My tryst with MBA

Moving to Wordpress

2006-07-28T12:43:00.000+05:30

Finally, I decided to stop using Blogspot, partially because of Govt regulations and partially because of the title of this blog (my MBA is over now), and most importantly because of some of the features I like in wordpress, not provided by blogspot, and finally because, I am too lazy to maintain 2 blogs :)

So, No more posts here.... Thank you guys who visited this forum and left coments, thoughts, suggestions etc. You are welcome to visit my blog on http://alok.wordpress.com

All the earlier posts from blogspot has also been moved to the new blog. Will appreciate if you update your links accordingly.

Shift of balance of power

2006-03-28T10:37:00.000+05:30

How quickly does time change balance of power and your bargaining power.!! A real experience for me - courtesy placement process at ISB. I got chucked out from few companies, in which I was seriously interest. ISB days were coming to an end, and I had no offer. Attending a party, seeing others having a nice time; and me in jobless state is no good fun. I didn't find a respite even in couple of pegs. Infact the worst thing to do is -- booze when you are not happy, it aggravates the problem..!! Never do that. Booze only when you are happy... it adds to your happiness..!!!

I attended quite a few interviews after that, and it was always that the recruiters had the upper hand. I approached my alumni, friends and all resources that I could muster to forward my resume to their respective companies. It went on well in few of them, and before the final offer from them, I got a good offer – thanks to our placement cell.

The balance of power is now in my favor. Now, I am wondering how and when to say NO to other firms where I had already been at the final stages. It’s even more difficult to say no – when you approached a firm through your acquaintances. Will it in anyway impact their relationship with their bosses.

Should I wait till the firms give the final offer, and I reject them saying the offer is not good, or should I tell them, I have an offer of which I am happy about, and would not like to take up the discussion further…???? Probably common sense and Negotiation profs will advise, to go with the first option; negotiate harder with the other firms, as your BATNA is very high, you may get an even better deal. Somehow I am not convinced with the idea that you should bargain heavily on salary in one firm, if you are happy with the alternative you already have.

When in doubt, follow your instincts – I am choosing the later option.

Disclaimer: Readers please don’t interpret my not getting an offer for long time, as a problem with ISB’s placement. Probably I was not competent for the companies in which I applied, or the other way round - the role and offer was not exciting enough for me.

Placement Season.....

2006-02-20T05:19:00.000+05:30

These days we are having placement season. (Between winter and summer seasons, there is a placement season among B-Schools) Post Day1, after the M's and the B's having selected the 'super brahmins', it is the turn for some lesser mortals.
So what's a typical interview day like -
Wake up by 7 am, wear a suit, and be seen in breakfast room by 8am, as the interview will start from 8:30. However, some students had the courage to take interivews at 6am in the morning also. Post breakfast, come to SV1 in hot sun, sweating and report for interview 1 15 minutes before time. The co-ordinator there says "wait, you are in queue", you wait for 1-2 hours and then receive a call from the co-ordinator of some other firm... "Where the heck are you? Your interview is scheduled right now".. You are wondering which firm to give priority to... in a confused state, you flip a coin and go for one of the interviews. After hoping from one room to other, you get a chance to be interview in one of the firms, and here's the typical interview like:

Interviewer: So, how many interviews so far?
Me: (Thinking: Lost the count, but is forced to say): This is my first interview.
Interviewer: Why don't you tell us something about yourself?
Me: (Thinking: Didn't you read the resume, everything's written there, what a silly questions), but I blabber a well rehearsed 1 minute monologue.
Interviewer: Why MBA?
Me: "Ever since I was born, I was intrigued by the vagaries of business; the kick that i get by solving complex business problem is uncomparable. So after working for 5 years in IT, I felt its a great time to understand business from a 'HOLISTIC PERSPECTIVE' and I think MBA has been of great help to me"..!!!!
(If its a non IT company)
Interviweer: Why do you think you are fit for this role?
Me: (Thinking: You tell me what fit you found in my resume to shortlist me for interview) but i am constrained to say: I have this capability, that capability, I love the challenge that this role offers me, and blah blah...!
Interviewer: You have so much experience in IT, then why (this) company, or industry?
Me: (Thinking: Had I loved IT, why the heck would i have done MBA), but the answer is: "You know, I love (this) industry, is passionate about type of work, the work culture, the 'learned' people you work with.....
Interviewer: (Gives some gyan) You know what .. 'at your age', You should not think about changing industry, you are already exposed to one domain, build a strong career in that, however if you are still keen on industry, contact our sister concern , and they will eagerly take you.

(Incidentally, the interview with the 'sister concern' was also the same :)

(If its an IT company)
Interviewer: Why (this) company, why not go back to Cognizant?
Me: I am indifferent between Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant, Satyam, TCS, and the likes... it will be very similar role, and similar compensation. All are same for me.
Interviewer: Thank You .. It was nice talking to you.
(So quick, concise and precise).

