Some days back I mentioned that Indianblogger’s article will be published in local dailies..Now, it is featured in rediff…in the main page since this afternoon…Cool!!! Way to go dude…
Confusion…Confusion…Confusion….I wish I am crystal clear sometimes…But that’s not easy isn’t it? I really salute people who are able to take clear decisions in life, all the time.
Judgement, Ability to make compromises, Ability to prioritize, Ability to Focus…If I have all these right now, I will feel like a COMPLETE man.
For past few days, I am getting interested in HUMAN PSYCHOLOGY. It’s absolutely wonderful to observe people, mannerisms, draw patterns from their behaviours and guess their responses, etc., See didn’t I know that I am a person who develops new interests every second?? Hmmm…
BTW, we got the floodlights for our volleyball court. It’s awesome to play in night…We had yellow flashlights before. Now we have bright white halogen lights..Cool..
These 3 things have caught my attention in the recent past!
Till Sometime before, there were loads and loads of frogs jumping around in ISB. The quads in ground floor became the house of frogs sometimes, as they came in through the open windows…annoying! Lucky me, got the first floor…The frog-hating person in me vanished after exposure to numerous frogs..I even did a mini-research by placing my foot repeatedly near the frogs..and I found that frogs always invariably jumped away from me…So, human beings don’t have to walk away from frogs, because frogs does that job for us! But all of a sudden there is a decrease in frog population..wonder what happened to those poor little creatures??
Second, the tremors..Next to ISB, there is a rocky region, where rock explosions are conducted daily. Sometimes you hear a loud noise, sometimes less…But you could always feel the shock! The doors and the glass-windows vibrate…For some reason, the effect is magnified in the class rooms…On the other day, there was such a powerful shock that even the professor was aghast…He said, “Whoo…that was powerful”. I hope ISB has implemented earthquake protection measures while constructing ISB 
…we have been feeling these mild shocks on a day-to-day basis…
Third one is quite interesting. I never saw a dog in ISB campus till a month ago. And then comes a dog..quite street-side! For some reason it seems to like SV2 I block! After few days, another dog joins the old one. This one much bigger…You could see them chasing each other all day…For past 3-days these two dogs have been sleeping in the verandah before my quad. They keep staring at the opposite quad, where ladies live…Every now and then, one of them will come out and say “Shoo…Shoo!” and then it goes away..moments later, the dogs come back and sit in the same place and start staring…:) Was funny! Today, they were not around…
I was coming back from library around 2:30 a.m. I saw a third one, a new one! Roaming around freely in the beautiful lawns of ISB…Hmm, did ISB ‘recruit’ those dogs one for each student village? or they are just trespassers, waiting to be thrown out…
BTW, I managed to complete all of my assignments except one, the big daddy, Vulnerability analysis for Rural marketing course…Have been reading loads and loads of articles on Agriculture, Fertilizers, Organic farming etc., Interesting…but am not going to stretch it for long…
It’s been 5 days since I wrote last the entry. Let me make an assorted entry!
Had a battle with my PC for most part of the day. My system has been slowing down rapidly, throwing some weird pop-ups and the Disk-busy icon was always on! Cleaned up the virus, defragmented the disk and registry, organized the files, transferred some files to CD and uninstalled unused applications. Planning to backup the important files in the next 2 days.
Nothing much happened during these 4 days. I have been making slow and steady progress towards my write-ups. I am expecting most of the work to be complete by Wednesday night.
In the take-home context, I mentioned to one of my colleague, “The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence”. He replied back, “I don’t know about that, but the grass is definitely lush green on your side”!
It’s a kind of overdose for me, when people repeatedly point out to the fact that I don’t have any timed-exams [In Lunch, In Dinner, In Quads!!!]. I was explaining to them it is not fun to have take-homes..But after some time, began to psyche them out, by lending DVDs, reading non-academic books There are always two sides…either you take the pressure or let others take the pressure…!!
Enough of take-homes! I got all the courses that I bid for Term-6. In fact, I got luckier and spent only 1 point for 2 courses. I am taking the following courses:
1. Pricing
2. Marketing Metrics
3. Business Performance Management
4. Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions
5. Outsourcing and IT-Based Business
I have also finalized the groups for all the courses except Pricing.
