The name that we gave to our Business venture is ‘Prapanjam’. Prapanjam in Sanskrit means Universe. Knowledge is universe. That’s the idea for naming the venture..S might give a very nice description for choosing this name.

We had to design a logo. So we came with an image above. The justification came later Brahma created the universe while he was sitting at the center of a flower. Also, the core of a flower represents the Universe. The soft rose petals surrounding the core represents children. Children are by nature very soft. Our concept (Prapanjam) is dedicated for the children and their values. So that part is justified.

Next, the letters. The letters are not that clear and dark. There is a reason to that! Prapanjam is aimed at providing Value-based and character-based education through workshops. Since values and characters are intangible, the letters have a sense of serene, dull, unclear look. It is there but it is not there…You see!

MBA helps us to provide justification to anything and everything….Never mind!

BTW, I unearthed following two websites which hosts logos of leading brands. If you are a quiz lover, you will love this website, even otherwise it’s an information resource…

http://www.goodlogo.com
http://www.logotypes.ru

I came to know about the following blog today. This one is maintained by a spouse of an ISBian, who is staying in the campus. There are so many student blogs available, but it all portrays life in a single dimension..But think about the person behind the married student. How is she coping with the loneliness caused by the husband’s busy schedule? How do spouses spend their time in ISB? How is the bonding amoung the spouses? It’s a dimension that I didn’t even think of to come out as a blog! I am not sure about the identity…but I wouldn’t bother to investigate, if anonymity is an issue…I only sincerely wish the blog continues…
http://wifeofanisbian.blogspot.com/

An entry for Bloggers Park contest, IRIS, IIM Indore

A month ago, Timothy Draper of DFJ, a famous Venture capitalist firm, visited ISB
Campus. It was during that time that I realized an interesting information. That Timothy Draper was one of the key members instrumental in coining the term “Viral marketing”. This term refers to the now-famous “Word of mouth propogation” effect. The “Word of mouth effect” is a deceptively simple concept with a super-natural might.

While the conventional media like Television, Radio, Newspaper has a mass-reach, the message conveyed through these media doesn’t reach the hearts of everyone who reads/watches/hears the advertisement. But if someone close to you, someone who you know, someone who you rely upon says about a product or news, the message reaches your heart straight. Straight as light rays! The Benefits doesn’t end here. When you have registered a message in your heart, the message doesn’t stay in your heart. It reaches your near-and-dears, their near-and-dears and so on…The snow-ball effect, geometric progression, gathering momentum are all perfect analogies to illustrate the effect. The practice of employing this phenomenon for marketing is called “Viral marketing”.

The face-to-face conversations, telephone and emails served as tools for “Viral marketing”….but the companies were still exploring for a more effective tool. A tool which will provide the ‘personal touch’ along with the snow-balling potential.

During the same time, Blogging as a hobby was gathering popularity. Weblogs shortly called as ‘Blogs’, are online journals where people can write their opinions, publish their life stories, share their feelings and experiences. Blogs unlike a website or a news portal doesn’t have huge readership. The reader base is small, but the reader base is incredibly LOYAL. The blogs which reside in Internet, an ubiquitous medium, also became a victim of the snow-balling effect. The following report from Technorati portrays the current situation of growth in blogs. As of July 2005, approximately one blog was created each second…

http://www.technorati.com/weblog/2005/08/34.html

Moreover, the blogs are inter-linked with each other. For example, Blog A might have links to Blog B and Blog C. Blog B might in turn have links to Blog D, E and so on. This created an intricate network of bloggers..

Thus, Blogging became the next BIG THING in internet world after e-mail. Companies began to think “Why not use the blog as Marketing tool?”….

To be concluded…

Cruising through now-a-days!

Two days back, I wrote to my Knowledge management professor about some insights that came to my mind during the class. Normally I don’t do that. But I was so motivated to capture the thoughts that I wrote almost a 2 page essay in flat 15 minutes and sent it across to the professor. Some of the points were really good. Now, the professor has found this interesting and introduced a new grading component in the form of “Reflections -10%”. That’s cool!! Influencing the prof I am planning to contribute to all the classes. This way of capturing the thoughts immediately after the class is immensely helpful. Couldn’t do that before due to time pressure…But now..can afford it!!

