The sports event for which I was waiting eagerly this year will be kicked off on July 2nd. It’s a sport of endurance, will-power and test of human character. One of the most inspirational icon of sporting world will be aiming for his 7th straight victory. A person who went into the mouth of death and came back to life as a transformed and more possessed man. By now you know what and whom I am talking about…It’s Tour de france and Lance Armstrong. Ever since I went to belgium, I have developed a love for this sport. I didn’t like this sport in the beginning, but as time went by, it bowled me over!

I will be closely following this year’s event inspite of my busy schedule in ISB. I like the sport partly due to Lance! and for his motto “Live Strong”!

Some facts about Tour de France 2005.

“..Running from Saturday July 2nd to Sunday July 24th 2005, the 92nd Tour de France will be made up of 21 stages and will cover a total distance of 3607 kilometres.

These 21 stages have the following profiles:
* 9 flat stages,
* 3 medium mountain stages,
* 6 mountain stages,
* 2 individual time-trial stages,
* 1 team time-trial stage.

Distinctive aspects of the race
* 3 mountain finishes,
* 2 rest days,
* 74 kilometres of individual time-trials,
* 66 kilometres of team time-trials,
* 1 transfer by plane and one by train,
* 20 Category 1, Category 2 and highest level passes will be climbed,
* 9 new stop-over towns: Fromentine, Noirmoutier-en-l’Ile, Les Essarts, La Châtaigneraie, Chambord, Gérardmer, Miramas, Agde et Lézat-sur-Lèze. ..”

The average speed they ride will be around 45 kms/hr!! Years of practice will only take us there…Just completing the ride will be an honour! The event will begin with a Time Trial event, which is for sprinters…Can’t wait.

Tour de France official website/a>

One of the unique evaluation methods followed in B-schools is ‘Class Participation’. This is to encourage contributions/ideas/thoughts from Students. The better the quality more the marks awarded..That is, the more impressed the professor is, the more the marks.

For the past 2 months, I have been a witness to some amazing Comments from my classmates. But the number of such comments are easily counted just with your fingers!

Most of the comments given in the class during the Term 1 were recitation of facts/definitions provided in the book. Sometimes, the same opinion that was stated moments ago was re-delivered in a different flavour..All these happened when there was no marks awarded for Class participation in Term 1. But when we compared our section with other sections, we were convinced that our section was a much better place to be in..Occasionally there were brilliant comments and questions, no doubt.

Enter Term 2. Some courses have certain percentage of marks in the form of Class participation. For example, Competitive Strategy(we call CS) has 25% weightage for Class participation. Marketing has certain weightage for Class participation. The style of teaching of CS professor is well-suited to invite ‘arbit’ class participation (When some irrelevant comments or questions are made in the class, we call it as ‘arbit’. If the comment is very ‘arbit’, it will be rewarded with a round of applause. The purpose is to let the person know that he is occupying the valuable air time). Each class was focussing on a particular case. So, the class will begin with collecting key details of the case. It’s easy to make comments or observations in the beginning of the class. So the competition is fierce in the beginning. As the time goes by and as most of the observations are made, the CP level comes down. Much time was spent in thinking about what to answer and what question to ask, than to listen to comments of others or professor! (Some of my classmates concurred with this opinion). As days went by, the intensity of class participation was on the rise..For each question posed, 25-30 hands went up…

Class participation scaled new heights when one of the person who was sleeping, woke up suddenly, and posed a question and then went back to sleep! My good friend, on the other day, was eagerly waiting for an oppurtunity, and as soon as professor approved him he made his comment. Promptly checked whether TA has awarded marks for him and then relaxed his legs and arms in the chair! Gives an idea of competition for CP marks…

Controlling the quality of Class participation while encouraging all students is an art. Unless a professor is adept in that, he shouldn’t try CP evaluation in his class. Otherwise, some percentage of class is bound to go futile!

