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.

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.

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.

Venture Capital Investment Competition and placements

My team made it to the ISB finals of Venture Capital Investment Competition (VCIC), an international B-school competition hosted by University of North Carolina (UNC). Regional rounds are held in Europe and USA and for the first time this year in Asia by ISB. 33 teams at ISB participated in the 1st round and top 10 chosen for the ISB finals. More information at: http://www.vcic.unc.edu/. Students step into the shoes of a VC evaluating actual startups and other entrepreuners. The judges are actual VCs.

In the first round, we were evaluated on the basis of a investment case analysis of a telecom based startup in USA. The winner in next round (nov 28) will compete against other Asian B-schools in Feb and the winner will go to USA for the finals.

I personally don't have much interest in the VC space but the competition seemed very interesting. I got together a very diverse team - an entrepreneur, a doctor, an investment analyst, an oil and gas maverick and me. That should come in handy in the next rounds.

Since this is a personal blog, let me also touch upon something in the MBA life. There are times when the journey seems arduous. The competition here is deadly and it is very easy to get frustrated. But as one of our professors say, 80% of ISB grad (and I guess all MBA grads) change jobs within first 2 years. And that change happens through the people you meet at ISB. And I have met some wonderful people here. Some true geniuses. With the placement season already starting, things are heating up and everyone and everyone is beginning to step up a gear. Interesting months ahead.

2nd prize winner in Sectorama - Sector analysis competition at IIMA

The much awaited results of the competition are finally out and my team comprising 2 other ISBians won the 2nd prize at Sectorama. ISB also won the first prize, third going to IIM Kozhikode. Our paper was on Indian Education sector. Prizes and certificates on the way - woohoo

Arbit CP Cult

In case anyone thought that all we do is study at ISB, here's what happened during a class today. The session was on Management of Organization Theory (Organizational Behaviour). The prof, in a bid to explain fundamentals of formation of culture in organizations, gave us a small group task to design a new cult and present its workings in the class. Before delving into what my group came up with, here's some contextual knowledge on CP in an MBA setting.

CP: Class Participation: B schools assign some % of total marks (say 10-25%) based on contribution to class discussions. It is expected that any CP be relevant to the current topic of discussion.
However, in practice, CP shows up in some other forms namely:
ACP: Arbit CP: With a view to garner points in CP when knowledge about topic of discussion is limited, some students engage in speaking on anything under the sun. Most of these thoughts start with something like..." In my last organization...", "Hypothetically...", "It may not be relevant but...", etc
DCP: Desperate CP: This is very similar to ACP but the timing differentiates it. Generally, when students haven't spoken in a while in the class, or in the last few classes, they engage in DCP to gain whatever points they can.
ICP: Infinite CP: As obvious from the nomenclature, this is the CP that goes on and on and on...At ISB, we have a tradition that the captive classmates start clapping when CP inches towards ICP :)
Now with this background, let me present my group's cult: The ACP cult.
1. Purpose of its existence: Encourage ACP!
2. Core values of beliefs that will inform behaviour in the cult: The right to free CP, The obligation of people to listen to ACP.
3. Examples of behaviour you would expect the cult members to demonstrate: Always raised hand, interrupt others, have opinion on everything, forgetting the question after answering for 15 min (happened to VR, a student)
4. Type of people you recruit into the cult: All Pappus (last week, during the interval someone changed the name tag of one particularly vocal student to "Pappu"!)
5. Procedures for inducting new members into the cult: Ability to ask 25 questions in 15 min, Hands raised before listening to the question, blackballing
6. How cult members will be distinguished from non-cult members: Raised hands, anyone who understands the meaning and can speak on "liberal paternalism" and "subliminal advertizing" (RS gifted these 2 phrases to the class on his way to ACP glory last term), anyone whose phone rings while they are not in class (it happened when V went out during the class - the prof commented then that she must be calling from outside!).
Other groups came up with gems like "Sleepers in class Cult", No Arbit CP Cult", Kela lovers Cult(!), etc

All in all this is the kind of fun we have in class. Man I'm loving it here!

Life in Term 3

Life, if you can call it that, is damn hectic in term 3. But as I have always maintained, the hectic schedule makes things so interesting. Every second you have to decide which assignment to do, which speaker session to attend, which game to play, etc, etc.

