Tuesday, December 23, 2008

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).