Go through this entire process 7-8 times in a day. And on way back to room, contemplate.. what did I do wrong? I got chucked out for telling the truth, I got chucked out for 'tailoring' my responses.

Stare at the laptop, and wait for interview schedules for the next day. Mail comes... holy shit.. its again the same, so many companies, so many shortlists, so its going to be the same day tomorrow....!!!! The greatest hope is..." Once all the toppers, stud guys, are through, then I stand a very good chance".
Go to sleep with these optimistic thoughts for the day ahead.

A punch line for resume....

2006-01-27T02:57:00.000+05:30

Interested in Equity Research..? How about having the following as a punch line in your Resume/EOI.....

"My qualifications for the post of an Equity Research Analyst is unique because I do not analyze the economy, have little interest in corporate developments and fundamentals and do not use traditional, technical, quantitative or other market indicators. "

Sounds rediculous...?? Think over it again, may be this punch line can get you a job at 'Birinyi Associates'.

According to their website...
"Our approach is to understand the psychology and history of the market, and most importantly the actions of investors. Much of our effort involves money flows, or what has traditionally been called ticker tape analysis."

Wondering, what the heck is this 'ticker tape analysis' ? As far as I know some researchers/enthusiasts use this method of analyzing money flows to predict the direction of stocks. It's one indirect benefit of integrating research analysis with sales and trading..!!! But never thought that there are people who actually trust this method to put their money on it..

And by the way don't miss Birnyi's blog postings on 'TickerSense'...!! You may find some real interesting posts.

Learnings from ISB

2006-01-23T00:30:00.000+05:30

Thinking of starting a sequel of my learnings from ISB. May be it will help some years down the line. Hopefully, I will not restrict myself to learnings in the classroom, but also outside. Also the episode would not be structured in any fashion, chronologically, or by subject - but purely random.

I am thinking of categorising these as and when I write, but the problem with blogspot is that it does not have this feature. So the absence of this feature forces me to switch to 'wordpress' for this.

So over to my other blog.

Resurrection of an Idle Mind

2006-01-03T02:50:00.000+05:30

What does an idle mind at ISB do? Watch movies, play AoE (Age of Empires), NFS, Mortal Combat, booze, date, sweat on treadmills or basketball courts, is busy on phone, watch all sorts of interesting things that internet has to offer, read other's blogs, or worst still just browse net. I belong to the last category :)

Infact, this is what i was doing the whole night today. Started with exploring some stocks to invest in, scanned few pages from wikipedia and somehow landed upon 'Right Brain- Left Brain' dichotomy...!!! Now don't ask me how does stock valuation sites led me to psychology. But having landed there once, started exploring the pluses and minues of left brain and right brain manager. Out of curiousity took an online test and to my surprise, found myself to be 74% right brain and 26% left brain...!! Shocked beyond imagination. I knew myself to be skewed, but to this extent...... weird.... Crosschecked it on two other sites, one says "Out of 18 questions you answered 13 as right brained and 5 as left brained", other one says "You are more right brained than 91% of human beings"....!!!! What it essentially means is i don't think sequentially, do not care about details, rather give more emphasis on broader picture, jump from one thing to other in purely random fashion, or worst still never keep my belongings organised. Quite true.. but all these are too bad for a manager in a standard brick and mortar firm :(

Some psychological theory claims...
"The left brain works more with logic and analysis, the right works more with emotions and imagination.

As we apply brain dominance theory to the three essential roles of organizations, we see that the manager's role primarily would be left brain and the leader's role right brain. The producer's role would depend upon the nature of the work. If it's verbal, logical, analytical work, that would be essentially left brain; if it's more intuitive, emotional, or creative work, it would be right brain. People who are excellent managers but poor leaders may be extremely well organized and run a tight ship with superior systems and procedures and detailed job descriptions. But unless they are internally motivated, little gets done because there is no feeling, no heart; everything is too mechanical, too formal, too tight, too protective."

So i am going to be a poor manager, but probably a good leader... :) Only time will (dis)prove the theory.

Benefits of internet ...!!!

2005-12-30T05:02:00.000+05:30

What can be the greatest benefit of internet to an unemployed? If you are wondering i am going to write about sites like 'naukri.com' or 'monster.com', then you are wrong. I am going to write about the actual exam papers that you can get from internet. May sound funny to some, to others it will come as a surprise, to rest a feeling of disgust on the recruiting policies of some of the best firms.

Was browsing through wikipedia for infosys foundation, when i came across a discussion forum for infosys. (click here to access the forum), and in one of the discussion threads came across placement papers. Click here to access the previous years placement papers from some of the leading Indian Companies...!!

