http://way2top.blogsome.com Indian School of Business, 2005-2006 Sat, 28 Oct 2006 07:28:51 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I read the news about Google’s Custom Search Engine, which restricts the search only to the sites specified by target user community. The target websites can be collaboratively maintained and managed. So, I spent some 30 minutes in creating a custom search engine for ISB. Currently the search is targeted ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/10/28/isb-search-engine/ I was surprised to see my blog in the “Blogstreet Top 100″ list My blog was ranked 57th out of possible 4101 blogs…not bad..BlogStreet has authorized the Top 100 blogs to place the following image in their blogs… I feel sad that I have to build this value all ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/28/in-the-top-100/ It is official…I have moved. Visit me at http://www.way2top.org or http://way2top.org. This blog will remain as an archive, as a memory…and I will try to update this blog with ISB related news… Please update your blogrolls with the new URL. I will do the same…Thanks for your continued support and I need ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/27/shifting-to-new-place/ You think you have good Business writing skills? Can you generate quality content about any company/business? Then, “Commercial Editing” is for you. Wikipedia’s answer to Open Business Listings or Open Yellow Pages lies in the form of “YelloWikis”. There are numerous reports in the print and online media which indicate ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/24/commercial-editing/ Alumni meet@hyderabad happens only when I decide to go to chennai! I missed out on the meet couple of times. This time, I managed to attend the Alumni meet, but in chennai Kaushik Gopal (my batch-mate) was a key organizer along with Prashanth (Class of 2003). ‘Pasha’, a trendy ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/23/isb-alumni-meet-chennai/ It’s painful and highly discomforting…Realization strikes only when things happen to self…Chikungunya is troubling me high time since Monday…Hoping to recover before Sunday…lots of work waiting me at work… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/17/bowled-over/ I have been pondering over this question for a while…”I am living in a rented house. When will I own a land, own a house?” If you are thinking that I am referring the real estate in the real world, then you are wrong! I am referring to the real ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/11/a-steel-tear/ My dear blog, The decreased frequency and lack of focus/theme should be fairly concerning to you by now…! Sorry, I am not able to give enough attention to you… 1. Something more important is keeping me busy now-a-days…sucking up the energy and leaving me half-dead by the time I come back ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/08/04/a-strange-missive/ Market Analysis The candidate should be capable of doing a thorough analysis of Vegetables/Food items in the market. He should be ready to travel to the shop by foot. He should be extremely smart enough to sort out rotten vegetables from fresh ones. The mindset to apply right techniques to sort ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/31/management-careers-yellareddy-guda/ I was wondering whether any “World Sudoku Championship” exists. After googling, realized that the first world championship in sudoku was organized at Lucca, Italy on March 10-11 2006. The winner was a 31 year old Czech Economist, a lady called Jana Tylova. I explored the WSC website and downloaded the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/28/p471/ Thanks to Girish, I was able to explore wikimapia and mark my location on the global footprint My location… Go mark your houses and nearest landmarks…. PS: The Wikimapia is powered by Google (Google maps). But the feature to define your location for everyone to see is cool! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/25/wikimapia-let-us-describe-the-whole-earth/ Business Summaries, Compressed Knowledge, Book Abstracts, Executive Book summaries…These are all names given to the ‘concept’ of providing a brief summary of the book. This business mainly preys on the need to “Save time yet manage to get the fundamentals behind the book”. There are two ways in which ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/23/compressed-knowledge/ Blogging has finally received the much needed attention in Television Media. Now more and more common people will be interested in knowing about blogs. The issue about blogs being blocked by ISPs will be resolved in days, weeks or at the most months time. But in the end, the real ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/20/web-logs-or-web-slog/ Today afternoon around 1 p.m., my superior approached me and asked, “Bharani, can you give a talk about our initiative to the India Leadership Team @ 4 p.m?”. I had to agree. I was excited about the fact of meeting 13 wise gentlemen who form the India Leadership Team (Managing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/19/federated-ppt/ It was around 8:15 p.m. I don’t know what struck me, A bulb flashed in my right brain and I suddenly thought “Is there some smart soul who has already thought about a business of ‘Jargon Consulting’?..” You know, the business which will essentially create new jargons for these consultants ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/15/re-purpose/ 1. Work-life balance. 2. Start up environment vs Corporate environment. I want to maintain a work-life balance. This thought has become so ingrained in me that I am feeling a sense of guilt if I work hard (well, work long hours). I am busy and slowly extending my work hours without even ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/13/dilemma-or-choice/ 30 days ago, I spelt out the teams that I thought would make into Semi-Finals. The teams were Brazil, Argentina, Italy and England. Today am glad the only country which made into the Semi-Finals from the list also lifted the world cup…:) But man, what happened to Zidane? The man ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/10/and-the-fifa-2006-champions-areazurris/ Some filmy dialogues… I don’t remember which movie this was…But the boy talks with the friend of the girl. Then there is a scene in which the girl talks with the same common friend. Common Friend: Can you tell the reason why you love her? Boy: You can say 1000 reasons for not ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/07/1000-reasons/ The Business Unit is 40-50 strong. It is small compared to the size of other Business Units. The director of the group is pretty jovial, technically strong, broad-minded and informal. He has almost 20+ years of experience. I report directly to the director. The director reports to the Managing Director ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/07/managing-expectations/ I am thinking about how to make this post honest yet interesting I am thinking about how to realize my long term goals. I am thinking about how to manage the organizational politics. I am thinking about why I have stopped thinking about others and thinking more about ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/07/04/i-am-tagged/ Today early morning, around 3-4 a.m., there was an attempt of theft in the flat just opposite to where we live. Apparently, the house owner has gone to US for 3-4 months I guess. The thief has managed to break the big lock that was put up and even the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/30/where-is-the-safety/ It is almost 2 months since I cut my hair. I have to attend my cousin sister’s marriage this weekend. So decided to trim my hair to look neat and not shabby…Who likes the guy with shabby, ratty hair anyway? and that too in the marriage…it is a SIN ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/30/episodes-from-parlour/ Cycling… Whenever I go to fitness centre (I have visited fitness centre only 30-40 times totally in my life), my legs take me automatically to the cycling equipment. I just love pedalling…After seeing lance armstrong and the way he beautifully pedals in a rocking motion, I have developed a liking to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/27/pedalpedal/ At ISB, we have this benefit of renting top-quality DVDs anytime, the luxury of recommending a good DVD to be purchased. In the outside world, renting DVD is a costly affair. Even if you manage to rent a DVD for 50 rupees, there are chances that the DVD is pirated ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/26/paradisoooo/ 10:15 p.m. Not much traffic on the road. I was walking back to my room after purchasing some food stuff. An autorickshaw fled past me. I felt a sensation of something being sprayed on my body. Since it was dark, I could not realize what it was. When I closely ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/25/blameworthiness/ 1. Post my profile in TeluguMatrimony.com [With a very short-and-sweet description, no photos uploaded, no horoscopes uploaded] 2. Explain the Online matrimonial facility to my parents and the benefits associated with it. Impressed with such a facility available in net, they pursue me to add more details. I even ended up ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/23/tale-of-online-search/ Normally I don’t give much attention to forwards…but these Images are so refreshing to ignore… The other 2 images (part of trilogy!) that I cannot fit in the page… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/19/453/ I have a feeling that, for past few months, I am leading a very cushy cushy life, without facing any major struggles to fight with or any major obstacles to overcome. May be this is due to the positive attitude that is growing day-by-day or May be because life has ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/19/dhadkhan/ Guest House: (May 8th) 3 Wipro guys in front of me..all freshers…introduce themselves to me…I introduce myself…and theres comes the word “ISB”…the looks on their faces change…a mark of respect emerges….from then on whatever I say, they listen with silence….with attention…They want to know more about ISB…a lot…they have already started ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/17/power-of-association/ It is hardly 45 days since I joined the firm and I am taking session in the induction program for freshers…Well, had to cover for a person who was supposed to take the session… It’s very refreshing to see fresh graduates straight out of the college, with a great amount of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/16/welcome-aboard/ Some notes from ‘Maverick’ book…. Hepatitis Leave When people tell us they don’t have time to think, we ask them to consider what would happen if they suddenly contracted hepatitits and were forced to spend three months recuperating in bed. Then we tell them to go ahead and do it. Self-set ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/13/449/ 1. Reply to emails as soon as possible. I normally reply aptly for emails. But for past few months, I have acquired an “email fatigue”, so much that my responsiveness has come down significantly. For some mails I want to give a very thoughtful and honest reply, because of which ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/13/notes-for-myself-2/ Couple of websites I would like to talk about… www.bharatbloodbank.org: A “Corporate social Responsibility” initiative by BharatMatrimony.com. Since one of my colleague’s father is undergoing open-heart surgery, she was seeking for blood donors. We received a suggestion from one of the employees to check out this website. I registered and found ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/13/websites/ The following ad caught my attention today morning…Nah, not for the job opportunties , but for the brief description of roles…ads for MBA roles in IT are very rare…and this ad neatly summarized 5 different possibilities for MBA grads from leading institutes…So journalizing… http://www.polaris.co.in/new/about_us/hr_ad.html Business Analyst Close coordination with customers and project ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/07/future-leaders-programme-polaris/ Wow…! My first mobile blogging effort http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/my-post-from-n91/ Took a day off on Friday and went home to Chennai. Received a bonanza gift from my brother for my B-day. Most Expensive, greatest gift I have received so far! Nokia N-91…Wow!!! Still exploring the never-ending list of features….What a brother I have..:) On the other hand, with a heavy ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/06/05/diary-6th-june-2006/ Proud display of some of our efforts! More “nice-to-haves” to follow in the days to come…We have fallen in love with home that we are not feeling like going to office…! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/31/snaps-of-flat/ Inspired by MBA League…! Why not have ISB League? http://isbleague.blogsome.com PS: Was so damn free in the weekend that I didn’t know what to do…so decided to put up this page, which was long due… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/30/isb-league/ What I liked: The songs, The child artist Akshay Bhagwat, Moments of brilliance and twist in the movie. What I disliked: The loongggg story line. Everyone in the theatre became restless towards the end…and at that opportune time comes a sher-o-sheri, which apparently are overloaded throughout the movie! Worth watching half-the-movie…Which half ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/28/fanaa/ A message from a very good friend that disturbed me a lot….I know this chap very well…Damn good guy…He recently took up a significant challenge….and is determined to achieve his ambition….his father’s ambition….and all of a sudden this incident….God tests good people a lot… I badly want this guy to succeed ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/25/message/ The Graduation Group picture…. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/25/class-of-2006/ Giks and myself began the last weekend with a mission to set up the home. Over the next 40 hours, we completed many of the tasks in our TODO list. We explored quite a few places. By Sunday evening, the process of purchasing became mechanical. Find the shop which sells ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/23/more-on-house/ Saw the movies “Pink Panther” and “Poseidon” in the last couple of weekends. Pink Panther was quality fun and Steve Martin has done a splendid job. Poseidon, well, should have been renamed as “Upside down”! The whole concept was mentally challenging. How will it be if the environment around you ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/17/the-candid-voice/ Since my ‘luxury’ period in the guest house was over, I had to finally move to the apartment in Srinagar Colony. I shifted my things to the flat and headed to office. I purchased a set of bed, pillow and bedsheet the day before and kept in the apartment. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/16/setting-up-the-home-from-scratch/ I did not explore HITEC city when I was in ISB. All I had seen was the CYBER TOWERS, which does not reflect the magnitude of the HITEC city. There are so many buildings in HITEC city. Some of them have beautiful contemporary designs. Lot of new buildings coming up…Latest ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/11/of-conversations/ Recently, a phenonmenon swept over chennai and many parts of Tamil Nadu. The “Vazha meenu, vilanga meenu” phenomenon. The song, the picturization, the singer and the choreography took “Gaana Ulaganathan” to the cloud nine in a short span of time. He was iconized with a single song. Now, he has ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/09/one-indiaone-indiabsnl-one-india/ Joined the Firm. Met with entire BU team. First impression is good. I don’t have anything to complain and I am happy about that. In fact, my immediate superior has built some hype about me I guess…I am just trying to ‘manage’ and bring down the expectations…”Hit” the ground running ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/05/06/back-to-hyderabad/ Yesterday, I downloaded the video that my brother took on Camcorder during the graduation day. He patiently captured the entire procession starting from dean till the end (The procession from ISB building to the hangar). When I look at it now, it is a definite treasure. Thanks a ton bro ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/29/video/ Still enjoying the ‘free’ days…. Watched the movie “Ice Age-2″ in Satyam movie complex yesterday. For the same price of Rs.90/=, the quality of movie watching experience is lower compared to PVR or Prasad’s in hyderabad. The pricing scheme was funnier…”Satyam Budget”, “Satyam Premiere”, “Satyam Elite”!!! Purchased couple of books. One ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/27/diary-27th-april-2006/ Best of Blogging 2005-2006 Results! ClearAdmit, a leading educational consulting firm, announced the results of “Best of Blogging” awards for Best Student blogs, Best Applicant blogs etc., Vijay Mulbagal and myself were nominated from ISB. Vijay Mulbagal finished in the final top 10 list (placed 6th)…It’s absolutely wonderful feeling to see ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/26/isb-blogger-in-top-10/ My town (Manali new town) is boycotting elections citing various reasons including non-distribution of land certificates and house certificates, lack of proper roads etc., The Association of the town has submitted their decision to the collector. So no election campaigns, no posters…no indications whatsoever that there is election around….! The Chief ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/21/why-is-amma-laying-roads-now/ Bought 4 books and borrowed three books from a friend. Argumentative Indian Lance Armstrong - It’s not about the bike Alchemist Seabiscuit World is Flat Tipping point Art of Innovation Journal for myself: Applied - Fit Analysis in progress - But I speculate that the chances are bleak. Either way it’s ok for me. Am glad that things will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/20/diary-20th-april-2006/ I have decided to blog about the following things: My interests - This will change according to time [Blogs, Books, Fitness (I developed a brief love with this activity when I was in belgium, planning to continue), Inspirations from various sources (!), and whatever comes as I go] My life [Interesting ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/17/is-your-son-the-104-cr-person/ Two people I turn towards for advice… One I have known very well…rare kind to find in real life…gem! Other, I have known through virtual medium….not met in real life…but somehow have confidence to turn for advice…But real nice person…so much by spending 40 minutes by calling me from UK….Thanks a lot… I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/16/arbit/ I spent the past few days by sleeping blissfully and eating good home-made food. Apart from that I haven’t been doing anything significant. I have been living in my hometown for nearly 27 years. I have never felt bad about my place, even though there were many problems and I was ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/13/diary-13th-april-2006/ The last 4 days took me through Multitude of emotions…Happiness, excitement, fulfillment, anxiety, sentiments and I also went through some riveting moments, which are deeply bolted into my heart… I spent last 15 days with just an average of 5 hours of sleep per day. Partying and having fun hard! Outings ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/09/my-final-post-from-isb-once-more/ Well…Thought that the internet connection cannot be established after formatting my laptop..But to my surprise the wireless connection is working…So will make one final post reporting the graduation day ceremony from ISB, before I finally leave on 9th morning 5:00 a.m…. I missed my blog for 4 full days….found it tough…. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/08/surprise-2/ This will be my last post from ISB…I will end the journey here… I will definitely try to blog further, though not as consistent and frequent as now… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/04/bye-bye-i-12/ Wishing the batch of 2007 good luck. Whatever you do, don’t freak out yourselves. At the end of one year, you will realize that many things that you took upon yourself very seriously isn’t worth the pain. As every outgoing batch said in the past, I repeat…”This will be one ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/04/good-luck-class-of-2007/ Dear Class of 2006, You don’t know how you have affected my life positively in various ways….It has been an amazing ride all through the year…I am privileged and honoured to be among this awesome group…As we venture into new realms, I am sure we will cross each other at various ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/04/dear-class-of-2006/ Around 1400+ people are expected to attend the Graduation ceremony on April 8th. The Atrium in ISB, though big, cannot accommodate such a huge number of people. There were rumours couple of months ago that the graduation day ceremony will be held at Gachibowli Football stadium. But many ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/04/03/hangar-for-graduation-ceremony/ There was a sizzling news item in Today’s Economic Times about ISB. Attached below is the press clip. ISB grads rake in $200,000 packet • Dollar Dreams Hit New High VIVEK SINHA, NEW DELHI THE B-school moolah route has hit a new high this year. Five students of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/31/isb-in-the-news/ Completed my final assignment in ISB. The classes are done. I have now officially met all the course requirements and have majored in Strategic Marketing and Information Technology. Now, I can proudly calll myself as “MBA” (or “equivalent to MBA” for the purists!). It would be tough to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/30/ah-there-comes-the-finish-line/ My attempt at ranking the blogs of my colleagues at ISB. A tribute to the fellowship Consistency of Blogging, Content, Style, Informational value, Entertainment, number of visitors, bringing in new traffic etc., (not necessarily with same weightage) My ranking: ISB Blogs [Batch of 2006] ======================== 1. Vijay Mulbagal 2. R ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/29/isb-blogs-my-list/ There has been quite a few cribs that went around about the ‘information asymmetry’ or ‘informational advantage’ exploited by some of my colleagues in ISB. First and foremost is the Academics. Thought I don’t want to name any particular person or any particular incident, I would like to make a point ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/28/somethingto-think-about/ An attempt at my own 2 x 2 matrix creation …Don’t read too much… The X-axis represents the amount of interest you have for any topic. The Y-axis represents the amount of knowledge you have about any topic. You might come across any topic/person/activities in your life. You might either know ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/28/dkdc-framework/ Got hold of this pic couple of weeks before….when I was searching my past archives. Big pat for correctly guessing the person….! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/27/guess/ Friday -> Boat cruise + Dinner + Dance + Beer Saturday -> Movie + Dinner Sunday -> Dinner + General Masti in my balcony Can’t get better than this! and I can’t get more spoilt than this Well, I am enjoying my days… Am just managing to keep up with assignments..just! It ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/27/good-days/ “…Hyderabad, March 24: EDS, the $20.5-billion global technology services company, appears to have discovered a rich vein of managerial talent pool graduating from the Indian School of Business here, with Plano, a Texas-based firm, making 14 job offers to the Class of 2006. Thirteen of the offers have been accepted. The ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/25/isb-eds-placement-report/ 80 people, all Students and family members… One cruise boat, entirely ours for 2-and-half hours… Food on board… DJ on board… Free booze on board… Dance floor on board… Excellent experience…! Everyone enjoyed the evening fully… Admissions department arranged this party for the volunteers who helped in evaluating and interviewing applicants. Kudos to them. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/25/cruise-on-hussain-sagar-lake/ I was counting the number of True friends in ISB, who I can say that I know very well and can turn for help anytime. The count stopped at 8! There are numerous other good friends, friends and acquaintances. I have good relationships with many people, but the desired ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/24/true-friends/ MBA - stuff! The following websites captures the essence of MBA. They neatly provide the summary of all key concepts. www.quickmba.com www.netmba.com www.valuebasedmanagement.com 12 Manage [Thanks Vijay for the last 2 links…] Supporting materials: Damodaran Online “Finance made easy!” - That would aptly fit the title. Prof. Damodaran has even put up all ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/21/information-overload/ For the past 6 months, my blog has been a target of SPAMS. The Spammers target the old posts which are 4-6 months old and inundate them with words describing private portions of human body and some ugly acts. I mass-delete them every fortnight. But in the recent past, the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/20/405/ - People are going out for dinners, purchases, pubs, outings etc., - Efforts for yearbooks are in full swing. - Parties in ISB are on hold until everyone is placed or until CAS process is closed (March 25th). I am hoping that everyone is placed by then so that parties can be ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/20/whats-going-on-in-campus/ A picture taken by Exchange student Angus Moon. Amazing view! This one is much better and recent than Google Map’s. In the centre is the Academic centre [Library, classrooms, dining hall, cafe, auditorium, academic office]. Surrounding the academic centre from top right (clockwise): Student Village 3, Recreation centre [with swimming ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/16/iisb-ariel-shot/ Every now and then, some music will catch my attention. Some attention are short-lived. But few songs move into my permanent ‘favourite list’. One song which moved into that list recently is Enya’s “Only Time”. I listened to this song when I watched the movie “Sweet November”. Was mesmerized by ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/16/enya-only-time/ I bumped into one good friend in ISB yesterday after a long time. Don’t remember how long…Should be more than 45 days… He wasn’t looking normal. I could see a dejection in his face. I didn’t remember him seeing during placement season too…So I asked him…”Long time no see…How are you ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/15/learning/ This question has been troubling me for quite some time. “Is not voluntarily revealing the truth or not practicing absolute transparency same as telling a lie?. Does it have the same impact on the recipient of the messages as a lie has”. Let’s take an example of organization. Every organization ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/15/information-asymmetry/ Looking back at the evolution (or revolution) of cricket, I am wondering if the following things are changing the nature of the game. Positive mindset… Ambitious players…Strong players…Strong hitting… Changing rules like Powerplay… smaller grounds and Shorter boundaries… Better pitches… Better bats… Advent of 20/20 matches… Need to think about these points as well: Psychological impact on bowlers? Cricket is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/14/value-creation-for-cricket/ Since Holi falls on a working day, we decided to celebrate Holi in advance. It was absolute fun…Some pictures for you… Spouses had great time too… After some time, people became violent and started tearing T-shirts Snacks for Free! And me… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/12/holi/ When I joined ISB, alums were saying…”Prepare for the roller coaster ride ahead..Prepare for the best year in your life”. I could not comprehend the true intensity of those words. I just thought the words formed an overstatement. But now I realize it… The kinds of emotion that one goes through ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/10/best-year-in-life/ I have to fill the CAS questionnaire based on my recruitment experience. I am also asked to prepare for a possible video recording session about my recruitment experience with the target firm. In fact, CAS is pursuing around 2-3 persons (from each firm) to do this activity. The resulting materials ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/09/any-suggestions/ Almost everyone is placed in the batch (Less than 10 waiting for their matching placements). The Average salary, highest domestic salary, highest international salary, number of consulting jobs…all the records are broken and new benchmark has been set for the next batch! ISB will be publishing the placement details only ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/08/miscellanea/ Mr. US President was impressed by ISB’s infrastrucutre and Entrepreneurial focus exhibited by ISB. The ISB website has comprehensively captured the entire visit. The person sitting behind me commented, “Both Mullford (Ambassador) and Mr. US President had their mouth open when they entered the Atrium!”. Well, I didn’t notice it or ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/05/axis-of-world-axis-of-isb/ I read an article “Top 25 powerful women in Indian Business”. It was inspiring and encouraging to read the success stories of such women. From male chauvinistic society to women-empowerment-oriented society…India has come a long way… The things that are happening at B-school are no exception. Corporates are spending efforts to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/04/women-empowerment/ The visit of George bush is officially not yet confirmed, because it never gets officially confirmed! But as of now, he WILL BE visiting ISB on March 3rd. The security is top-level. Sniffer dogs, Snipers, mine-sweepers, security gadgets, detailed plans, special passes and ID cards and the list goes on… It will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/03/01/bush-visit/ One week of decision, indecision and associated mental stress… Moments of courage to leave the offer and to say…”Let’s call it quits…” Periods of determination to prepare for unexpected interview opportunity… Days of awakening of mind…enrichment of my soul… I have become more capable of treating events independant of each other…that’s biggest take away ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/28/done-2/ Got in touch with S, to get a broad understanding of Product design, development, marketing and challenges. Got in touch with S, to get a broad understanding of what to expect in Advisory firms, what kind of Technology roles are available in Advisory firms, and on how to prepare for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/26/network/ On Friday, one mid-sized software firm, having ODC’s in chennai and bangalore, offered very good salary for Business Consultants and Delivery manager positions. As far as placements are concerned…There are some interesting trends that I am observing here: 1. Lot of people who have worked in a specific firm are not ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/25/head-xyz/ Life is interesting and full of lessons….provided one has the eyes to survey the landscape and ears to keenly listen the surroundings. I was genuinely interested in the firm that I got offer with. But looks like HR perceives me as someone who is in desparation…and trying to play games. The ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/24/new-daynew-records/ Negotiated with relevant person. I made some trade-offs (Like moving minor portion of salary towards the end of the year as a lumpsum payment. This is apart from the variable pay)…He made some trade-offs (like giving me 3 more days to accept the offer). May 2nd will be my ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/21/got-the-deal/ Two companies I wanted to join…but they didn’t find me fitting with them. Two other companies were interested in me, but I wasn’t interested….Today one company was interested in me and I was interested in them…but for Salary portion…We sort of agreed to a fair sum. Towards the evening, it ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/21/battle-goes-to-5th-day/ If the first day was a perfect yorker, second day saw me handling the ball myself and getting out! Yeah, I was not so keen about this firm…I was ready to take their position if I receive better salary or location…Both didn’t match up…so, didn’t show any interest in interviews… I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/20/383/ Rejected for Program manager position after 3 rounds of interview. Reason quoted was lack of sufficient fit with the position! Superficial feedback, but still is of some importance to me…Significant number of hours of work was invested from my side to prepare for Microsoft. An effort which started month ago ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/18/wish-shattered/ Life is kind on me….atleast it has shortlisted me for 4 of the 12 positions I applied for. My tryst with M$ is still on…Cognizant, Infy, Dell are other companies that I am shortlisted for. Waiting for Virtusa, KPMG, Amazon….TCS, Wipro, and other software companies have announced their job postings ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/15/game-is-on/ Smile is infectious….Positive attitude and behaviour is infectious….That’s what people around love to see/feel/experience! Slowly I am inculcating the positive attitude with in me True test of the positive attitude will come when I hear/experience disappointing news. Let me see, If I truly possess positive attitude… Other attributes that I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/14/attitude/ How to break into the supreme slotting process that has been almost finalized? Well, there’s an easy way…Offer international placements. Companies that are willing to offer international placements command premium in this part of the B-school…for obvious reasons…$$$ Yesterday, there was a job posting from a Tier-2 (or Tier -3) private ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/14/4-days-to-launch/ ‘Rang de Basanti’ was a good experience. Going to city, watching movie and subsequent shopping in the evening was relaxing…I was locked within ISB campus for around 2 months! I am far from being sincere towards placement preparations. Even though I am doing some sort of preparations all day, I feel ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/13/world-for-someone/ Hi Everyone, With the festivities of the ISB day celebrations, Christmas, New Year’s eve, ID and Sankranti over…….here’s something to keep the fun going! We invite you to an EXCLUSIVE SCREENING of the latest blockbuster ‘Rang De Basanti’ at the Prasad’s theatre, necklace road, for the ISB community . We have the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/11/rang-de-basanti/ Slept 7 hours in the past 72 hours. Woke up 3 consecutive nights…Kept away from the blog forecefully for 2 days… All the assignments, projects and presentations are over today!….Starting tomorrow I can concentrate COMPLETELY on placement efforts. That would be 8 days of effort. Come Saturday (February 18th), the placement ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/09/busy-days-2/ Ramki’s blog has some highly relevent stuff on Telecom Industry. He has done a great job in writing those summaries… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/07/posts-on-telecom/ I wanted my personality to be reflected in my blog(Bharani’s blog)…and not my blog to reflect as my personality (like being called as Blog Bharani or people remembering about blog as soon as they see me!) I fear that the latter is becoming a reality….I am not sure if this ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/06/genuine-dilemma/ Abstraction of my learnings: You belong to a community. You find many good things and a few bad things about the community. Overall, you are very much satisfied, so you have something ‘nice’ to say about the community to others. And you share the ‘bad’ things with your community so that ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/05/two-views/ 3rd Feb, Friday 18:00 p.m: I check the Airdeccan ticket prices from Hyderabad to Chennai on April 9th. It shows Rs.500/=. Call my parents to confirm if they will join me for graduation day and if I can go ahead and book the tickets. 