One of my very close friend, who studied with me for 4 years in Engineering, who worked with me for nearly 6 years, is getting married in December. I would like to attend his reception atleast. Not sure about the schedule and workload in next term. So need to take a call on that front…
I attended couple of telephonic interviews for ISB Admissions. Quality of applicants is good. Tough task ahead of admission committee in finalizing the selection!
BTW, have a look at the following article posted by Indian Blogger. The article highlights 5 key lessons that an IT engineer can learn from the rejuvenated Indian Cricket team. His article will be published in some local dailies shortly! Good stuff IndianBlogger…
http://eklavya-mba.blogspot.com/2005/11/i-wrote-this-article-after-getting.html
Rural marketing:
Learnt stats and hard facts about Rural India. Read the book “Everyone loves a good drought”. Listened to well-prepared presentations of my colleagues on various aspects like Credit card for Rural India, Media for Rural India, Rural Entrepreneurship, Healthcare in Rural India, Summary of a Rural Visit [Day-to-day real facts]. Prepared [still preparing] aVulnerability Analysis on Agriculture industry. Listened to practical gyaan from Prof. Harish Bijoor. He has spent quality time marketing to Rural India. He knows thoroughly what Rural is, How much potential lie within Rural India.
Bloggers Park Results:
Rank Institute Participant Prize Money
1 ISB Bharanidharan V 2000
1 IIM Ahmedabad Ravi Venkatesh 2000
1 SPJIMR Seema Ramachandra 2000
The prize money has been split among 3 people. Around 20 participants sent in their entries…Hmm, my flight trip to chennai is sponsored now
We have launched a blog for ‘Poseidon-2005, ISB’. It will capture ‘behind-the-scenes’ of Poseidon, description of events, updates about event, interesting stories about Poseidon and the list goes on and on…We just want to make sure that this event is a grand success…not leaving any stones unturned
Google has introduced “Google Analytics”, a sophisticated statistics tool for websites. This is what Google has to say about this…
“Google Analytics tells you everything you want to know about how your visitors found you and how they interact with your site. You’ll be able to focus your marketing resources on campaigns and initiatives that deliver ROI, and improve your site to convert more visitors…”
I have registered today. I will be able to view first set of statistics in 12 hours time…
Go register yourself…Google Analytics
ISB is gearing up to host the largest healthcare event by any business school in south asia. This unique event brings together the major players of the Healthcare and Pharma industry under one roof as these sectors are emerging as important industries in the Indian subcontinent. Participants at the Summit will have the opportunity to listen to CEOs of premiere Healthcare and Pharmaceutical companies
This one day event is open to all top & middle level managers from Pharma & biotech, IT analysts, IT consultants, Software Developers, Business School Students, researchers, cross functional managers and professionals connected with the Healthcare & Pharma industry.
Event Details: November 26th 2005, 9:30 a.m. to 06:00 p.m at ISB Campus.
You can register at the following link: Registration is FREE!
http://www.isb.edu/healthcaresummit/Registration.html
Kindly spread the message…by mailing to your friends or posting an entry in your blog about this event. Thanks
When the professor mentions that the Mid-term papers and End-term papers can be done at our own convenience in home, many of us jump in joy! atleast momentarily…After all, What better way than writing your answers at the time convenient to you, place convenient to you and in the way convenient to you.
But hold on…that’s just an illusion. To my knowledge, the take-home exams are highly painful in nature, especially if the subject is highly abstract. They suck up considerable amount of our time and energy. Take my case for example. I have all my mid-terms and end-term examinations this term in the form of Take-Home!
Knowledge management [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Managing IT [1 Mid-term, 1 End-term]
Negotiation Analysis [2 Write-ups]
Rural Marketing [1 Final write-up, minimum 30 pages, no upside limit!]
I spent almost all of my weekend reading articles, framing the answers, penning down the thoughts and reviewing the answers for Managing IT and Knowledge management. In effect I spent 14-16 hours for both the mid-term papers!
The trauma of completing our Competitive Strategy project paper is still looming in my mind.
Officially, the term is coming to an end this Thursday[17th] for me. From Friday [18th] till Sunday [27th ], I have to complete 5 write-ups for all 4 subjects. Painful! No doubt, there is an opportunity to learn. But very tough to motivate myself…Somehow, should complete it soon, so that I can use the remaining days for other important activities.