Negotiation Analysis is one hell of a course. I really enjoy this course. Today we had Union vs Management role-play. Three of us were grouped as “Labour union” and three others were grouped as “Management”. We had to negotiate towards achieving some specific objectives. I normally prefer to reach an agreement which is favourable to both the parties. But today, the opposition group had one person who is notorious for making agressive negotiations. I was so turned off towards the end, that I walked away with my team members from the meeting without reaching any consensus! For once, I was confidently happy for walking away. We also found out that one among the management team was blatantly lying…We have 2 more rounds of discussions to go with the same “Management” team. Will be interesting. My team members were rocking too…(On couple of occasions i thought they went overboard, but the occasions were short-lived). Both of them look like ‘gunda’s They fit the role of union leaders perfectly!!!

For the first time in ISB program, I have managed to do pre-readings and post-reading for almost all the classes.

Today something interesting happened. The number of unique visitors to my blog has crossed 40,000! It’s absolutely morale-boosting…I am more and more pressed to take the blog to ‘professional’ level…Am thinking about what theme to follow, so that I can continue blogging for long time to come. I have to find an area in which I am good at too….I will find answer sometime…For now, anything under the sun goes into this ‘virtual world’!

Our PAEV Business plan is shaping up well. Last week we got our Executive summary of the business plan (7-8 pages) reviewed. During the process of review, the professor related our concept with ISB. ISB when it began had tough challenges in terms of attracting quality students. Who in the world would pay 10 lakhs and study in an institute that hasn’t even graduated one batch of students? What is the guarantee that students will be placed? How can ISB attract a critical mass? Only when ISB can attract critical mass can it proceed further, but inorder to proceed further it needs critical mass…You see, it’s a vicious cycle!

Fortunately, ISB did foresee so many things ahead and got many things right. First, it got in as many as 50 CEOs and chairmen of leading Indian companies on board officially. Second, it associated itself with three big names in the field of B-school education namely Wharton, Kellogg and London Business school. Third, it had visions of building amazing infrastructure, which was already underway. Fourth, it brought in faculties from top business schools across the world. Here it mainly depended on Indian diaspora, the indian professors who were willing to contribute to such a cause and in turn wanted to do something for India while earning some money. This visiting faculty model served as a good advertising tool. Fifth and final, it differentiated by positioning itself as a B-school for experienced candidates [GMAT as a criteria as against CAT]. All these factors helped ISB to gather visibility and word-of-mouth buzz. In case some disaster happens in terms of placing students, the top 50 Indian companies guaranteed to absorb 2 students per company…Thus everything was taken care of…It got its first critical mass of 120 odd students and today it has grown phenomenally to the size of 350 and is well on its way to achieve full strength of 550. Today ISB has grown to such an extent that if ISB is associated with some venture, the venture can gain credibility instantaneously!

This way of gaining visibility by bringing in reputed and well-known organizations or people on board, is one of the sure recipe for success. We were also suggested to think on those lines…

Our business plan is aimed at creating a social movement first and the issues of profitability are secondary. Even the profitability is to create a self-sustainable business model. All the profits will be ploughed back to the venture…

Another interesting aspect of the venture is that the COMPETITION is healthy for us. If more people are interested in the concept, we would gladly help them to set up their business! You see, the more proof-of-concepts we have, the faster the momentum gain…Thus we are aiming to create a negative barriers to entry and negative barriers to imitation! Something on the lines of setting up an open standard…so that others can follow that easily…The vision is grand no doubt…but we have so many other doubts lingering in mind…

I will blog about our business plan soon. After I spoke with my colleagues, we decided that it’s in the best interest of the venture to make it public…We are planning to invite suggestions, opinions on the business plan…OK…I will give an idea of what the business plan is about…It’s about a thing which is close to the hearts of millions…EDUCATION! Not a mainstream education, but a complement to the present educational system…More later.

One of the assignments for the upcoming week is to read a book called “Everybody loves a good drought” by P.Sainath and present the take-aways to the class. Since the book is not available in the library and the ISB bookstore, had to go out to purchase the book. Went to Himalayan book store in Punjagutta after confirming with them that the book is available with them. As I was purchasing the book, the book “God of small things” caught my attention. I have been planning to read this book for a long long time. So bought that too..(You see..I am an impulse buyer!).

