New life

It's been a while since I last wrote a blog post. I've now moved to Mumbai. Life in a new city is always an exhilarating feeling. First few months were a stretch just getting used to the sights and the sounds of this city. And I must say it was hard getting used to the filth and the dirt. I had a different idea about Mumbai when I first came in. I expected it to be rich in splendour, heavy in vigor and thick in taste. Initially all I saw were the disjointed flyovers, the traffic and the pollution. Then I got to know the people.
I think the people is what makes the city. The reason many outsiders don;t get Calcutta is that they just breeze through the city and never stay long enough to get enamoured by its charm. I think in that, Mumbai is also pretty similar. It's the vibrancy and the quality of people around. And of course if you are ready to splurge, there is no place that can give you such a rich life.

I have been lucky to have a nice set of people around me so far. Cheers to the road ahead.

Introducing TheTripMagic

Just wanted to introduce a unique travel portal that some friends from ISB and outside have recently launched. It's called TheTripMagic: http://thetripmagic.com. It's a complete travel portal with blogs, forum, community, social network, etc. To quote form the site:
"

We believe in the simple philosophy that happiness multiplies by sharing. So if you’ve had the trip of a lifetime, write a blog and let the world know.

The blogs are powered by WordPress, the most powerful blogging platform known to man!

You can create your own online space for free with us: your website, your blog, your album, and so on and everything for free. You can even get your own domain. For example, if your name is say Joe, you may name your personal site: http://joe.thetripmagic.com.

We know that sometimes, you want to venture out to that unknown place. At TheTripMagic, you can find folks who’ve been there, done that.

You may even find a travel buddy who is going to that place at the same time!

If you are in college, you can form public or private groups with your friends and discuss plans collaboratively through our group wiki.

This is all just for starters. Next up, eclectic choice of getaways especially for you.

In the near future we will have some innovative travel solutions for our members.

Some eclectic hotels are also going to be launched from Monday which you can browse and book from. Do check back in the site coz the content is updated almost daily."

I have also helped a bit in the design etc. Would appreciate some feedback on it. Please leave a comment if you want some new features and/or destinations.

Mothers

Suffering with 104 degree fever, acute breathing trouble because of bronchitis, sitting in doctor's chamber, while answering the doctor's questions, she looks at me and asks "Why are you standing dear? Take a Seat"! Mothers.

The whys of MBA curriculum

Having now joined the workforce, I can now appreciate the method in the apparent madness of the MBA curriculum. I think these info will helo the prospective students.

A few days back, I got a call from a director at another office about help regarding a proposal. I was given 2 hours to go through the project specifics-public announcements of a merger. After 2 hours, I was asked what I feel about this. Then over the weekend I wrote a proposal on the post merger integration of these 2 firms.
Sounds familiar? This is just what you do for a case prep. We are given copious case study notes with miniscule time. We read up on case for 2 hours, discuss the case in class - state our point of view and then write a case summary. THis rigour really helps now in job scenario.

Similarly, I'm also working on a strategy project with a team spread across India. Off course the colleagues have different wavelengths and pre-ISB there might have been a friction. But the rich (and forced) experienced via study groups of working with unknown people from different backgrounds over a long period of time and managing egos and personalities really helps avoid frictions now.

So in addition to the actual content of an MBA curriculum, the design itself also helps cope with post-MBA work environment. We also had courses that taught us how to cope with office politics. Maybe I'll write about that sometime!

Poll

ISB MBA: Things I'd do differently

It's been nearly a couple of months since I donned the convocation hat and received my degree certificate with a photogenic smile from Mr. Kapil Sibal. With this time lag in between, here's taking a look at what could have helped shape my ISB experience better.