We had our mid term yesterday; just one paper Corporate Finance.
The papers in this term are:
1. Corporate Finance
2. Entrepreneurship
3. Managerial Accounting and Decision Making
4. Operations Management

We don't even have any exam for Entrepreneurship: just online surveys, Class participation and a final paper on a real entrepreuner for 50% marks. Most other subjects have a heady mix of simulation games, quizzes, assignments and very little exam marks. Again, i am struggling with Operations but then again one can't have it all.

Corporate Finance is probably the most stimulating course this term and I now understand why IBankers are in such a great demand. It's as much art as it is science. The prof Bhagwan Chowdhry also made it deliciously interesting, regaling us with personal stories and anecdotes.

Anyway, I have 4 assignments due on Monday, so over and out for now.

P.S. Saw Love Ajkal yesterday...pretty watchable! Loved the part about Kolkata...rest ...well...

Term 2 over

Well not over exactly coz there's an assignment submission due tomorrow by 4PM. The exams got over last Tuesday and I ran (well flew) like hell from the campus and reached Calcutta by 9 PM. Im still at home and Im loving it. Ive been eating like crazy over the last few days and have probably put on 5 kgs during my 5 day stay here.

Well anyway, the last term was a whirlwhind. Some exogenous factors meant that I could give even less time to studies which was really a double whammy. Nonetheless, the learning during this term was truly mind blowing.
We had the following papers:
Competitive Strategy
Global Economics
Marketing Decision Making and the terror
Decision Models & Optimization (DMOP)

I liked the subject Compstrat the most primarily because if the way it was taught by Prof Prashant Kale. It was like watching a suspense thriller. The class atmosphere used to be so fantastic that most of the time I was too mesmerized to participate in class (there was 20% CP weightage). It's a pity that he only taught us 5 sessions. After this course, I'll never look at a case again the same way. Anyway, the course involved analyzing diverse strategies of 10 different firms/situations ranging from Coke/Pepsi Industry analysis to Cisco's acquisition strategy to McKinsey's knowledge management strategy. What learning!

The other noteworthy paper was marketing due to 2 reasons.
1. Markstrat a marketing simulation game which was just super fun (and super time consuming) and provided tremendous exposure to real life decision making. And did I mention it was fun? Well, my study group won the game across ISB (in our industry) so yeah, it was real fun.
2. Prof Jagmohan Raju taught the 2nd half of the course. Now Raju is a legend in academic circles and he just awed me/us with the depth of his knowledge/research. Yet he was unbelievably humble and jovial. These experiences make ISB what it is.

DMOP was incredibly stimulating in terms of tools it provides for managerial decision making but I found the course a bit too overwhelming at times.

Global Eco was also helped demystify the current economic crisis and more.

Overall the term was very stimulating. It was challenging primarily because it had loads of assignments. Term 3 is even worse Ive heard. This time Ill have to plan better.

On a different note, I realized something profound in Term 2 (the hard way): the impossible trilogy-Grades, Social Life and Sleep - at most 2 achievable simultaneously. What the hell, one can't have it all.

Exams @ ISB

We had our mid terms last week. It was a weird feeling getting back to exams after such a long time. It had the perfect recipe for disaster: huge syllabus (profs told us that they cover about a 15 day course in 5 days here), little time (3 weeks), back to back exams (4 in 2 days) and huge competition (need I elaborate on the last point?). Strange as it was, the exams didn't feel so bad. Sure the eco paper felt like a PHD dissertation and I committed some gaffes here and there, but the entire concept of an exam has been turned upside down @ ISB. Some exams are open book, open notes. In most exams, we are allowed to prepare a cheat sheet! Kinda takes away the fun. Down the line, I heard that there would be some exams that are take home! The idea is to test application skills and not mugging skills. All questions pertain to application of concepts and depth of understanding and do not hinge on the ability to remember a formula. The grading is also a continuous process and we have quizzes, presentations, group and individual assignments, class participation and other such grading scheme wherein we are being graded nearly every day and not just during the mid and end terms. It's a shame, such schemes weren't employed in our schools and colleges. It would have surely aided our understanding a lot more.

P.S. Speaking on presentation, today we had to present a Marketing case analysis to our section wherein the grading comprised entirely of peer evaluation! Now that was fun.

