Looking Back !

Another new year has ushered. However, this year is different than last year. Last year around this time I was in New Jersey. I had a well-paying job ! However, I was determined to get admission into ISB/XLRI since these were the only 2 schools to which I had applied. I subsequently messed up big time in the ISB (telephonic) interview. Nevertheless, I converted the XLRI interview into a final admit.
Prior to joining XLRI I was contemplating whether to give another shot @ ISB/IIM C or join XLRI GMP. I finally decided to join XLRI primarily for 2 reasons. Firstly, I wasn't getting younger with every passing day and the longer I postponed my MBA plans, the longer it would take my wife to settle down in her career. Incidentally, she also works with IBM. Secondly, I was due for a promotion and I knew that if I accepted the same then it would become increasingly difficult for me to get back to full-time studies at a later point. In other words, I'd get into a comfort zone and then it would be very challenging to come out of it.
Today when I look back at my decision, I feel that overall it's been a good decision. There have been a lot of learnings, not only in terms of academics but also in terms of peer learning and self-analysis & introspection. I've met some really bright & intelligent people and made a few friends for life.
At the beginning of this post I had said that this year is different from the last one. However, there's a big similarity as well. Last year I was at the crossroads of life contemplating about my shift from work to academics. This year again I'm at another crossroad, thinking about my life post-mba. Somehow it reminds me about my engineering days, sans the insecurities though. I'm not sure whether every mba student goes through a similar phase. I will continue topic this in my next post. Please stay tuned.

Wishing Everyone a Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural Happy New Year

Afgani - Saale Nao Mubbarak
Afrikaans - Gelukkige nuwe jaar
Albanian - Gezuar Vitin e Ri
Arabic - Antum salimoun
Armenian - Snorhavor Nor Tari
Assyrian - Sheta Brikhta
Azeri - Yeni Iliniz Mubarek!
Bengali - Shuvo Nabo Barsho
Bulgarian - ×åñòèòà Íîâà Ãîäèíà(pronounced "Chestita Nova Godina")
Cambodian - Soursdey Chhnam Tmei
Cantonese - Sun Leen Fai Lok
Catalan - FELIÇ ANY NOU
Chinese - Xin Nian Kuai Le
Corsican - Pace e Salute
Croatian - Sretna Nova godina!
Cymraeg - Blwyddyn Newydd Dda
Czechoslovakia - Scastny Novy Rok
Denish - Godt Nytår
Dhivehi - Ufaaveri Aa Aharakah Edhen
Dutch - GELUKKIG NIEUWJAAR!
Eskimo - Kiortame pivdluaritlo
Esperanto -Felican Novan Jaron
Estonians - Head uut aastat!
Finnish - Onnellista Uutta Vuotta
French - Bonne Annee
Gaelic - Bliadhna mhath ur
Galician - Bo Nadal e Feliz Aninovo
German - Prosit Neujahr
Greek - Kenourios Chronos
Gujarati - Nutan Varshbhinandan
Hawaiian - Hauoli Makahiki Hou
Hebrew - L'Shannah Tovah
Hindi - Naye Varsha Ki Shubhkamanyen
Hungarian - Boldog Ooy Ayvet
Indonesian - Selamat Tahun Baru
Iranian - Saleh now mobarak
Iraqi - Sanah Jadidah
Irish - Bliain nua fe mhaise dhuit
Italian - Felice anno nuovo
Japan - Akimashite Omedetto Gozaimasu
Kabyle: Asegwas Amegaz
Kannada - Hosa Varushadha Shubhashayagalu
Khmer - Sua Sdei tfnam tmei
Kisii - SOMWAKA OMOYIA OMUYA
Korea - Saehae Bock Mani ba deu sei yo!
Kurdish - NEWROZ PIROZBE
Laotian - Sabai dee pee mai
Lithuanian - Laimingu Naujuju Metu
Macedonian - Srekjna Nova Godina
Malay - Selamat Tahun Baru
Malayalam - Puthuvatsara Aashamsakal
Maltese - Is-Sena t- Tajba
Marathi - Nveen Varshachy Shubhechcha
Nepal - Nawa Barsha ko Shuvakamana
Norwegian - Godt Nyttår
Pampango - Masaganang Bayung Banua
Papua - New Guinea Nupela yia i go long yu
Persian - Saleh now ra tabrik migouyam
Philippines - Manigong Bagong Taon
Polish - Szczesliwego Nowego Roku
Portuguese - Feliz Ano Novo
Punjabi - Nave sal di mubarak
Romanian - AN NOU FERICIT
Russian - S Novim Godom
Samoa - Manuia le Tausaga Fou
Serbo - Croatian Sretna nova godina
Sindhi - Nayou Saal Mubbarak Hoje
Singhalese - Subha Aluth Awrudhak Vewa
Siraiki - Nawan Saal Shala Mubarak Theevay
Slovak - A stastlivy Novy Rok
Slovenian - sreèno novo leto
Somali - Iyo Sanad Cusub Oo Fiican
Spanish - Feliz Ano ~Nuevo
Sudanese - Warsa Enggal
Swahili - Heri Za Mwaka Mpyaº
Swedish - GOTT NYTT ÅR! /Gott nytt år
Tamil - Eniya Puthandu Nalvazhthukkal
Telugu - Noothana samvatsara shubhakankshalu
Thai - Sawadee Pee Mai
Turkish - Yeni Yiliniz Kutlu Olsun
Ukrainian - Shchastlyvoho Novoho Roku
Urdu - Naya Saal Mubbarak Ho
Uzbek - Yangi Yil Bilan
Vietnamese - Chuc Mung Tan Nien
Welsh - Blwyddyn Newydd Dda