I went with 3 other friends in bike. It’s 3rd time I am travelling in bike in nights after coming to ISB. There is a particular strip before Punjagutta where the roads are very smooth and the landscape goes up and down. My friend M and R were pretty excited by the sight of that and pushed the engine to it’s full limit! Wonderful ride…at the end of 2 minutes, eyes were full of moist…I guess they touched near 100 kmph.

Had food at Pizza corner…Fresh and hot pizza after a longg time…I was totally relaxed today evening…Some things were bothering me for quite some time…The evening cleared many of my confusions. Probably those confusions where what stopping me from achieving my full productivity. Let’s see what changes I see to myself…Atleast I can expect a sleep with a clear mind:)

There was a special “Dandiya Night” organized in ISB jointly by Spouses and Family Association and Students. Since I came back only at 11 p.m. watched some energetic dance performances from the sidelines. Ethnical wear, Top beats, Dandiya sticks, lights, huge atrium everything made a wonderful sight…Thought I will dance, then decided not to..needs some practice…I am expecting Ramkumar/Raghini to blog in detail about the event with photographs…so watch out their space…Over and out now…

Resolve Query.

“Are you a student? A Professional? Do you have a question? We can help you to get your query answered…” this is the mission of a newly formed venture called ResolveQuery.com.

This website is started by 3 young engineers from different backgrounds united by a common goal - to provide a one stop solution in career counselling to students and professionals. In the recently concluded TiE-ISB Elevator Pitch, conducted at ISB, this venture made it to the final round. Within 3 months time this website has taken a solid shape and almost available for public service. Explore it yourself.

http://www.resolvequery.com

I was able to use my nametag in the class atlast! I managed to get the courses for this term (with lots of compromises) in the second round of bidding. I did quite some research and analysis by going through class lists, points associated with sections and courses, how to maximize the chances of getting into undersubscribed courses/sections etc., Finally identified a pattern and I hope to use that in upcoming bidding sessions.

What are the subjects that I took finally? Rural marketing, Managing IT, Knowledge management and Negotiation Analysis.

Interview workshops, Resume workshops, guest speakers are on rise in ISB. Career mode has set in!

Loads of B-school competitions like case-studies, simulation games, Business plans etc., are on the horizon. Signed up for some and thinking about few…

Three games which I play quite regularly in ISB are Volleyball, Badminton and Squash. The volleyball court has a special place in my heart. It’s just next to my room and I have a very good view of the court. We have few volley enthusiasts who frequent the court on a daily basis. It’s always fun playing volleyball. Recently we requested to provide flood lights for the volleyball court. SAROVAR TEAM, true to their service quality has installed two flashlights. They have also neatly trimmed down the trees to avoid any shadows. Hopefully we will have our first day-night session of volleyball today Regarding Squash, I play decent and have been playing for past 1 year…Badminton is the surprise package. I have made huge improvements…I love the ’smashing’ feeling and the opportunity to exhibit my reflexes! Swimming and Billiards are the sports/activities that I have to learn before I leave ISB…

Some new ISB Blogs…

http://gnatsass.blogspot.com/ [Manish Madan]
http://prapanjam.blogspot.com/ [Shankar Prakash…Was surprised to see this dude blog…has been blogging for past 5 months]
http://simplificar-simran.blogspot.com/ [Simran Khara]
http://rock-a-by-babe.blogspot.com/ [ShrutKeerti, The DJ ‘rocking’ Girl]

Hmm…count increasing!!

Eve of the Second innings at ISB…

First innings at ISB has come to an end and so is the long-drawn term break. My first innings was not a dream innings. Learnt a lot though. Planning to maximize the returns in the second innings. Key is ‘focus’. I have trimmed down my activities and focussing only on select few. Ofcourse Career is #1.

I have almost finalized my elective choices given the constraint that I face this term. Managing IT, Rural marketing (Have been reading some cases on rural marketing…seems promising area), Strategy Implementation and Marketing Research. 2 subjects don’t have end-term. All the courses have group projects though. So the term is front-loaded in a way.

