones in the queue. Post lunch it used to be time for "getting aware of the happenings around the world" (also called reading newspaper) in the library. The office hours were till 5:30 pm and that was the time for evening "paid" snacks
and then getting on the bus for another 1 hour 15 mins ride through the thick traffic.
Listening to "Dekhta hai tu kya" (from crazzy 4) on Radio Mirchi all those memories of internship flashed across my eyes. Although it was neither my first experience of summer training nor my first time out of home; but still it was kind of different in many ways. The people I mentioned above were each with their own set of uniques and it was quite a time with them at Mumbai.

It Depends (Management Jargons Part I)

It depends! One of the most frequently used phrase in management and more so when one is answering to some query. The phrase in itself looks small and also gives an impression that the person using it is trying to make up something when he/she actually does not has an idea about what is being asked. Although it true a number of times, but sometimes it is the very nature of management issues which do not have a clear yes or no. But, again, it is difficult to distinguish between the two.
Management is not a subject of accurate/pin-point explanations and results. And even the thrust is also not to formulate standard methods/results otherwise what will be left for the managers to do. Management is, to me, a science of trade offs and that is way "it depends" has a very large proportion in management talks. One has to some how "manage" the two extremes of requirements- urgency vs accuracy; soft talk vs hard banging...can't think of more practical ones except for the usual operations examples.
How should we increase sales?...."it depends"
Where should we put our plant?...."it depends"
What kind of advertisements should we make?...."it depends"

And even...
Sir, what is the cut off for passing the course?
Doctor, what injection should we give to the dying man?
Pilot to the technician at the radar station- Which is the button for automatic landing?
...OR may be
What is your goal in life?...."It depends [short-term, medium-term or long term :) ]"

Really useful (the "it depends" tool)....right?

Any Questions
The professor (After a presentation or a verbose explanation) "Do you have any questions?"
"Well, if you don't have any, it is presumed that the concept is understood properly."
Simple logic...isn't it?
But that's not the way it should be. I believe one can only question when one really gets the understanding and if one doesn't get the thing right then, to my "understanding" the only question that can be asked is-"Can you explain the thing again?"
But then that's how life is. You are forced to ask some random questions and carry forward the discussion.

Strategic Management (SM)
It was asked to define this term. The first thought that came to my mind was-"It is the management of strategy." Then I looked at the term and understood it is actually-"strategic management." So, what is meant by that. This in core management terminology............ would not be explained by me. i would take the analogy of business with the game of football and try to explain the term.
In football the analogy with a company would be a club. And there are clubs with a large degree of variations similar to business which will help the cause. The are clubs with the stature of Wal Mart, Microsoft, Reliance, Tata and the like. We have Manchester Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid and so on to match their counterparts in business and then we also have clubs like Southall United (remember "Goal", the bollywood one of course ), Mahindra Utd, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal (don't know much about the lesser knows European clubs, but I know there would be plenty of them) to show us the other side.
So from football's perspective, SM means to carry out the functioning of a club with some thing in mind to achieve and thereby choose those alternatives that would take the club towards those things. To put it simply it is "to think before implementing".
And I feel most of the clubs do that, because even these tops clubs operate in the way business is carried out globally.
The club managers are loaded with targets and they go about formulating their strategy to fulfill those targets. They have to decide about how much to spend and which players to buy through the transfer markets, which players are to be sold out, which players need to be retained, what formation to be chosen, how much to spend on technicians, support staff, publicity and infrastructure, when to rest your star performers and when to give chance to the youths and so on.
All these form a part of the Strategy- "the game plan to beat one's opponents".
And then we move on to something called Competitive Advantage. In terms of football the competitive advantage can be strong financial position of the club, a brigade of youth, and experience in terms of player skill and like wise. Teams/clubs try to leverage their most significant asset/attribute and try to build around that. A rich club would try to rope in good technician and invest in support systems to reap benefit; on the other hand a club full of young players would go about building a strategy around these players to succeed.