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing all my readers "Merry Christmas" !

While you enjoy the spirit of christmas there's some food for thought for all of you.
Here is an observation made by Justice S Mohan of SCI in his judgment in Unnikrishnan, J.P v. State of A.P., AIR 1993 SC 2178. This was a case, inter alia, touching upon the question: "Whether the right to education is a fundamental right? If so, up to what level - primary, secondary, higher, university and/or professional"?

"The fundamental purpose of Education is the same at all times and in all places. It is to transfigure the human personality into a pattern of perfection through a synthetic process of the development of the body, the enrichment of the mind, the sublimation of the emotions and the illumination of the spirit.

Education is a preparation for a living and for life, here and hereafter. An old Sanskrit adage states: "That is Education which leads to liberation" - liberation from ignorance which shrouds the mind; liberation from superstition which paralyses effort, liberation from prejudices which blind the Vision of the Truth.

Interesting Conversation

Today let me share with you excerpts of a conversation that I witnessed. Before sharing the details let me provide you a brief background. We are housed in the GMP village (fully furnished twin sharing apartments) but are required to come down to the MDP Dining Hall for having breakfast / lunch etc. During the mornings there's always a rush since classes are from 8:30 AM.
Today was no different with everyone rushing through their breakfast to reach the class on time. After finishing his breakfast IR was patiently waiting outside the washroom for the 2 people inside to come out. The time was 8:25 AM. After a good two minutes one person emerged from inside the washroom. IR stepped back to make room for the person. Suddenly VK aka visionary emerged from nowhere & tried to wriggle through between them. Now, IR had witnessed such behaviour of VK several times earlier in the past. This time he was determined to teach VK a lesson or two. So he pulled VK by his arm and stopped the latter. Here's the rest of conversation.

IR: Hey, where do you think you are going? Get in the queue.
VK: Oh Oh...sorry I didn't see you.
IR: Why? Are you myopic?
VK: He He, Yes, No, I mean...
Then IR goes inside & shortly afterwards VK joins him. (BTW, there are just 2 basins).
IR: You know what, guess you should learn a bit of courtesy. That sure will take you a long way in life.
VK: He He. In India we do not need courtesy.
IR: Who told you?
VK: Indians are by nature not courteous.
IR: hmm, that's the latest bullshit that you engineered, right. On 2nd thoughts, you are right. Apparently some Indians aren't.
VK: Of course, you are a very courteous Indian.
IR: You bet I am and you are one extremely discourteous Indian.
VK: Oh Oh. I was just joking.
IR: Maybe, but I wasn't...

The reason why I am posting this conversation is to highlight that even in a B-school where apparently one comes across some of the most elite people of the country this type of unacceptable behaviour is extremely commonplace. The same people when they travel overseas though are magically transformed to extremely well-mannered & thoughtful individuals. My question is then why do we not exhibit such nice behaviour towards others while we expect others to show the same towards us. Food for thought :-)

3rd Term Electives

My electives in the 3rd term are as follows:
e-Business
Labour Law & Cyber Law
Marketing Strategy and Implementation
Product and Brand Management
Organisational Change and Development
International Financial Management
Resource Based Strategy
Strategies of Cooperation

You will observe that my concentration areas are IT / Marketing / Strategy.
I have taken a single Finance elective this term - IFM. Next term I will be taking another Finance elective - M&A.
This is a conscious decision since I do not intend to pursue a career in Finance. The only 2 Finance electives that I have chosen are purely out of interest.

