Leisurely Thoughts

The campus is so peaceful, so quiet. I am sitting in the library and it’s so calm, so serene – the sun rays streaming through the windows, gentling landing on the empty tables and chairs and providing natural warmth to the ambience; the books, so full of knowledge and wisdom, sleeping in their racks. The only sounds I hear are my laptop’s muffled hum of the fan, my typing and the occasional footsteps (slow, leisurely, wandering footsteps). Ah, the campus is such a calming, beautiful place during the term break!

There’s no line at the cafeteria during lunch time. In fact, yesterday, he took our order token with him to the kitchen and our order was brought to our table! No shouting of “token number 7!” What a luxury! No line at Sipz (the new juice bar). I tried another interesting concoction there – carrot, orange, honey and flaxseeds. It was pretty good actually. You bump into the odd one or two students loitering around. What are you doing on campus? I ask. It’s either the Marketing Research project, or the exams which extended till Friday (Global Operations) for them, giving them hardly any time to travel, so they stuck around.

My son had a field day yesterday. He was running around in the Atrium, in the hallways – all that clean, empty space for himself, shouting out and listening to his echo. I wonder if we adults would also do the same when we see open spaces but for our conditioned behavior! My cousins visited me yesterday, and as expected, they were greatly impressed by the ISB campus (it never fails!) I tell them, somewhat woefully, that yes, ISB has all the facilities in the world, just no time to enjoy them!

Term-6 is beginning tomorrow. Wow, term-6! And then only 2 more terms to go after that! These days, I’ve already started to visualize April 3rd (our graduation day!). But there’s so much more to accomplish before then; much more to enjoy, much more to internalize. I am fully aware that this type of extended freedom that I am having at ISB (freedom from work, from the mundane outside world) is something that I will never again have until I retire! And so yet again, I vow to myself to enjoy this freedom, one day at a time, till April 3rd. Amen!

The beginning of the end is here – Term 5!

I don’t know about you, but this is how my mind works – say I board the A.P.Express going from Hyderabad to Delhi. Until about the half-way point, I am thinking about Hyderabad (the place I left) while I make myself comfortable in the train compartment. But once the train crosses the mid-way point, my mind automatically switches to Delhi! I no longer think of Hyderabad and start thinking about Delhi and about what I’d be doing once I get there. The half-way point in a journey is when the mind automatically switches from thinking about the past to thinking about the future! Well, that’s what’s happening to me in Term-5. And that’s why I called it the ‘beginning of the end’ Term!

Out of your comfort-zone: Term-5 is so very different from the core terms. It is very challenging in terms of orienting yourself to it. Different classmates, different timings and different study groups, it’s all very disconcerting! (The first 4 terms are standardized and starting Term-5, you choose your classes/electives). It took me a few days just to figure out which class has what deliverables and what study group am I in! And ‘a few days’ in ISB is 1/3^rd of the term, so imagine the pace! (How come we were not adequately warned about this term!?) The classes are great though. And since you choose your classes, you’ll mostly enjoy them (at least I do!).

Placements fever: Alums have always been telling us that the most stressful part of ISB will be the placement season, and I can begin to sense it. The placements season is starting off, with international companies posting jobs, students getting into placement preparation mode. The pre-placement talks (PPTs) are beginning to happen, where in companies come to talk about themselves and their job openings. So, while you are taking your specialized courses and orienting yourself, you simultaneously start preparing for placements (which is a whole different ball game!).

And more: There are several other important ISB events that are happening this season. Recently, we had a Business Technology Conclave and next week we have Ikshaa, which is the Marketing Club’s flagship event. So, we have all these important industry events going on, new classes where we continue to learn new things and new classmates/study groups we adjust to, placement preparation, and of course, socializing (or networking, if you prefer)!

Wow! And how do we manage all this?! I don’t know, we somehow do!

Notes from the Business Technology Conclave

Every day you learn something at ISB. And yesterday was a particularly fruitful day for me as I attended the Technology Conclave. It was truly an enriching experience. Details:
The Business Technology Club (BTC) of ISB hosted the annual Business Technology Conclave on 23rd October 2009. The theme of the conclave was ‘Riding the Asian elephant – Emerging opportunities in the Asian Technology Landscape’. The conclave featured two panel discussions focusing on the Telecom and IT sectors.
Mr. V K Menon, Director of Career Advancement Services at ISB delivered the welcome address. He pointed out an interesting fact that there is an impending huge manpower shortfall in developed countries in the next few decades and several Asian countries (particularly India) are well-positioned to fulfill this shortage.