Interestingly, it would be almost 87 days before I will be in examination hall since my previous examinations!! I am longing to be in examination hall
2 days back, my roomie was mentioning that I am lucky to have all exams as take-home. But he had taken Knowledge management course. After completing the KM Mid-term paper spending full sunday night, he came to me today morning and said “I can understand your situation…Pity you” !!!
The interview invites for shortlisted Round 1 Applicants are currently being sent out. Chennai is the first city covered.
10:00 a.m. - Woke up.
10:45 a.m. - Watch cricket match.
11:15 a.m. - Work on Managing IT Mid-term questions. [Take home]
02:30 p.m. - Lunch
03:15 p.m. - Watch Cricket match.
04:30 p.m. - Continue work on Managing IT Mid-term paper.
05:45 p.m. - Badminton
07:00 p.m. - Continue Managing IT Mid-term paper.
07:45 p.m. - Complete the assignment.
08:00 p.m. - Business Law workshop.
10:15 p.m. - Dinner at Cafetaria.
10:45 p.m. - Back to room. Television. Chat with roomie who came back from a quick trip to mumbai.
11:30 p.m. - Take up Knowledge management Mid-term paper [Take home]. First-draft complete.
02:00 a.m. - Scan through the Managing IT End-term paper and analyze the questions. Identified the real-life examples to write.
02:30 a.m. - Blog for the day. Hit the bed.
Hmm…not a hectic day
I will try to capture my schedule for next one week honestly. If there is an indication that I am relaxing, it will help me to course-correct. Putting myself infront of public is good way to harden myself!
03:30 a.m. - Go to sleep
08:15 a.m. - Wake up to the sound of alarm. Wanted to sleep more. Burried myself under the bedsheet.
10:00 a.m. - Wake up. Open Laptop. Check mails. Check rediff. Check blog.
10:30 a.m. - Brush. Bath. Pray.
11:00 a.m. - Read article & case for ‘Managing IT’.
01:00 p.m. - Browse articles for ‘Business Process management’.
01:30 p.m. - Lunch. Chat with friends.
02:15 p.m. - Reach class. Open laptop, check mails. Browse some news.
02:30 p.m. - Managing IT class begins.
04:40 p.m. - Manging IT class ends. Go to cafetaria. Snacks & friendly Chat.
05:15 p.m. - Session on “Powerpoint and Word tips” by a close friend.
08:15 p.m. - Dinner
09:00 p.m. - Poseidon website team meeting.
09:30 p.m. - Section - B Party
11:15 p.m. - Research and Analysis on Subjects for Term 6. Finalising the bid amount, courses.
12:30 a.m. - Read the assignment case for ‘Managing IT’.
02:00 a.m. - Replying to mails. Chat with a friend in yahoo.
02:30 a.m. - Blog for the day & Hit the bed.
The most awaited B-school event in India, “POSEIDON 2005” is coming soon (December 16-17, 2005). The Poseidon website will be launched tomorrow. This year the theme is entirely ‘Greek’. [Colour schemes, background images, fonts, event names etc.,] The website will go live at exactly 10:00 p.m. November 9th night. There will be online fireworks marking the opening ceremony! Actually i am curious to peek into the contents of website…! Loads of events, prize money, honours up for grabs…
With Placements season just few days away, Business Technology Club & other clubs in ISB are busy organizing various placement related activities. The clubs are inviting alums of ISB to come and share their placement experiences with us. Who better than our own ISB community to show us the guidance(Tips on interviews, resume-building, focus group formations etc). ISB Alums are simply superb!
In line with this, the Business Technology Club is organizing an informal knowledge sharing session on November 13th at 5 PM in ISB. Quite a few alums are coming down for the event. If any of the alums are working in Hyderabad and haven’t received our messages, kindly drop in for the event. Please contact Amit Mullerpattan (Amit_mullerpattan@pgp2006.isb.edu) or me(bharani@gmail.com) for any further information.
Knowledge management is a very dry and vague subject. Reading loads of theories without getting to know how Knowledge management works in real firms is not fun. Fortunately, our Professor took efforts to invite Mr. Raghunath, Chief Knowledge Officer, Wipro Technologies for Monday’s session. Some things became clear after listening to him first-hand. But still, lot of questions floating in the air. KM is still evolving. It’s tight dependance on complex human behaviour makes the topic even more delicate!