Service Science, Management and Engineering

It is widely known that the economies of the developed world are predominantly based on services and those of the developing world are headed in the same direction. However, the businesses within the service sector of most economies are still mostly based on narrow and unsystematic methods, leading to lack of competitiveness, speed to value, and most importantly, innovation.
Today Dr. Guruduth Banavar, Associate Director, IBM India Research Laboratory, Bangalore talked to us regarding IBM's initiative called Service Science, Management and Engineering (SSME), which aims to create an ecosystem for developing the knowledge base and train the labor force and to make significant advances in service research and innovation. This is what he had to say "We clearly need to develop a more systematic approach to services innovation if we are to sustain this vital new sector in the economy".
The goal of the SSME discipline is to drive productivity, quality, and sustainability of services, while making the learning rates and innovation rates more predictable across the service sector, especially in complex organization to organization services including business to business, nation to nation and government to population. This new academic discipline brings together ongoing work in fields of computer science, management science, and social science to develop skills required in a services-led economy.
Many leading universities across the world have begun exploring and investing in the field of service science (SSME) to develop exactly these cross-disciplinary skills. University of California, Berkeley, Arizona State University and North Carolina State University are among a handful of universities in the United States which have established programs in service science. Universities in Europe and Asia are also creating programs in this area.

Back to Jamshedpur

I'm finally back to Jamshedpur after an enjoyable Aussie trip. We reached Kolkata on 12th morning (2:00 AM) from Bangkok. The flight was delayed by around 1.5 hours. One hilarious thing happened at bangkok airport. We were waiting in the lounge (before boarding) when a group of gals sitting in front of us suddenly started giggling uncontrollably. When I turned my back towards the direction in which they were seeing & laughing I saw RC, visibly embarrassed, coming out of the men's restroom in a hurry. Knowing RC and her idiosyncrasies this wasn't too surprising for anyone though ;-) As if this were not enough within a couple of minutes their was another roar of laughter from everywhere around me. This time VM (Bacchu Yadav) mistakenly entered the women's loo and hurriedly came out red faced. Three cheers for RC & VM for producing this "Double Dhamaka" in Bangkok and entertaining everyone around :-)

Project @ OUA

I am working on a project work for Open Universities Australia (OUA). Open Universities Australia is owned by seven leading universities and is the country’s fastest growing online higher education service. Over 110, 000 people have already studied with them since they began in 1993. One can choose to study from over 100 subject areas and graduate with qualifications from 15 academic providers. There are no entry requirements to start studying with OUA.
OUA believes India to be an attractive market and they have already had some success in the Indian market following certain recent initiatives. The focus of our project is to prepare a roadmap/strategy for OUA to expand their business in India.

Melbourne Ahoy

Hi guys! Sorry for not posting for quite a while. I'm in Melbourne currently for the international immersion programme. XLRI has tied up with RMIT for conducting this programme. The duration is approximately 3 weeks. As part of the programme we will be attending some classes at RMIT and work on projects for some organizations in Melbourne. Tomorrow the project groups will be allocated. Some of the companies participating in the programme are KPMG, Delloit, Citi Group etc. I'll share more info. with you as and when I come to know.
BTW, over the weekend 5 of us drove down to Sydney & had a blast. I'll post the details and some snaps in my next post.

Alumni Homecoming: Idli boy steals the show

A packed Tata auditorium listened with rapt attention to Sarathababu Elumalai, who was here to share his rags-to-riches story during the XLRI annual Homecoming ceremony.
The other speakers on the topic "Entrepreneurs - Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders" included, Mr S Sivakumar (Chief Executive, ITC Agri-Business), Mr Manish Sabharwal (CEO-Founder, Teamlease), Mr Gautam Mallick (CEO-Founder, LSI Financial Services).
The youth from Chennai, an IIM graduate who refused a brilliant job to start a catering service, said: “I was born in a family of five children in Chennai and my mother worked with the government’s mid-day meal schemes. The money was not sufficient to sustain the large family, so she set up a small idli shop near our home in one of the slum areas of Chennai.”
The founder of FoodKing Catering Services, which today serves home-made hygienic food to offices in Ahmedabad and Goa, recalled how in Class IX his teachers had to persuade him hard not to quit studies.
From selling idlis on the pavements of Chennai to binding books for students, Elumalai had done it all till he reached BITS, Pilani. “I had never heard of the institution as we never got such an exposure. Someone told me that if I study there I will get a job,” he said.
After the engineering degree and a three years’ stint in the corporate world, Elumalai moved to IIM (A).
“The kind of salary and position an IIM graduate is offered is very difficult to turn down. But if I had not taken such a decision, I would have never been able to start my business,” he said.
The business, which started with a mere Rs 5,000 and a small kiosk at Ahmedabad, has today spread to over six branches employing over 175 people whose only job is to supply nutritious home-made food to corporates.
“It was an idea that I chanced upon during my internship at Pilani when I learnt that 30 per cent of the country’s population go to bed without food,” he said. “More than working for somebody I wanted to give jobs to people like me, who did not have other means of livelihood.” Soon his company would venture into other cities and provide employment to at least 15,000 people.
And while Sarathababu surprised everybody with his stories, XLRI today too put its first step in the same direction. After almost three years of negotiations, the much talked about Social Entrepreneurship Trust (SET) was formed today.
Aimed at funding and supporting innovative social entrepreneurship ideas, the trust which is the first of its kind would also work for different tribal upliftment projects in Jharkhand and would provide scholarships to tribal youths for further studies....