Reminds me of the engineering college days, when 3rd year students would be waiting outside exam halls of 4th yearites to know what was asked in the placement papers, or use contacts in other colleges where the company had already visited. But now the students do not have to run pillar to post for papers. The collection is available to them at the site.

Not sure to what extent these questions are correct, but this puts a question mark on the recruitment policies of these firms. Are they really recruiting the best of the breed from engineering campuses or are they recruiting the person with the best networking or web-surfing skills..??

Sometimes the internet makes life really tough for students without much access to web resources. You have to write a term paper, an article, essays for admissions to MS or MBA, and now exam papers for companies, you just need to know how to browse the net. Imagine the plight of a student without internet access, the efforts that (s)he has to put in to write a paper comparable to those written by professionals. I pray that the evaluator would be able to distinguish an essay written from some internet resource and someone's own creativity.

My best wishes to the students without internet access.

Perspective - The latest fad in campus

2005-12-30T03:50:00.000+05:30

Suddenly everyone is talking about 'perspective'...!!! But what the hell is this perspective all about? It all started with Pramat Sinha, Principal McKinsey and the first Dean of ISB giving a talk about interviewing skills. His message was that all of us need to have some 'perspective' on day to day news, and be able to give an informed critique on recent happenings like - 'soaring oil prices', 'Rashtriya Nirman Yojna', 'Bull Market' etc.

So why this sudden hoopla about 'perspective building'? We are having 'perspective building sessions', 'group discussions in campus, atrium and dining table'. If you see more than 2 students at any place together, chances are pretty high that they would be talking about 'perspectives'. To me its great to have 'perspectives', but not just for name sake. Comes placement season and suddenly everyone is reading newspaper, discussing editorials, attending 'KSS' (knowledge sharing sessions) from peers. It will be interesting to know how many of us continue post placement season.

Beating the Street.....

2005-12-02T18:35:00.000+05:30

"One up on Wall Street", "Beating the Street", "Outperform Market", and many many more.... You must have heard of these phrases a lot. And these get prominance when the likes of Peter Lynch, George Soros author books with these names...!!

And Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Ramesh Damani and many more barrons of our very own Dalal Street, give their views and suggestions on the market, people do listen.... and why not, these gentlemen have made huge money on dalal street, and more often than not their suggestions end up in creating bullish sentiments for their stock. Then next in line are other brokering houses who give tips and then there are 'Your friendly brokers' who usually give you a 'Hot Tip' and you are caught in the frenzy.

Then you read success stories of small-caps who became multiple-baggers in just few weeks. If you are a patient investor, you read and get awed by success stories of Shoppers Stop, Infosys etc. Then you do 'back of the envelop calculation' (one of the cliche at B-Schools) and find your money would have grown 7-8 times if you invested in so-and-so company on s0-and-so date. Your face droops, and you grim, give a punch on a concrete wall for having missed the opportunity..!!!! Stock market is really crazy....

So what does it actually mean to 'beat the street'? In simple words it means get returns higher than that what the general market is giving. But what is this 'general market' - is it 'BSE 30', Nifty', BSE-MidCap', and across Atlantic 'S&P 500', and to your east 'Nikkei'? Now we all know investing in penny stocks is risky and heard or read people loosing on these bets. So lets take the best on Indian Wall Street - aka Dalal Street, the BSE-30. Its an index of 30 'most valuable companies' (Are they really that valuable or not-- a question to be discussed later on).

So if you try not 'beating the street' but just 'replicating the street' - what would have happened? Your 'friends' or your 'trust-worthy brokers' would have told you 'You are foolish - so and so company was a multibagger and beat street 4-times)'. My 2-cents "If you just replicated the street the so-called 'slow moving elephant the BSE-30' you would have grown your money 9 times in just 15 years...!!!!! (Sensex was 1000 on July'15 1990 and 9000 on 28th November' 2005) An compounded yearly return of more than 20%...!!! And don't forget this is after so many scandals - the 'Harshad Mehta', 'Ketan Parekh', and general downtime of 'global slowdown on 2000-2003' and 'the Black Monday' when BJP's India Shinning campaign went bust.

A message to all... even if you are not the 'hep-type', 'dalal street - sycophant', and just be a patient 'buy-and-hold' strategist... you would have made more money than your 'stock advisor'...!!!!

Who is the best marketeer.....?

2005-11-18T15:31:00.000+05:30

Is it somebody who has a MBA in Marketing, read all books on Advertising, Branding, well versed with 5C-4P, market segmentation, conjoint analysis, 2-by-2 matrix? Or is it the likes of Kotler, C.K. Prahlad of 'Bottom of the Pyramid' fame, or the much adored professors of marketing in B-Schools?