2nd round of bidding begins on Tuesday evening.

Suffering from cold and fever. Have been spending time in the room to avoid spreading the disease. However, it looks like many people are already suffering from cold and flu…Seasons don’t changeover silently!

My parents enjoyed their 4 days stay here in ISB. According to them the striking features of ISB are peaceful atmosphere, away from the outer world (separate world), courtesy of SAROVAR personnel and the facilities of course. I explored bit of hyderabad along with them. Took them to Birla Mandir, Ramoji Film city, NTR Park, Golconda Fort. Had to miss out Salar jung museum and Zoo as my mom was finding it difficult to walk. Also took them to Hyderabad central and chutneys. I had good time with their company…

Different topic. I read an interesting comparison between ISB and IIM in one of the website. It goes like this…

“…But comparing ISB and IIM-A is comparing Aishwarya Rai and Sushmita Sen. Each has its own charm…”!

Now, the comparison leaves the judgement to the readers. I wonder who Aishwarya Rai and who Sushmita Sen is!! I am a fan of Aishwarya Rai (so are millions)…So, I will assume ISB as being referred to as Aishwarya Rai here

Reading the book “The monk who sold his Ferrari” and watching films like “million dollar baby” and “The motorcycle diaries” is nurturing and strengthening my philosophical side.

The focus that I exhibited before ISB is no-where now. I see hundreds of paths and thousands of options before me. I am not sure if being lost in direction like this is good…But many men have found their perfect purpose in life amidst such chaos…So looking at everything with my eyes wide open and ears wide spread…Sooner or later the purpose will find me and I will be more purposeful. Just a matter of time…

Realized that human beings can think about only one topic/thought at a time. No multi-tasking possible..Whatever multi-processing happens is in the form of time-slicing! This small, obvious yet powerful truth has cleared many confusions.

My parents will be here tomorrow morning and will stay with me for 4 days. I am planning to take them around hyderabad and fulfill my unfulfilled wish of exploring hyderabad. Sometimes things are held up for a purpose!

Contacted renowned Tamil actress Revathy to invite her for a Media-Panel discussion in ISB. Talking to her was surreal. I thought her PA will pick up the phone. Pleasantly surprised to find her on the line. Unfortunately, she will be out of the country during our proposed dates. In the end I said to her that I am a big fan of her. Brought laughter to her voice…

Evaluated another application form today and collected my only coursepack on “Managing IT”.

G suggested to have the ‘quad party’ today evening. It’s been 6 months since we landed at ISB and this quad party idea was being constantly postponed.

We ordered Pizza, some Punjabi food and Coke. We decided to make use of our otherwise rusty and unused Balcony for having dinner. But just having dinner would be dull, so Power extension chord, Tables, sofas was escorted to the balcony. A’s speakers (100 RMS, excellent sound) and V’s speakers also found it’s way to the balcony. The result…an amazing ambience with available resources! We also switched of the lights to pep up the environment…V sang couple of classical songs and mesmerized us. He really has good voice…Even though I mock him all the time, I need to give credit to him in some things. Then we took turns and played songs that we liked. Then the topic turned towards career aspirations and placements. Finally the food arrived and we filled our stomach blissfully with loads of high-calory stuff…

Then G, A and myself started the topic of the gossip that seem to have captured the attention of entire ISB campus. V has a major hand to play in that…I wouldn’t dwelve more on this topic…!!

Great evening…Now every term each one of us will take turns and host this ‘quad party’ thing.

The morning session was one of the most intriguing sessions I have ever experienced! What an examination paper…It was double-sided blow. Firstly, many problems demanded lengthy calculations like manipulation of 5*5 matrices! Secondly, Problems themselves were problems! Couldn’t decipher what was asked…The person sitting next to me, who is a stud, left the examination hall when 15 minutes still remained. Even his IIT colleagues were amazed that he managed to complete the paper well within the allotted time…effort deserves some applause!!!! But such heroic efforts were very few today, so I can take heart from that fact…

In the GSB examination, many people left the examination hall in just 20-30 minutes. For a change, I thought I will sit till the end of the exam…My dream was almost fulfilled until 2 of my colleagues decided to compete with me and sit till the end! It was like musical chair Finally, I left the examination hall when 10 minutes still remained..