18:30 p.m.: My parents get back to me ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/04/isbians-driving-the-economy/ Prof. Krishna B Kumar won the “Best Professor the year - Core terms” for the second consecutive year. Great job! He deserves the honour for the way he won the hearts and minds of the students… Recently, we had a student poll to identify the “Best Professor the year - ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/03/professor-of-the-year-for-core-terms/ We had a very fruitful placement practice session, except for last few moments. Something happened that was very funny! Very funny!…It is long time since I laughed so much…that my stomach ached and face blushed so much! When I listened to the recording, the laughing has magnified…:) http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/03/369/ Microsoft is coming on Day 1(Feb 18th). That’s a change from the original plan of February 21st (Day 4). So need to make some changes in my plans. What would be my ideal slotting? I wouldn’t like all my preferred companies to come on the same day. I would like ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/02/season-gathers-momentum/ The BCG Shortlist was announced today. Almost 75% of the McKinsey Shortlists figure in BCG Shortlist too. There are some additions and deletions. Overall, the list gives an indication that BCG is more academically inclined than McKinsey! A made it to the BCG list…Good… Irrespective of how much the consulting firms ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/02/01/another-shortlist/ One gentleman from HLL delivered the Pre-placement session. During the talk he said: “…It makes sense to have Group Discussion as a selection mechanism in IIMs and other Indian B-schools, where majority of the students are freshers. But in ISB, to subject experienced candidates to Group discussion for 15-30 minutes is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/30/gd-for-experienced-candidatesnah/ Thanks to Venkatesh Adavi for sharing the gyaan on BD roles in IT. Kind of activities under “Business Development” 1. Pre-sales: This is the starting position in a BD hierarchy. Bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in IT Business development, if you can call so The designations associated with this role ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/28/more-details-on-business-development/ I was one of the recipients of “ISB Torchbearers award”, which was announced today. Around 32 people made it to the final list. Four among them stand out strongly, and were fittingly given “ISB young leaders award” in addition to “ISB Torchbearers award”. That’s for the positive side. Over the past ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/28/award/ ISB Through the lens “A Pictorial reflection of Life at ISB…” This is a photo blog from THE PHOTOGRAPHER of ISB Batch 2006. It’s tough to see him without his tiny and compact digital camera. He is also a veteran with SLRs. How many of us can claim to ‘click’ the moment ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/27/additions-to-isb-blogosphere/ Note from friend: (A Message from my friend who received MBA from a reputed UK B-school) MBAs should know what 1$ can buy in New York or London or Madras. One of the funniest news coming out of Management Institutes in India is ‘IIM grads gets Rs 55 Lac salary’ This ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/26/note-from-friend/ Everyone’s ears will be tuned to hear about India in the World Economic Forum that began today! This is India’s perfect opportunity to exploit the attention… This is what Businessweek has to to say about India “India’s showy debut at Davos is yet another sign that this newly confident country is ready ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/25/india-everywhere/ Conversation that I overheard: X: “Who do you think will make it to the final list of McKinsey from the announced shortlist today?” Y: “Hmm…X1,X2….” X: Cuts short…”X2??”, “Man what do you think about X2?..I heard he was some lead before coming here..” Y: “No..he is good…his fundas are very strong!” X: “Is it…what’s his ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/23/whats-his-gmat/ A particular Indian Electronics equipment company has promised high-level roles with sky-rocketing salaries in their presentation! Man, can’t imagine getting such high salaries in India!!! Of course, they are in look out for very experienced people with relevant backgrounds…which ISB has supply of! I was talking to one of the fellow ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/21/promising-offers-rock-campus/ IT service companies and product companies are predominantly offering the following roles or flavours of the following role: Business Analyst Business Development Program Manager Product Manager Project Manager Other roles are: Account Manager Domain Consultant Associate Consultant Technology Consultant ERP Consultant Depending on the number of years of relevant experience one has, one can expect to attach the word “Senior” in front ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/21/whats-in-it/ It’s become a chore to regularly attend PPTs, some out of compulsion, some out of interest, some out of influence!! Yeah, everyone has something called mandatory attendance for a set of Pre-placement talks. If anyone misses the mandatory PPTs, the number of job postings that a person can apply comes ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/21/diary-20th-jan-2006/ Just some observations…People are becoming increasingly defensive..some are becoming more agressive…All due to stress…With so many things happening around, disorientation happens very easily… Anyway, I am trying hard to remain calm…but failing at times! The whole day was screwed up. Slept at morning 9! Wanted to wake up in time for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/19/diary-18th-jan-2006/ On Monday, I had two options in front of me. Either to attend Infy Placement Talk or Hindustan Times - Media Placement Talk. I chose to attend the second since I thought I have enough information about Infy. Three top-level gentlemen from HT came over to deliver the pitch. I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/17/ht-media/ Three of my important Comrades have done a great social service to some people in ISB. One of them listens to the lectures or interviews very patiently and retains them permanently. He is the most prominent one among all my subordinates. He has been of great help to many people…literally ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/17/3-subordinates/ Well, Just submitted my resume + EOI for McKinsey & Co. Huh! Also, spent significant time in shaping the resumes of two of my close friends…Polishing resumes is tough job!!! Damn tired… Don’t have energy to write…Instead decided to point to a “Brief-Biography” (The date of the post is tampered with!), ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/15/brief-biography/ Recently ISB announced a award called “ISB Young leaders award” and “ISB Torch bearer award”, for students who have displayed strong extra-curricular activities, or helped in building the brand of the school, or displayed strong leadership skills… Now, what I feel strange about the award is we have to nominate ourselves ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/13/world-is-self-centred/ Various Companies are on campus for delivering their pre-placement pitch. Now, it’s the time for them to do the sales pitch…One month later, it will be our turn to do the sales pitch Anyway, Going by the demand and market boom, looks like this year it is going ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/12/diary-12th-jan-2006/ Had my round of “Sales Pitch”(Why EDS? Why You?) for EDS. Didn’t go well…Could have done lot better… I wasn’t feeling well throughout the day. Was Feeling feverish. Am going to sleep well for next one week and take enough rest. By the way, happened to see “Sales pitch” made by ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/10/eds-out-of-the-line/ Am shortlisted for further rounds of EDS-job interview…Wasn’t expecting a call to be honest, given the kind of role and competition…Hmm..atleast this gives me a confidence that my resume is fine and I am able to gather attention of recruiters… Running to press my shirt..Was very confident that I will not ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/09/shortlisted/ My Ex-employer, who is a self-made entrepreneur, has began his new Software Venture. The venture is in the initial stages… www.appliedevelopment.com http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/09/new-venture/ Just sent my resume + EOI for a role in Corporate Strategy group of EDS. Huh! The role, responsibility, salary, location everything is attractive….I think entire campus would be applying Not disclosing anymore details… Thus begins the recruitment season….From monday, many Preplacement Presentations by companies are lined up. God, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/07/and-there-goes-my-first-job-application/ One of the most pleasant and service-minded people that I have seen in my life are Sarovar House-keeping guys. They rock! You get to wake up with a call “Housekeeping….”. Then you get to hear “Good morning sir…”. Then they mechanically change your bedsheets, clean your room, fold your ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/07/knockknockhouse-keeping/ I have attended 4-5 mock consulting case interviews so far. I am able to crack the case to an extent. But the last 2 cases are something special. In the last but one case, after understanding the problem statement, I asked my first question to start my information gathering process. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/05/consulting-interviews/ Had a very unique examination today. Nothing special about the subject. But the way it was conducted was different…The answers had to typed in the word document while racing against the time. Unlike the usual sound of pens torturing the paper, this time it was the sound of keyboards pressing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/04/diary-4th-jan-2006/ Shrutkeerti, Vibhuwalia and Mojo, another 3 colourful and vibrant characters are leaving to US/Germany after the departure of Shilpa, Mohit and Henna last week. I owe R so much…without his mere presence, I don’t know what state I would have been some days ago…Thanks R. I am slowly seeing improvements…I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2006/01/03/so-begins-year-2006/ I will never forget this day, December 31st 2005, for my life time. Only one heart knows the reason apart from my mind. Going to other things, I was browsing the blog of my friend Vasanth. He has composed a beautiful summary about his blog for the year 2005. Amazing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/31/new-year-2006/ Slept early (11:30) and woke up early (5:00 a.m.). I have tried this 2-3 times in the past one week. Invariably, the whole day is refreshing whenever I woke up early. The productivity level is high in the morning. Moreover, I get to take my breakfast! There is a refreshing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/30/late-night-or-early-morning/ 100 days left for Graduation. It’s a strange feeling to see the days remaining coming down from three digits to two digits! Term 6 is coming to an end. We have exams and assignments for the next one week. Quite a few people are leaving for exchange programmes across the world ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/29/diary-28th-december-2005/ Everyone has access to Java APIs, Microsoft Visual Basic APIs, HTML syntax, SQL Syntax. Now, how well one uses all these frameworks and tools to achieve the end-result determines the quality of the program/software. There are millions of ways to achieve an end result. Ranging from Brute force methods to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/27/mba-vs-programming-comparison/ Today, A pointed to me a rather interesting news. That Akshay Rangnekar, son of Mr.Ajit Rangnekar (Deputy Dean, ISB) got married in New Delhi Today. Both the Bride and Bride groom are stanford graduates. I wish them a successful married life. Nobody in ISB knew about this, atleast officially not circulated. http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/25/fashion/weddings/25sari.html “Radhika ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/25/marriage/ I am hearing all sorts of comments in ISB…of wide variety..because, people in ISB are diverse.. their aspirations are diverse…. I am going to apply to all companies…. I am in sabbatical, I can pick and choose the company instead of competing amidst such madness in the first 2 days of placment…. I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/24/what-i-do-i-want-to-do/ There is a substantial growth noticed in the number of GMAT takers outside US, which is coming from countries like India and for the schools like the Indian School of Business. “Through Oct. 31, total GMAT volume is up 3%, but only 0.2% in the U.S. v/s 9.3% outside US” ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/23/deadline-for-sending-gmat-extended/ N pointed to me a rather interesting ad in wednesday’s newspaper, in “Times Ascent” section. The ad goes like this… If a student wants to become… …a doctor he needs…a medical college… …a teacher he needs…a college of education & …a lawyer he needs…a law college. But if a student aspires to become a compassionate ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/22/vbse-value-based-spiritual-education/ Serious Preparations for placements have begun in ISB. Yesterday, Mr. Pramat Sinha, Principal, McKinsey & Company gave a gyaan session on how to convert interviews into job offers. The talk was a perfect reality check. Good wake-up call to people who haven’t started serious preparations for recruitment. This is it. Wait ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/20/begins/ Huh! It’s been 7 days since I blogged…I am breaking my own records here, definitely not for better!! Last week was busy with assignments and other activities. When people were pouring in to ISB from all parts of the country for Poseidon on Thursday evening, I left to chennai. My train ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/19/hibernation/ My team thoroughly enjoyed competing in LABYRINTH. Each and every clues were fun solving. Some clues we cracked in 20-30 minutes. Some clues we spent almost 2 hours! Some clues we couldn’t crack (Iridium Satellites!!). We had our final rounds today. The very first clue flummoxed us. But we simply bulldozered ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/12/labyrinth-what-a-finish/ Drank Beer for the First time in ISB today. I had tried Beer and Wine previously. Didn’t like, so left it. But today, I wanted to loosen up so badly that I decided to go to the Party thrown for alumns who have come to ISB for Solstice. After seeing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/10/beer/ I think I will get Class Participation marks in PRICING . In the last 4 days, within 10-15 mins of each class, Prof has managed to look towards me and say “Bharani, Can you say……why….what….how…blah?”. Then I go “Blah…Blah…Blah…Blah…”! Today in the beginning of the class, he said “Who ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/07/pricing/ Was awake for last 48 hours with just 2-3 hours sleep in between. Managed to complete 2 assignments, 1 Case Analysis, 1 negotiation analysis, 1 Text reading, 1 Consulting interview preparation, 1-2 hours resume stuff, 1-2 hours of focus group activities, and some more freebies Now, I will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/05/busy-again/ After Mumbai, it’s the turn of Chennai now…Yes, Chennai is heavily flooded! My home in chennai is slowly getting drowned in the flood!! Heavy rain - not appearing to stop in the near future and overflowing reservoirs are the culprits…Luckily, electricity is still not disconnected in my town, where ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/04/rainraingo-away/ Management Consulting jobs are the most sought after jobs in B-school. ISB is no exception. There are some souls in ISB who have been working day and night towards getting a job in McKinsey, BCG et al, since Day 1! One such Consulting Club member (Yashraj Erande, who also happens ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/03/effective-usage-of-blogs/ It’s just 3 days in to Term 6 and people are already running around with loads of assignments! I went to drop my PRICING assignment and I saw atleast 6-7 submission boxes, one for each subject!!!! Never seen such an army of submission boxes before…Wish I took my camera along! By ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/12/01/losing-interest/ 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… http://www.rediff.com http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/nov/29guest1.htm http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/29/biswajit-das-article-on-rediff/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/28/term-6-begins/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/24/dogs-frogs-and-tremors/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/22/take-homebut-dont-forget-to-return-back/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/17/courses-term-5/ 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 http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/16/won-bloggers-park-contest-iimi-indore/ 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 http://poseidon2005.blogsome.com/ http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/16/blog-for-poseidon-2005/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/16/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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/15/health-care-summit-isb/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/15/the-pain-of-take-away-exams/ 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. - ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/13/interview-calls/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/12/lifeis-an-open-book/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/08/here-comes-poseidon/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/08/placement-sessions/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/08/list-of-cxos/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/05/blogging-and-viral-marketing-part-ii/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/05/isb-round-1-applications-closed/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/03/why-why-now/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/11/01/happy-diwali/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/30/logo-for-prapanjam/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/29/a-new-blog-from-isb-new-dimension/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/29/blogging-and-viral-marketing-part-i/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/28/smooth-days/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/24/breaking-the-vicious-cycle/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/23/everybody-loves-a-good-draught/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/21/resolvequery/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/21/diary-21st-october-2005/ 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!! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/19/291/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/16/eve-of-2nd-innings-isb/ 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, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/14/iipmfalse-mask/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/10/diary-10th-october-2005/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/08/quad-party/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/07/half-baked/ “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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/06/whatever/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/06/are-you-kidding/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/05/mr-timothy-draper-on-campus/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/10/03/last-day-in-section-b/ We have a Presentation for PAEV (Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture) project tomorrow, where we have to present our ideas and defend our venture against 3 other teams who will act as potential investors..Sounds interesting…So to the story, We had to prepare a PPT. Myself, S and N started preparing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/30/koshiedkundoedand-mojoed/ At the risk of sounding pessimistic, I am writing my thought process that went through my brain after seeing the bidding results! “…I felt a stark loneliness surrounding me for a moment. Whoever came to my mind appeared selfish…including close friends…Whatever be the close bonding, when it comes to personal needs ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/28/strange-mind/ The ‘Elective Bidding process’ has engulfed the campus. There are all sorts of techniques, strategies, backstabbing, hiking up the price through rumours going on…I bid for 5 courses, out of which I got only one. Now, I am waitlisted in 4 courses…The course which I got is undersubscribed, so I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/28/wait-buddy/ Today’s MO class on “Innovation at Work” was rocking. Tina Dacin, the great professor from Queen’s conducted a small exercise in the class. She asked each study group to come up with a creative ways of improving the Neck-Tie. So all groups went crazy and came with all weird ideas. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/26/fly-in-the-urinal/ “Art of Faffing”, that’s what the subject Managing Organizations turning out to be. Consider the following: A stream of research done by McKinsey & Company consultants, HBS and SBS profs culminated in 7-S Framework. Conclusions: 1. There is no single best way to organize! 2. The ideal organization is one that is aligned ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/23/faff/ CAS organized a “Resume Workshop” today. A general gyaan on “Art of writing Business resume” was disseminated. 1. Recruiters expect the resume to have a strong “Managerial” flavour. Managerial functions like Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling should be emphasized. Managerial Roles like Interpersonal relationship, Information Dissemination, Decision making should be highlighted. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/20/resume-workshop/ Posted this in Yahoo groups…So, placing it my blog for reference… Let me type my long-winded answer (Thanks to the term-break that I am enjoying in my home). Seeing these kind of ‘attack’ mails brings back my memories of Application days. Even I was at times sarcastic/skeptical about few things while I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/20/shortcomings-isb/ http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/19/isb-intersection/ Yesterday went for Nagesh Kukunoor’s movie “Iqbal”. Inspirational movie. It’s about a village boy, dumb and deaf, making as a bowler into Indian team. The story spins around his life, the obstacles he faces and his determination. As I went without any expectations, the movie was a pleasant surprise for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/19/iqbal/ Recently a person has secured admission for ISB class of 2007(courtesy Yahoo groups)! ISB has introduced a rolling admissions for International students (includes indians holding foreign passport). I was totally stumped to see that admissions offers for next year is promptly under way so early. It makes me feel that ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/17/diary-17th-september-2005/ I slept blissfully till 12:45 that I missed morning classes. So attended sessions with other sections to get attendance and to acquire the missed learning. Today I had the privilege of attending Section C and Section D. I already attended a class with Section A during previous term. So I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/15/achievement/ We had 2 classes today - Managing Organizations & Investment Analysis. The Class dynamics was drastically contrasting. 8:30 a.m - Managing Organization. People come in and settle in their respective seats. Many faces still engulfed in sleep. Unusually, Professor comes in 5 minutes late. Apologises to the class and gets on ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/15/class-dynamics/ 8′0 clock in the evening. Constant humming sound of ceiling fan. Flickering light. Water flowing smoothly from the motorized mini-fountain on my desk. Sound of Crickets and frogs in the background. Course packs on the left side of my desk and Ben-Hur DVD on the right side of my desk. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/13/ssad/ Hope is a good thing. May be it is best of things. And no good thing ever dies… [Shawshank Redemption] I wonder why ISB library has considerable number of inspirational, motivational, philosophical films. It’s a good thing. Since the movies are purchased through student’s feedback, I wonder if students began rating ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/12/hope-is-a-good-thing/ Thanks to a colleague here for sharing the pictures of construction days of ISB. It’s amazing to see such a barren land as a beautiful campus today…Really wonderful! Student Village Class rooms Today, some of my chennai friends organized “Illayaraja nite”, where we relived melodious songs of yesteryears. They arranged all microphone, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/10/isb-vintage-photographs/ I am Internet Coordinator officially. Along with Ravi, I would coordinate ISB related communications happening through Internet. I see lot of work in upcoming months. Should be interesting though. Also, I have been given responsibility to cover ISB in Hindu, chennai. ISB has tried before but couldn’t succeed, let me ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/09/diary-9th-september-2005/ 1. Don’t give up on anybody, particularly people close to you. I didn’t believe he would change his behaviour. But boy, didn’t he prove me wrong…He has completely transformed, to my utter disbelief. I learned a lot from him. 2. You may be concerned about others. You may be really ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/06/notes-to-myself-2/ The term-break was worthwhile. I had a great time in my home with my family. I reached ISB by morning 7:45 and made it to classes at 08:30 a.m. Term 4 began with Managing Organizations and Investment analysis. After 4.5 months of quant-heavy subjects, it’s time for qualitative subjects. Apart ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/09/05/term-4-begins/ Pasting from Sumit Dhar’s blog Close your eyes and think of someone very close to you. Now imagine someone: - Piercing this person’s ears with hot rods- Puncturing this person’s eyes, gouging them out- Inflicting burns on his body using cigarettes- Breaking his bones and teeth- And after torturing him in this ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/31/horrors-of-warrequest-to-fellow-bloggers/ I did OK on both the exams today. I didn’t enjoy the Entrepreneurship examination though…First of all, it’s like essay writing. I hate writing pages on examinations [Not about thought flow, but about pain in writing]. Second, I was damn tired that I was yawning throughout the examination. Somehow scrapped ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/30/term-3behind-us/ Placed a timer on top of my web page. Not an act of counting the chickens before they are hatched…But a gentle reminder to myself that number of days in ISB is not perpetual…and that I have to make use of my investment much more prudently…Sort of self-psyche! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/29/self-psyche/ Today’s performance was way beyond my expectations. The minimum the preparation the better the examination experience . May be because of the “nothing to lose” attitude…2 down..2 to go! Many alums were mentioning that Term 3 is the toughest of all terms, due to the quality of subjects and quantity ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/29/2-down2-to-go/ Last 72 hours went in a flash. Exam time again! Average preparation. I just managed to scrap through as much materials as possible. Breadth is fine, but depth is lacking! I just want to see through 2 days of exams ]3+3+3+2.5 = 11.5 hours of examination!!]. Unlike previous terms, I managed ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/29/term-3-exams/ Yesterday Section-D had their T-shirt day. With that all the sections have celebrated their T-shirt days. Below are the human chain representing the section names. With approximately 90 students per section we have 4 sections this year. In future years ISB is planning to increase the strength to 550. By ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/25/t-shirt-days/ Today Mr.Rajeshwar Upadhyay who takes Leadership lessons, offered a simple exercise to the class. We had to write in sheets the name of the person whom we like and the reason why we like. It was good experience. I started writing comments about the people who were top-of-my-mind. But as ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/24/i-like-xxx-because/ ISB Admissions committee has created an email Id called “askastudent@isb.edu”, where prospective applicants can write to o current students and from this mail id the queries will be forwarded to the concerned student/s for an interaction/reply. Visit the following link, http://www.isb.edu/pgp/visit/Talk_to_Students.htm to know the profiles of students who will be ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/23/ask-a-student/ I like this Professor Ramakrishna Velamuri. First, he brings in Indian cases for analysis. Second, he invites people from the respective organization to the class. Third, he handles class participation well. This kind of approach is a win-win. Professor is exploiting his network and adding value to the class, which no ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/22/entrepreneurship-class/ 2 new ISB blogs. Prameet Kamat Girish Krishnan The weekend was an absolute bliss! [Sarcasm galore!] Where in the world can we get an oppurtunity to solve cases in 3 different subjects [Corporate Finance, Managerial Accounting, Operations Management]. And parallely come up with a Entrepreneurial Business plan and a write-up which would convince ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/21/more-isb-blogs/ Had classes for 6 hours today. Then a guest lecture for 1.5 hours. No matter how hard I try, it’s difficult to keep myself awake for the entire duration of the lecture. On top of this, there are loads of assignments and readings to be done. Actually, it’s gone beyond ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/17/diary-17th-august-2005/ For the past few weeks, the following words have been resonating in my mind. “Your choice is your only half chance…”. If you think about it, it captures the whole essence of life….Concisely and precisely… Life offers us choices throughout our journey. We are forced to make choices. The choices that ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/15/to-be-or-not-to-be/ August 7th - Friendship Day. I received quite some mails from my friends. The following mail really made me feel that life is so short…and we are growing older day by day than we can actually perceive…Everyone knows that life is short…but some moments emphasizes this thought. Enjoy your stay ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/13/life-is-short/ OM was ok. I don’t have high hopes. But I think the quality of questions was very good. Corporate Finance exam was a ’shocker’. Honestly speaking, there should be a re-examination. I expect a possibility of that happening…Some people left the examination hall in just 35 minutes…That sums up the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/12/diary-12th-august-2005/ Exams again…We have 2 mid-term examinations today.[Operations Management, Corporate Finance]. Exams every 2.5 weeks and assignments every week has been the life at ISB for past 3 months. I have done bare minimum preparation, just managed to skim through the materials. In Operations terminology, We need to increase our Throughput ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/12/exams-again/ We had a guest speaker for “Planning an Entrepreneurial Venture” course. Mr. Manish Sabherwal, CMD of Team Lease Services Pvt Ltd, India’s largest temporary staffing company. Manish started his professional career in 1990 with the Nagarjuna Group. Went to Wharton to do his MBA in 1994 and had a clear ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/10/intellectual-winetasting/ 1. Sometimes, things are not as bad you as you think. Don’t be harsh on yourself. 2. You appear much more confident than what you think or perceive. Mindset is the key. 3. Avoid temptations and distractions. Think about your long term goals, you will master the self-control and be focussed. 4. Only ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/07/notes-for-myself/ ISB is getting busier and gathering momentum as days progress. We have zillions of Speaker events and other activities in front of us. We are also in the process of deciding which electives to pursue, a job which needs much diligence. I am spreading my effort throughout next week to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/06/diary-6th-august-2005/ It’s been 4 days since I blogged! I don’t think I have missed blogging for 4 days from the time I started blogging…Anyway, there’s always a first time for everything. Also noticed from the right bar that number of postings last month was just 13! Hmm…. The subjects and professors in ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/08/03/diary-3rd-august-2005/ I am feeling much better after 2 days of rest. Yesterday, I even managed to participate in frisbee tournament. In the evening Dumb charades and a Tamil movie kept me busy. Tomorrow will be a busy day in ISB. Around 800 prospective applicants are expected to turn up for the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/30/800-expected-for-first-information-session/ With utter carelessness towards personal health, a form of sickness was inevitable. I was not feeling well for past 4 days. I thought I will get over it somehow. But somehow it happened that I ignored my body, ignored my sleep. Now I have severe mouth ulcers, bodyache and tiredness. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/28/241/ How did I begin Term 3? I overslept! yes, I missed my very first class of Term 3, just because I overslept!! Well, I don’t have any explanations other than a very conducive climate for sleep and possible sleep deprivation. From day 1 of Term 3, we have zillion readings ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/27/diary-july-27th-2005/ Term 2 break is coming to an end. We spent almost 2 full days in Competitive Strategy project. We did managed to submit the assignment on time. We did a decent job. It was not our best effort. We could have done lot better…but we ran out of energy after ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/24/term-2-break/ Exams are out and over. I felt comfortable while taking the examinations, with little confusion in concepts[Global Economics and DMO]. That feeling for me was a moral victory and I am not even bothering about what marks I will get, after 2-3 months of uncertain feeling in ISB. It’s amazing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/19/recount-on-subjects/ It’s been busy 3 days. Lots of studies and preparation. But the experience was much better than before, as I am already exposed to the conditions in Term 1. Tomorrow we have 2 exams. Global Economics and Competitive Strategy. Day after we have Marketing Decision making and Decision models and optimization. I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/18/25-mark-is-only-two-days-away/ It’s Exam time again. Everyone has gone back to their shell. But somehow I get a feeling that people are much prepared for exams than they did in Term 1. Many people are relying on groups for sharing the preparation load. Our group is doing a good job on that ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/16/exam-time-again/ Admissions Task force meeting had full attendance. Around 70 students turned up. The Admission committee showed us the presentation that will be shown to the prospective students in info sessions, in their forthcoming tour. The first impression was good. But there were areas of improvement, so we provided some feedback. Subsequently, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/12/birds-eye-view-of-self/ Term 2 has been very busy, but I have thoroughly enjoyed it. The courses this term were of relatively more practical relevance than those in Term 1. Global Economics is one subject which I like the most. Except for few relatively poor lectures/sessions, all other sessions in all courses had ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/10/term2-approaches-finish-line/ “In late fall 1974, Daniel Garrison, president and chief executive officer of Optical Distortion Inc (ODI) had asked Ronald Olson, marketing vice president, to develop marketing plan for ODI’s new and only product - a contact lens for chickens….” What the heck? Lens for Chicken!! But alas, we had to look ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/07/lens-for-chicken/ Dedicated effort, Excellent insights, Writing talent, clarity of thoughts and more… When all these are combined together in a single blog, it deserves nice publicity. Yes I am talking about my colleague’s blog Vijay - I the absolute. I am proud to be associated with this guy… To write so committedly and ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/05/i-the-absolute/ Educational videos and documentaries always have high respect in my heart. When such videos make complex subjects easy to understand and interesting to learn, it deserves publicity. One such documentary is “Commanding Heights - The battle for the world economy.” Classes 7-10 of Global Economics subject will build on the concepts ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/03/commanding-heights/ Diplomatic Disputes and healthy arguments in teams have the potential to generate lot of energy. Sometimes positive and sometimes negative…Today was one of those days, where my group witnessed both form of energies. We started our Markstrat ‘Strategic planning’ session yesterday evening 5:30 p.m. and we continued the session till today ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/07/02/a-likeable-energy-sucker-called-markstrat/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/29/le-tour-de/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/29/class-participation/ 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, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/28/textbooks-term-2/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/26/library-resources/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/24/markstrat/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/23/faculty/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/22/diary-21st-june-2005/ 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, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/21/crashed/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/20/lessons-learned/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/18/activities-in-abundance/ Couldn’t restrain from taking this test, posted by Ramki… The following are my results: What Personality type? What Famous Leader Are You?personality tests by similarminds.com What Classic movie are you? What Classic Movie Are You?personality tests by similarminds.com http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/16/what-personality-type/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/15/which-would-you-prefer-comfort-or-pain/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/14/term-2-begins/ Received my marks on Managerial Economics (Term 1). It was a disappointing score. Well, I expected this… Nothing much to write today… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/14/diary-14th-june-2005/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/12/formula-1-on-big-screen/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/11/cooling-off/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/09/term-break/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/08/term-1-summary/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/07/yahoooooooo/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/07/economics-and-accounting/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/05/row-hard/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/04/i-will-fight/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/03/27-complete/ 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 ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/02/siddharth-sinha-a-recount/ 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. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/06/02/towards-the-end-of-term-1/ Managed to wake up at 7:30 a.m. today. Huh! Today, we received the marks of our first mid-term examination in ISB (Statistics). Was not surprised to see my score…It was proportional to the effort that I put in…Hmm, I guess I got the exact average figure… Later in the evening, an ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/31/203/ It’s 4′o clock early morning…Should I go to sleep or continue waking up? If I go to sleep now, there is a high probability that I will not wake up for tomorrow’s class… Huh! I postponed the economics assignment for today evening and boy, didn’t it take the energy out of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/30/its-400-am-dude/ Today we had Cricket match between Section A and Section B. Guess what, Section B were the winners yet again!! The rules of cricket game are weird here but are sure fun… We play the cricket match inside basket ball court. It’s quite big. We play with tennis balls. Catches taken ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/28/double-dose/ :D…couldn’t restrain from blogging…So am back… Today’s thought…. Not only are there many ways to earn money, many ways to have fun, many ways to spend time..but there are many ways to learn. I can see whole lot of patterns in ‘learning’ in ISB. Some learn from books, some learn from ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/28/earn-to-learn/ I have so many things to write and so many updates to convey…but I don’t have equivalent amount of energy… I am excusing myself for 3 days…Hope others excuse me… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/27/excuse-me/ Not a pleasant day… Somedays back I was mentioning about an amazing presentation by Siddarth Sinha, Class of 2005. Today he is no more with us. A reality which I find it hard to take…May his soul rest in peace…In tribute to him, I am posting the link of his favourite ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/25/198/ Yesterday, I missed my first class in ISB! I forgot to set my alarm, and when I woke up, it was 8:25a.m. I could have reached the class before 8:30 a.m., but my sleepy presence would have been disgusting ..Luckily, there was no surprise quiz during that lecturre…I was ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/24/moment-of-momentum/ It was a fruitful weekend overall…Managed to complete considerable amount of work. Just submitted the Economics assignment and played some games of Table Tennis after that. My companions says that I have improved my game considerably..Sounds good! The upcoming week will be a crucial week. Should keep up with the academic ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/23/weekends-getting-busierisbians-coping-up-well/ I have nothing to do with the title..It’s just a general topic…The following is the thought process that went through my head today… Assume a cricket team like Indian cricket team. There are phenomenal players and once-in-a-century players like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag..and the list grows on…If you have ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/21/star-outside-fading-light-inside/ Huh! What a relief…The Statistics Mid-term is finally over. The question paper was very straight-forward with occasional twists..Easy paper if you have practiced well and absorbed the concepts well…Don’t ask how I fared My problem seems to be not paying enough attention to the questions/keywords..(the ones we used ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/20/first-examination-in-isb/ Two great professors, who brought life to the class and to the subject, are leaving home this week. We really enjoyed their presence…New professors are taking over the baton from tomorrow for Marketing and Business Statistics… This week the work pressure is bit high. What with loads of readings to do ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/17/diary-may-17-2005/ Since I couldn’t get hold of a copy of Microeconomics book from library, I decided to apply the knowledge and solve the problems using common sense. Voila, I was able to solve all the 5 problems and the amount of satisfaction and confidence that I received is enormous. Such exercises ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/15/busy-busy-days/ Atlast, a weekend really felt like a weekend. Our study group decided to go to city and have dinner. G is married and he joined us with his wife and kid. We went to Ohri’s Bunjara. Good restaurant..It was a stress-free evening…I purchased a Squash racquet. A model from Dunlop. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/14/b-group-rocks/ Marketing Management:Framework for Marketing Management Philip Kotler , 2nd Edition [Required] Managerial Economics: Recommended Books: “Microeconomics for Managers” by David Kreps “Microeconomics” - Pindyck and Rubinfeld Business Statistics: Basic Business Statistics (BBS): A Casebook by Dean P. Foster, Robert A. Stine, Richard P.Waterman. Sp ringer Verlag [Required] Business Analysis Using Regression (BAUR): A Casebook by Dean ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/12/text-books-for-term-1/ Learning 4 vastly different subjects, new concepts is interesting on one hand. On the other hand, it provides ample confusion while switching from one subject to another.. Talk about grades, I have decided to leave the competition to others. So, much pressure goes away and I am little bit relaxed now-a-days..Spending ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/12/diary-11th-may-2005/ The weekend was busier than the weekdays! A marketing case study and an economics assignments took centre-stage for past 72 hours. The marketing case study was on Gillette Indonesia and its plan to penetrate and develop the blade market. It was interesting to read the case. It was easy to come ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/09/diary-9th-march-2005/ Yesterday, Prof. Amit Bubna was mentioning about the importance of precise usage of terms. I agree with him 100%. Many a times, I have seen people confusing terms and using jargons in a generic fashion. This is more a Indian mindset. They think of a concept but use different terms ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/05/why-y-bar-and-not-x-bar/ Yesterday while playing volleyball, twisted my ankle badly. It hurts heavily while walking. Got to show some prudence while playing, instead of going all out…It will be a week before I can run… Before coming to B-school, Marketing was one subject I liked least. Not that it’s such a bad subject, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/04/diary-4th-may-2005/ The Apprentice 3 is heading towards a grand finale. Two out of 3 remaining candidates are in my prediction list. Craig and Kendra..Not bad! Some new lessons learnt in Apprentice.. Involve Customers for Sales success Managing Emotions in Workplace Making Effective Presentations Getting Buy-in from your team Utilizing Focus Groups http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/03/my-prediction-is-still-on/ A special day, First class, First day in First Term of ISB. Great moment to see the names of all the section mates neatly and largely written on nameplates. Managerial Economics was taken by Prof. Amit Bubna. He is a pretty young professor, so he easily builds rapport with students. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/02/the-ride-has-begun/ We had a “Talent Night” yesterday, showcasing the talents of the class of 2006. Variety of events were organized like Dances, Songs, Skits, Lifestyle show(read fashion show), Kid’s fashion show, Poetry, Monoacting, Photographic talent display etc., Hats off to the guys who put up such a fantastic show in such ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/05/01/diary-1st-may-2005/ I had my Group Dynamics Session today. Two study groups were asked to discuss together on a topic given. The entire discussion was video recorded and reviewed back. The analysis and observations from the video were helpful to an extent. We need to have more of such sessions to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/29/diary-29th-april-2005/ I had my team-building activity today. It was conducted by a Professional group from Hyderabad. They split around 80 odd people into batches of 9. Each batch was asked to undergo 3 activities. It was a great fun, and helped us to know more about each other. There was an ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/28/team-building/ Found another blog…Boy o boy…this is getting interesting…blogging is definitely becoming a dominating media!!! Happy to see lot of bloggers in ISB.. www.livejournal.com/users/nishnt UPDATE: Ramkumar sent me his blog address. http://ramsabode.blogspot.com/ http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/27/another-one/ One of the ISB’s flagship course, as part of PGP, is the Leadership Development Programme [shortly called as LDP]. LDP spans 3 terms and will cover all aspects of soft skills like Personality analysis, Listening, Group Dynamics, Presentation Skills, Meeting skills etc., The group discussions will be recorded in video ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/26/diary-26th-april-2005/ The second and final batch of students have registered to ISB. The total number of students this year is around 340. Large number! I went to Punjakutta, a nearby city on Saturday along with 3 other friends. It’s a decent shopping center and everything is available there. I purchased some stationeries ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/24/diary-25th-april-2004/ Accounting Pre-terms have come to an end. I really liked the subject. The professor was excellent, knowledgeable and very passionate in teaching. Played volleyball for sometime in the evening. People have already started forming groups. The groups are mainly based on some relevance like same company, same college, same place etc., ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/22/diary-22nd-april-2005/ One more ISB Blog.. http://isbdays.blogspot.com/ http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/21/yet-another-blog/ Blogstree India has listed my site as the “Blog of the day” http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/21/blog-of-the-day/ The pre-term in Introductory Accounting is very interesting and addictive. We have been given some homeworks in pre-term too!! Well, lots and lots of questions and doubts in mind..If I take the book, and search for explanations it might take years to find answers..So, I sought the help of my ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/20/diary-20th-april-2005/ I found this blog while searching for ISB blogs..Nice one.. http://autography.blogspot.com/ http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/20/one-more-blog/ On Sunday, towards the end of Savita Mahajan’s Q&A Session, one good friend asked “Ma’am, is the water from taps drinkable?” Asst. Dean replies “Yes, absolutely. We have our own water purification and filtering plants. The water you get in the taps is equivalent to mineral water.” The student replies “On all ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/19/first-pre-term-class/ We had our first of the “Introductions” from ISB on Sunday. Savita Mahajan gave a brief introduction about Pre-terms and finally answered all questions posed by students. The questions were mainly focussed on placements, food and infrastructure. So far 373 students have paid the 1-lakh deposit and enrolled into the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/17/pre-term-introduction/ Blogging from ISB, from my room. A wonderful feeling that cannot be described through words Am officially part of ISB now!!! Reached ISB on 15th of April noon. The Air-deccan travel was quite smooth. It was a no-frills aircraft, so no complaints on facilities. I had to pay for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/17/isb/ Today morning we received a phone call from my brother who is staying in a rented house in other end of chennai. He had badly twisted his shoulder and couldn’t move an inch and was suffering from extreme pain. He had his shoulder dislocated many times in the past and ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/14/diary-14th-april-2005/ A fellow ISBian has started a photo-blog. He will upload pictures of ISB, seen through his eyes, in a regular basis. An effort different from other regular and conventional ISB bloggers. Good luck to you ISBinPic (Hope you disclose your identity to me when we meet in ISB!) http://isbinpics.blogspot.com http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/13/isb-in-pics/ Just noticed that Gmail has offered 2 GB of storage space to many users. Interesting thing is the storage limit is increasing like a super-fast ticker in the login-page of Gmail. It’s like interest accumulating on a Fixed deposit. Cool! I have 2087 MB of storage space…I guess I will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/13/gmail-now-offers-2gb/ The ISB official placement reports are out. The placements this year has been phenomenal. But still the placement reports are not that detailed as I expected. Hoping to get a more detailed statistics once I join ISB. Some links on Placement reports on ISB’05: “ISB graduate bags Rs 80-lakh job!” “Global biggies ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/11/isb-placement-reports/ Days are moving in fast pace. Even though I am not doing many things, I am finding myself busy. I co-ordinated an ISB students meet last Saturday. Around 20 people turned up, including recently graudated ISB students. It was a relatively sobre meeting. Interactions were mainly one-to-one. Prithvi was pretty ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/11/diary-10th-april-2005/ Got this link from Ashish Blog. Based on my answers, the site says that I am a Life blogger..Very true… You Are a Life Blogger! Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And make it as entertaining as possible. What kind of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/05/what-kind-of-blogger-i-am/ Purchased a Blazer yesterday. It’s a two-button, royal blue blazer from Raymonds priced at Rs. 3,100 (after 25% discount). I will be using it only on a very few occasions. I need to buy a white and cream formal shirts to match the blazer. Color of blazer. Also bought couple of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/05/diary-5th-april-2005/ Today a close relative of mine made a surprise visit to my home. Unfortunately, I had an appointment to meet the ISB admits around 11:30 a.m at Saravana bhavan hotel. If I have to make it to the location at the mentioned time, I have to leave my home by ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/04/02/diary-2nd-april-2005/ For the past 1 week, I am receiving many calls from my relatives and old friends. I conveyed to each of them about my plans to pursue MBA education in ISB. Unfortunately none of them knew about ISB, which is quite understandable because of its relatively new entry into the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/31/diary-31st-march-2005/ One of my aunt (quite elderly) is going to Muscat to visit his son living there. She will be there for 6 months and this is her first abroad trip. Visited her on Sunday and wished her. In order to not waste my valuable trip to chennai city, I purchased ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/29/diary-29th-march-2005/ Atlast I am back in India, enjoying good-old home conditions..Weather is the biggest change. Hyderabad will be worser than this!! Have been sleeping, eating mom’s food, watching cricket and chatting for past 2 days..Will be same till sunday..From monday, I will start networking with admitted students in chennai, purchase dresses, order ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/26/back-in-india/ The last day in J&J, Belgium was very memorable one. I received lot of well-wishes and I need those . There were some emotions going on within me, but I prevailed over them. It’s always tough to say good-bye…Well, Now I can proudly say that I have ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/23/bye-bye-belgium/ Today I gave farewell lunch to my colleagues. The Lunch was good. The restaurant was surprisingly quiet today and it provided a isolated environment for us.. My colleagues presented me a nice Executive bag. A very thoughtful gift and I will need it in my B-school and in my job ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/21/farewell-lunch/ The weekend was one of the best weekends I have ever had in my life! The weekend began with a trip to Zeeland. All 40 people turned up for the team-event. The Bus departed exactly at 9:00 a.m. I was surprised to see a heavy breakfast as against the promised ‘light’ ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/21/zeeland-a-trip-to-cherish/ The client team has organized a team-event for next 2 days. All of us [around 30 people] are going to a place called Zeeland, Nederlands. It’s close to the beach. Well-known for water adventures. The stay has been arranged in a hotel. The transportation will be by bus. The actual ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/17/team-event/ Each and every time I interact with kids, I love the experience..Yesterday my colleague brought her kids to office. A 3 year old girl and 8 months old boy. They were such a dolls. Cute looking. The little girl was not reacting to anyone. I tried to interact with her ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/16/diary-march-16th-2005/ Nothing much happening. Just enjoying my final programming days and days in Belgium. Blogsome is giving me jitters…My blog was down for most of the day..What’s strange is that only few users of blogsome were affected and I happened to be in that lot . If something happens to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/15/will-i-lose-this-blog/ For past few days, the visitor count per day has been increasing. Most of the hits are coming from Google Search and Technorati (Blog search engine). I just went to Technorati Search Engine and searched for “MBA”..Mua came in the top search results! But this keeps changing as and when new ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/14/gaining-visibility/ Today I received the settlement figures from my company. I was greatly surprised to see a considerable settlement amount. I was grudging on ISB not sending out scholarships for overseas applicants, but this amount from my company has more than compensated. For personal reasons, I am not disclosing the exact ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/14/yippee/ He..He..3rd post of the day! Well, Just saw the Apprentice - 3, Episode 8. This week’s task was to produce a live music auction for FUSE TV to benefit The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatrics AIDS Foundation. Each team would be randomly given five of the biggest artists in the music industry. They ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/13/apprentice-3-episode-8/ 5 days ago, I said that the blog count stands at 5 (including me). Now the blog count has risen up to 14!! WOW! simply Wow! There are 2-3 people who are planning to start blog effective April 16th..This is just to my knowledge. I am not sure how many ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/13/holycow/ ISB has published lot of details in the Admitted students section. The details like date of arrival, pick-up details, directions, Meal options, Terms and associated subjects, faculty list, books to buy are provided. A self-assessment questionnaire is provided for evaluating the need for pre-term. Will take it up. I will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/13/diary-march-13th-2005/ I am planning to blog the career related research, for IT+MBA. I will update this as a series under the tag “Careers” . To start with I am presenting the link for career possibilities in Microsoft-India.. Microsoft India provides five major Business paths to choose from. They are India ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/12/careers-microsoft/ The Permanent return syndrome has engulfed me. I am seeing each and every object in home, office and my town in Belgium with so much affection that I have never displayed before. As If I am going to space and I will never return! Yesterday, I pooled in all the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/11/surprise/ There is only one thing in the world which when spent cannot be regained. It’s “Time“. The Time becomes even more important when one shells out loads of money towards one’s personal and professional enrichment, like in B-school. Inspite of one’s intellectual capacity, talents, the success in any ventures in ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/10/time-management/ When it comes to English songs, I am a lost kid. I have decent collection of English songs, but rarely have listened to them fully. My first preference is always for Tamil Film music [A.R.R and Illayaraja], Hindi Music, Carnatic and then comes English and others..Needing a change from Tamil ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/09/songs/ Good news for future applicants of ISB…The number of bloggers among admitted ISBians is on the rise. I have already identified 3 potential bloggers. Today I discovered one more. “I think therefore I exist”. Including me (humility…ahem), the count stands at 5. The more the bloggers, the better for the school. Also, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/08/blogs-of-isb-2005-06/ Today I was in a pretty good mood throughout the day..Got lot of things done..My boss agreed to credit my salary for this month and final settlements before March 15th..He has been very prompt towards these things in the recent times..I highly appreciate it… I haven’t received the tax returns for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/07/diary-march-7th-2005/ Came across this good article about Case Studies and steps to analyse a case study…Will be helpful for potential MBA grads.. “..Little can be learned from a case without preparing it carefully and discussing it with others. Cases are not designed to present you with a right answer which you can ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/06/a-model-for-case-analysis-and-problem-solving/ I watched Apprentice -3, Episode 7 today. This week’s task was to build a minature golf course and manage the business for one day. The team that makes the most money wins. Audrey led the street smarts (Networth) and Stephanie led the Book smarts (Magna). Street smarts lost the task ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/06/apprentice-3-episode-7/ I went to Antwerp for doing some window-shopping. It’s been a long time since I visited the electronics super market [Media market]. Lot of new products have arrived. It’s amazing to see the technological growth that’s happening now-a-days. No matter how latest you buy your product, it’s going to be ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/05/diary-march-5th-2005/ I had my Driving test in Belgium today. The test comprised of 2 parts. A Manoeuver part and On-the-road part. The Manoeuver part consisted of parking in between two vehicles in reverse, Coming out of garage, Turning back in a narrow road, Passing through a narrow passage in reverse. I ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/04/failed/ I received my reference letter from Client Director. He was pretty happy to give me the letter and wished me success. I will be getting the reference letter from my boss next week. I collected some links for Pre-MBA. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go through any of these websites, as I have ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/02/diary-march-2nd-2005/ Round 2 Admission results for ISB are announced. Some made it, some didn’t. Some of the candidates I bet on didn’t make it too. The competition this year was tougher than previous years, even more so in Round 2. The general opinion is that the profiles of R2 Applications were ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/03/01/isb-admissions/ “News from India : of positive action, steely endeavour and quiet triumphs ~ news that is little known ” http://www.goodnewsindia.com/homepage.php Came across his wonderful website from Chakkarapani’s Post. “…It is a site run by a one-man-army - a 63 year old Shri D V Sridharan, whose mission is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/28/good-news-india/ Somedays back I took the personality type tests. One among them is the famous “MBTI Personality type test” [Myers Briggs Type Indicator]. Most of the B-schools makes students to go through this test and make them understand their personality type and help them to fine tune themselves. This helps ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/27/personality-types/ Yesterday, I downloaded Apprentice - 3, Episode 6 and watched. This week’s task was to create an ad for a new PlayStation 2 video game called Gran Turismo 4, a racing game. Each team was given a bare 20 foot wall and a graffiti art conveying the ad had to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/26/diary-feb-26th-2005/ I must say about the Tool called LinkedIn. It’s a social networking tool. It’s a network of “TRUSTED” connections. Put in short “It’s a online service helping professionals find and connect with one another more effectively”. You can invite your close colleagues to be part of linkedIn and be ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/25/linkedin/ Looks like Economic Times has published an article covering a glimpse of ISB Placements. Detailed reports are expected to arrive by March end. You can find the scanned copy of the paper clip here.. I couldn’t find a online version of this news. Initially, I was apprehensive about publishing ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/24/isb-placements-2004-2005-a-first-report/ I have been living and breathing in yahoo groups for past 1 month. I have decided to take a break as I feel I am becoming addicted to the forum! I managed to complete some tasks. I bought some gifts for my recommenders and cards as well. I have completed the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/23/diary-feb-23rd-2005/ “..Some of the biggest names in IT are heading towards Bangalore once more, but now it’s the brightest minds they seek - not cheap labour..” http://www.newscientist.com/special/india The website NewScientist .com has dedicated a special section focussing on India. Read on..Thanks Rohit Khanna. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/22/india-the-next-knowledge-superpower/ Yesterday, I got my hands to Swades DVD through one of my friend here. I am glad I saw the movie. My first impression was “A movie well made”. But I hope Ashutosh Gowarikar’s movie doesn’t bring all NRI’s back to India thereby stopping all the forex income for Indian ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/21/swades/ Today I received some information in the yahoo groups regarding the Food expenses in ISB.. “..The food charges at ISB are as follows. You will be charges @ Rs. 55 for breakfast, Rs.86 for lunch and same amount for dinner plus taxes if you take buffet meals. This implies the total cost will be ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/20/isb-food-expenses/ ISB has partnered with local dealer in hyderabad for Laptops, and offering the incoming students the options provided below.The Models are IBM Thinkpad. The prices are one of the lowest offered anywhere in India, or Singapore. Nice effort from Indian School of Business. Many students are now thinking to buy ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/19/laptops-for-isb/ The loneliness is slowly killing me…The enthusiasm on the work front is rapidly decreasing as the project is almost complete. I have planned so many things and still they are not executed. Hoping to see off many things in the weekend. Need to buy some gift to my recommenders. Have ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/19/diary-feb-18th-2005/ Foreign placements from IIMs surge 600% “…Students at IIM-A and IIM-C were offered a total of 32 foreign placements in countries like US, European Union, Hong Kong, Singapore and mid-East this year as against a total foreign placement of just five last year. Additionally, the pay-cheque being offered this year is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/17/placement-figures-of-iims/ Two days back, I had a duel with my driving instructor, due to his wrong instructions which almost led us to accident. I very clearly heard from him to go straight while we were waiting for a green signal. When the green signal came and I went straight ahead, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/17/conflict-resolution/ Somedays back, I received the link from one of my friend. Digital South Asia Library. “…The Hensley Collection is comprised of photographs taken during World War II by an American serviceman, Glenn S. Hensley. The photographs, numbering almost 600, were given to the University of Chicago Library by the photographer. The ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/16/taj-mahal-1944/ http://mbaideas.blogspot.com/2005/02/great-debate-is-settled.html. Read on and you will find answers to many of your questions… “..The debate is settled at least for me . I have finally been able to gather some of my thoughts for this post. I guess I need to start from the beginning Criteria for admit into ISB 1. Reasonably ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/16/a-visit-to-isb-insights-from-an-admitted-student/ Somedays back, a current Student, Tahseen Jamal of ISB ‘05, presented the following Analogy. y = mx y = e^x He used this to emphasize the importance of MBA in one’s career. While y=mx represents a linear growth without MBA, y=e^x represents an exponential growth. What he effectively means is that MBA provides ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/15/mba-exponential-growth/ “Easy on your break..Easy on your pedal..Go to 4th gear now..Look over your shoulders…Don’t ride on your pedals…Watch for pedestrians from your right..”. Typical instructions that any instructor from driving school would give. When I went back to start off my remaining lessons, I found that the previous instructor has ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/14/diary-feb-14th-2005/ Pasting this link from Sumit Dhar’sblog. http://sumitdhar.blogspot.com/2005/02/tech-job-opportunities.html. For all the techies out there, awesome job opportunities at the Technology Division of a top US based Financial Services Company. I can personally vouch for the opportunity and the company. If your resume matches the details given below and you are willing to relocate ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/13/tech-job-opportunities/ It’s scary to think that I will not be earning for the next one year. My heart will find it tough to believe that salary will not be credited at the beginning of each month. I might send even a reminder note to my boss asking him to credit the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/12/back-to-school/ Today was one of those days, when my patience was challenged, when things didn’t go as expected. I had many problems to address and many holes to fill in the workfront. The first task that I picked for the day, happend to be a time-consuming job. After doing all the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/11/bad-start-good-finish/ So far 70+ Round 1 Admits have introduced themselves. The diversity in profiles is quite amazing (age, education, work experience, hobbies etc.,). To get an idea of the diversity, have a look at some of the professions of R1 admits. “Aerospace Engineer, Marine Engineer, Pilot, Doctor, Structural Engineer, Oilfield Services, IT ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/10/isb-diversity/ ISB - Budget Tuition Fees 12,40,000 Living Expense Accommodation 1,08,000 Food 1,00,000 Security Deposit 15,000 Others Pre-term 4,000 Alumni Fees 7,000 Personal Expenses Books & stationery 10,000 Travel 5,000 Telephone ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/09/isb-expenses/ I stumbled upon this funny link today. The person has made some research tools using Google API. Some of the tools are worth trying. For example “PageBoost” displays a computer generated “Review” for your website based on the contents, links, colour scheme etc., Here’s the review for my blog ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/09/funny-tools/ Yesterday I was reading “Ask yahoo” section and came across an interesting question. “What are the communication code words for the letters of the alphabet (e.g., C=Charlie, V=Victor, T=Tango, etc.)