MBA FAD(M)s

Many people say that MBA is a fad. I say come and attend our FADM classes. FADM stands for Financial Accounting by Decision Making.

The first half of the course was taken by Professor Mohan Venkatachalam from Duke University. Who knew Accounting could be so much fun. Only a maverick like he can make a mundane subject like accounts come alive in class. In a class composed of mostly engineers, he literally brought Taare Zameen Par. Today was his last class and he actually showed a clip from the above mentioned movie wherein the kid draws the winning picture in the competition. He explained the reasoning behind showing the clip that today being the last day, everything he taught will fall into the big picture and it will all make sense.
It all started on our very first day of classes. The first class contained such gems as "Many students say Accounting seems like Greek and Latin to them - one day Greek, next day Latin"! In our class, the Chartered Accountants (CA) were given an option to continue normally or chuck the class to work on a project which would be more challenging to their intellect/knowledge. To elaborate on the choice, he brought up Matrix, the movie. When Morpheus and Neo meet, Morpheus offers Neo two pills. The red pill will answer the question "what is the Matrix?" (by removing him from it) and the blue pill simply for life to carry on as before. As Neo reaches for the red pill Morpheus warns Neo "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more." So he enacted the scene to the CAs that he'd offer this just once and if they accepted the red pill, that would be it and there's no turning back. To accentuate the point, he in fact brought 2 actual red and blue pills!

All ISB students were really emotional on seeing him leave and each section is planning to give him some gift as a token of our appreciation. He's such a sport that he agreed to be at the receiving end of ISB's most personal gesture - Dunking (where we throw the person to the swimming pool - generally reserved for Birthdays)!
Now that should be fun.

Over and out. For now.

CEOs, Power dressing and meaning of Time

Finally it has started to dawn that Im in the Indian school of Business. Last week was damn hectic and getting back to books was a whole new experience.
The whole concept of class is turned upside down in that here, u r supposed to come prepared with the readings and the prof will just help clarify doubts and facilitate discussion among classmates. There are 4 papers this term:

1. Financial Accounting in Decision Making

2. Managerial Economics

3. Marketing Management

4. Statistical Methods for Management Decisions

Each papers require about 4 chapters of pre reads before each class (unless there's a case study). We have classes from Monday to Thursday - 2 a day. There are group assignments and individual quizzes over the weekends and a host of other activities including club meetings workshops, talks by eminent personalities, etc.

The CEO of Goldman Sachs delivered a speech on the importance of Entrepreneurilism last week. COO of CA also spoke on restructuring and growth of CA over the last few years. Watching these mighty personalities from a hand's distance feels great. Last week I took a session on IT strategy and spoke about my experience as a consultant. The clubs are yet to be formalized but there are lots of initiatives by enthusiasts. So we have 2/3 meetings planned for each club every day. There are a whole lot of new clubs coming up as well to the tune of politics Club, Beverage club, Running Club and so on.Hats of to the energy level of the batch. The meaning of Time has changed a lot. Some people including yours truly have even forgotten its definition. I sometimes wonder how I manage to pack in so many activities in just 24 hours

Some people asked me about Toastmasters so I emailed the student body asking how many would be interested. I got over 100 responses! So I held a Tm session at our auditorium which was attended by well over 100 participants!

We also had an informal BCG alum session in which 2 alums working in BCG flew down from Mumbai just to have a chat with us. The session was very informative in that they clearly outlined the requirements for wannabe consultants. The room was jam packed as expected but it was fun as well. Sometimes the inquisitiveness of the batch overflows and there were questions such as what do partners at BCG have to look forward to?..Are the careers stagnated after one becomes a partner? Some people feel getting in is a mighty task while others are thinking way ahead.

We had a Photoshoot today for a marketing handbook to be distributed to the potential recruiters. So we finally got to power dress. God it feels good to be back in school.

With each passing day, my decision to earn my MBA and at ISB seems more justified. More on the subjects and profs on a later post.
Till then, over and out.

1st week @ ISB

I have nothing to do today and for the rest of the week. Not that ISB schedule isnt hectic but just that I havan't opted for any pre term courses for this week. That leaves me with time enough to write this blog post. The previous week went by even before I could finish saying "phew". 570 odd students, 60 odd seniors (c/o 2009), a ton of activities, a zillion presentations, a few "informal" chat sessions, club activities and not to mention a few sprains and scratches were just a few of the highlights of the first week at ISB.