Student exchange-The biggest "if only..." feeling I have is about the student exchange program. I wanted to go for student exchange from the time I was researching MBA schools. I remember meticulously researching each of the schools my target colleges had tie ups with. At ISB the problem was the timing. I was only interested in the very best global B-Schools for exchange namely Wharton, Lbs and Kellogg. I had somehow formed the idea that each of them had an exchange timeline that clashed with the placement season. However, after the first round exchange deadline was over, I realized that Kellogg exchange actually started in Apr! A golden opportunity to get access to the Alumni portal was missed this way. In fact, I could have also (and should have) gone to colleges like HKUST or CEIBS which would be big in Asia. Apart from the travel aspect, exchange really helps in long term professional (and personal networking).

Asia study trek-There were talks of a European trek which I was interested in. Later that fizzled out (only London tour with only 1 person attending) and I decided to skip the Asia trek. While professional networking wouldn't have been a huge gain here, the camaraderie developed with fellow ISB travelers and the personal experience of visiting so many countries and corporates would definitely have compensated for the cost.

More involvement in clubs-Apart from serving the ISB Toastmasters Club as President, I never got involved with any other social or professional clubs. Organizing some of the major events would have definitely helped to know more people and form better bonds at and outside ISB. The toss up here was time. That said, given a choice I guess I'll still settle for my ISB rank.

Choice of subjectsThis is very pero=sonal but for the sake of completeness, let me list the specific papers that didn't work for me and I wish I had chosen otherwise. I didn't find any value in Capital raising for corporations. The profs were fantastic but the paper itself didn't give me a high. I should have taken the course Advertising taught by a stellar prof Jaidip Sengupta. Same goes for "Investing in Private Equity" by prof Vinay Nair and "Advanced Transaction Analysis and Modeling" by prof Ashish Kohli. Both are super profs and the subjects are tremendous value ads. The last course I would mention is LSCM-"Logistics and Supply Chain Management" by prof Milind Sohni -one of the star profs at ISB. Advertizing and LSCM are not something that I may use too often in my professional life but they were good to know subjects taught by people who made the classes interesting. Same goes for the 2 Fin profs above. Disclaimer for future ISB students: Please note that these are my personal opinions, other batch mates may and probably will come up with totally opposite views.

Other-Someone asked me if I would have changed my choice of colleges if I retook GMAT. Well, it didn't matter to me as I only apped to ISB. I would always urge anyone considering MBA to go for the best colleges. I abhor the concept of categorization of colleges into reach and dream and what not. I wanted to get into the best college I could afford. Else I wouldn't have joined an MBA program.

Survey on Online Travel Industry

Hi,

Would really appreciate it if you respond to the following survey on Online travel industry. Would take 15 minutes max.

free.

What is your package?

Ever since placement, I have heard this question so many times that I feel like smacking the mouth that utters these words. Whoever I meet at ISB or outside asks this question as if it's my duty to inform the person about this most private thing. Whatever happened to respecting privacy?

Following is a conversation I had with an old acquaintance recently over gtalk.

S: hey hi buddy

hru doing these days ..?

me: im fine

how are you

long time

S: ye pretty long time ..

doing good ..

so hows all going at your end ..?

MBA over ..?

me: ya

just graduated

S: cool yaar congrats ..!

placed @ ..?

me: hv a cpl of offers

with xx and yyy

S:
congrats yaar ..!

:)

hey can u tell me wht ws ur gmat score ..?

me: 740

S: hmm ...

If u dont mind ...cud u tell me ur package for yyy..?

me: it's good enough for me mate

S: Ya but it was good even before right

me: Ya well it takes care of my needs even better now

S: Ya but exactly how much?

P: I'll get by. Enough to take care of my needs.

S: haha :) ok

People just don't get the hint that someone values privacy.
Another time an ISB classmate asked similar questions. So I said it's a private matter dude. Did I ask yours? So the reply came, "just because you didn't ask me how would I know I didn't ask anybody else? And anyway, I just want to benchmark my salary". me: "!".

Today I got this email...(to set the context, I had forwarded a job posting I got from ISB alum group to my undergrad (Jadavpur University) alum group.