Watch out!!! More GLOBE coming up. [Jargon Count= 5]

Strategic Management

As promised I am here with the first post of the series of discussion about my courses in II year.
This is the only subject qualified as GLOBE in my portfolio (although most courses have started off on the same note). The first lecture was all about strategy and its role in management. Lets look at the various jargons of the subject being taught/discussed till now.
Business Objective
In pure management language it means "to maximize value for the stakeholders; alternately to earn profits which in turn deliver value to shareholders and on a more macro level brings value for the economy.

To illustrate the concepts let us put football in place of a business. There the objective of a team, which is analogous to an organization in business, is to continue winning games.

Strategic Management

The terms refers to management by strategy; that is, to run a business keeping in view the objectives and there by adopting various plans and tactics to achieve the objective. One important point here is that the objective, vision as we call it in management jargon, is itself a product of strategy.

The analogy with football would be the way professional clubs are run. The club managers are required to fulfill certain objectives as set by the board. These objective themselves are determined based on some thinking considering the past performance, player ability, financial status and so on. The mangers have to formulate the game plan- the formations, team combination, transfers, technical assistants etc. This approach to managing the game where a lot of thinking is put into place even before the actual game starts can be compared with strategic management as carried out by corporates.

In sport’s sense a definition of strategy would be “to formulate the game plan which will enable a team to defeat its opponent”. Thus it a game plan around which a team works in order to realise its objective- achieving victory.

Most of the professional clubs have well defined game plans or strategies to achieve their respective objectives.  (.........unfinished)

My Portfolio

The second innings has started at hel(L) and it isn't looking too comfortable (chill) at all. Classes from 8 to 9; yes 8 in the morning to 9 in the evening!!!

But the returns are only as good as the choice of your portfolio.
And mine is quite a heavy weight one. I have 3 fin, 2 ops and 1 eco course in this term along with a compulsory Strategy course. So I expect quite high returns (read burden) from my risky (heavy weight) portfolio; without much diversification (no fillers) of the risk.
Only diversification is with respect to time; the sessions are diversified across the whole day and even run into the night :(

This is the first weekend but the week isn't over.
Yeah the week is not over! We count time at helL by weeks and this time around the "week" has started mid-week. Change of schedules, change of class rooms, change of sections; but there is no "positive" change in the burden. It has only got aggravated.
The first half week went just fine. This part of the week (the latter half-thu/fri/sat) is like a three-day management workshop for me- classes start at 8 in the morning and continue up till 9 in the evening with 1-3 hours gaps in between. The day goes by in classes, , traveling to-fro and mess. The latter part is on a chiller side- 2pm to 8pm; only two classes scheduled at the maximum separation possible.

Most of the courses started off with the "mandatory" globe (read introduction) that is a a necessary condition for any course to qualify in a management curriculum.; although not a sufficient one, there is need for more globe latter on. Although it has been promised (by??) to gradually phase out the global part in the coming lectures. Lets see!

My portfolio goes as:
Corporate Valuation and Restructuring (CORVAL);
Managing Financial Services (MFS);
Commercial Bank Management (CBM);
Manufacturing Systems Design (MSD);
Services Operations Management (SOM);
Econometric Methods (EM); and
Strategy Management (SM).

Coming up next:
My take(perception/expectation/understanding) on these courses.

Hast la vista baby!

Hasta la vista baby! This famous phrase means "see you later". But no, I am not going anywhere! The only reason for this phrase being the post heading and my status msg on gtalk is that its the only quote that I know from Spanish and I think one of the most famous ones as well (corrections welcomed). So why Spanish? why not Brazilian, Portuguese or just plain English?Since, Brazil do not play in Euro; I am not a Portugal fan and England, unfortunately, didn't make it to the Euro-08 finals.
So its clear i m backing Spain. This is the team with some really exciting players- Torres, Fabregas, Ramos, Villa, Puyol and Casillas in the goal. La Furia (name given to the Spanish national team) are going to remove the "underachiever" tag this time around.
"La Furia goines thes Champianos" (No, this does not mean anything; just put some random words to sound like "Spain are going to be the Champions")

Rajasthan Royals and IPL v Test Cricket

Lets start with IPL and the fairy-tale story of Rajasthan Royals (RR) dominating it and eventually winning the tournament under the inspired leadership of Shane Warne. Although many people knew about the impact that Shane creates both as a player and thinker on the game but same wasn't supported by live examples. But we have got one now and we can now see how immensely talented this man is. Although I wasn't able to watch IPL but from the initial perception of RR and the team composition I was of the view that this team wasn't one of the best if not the worst. And the contribution of Shane was a very important aspect, at least according to me.

