American Gangster

After a long time I had a day entirely to myself. I didn't touch any books and instead watched a movie - American Gangster. It is based on a true story.
Nobody used to notice Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington), the quiet driver for one of the inner city's leading black crime bosses. However, when his boss suddenly dies, Frank exploits the opening in the power structure to build his own empire and create his own version of the American Dream. Through ingenuity and a strict business ethic, he comes to rule the inner-city drug trade and floods the streets with a purer product at a better price. Lucas outplays all of the leading crime syndicates and becomes not only one of the city's mainline corrupters, but part of its circle of legit civic superstars. Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) is an outcast cop close enough to the streets to feel a shift of control in the drug underworld. Roberts believes someone is climbing the rungs above the known Mafia families and starts to suspect that a black power player has come from nowhere to dominate the scene. Both Lucas and Roberts share a rigorous ethical code that sets them apart from their own colleagues, which makes them lone figures on opposite sides of the law. The destinies of these two men will become intertwined as they approach a confrontation in which only one of them can come out on top.

ROI of an MBA - The Tangibles

If you guys remember in one of my recent posts I was discussing about the intangible benefits of an MBA program. I have put together an ROI calculator to provide a clear assessment of the feasibility of an MBA program in course of my career.
ROI is an essential criterion to judge the effectiveness of any program. This calculator does not take into account non-tangibles like value addition. The tool takes into account aspects like tuition fees, annualized personal/incidental expenses of the person, opportunity costs, and expected hike in salary after a job from MBA. Here, I have not accounted for Time Value of Money (assumption is that rate of growth of future salary will be higher post-mba).
I am attaching the screenshot for a sample calculation. Just click on the picture to view the enlarged image. If you need the ROI calculator just drop your e-mail id & I will send across the tool.

Lost in thought

Finally, the CTS offer letter has arrived (albeit a softcopy) today. It contains the terms of the offer & compensation breakdown. The details regarding the date of joining and location will be communicated later.
A very close friend of mine is doing his MBA from ISB. His convocation is on 5th April and he will be joining the new job anytime around mid-April. I cannot help but envy him at this point of time. Although the experience at XLRI has been awesome I can hardly wait for my own convocation date to arrive.
I have interacted with a lot of guys from the incoming batch and they seem to be a highly energetic & spirited set of individuals. It sometimes puts me in a reflective mood as I tread one year back in my memories. It seems like y'day when I first came down to XLRI and its about time that we must vacate the campus. The show must go on..

The End is Near !

Got a mail today - 28th April will be the date for last end-term Exam.
We have to take no-dues clearance( libraray, a/cs etc) before the Convocation.
The Convocation will be on 10th May (saturday).
We are expected to be present at 10 AM for rehearsals & other formalities
The actual Function will be held in evening followed by a dinner.
Another 29 days before classes are over...lot of work before I reach that point.

ROI of an MBA - The Intangibles

One of the most popular topics among prospective MBA students is the return on their investment. After all, when you calculate the lost wages, promotions, bonuses, and the money spent on tuition & incidentals it really starts to add up.
Of course, an MBA degree will provide you with deep business knowledge, expand your ability to think critically about strategic issues facing large, mid-sized and smaller corporations, and, perhaps most valuable of all, will provide you with a lifelong network of professional resources.
So should we view the MBA simply as a way to "rediscover ourselves", this would indicate that the ROI is not the key measure, but rather the answer to the question, "Is my life better today than it was before I started?"
If anyone were to ask me why I decided to join XLRI, it was certainly not for the financial return. I did well before I came back to study, and by some measure I am not really light years ahead on the other side. I actually wanted a change in my life...a change of role/function...and most importantly a change of scenery. The MBA was my vehicle to the life I imagined rather than the ticket to a financial windfall. I believe that many people share this view, and if you do I believe that you will not be disappointed with your MBA from any institution.
P.S. In my next post I will discuss how to calculate the ROI of an MBA - The tangibles.