Hi Priyom,

Though I'm not intersted in the job you mentioned but from your signature I came to know you are MBA from ISB 2010 batch. Would you please tell where have you been placed from campus with what package. And what's highest, lowest, average package of ISB this year domestic as well as international.
Regards,
P*******

I got so pi**ed off at this that I felt like giving a mouthful to this person whom I didn't even know.
I eventually replied:

P*******,

I had an offer with ** Corporate Strategy from the campus.
Compensation details are a private and confidential matter and I won't provide that info to you.
The ISB salary and other details are available on the ISB site www.isb.edu (the current year's will be available in a few months).

Now I've decided that I'll be brutally frank and tell people to f*** off if anyone asks my salary. And if you do want to ask, wrap your question in a garb of propriety. For instance, today someone asked me, "Could you tell me what percentage hike you got over your last CTC"? Though I replied "substantial" but at least I haven't lost respect for the person asking the above question.

Anyway, this would be be a good time to mention that I decided to rejoin my old firm. They are opening a new strategy consulting practice and I'd be in charge of the entire east India region. In fact I'm the first and only employee so far in this part of the country. My reporting manager is the SBU head. Interesting days ahead.

Doing well at a B-school: Academics

This is the first part of a series of Doing well at a B-school articles I plan to write. Today I'd share my experiences and insights on what I felt may work academically at ISB or in any B-school. Halfway through the year I realized my follies and felt the need for these precious tidbits from seniors which are difficult to get in a 1-year B-school. A disclaimer before I begin: these are just my personal thoughts. Please don't come back to me if any of these strategies don't work.

Exams: The so called easier subjects such as for Strategy of OB are actually tougher to score at because the TAs have specific guidelines on points in the answers. So you have to really follow the class well to understand professor's points of view. The hard core fin subjects have very high spread so be sure to practice practice and practice sample questions. After the first 2 terms I just couldn't get myself to study the day before the exams coz of fatigue or burnout or whatever. This is a disaster. I changed this during the last few terms to great effect. So make the most of the day before exams. To set expectations, a general rule of thumb is that about 8 marks above average guarantee an A (at least at ISB).

Assignments: Well this is really tricky and there's no right answer. Few electives in fact have only assignments that decide the grade. So just work hard in them I guess. For core terms, they generally don't matter so for subjects which have >80% weightage on exams you are better of ignoring assignments (where spread is very low) and concentrating on exams.

Projects:For most projects, using some fancy frameworks to analyze the issues really help. Also try to bring in concepts taught in class. Very importantly, if the project is in slide/PPT form, and you've to submit both hard and soft copies, you must put in some animations irrespective of guidelines. Sometimes presence (or absence) of animation (whatever quality) makes the difference.

Class Participation (CP): The much abused part of B-school life, CP hardly matters during core terms in the overall scheme of things. In electives, CP does make a whole lot of difference due to very high spread. But a word of caution. Please don't blabber or ramble if you have nothing substantive to say. I have seen numerous people who constantly jabber get very low CP marks wherease a few well thought out points win very high marks. And, it is OK not to speak in a few classes, really!

These were just few things that I felt I could have benefited from if I knew them from the start. If you are just starting out on a B-school, do remember that grades follow learning and learning follows enjoyment. So don't forget the enjoy the b-school experience in class or outside.