So IPL is the next big thing in the cricket world and there are talks of it being held twice every year. Now this a good news for the viewers all over and the sponsors, a sort of mix bag for players and certainly a bad news according to the traditional Pundits. The problem with IPL or T20 is that it makes cricket a whole lot different from the way it has been played traditionally, but the same impact was created by 50 overs cricket as well. So why this hue and cry now. The point is that the shorter you make the game the less certain and hence more arbitrary the game becomes, at least according to the traditionalists. On one hand this brings in more excitement from the point of view of viewers but on the other hand the element of orthodoxial fineness goes away. And that is why the traditional Pundits are worried. No matter how they put it but the essence of their view is that cricket should be played in the manner in which it has been played over the years,with technique and patience as the main ingredients of success. They want to preserve what they were a part of and hence the apprehension. The same apprehension was there when 50 overs cricket became popular. But still that required technique and patience to some extent. And now with T20 those elements are certainly becoming less relevant as per the traditionalists.
The whole problem is that people are trying to see all forms of cricket from one eye. There is a need to understand the difference in order to enjoy and appreciate all the forms. Test cricket is the "test" of a player's "traditional technique" and patience; T20 lies to the other extent which requires "improvisation techniques" and "rapid transitions" and 50 overs is mid way between the two. And thus saying that T20 is a game of arbit hits" is totally illogical. Technique is an important factor but this technique is not the same as in test cricket.The objective is to minimize the probability of not getting out in tests while in T20 the objective becomes "to maximize the runs scored/ball". Both forms require immense hard work and commitment and just because the techniques differ does not mean one is inferior to the other. It would be very easy to accept T20 if we can view T20 and tests as two different sports rather then fitting them under one category and then comparing one with he other.

EPL and IPL

Let us begin with the english football- Manchester United won EPL for the second consecutive year and have the CL final coming up with Chelsea.

GO United Go!!!
CHAMPIONS for the second season in a row. An this one was even more satisfying as the run went down to the last day of the season and Chelsea on the receiving end. I guess that is what we love to see in football and for that matter in any other sport; the shear tension, pulsating nerves and the joy of celebrating the triumph of our favorites. With Ronaldo in RED hot form, the seniors showing emmense resilience at the dawn of their careers and even more exicting youths in the line-up, United are on a golden run. And with Sir Alex as the boss United would certainly like to make it a double this season.
The season has turned out to be a classic in all respects with Arsenal running the show in the first half of the season, United surviving a tough middle phase to reach the top spot just before the final stage and Chelsea handing a defeat to United to set the stage for a really exciting season FINALE. But the story is yet not over with the CL final coming up. What more would the fans want?- a deciding final day of season and now United vs Chelsea in the CL final.
Way to go United!!!

Cricket going the football way
First twenty20 and now IPL, cricket is certainly en route to Europe. Twenty20 has brought the one thing needed to make it a global sport - PACE. Its not that cricket does not pump adrenaline but those moments are quite widely spread on a time line. So its a huge step towards making cricket a global brand. And what has IPL bought?....fierce competition. The teams are well matched both in terms of star power and young guns. Not that this kind of structure was not there in cricket (courtesy County Cricket). But why IPL is different is because of its GRAND APPEAL to the most enthusiastic cricket fans of the world (yes I am talking about Indian spectators). The promoters have done a great job in brining together the best bets from the cricket world and to bring every possible medium of marketing communication into picture- Ads on TV and Radio, Celebrity appeal and so on. Its looks like cricket-business has become more professional with its new product-T20 and IPL becoming its most coveted brand.
So cricket is going the football way. The IPL format will bring in more support with time with elements like fan following, club rivarly etc. shaping it into more of a culture than a sport. This is the case with club football in Europe. If this revolution can be sustained then there's nothing stopping cricket from becoming a global sport. But we Indians have to be prepared enough so that cricket does not go the Hockey way, where we lost our domination (even existence) on the world stage as it became popular in Europe.