In one of my lectures in rural marketing, the prof put this same question infront of a 'well-versed and learned' audience of prospective MBAs - aspiring to be brand manager of Hondas, leaders in FMCG marketings, HLL, P&G and few finance, strategy folks who thought rural marketing to be a timepass course...! None of us had the right answer, before the Prof. Mr. Harish Bijoor (erstwhile brand manager of Red Label' and current CEO of Bijoor consulting) said its the rural people...!!!

How...think over it, the rural India is able to sell all of their produce (vegetables, cereals, milk, handicraft) in urban market, but even the most revered sales folks from the best B-Schools in the world will find it difficult to sell a can of coke or a bar of soap to the rural people.

Its really interesting to think it in in this way.... we urban folks crib about poor infrastructure as the problem for our inability to reach rural market, but the same infrastructure is used by farmers to establish their Supply Chain of their produce to urban market efficiently. A milkman delivers milk everyday in so-many urban homes, fresh vegetables are made available to the urban everyday, and the rustic-dhoti clad vegetable vendor have a thorough knowledge of his potential customers, consumers purchasing power, and all the fancy marketing funda, which can give the 'A' graders in B-Schools a shame. We need to learn few courses in SCM, ERP from these folks.

These thoughts were further reinforced today while talking to my brother Animesh, who is running his retail chain in 'Chhipramau' a small town (or village) in Kanpur. He shared his experiences of selling a Lux bar soap to rural customers.

The customer: "tum log thok mein 144 rupey mein 1 dozen sabun kharidtey ho to futkar mein 13 rupey mein kyon bechtey ho... 50 ps ka fayda tum log ke liye bahut hai".
To this my bro. replies "arey dukan ka kharcha bhi to chalana hai, aur fir uper se thodra apna paisa nahi banyoonga to khayoonga kya"
the customer: "50 ps isiliye to de raha hoon"
Walks off the store either after buying the soap for 12.50 or not buying at all.

Second incident, A coke bottle which very easily sells for Rs 15 in urban market despite the MRP of Rs.11 - how does it sell in rural India:
Ani ofcourse knowing that he can't sell it for 15, marks it at 11...
The customer: "Ye cold-drink 11 rupey mein kyon de rahey ho"
Ani: "Is par company ne 11 rupya likha hai isliye"
Customer: "likhney se kya hota hai... kal ko tum 15 likh dogey to kya ye 15 ka ho jayega" (All funda of MRP goes for a toss...!!!)
Ani: "10 rupey mein hamko milta hai, yahan bijli to hai nahi, isliye thanda karney mein barf ka hi 1-2 rupya chala jaata hai, hamein to 11 rupey mein bhi bechney ne nuksaan hi ho raha hai"
Customer then buys the coke at 11...!!!!

Moral of the story, you just can't sell anything at anyprice to a rural person, he has to be convinced that the product really warrants the cost. 'Time is a liesure item, and money is precious', so they have ample time to bargain for hours and then leave the store without buying anything. Contrast it with urban where 'Time is precious, money spent on day to day goods is a rounding error'.. or bargaining in posh super malls is not considered culture... but simultaneously bargaining is a hep thing if you are buying from road side vendors or small shops in Palika Bazaar....!!!!

DB Experience

2005-11-08T09:42:00.000+05:30

Today we had Deutsche Bank visiting our campus for Sales and Trading role in its Global Capital Market division. I was not sure of an interview call, as their was nothing impressive in my resume except my general interest in Equity Market and Statistics. Luckily they liked it, and i got a shortlist.. :)

But the interviewing session wasn't good. My unpreparedness became quite obvious within 2 minutes.... Interview started with general gyan on my past work experience, which I was able to handle properly and steer the interview towards finance and mathematics easily. He asked me two questions on stats.. "What is Sharp Ratio", .. my answer " I dont know"... Next question, ... "What is factor analysis and how can you do factor analysis of Indian Equity market".... again I had no clue.... I was asked two questions on a topic which i claimed to know well... but couldn't answer either...!!!!! And that was the end of it.

Finally two folks who made it through gruelling 8 rounds of interview were Ankur Warikoo and Anjali Patel. Congrats to both of them... and best wishes for their subsequent interactions with DB.

Few good learnings from this experience:
1. Grades can only get you through resume shortlist... the common myth that I-Banks select people with high grades only is a fallacy.
2. I need to work on my articulation skills
3. Start preparing for coming interviews.
4. If I highlight one strong point in my resume, I must know it above and beyond all my batchmates, if i want to leverage it.

So get set go.... many more companies to come..... tighten your belts...!!!

Ubiquitous - silly mistakes...

2005-11-06T02:22:00.000+05:30

Today I had my Options and Futures mid term exam. I had prepared really well, build decent funda, and had the confidence (or should i say over confidence) could possibly crack all not-so-cryptic questions.