Nevertheless, it’s great to see occasional ‘gems’ from the classmates. The war of CP has just begun, and one ought to wonder what’s in store for future…

Marketing Decision Making

No books specified. But Philip Koetler’s book “A Framework for Marketing Management” that was used in Term 1 is quite useful here.

Competitive Strategy
Contemporary Strategy Analysis,5th Edition
Robert MGrant, Blackwell Publishers.
Contemporary Management
by Gareth R.Jones and Jennifer M.

Decision Models & Optimisation
Spreadsheet Modeling & Decision Analysis: A Practical Introduction to Management Science, 4th edition,
Cliff T Ragsdale, Cincinnati South Western
College Publishing, 2001

Global Economics:
International Economics: Theory and PolicyPaul R Krugman, Maurice Obstfeld,(6th edition),
Addison Wesley

Macroeconomics
Andrew Abel and Ben Bernanke (A&B)

===========================================

We are 50% through in Term 2. Time is flying very fast. Workloads are still under manageable level (not without a price, takes a lot of effort). People are appearing to be bit relaxed than the previous term. Groupism is evolving rapidly. Career-focus is gradually gaining importance in people’s agenda. Academic focus will gradually go down.

Markstrat is highly addictive. You can hear everyone here muttering SIRO, SIBI, SUSI, SULI, SOMA, SALT etc., These are the product names of various firms. The competition is heating up…The results for period 3 will be announced tomorrow. Eagerly waiting the results.

The Library in ISB provides vast amount of resources. Numerous books, articles, magazines on all business related topics are available. Few sections are allocated for personality development, interview, career et., It also houses quite a few educational videos, movies etc.,

ISB has provided all of us with access to e-library. This is another wealth of information. ISB has paid subscriptions to sites FT, Economist, EIU, McKinsey Quarterly, Harvard business review, MIT sloan Management review etc., I have gone through only few of them. But once I start reading the articles, it’s highly addictive. I am Planning to slowly diversify my time across general and diverse readings. I also saw couple of videos on “Lessons on Excellence” by late Mr.Sumantra Ghoshal. He is such a wonderful speaker and presenter…I had imagined him as a great academician, but this video has multiplied respect for him. LBS grads (and early batches of ISB) were lucky to hear from him first-hand.

Loads and loads of work are thrown upon us. Despite this ever-increasing workload, somehow we are managing to complete all the assignments. Does this mean that we have improved in handling things? I don’t know.

The results for Markstrat period 2 were announced today. My group is in the exact middle of table in our industry, performance-wise. But we have made some long-term strategic steps, so hoping to see the returns in the forthcoming periods.

It’s been a crazy week…’Hectic’ wouldn’t suffice to describe the intensity.

This term is more group-intensive as most of the assignments are group-based. Wednesday was the longest day in ISB for all of us. We had 3 classes, an evening session on Markstrat software and group meetings on single day. Not to forget the readings for the next class.

Yesterday night we had a good team session on Markstrat. We met in one of our group-mates apartment. He is staying in a studio apartment, which is spacier than our Shared apartments. The meeting which started 9:30 p.m, went on till 5:00 a.m!

There was a major power-breakdown today morning in ISB. ISB is managing with few generators. Centralized A/C will be down until the electricity is restored. The class rooms in ISB are not conducive for lectures without A/C[No air circulation, Windows are sealed by glass]. It is extremely difficult to sit in such conditions for 4 hours of lecture. Professors took the pain to get on with lectures. We had more breaks than usual to get fresh oxygen! I am pretty exhausted now…We have to make Markstrat decision by tomorrow morning and a group assignment to submit by tomorrow morning, so will head for another team meeting at 9:30 p.m.

This has been the busiest week in ISB so far..

Faculty has two meanings according to dictionary:

1.The body of teachers and administrators at a school
2.One of the inherent cognitive or perceptual powers of the mind

Rarely do we see the second attribute in a faculty, who by default satisfy the first definition..