20 minutes at the station

THIS POST IS FOR THOSE WHO TRUELY BELIEVE IN THE LEGACY OF "NETA". FOR THOSE WHO AREN'T AWARE OF HIM PLEASE SKIP TO THE NEXT POST :)

SPOILER ALERT: NETA IS THE COMEDIAN!!! (err...........matlab isi ki wajah se hasi aayegi)

***************************************************************
Scene-1, Act-1;
Characters: Me and Neta
Location: Dadar Station
Date n Time: 10 minutes to 10 p.m., 2nd May

Neta: "Ye Amul to aaj double pitega (One for the IIM C convert and other one.....read on)."
Me: "Lekin tune hi to use 10 baje tak aane ke liye kaha tha?"
Neta: "Haan to 10 to bajne hi wale hai. Pehle to use 8:30 hi aana tha, wo to maine hi use kaha ki jyada jaldi nahi hai wo aaram se relatives se mil kar aaye. Lekin agar wo 10 baje se pehle nahi aaya to uski kher nahi."
Me:" Theek hai aane do usko, khub pelenge saale ko."
***************************************************************
Scene-1, Act-2;
Characters: Me, Neta and Amul.

Its 10:15 p.m. and Amul is seen walking towards us (me and Neta).
We greeted Amul and both of us landed tw0 kicks on his bumps. I thought the issue was resolved but Neta was hungry. He could not stand the fact that Amul was 15 minutes late. Its business as usual for Neta as most of you must be knowing.

So Neta thought that this was the time to hit back, with me supposedy in his favour.The two of us were together for past 4 odd hours and i did not pull his leg even once.

Neta (to Amul): " Tumhe thoda jyada time rukne ke liye bol diya to tumne to had hi kar di."
Me: "Lekin ye to sirf 15 min hi late aaya hai, isme kya problem hai."
Me (to Amul): "Yaar ye Neta hadd karta hai, khud hi ne 10 baje tak aane ko bola aur baad me khud hi jalla raha tha ki 2 ghaante station par wait karna pad gaya."
Me and Amul: LON
From here on it means Laughing on Neta; this acronym will be frequently used in the following paragraphs with various variants,like:
LNON- L Notoriously ON
LEON- L Effortlessly ON
ELON- Everyone LON
LWON- L Wickedly ON

Neta: (Caught with his pants down....since he wasn't expeccting this sudden change of sides from Me) "Abe saale Kholu(me)!!! tu to itni der se meri haan-me-haan mila raha tha, ye achanak kya hua?"
Me: " Dekho Neta ek funda samajh lo:"
(..........ahem ..ahem .......pay attention! this ones a deep funda)
"Jab bhi sirf do log saath hote hai to wo ek dusre ki nahi udaate"

Me n Amul: LNON, Launghing Nototriously on Neta.
Neta:"Are! ye kya matlab hua?, par hum donno mil kar Amul ki bhi to udaa sakte the."

Me: "To ab suno dusra funda:"
"Jab bhi teen lgo me ek Neta hota hai to usi ki maari jaati hai"
Me, Amul and everyone else at the bus station: Laughing on Neta or in short ELON
********************************************************

So this was how the journey began. There still much more to come from our trip to Pune.....two full days...remember this was just a 20 min trailor.


Next up: "The Pune Trip".

For a change

Enough of copy-paste, let me have something original. Am pretty much occupied with work these days- chatting, blogging (more of collating other's posts), creating accounts on social networking sites.....and yes!! interning at SEBI :)
The past 30 odd days have been some of my most monotonous ones in quite few years. The day starts with a boring and sleepy bus travel to SEBI, then we have our breakfast there followed by a three hour net session. Then we have our lunch (which is quite good here) followed by a mandatory visit to Library- no!! not for books, but to unfold a newspaper in front of yourself and take a nap in the cozy chairs over there.
Next comes another three hour seesion of- cricXchanging, chatting and all. We leave office at 6 and reach the guest house (in Malad) by around 7. Then starts another wait, now for dinner (dabba) which gets delivered at around 9:30 (the person started delivering it at 8:30 but gradually learnt that we are not his"critical customer", so has scheduled ours as the "least priority order").
Before going to sleep we manage to save time to either watch a movie or two, or 4-5 episodes of some series (I recently finished "24"..all seasons).
And thats how the day ends. Nothing challenging, nothing much exciting either. Now i realize HELL's not actually hell at all.....its heaven in all respects (the second one that i have visited).
..............sorry for the abrupt end, but its time (sarkari office hai bhai, they are very particular about the closing time :) )