Telecom Panel Discussion:
The panel discussion on the Telecom Industry was titled “Improving the bottom-line: Next generation business models”. The discussion was moderated by an ISB alumnus from the batch of 2002 – Venkata Ramanan, Telecom Business Head from 3i Infotech.
The Indian mobile market is different from others in that the subscriber base is predominantly pre-paid (more than 90%). Mangesh Kulkarni from Nokia Siemens Network felt that mobile internet is the way forward and methods have to be devised for monetization of the online presence of subscribers.
Kapil Bansal from Alcatel-Lucent spoke on the emerging challenges in the Telecom industry with the falling ARPU and increasing subscriber base. “Active and passive sharing, revenue sharing, hosted services and managed services should all be viable business options for Telecom players in this atmosphere”, he said.
NV Subbarao from Tata Docomo talked about the coming era of Data. He said that the trend is definitely towards convergence, and data traffic is going towards a Yottabyte and how Technology Management, Customer Adoption and simplified pricing are all going to be very important to manage his humungous growth.
Dr. Manoj Kanagalu from Nortel foresees future business models being based on managed services, rental model and revenue sharing. Mohan Moghe from Verizon gave a view of US markets and the various challenges therein. “The US mobile market is saturated and the focus is more on innovations and applications for the end user”, he said. Vinay Goel from Google spoke on the importance of a full browser in a mobile along with a flat data plan to enhance the user experience.
Anshoo Gaur from Amdocs spoke about his company’s vision of ‘Tera Play’ and the continuous movement towards that vision wherein smart devices offer a connected digital lifestyle. “The new business models will focus on managing and charging for personalized and contextual experiences across multiple devices”, he said.

IT Panel Discussion:
Post-lunch, Ganesh Natarajan, CEO of Zensar Technologies, started the second panel discussion on “Asian Markets: New hotspots for IT companies” by saying that India continues to be the great IT centre. He said that there has been a positive shift in the focus of the IT industry – it is beginning to think of how IT can be leveraged in India in the key areas of Education, Healthcare, Agriculture, SME and Telecom.
Abhay Gupte from Logica said that there are three things that will play a significant role in taking our IT industry to the next level – innovation, product automation & deployment and location/geographic challenges.
NV Tyagarajan from Genpact said that the wireless industry in India, from being technologically behind, has leapfrogged to be one of the best-in-the-world. “IT in India needs to deliver value that goes beyond labor arbitrage. We feel that the exciting journey of innovation is coming into India over the next 10 years”, he said.
Haragopal M, who heads Finacle at Infosys said that products are a clear opportunity in this part of the world. “Products are an excellent transition to take IT to the next level. We now have global attention and global respect. We need to continue to launch new offerings, new products”, he said.
Amit Sircar, head of Microsoft Global Services India, spoke about how Microsoft India went through a strategic shift in order to think of India not just in terms of a consumer market or a resource but as an export-centric market.
Suresh Hosakoppal from Yahoo! warned about the risks that the offshore R&D industry in India is facing at the cross roads today that could affect the growth in the years to come. We need to address these risks to get India back on track; Innovation and Productivity are big tickets items to address these risks.

Finally, Srini Komanduri from Deloitte talked about where the IT demand is going to come from in the future other than the usual outsourcing route. Two big areas he pointed to are the Indian industries (which are continuing to invest in IT) and the government (Healthcare, Transport and e-governance)
Ganesh Natarajan, who moderated the discussion excellently concluded by remarking that Asia is definitely the hub to the future of IT industry both from the market perspective and from providing collaborative solutions perspective.

Term-4 musings

Going with my safe and predictable topic of reflecting on the different terms at ISB, I’ll do the same about Term-4.
Term-4 is a weird term, for lack of a better word. It’s weird because your attitude has changed compared to past terms – the term is no longer judging you, you are judging the term! It’s the term by which you are ‘over the hump’ (refer to my previous blogs for more on getting over the hump!) By this time, you’ve found your place, your fit. And you start judging things.
To elaborate, here are a few things that make Term-4 ‘weird’:

• Fatigue: Exam fatigue, pre-reads fatigue, CP (Class Participation) fatigue sets in. You get into a ‘I don’t care anymore!’ attitude as you are too fatigued after 3 grinding terms.
• The Subject mix: A strange mix of subjects, with absolutely nothing in common! From Investment Analysis, which is a central finance subject, to “Government, Society and Business”, which is, well, I don’t know what it’s about. The other 2 subjects are also ‘touchy feely’ – Strategic Analysis of IT and Management of Organizations. The problem with all these subjects, except Investment Analysis, is that what you get out of the class is totally up to you! (For investment Analysis, what you get out of it is totally up to the professor! Just kidding!)
• Section Love, Elective Bidding, Resume Review Sessions, etc: There are sundry other aspects unique to Term-4 – the section realizes that it’s our last term together as a section and so we take bonding more seriously and do more things together! We decide on our concentration area(s) and pick our electives for Term-5 and this activity really begs the question – what are we going to do when we graduate!? (Some answer begins to take shape.) Simultaneously, there are several resume review sessions that are taking place, and we begin to synthesize our life story into this one-page document (that shows us in the best light of course!)

Once Term-4 ends, we are going to be thrown out of our comfort zones as we get into different sections, and different study groups, mixing with new people. By the way, there are several of my classmates that I haven’t met yet and I hope to know them starting Term-5! (Remember, we are a batch of around 580 students!)
To sum up, academically Term-4 isn’t as bad as the previous term. Plus, the focus somehow shifts away from just academics to other issues. That’s what makes the term weird, again, for lack of a better word.

Reflections on Term-3

Ah, the comfort of hind-sight! What a vantage point! ‘Passage of time’ has always been intriguing to me… it has the supreme power to convert the future into the past! Let me get to the point – Term-3. I am reminded of a dialogue in DDLJ where Kajol is explaining to her mom what happened to her during the Eurorail trip – “voh ek andhi ki tarah aaya aur mein ek toote pathe ki tarha…” Very well written; Very romantic. Sadly, it is quite an apt description of what happened to me (and I may add several others) vis-à-vis term-3! It was a force that swept us away!

Subjects-wise, one subject dominated them all – Corporate Finance. There’s something about finance; it’s got some magnetism to it. You are drawn towards the subject. You want to know more, you want to understand more, and all that jargon is so ‘cool’. Maybe its appeal has to do with our visceral attraction for money/wealth. It’s another world, another vocabulary. And we were only scratching the surface! The professor said it well when he said that the ‘value’ of a firm is not created in finance, but in operations and marketing, but finance somehow gets more attention and credit than it probably deserves!

Notable amongst other subjects to me personally was Entrepreneurship. This turned out to be much more enjoyable and useful than I anticipated. It was totally case study based, and what’s cool was that for some of the case studies, the protagonist showed up to class! He’d sit at the back of the class while we analyzed him ad nauseum. Think about it for a minute – we generally like it when someone shows interest in us and here we have a case written on this person that several sections of ISB prepare for hours and present their views on him and his actions in class with him watching the whole show! Pretty cool from his perspective, I’d imagine! In the last part of the class, he’d talk about his take on his entrepreneurship journey and then take Q&A. It was great to put a face to the cases; it definitely makes them more real! And the course had good take-aways such as what’s entrepreneurship, what does it take and what are some of the common models and obstacles, etc. Interesting stuff, all in all!

The extra spice of Term-3 has to be the frenzy for ELPs (Experiential Learning Program), PAEVs (Planning An Entrepreneurship Venture), etc. Everyone seemed to be involved in some such activity or another. I got into the act, formed a team and pitched for a well-sought out ELP. Fortunately or unfortunately, we didn’t get the project. This classic peer pressure atmosphere got created and some succumbed and some survived.

And then, there was Bandhan, a memorable event. On August 15th, ISB hosted children from several NGOs for a day and organized several fun activities for them. I was fortunate to be a part of that event. I volunteered for the arts and crafts segment and also participated in a Telugu play about Independence. Some of these kids were so talented. I just wish that they get opportunities to further their talents in the future.

To sum it up, Term-3 is very special because it was in Term-3 that I first got the feeling of “I am doing an MBA!” (OK, ‘PGP Diploma’ to be precise!) So in that sense, I call it the transition term! Enough about the past – I need to get back to the future tomorrow when Term-4 starts!

It just keeps getting better!

It just keeps getting better! “What matters is your attitude!” Yes, we’ve all heard this cliché, but it’s true, guys! And at no other place will this be tested more than at ISB! We are already in the 2nd half of term-3, ISB MBA is steamrolling away! Some crucial subjects are introduced in this term, most notably Corporate Finance. For a non-finance guy like me, this is an introduction to a new and important world! And we were fortunate to have an awesome teacher, Bhagwan Chowdary ,from UCLA for the first half of the course. A sampler of his amazing ability to teach concepts – he compared the virtues of a volatile stock in a portfolio to a good friend who cheers you up when you are down and who will share his woes when you are cheerful!