Some interesting observation. I came to know about 2 roles in CXO Category today. Chief Knowledge officer, Chief Quality Officer. While reading a case on “PepsiCo”, came to know about another role called “Chief Transformation officer”. On the other day, while I was listening to a talk from Baxter Personnel, I came to know about “Chief Human resource officer”. This got me curious and pushed me to explore the possible roles in ‘CXO’ category…
Thanks to Google…Below is a comprehensive list! Except for ‘Y’, every damn alphabet has a role in ‘CXO’ category…Interesting! Let’s imagine a role for the missing ‘Y’…how about ‘Chief Yawning officer’ 
chief academic officer
chief accounting officer
chief acquisition officer
chief administration officer
chief administrative officer
(more…)
Viral Marketing:
———————-
An entry for Bloggers Park contest, IRIS, IIM Indore
Continuation from Previous post:
Blogs are establishing themselves as an important bridge between sellers and buyers, employers and employees, colleges and applicants. When these blogs are written by credible and honest people, people who are respected in the society, the amount of importance placed on the messages conveyed to the blogs becomes substantial. So much that even Chief executive officers of Fortune 50 companies, Deans of business schools and variety of personalities like actors, sportsperson have started blogging.
GM Fast lane blog. Written and maintained by Vice Presidents and Chief Executive officers of GM, spanning various functions like Sales & Marketing, Communications etc., These top-level executives talk about the latest trends in automobiles, future plans of GM, progress on Environment-friendly cars, Auto shows etc., The Loyal GM customers and auto-enthusiasts frequent this blog and leave their opinions. They also learn about the future car models. When they are satisfied, the message is spread through their individual blogs. As far as GM is concerned, they get to gauge the pulse of their customers effectively. Thus, the blog serves as an effective marketing research tool and advertising tool.
Let’s look at another firm propelled by Billy! Bill Gates. Microsoft has identifitied a bunch of its employees and is encouraging them to write blogs. These employees are highly-knowledgeable, brilliant programmers and know exactly how to convey the message in an interesting way. In a nutshell, they act as evangelists for the firm and the associated products. The audience for these blogs are mainly programmers across the world who specialize in microsoft products and microsoft enthusiasts. If any important and interesting information is shared by microsoft employees, the message spreads like a wild fire through blogs of the readers! More importantly the message reaches only relevant people. Highly targeted marketing at a minimal cost and effort. Google’s blog is another example in this category.
Leading actors like Aamir Khan, directors like Shekar kapoor too maintain their own blogs. In their case, the blog serves as a personal advertising tool and brand-building tool. If Aamir khan breaks a news about his latest movie in the blog, the news is known to all his fans in a matter of minutes or hours. First the message spreads through the blogs, and then it spreads through word-of-mouth!
Some blogs take a different approach by reviewing and promoting specific category of products. Take for example Gizmodo and engadget. These blogs update about any latest developments in the world of electronic gadgets. These blogs have gained immense credibility that product manufacturers are willing to pay significant sum of money to get their products highlighted in the blog!
The recent development about IIPM is another example of the ‘Viral’ power of the blogs. If the ‘controversial’ article was published only by the JAM Magazine, it would have taken weeks for many to know about the news. Because, the JAM Magazine is a highly focussed ‘niche’ magazine. In the absence of blogs, someone would have sent the message through e-mail to his friend, and the mass-emailing would have followed. With the blogs, the story is different. In addition to the faster propogation of messages through blogs, people get to express their comments, opinions, frustrations and anguish through these blogs. This ‘personalized’ propogation of message enhances the news. In a matter of 1 week, the situation turned as a war against “Bloggers” and the institute. The focus should have been resided with “JAM” Magazine. This incident is a glorious example of the ‘viral’ nature and
‘high-impact-potential’ of the blogs!
Blogging as a marketing tool is still in the nascent stages. But there are enough indiciations that companies are employing blogs as a marketing tool. The day when each and every company will have their own blogs is not far away. The ‘cyber-disintermediation’, where companies and their customers speak directly to each other instead of being promoted by third-party websites, reviewers etc., is a becoming a reality.