The Grand Finale

The ISB stay is finally over and I'm back home. The last week was really special. There were lots of parites, outings, get togethers, etc. Monday we went on a trip to the interiors of Hyderabad to see the workings of Basix, a Microfinance institution (we had a course on MF this term). On Tuesday, I went to Little Italy with V.
On Wednesday, my parents came over. Next couple of days were spent waiting for the 8th term results to decide our final CGPAs and the dean's list, etc. The city had curfews due to some communal tension so we had to spend few days indoors. Then on Friday, there was a special dinner party thrown by the dean for Dean's Listers and other awardees. It was great to have my parents over for this event. Thereafter, we had a fantastic graduation party replete with booze, kebabs, DJ and the like. Hats off to the SLC (Student Life Council) for doing a terrific job during the year. They were innovative, passionate and resourceful throughout. We had free Red Bull (which saved many of us from sleeping during a 4 hr Comp Strat marathon xam) during exams, puzzles arranged in the LRC, SV crawls (where people crawled from one student village to another drinking all the way) and many more such amazing events which made our stay here really special.
Finally on Saturday, the 3rd of April,2010, yours truly became an MBA. In the momentous occasion, Shri Kapil Sibal, the hon'bl Union Minister of HRD awarded the graduation certificates to our batch of 568 graduating students. We started the year with a strength of 579 folks but lost some due to various reasons. The convocation was held in a semi-temporary pandal structure constructed on the AC6 lawns. The students on the Dean's List (top 10% by CGPA) sat in the first row (in order of rank), followed by the Young leaders and the torch bearers (60 odd). The rest of the batch followed then in order of last name.
It was an amazing feeling when all of us graduates walked to our seats greeted with standing applause from all the relatives and professors.
The ceremony itself was an elaborate affair in which the Dean started the proceeding with a "trademark" speech. Thankfully there were no references to "monkeys". The dean of MIT's Sloan School of Management was also here to mark the occasion of MIT becoming ISB's 4th associate school. So after speeches from 2 deans, Rajat Gupta, the ex-McKinsey global CEO (ISB is his brainchild) spoke a few terse but weighty words on his mantra for success. One particular statement that's etched in my memory is that "whenever in life, you feel comfortable, change the scene." It effectively means always break yourself and keep reinventing. Stability is the enemy of growth.
we were treated with Kapil Sibal's semi-political monologue on various factors of life. He concluded with a self composed poem ("a gift to you students") on the Banking crisis which was received with much enthusiasm from a few of his political aides.
Finally, the certificates were handed out in order of seating. I use the term "certificate" very loosely because it was only a sample copy and the actual certificates and transcripts were given to us about an hour after the ceremony (in order to avoid mix ups). Off course Mr Sibal didn't know this and proudly displayed the certis during official graduation photographs for the first few students. Fortunately he was told to mend his ways thereafter and other students managed to pose smartly for the photos with certificates that didn't have "sample copy" printed across them. Since the whole distribution took a lot of time, the students invented some entertainment for themeselves by cheering for each repeated surname at a time...we went "Singh, Singh, Singh..., Sinha Sinha, Sinha...", etc. Even Rajat Gupta and the other guests burst out laughing.
The last person L Vyas (by order of name) got the most rapturous applause of his life when the entire batch just burst out with all remaining energy.
After thanking our relatives for their patience, support and best wishes during the past year, we tossed our hats and became MBAs.
Private photo sessions followed after the ceremony with friends and family.
The batch MMX (2010) thus took shape. We have arrived!

At night had a fabulous dinner with all students along with relatives.
To cap off wonderful evening, SLC organized our first party as alums of this amazing institution. I partied till the wee hours of the morning as this was our last night together. I got to say good byes to most friends and to those whom I couldn't, here's bidding adieu to you-I'll miss you all. This year, without a shadow of a doubt, was the best of my life and if there ever was a life changing experience, it would be the year at ISB.
Over and out from the batch of MMX, ISB

Last day of classes at ISB

I had my last classes at ISB today. Can't believe the overwhelming experience is over so soon. Though there's an exam left on Sunday, but barring a massive earthquake at Hyderabad or 2 Fs in this term, I'd be an MBA on 3rd April. The mood in the campus is somber and yours truly is truly sad today. It's like a piece of me has been lost forever and there's an emptiness all around. I can't get used to the feeling that I'd not be rushing to the early morning classes anymore or I won't be seeing my dear friends anymore or I won't be walking the landscaped gardens anymore..or...there I go rambling now. Both today and yesterday people were seen taking snaps of their favourite locations/with their favourite people trying to somehow take chunks of ISB with them. But I guess we can't carry the safety net that ISB cast around us. We are on our own now.
The convocation will be held on 3rd April and the prize distribution (Dean's list, torchbearer awards, etc) on 2nd. My parents come over on the 31st March so they'd be with me for the last few days.
Now that I have a bit of time, over next few days I hope to write a series of posts capping the highlights on my stay at ISB - the sweetest memories, the dearest people, the learnings and the things I wish I had done.
So long.