The registration process took a while on 11th mainly because of the callousness of Andhra Bank officials who put up a single stall with just 1 person to process the formalities with each person taking upto 1 hour. Then followed numerous team building activities. I felt that the activities really helped to break the ice amongst our batch. They were also chosen thoughtfully with each activity being followed by a feedback session in which the seniors (who conducted the sessions) explaining how the activities would help us during the next year. On the academic front, each ISB dept held its presentations and we also had a Intro to Case Study" session which I enjoyed thoroughly. The level of participation as well as the maturity of discussion truly enriched the experience and makes me look forward to the actual classes. Sports competitions were also held during the week. The orientation week culminated in the Talent Night where each section put in a consorted performance including dance, songs, shayari, PJs, theater and what not.

In addition to all of the above, we had 3 parties in the 1st week itself with people dancing away till 7AM in the morning! So overall, a very fulfilling first week and i hope the good times continue.

P.S. A few tidbits: There are 8 sections in our batch and each section has a chant. ISB itself also has a chant - ISB rocks. All the activities and sports competitions are on a section basis and each student is very proud of its section. The last word: I am in section B ("B de patthe, chak de phatte"!) which is on top after the 1st week!

Prelude to ISB

Over the last few months, I have consciously avoided ISB/MBA related posts since I wanted to properly capture my feelings and experiences pre-ISB.

In a few hours, my life will be consumed entirely by ISB and the MBA course. If time permits, I'd like to document my experience throughout. To make up for lost time, here's a rundown of the MBA related standstills over the recent past.

I completed the Loan formalities while I was in US. Better put, my parents did so, all I did was sign and scan the papers to them. The general consensus of this batch is that Andhra Bank has the most convenient procedure and the best service. The other banks with which ISB had a tie up were SBI, HDFC Bank and UBI with UBI generally thought to cause the most hassles. The only queer requirement of Andhra was that the guarantor should come to Hyderabad to sign the papers. But otherwise, they didnt even require any collateral, any original papers, etc for a loan of over 15 lakhs!

Next, ISB's online pre-term assessment tests, which recommend whether to take the pre-terms or not (available to admits), indicated that I may concentrate on Hyderabadi Biryani and Haleem during the inital two weeks and I grudgingly acquiesced.

After returning to the City of Joy (about 2 weeks ago), I felt so joyously lazy that I completed the medical reports and some other formalities today itself, after nearly being thrown out of the house to do so by my parents.

Finally, ISB (rather a c/o 2009 student) launched a fantastic initiative called GoCar which matches 2 incoming students reaching Hyderabad at the same time and/or in the same mode and allowed them to share a pre-booked cab. In addition to the convenience and reduced transportation cost, it allows us to network with our batchmates as well. Thumbs up to the initiative. Bottomline, I'd be reaching Hyd in a Toyota Innova chatting with a fellow classmate at half the normal cost.

On Saturday we have a host of registration formalities to complete, after which we'd be allotted our homes or quads for the next one year.

I know I will have an amazing experience and look forward to it with bated breath.

Till then, over and out.

Current affairs

It is hard to concentrate on work when you are just dying to leave everything. It's even harder when you are outside your home country since there's no support base around you. Work has been crazy lately: attending late night phone calls, managing ~5 projects, negotiating with multiple groups for more funds, applying for educational loans (well that's personal, but work nonetheless) and so on. During recessionary times, the work tends to get crazier since people want to cling on to their existing jobs by doing their best and making themselves indispensable. The manager (whose chair is equally shaky) in turn exerts that much more pressure, explicitly or otherwise.

I bumped into a colleague (well, a client technically) yesterday. I was shocked to see that he had bloodshot eyes. On inquiring I found that he has been working day and night for 48 hours now. This is very rare in US especially in my office which values personal time like very few other companies do. Flexible Fridays, work from home, complementary day-offs, firm sponsored community work what not. But in hard times, perks go for a stroll in the park. Personally, the current scenario doesn't affect me since I'm gonna leave it all soon. But seeing the tension around does affect one's state of mind. People say that 2009 is only going to get worse. Seeing the placement figures of top universities around the world, I must admit, I have been having some teeny weeny doubts about leaving a cushy job in this market. Who knows whether I'll get a decent job after passing out? Who knows whether I'll get a job at all?