During my undergraduate days, only one or two professors per term were good and others were not such a great pedagogies. Either they couldn’t arouse interest in the minds of students or they lacked authority in the subject knowledge. Nevertheless, I was learning something along, mostly compensated by the self study…

The situation in ISB is drastically different. Each professor here is a veteran in their respective subjects. The subjects they teach and their way of teaching are their forte! And a few among these professors are able to generate amazing level of interest among students (It’s not easy to arouse uniform interest across pretty diverse student body)

They have worked hard, thought hard and practised hard to convey a concept in a most succinct and crystal clear way as possible. All most all of these professors have good sense of humor too..We are getting best possible faculty on each subject area..

To give an analogy, it’s like a dream product with collection of superior features of all the products available in the market. How will it be if you get a product with Sony’s quality, Apple’s ingenuity, Ferrari’s performance, etc., (you can fill your own analogy)? We are getting a similar product (Education) here in ISB with best possible faculty for each subject(attribute).

I really felt like being taught by God, when Prof. Jagmohan Raju taught us today. He stands one cut ahead of others. His introduction about himself was concise. His review on the concepts learned in previous term was succinct and clear. His approach towards the case discussion was very good. He also generated whole lot of interest from students, which I never saw so far here..By the time the class finished, we wanted more..That sums it all!

The unique feature of his class is “Photo cold calling”. He would ask a question and instead of pointing to someone, he displays a photo of the person (randomly chosen) on the screen..That’s an experience…

Tomorrow will be a long-day. We have three classes and a session on MarkStrat software. We also have lot of readings to do for tomorrow’s class.

If you were wondering what the title is, it’s the latest visitor count!

The day started off with a meeting with Savita Mahajan, Sunita Chatta and Joseph Hopper. It was a meeting arranged to interact with the study group [group basis]. All sorts of complaints and feedbacks were provided. Overall, it was a good session.

Since the meeting went 30 minutes into extra time, I had rush back to my room to complete my remaining readings for the day’s class. Attended the classes in the afternoon. Then headed back to Atrium for a meeting with B-Section Editors, as we are planning to release our intra-section magazine on Tuesday. Managed to complete the final edition of Magazine..Thanks to the editorial group…

After completing the task, I decided to continue with my Case-write up on BARCO which was due on Tuesday morning..When I opened the laptop, it didn’t respond. After wasting my efforts in wrestling with my laptop, I took it to the hands of IT support. They said, Windows XP needs to be reinstalled. It was not a good news…I had my 80% work on case-writeup in the Laptop. Starting from scratch would be too much…So, after 3 hours of effort Windows was functioning properly..but officeXP was not working. This means that I will have trouble opening Outlook, Word…[Can’t imagine how much Outlook, Excel, Word have integrated into our lives]..I needed Word for formatting. Now, it was almost 2:00 a.m and library was closed too..Many of my flatmates in SV2 have slept..So headed to SV2 living room, which hosted a old PC but functioning one. Utilized it and somehow managed to complete the case write-up and dropped the assignment in drop-box…

Regarding outlook, I remembered that IT department provided us with webaccess..So currently reading mails through webaccess..There are unusually high number of mails to respond to…Not feeling like responding now..Will take it up tomorrow.

According to IT guys, My laptop needs to reformatted to fix the problems..taking backup now…Attention guys…BACKUP your work, you never know when your laptop will abandon you!

Lessons learned : [from my observations during the week]

1. Assumption is the mother of all misunderstandings. Look through the skin.
2. If you are not comfortable about others imposing stuff on you, tell them straight-forward. Be assertive where it is required. A minute is minute for everyone, especially during this intensive year, and that should be respected, if not respected deal that with assertion..
3. Not everyone here are to make friends. Understand the reality and accommodate.
4. Some time I think excellent insights but decide that they are wrong after listening to others. In the end, what I thought actually turns out to be correct. So be confident with opinions.

Sometimes, I observe that people ridicule the actions of some people. Later, the same person who ridiculed will approach the person who was ridiculed and ask for help..that too on the same topic on which he was ridiculed..How ridiculous!!!