PS:
There is a even a proposition to introduce courses like “Introduction to Business blogging” in Business schools [Fordham business school to be specific]! This is what they have to say about the course content…
“…Blogs are leveling the content playing field, enabling individuals to amass large online audiences—often times larger, and more vocal, than the online efforts made by well known media giants. By making it easy for anyone with a computer to publish their ideas, blogs are inviting unprecedented amounts of online interaction and knowledge sharing. For business professionals, they are an invaluable source of real-time information and commentary, as well as a tool for self-promotion. For companies, they can be a powerful tool for connecting with consumers.
This hands-on course will answer all your essential questions about blogs and their implications for business communication, management, marketing and technology. Students will learn how to use blogs to find relevant content, as well as create blogs of their own—learning the do’s and don’t of successful blogging. The course will cover how blogs can be a career development tool for individuals and how companies are using them as a means to connect with employees, customers, and potential customers. We will discuss how a company can track what’s being discussed about it in the “Blogosphere” that could affect business performance and why it might want it’s own blog…”
Almost all the applications for Round 1 has arrived. The evaluations are underway. Interview calls can be expected from mid-november. Logistics of that is not quite clear at present.
Students in spite of their hectic schedule are dropping in to assist admission committee in evaluating the applications. Though I wouldn’t want to make any comments regarding the applications and evaluations, I just want to make a point that there is a wide disparity in the quality of applications. Some have taken immense pain in crafting their essays, which comes out quite obvious. Some have taken least pain (may be they wrote their essays in minutes?).Once the evaluation process is complete, I will sit with Ram and collate some Do’s and Dont’s for applications (general gyaan). Might be useful for Round 2 applicants.
Since the interviews can happen anytime in the near future, applicants might find the following blog quite useful for reviewing the interview experiences of our batch (Batch of 2006). Thanks Ketan!
http://whymba.blogdrive.com/archive/12.html
http://whymba.blogdrive.com/archive/11.html
http://whymba.blogdrive.com/archive/2.html
BTW, few days back some of ISB bloggers(including me) were interviewed for an article in Hindu. Here’s the link:
http://www.hindu.com/edu/2005/10/31/stories/2005103100250100.htm
Throughout my life, Hardwork and dedication has been my ‘mantra’. I was well known for slogging hours after hours after hours. From February 2002 till February 2005, the hardworking capacity has gradually eroded, unconsciously. I got myself trapped in the relaxed lifestyle. Even after coming to ISB, the amount of hardwork that I have displayed dwindles to ZERO if I compare with the efforts of others.
All of a sudden, I find myself again trapped in the ‘mood’ of hardwork. I feel energized like Kumbakarna waking up from his long-drawn hibernation. There is a strong urge to work hard. Just as I thought I will never get the desire to work hard in my life again, this sudden surge of desire has come as pleasant surprise for me. It has arrived at the right time with placement season looming over the head. I will channelize the energy and drive optimally(SMART WORK?)…’very little’ bit of that will be spent to pull the grades to the old level.
Now-a-days I have this strong urge to be a ‘winner’ in whatever that I do. Don’t know why? Don’t know why now? As always, I will just assume that everything happens for a PURPOSE.
Wishing all a very happy and prosperous Diwali!
We had a mini fireworks celebration in ISB on Diwali Eve. It was fun! The ISB Student Body has organized some fireworks for tonight. Wish Mails are flooding our inboxes!
The B-school competitions across the world are on. ISBians are winning quite a few. The list is only going to grow, as many competitions are lined up for next 2 months. I have summarized some achievements.
The highlight being the “Innovation Challenge” , conducted by ThurderBird. This competition is about solving a complex real-world business problem of a real company. The winner will be crowned as “The Most Innovative MBA Team in the World”. Not an easy achievement. Take the stats. 321 Teams from 83 universities in 18 countries participated in this year’s event. 10 Teams have made it to the Final. ISB features 2 teams in the Final 10! Only Indian School to figure in the final list and the only B-school to secure 2 slots in the final list!! Way to go….!!!
Bobbie Carlyle's 'Self-made man', a statue I greatly admire and a principle I strongly believe in. "...left to his own devices, man will use his God-given talents to be creative, productive, and prosperous. Using free will, he will better his own situation and that of those around him, thereby influencing in a positive way his own destiny..."
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[Since Feb 25 2005]