Scene1 - Exam hall: Literally jumped with joy on seeing the question paper. Most of them involved using some basic funda and not un-necessary complex calculations. Solved all the questions, felt elated and left the room 20 minutes before the closing bell.

Scene2 - Meet couple of guys in the cafe discussing the paper, some happy, some not-so-happy and some in utterly dejected state. The discussion brings in light few follies that i did in the exam. So mood changes from 'elated' to 'not-so-happy'

Scene3 - Back to quad, discussions start again over the paper, and i realise few more silly mistakes, either calculation errors, or as simple as assuming 2 + 2 =0..!!!!! Mood changes from 'not-so-happy' to 'utterly dejected'.

I am doing these types of silly mistakes since class 10th or so... screwed up my JEE, screwed up marks in engineering, screwed up many subjects in previous terms and the list goes on...!!!

If and Only If I can get out of this mistake phenomenon.............

But just dont know how to do that :(

The most peculiar thing about a human being......

2005-10-17T23:20:00.000+05:30

What is the most peculiar thing about a human being...??? And by 'a human being', I don't mean someone in particular but the human population in general. This question is nagging in my head since last couple of days. Let me give it some shot...

Some say its the power to converse with others. Others say its the power to think - the human brain. Still others argue the beliefs that people have about supernatural powers. May be there are many more out there - with different answers to this question.

I for one believe its none of these - but the most peculiar thing about a human being is - 'curiousity' - the curiousity to know about the world around, or more commonly about the people around. We are always in a constant persuit to know about others, their life, jobs, grades, salary, which brand of underwear they wear and every damn thing that we 'never want to disclose about own self'..!!!! Its simply surprising, how come marketing folks get paid so much money to probe into others life. For instance, in today's rural marketing class, the prof. sees somebody's shirts collars and says 'Park Avenue', he probes further 'VIP Bonus' ....!!! Simply rediculous. He brought out an instance of how a Kellogs graduate used cameras in bathrooms of many Brazilians to know -- how Brazilians use toilet papers..!!!

I am just 'curious' (even i am a human being) to know would that marketing researcher be eager to volunteer to put a camera in his loo and later the information be used to rob more money out of his own pocket - by devising better toilet papers, or develop a habit of using more than 1 yard paper each time..????

Why do people write blogs, and why do others read the blogs...??? Some write blogs to connect to others, share information, help others, still others because its the 'hep' thing, or just its cool to have a blog, others write blogs because they just want to write their thougts. But the question which is still nagging me... why do people read others blogs...????

Term breaks are over :-(

2005-10-17T01:33:00.000+05:30

Why the hell do we have term-breaks? Some say its good to have breaks so that you can take up the new term with renewed vigour. I think the 'some' in the last sentence would be philosophers or people who do not think practical. Most of the students are back from their vacations. Ask any of them -- "Do you enjoy coming back to campus and attending classes from tomorrow with the so-called renewed vigour" and the blatant response will be - "Are you crazy" Everyone is cribbing about the electives they didn't get, the classes they will have to attend tomorrow mornign at 8:30.

In my opinion, its better not to have any term breaks. It just makes one lazy, and breaks the routine that one is already set in. So let everyone flow with the current, dont stop the flow. It usually have devastating effects.

The last class in Section B

2005-10-04T10:14:00.000+05:30

Today, we had the last class together as Section B. Interesting memories of arbit CP, burning mid-night oil for Markstrat, group assignments, section get-togethers, funny remarks on each-other, LDP, mass dunking, great profs and not so great TA's - all came to an end.

A formal dress code, snaps, snacks, graffitti, section-B album (courtesy Bharani and Ramki) and the class of Tina Dacin - marked the end of our core courses, the end of 4 terms and the end of section B as a class together. On hindsight i am contemplating, what did i learn in these 4 terms which i will carry with - 'key takeaways', as in profs' words.

My goals and my path to destiny - a total mismatch

2005-10-03T13:33:00.000+05:30

I came to ISB with a single track mind - highly focussed - the aim was to secure a good I-Bank job. My entire ISB admissions interview was around that, comparing Infosys vs Cognizant stock performance, Contrarion vs Value investors, Buffetology and all those stuff. I am pretty sure I was one of the most focussed guys at the time of joining.

Days went passed, then weeks, months and now 4 terms...!!! It seems I am nowhere on the path to an I-banking career. Totally screwed-up grades (one of the most important criteria to get a shortlist), no new bullet points added to the resume, dint improve my communication skills, and neither did I improve my financial skills. The worst being not up to the mark performance even in subjects which interested me - DMO, Global Economics, Accounting (Financial and Managerial), Operations and the pathetic performance in Corporate Finance. :(

Its a real shame on me that I couldn't get a shortlist for HSBC scholarship, - forget HSBC not even Citigroup when they shortlisted 58 students, and my name was not there.