Last two days were parties galore. Thursday night was reserved for Section B Party. Thanks to few enthusiastic people in the class, who pulled off the event. People came with red-colored robes. The night was filled with games, dance and mass dunking. We raided the rooms of our section mates who didn’t make it to the party and took them along for mass dunking. If Thursday night was for Section B, Friday night was reserved for party for entire ISBians. The Graduate Student body (shortly called as GSB) owed us all a treat for winning the elections. This one was on a much larger scale with professional DJ and Professional bartenders. I could here music till the wee hours of morning..

The weekend is packed with lots of readings, case analysis, write-ups and group discussions. This doesn’t mean that there are no activities going around here in ISB. Each day is filled with some speeches, some club activities etc., We had a “SPORTS AND MOVIES” quiz on Saturday…ver well organized. We have great bunch of quizzers here in ISB. One of the main motto of ISBians this year is to beat IIM-A in their home turf, during their B-school event…Should be possible after seeing the quizzing talent here…

We also have Business Technology Club meetings, Finance club meetings, Net Impact meetings, Toastmaster club meetings etc., Recently there was a Golf club started too. Many enthusiastic people have enrolled for Golf-lessons. Main slogan being “it’s a CEO’s game!”. Monday we have the “Foreign language courses” enrollment. 3 courses are being offered French, Spanish and German. A total of 100 hours in the span of 6 months will be allotted for this. Needs a solid committment. Photography club is all set to begin soon…Also, every now and then, we will have guest speaker sessions, with renowned people sharing their experiences with us. Now to spread your energies among so much activities needs prudence and careful time management..Making compromises is very essential.

We are planning to circulate a Section-B magazine. I am one among the editors. All formal and informal stuff will be reported on the magazine.

Couldn’t restrain from taking this test, posted by Ramki…

The following are my results:
What Personality type?

What Classic movie are you?

Over the past few weeks, many people have asked me about why I disclose personal things and feelings..and whether I am not concerned about what image it creates on others minds…Fair question..But I have never thought about these things till now..I mean, I was not conscious about those…but now I am beginning to…

Infact, many of my colleagues read my blog and I meet them regularly, so I can’t say onething in my blog and do another thing in real life…It will be false preaching..Best thing to do is to convey the truth and to follow the honest path…which I have been following so far…

Also, over the past few weeks, the number of unique visitors to my blog per day has gone up to 240. All these have made me a bit conscious now-a-days…So the comfort that I was receiving in the blog is also under pressure!

I am undergoing various emotions and feelings daily..Most of the things that I am trying to do is not working out here..If you are not mentally tough, you can easily get into mental disintegration. It has become a regular habit for me to smile and laugh internally whenever I am caught in embarassing or demotivating situations..It sort of helps to relieve the pressure!

If god gives me two options: “Ability to cruise smoothly” and “Valuable lessons through failures and painful transformation”, I would choose option 1 involuntarily. But if I give a second thought, I will choose option 2. Realistically and sanely, I sense a lot of value in option 2. I got to keep my existing strengths while acquiring new ones!…So when I am gifted that boon here in ISB why should I complain? I think I have got my answer…

One-year in ISB also provides us an oppurtunity for lot of self-tuning and self-introspection…Another benefit of this one-year intensive MBA.

Term 2 classes have started. We had session on Global Economics and Competitive Strategy. Interesting subjects both of them. The subject Global economics is of great practical relevance.

As we have progressed to Term 2 so have the workload. This term workload is high. Each subject has 3-4 group assignments. We also have individual case write-ups. We have homework assignments. Finally, we have THE STAR of Term 2, “Markstrat”. It’s a marketing simulation game. This is what Markstrat website has to say about the software:

“This marketing simulation is designed for teaching strategic marketing concepts and to assist companies in their efforts to create market focused strategies. It incorporates theories of market and competitive behavior. Users are grouped into teams that are in direct competition in the simulated world. The teams will confront marketing problems, and develop and implement strategies over as many as 12 simulated years.” [www.markstrat.com]

Each study group will be assigned 2 products in a specific industry. The group has to brainstorm and come up with innovative marketing strategies, while guessing and countering the efforts of other groups. The legacy says this is a highly addicitive exercise and will take up most of our time in this term. I am expecting atleast 4-5 allnighters!!