49th best blog in India

Indiblogger recently gave me a ranking of 49 among Indian blogs! Feels good to score well in any ranking :)
Today we had a cricket match in ISB. We've organized this inter ISB tournament on the lines of IPL. There are 6 teams complete wth jerseys, insignia, wacky names, loyalties and the works. After 5 matches my team - the Banjara Bulls are top. Im the 3rd highest wicket taker so far. Today we scored the highest in the tournament history. After today's win, we are through to the semis. As briefly mentioned in my last blog, I wanted to socialize a bit more over the last few weeks at ISB. This tournament in fact allowed me to get to know a lot of folks. I in fact even met a few new faces! With a batch size of 579 I guess that is bound to happen.

It's hard to believe that there's less than 2 weeks left at ISB. People are busy getting together with close friends, trying to make new friendships and relieve old memories. A lot of parties are also planned over the next few weeks.
I have an assignment due tomorrow early morning. It's 12:45 at night and I;m writing blog. God things change. Over and out

Last month at ISB

It's been a while since the last post. As we enter our last month at ISB, everyone is getting busy to celebrate the great times we've had here through parties, frequent get2gethers/outings, yearbook and so on. During the last break I went off to Goa with V and some of his friends. It was a 2 week back to cater to uninterrupted placements. So after spending a few days in Goa, I went back home.

The placements are in full swing at ISB. Nearly 350 students are already out of the placement process and some very good profiles are coming. I've now majored in both Fin ad Marketing this term and it feels good. Now that I have, it seems like the right decision to go for Marketing as i am truly awed by some of the more analytical aspects of marketing like building models, perceptual maps, response functions, etc.
Today was the last lecture of prof Gary Lilien. One of the best profs to have taught here, Gary is a legend in the marketing circles. He is the creator of one of the major marketing toolkits MEXL and its a privilege to learn from the master. Some of his case analyses (some of which he wrote himself) left one in awe.

On a personal note, this being the last term, I'm trying to participate in more activities on campus (there are always an overwhelming number of activities here). If there's one regret I'd have, it would be that I didn't get to know more people or do more stuff on the social side. I had to make a tradeoff to keep up my academic performance because you can't have your cake and eat it too at ISB (at least not mere mortals like me).

That's all for now. Some interesting news might be forthcoming in the next few days regarding a sponsored exchange to cambridge so fingers crossed.

Over and out.

ISB Placements and FT 12

It's been a while since I blogged. The ISB placement season is well and truly underway with companies coming in nearly every day. ISB this time had a weekend placement system for first 3 weekends and a whole week devoted to placements post term 7 (from Feb 12). However, some companies prefer to come on week days to avoid poaching by other companies. For students with multiple interviews, the companies all compete among each other to first interview and then make the student sign on its offer. Though we are allowed to get 2 offers before choosing one, many companies ask some students to sign out of the process by confirming their offer on the spot. Quite a lot of students have been placed after day 2 of placements. Moreover, the placements would stretch till 3 months after graduation (if need be) so people are optimistic.
On a personal note, I accepted an offer from the corporate strategy arm of one of the biggest MNCs in the world. So Im now out of the placement process. Feels wierd that the ISB experience is over so soon.

I've decided to major in Finance and Marketing by next term. To major, one needs to take at least 6 subjects in the area of concentration. There's a lot of opinions abound on whether majoring in a specific area makes any difference. Finance certainly is a strong signal about analytical skills and knowledge but it was a close call between strategy and marketing for me but in the end, I chose marketing because I believe that it has a more generic appeal and is a better signal. I had to trade off one very good paper - Economics of strategy for a marketing major but I guess you can't win ;em all.

Yesterday, FT rankings were announced and ISB has climbed again to # 12 in the list of the best B-schools in the world. We had a massive bash including lunch party in the afternoon and a DJ Nite with free booze/ snacks. Hope ISB's ascension continues and it is able to improve its brand image further internationally.