Observation

Last night I had gone out with a few friends to a dhaba. It was supposed to be a relaxing evening but ultimately it ended on a different note. What started as a seemingly funny discussion over a few drinks blew out of proportion and spoilt the mood of everyone.
I have observed two things in people. Firstly, most individuals have great difficulty in accepting/acknowledging that another individual maybe significantly different than himself/herself in terms of characteristics, goals, aspirations etc. E.g. An academically inclined person who literally scavenges for every mark expects that folks around him also have similar objectives - or else they must be lying. Now, that's something I find unacceptable.
Secondly, whenever people are involved in a passionate discussion they rarely view a situation objectively. They tend to extrapolate arguments into entirely non-related areas and consequently fly off the handle at the slightest provocation. Again, some people are very good at passing 'experts' comments regarding situations where they are not stakeholders and/or do not have any idea of what's going on. E.g. George W. Bush advising P. Chidambaram regarding the Union Budget OR While watching Sachin Tendulkar batting in a one-day match, Maninder Singh (of all people) comments in Aaj-Tak about how the former should go about with his shot selection.

Satyajit Sen OR Amartya Sen

Today an unforgettable incident happened during the IFM class. The faculty was discussing about the contributions of eminent personalities in the field of Finance. He went on to quote the examples of Modigliani-Miller, M. J. Gordon, Scholes, Fischer, Shapiro etc.
Now he decided to cite an Indian example. After some deliberation he could only recall 'Sen' & 'Nobel Laureate'. Even after repeated attempts he was unable to recall the first name. Finally, the poor fellow concluded that the guy is 'Satyajit Sen'. Amidst peels of laughter in the class someone sitting on the front row explained that the correct name is 'Amartya Sen'.
One friend just now mentioned that we should thank our lucky stars that he didn't say 'Aparna Sen' :-)

Mishraisms

Today, I'd like to share a few gems by Musa - Mishraisms (similar to Siddhuisms). This were uttered by him during various class presentations/discussions/responses to Prof's queries etc.
Here you go..
1> The economy is growing like HELL...
2> Whenever you refresh the webpage the DARNED THING just comes up...
3> Only a FOOL can be FOOLED...
4> I was involved in Production Support & other STUPID STUFF like that...
5> HeHe...This concept is nothing...Its SO BLOODY SIMPLE...

Will keep posting more in future :-)

1-Year MBA Recruitment vs 2-Year MBA Recruitment

Some of you have been lately asking me regarding the difference(s) in the nature of 1-year recruitments & the traditional 2-year recruitments.
Job placement for experienced folks like us is a whole lot about specific roles and fit - A lot of emphasis is on specific profiles and positions. So, this makes fit extremely important. There is very little of "We'll come in a bus, pick a bunch of grads, and then put them anywhere in the organization" which happens in case of freshers in the traditional 2 year MBA. This is a critical difference between the recruitment style for experienced hires vs. recruitment style for freshers.
The other question was how important are grades in terms of getting placed in one's dream organization. For freshers one can quite easily infer that "Good marks equal good money". Grades are probably the only way by which recruiters can hope to separate the wheat from the chaff in a homogeneous bunch of youngsters who walk, talk & breath alike. One observation about the freshers campus placements here at XLRI is that the whole ritual borders on mass hysteria. With students unwilling to walk on anything but the beaten path, choices get determined by a systematic caste system of grades and placement-day rankings that show scant regard for individual choices.
For us, understandably, there is absolutely no correlation between the academic performance and the quality of job placement. Placements are more a function of the incoming profile, target industry and the level of (interview) preparedness.

Cognizant MBAs

MBAs join CTS in the areas of consulting, analytics, business development, opportunity assessment, relationship management, corporate development and domain excellence. CTS does not retrofit B-Schools graduates into technical roles.
Cognizant is increasingly hiring more MBAs. Today, it has one MBA/Domain expert for every 30 software professionals. Four years back, this ratio was one for every 40 to 45 software professionals. In 2007 alone, Cognizant hired more than 700 MBAs from premier campuses as well as from the lateral market.
There are 3 broad reasons why MBAs are more important to an IT company than ever before.
Firstly, clients are looking to their partners like Cognizant to pro-actively provide solutions to their business pressure points, leveraging a deep understanding of their industry trends and competitive landscape, rather than mere technology capability.
Secondly, clients are moving to a broader range of complex solutions, system integration and consulting solutions offshore which need a higher proportion of industry knowledge, domain depth, business analytic capabilities, and business-to-technology requirements translation.
Finally, with business going global and markets getting globalised, clients want domain professionals who have an intricate understanding of the business dynamics in every location and the technology alignment required.
As such, CTS sees its investment in MBAs as a critical differentiator. Their domain depth has helped the organization marry industry knowledge with technological excellence and farm out solutions to business pressure points of customers, rather than mere technology solutions. They have also played a dominant role in winning new customers and in client-facing roles, especially as client partners or relationship managers.