As the professors for Marketing Decision making [The fabulous professor Mr. Jagmohan Raju] and Decision Models and Optimization [Mr. Anjani Jain, Vice Dean and Director, Wharton Graduate Division] are coming down only next week, we have only one class per day during this week. Upcoming weeks will compesate for this. We will be having 3 classes [one of the weekdays] during term and we will be having classes on Friday too!

There are pre-readings to do for each class [so 3 pre-readings] and we have group assignments and individual assignments to do after the class. True to ISB’s intensity level…

Received my marks on Managerial Economics (Term 1). It was a disappointing score. Well, I expected this…

Nothing much to write today…

Formula 1 on Big Screen!

Thanks to a colleague here, we would be able to watch Formula 1 - Canadian Grand prix on big screen tonight. Kingfisher is sponsoring the screening. Word is that Kingfisher is also sponsoring free beer! Cool…

As the Term break has come to an end, it’s time to get back to studies..As usual there are 100’s of pages to be read. There is also a case on “Coke Vs Pepsi - Cola wars” to be discussed during the first class on Competitive Strategy.

I had problems with my Airconditioner in my room here. 2 weeks back, while I was sleeping, there was a heavy downpour on my face…I woke up surprised and was looking for the source of water! The airconditioner [directly above my bed] in my room was happily letting out whole lot of water…My whole desk, chair, bed was completely wet. Even the telephone, books were wet [Luckily my laptop was away]. I called up the maintenance and the problem was rectified soon…2 days back, when I came back from my bathroom, I was shocked to see the downpour again..This time my laptop was wet …Luckily, it was working…I lodged a complaint to the service manager here..They said they will rectify this problem asap..Now-a-days I am placing my laptop inside the Table drawer, when it is not in use!!

I have classes in the afternoon for this term [2:30 - 7:00].

The cooling off period continues…

Yesterday played Squash, Badminton, Table tennis. Watched a film “Beautiful mind”. Portrays the life of John Nash [remember “Nash Equilibrium”?] beautifully. Also watched couple of Tamil films.

I went out to City today along with my quadie Abhinav. Indianblogger had invited us for a dinner in Malgudi [South Indian restaurant]. We had a good time. Thanks B for great dinner…

Came back and watched the film “12 Angry men”. Now, this film made my day! This is a 1957 classic about 12 jurors sitting in a single room, on a hot day, arguing about the guilt or non-guilt of an 18-year old boy, who is accused of murdering his father. What is stunning about this film is there is no camera tricks or visuals, but just intense discussion that happens among the 12 jurors. This is a great lesson for a group discussions, leadership, emotions etc., Infact some MBA colleges use this as a part of their soft-skill development programme! I already read about this movie from Indianblogger’s post. A MUST WATCH! I am planning to buy the DVD of this film in near future…

The seating arrangment of Term 2 is released. I am in third row in this term..I like the location.

I think I will have to start preparing for next term from tomorrow. I also need to do some work on Career front.

Term break has engulfed students. Library, Atrium, Academic centres - places which are filled with students during the Term are totally empty. Even Dining halls and Cafes - regular hangout places are relatively empty…Well, where are the students? Most of them are visiting nearby places like Hyderabad, Secundarabad, Golconda, Punjagutta etc., either for hang-out or to shop. Recreation centre is another place where you can find students.

Yesterday, there was Water polo played in the ISB Swimming pool. Since the ISB swimming pool is just 5 feet deep, knowledge of swimming is not necessary unless you are less than 5 feet! There will be match today! Volleyball, Football, Tennis, Badminton, Table Tennis, Squash are other sports which keeps students busy…

Today, a film “Alexander” will be screened in Khemka Auditorium. Khemka auditorium is a huge hall with state-of-the-art technologies. Boasts very good acoustics and speaker system too..Since the whole ISB campus was constructed just 5 years ago, the auditorium and lecture halls are hi-tech…

I have been playing Table tennis and watching DVD’s. Rest of the time I have been chatting and sleeping.