?” In answer to the question, the website mentions about “Alpha Bravo Charlie” code used by NATO (that we witness in hollywood films ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/08/spell-your-name/ Raja Banerjee, ISB Class of 2005, gives an account of first 2 weeks of ISB such as Registration, Orientation, knowing your pals etc., The ISB Experience: Day 0: Registration: You get a jute bag with ISB logo, filled with brochures, telephone instructions, class schedules, ID cards and a planner. The planner will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/07/isb-experience/ “…Weighing more than 100 pounds, Flint’s camera captures images at 4 gigapixels — a resolution high enough to photograph four football fields and capture every single blade of grass. When printed at maximum resolution, the images are as big as billboards, but render the finest detail…. A photograph of a San ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/07/gigapixel-camera/ Apprentice 3 has begun. 3 Episodes are already over. This season has been tagged as “Street smarts Vs Book smarts”. Somehow most of the people get a feeling that Street smarts are real smarts. Well, I’ll tell you, Street-smart being a book-smart is the deadliest combination. Some of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/06/apprentice-3/ Today, I was chatting with my father. During the conversation, he became silent. I didn’t hear any voice from him. Then he started speaking. He said he remembered about his tough childhood days. My grandfather (Father of my father) is such irresponsible person (Even today, no one in my ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/05/diary-feb-5-2005/ Have a look at the high-resolution Image of ISB entrance. You can clearly see the student villages on either side. Infact it is the blown-up pic of the image I have at the top of my site. The Original Image http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/05/isb-hi-resolution-image/ An alumnus shares some thoughts on how to successfully tackle the admissions interview at the Indian School of Business. “…Have a long term plan laid out for your career, and try to connect your work experience & need for an MBA with this long term plan. This communicates that you ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/04/isb-interview-dos-and-donts/ Today I received the information CD for admitted students, from Indian School of Business. The Disc contains lot of videos featuring current students. The students are representatives of various clubs and activities in ISB. Most of the students had excellent english skills. I believe they took conscious effort to present ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/03/isb-information-cd/ As my days in Belgium draws close to an end, I thought I would record my experiences here in my blog. I landed in Belgium on February 8, 2002. I came here along with Vasanth. 2 weeks later, Later Jeeva joined us. This was my first abroad trip. So the whole ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/03/days-in-belgium/ During my stay in Belgium, I came to know about the flourishing diamond business in Belgium, especially, in Antwerp, the hub of Diamong cutting & Polishing. Historically, Belgium and Isreal are considered the kings of the “Large stones processing”. But In the last two decades, Indians are dominating the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/02/diamond-industry-indians/ A description of Catering in ISB by a current student. Foodie to foodie- it doesn’t get better than this! Food is something you will definitely /not/ have to crib about at ISB (Oh well, till post-placement boredom sets in at least)! The average price per meal /depends/ on the meal plan you opt for. You could ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/02/01/food-in-isb/ Yesterday I talked with couple of ISB alumnis situated overseas. It was insightful talk. During the conversation, I came to know that some of the students received sign-on bonus. Some even pursuaded the companies to pay the interest for the loans! Proof of Negotiation skills!! Now, my doubt. Does ISB consider ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/31/alumni-talk-summary/ Some of the admitted students have already received the information CD from Indian School of business. One of them was kind enough to upload the Faculty list for the first 4 “Core-terms“. Term 1 & 2 Term 3&4 Impressive! That’s the only word I can say now. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/31/faculty-list-2005-06/ I scheduled my lessons with Driving school yesterday. Following is the tentative schedule: Feb 14 15:00-17:00 Feb 15 15:00-17:00 Feb 17 12:00-14:00 Feb 21 15:00-17:00 Feb 22 15:00-17:00 Mar 01 08:00-10:00 Mar 04 10:15-12:15 Mar 04 12:15-02:15 [Practical Examination] Looks pretty much tight schedule..The success rate is less than 50% here in Belgium. Many people pull it off only ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/29/driving-licence/ I have started working out Hindu Crosswords for past 3 weeks. I can honestly say, it is very effective and educative hobby. You get to enhance your English vocabulary, learn new facts, places, personalities etc., Solving Hindu Crossword is two part. First you have to straighten the cryptic clue. Once ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/28/solving-hindu-crosswords-in-pc/ I sent the DD from my bank to ISB some days back. Today I called up the admission committee and they haven’t received anything yet. Looks like postals were not delivered on Tuesday due to some local holiday and yesterday was republic day. So I am expecting the DD to ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/27/confirmation-payment/ Yesterday was rather ordinary day. Inspite of my efforts to cheer myself up, I ended up dull. Lessons learnt: 1. Don’t talk rubbish, even if you want to do it intentionally. 2. Generally I don’t like listeners constantly sidetracking from the main issue. I can bear it to some extent. But not perpetually. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/27/diary-jan-26-2005/ Yesterday, I was browsing through the list of Faculty (visiting & permanent) of Indian School of Business. The list is quite impressive. Following are the list of schools from which professors visit ISB to deliver the course. Wharton School of Management Kellogg School of Management Columbia Business School Carlson School of Management Anderson School, UCLA Stern ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/26/isb-faculty/ Google is unleashing yet another creative idea. Search on Videos. Read the full story to find what inspired this venture. http://video.google.com http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/25/google-video/ The following article & images from Rediff.com made my day. I salute these little bravehearts. No wonder they will be paraded in caparisoned elephants. They deserve it and the national attention they receive, will provide a never-ending supply of energy and motivation to succeed in their lives. http://specials.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/25sld.htm http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/25/touching-stories/ I was reading the Business Week insider article, summarizing the interview with Stephen Chambers, Oxford. Here’s the final question thrown to him.. How do U.S. students like Oxford? A: What they tend to rave about is twofold. This bsiness school is a department of a major university, so you can associate with ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/25/bow-tie-for-exams/ I was browsing through isp-pgp-04 yahoogroups and stumbled upon the following post. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/24/tips-for-waitlisted-candidates/ Last year, my company sponsored me the cost for acquiring a Belgian Driving Licence and the associated training costs. To start off with, I prepared for the Theory examination in April and successfully cleared it. The Theory exam comprises of 40 multiple-choice questions. One needs to get a minimum of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/24/driving-lessons/ I have wondered many a times about what life has in store for us. It’s fascinating to think about the future that lies ahead. I love meeting up with as many people as possible and learn interesting things, hear amazing stories, grasp wonderful hobbies and so on. It’s how much ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/24/learnings-in-life/ While I was browsing the net, I stumbled upon this link..Thought It would be relevant to post it here http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2001/rdec2001/02122001/r021220011.html December 2001. - Inauguration speech given by Prime Minister Mr.Vajpayee “India is becoming a ” Young Nation” in a literal sense of the word. In twenty years from now, as many as ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/21/speech-at-isb-inauguration-down-the-memory-lane/ After seeing ebloggy crash 3 times in less than 3 months, I decided to look for stable options. I am glad that I stumbled upon “Wordpress” and “blogsome”. Wordpress is the hot topic in blogging community. State-of-the-art. The Administration interface is one of the best and exhaustive I have ever ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/20/testing/ I had certain questions regarding Class-Participation in “Indian School of Business”. “I came across the concept of “Class Participation” and the marks awarded for it, in the blogs of Raja and Sujayath. How does Class Participation work? Is it just asking some relevant questions and answering the questions of professors? or one ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/20/class-participation-explained/ Dear Mr Viswanathan, Congratulations! You have been selected to the ISB’s one year Post Graduate Programme in Management beginning on April 15, 2005. We are excited ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/14/i-am-in/ I have been going to bed at 12:30 a.m and getting up at 7:00 a.m for the past 4 days. That’s 6-and-half hours of sleep. I am in office at 8:30-9:00. Slowly but steadily I am working towards “6 hours sleep”. On the lighter note, 8 hours of sleep is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/13/improvement/ I had a very great weekend. Completely relaxed. Didn’t do anything apart from cooking, eating, sleeping, fitness and watching movies. I initiated the download of “Tom and Jerry - Complete Collection (William Hanna and Joseph Barbera)”, some days ago. The download completed on Friday night. Total of 7 GB!! 10 Cd’s. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/10/good-time/ I went through my whole application package yesterday. I have good academic credentials (on par with ISB standards). Good GMAT score(710). Strong essays. I spent nearly 20-25 days in essays (includes first-drafting, reviewing, polishing etc.,). I feel my essays have come out really well and conveys my candidacy strongly. Also, ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/09/anxiety-put-to-rest/ http://onmarinasandsinfullmoon.blogspot.com/2005/01/interview-prep-again.html A student from previous class (of 2004) has written us a wonderful mail today. THANKS for his support. I am sharing it because it may help some of you folks preping for ISB interviews. Here it goes: ———————- Dear Class of 2005, It is that time of the year when ISB campus ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/08/an-excellent-post-from-isb-alum/ There was an useful information shared in ISB’05 yahoo groups. Thanks Rohit Sharma. http://www.coolavenues.com/mbasp/qa_isb01.php3 The above link summarizes all statistics about ISB. The following piece of information caught my attention. Program Admission Statistics Number of students applying: 2500 Number called for interview: 600 Number selected: Shortlisting done of about 250 persons Numbers finally admitted: 219 students That’s ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/08/admission-statistics-isb-04/ During the past 6 months, I have developed a bad habit. Waking up pretty late in the morning [8:00-9:00]. Somedays I am in the office at 9:00 and other days I am in at 10:00. Not good. If I have taken a resolution this year, it is to manage with ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/07/fighting-with-laziness/ I called up exactly at the suggested time. A male voice answered the phone. I introduced myself. Then he introduced himself as an Alum working for Microsoft and Manager(Admissions) introduced herself. The following were the questions that were thrown at me: 1. Tell us about yourself which you haven’t mentioned in the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/04/my-interview-experience/ Just completed my ISB interview. Till now, I was pretty confident about making into ISB. But after attending the interview, I feel it’s going to be 50-50. I will update more on my interview experience soon.. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/04/topsy-turvy/ I was going through the Businessweek “MBA Insider” and came across the following experiences of ISB applicants. Would be useful for other potential overseas applicants. Comments from Student 1: School: Indian School of Business (Hyderabad, India) Scheduling the interview: I was emailed a date and time. Location of interview: Telephone interview. Preparedness ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2005/01/03/recounting-experiences-telephonic-interview/ I finally received a appointment for a telephonic interview with ISB Admission committee. The interview is scheduled on January 4th [7:30-8:15 a.m local time Belgium]. I need to make a call to the admission committee! Some people may laugh at this. But this is me. I was planning to buy a ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/30/invited-for-interview/ Nothing much happening these days..Joined the fitness centre again for 3 months. Working hard for project completion [Jan 15th deadline]. In between, I became heavily upset by the destruction caused by the Tsunami waves. Sad to hear again that the human losses could have been minimised had the warning systems were ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/27/slow-pace/ Yesterday I finally got my hands on the product that I was longing for. Purchased iRiver H320 through a friend from America. It’s an amazing product filled with loads of features. When I opened the pack, I was surprised by the size of the product. I had imagined that it ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/23/my-precious/ The following tip was provided by Sumit Dhar [A Current ISB Student]. I was checking the blogs of a few prospective ISB students and found them all populated with posts about interview preparation and stuff. Well, here is a framework that will help the prospective students answer all work related questions ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/21/interview-tip-from-current-student/ Career Descriptions. The following webpage from www.mba.com neatly describes all the possible industry functions and career paths. It’s good to know about each and every role. Very informative. I learnt quite a few things about advertising, supply chain management, logistics, production planning, brand consulting, research, etc., PS: You will find a section ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/18/career-descriptions/ Yesterday, the great south Indian carnatic artist M.S. Subbulakshmi died peacefully in her sleep in a hosptial in chennai. Her achievements are amazing. She is even conferred with Bharat Ratna. Profile in brief “Born in Madurai in southern Tamil Nadu state on September-16, 1916, Subbulakshmi learned classical music from her mother and ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/14/mssubbulakshmi-became-immortal/ Lessons from Apprentice2 I haven’t missed an episode of Apprentice [1 & 2] so far. Appretice 1 was a great success. Apprentice 2 is currently underway and had created huge expectations in the beginning of the show. But lot of people are disappointed with final candidates, especially with Jennifer M, as ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/14/lessons-from-apprentice2/ I read the following post in Ramki’s blog in October 2003. I thought it would be worthwhile to read it again. So I am posting the link to that post for my personal reference here. I guarantee it would be provide good insight on ISB. The Big Post expressing an honest ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/12/an-excellent-post-from-ramkis-blog/ MadeforISB today presented a list of Big-Don’ts [Big Don’ts: 15 Ways to Torpedo Your Application]. There were some Big Do’s as well..I am listing it here to complement his blog .. Big Do’s for the B-school essay 1. Communicate that you’re a proactive, can-do sort of person. Leaders take initiative ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/11/big-dos-for-the-b-school-essay/ Yesterday, my brother who is working in a BPO industry, was providing support for a Windows XP customer. He started with his career only 2 months back. To get such a feedback from a customer is quite something..Am proud of my brother. The following feedback throws light on the life ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/10/customer-feedback/ Tips on Applications [Raja Banerjee]: Part - I 1. Please stick to one-page resume 2. Devote more space in resume to work experience than education. 