CTS it is for me!

I have decided to accept the offer from CTS. Today was the last day for acceptance of offers. Over the last couple of months I have had lengthy discussions with my friends here from CTS. I also spoke with several alums in CTS and Raja Banerjee from ISB. I am convinced that this is the best choice for me. There is a strong probability of getting placed overseas within the first six months.
I have communicated my location and vertical preference. I have given Pune, Bangalore & Chennai (in that order) as the top choices and Life Sciences as the vertical of choice.
In case you guys are wondering why Kolkata does not figure in my list, the reason is that Life Sciences practice is not in Kolkata. I could always get CSP (Customer Solutions Practice) but it doesn't excite me. Initially I was in a dilemma regarding whether to go for my preferred location or for my preferred vertical and in the end head won over heart. Furthermore, my wife could easily shift to any of the above mentioned 3 locations since IBM has a strong presence.
If you guys remember that I had mentioned in one of my very first posts that I wish to get into a business development role. Over the course of this one year there has been a change in my thought process. My understanding is that pure business development is a sales function and is typically the territory of people with strong sales background.
Personally I feel that I am more suited for a consulting role - hence the decision. The designation is Consultant (equivalent to Assistant Manager Business Development).
The typical responsibilities would involve leading pre-sales and post-sales support, driving solution identification & development, business analysis & requirements gathering for complex projects, lead or contribute as a key member in Consulting assignments etc.
CBC (Cognizant Business Consulting) is an elite group @ Cognizant (comprising of 1700+ MBAs). The typical profile is Engineer-MBA with IT experience / Experience in Industry domains. The roles are also diverse - Consulting / Business Development / Business Analysis / Competency Building etc.

Strategic Alignment

I recently came across an interesting article about IT Strategy. Let me share it with you guys.
IT has evolved from its traditional back-office role towards a more strategic role. However there is a lack of any fundamental framework which can be used to understand the potential of IT. The inability to realize value from IT investments is partly due to the lack of alignment between the business and IT strategies of organizations.
The authors have come up with the ‘Strategic Alignment Model’ which is defined in terms of 4 fundamental domains of strategic choice: Business Strategy, IT Strategy, Organizational infrastructure & processes and IT infrastructure & processes.
The concept of strategic alignment is based on 2 building blocks – strategic fit & functional integration.
Strategic fit recognizes the need for any strategy to address both external and internal domains. There are 3 external components of IT strategy – IT scope, Systemic competencies & IT governance. Also, there are 3 internal components of IT strategy – IS architecture, IS processes & IS skills. Traditionally managers think of IT strategy in terms of the latter 3 components that reflect an internal orientation. As IT emerges as a critical enabler of business transformation it is imperative that firms also pay attention to the 3 external components of IT strategy.
Functional Integration considers the need to integrate IT strategy & business strategy. 2 types of integration – Strategic Integration & Operational Integration.
Strategic integration – Deals with the capability of IT to both shape & support business strategy.
Operational integration – Deals with the Organizational infrastructure & processes and IT infrastructure & processes.

Am in Kolkata!

I am currently in Kolkata for medical reasons. Over the last couple of months I observed a localised swelling (not painful) on my right arm. Now, the typical treatment for any cyst is surgical removal. However, due to the hectic academic schedule & the placements week I wasn't getting an opportunity. Immediately after the conclusion of the placement week I took time off to visit Goa with my wife. This time around I decided not to neglect the issue any further.
Yesterday, I went to Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals since I had heard about its quality healthcare facilities & global healthcare standards. Sure enough the consultant physician recommended surgery & I requested him to perform it on the same day. The procedure itself was painless & was over in 10 minutes flat.
At the end of the day, my conclusion about Apollo Gleneagles is that while patients can be totally assured of the best treatment it is certainly beyond the reach of the common man and also a lot needs to be done in terms of cordination between the various facilities e.g. O.T., Emergency & Outpatient Care. If a healthcare provider wishes to provide a comprehensive range of specialized healthcare services under one roof then it needs to invest not only on diagnostic and treatment facilities but also on ensuring coordination between all the departments/facilities.
I'll be returning to JSR tonight. I plan to meet the GMP candidates who have decided to attend the PI @ JSR.