As promised, here’s the summary of Term 1:

Subjects covered:

1. Managerial Economics
2. Financial Accounting
3. Marketing Management
4. Business Statistics.

The description of the courses can be read here.

Professors who took the subject:

1. Mark Finn [Accounting]
2. Scott Ward [Marketing]
3. Robert A. Stine [Business Statistics]
4. Richard Waterman [Business Statistics]
5. Asim Ansari [Marketing] | Link 2
6. Amit Bubna [Economics]

Mode of Evaluation:

1. Managerial Economics:

Take-home assignments: 4 assignments in total, one/week. Weightage 40%
Surprize Quizzes*: 3. Weightage: 10%
End-term Examinations: Closed-notes, closed-book Examination. Weightage: 50%

* One or two objective type questions needs to be answered in the very beginning of the class, on a randomly chosen day. The question will be shown for 90 seconds. Those who arrive to the class by 2-3 minutes late will miss the quiz and thereby stand to lose the marks!

Skills required: Ability to deal with equations; Visualize graphs; Basic math skills with emphasis on differentiation.

2. Marketing Management:

Case-Studies: 4 total; 2 individual case studies and 2 group case studies.
Only the group case studies will be evaluated. Weightage: 40%
End-term Examinations: Open-notes, Open-book, Laptop allowed. Weightage: 60%

Skills required: Good at Numbers; Ability to communicate your thoughts effectively in writing;

* This course was taught by two professors. First 5 lectures were taken by Scot ward and remaining 5 was taken by Asim Ansari.

3. Business Statistics:

Mid-term: 40% [Objective type: 30 questions]
End-term examinations: 60% [Objective type: 37 questions]

Skills required: Basic statistics, Good at Numbers, Ability to model problems to equation.

* This course too was taught by two professors. First 5 by Robert Stine and later 5 by Richard Waterman.

4. Financial Accounting:

Group-Assignment: 40%
End-term Examinations: 60% [Combination of objective and financial statements analysis. Open-book, open-notes, laptop]

Skills required: Good at Numbers.

As you can see, there are various modes involved and one needs to adapt different strategies for each case. It’s absolutely imperative to be part of good study group [or make your study group rock!], as considerable portion of assignment are group-assignments. Overall, this term was quant-heavy.

Learnings: LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN in the classes. If one just does this, he is 70% through. Take notes actively. I realized the importance of the notes, when I was preparing for examinations. Most of the questions in examinations are based on the class lectures. It’s best to go prepared to the class. Ideal strategy would be “pre-read, listen actively, post-read“. This cycle ensures that the concept registers in the mind deeply and that no further reading is needed on this topic…I will DEFINITELY try to achieve this in the next term…Not to ace the exams, but to effectively maximize learning in minimum possible time. As the course progresses, we need to spend more time on Career-oriented activities and projects.

Another key learning: “SLEEP for 6 hours minimum“. Lack of sleep reduces the concentration level in class. Reduced concentration means losing out on concepts. This leads to back-log. The back-log only accumulates and never depreciates…So SLEEP is essential…

Hope this post was useful!

All Exams are over and out! Compared to yesterday’s performance, my performance today was way way better! I think I have done well both in Statistics and especially Marketing..[I simply loved the paper..only problem being lot of calculations, so at one point of time, hand was paining!]..General feeling among the public about today’s exams is same! So the ‘relative’ grading will play its role again!

It feels so wonderful to be free, after week long studying (or should I say Slogging!)…We have a break of 5 days. Term 2 starts on Monday. Quite a few people are going home. I could see some people bringing in their luggages with them for examination hall! Most of us are staying back…

For next 3 days I am going to relax completely..Now I am confused as to how to spend the free time..Sleep will be given #1 priority..Rest of time will be spent watching movies, playing sports, catching up with friends etc.,

Before we could realize, Term 1 has come to an end..Looks like I landed here only yesterday! Hmm…as Sujayath said, it’s really MBA at the speed of light! We are 12.5% through with ISB-PGP program…

Both Managerial Economics and Financial Accounting were tougher than expected.