Status Message Mania-II

From HELL--------
"divya....kahaan ho tum"----

"wake me up for the 8:45 class..................plzzzzzzzzzzzzz"---

"i am conphuzing"---

Funny---------
"Whenever I find the key to success, someone changes the lock"– Tarun

"Set status message here" -GG

"Somebody suggest a good status message"—Amul

“TO-LET……….this space is available for rent...... contact 9935943830”---

Bade log----------
"If you take my whole life and condense it to one day, it looks impressive" --- George Costanza (i dont know this guy :))

“there's no "I" in "team." There is a "me," though, if you jumble it up” ----Vinayak

“Sometimes, Most Easy sentences verbally, are most difficult to speak” ----Ish

Read at your own risk----
"Let us not believe that we have received the divine kiss , if we know the truth without loving it or love it without understanding it. But blessed is that kiss whereby not only love is recognised and felt but also both of us are loved , for there is never full commitment & trust without perfect love"---Kimi

"In umr se lambi, sadkon ko Manzil pe pahunchte dekha nahi Bas, Daudti firti rehti hai Hamne to theherte dekha nahi Is ajnabi se sheher me, Jaana pehchana dhoondta hai..."---KK

...........to be continued

Status Message Mania-I

Some of the best status msg...............
" The presentation had 250 slides; 25th was "thank you" slide and after that there were insights"
-------Pitaji.

"The msg has been temporarily shifted to APJ's account"
--------Your's truly.

"Jab tum kisi cheez ko dill se chaho..toh poori kaynaat tumhe usse milwane me lag jatee hai’
---------Shri Shri 1008 Parmar...the GOD.
"LOVE TRANSCENDS THE DIMENSIONS OF TIME,SPACE AND THE SELF.SO LET IT FLOW AND THE UNIVERSE SHALL MERGE UNTO YOU."
------GOD again.
........................................................................[GOD at the height of desperation :) ]
"umr daraz ho gaye 4 din meim, kuch aarzoo mein gaye aur kuch intezaar mein"
----GOD .

"yeh saari global warming delhi me kyun ho rai hai"
----Pitaji.
" http://status.msg.com" (this url doesnt point anywhere :) )
-----Me

"Its better to die rather than trying hard and failing in ur endeavours as well not being able to live upto the expectations of ur beloved ones. I sincerely hope to die quite early. hope god is listening"
------Kimi

"Joining B school just for getting a job is like getting married just for sex"
------Motin
"playing .........midterm-madness...."
------
" 'Brand atchitude, brand reconition....all this things you know'...........well i don't"
------
"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway"
-----courtesy Amul

"The Knack of Flying is learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss!!!...."
-----Sonam (M)

chapter 2 coming soon.......

The BEST time @hell

Exam time!.......the best time???.............
Are you serious?.......................
That might not be true at most places and in most contexts, but that is how things go here at the hell.
No boring classes, No ppts, No projects..................the crux-"no deadlines to meet".
And exam time is the best, coz you dont have to study much unless you are in the rat race.
So it begins today with one of the four GLOBE subjects of the term. I am not in a mood to read any more and so thought of starting something useful during my "best time of the day" (after 3'O Clock in the night).
Learnings from the course:
Course: HRM,
Type: Globe of the highest degree (there are Globes of lesser degree, then there are courses with technical Globe and some with specific Globes)
Instructor: A good teacher, but had to deal with so much of Globe.
We learned that there are provisions for the workers in organizations in order to have there say in the conditions of the job. Deep legal fundae "enriched" with definitions made the course very dull.