The ISB experience can easily get overwhelming, but that’s completely counter-productive! The attitude to have is that of some detachment, some learning, some focus and some fun. Great place to test out these sorts of theories! It just keeps getting better. I feel term-3 is better than term-2, which was better than term-1. That’s probably because you figure out how the place works, you figure out how to ‘navigate’ it (and you figure out where you stand!) There’s so much to read, learn and do but you can only do so much reading, learning and doing! Hey, it’s a one-year MBA program as opposed to 2, so, what do you expect!?

The weather’s fantastic, these days. Everyone seems to be enjoying the beautiful campus. The photography club is having a ball with pic-of-the-day, photo competitions, etc! It amazes me how insulated we are here from the outside world. Every time you get out of the campus, it hits you – the almost mutually exclusive outside world and the ISB world!

I sometimes feel bad that I am unable to utilize several of the campus facilities – I love libraries, and we have a great library, but I hardly get time to read anything other than what I must read. During the break, I picked up ‘Fooled by Randomness’ and read most of it. It was very interesting, I wondered how I would have felt about the book had I read it pre-ISB (the book touches upon several topics which MBAs are exposed to). Talking about facilities, I know my wife is not interested in applying, but otherwise, I’d love to spend another year @ ISB as a spouse!

Where was I? Oh yes, it just keeps getting better, guys. I can imagine now how things will get crazier (read ‘better’ ) come electives season, come placements season! And after placements, the final term is going to be one long party. And just when you begin to feel guilty for having too much of a good thing, it’ll be time to get back into the real world!

Abhinava and Term-2 madness

My 10 month old son’s name is Abhinav Krishna and I call him Abhinava. My wife and son live with me on campus. As term-1 ended and term-2 commenced, I got a sense that things are really ‘picking up’. Several activities started happening at the same time and everything seemed important or worth being plugged into. Pretty soon, it dawned onto me – this is madness!!! I mean, it’s humanly impossible to get involved in even 10% of the various activities that seem to be happening all around me and it’s nearly impossible to ignore most of them! The emails keep flowing incessantly; I found myself sieving thru them to find what’s relevant to read and respond. All the clubs have been formed and thankfully their mailing lists are helping filter most emails out. I am getting better and better at managing my inbox which in my opinion is one of the main causes of this madness! Someone mentioned the phrase ‘drinking thru a fire hose’ to describe the ISB feeling. I’ll say that it’s more like ‘drinking thru a fire hose and then some!’ Because of peer pressure and other reasons, even though there is a fire hose that you are drinking through, you voluntarily open other new taps as well! It’s madness as I said!

How is everyone able to cope up with this? I don’t know. I presume a lot of us are drawing strength from our support system which probably was instrumental in our getting into ISB to begin with, be it your mom, dad, or other family members or friends. Plus, most of us are probably built to handle this stress or built to learn to handle it. I must say that if we deserve to pat on our backs for getting into ISB, then we need a double pat on our backs for surviving it with sanity and learning! For my part, I have to say that Abhinava plays a central role in my ISB life. Enjoying the father-son relationship is in itself so de-stressing and energizing (you guys should try it if you haven’t). But also when I see him play, cry and do what he does throughout the day, it is amazing to see the simplicity of his life vis-à-vis mine. I mean, have you guys ever pondered how a 10-month old spends his day? It’s brilliantly simple. In fact, it’s almost divine. Think about it: no pressure, no stress, no anxiety, no worry, no peer pressure, no deadlines, no expectations, no jealousy, no internal or external conflicts, no fear, no regrets, no animosity. Just erase all this things from your ISB life, what is left!?? The one common thing between him and I is that we are both learning new things – he is learning to stand, or to say ‘nanna’, while I am learning about Conjoint analysis or Montecarlo simulations. Ah, so someone said it right – learning never stops!

(dated: July 4th, ’09)

Happy Father’s Day

Happy father’s day to all the fathers out there! I don’t subscribe to this mother’s day/father’s day business, but this father’s day happens to be my first as a father, so ok, it’s a bit special!