"Dude, stop it! You are making me depressed", exclaimed "A" fellow ISB R1 admit, on getting bombarded by my not-so-rosy projections. That drilled some brains into my head! Now, I'm an eternal optimist. I've learnt over the years that if you believe you can, you can.

My personal philosophy is: if it ain't broken, why not improve it. And that's the reason I'm doing an MBA. I know nothing is broken in my life, there's really no overwhelming reason to change anything. I can stay in US, earn some $s and generally continue to have a good time. But what about the career goals and why MBA question I had answered in my ISB interview? Were they just meaningless words I read from a script? My goals, my career, and the general tendency to push myself beyond my comfort zone that pulled me through the MBA app journey weren't just meaningless blabber. I believed in them. And I still do.

I realized that I can't possibly make someone depressed - something must've been broken in my thinking. To fix that, I thought some more! Finally, an incident I read about long ago and line from my favourite song came to my mind.


The incident:

Richard Feynman, a Nobel Prize winning physicist and one of the protagonists in the Manhattan Project, once faced a great lull in his career. Now, Feynman was an extremely popular figure and his sense of humour is legendary. However, he was rather unproductive as a physicist in the period from 1961 to 1967. Had Feynman just run out of ideas, or had something just gone wrong?

Quoting from the book:

Feynman had got to know [biologist James] Watson during the sabbatical year that Dick had spent as a 'graduate student' in biology. He had an opportunity to renew the acquaintance when he visited Chicago early in 1967, and when they met Watson gave Feynman a copy of the typescript of what was to become his famous book The Double Helix, about his discovery, together with Francis Crick, of the structure of DNA. Feynman read the book straight through, the same day. He had been accompanied on that trip by David Goodstein, then a young physicist just completing his PhD at Caltech, and late that night Feynman collared Goodstein and told him that he had to read Watson's book -- immediately. Goodstein did as he was told, reading through the night while Feynman paced up and down, or sat doodling on a pad of paper. Some time towards dawn, Goodstein looked up and commented to Feynman that the surprising thing was that Watson had been involved in making such a fundamental advance in science, and yet he had been completely out of touch with what everybody else in his field was doing.

Feynman held up the pad he had been doodling on. In the middle, surrounded by all kinds of scribble, was one word, in capitals: DISREGARD. That, he told Goodstein, was the whole point. That was what he had forgotten, and why he had been making so little progress. The way for researchers like himself and Watson to make a breakthrough was to be ignorant of what everybody else was doing and plough their own furrow. [pp. 185-186]

I read this a long time back. But suddenly the message came back to me. DISREGARD. There's too much importance given to others and external circumstances.


The song:

Tagore, a Nobel winning (the first Asian) Bengali poet once wrote: If they answer not to thy call walk alone.

The above 2 messages definitely hold a lot of meaning when held in synthesis.
Well, definitely there's a chance I might not land a job post-MBA. But at least I have a shot at my dream job. There's no way I can make that transition in my career without an MBA. And just because some others are afraid, some others have faced problems and extraneous circumstances are bad, doesn't mean that I have to be bogged down by it all. May be I'll be in a similar problem, but I gotta have faith. And I ardently believe that we shall overcome the crisis someday soon (sooner than Feb 13, 2010). Amen.

Achievements and accidents

A few months ago, while I was still in India, I drove to a restaurant to have lunch with a couple of colleagues. After lunch, we were returning to our office when it happened One of my colleagues casually threw out an empty envelope though the window. Accidentally, that envelope struck a person who was riding a motorcycle. He was a rash and rowdy young man and there were 2 others riding pillion behind him. Suddenly they started shouting at us. After a small verbal courtship, they wanted to take our new relationship to the next level! He was driving through my left. And I was going straight. He, well cajoled me to stop. I was in no mood for amorous exchanges and certainly didn’t want to get physical, so I drove straight ahead. But he was desperate to get to know me better and suddenly pulled his bike right in front of my car… and …I lost control and … ACCIDENT!

Thankfully no one was hurt, and we came to ... er ... an "out of court settlement". But accidents are part of our everyday lives. More people die in road accidents than in wars. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes. I’m not even counting flight accidents. Accidents are unfortunate. They are sad. Accidents may also be happy, though not for the car owners.