ALumni Homecoming

Like the previous 3 years, XLRI will be organising the 4th Annual XLRI Alumni Homecoming during the weekend (Nov 17-18, '07). This annual event brings some alumni from across six decades back to the alma mater, representing different geographies, and companies.

Besides appraising the alumni and the interactions, one of the main events of the Homecoming is the panel discussion which will be held in the evening in the Tata Auditorium (Nov 17th, 6:30pm). Every year XLRI selects a contemporary issue and invites practitioners from the field to share their thoughts and experience on the issue.

This year the topic for panel is Entrepreneurs: Carpetbaggers or Nation-Builders?
The purpose of the Panel is to profile the entrepreneurs / entrepreneurial ventures (from various sectors) whose work also aims at initiating systemic changes in the society.

1. Mr E Sarathbabu (the young IIMA graduate who founded the Food King Catering Services Pvt Ltd. to create employment)
He is from the 2006 batch of IIMA, he created a stir when he refused a high-paying job at the campus, and decided to start his own enterprise, The Foodking Catering Services. The vision of his enterprise states (http://foodkingindia.com/). He was inspired by his mother who brought him and his sibling up by working in the mid-day meal scheme and selling sold idlis on the pavements of Chennai. Inaugurated by the Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, Foodking has grown from a small kiosk to six branches (four in Ahmedabad and one each in BITS Pilani campuses in Pilani and Goa).

2. Mr Manish Sabharwal, Founder & CEO, TeamLease Services,
He is the Chairman and co-founder of Teamlease Services, India’s largest temporary staffing firm with over 75,000 employees in 675 cities locations across India. He is also a member of the Planning Commission steering committee on labor and employment for the Eleventh five year plan (2007-12) and is a member of the CII core group on labor reforms.

3. Mr S Sivakumar, Chief Executive ITC - Agri-Business/e-Choupal
He is the CEO of the Rs.3,500/- division, he is also the brain behind the largest internet-based initiative in rural India. 'e-Choupal' services today reach out to more than 3.5 million farmers growing a range of crops - soyabean, coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over 38,500 villages through nearly 6500 kiosks across nine states...

4. Mr Anjan Dutt, Socio-Cultural Entrepreneur, Director/Producer of “The Bong Connection” & “Bow Barrack Forever”
He is a pioneer in Bengali music, and a multi-faceted artist who is a singer, composer, actor and director. He is the producer/director of the cross-over films like “The Bong Connection” and “Bow Barrack Forever”, besides working for Films such as “Mr & Mrs Iyer”, “City ofJoy”, Yugant”, “Antareen” etc. He is known to have rejuvenated the Bengali music by blending it with the modern and contemporary culure and social issues (e.g., his songs about the killing of Christian Missionaries in Orissa, Bandra Blues, etc.)

5. Mr Rajeev Dubey, Dy Editor, Business World will moderate the discussions

My career plans

Although after successful completion of the GMP course a candidate receives a diploma in general management, students can focus on certain key areas of concentration (such as Marketing / Finance) based upon their career interests. For example, in our batch an unusually high proportion of candidates aspire to shift to finance. The reason is that there are a lot of guys from the core sector who have fairly limited career options such as finance / IT domain consulting. Consulting though is another option which is open for the initiated / focussed candidates. Here, of course, I'm assuming that they are not interested to return to the core sector.
As far as I'm concerned I had my priorities clear before coming down to XLRI. I will go back to the IT sector but not in the same function. I am looking for a Business Development role (preferably overseas). I do not have any plan B right now so I'm not too sure what I will do if things do not happen as per my plans. Nowadays, irrespective of size and stature, almost every Indian IT company is planning a ‘big expansion' in scale and scope of operations which implies requirement for new business / clients. Hence, the need for Business Development Managers / Opportunity Managers.