Lots of happenings on campus in the past 2 weeks – elections for club presidents, section representatives, subsequent selections for club posts, inter-section sports competitions, CAS info session, Dean’s ‘Take Charge’ address, corporate speakers sessions/interactive sessions, blood donation camp, and of course parties! We had a huge ‘Bring down the class average’ party on Friday, or so I am told, as I missed it! I wanted to attend it but probably because of my blood donation earlier in the day, I conked out by 11 PM. Oh well, to make up, I’ll attend the ‘Bring back up the class average’ parties in our LRC this week! Mid-terms are round the corner, so time to behave like good students. What else… I became the Section A representative for Academic Affairs. As an aside, my study group now has an academic rep (yours truly) and the SLC (Student Life Council) director, known as ‘party’ shah, talk about diversity within the study group!! Academic reps work as part of the Academic Affairs Council student body with the Academic Administration of ISB to deal with all academic matters of the students. I have always been a ‘good student’ type, so I feel that I can be a good academic rep.

What else? The term 2 subjects are quite interesting – competitive strategy, marketing decision making, global economics and decision models & optimization. A feast for a hungry student! So much to learn in such short time, I wish we had more time to learn! I am beginning to sense that I am entering this new world, the ‘MBA’ world! New thoughts, new fundas, new vocabulary, new attitude, new bs (??). And all these fundas mesh very well with each other; they are part of the same ‘arsenal’. Statistics keeps popping up in all subjects, so does microeconomics, strategy classes have marketing fundas and vice-versa. It’s pretty cool, actually. OK, enough reverie, gotta get back to my assignments!

(dated: June 21st, ’09)

On the eve of Term-2

I am about 2 hrs away from attending my first class of Term-2 (Marketing Decision Making). Ah, the sense of anticipation! It’s the same feeling I had when I was getting closer and closer to getting on the rollercoaster during my several six flags visits in the US. It’s going to be fun! Scary, but fun! I believe Term-2 is a much faster and scarier rollercoaster than Term-1. It better be! I am getting hooked to these things now! Term-1 was a great start. The ISB life has totally grown on me, now I want more! I enjoyed the term break, but maybe I am surprising myself by saying this, the break was too long! It broke the momentum. (Have I become a masochist!?)
To be fair, I had a good term break. I am a family man (wife and son), plus I am from Hyderabad, so I took the time to spend time with family. It’s a luxury I can’t afford once the term gets going. Ok, coming back to my anticipation about term-2, I wonder how good the faculty is going to be? I know they’ll be good, but how good? Will anyone be as good as Prof. Mohan who taught us accounting in Term1? That would be awesome!! Heck, what more does a student want than good teachers!? I also wonder what new words (read jargon) will get added to my vocabulary. Some of the Term-1 winners were MR=MC, incentivize, Nash equilibrium and brand positioning statement. I’ve done some introspection and want to make some changes to how I spend Term-2 – lesser time in the LRC (Learning Resource Center, i.e. library) and more involvement in other activities, including making friends. I met a lot of great people but I haven’t made any real friends. Guess friendships take time and can’t be rushed. By putting out my plans, now I can revisit this blog in mid-July and check if I did act on the things I planned while standing in line, or did I forget everything once I got on the coaster!

(dated june 8th, ’09)

My journey to ISB

I was convinced about doing an MBA back in 2005. My journey to an MBA (@ ISB!) took me more than 3 years! A lot of life happened during that time – I got married, we moved countries (US to Singapore), I lost my mother (to Breast Cancer) and I became a father (in that order)! So more than to hardwork, I attribute my ISB admission to my patience, focus and determination. Normally my philosophy in life is to concentrate on my actions or efforts without attaching too much importance to the results (ok, it isn’t an original philosophy for those of you who didn’t make a connection to the Bhagawat Geeta, but I digress). But when the actions yield the desired results, I am not going to shy away from basking in pride for some time. It’s a great feeling when you achieve what you’ve set out to achieve! 🙂

My getting into ISB can be explained in one simple word – destiny. Destiny to me is nothing but the result of your actions (and actions are the result of your thoughts). You can’t always control the results and thus you can’t always control your destiny. Even if I had not gotten into ISB, I would have reasoned that outcome similarly.

Ok, so what does making it to ISB do to me?! For starters, it permanently erases this nagging (may be too strong a word) feeling I’ve had that I never attended a branded/premier educational institution. ISB makes the cut for me! 🙂 It is also an event that I know will change the course of my life (our life, I should say, to include my wife and my 3-month old son who probably doesn’t realize what’s happening!) I am steering our lives in a different direction (the right direction!). Finally, I feel that ISB is not going to change my personality as much as it’s going to just strengthen it – I’ll continue to believe in myself, I’ll continue to aim high and I’ll continue to have fun all along the way!!