Financial Accounting was an open-book, open-notes, laptop-allowed examination. But Prof. Mark Finn clearly warned in the class that this is all a Zero-sum game. Guess what, the examination paper was very tricky, and my performance was not satisfactory…No matter how much notes, how much resource you have, you cannot solve the question paper, unless you have practiced well before…Well, I took heart from that fact that even Chartered Accountants found it tough…and word is that one of the CA couldn’t balance!

After finishing the exam at 1 p.m, had to take quick lunch and get ready for another googly, in the form of Managerial Economics, at 2:30. This was a closed-book, closed-notes exam. This exam too was tougher, with severe time-crunch. Again not-so-satisfactory performance…:-(

When we came out of the examination hall, there was a heavy rain and wind. Even gods were protesting the tough standards of question paper!!

With another 2 exams on Tuesday, I cannot afford to relax…so slept for 30 minutes and started another marathon…I have been reading only Statistics so far…God knows what will happen with Marketing…

It can’t get intensive than this…

I thought keeping up with all the readings and assignments during the term as tough…What can I say about going through all the 4 subjects end-to-end in the span of 3 days? Hell…Yes, for the first time I really felt life in ISB as unmanageable..

My 3 years stint in Belgium and exposure to european way of working has taken away my ability to work long hours (Thanks to 8 hours work schedule and strict weekends!). I am simply unable to maintain the concentration level for longer duration…Fortunately, I am recollecting that ability slowly…

The following is the confidence level that I have on each subjects

1. Managerial Economics (50%)
2. Statistics (75%)
3. Financial Accounting (80%)
4. Marketing Management (70%)

Obviously Economics appears to be a thorn in the flesh…Beautiful subject…but abstract..High potential for confusion…

Waiting for Tuesday to breathe…But I have to undergo rigorous test of my mettle before that..

Not all are in the same boat as I am in…There are many who are cruising smoothly…I will definitely cruise along with them in next term…(No shortage on Hope!)..For now, I have to row hard, survive the storm and keep my boat afloat…

Somedays back one of my friend Karthik Ganesan (Fellow ISBian) met with an accident while riding his bike. His ankles were damaged, with hairline fractures. He was operated. Now he will be locked to wheelchair for 5-6 weeks period. Last thing that anyone wants to happen during the critical year here at ISB. I really felt for him. He seems to have taken things in right spirit..Yesterday I was talking with him in the Dining hall and during the conversation, he punched the air and said “I will fight this challenge!”…I was moved and smiling at his confidence …Cheers to him…Since he missed some lectures, Professors were kind enough to take private sessions to him. He is fine now and will be taking the examinations…

The whole campus here in ISB is amazingly quiet..Thanks to end-term examinations due on Monday. We received the marks for our second Marketing case study. Our study group have faired well above average. A considerable leapfrog from our previous efforts…Good. We will carry forward the momentum…We also submitted the Financial group assignment due today. I think we have done a good job on this. Time will answer. With all group assignments completed, it’s back to Individual heroisms in end-terms..

I am studying as much as I can…I am done with today and off to bed. I need to conserve energy for another 96 hours. Just as I decided to switch off my lights, my blog called me….and as a result this post…

It’s been 27 years since I have started breathing…Now I enter into 28th year of my life! Time is flying fast…Only on birthdays I realize that I am getting older…I am spending the 28th year of my life in ISB and I hope it will shape into golden year of my life…

My study group arranged for a small cake-ceremony (surprise!). I was dunked into the ISB swimming pool. It was a thrilling experience.

The following email was written by a close friend of late Siddharth Sinha. A touching email…Gives a very good account of a great personality, who ISBians miss badly…It’s sad to see what depression could do to a human being…

“Dear All,

There’s so much to say and no right way to say it. It’s been over a week now and most of us are still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy. Sid was so much more than just a quad mate for me. During the one year at ISB, he was a confidante, a mentor and above all a dear friend. Allow me to share with you some of my memories of the man that was SidSin.