Funny experiences…We have a lengthy break this time..9 days! My parents might visit me during this break..

I am half-baked MBA now. Exactly 182 days remaining for the graduation. The more interesting part of the roller coaster ride is ahead of us! For now, it is silence before the storm…

“My mind tells me to give up, but my heart won’t let me.”

The greatest pain in life is to wish for something and not to achieve or attain it. Even worse, you will have to live with it for the rest of your life. But there is certain warm feeling associated with ‘wishes’ in life. It can’t be expressed by words. But they certainly do motivate us, bring some purpose to our life and some entertainment to our otherwise tired souls and mind…The wishes, dreams bring in ‘life’ to our lives..I am trying to keep my dreams alive…Many of them are are still in incubation…One day or other they will be realized.

BTW, I have started enjoying the ‘exams’ setting. I am not sure if I will be ever taking examinations in my life again. So, I have decided to enjoy the experience of preparing for exams, slogging, taking exams as much as possible. With this mindset, studying for exams becomes a bliss…isn’t it…Whoever said “Change your mind you will change your life”…

Which year was Human Development Index conceptualized? What is the rank of Srilanka in Well-Being Index? How can Indian IT companies appropriate value? What did XXX said when he visited the campus during the panel at the nth minute and nth second?

These are not the kind of questions and examinations I like. But some well-known professors are reverting to test our memory skills…What to do? Only option is to get on with the flow…

Only exam which makes sense is Investment Analysis and I heard rumours that the paper is royally tough!!! Let me see what happens…

Actually finished the exam(2.5 hours) in 40 minutes, just checked back my answers and decided to leave..Atleast I can make use of the the remaining 1.5 hours by sleeping so that I can slog in the night!!!

Efficiency is high when your input is minimum and output is maximum. That’s exactly what I am trying to do for the past 12 hours. There should be a ’special’ grading factor to benefit the students who prepare at the last minute and still manage to get ‘B’. They should be awarded “Efficient B’s”?

Mr. Timothy C. Draper, Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson will be on campus today evening. He is considered to be on of the best VC’s around. I will try hard to make it to his speech in spite of exams tomorrow.

His profile:

Draper Fisher Jurvetson is the premier early stage venture capital firm. Founded in 1985, Draper Fisher Jurvetson has created a global network of affiliated venture funds with over $3 billion in capital commitments and offices in the major technology centers around the world. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the firm has proven expertise in identifying and helping extraordinary entrepreneurs who want to change the world.

As an advocate for entrepreneurs and free markets, Mr. Draper is regularly featured as a keynote speaker in entrepreneurial conferences throughout the world, has been recognized as a leader in his field through numerous awards and honors, and has frequent TV radio, and headline appearances. Mr. Draper is also the course creator and Chairman of BizWorld, a 501c3 organization built around simulated teaching of entrepreneurship and business to children. He served on the California State Board of Education. In November of 2000, Mr. Draper launched a statewide cyber-initiative on school choice for the California General Election. He has a BS in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Today was the last class for Section-B. From this point of time, all the concept of ’sections’ will be meaningless, as everyone will be choosing different paths and different interests (electives…what else?)..

The camarderie in the class today was very good. Yesterday night, I prepared a slideshow featuring each and every person in my section. It came out very well…and it was well received when we showed it on the screen. When I see each person in the video, it’s evident that everyone has something special about them…to be admired about them…

It’s a kind of sad that 4 terms (50%) has finished so fast ! If given a choice, I will redo it all over again Ofcourse, that’s not how real world works, so time to move on…

The enthusiasm, energy, spirit, bonding that is prevalent in section-B is simply of the best. Many kudos to our beloved CR (Class Representative) Dipanjan. He is one hell of enthusiastic guy…Wonder where he gets his energy from…

Looking forward for the remaining terms…But before that I have one major frontier to cross…Examinations…My preparations towards this term has been below my expectations…So time for a marathon for next 96 hours..I have 9 days break after examinations…so can afford to slog now…Here I come Investment Analysis, Managing Organisations, Government-Society-Business and Strategic analysis of Information Technology…..

Collage prepared by Ramki