What am I doing here? Why am I here? If I am not able to pursue a career in finance post MBA, it will be my worst night-mare come true, and I want to avoid it. Dont know what to do...:(
Made an effort at IIMA Confluence Livestock event - but doomed, trying (or rather faffing) for an article for CRISIL - Young Achiever's Award, but again my too relaxed attitude is coming in way.

Reminds me of the song - 'Time' by Pink Floyd.
'You run and you run to catch-up with the sun but its sinking'..... 'No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun'.

From CAPM to Behaviourial Finance

2005-10-03T00:14:00.000+05:30

The subject which i liked most in the 4th term was Investment Analysis. Although i do have much interest in the investment aspects of finance but its really amazing what a superb prof can do to the subject.
The condensed course of 10 lectures comprised of risk and variability, portfolio efficient frontier, CAPM, Options and Futures, Fixed Income and lastly Behaviourial Finance - all in just 10 days. The prof is really amazing, the way he taught, flawless speech, filled in innumerable jokes - specially when he uses hindi :).

Rarely do you find people like him who can motivate english literature students to take finance as their MBA major...!!!

Thought of doing an Independent Study under him. But my lackadasical attitude, again came in the way. 'Aaj nahi yaar kal kar lengey' - never ever gave much seriousness towards it. :(

God help me... I want to come out of this laid-back attitude of mine, but unable to do so.

6 steps to greatness...

2005-08-24T20:33:00.000+05:30

Sounds funny....??? That was my reaction (and the whole class's too) to today's LDP(Leadership Development Program) class by Dr. Rajeshwar Upadhaya. Infact he himself made a mockery of it by saying "If there are 6 steps to greatness, I can write a book titled 'Greatness for dummies'". But after 3 hours of class, all of us were convined that his 6 steps can really create some difference in us. These were:
1. Reverse your thoughts (script it). Write down what you want and recall it in your mind, just before going to bed, and immediately after waking up.
2. Good (Find good qualities in others and tell them about it)
3. Learn to greet
4. Physically train yourself
5.
6.

Infact, he handed over to us sheets of paper which had "I like ...... because ....." written on it 4 times, and asked us to write a person's name whom we like, and why we like him. The intention was to hand over the sheet to the person whom you have adored. I wrote 4 sheets of these. Sounds rediculous, but in the end of the day, its a great feeling to know, what people like in you. And hearing that from so many people make yourself feel proud and happy. Interestingly all of them had a same undercurrent, and that re-inforced my conviction on these positive aspects of mine. I am writting down the reasons, why people in section like me:

I Like Alok because....

Simplicity and Astuteness.
Your Brilliance and big brotherly approach.
Of light nature.
He is like a grandfather.
He is extremely helpful when he is needed the most. He is down to earth and assumes no air of superiority. He is very intelligent still accessible for help.
He is smart. He is calm and composed.
He is always positive in any scenario and very humble though capable.
He has no hangups in life and has a genuine concern
High IQ, Low Ego
Amazing sense of analysis, Good humoured and humbled buddy.

The exercise was carried out for 10 minutes or so, and its a great feeling to know so much about oneself.

Rajeshwar is an amazing prof. the way he teaches leadership is radically different from the way we perceive the subject to be. The depth of knowledge he has is uncomparable. A very well-read professor - can talk about Greek mythology to Nuclear physics - to human psychology - julius ceaser to Vivekanand - can verbatim recite slokas from Bhagwat Gita to statements from Bible.

We also had an screening of the movie "Seven Samurai" - a japanese classic, (Sholay was remake of this movie in Hindi) today. Everything went in fine note, when in the end the section gave the professor a standing ovation - a not so usual incident in campus...!!! Hats off to you Prof. for re-inforcing my belief in myself..!!!

Using JMP....

2005-07-29T17:01:00.000+05:30

Today was one of those days, when i did nothing, except playing with JMP. JMP is a statistical analysis tool with phenomenal features. It was introduced to us by our statistics profs -- Prof. Bob Stine and Prof Richard Waterman I downloaded historical stock prices (Jan 1st 2000 to till date) for all the banks listed in NSE (National Stock Exchange). I did some multivariate analysis, and found a stratling thing. There is a very strong co-relation between the bank stocks and Nifty infact the corelation is of the order of 0.9 among ICICI, IDBI, SBI, HDFC and even NIFTY.

So what do i make out of it? Probably i should not have more than 1 bank in my portfolio, it doesn't make much sense to hold two highly co-related stocks. So what i did intutionally few days back came true. I had both ICICI and IDBI, and I did the right thing by selling of IDBI. Infact luck also favoured me, as ICICI grew at quite a fast pace in this bull run.