Siddharth was a guy who was hard to miss. You could like him or not but you definitely couldn’t ignore him. On first impressions he was a suave, sophisticated, intelligent gentleman with an incredibly rich set of personal and professional experiences. We learned early on in the year of his fierce loyalty towards his friends and he was a binding force for our ‘gang’. I’m reminded of the numerous times people walked away from the dining table completely disgusted by his comments… by the end of the year they could all see through it and he could no longer hide his gentle interior. Ever ready to put forth his opinions and fight for what he thought was right - he was also always the first one to make amends after an argument.

The true life of a party. No one could get a party going like Sid and on most occasions he’d be the last man standing. One day, early on in the year, he woke me up at 6 a.m. and dragged me along with a few others to watch the sunrise from the Roof Garden (His laptop obviously playing ’superstar’ in the background.) The only organized talk he attended all year was the ‘menu display’ meeting with Sarovar when the coupon system was being introduced. He kept everything on his table at right angles at all points of time… he had an excel record of every rupee he spent for the past many years. He was terribly inept at cutting his nails - it was a 45 minute process for him… It’s the idiosyncrasies that we’ll miss the most.

After about 4 weeks into the placement process, when I still hadn’t received a job offer, he stopped wishing me ‘good luck’ before my interviews and started keeping the drawing room lights on all evening (as opposed to the dim setting he preferred). Those were his superstitions. The day I finally got my job offer, 6 weeks into the process, he shed a tear.

The happiest times in his professional career were during the year he took off to teach at his alma mater. It was during this time that he helped a colleague to overcome a drug and alcohol addiction. He told me that that was his life’s biggest achievement.

SidSin hadn’t studied Math since Class X. He loved to crib about quant subjects and swore he wouldn’t study finance after the core terms. One thing his classmates agreed upon is that every time he did CP, you knew that the whole class would be hanging on to his every word. The batch of 06 got a taste of the magic and gave him a standing ovation for his session during their orientation. Many people know that he had been a successful Vice President for an IT start up before he joined ISB but few people know that he persevered through months of unemployment, struggle and true hunger before achieving what he did. When he put his mind to something he could achieve it..getting into St. Stephen’s, a 750 GMAT, perfect scores in strategy projects. Siddharth Sinha was not a quitter.

No one really knows why he did what he did. It’ll take some time to come to terms with this inexplicable act and some more time to overcome the guilt for not having prevented this. What we have come to learn now is that depression is often a medical condition and the ability to rationalize is clouded by the effect of body chemicals. At the same time, this is a grim reminder for all of us that there is a larger purpose to life. Let us all offer a prayer for the departed soul.

Sid - I’m sorry. You’ll be missed.
“

After going through 4 week of classes on subjects like Economics, Business Statistics and Marketing I can infer one thing. That these subjects just formalize the day-to-day happenings in real life. They just wrap the common sense in mathematical and scientific form.

Economics is one subject, which I highly underestimated. But towards the end of Term 1, I have understood the enormous importance of this subject. I was chatting with one of my friend in Cranfield. He said, “Economics is one of the highly under-rated subjects among MBA Grads. But if you are aiming to get into Consulting firms and solve those real-life challenging case studies, understanding the economics is vital”. Well, that’s enough motivation for many Mc-Kinsey aspirants here!

All the subjects in Term 1 has been extremely eye-opening. It has provided us enough leads and directions to proceed. Due to the time-constraint, we couldn’t study in depth all these concepts. It’s up to the individual to build on these fundamentals and improve the subject knowledge.

We have end-term examinations on June 6th and June 7th. Financial Accounting and Managerial Economics on Monday, Statistics and Marketing Management on Tuesday. For next 3 days, ISB campus will look deserted, as all the students prepare for examinations.

I promise a detailed analysis of Term 1 after the end-term exams. I will provide details of subject, professors, examinations etc.,