50% MBA

Finally end terms are over...
The last paper was Strategy and it was a 4 hour marathon exam. As I mentioned earlier that this time there were no term-breaks. So 3rd term commenced from today. The schedule was planned this way to accommodate our international exposure programme. As part of this programme we will be travelling to Melbourne for 3 weeks. I will provide more details regarding this trip in my subsequent post. I am planning to go home for a few days. Let's see whether the plan materializes.

Happy Diwali

End Terms

End terms exams have started from today.

The exam schedule is as below:

Nov 5th - Legal Environment of Business
Nov 6th - HRM
Nov 7th - MIS: Technical and Social Perspectives
Nov 8th - Production and Operations Management
Nov 9th - DEEPAWALI
Nov 10th - Financial Management I & II
Nov 11th - Strategic Management

Luckily OMMD paper was scheduled last week along with a host of other submissions & presentations et al. Only LEB exam is open-book.

Here's wishing all of you 'A Very Very Happy Diwali' !

I'll be back soon. This time there are no term-breaks so term III commences on 12th Nov.

Expect the Unexpected

We have a subject called Mgmt Information Systems (MIS) in this term. The focus of this course is on information technology issues facing today’s managers. As part of this course we have to complete a group project. The details of the project are as follows:
1> Form groups of 5
2> Pick up an SME in and around JSR. The business could be Auto ancillary, Construction business, Retail business, Professional Service, etc.
3> The project should provide a brief description of the organization, any internal/external systems that employees use as TPS/MIS and communication & collaboration requirements.
4> If the group feels that there is need for a change in the existing system or need for a new system then the same needs to be justified. Also the group has to design the new system and discuss any constraints that they foresee in implementing the new system.
As luck would have it in my group there are 4 techies (from CTS, TCS & Tech Mahindra) including myself and one guy from Operations background. Now, since I have worked in DW&BI for the last 6 years there was always this danger of trying to showcase my expertise/knowledge and getting carried away in the process.
I have noticed many people (who are experts in their respective domains) somehow getting carried away in similar situations and ending up in a pompous display of knowledge. This may not be appreciated by everyone always. BTW, I have observed the reverse phenomenon as well.
Anyways, there is one thing which amused me. In this project we have to create some DFDs and ER Diagrams. Just prior to writing this post I was creating some stuff in ERwin. I had last worked on these stuff several years ago when I used to be a Data Modeler in IBM. I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that I would be working with Erwin/MS Visio while pursuing MBA in a B-school (especially in a General Management Programme). Life is funny, there are so many unexpected things that just keep happening :-)

Today is Dandiya Night @ XLRI

Beautiful Thoughts

I came across a couple of beautiful quotes today and thought of sharing them with you guys.

We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin--real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Alfred D. Souza

Life in a B-school

Life has been super busy lately but I feel purposeful and happy. The negative part of it is that I am so wrapped up in the routines of daily life. Days roll into weeks and time just flies by. I’ve been consistently productive for quite some time now, yet the amount of work just continues to pile. It's been more than 4 months that I've joined XLRI and only about 6 months or so remain before I'm outta here. Today I'd like to share with you some observations made during these few months.

1> Students are very competitive, very grade-conscious and work too hard.
2> Majority are focussed towards securing grades rather than towards assimilating knowledge.
3> A lot of students are in a state of flux and have no idea why they are here and/or where they would want to be post-mba.
4> A 1-year mba is extremely intensive & quite stressful and you always keep wondering why there are only 24 hours in a day!
5> Peers evaluate you in terms of your scores/grades.
6> Friendship & camaraderie are passe.
7> Finance & Consultancy rule!
8> Quite a few students would make excellent secretaries (to bosses) since they are able to start taking notes even before the Prof. has uttered a single word.
9> Finally, if MBA is a religion then Profs are God...period!

These are observations based upon my personal experience and you have every right to agree/disagree.

GMP - Admission

Dear Readers,
As many of you may be aware that applications are being invited for admission into 1 year GMP @ XLRI. If anyone has any questions regarding the admission process, course, pedagogy, placements or anything else for that matter then I'll be more than happy to take your queries. I have also been responding to prospective applicant's queries at pagaalguy. So do let me know if you have any queries/doubts.