I made it into ISB this year. It is a privilege and an honour to be part of such an illustrious group of people. I would think that this is an achievement. But I also believe that I have had my fair share of luck. I got the right breaks in my career: I made a very risky job change that turned out alright, volunteered for some high risk high reward assignments and pulled 'em through, quick promotions, great set of team mates, few amazing people guiding me about the admission process et cetera, et cetera. So is ISB just a happy accident?

I don’t think that our lives can be determined only by accidents. I surely don’t hope so. But many of you will say that things go wrong all the time. It’s a big bad world. Mr. Murphy certainly thought so. You must have heard about Murphy’s laws.
1. If anything can go wrong, it will, or the corollary
2. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong, and at the worst possible time, in the worst possible way.
3. Or this corporate variation: After any salary raise, you will have less money at the end of the month than you did before. That certainly holds true in my case.

Are all promotions accidents? Let’s not even go there. Well, truth be told…the world is random. It is chaos out there. And accidents are just waiting to happen. When I first started driving on Indian roads, I was amazed at how an accident doesn’t occur every second. You have an auto that suddenly barges in from the right. When you escape it by turning left, a rikshaw honks its horns from the left and nearly hits you. And then you look in front and there’s a man standing there….right in the middle of the road….just looking at you and smiling…crossing the road at his leisure as if he’s taking a stroll in the garden, almost enticing you to just go and whack him! Believe me, when you are driving in India, just reaching your destination safely is an achievement.

If we look closely, we will find that our lives are very similar to the roads we drive our cars on. Few months ago, I had the delivery date of a very important project coming up. To make matters interesting, my GMAT was scheduled just before this date. But the week before this deadline, my mother got sick and had to be hospitalized, then when she got better, I got sick. I gave GMAT with a fever of 102 degrees, heavily drugged. Then when I got better and rejoined office, there was a man standing right in front of me looking very angry: my manager. But I stayed late in office over the next few weeks, worked really hard and completed the project before time. The project even earned client appreciation: a small achievement. And yes, I eventually made it into the class of 2010 in one of the best B schools in the world - a bigger achievement despite the accidents. We need luck, yes, but we shouldn’t count on it. I believe that the harder we work, the luckier we will get. Finally, let's hope that unlike the title of this post, “Achievements” and “Accidents” are not adjacent in too many sentences of our lives.

ISB aftermath

How is it that once you achieve something, it seems very easy and once you don't, it seems like an insurmountable barrier? I remember that after any exam in school or college, the people who got the correct answers to a few questions that most of the others couldn't, boasted about the question being very easy. "Oh that, that was an easy one! You couldn't get it right, eh?" I felt like givin a whack on the head of the speaker on hearing this (the times when I was not the speaker that is!).

So when over the last few days I started to feel "oh ISB, that wasn't so hard, what's all the fuss about?", I felt that some1 gave a whack on my head. That someone was the memory of the time just before the results came out. That excruciating wait before the final result was the true indicator of the scale of the achievement. I know that selections can be quite subjective but still, it's an honour and a privelege to be part of this batch of super achievers.

But wait, is this an achievement? Is this what I have been figting for? Well, yes and no. I have struggled for the last 2 years to get into a top MBA college. The road was arduous, and I did try my best to develop myself personally and professionally for this day. But what was all that for? That was for a jump in my career. And that jump will come, if at all, only after I earn my MBA. So now the road has got that much tougher. I know that the next one year is gonna be one hell of a roller coaster ride. People complain about the pressure of a 2 year MBA so the 1 year MBA would be that much tougher. However, I am excited and hopeful because of the people I'm gonna be spending this time with. After getting to know some of the fellow admits, who are from all over the world, from such diverse backgrounds (actor to doctor to journalist to consultants, etc), and are generally such nice people, I am sure that I m gonna madly enjoy the next year of my life.
Next few posts would outline my thoughts on B-school essays .

Accepted at ISB

After a week of anxiety and a night without sleep, finally the result came out.
I am IN !!
Thanks lot to all the people who supported me through this journey.

At one moment I breathed a sigh of relief and at another I was shouting at the top of my voice and yet, in another, I felt like crying. It's a shame that I am hundreds and thousands of miles away form the people who are truly happy for me. I longed to rejoice with friends and family.

Anyway, it's a great feeling and it's awesome to find my hard work rewarded.
Ciao