This is one thing which i like doing, putting together learnings from one subject to other, or in real life. Thank you Profs. for the way you taught us Statistics. I will never ever forget any concept taught by you. You taught us Statistics without using a single mathematical formula....!!!! Hope I continue to use some of your teachings.

Term 3 Party

2005-07-29T15:55:00.000+05:30

Yesterday night, we had our section party again (the second time). Courtesy Dipanjan, our Class Rep, a supercharged guy, always eager to take up new activitites. His idea is we will have a section party first thursday of every term. The theme this time was "Govinda", so all Busy Bees (this is what we occassionally call our section B janta, the other name being Gachibulls) were expected to turn up in "Govinda-Style" dresses. It started off with Sid (the kid in the section) and his band wagon for the event "Guess the personality", followed by tug-of-war, dance, beer, leg-pulling, solo fusion vocal-performance by Hanuman aka Vineeth (he is a teriffic singer), then Mani using his creativity thru an extempore karnatik raaga. Our CR and Sagar came up with gift vouchers for winners of sports and the best Govinda-style dressed person, which was Bhuwan this time in his bright orange shirt, a blue chunri tied as belt around his waist.

I for one was busy with beer bottles, of which I lost count of after 3 or 4. This was one of those rare moments when I had to leave the party in middle.

Hats off to the organisers Ramki, Kartik, Sagar, Akash and others for organising the fabulous event.

In the league of extraordinary gentlemen and Women

2005-04-21T11:30:00.000+05:30

Trying to settle myself here at ISB... It appears to be a place far beyond my expectations. A B-School of this stature in India, its a real commendable effort by the founders. I must call this place a league of extraordinary gentlemen and women. Most of the folks out here are of great caliber, immense enthusiasm and a dauntless drive..!!!
Met quite a few of them in last couple of days - CA's, engineers, doctors, lawyers, enterpreneurs, stock traders, wealth managers, bankers, software professionals, salesmen, defense personnel and teacher.

An amazing blend of people from different walks of life. It will be interesting to interact and learn from diverse student community. Hoping for a great year ahead at ISB.

The last day in US

2005-04-04T00:44:00.000+05:30

Today is my last day in US, as I am leaving for India to pursue my cherished dream of an MBA. God knows will I ever come back to US or not.

The stay out here has been really very relaxed, except for the few hiccups in job. On retrospection what did i do new in US - made quite a few good friends, earned few accolades in work, earned handsome money, learned few tricks of stock market, read lots of books pertaining to the same, learned to drive a car- drove to Mt. Rushmore, Smoky Mountains, Atlanta, Chicago, Duluth,Niagra, went to Canada, wrote GMAT, went to stripclubs, bars, tasted crab-lobster-prawns-octopus-salmon, red wine, taquilla, bought a lap top, a digital camera, and few other gizmos, saw snowfall, falls, skidded the car in snow, nearly got mugged, learned to cook chicken, hacked into others emails, promoted piracy through torrents...... and finally got a warm send off even from clients (the most touching moment - the Client's Director Mark Gladding, Project Managers - Steve Cooley, Steven Schaunkey, Abhijit Pradhan, Accentures consultants all were at my desk yesterday with Donuts... and good wishes. Sorry to leave them in this critical phase of the project)

So all in all a real fruitful year...!!! Already did all my packings, except this laptop, just killing my time.... waiting for 2 O'clock ... will have an Indian Lunch and Off to India...!!!

The gruelling application process....

2005-02-18T00:07:00.000+05:30

I had never thought that the mba application process would be so gruelling experience. Wrote the essays, read it again and again a zillion times, and i still find pieces requiring some improvement. The deadlines are approaching and i am still not satisfied with the essays. Got it reviewed by Reddy (an IIMA alum and one of the guys whose english is uncomparable) - he just ripped apart my essays. Says its all crap, ISB will never-ever entertain such essays - completely unprofessional - and God knows what all. Thank God Reddy is not in the admissions committee of ISB - had he been there, no one would ever make it to ISB. Probably i will not incorporate any of his comments - I like my essays to be 'purely unprofessional' - a unique style...!! Lets see how it turns out to be.

Luckily i din't had to run pillar to post for the recos, as the recommendars Sunil and Madhu both are in Minneapolis itself. Wondering what they will write in the reco. - hopefully nothing bad, if not excellent.

I must confess the essay writting part for an MBA program is the most trickiest part. Not sure how much importance does ISB give to the essays, but I guess it is reflective of a person's general outlook, apart from the usual stuffs like english etc.

The sturggle for a completely 'unprofessional essay' continues......