3. Get recommendations preferably from work place, not educational institute. Also, request recommender to write more than just one sentence and to cite specific examples. 4. Think clearly why ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/10/application-tips-from-isb-student/ Result of some free time today!! Comments on my story will be greatly appreciated “It was a beautiful evening, with sun still shining, waiting to turn orange before being taken over by night. There  was a small pond in the middle, surrounded by dense colourful trees, still spellbound by Autumn. The ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/10/attempt-at-story-writing/ Today I got a great news from my friend in UK. “..The 2004 Budget announced a new provision for graduates of 50 top business schools to work in the UK for up to 12 months on completing their MBAs. This provision will form part of the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP). The ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/08/mba-graduates-get-free-licence-to-work-in-uk/ IIM Ahmedabad announced it’s one year PGP programme for Executives [PGPX], which is scheduled to start on April 2, 2006. It’s in the lines of ISB. With it’s established brand, and a fees half of what ISB charges, no doubt this program will grab great attention. But as far as ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/08/iim-to-offer-one-year-mba/ I am having so many things to do at present and unable to focus on any one job. So finally decided to give importance to ISB Interview preparation than to anything else. I am reading the book “International Cash Management”, to help increase my knowledge in the domain I am ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/05/preparation-for-interview/ I scanned the documents and sent it across to ISB Adcom.. “Dear, I am attaching herewith the document containing my latest payslip and IT returns for the year 2003. Kindly Let me know if this fulfills all aspects of application including scholarship form. Expecting your confirmation at the earliest. Thanks.” The response “Dear Mr. XXXX, Thank ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/04/sent-the-it-returns-and-payslips/ I was surprised and happy to see 250MB of storage space in one of my hotmail Ids(Yes, I have 4 Hotmail ids ). Right now, I have only 1% of my space filled. This is a welcome feature during this critical application period. No need to worry about cleaning ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/04/250mb-for-my-hotmail/ Today, Vasanth left Belgium. Yesterday was his last working day in Belgium. Now he will visit his brother in USA and then will head back to India, looking for fresh and challenging oppurtunities in Bangalore. 3 months back, another close friend Jeeva, left Belgium to pursue his studies in UK. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/02/life/ Dear Mr.___, We are in receipt of your application for PGP 2005-06 and it is complete, except for the pay-slips and IT returns for your self and your parents as part of your scholarship form. Please expedite. Good to hear that all parts of application is complete. Now, I have to send Pay-slips ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/12/01/isb-application-completeexcept-for/ I would like to hear your opinions/feedback/suggestions towards improving my blog. This column is completely yours..Feel free to leave your opinions here, I will take everything constructively. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/30/have-your-say-on-my-blog/ The following link lists the day-to-day life in Cranfield reported by students. Worth looking, if you would like get a flavour of MBA and definitely worth looking, if you are considering Cranfield for the upcoming academic year. http://www.som.cranfield.ac.uk/som/mba/insights/mba_diary/ncategory.asp?cat=1 http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/28/cranfield-happenings/ With topsy-turvy google rankings and participation of heavy weights like Aravind, Sumit, Nilesh, it was destined for my website to lose the winning position in the Indian Best Business School Blog Competiton. Yes, after sustaining the 2nd position for so near yet so far, I lost the position today. Finally the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/25/isb-best-blog-competition-to-a-grand-finish/ Microsoft is building a huge campus adjacent to Indian School of Business campus. It is planning to hire 100’s in the upcoming 12 months. Microsoft is in my target list, for POST-MBA employement. So this news is a confirmation of my intuition/dream/sense. The close proximity of ISB and Microsoft will ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/25/microsoft-setting-up-new-centre/ The following article lists 10 technologies that will change the way we learn… http://www.masternewmedia.org/news/2004/11/21/ten_technologies_that_are_going.htm 1. Search technologies 2. Data visualization tools 3. Blogs - Direct publishing and content aggregation tools 4. Audio and video - increased use of audio and video as communication channels for small publishers 5. RSS - content syndication, aggregation, re-use 6. P2P ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/25/10-techs-that-will-change-our-learning-ways/ I searched for the phrase “The Best Indian Business school blog” in 4 different search engines. I am happy to see that all 4 search engines place my website in top 6. The results: 1. MSN.com The Best Indian Business School Blog [4] 2. Yahoo.com The Best Indian Business School Blog [2] 3. AltaVista.com The Best Indian ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/23/some-findings/ Atleast I am back in Contention. Today, the www.ebloggy.com site administrators tooks some special care based on my multiple requests, to fix the URL. As expected my website, “The Best Indian Business School blog”, went down the ranking. Credits to the site downtime. Now, I feel like the Indian team achieving ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/23/am-back-in-contention/ The www.ebloggy.com website unfortunately crashed due to database problems, and due that my website is not accessible temporarily through the url http://mbadream.ebloggy.com But the site administrators are working on the issue. Currently, the blog is accessible through http://ebloggy.com/mbadream. In the mean time, when I checked the google rankings for “Best ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/21/disappointed/ When I looked at the statistics page of my blog, I found that my page turned first for the query “How do you define leadership? Take the example of a leader you admire (living or deceased%” and somebody had come to my website hopefully in search of an answer for that question!! http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/19/didnt-i-say/ Isb-pgp-2005 “Since a lot of you are starting to gear up for the upcoming round of B-School applications, I thought I might float some tenets to follow: GMAT is the gatekeeper - crush it, than move on GMAT is definitely not the end all, be all - a good score guarantees nothing!  So ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/19/a-good-post-that-i-found-in-yahoogroups/ Some days back , Vasanth suggested this website, Domainsite, which offered free domain name registration on “.info” for a period of 1 year. I quickly grabbed a domain name for myself. www.bharani.info Today, When I checked the same site, the free offer has been taken away. But still the price ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/18/got-a-free-domain-name/ With reference to my blog entry on Application Essays, I would also like to suggest reading the following article. PLAGIARISM PROBLEM: ARE STUDENTS ENTIRELY TO BLAME? “Aside from the ‘all-or-nothing cheater’, the type most likely to buy a whole paper online, Renard (1999, p. 38) also identifies the ‘sneaky cheater’, the student who ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/18/plagiarism-problemare-students-entirely-to-blame/ After a long thought, I have decided to drop INSEAD from my list due to various reasons. If I change my mind, then I do have a final lifeline in the form of 3rd round. This leaves me with two colleges to focus on, CRANFIELD & OXFORD. Essays could be resued ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/18/next-application/ I submitted the ISB online Application moments ago. Waiting for the confirmation mail from ISB authorities about receipt of application. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/17/isb-application-submitted/ 4 days back, I saw the instructions of EMBARK online application form..and it mentioned “The ISB has several need and merit based scholarships. The scholarship decision is based on several factors of outstanding performance in academics or other fields and financial details of an applicant. Please fill in the form below ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/17/disappointed/ I was pleasantly surprised to see my blog as third in the google search results. Since I started my blog only 15 days ago, I thought my chances of getting through would be tough. Here, I am…sitting 3rd in the google’s search result, on the phrase “The Best Indian ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/17/update-on-the-best-blog-competition/ Sunday: Last sunday turned out to be a sleepful day as I was bit feverish. I didn’t go to the film either…Nevertheless, I made sure that I recover on Monday… Monday: Sent the Transcripts, GMAT score card, Passport-size photographs, +2 marksheet through post. I opted for registration-cum-priority post to ensure absolute safety. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/17/busy-days/ After 2 hour intensive effort, I created a decent looking scholarship essay. Tomorrow, I will review the whole application and the scholarship essay for one final time. If everything goes well, I will reward myself by going for the film “The Terminal” and finish my long weekend in a good ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/13/woohoo-all-components-of-isb-application-ready/ Yesterday I received the feedback from my reviewers. They really took a lot of effort in reviewing the essays for content and language. Some of his comments pointed to some obvious mistakes. Even if I had gone through the essays for 50 times, I wouldn’t have found it. I followed it up with ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/13/stuck-with-scholarship-essay/ Today I was watching the re-telecast of “Domino Day 2004″. In this event, they created a new world record for Domino Toppling by toppling a whopping 3.992.397 dominos! The world record is the result of months of effort of 100’s of poeple. This event is a perfect example of ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/13/domino-toppling-a-true-team-work/ The website “wordcount“, is an artistic experiment in the way we use language. It presents the 86,800 most frequently used English words, ranked in order of commonality.. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/12/tracking-the-way-we-use-language/ The book published in 1971 is worth looking at. It gives a feel of how Computers were imagined by common people. http://davidguy.brinkster.net/computer/ The topic “This Year, Next Year, Sometime…?“, particulary is worth looking at… http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/12/how-it-worksthe-computer-1971-edition/ 15 years ago, when Internet was not available to masses, People sought the help of library for Essay writing skills, Vocabulary improvement and elegant Sentence formations. But today, there is a magic wand called “Internet”. You get so many tips and tutorials on “how to write good Application Essays?”, each ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/12/why-quality-of-application-essays-is-increasing/ Gmail has introduced “Pop Access” and “Email Forwarding” features. Here’s what it has to say… “It’s your mail. You should be able to choose how and where you read it. Access your mail the way you want to, with free POP access and automatic forwarding. You can even switch to other ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/12/pop-access-for-gmail/ The ISB Best Blog Competition has stirred huge amount of interest amoung netizens. Fine, But I have a doubt. When I search in google with “The Best Indian business school blog” in quotes, only 4 sites turn up with a blog from “Mandevian” turning up at #1. When I search in ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/11/the-isb-best-blog-competition/ If you want fun, then follow the simple steps. For each day google on the phrase “The best Indian business school blog“, and see how different sites turn up daily. The reason for the variation is the different tactics followed by each one. Only way to beat the system is ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/10/want-fun/ It’s a long weekend in Belgium [November 11 - November 14]. These 4 days will help me to a great extent in catching up with the pending works and in pushing towards the dealine. http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/10/a-welcome-long-weekend/ I asked the Admission Committee of ISB if I can ask my Recommenders to directly email the Recommendation Letters to them. I got a reply saying the approach is perfectly ok. “Dear, You may use the attached format and request your evaluator to forward the recos directly to admissions@isb.edu ” This approach is faster ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/10/email-the-recommendation-letter/ 2 months back, when I was not sure if the Recommenders will complete the letter before deadline,I devised a strategy to get Reco letters from 4 people (yes!). 3 were Client project managers and one was my Director. 2 of them completed the Recommendation letters a week ago (except for ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/10/third-recommendation-letter-ready/ Last week, While I was browing net, I came across this good checklist, which is worthwhile giving away to your reviewers to keep in mind Ask editors to read with these questions in mind: 1. WHAT is the essay about? 2. Have I used active voice verbs wherever possible? 3. Is my sentence ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/09/checklist-for-your-essay-reviewers/ I am not the one to write essays in hours. I reallyyyy take time. So, after 10 days of intensive essay writing and having sent the essays for review, I thought I will not do anything for 1 day(Sunday). This would help me for next 15 days in INSEAD, CRANFIELD ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/08/a-day-off/ There is an interesting B-School event happening in ISB. It’s called “Poseidon”. www.isb-poseidon.com There is an interesting competition. It goes something like this “Google your way to fame, glory and prize money! Get your blog / website to be the first on Google for the search phrase... The participants should include ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/08/the-best-blog-competition/ After feeling satisfied, I re-sent the ISB essays to 3 best persons I know for reviewing. One of them is currently doing his MBA in a premiere college in UK. He has already provided some valuable feedbacks. Being a student who went through all this before, I respect his suggestions. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/05/isb-essays-sent-for-review/ I created a Recommendation letter template with all the questions from all the colleges that I am applying for. Unfortunately, I overlooked some questions. Well, what does this mean? It means that I had to go back to my ever-busy project managers and clients and ask them to provide the ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/04/recommendation-letter/ Not satisfied with some essays and sentence structuring, I recreated some content afresh. Now, all 6 essays look decent. Word counts are within limit, except for one essay. The critical assessment essay currently has 680 words. Need to condense it. But I find the word limit amusing because the company name can easily ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/04/isb-essays/ I have completed first-draft of the first 5 essays of ISB. The Post-MBA professional objective question remains. My First impression is that, the essays have come out well. I have send the essays for review to 3 of my best reviewers. 2 essays in Cranfield are almost complete. I have ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/03/status-application/ Oxford: 1. Main Responsibilities: Please provide a description of your job to include the nature of work undertaken, your responsibilities, size of budget and the number of employees under your supervision, details of any clients and/or products and results obtained. (Current Employment and Previous Employment) 2. Explain why you choose your current ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/03/essays-questions-to-be-filled/ I am applying to the following 4 colleges to begin with: 1. INSEAD Deadline: Stage I: 1 Dec 2004 Essays yet to start. 2. OXFORD Deadline: Stage II: 7, Jan 2005 Essays yet to start. 3. CRANFIELD Deadline: Rolling Admission,[Personal deadline: Nov 30, 2004] Essays in progress 4. ISB Deadline: Stage I: 30, Nov 2004 Essays in progress http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/03/status-of-my-apps/ After lot of postponement, I decided to start off my blogs with this free blog hosting. “ebloggy” is really cool! No ad images on blog page. Clean! Somewhere down the line i would register my own website so that i don’t have limitations on bandwidth usage. Well, Let me introduce myself. ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/11/02/starting-the-blog/ My Progression: 1978 - Entered the world. 1981-1995: Studied in Infant Jesus Matriculation Higher Secondary School. I can claim myself as one of the very few souls in the world who did his entire schooling in a single school! Whatever I am now, I owe significant portion of that to my ... http://way2top.blogsome.com/2004/10/15/biography/