Finally wrote the GMAT

2005-01-04T12:25:00.000+05:30

Whew..!!! I finally wrote the GMAT today. What a weekend it had been. All my friends were partying, and celebrating the new year, I for one was engrossed in the Official Guide for last few days. I should have probably studied the book a few days back.

What lame excuses i had to make to my clients for half a day off to write the GMAT...!! Anyway all wells that ends well. Finally wrote the GMAT today. scored a decent 720. (50 Quant 38 Verbal). I think its a decent score to apply to any school. The score is good, got a nice international work experience, can get good recos, write not-so-bad essays -- but alas the days are gone. Currently application process for only ISB is going on. So better rush to it - or Alok your procrastinating habit will kill the chances at isb also. I think I better get started with writting essays and arranging for recos.

Gearing up for the GMAT

2004-10-17T01:16:00.000+05:30

Thinking of writting the GMAT soon. I dont know when i will write it, yet to finalise on the date. At this stage I am not even sure whether I am worthy of an MBA or not.
Academically the MBA program would not be a challenge for me, but i am more concerned about my prospects and my fit in the job profile typical of an MBA. Still browsing through websites of B-Schools around the world, unable to decide on which schools to apply to - one of them will be ISB, dont know about the rest. May be INSEAD, as even that is 1 year program.

But whereever I apply i must write GMAT. I was scanning through the Kaplan and some websites on net for GMAT preperations. The quant section seems easy, but my verbal being pathetic I am finding it difficult - especially the Sentence Correction Part. Hopefully there will some tricks of trade which i need to crack to get at elusive 700+ score.

Struggle for a place in eServices

2004-08-11T01:02:00.000+05:30

A blog slightly away from the league - eServices is the project that i have been put into. I am having tough time getting a place for me among these Americans. I have been portrayed to my clients as the architect, a team lead and an onsite-offshore coordinator from Cognizant side. Whew...!! What all does a software firm do to grab a project. The client has a great technical staff out here. They are either too good in their field of work, or are too involved in their current release, they are finding it difficult to spare time with me.

The pressure from Cognizant's manager to make a mark in the client's mind, the struggle to understand the clients code developed over 5 years, making the earlier project presentable and thoughts of an MBA are all getting over me.

The GMAT preperations....

2004-08-03T00:56:00.000+05:30

Okey so here I am, after lots of turning and tossing, finally decided to write GMAT. I am yet to decide on the dates. Purchased the Kaplan Verbal Wrokbook, registered at gmatclub with an id target780. Is it a too high aim? Don't know ... time will tell. I know I will crack the Quant portion but, Verbal is a real pain for me. AWA portion - 'Bhagwaan hi maalik hai'.

So now the basic requirements are in place, its the time I start my preparations.

The seeds germinated..

2004-07-27T23:31:00.000+05:30

The seeds of mba planted in me by my friends and colleagues, were slowly starting to germinate. The thoughts of mba was further re-inforced after interacting with few Business Analysts and Managers on my job assignment in Minneapolis. In the mean time few more friends joined ISB in subsequent batches, and all these were adding fuel to the dormant fire. The volcano finally erupted on somedate in August, 2004 (the day when our clients, scrapped the project), and I decided to join ISB for an MBA program in 2005. And the same day, I bought this laptop and registered for GMAT.......

The First thoughts

2004-07-01T15:04:00.000+05:30

Okey, dont get deceived by the title of the blog. Its not about my first thoughts about blogging, but about my first thoughts of doing MBA. Well, the seeds were probably sown during the college days at IT-BHU(Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University) way back in 1999, when some of the classmates were preparing to bell the CAT. I for some reason had no plans of mba in those days, but seeing others talking about it day-in day-out about ims test papers, mock cats and God knows what else, was somehow infatuated towards this.

But in those days 'MBA for me - no way'. I was a techie, destined for core electrical engineering job, somehow landed in a software company. Clock kept on ticking, some janta still in the CAT euphoria, some in GRE looking for MS or rather $$ dreams, and some like me chilling out on Ganges Ghat. Post engineering, landed up in Pune for job, was amazed by computers & internet - an entirely different world for a person for whom computer means a typerwriter-tv combo on which you can play 'Doom', 'Heretic' and 'Solitaire'.

I got engrossed in the myrid world of coding, but more frequently in 'Age of Empires' and 'Yahoo Messanger' :-) But the MBA, dint leave itself behind. Few of the colleagues strated the CAT preperation again, and I for one, use to laugh at those poor souls, who were planning to leave a well paying job to go back to school...!! Anyway during the course of time few of them made it to IIMs, and one chap had the privilege to be the founding batch of ISB. So this was the first time i heard about ISB, and I developed a deep-rooted but dormant desire to be at ISB someday. But that someday was not to be seen till 3 years hence, when I finally decided to write GMAT.